When Sam comes into NEST,he walks by Ironhide and Ratchet. He slaps IH on the hood with his papers and pats Ratchet on the hood as a sign of hello. Ratchet then flashes his lights as if he were saying hello back

 

Well, just admit it. Ratchet is a terrible doctor....

Even when Prime is standing there, missing an arm, Ratchet's just like; "Hey, look at that.".

 

Believe it or not, a lot of people I know wonder why Ratchet "shot Bee in the throat". This misconception only worsens his lackluster portrayal.

I like to envision Ratchet as being adept enough a medic to be capable of healing human illnesses and injuries, and not just conduct mechanical repairs on other Cybertronians. He ought to have been shown as such.

As I've mentioned many times before, Ratchet did sod all as a medic. Hell, the only indication that he even held that status was Optimus describing him as such.

Brilliant. This would really have driven home the purported 'public turning against the Autobots' issue.

 

 

Wow, seriously?

Very true. Thinking about his part in directing Jolt to help transfer Jetfire's parts to Prime, I feel as thought we could've had anyone do that. Ironhide, 'bee, any of the Autobots could've filled that role. It passed so quickly I only noticed it on my second viewing too, but that may just be me..

As everyone's said, there should've been just a little something more. Didn't have to be a huge, neon lights display highlighting to the world that he's healing somebody (for a change). Just a couple of sequences here and there that show him tending to the Autobot's wounds, or maybe even the humans as has been suggested.

It is a shame the way he was handled.

*gives a small sigh.. then turns his attention back to TF: Prime Ratchet*

 

Ludicrous on the face of it, but the gospel truth.

 

Incredible...

Well, you learn something new everyday~

 

Ratchet was easily the most underused Autobot of the original TF1 line up. You see him fight a little (in TF1 at least), but compared to what others get, it's nothing. And you don't see him actually complete any repairs or use his skills as a medic. We can safely assume he fixed Bee's legs - that's really the only significant thing he does in the whole trilogy and you don't even see it.

He doesn't need to be a "badass" or an awesome fighter, we've got a few of them already, but if Bay/the writers weren't going to actually his use him as what he's said to be - the Autobot Medic - what was the point? They could have killed him off in place of other characters.

 

Wheeljack and Sideways say hi

 

I assume this is the part where speculation begins on what if Ratchet had been torn into two in Mission City instead of Jazz?

 

Ratchet would have taken longer,he was around twice Jazz's size  

 

Y'know what, I'm willing to bet that if it had actually happened to Ratchet there would've been a small sequence showing him repairing himself. Just to spite us  

 

Indeed, he was underused.

BUT I really think that what really screwed up with Ratchet's character were the ridiculous amount of new characters being introduced: On the first it was fair enough, on the second Jolt did something that could have easily been thrown in Ratchet's hands [and probably WAS before it was decided to shove Jolt into the movie, thus why Ratchet is there], on the third WheeljaQ and The Wreckers did the same.

Also, he's the least-liked of the cast by fans and children, both usually prefer Ironhide [fans] or 'Bee [children], hell, almost everyone on this forum isn't giving a flying duck to movie-verse Ratchet.

So the crew really doesn't bother that much with giving him screen-time, why should they really? No one wants screen-time for freaking Ratchet, people want to see the violent neck-breakers like Ironhide, Dino/Mirage, Sideswipe and...pretty much the rest of the goddamn Autobot cast.

Calm, thoughtful medics don't sell well neither with children nor with the fans, generic badasses who can't say much besides catchphrases and snarky remarks do [i.e Dino/Mirage].

That aside, he did seem to have some good medical and scientific knowledge in the small scenes he had [such as being able to indentify Sentinel's vital signs with his bare eyes], he just never had the opportunity to put it into practice.

Thankfully, now that Ironhide and WheeljaQ are dead [and I wouldn't hold my breath for Dino/Mirage's return either, given Ferrari's douchebaggery and the tragic demise of Francesco Quinn], they might give him more screen-time on the fourth movie.

 

Though, I think Dino is kind of a dick, but I expect more heroics from Sideswipe and Bumblebee. And I agree so hard on the rest of your post!

 

*Ratchet looks at the severed arm on the ground*
*Looks at the damaged stump where Optimus' arm used to be*
*Glances back at the arm*
*Observes the stump once more*
"There's your problem, Optimus."

I LOVE MOVIEVERSE RATCHET!  

 

Ok, I lol'd at this for a good three minutes straight. Thanks for that!

While Ratchet was definitely underused in the trilogy, I don't find that a glaring shortcoming. It probably would have hurt the pacing to go out of their way to show Ratchet doing something not really necessary to show on screen. One way they could have boosted his impact a little was giving him a line in the NEST base scene. That had some nice character moments for Ironhide, Que, and Dino, but Ratchet was just silent. Maybe have him have a two line conversation with Que before he went off to give Ironhide the gun? Or, even in the Chernobyl scene, at least show him in robot mode in the background.

Still, compared to his near non existence in ROTF, I thought DOTM did at least make some effort to include him with the Ark scene. He also got some solid action, including two Con kills, in Chicago, and was clearly seen shooting the pillar offline before Bee tackled it.

 

But..But...I like Ratchet  . And you are wrong about the Bumblebee=Children thing. My little cousin says Ironhide's his favorite TF. I think BB might be second though. And believe it or not,Blackout is his favorite con!

 

Idk, I really think it should've been Ironhide in Chernobyl. Maybe give us a scene where he uses one of his Heavy Iron guns(The one we don't see WJ give him later) on the Driller. It would have been cool to see Ratchet get a line in the base

Actually,I think he gets 4. When the bots charge out of the building,when the Wreckers are heading off to distract SW,I believe Ratchet shoots down 2 Protoforms. Later,when OP is flying in to begin his murder mile,Ratchet blasts apart a fallen Protoform. Then,when they charge the pillars,Ratchet shoots down a sniper. Ratchet can kick some ass!  

 

I don't want to be cynical, but does anyone think Ratchet's under-use might have something to do with the fact that he was a custom vehicle and thus wasn't an on-screen walking advertisement for a car?

I'm sure Bee helped sell some Camaros, but I doubt many recognized Ratchet as a Hummer, let alone felt the urge to buy one based on him.

I'm still going to stick with my concept that basically all the medic stuff happened between movies, so he had nothing to do onscreen.

 

THIS. He may have been silent, but I was SO happy to see him in that sequence.

And glad I could bring some   to your day.  

 

But Tyler, he did speak on the Ark Sequence [Something along the lines of "He locked himself away to guard the pillars." and "Optimus, his signals are faint, we must take him back to Earth"].

But I say they did well with Ratchet on DOTM, he had great small moments [like looking to Sentinel and saying: "There's nothing to fear" and putting his hand on BB's shoulder and telling him "You fought bravely", and even the "Target that bridge!" for the humans].

I like him too, I'm just telling the truth.

That actually further proves my point: The badass characters have fans and are liked by civilians and children [examlpe: the whole Autobot cast], while the non-badass don't receive the same share of preference [Examples: Ratchet and WheeljaQ].