Rayman Timeline

[Snagglebee]

[Master]

This is a timeline of game releases, I'm guessing.

[Snagglebee]

This is a timeline of game releases, I'm guessing.

You don't say!

[Master]

Hey, initially I thought it could've been the canonical timeline.
But, that's left to personal canon for the time being.

[Raymansuperfan1]

Hey, initially I thought it could've been the canonical timeline.
But, that's left to personal canon for the time being.

Rayman has no real canon, as far as I know, since Rayman 1, 2 and 3, Origins and Legends are pretty different games.

[Slogbait]

No, there's definitely a canon in Rayman. The only problem is the constant retcons that make it difficult to tell what still is and isn't canon.

For example, we know for a fact that Rayman is limbless, can use his hair to glide, and can easily detach part of his body with little to no effort. His best friend is Globox. These are all canon facts.

HOWEVER, we have no idea if Rayman is actually the only one of his kind because while they keep saying it like it's truth, they keep trying to bring in a girlfriend for him presumably of the same species, or said he had one previously, and then there's the entire first game which throws a lot of people for a loop. Also Bad Rayman and supposedly Tarayzan exist so fuck yeah contradictions. According to that one mosaic apparently Rayman's hair isn't exactly Rayman's hair?? But that mosaic is also one of the most contradictory things ever introduced in the series and probably isn't canon by any stretch of the imagination, just something put there for laughs. We don't know when Rayman actually learned to use his helicopter hair. Sometimes they say he's always been able to, but according to what we've seen he's only been able to do it since the first game. Even if it was the whole "you've lost all your powers because the natural balance of the world has been upset" deal, they did the same in the second game and Rayman was able to helicopter just fine without the aid of a silver lum. And then you have the fact that I keep bringing up repeatedly because this annoys the crap out of me, but in every appearance of Globox since his introduction, his personality is constantly changing. They can't seem to decide what sort of character he is, and because of this we don't actually know Globox. You can speculate about all of that, but in the end your conclusion will be nothing but a headcanon because there is no real confirmation for any of them.

[Raven_Guardian]

I hope it won't be as confused as Zelda. :/

[TFDS]

No, there's definitely a canon in Rayman. The only problem is the constant retcons that make it difficult to tell what still is and isn't canon.

For example, we know for a fact that Rayman is limbless, can use his hair to glide, and can easily detach part of his body with little to no effort. His best friend is Globox. These are all canon facts.

HOWEVER, we have no idea if Rayman is actually the only one of his kind because while they keep saying it like it's truth, they keep trying to bring in a girlfriend for him presumably of the same species, or said he had one previously, and then there's the entire first game which throws a lot of people for a loop. Also Bad Rayman and supposedly Tarayzan exist so fuck yeah contradictions. According to that one mosaic apparently Rayman's hair isn't exactly Rayman's hair?? But that mosaic is also one of the most contradictory things ever introduced in the series and probably isn't canon by any stretch of the imagination, just something put there for laughs. We don't know when Rayman actually learned to use his helicopter hair. Sometimes they say he's always been able to, but according to what we've seen he's only been able to do it since the first game. Even if it was the whole "you've lost all your powers because the natural balance of the world has been upset" deal, they did the same in the second game and Rayman was able to helicopter just fine without the aid of a silver lum. And then you have the fact that I keep bringing up repeatedly because this annoys the crap out of me, but in every appearance of Globox since his introduction, his personality is constantly changing. They can't seem to decide what sort of character he is, and because of this we don't actually know Globox. You can speculate about all of that, but in the end your conclusion will be nothing but a headcanon because there is no real confirmation for any of them.

Also,in Rayman 2,it is said that Rayman is the only limbless character,but the General is limbless too.Another contradiction

[Master]

There are contradictions, yes. But there's also retcons, with the changes RO brought, the limbless situation is practically resolved.

[Raven_Guardian]

"Rayman 2" never said Rayman was the only limbless being. It just say that Rayman's origins are mysterious, is the only creature not dreamed by Polokus and he can get powers from the fairies.
Rayman Origins however...

[Master]

The issue that many had with Rayman 2 was the fact that people were mystified by his signature lack of arms and legs, even though that was the norm in Rayman 1, Origins solved that problem by having most of the characters of Rayman 1 become limbed, however, by reading the BETA script, one can find that not all became limbed, Tar-Ray-Zan remains limbless, the justification being that he was the first attempt at creating Rayman, DarkRay also, due to him being Rayman's evil twin, also retains his limblessness.
I remember there being a Lore thread where members could discuss continuity quirks, I'll see if I can find it again.

[Rulez]

Here it is.

