Rayman Headcanons

[Razorbeard]

Every time I read 'limbless <creature>' my mind comes up with horribly graphic results.

I doubt they get as graphic as "Young woman with no torso or head seeks Rayman for torrid mergers".
And now I'm coming up with what that would end up looking like.
Dammit, Razor.

[Shrooblord]

I don't quite follow what any of that means, really. Torrid mergers? What woman? No head... no body???

[THEdragon]

Sheesh, I wasn't expecting my headcanon about cute little Valley babies to take the topic in this bizarre direction!

Speaking of which, I can only imagine how confused the first members of Rayman's species to have a child together were.
"Is the nose supposed to look like that? I think something's wrong with his face!"

[Razorbeard]

I don't quite follow what any of that means, really. Torrid mergers? What woman? No head... no body???

It's from the news ticker in the upper-right corner of the Rayman 3 menu.

[Adsolution]

I doubt they get as graphic as "Young woman with no torso or head seeks Rayman for torrid mergers".

Ahah, I remember seeing that for the very first time. I then used 'torrid' in an English essay in fourth grade, and I got accepted into a competition thing briefly.

[THEdragon]

Here's a headcanon that I guess makes sense.

During the events of Rayman 1, Rayman was already friends with Tarayzan and Joe or at least knew them, but he hadn't met the Musician before. That's why Tarayzan and Joe are referred to by their names when Rayman interacts with them, but the Musician is only referred to as that, the musician. Rayman's first impression of him was that he was a musician
As for the Musician knowing Rayman's name, I'm guessing news was probably going around of a potential saviour for the land.

[boomboleros7]

That makes sense, indeed. And maybe that's the same reason why Ales is called the Magician, and not by his real name.

Another headcanon on R1 (somebody may already point that):
When Rayman defeated his enemies, they "just" fly into the air. So maybe, like in cartoons or the Asterix comic books, they survive to their landing and are still alive. This would mean that Rayman doesn't kill anyone in his first game.
Meh, he was young and pacific at this time, unlike in the following games.

[Master]

I dunno, the punching the eyes off antitoons doesn't seem very pacifistic.

[boomboleros7]

At first sight, yes. But we see characters lose their eyes like this in cartoons and they don't die. So, maybe it's also the case with the Antitoons.
...
Maybe.

[Shrooblord]

Or maybe he's a sadistic blood-thirsty murderer out to eat human bacon Antitoon paste!

[Razorbeard]

Maybe Antitoon eyes can regenerate the rest of the Antitoon later?
I mean, you can just go back and infinitely beat up the same ones after, so that kinda explains how they're even able to respawn on subsequent visits.
Totally ignoring the time-travel wizardry of R3, by the way.

[THEdragon]

Well, it is heavily implied that Rayman made peace with most of his enemies after Rayman 1, and the end of Rayman Junior directly states that reformed antitoons, explorers and hunters attended the celebrations with no hard feelings. Then in Rayman Activity Centre some of the enemies from the first game appear as friends.

I see it as the 'people' who were enemies in R1 (livingstones, hunters, clowns, etc) were just normal people who fell under Mr Dark's spell like the boss enemies (So I doubt he would want to actually kill them), while the antitoons and obstacles like those spiky crystal ball things and those pointy stone rockets appeared as a result of the Valley falling into chaos.

Though livingstones can be made to fall into water, so I don't know what happens to them if that happens. As for Rayman punching antitoon's eyeballs out of their sockets, well, I'm not exactly sure what to make of that! Perhaps electoons are very magical beings who don't follow all laws of what's normal, and antitoons are just the evil equivalent of that.

Also, another headcanon! Rayman knows the name of every electoon and can recognise each one of them individually. All 714 (or more). And, he is confused as to why everyone else finds it so hard to tell them apart and remember all their names, yet he sometimes gets Globox's children confused with each other.

[boomboleros7]

I see it as the 'people' who were enemies in R1 (livingstones, hunters, clowns, etc) were just normal people who fell under Mr Dark's spell like the boss enemies (So I doubt he would want to actually kill them), while the antitoons and obstacles like those spiky crystal ball things and those pointy stone rockets appeared as a result of the Valley falling into chaos.

