Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal

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The third game in the Ratchet and Clank series.

Ratchet And Clank return to their home galaxy (revealed to be named the Solana Galaxy) where they face off against Dr. Nefarious, a Mad Scientist and robot supremacist who also happens to be a former foe of Captain Qwark. The two reluctantly track down and team up with the disgraced superhero in order to thwart Dr. Nefarious's scheme to turn everyone in the galaxy into his robotic slaves.

Tropes used in Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal include:

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: the labyrinth of a sewer beneath Dr. Nefarious's base on Aquatos.
• Bare Your Midriff: Courtney Gears.
• Beware the Nice Ones: An in-game meta example. The Annihilation Nation announcer says that most people know Ratchet as Secret Agent Clank's bumbling chauffeur. Said bumbling chauffeur then goes and blows a ton of crap up in the arena with weapons as big as he is.
• Big Damn Heroes: Captain Qwark of all people pulls this off at the end of the game, even though he kinda just flies around doing various aerial tricks...
• Bond One-Liner: Appropriately enough, Clank gets one in the "Secret Agent Clank" films at the beginning and end of the game. Clank (or rather Klunk) also gets one after the Courtney Gears boss battle. ("One disposable pop star... disposed")
• Boomerang Bigot: Dr. Nefarious hates "squishies" despite formerly being one himself.
• Boss Remix: The boss theme for the fight against Courtney Gears is a remix of "Death to Squishies".
• Brain Uploading: A cross between this and We Can Rebuild Him is what caused Nefarious to become the robot he is now after a horrible accident at the hands of Qwark while he was still human, though it's never quite explained which is more accurate.
• Call Back: The Amoeboids from Ratchet & Clank are revealed to have been an early galactic domination/destruction ploy by Dr. Nefarious (making their appearance then something of a Foreshadowing for him).
  • Also in the 4th Vidcomic you visit Qwark's training course as Qwark.
• Changed My Mind, Kid: They find Captain Qwark after he faked his death so he wouldn't have to actually risk his life, and are unable to convince him to continue fighting. Later on, in the final boss battle, he comes dramatically sailing in on his spaceship, pumping rounds into the boss.
• Chekhov's Armory:
  • Courtney Gears appears for the first time when you first win on Annihilation Nation, before you discover her role in Nefarious's plot.
  • The Tyra-guise is only used in a single area, then comes back in the final level, where the Tyranoids are back, and a lot smarter.
  • On your first visit to the Phoenix you can see areas off to the side of the lift platform with no way to access them, then the ship gets attacked at the end of the game and the lift is destroyed opening up those areas as an alternate route.
• Deadpan Snarker: Lawrence is the living embodiment of this trope.
• Double Entendre: The title, a common trend in the series. Hint; Up Your 'ARSEnal.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Courtney Gears calls Dr. Nefarious "Snookie Wookums".
• Fake Ultimate Mook: Despite looking intimidating, King Amoeboids are downright pathetic (and VERY easy to one-hit kill) once your weapons are decently leveled. You can even use the Quack-O-Ray on them for D.I.Y Nightmare Retardant.
• Fantastic Racism: Dr. Nefarious hates "squishies".
• Five-Man Band
  • Q-Force, how Qwark sees it:
    • The Hero: Qwark
    • The Lancer: Skrunch, Qwark's monkey
    • The Smart Guy: Al, a master of electronics
    • The Big Guy: Skid, who has "nerves of steel"
    • The Chick: Helga, the "seductress"
    • The Sixth Ranger: Ratchet
  • And the reality:
    • The Hero: Ratchet, who does all the work (of course)
    • The Lancer: Clank
    • The Smart Guy: Al and Skid, Al helps with computer work while Skid provides support with gadgets
    • The Big Guy: Qwark, is actually pretty gung-ho on stopping Nefarious, even if he is making Rachet do it
    • The Chick: Sasha, the voice of Mission Control
    • Team Pet: Skrunch, who does help Clank out now and then
    • The Load: Helga, who does nothing except give you a Forced Tutorial that even Ratchet notes is a waste of time
• Fur and Loathing: Evil robot Idol Singer Courtney Gears says "You'll make a nice fur coat" when Ratchet fights her as a boss.
• Foreshadowing: It's made very clear that Nefarious and Lawrence survived the blast at the end of the game.
• Genre Savvy: Upon seeing Nefarious with Clank, Ratchet immediately realizes there's an Evil Twin about, and promptly feels stupid for not picking up on such sooner.
• Hidden Depths: Lawrence plays bass guitar.
• Hurricane Kick: Courtney Gears and her backup dancers.
• Innocent Innuendo:

Galactic President: My daughter says you're a man who's good with his hands, Ratchet. Ratchet: Sir, I swear, I NEVER...

• If You Know What I Mean: Referencing Courtney Gears.

Clank: Her specifications were remarkable. Ratchet: Well, she's not the hottest pop star in the Galaxy because of her singing.

• Laughably Evil: Dr. Nefarious. Between his repeated breakdowns, his Large Ham tendencies, and the snark leveled at him by Lawrence, he's easily one of the funniest characters in the series.
• Let's Play: A fairly good one by Ecwcwwe
• Lovable Cowards: The Galactic Rangers in UYA.
  • And they still get to pull a surprisingly awesome Big Damn Heroes monent in the finale.
• Most Definitely Not A Lombax: Ratchet goes undercover with the Tyrrhaguise.
  • Lampshaded on at least one occasion.

Tyrrhanoid Guard: You have no clearance. How do I know I can trust you? Ratchet: Because I'll give you my sister's phone number, and because I'm certainly not a Lombax.

• My Friends and Zoidberg: "Ladies and gentlemen...oh, and Helga"
  • Funny thing is, it fits, since she actually is miffed until she is added onto the list. Most likely because her athletic and bodybuilder tendencies cause her not to view herself as a "lady".
• My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Failing the conversation minigame while wearing the Tyhrraguise can result in Ratchet saying, among other things, "Orange croutons zoom zoom butterscotch" and "I emit a noxious effluvium in your general direction!"
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Courtney Gears is an obvious spoof of singers like Britney Spears.
  • Some also feel that the Galactic President resembles Bill Clinton.
• Old Save Bonus: If you import a Ratchet & Clank save, you get the Gadgetron employee discount mentioned in said game (the one that takes two years to kick in). Also, having a Going Commando save with certain guns obtained in it will let you get those guns for free.
• Show Within a Show: Secret Agent Clank and Annihilation Nation.
• Solid Gold Poop: Sewer crystals come "fresh from the bowels" of the King Amoeboids.
• Summon Backup Dancers: One of Courtney's tactics when you fight her.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: The arena announcer says Ratchet has one of these.
• Villain Song: Death to Squishies, Courtney Gears' peppy little declaration of robotic genocidal hate.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Dr. Nefarious's plan is to turn every organic lifeform in the galaxy into robots, and he actually succeeds in doing so to Skidd McMarxx and everyone in Metropolis. Later in the game, Al is seen analyzing Skidd and remarking that it may be possible to reverse the process, but it is never really stated whether Al succeeds or not. Granted, Skidd does make a very brief appearance in the cinema at the end of the game, back to his normal self, suggesting Al did cure him and everyone in Metropolis.
• Who Writes This Crap?: The narrator from the vid-comics in the their game, expressing his disbelief on Qwark's supposed "adventures". Considering Qwark wrote the scripts, one can't blame him.