Nefarious

From Ratchet & Clank wiki

"With the clock under my control, I'll be able to wrong all the rights in the universe. Every villain who has ever stumbled will get a do-over. Every protagonist's triumph will be reversed! Until, finally, our new present is created...in which the heroes always lose!"

—Dr. Nefarious' plan to remake history with the Great Clock^[src]

Doctor Nefarious was a robotic mad scientist who hated organic life forms, despite formerly being one himself. He was also the archenemy of reknowned intergalactic 'superhero', Captain Qwark, until Ratchet and Clank proved to be far more competent and superior adversaries to the heroic fraud. Nefarious was the main antagonist in Up Your Arsenal, and survived his defeat. He made several cameos in further games, and returned as the main antagonist in A Crack in Time, where he was again defeated.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

In high school, Nefarious attended the same 9th grade Biology class with Captain Qwark. He had been constantly bullied and humiliated at the hands of Qwark, who was twenty-six years old and three times Nefarious' size at the time. His treatment included Qwark giving him wedgies, pouring lab beaker liquids on his head, cleaning chalk boards with his pants (while Nefarious was still wearing them), and being called "that freak with the headgear". Later, when Nefarious attempted a career as a scientist, he was called insane. All this lively experience pushed Nefarious over the edge, and he set out to get revenge on all who had mocked him, especially Qwark. While the captain had risen to fame as a celebrity superhero, Nefarious himself became a mad scientist supervillain.

Dr. Nefarious started his campaign by creating the vicious Amoeboid creatures and launching an invasion on Blackwater City. After Captain Qwark defeated his "pets" and saved the burning city, Nefarious and his robotic servant, Lawrence, were forced to retreat in a rocket shuttle. Nefarious swore that he would have his venegeance, "if it takes a thousand years!", as his ship took off. Qwark managed to grab onto the rocket and held his breath tight. He clung to the ship for six days, and it arrived at the doctor's base on planet Magmos. Qwark used disguise to sneak into the base, unaware that Nefarious was watching him. The doctor commented that Qwark's poor disguise made him appear more stupid than he seemed. He decided to wait for the captain.

Fighting through the doctor's defences, Qwark confronted Nefarious on a narrow catwalk overlooking churning gears and machinery. Qwark seemed to have met Nefarious before, but he claimed they hadn't, trying to hide the truth from his nemesis. Qwark soon recognized the doctor as his old classmate in "Mr. Bozell's 9th grade Biology", and reminisced on the "good times" of when he bullied Nefarious, oblivious to how much his treatment had affected the doctor. Saying he should give Nefarious a wedgie "for old time's sake", Qwark accidentally knocked him off of the catwalk into the spinning gears below. As Qwark made his escape, confidant his rival was gone for good, a robotic hand made its way out of the rubble, and Nefarious was forever changed into an advanced robotic being. His transformation caused him to gain an intense hatred for all organic life forms (or "squishies" as he would call them) in the process.

[edit] Vengeance

"This isn't over, Qwark! I swear, I will return some day to destroy you, and bring Metropolis to it's knees!"

—Nefarious vows his revenge to Qwark^[src]

Some time later, Dr. Nefarious attacked Metropolis with a massive horde of Robotic Bugs that consumed various forms of matter. He commanded his creatures to bring him Qwark's head. However, Qwark once again defeated him, confronting his nemesis in close-quarters one-on-one combat. After their battle, Nefarious was greatly damaged and left as a disembodied head. Qwark threw Nefarious' head in a trash can as he screamed his revenge. But Nefarious captured Qwark after Nefarious' butler Lawrence saved him, and they imprisoned him in a secret facility. Qwark managed to escape to his hideout on the Thrann Asteroid, where he hid until Nefarious allegedly disappeared. In reality, he was being repaired by Lawrence and was given a new body. However, Lawrence mistakenly attached Nefarious' head backwards. The doctor angrily screamed at his butler, causing himself to freeze up and pick up signals from a soap opera, Lance and Janice. Lawrence said that he would need to repair the glitch, then chuckled to himself and said that it would be done "one of these days".

