The year is 1992. It is the future.
Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix is a 2023 sci-fi action adult animated series created by Adi Shankar and animated by French studio Bobbypills (Peepoodo & the Super Fuck Friends, Vermin). It is based primarily upon the Far Cry 3 expansion Blood Dragon while also adding in elements of other Ubisoft-developed games such as The Crew, Watch_Dogs, Assassin's Creed, Beyond Good & Evil, and even Rayman and Raving Rabbids.
In an alternate, futuristic 1992, a renegade cyborg is captured and forced onto an elite but bizarre team by his prison warden in order to carry out secret missions in a dystopian cyberpunk city. The series premiered October 19, 2023 on Netflix.
Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix contains examples of the following:
- Adaptational Abomination: The Rabbids are reinterpreted as giant monstrosities rather than small mischievous lagomorphs.
- Adaptation Amalgamation: While the main inspiration is clearly Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, the series pulls in elements from a wide range of Ubisoft titles. Most notably, a lot of the plot revolves around the hybrids from Beyond Good and Evil and the main antagonists are the latest incarnation of the Templars from Assassin's Creed.
- Adaptational Personality Change: Across the board with the Ubisoft cast, especially Rayman.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- Rayman of all people is a TV presenter working for the dystopian regime, peddling their propaganda. However, he has a Heel Realization in episode 5 and pulls a Heel–Face Turn in episode 6.
- Sarah Fisher is a Morality Pet and The Heart in her home series of Splinter Cell. Here, she’s the manipulative, treacherous warden of Supermax and a member of the Board of Directors who is even willing to betray her own father as a child.
- Adaptational Badass: Beyond Good & Evil's Pey'j is a small fat guy, but a decent fighter. This Pey'j is a musclebound hulk and a powerhouse.
- Advertised Extra: Jade is featured prominently in the trailers and other advertising media but only appears at the end of episode one and a few scenes of episode two before being unceremoniously executed by Pagan Min.
- Age Lift: Marcus Holloway from Watch_Dogs 2 goes from a young recruit of DedSec to its grey-bearded leader.
- Ancient Conspiracy: In episode 6, Sarah reveals that Eden is the current incarnation of the Templar Order, the villainous secret organization from the Assassin's Creed franchise.
- Animesque: The series is made in France and uses several visual tropes typical of anime series, including some that aren't really much in use anymore, such as face faults and characters getting chibi-fied; these are still fitting, though, since the series' setting is an alternate 1992.
- Animal Assassin:
- A literal example. One of the main characters is Bullfrog, an anthropomorphic cartoon frog wearing the garb of the Assassins’ Brotherhood.
- Episode 2 introduces an army of anthropomorphic tigers led (fittingly) by Pagan Min.
- Anyone Can Die: And holy hell, do they. It's easier to say who doesn't die by the end. Bullfrog, Rayman (well, Ramon), and Marcus are the only ones to make it to the end unscathed. Sarah survives via Brain Uploading, but her physical body is killed. As for Dolph and Sam, that's left incredibly ambiguous.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Rayman gives one of these in Episode 6, to himself (well, his TV persona) shortly before becoming Ramon, ripping into him for being so willing to spread Eden's lies.Rayman: "OUR" life? You wanna look away and spread their lies with a dumb smile on your face!?
- Artifact Title: An Artifact Subtitle specifically: In spite of being named for the Far Cry 3 DLC, there are none of the titular Blood Dragons involved in the plot, with their role of interdimensional kaiju being taken by the Rabbids of all things.
- Art Shift: In Episode 2, the preview for the in-universe Rayman biopic is in a more cartoony, Western animation style, as opposed to the Animesque style of the rest of the series. The Rabbids in the trailer even resemble their original designs. This also occurs in Episode 5 when he explains a little bit of his backstory to Bullfrog, taking on an isometric 16-bit pixel art style (complete with his original design from Rayman 1).
- In Episode 4, the scenes with Laserhawk and Sarah in the Supermaxx cell are done with their actors portraying them in heavily pixelated live-action in the style of old FMV games. This ends up being because they're actually in a VR simulation.
- As Himself:
- Professional wrestlers Cody Rhodes and Kenny Omega appear as alternate universe versions of themselves.
- An In-Universe example, as well. Rayman plays himself in the biopic about him, The Ray of Hope: a Rayman Story.
- Awesome McCoolname: Captain Dolph Laserhawk. Need we say more?
- Badass Beard: Unlike his canon version, Pey'j sports some impressive facial hair.
