Mayor Payola

Evil-doer
Full Name	Mayor Payola
Alias	Mayor Pay-O'-LA The Mayor
Origin	Rabbids: Legends of the Multiverse
Occupation	Mayor of Futuropolis CEO of CORP
Powers / Skills	Authoritarian rule Immense wealth Hiring assassins Brute strength Team Work
Goals	Prevent the Rabbid Hero from retrieving the Time Washing Machine (failed)
Crimes	Grand larceny Abuse of power Attempted murder Hiring assassins Assault by proxy Privacy violations Destruction of property Multiversal endangerment Brainwashing Espionage Oppression Ecocide (implied)
Type of Villain	Corrupt Mayor

Mayor Payola, pronounced Pay-O'-La, is the main antagonist of the final zone in the 2024 Apple Arcade strategy game, Rabbids: Legends of the Multiverse, and the penultimate boss of the game as a whole. He is the corrupt mayor of Futuropolis and CEO of CORP who seeks to prevent the Rabbid Hero from retrieving the Time Washing Machine through any means necessary.

Appearance

Mayor Payola is an overweight Rabbid with an underbite and bushy blonde eyebrows who wears a white business suit with small yellow buttons over a dark gray shirt, a red & white-striped necktie, gray trousers, and short black shoes. He's also always seen holding a large donut in-game.

Biography

Story

After exiting from Pirate Lagoon in the Time Washing Machine, the Rabbid Hero ends up crash landing into the far Futuropolis, a new-age city that is filled with advanced technology and neon lights, as well as ominous Mini-Drones that appear to be spying on the residents. The Rabbid Hero tries to get back into the Time Washing Machine, only for it to repeatedly teleport away from them. As he tries to follow it, an orange lava lamp-looking device keeps teleporting them in the opposite direction. The Time Washing Machine continues to teleport further and further away from them, until it ultimately ends up on top of Mayor Payola's CORP building, as the bad Mayor looks back at them and angrily refuses to give it back.

Throughout the Rabbid Hero's final journey to retrieve the Time Washing Machine, Mayor Payola begins sending out his punk goons and personally hired assassins, such as Doc Einstain, who seemingly controls the spying Mini-Drones; Mecha-Bwerp, who's determined to get revenge on the Rabbid Hero for defeating him; and Moderatroll, who's been spying on the Rabbid Hero throughout their entire journey in secret.

When the Rabid Hero finally enters Mayor Payola's office, he finds the bad mayor lazing around eating a hot dog until he sees them. Mayor Payola seemingly demands the Rabbid Hero to give him their money, only for the Rabbid Hero too turn up empty-handed. Angered, Mayor Payola proceeds to grab the Time Washing Machine and throw it out the window, causing it to create a rift in the universe, before beginning the fight. The Rabbid Hero ultimately manages to best him and leaves to take care of the dangerous wormhole that Payola created.

Gameplay

In gameplay, Mayor Payola costs 5 power and is of the "Epic" rarity. He is a tank-class card, meaning he has a ton of health and deals a decent damage output, but at the cost of having slower movement than other Rabbids, along with having to fight up close, which makes him fairly easy to take care of with an assassin-class card, which spawns Rabbids that move and attack fast. Mayor Payola, along with other tank-class cards, can strategically be used as a defense option to protect your weaker allies, as much of the damage will be dealt towards him if he's on the front of the battlefield instead of them.

Mayor Payola's unique ability in gameplay is his "Teamwork" attribute, which grants him an extra attack bonus for every other Futuropolis ally currently on the field, causing him to deal much more damage to opponents, with the bonus increasing further should you level him up. This ability can be exploited by choosing a deck filled to the majority with other Futuropolis cards (potentially including lower-level cards) and then summoning most of your Futuropolis allies onto the battlefield after Mayor Payola, allowing him to deal a massive amount of damage to every enemy.

Trivia

• Mayor Payola's name is a play on the phrase, "pay a lot", as a nod to his corrupt and greedy nature.
• Notably, in almost every shot we see of Futuropolis, there is almost no visible plant life, aside from few the potted plants in Mayor Payola's office. Therefore, it could be theorized that in the far future, Mayor Payola would eliminate almost all plant life on Earth, only keeping a few plants alive to serve as decoration, which would have also resulted in the elimination of most animal species.
• Interestingly, Mayor Payola is the only major "leader" character in Rabbids Multiverse to not appear in the end cutscene where the Rabbid Hero shows the Rabbid Scientist the ruler of every zone they've traveled through, with Futuropolis instead being represented by Azimoo. It's likely that the reason for this is due to Azimoo being the true final boss of both the Futuropolis zone and the game itself, whereas Mayor Payola is just the penultimate boss.