| |
| Villain | |
|---|---|
| Name | Dirty Rat |
| Nicknames | Rat, Rodent (by Lord Fear and Kilobyte) Mr. Rat (By Duff Kent) |
| Species | Winged Rat |
| Affiliation | The Carnival of Doom |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | "Older than he looks", possibly 20's-30's. |
| Abilities | Flight, enhanced senses of smell, hearing and sight, can create explosive bombs. |
| Weaknesses | Cowardice nature. |
| Voice Actor | Adrian Truss |
Dirty Rat in the Carnival of Doom.
Dirty Rat is a recurring villain, being a member of the Carnival of Doom, under the command of Lord Fear and later Kilobyte. Acting as a spy for the carnival, Dirty Rat uses his small size and abilities to observe enemies like the Lightning Knights, usually without detection. He can fly using two small wings and has enhanced senses. He has no real loyalties accept to himself, following Lord Fear and Kilobyte out of fear. In the Sixth Dimension, he seems to run and own a rundown hotel called the Rat Trap Hotel, in Cowboy Crossroads. He morphs into a stone gargoyle wielding a shield, outside of the Haunted House at The Kent Bros. Carnival (which Kilobyte later smashed the head off of).
Appearance
Dirty Rat is a large brown-furred rat who flies in the air courtesy of two small, weak-looking bat wings. He has a rather large head, brown in colour. He has black-coloured eyes, large pink ears featuring visible veins, and a mouth full of yellowing sharp teeth with two large fangs protruding out of the front of his mouth. The wings are small and thin, and purple in colour. He is dressed like a clown, wearing a white shirt that covers his entire body. It appears badly stitched, and is patterned with various-coloured spots. It has a white collar and purple cufflinks at the ends of the sleeves. He wears a black tie and black finger-less gloves. He has large black and white clown shoes, and a frilly purple decoration on the bottom of the shirt, where his large rat tail is. On his face, he has a large red clown nose placed above his snout, blue and red makeup under his eyes and on each cheek. He wears a green bowler hat with a purple ribbon wrapped around the bottom, and a flower extends from the hat, with blue petals and a bud shaped like a skull. Two hair extensions extend from the sides of his head..
Personality
Being a rat, Dirty Rat has the personality of a lowlife. He is backstabbing, cruel and likes to take the glory from other characters, one notable time when he tries to make Staff Head jealous when he finds a piece of the Amulet of Zoar, pleasing Lord Fear. Another notable time is when he gians another piece from Zip and Snip who were the ones who obtained it in the first place. He is cunning at times, and bossy, as seen when he orders the other minions around, particularly Duff Kent on many occasion.
He is a natural coward, often fleeing in fear during battle, hiding or shrieking in fear before retreating. He often puts other characters in front of him to save his own hide. On rare occasions, he has plucked up enough courage to fight against the Lightning Knights, but usually when they have already been defeated or are in a losing position. He was even brave enough to start a brief rebellion against Lord Fear, with Duff and other minions joining his side briefly.
Dirty Rat is hardly ever taken seriously in the Carnival of Doom, often being forced to dress up in disguises in order to infiltrate his way into the presence of the protragonists or other characters. He shows an extreme dislike for this, demanding that Pigface dress up in a disguise, which he eventually does on one occasion. Dirty Rat often comments on his job as a villain, via "I love/hate this part of the job". Both Lord Fear and Kilobyte have mistreated him, Lord Fear either choking him or throwing him to the ground in anger, and Kilobyte punches him with the back of his fist or swats him down with a tentacle.
Throughout the series, Dirty Rat has expressed his interests for Earth's culture. He takes a liking to Earth's money, and often is seen watching a shopping channel on the television in the Haunted House, actually going as far as telephoning the channel and shopping, asking the deliveries to be put under Lord Fear's name. Interestingly, he is shown buying random items like a disused bird cage. He also expresses love for cheddar cheese, likely in reference to his being part rat.
Abilities
Dirty Rat is constantly flying in midair by rapidly flapping his bat-like wings. This allows him to fly through the air, usually just to make a getaway in battle or to bomb enemies from a far without getting into trouble. Interestingly, Dirty Rat has never been shown to walk or land properly, but since he has such short legs and large feet, walking may be difficult for him.
