The Magician (Rayman Origins)

• This article is about the Teensy antagonist who appears in Rayman Origins. For the member of Rayman's species who appears in the original Rayman game and a number of educational video games based on its universe, and whose relationship with the former is unclear, see The Magician (Rayman 1).

The Magician
Other names	{{{other names}}}
Alignment	Bad
Appears in	Rayman Origins
Location	{{{location}}}
Portrayed by	Douglas Rand
Sex	Male
Species	Teensy
Status	{{{status}}}
Relatives	Dark Teensies (clones)
Unlock criteria	{{{Unlock criteria}}}

The Magician, also known as the Dark Teensy, is the main antagonist in Rayman Origins. Originally passing as a benevolent character helping the heroes throughout their quest by providing them with advice and access to new areas, he is later revealed to be a traitor and secret admirer of Mr Dark who has been manipulating the heroes in an attempt at world domination.

He is a Teensy and, because of the lack of dialogue and intelligible storytelling in the game, his relationship to the identically named member of Rayman's species who appears in the original game is unclear: he could be an impersonator, the same character reimagined or there could be no further connection between the two.

In Rayman Legends, the Magician multiplied to become the five villainous Dark Teensies.

Description

Appearance

The Magician is a Teensy who wears a purple shirt, a black coat, a blue wig and the same star-adorned top hat as the identically named member of Rayman's species who appears in the original game, albeit lightly redesigned, with a pink band surrounding the lower part and the star moved to the upper part, and with some points unsticking. Just like his counterpart, he can be found hiding inside his hat.

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  The Magician in Rayman Origins
• 
  The Magician's hat

Personality

From the beginning of Rayman Origins, the Magician presents himself as an energetic and benevolent character. As the game continues, he begins to make sarcastic remarks with sinister undertones. At the end of the game, it is revealed that the Magician is a traitor who secretly admires Mr Dark, and has been manipulating the heroes in an attempt at world domination.

Appearances

In Rayman Origins

Final game

In Rayman Origins, the Magician can still be found hiding inside his top hat, but now he gives the heroes advice rather than unlocking bonus levels.

The Magician will help you throughout your quest. He's always willing to trade you Electoons for Lums, which will help you unlock new worlds and maps. At your service, his magic hat will provide tips and tricks galore to help you survive.

—Manual, Rayman Origins

The Magician is first encountered at the beginning of Rayman Origins, where he is found inside his distinctive top hat, which is sitting on the ground outside the Snoring Tree. Each time one of the players jumps on the hat, the Magician offers a few words of advice. The hat appears in many places throughout the game, and the players can jump on it at any time for tips relevant to their current situation. However, there are some hints at his darker side; he makes sarcastic comments, and has little concern for the heroes, beyond using them as a source of Lums. Sometimes he even questions Rayman's position as a hero.

At the end of each level, he is seen holding a test tube which he uses to count the number of Lums collected by the players. In exchange for certain numbers of Lums, he gives the heroes Electoons, but if the players reach the top of the test tube, they receive a Lum Medal. The Magician displays great joy and excitement whenever the heroes bring him a large number of Lums. In these post-level screens, the Magician can be seen fully: unlike the character of the same name from the original game who is a member of Rayman's species with blond hair, he is shown to be a Teensy with blue hair.

The last world of the game, apart from the Land of the Livid Dead, is the Moody Clouds, a sprawling flying city with retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics which has been built above the Glade of Dreams. When the heroes finally arrive, they find the Magician's magic hat waiting for them. However, instead of offering helpful advice as he usually does, the Magician frantically tells them that they are going the wrong way, warning them to turn back before it is too late. In spite of the Magician's warning, the heroes work their way through the Moody Clouds.

Along the way, they find many Lums trapped in glass containers connected to machines; it seems that they are being used to power the Moody Clouds and its robotic denizens. Eventually the heroes reach the heart of the mystery, a level titled ‘the Reveal’. They step into the Moody Clouds headquarters, only to find the Magician working the controls of the diabolical machinery encountered throughout the level. Caught, the Magician spins round, gives the heroes a smile and rips the golden star off his hat. He then jumps onto his desk and poses while lightning flashes in the windows behind him. The walls are decorated with posters of a mysterious, shadowy figure with a hat and a cloak; one poster bears the words '♥ Mister D', revealing that the Magician was secretly a fan of Mr Dark, the villain of the original Rayman.

