Why Rayman 1 and Rayman Origin's Magician are NOT the same!
Woah, that's a very bold claim, some of you might say.
"But the Rayman wiki says they are the same" — first of all, the wiki does NOT contain a source that directly confirms they are the same, and doing my own research I haven't either. And second of all, wiki editors are human thus can interpret things wrongly so I don't blame them nor the community for assuming this. Lastly, this is purely speculation, and while I believe it, some of you might not. There is no concrete proof of either, they could be wrong, I could be wrong. However to assume and have the wiki state this as a fact is kinda unnerving to me, so here I am going to give you my reasoning.
Be aware i'm gonna go into lots of detail, and thus there will be lots of text so if you are uninterested, scroll to the end for a tl;dr!
If you can find an official source that debunks my reasoning or disagree, PLEASE tell me!
Now then, what is this reasoning?
At first I also believed them to be the same, and when finding headcanons of them being different, I thought it was just silly. However, I then got very interested into Rayman Origins' lore... eventually stumbling upon the early script. So I read it... only to realize upon further inspection that it offers evidence that denies this claim. Although this script is scrapped, at least 90% of it is implied to still be canon, and when looking at the game closely we can see there are still references to it so I am going to show you what this told us about our villainous teensy...
Rayman Origins' hidden lore
After the Mr. Dark plot and prequel thing was changed, Rayman Origins had a clearer story. However, for some reason, some dialogues and scenes were cut out from the game! Particularly one scene was affected the most from this: The Reveal.
Here we are revealed the Magician is actually the bad guy! We fight some bosses, return, are met with a distraction dance and finally chase the bad guy.
...In the final game, that is. The early script reveals to us what were the bad guy's motivations, and information on his identity.
And right here we have the proof.
The Proof
In the aforementioned sequence, the early script tells the story:
The heroes arrive at the bad guy's lair. However they find someone unexpected...
Murfy: “Oh! The bad guy! It's the magician!”, exclaims Murfy upon seeing the guy they exchanged lums for electoons with throughout the game. He identifies him as the magician after seeing his iconic hat.
But after turning around, the bad guy smiles, and proceeds to remove the star from his hat.
Murfy: “No! It's Mr. Dark!“ Says Murfy in shock, realizing he tricked them... who else could it be? The hat, the cloak, the evil aura... It must be Mr. Dark!
"Mr Dark": "Ah ha ha! Yes. Tremble you silly creatures! Order! Reason! The very words are lost on you pea-brained peons!”
He then activates a lever that leads our heroes into mechanic replicas of previously encountered bosses... however the heroes beat them all! Alas, they return to the room with this alledged "Mr. Dark"
They end up taking him by surprise, to the point he falls over, his hat and hair now tossed aside...
Murfy: “Oh! The bad guy! It's a Teensy!”
That's right. He is not The Magician, he is not Mr. Dark... he was just a Teensy that admired Mr. Dark and wanted to be dark and mysterious like him.
(Unlike the final game) He starts crying, and reveals his plan. He explains he hid a microphone in a flower (can still be seen in-game) in order to start a war with the Livid Dead. He had now a way to make the heroes gather Lums in his stead, and at the same time rendering Polokus helpless and serving as a distraction. He used the power of the lums to power his machines.
Lastly, he tells the heroes how he was always bad magic, and the other kids at magic school always bullied him. They used him as a guinea pig for their spells, and excluded him from their activities.
This backstory sends the heroes crying, and the Teensy uses this opportunity to escape.
During the chase, it's revealed to us the Teensy wanted to get rid of Magic and Polokus' (Bubble Dreamer's) rule. He considered Polokus to be a useless god whose nightmares caused trouble. His goal was to replace the glade's magic with his machines and overthrow Polokus.
Finally the chase ends exploding the mechanical contraption in the sky, leading our heroes back to the start and our villain in an unknown state.
So... Who is he?
Well, as some of you might know, BD (Polokus) had dialogue regarding our Teensy, were he refers to him as "Ales Mansay", and states the following:
"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...?
No reference to the magician in Rayman 1, and heck not even a reference to Ales Mansay being a magician in the first place.
The only thing I could think of that "could" imply they are the same is his name in the files... which also call him a "photographer". That is correct, "ALES MANSAY_MagicianPhotographer". I don't think this implies he is both the magician and the photographer, but rather his roles in-game.
(1st image is from an early RO trailer, scrapped. 2nd is R1's photographer.)
Upon further inspection of the script, most of the dev-comments refer to him as "Ales", and most of the ones that refer to him as "magician" are referring to the hat, with a few exceptions. The photographer part I think is because he was supposed to be also a checkpoint that similarly to Rayman 1, took a photo of us. I think that is also why in the end sequences we see a carboard cutout similar to those in Rayman 1. So the text in caps is his character, the rest is his roles.
(in case you didn't know, this is pig-latin for "Checkpoint!" and "Cheese!")
So, Ales Mansay is a Teensy that sucked at magic and was bullied by his peers. He became an admirer of Mr. Dark for being mysterious and dark, and aspired to be like him. He saw Polokus as childish and dangerous due to his nightmares and desired to get rid of him and magic, replacing them with machines, and by Ales' own words "Bringing peace and order to the glade". He is defeated in the end of Origins, and we don't know what happened to him... But his legacy is not over.
The Dark Teensies
In Rayman Legends, we see what happened 100 years after Origins. In that time, nightmares multiplied. Among these nightmares, 5 copies of Ales Mansay can be seen to take the spotlight.
I believe Ales himself did NOT create these clones, but rather Bubble Dreamer himself (subconsciously) did based on the events of Origins. They match up with how BD himself sees Ales. An evil Teensy that pretends to be a magician (thus he wears the hat), that uses machinery to his advantage (his vehicle he constantly is seen flying in) and sucks at magic (his magic shield dissolving after being honked in the nose, and temporarily turning the gang into ducks). He summons the bad guys and is evil. But unlike the real Ales, these clones don't seem to care much about his actual goal of stopping nightmares and overthrowing Polokus. They just seem to enjoy trapping the other Teensies and antagonizing Ray & co.
Also a small detail to keep in mind is how they are called "Dark Teensies" and not "Dark Magicians" or something. No idea where this name came from, however to me it seems pretty clear they are not seen as magicians.
Finally
And looking back on it all, with these ideas in mind... doesn't it fit so seamlessly? Doesn't it make every piece fit in place, and explains the confusion of this character? Everything makes sense now!
TL;DR: They are different characters. In Rayman Origins, "Ales Mansay" is only a Teensy that pretended to be the magician to trick the gang into exchanging lums for electoons. He is not even a magician, since he sucks at magic. He admired Mr. Dark and wanted to overthrow Polokus.
