Tyler Nguyen-Baker

Villain Overview

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Tyler Nguyen-Baker is the secondary antagonist of Turning Red.

He is a bully who use to be Mei's arch-enemy and frequently picked on her a lot, but eventually became friends with Mei and her friends. He is voiced by Tristan Allerick Chen.

Role in the film[]

Tyler is introduced throwing balls on the basketball pitch. He refers to Mei as an "overachieving dork-nark". He attempts to throw a ball into the opposing hoop, but the basketball is instead caught by Mei instead, who says she "accept[s] and embrace[s] all labels". She then attempts to land the ball herself, but misses the hoop. The ball instead lands on the street, where it is flattened by a car. This angers Tyler, who then chases after Mei.

He later happens to be present when Ming comes to confront Devon at his store over the pictures Mei had painted of him. Tyler already seems excited once Mei and her mother enter the store, apparently already suspecting this will be embarrassing for Mei. When Devon initially has no idea who Mei is, Tyler points at her, so that the entire shop knows the tantrum is about her, ultimately adding to her humiliation. Throughout the remaining scene, Tyler keeps laughing at her, calling her a "weirdo", and "aping" her by spreading his lips.

He continues mocking her the next day. When Mei and her friends walk through the hallway, they discover that several posters mocking Mei's attraction for Devon have been hung up. They immediately suppose it to have been Tyler, who makes no effort of denying it. He immediately taunts and apes Mei again, who begins growing a panda-tail. But before she can transform any further, he runs off.

He continues to mock Mei during gym-class, this time about her overprotective mother. No longer able to control herself, and, in a fit of rage, Mei throws a dodge-ball at him. She, not being used to her strength that comes with her panda transformation, throws the ball at him with extreme strength. Tyler panics as soon as it becomes clear to him with what force the ball is approaching him. He only barely manages to dodge, but his hair gets caught in the throw, leaving a hole within it. Tyler is left in shock as the ball breaks a window and Mr. Kieslowski, Mei's teacher and also the Gym teacher, declares the throw illegal.

Mei and her friends later manage to take revenge. When all the kids line up at school to take pictures with Mei's panda form, they hang up a sign that says "No Tylers". So when it is Tyler's turn to pose with Mei, he is denied entry by Abby and was pushed out of the queue instead.

That same day in the afternoon, Tyler, calling them weird, interrupts the girls as they are sitting on a bleacher, lamenting about still being $100 short for purchasing the concert tickets. When they assume he is spying on them, he assures he just wants to talk to them, but is brushed off. Tyler then "thinks aloud" about what might happen if Mei's mother finds out that she has been "flaunting the panda all over school". As he says this, Tyler sports a smug grin, which fades once Mei joins him down below the bleachers in her panda-form, which startled him. Tyler falls and crawls back as Mei intimidates him, but once he pulls out his telephone and threatens to tell her mother everything, he regains posture. Mei complies once Tyler commands to "put [...] away" the panda and listen to him.

Tyler informs her that he wants "to throw a sick birthday party", and presents her the flyer he had already prepared. He explains that Mei in her panda form being at the party will make "everyone else" come. When Mei is briefly reluctant, he "reminds" her he's doing her a "favor" by not snitching on her. Mei, remembering the missing money, agrees on the conditions that Tyler pay her $200. Much to Mei's excitement (it makes her grow a panda-tail), Tyler agrees. Her friends initially doubt Tyler can be trusted, and that their parents might catch on, but they eventually agree on attending for an hour and Tyler, again, agrees.

Initially, Mei doesn't show up at the party (due to her aunts arriving after her Grandma Wu found out about Mei's panda form on the news), and her friends attempt to keep the party going via charades. Impatient, Tyler was about to cancel it until Mei shows up at the door. However, instead of being in her red panda form, she was only wearing her panda mascot costume for the temple (as she was told that turning panda more often may become disastrous). Disappointed and angry, Tyler calls off their deal. Knowing that she'll only disappoint her friends further, Mei reluctantly transforms and made Tyler's party a success.

Later that night, Mei discovers to her horror that 4★Town would be in Toronto on the 25th instead of the 18th (due to Abby misreading the city name on the sheet), the same night as Mei's panda-exorcising ritual. When Tyler demands more panda rides, Mei, stressed out, tells him to zip it. He then proceeds to insult Mei, her family and their temple, causing Mei to attack him in a rage. The aftermath leaves Tyler a sobbing wreck with a scratch on his cheek. His parents then showed up to shut down the party, due to the incident that happened, but not before scolding Ming for what her daughter did to their son.