He has enhanced senses, namely of smell, sight and hearing. While the enhanced sight has never been really featured, his enhanced hearing and smell has. He often uses his hearing to eavesdrop on the Lighting Knights by observing them from the roof of the Thunder Tower. Using his enhanced smell, he can figure out the senses of nearby people, usually mortals. Sometimes, Dirty Rat is forced to an excessive amount of sniffing in order to figure out who a person's scent is. He also has shown the ability to smell Amulet fragments.
His only form of weaponry (despite having fangs which he never uses), is explosive bombs similar to the ones Lady Illusion uses. They are smaller in size than Lady Illusion's but appear to actually do more damage, causing a large explosion and knocking characters out on a couple of occasions. Ace Lightning once threw a bomb from Dirty Rat and it exploded like a firework.
He has also shown good leadership skills, capable of rallying together Duff, Anvil, Pigface and Googler in his attempt to overthrow Lord Fear. In the Sixth Dimension, he has shown the ability to lead a group of zombie gunslingers and skeletons in Cowboy Crossroads, and command evil spirits to revive Giant George Wayne to battle Ace.
Relationships
- Dirty Rat and Duff Kent appear as rather good friends, often seen bantering with eachother. Dirty Rat often refers to Duff as "Duffy" and in turn, Duff calls him "Mr. Rat". They both share a dislike towards Lord Fear, the two giving their honest opinions to eachother about their boss. Dirty Rat often rides in the front seat with Duff when driving around in the Dairy Wagon. At times, Dirty Rat may be cruel to Duff, bossing him around and shouting at him, Duff expressing his own annoyance towards this. At times, Dirty Rat has been dressed up by Duff as Mr. Huckleberry, a ventriloquist dummy and toy doll Duff uses in his "family friendly carnival" campaign.
Dirty Rat with Duff.
- Dirty Rat has shown a great disliking towards Lord Fear, due to his mistreatment of him. He is often to be the target of Lord Fear's rage and is a punching bag to him, often being thrown across rooms or onto the ground, or choked. However, Lord Fear often refers to Dirty Rat as his faithful servant and commends him for his actions most of the time.
Lord Fear throttles Dirty Rat.
- Dirty Rat has a more distant relationship with Kilobyte than with Lord Fear. Kilobyte often mistreats Dirty Rat even more than Lord Fear does, often punching him with the back of his fist, which has become a running gag in the series. He also throws him away and hits him with his tentacles. Kilobyte is rather demanding to the rat, but is straight to the point but is uninterested in seeing Dirty Rat suffer, even though he does in the end.
- Dirty Rat and Staff Head are shown to be bitter enemies, openly hating eachother and often insulting one another. Dirty Rat is fearful of Staff Head's energy blasts, but not of his snobbish personality, telling Staff Head to shut up in Episode 7, and then pulling a raspberry in Staff Head's face when Lord Fear congratulates him on finding an Amulet fragment. Staff Head angrily shows disdain for Dirty Rat when he returns in the second season, attempting to attack him with kicks, but Lord Fear defends Dirty Rat to stop Staff Head's negativity.
- After Duff, Dirty Rat gets on best with Pigface, calling him "Piggy" as a nickname. He has shown disgust at Pigface's gross demeanour and is forced to watch him eat an entire cake whilst stuck to a wall after being hit by Pigface's projectile snot. Most of the time, he supports Pigface when he is fighting Lightning Knights, but at times, uses him as a shield.
History
Pre-Season 1
Little is known about Dirty Rat's early history but it is hinted in Episode 3 that he never went to school, as Staff Head describes to him what a school is (although it is possible that the Sixth Dimension has a different location for education). He was part of the Carnival of Doom during Lord Fear's first theft of the Amulet. In possession of a piece of the Amulet, Dirty Rat lured Ace Lightning into the Cowboy Crossroads in order to dispose of him. He fled Ace into the Nevershine Mine on a mine cart, distracting Ace with a stick of dynamite. He then was pursued through the Ghost Canyon and into the Rat Trap Hotel. He was eventually confronted by Ace in the tomb of Giant George Wayne who he awoke using evil spirits to kill Ace. In the following battle, Giant George is defeated and he topples over, landing on Dirty Rat, his Amulet fragment taken by Ace. He was eventually sent to prison in the Sixth Dimension, which he mentions as being creepy. He eventually escapes and follows Lord Fear through a portal to Conestoga Hills.