In Rayman games, there are definite groups of enemies (Robo-Pirates, Hoodlums, Rabbids…) but the others are most difficult to classify.

I still think about it with lists. According to me, there are:
- Nightmares of Polokus (born from the bad dreams of the Bubble Dreamer: Jano and his siblings, caterpillars, Antitoons, Hunters, Livingstones...)
- Corrupt Glade natives (they become bad when the balance of the planet is broken: piranhas, zombie chickens, clowns...)
- Normal Glade natives (their aggressiveness is natural. Here, we have enemies from R3 such as Knaarens, Podocrocks, Muddibogs...)

[THEdragon]

Ah, yeah, that makes sense.

And here's another Rayman 1 headcanon. I'm basically a Rayman 1 headcanon machine.
As it is heavily implied that Mr Dark was keeping a watch on Rayman throughout his journey, Mr Dark figured out that Rayman couldn't swim when he saw Bzzit carrying him over the lagoon. After that, Mr Dark used the powers of the Great Protoon to summon huge floods a few times in an attempt to drown him. Mr Dark did have the power to kill Rayman quickly and easily, but did not see him as a major threat until later in the game. When Rayman finally reached Candy Chateau, Mr Dark did not toast him alive in flames, but toyed around with him just to see how far he could push the supposed hero. That's why he summoned Bad Rayman, messed with his sense of direction, then made him run uncontrollably. When Rayman reached the lair, Mr Dark did attempt to kill Rayman (In a fancy display of dancing flames) but when that did not succeed he pitted him against manifestations of his own bad memories- the boss enemies.

In short, Mr Dark is more interested in power than murder, but when he does murder he does so in creative and sadistically playful ways.

[Bradandez]

Damn, you make some really good headcanons, THEdragon!

[Master]

Hmm, that does seem to be fitting indeed. Probably also explains why Dark merely nicked the Protoon as opposed to break it.

[PluMGMK]

I have to say, that one's bloody brilliant!

[THEdragon]

Heh, I wasn't expecting that headcanon to get the responses it did, but thank you!

[Shrooblord]

In short, Mr Dark is more interested in power than murder, but when he does murder he does so in creative and sadistically playful ways.

Mr. Dark's a bloody psychopath. Aha! I knew it!

I see it as the 'people' who were enemies in R1 (livingstones, hunters, clowns, etc) were just normal people who fell under Mr Dark's spell like the boss enemies (So I doubt he would want to actually kill them), while the antitoons and obstacles like those spiky crystal ball things and those pointy stone rockets appeared as a result of the Valley falling into chaos.

That makes perfect sense. Why not!
As for the Livingstones falling into water, killing them, well... you can't save everyone. A war has costs. :c

Mr. Dark corrupts himself with the notion of power. I like it!

[THEdragon]

That would also explain why Mr Dark just waltzed right into the Magician's house and took the book of knowledge and left without even harming him or Betilla. He must have taken the book because, y'know, knowledge is power. And in [Language] With Rayman, Mr Dark overheard the Magician discussing how his cousin's letter likely contains the secret to a powerful spell, so naturally he wanted in on that action. Casting the spell on Betilla and the Magician to turn them into garden gnomes was a bit of an odd move though. I can only imagine how disappointed he must have been if he did decipher the spell, only to find out it was a dessert recipe. That wouldn't be entirely useful for a supervillain living in a land made of candy.

Oh, I just had a thought. Are all those garden raygnomes based off the likeness of Rayman himself? If not, and they were created simply from the imaginations of the Glade's people prior to Rayman's arrival, then perhaps Rayman to them would at first appeared to them what a real living gnome would be to us. Some kind of bizarre fairytale creature come true.

But then there's always the disturbing thought about how Mr Dark has the magic to turn limbless into garden gnomes, and how Rayman smashed a bunch of raygnomes at the beginning of Rayman 3...