Rodents of Unusual Size: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Buttercup''': What about the R.O.U.S.'s?

 

Are they so named because they are unusually ''small'', you ask? Heh, heh, heh...

 

 

Incidentally, if you don't find the regular-sized rats particularly worrisome already, then we hasten to point out that they are also world-class swimmers and can hold their breath more than long enough to reach the other end of the pipe leading to your [[The Can Kicked Him|toilet]]. (Thankfully, ''giant'' rats can rarely fit through the plumbing.)

 

{{examples}}

 

* ''[[Galaxy Angel (anime)|Galaxy Angel]]'' had this alien hamster thing which they found in the ruins of a once great city.

 

* [[Neil Gaiman]]'s gag biography in ''[[Sandman]]: The Season of Mists'' [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|denies]] that he was found outside a London sewer unable to say anything more than "Powerful big rats, gentlemen". And then goes on to deny that he had a vestigial tail, played a part in the ''obviously fictional'' negotiations between Londons Above and [[Neverwhere|Below]], or that there were any tooth marks on the bones.

* In the ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' universe they have these. After examining the meat from one they decide to farm them in place of the regular rats they used to farm.

* ''[[Beasts of Burden]]'' has a Rat king leading the sewer rats, and his general is a rat larger than the two cats who fight him.

* There's a [[Donald Duck]] comic where Don and his cousin Fethry team up to fight giant rat ghosts. Unusually big rodents shouldn't be a foreign concept to Donald, considering [[Mickey Mouse|whom]] he used to co-star with early on his animated career...

* Prince Raffendorf, from Larry Elmore's ''Snarfquest'' comic strip, was a human prince before being turned into a giant humanoid rat by an evil wizard.

* In [[Bone]], the Giant Rat Creatures, despite that they are drawn without snouts and that they cut off their rat tails as a cultural ritual.

* One supporting character from ''[[The Elementals]]'' was a wererat who had a crush on Fathom.

 

* [[Trope Namer|Named]] after the R.O.U.S. from ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]''.

* The movie adaptation of H. G. Wells' ''[[The Food of the Gods]]'' features giant rats besieging some people in a cabin. Or rather, it features normal rats romping around a miniature set, and a few prop rat-heads that make "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" look like ''Aliens'' by comparison.

* ''[[The Killer Shrews]]'' features giant shrews. (Well, giant for shrews, at least. Theyr'e played by German-shepherd-sized dogs in cheap prosthetics.)

 

* The [[Stephen King]] short story ''Graveyard Shift'' has a lot of rats of usual size...{{spoiler|until you go down to the sub-basement where there are not only rodents of unusual size but they're mutated as well, the "queen" of which is big enough to eat a man}}(appears in the collection ''[[Night Shift]]'').

* The James Herbert trilogy of novels: ''The Rats'', ''Lair'' and ''Domain''.

* Reepicheep (and the other Talking Mice) from the ''[[Narnia]]'' series, who is described to be two feet tall.

** And he knows no fear.

** Given that even Peter could enter their home with ease, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver must've been quite a bit bigger than normal as well.

* The ''[[Goosebumps]]'' book ''Monster Blood II'' had a 10-foot tall hamster in it.

* [[Sherlock Holmes|Doctor Watson]] makes a passing reference to the story of the giant rat of Sumatra, for which [[Noodle Incident|the world is not yet prepared]].

** And [[Fred Saberhagen]] picked up that dropped thread in ''The Holmes/Dracula File'', which reveals ''why'' the world was not prepared. {{spoiler|It's not its size that makes it dangerous, but the virulent plague its fleas carry.}}

* ''[[The Underland Chronicles]]'' has these as main characters- not to mention the giant insect and bats....

* Ratmen (and a genius ratgirl) play a part in Glen Cook's ''Garrett P.I.'' series. It seems the wizards of a few generations back had quite a fad for the creation of new sentient lifeforms, and they shared real-world scientists' preference for using rats as research subjects.

