Gene (Wreck-It Ralph)

Note: Not to be confused with Gene from The Emoji Movie.

Gene is a minor antagonist of Disney's 52nd animated feature film mh:greatestmovies:Wreck-It Ralph. He's the mayor of Nicetown and the leader of the Nicelanders.

Why He's Anything But A Nicelander (Good Qualities)

 * 1) The main problem with this character is that Gene and the other Nicelanders treat Ralph like garbage just because he's a villain and he thinks video game villains only exist to cause trouble, before realizing how important they are for games to have a plot.
 * 2) Idiot Move: Insulting a villain who can beat him with a single punch? Check. Daring Ralph to go on a life-threatening medal-hunting quest outside their game during arcade hours, where the villain's presence is essential to everyone's livelihoods? Double check. In short, he is the one who is largely responsible for Ralph abandoning his game at the expense of getting their game and Hero's Duty into serious trouble (a.k.a. "going Turbo") which is considered a huge taboo in the arcade game world.
 * 3) Because of his actions, Ralph has been an outcast from the Nicelanders for 30 years. He forced Ralph to live in a garbage dump, while he allowed Felix and the rest of the Nicelanders to live in his penthouse with him; Ralph is technically their coworker, so he should also be living there with them.
 * 4) In-game example: He and the Nicelanders destroyed Ralph's forest in order to build their penthouse, causing Ralph to become the baddie he is now. Because of this, he comes off more as the game's true villain instead of Ralph.
 * 5) Misleading name: His name means that he was born from a rich or high-class family. Aside from being the mayor of the Nicelanders, he was not exactly revealed nor hinted to be a family member from a high-class family.
 * 6) Even when he realized how important villains were to games, he still called out Ralph for abandoning the game just so he can get a medal, even though it was really his fault that he dared Ralph to do so.
 * 7) At least the Sugar Rush Racers have good reason to give Vanellope the same treatment (King Candy tried to erase her from existence but instead, he reduced her from an all-powerful princess ruler to a pointless glitched Scrappy), but the Nicelanders have complete control and are completely aware of Ralph's role in the game, but they treat him like garbage anyway.
 * 8) His personality doesn't even improve in Ralph Breaks the Internet In the scene when the Sugar Rush characters are rendered homeless and the video game characters start adopting each of them, Gene adopts Sour Bill not out of consideration and goodness out of his heart, but because he thinks Sour Bill will make a nice decoration and considers Sour Bill as nothing but a condiment.
 * 9) He can come off as a Gary-Stu due to all these reasons.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Gene is "a man of his word"; he kept his promise and allowed Ralph to stay in the penthouse when he saw Ralph's medal.
 * 2) Some of his actions towards Ralph are somewhat justified:
 * 3) *He has a point when he called Ralph "the bad guy who wrecks the building", as he left the building wrecked without even apologizing for it.
 * 4) *He actually had a good reason why he didn't invite Ralph to the 30th anniversary party: Ralph is technically a walking disaster, meaning that if he kills any of the crossover characters attending the party - even by accident - those characters would die and stay dead. Pac-Man and Sonic were really lucky that Ralph didn't accidentally cause some rubble to crush them like he did with Felix.
 * 5) *Gene called him out for escaping a game during arcade hours just to get a medal. Yes, it was really his fault for pushing him too far, but Ralph didn't know that the game would be declared out-of-order and put at risk of being unplugged which made everyone in his game homeless, so he's not entirely at fault.
 * 6) At least he and the other Nicelanders got a taste of their own medicine when their game got put "out of order" by Mr. Litwak because of Ralph's absence and during gameplay when Ralph mistreats them back.
 * 7) He eventually learns about villains' importance, and thus gives Ralph the respect he deserves.
 * 8) It is possible that Gene's hatred towards Ralph was inserted by the game's developers, as the game's story involved Ralph throwing Gene off his penthouse before proceeding to destroy it. As a result, Gene hates Ralph naturally because of his designed backstory with him, though it should be noted that the backstory also had Gene removing Ralph's tree trunk home away without his permission to the garbage dump just so his building could be built.