- “Calhoun: Cy-Bugs are like a virus. They don't know they're in a game. All they know is eat, kill, multiply! Without a beacon to stop them, they'll consume Sugar Rush! But do you think they'll stop there?"
Felix: "Yes!"
Calhoun: "Wrong! Viruses do not stop! Once those Cy-Bugs finish off Sugar Rush, they'll invade every other game until this arcade is nothing but a smoking husk of forgotten dreams.” - ―Sergeant Calhoun explaining Cy-Bugs to Fix-It Felix Jr.
The Cy-Bugs are the secondary antagonists of Disney's 2012 animated feature film Wreck-It Ralph. They are a race of viral, robotic, bug-like creatures that serve as the generic enemies in the game Hero's Duty. Unlike other characters in the arcade, Cy-Bugs are unable to tell the difference between the game and real life, meaning they are truly malevolent creatures. Their only instincts are to eat, kill, and multiply their swarm, while their greatest weakness are beacons of light. The soldiers of Hero's Duty remain in constant battle with the bugs, to prevent them from escaping the game, taking over the arcade, and destroying every game in their wake.
Background[]
The Cy-Bugs, as their name suggests, are bio-robotic creatures closely resembling insects, most notably silverfish. Like insects, they are instinctive and only have three motives: eat, kill, and multiply. They live in organized groups, attacking in swarms and devouring anything in their path, making them a powerful force to be reckoned with. Because they were created to be destructive enemies in-game, they are non-sapient and dangerous beings in both game and reality as opposed to villains who are simply evil in their game. This effectively makes them computer viruses if released in the game world.
An adapted Cy-Bug, after consuming a laser gun.
In Hero's Duty, their eggs are kept at the tower for every new game that starts, because they are native to the program and cannot be removed. Hatchlings are just as vicious as the adults and grow at a rapid rate. A single Cy-Bug can lay hundreds of eggs, given the proper conditions to survive and sustain them. The most notable (and deadly) ability the Cy-Bugs contain is integrating anything they eat, be it organic or inorganic, into their form. The results can range from simply changing parts of themselves into weapons (e.g. when one ate Ralph's gun and turned its appendages into the same kind) to a completely different form of the original (e.g. when many ate the contents into a horrific fusion of the character (e.g. King Candy) and the bug, and the character seems to become the dominant personality (but more psychotic and sinister), while retaining the Cy-Bugs' basic instincts.
Cy-Bugs self-destruct beacon.
Though they are mighty opponents, the Cy-Bugs do have weaknesses. Laser guns from Hero's Duty and other weapons can destroy Cy-Bugs as long as the guns aren't eaten; otherwise, the Cy-Bugs can use their own foe's weapon against them. Devouring fragile objects will also cause the Cy-Bug to lose their armor and become much more vulnerable to physical attacks: for instance, when they devoured the candy from Sugar Rush, they were easily crushed by Ralph. Their greatest weakness is their attraction to immense rays of light, similar to a real bug's attraction to a bug zapper. Once they sense a form of light, the Cy-Bugs cannot stop themselves from heading towards it, even if it is lethal. As a result, a special beacon has been built into the tower that attracts and destroys them between games.
Powers and abilities[]
- Insect Physiology: True to their appearance and name, Cy-Bugs take on the form of insects.
- Absorption Consumption: Cy-Bugs are capable of mimicking whatever object/person they eat. However, a Cy-Bug that devours foreign material will undergo a drastic metamorphosis instead of a minor adaptation. So far, these forms have been shown:
- Candy Physiology - Cy-Bugs take on the form of various confectioneries that they consume after destroying Sugar Rush. Some gain hard protective armor and the ability to curl up into a ball and roll around.
- Electricity generation - Cy-Bugs that consume a street lamp turn their abdomens into light bulbs that can generate large quantities of electrical energy; the charged up energy is then released for long-ranged attacks.
- Hybridity - Cy-Bugs that consume characters mutate into hybrids of the Cy-Bug and its victim. These sort of mutations are far more powerful than any Cy-Bug mutation due to possessing rational thought.
Appearances[]
Wreck-It Ralph[]
The Cy-Bugs attacking in Hero's Duty.
The Cy-Bugs first appear in the first-person shooter game, Hero's Duty, preparing to attack a fleet of soldiers. When Ralph interferes with the game, one of them comes close to nearly killing Ralph and the player. This forces the soldiers to end the game early and stops the swarm by launching the tower's beacon of light, immediately attracting the Cy-Bugs and killing the swarm.
