Ratchet & Clank/Characters

Ratchet
The hero of the series and the last of the Lombaxes. "Biker: Get lost before I flatten your robot into a hubcap.
 * Action Hero
 * Badass Adorable
 * Berserk Button: NEVER mess with Veldin. Chairman Drek, and then Dr. Nefarious, learned this the hard way.
 * Also: Insulting Clank is ill advised; do something to actually put him in jeopardy and you'll have an angry lombax stalking across the galaxy with the sole purpose of shooting you, blowing you up, turning you into a monkey, and then blowing you up again.

Ratchet: Touch him, and it's plasma city!"


 * Character Development: Yes, every lead character goes through it to an extent, but compare the Ratchet from the original game to the Ratchet from Tools of Destruction. It's a startling difference, and there's even more character growth between ToD and A Crack in Time.
 * Cool Loser: You think having awesome piloting skills, a huge arsenal of weapons, and saving several galaxies before breakfast makes you popular? Not Ratchet. Even after all his heroics, he's still seen as a sidekick to his buddy Clank or the glory-hog Captain Quark.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Dude, Where's My Respect?: Zig-zagged. Going Commando opens with a TV interview about his heroics in the previous game, while in the next game Up Your Arsenal, he's known for being Clank's chaffeur in the Secret Agent Clank holo-vids.
 * Genre Savvy: Increasingly so, as evidenced by All 4 One.
 * Green Eyes
 * The Hero
 * Heroic BSOD:

"Annihilation Nation Commentator: Where is he keeping all of these guns?! I mean, come on!"
 * Hero With Bad Publicity: For most of Deadlocked.
 * Hyperspace Arsenal


 * Improbable Weapon User: The Omniwrench
 * And that's to say nothing of the belching fish, omnicidal droid, instant-monkey-just-add-mook, or literal "dance 'til you drop" weapons.
 * Jerkass: Becomes this after Qwark's betrayal in the first game. He gets better.
 * Last of His Kind
 * Machine Empathy
 * Mr. Fixit: Tinkering and engineering come naturally to Lombaxes
 * The Musketeer: Whether it's gun play or melee, Ratchet is just as skilled wielding the latest arsenal from Gadgetron as he is swinging his trusted Omniwrench.
 * One Lombax Army
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Clank's blue.

Clank
Ratchet's robotic best friend. Usually acts as a backpack for Ratchet.
 * Badass Adorable
 * Badass Automaton
 * Chick Magnet
 * The Chosen One
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: In-universe he's a famous movie star as Secret Agent Clank. Ratchet is his chaffeur.
 * Green Eyes
 * Helicopter Pack
 * Insufferable Genius
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Ratchet's red.
 * Robot Buddy
 * Spock Speak
 * Tuxedo and Martini: As Secret Agent Clank, complete with an array of disguised weaponry.
 * Only Sane Man: particularly in All 4 One.

Captain/President Copernicus L. Qwark
Despite being a renowned superhero, Captain Qwark is a coward and an idiot. He has many encounters with Ratchet and Clank, as both an ally and an enemy. "Qwark [to Skrunch the monkey]: It was mating season! How I supposed to know she was your sister?"
 * Big Good
 * Blue Eyes: Although they were green in the earlier games.
 * Captain Space Defender of Earth
 * Dirty Coward: In the early games.
 * Dumb Blond: Qwark's blond beard is clearly visible at the beginning half of Up Your Arsenal.
 * Embarrassing Middle Name: "Leslie"
 * Fake Ultimate Hero
 * Flanderization: He gets dumber and dumber as the series progresses.
 * Heel Face Turn: Although he gets dumber, he also becomes less evil and more of an ally to Ratchet.
 * Lantern Jaw of Justice
 * Miles Gloriosus
 * Noodle Incident:


 * Our Presidents Are Different: Becomes Galactic President in the comic.
 * Raised By Monkeys
 * Reverse Mole: In Tools of Destruction, to Tachyon.
 * The Renfield: Again, in Tools of Destruction, to Tachyon.
 * Ted Baxter
 * Too Dumb to Live
 * Top Heavy Guy: To the point that he's the trope image.
 * Treacherous Advisor
 * Villain With Good Publicity

