The Rat King | |
---|---|
Real Name |
Victor Falco |
Species |
Human (Formerly) |
Skin Color |
Pale Green |
Eye Color |
Red |
Weapon |
Army of Rats |
Enemies |
|
Age |
55 |
Voiced by |
|
First Appearance |
Monkey Brains (Victor Falco) |
The Rat King is a character and a villain in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He first appeared in the episode Monkey Brains. After his final fight with Splinter in which he falls off of a cliff, Falco is now deceased.
Official Description[]
"Formerly a scientist who studied DNA and parapsychology, I put one of my mutagenic hybrid compounds to the test, and accidentally transformed myself into the king of all rats. I now have the ability to command rodents, including Splinter. And I won’t rest until his meddlesome turtles are destroyed."
- Rat King
History[]
Early Life[]
Born in 1957 in New York City, Victor Falco attended the same college as Tyler Rockwell, who he soon became lab partners with for 33 year following their graduation. This partnership took a dark turn when Falco used Rockwell in an experiment assigned to him by the The Kraang that involved Mutagen, a neuro-chemical, and monkey DNA, mutating Rockwell into a mutant monkey in order to extract a psychic-neuro chemical from his mutant brain. However, Rockwell escaped, and Falco reported him missing to the public, hoping that they would find Rockwell (who he said was acctually a regular monkey being Rockwell expirimented on in his lab) and bring him back to Falco so the neuro-chemical could be extracted.
Season 1[]
Monkey Brains: When Falco makes his debut in this episode, the Turtles have brought Rockwell to him but when they find out the truth and went to stop Falco, he had already injected the chemical into his own brain, giving himself psychic mind-reading powers. He defeated the Turtles, as he was able to foresee their attacks before they made them. It wasn't until Donnie mastered the art of fighting without thought that Falco was defeated, yet was able to escape.
I, Monster: Falco returns in this episode. He is seen at the beginning working in a laboratory, talking to himself about how the turtles and his planned revenge, doing experiments with the mutagen and and a lot of rats. He was able to bring back a chemical in the ooze that gave him his psychic abilities in Monkey Brains. Unfortunately, this all goes horribly awry when two rats are chewing on an electrical wire which causes it to break and swing down onto Falco & the ooze. This causes an explosion and makes the ooze go onto Falco, giving him his psychic abilities back. However, since he was experimenting on rats, these powers became limited to himself, rodents and rodent mutants (formerly animal or formerly human). He gains the ability to control the rats' minds and see the world through their eyes, and now calls himself "The Rat King". He is able to take control over Splinter and sends him to attack the Turtles. Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo are able to tackle him. Leonardo brings him back to normal using the picture with his wife and child, bringing his memories back. When back to normal, Splinter attacks Rat King and knocks him out with just two fingers! The Rat King is then seen being carried away by dozens of rats.
Season 2[]
Of Rats and Men: The Rat King appears again this time with a new weapon! An army of Giant Rats! His evil plot is to make an army of human rats like Splinter! So he sends out the Giant Rats to take some down to his lair. The Rat King again tries to use Splinters mind. Splinter breaks the spell and defeats him by blind-folding himself (there for blinding The Rat King). The Rat King tried to defeat Splinter but stumbled and fell into a huge smokey pit to his apparent death.
Season 4[]
Darkest Plight: When Splinter fell into the pit where fought Super Shredder, he was later surronded by Rats and was confronted by The Rat King, Splinter was surprised to see him after defeating him nearly 2 years ago, The Rat King later tried to make Splinter more rat then he has ever been, but Splinter refused to give in and defeated The Rat King and soon found his skeletal body of where he fell to his death and comfirming his fate, Splinter then realized that it was all a hallucination and The Rat King is dead for real and good.
Appearance[]
As Victor Falco: Falco is middle aged, with dark hair going gray at the temples, eyes taking on a blood shot look under the effects of the neuro-chemical, and a long lab coat and tan trousers. He is highly knowledgeable in neuroscience.
