Board Thread:Clean up Concerns/@comment-29644557-20170910233018/@comment-1705775-20170913204750

Kaa (and all animals in Jungle Book) were sapient creatures able to interact with humans and so on - if the Rat can be proven to be more intelligent and malicious than a stereotypical "bad rat" then sure, keep it.. it'd be like Jenner from Secret of NIMH.. a rat with sapience.

the trick is backing up with facts from in-universe.. if the universe says "this rat can think like a person, knows right from wrong but does wrong anyway" then by all means add it.. if it doesn't then it is guesswork (like when people say the bear in Fox and Hound is evil, never proven in-universe and the farmer provoked it anyway and kind of deserved to get a bear attack.)

if book says the Rat can think, then that's canon enough.. you just need to back the statements with facts.