Willy Wonka and the World of Darkness
 

In the wonderful 1971 movie, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", based upon Roald Dahl's books, Gene Wilder plays the great, eccentric candymaker who uses five Golden Tickets to find one child who he can trust to run his factory. This movie has often been compared to White Wolf's game "Mage: the Ascension" and the ideas presented therein (individuality, thinking for oneself, not automatically accepting other people's view of the world, etc.) by those who play the game. With his factory and his eccentric, pseudo-scientific ways, Wonka is most often compared to the members of the Sons of Ether, the 'mad scientists' of the Mage world. While personally I object to the mad scientist stereotype that clings to the Sons, I do agree that the plot of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" can be brought very easily into the World of Darkness. With a few World of Darkness-related events taking place 'off-camera', Mr. Wonka becomes a Scientist in search of a successor. What follows is my explanation for Wonka, the Golden Tickets, the factory and even the Great Glass Wonkavator.

At the beginning of the movie, Charlie learns that Wonka was a great inventor of all things candy but corporate spies were stealing his secrets, so he closed his doors, shutting himself off from the world. Three years pass, when suddenly the factory returns to life and more amazing candies than ever begin being churned out. What happened in those three years?

Wonka Awakened during that time, probably upon accidentally using the Great Glass Wonkavator (something he was working on in place of making candy) to travel to the Umbral realm of Loompaland. He brought a few Oompa Loompas back with him, but they quickly fell ill and would have died, had Wonka not returned them to Loompaland. In time, the factory became Wonka's Sanctum (think he's not in absolute control? Watch the plastic-wrap Veruca throws during her tantrum in the Egg Room; it wends its way around him, but NEVER touches him on the way to the floor), and enough of a connection was made to Loompaland for Wonka to bring the surviving Oompa Loompas (damn Vermicious Knids!) across in safety.

The whole point of the factory itself is to bring simple pleasures to Mankind through candy. Not every Son of Ether has world-saving or world-conquering ideas. Now a man of Science, he is better able to defend his new creations and so he reopens the factory for business. Eventually, he realizes that he won't live forever and will need someone to pass the factory on to. Since Wonka is firmly entrenched in his ways, completely convinced that he has all the answers and is stubborn as all get-out, he decides he needs to find someone who'll run things HIS way and not their own. His solution? The Golden Tickets.

The Golden Tickets are a grand Experiment in Chaos Theory. Wonka calculated that, given the ratio at which children eat candy vs. adults, rate of consumption, demographic information, global weather, socioeconomic and political conditions, that at least one Ticket out of five should reach someone (a child, most likely) who fulfills his rather specific requirements.

Once he has his five winners, he brings them into his Sanctum. Since Wonka has no way of knowing how many of them (if any, really) are right for the job, he subjects them to a battery of psychological tests (such as the boat ride and the Hsawaknow-Wonkawash, as well as the various candymaking rooms themselves), presenting them with various stimuli in order to gauge their reactions. Fortunately for Wonka, the children make his job easier by removing themselves from contention with their behaviors. Of course, Gloop's eating, Veruca's demands, Violet's incessant gum-chewing and Teevee's television fixation aren't what disqualify them, but in combination with their general behavior at the factory, they are indicative of personalities unsuitable for Wonka's needs. (While Charlie's theft of Fizzy Lifting Drink might have concerned Wonka, Charlie's ability to find a solution to his own dilemma, plus the fact that his Grandfather goaded him into it in the first place, may have mitigated the circumstances.)

Charlie stands out among the rest for having completed every one of the tests without having to be rescued by Wonka. In one last test, Wonka bitterly berates Charlie for the theft of the Fizzy Lifting Drink. He has to see if Charlie's spirit is crushed the way his was when he closed the factory. To his relief, Charlie returns the Everlasting Gobstopper instead of taking it away and selling it to the highest bidder. Overjoyed at finding his successor, Wonka takes Charlie to the Great Glass Wonkavator. Having Awakened Wonka himself, he hopes it will similarly open Charlie's eyes to the Possibilities of the World around Him.

2000 Derek D. Bass
 
 

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