- Badass Longcoat: Rayman trades out his newsreader duds for one of these in Episode 6.
- Beware the Silly Ones:
- Bullfrog seems to be just a goofy cartoon frog, but nevertheless he is a skilled member of the Brotherhood of Assassins and is as deadly as the best of them. He is also the only member of the team to make it to the end of the season alive.
- Rayman seems to be the usual goofy cartoon mascot - albeit one that enjoys drinking and prostitutes in his off time. Following his Heel Realization, however, he’s the one to kill off all but one of the Board of Directors.
- Bland-Name Product: Played with in that the IP is owned by the company responsible but is this universe, to drive home the dystopian themes, Just Dance is instead Must Dance.
- Butt-Monkey: The sergeant who is chief of the city's police force can never catch a break when Laserhawk is around. He ends up dying in the final episode, when Laserhawk blows up the Niji Six's giant mecha and the resulting explosion wipes out the whole police force.
- Cluster F-Bomb: It's a dystopian Cyberpunk series created by Bobbypills and produced by Ubisoft. This was inevitable.
- Company Cameo: Sort of - one of the people scanned by Captain Laserhawk in episode 3 is named Bob Pills, a reference to studio Bobbypills, this series' creators. Also, the Universal Basic Income, or UBI, is a pretty clear reference to Ubisoft.
- Crapsaccharine World: The in-universe children's program The Rayman Show
features Rayman singing a cheerful song to the kids watching about how they should respect the hard work hybrids do for society— physical labor in particular such as construction and the production of dairy or cobra juice. In other words, the show is Eden using virtue-signaling as a way to glorify the slave labor they subject their hybrid population to. - Cyber Cyclops: One of Pagan Min's elite guards is a woman who shoots beams from her round eye-like visor.
- Cyborg:
- The titular Captain Laserhawk has a cybernetic eye and a laser canon for an arm.
- Pey'j seems to have cybernetic eyes too.
- The Warden AKA Sarah Fisher is revealed to have mechanical spider legs inside her body, and when she gets blown up in the final episode she has a backup body that looks like a Terminator-esque cyber skeleton.
- Death by Adaptation: As early as Episode 2, Jade is shot dead by Pagan Min, who is in turn killed by a vengeful Pey'j. Pey'j himself dies the following episode, caught in a crossfire in a riot between humans and hybrids.
- Dead Star Walking: Cody Rhodes is presented as a member of the Ghosts before he dies in the first episode.
- Despair Event Horizon: Your boyfriend betraying you and being forced into working for the dystopian government you were originally fighting against did a number on Captain Laserhawk.
- Happens to Rayman after Episode Five, when he discovers how Eden was using him as a propaganda tool all along. By the next episode he's wielding a gun and breaking into the Board of Directors' office to save Bullfrog from execution.
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: The trailer opens with a message from DedSec as the group hacks into the airwaves.
- Explosive Leash: The "bomb implanted in the skull" variant, used by the warden of Supermaxx to keep the team in line.
- Cody Rhodes is executed in Episode 1 as an example to keep the others in line as he tried to escape.
- In Episode 2, Jade's bomb is triggered at Laserhawk's request after she dies so the others can escape from Pagan.
- Laserhawk triggers his own to kill a treacherous Sarah in Episode 6. Unfortunately, Sarah has a backup body.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Or "on the can" in this case. Energy drink Cobra Juice is revealed as being made with the actual venom milked from snake hybrids, who were also apparently engineered for this purpose.
- Fascist, but Inefficient: The Board of Directors use their total control of the media to paint Eden as a bastion of peace and stability in a chaotic world, but fittingly for an organization that has its origins in the Templar Order, they care more about enforcing absolute control than about running a functioning society that would be willing to follow them. Case in point, the self-driving vehicles throughout the city are actually remotely piloted by prisoners who are tortured into perpetually "playing" a crappy VR game without any rest, instead of simply using that level of technology to make a computer program that can do it.
- Femme Fatale: Jade is assigned a femme fatale persona for the undercover mission in Episode 2, though she insists that she is not good at pulling off this specific persona. It turns out she was right, as her attempts to seduce a guard come off comically awkward enough to drive him away.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Rayman's on-air blowup that causes him to be replaced can be seen coming when, in the middle of Red's specist rant, Rayman's facial expression shifts to one of stunned, repressed anger.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Being a crossover between Ubisoft’s many franchises, the teaser is filled with these.
