bandersnatch

A monster appearing in the works of Lewis Carroll. We don't have much information about it, except that it is frumious and savage, and that you want to shun it at all costs.

`Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!'

--Jabberwockyby Lewis Carroll.

Well, you've probably read that many times before. But what many people don't know is that we have a written account of an actual bandersnatch attack. This is the only documented case of a bandersnatch. I have here the most pertinent parts; still no real description of the monster, but it does go into some detail on the effects of a bandersnatch mauling.

And the Banker, inspired with a courage so new
It was matter for general remark,
Rushed madly ahead and was lost to their view
In his zeal to discover the Snark

But while he was seeking with thimbles and care,
A Bandersnatch swiftly drew nigh
And grabbed at the Banker, who shrieked in despair,
For he knew it was useless to fly.

He offered large discount--he offered a check
(Drawn "to bearer") for seven-pounds-ten:
But the Bandersnatch merely extended its neck
And grabbed at the Banker again.

Without rest or pause--while those frumious jaws
Went savagely snapping around-
He skipped and he hopped, and he floundered and flopped,
Till fainting he fell to the ground.

The Bandersnatch fled as the others appeared
Led on by that fear-stricken yell:
And the Bellman remarked "It is just as I feared!"
And solemnly tolled on his bell.

He was black in the face, and they scarcely could trace
The least likeness to what he had been:
While so great was his fright that his waistcoat turned white-
A wonderful thing to be seen!

--The Hunting of The Snark, The Banker's Fate, by Lewis Carroll.

Graphic, isn't it? Well, the Banker lived, but he was driven mad, and left (at least temporarily) mute. Happily, his mutilation and subsequent insanity did not delay the Snark hunt. Carroll has left us with only one other reference to the bandersnatch, this time a very brief and confusing reference in Through the Looking Glass:

"Would you -- be good enough," Alice panted out, after running a little further, "to stop a minute -- just to get -- one's breath again!"

"I'm good enough," the King said, "only I'm not strong enough. You see, a minute goes by so fearfully quick. You might as well try to stop a Bandersnatch!

Ironically, in The Hunting of the Snark, our most detailed account of a bandersnatch encounter, they did indeed stop a bandersnatch, and apparently they did it just by showing up. Granted, the bandersnatch showed no fear when faced by a lone banker, but a small group of mixed nutters was too much for it. Of course, we must remember that the King is mad.

Well, anyway, that's all that Carroll wrote. Other authors have used the bandersnatch since, but a full listing of appearances is beyond the scope of this writeup.

compiled overview of the 75ton Bandersnatch 'Mech, from various BattleTech novels and game sourcebooks:

---

Felifious Bander was the chief tech of the late Twelfth Star Guard. For him, fighting the Clans seemed impossible with 3025 technology, so Bander changed careers. He entered the BattleMech refitting business as President and CEO of Bander BattleMechs. Already possessed of a considerable reputation, he was able to convince many former mercenary techs to join his firm. Quickly, they established themselves as a premier enterprise with competitive prices.

The first original BattleMech is a Felifious Bander creation. Having seen the Clans in action, and reviewed the most popular 'Mech refits of his clients, Bander decided that he knew what the situation required. Thus was the BNDR-01 A Bandersnatch born.

Bander considered the Marauder's chassis the most distinctive of all 'Mechs, and so he designed and built his 'Mech with a similar profile and style.

The design team equipped the 'Mech with the best-rediscovered technology, installing two Armstrong Class B ClusterGuns, which are perfect copies of the Star League Lubalin LB 10-X autocannon. Three Holly LRM-5s give the 'Mech additional long-range firepower. Because the 'Mech requires so much ammunition to justify the use of the heavy cannons, the torso ammo bins were equipped with CASE technology to extend the life expectancy of the 'Mech.

To make sure the 'Mech is not under-gunned after expending all its ammo, six Magna Mk 11 medium lasers were added; two to each arm and a pair facing the rear. During the initial test firings, both rear-firing lasers unexpectedly melted their heat jackets. When he was not able to determine the cause of the meltdown, Bander had the lasers raised half a meter, but field technicians should keep a close eye on the condition of the heat jackets.

So far, perhaps only a half-dozen of these 'Mechs are in existence, but Bander BattleMechs claims that the Bandersnatch is the most versatile design in the Inner Sphere and predicts it will be very popular for special purpose applications. Only time will tell if Felifious Bander's answer to the Clans is a success.

---

Note: Information used here was the domain of FASA before they split the rights between Wizkids LLC and Microsoft (table-top gaming and video games respectively). Copyright of the fluff text is in limbo, but names of persons, places, & things are without any doubt the property of Wizkids LLC. Use of any terms here related to the BattleTech trademark are not meant as a challenge to Wizkids LLC's rights.

As a side note, the Bandersnatch species (from Niven's universe) never mutates because their chromosomes are too large to be easily deformed by radiation or other causes of mutation. Thus, even though they have been around for aeons, they never change physically.

In Final Fantasy games, Bandersnatches are a type of wolf or dog. This has no basis in Jabberwocky (except that some wolves and dogs have been known to be frumious), but it is not contradicted in the poem either.

As another side note, the bandersnatchi (Plurality source: World of Ptavvs) were referred to as "whitefoods" when the thrints ruled the universe. They were bred as a food source, and were a staple of the thrint diet. The tnuctipun specifically engineered them with very large brains. The cover story by the tnictipun was that the brains were very tasty to the thrints, so they made them really, really big. In actuality, they were bred with such massive brains in order to be immune to "The Power". The Power was a psychic ability posessed by most thrints (Those thrints who lost the power were segregated into a lower class, called Ptavvs) which enabled them to control the minds of pretty much any other sentient life form. The thrints thought that the bandersnatchi were non-sentient, because they couldn't control their minds, when in fact they were able to block the effects of The Power.