** It seems to be a common subversion that if rats ''aren't'' the monsters or the bad guys, they're the [[Butt Monkey]] race.

** Brutus, while certainly not giant, was described as being rather large as rats go.

* The only non-mutant human creatures seen in the future in ''Mindwarp'' are giant rodents the size of a capybara. It is hinted they are descended from rats.

* While the titular rodents of Paul Zindel's ''Rats'' are generally of normal size, the book also features the Rat King ([[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|no, not that one]]), which is described as being even bigger than a capybara.

* The race of Rumbles in ''The Borribles'' are described as rat-like, and are the size of human children.

* ''[[Parrish Plessis]]'' has canrats, rat-dog hybrids that are both vicious and intelligent. One of them, the Big One, is the size of a doberman.

* The H.G. Wells' novel ''The Food of the Gods'' features giant rats, about the size of wolves, as part of the mutated ecology that the titular food's unleashed. Unfortunately for humans, the rats also have the carnivorous temperament of wolves and quickly become the dominant pack hunters in the hot zones.

* The Lemming-Men of Yull from Toby Frost's [[Space Captain Smith]] books have armed and industrialized themselves, but still retain their love of jumping off cliffs.

* The Doormouse is a once-human businessman in the [[Nightside]], who had himself changed into a giant bipedal mouse because he likes being cute and fuzzy. Not a ''dor''mouse; his name came about because he's in the business of renting out use of his [[Cool Gate]] collection.

* The Rh/attes are an aptly-named alien race from ''Chess With A Dragon''.

 

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'', "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" (considered a [[Special Effect Failure]] in actual execution though)

* ''[[The New Avengers]]'' episode "Gnaws".

* SPG, the pet hamster of Vyvyan on ''[[The Young Ones]]'', was usually played by a puppet the size of a guinea pig rather than the size of a real hamster. In one episode, he scarfed down an entire potfull of lentils and swelled up to volleyball size.

 

* The ''[["Weird Al" Yankovic|Radioactive Hamsters From a Planet Near Mars]]''.

* Green Day had an album cover where a gigantic Hamster was attacking society.

* There's a New York punk band named ''Rats of Unusual Size''.

 

 

* There's a Japanese legend called "The Boy Who Drew Cats", in which a city is plagued by a giant demonic rat. Which is eventually killed by the titular drawings of cats. [[A Wizard Did It|It's magical, okay?]]

* Also from Japan: Tesso (Iron Rat), a former human noble with [[Jerkass]], ungrateful parents who was cursed by a monk. He's a man-rat hybrid that raids the temples and the houses with a horde of smaller rats and devour everything on his path.

 

* Some people think that the [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] universe contains the Skaven, three-foot tall ratmen, using giant rats and rat-''ogres'', [[Flat Earth Atheist|but they are of course mad]].

** Or form Middenland, since you know you have been attacked by a ''massive'' army of said three-foot ratmen with [[Schizo-Tech|lazer cannons]]

** Of course, humans are more than happy to return the favor. While the uppermost Hive Dwellers might feast on food exported from agri-worlds, the average Underhiver has a distinctly less pleasant variety of foodstuffs to choose between. The most "normal" foods are fungi and edible slime-molds. "Meat" in the Underhive generally comes from rats... or snakes... or spiders... or, really, anything made of meat that fails to climb out of the pot. The nastier folks are even willing to add their fellow man to the list. To say nothing of such delights as "Wild Snake", a popular booze made from a certain species of giant snake.

** The Hrud of the same universe , sometimes called [[Recyled In S Pace|"Space Skaven"]], might also qualify, at least if writers were not trying to [[Retcon]] their appearance.

** You're forgetting rat swarms, skeletal rat swarms, corpse rat swarms (Zombies!!!), spectral swarms (incorporeal undead that typically result from careless fireball-flinging adventurers inflicting large amounts of collateral damage on the local rat population), cranium rat swarms (psychic rats!!!), moonrats (rats that become more or less intelligent depending on the phases of the moon), and the Tamer of Beasts prestige class from the book Masters of the Wild, who is depicted in the artwork as controlling a massive army of rats.

