"Don't blend into the background..."

[pitbulllady]

Excellent points there, CD! It would make sense, following his experiences both at MU and in the work place, for Randall to come to hate his job, since it represented nothing but pain and failure to him. He stuck with it, was very, very good at it, but his motivation for wanting to change the entire system is logical. No more Scare Board or Scare competition makes Sulley's accomplishments a moot point. Many fans of the movie still assume that Randall was only trying to beat Sulley, to gain more points than Sulley, and that's why he built the Scream Extractor, even though there's nothing to indicate that any Scream he collected with it would have gone toward his totals at all. I can't see Waternoose even allowing that. Randall made it quite clear that whatever his motivations, they had nothing at all to do with All-Time-Scare record. He's played "the game" everyone else's way and has been humiliated, cut down, and experienced failure and failure. He'd tried playing nice, and it didn't work, so now he's going for a game-changer. Now, he has a chance to render his former fraternity brothers obsolete, having that last word, after all.

pitbulllady

[RandallBoggs]

Not really something you have to play LG. Randall main motivation was to earn respect and admiration. What helped him see this motivation as positive, not just for himself, was that he WAS doing a service for everyone. Selfish, maybe, but considering he didn't plan on hurting anybody and had good intentions, it was probably a decision he thought was a good one.
As for jealousy...that's...no, I don't see Randall as jealous. He knows something was going on...and given that Sullivan seems to be witness to at least two (now three) moments that caused great distress in his life...

I think Waternoose's pressure also contributed to that. "Get it done Randall!" "We're on a schedule!" "Can't you work faster?!"...he may have wanted to solve the crisis at the start, but being berated (rather than encouraged) by Waternoose...and constantly seeing Sullivan ahead no matter how hard he worked (doing BOTH his job AND the extractor)...doing it for his own personal reason became more dire.
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During his time as Top Scarer, I imagine Randall DIDN'T hate his job. It was a lifeline, probably the only one he had at the time. But, when Sullivan took his position, and no matter what he did he always fell behind...that lifeline probably became a crutch, a crutch he didn't want to have.

Though I don't think making scareing obsolete would have helped Randall though, probably just the practice of scarers in competition. Sullivan's already seeing to THAT nightmare. Kind of Charlie Sheenish (*gasp*)...where he basically "wins" by revolutionizing the industry and pratically stopping all this awing for being the "best". He's probably tired of the competing at the point. He knows he's the better Scarer, and he's not going to let life say that he isn't, thus, the change.

[lizardgirl]

It's interesting what you said CD about Randall not celebrating or being overjoyed at Sulley's banishment, so his main motivation wasn't to 'defeat' Sulley- that does make sense. It's funny because I always got the feeling that Randall was almost disappointed that Mike and Sulley had to be banished; for him, it perhaps would've been more satisfying to be able to rub his success with the SE in their faces- he would've enjoyed being Sulley's superior, but of course him being banished means that they never really got a chance to see Randall succeed and so Randall never had a chance to rub it in their faces.

I agree with everything you've said there, PBL, it does make sense.

RB, I personally think of Randall as jealous of Sulley, but not of Sulley's success as a Scarer directly, but more of his general happiness, his life, the respect Waternoose afforded him, and so on. Those were all things Randall wanted, and Sulley seemed to have them the most out of everyone. I'd say we see real jealousy in that scene where Sulley and Waternoose are standing on the Scare Floor chuckling away, and Randall just glares at them bitterly before shouting at Fungus. So maybe Randall might have had an idea that something was going on in general, but I personally still think he was very, painfully jealous of Sulley's overall success and happiness. But, like everything else, it's all very open to interpretation.

[RandallBoggs]

I think we've mentioned this before, about Randall's reaction to Sullivan "getting what he deserved" (a mention of that in a moment). At the time of the action, he was smiling as he opened the door, but that could have been a put on, a sort of "remember this Sullivan". So in effect, he was putting a negative image of himself as the "last thing" Sullivan saw...but in actuality, as WE see, he's actually not joyful about it. And that's the HONEST feeling, but he was NOT about to show it to the other two.

Ah gotcha. Because Randall IS a better scarer than Sullivan after all.

Now about the "got what he deserved line". When everyone sees MU, they'll see something that sparks this sorta "fate" between Randall and Sullivan. Mentioned in the Essential Guide "it seems these two are always destined to compete", and that's on Randy's page.
I think Randall wants what Sullivan has...and feels that Sullivan does NOT deserve it. Sullivan's always had a family, always had friends of some sort (whether through popularity or his jerkish nature or scare talent), and ALWAYS seems to get ahead. When Sullivan SUDDENLY returns from banishment, Randall is shocked, unable to move until he HAD to take action when his machine was destroyed.
Sullivan ALWAYS seems to get a leg up on him. It's not because Sullivan's better, but because, it seems, LIFE is always pulling him ahead no matter how hard Randall tries to keep what he has.
I don't think of it as jealousy per-say...just the frustration of having this one person in your life who honestly has everything...but doesn't need it, doesn't appreciate it.