As The Rat King: Rat King is very skinny, pale, and zombie/corpse looking with dry and wrinkled flesh, decaying teeth, mostly burnt hair, and hypnotic eyes. He wears a long black coat and with a matching hat, bandages over his eyes (this helps his powers stay in control) and bandages on him in other places such as his arms.
Personality[]
Falco was nothing short of a power-mad and reckless sociopath who was only concerned about his own goals. His highly psychopathic tendencies were nearly invisible due to his metaphorical mask of normalcy, he was a talented liar, a deceitfully cunning mind who was able to fool April, Donatello and the entirety of New York into thinking he had no idea of his friend, Doctor Rockwell's disappearance. Falco was immoral, ruthless, callous and arrogant and so unsympathetic and uncaring that he was capable of kidnapping and mutating his colleague so he could perfect a psychic serum.
Falco was massively taking sadistic delight in seeing Rockwell's pain and during his fight with Donatello, he cruelly mocked him over his romantic feelings for April.
Although in his past experiences he has had at least some, but granted very small level of decency after being mutated while trying to recreate his psychic serum and is granted a telepathic connection to rats. Granting himself the title of The Rat King, Falco was a fully fledged misanthrope who began to see humanity as nothing more than an infestation and as such took satisfaction in terrorising New York, he would either mutate or kill any human in his path. Ironically Falco's archenemy is the same person he thought was also his equal, Hamato Yoshi who he tried to mind-control but in the end Splinter was able to defeat him.
Falco completely valued rat life and was cowardly left screaming in rage when Splinter had kicked his pet rat and friend, Aristotle over a ledge.
Aristotle[]
The Rat King has a white rat, most often sitting on his shoulders, since the Rat King is blind but can see through rat's eyes Aristotle allows him to see an opponent right next to him and to fight him (Splinter) himself, as seen in Of Rats and Men. He is named after the Greek philosopher Aristotle (Ἀριστοτέλης) whose name means "the best purpose". The Rat King has also given names to a few of his Giant Rats in Rats of Men.
Quotes[]
- (When trying to brainwash Splinter) "Join me...Join me!"
- Falco: "Why do you cling so hard to this life of your's? (Splinter: I am needed here.) Falco: By whom!?! Even your so-called 'Children' have begun to out-grow you".
- "We both have come to see the world through the eyes of rats...We both have lost everything we held dear. We both have become outcast from society."
- (During his fight with Donnie) "By the way...do you REALLY think you have a chance with April?"
- "I am THE RAT KING!"
- "Who says I'm not in control?" (while running away from Splinter)
Trivia[]
- Mikey tried to call him Verminator, as a homage to the Archie TMNT character, Verminator X.
- The Skeletons in Mazes & Mutants resemble The Rat King
- Victor Falco is extremely similar to the H.P. Lovecraft character Herbert West, who was portrayed by Falco's voice actor, Jeffrey Combs in the "Re-Animator" film series. West was a scientist who experimented with a green substance similar in appearance (but not in effect) to the Ooze. As the Rat King, his appearance somewhat resembles the appearance of Scarecrow from The New Batman Adventures (1997), who Combs also voiced.
- The Rat King's outfit (long black coat and black wide-brimmed hat) is nearly identical to the standard outfit worn by medieval plague doctors. This is noteworthy in that the Bubonic plague was spread by fleas being carried by rats.
- Victor Falco is also reminiscent of Dr. Victor Feral from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness. Like Dr. Falco, Doc Feral is a kind-acting human scientist who secretly performs unethicalmutagenic experiments involving animals (as Falco did to Dr. Rockwell), and keeps mutant rats as friends or servants (as does the Rat King).
- Rat King is the name of a phenomena in which many rats get stuck together by their tails.
- Several of the Rat King's giant mutant rats from the episode Of Rats and Men were named after Roman emperors as Caligula, Claudius, Nero and Commodus.
- Michelangelo was extremely annoyed that the Rat King nicknamed himself, as he's the one who usually comes up with the nicknames. He tried numerous alternatives: Lord Rattington, Count Ratula, Verminator, etc. Until he begrudgingly accepts it.
- With Darkest Plight confirming his death, Rat King is the first character killed in the show.