so i'll try to reconstruct what Ralphies life as a kid was
a few facts from the game that we know:
* is younger than Nicky ( if Nicky is about 28/27 i imagine Ralph to be about 25/24 ) meaning that if Nicky immigrated w his relatives as a young child Ralph was probably already born in the US.( this could be the reason why in ch.1 he talks about being a real newyorker and makes fun of mc about it)
* Was abused (probably for the entirety of his childhood) by his alcoholic mother
* His father left him ( he says :" he went to get a pack pf smokes one day and never came back" this gives me the feeling that he would be at least 5/6+ years when that happened.
* Got into street fights and probably lost since once again he says " beat me up as bad as the boys" meaning that he was THE VICTIM HELLOO??
* there is also a small dialogue in ch.1 where it's mentioned that he always skipped school and probs stopped going there pretty early
* it's obvious that he lived in some gutter idk how to rephrase this
* was always close to nicky from the early childhood " we were the closest"
* one memory that Nicky narrates to us is making paper boats for Ralph and letting them sail on rainy days
* in spite of this we are told that Nicky never showed Ralph much affection, for example when Nicky is being sweet to mc he replies with "i've never seen him act like this"
* and in another line he says " i don't need nobody to stick their neck out for me" so yeah, he's been left alone and neglected for a while
i will compare Ralph with Nicky throughout this whole text and make a point about being very different.
1. His relationship with his mother
As long as Nicky had part of a more loving(normal) mom, Ralph clearly was less lucky. Literally being on his own with an alcoholic. Which resulted in him feeling unloved and running from home and getting into gang stuff. By always being belittled and beat by his parent, this usually results with the person later in life having big problems with aggression, this explaining why he likes being a criminal and jokes about others dying( this being a possibility to release all that anger from his childhood).
At the same time another prominent characteristic of his is the thing where he always does what he's told. We see this when he says that "Nicky taught him this and that" and also in that scene where he & Floyd sign documents. And there Ralph was right about not wanting to sign the deed to the speakeasy, but under Floyds pressure he literally breaks in less than a second. I explained this behaviour not by being simply " weak of spirit" or simply a loser, but the desire for approval, recognition and literally being patted on the shoulder for doing good. Since he's never been shown any kind of affection, he desperately tries to subconsciously earn it.
I think i should also add that by Freud( hate on me but this guy made a few good points) a mans relationship with his partner corelates with his relationship with his mother ( vice versa for women), so it makes sense why Nicky - with a loving mom found his soulmate, and Ralph didn't. ( i assume that he never had a long term relationship ). ( this is my personal theory)
2. His relationship with his dad
3. His relationship with Nicky
now this one is just a continuation of point 1.
I've always felt some part of jealousy for Nicky. Maybe he got into crime because he always wanted to be like Nicky and even talked about living in Nicky's mansion after he takes his role. Im sure that he love's Nicky and feels bad for betraying him, but i understand why he'd do that. Maybe he tried to subconsciously prove to himself that he can make his own decisions but that turned out... well... bad.
But i imagine them both having a really good relationship, good un their own way.
And that point where they both mentioned that Nicky tried to prevent Ralph from joining the mafia, if i put myself in his shoes i would take that not as a way to keep me safe but a way to keep me from succeeding or always remaining in Nicky's shadow.
okay now for the actual actual childhood headcanons
* I feel like Ralph would be actually a pretty smart child. Besides being curious i feel that he'd say smart,correct and deep thoughts and not even realise that.
* He'd still have problems spelling and understanding basic math:/
* lived admiring rich people on the covers of magazines or in the movies
* was pretty much of a loner as a child and didn't have many friend except Nicky
* while Nicky was the lively, active and charismatic one, Ralphie would be the quiet kid until 12/13 yrs
* that meaning that he would usually be made fun of or beaten by older kids
* i don't think he'd fight back much, not with bare hands at least
* in general i think he'd despise actual fights, more of a gun/knife guy
* disliked Nicky's dog, or any four legged animal ( doesn't hate them but doesn't love either)
* birds on the other hand
* they always gave him hope and the desire to just be free and escape his home and everyone he knew. the same with sailing, loved the idea of just leaving alone into the open ocean
* irrational fear of death
* if there is a living creature that he loves more that birds it would be butterflies
* but no one knows that since he's embarrassed to admit it
* would create many problems as a child
* starting with the basic running from school up to setting someones hair on fire with a lighter
* mentioning the lighter, tried smoking at about 14 but nearly choked to death because of his asthma
* and because of asthma i think there would be multiple times where he almost died
* as a kid probably lived near a garage and spent most of his free time watching men repairing cars
* even started drawing them at some point and got pretty good at mechanical drawings
* dreamed of becoming a racer
* once told that to a girl he liked in like grade 4 and almost died of pride when she applauded him for his ambitions
* and his ambitions were always high
* the second he'd see or hear about something grand or fancy he'd add it to his mental list of wishes
* made friends with some local old guy who was very sarcastic and nihilistic and literally based his personality on that
* would have to get around life on his own and by that i mean that he sew his own clothes, made his own food, when he got lost -spent hours walking around new york until he found his street without asking anyone for directions
* at some point picked up smoking because even though at first it was death threatening
* at about 16/17 totally found himself in the "wiseguy" persona and at this point there wasn't a returning point
* had a couple of girlfriends but dated them for a month at best
YES I LIKE PSYCHOLOGY YES I WANT TO BECOME A PSYCHIATRIST AND I LOVE CHARACTER ANALYSIS