** And there's the Rylkar from Version 3.5's Monster Manual V. They're basically a nest of giant, evil rats who are connected via a hive mind to their harridan, the huge, disease and corruption spreading, blind matriarch of the nest.

** The ''[[Spelljammer]]'' supplement for 2nd edition D&D introduces the infamous [[wikipedia:Giant Space Hamster|Giant Space Hamsters]], domesticated and bred by the [[Gadgeteer Genius]] Tinker Gnomes of Krynn, and coming in a wide variety of breeds including the "Miniature Giant Space Hamster", which is identical to an ordinary hamster.

** [[VG Cats|Rat flail.]]

*** [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|Rat...]] [[Bleach|MORNING]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|STAR!]]

** One highly popular adventure from the early days of ''Dungeon'' magazine shrank the PCs down to the size of gaming miniatures, making ordinary rats appear enormous by comparison. Other humanoids, who'd previously fallen victim to the same magic, used rats as steeds.

** The original art of [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=true&multiverseid=153 Giant growth] featured a giant rat. Now it's a bear.

* An enemy from ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' is called a Ghoul Rat. It is the size of an Irish Wolfhound.

** There is also a changing breed in the World of Darkness called the Ratkin, that are sometimes born as humans (that have the ratkin genetics) and contract a disease that, should they overcome it, turns them into wererats. They were given the charge by Gaia to help control the human population by eating their food and spreadin disease.

* In [[Shadowrun]], devil rats are Awakened rodents the size of a border collie. They're nasty, vicious, disease-carrying, and (for some reason) bald all over.

* The [[New World of Darkness]] has Beshilu, one of the two iconic races of the bizarre half-spirit Hosts (the other being the [[Giant Spider|Azlu]]). Like their cousins, they start off looking like normal rats, but quickly gain size and sentience as they eat real rats and lesser Beshilu. They then gradually gain the ability to [[Everything's Deader with Zombies|control human corpses]] and eventually become humanoid, where they become far more social then other Hosts, froming tribal societies. That wouldn't be so bad-they don't prey on humans all that much-except that they also are driven by instinct to gnaw holes in the barrier between the [[Spirit World]] and the human one, which, given where they live (ie, where normal rats live), quickly becomes a haven for disease-spirits, who of course, [[Captain Obvious|exist to spread disease]]. And like other hosts, killing them simply causes a large one to [[Asteroids Monster|split into a swarm of rats]], with one of the component rats containing his soul-which, if left alone, [[From a Single Cell|will eventually grow back to full size and power]].

* [[Mortasheen|Morta]][http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen.htm sheen] has a few, including the amoebic; thieving [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/gravesnitch.htm Gravesnitch] , the oddly-toothed [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/gnawful.htm Gnawful], the cold-loving [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/abomignash.htm Abomignash], and the absolutely disturbing [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/vermoeba.htm Vermoeba] (Which is based on the Rat King detailed below)

 

*** Somewhat justified because they are usually cute, big eyed and not very menacing. Not even those with teeth bared are all that terrifying.

* ''[[Ultima Underworld]] II'' features giant rats of various types.

** ''[[Fallout 3]]'' has a robot you can activate in the Old Olney Tunnels that mentions something during its startup sequence about an infestation of rodents of unusual size. {{spoiler|It is usually torn to pieces soon after by the 10 foot tall Deathclaws infesting the tunnels}}.

** ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' has a direct quote from ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'' (see quote at top) when doing the Debt Collector quest's final part in Broc Flower Cave, which is of course filled with [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Rodents of Unusual Size]].

*** There's also a woman in one of the cities that keeps pet rats. Her rival hated them, and so put out meat to lure them, which had the effect of attracting mountain lions which came and killed a few of the rats. The lions were surprisingly weak in battle compared to the ones you usually fight in the wild.

