< Ratchet & Clank

Ratchet & Clank/Fridge


Fridge Brilliance

  • On Ratchet and Clank, it was pointed out to me that Clank was slower to pick up on some obvious things despite being very intellegent (mistaking an obvious robot for Captain Qwark in the first game and interpreting Qwark in drag "Qwark's sister" in UYA). Thinking about it a bit got me to realize: wasn't Clank just created at the beginning of the first game? Despite having a lot of book smarts, he's essentially a child, one who hasn't learned to pick up on things that aren't right in front of him just yet. - User:Michael JJ
    • Some of Clank's personality traits are a bit of Fridge Brilliance, to this troper; his quieter, more observational nature, his rarely arguing with the polar-opposite Ratchet, his mild social ineptitude, his childlike trust and naivety... all of which are also Zoni traits.
    • Appearance of Lombaxes - big fluffy ears and prevalence of yellow fur shades - makes a lot of sense, considering that both the planet Ratchet lived on and homeworld of the species are desert planets. Ears probably act as heat sinks, and yellow is a good camouflage for the desert. - User:Unknown Troper
      • This also explains why Azimuth lives in Molonoth Fields, a desert wasteland.
      • Also explains how Ratchet can run around, in deserts sometimes, for so long without drinking anything.
    • In Ratchet & Clank 2 you visit the destroyed ruins of Gadgetron's facilities in the Bodan Galaxy, where everything is run by Mega-corp. The place is all but abandoned, but even the savages that now populate the place can't account for all the building damage here, right? Sometime later, you get a guided tour through a Megacorp Weapons Facility, where they show off several large bombs, including one that the tour guide states "took out the competition". In a further show of foreshadowing, the Gadgetron site is overrun with "Gadgetron cuddly hounds of death", effectively the same problem Captain Qwark unleashes upon the galaxy much later, but in a different form.
    • In the third game, Dr. Nefarious' plot is to turn the galaxy's population into robots, using technology which even Ratchet struggles to believe exists. In the backstory of the previous game, this is implied to be how Megacorp created the chicken sentries with no explanation of how they did it. Now consider that not only was Qwark in control of Megacorp for much of the previous game, he was at school with Nefarious and accidentally did the same to him. Qwark has a habit of using other people's ideas...
      • Also on the topic of Qwark and Megacorp, in the second game, one of the rejected products in the advert for Megacorp's testing facility is an offensive garden gnome. In the third game, these gnomes guard Qwark's base.
  • So we all know about the blatant Fandom Rivalry / Dueling Games vibe between Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter-- it's been there since the first installment of each series. What only occurred to me recently is how they mirror one another. On one hand, the main characters' personalities evolve in opposite directions: Jak starts out as a seemingly cheerful Silent Protagonist and ends up... well, we all know, whereas Ratchet was considered unlikable in his debut, and has become much more positive (and adorable) as the series wears on. On the other hand, they have a ton of points in common-- mostly story-wise:
    • Both were sent to a different time/galaxy at a young age for safety’s sake and, building on that, they both grew up in a "backwater"/country setting.
    • Neither knew their families (ignoring Jak's uncle) and, when it came up, it became a plot point.
    • Both had a villain come after them (Kor and Tachyon) because of who/what they were, which led to finding out more about the aforementioned families.
    • The third installment of the games/the Future trilogy introduced a Cool Old Guy who was important to the aforementioned plot being part of the character’s family or close to the family in question, was an experienced warrior, an exile, and who died at/near the end of the game.
    • I’m fairly certain I’m forgetting something, but the last point I have (for now) is relatively minor compared to the others: the eponymous heroes from both series were separated for two years, at some point: Jak and Daxter in the intro to Renegade, and-- if we’re counting each installment as one year-- Ratchet and Clank at the end of Tools Of Destruction to midway-through A Crack in Time
    • On a more frivolous note, there is a character named Kaden/Kaedan in both series. They have little else in common.
