Thad wrote:There's probably a dissertation somewhere in comparing Dr. Venture's "Brock, am I...a bad person?" (not from this episode but pretty relevant to it) to Wreck-It Ralph's "You are bad guy, but this does not mean you are bad guy" to Moffat-era Doctor Who's play with the question of whether the Doctor is a good man.
I believe the fundamental difference is that Dr. Venture leads mostly an unexamined existence, coasting into whatever he feels like doing because he is the Hero, the Man of Action, the Great White Man who is morally superior. This he believes despite any action on his part: Dr. Venture is the embodiment of privilege, not only in physical possessions but moral purpose despite any lack of action that would justify this morality.
The Doctor is kind of the opposite in that while Dr. Venture is a man of inaction, the Doctor is a man of overaction. The Doctor is a kind of drama vortex that pulls the entire plot towards him: where he goes, problems will get solved, empires will be toppled, things will change. And so the Doctor must constantly employ this for the sake of the oppressed.
So you could reduce the philosophy of both to this: If you have sufficient power, even a neutral/selfish stance is morally wrong, because with sufficient power, you hurt others without noticing.
Wreck-it Ralph shares with Dr. Venture in that both have mostly theatrical roles. Dr. Ventrue is assigned the role of Action Boy and super-scientist but doesn't really want to be anything. Ralph is assigned the role of Villain, of destroyer in a perpetually regenerating and cycling world: hating Ralph is as pointless as hating the wind. Yet he tries to fight his fate, and that's why he's a 'hero' and Dr. Venture is an invertebrate.
(insert something about privilege and the untouchable castes here)
