Nefarious

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

- Nefarious, preparing to battle Clank

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. Nefarious was the main antagonist in Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal and it has been confirmed by Insomniac Games that he will return in Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time.

Early life
In high school, Nefarious had been constantly bullied and humiliated at the hands of Captain Qwark, who was 26 years old and three times Nefarious' size at the time. Later, Nefarious launched an Amoeboid invasion on Blackwater City. Qwark confronted Nefarious on a narrow catwalk overlooking churning gears and machinery. Qwark accidentally knocked him off of the catwalk, after recognizing him from high school, into the spinning gears below. As Qwark made his escape, a robotic hand made its way out of the rubble, and Nefarious was forever changed into an advanced robotic being. The incident seemed to claim his sanity as well, and he grew an intense hatred for all organic life forms in the galaxy, favoring his new robotic existence.

Attack on Metropolis
Some time later, Dr. Nefarious attacked Metropolis with a massive horde of Robotic Bugs that consumed various forms of matter. However, Qwark once again defeated him. 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. He was secretly making plans for his next attack.

Bio-Bliterator 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



Nefarious was first seen on the news where the Tyhrranoid attack on Veldin was believed to be his. Later on the Starship Phoenix that fact was confirmed when Ratchet and Clank recieved a message from him where he said that he is going to destroy all the organic life forms. Nefarious then launched an attack in the Capital City of Marcadia what Ratchet and Clank managed to stop. Later on Clank explored Nefarious' Office and found out that he was a huge fan of the Secret Agent Clank series. Nefarious was then seen on planet Daxx on Supervillain Weekly. Ratchet and Clank explored Daxx and found out that Nefarious had created a Bio-Bliterator but its purpose was unknown. While on Holostar Studios, it was revealed that Courtney Gears, a famous pop star had joined Nefarious on his evil plan. Countrey Gears was able to capture Clank while he was filming a Secret Agent Clank movie.

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. He even rejected Clank's assurance that the series was just an act. When Clank refused to join, Nefarious decided to replace Clank with Klunk, a robot Nefarious had created which looked just like Clank. Later on, Nefarious launched an attack on Blackwater City which was also stopped by Ratchet. On Zeldrin Starport, when Ratchet, Klunk and Qwark found Nefarious, he activated a self-destruct for the ship and teleported out so they had to run to their ship defore the spaceship blew up. While on Metropolis, Nefarious used the Bio-Bliterator to transform the whole city into robots. Later in the city Ratchet found out that the robot on his back was Klunk and Clank had been captured by Nefarious.

Ratchet fought Klunk on a Hover Train 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 the ion cannon to destroy the Bio-Bliterator while Nefarious was screaming in a video screen. Then Nefarious decided to use his second Bio-Bliterator, which was a pilotable mechanoid, and fuel it on Mylon but Ratchet and Clank were able to defeat Nefarious and his second Bio-Bliterator causing Nefarious and Lawrence to accidetly teleport to an asteroid and leaving them stuck there.

On the asteroid
"Nefarious: What do you mean 'we can't teleport to a planet'?!" "Lawrence: I'm afraid we're well out of range, sir. Perhaps if you had bothered to specify a destination..." "Nefarious: When will we be in range!?" "Lawrence: Oh, I'm sure something will come along...in say five or ten thousand years." "Nefarious: Ahhh!! I don't believe this!!!... Now what?" "Lawrence: I don't suppose you can play drums?" "Nefarious: LAWWWRREEENNCCCEE!!!"

- Nefarious and Lawrence, stuck on an asteroid

Nefarious and Lawrence remained on this asteroid until they arrived near the DreadZone Station, where they hoped to land. Before they could reach the station it was destroyed by Ratchet during his escape leaving Nefarious and his butler still stranded on the asteroid. Nefarious angrily screamed at Lawrence, freezing up and triggering the soap opera signal in his brain again. The two were still forced to aimlessly float through space.

Breegus Nebula
"AHHH! LAWREEEEENCE!!"