- Before Laserhawk jumps off the building at the beginning of the teaser, he stands in front of a billboard advertising a show called “Rayman’s Just Dance”.
- A character select screen shows Pey’j cycling through various costumes, including one based on Rayman’s companion Globox, and his original design from Beyond Good and Evil.
- Just before a Rabbid starts stomping around the streets, there’s an eatery simply called "Vaas's Diner".
- It is mentioned that "Director Sigma" is not present at the Board of Directors' meeting. As seen in the last episode, Sarah Fisher's robot backup body has a Sigma carved on the back of her metallic skull.
- Frog Men: Bullfrog, the anthropomorphic frog assassin.
- Handicapped Badass: The Warden, Sarah, is revealed in Episode 4 to be the daughter of Sam Fisher, whose Special Ops reputation matches with the one in the Splinter Cell games. He had long since retired, having lost both of his legs and is left wheelchair-bound. Despite that, he still has all of his skills, and is equipped with gadgets to make up for his limitations to infiltrate a maximum-security prison and rescue old comrades to help start a revolution against Eden.
- Hate Plague: In Episode 3, Alex uses promotional glasses rigged with mind control technology to turn the humans in the audience of a wrestling match against the hybrids around them.
- Heel–Face Turn: Rayman has spent years as Eden's propagandist to paint a bright image for everyone in the MegaCities. Getting fired and replaced in Episode 3 and having a conversation with an imprisoned Bullfrog in Episode 5 gives him a much needed wake-up call, and seeing Bullfrog about to be executed live on TV gives him the push he needs to confront his higher-ups in Episode 6.
- Hookers and Blow: Eden has a lot of this by default, but it's worth mentioning that, of all people in this messed up world, Rayman is the one shown engaging with it most, to the point where one shot is of his adorable, bulbous nose absolutely caked with cocaine after he's been replaced on the news. Another image that became instantly popular is Rayman indulging in nyotaimori, or body sushi, eating pieces of sushi off of the naked body of a hybrid cow woman.
- Intercontinuity Crossover: The show makes use of characters and elements throughout Ubisoft's library, including Assassin's Creed, Watch_Dogs, and Raving Rabbids in a neon-lit city out of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. In terms of the cast Jade and Pey'j (with brand new designs) are part of the main team, and that Rayman is a TV presenter. This show is basically just one big Ubisoft crossover, really.
- Kaiju: In Episode 2, Alex summons several giant, monstrous Rabbids from a portal in the sky.
- La Résistance: DedSec, as in their native game, serves as this to the Eden corporation.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The Supermaxx prisons of Eden are designed with Virtual Reality technology to help rehabilitate troublesome inhabitants... or so it is claimed. Sarah reveals that this is a lie. A severe inversion, prisoners are forced into a video game that has them control vehicles and drones throughout the MegaCities, required to follow protocol in a timely and efficient manner or else be subjected to electric torture. Marcus Holloway of DedSec was captured and forced into this before Sarah's father Sam broke him and others out.
- In Episode 5, Marcus puts Sarah through this by making her witness the New Wasteland War from his perspective and making her suffer for selling out his group and even her own father. She eventually claims guilt for everything she did and ready to make amends. It turns out to be a trick to get the drop on Marcus and Laserhawk.
- Love-Interest Traitor: Alex, Dolph’s lover, betrays him in the first episode as part of some deal.
- Make an Example of Them: The supermaxx Warden kills Cody Rhodes in Episode 1, via bomb in the brain, when he tries to lead Laserhawk and the other captives to escape. She warns that they will suffer the same fate if they don't cooperate.
- Male Frontal Nudity: Alex and Min both show off their fully exposed front sides when Dolph breaks into the latter's room in a rage.
- Meaningful Name: The Super Sentai-esque squad Niji Six is color-coded and named after the Japanese word for "rainbow", niji.
- MegaCorp: The Eden Corporation is a massive conglomerate that took power thanks to their introduction of Universal Basic Income (or UBI), which brought prosperity to all at the cost of making them beholden to Eden.note
- Mood Whiplash: Played for laughs. A lot.
- During Bullfrog's introduction, his dramatic demeanor is undercut by Cody in amazement at how a "fuckin' frog" appeared out of nowhere.
- Replacement Rayman abruptly shifting to an ad break right before an execution on live television with his usual excitement.
- Mr. Fanservice: The number of males who could qualify is up there but among the most prevalent would be Alex, Dolph, Min, and Niji Red. All but the last are seen nude with Niji Red having multiple close ups on his rear and muscles.
