#I'm looking at you Mario Rabbids Sparks of hope Rayman and the Phantom Show DLC

[spoocys-glade-of-dreams]

Something I've noticed with Rayman is that he's one of those heroes that is often getting captured somehow and some of those times he NEEDS the help of his friends to free himself. He's a hero that tries his best to help others but is not immune to either needing help himself, or that help never comes and he has to work hard to try to free himself.

Times Rayman has been captured in order (at least to my knowledge):

1. Rayman 2. When the pirates destroyed the heart of the world, it robbed Rayman of all his powers which left him an easy target for them to capture him. Globox got himself captured so he could smuggle a silver lum from Ly to him. He was able to escape with his help.

2. Rayman vs Cullcut. This was a flash game you could play on your internet browser that released around the same time as Rayman M. It was a french exclusive typing game where Rayman was at risk of being eaten by one of the robots the pirates used to make canned food. The game ends and your score counted if Rayman's cage is lowered enough for cullcut to get him. He would also have to watch Razorwife usher crying baby globoxes to also be consumed by Cullcut. Pretty dark if you ask me.

3. Rayman 3. On Rayman's quest to purge Andre from Globox's stomach, his adventures take him to the desert of the knaarens. While trying to locate Globox after he was captured by the creatures, Rayman was soon captured by them as well. He was caged then sent to the arena where he was forced to fight Reflux. Rayman was released and was made a friend to the knaaren people when he defeated their champion.

4. Rayman Raving Rabbids (Original Console Version). Rayman was captured by Serguei and was locked in a cell. He was forced to perform at their arena and was rewarded with plungers and sometimes won the freedom of the captured baby globoxes. He had to collect enough plungers to reach a window in his cell and managed to escape with enough time, effort, and a whole lot of patience.

5. Rayman Raving Rabbids (Gameboy Advance Version). The Gameboy advance version was a completely unique experience to the raving rabbids series of games with a completely different storyline that was the most faithful to the old prototype. Rayman was captured by the rabbids, locked in a cell, and they took his hands so he couldn't fight back. He was completely helpless. Murfy was the one who went in and rescued him by busting through wooden planks on the bottom of Rayman's cell. He helped Rayman locate his hands and guided him out of the base to reunite with Ly after rescuing their friends.

6. Rayman Raving Rabbids (DS version). Once again captured by rabbids while he was just minding his own business. forced to run obstacle courses in a colosseum to win enough trophies that would allow him to fight "Rabble Droid" and earn his freedom. Rabble droid being a boss version of Serguei.

7. Rayman Origins. While enjoying a nice nap with his friends, little did Rayman know that their snores were being sent through a microphone to the land of the livid dead. The Grannies, fed up with all the noise, would retaliate and start to capture the electoons, Rayman, and his friends. This would also drive Polokus temporarily mad and the glade began to disintegrate. Rayman was caged, but managed to free himself rather quickly.

[randomrabbidramblings]

Random speculation about "Rayman in The Phantom Show"

[A bit of story related theories from what we have at the moment. I only know Rayman's lore and abilities in a very superficial way, so if you know more about him and want to add something, feel free to!]

First of all: I find it strange the objective is just to fix Phantom's Space Opera Network's ratings… Will it make this a more open worlded Tower of Doooom? Nothing wrong with that, I'm just wondering if there will be more plot to this than we got told. How could Phantom possibly convince the Heroes to do such a thing after Kingdom Battle? And where would his expected song fit into the story? He seems like he's gone on the good side, so… no Rayman roast? Unless it's a friendly roast? I find Phantom's heel-face turn a bit odd.

[I'm very torn between hoping for him to betray the Heroes at the end and having him as a final boss, or actually having a friendly (or at least passive) Phantom. Both lead to a very fun time, lol. Evil Phantom thinking he got them all while Beep-0's like "I told you guys!" and nice Phantom trying (in vain) to convince the Heroes he's not a villain this time.]

The enemies seem to be all the kinds of Darkmess infested baddies we've already seen in Sparks of Hope and The Last Spark Hunter. They are called "supporting crew" by the narrator, so maybe the place isn't infested with them, unless it's all an excuse to hide the fact Phantom's show has disaster ratings because of them.

There are Darkmess eyes and puddles too, so looks like the DLC is set in between the previous adventures and Cursa is still around. Or Phantom somehow managed to get his hands on some of Cursa's minions, but this doesn't explain the Darkmess.

We can kind of piece together what's happening in this scene: seems like Phantom just made his entrance after the lift scene seen in the trailer (there's its staircase behind him) with Rabbid Peach and Rabbid Mario reacting accordingly. We can also get some info about the environment. It seems to be the entrance we already saw in the trailer. On the corners of the floor there are dirt mounds? Is that dust or sand? Is the building in a desert or just very dirty? In Phantom fashion, like the old theater in Spooky Trails, the place seems a bit run down with ripped wallpaper revealing bricks, torn curtains and glass on the floor. At this point I'm wondering if the problems with the Space Opera Network are due to the Darkmess infesting the place or to Phantom's... very poor understanding of "keeping the workspace free of hazards".

This is the lift Phantom is seen coming out from in the trailer. And of course it's one of the few things not damaged in some way. He has standards! I don't know what's with the green color theme for him instead of blue, but I like it! I imagine this lift connects the various sets we've seen. In this floor there seems to be some minor sets for different shows, like a cooking show with Alkementor, some kind of music show with DJ Cheep Tuna (no more stranded on Beacon Beach, Augie seems to have finally paid him, lol) and one with a red Spark. I think it's some kind of dating game? There are three hearts on the background screen and the floor has the shape of a pink letter.

Phantom in his intro scene and on the poster has three spotlights on him. Probably a callback to the ones that kept him invulnerable in each phases of his battle in Kingdom Battle or maybe they are hinting at another boss fight. Either way, he sure does seem like he's very afraid of ending up like last time with the spotlights following him even when he's inside the lift, lmao. It would be funny if he sometimes popped up in places where physically there shouldn't be any spotlights, but still lights shine on him for some unknown reason

Finally, I wonder if there will be Phantom's backstory portaits like we had with the Wardens. They could explain a lot of things, especially how and why he's apparently not evil anymore. I don't know how they managed a (supposedly) good guy Phantom, but I bet he's going to be very annoying (in a good way, lol) and a very insufferable boss to his crew. Reminds me of another insufferable, drama-causing Rabbid from Spooky Trails we've already encountered.