At the concert the following week, after Mei (who decided to keep her panda side and ditch the ritual) and her friends make up, they discover Tyler decked out in 4★Town gear, revealing that he is, in fact, a huge fan of the boy band (especially Aaron Z). Though he initially tries to deny it, it becomes obvious and Mei's friends were overjoyed, immediately giving him a hug and welcoming him to the "sisterhood". As the concert starts and 4★Town show up, Tyler screams with excitement when Aaron Z. appears on the scene. Tyler and the girls cry with joy hearing 4★Town sing until Ming (in her enraged gigantic panda form) attacks the SkyDome, where the concert was being held while looking for Mei, much to Tyler's horror and the others present.

Tyler flees with the group and while Mei's family sets up the ritual again to seal Ming's panda form, Tyler cheers with the group as Mei keeps her busy (by shaking her butt, to Ming's disgust). After Ming is knocked unconscious from the fight with Mei, Wu and the aunts then let out their panda forms to help Mei pull her unconscious mother into the newly-drawn ritual circle. But their chanting isn't loud enough for a large circle until Tyler and the gang get themselves and 4★Town to sing in rhythm with the chanting, starting the ritual and sealing away the pandas spirits (except for Mei, who decides to keep hers). Some time after the event, everything returns to normal and Tyler, Priya, Miriam, and Abby all meet Mei at the temple tour, and they all go for Karaoke.

Personality[]

At first glance, Tyler seems to be a very provocative person. This can be seen by how he constantly mocks Mei for her mother following her everywhere and embarrassing her in front of Devon at his store. The lengths he went through for that are extraordinary, as he created posters about said incident by the day after, and hung them up all over school.

Tyler's biggest aspiration seems to be popularity. When he realizes how popular Mei's panda form has made her, he blackmails her into coming to his party, in order to help him throw a successful party. This and the posters he created display how driven he can be, even if it might be for a misguided purpose.

However, beyond the surface, he also appears to be insecure and lonely. The fact that he attempts to hide his support for 4★Town hints at the fact he doesn't believe people would like him if they knew his true self. He also seems to struggle with making friends, which becomes apparent through the fact that he seems to believe nobody will attend his party, unless Mei in her panda form will be there. This is further supported by the fact that the party is an actual disaster before she finally arrives.

Mei and her friends discovering he is a 4★Town fan, and accepting him to their "sisterhood" triggers a huge change in his behavior. He no longer teases them, and actually begins spending most of his time with them. This hints at the fact that he had actually been desiring friends who accepted him for who he was all along.

Appearance[]

Tyler is a preteen boy of average height, tan skin, a mole on his left cheek, very faint freckles across his nose, curly dark brown hair, thick eyebrows and brown eyes. He has braces, diamond earrings, and (for unexplained reasons) a plaster on his right cheek.

He is frequently seen wearing sporty clothes. During scenes set during sporting hours, he is seen wearing a headband, a white t-shirt underneath a purple basketball jersey displaying the number "15". Indoors, he usually wears a gray sweatshirt over his jersey. During the 4★Town concert, he wears star-shaped merchandise glasses. After being accepted in Mei and her friends' group, he now has a rainbow friendship bracelet on the right arm, like them.

As Tyler is a fan of 4★Town member Aaron Z., who is also Blasian, and plays basketball, Tyler's outfit seems to be a homage to his idol.

Trivia[]

According to director Domee Shi, Tyler is "blasian", i.e. of black and Asian descent. His first surname, Nguyen, implies he is of Vietnamese descent in particular.
- In the same interview, she confirmed that a lot of Tyler content was cut from the movie.
Tyler's braces are similar to Sid Phillips from Toy Story.
Tyler is similar to another Pixar villain, Johnny Worthington III from Monsters University.
Tyler's bandage on his left cheek is inspired by the bandage famous rapper Nelly wore on his left cheek at first because of an injury he got while playing basketball himself.
In the film, when Mei attacks Tyler, he is immediately shown to have a cut on his cheek. In the novelization, it details Mei slashing his cheek shortly after pouncing on him.

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Villains

Literature
King Nicholas

Manga
Ansem, Seeker of Darkness | Xemnas

Villains

Villains
Ming Lee \| Tyler Nguyen-Baker \| Abby Park \| Priya Mangal \| Miriam Mendelsohn \| Grandma Wu \| Jin Lee \| Soldiers