History Webcomic / DocRat

** To ''[[ComicBook/{{Asterix}} Astérix]]'' in [[https://crosstimecafe.com/speedreader/doc_rat.html#1309 this scene.]] Not only is the brawl very reminiscent of the gauls' usual amusements, two of the characters are clearly channeling Fulliautomatix and Cacofonix there.

* ExactWords: When the snake that bit Brayden and Julian--and threatened Jarrad and the rest of his family--was punched and killed by Allen, Allen said he was "hit by a bus". Which was his occupation at the time: a bus for parasites.

!!'''NOTE:''' The comic's website was recently rebuilt, and currently the archives are MIA. Many of the links in this trope page will be broken. A team is prepared to administer needed Wiki Magic Love the moment the archives return.[[labelnote:update]][[http://crosstimecafe.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=6081&sid=c5a872a6afc8e3ed52cb1fa6267e7737#p310538 As of February 13, 2016,]] Jenner's web maven, "Level_Head", has said it is taking a while getting archive-quality strips ready for the new system, so it will still be a while yet before the archives are re-populated much before 2014. As of July 2018, the archive has a gap from mid-September 2008 to early-May 2014. The series is being replayed on the fan forum, Cross Time Café, so some may be linked to their appearances on that forum until they show up on the website. [[https://crosstimecafe.com/speedreader/doc_rat.html#918 New archive announced on February 14, 2019]]. It's set up through October 2018, with the gap being 2013-2016. (There were issues with the new archive in 2022, but as of November 2022 it appears to be online again. The comic website itself is currently updated, but has a gap from September 2008 to May 2014. A handful of the affected strips were restored when Jenner posted some colourized strips in October 2021, but are posted out of chronological order for now.)[[/labelnote]]

* RightForTheWrongReasons: [[https://www.docrat.com.au/comic/slogans-run/ During a conversation with Quarrydog,]] Jarrad mentions that some cyclists are hooked on endorsements. He meant endorphins, but it made Quarrydog think of professional cycles wearing tons of ads on their outfits.

** More on Wilbur Fuzz's cardiac arrest: in addition to averting the "reliable" part of CPRCleanPrettyReliable, it's noted [[https://twitter.com/DocRatComic/status/1028756531544616960 when Ben visited Wilbur in hospital during his recovery]] that he coded[[note]]went into cardiac arrest[[/note]] three more times before he was fully stabilized.

* ReadTheFinePrint: [[https://crosstimecafe.com/Webcomics/DocRat.html?id=686 Some fine print was included in the dialogue]] between Ben and Daniella on one of their early dates.[[note]]Just read the comic. All the included fine print would require its own page.[[/note]][[labelnote:another note]]In case you're curious, "Terrine" is a French paté cooked in pottery and served cold. It can either involve meat or not.[[/labelnote]][[labelnote:further note]]This one was included solely to point out the OverlyLongGag in the comic itself, since the comic itself adds three levels of fine print to the base conversation, and actually sets up future plot points, including both their previous relationships.[[/labelnote]]

!!'''NOTE:''' The comic's website was recently rebuilt, and currently the archives are MIA. Many of the links in this trope page will be broken. A team is prepared to administer needed Wiki Magic Love the moment the archives return.[[labelnote:update]][[http://crosstimecafe.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=6081&sid=c5a872a6afc8e3ed52cb1fa6267e7737#p310538 As of February 13, 2016,]] Jenner's web maven, "Level_Head", has said it is taking a while getting archive-quality strips ready for the new system, so it will still be a while yet before the archives are re-populated much before 2014. As of July 2018, the archive has a gap from mid-September 2008 to early-May 2014. The series is being replayed on the fan forum, Cross Time Café, so some may be linked to their appearances on that forum until they show up on the website. [[https://crosstimecafe.com/speedreader/doc_rat.html#918 New archive announced on February 14, 2019]]. It's set up through October 2018, with the gap being 2013-2016. (In 2022, there appears to be a bug in the webpage. We'll keep you updated. The comic website itself is currently updated, but has a gap from September 2008 to May 2014. A handful of the affected strips were restored when Jenner posted some colourized strips in October 2021, but are posted out of chronological order for now.)[[/labelnote]]

* SafeZoneHopeSpot: There's good news and bad news. The good news is that if you're a prey animal, a predator cannot legally hunt you inside a hospital or other health facility (parking lots exempted)! The bad news is that if a predator has hunted and injured you outside but you have escaped to a hospital/health facility, then said predator can legally register you as their prey and can lay claim to you within sixty hours. If they do and you are unable to get away on your own power, the hospital is then legally forced to mercifully inject you full of sedative and let 'em have you.

** While [[https://crosstimecafe.com/Webcomics/DocRat.html?id=3867 this strip]] seems to be saying that Willard's GP has no right to call Jack's brother for him, it actually foreshadows that he had come into conflict with Jack over something, which is explained shortly after.

* FantasticCasteSystem: Doctors receive a particularly large amount of respect among wolves, no matter the species.

* StepfordSmiler: Downplayed. In the prey community, when one of their loved ones is eaten by a predator looking for some "wild" prey, the survivors are expected to more or less take it on the chin and keep going. By ''some'' predators, anyway.

* JerkassHasaPoint: Although Luella is speaking in favor of eating intelligent prey animals [[https://crosstimecafe.com/Webcomics/DocRat.html?id=3672 here]], she isn't wrong about that fact that prey being able to reproduce roughly three-to-one completely unchecked does ultimately threaten the overall well-being of predators, especially when there's to concrete way of being certain that they would adhere to any non-enforced birth limit.

