Courtney Gears

"Well, she’s not the hottest pop star in the Galaxy because of her singing."

- Ratchet

Courtney Gears was a robotic pop star. She was a big supporter of the “Destroying the Squishies” movement. In the year 5356 she was considered the hottest pop star in the Solana Galaxy (though not due to her singing), however after her scandal with Nefarious she lost a lot of popularity.

History
Up Your Arsenal "Let’s see if you can fight better than you can sing!"

- Ratchet

When Courtney Gears was considered the hottest pop star of the galaxy, she starred in many music videos and gave out awards to participants who won Annihilation Nation challenges.

When Ratchet and Clank realized she had a connection with Dr. Nefarious, they attempted to obtain information from her about Dr. Nefarious’s whereabouts. They quickly realized that Courtney had allied herself with Nefarious and that she was using her music in order to convince robots to join Nefarious, with her number one hit "Robots of the Galaxy" being an anti-squishy song with references to how Nefarious would soon lead all robots into a new era by wiping out all organic life.

Clank attempted to gain information on Nefarious from her by allowing her to play The Baroness in the latest episode of Secret Agent Clank - her role being a damsel in distress kidnapped by Maxmillian and held hostage by the Terror of Talos, however after filming was complete and Clank attempted to obtain information on Nefarious she used an energy blast from her eyes to knock Clank out so that she could deliver him to her “snooky wookums.” She then sat on Nefarious' desk as he discussed his plans with Clank, and his hope to have the small robot join him in his conquest, however Clank refused and was replaced with Klunk. Later, on Nefarious’s orders she captured the Q-Force member Skid McMarx and turned him into a robot in her Biobliterator Testing Laboratory on Obani Draco as a test to see if Nefarious’s invention was complete. Later, when Ratchet arrived to save Skid she fought him with her backup dancers in her recording studio. Unfortunately she was reduced to a smoldering pile of scrap, stating, “My fans can’t live without me!” upon her defeat. She is later seen on a calendar when Captain Quark dresses up as a girl and asks the Taxi Driver, whose room the calendar could be seen in, to save him. She is later seen again in the final Captain Quark vid-comic when Quark dreams of flirting with her until he wakes up.

Between Up Your Arsenal and Deadlocked
Following her confrontation with Ratchet on Obani Draco, the badly damaged Courtney Gears nearly perished. Fortunately, she was saved by Gleeman Vox, a business owner who ran a business empire within the confines of the Shadow Sector. Under his close supervision, Mr. Vox monitored her reconstruction closely while his specialized robotic surgeon team rebuilt her. Thanks to Mr. Vox’s support, Courtney made a remarkable recovery, which both The ’Zone and Vox News covered. In return funding her recovery, Mr. Vox asked for Courtney Gears to “sign over all past and future rights to her music, her image, her name, her likeness, and her personal collection of Secret Agent Clank memorabilia” to him, according to Dallas Wanamaker’s report on The ’Zone. Vox News also claimed Courtney Gears was the victim of nasty rumors involving her involvement with Nefarious, claiming she was merely “minding her own business” in her Biobliterator Testing Laboratory.

However, the scandal the of her connection to Nefarious’s plan apparently brought her to a career low, where her record label dropped her in favour of Skid McMarx’s spoken word poetry.

Deadlocked
According to Vox News commentator Juanita, her defeat by Ratchet and “Clank” was reported on Galactic Glamour as a deranged attack by two members of the Courtney Gears fan club, with later coverage on Vox News stating that the two “deranged fans” were, in fact, Ratchet and Clank, which Vox was attempting to slander.

She frequented the Kronos School for the Inept to complete market research for her next album, where she met Dull “Reactor” Bookworm. Their love of cafeteria food brought them together, though she apparently did not like him very much. At around this time she starred alongside him in Reactor: Rise of the Sociopathic Bloodlust.

After a month, Courtney could not keep up with Dull’s slow and boring life, and dropped him. Dull immediately got himself a nuclear explosive implanted into his chest, and joined the DreadZone circuit, earning fame, fortune, an explosive personality and money, becoming Reactor. After these events, Courtney immediately got with him, claiming that she was always there for him and that she loved him. Of course she only did this due to his money and celebrity status.

