the bRATcket

FINAL MATCH

It’s time for the end, my dear comrats. So let’s end this with a bang! It’s Ripred, the rat who dwells underneath NYC from TUC vs. Kugrash, the rat who…..dwells underneath NYC from TUC! I guess we just rename this whole thing to the TUC battle now? Someone get me some white-out and a sharpie…

ripred the rat for my sister's birthday :)

Gregor bought them all boba.

Compilation of the ripred fanart I completed for the rat bracket!!! Glad I was able to do my part in support of the RAT VICTOR... This really took me out of my comfort zone and forced me to practice drawing animal characters, which was much needed!

I love Mr. Rat Man so much

gregor and ripred GREGOR AND RIPRED!!!!!!!

obviously ripred protects gregor. not in the same way he does lizzie or even luxa, but i'd say from the moment ripred saw gregor's horrified expression when henry was about to run a sword through him, he knew gregor was special. he told twitchtip to not judge gregor like she would other humans. he speaks softly when gregor is mourning. he teaches him life-or-death echolocation. he can't even tell gregor that the kid's gonna die in the prophecy of time. the "oh, tell me you didn't" to solovet after she locks gregor away. he promises to keep gregor's family safe, from one rager to another. he sees so much of himself in that kid and it's awful. the scene in cotw where ripred talks to gregor about being a rager (right after the frogs) will forever stick out to me. just. his peptalk to gregor before the final battle. ripred cares.

and so does gregor! gregor has so much respect for ripred, the rat, what has been the enemy for nearly his entire first journey in the underland, because he notices the pain in his eyes. he tells him "fly you high" when they first part ways, which is echoed by ripred when they last see each other. just the immediate relief that gregor feels any time ripred steps in. the way gregor messes with ripred, popping bubble gum after ripred insults him, joking about the prophecy at the end of book 5 ("time is turning back!" ripred - "shut up!"). in book 4, gregor sends the questers to busy themselves so ripred doesn't have to be vulnerable in front of so many. when gregor's in trouble, it's ripred's advice ("what's your plan?") that he thinks of. the section in book 5 where they all think ripred is dead and gregor is as upset by it as he is ares, that he "maybe even loved him." gregor looks up to him. just. the mentor/protege duo ever

He’s pointing at gregor’s swordsmanship

Finally doodled my husband again

RATSCALING: Could Ripred beat prime Bane in a fight?

I might have seen this said before, on a different post, but I couldn't find it, so I'm just gonna say a few words on this, partially because of that and partially because it's been ages since I've last read the series, despite it being ingrained into my head.

Almost all of the characters in TUC have moments where they are genuine assholes. Gregor has a few points where he says some genuinely disrespectful shit. Luxa, as well as most of the other humans (including Gregor, although arguably to a lesser extent), are deeply prejudiced against the gnawers. Ripred, is, well, Ripred (look, I love him, we all do, but he's a dick).

Even Vikus, arguably one of the nicest characters in the series, admires Sandwich (I think, been a while), a man who literally used poison to commit genocide in the name of stealing land that didn't belong to him.

The only characters I can think of in TUC that don't have flaws are the ones who also have the least lines: Aurora, Dulcet, Miravet. Oh, and all of those characters? Probably also prejudiced against gnawers, just never explicitly stated (to my knowledge), probably due to their obscene lack of lines. Of course there are characters like Lizzie and Hazard, who are literal fucking children so as nice as they are, I think it's safe to say they can't really be counted up here. (Should probably also mention that Gregor and Luxa are also children, just ones that were forced to grow up faster, sadly).

Then again, all of these characters have redeeming qualities. Gregor can be disrespectful at times, but that's mainly because of the stress placed upon him by the various bullshit situations he has to go through, and he usually apologizes after. Luxa and all the humans are deeply prejudiced (actually, I should probably add the fliers might be in that category too), but they are basically raised from birth to hate and kill gnawers, and vice versa. plus, it's shown that despite what is practically being brainwashed from birth, they can grow and change to overcome their own bigotry and accept gnawers as genuine people, as well as friends.

And yes, Ripred, the glorious bastard himself, is a dick. But he's also a war veteran who's lost his family, and most of the respect from his people, meaning he mainly works with humans, who tend to treat him with suspicion, if not outright hostility (until they get to know him). And he makes up for it by letting his guard down at times to be a father to the traumatized pups that dragged him into their pack.

Point is, flawed characters are one of the things that make TUC so great. They're not few and hid away either, they're everywhere, with visible flaws. If you want to make a good character, TUC is a great series to use as an example. Everything casts a shadow, just like every character has a flaw. If they don't, you probably just can't see them from your angle. And if they don't? Like, at all? Give them some, just make sure the shadow they cast matches up with the object itself.

Gregor: so why cant Ripred come to the fount? York: the last time he was here he tried to take over with an army of lobsters Ripred: *from the bushes* it was ONE time! York: *startled* his voice still haunts me

the bRATcket

SEMIFINALS!

Here’s our first two semifinalists! The scrappy underdog (and canon dilf) who’s beat the odds to be here, Ripred, VS. the queer icon math teacher from our childhood, Mr. Ratburn!

i was doodling that comfort character su bandwagon and i started giggling the second i thought of these two interacting

suzanne collins’s thought process while creating characters seems to be “you know what my adolescent protagonist needs? an incredibly bitchy uncle figure.” and she’s right.

Ripred being a morally ambiguous violent hippie will always be my favorite thing.

Never in my life have I ever thought of Ripred and "hippie" in the same sentence 😂

It’s mentioned in marks of secret that ripred has a usual style he files his teeth into. Do we think it’s a “standard rodent” type teeth shape or does he do some kind of fangs. Thoughts?