WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for The Last of Us Part II.
In the world of The Last of Us, the Infected (humans who have succumbed to the Cordyceps fungus) are formidable enemies, but arguably not the most prominent. In both games, the survivors of the fictional pandemic end up wreaking plenty of havoc across the story.
That being said, The Last of Us Part II introduced players to a truly horrific abomination: the Rat King. Abby is confronted by the enormous creature while searching the bowels of the hospital in Seattle, and a terrifying boss fight ensues. However, it’s not just the grotesque design of the Rat King that makes it so disturbing, but also how it came to exist.
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First, it’s worth explaining just what the Rat King is. It is the result of several Stalkers, Clickers and a Bloater fusing together through the Cordyceps virus to create a towering, warped monstrosity. With numerous mouths and appendages, it’s difficult to know where one Infected ends and another begins. Although it isn’t explicitly confirmed, it seems clear that the Rat King is not one single creature, and that every Infected attached to it is alive independently.
Once Abby has inflicted enough damage on the Rat King, individual Infected will separate from it and hunt her down on their own. One clearly resembles a Stalker, but is able to throw sacks of acidic fungus at the player, just like a Bloater. This implies that, by being infused with others, the Infected that make up the Rat King have absorbed abilities and characteristics of other forms of Infected.
The creature’s design is disgustingly brilliant. When it first crashes through debris and an ambulance, the Rat King looks like it has just ascended from hell. Enormous and covered in the toxic fungus, the monster has numerous arms sprouting off at different angles. What’s worse is that the player never gets a clear look at the thing because they’ll be too busy trying to kill it. That task is not easy. The Rat King is clearly stronger and more durable than any other form of Infected, as it can run through walls and absorb an obscene amount of damage before it’s killed.
While all these elements are undeniably gross, the story behind the Rat King is what makes it the most disgusting boss in The Last of Us franchise. Again, the creature’s formation is not outwardly revealed, but there’s enough information to allow the imagination to fill in the blanks, which is arguably scarier.
Before Abby descends to the lower levels of the hospital, Nora explains that the site was ground zero for the Cordyceps outbreak in Seattle — meaning Abby may come across Infected that have been festering with the virus for decades. By this point, it has already been established that the fungal infection worsens over time, and that the more dangerous enemies like Clickers, Bloaters and Shamblers are people who have been infected the longest.
Nora implies that there could be people within the hospital who were the first to be infected 25 years prior, making it pretty easy to connect the dots to the Rat King. When the outbreak hit, the emergency room at the Seattle hospital was sealed off to protect survivors. It appears that the Infected locked in there were left to fester in the spores and fungus. These creatures were then somehow fused together by the Cordyceps virus, thus creating the Rat King.
What makes things worse is that, like most elements of the franchise, the Rat King has roots in reality. The term “rat king” refers to the very rare phenomenon of several rats getting their tails entwined with one another, joining them all together. The Last of Us games have produced some unforgettable action sequences, but none are as disturbing and panic-inducing as Abby’s meeting with the Rat King.
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