[edit] Biobliterator threat

"Robotic citizens of the Solana galaxy...the hour of your liberation is at hand! Too long have we robots suffered under the bigotry, the stupidity, the squishiness, and foul stench of organic life forms! Soon, all robots will bask in the liberty and equality of my benevolent, iron-fisted rule! And, as for you filthy organic life forms... You can look forward to being disintegrated!'"

—Nefarious' message to the Solana Galaxy^[src]

At some point, Dr. Nefarious started an entire public campaign to rid the Solana Galaxy of organic life forms. Nefarious formed an alliance with the Tyhrranoid race, who served the doctor as his personal army, gullible and oblivious to the fact that they were organic life forms. The heroic duo, Ratchet and Clank, saw a news report detailing an attack on planet Veldin, Ratchet's foster home, by Tyhrranoid soldiers. Dr. Nefarious was believed to be the attack's mastermind. Later, on the Starship Phoenix, that fact was confirmed when Captain Sasha Phyronix, Ratchet and Clank recieved a message from him on the ship's bridge, where he announced his plan to create an Age of Robots. Nefarious then launched an attack on the Capital City of Marcadia, which Ratchet and Clank managed to stop. Later on, Clank explored Nefarious' Office in his "impenetrable" secret base on Aquatos, and found out that he was a huge fan of the Secret Agent Clank series. Lawrence informed Nefarious of the break-in, which outraged the doctor, and caused him to crash again. After being smacked back to normal, he ordered Qwark's Q-Force, which Ratchet and Clank were a part of, annihilated.

Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence were then seen on planet Daxx on Supervillain Weekly, being interviewed about Nefarious' new top secret superweapon. Ratchet and Clank explored Daxx, though Nefarious had removed all data on the mysterious device. It was revealed, however, that robotic pop star, Courtney Gears, was in league with the doctor. While on Holostar Studios, Clank needed to film a Secret Agent Clank scenario, with Gears as a character. He asked her what Nefarious was planning, and she was able to capture Clank by knocking him out. She then contacted Nefarious, who was greatly annoyed by her calling him "snooky wookums" (showing that she was in love with the doctor), and told her to bring him 'Agent' Clank. Nefarious then tried to turn Clank over to his side, as he was a fanatic of the Secret Agent Clank series and believed them to be real, following his missions from the beginning. He even rejected Clank's assurance that the series was just an act, calling the statement "Lies! Squishy LIES!". His anger caused him to freeze and pick up soap opera signals again. Courtney had to smack him to get him back to normal. When Clank refused to join, Nefarious decided to replace Clank with Klunk, a doppelganger of Clank.

Klunk, posing as Clank, told Ratchet that Nefarious was aboard the Leviathan. Later on, Nefarious launched an attack on Blackwater City which was also stopped by Ratchet. At the Zeldrin Starport, Ratchet, Klunk and Qwark found Nefarious on his ship. Commenting that Qwark had gained weight and going into yet another crashing sequence, Nefarious activated a self-destruct for the ship and commanded Lawrence to teleport them away. Lawrence left himself, leaving Nefarious, who was not amused by the joke, and was then teleported out the next moment. They had to run to their ship before the spaceship blew up. However, Qwark seemed to not make it out. Back in Metropolis, Nefarious showed Clank Klunk's transmission of Ratchet's actions, meaning he could track the Lombax, and claiming that Ratchet would be killed with Clank having a "front row seat". Nefarious then revealed his superweapon, the Biobliterator, which could transform the whole city into robots. He demonstrated by turning his remaining Tyhrannoid soldiers into robots. At first, however, Nefarious accidentally turned on a video recording of his Galactic Idol audtion, angering him, as his butler had not set the switch properly.