- Mythology Gag:
- Bullfrog (the Assassin frog) performs the Leap of Faith maneuver during some of his kills. He also strikes several poses throughout the series that match many moves of the playable Assassins.
- In her first appearance in the trailer, Jade is fiddling with a camera.
- In the trailer, at the "video game screen" showing various disguises for Pey'j, one of them is his canon version.
- The Rabbids being depicted as bloodthirsty monstrosities is a reference to an early version of ZombiU called Killer Freaks from Outer Space, where the monsters were feral Rabbid-like aliens that ate human flesh.
- Rayman being a refugee from a world destroyed by Rabbids is a reference to how they spun off from and quickly eclipsed his series.
- After being fired, Rayman eventually settles on an outfit with a hoodie sweater. Rayman's design from Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc onwards swapped out his red scarf for a red hoodie.
- Music from Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends is played while Rayman explains a bit of his backstory. He even has his old purple outfit.
- During his infiltration of the VR facility to rescue Marcus, Sam comes across four guards. The shot shifts to his point of view, where he marks each of the guards before taking them all out in a swift manner, just like the Splinter Cell series's Mark-and-Execute system, introduced in Conviction.
- The commercial for Rayman's biographical film includes a shot showing a bunch of protestors, and one of them has Ed's face on a sign saying "no trouble".
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Ghost team's mission in Episode 2, to capture both Pagan Min and a dimensoal portal gun, would have been over and done with if Laserhawk had stuck with his task instead of going off-course to confront his traitor boyfriend Alex. As a result, they fall one step behind Alex's plans and lose their partner Jade in the process, leading to Pey'j killing Pagan in a fit of rage despite needing him alive.
- Non-Standard Character Design:
- Of the main heroes, Bullfrog is animated in a much more western-cartoon style, making for quite the contrast when he breaks out his Assassin's Creed moves.
- Unlike the entire rest of the adapted cast, Rayman is not redesigned, remaining the same Cartoon Creature with Floating Limbs. This is Played for Laughs to jarring effect when he enters a downward spiral and partakes in Hookers and Blow.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Episode 2 ends with a cliffhanger where Alex Taylor opens a dimensional portal from where a number of monstrous giant Rabbids come forth. The beginning of episode 3 shows that Niji Six quickly dealt with them and saved the city without too much effort. Despite this, Laserhawk still manages to wipe the floor with them all alone, as seen in the last episode.
- Parrying Bullets: Bullfrog cuts multiple uzi bullets in two while dealing with Pagan Min's bodyguards. In episode 6 Sarah parries all the bullets shot by the Supermaxx drones controlled by Marcus Holloway thanks to her newly-revealed spider limbs.
- Precision F-Strike: From Rayman of all people, to Niji 6's Red after the latter paints broad strokes about "interdimensional alien scum" within earshot of the former, who is an alien himself who escaped the Rabbid Kaiju invasion from his own dimension. When Red refuses to apologize, Rayman throws this at him live on air. And this is just ONE of them!Rayman: Then why don't you say it to my face without cameras, you fucking red prick!?
- Public Execution: Episode 6 has fake Rayman hosting a "Retribution Day Special" where Bullfrog is set to be electrocuted on live TV. It doesn't go through thanks to the actual Rayman's interference.
- Rage Against the Reflection: Rayman does this in Episode 6, riddling it with bullets and shattering the last vestiges of his "propagandist" identity.
- Sequel Hook: Though seeming repentant for betraying her father and DedSec, Sarah Fisher instead takes over the Supermaxx VR Facility in New Wasteland, but offer Marcus Holloway a chance to change Eden for the better, and not even her own bomb triggered within Laserhawk could stop her. Laserhawk defeats Niji 6 beforehand and dies later from said sacrifice. He is found in an afterlife-like state only to be summoned by a thought-to-be-dead Sam Fisher to "fight back". As for Rayman, he has a change of heart after his earlier conversation with Bullfrog about his place in Eden, no longer interested as the corporation's propagandist. As a result, he forces the board of directors to stop Bullfrog's execution before killing them all, though one of them, known as "Director Sigma" is absent, and thus safe from his rampage. There's also the matter of dealing with the other "Rayman" who has taken over his job, and what he himself plans to do next as "Ramon".
- Seers: Bullfrog has an unusual ability to spew bubbles that can view past and future.
