I don't know if any of you have noticed it, but I noticed that in every continuity or almost every continuity besides G1 and the Movievers, Ratchet is portrayed as a weak BOT, is it because he is a medic/doctor? I don't know what intentions the writers had to make Ratchet weak and not strong. I would love to see Ratchet kick some tailpipe and stand his ground instead of being all grumpy and stuff.
I'm not entirely sure how Animated's Ratchet was any weaker than Bulkhead or Bumblebee. A big theme of that show was that the Autobots needed to work together if they wanted to have a chance against a single Con. Prowl and Optimus were the most battle experienced members of that team, and even they had a hard time with the tougher Cons. As for Aligned Ratchet, I really don't think he was that weak either, even if I have a hard time remembering much of Prime. He seemed like a good fighter in WFC/FOC if you played as him. Then again, all characters you control are pretty tough.
You seem to be confusing concepts. Grumpy isn't a synonym for weak. Animated Ratchet owned Lockdown who in the same episode had beaten the rest of the team. Prime Ratchet barely had a role in the terrible series, but in the pilot, he fought next to Prime and held his own against the zombies. Comic Ratchet was rather boss, but filled with self-doubt. Or do you want Ratchet to be some sort of Gary Stu who can kick tailplate and has no personality or character depth?
And if Ratchet was weak anywhere, it's G1. That's what made his fights with Megatron in the comics suspenseful.
G1 Ratchet and First Aid both had scores of 4 for their tech spec strength. It makes sense, a medic with skill and super strength - too OP.
He's not a weak fighter, he just prefers not to fight. At least, I don't remember ratchet struggling against any weak transformers. In animated, all decepticons were powerhouses and the only fight I remember him losing in prime was against Megatron, strongest of the strong. Granted, I checked out of prime sometime in season 3 so I might have missed something. Besides, he's the doctor and the autobots have plenty of good fighters. Why can't we let a character not be a badass?
...Yes, that is true. Your point? My point is that he fought off a pack of robot zombies and lived. That takes skill. Its obvious he's not a frail old man. And Soundwave beat up Optimus 2.0 if I remember correctly. Everyone has an off day.
Because it's a stain on g1 ratchets party loving nature. Now we will be lucky to have a ratchet who ISNT a grump.
Yeah, but a lot of people find the grumpy Ratchet superior to G1's little personality Ratchet. People want an actual interesting character. Being a medic is interesting because people want characters who are badass without having to attack or kill someone. Just cause it came from G1 doesn't mean it was good, ya know.
Right. His "party loving nature" that was only ever referenced once, as a throwaway line, in the early Marvel comics.
My point is that he had no choice to fight as he was on the brink of dying. He was able to fight off those Zombies, he had Optimus with him. And if I remember correctly, Ratchet asked to be bridged back to base. (got to re-watch the episode to see)
So? How does that make anything he did less impressive? Just because someone fights with no choice doesn't mean they're bad at it. Just because Ratchet doesn't seek a fight doesn't mean he's weak.
The funny thing is outside a toy bio, G1 ratchet was never the party type either. Marvel comics showed him as depressed while the little personality we saw in the cartoon was his poor bedside manner getting angry at folks like sideswipe for their reckless self endangerment. So while portraying him as elderly was exclusively animated, he has been grumpy for most his career. Still, I would love to reconcile grumpy ratchet with irreverent partier ratchet and basically make him the autobots answer to House. Leaves the ptsd medic role to red alert.