Ratchet soon found out that the robot on his back was Klunk and Clank had been captured by Nefarious. The doctor mocked Ratchet before leaving with Lawrence, laughing so hard that his sides ached. Ratchet fought Giant Klunk on the Hover Train they were on and managed to defeat him and save Clank. Nefarious then launched another Tyhrranoid attack on Aridia, which was again stopped by Ratchet and Clank. On Koros, Clank used an ion cannon to destroy the Biobliterator while Nefarious was screaming furiously from a video screen. Then Nefarious decided to use his second Biobliterator, more powerful than the first, and fueled it on Mylon, but Ratchet and Clank were able to defeat the last of Nefarious' forces and bested the doctor in combat, despite his surprising powers. He called Lawrence to his aid, and ordered his butler to begin the "transformation". The second Biobliterator changed into a pilotable mechanoid. Laughing maniacally, Dr. Nefarious prepared to use his monstrosity to bring about the Age of Robots. However, he was fired upon by Captain Qwark, who arrived on the scene in his own shuttle. He had survived and decided to come out of hiding to help defeat his nemesis. Distraught at the revelation, Nefarious said "No! I don't believe it!", and Qwark said "Believe it, toaster head!"

Ratchet and Qwark defeated Nefarious in the air, and destroyed the Biobliterator mechanoid. The head of the machine landed on the ground of the battlefield, and Nefarious was greatly humiliated by being defeated at the hands of "squishies", believing he would never live it down. The cockpit's computer then announced that the self-destruct system would activate in sixty seconds. Nefarious bluntly told Lawrence to engage the teleporter. Lawrence asked him to specify a destination, and Nefarious just said "Who cares? Just get us out of here." The computer then said time was up, and Nefarious shouted "What!? That Wasn't even close to sixty seconds!!" The Biobliterator's head then exploded, and in a panic, Lawrence teleported them far away, to an asteroid in space.

[edit] Stranded

"Thanks to you, and your dimwitted friend here, I found myself drifting through the cosmos! Have you ever spent time on an asteroid? It's surprisingly BORING!"

—Nefarious to Ratchet and Clank^[src]

Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence were stuck on the asteroid, unable to teleport to another planet, as they were well out of range. According to Lawrence, it would be five of ten thousand years before something came for them to teleport to. Nefarious shouted angrilly in disbelief, then sat on the ground and asked what they should do next. Lawrence sugggested they play rock music to pass the time, and that Nefarious could play drums. The doctor then yelled at his butler in frustration. While Lawrence spent most of their drifting playing his guitar, Nefarious simply sat thinking over and over about his failure, which would continue to haunt him.

Much later, after Ratchet and Clank competed in DreadZone and saved the contestants and fans from the evil Gleeman Vox, Nefarious and Lawrence came near the DreadZone Station, where they hoped to land. Before they could reach the station, it was destroyed by Vox's self-destruct. Nefarious asked Lawrence what was going on, as he said they were coming within range of a space station. Lawrence said he had no idea it would all of a sudden explode, prompting Nefarious to angrily scream, freezing up and triggering the soap opera signal in his brain again. The two were still forced to aimlessly float through space.

However, after a long time (though not as long as Lawrence calculated), the asteroid drifted to the Breegus System in the Polaris Galaxy. It picked up speed and turned into a ball a fire, crashing on the planet Zanifar. The crashed asteroid was stuck in a barricaded crater, and Nefarious and Lawrence sought refuge with the local Fongoid tribe.

[edit] Arrival in Polaris

"How could I have been defeated by the likes of you? Why had the universe been tipped in your favor? I embarked on a crusade to the inner recesses of what you call "the soul.""

—Dr. Nefarious^[src]

While living with the Fongoids on Zanifar, Nefarious tried to find out how he could have lost everything he had worked so hard to accomplish, to his enemies. He even spent one night twitching and craddling himself in a darkened room after drawing several pictures of Ratchet and Clank on the wall, crayons clenched in his hand and mouth. To ease his pain, Nefarious decided to go on a spiritual journey to find the answers he sought. He spent his time on Zanifar studying Fongoid meditation, attending numerous anger managment classes, and dabbling in yoga. Eventually, he went on a spirit walk on planet Quantos. It was here that he learned of the mysterious Zoni and their ultimate creation, the Great Clock. Nefarious secretly plotted to gain control of the Great Clock and use the Zoni's ability to command space and time. He would make it so no villain would ever go through such a humiliating defeat as he did, and eventually remake the present so that heroes would always lose.^[1]

