The Conductor

The Conductor
Species	Owl(?)
Role	Major character, Antagonist (determinant)
Appears in	Dead Bird Studio Murder on the Owl Express Train Rush Award Ceremony The Finale Bon Voyage! Ship Shape Rock the Boat
Voiced by	Xander Mobus
Manual info	This guy claims to be a "Bird" but when's the last time you saw a bird that looks like that?! He's obsessed with winning....
Trading Card desc	There was a lot of weird birds on this planet, and the Conductor was the weirdest for sure! At least, I think he was a bird. He was mostly just sharp edges in a suit.

The Conductor is a major character in A Hat in Time who mainly appears in Chapter 2: Battle of the Birds, either as a deuteragonist or main antagonist. He is a movie director who creates western films, and has Hat Kid star in two films called "Murder on the Owl Express" and "Train Rush". As his name suggests, he also conducts a train called The Owl Express.

Having a rivalry with DJ Grooves, he's one of the two birds whom Hat Kid can help win the competition for the Annual Bird Movie Awards.

Appearance

The Conductor is a bird - or in Hat Kid's own words, is a "bird-ish thing" - despite not appearing like one. He is a small, biped bird, often seen in a black coat with golden buttons, white undershirt, and a purple tie, with black pants and shoes to match. He also wears a black conductor hat with golden trim.

He has yellow feathers, a large feathery tail peeking out from under his coat, and winged hands. The most distinctive feature that he has compared to conventional birds is his head - he has a large, jagged beak, two pointy ears, with some fluff peeking out under the back sides of his jaw. His eyes are not visible, and the inside of his mouth is purple.

Personality

The Conductor is a very loud, imposing, and outspoken bird. Most of the time he can be rude and angry, but is shown to have a softer side. He also seems to have a complete disregard for others' safety when filming, claiming that it's "in the name of cinematography".

Depending on Hat Kid's performance during Battle of the Birds, it's shown that he can be rather petty in the chapter finale, planning to use a Time Piece in order to fix a single loss in his entire career. During the same scenario, he is also very condescending, stating that Hat Kid had only a tiny part in his success, despite relying on her acting talents massively.

However, if DJ Grooves wins instead, he will be very outwardly concerned for Hat Kid and try to help her, showing that he does have compassion for others. He also cares very deeply for his grandchildren, as shown in Bon Voyage! with him affectionately commenting on them, as well as during Rock the Boat, where he is in the daycare when the S.S. Literally Can't Sink is sinking, implying that he had been searching for them. Alongside this, in Dead Bird Studio he says he'd rather visit his grandchildren than watch DJ Grooves' movies, implying that it's something he does frequently.

He has a habit of cursing, often using the word "peck" - a word considered a cuss by birds - regardless of the situation, even in front of impressionable children like Hat Kid or his grandchildren. He also often calls people he has qualms with "peck necks".

Roles

Dead Bird Studio

The Conductor is first seen arguing with DJ Grooves, where it is revealed that they have more Time Pieces, which are being used as movie props. Throughout the rest of the act, the Conductor is spotted in multiple places directing his movie. After Hat Kid becomes a legal bird in order to feature in DJ Grooves' movies, the Conductor comes out after having listened in, accusing her and DJ Grooves of fraud. He threatens to sue her, but relents and instead demands her to star in his movies as well to "even the score".

Murder on the Owl Express

The Conductor is relaxing on the back of the train, and tells Hat Kid that the script isn't ready yet. After the murder victim is discovered, he will angrily demand answers regarding the identity of the murderer, telling Hat Kid to go investigate against the C.A.W Agents' wishes in order to find the truth. If Hat Kid talks to him after finding evidence that he murdered the owl, he will laugh and tell her to find the rest of the evidence first.

At the end of the act, the Conductor asks who did the murder, where he will have different monologues depending on who is chosen. If he is chosen, he profusely denies it initially, later stating that he didn't want to be the antagonist in his own movie. After the murderer is revealed, he will award Hat Kid a Time Piece.