Season 1
Dirty Rat appears in Conestoga Hills with Lord Fear, Staff Head, Lady Illusion, Anvil and Pigface in the backyard of Mark's House. Dirty Rat points out the shattering of the Amulet and sniffs out The Kent Bros. Carnival, moving in after Lord Fear lightly threatens Duff into "hiring" them as carnies. In the second episode, Dirty Rat is forced to dress up as a rabbit toy, armed with a bomb to kill Mark Hollander, Samantha Thompson, and Brett Ramirez. Mark removes Dirty Rat from Samantha's possession, but as the rat prepares to throw the bomb, Ace appears and throws him away before destroying the bomb himself. Dirty Rat participates in the capture of Horace Cheseborough, tormenting him by stealing his digital watch and button, which he later uses to hypnotise Mr. Cheseborough into temporarily forgetting about his capture.
Dirty Rat's relationship with Duff is first introduced in Episode 8. In Episode 9, Dirty Rat gains Mark's and Lord Fear's pieces of the Amulet and uses them to summon Random Virus. He then steals Chuck Mugel's robot Leviathan XL1 to power up Random, but his plan collapses when Random turns on him. Dirty Rat spends most of the first season assisting other villains in battling the Lightning Knights, often being the last villain standing aside from Lord Fear.
In Episode 24, Dirty Rat locates the last piece of the Amulet and keeps it to himself. In the following episode, he is convinced by Sparx to lead a rebellion against Lord Fear's rule. He convinces Duff, Anvil, Pigface and Googler to chase down Lord Fear whilst he lounges about in the Haunted House ordering random items off of a television shopping channel. Lord Fear enters with Ace's pieces of the Amulet, obtained by Lady Illusion, and he easily convinces Dirty rat to rejoin his side. In the last episode, Dirty Rat is absent from the battles against the Lightning Knights but is seen being sent back to the Sixth Dimension when Mark shatters the Amulet.
Season 2
Dirty Rat returns in the second season in Episode 29 when Lady Illusion brings Amulet fragments to Lord Fear. Dirty Rat is more than thrilled to be back, but Staff Head expresses irritation towards Dirty Rat, attempting to kick him away, but Lord Fear is more welcoming to Dirty Rat, believing he has a role to play in Ace's defeat. Dirty Rat shows an odd amount of courage in the following battle against Ace, bombing him, but is then scared away by Anvil's defeat when Ace launches his new "Ring of Flame" upgrade.
When Kilobyte arrives in the Carnival of Doom, he quickly takes command, Dirty Rat joining him upon witnessing how much power he possesses, but is shown to be an annoyance to Kilobyte throughout the series. Dirty Rat accompanies Kilobyte, Rotgut, and Duff to the Friendship Farm where Mark and co. are whilst pursuing Ace, and Dirty Rat shows fear towards Fred when he is first introduced.
He does not play much of a major role for the rest of the series. In the last episode, Durty Rat supports Kilobyte when he gains the Amulet in its complete form, but is then blasted into a wall by Ace. He is witness to Kilobyte's defeat, and Lady Illusion's murder at the hands of Lord Fear, Lady Illusion being disguised as Ace. Dirty Rat promptly flees with Lord Fear and Staff Head.
In the cancelled third season, Dirty Rat would have been in hiding with Lord Fear, Staff Head, and Mr. Cheseborough.
Trivia
- It is hinted that Dirty Rat actually owns the Rat Trap Hotel in the Sixth Dimension.
- In season 2 similar to Rotgut and Anvil, Dirty Rat has his own theme music. Being dressed as a clown Dirty Rat has an old circus theme.
