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Ripred is an abnormally large rat and capable fighter who appears in Suzanne Collins' ''The Underland Chronicles''.〔Collins, Suzanne. Gregor the Overlander. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2003.〕〔Collins, Suzanne. Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2004.〕〔Collins, Suzanne. Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2005.〕〔Collins, Suzanne. Gregor and the Marks of Secret. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2006.〕〔Collins, Suzanne. Gregor and the Code of Claw. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2007.〕 He is an important character in all five of the series' books. Ripred is what many people and animals in the Underland refer to as a "rager", or a natural born killer. Even though he is a rat, or a gnawer, as the Underlanders say, he often fights alongside the humans - frequently against other rats. Ripred is usually sarcastic, snide, and overbearing, but he has occasionally shown compassion and tenderness, especially with the main character's younger sister, Lizzie. The books describe him as being just as large as the other six-foot rats of the Underland, having a gray coat, and marked by a diagonal scar across his face. ==History and Background== Ripred is one of the older characters in the series as he has known the human King and Queen of Regalia for many years. Ripred once had a mate and several pups. During one of the rare peaceful periods between rats and humans, they shared a beautiful garden filled with apple trees and other delicious fruit. It was called the Garden of Hesperides. One day while many rats were enjoying the garden, the humans, led by Solovet and her son Hamnet, launched a surprise attack. In an effort to protect them from the attack, the rats herded the pups into caves surrounding the garden. Hoping to wipe out the rats completely, the humans destroyed the Dike holding back the water and began to drown the rats and pups in the garden and surrounding caves. Though Ripred survived this attack, he decided that the constant warring between rats and humans in the Underland was pointless. These events all transpired before the main character, Gregor, had discovered the Underland. The first time Ripred appears in the series is in the first book, ''Gregor the Overlander'', to act as a guide for Gregor and other characters attempting to find and rescue Gregor's father from the rats. He fulfills the role of "one gnawer beside", as the Prophecy of Grey foretold. Ripred's goal in this quest was to overthrow the rats' monstrous king, King Gorger, and attempt to gain power. Ripred appears again in ''Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane'' to deliver Twitchtip, another outcast rat with an incredible sense of smell, to Gregor for an upcoming quest. He later attempts to teach Gregor the skill of echolocation, but with poor results. In the third book, ''Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods'', Ripred convinces Gregor to come back down to the Underland for a brief meeting regarding a plague that threatens to wipe all the warmbloods of the Underland out. He ends up being a representative of the rats on a quest to find a cure for the plague, a plant called starshade, in a treacherous jungle. During the trip Ripred is usually condescending and mocking towards Gregor, but he also helps Gregor cope with being a rager like him and is important to the group discovering that the starshade is indeed not the real cure. By the fourth book, ''Gregor and the Marks of Secret'', Ripred has been giving Gregor regular echolocation lessons that do little good and often end up in the rat insulting Gregor. When Gregor meets Ripred in the cave under the human city of Regalia for his lesson one day, he has brought along the Bane. which has now reached a stage in its growth like adolescence. When Gregor and other characters find Ripred being starved in a deep pit in rat territory later, his front teeth locked together painfully. Ripred tells them that he was put there on the Bane's orders and he accompanies the group through other dangerous lands as they attempt to rescue the nibblers, or mice, of the Underland from genocide by the rats. In the final volume of the series, ''Gregor and the Code of Claw'', Ripred is portrayed as helping to humans to command their troops as they fight against the Bane and his followers in a brutal war. Ripred also meets Gregor's younger sister, Lizzie, for the first time, as Lizzie has never been to the Underland before. Lizzie reminds Ripred of his deceased pup Silksharp, and calms her in stressful moments. He shows much more care and compassion to Lizzie than Gregor has ever seen the rat show before. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ripred」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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