[Master]

Ah, thanks Rulez!
Hm, started by Spiral...

[Dark Lum Lord]

No, there's definitely a canon in Rayman. The only problem is the constant retcons that make it difficult to tell what still is and isn't canon.

For example, we know for a fact that Rayman is limbless, can use his hair to glide, and can easily detach part of his body with little to no effort. His best friend is Globox. These are all canon facts.

HOWEVER, we have no idea if Rayman is actually the only one of his kind because while they keep saying it like it's truth, they keep trying to bring in a girlfriend for him presumably of the same species, or said he had one previously, and then there's the entire first game which throws a lot of people for a loop. Also Bad Rayman and supposedly Tarayzan exist so fuck yeah contradictions. According to that one mosaic apparently Rayman's hair isn't exactly Rayman's hair?? But that mosaic is also one of the most contradictory things ever introduced in the series and probably isn't canon by any stretch of the imagination, just something put there for laughs. We don't know when Rayman actually learned to use his helicopter hair. Sometimes they say he's always been able to, but according to what we've seen he's only been able to do it since the first game. Even if it was the whole "you've lost all your powers because the natural balance of the world has been upset" deal, they did the same in the second game and Rayman was able to helicopter just fine without the aid of a silver lum. And then you have the fact that I keep bringing up repeatedly because this annoys the crap out of me, but in every appearance of Globox since his introduction, his personality is constantly changing. They can't seem to decide what sort of character he is, and because of this we don't actually know Globox. You can speculate about all of that, but in the end your conclusion will be nothing but a headcanon because there is no real confirmation for any of them.

Also,in Rayman 2,it is said that Rayman is the only limbless character,but the General is limbless too.Another contradiction

Hah, I actually never even noticed that until you pointed it out.

[Slogbait]

The issue that many had with Rayman 2 was the fact that people were mystified by his signature lack of arms and legs, even though that was the norm in Rayman 1, Origins solved that problem by having most of the characters of Rayman 1 become limbed, however, by reading the BETA script, one can find that not all became limbed, Tar-Ray-Zan remains limbless, the justification being that he was the first attempt at creating Rayman, DarkRay also, due to him being Rayman's evil twin, also retains his limblessness.
I remember there being a Lore thread where members could discuss continuity quirks, I'll see if I can find it again.

The Stone Men also retained their limblessness. I distinctly remember getting really giddy upon seeing their reappearance and being able to recognize them immediately. I'm not sure if you can pass that off as magic mumbo jumbo though because in the backgrounds we can see plots of land floating around the mountains, so the Stone Men are meant to mimic that or something.

[plotlineplus]

I know this has been said to death, but there's really nothing worth getting a brain aneurism over. The series, simple put, is well... Simple. Granted, it's my favorite game series of all time but that doesn't mean I should try to make sense of it. I just enjoy it for what it is. A seperate series of games with common themes but no continuity. It's not some epic trilogy like Jak and Daxter and it's not a convoluted mess of ideas like kingdom hearts. But apart from all the Rabbids sequels, it has been consistantly good.

[Master]

Well, this topic has only been inactive for a couple of months.
Anyways, I think we all know that the Rayman series isn't meant to have the same degree of coherence as games such as the Jak and Daxter series, however, I find a certain joy in making sense of the chaos. I think there's some amusement, and dare I say, enjoyment in fitting the puzzle together, each Rayman game may be practically standalone (though Legends certainly seems to be kicking the habit), but there are definite references to each other, and while trying to fit them together may not serve much purpose, it still is an interesting topic to discuss and debate.

[rawr]

I definitely agree, there's really not a lot of plot holes between games. There is an exception for Rayman 1 what with the other species that looked like Rayman, yet in later installments it is evident that he is the only one of his kind (or the only one discovered), so that could be confusing sometimes.

[plotlineplus]

@Master:
You know, I didn't think of it that way. I guess it's kind of a fan's job to overanalyze things. When it's something you enjoy thinking about than something trivial like this can become it's own adventure. So long as noone takes it to seriously.

[Shrooblord]

Didn't the manual of Rayman 2 say Rayman washed up somewhere where they didn't know who or what he was? Maybe he washed up on the Glade, which is why all info from the Glade states that Rayman is the only one of his species (discovered). Perhaps he was having one too many lazy sleep-in-the-hammock days at his beach house when the tides came in and took him to the Glade.

But seriously, I could definitely see Rayman's 'species' elsewhere, though perhaps not in the Glade. The fact that he's able to receive powers from the Fairies (even though nobody (there!) seems to know why) correlates with the fact that he got his previous powers (back) from the Fairy Betilla.

Also, one other character has always remained limbless, or at least legless: Globox.