Rat King ('87 series)
 

Rat King became arguably the TMNT's second greatest enemy at least in this show and was quite an interesting character. He was evil and mysterious and had a thing for April. While some think he is neutral I see him as evil. The problem is we never got to see see why he was the way he was or any origin. I would like to see speculations of what could have made Rat King the way he was. He was fun character every appearance and voiced by the voice talent Townsend Coleman! Thoughts? Lets try to be serious in coming up with possible reasons or origin.

Maybe he escaped from a mental hospital, or possibly he was an abused runaway who grew up on the streets, and later came to live in the sewers.

In our Fan Commentary for Were-Rats from Channel 6, Jester and I hypothesized that Fred Wolf Rat King was failed science professor who was forced out of the academy for crackpot rat experiments. His career in ruins, he retreated to the sewers and the comfort of the only creatures who ever appreciated him. So fascinated by the sense of power he felt controlling rats, Rat King dedicated his life to finding a way to control humans in the same way. Once his dream had been realized, he would finally have vindication for his career and sweet revenge over the fools in the academy who shunned him.

Eh, we thought it made sense with the tone of the Old Toon. :tcool:

Sounds like Jonathan Crane aka The Scarecrow(DC),but I can see where you two are coming from with Rat King. His intelligence is underrated and he can use people to his own advantage which Shredder and others learn. He is definitely a version of a character that deserves expanding on. It felt like he did not get fleshed out enough.


If the original animated series continued as it I wondered if Rat King would have broke out of prison and try to show The Shredder not to mess with him assuming The Shredder does return after "Divide and Conquer". It would have been fun to see that plot line followed up on and how it would be resolved seeing the need to cooperate or what.

Yes. Very OT-logical, OMW. ^_^

I would have LOVED to see a Rat King meets Baxter (fly) and his Mousers (as assisted by that alien computer), given that the Mousers were intended to target rats. In this situation, this may have angered the Rat King after the Mousers ate all of his rats. Baxter would then get captured/hostage, and then very well would have sided with the Rat King and perhaps, who knows, get turned into a giant rat for aggravating his plan after failing to destroy the turtles. And given that the Rat King has soda bombs, it shows that he was once a Thug or homeless before he changed his ego.

Your take is interesting though I thought up something a little different. In my fan-fiction continuation I had Rat King wanting to show Shredder what he is capable of after "Wrath of Rat King" and team up with Baxter the Fly and Razhar and Tokka. Shredder in a previous script I did used Razhar and Tokka when he tells them he is their "father" and they want revenge on him like the other two. In the end Baxter and Z are out of the fight and so are Razhar and Tokka and the two villians have to work together. Rat King later was the field leader in a second grouping of rogues.

Its unfortuante the '87 series never gave reasoning for the Rat King's motives or any orgin. All we have so far is Tales of TMNT vol.2#35. :trazz:

*sigh* I feel less creative now. :tgrumble:

Published
 

Is your fan-fiction continuation published on the Internet?

I am afraid not. Its something I did between 1998 and 2001 and I am currently reworking it. As I complete them I will post them here if you like. I did it merely for my own urge for TMNT during the dead time during winter '98 and winter '03 in the other media. This Spring I will upload a bunch of it if your truely interested. I tried to work an in-story explaination for the red sky, a way for The Shredder and eventually Krang to come back, April back at channel six , worked with stregthening continuity, and the last thing I did was an '87 series version City At War thing.

Going back to Rat King, I have read on this site oter places that Rat King is a neutral character. The only time he ever helped them was in "Return of The Fly" which saw him locate April for the TMNT after Baxter kidnapped her. I took it that Rat King helped them because he had a thing for April. He did think she had had pretty fur I mean hair.:lol: Also, the closest we ever got to seeing Rat King and Baxter Stockman together was the Rat King split seconds before Baxter Stockman showed up with Shredder and his two henchmutants.

I always imagined that the Rat-King was somewhat of a parallel to Bruce Wayne but opposite. By that I mean he came from a poor family, with his parents killed and him orphaned he took to the streets and then the sewers and grew up having to fight for survival. He developed a kinship with the rats he shared the alleys and sewers with and eventually found he could communicate with them. He then sought to seek revenge on a world that had left him with nothing and fighting for his life. Kind of shows the different path 2 individuals can take on the same tragic incident, but how their social status changes the path they take type of thing.

I honestly think his mirage origin was whacky enough to fit in the OT.

I don't know about that. A representative of a patheon for a specific animal and if he loses a fight has to give up the title. It doesn't fit. He is a crackpot genius and that is lives in the sewers and seems to take refuge in the only creatures that accept him. The question is what drove him to rule over rats and think they are the superior species? Rat King goes as far as thinking himself as one despite being a human which Scumbug even quesitons.

How do you all think of The Slayer(Bishop's impefect clone) putting on rags and being Rat King? It never sat well with me having Shredder and Rat King who are two of the very few humans being something else. It was great to see the one alive appearance of Rat King in a cartoon however.

Also, of all the characters from 194-1989 why was The Rat King picked out to appear? Was it Mirage's idea or just the writer of that episode Buzz Dixon decide to use him?

I think it has to do with the fact, that the Rat King, had an action figure rather early on.

That was a result of the television show using the character I believe. It was out in 1989 the same as others who appeared for the first time on screen at that time.

I think rat king as a character became generic by the end of the show. His first appearance made him a match against the turtles, then his second appearance made him less of an antagonist and more of a wild card with no real alliance. But after that he became a generic antagonist, I mean he wasn't necessarily terrible but he was much more interesting in his first appearances.

His alligence was to himself and the rats who he wants to rule and place above humanity. He did lead the turtles to where Baxter left April because he had a crush on April and then later he put Pinky McFingers against the turtles after Pinky betrayed their alliance. Rather than get his hands dirty he let one foe take out the other and he would deal with the remainning one when the time was right. He was defeinitely beefed up in Wrath of the Rat King. I would have liked to see him as the field leader of the rouges especially if we ever got to see a second go round of the villain group.

The one thing I've never gotten about the Rat King was if he was attracted to April why did he try to have her mutated into a rat?

He originally kidnapped her because she was going to the public through media to speak against rats. In "Return of The Fly" he mentions she had pretty red hair but slipped and said at first fur but immediately corrected himself. April also had Bugman and Mutagen Man who liked her but that is for another thread if you would like to create it. Welcome aboard I see that your "new" yet your registration says something else. Hope you properly introduce yourself.