  • Speaking of the Future trilogy, there's Fridge Brilliance mixed with an Ironic Echo and Crowning Moment of Heartwarming when you stop to consider the endings of Tools of Destruction and A Crack in Time. In the first, Ratchet was offered the chance to go 'home', which would entail leaving Clank. He refuses, obviously, but the look Clank gives him before he makes said decision makes it clear that, whichever choice was made, he would have supported Ratchet. Come ACiT, the roles are reversed, but the situation itself is quite similar-- Ratchet even states outright that "I'll back whatever decision you make". While we're on the subject, it also connects smoothly to the last part of the first game... in more than one way. ("Hey tin can!")
  • While this could probably warrant a Playstation Move Heroes folder, it has quite a bit to do with the Future trilogy, and doesn't include the other franchises in the game at all. Near the end of the game, Ratchet mentions that he's "Had enough space-time fun for awhile"-- this makes perfect sense after the game itself, since freezing time and inter-planetary travel both play a part in PSMH, but, as the Groovitron is one of the weapons featured in the game (among other details), it leads the player to believe that it takes place after Tools of Destruction, Quest for Booty and A Crack in Time. Ratchet probably wasn't referring to that adventure at all, after preventing the probably collapse of space/dimensions via the Dimensionator and a complete temporal meltdown thanks to Alister's misuse of the Great Clock. Being forced to compete in a game show probably pales in comparison... besides, they've already been there and done that.
  • Whenever you fire the RYNO V in Crack in Time it blurts out the end of the 1812 overture. In some performances, near the end of the song, a cannon is fired.
  • The shift of themes through the Future trilogy is actually rather brilliant, in hindsight. First we get Tools of Destruction, which focuses on the Dimensionator and, by extension, dimensions; space travel is utilized throughout the entire trilogy (less so in Quest For Booty, but a lot more in A Crack In Time) and A Crack in Time focused on the Great Clock and time. Time, space and dimensions-- they're a set, just like the trilogy itself.
  • Ratchet's character development makes a lot more sense looking at where it happened and what was going on in the meantime:
    • In the first game he was something of The Scrappy, but it gives us a point of reference. (On a side note, he also had a change in voice actors between the original game and Going Commando, which makes sense since he was a teenager around that time.)
    • In Going Commando and Up Your Arsenal he was a bit more focused, the 'Jerk' part of Jerk with a Heart of Gold was toned down quite a bit, and he's downright heroic (to a would-be Heroic Sacrifice extent) in Deadlocked.
      • Size Matters sets this back a bit, but there's no indication that Deadlocked, Size Matters and Secret Agent Clank occurred in-universe in release order, so that may not be a problem.
    • He maintains this characterization all the way through Tools of Destruction-- he's willing to be a hero, but still gets distracted by certain temptations (finding out more about the lombax race, the Dimensionator) and is rather blind to logic at times.
    • Between Quest for Booty and A Crack in Time, he's willing to sacrifice his own desires for a greater good with little to no prompting. So the original game gave us a point of reference and, up through Tools of Destruction, we got to see the effect that his friendship with Clank was having on Ratchet. The last part of his character development happened when he was on his own. He had to learn to deal with things without Clank to nudge him in the right direction, which was would change the way he thought about and reacted to things. Kind of make's Clank's "This is the Ratchet I always knew was there" line Heartwarming in Hindsight, doesn't it?
      • Considering the above, Clank being able to fight alongside Ratchet in All 4 One makes much more sense. A Crack in Time shows that Ratchet can traverse planets without Clank on his back. Clank just needed the necessary upgrades to be able to preform at Ratchet's level, which also explains his increase in size.

Fridge Logic

  • Battery bots. Who in their right mind would create sentient, sapient, independently mobile power sources? It's like they designed the most useful and pragmatic power source possible, and then created the very opposite of that.
  • In Deadlocked it's said that Vox Industries controls a small part of the Solana Galaxy known as the Shadow Sector. Megacorp controls the entire Bogon Galaxy, has experience fighting large rival corporations, and has 'planet buster' missiles, yet when they sent Vox was able to muscle his way out of paying Megacorp royalties for the Holosheild glove/ launcher.

Fridge Horror

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