Also on the wall is a diagram showing Lums being fed into a machine to produce electricity: it is revealed that the Magician has been using the Lums he collected from the heroes to power the creation of his mechanical empire, the Moody Clouds. At this moment, the Magician pulls a lever, causing the heroes to fall through a trap door, where they must fight mechanical recreations of the Carnivora and Mocking Bird bosses. Once these have been defeated, the heroes climb back to the office of the Magician, where he distracts them with a disco number (recalling the dances of the original game's bosses) before running away. The heroes must them pursue him through a storm of falling debris and broken machinery as the Moody Clouds itself begins to disintegrate.

Eventually the Magician hops on board an airship, and the heroes must pursue him on the backs of their giant mosquito friends. Eventually the airship crashes into the fiery core of the Moody Clouds, causing an enormous explosion. The heroes fall from the sky and land back at the Snoring Tree, where the game began. The Magician's fate is unknown.

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  The Magician collects the player's Lums at the end of each level.
• 
  After the reveal, the Magician pulls a lever to cause the heroes to fall through a trap door.
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  The Magician attempts to distract the player by dancing.

In the months leading up to and following the release of Rayman Origins, there was some confusion amongst the public about the identity of the villain and his relationship to Mr Dark, largely because of the lack of dialogue and lucid storytelling in the final version of the game. In January 2012, lead writer Gabrielle Shrager confirmed that the Magician was simply a big fan and admirer of Mr Dark, and an usurper.

Early development

Mr Dark was originally meant to return in Rayman Origins, but he was scrapped from the final game and replaced with the Magician, for which the developers reused his new appearance as a Teensy, with only small modifications such as shortening his hair and removing the swirl on his nose.

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  Mr Dark as he was originally meant to appear in Rayman Origins. His appearance was reused for the Magician, albeit with small changes.
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  The PlayStation Store avatar of Mr Dark

Scrapped plot

I remember you... Ales Mansay, right? You stunk at magic. Did the other Teensies tease you? No reason to lose your sense of humor... Hahaha...Gulp. Or is it...

—Bubble Dreamer, Rayman Origins (unused dialogue)

An earlier version of the game's script was found amongst the files of the game's demo, and, while it follows the same general story, it also would have shed more light on certain aspects of the plot, and contains a large amount of dialogue that was removed from the final version of the game. In this scrapped scenario, the Magician, real name Ales Mansay (which translates to "Salesman" in Pig Latin), was bullied and ostracised by the other Teensies at magic school for his poor magical abilities. He secretly admired Mr Dark, whom he wanted to emulate, and also developed a hatred for the Bubble Dreamer, whose nightmares had repeatedly overcome the Glade of Dreams and were a constant threat to its inhabitants. As a consequence, he concocted a plan, where he hid a microphone in the Snoring Tree so that the heroes' snoring would irritate and ultimately start a war with the Livid Dead. This microphone, disguised as a flower, can still be seen in the final game, in both the beginning and ending sequences. Throughout the game, the Magician pretended that he was still a friend of the heroes, allowing him to collect Lums from them in exchange for Electoons which they could use to reach new levels. The Magician used these Lums to power his mechas: gigantic machines, including Mecha Carnivora and Mecha Mockingbird, which he was building to take over the Glade of Dreams, imposing order and eliminating the chaos of the Bubble Dreamer's nightmares. Eventually, however, the heroes reached the Magician's headquarters in the Moody Clouds and put a stop to his plans.

This plot was scrapped from the final game due to time constraints, and all that is left of it is the posters on the walls in the Magician's headquarters, indicating that the part about him being an admirer of Mr Dark still holds true, as well as the microphone in the beginning and ending scenes.

Additionally, the early script for the game contains dialogue from the Bubble Dreamer which mentions a playable character called Teensoudini, whose name suggests he was also a Teensy magician. His connection with the Magician is unknown.

In Rayman Legends

Main article: Dark Teensy

Early screenshots of Rayman Legends showed the Magician's hat in a level of the game, however, this is not seen in the final version. Instead, 100 years after the events of Rayman Origins, with Rayman and friends caught in a deep sleep, the nightmares and evil monsters multiply, and the Magician has also done so into the Dark Teensies.

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  The Magician's hat in an early version of Rayman Legends
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  A Dark Teensy laughing

In Rayman Adventures

In Rayman Adventures, the Magician is mentioned in Rabbiteen's description, which says that her long lost brother jumped into his hat, never to be seen again. It is unclear if this is a reference to the Magician from Rayman Origins, the identically named member of Rayman's species from the original game, or both.

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  The mention of the Magician in Rabbiteen's description

In Rayman in the Phantom Show

While the Magician does not appear in Rayman in the Phantom Show, the third DLC of Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, replicas of his hat and the identically named member of Rayman's species's staff can be found in the Backing Studio.

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  Replicas of the Magician's hat and staff in the Backing Studio

Trivia

• The Magician's dance style is similar to that of Michael Jackson.