She was later involved in another scandal where she was known to have had an explicit video leaked onto the HoloNet. Captain Qwark mentioned having a copy of that exact video. It was also stated that she had found time to record a new album, Don’t Hurt Me Like That.

A Crack in Time
Cassiopeia mentioned at one point that Courtney was still one of Nefarious’s subordinates, suggesting that she still continued to be allied with him when he resurfaced in the Polaris Galaxy.

Family and significant relations
Courtney was known to have had a relationship with Nefarious during his anti-squishy movement. Qwark also claims to have been in a relationship of some sort with her in the past, and she later dated Reactor until his death for his money.

Personality
Courtney Gears is generally seen as a manipulative character, while on the outside, she has the attitude and personality of a typical pop star and is seen as a nice character, although when working with Nefarious, her darker side was shown. When talking to Clank in Up Your Arsenal, she was acting flirty to Clank to manipulate him into dropping his guard so she could take him to Nefarious.

Courtney Gears is apparently a gold digger, going after anyone with money or power, as demonstrated by her flirting with Clank, and later with Reactor after she lost a lot of popularity.

Appearance
Courtney Gears is a robot but sports a very human appearance. She has brown hair with a red band and has yellow eyes, grey metallic skin and wears a red long sleeved top that shows her belly button and black mini shorts, and red high boot wedges.

Music
The only known Courtney Gears song to appear throughout the series is the “Robots of the Galaxy” song from Up Your Arsenal, which is said to be her number one hit. It reappears in Deadlocked when Big Al is seen dancing to it, and in Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction on several screens on the IRIS computer. In a Vox News Update on the old Insomniac Games website, Dallas mentions dancing until 3AM in the morning to it in just his frilly pink underwear, while his mother shouted at him to turn it off.



Albums and singles

 * Robots of the Galaxy
 * Don’t Hurt Me Like That
 * Oops, I Got Vaporized By A Level 7 Shock Blaster!

Abilities
Outside of direct combat, she was shown to be able to use a powerful static shock from her eyes to temporarily knock Clank unconscious.

In combat, despite being a singer and dancer, Courtney could hold her own in a fight. She could teleport around the room, fire energy blasts, throw energy discs and fire electric shockwaves. She could also perform spinning kicks and was able to summon her backup dancers to assist her.

Acting career
Courtney Gears played The Baroness in an episode of the Secret Agent Clank holo-vision series.

She also appeared as an actress in the following movies:
 * Reactor: Rise of the Sociopathic Bloodlust (cinematic debut)
 * Mandles, Sandals For Men: The Saga Continues

Voice actor
Courtney Gears was originally voiced by Melissa Disney in Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal. However in Ratchet: Deadlocked, she was voiced Nika Futterman, who is best known for voicing Vendra Prog, Juanita Alvaro and Vernon among other characters.

Real world comparison
Courtney Gears is likely a parody of female singer, Britney Spears.

Translation
Her songs were also kept in English, even in translated versions.

Trivia

 * In Secret Agent Clank, in the HIG impact treehouse, if one looked closely at a picture on a desk they could see an autographed picture of Courtney Gears. There is also a picture of her in the HIG treehouse in Size Matters as well.
 * Courtney Gears is oddly very large in her boss battle. While her back up dancers are visibly shorter than the cages, Courtney’s head goes well beyond that height. Also, Ratchet only comes up to the bottom of her shorts during the boss battle. When doing a comparison of Ratchet to Reactor and Courtney to Reactor, Courtney appears to be the same oddly enormous height in Deadlocked. Also, Courtney is still this height in the art work of her with her background dancers. Courtney’s legs alone go all the way up to the dancers shoulders.
 * If she hits Ratchet during the fight on Obani Draco, she could say, "“Oops, I did it again,”  a reference to the Britney Spears’s song of the same name.

Appearances

 * Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
 * Ratchet: Deadlocked
 * Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
 * Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty
 * Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
 * Rachet &amp; Clank comic series
 * Ratchet & Clank: Issue 2: Friends with Benefits
 * Other
 * Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters
 * Secret Agent Clank

Non-canon

 * Ratchet & Clank series
 * Ratchet & Clank Manga: Volume 1


 * Other
 * PlayStation Home