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Dr. Victor Falco, better known as the Rat King, is a supporting antagonist in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. He was a human scientist obsessed with granting himself psychic powers, bringing him into conflict with the Turtles. After being blinded and disfigured during one of his experiments, he would gain the ability to psychically control rats, intending to eradicate humanity and making rodents the dominant species on the planet, as well as taking control over the Turtles' master and father, Splinter.

He was voiced by Jeffrey Combs, who also portrayed Weyoun and Brunt in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Shran in Star Trek: Enterprise, Herbert West in the Re-Animator film series, Dr. Vannacutt in House on Haunted Hill, Scarecrow in The New Batman Adventures, Brainiac in Injustice 2, Gyrus Krinkle in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, and Shepard Lambrick in Would You Rather.

Biography[]

Past[]

Dr. Victor Falco was a renowned scientist, and was a colleague of Dr. Tyler Rockwell. They both were working on an experiment with mutagen, a neurochemical and monkey DNA when they were approached by The Kraang. Power-hungry, Falco then modified the mutagen to develop a psycho-neurochemical and mutated Rockwell into a mutant monkey to it from him to use on himself and develop psychic abilities. He also imprisoned the latter in a cage, passing him off as a lab animal and planning to extract the psychic abilities from him. Due to the poor treatment, Rockwell ran away. Falco announced to the public that Rockwell mysteriously disappeared and alluded that he wasn't a part of this.

Monkey Brains[]

Falco makes his debut in "Monkey Brains", seen talking about Rockwell's disappearance in April O' Neil's laptop. April and Donatello then sneaks into Falco's lab. When they see a mutagen cannister in Falco's table, he attempts to attack them, April warns Donnie who pins him down. April turns on the lights and see that is Falco and Donnie lets him go. Though shocked to see a mutant turtle, Falco tells them that he and Rockwell were approached by the Kraang to experiment on the mutagen. When they witness the cage he kept Rockwell in, Falco lies by telling that Rockwell used a monkey on his experiments and didn't treat it well and left.

Eventually, April and Donnie locate Rockwell, who was a mutant monkey and bring him to Falco. Falco feigns to be sympathetic to Rockwell and tells that he will try to give him a semblance to normal life before the mutation. When Donnie reaches the lair, he grew suspicious due to ow what all he told don't line up with the fact that Rockwell is a mutant monkey. He then tells his brothers that he deduced that Falco lied about having a monkey. The turtles realize that Rockwell was in the cage and Falco lied the entire time. In his lab, after Falco injected a syringe into a protesting Rockwell's brain to extract the neurochemical and inject it on himself and gain psychic powers temporarily.

The Turtles confront him to which Falco tells about his grand plan. Falco reveals his psychic ability by revealing some of their thoughts. The Turtles try attacking him but Falco manages to defeat Leonardo and Raphael by figuring out what all the Turtles were thinking. When Donnie tells Michelangelo how he fought without thinking, Mickey freaks out on how he was able to as he doesn't know know and Falco defeats him also. Donnie then tries attacking him but Falco dodges every one of his moves and then taunts him about how he won't win over April. Donnie then decides to just attack without thinking, which baffles Falco and he manages to be kicked into the cage he imprisoned Rockwell. The other Turtles soon recover but before they can ask on what all Falco knows about the Kraang, he has already escaped.

I, Monster[]

Following the events of "Monkey Brains", Falco was living in hiding after the Kraang pulled off funding his experiments as they were displeased with his work and no longer needed him. He was experimenting on rats, mutagen and chemicals to get psychic powers permanently. However, a rat chewed on a wire and started a fire on the lab, to which he was disfigured by the flames, and blinded, and the neurochemical splattered all over him. He gains psychic powers and begs the rats for their help, to which they save him. Falco realizes he has the ability to control rats and went in hiding in the sewers, now proclaiming himself as The Rat King, mustering up a rat army for him to use. He uses a white albino rat called Aristotle, named after the Greek philosopher, to be his eyes and plans to wipe out all humans from the planet with his rat army and take over the world.

