Sergeant Calhoun

Sergeant Tamora Jean “T.J.” Calhoun is a secondary character in Disney’s 2012 CGI animated film Wreck-It Ralph, and the main protagonist of the fictional Hero's Duty video game. She is voiced by Jane Lynch.

Background

Sergeant Tamora Jean or T.J Calhoun serves as the non-playable protagonist in her first-person shooter arcade game Hero’s Duty, the newest arcade game in Litwak's Arcade. According to her fellow cohort, Kohut, Calhoun has been programmed with "the most tragic back story ever.” On the day of her wedding to her true love Dr. Brad Scott, Calhoun forgot to do a perimeter check. As a result, a Cy-Bug breaks into the wedding chapel as they’re exchanging their vows and devours Brad, Calhoun screaming in anguish as she grabs a mini-gun nearby, opening fire on the monster. The tragedy left Calhoun with a hardened heart and bitter outlook on life. Fortunately, her current husband Fix-It Felix has helped her become a much more friendly, albeit still serious person.

Physical Appearance

Sergeant Calhoun is a tall, beautiful woman wearing heavy, form-fitting black and red armor. She has a large bust, slim waist, and long, shapely legs. Calhoun has fair skin and her golden blonde hair is cut into a short bob style with side bangs. Her eyes are a bright blue and she wears coral-colored eye shadow, thick black eyeliner, and has long, dark lashes. Her lips are a deep rosy pink. Of all the main characters, Calhoun retains the most realistic appearance and resemblance to a real human being. At her wedding, she wore a white wedding dress and veil or gown.

Personality

Calhoun is hardcore, tough, and incredibly strict. She commands her troops with a firm and domineering hand, and exhibits a fierce tenacity in which failure is never an option. She has no tolerance for shortcomings, and doesn’t hesitate to sarcastically reprimand her soldiers, and additionally seems to enjoy satirizing them with sarcasm to increase their drive. Although Calhoun comes off at first as sarcastic, she is very serious and stoic when not engaged in gameplay. Her tragic backstory has left her heartbroken and a little bit, with a dry sense of humor. It is her backstory and her dedication to her job that she appears to consider herself a soldier first and woman second.

Calhoun possesses a large heart despite her sardonic exterior. When she meets Felix she is struck by his innocence and kindness, and in turn becomes more trusting, little by little. She initially refuses to slap him when the two are stuck in the Nesquik Sand, justifying that “he’s a nice guy,” and she abandons her original plans of destroying the Sugar Rush entrance in favor of protecting Vanellope when the Cy-Bugs invade. By the end of the film, Calhoun’s temperament appears to have drastically softened and she is happily in love with, and married to, Felix.

She also seems to have a dark sense of humor, since after Vanellope jokingly ordered everyone who was sarcastic to her to be executed, she smirked and said "Ha. This place just got interesting."

Equipment & Abilities

• Energy Rifle. Unlike an ordinary rifle, this one shoots highly powerful bursts of energy, capable of vaporizing Cy-Bugs at an alarming rate.
• Energy Pistol. A pistol used by all soldiers of Hero's Duty. Effective enough against Cy-Bugs, but not as powerful as an Energy Rifle.
• Energy Grenade. This compact grenade is powerful enough to destroy large gateways into Game Central Station.
• Combat Knife. Calhoun's combat knife seems to be a normal knife, but it was nearly used to fight Cy-Bugs.
• Calhoun's Exosuit. An Exosuit all players and soldiers of Hero's Duty are equipped with. It amplifies strength and allows for greater defense than average armor. Using it, Calhoun was able to put Ralph on the ground in one punch.
• Calhoun's Cruiser. A hoverboard that allows for quick and easy transportation at high speeds. It can propel a user without affecting balance, and can lift them at least 100 feet in the air. The Cruiser can also transform into a backpack for more compact transportation.

Quotes

• 

  "All right, ladies; the kitten whispers and tickle fights stop now!"