Big Al
A mechanic and inventor who occasionaly assists Ratchet and Clank in their adventures.
 * Gadgeteer Genius

Helga
Qwark's fitness trainer, known for her "sensual powers of seduction".
 * Jerkass
 * Just a Stupid Accent
 * Ladies and Germs: Helga herself invokes this. When Qwark addresses the Q-Force as "ladies and gentlemen...", she glares angrily at him (and perks up again when he hastily name-checks her), implying that she considers herself neither.
 * The Load: Even though most members of the Q-Force were somewhat inept, they all proved useful at least once (Skidd and Skrunch both accompany Ratchet on some of his missions and Al does the team's tech work), but Helga never does anything except force Ratchet to go through her VR training course, thus being more of a liability than anything.

Skid McMarx
A professional surfer-dude type hoverboarder with "nerves of steel".
 * The Ditz
 * Leeroy Jenkins
 * Lovable Coward
 * Miles Gloriosus
 * Screams Like a Little Girl
 * Surfer Dude
 * Totally Radical

Skrunch
Qwark's one-eyed Floranian monkey.
 * Everything Is Better With Monkeys
 * Hypercompetent Sidekick: Certainly more competent than Qwark, anyway...
 * Team Pet

Angela Cross
A Lombax who aids Ratchet in the second game.
 * Brother Chuck
 * Flip Flop of God: The devs couldn't make up their minds whether or not she was a Lombax for quite a while.
 * Girl of the Week
 * Heel Face Turn
 * Samus Is a Girl

Sasha
The captain of the Starship Phoenix and Ratchet's Temporary Love Interest for Up Your Arsenal.
 * The Captain
 * Faux Action Girl
 * Girl of the Week
 * Only Sane Woman
 * The President's Daughter

Talwyn Apogee
A young Markazian woman living on a space station in the Polaris galaxy, and daughter of the famous explorer Max Apogee. Helps Ratchet in Tools of Destruction and Quest for Booty.
 * Action Girl: At times, but see below.
 * Click Hello: She introduces herself to Ratchet by leveling a blaster at his face.
 * Disappeared Dad: Max Apogee vanished while on a journey, and is believed to be dead.
 * Distressed Damsel: Ratchet has to rescue her a few times.
 * What Happened to The Mouse?: At the end of "Quest for Booty", she leaves with Ratchet when he heads to . In "A Crack in Time", Ratchet begins the game with Qwark as his companion, and Talwyn is nowhere to be seen.
 * Though she is mentioned twice. Once by Ratchet in the opening cutscene and then by a DJ on the radio who says she requested a song and a shout out to Ratchet.
 * Talwyn reappears in the comic series, where she and Sasha help Ratchet in his efforts against the Big Bad.
 * And vanishes again in All 4 One, where she only gets one brief mention.

Cronk and Zephyr
Talwyn's two robotic guardians, that are veterans of the Great War in Polaris.
 * Grumpy Old Man: Part of what makes them so funny is they behave like two old geezers. "Get off my lawn!"
 * Mission Control: In All 4 One, they serve as this while stuck in orbit around Magnus.
 * Those Two Guys

General Alister Azimuth
The only Lombax other than Ratchet remaining in the current universe.
 * Badass
 * Cool Old Guy
 * Cool Wrench A large, double-headed one that can shoot energy blasts and deflect projectiles.
 * Failure Knight: One of the reasons Azimuth is so quick to mentor Ratchet is because he feels personally responsible for his father Kaden's death.
 * My Greatest Failure:
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist
 * Wrench Whack: Has a double-ended wrench as his primary weapon.
 * Wrench Whack: Has a double-ended wrench as his primary weapon.