He then launches a full-scale assault on New York city. Through telepathy, the Rat King is aware of the existence of the Turtles' master Hamato Yoshi/Splinter, a former human who was mutated into a rat. He then used psychological warfare to try brainwashing Splinter, but he refuses to join him. Splinter then tells his sons who the perpetrator of the attacks were and warns the turtles and his plan to take over New York. The Turtles head off to be near his lair and leave April behind to take care of Splinter. The Turtles find his lair, but were chased away by his rat army but they managed to escape. However, Falco exploits Leo punching Splinter to manipulate Splinter into accepting his control and successfully brainwashes him and arrives at the Rat King's lair. However, he has Splinter reveal himself to which he sadistically laughs. The turtles try reaching to him, to which the Rat King removes his makes and uses his creepy eyes to strengthen his control of Splinter. He then has him attack the Turtles to which he defeats them. However, Leo used a picture of Splinter a human with his wife and daughter, to which he snaps out of it. Splinter then defeats the Rat King, who escapes using his rat army.

Of Rats and Men[]

The Rat King makes his return. Ever since his previous defeat, he has been trying to perfect his mutagen for his plans. He then has mutates some rats into being giants and have been spy and kidnap some humans (like Irma) for his plans.

For his work, the Rat King flashes through Splinter's mind to weaken him, then attempts to take control of Splinter while he was meditating and psychological torture him to gain information on how turned into a humanoid rat and leaves him. Splinter then tries to remedy himself out of fear and then takes control of Splinter have him cause chaos in the lair kitchen while announcing his grand plan before leaving him again. Splinter then notifies the Turtles, April and Casey Jones about the Rat King's return and they go and try stopping him. In the rooftops, the Rat King ponders just on what he should do in the human race, and then the world, with his rat army. He then has his giant rats doze the city and kidnap humans, including Casey, for him to imprison and experiment. He then climbs on top of one of the giant rats and orders the rest to retreat back into his secret lab as he has the amount of humans he need. He then peers back into Splinter's mind, trying to break him by showing the chaos he orchestrated throughout the city and that Splinter will be a part of his new world. Splinter resists, but it causes him to refuse to join the Turtles and April on attacking the Rat King as he fears he will take control of him and force him to kill them due to being more powerful than ever.

In his lair, he has all the humans imprisoned in numerous cages suspending from the ceiling. The Rat king reassures he won't hurt them and gives a speech on how he changed some ordinary rats into becoming giants and explains his grand plans to perfect the mutagen to mutate them into human-rat hybrids and bite other humans and spread the mutation so everyone will be in control as the giant rats weren't the soldier of his army he was looking for. He examines the serum to which Aristotle warns him how the previous serum wasn't perfected, to which he is shocked and shows him a grotesque creature to prove it, to which he coldly brushes it off that not every experiment is a success and reassures that this serum will work. Aristotle points at Irma as the perfect test subject, to which he agrees, causing her to faint.

His enemies come to free his prisoners and thwart his plan. Unexpectedly, even Splinter came, claiming the Rat King must be defeated once and for all. April was then sent to free the humans while Leo attempts to throw a blade at the Rat King, but he manages to take control of Splinter to stop him while laughing evilly. Splinter resists for a second but then, Splinter was brainwashed for good and orders him to kill his adoptive sons one by one, starting with Leo. Mickey then throws Ice Cream Kitty at the Rat King's face, resulting him on losing control over Splinter. Now no longer in control, the Rat King then orders his rats to destroy them all while he goes down and retreats with Splinter following him.

In the sewer tunnels, Splinter chases the Rat King, who is riding in one of giant rats, mocking how he runs like a coward when he isn't in control. The Rat King taunted back as he orders a swarm of rats to overpower him. They reach the undercity, to which he jumps from platform to platforms to try escaping, sacrificing many of his rats to make sure he reaches to another platform and to make sure Splinter falls down to his death. However, Splinter, determined to not let him escape again jumps towards the platform he is in and chases him, stating he runs like a coward when not in control. Rat King has minions attack him but Splinter is able to evade them. Rat King tries fighting him, but Aristotle tells the Rat King all of Splinter's moves and he defeats him easily. The Rat King then told him to bow down and that he has the upper hand, to which Splinter mocks him and tosses Aristotle to his death to give him a disadvantage, causing the Rat King to grieve for Aristotle and then promise vengeance, remarking he was still able to fight due to seeing through Splinters eyes. However, it is revealed Splinter has the Rat King's blindfold and puts it on him, and fights the Rat King and utterly humiliates him, mocking him with wisdom. The Rat King, enraged, attempted to punch Splinter to topple him of the platform, but Splinter dodges and he falls to his presumed death.

