A screenshot I took of Rayman 2: The Great Escape for iOS. As far as I know, this was based on the Dreamcast version, for what that’s worth. Apparently the DS versions are quite buggy.
This is in the Land of the Livid Dead, in a small graveyard section off the main path. One of the graves houses an ambushing robot pirate. At the far end are two graves with identical images, or skeletons.
This picture illustrates an interesting bit of fanon I’ve constructed. My theory goes like this. The figure, to me, resembles the Magician from Rayman 1, despite his arms. You see, the original Magician was a Rayperson, as were several of the cast. This was retconned later. In my theory, instead of being retconned into a Teensy, the original Magician died and was interred here.
A separate Teensy, perhaps his apprentice or similar, then took on his mantle. Unfortunately he also took on another mantle. *SPOILERS* Rayman Origins’ Teensy Magician is also the new Mr. Dark. Unused dialogue in Origins fleshes out Mr. Dark 2’s background, but I can’t find it online. The lead writer, however, stated that Origins’ Mr. Dark was a copycat, confirming this aspect of my theory. If he’s copying Dark, he can copy the Magician too.
The existing theory for the graves is that they are for robo-pirates, but my weird theory explains why the Magician is different between 1 and Origins. And the second grave? Why, it belongs to the Magician’s English brother, Andrew, of course! They are identical, apart from their clothes. Andrew appeared in the French-only educational title, English with Rayman. Nobody replaced him, of course.
I may not have explained this too well, but it fits together in my mind. And it’s way better than a straight retcon, as it keeps the universe consistent. Rayman’s actual origin, on the other hand, is much harder to keep straight between games. But that’s fanon for another day!
So apparently Asimov’s Laws of Robotics were mentioned in Megaman 7 and X1. I don’t rmember it at the time, but now that I have been reminded, I do seem to recall that they were mentioned at some point. It’s not that important to the series, especially the X series, because basically everyone that appears is a Reploid, but I guess you never fight humans. X and the Maverick Hunters are supposed to be fighting for the humans, after all. Of course, you confront Wily at the end of every Classic game, but never kill him. They explicitly call it out in 7, and apparently in different localisations there are different outcomes.
The reason I mention it though, is I just realised the significance of a major plot point of Zero 4. Weil “reveals” at one point, very dramatically, that he is in fact a human! Aha! So there! He brings it up more than once, as I recall. However, I was very underwhelmed by this supposed revelation. Firstly, I already figured that out, but also so what? What does it matter if he’s a human—apparently Zero was led to believe he was a Reploid? So now I get that Zero must have at some point been bound by the Three Laws, and so could not harm humans.
The guy has a mostly cybernetic body anyway, but I guess that’s beside the point. And by the time of ZX the lines have been blurred so all that goes out the window. But at this time, he is banking on the fact that he can rule all Reploids because they’re not allowed to hurt him. This really could have been explained better by the game, I feel.
Zero’s response, incidentally, is along the lines of: “I don’t care if you’re human or Reploid, you are a Maverick, and so it is my duty to destroy you either way.” Like Classic Megaman in English MM7, he is now “more than a robot” and able to make his own judgements, no longer bound by the Laws. X attained this state through 30 years of rigorous morality testing, but presumably Classic MM and Zero have also achieved this level of human-like decision-making due to their life experiences (these are my own speculations). I may be misremembering some details in this post, but sometimes it’s just fun to be a fan.
Did you know that in the entire robots continuity of Mega Man, there is more than one robot based on Sun Wukong from Journey to the West? Also known as Son Goku (yes, THAT Son Goku was also based on this character). Two of the distinguishing traits of this character are the distinctive crown, and the magical extending rod. And he’s a monkey.
On the left we have Buster Rod G, from the Sega Mega Drive port of the first three Classic games. Wily Wars (or Rockman Mega World) was the Mario All-Stars of Mega Man, if you will. This game had an extra mode after the three main games that was a new Wily fortress, into which you could take any weapon or item from the three games. The bosses of these stages were based on characters from the ancient Chinese story, including this guy, who you fought twice.
The monkey on the right is named Hanumachine, referencing the Hindu god Hanuman, although he’s not fooling anyone. The elongating staff and crown give him away as another Sun Wukong look-alike (his nickname is the Super Monkey of Knowledge). He appears in Mega Man Zero 1, attacking the Resistance base, wielding fire powers but actually in the stealthy Hidden Phantom’s personal army. He is revived by Dr. Weil in Zero 3 as Hanumachine R, and leads one of his armies.
The Wily Wars is self-contained, so the three new Robot Masters are at least internally consistent. However, most Robot Master in the Classic series are simple human-shaped affairs, with only a few that stand out as based on mythology (Tengu Man, Centaur Man and Splash Woman). On the other hand, the Mutos Reploids that are the bosses throughout the Zero games often reference mythological beings and creatures, so Hanumachine fits in very well.
Many people probably know that in Donkey Kong Country 2, in Cranky’s Video Game Heroes room, you see Mario, Yoshi and Link’s only physical appearances in a DK series game (apart from the unavailable Diddy Kong Pilot alpha). Many of these people probably know that also in that room is a rubbish bin, with Sonic the Hedgehog’s shoes and Earthworm Jim’s raygun next to it (with the label No Hopers).
What perhaps not many of these people know is that this snipe at the competition may have in one case been a retaliation for a previous snipe. Specifically, in Earthworm Jim: Special Edition for the Sega CD, an enhanced rerelease of the original Earthworm Jim game, there are cheat codes to put amusing masks on Jim or change his head. One of these transforms his head into DK’s, complete with a comical arrow running through’t. A pretty ugly sprite if you ask me, which just adds to the insult I suppose. So maybe Rare knew about this and maybe put in their own game their own little friendly jab at a rival platforming series, maybe as a direct response.
Maybe.
NOTE: I made this picture myself, from a screenshot I took. Glowsquid then uploaded it to Super Mario Wiki at my request, as I didn’t have those privileges. Thanks to that guy.
