Apex Legends‘ next playable character, Ash, is a deadly and frightening simulacrum not so different from the already released Revenant, but Respawn Entertainment wanted to give the new character a little more humanity. To do so, they gave her a pet rat — but opted not to name it.
All the cute sidekicks Respawn has previously added to the game have had names, but Moy Parra, lead animator on Apex Legends, explained the team’s consistency of approach meant it made more sense for this new animal to have no name.
It was a new challenge for us as we love to show affection for our sidekicks, but It was refreshing to animate her this way and stay true to Ash in every way possible. Cold. Elegant. Superior.
Now you know more than you ever wanted to know on the topic!!
Go name that rat! ? pic.twitter.com/YWp6X56KH9
— Moy Parra ? (@_moyparra) October 27, 2021
“This time around we wanted to stay true to the character of Ash who wouldn’t show much affection to anyone or care about naming her rat,” tweeted Wednesday. “Therefore as we animated this little critter we decided to not name it internally so as to not accidentally start caring for it ourselves and have this bleed through our work as we came up with ideas for Ash.
“Ash’s rat serves an important purpose however. It allowed us to show a bit of humanity from the character, without [compromising] the character itself. Ironically, it is the rat that shows the more warm/human side, the side that Ash herself will never show!”
Parra went on to say they and the rest of the dev team supported the community’s efforts to name it.
“So far my favorite is RONIN,” they wrote. Other suggestions in the community have included Dust, Ember and Soot, all of which tie back to Ash’s name. In the absence of official word from Respawn, it’ll be up to community consensus how this rat is known.
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