Darkest Plight[]

The Rat King makes one final appearance in this episode. Splinter was stuck on the lowest part of the city following a recent battle with the Shredder who mutated himself to regain his strength. While he was stuck down there, the Rat King's voice echoes, telling that rats must be alert at all times. The voice made Splinter scared, afraid that one of his greatest enemies has returned to torment him. The Rat King announces his return and laughs evilly. Splinter is in disbelief, telling he sent him to his death, to which the Rat King remarks that he did. Splinter asks why he didn't escape, to which the Rat King says there is no escape.

Splinter tries to move away, but Rat King taunts him, claiming he can never run away with his feverish body and stamps his feet and tries to take control of him and accept his rule. Splinter refuses, to which he has a swarm of rats cover him to form a giant rat, laughing creepily as it happens. He then has the rat to try devouring Splinter. He then taunts him on how he is his teacher, and that he is is his master. The Rat King then pops out and holds Splinter's head and tells him to be one with him, that it will only cost him his soul. And he succeeds in breaking Splinter, turning him insane and into an animalistic rat, much to his joy. However, Splinter receives a flashback to the premier when they are celebrating their mutation day to which his late wife, Tang Shen appears with his infant daughter, Hamato Miwa. Splinter turns back to normal and defeats the Rat King and has a brief fall down a column. Apparently, the Rat King really died from his fall in the end of "Of Rats and Men" and what all happened was the Rat King's influence posthumously, happening due to Splinter's fever. Splinter then remarks to the Rat King's skeleton that he may have been his teacher, but never his master and comes to terms with his new mutated self.

Appearance[]

As a regular human, Falco wore a white lab coat, gray hair with white markings, a brown shirt and pants, and a tie.

As the Rat King, his skin is pale green, his eyes glow red, he resembles a corpse, his teeth have rotted, he wears wraps on his arms and legs, he has a black coat and hat, his hair is messy and he wears a blindfold at times.

Personality[]

Unlike other incarnations of the Rat King, who want to take over New York for their rats, just want to do it for his purpose. He then mutated some rats into becoming giants and names them after many Roman Emperors. Unlike other incarnations who wants to be left alone and only attack the turtles when they invade his territory, the 2012 Rat King is a completely heinous sociopath who cruelly causes others harm for his own selfish reasons. When he first appeared, he acted as though concerned about his colleague, but he was the one who mutated him to create the neuro-chemical that would make him psychic. After becoming the Rat King, he renounced humanity and became devoted to overthrowing them to the point that he was willing to commit genocide. During this, he takes over Splinter and watches in sadistic and horrific glee when the turtles are forced to fend for their lives against their master. Another difference between him and past Rat King character is that he's a hypocrite with almost all of his "brothers". He goes on about rat's being preferable to humans and how much he cares for them, yet he doesn't bat an eye when he experiments on them (one of them became a grotesque blob that was incapable of movement and crying out in pain, yet that didn't bother him) or sacrificing them in battle. Despite this, he seems to genuinely care for his seeing eye rat Aristotle, generally having a more personal relationship with him than the other rats and feeling sorrow at his death, promising to make Splinter pay.

What makes Falco stand out, however, is his lack of regard for life. On top of conducting several unethical experiments, he betrayed a co-worker of his despite knowing the consequences of him getting injected by the neuro-chemical. He is also cruel; taking sadistic delight at mind-controlling Splinter and making him attack his sons.

Overall, this version of the Rat King is a hypocritical, sadistic monster who attempted genocide several times to gain power over the human race.