Dr. Nefarious made the Fongoids believe that he was an all loving, kind being, and they came to worship him. He soon asked them to help construct the Nefarious Space Station, a facility in his honor, which he would use as his new base for his plans. The doctor also contacted the Pollyx Industries corporation, and formed an alliance with the villainous Pollyx, who signed his company in an exclusive contract to work for Nefarious in his army's building. Working from inside the Tombli Outpost, Nefarious made his own private robotic army of soldiers and began his plot to take over the Great Clock. He would form an alliance with the Zoni, fooling them into thinking he was of good intentions just as he did the Fongoids. Pollyx, Lawrence and Nefarious gathered in the Tombli Outpost, where the doctor sent a message to Zoni leader, Orvus, requesting an audience with the fellow scientist. Orvus, a being of etiquette, fell for the trap and was taken prisoner within the outpost.

Nefarious interrogated Orvus about getting inside the Orvus Chamber, the time control room for the entire Great Clock. He tortured the Zoni when he repeatedly refused, as time was not to be tampered with. The doctor had his invention, the Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler, blast Orvus, who managed to withstand to an extent, but was greatly weakened. Nefarious shouted at Pollyx when the interrogation continued to fail, as Pollyx was scanning Orvus' brain for the key to the chamber but could not find it. Pollyx believed that the Zoni had erased his own memory, and Nefarious gave him one final chance to reveal the key to the chamber. Orvus again refused, and Nefarious had his device blast him again. Orvus held off the blast, and said that the only one who would enter his chamber was safe from Nefarious' clutched. He then disappeared, and Nefarious frantically asked where he went. Pollyx managed to pull up an image from his memory scanned before Orvus vanished.

The image was schematics to the robot Nefarious had fought long ago: Clank. It was revealed that he was in fact Orvus' heir, and therefore was the key to entering the Orvus Chamber. Nefarious planned to locate Clank and help the Zoni find him as well. When Ratchet and Clank came to Polaris and defeated Percival Tachyon, Nefarious led the Zoni to him. They eventually swiped Clank away and brought him to the Breegus Nebula, where the clock was located, to show him his destiny. At some point, Clank's logic and memory seemed to be disfunctional, and the Zoni called upon the doctor to repair him. He then appeared, slightly silhouetted in the doorway of the room where Clank was being held. He walked down the stairs, being revealed in the light bit by bit, but then slipped on a feather duster, which caused him to fall down the stairs. He then angrilly called Lawrence. Ratchet and Talwyn Apogee watched this through the Obsidian Eye on planet Merdegraw, and Ratchet vowed to rescue his friend.

[edit] Great Clock

"Ratchet: So, what is it this time, Nefarious? Are you still trying to turn everyone into robots? Or is it just good old fashioned galactic domination?
Nefarious: Part of me wants to let you live long enough to find out. The other part, really wants to kill you. You know, for old time's sake. Decisions, decisions, decisions..."

—Nefarious and Ratchet^[src]

When the Nefarious Space Station was eventually completed, Dr. Nefarious revealed his true villainous colors to the Fongoids, and imprisoned them in camps. He built a large facility expanding off of the Tombli Outpost, and had his troops watch over the Fongoids. After, he made continual visits to the Great Clock for a year, and made numerous attempts to get inside Clank's memory banks. During a visit, Lawrence told Nefarious that the Zoni had been inquiring about their progress of repairing Clank. Nefarious was rather annoyed with acting friendly with the Zoni. The Zoni then entered the room, and reminded Nefarious that he must fix Clank's memory. He tried arranging Clank's memories to enter his brain's system. He was locked out, as he had been other times he had tried, frustrating him greatly. He revealed he intended to search Clank's system for the key to Orvus Chamber. The Zoni tried to stop him, as only Clank was allowed to see the chamber. His insistence to no avail, Nefarious betrayed them, and used the Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler, which created sonic waves, to force the Zoni out of the room. As Nefarious laughed maniacally, the room blacked out. The waves caused a black-out in the Great Clock, as Lawrence had forgotten to mention the equipment was especially susceptible to sonic weaponry.