**** That's because they were starved.

* In the 1990s PC fantasy kingdom sim ''Majesty'', giant rats were generally the first monsters to show up in your kingdom.

** And rat-men were another common annoyance, though they were at least one of the few enemies your city guard could handle competently.

* ''Puzzle Quest: Challenge Of The Warlords'' has giant rats, scorpions, bats, and wasps. The first two can be captured and ridden, granting the player a different stat bonus and additional spell, depending on which one you choose.

* ''[[Suikoden II]]'' had a giant, mutated Sewer Rat for a boss. Which could attack twice per turn, and hit all of your party with each attack for a ''lot'' of damage. [[Goddamn Bats|Goddamn]] [[Just for Pun|rats.]]

*** ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' has a similar situation where the party gets shrunk down in a sewer and meets the same itty bitty mice which they can encounter as GIANT KICKBOXING MICE.

* ''[[Shining Force]] 2'' has rat enemies of both varieties as the above examples. On the first battle on the field, the party encounters Huge Rats. Later in the game, the party gets shrunk down as part of the storyline and faces normal-sized rats. Your stats don't suffer the debilitating effects of Mini like in FFIII, but those normal rats are still hella strong. And led by a super-rat named Willard.

** Not to mention Slade the rat thief who started the entire mess in the game by stealing the Jewels of Light and Evil. Including him in the fight with Willard causes instant [[Furry Confusion]] because Slade is anthropomorphic.

* In the "Down the Tubes" and "Tube Race" levels of ''Earthworm Jim'', the only way to get through several corridors full of tiny bruisers who will slam you around and throw you back where you came from is to ride a giant, foe-eating hamster (''"Whoooooooa Nelliiiiiiiie!"'').

* Mouser from ''[[Super Mario Bros.|Super Mario Bros 2]]'' is a gigantic bomb throwing killer mouse boss. Who has probably the most ironic kind of name ever for such a creature (considering the word 'mouser' means 'cat which catches mice').

* Every roleplaying game Spiderweb Software has ever made, with the exception of the original ''[[Geneforge]]'', has giant rats in it. They're usually the very first enemies you fight before you go on any quests.

* ''[[Castle of the Winds]]'' has Giant Rat, but it's pitifully weak. No, it's the ''ants'' that new characters should watch out for.

* ''[[Adventure Quest]]'' has BURPS, which stands for "Big Ugly Rat Pests". They're [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]. And every other year there's a war fighting nothing BUT those guys. They also qualify as [[Goddamned Bats]] because they're a pain in the ass to hit, where as the bigger ones deal quite a bit of damage. At higher levels you'll still be fighting the guys, often in groups.

* ''[[Parasite Eve]]'' had mutated rodents that tried to kill you. And giant squirrels, too.

* ''Rattus giganteus'' is a common creature in ''[[Beyond Good & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and Evil]].'' While it's not as big as other examples of this trope (nor as its name would suggest), it occurs in such numbers that [[Goddamn Bats|it's still a hindrance.]]

* [[Mirror's Edge]] breaks realism to include one, if you fire at a certain sign with a sniper rifle.

* The second ''[[Resident Evil]] Out Break'' game features those rats that spread the T-Virus attacking one of HUNK's men after he'd been felled by Birkin. There was also artwork showing muntant rats that didn't make the game.

* In the Human Noble origin in ''[[Dragon Age Origins]]'', you fight a bunch of giant rats who got into the kitchen larder.

* ''[[Dark Cloud]] 2'' fills several levels of its sewer with them.

** There's also "Big Bad Blag" which is a giant, fat anthropomorphic rat even larger than the toads themselves.

* ''[[Duke Nukem Forever]]'' has regular-sized rats attacking Duke... after he's been hit by the effects of a [[Incredible Shrinking Man|shrinking device]]. Duke then quips "''Talk about your rodents of unusual size!''"

 

* Giant mutant rodents are the signature creation of ''[[Narbonic]]'''s Helen Narbon. Of course, Helen being a young girl at heart, they happen to be giant mutant ''gerbils''.