The Plumber
An eccentric waterworker with a tendency to pop up anywhere Ratchet and Clank go, no matter how improbable it seems. "Plumber: Almost didn't recognise you boys in HD!"
 * Almighty Janitor: He's even voiced by THE Janitor
 * Chekhov's Gun: The Plumber's 3 3/4 centicubits hexagonal washer in Tools of Destruction.
 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * Fourth Wall Observer

"Ratchet: Look, the plumber's back!"
 * Phrase Catcher


 * Recurring Traveller: Takes this to extremes in A Crack in Time, where he appears inside Clank's subconscious.
 * Spirit Advisor: In A Crack in Time, see above.

Slim Cognito
A shady character (literally, all you see are his eyes) who deals with illegal modifications in the Bogon Galaxy. Shows up in the Solana Galaxy in Up Your Arsenal after "accidentally" selling a mod for a Suck Cannon to a minor. It's probably best that we not know anything more.


 * Black Market
 * Conspiracy Placement: Has his own commercials.
 * Fell Off the Back of A Truck: Slim's stock in trade.
 * The Unseen

The Smuggler
As his name implies, he's somewhat shady type with access to all sorts of weapons and gadgets. Despite his criminal leanings, he's there to help Ratchet - for a price, of course. Only appears in the three PS 3 ventures.
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Never given an actual name.
 * Eyepatch of Power: Although he's been shown to have two functioning eyes.
 * Mr. Exposition: Besides selling Ratchet gadgets and the like, he helps fill on some of the backstory in "Tools of Destruction"
 * Pirate Parrot: His parrot actually belonged to Captain Slag, before the Smuggler won him in a card game.
 * Recurring Traveller: Not to the extent of the Plumber, though.

Merc and Green
Merc and green are the two robot sidekicks provided for Ratchet in Deadlocked. "Merc: Hey Green, that zombie looks like yo mama!"
 * Badass Automaton: Times 2.
 * Non-Human Sidekick: They take the place of Clank as Ratchet's robot sidekicks for this game.
 * Lovable Coward: Green.
 * It Has Been an Honour: Late in the game, Green mentions that, if he deosn't make it out alive, it has been an honour working with you.
 * Trigger Happy: Merc.
 * Your Mom: One of Merc's lines.


 * Noodle Incident: The previous combatant to work with Merc and Green came to a gruesome end...

Chairman Drek
The villain of the first game, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman Drek is the leader of the Blarg and is out to find a new home for his race... by ripping apart other planets and creating a new one, destroying countless lives in the process.
 * Bilingual Bonus: "Drek" is slang for feces in Slovenian.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive
 * Evilly Affable: Subverted. His first appearance is a video of him calmly and politely explaining his plan to the people of Novalis, and says that it will send the planet flying towards the sun. He drops it after the cut, and tells them they can kiss his ass if they're angry about it. The camera's still running.
 * Hoist By His Own Petard
 * Man of Wealth and Taste
 * Overly Long Title: He started from 'Chairman Drek', and added to his title at various points through the game.
 * Planet Looters
 * Smug Snake

Dr. Nefarious
The main villain of Up Your Arsenal and A Crack in Time, Dr. Nefarious is a nefarious Mad Scientist who is out to wrong all the rights in the galaxy and rid it of all organic lifeforms so he can rule over a robotic utopia with an iron fist. "Lawrence: Even drooling imbeciles can achieve success in certain fields, sir. Mad Science, for example."
 * Arch Enemy: In the third game, Nefarious seems to see Qwark as his archnemesis, but by the time "Crack" rolls around, he's shifted that "honor" to Ratchet.
 * Big Bad: For the entire series as he is the most recurring villain.
 * Boomerang Bigot: Of sorts: he
 * Card-Carrying Villain: This sort of boils beneath the surface in Up Your Arsenal, but in A Crack in Time, his final plan is to
 * Enemy Mine: Returns in "Ratchet And Clank: All 4 One" as a Playable Character.
 * Genius Ditz: Nefarious is a goofball, but he still managed to build some truly impressive tech; the Biobliterator and that mech the size of a building in Crack In Time, anyone?