- Shout-Out: Multiple ones:
- Captain Laserhawk finds himself caught and then forced to join a group of criminals used for undercover missions, kept in line with an Explosive Leash, and lead by a no-nonsense high-ranking woman, Suicide Squad was clearly on the writers' minds. The fact one of its members is a Sacrificial Lamb only to show what happens when they step out of line brings to mind the ill-fated Suicide Squad (2016) movie.
- Captain Laserhawk bears some resemblance to that of Space Adventure Cobra, the protagonist of another adult animated series, who is also a career criminal with a cybernetic cannon for their left arm.
- The character designs and animation of the in-universe Rayman Show series are clearly inspired by Crayon Shin-chan.
- The intro sequence is a nod to Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania (the hero seen from his back looking at a "castle" in the distance) and Mega Man 2 (the pan up a skyscraper in a futuristic city).
- When Jade tries flirting with the tiger guard in episode 2, a girl shouting "WOOOOW!" can be heard in the background.
- Mind-control glasses that causes its wearers to view normal people as vicious aliens...sound familiar?
- The cartridge Dolph and Alex steal is clearly based on a SNES cartridge.
- Cobra Juice is most likely a reference to the real-life energy drink, Venom.
- The lion hybrid wrestler fighting Kenny Omega in episode 3 kind of resembles Leomon. Fittingly, he's the first one to die when the anti-hybrid rampage begins.
- The live-action sprite sequences of Laserhawk and Sarah when plugged into a VR environment in Episode 4 and 5 brings to mind the 1990's Interactive Movie genre. The VR environment used by the same prison when it was run by Eden also brings to mind Miis, except even lower-poly.
- Sphere of Destruction: The result of Laserhawk destroying the Niji Six's Giant Robot in episode 6.
- Spider Limbs: Between Episode's 5 and 6, Sarah reveals she upgraded herself to wielding cybernetic legs that can split into robotic spider legs for combat.
- The Stinger: Episode 6's ending credits are interrupted by a brief scene featuring an 8-bit-styled Captain Laserhawk in a black void wondering what's going on, and being contacted by Sam Fisher who needs his help, both talking with dialogue boxes. The scene even ends with a CONTINUE? YES/NO input.
- Sudden Video-Game Moment: There are occasionally 16-bit video game moments throughout the series, from side-scrolling fight/chase sequences to a comical-dating sim.
- Take That!: A potential one to Sega, when it's explained that a Crazy Taxi clone, explicitly called a "shitty video game", is used by VR-incarcerated prisoners to taxi people around MegaCity in "self-driving cars".
- That Man Is Dead: Rayman sheds his identity in Episode 6 when he turns against Eden, becoming the gun-toting Ramon.
- Toon Transformation: In Episodes 4 and 5, Laserhawk and Sarah find themselves in a prison where they resemble pixelated live-action versions of themselves. They soon learn that this prison was decommissioned years ago following an uprising by Sam Fisher and Marcus Holloway, but its VR tech is still working thanks to Marcus himself, who talks to them while they are held in the virtual world. Occasionally goes into Medium Blending with the animated world and characters.
- Under Estimating Badassery: In Episode 4 the prison guards think that Sam Fisher is nothing to worry about because of being a paraplegic. He proceeds to not only kill them with ease he even busts out Marcus Holloway.
- Visual Pun: The Niji Six are an elite group of operatives sent in to deal with terrorist threats in the city. They each also have armor colored to make up the rainbow. A "Rainbow of Six", if you will.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: ...Kind of. It borders on Vomit Indiscretion Shot. When Rayman is shown the extent of Eden's corruption, exploitation, and authoritarianism, and how he helped push their narrative for years, he vomits on the floor. The camera is pulled far enough back that we don't see it up close, and Rayman mostly has his back turned so the details are hidden, but it still happens onscreen.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Not much is known about Jade and Pey'j outside of Jade trying to uncover secrets about Eden and Pey'j promising to protect her after her parents' deaths. Unfortunately, they are killed off early before we learn of any backstory.
- Wham Shot: Following the events of Episode 2, Rayman's heated uncensored argument with Niji 6's Red has him kicked out of his job at ETV. He believes the board will need him back when people notice the "Voice of Eden" missing... only to see another "Rayman" on TV in the end of Episode 3, replacing him later that day. Live on TV.Rayman: Wait, this is live? Who the fuck is this!?
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The treatment of animal people, or "hybrids", varies throughout Eden. They are either just as equal as humans or used as a resource and cast out if they aren't efficient enough. Rayman, a non-human, is made as the "voice" for hybrids in Eden, being a refugee from another dimension.
