#15

Rattrap

By Heinrad

"Hyeah. Educational stuff. Me, I'd rather watch t'ings explode."
--Rattrap, on watching education.... or possibly being meta on a kids show.

Percentage of vote:	33.0%
Average ranking:	12.0

Rattrap: "Meta, schmeta. Watchin' Blondie tryin' at teach da monkeys stuff was borin'."

Author: So, Rattrap. Da greatest character- GIVE ME THAT PADD!!!!

Rattrap: -hanging on desperately to one end of the iPad- "No way, Monkey Boy! If anybody's gonna do dis write up, it's ME!"

Author: I'm not a monkey, garbage breath! I'm a TANUKI!!!!

Rattrap: -snorts- "Yeh. Yer a tanuki like I'm a......a...... what da heck was I in Beast Machines?"

Author: An intriguing, if poorly realized, concept.

Rattrap: "Intri- Dat wasn't 'Intriguing', dat was me bein'....... stuck......." -watching the screen- "Auto-correct's a real pain in da skidplates, ain't it."

"A guy with a dark sense of humour, but
it is fascinating to see how he puts
himself together and gets the job done."

--Nemesis-Scourge

Author: Yes. Yes it is. Look, how about I write this up and let you make helpful side comments.

Rattrap: -snorts- "Da Boss Monkey keeps sayin' all I make is snide comments."

Author: Not snide. Side. Additional info. Observations.

Rattrap: -shrugs- "Sure. Why not. After dat, we can start t'inkin'a ways at make Hasbro do my Transmetal body."

Author: Short of embarrassing pics of Aaron Archer, that probably won't happen. We could try the third party groups......

-iPad dings-

Author: Well, so much for that. No side comments 'till the end, rat-rod. The producers want something a bit more informative.

Rattrap: -dramatically- "I was born da poor son'a itin-"

Author: From me, not you.

Rattrap: "Oh."

Author: So, Rattrap. What makes him popular? Why do we love him so? And why did the Japanese dub of Beast Wars have him constantly smelling what the audience was having for dinner?

While we may never know the answer to the last question, what makes Rattrap so popular is his attitude. His personality.

"The Bugs Bunny of Transformers.
What more do I need to say to explain him?"

--Zach Baringer (Icespark from TFW2005)

And on the surface, it's a pretty fair description. He's sarcastic, he's a smart-alec. But you can also see beneath the surface.

He's street smart, a spy and saboteur. He's also been through enough to know that the only one he can really count on is himself. He didn't want to go on some trip to stop some Preds in a stolen ship. He just wanted to get off Cybertron for a while. Whether or not he was three steps ahead of some people who wanted to break him down for his component parts we'll never know.

But while it would be easy to classify him as a coward, somebody who's only looking to keep their own pelt from being punctured, he's not. He cares, in his own way, about his friends.

So is that why we love him? Because he's a Bugs Bunny type, but we know deep down that he's loyal and caring?

Not really. We've seen his mushy side(well, if I'd watched more Beast Machines, there might be an argument for the more romantic Rattrap..... eugh. Who'd think you could have romantic and Rattrap in the same sentence?), but it's a fair bet that most of the people who voted for him were thinking of the Beast Wars version.

Rattrap's here because he's one of the most real characters the fiction has turned out. There's a bit of Rattrap in all of us, and that's why we love him.

-- Back --