Train Rush

The Conductor is relaxing on the back of the train, and informs Hat Kid that they'll be shooting the "biggest action movie in bird history" if spoken to. After Hat Kid pulls a switch using the Hook Shot, he will call her on a video camera and explains that she just activated the train's "self-destruct" sequence. Once she reaches the end and deactivates the bomb, the Conductor will award her the Time Piece.

Award Ceremony - Fakeout

If the Conductor is chosen as the winner of the Annual Bird Movie Awards, the Conductor will be found at the Award Ceremony. He gives her a single Time Piece, calling it as "tiny and insignificant" as her role in helping him win. If DJ Grooves wins, he will appear in his stead, with the Conductor nowhere to be seen.

Award Ceremony - Confrontation

During the actual Award Ceremony, the Conductor will either be the villain or an ally depending on who won. If he was the winner of the award, he will be the main antagonist of the chapter, but if he lost, he will help Hat Kid during the final battle.

If The Conductor wins

While sneaking around in the basement of Dead Bird Studio, the muffled voice of The Conductor can be heard through the walls as he experiments with the Timepiece, and mentions the left over bomb from Train Rush that he has decided to hold onto just in case a certain "someone" showed up.

Hat Kid will find the Conductor at the bottom floor of the basement, an underground stage, where his boss fight will start. In the first phase of the battle, the Conductor has four unique attacks: a dive-bomb from the left or right balcony that aims directly at Hat Kid; whistling for stage lights to fall onto the arena; jumping down from the stage and jumps again for a wrestling-style slam; and dropping down on a disco ball that sends out shock waves.

As the battle progresses, Conductor gains extra attacks: darkening the arena as he charges at Hat Kid with a knife, homing in on her while rapidly swinging multiple knives, and calling upon cars to circle her in the middle of the stage, then jam into each other in the center. On top of the Disco Ball Drop being able to fake out with a delayed fall, The Conductor can create photo copies of himself to magnify the effects of both the knife charge and the disco ball drop. The slam attack is gone from this point, and the balcony drop is also absent.

Midway through the fight, he will stop to have a "Heart to Heart" with Hat Kid. Upon sitting down, he will tell her that the reason for him wanting to keep the Time Piece is that he needs to fix the mistake that was the loss of Award 42, upset that DJ Grooves got first place instead of him. When asking her for the Time Piece, Hat Kid can either reply "Maybe" or "Nope". If Hat Kid says "Maybe", he thanks her, but then declares that he can't let her get out alive because he can't risk DJ Grooves finding out he cheated. If Hat Kid says "No", he will call her a "greedy young lass", and still refuse to give it up. Regardless of what is picked, he will proceed to strap a bomb onto her, starting the next phase with an 80 second timer.

The Conductor will then continue to attack Hat Kid with yet again a new set of moves: he can take out large saw blades to run across the floor in spreads of three, jump up to the balcony to toss out three sets of saw blades before dropping from the balcony, and running around the stage in a frenzy, taunting Hat Kid about the imminent explosion. After hitting him 5 times, DJ Grooves will step in, saying he will find a way to defuse the bomb. After 5 more hits, DJ Grooves will come back with the defuser - a comically large pair of scissors - and direct Hat Kid over to him so he can cut her free, successfully disarming the bomb and stopping the timer.

Once the bomb is disarmed, the battle enters the final phase. The Conductor will send 4 knife-wielding parade owls to follow Hat Kid around. Most attacks gained leading up to the second phase are lost, with the Conductor doing the lunge, balcony drop, single disco ball drop, stage lights, and rapid knife swinging. Upon taking six more hits, he will be defeated, yelling "peck neck" as he collapses to the ground.

If DJ Grooves wins

The Conductor will show up during the boss fight in order to defuse the bomb, using a comically large pair of scissors. When running over to him, he will cut the fuse off, disarming the bomb and stopping the timer.

Time's End

In The Finale, he is one of the many people standing in line to be judged. He appears again during Mustache Girl's boss fight, telling her to "get lost" along with everyone else in the cutscene leading up to the second phase. He also has an active part in the battle, standing on top of the Mafia ball and trying to hit Mustache Girl with it. During the final phase of the fight, he and DJ Grooves kill each other in order to help Hat Kid defeat Mustache Girl.