- Nefarious after tripping on a feather duster carelessly left on the floor by his butler



Somehow, Nefarious and Lawrence managed to get off the asteroid they were stuck on, and met with the mysterious Zoni. After Clank was taken by the Zoni, he was sent to the Breegus Nebula. The Zoni seemed to have a need to serve Clank, and when his logic appeared to be disfunctional, they called upon Nefarious' assistance. The Zoni informed Clank "the doctor will be able to repair you". Nefarious appeared in the room where Clank was being held. His familiar silhouette walked down the stairs into the room, but then he slipped on a feather duster which caused him to fall down the stairs. He then angrily called Lawrence. The signal was immediately lost and Ratchet set out to defeat Nefarious, vowing to rescue Clank.

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
"Ratchet: So, what is it this time, Nefarious? Nefarious: Part of me wants to let you live long enough to find out. The other part...really wants to kill you!"

- Ratchet and Nefarious after his return.



Dr. Nefarious will appear in A Crack in Time as the main antagonist with his trusty butler, Lawrence, at his side. Nefarious kept Clank prisoned in the Great Clock in Breegus Nebula. The Zoni wanted Nefarious to fix Clank's memory. Nefarious tried to search Clank's system for the key to Orvus Chamber. The Zoni tried to stop him but Nefarious used the Hypersonic brainwave scrambler which created sonic waves that forced the Zoni out of the room. The waves caused a black-out in the Great Clock but the back-up generators restored power seconds later. However, the black-out gave Clank enough time to escape from Nefarious.

Abilities


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, and he could also fly with a pair of antenae-like wings, which he could retract and unfold at will. He could also activate booster jets in his feet to assist him during flight. Nefarious' superpower-resembling abilities, as seen in his Qwark vid-comic battle, included 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 fight with Ratchet, he could also project holograms of himself that would protrude from him and then charge directly at Ratchet, trying to slash him with a claw. Further abilities during the fight included lobbing energy balls into the air that created shockwaves when hitting the ground and projecting a blue dome shield while firing a constant energy beam that followed Ratchet when flying. At the final stage of the fight, Nefarious could project several holograms of himself all over the battlefield at a time and project the following energy beam and then leave it in place while going back on the ground. Nefarious could place a number of these beams in different spots in the air and Ratchet would have to run from all of them. He could also go into the air and, in similar fashion to the beams that follow Ratchet, project several missiles that would rain down and target the Lombax.

All throughout the fight, it seemed that doing such attacks exhausted Nefarious, as after launching holograms or shockwave balls, Nefarious would leave an opening for an attack by stumbling backwards and holding his head for a brief moment. His following beam and rocket bunch attacks launched while in the air also seemed to take quite a bit of power, as when performing them, Nefarious let out a loud, vicious shout. The doctor also had skills with guns, as during the fight, he wielded two pistols that fired beams Ratchet needed to jump over. Also, in the Comic Con trailer, he was seen holding a green pistol, and his toy also came with another gun. The Robo-Nefarious suit created by Klunk had its own, similar abilities based off of the actual Nefarious' attacks.

Overload
Dr. Nefarious often had the strange habit of overloading in times of extreme stress, which would cause him to freeze, and simultaneously pick up radio signals about a soap opera via his head. He froze at the end of The Shaming of the Q and each time this happened he was whacked on the head by either Lawrence or Courtney Gears to send him back to normal. According to Lawrence, whacking Dr. Nefarious was always the best part of his day. Nefarious' overloads were not limited to stress-related situations. At one point, he evilly laughed so hard, he not only froze, but caused damage to his outer facial casing, creating a crack at his right eye that stretched up the side of his green cranial dome. This gave Nefarious what looked like a scar.

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.

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 lifeforms 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.
 * Clank fought a copy of Dr. Nefarious with Klunk inside having it controlled in the end of Secret Agent Clank.
 * Since Qwark appeared in the young Nefarious' 9th grade biology class, it suggested that Qwark was older then 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.

Appearances

 * Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
 * Ratchet: Deadlocked (cameo)
 * 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

YouTube videos

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