Season 11 of Apex Legends is almost upon us, and while many players are eagerly awaiting new legend Ash, others are more taken by her pet rat – and the devs want fans to name it.
When the next season of Apex Legends debuts on November 2, players will be able to enter the battlefield as new character Ash, a ruthless simulacrum that houses the mind of former mercenary Dr Ashleigh Reid.
While Ash will show no mercy to her enemies, she does have a cute pet rat that will add “a bit of humanity” to the otherwise cold character, according to the devs at Respawn.
“Ash’s rat has no name. This was a request from us in the animation department with a particular purpose in mind,” explained lead animator Moy Parra in a detailed Twitter thread.
“We wanted to stay true to the character of Ash who wouldn’t show much affection to anyone or care about naming her rat. Therefore we decided to not name it internally so as to not accidentally start caring for it ourselves.”
She continued: “Ash’s rat serves an important purpose, however. It allowed us to show a bit of humanity from the character, without compromising the character itself.”
Therefore as we animated this little critter we decided to not name it internally so as to not accidentally start caring for it ourselves and have this bleed through our work as we came up with ideas for Ash.
Yes!.. animators think about these things 😉
— Moy Parra 🎮 (@_moyparra) October 27, 2021
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Just because the devs decided to keep Ash’s rat nameless, that doesn’t mean the Apex Legends community can’t give it a name, of course. In fact, the devs are actually encouraging that to happen.
“This does not mean that the community shouldn’t come up with a fun name for it,” Moy continued, stating that her favorite suggestion so far is Ronin before instructing the Apex community to “Go name that rat!”
- Read More: Who is Ash in Apex Legends?
Ronin does seem to be the most popular pick among players, but some other suggestions include Dust, Ember, and Soot – all clearly inspired by the name of its owner, Ash.
It doesn’t sound as though there will ever be an official name for Ash’s pet rat, but we’re sure the community will decide on one together once the new legend arrives in Season 11: Escape.