The back-up generators restored power seconds later. However, Clank had managed to awaken from his slumber and escape in the darkness. Nefarious angrilly ordered Lawrence to stop him as he fled. Clank eventually stopped at a balcony with no other escape. Nefarious and Lawrence confronted him on the platform, where Nefarious dared him to jump, and then laughed. Clank then asked where his old enemy had taken him. Nefarious showed Clank his home, the Great Clock, and described its location and history to Clank. Clank wondered what lie Nefarious had told the Zoni and believed that the doctor had sought vengeance. Nefarious found it odd how Clank thought he went to all the trouble he did of taking over the clock for mere veangence, and said "They say I'm egomanical". He then said that "it's...all in the past." He had Lawrence use the orb of gratuitous immobilization to freeze Clank and knock him out. Lawrence suggested they use the Nmonic Station again, but Nefarious said he had better plans. He then said "We have all the time in the universe..."

As Ratchet and Qwark worked harder and were closing in on locating Clank, aided soon by Alister Azimuth, Nefarious called in Flint Vorselon, and three Valkyrie mercenaries, Cassiopeia, Carina, and Libra, to take on Ratchet. All the while, Nefarious watched Clank's movements inside the Great Clock, waiting for his chance to access the Orvus Chamber. In the end, all three ended up defeated and Ratchet finally reunited with Clank after the final battle against the lead Valkyrie at their citadel. They chased after Nefarious to his space station, successfully destroying his fleet in an attempt to stop him from reaching the clock. However, Nefarious found them and revealed that he was going to use the clock to rewind time so that the present was a place where "the heroes always LOSE" and soon sent Ratchet and Clank flying away to another planet on board a meteor.

When Nefarious was just about to take off for the clock, Ratchet and Clank make a surprise return and one final battle between Nefarious and Ratchet occurs. The battle is extremely fierce, but Ratchet finally defeats Nefarious aboard his flying ship. While the damage to the ship caused it to head on a collision course with Nefarious' station, it seems that Ratchet's fight with him damaged him to quite some degree. After falling on his head, Nefarious seemed to lose all consciousness and soon passed out on the ground after performing very strange behavior and would not wake up. It's suspected he was ultimately killed when his ship collided into the station. During the credits, the reporters from Deadlocked reported that authorities could not find any remains of Nefarious in the rubble of his station yet, possibly hinting a return, if the series continues.

[edit] Abilities

"When I'm finished killing you, I think I'll rewind time, so I can do it again...and again...AND AGAIN!!!"

—Nefarious before facing Ratchet^[src]

After being turned into a robot, Dr. Nefarious acquired a vast array of powers that greatly contributed to his fighting skills. His hands were made into sharp metal claws for close-quarters combat. He could also fly with a pair of antenae-like wings, which he could retract and unfold at will, and with booster jets in his feet. The doctor also had skills with guns, as during the fight, he wielded two pistols that fired beams Ratchet needed to jump over. His A Crack in Time figure came with one also.^[2]. Nefarious had a vast assortment of superpower-resembling abilities. During his showdown with Qwark in Metropolis, he could fire dark blasts of energy that he could rain down in a continuous stream to hit targetted areas, raise up from the ground in a pattern of damaging walls, and move toward a target in a ball-shaped vortex.

In his first fight with Ratchet, he could project holograms of himself that would charge directly at Ratchet, trying to slash him with a claw. He could also lob purple energy balls into the air that created shockwaves when hitting the ground. When flying, he could project a blue dome shield, fire a constant energy beam that followed Ratchet, and fire a barrage of missiles that would target all over the ground. At the final stage of the fight, Nefarious could project several holograms of himself all over the battlefield at a time. He could also project the following beam and rocket bunches and then leave them in place while going back on the ground, or continue to initiate either of these attacks in a row. Some attacks seemed to exhaust the doctor, as he would somtimes leave an opening by stumbling backwards and holding his head briefly. His attacks while flying also seemed to take quite a bit of power, as when performing them, Nefarious let out a loud, vicious shout.