"Nefarious: To think, they called me 'insane,' Lawrence! We'll see who's insane when my mutant armies have exterminated all life on this planet!
 * Large Ham
 * Laughably Evil
 * Mad Scientist
 * No Indoor Voice
 * Not Quite Dead: Word of God says Lawrence went back to save him at the last minute.
 * Which isn't as much of an Ass Pull as it looks: remember when Lawrence pulled a similar "prank" in Up Your Arsenal?
 * Not So Harmless: Kind of goes with Genius Ditz above.
 * Percussive Maintenance
 * Perverse Sexual Lust: His fangirl following fits this trope perfectly.
 * SkeleBot 9000: His design is subtly very skeletal - skull-like face, bony fingers, and ribcage-like tubes on his torso.
 * Red Eyes Take Warning: Although before he was a robot it looks like he had gray eyes.
 * They Called Me Mad

Lawrence: Yes, sir; that should clear things right up."


 * Unwilling Roboticisation: His ultimate goal in Up Your Arsenal.

Lawrence
Dr. Nefarious' passive-aggressive butler. His main role in the games is to usually make his boss look like an idiot, menial offscreen stuff like washing Nefarious' underwear, and dealing with his employer's malfunctions.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: He plays bass in a band when off-duty.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * The Dragon: Technically, though he never really deals with the heroes.
 * Easter Egg: When you're working on a time puzzle with Clank in Crack in Time, take a moment to check out the windows, particularly the ones in corners. You'll usually find Lawrence hanging out on a windowsill, occasionally looking in to spy on you.
 * Hates Everyone Equally: Everyone's fair game for his snark.
 * Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He seems to do this once per game, only to invariably return to save his boss anyway.
 * Servile Snarker
 * Stealth Insult
 * The Unfought: Never fought directly as a boss, though he does provide backup for Nefarious during his Boss Fights.

Courtney Gears
An Idol Singer in Up Your Arsenal who was aligned with Nefarious.
 * Evil Diva: The mind control in her songs only works on robots, though (though not Clank, apparently).
 * Idol Singer: A particularly evil one.
 * Robot Girl
 * Summon Backup Dancers
 * Unexplained Recovery: Made a "miraculous recovery" in Deadlocked.
 * Villain Song: Death To Squishies, a pop song about organic genocide.

Klunk
An evil robotic duplicate of Clank created by Dr. Nefarious. "Clank: Looks like it sucks to be him."
 * Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: He has red eyes instead of Clank's green ones.
 * Evil Twin
 * A Fate Worse Than Death:
 * A Fate Worse Than Death:


 * The Man Behind the Man:.
 * The Mole

Gleeman Vox
The villain of Deadlocked, Gleeman Vox is a sadistic, money-grabbing billionaire owner of an underground media empire in the lawless Shadow Sector. He operates DreadZone, a HV program where heroes are forced to fight each other to the death.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive
 * Everything's Even Worse With Sharks: He looks rather like a human/shark hybrid.
 * Karmic Death
 * No Kill Like Overkill: At the end of Deadlocked, he sets the arena to explode using six gigatons of nitroglycerin.
 * Red Right Hand: A golden cybernetic hand he uses to display holograms.

Ace Hardlight
Vox's right hand man and the leader of the Exterminators, DreadZone's elite warriors. "Vernon [when asked by Vox if he'd like an Ace Hardlight action figure]: Nah, that guy's a tool."
 * Blood Knight: Enjoys fighting and killing, with little regard as to who the target is.
 * Creator's Pet: An in-universe example, as Vox tries to promote him as a hot-shot who the fans should love, despite the fact the audience clearly prefers Ratchet.


 * The Dragon: To Gleeman Vox.
 * Fallen Hero: Like most DreadZone contestants, Ace was once a great hero, before the fame and thrill of DreadZone.
 * Jacob Marley Warning:
 * Not So Different: Hinted at; Vox mentions that Ratchet reminds him of a young Ace.
 * Shout Out: "Ace" and "Hard-light" are both terms that are sometimes used to describe another particularly unpleasant character who think's he's braver and more popular than he is.
 * Shout Out: "Ace" and "Hard-light" are both terms that are sometimes used to describe another particularly unpleasant character who think's he's braver and more popular than he is.