[lizardgirl]

Hmm, I see what you're getting at- there's a lot of frustration there, a lot of anger and bitterness and resentment. And it does always seem like Sulley gets all the luck in life whilst Randall seems to struggle through (and that would have been a really strong feeling in Randall considering the 'lucky' doors that Sulley seems to get- whether or not Randall suspects something dodgy going on, it's difficult to deny that luck is on Sulley's side). But I still personally believe that all of those feelings basically fit into the dictionary definition of 'jealous': it doesn't matter whether Sulley's success is through luck or true personal achievement, it's stuff that Randall wants, it's stuff that fuelled their rivalry- to me, it made Randall feel truly envious of what Sulley has and if he's envious, he's jealous.

I'm not saying that Randall is a jealous person in general, but it's something I'm sure we've all felt at one time or another- "why does he get to have that and I don't?", that sort of feeling. Since life is inherently unfair, it's a very common feeling to have- even if you're happy for a friend about something, you can be jealous of them too. So I'm not trying to criticise Randall, but at the same time I think it's good to recognise that he is a flawed character and it's my personal belief that at least part of the reason why he did what he did in MI was through jealousy, through wanting what Sulley had. If Sulley had appreciated it more overtly, I can't imagine Randall would have felt any less strongly towards him; merely the fact that Sulley has all of this luck is enough to drive Randall to have bad feelings towards him.

However, again, this is all open to interpretation and this is just my opinion. It's cool to discuss these things either way. ;D

Also, I like your point about that scene where Sulley returns from banishment: the look on Randall's face really says it all...In some ways it's not surprising that Randall was driven to wanting to kill Sulley off with his bare hands (though of course I don't condone it), because every time he tried to get rid of the big guy, he somehow managed to bounce back. Now THAT'S frustrating, haha.

[RandallBoggs]

It's not really a mental outlook on Randall's part...it's ironic that these things happen. I mean partly, in the films, like everybody, he is subjected to ironic consequences. Sullivan gets EVERYTHING while he constantly loses. It's a big take on life not being fair.
*shrugs* It's just...jealous sounds negative. Randall just wants people to care about him, something he didn't have. I just dislike thinking of something like that as a negative.

I suppose Envy is involved here.

*nods* By that time, Randall was gone. He did NOT want to hurt anybody. His grinning expression was a facade, one that he's been putting up a lot. By the time he was getting Boo in the chair, he was having his own doubts. While he didn't commit the act himself, he still felt some regret. That "got what he deserved" was a vocal comfort, something Randall felt he had to say to trick himself into thinking it was true, which was brought out by all the occurrences that Sullivan seemed to mess up his life.
When Sullivan came back, it was the true kick in the face. You could just NOT get rid of the guy. Randall never wanted to kill a person before...but when he snapped and his sense departed, his primal instinct was convincing that that seemed to be the only way to remove the one obstacle keeping him from being happy.

What's funny is that Randall is actually the one that knocks some sense into Sullivan...at least in the sequel I'm working on.

[lizardgirl]

I agree- as I said, I don't think he's a jealous person naturally, or that he always has such negative feelings, but the situation he was put in for a long period of time meant that these viewpoints developed.

I guess I think there's a difference between simply wanting something that you don't have, and wanting something that someone else has. Randall in general wants a lot of stuff that he doesn't have, and that's completely understandable. But I also think that he directly wants the stuff that Sulley has, and his focus of hatred on a particular person is what makes me think of him as jealous. He wants people to care about him like they care about Sulley, and the fact that he actively mistreats Sulley for that reason (amongst several reasons) is where I think the jealousy stems from.

Totally agree that the "he got what he deserved" line was partly to himself as well as to Waternoose; it's like Randall was trying to convince himself that all of this stuff was still right, trying to justify his actions. It must be an awful position to be in, with a part of you screaming out that this is all very, very wrong, but with the rest of you knowing that by that point, you really don't have much choice but to carry on.

[RandallBoggs]

Yes, I just dislike it being thought of as negative. I mean technically from the start, it's like Sullivan TOOK these things from Randall, instead of naturally having them.
I suppose his sights on Sullivan are sort of like a...well like a physical manifestation. Life has taken a sledgehammer to him, but he can't FIGHT life...so the next best thing is the person who seemingly taking these things.

And the thing is, even when he said that, he didn't seem to convince himself of it regardless. He just focused on the task at hand, literally.