In his second fight with Ratchet, Nefarious fired his original purple shockwave balls, and could also fire streams of orange energy directly at his opponent, or, while flying around the ring of his space station, throw the energy in a lines across the ground that Ratchet would need to jump over. In the final stage, he also caused purple stream lines to circle around the surface of his space ship and Ratchet would need to jump over those. All the while, he had assistance from Lawrence, who used the space station's and ship's laser devices to give Ratchet further distraction.

[edit] Overload

"You really should have that looked at..."

—Lawrence on Nefarious' glitch^[src]

Dr. Nefarious often had the strange habit of overloading in times of extreme stress or excitement, which would cause him to freeze, and simultaneously pick up radio signals about a soap opera via his head. Each time this happened, he was whacked on the head by an underling, particularly Lawrence, to send him back to normal. According to Lawrence, whacking Dr. Nefarious was always the best part of his day. His first crash was shown at the end of The Shaming of the Q, and he did it numerous times through the course of Up Your Arsenal. His freezing continued during A Crack in Time, until finally, after sustaining significant damage, his overloading caused his body to randomly move about, acting out the varrying radio sounds he picked up. Nefarious eventually collapsed, and his brain's radio signals faded away.

[edit] Galactic Idol

According to the IRIS Supercomputer, Dr. Nefarious entered Galactic Idol with a song titled Crushin' on Squishies. He was eliminated on the first round and the single sold one copy which was used to torture prisoners on Ebaro. However, before the battle with Giant Klunk on Metropolis, Nefarious accidentally activated a hologram recording of his original entry, which was a song called You Are My Robot Lover.

[edit] Trivia

• Armin Shimerman, the voice of Nefarious, played a character named Quark in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and voiced Andrew Ryan In Bioshock.
• Nefarious referred to organic life forms as "squishies", a habit passed onto Klunk, who apparently shared his prejudice of organisms.
• As depicted in images, Nefarious was originally supposed to have a cape before his wings were added.
• In Tools of Destruction when in the arena of planet Mukow, Captain Qwark could be heard over the loud speaker saying: "Will a 'Dr. Nefarious' please report to the concession stand; we recovered your wallet."
• Nefarious appeared in the Dreamtime level as a memoir in Size Matters.
• He appeared on some of the monitors in the IRIS supercomputer.
• Klunk created a copy of Dr. Nefarious, the Robo-Nefarious suit, which he piloted during the final boos fight of Secret Agent Clank. This doppelganger had abilities based off of the real doctor's powers. Klunk said that ordering Nefarious around from time to time was "therapeutic" and "fun", suggesting Klunk had a certain dislike for his creator.
• Since Qwark appeared in the young Nefarious' 9th grade Biology class, it suggested that Qwark was older than Nefarious (Nefarious claimed that Qwark was twenty-six at the time).
• His name was similar of Dr. Nefarious Tropy, a character from Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot: Warped, who had the power to control time, hence Nefarious being in A Crack in Time.
• Because of the Ratchet & Clank series' trend of rarely having recurring villains, Nefarious is the only one to have appeared with at least one speaking part in three games, soon to be four upon the release of A Crack in Time, and has also had at least a cameo in every game since his introduction, making him the most recurring villain. This has made fans consider him the main antagonist of the entire series, a belief backed up by his longtime rivalry with Qwark and desire to rule Solana.
• Nefarious' armor plating seemed to change at certain points. Mainly, it was red, but it sometimes appeared to be orange or a dark yellow.
• Nefarious is an unlockable skin for Ratchet both in Up Your Arsenal (multiplayer only) and A Crack in Time.

[edit] Appearances

• Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
• Ratchet: Deadlocked
• Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters (cameo)
• Secret Agent Clank (mentioned only)
• Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (cameo)
• Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty
• Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

[edit] External links

[edit] YouTube videos

• Dr. Nefarious Introduction.
• Dr. Nefarious Boss Battle.
• Nefarious' fate.
• Nefarious' cameo.
• Nefarious returns.

[edit] Sources