Later, Ralph climbs to the top of the tower to obtain the gold medal and accidentally hatches one of the eggs at the top. The hatchling clings to and attacks Ralph, causing him to stumble and fall into an escape pod. The two are launched out of the tower into Game Central Station and then into Sugar Rush. The hatchling quickly grows and keeps attacking Ralph before the pod crashes. The two are left rattled from the ride and the escape pod's emergency ejection caused Ralph and the Cy-Bug to be flung in the air, with the latter slamming into a Candy Cane tree and falling into a purple taffy swamp below, where it seemingly drowns as Cy-Bugs are unable to swim.
However, unbeknownst to Ralph, the Cy-Bug somehow survives and burrows its way underground where it has soon reproduced and multiplied. One of them finds a yellow candy root with purple stripes and eats it, but transforms into a purple candy hybrid with yellow stripes as a result. Sergeant Calhoun later discovers the massive nest, where there were numerous eggs and more Cy-Bug-candy hybrids.
The Cy-Bug swarm in Sugar Rush.
The Cy-Bugs make their move shortly after the race started, and destroy everything in sight. The invasion forces the evacuation of the Sugar Rush residents, but leaves the racers Vanellope von Schweetz and King Candy in danger. When Vanellope discovers King Candy is Turbo, she escapes from him and races ahead, but Turbo gets swallowed by one and ends up taking control of it, turning into a hybrid monster. Ralph overhears Calhoun explaining to Felix that the bugs cannot be stopped without a beacon and comes up with an idea to erupt Diet Cola Mountain to produce another beacon of light. Though Turbo tries to kill him, Ralph breaks free from him and brings down an entire crater of Mentos into the lava, causing the mountain to erupt. The eruption produces the beacon, and the Cy-Bugs who have been closing in on Calhoun, Felix and Vanellope (who glitches past the bugs to go to Ralph's rescue) stop their advances, turn to the beacon, fly toward the light and get vaporized along with Turbo. This kills all the Cy-Bugs and Turbo (as they are from outside of their own games) for good.
Big Hero 6[]
A baby Cy-Bug figure can be seen amongst Fred's action figure collection in the film.
Printed media[]
Hero's Duty Prequel Comic[]
The Cy-Bugs were originally created by the A-Toy Corporation scientist Dr. Brad Scott who conceived of them as advanced adaptable toys that would alter themselves based on how their owners played with them. However, the firm's executives immediately saw their potential for military use and moved development to a far off planet for further development. Dr. Scott tried to stop the weaponization of the project but his cries fell on deaf ears. The initial weaponization experiments immediately resulted in disaster and while most of the scientific team was evacuated, Brad stayed behind to try and hinder his creations' spread until the Space Marines arrived to help evacuate the civilian population. After meeting Calhoun's team and helping them light the beacon to allow for the civilian ships to get away, he fell in love with Calhoun and chose to remain to help control the continually growing Cy-Bug menace.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The Cy-Bugs' power to assimilate anything they eat into their physical structure is probably a literal joke on the phrase "You are what you eat".
- Unlike many of the other video game characters, Cy-Bugs are incapable of regenerating even when they die in their own game, meaning that they're intentionally created to be killed off in their own game by the player.
- The Cy-Bug queen, the implied final boss of Hero's Duty, does not appear until the events of Wreck-It Ralph: The Video Game as the main villain. However, the events tied to the game could be considered non-canonical.
- The Cy-Bug that ate King Candy during the climax appears to be the same one that Ralph accidentally brought into Sugar Rush while escaping from Hero's Duty, as it has the very same appearance as that which ate the purple and orange peppermint tree root.
- The Cy-Bugs' name is a combination of "cyborg" and "bug".
- Their eyes change from green to blue when they enter their mesmerized state.
- The Cy-Bugs' weakness is light, which is similar to that of flies' weakness toward bug zappers.
- In earlier development of Ralph Breaks the Internet, when both Felix and Calhoun had a different storyline before being demoted to extras in the finished film, it was planned to feature flashbacks of Calhoun's early childhood, which would have revealed that her hatred for Cy-Bugs started when her mother was eaten by them.[1]
References[]
- ↑ Merghart, Jeff (November 21, 2018). "Disney’s Ralph Breaks The Internet/Wreck It Ralph2 Art!: Happy Homemakers" (Tumbleblog). Tumblr.
External links[]
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