Emperor Percival Tachyon
The Big Bad of Tools of Destruction, Tachyon is the last of the Cragmites, an Always Chaotic Evil race defeated by the Lombaxes years ago. As a result, he has a grudge against Ratchet's race... "Tachyon: Those... creatures had the gall to pity me!"
 * Disney Villain Death
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me: One of Tachyon's major grudges against the Lombaxes.


 * Embarrassing First Name: "Your name is Percival?!"
 * The Emperor: "See the crown? See the scepter? The giant walking throne and the legion of loyal robotic commandos? EMPEROR!"
 * The Farmer and The Viper: Upon discovering his heritage as a Cragmite, he immediately gets to work on banishing almost the entire Lombax race (the ones who raised him from a hatchling, in spite of what he was) and coercing the Drophyds into helping him take over the galaxy and bring about the return of said Cragmites.
 * Galactic Conqueror: By the time Ratchet and Clank arrive, Tachyon's taken over most of the Polaris Galaxy.
 * The Napoleon: Making fun of Tachyon's stature warrants the death penalty.

Captain Romulus Slag
The scourge of Polaris, the grog-drinking captain of large crew of space pirates and a thorn in Ratchet and Clank's side in Tools of Destruction. In Quest for Booty,
 * Big Bad Duumvirate: With in Quest for Booty.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: He and Rusty Pete, debatably(?).
 * Losing Your Head: He is reduced to this after he is defeated, and again after his second defeat in Quest for Booty.
 * Space Pirate

Rusty Pete
Captain Slag's first mate and best friend.
 * Ambiguously Gay
 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
 * If you listen to Pirate Radio in A Crack in Time, you might have heard this gem, to back the theory up: "And you're projecting your anger on me to cover an unconscious but deep-seated resentment toward a patriarch who never hugged you. Hic."
 * Don't Explain The Joke: That's a good one, captain! You made a rhyme! Ha ha ha!
 * The Dragon: To Slag
 * Heel Face Revolving Door
 * Ho Yay: Tons of it, with Captain Slag.
 * The Imp
 * Minion With an F In Evil
 * Space Pirate
 * Space Pirate

Captain Angstrom Darkwater
Former captain of the Space Pirates of Merdegraw, until he was overthrown by his first mate, Romulus Slag. He bound his soul to his body so he could defend his treasure even in death.
 * Big Bad: Of Quest for Booty.
 * Big Bad Duumvirate: With Captain Slag in Quest for Booty.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: More like Zombie Robot Pirate.
 * Sharing a Body: With Captain Slag.
 * Space Pirate

Flint Vorselon
A former Terraklon assassin and mercenary, Vorselon now works under Dr. Nefarious in A Crack in Time in order to keep his new robotic body.
 * Bonus Boss
 * Early Bird Cameo
 * Large Ham
 * Losing Your Head: He was reduced to this after a fight with Drophyds.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: Played for laughs
 * The Dragon: To Nefarious.

The Valkyries
A trio of ruthless mercenaries, Cassiopeia, Carina, and Libra lead the Valkyrie army to wreak havoc in the Polaris Galaxy, and help Nefarious in his quest for the Great Clock.
 * Amazon Brigade: They are leaders of this.
 * Brawn Hilda
 * Just a Stupid Accent: Carina
 * Kick the Dog:
 * Space Pirate: A rival, all-female faction, despite the name.
 * Unholy Matrimony: Cassiopeia and Nefarious.
 * Vocal Dissonance: Libra

Artemis Zogg
A ruthless tyrant, Artemis Zogg uses his technology to "steal" planets and relocate them to his own "Artemis Galaxy".
 * Big Bad: In the comics.
 * Galactic Conqueror
 * Start of Darkness: The third issue is this for him.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist
 * You Are What You Hate