  "'Fear' is a four-letter word, ladies! You want to go peepee in your big-boy slacks, keep it to yourself!"
• "It's make your mamas proud time!"
• "All right, ladies! The kitten whispers and tickle fights stop now!"
• "What's the first rule of Hero's Duty?!"
• "Never interfere with the first-person shooter. Our job is to get the gamers to the top of that building so they can get a medal and that's it! So stick to the program soldier!'
• "Flattery don't charge these batteries, civilian."
• "Sugar Rush... Cy-Bugs will chew up that game faster than a chicken hawk in a coop of crippled roosters."
• "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."
• "... they don't call your friend 'Wreck-It' for nothing."
• "Nope. Lucky for him, otherwise I would have slapped his corpse. No Cy-Bug either."
• "'So what is it with this Wreck-It joker, huh? Why'd he go AWOL."
• "'Go Turbo'?"
• "The selfish man is like a mangy dog chasing a cautionary tail."
• "Nesquik sand?!"
• "Stop thrashing. Stop, stop moving, you're making us sink faster! GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF! (slaps Felix)
• "All right, enough with the goo-goo eyes. We got work to do."
• "Your face is still red. You might want to hit it with again with your hammer."
• "Doomsday and Armageddon just had a baby and it...is...ugly!"
• "Hope you're happy, junkpile. This game is going down and it's all your fault!"
• "Oh, this place just got interesting."

Trivia

• 

  Calhoun's early concept by Kevin Nelson.

  According to director Rich Moore, the character of Sergeant Calhoun was originally planned to be a male. However, as he thought the character being male would be boring, the character's gender was changed to female. Another reason for Calhoun being female may be due to the fact that Moore actually wanted Fix-It Felix Jr. to have a love interest.
• Her sarcasm and manner of speech (with lots of obscure metaphors) is very similar to the Glee character Sue Sylvester, that Jane Lynch plays.
  • Also, her facial appearance is similar to that of Jane Lynch.
• Her attitude is similar to that of Mortal Kombat character Sonya Blade's, specifically the version of her from Mortal Kombat 2011.
• It is possible that her first name is a reference to Tamora, the Queen of the Goths in William Shakespeare's play Titus Andronicus. Calhoun's middle name, Jean, may be a reference to Saint Joan of Arc, an armored young commander who was the only female member of her 15th-Century French army and who led them to several victories.
• Sergeant Calhoun is the second female Disney character to be strict and not a villainess, the first being Captain Amelia from Treasure Planet. Her strictness is the result of something bad happening to her, however Sergeant Calhoun shares other characteristics with Captain Amelia as well:
  • Both hold a military rank, and are in charge of an intimidating group.
  • Both lose/lost someone important to them because of their line of work. (Calhoun's fiancé is eaten by a Cy-Bug, and Amelia's first mate Mr. Arrow falls overboard into a blackhole.)
  • Both fall in love with and marry a secondary protagonist at the end of their movies, both of whom being kind and well-mannered, but bashful.
• Sergeant Calhoun shares some similarities to Helga Sinclair , as the two are both portrayed as strict, female blonde-haired military leaders. However, Helga is a villain while Calhoun is a heroine.
• Jane Lynch also voiced Queen Neptuna, the leader of the Discarded Fun Meal toy support group in the Toy Story short Small Fry, as well as a part-time role as Mrs. Johnson from Phineas and Ferb. Lynch is famous for her role as Sue Sylvester from the musical TV series, Glee.
• Jane Lynch appeared in costume as Calhoun on the Halloween 2012 episode of The Ellen Show.
• Her outfit strongly resembles Commander Shepard's N7 armor from Mass Effect.
• She was likely inspired by such characters as Samus Aran of Metroid fame and the female version of the aforementioned Commander Shepard.
• Sergeant Calhoun's name is not mentioned on camera till the epilogue told by Ralph. She's only referred to by "she" or "her' by her soldiers and "Ma'am" or "one dynamite gal" by Felix.
• Calhoun's first name, Tamora, was only mentioned on her bio on the official website for the film.
• Calhoun's name could be a reference to Barney Calhoun from the Half-LIfe series. 
• Calhoun's decision to marry Felix must have been for her own good, since Felix was actually trying to "fix" her broken heart.
• In early drafts Calhoun was going to have skin camouflage. This was cut out because the creators felt the audience would have a hard time relating to her.
• Calhoun is the only female in her own game, Hero's Duty.
• It's possible that Calhoun's full name after marrying Felix may now be "Tamora Jean Calhoun-Felix", assuming that "Felix" is indeed her husband's real last name (which means that his real first name is "Fix-It", the same possibly being true with Wreck-It Ralph).
  • However, It's also possible that Felix's full name after marrying Calhoun is Fix-It Felix Calhoun, assuming that he never had a last name before marriage.
• Because the Cy-Bugs are clearly based on Metroids from a franchise of the same name, Calhoun might be based off the main protagonist of the Metroid franchise, Samus Aran. Unlike Samus however, Calhoun does not wear a cannon as a weapon for her right arm
• A Limited Edition doll was available at Disney Store in 2013.
• Calhoun will be a mother in the sequel.