​​Trivia[]

• One of the nicknames Michelangelo conceives for Rat King is the Verminator, a reference to the Archie Comics Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles character Verminator X. By coincidence, another character named after Verminator X, Verminator Rex, would appear in the series during the "Mutant Apocalypse" arc.
• Rat King is the name of a phenomena in which many rats get stuck together by their tails.
• Victor Falco is similar to the H.P. Lovecraft character Herbert West, who was portrayed by Falco's voice actor, Jeffrey Combs, in the Re-Animator film series, both being scientists obsessed with experimenting with serums to gain supernatural powers (for Falco, psychic abilities; for West, the power to revive the dead) regardless of the consequences. As the Rat King, his appearance somewhat resembles the Scarecrow from The New Batman Adventures, whom Combs also voiced.
• The Rat King's outfit (long black coat and black wide-brimmed hat) is nearly identical to the standard outfit worn by medieval plague doctors. This is fitting, as the Bubonic plague was spread by fleas being carried by rats.
• Several of the Rat King's mutant rats from "Of Rats and Men" were named after Roman emperors, including Caligula, Claudius, Nero and Commodus. This is similar to how the TMNT are named after renaissance artists or the Punk Frogs are named after famous conquerors.
• He is the first major villain in the show to die. By extension, he is the first incarnation of Rat King to die since the original Mirage Comics incarnation; whose death was likely the inspiration for his own.
• It is possible that after falling to his death, the Rat King's mind telepathically survived inside his rat minions while his real body died, allowing him to continue tormenting Splinter until he was defeated, thus killing him for good.
• Both the Rat King and Overmind has many similarities:
  • Both are able to take control over beings (Rat King to rats, Overmind to mechanical life).
  • Both take great interest on hybrid of what they can take control of a humanoid. (Splinter to the Rat King and Fugitoid to Overmind.)
  • Both plan on major genocides with their armies, who are taken control by them, out of sheer egotism. Both of them are on an organic race (humans for the Rat King, organic life in general for Overmind.)
  • Both represent the greatest fear of the hero they are trying to take control of losing their humanity.
  • Both plan on destroying Casey's humanity and force him into being a soldier they can take control over.
• The Rat King may have been one of the few villains to know that Irma was really Kraang Subprime in disguise. This may be because Kraang Subprime may have been involved in funding Falco's research about improving the mutagen to make the user capable of mind powers such as reading minds and telekinesis. It is also likely that Kraang Subprime was the one who gave the order to stop funding the research, which led to Falco's desire for revenge. This means that after becoming the Rat King, he still knew about Subprime's disguise and may have intended to use the rat transformation serum on him to eventually spread control to the Kraang hivemind as well as the human population when his guide rat Aristotle suggested to him to test the serum on Irma and he agreed.
• The Rat King represents Splinter's inner demon, his fear of losing himself to his animal side. He is one the first one to use Splinter's animalistic side to hurt him as he made him directly attack the Turtles when he mind-controlled him. Because of this, his actions haunt Splinter even after his death, which is fitting considering that Splinter fully comes to terms with his new mutant form and life after he defeated the Rat King in his vision while trapped in the deepest point of the city.
• The Rat King is one of the few villains on the show who killed people onscreen, since he killed hundreds of rats during his fight with Splinter. The only other villains with such distinction are Shredder (who killed Tang Shen (albeit accidently) and Splinter), the Triceratons (who destroyed the Earth and got rid of the Kraang), Kavaxas (who drained the souls of Hattori Tatsu, the Hammer, and killed other henchmen of Don Vizioso), Jei (who killed Mikey, Raph and Donnie in a dream), Creep (who drained the mutagen from Raphael), Dracula (who killed the mummy), Newtralizer (who electrocuted Mikey and ate a kraang), Wyrm (who destroyed multpile planets onscreen), and Za-Naron (who vaporized Donnie). He is one of the few villains whose kills are permanent, with the only few villains with that distinction is Shredder, Dracula, Kavaxas, Newtralizer, and the Triceratons (as they killed off both kraang Prime and Kraang Subprime onscreen, with their deaths not being reversed in "Earth's Last Stand").

External Links[]

• Rat King on the Turtlepedia

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