Ratboy

Ratboy

English

Etymology

From rat +‎ boy. Coined by fans as a humorous reference to the character's amoral and duplicitous nature.[1] Popularized on alt.tv.x-files, the main Usenet newsgroup for the show,[2] where it is first attested in 1994.

Proper noun

Ratboy

1. (X-Files fandom slang) The fictional character Alex Krycek from The X-Files.
   • 1996, Susan J. Clerc, "DDEB, GATB, MPPB, and Ratboy", Deny All knowledge: Reading the X-files (eds. David Lavery, Angela Hague, & Marla Cartwright), page 37:

     Do you know who Ratboy is?

   • 2014, Deborah Kaplan, "Construction of Fan Fiction Character Through Narrative", in Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet (eds. Karen Hellekson & Kristina Busse), page 143:

     But this Krycek—self-consciously multivoiced, focalizing as a fan reader through his obsession with Mulder, Ratboy yet sympathetically damaged—is carefully constructed as a recognizable source character interpreted in a new light.

   • 2016, Natalie Clubb, The X-Files: The Official Collection - The Agents, The Bureau, and The Syndicate, page 144:

     Given his credentials, Ratboy seems like the perfect candidate for the job.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Ratboy.

References

1. Brian Lowry, Chris Carter, & Sarah Stegall, The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files (1995), page 88
2. Paul Cornell, Martin Day, & Keith Topping, X-treme Possibilities: A Comprehensively Expanded Rummage through Five years of the X-files (1998), page 47