Pixar's Inside Out 2 Characters: Good to Evil

In the second, it is easy for her to feel overwhelmed by having to be positive all the time.   By accepting Sadness as a friend, it's almost as if Joy has accepted her own negative emotions and is using them to help others, proving that she is not only worthy of being the unofficial captain of Riley's mind, but also a MUCH better friend than she was. before. Still, we'll give the top spot of original emotions to Sadness. Sadness acts as the first film's deuteragonist and teaches perhaps one of the best lessons in Pixar history: and that's okay, in fact it is: sadness, in a sense, is a much-needed source of comfort to those around it. .

We see this in the first film when she comforts Bing Bong after his rocket is thrown away, simply listening to him and giving him a hug when necessary. We all need a friend like that, and once Joy finally accepts that sadness is a part of life, she can make it her job to help Riley feel sad for a while so she can be happy later. In the sequel, after Riley discovers that her friends are going to another high school, it is Sadness who allows her to quickly cry so she can get on with her day. Of all the emotions, sadness is the least aggressive, the least proud, and at the same time, she's just as eager to help Riley as everyone else, earning her an especially high place on our list.

But where would all those emotions be without the girl they belong to, Riley Andersen? This brace-wearing, anxiety-ridden, hockey-loving teen is back in action with even more screen time... and man, was it painful. No offense to Riley, but… oh, the memories of desperately trying to fit in with everyone during high school were strong in this one. While we see that Riley is a very sweet girl, from helping fallen members of the other hockey team to being an overall caring person, we also see that she is not perfect. Her worst action, and the one that practically lasts throughout the film, is her tendency to criticize her friends in order to get along with Valentina Ortiz, whom she practically idolizes.

She is willing to betray herself and her friends in order to get closer to them, and this ultimately culminates in her knocking Grace down in a hockey-fueled rage. In one of the most stressful scenes in Pixar history, poor Riley suffers a panic attack as she struggles to cope with her emotions and how complex they are becoming: the guilt of hurting her best friend that now tears down that already unstable tower. In the end, she apologizes to her friends and they all make peace. While we can't rank her higher because of her misdeeds, we still have to give her a lot of credit for that.

Hey, do you know who the next character is?   THISAAAA HAS THE RIGHT! It's Bloofy, Riley's favorite childhood cartoon that she still secretly loves. A parody of Blue's Clues, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and probably five other preschool shows, Bloofy is an adorable pink dog who's always looking to help in indirect ways. He is more than happy to help Emotions escape his repression if they return the favor by freeing him from Riley's mental prison. That being said, eh...he may not be all there, honestly. But sane or not, Bloofy is a

good

friend who is always there to offer his services and support his friends.

Speaking of friends, this movie has old friends AND new friends, including Val Ortiz. She takes Riley under her wing and sincerely wants to include her on the team and make her feel welcome. They have a sort of brotherly relationship: despite Riley's constant overthinking and anxiety, Val is always genuinely kind to her, even when Riley accidentally gets the group into trouble in her locker room. Val is a sweet girl and doesn't really have many bad traits to speak of: she's the kind of senior everyone hopes to meet in high school. But Val isn't the first dyed-haired idol in Riley's world: along comes Lance Slashblade.

An in-universe fighting game character: Lance is a strong man who wants to do

good

, but darkness is just outside the door of his lonely heart. While he may be a bit of an edge lord, he's the nice type: he's willing to use his legendary special move to escape from his friends and is even willing to sacrifice himself to take down the entire police force. But as important as crushes can be, friends like Bree and Grace are MUCH more important. These two are always happy to spend time with Riley; They even offer to stay on the same team as her at training camp so they can all spend more time together before ending up in separate schools.   They're also remarkably forgiving: even though Riley turned her back on them for most of the movie and almost outright punched Grace, they quickly forgave her for it.

Grace especially deserves extra points for the fact that she was concerned about Riley's distress even though she had literally tapped her on the shoulder like she was playing Wario Land. Before we get to the top three, though, there's ONE more emotion to quickly talk about:   Nostalgia. While it only appears in a couple of scenes (like, literally two), Nostalgia answers the question humanity has been pondering for years: "do you remember the time?"   Nostalgia literally exists to occasionally remind Riley and her emotions of her happiest, most cherished memories. She only occasionally leaves her small room, but when she does, she's always nice... even if she hasn't been fully invited yet.

Still, you have to wonder what she was doing during the whole anxiety hurricane thing. Our Bronze Medal of Good is someone we will have to call very quickly. Say it with me now: Oh, Stock Market!   Whenever someone in Riley's mind needs help, she just has to call Pouchy and he'll show up with various items that could help. It's...certainly a little strange that dynamite always seems to be one of said items, and it makes you wonder if Pouchy's motives are as pure as he makes you think. But that doesn't change the fact that he's more than happy to help literally anyone who asks, and as we mentioned before, he becomes good friends with Anger even though he practically attacks him.   Pouchy is a true altruist, but there are two more

characters

we would give a slight advantage to.

Actually, there are technically three more, because the Silver Medal of Good goes to both of Riley's parents. Pixar's parents are usually pretty good, but Riley's stand out even among the rest. Despite her difficulties, they always do their best to put on a brave face for Riley, cheering her on at hockey games and always showing interest in both how she is doing and what she is doing. Given how supportive they are of her, constantly hyping her up at games and pretending that burnt chicken looks delicious, there's never any doubt how loved Riley is. They are also INCREDIBLY patient: even when Riley loses his temper with her mother for seemingly no reason, he doesn't get upset with her, but rather understands that the onset of puberty is close to her, and therefore her emotions. she are intense.

They're not perfect people, but as far as fictional parents go, Riley is blessed with some of the best. But now is the time to honor our Gold Medalist for Good. The prize again goes to your friend who likes to play: Bing Bong. Bing Bong was Riley's imaginary best friend in her early childhood. We've already mentioned that Bing Bong loves Riley enough to be truly devastated when he finds out that she's slowly but surely forgetting about him. However, that doesn't stop him from being the most caring character in both films: Bing Bong literally exists to make Riley happy, and as a result, he's more than willing to help Joy and Sadness return to headquarters.

On that note, you know how we joked before about the topic "do emotions die?" stuff? Well, it's quite possible that we would have discovered the answer, if it weren't for Bing Bong. He was willing to sacrifice himself so that Joy and Sadness could reach headquarters, and only asked in return that they “take her to the moon” for him. Without Bing Bong's sacrifice, Joy and Sadness would never have returned to headquarters and therefore Riley would have...uh...I don't know, but something would have happened. The only thing we know for sure is that his noble sacrifice proves that Bing Bong really was Riley's friend who liked to play, but more than that, he was Riley's friend who liked to make her happy.

That kind of self-sacrificing (albeit imaginary) friendship is enough to send him on a rocket to our top spot... now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go shout out some candy.