More like Fridge Humor, but since the RYNO 8 is capable of effectively bringing in other PlayStation IPs to help dish out tons of damage, one can't help but wonder what how Bentley and Murray would react to seeing Sly get siphoned into a portal. Same with Jak and Daxter, too! And imagine seeing the look on Aloy's face when she sees a Thunderjaw, one of the most difficult enemy encounters in Zero Dawn, getting sucked into a random singularity and being swiftly dealt with!
Dr. Nefarious gets squished by a giant robot only to show up later looking no worse for wear. Emperor Nefarious on the other hand gets about as much pumped into him as Dr. Nefarious does during an average boss fight and has very noticeable battle damage by the end. It goes to show that, despite his more imposing frame, Emperor Nefarious ultimately is physically weaker because he never faced the same adversity Dr. Nefarious did.
Tellingly, Emperor Nefarious was also never rebuilt multiple times like Dr. Nefarious has - Qwark had beaten him before to the point where all that was left of him was his original head while Ratchet also beat him to the point of damaging him so severely that he had a sort of malfunction samba before collapsing. By that point, it's very likely that Lawrence gave him a body that's Nigh-Invulnerablein the event that he ever faces Ratchet and Clank again.
Also note that Dr. Nefarious lacks the cracked dome or the scar across his eye and that he doesn't freeze up when he yells. Maybe Lawrence fixed all of those too.
The titles both Nefariouses possess tells you about their characters. "Doctor" Nefarious shows that Nefarious uses his intelligence to succeed and becomes wiser whenever he is defeated. "Emperor" Nefarious on the other hand tells you about the other Nefarious's bravado and ego.
Why does Dr. Nefarious hate his Dimension counterpart much later? Well, who in the Multiverse Nefarious hated that is both egotistical and a jerk? Captain Qwark.
Rivet's dimension is described as a universe where Emperor Nefarious always wins. True enough, anytime the protagonists physically confront him he comes out on top one way or another. The moment he steps outside of his dimension and into Ratchet's however, things quickly go awry leading to his eventual defeat.
On top of that it appears that this only applies to Nefarious personally as his troops get defeated quite often even before the arrival of Ratchet and Clank. Rivet has personal experience escaping his most high security prison after all.
Incidentally that begs the question of why Emperor Nefarious always wins. Rivet's dimension lacks any apparent interstellar heroes. Quark's counterpart Captain Quantum became a space pirate so there is no equivalent to Quark's rangers, Rivet spent her teenage years working at the Geletonium factory with the Morts saving up for her own place, Kit wasn't set for destruction upon being built so had no reason to leave at first, and every other hero from Ratchet's world is either unmentioned in Rivets or apparently only became important after Nefarious took over. With nobody to inspire them on the large scale planets never united against him and became demoralized far faster so Emperor Nefarious never dealt with a real challenge.
This one is a huge Fridge Brilliance in some cases, because while in Ratchet's dimension, Ratchet is yellow and Clank is silver, whereas in Rivet's dimension, Rivet is silver and Kit is yellow. The difference between both dimensions is that they have a Palette Swap on the main heroes.
The second Pirate Trial is to best a Grunthor, which is already dead. Why is it already dead? If you look around the area, you'll find the first optional virus-busting minigame. What is the virus loaded into? The Grunthor pen's auto-feeder.
While he's still of course a very vengeful person and has his moments of bombastic anger, Dr. Nefarious is noticeably much calmer here than he was in previous games. He's shown to think through his plans more, he reacts much less violently to his plans being foiled for the most part (instead sounding more snarky / exasperated than anything), and he even treats his goons / subordinates with much less disdain (most notably in the opening level when he mentions that he let Lawrence go on paid paternity leave). Looks like those anger management classes he took on Zanifar really did leave an impact on him.
Considering how the Dimensionator, as shown in Tools of Destruction and Into the Nexus, is capable of tearing apart dimensions at will, one can't help but wonder what became of the civilians that were in attendance during the parade in the beginning. Especially since, if the first Pocket Dimension is any indication, some of the parade floats ended up being lost in said Pocket Dimensions alongside some Goons-4-Less.
What has become of the Solana Galaxy in Rivet's dimension? As both Dr. Nefarious and Captain Qwark both hailed from there in Ratchet's dimension, has the Emperor had his wicked way with it? We know it still exists in some capacity, as Captain Quantum specifically mentions Pokitaru from the first game.
We also see Megacorp logos in Nefarious City, which may suggest that they either expanded their business in this dimension, or something happened in the Bogon Galaxy.
Aside from Phantom and Captain Quantum, we don't see any of the other members of the Resistance on the hitlist at all in the game.
Aside from Emperor Nefarious, we are shown an alternate dimension counterpart of Chairman Drek, who has met a fate similar to his movie counterpart. What are the odds that there are other notable villains, such as Emperor Tachyon or Vendra Prog hiding in Rivet's dimension?
