Why Rayfrog works so well
DISCLAIMER: I will spoil the entire of the Netflix adult series "Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix."
Tw// torture, drug use, sexual themes, graphic violence, Angst, and fascism
Rayfrog is a fascinating ship for me personally and one that I and many other Rayman and Laserhawk fans have gravitated towards. Two characters represent two very different IPs, both aesthetically and thematically. However, when framed in the context of a story that uses cyberpunk as a framework to craft a narrative of revolution to discover a crack ship with legitimacy and the tragedies they might overcome if season two is ever greenlit.
If you're reading this post, you've most likely watched all 6 episodes of captain laserhawk on Netflix. (if not, please watch it! It is so good, and I want season two in my VEINS)
Let me just get this out of the way: despite all the edgy memes about sushi on anthro cows and snorting cocaine and promotional trailers depicting him as a villain due to not having a game in over 10 years, this Rayman is NOT the Rayman from the games. This AU version of Rayman makes sense as most Rayman fans already know what the character is like, so seeing him in an assumed villain role was the perfect hook for the advertising.
In this universe, Rayman was a celebrity and mascot for Eden. Using a nonhuman and nonhybrid to be the face of Eden, they can use Rayman without fearing immediate backlash. And even if they did, they can silence the ones that do. They can do all that while also lying to Rayman about the actual info, and they also have the added benefit of Rayman believing it.
Which makes his realization of all the false propaganda he was spewing hit harder because Rayman, in the games, would always protect the little guy, and now he was suppressing them with a smile on his face. And he learned all of this from a hacked message telling him to seek a frog for the truth.
And that frog just so happens to be declared a terrorist by the same company that lied to him for who knows how long.
Meet bullfrog! Despite him being an original character based on Assassin's Creed rather than his role being taken up by one of the Assassins in the series (like the Assassin he's based on), Ezio. It makes his rise to fan fave all the more incredible. The team also saw this potential since he had a whole trailer dedicated to him before the show came out. And it's not hard to see the appeal. He's the most emotionally mature character in the series. Has some of the best moments in the show, gets the job done, and is voiced by the creative director Balak. Some argue he and Rayman carried the show.
The way Bullfrog tells Rayman the truth also adds to his character as well as Rayman. He's not angry at him; he doesn't even yell at him. He even gives him juice and tells him the truth. He reminds him about how he became Eden's poster boy. He tells him that he was right for being upset, and he got silenced for it by the people he was working for. And even got Rayman to open up about his backstory. And most importantly, he showed him the horrors of Eden's propaganda and how Rayman was advertising a fascist regime. That was the moment Rayman realized how bad he messed up. However, the damage was already done he sat by and let an entire system ruin the lives of so many even the frog that told him everything.
So what does Rayman do? well for a lack of better terms, he became Rayman again but things are so much different now.
With a new resolve, he went directly to the higher-ups to ensure that Bullfrog wasn't executed permanently even though, as bullfrog says in episode 3,
"Be wary of the path to vengeance. That tree will bear bitter fruit"...
the season ends with them alive but their fates are unknown at least for now...
With all that stated, let's discuss why people want Rayman and an Assassin Creed frog to smooch each other.
Combine the fact that both of these characters are nonhuman with the fact that they have the best voice performances of the whole show, the implied character importance and arcs for both of these characters, and the fact that they both have the potential for concern and chemistry (I mean look at these shots after Rayman got bodied by a xenophobe).
Shows the lengths to which the show wants these characters to be happy together, but like the other prominent gay couple in the show, Dolph and Alex, I fear they're trials both must overcome if they want to be together. This includes but is not limited to Rayman coming to terms with being an accomplice to a capitalist hellscape company, the bomb that's still in Bullfrog's head, (Maybe some internalized homophobia for Rayman if the writers want to get spicy), bullfrog's past that hasn't been fully revealed yet, the fact that the aesthetic of this whole show is cyberpunk a genre of storytelling that NEVER has a happy ending for anyone, bullfrog's code of honor, what happened to globox and raymanâs other friends, and EVERYTHING WITH UNIVERSE X. Fans latch on to those theories like a moth to a flame for hurt comfort and fluff fics so much potential to be wholesome and/or tragic depending on what the writers want to do in season two (if it gets greenlit).
You also have to take into account the paratextual context of Rayman ( a dead IP that only recently got closure from the Rabbids that buried him back in the 2000s in the form of DLC) and an assassins Creed character ( a franchise that's currently running and returning back from its roots from what I've heard) being in the same room talking about both of them are used and even abused by Eden (Ubisoft). That incentivizes fans to write complex fics and theories on these two.
In conclusion, this pair not only has the potential to be a healthier ship compared to Dolph and Alex or even be darker and more tragic than that. And this ship has the added benefit of being a commentary on classism, IP usage, vengeance, and revolution.
TDLR: PLEASE WATCH THIS SHOW. I NEED SEASON TWO, I NEED CLOSURE, AND I WORKED TOO HARD ON THIS POST FOR THIS SHOW TO BE CANNED."
UPDATE: Apparently, the original Raymon transformation clip got taken off YouTube, so I decided to clip the scene from a compilation video.
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