* The Sturmhalten sewer guides in ''[[Girl Genius]]'' are actually ''surprised'' to learn that sewer rats [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20060501 aren't supposed to be giant and glowing].

** "60 centimeters. Tops."

* In ''Yamara'', Tim the paladin is turned into a vampire, but messes up his first attempt to turn into a bat, becoming a giant flying squirrel instead.

 

* Squirrels are one of the eight [[Insistent Terminology|sentient (i.e., humanoid)]] species in [[Tasakeru]]. They're the only rodent species among sentientkind; the others are canines (wolves and foxes), mustelids (badgers, ferrets, raccoons, and skunks), and lepines (rabbits).

* [http://www.kongregate.com/games/nerdook/monster-slayers Monster Slayers] features these as one of the enemies.

* [[Kizzsprite]] is a chinchilla, resurrected as a kernelsprite. Of course, much weird plot shit surrounds him. We probably shouldn't get any further than that.

 

** [[Robin Williams]] jokes that his son was traumatized by the actor playing Mickey Mouse at [[Disney Theme Parks|Disneyland]].

* Rattrap, of ''[[Transformers]]: [[Beast Wars]]'' and ''[[Beast Machines]]'', transforms into a giant rat, a choice influenced by [[Transformation Conventions]]. While not the genuine article, his personality is such that he might as well be, and he certainly seems to think of himself as one.

{{quote|Rat...robot. Rat...robot. I'm a robot ''and'' a rat! Yeah, I ''like'' it!}}

** The quote above was said immediately after all the Maximals had a breakthrough of sorts resulting in the merging of their Transformer and animal psyches. Just saying.

* [[Looney Tunes|Bugs Bunny, Lola Bunny,]] [[Tiny Toon Adventures|Babs and Buster Bunny]] [[Running Gag|(no relation)]], [[Loonatics Unleashed|and Ace and Lexi Bunny]], all from Warner Brothers.

** Actually, these are Lagomorphs of Unusual Size, since Lagamoprha is a separate Order from Rodentia. However, this [[Taxonomic Term Confusion]] is not so much [[You Fail Biology Forever]] as [[Science Marches On]]; lagomorphs were considerd to be rodents until the early 1900s.

* ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'' features King Rat, a tall, muscle-bound mutated lab rat who occasionally leaves the sewer to make trouble for the penguins.

* ''[[South Park]]'' was attacked by giant carnivorous guinea pigs. The guinea pig community was quite full of [[Squee]] over it.

* ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (animation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'': Hero example: in one episode, the Rescue Rangers (a fly and four rodents) are enlarged to human size.

* That ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode about the world being destroyed by [[wikipedia:Year 2000 problem|Y2K]]. The Griffins leave Joe to fight a giant mutant rat. His response? [[Badass|"Bring It On!!!]]

* One episode of ''[[Cyberchase]]'' involved The Hacker using a giant hamster called a hamborg (which for some reason resembled a capybara) as part of his evil plan.

* In the ''[[Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner]]'' cartoon "Chariots of Fur", Wile E. tries to catch the Roadrunner with a giant mousetrap. Instead, he snags a giant mouse, who then turns the tables on him.

 

 

* The [[wikipedia:Capybara|capybara]], the [[wikipedia:Beaver|beaver]] and the [[wikipedia:Porcupine|porcupine]] (the three largest living rodents)

* A "rat king" is the name given to a group of rats whose tails are so mired in muck and filth that they are permanently stuck together. Just as horrifying today as it was back in the sixteenth century.

* And according to [http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/07/discovery-species-papua-new-guinea this article], the largest known rat of unusual size has recently been discovered in a crater in Mt. Bosavi.

** And it's completely docile, too.

* The rodent ''taxon'' is of unusual size, as it contains more than 40% of all mammal species.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Index of Exact Trope Titles]]

[[Category:Bigger Is Better]]

[[Category:Rodent Tropes]]

[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]