* SafeZoneHopeSpot: There's good news and bad news. The good news is that if you're prey, a predator cannot legally hunt you inside a hospital or other health facility! The bad news is that if a predator has attacked and injured you outside but you have escaped to a hospital/health facility, then said predator can legally register and can lay claim to you within sixty hours. If they do and you are unable to get away on your own power, the hospital is then legally forced to mercifully inject you full of sedative and lets 'em have you.
* SecondSuperIdentity: [[https://crosstimecafe.com/Webcomics/DocRat.html?id=842 Captain Kerpow's secret identity is Awesome Possum, another crimefigher.]]

* LetsMeetTheMeat: The "I Want to Live" variant. See, there's intelligent {{Talking Animal}}s and nonintelligent normal animals. By tradition, prey {{Talking Animal}}s have large, ''very'' large families to keep the economy going and predator {{Talking Animal}}s ensure the preservation of the environment and other resources by...uh, making sure those families don't stay too large without wiping them out. A legal system developed which allowed predators to feed themselves and their families upon a certain number of "wild" prey per capita so long as they fill the proper paperwork later (and can apparently eat corpses all they want as long as they have a valid claim on the kill), while prey may continue expanding their families and the obligation falls upon them to keep themselves and their children from being eaten--usually by keeping vigilant at all times when outside the home. Prey also cannot seek retribution, legally, for lost family members, although they can apparently act in self-defense or in the defense of their family during an attack. A hawk, for example, swooping down on a baby carriage and taking a few rat pups from their horrified parents would be a perfectly legal set of kills. However, as time marches on, the tradition of eating "wild" prey has come into conflict with developing notions of morality, especially in light of modern science showing that farmed non-intelligent animals are exactly the same as wild-caught animals in every respect, including nutrition. Many predators have changed to farmed foods, but the tradition of eating intelligent prey (and the law tacitly supporting it) remains, costing thousands of innocent lives per year.

* FantasticCasteSystem: Doctors receive a particularly large amount of respect among wolves.

* SafeZoneHopeSpot: There's good news and bad news. The good news is that if you're prey, a predator cannot legally hunt you inside a hospital or other health facility! The bad news is that if a predator has attacked and injured you but you have escaped to a hospital said predator can legally register and can lay claim to you within sixty hours. If they do and you are unable to get away on your own power, the hospital is then legally forced to mercifully inject you full of sedative and lets 'em have you.

* FantasticCasteSystem: Doctors receive a particularly large amount of respect from wolves and (implicitly) predators in general. At one point when Ben hears about one of fellow doctors being attacked in a hospital, he's shocked, though he's told car parks don't count. (Implying that attacking within the hospital itself would be considered taboo).

** Flopsy Jaegermond's presence at the Bungaree has been as welcome as one would expect from a wolf present at a rabbit gathering, but when a massive wagon filled with carrots comes hurtling down the hill at a tent filled with young rabbits, Flopsy hurls himself in front of it, saving the children at a cost of serious injury. It's touchy, but he lives to enjoy the respect and admiration of the lapine community.

** Downplayed with Willard's [[[[https://crosstimecafe.com/Webcomics/DocRat.html?id=674 reaction]] to actually knocking Ben unconscious during their fight, where he does seem genuinely concerned (whether as to Ben's life or getting arrested is unclear). This brief moment of remorse doesn't stop him immediately lying about the cause of the fight to Danni, as well as flipping out and punching a wall in the next strip.

* NotThatKindOfDoctor: As a doctor who deals specifically with the problems of rabbits, [[https://crosstimecafe.com/Webcomics/DocRat.html?id=1030 Doctor Brazzleberry has no experience]] treating the dislocated shoulder of a predator three times his size. Fortunately, Ben has a much...[[JustForPun broader]] clientele.

* NecessaryEvil: Predation upon intelligent prey is justified in-universe by the idea that prey numbers need to be kept down to a reasonable level for the sake of resources and the environment. Well, by predators and the law anyway.

* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: There's an old wives' tale about how intelligent prey contains vital forces predators need for good health which are lacking in non-intelligent animals. Science suggests otherwise.

* MercyKill: Reddi-Pred, a powerful sedative, is administered by doctors to those prey whose predators lay claim to them while they're show up at the hospital and are physically unable to escape under their own power. This allows them to be eaten with a minimum of pain or distress.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: [[https://crosstimecafe.com/speedreader/doc_rat.html#1195 Daniella couldn't help]] but give an AsideGlance when Ben admitted to her that he accidentally let some rabbit language slip in front of Mary.

* HoldingTheFloor: Brayden Katanning has been bitten by a venomous snake, who in accordance with the predation laws has filed him as prey and may eat him within sixty hours of the bite. Since the snake doesn't want to fill out any more paperwork, he'd rather the original envenomation kill Brayden and thus plans to wait 'til as close to the sixty hour point as long as possible. If at any point the snake shows up in person and

* MercyKill: Reddi-Pred, a powerful sedative, is administered by doctors to those prey whose predators lay claim to them while they're in the hospital. This allows them to be eaten with a minimum of pain or distress.

** The numerous jokes about Jasmine having four kids and constantly having one get away from her get a lot less funny [[https://crosstimecafe.com/Webcomics/DocRat.html?id=1228 after she loses one to legal predation]].