Ot Rat King's Motivation
 

Everyone here remembers the OT (and by extension, Nick's) Rat King's motivation- taking over the world for his rats, right? Well, does anyone else think it would've been a logical extension of his motivation and personality to extend that to all other animals? Kind of a ' man has screwed things up, lets give this world back to the animal kingdom' deal. That would explain how he could live in peace with the TMNT in the sewers unless provoked, and why he was willing to work with leatherhead. I dunno, it's just the whole obsession about rats and rats dominating the planet reminded me of poison ivy's radical environmentalism for plants. Does it seem like a logical extension of his character here, or am I way off base?

I remember in his first OT episode he said forget dogs because rats are the real man's best friend so I think it made sense that he just stuck with the rats.

I like to speculate that he was an eccentric scientist who was thrown out of academia due to unorthodox mind-control experiments and all-around bad temperament. He despised humanity and came to prefer the rats to people, which allowed him to hone his dark arts.

He's Rat King, not Animal Kingdom Emperor.

He doesn't care about the planet, he's just nuts. The guy seems genuinely unhinged and for that reason I've always found it appropriate that his plans lacked any real logic. Many times he seems to just fly by the seat of his pants. Remember the time he poured a bunch of random chemicals into a tanker truck and HOPED that it would somehow turn into zombie gas. :lol:

That is a theory I share, but also he was spurned by a colleauge he fell in love with that had red hair as well.

The citizens of New York are dimwitted cowards, and the cops are useless. Makes you wonder if Rat King would have succeeded in taking over the city if the turtles and Shredder were never born. Heck, I think our grandmothers could take over the 1987 universe. :lol:

While character is what this franchise has done so well, motivation is another subject. As much as I like the 2k3 series, there just wasn't a lot of motivation behind the turtles doing what they did or even in the '87 series despite the connection between Yoshi and Saki and how the mutagen brought them and the turtles together.

Some men just want to watch the world burn.

Yeah except Joker didn't want to watch the world burn simply for the sake of it. That'd be a wan kind of motive with the only possible reason for the writer(s) to make $.
In Joker's case, although his motives (including Heath's) are always sketchy, he always states what he wants and only kills or maims someone in the course of his caper. In this case, he had a point to make (much like in "The Killing Joke") and it was up to the protagonists to prove him wrong.

Yeah, but I was just making a joke.

Thank you for clearing that up.

Maybe Rat King was a college drop out who went crazy after smoking way too much crack in the 70s.

I saw Rat King more as comic relief that tried to be a villain in some of the OT episodes. He seemed to do poorly most of the time, but I did like seeing him and Leatherhead fight with each other.

The only OT episode that I truly enjoy that guy in was Wrath of the Rat King.

I always wonder if he was hero or villain, sometimes he tries to take over the world with his rats, and other times he is standing side by side with the turtles fighting crime :lol:.

Come on Rat King pick a side and stay with it.

Rat King nevered allied himself with the Turtles. He is a straight up villian. The only time it was brought into question was his second appearance in the 1987 cartoon which he located the kidnappied April for the Turtles. He was attracted to April and was not ready to strike again so I fail to see how that one off thing makes h8m a neutral character.

Or the time the turtles, Rat King were eating pizza, and kicking shredder butt near the end. Well ok the Rat King did steal the pizza, but they were sort of allied to take down the Shredder lol.