They both come back after time is reset, and are seen in the final cutscene hanging off of Hat Kid's Spaceship, begging Hat Kid to stay along with the Snatcher, Cooking Cat, and a Mafia Goon.

The Arctic Cruise

The Conductor drinking "The Sinking Ship".

The Conductor makes minor to major cameos in Seal the Deal, where he can be encountered throughout the Arctic Cruise's three acts, bringing along some of his Grandchildren to enjoy the cruise.

During Bon Voyage!, he can be seen at the docking pad with a few of his grandchildren, getting ready for the cruise to set off. His dialogue here is different depending on whether or not he lost in Chapter 2. Once the ship sets sail and Hat Kid signs into the desk, he is located at the poolside Bar drinking what is called "Sinking Ship" on the rocks. He is also seen in this location in Ship Shape, where he is much more intoxicated from the other drinks he has consumed prior. In these two acts, he serves as a minor NPC.

Rock the Boat is the most involved that the Conductor is in the story of Chapter 6, where he plays as the most vocal and impatient of the survivors of the last life boat. He demands that Hat Kid leave behind the Captain before they all perish to the cold, which starts a timer before he and the others leave. Despite this, he shows concern for her during this segment, calling for her to hurry back when she reaches the halfway point.

Gallery

See: The Conductor/Gallery

Trivia

• There is a computer readout of the Conductor in Murder on the Owl Express measuring his levels of "Empathy", "Bird?" and "Anger". Empathy is the lowest, and Anger is the highest.

• According to Creative Director Jenna Brown, "Peck is the f word".

• There is a newspaper clipping that says the Owl Express is the only train in the world, despite the existence of Nyakuza Metro.

• The Conductor originally said the line "Gotta hurry up, darling!" in his battle on the game's release. It's likely that Xander was accidentally given the wrong script, as this line was altered to remove the word "darling" in a later update.

• There's several oddities regarding the Chapter 2 boss fight that may suggest that DJ Grooves was intended to be the only winner and antagonist from the get-go.
  • During the Chapter 2 boss battle, the boss will always use a DJ Grooves-sized hitbox, despite the Conductor being much smaller.
  • Internally, the fight is referred to as "DJGrooves_Boss", regardless of which boss the assets are actually from.

• Unused text shows that the Conductor would have been an intruder on Hat Kid's ship, after collecting 13 Time Pieces and beating Train Rush. He would be found sitting on the lowered railing in front of the Time Piece vault, where he would tell her stories of his youth in exchange for pons. In the game's release, he was still there, just hidden. This has since been removed.
  • One story was written but unvoiced. It suggests that he would've been collecting "Gear Pieces" in order to obtain the "Black Jewel Train". This appears to be a reference to Luigi's stories in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, where he has to rescue Princess Eclair from the Chestnut King, mirroring Mario's adventure in the first Paper Mario.

• Leftover text and textures in the beta build suggests that there once was more than one Conductor. They were brothers named Redd, Greg, and Walter, who had red, green, and white suits respectively.

• Chapter 2 was originally titled Trainwreck of Science, and it would have been much more focused on the Conductor. The Owl Express was also originally called the "Science Express", and the Express Owls were called Science Owls. There are still many references to the Science Owls in the final game, and one of the movie posters in Dead Bird Basement has the title "Once Upon a Time on the Science Express", likely as a leftover of this.

• In Trainwreck of Science, it was planned that Hat Kid would have crashed the Owl Express onto the moon in order to find more Time Pieces. Here, she would have met DJ Grooves, still running his club.
  • The Conductor has several unused voice lines referencing this. Some of these voice lines imply that the club was somewhat sinister in nature, and that Hat Kid might have fought DJ Grooves (who was likely female at the time) with the Conductor cheering her on.
  • Funnily enough, both the idea of Hat Kid crashing the train for a Time Piece and the Conductor getting extremely drunk on-screen were both used in the Seal the Deal DLC instead, with Hat Kid instead crashing the cruise for a Time Piece.
• If Hat Kid ended up fighting Conductor in Battle of the Birds, a knife will be present with his suitcase in Bon Voyage!.