Jimothy
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So we've had very little marketing and information on Legends Arceus thus far, but one thing that's been noteworthy is that they are just coy enough about who the professor is that it feels like it's most likely going to be someone familiar.
A lot of possibilities have been proposed-- a time-traveling Cyrus (would explain the old-timey Galactic symbols), an identical ancestor of Rowan or Cynthia or Oak-- all seem like they have a decent chance.
But I've got a new idea: Count Tajirin.
This probably deserves its own thread in the General Pokemon forum, but something that's been a topic of discussion on Twitter and Reddit recently is Pocket Monsters Zukan, an encyclopedia released in Japan in 1996 that sheds a lot of light on mysteries and background of the franchise. For instance: Nidorina/Nidoqueen are intentionally infertile, this was part of their lore years before breeding was implemented. Venonat and Venomoth were intentionally made with the idea of their evolution being a surprise-- their pages in the book are not next to each other and their Japanese names do not indicate a relationship-- Venonat's resemblance to Butterfree was most likely part of maintaining that mystery. Similarly, the book doesn't indicate a relationship between Magikarp and Gyarados, claiming that Magikarp is worthless but hinting that it has some dragon DNA found on its scales. The Pokedex entry about a boy turning into Kadabra? That's not meant to be an actual event that happened, it's referencing an in-universe book that's a take on Kafka's Metamorphosis. Dratini had only recently been discovered in-universe, previously believed to be only a legend, which sparked a worldwide search for other Pokemon mentioned only in mythology. The anime thing of Electabuzz having a thing for the color red is found here, it likes living in red areas, Scyther likes living in green areas, it's a reference to the games they're found in.
There's loads more, but the thing that got me thinking about LA was some in-universe background on the history of the Pokemon world leading up to the events of Red/Green. Now, a lot of this stuff is clearly no longer canon in the years since Pokemon's international success, Tajiri's departure from the franchise starting with Gen 3, the introduction of new regions and worldbuilding, and TPCi's increased role in the franchise. The book indicates that Pokemon are separate from normal animals, which still existed in the Pokemon world at this point in the minds of the developers. Oak specifically was originally studying biology but became more fascinated with Pokemon because they were outside of the human/animal evolutionary tree (obviously at this point the Sinnoh games have established that Pokemon and humans actually do have shared origins). The Kabutops skeleton was discovered six years before RG (a reference to the six years the game was in development) and the fossil record indicates that Pokemon appeared suddenly just 2 million years ago (now we know that Pokemon have been around for hundreds of millions of years and also since the beginning of time).
The book claims that the first person to attempt to catalog Pokemon was a French writer named Count Tajirin (his name an obvious reference to Pokemon creator Satoshi Tajiri) in the late 1700's. He managed to catalog just 30, by 1925 when Professor Nishinomori invented the Pokeball (again this event has obviously changed in the current canon) 80 monsters had been cataloged, and of course 150 by 1996 when RG take place. Nishinomori's story is interesting in that he was experimenting on a Primeape when the enraged monster, out of survival instinct, went into the professor's glasses case (seemingly implying that shrinking/turning into energy to fit into a smaller space is a natural ability of Pokemon).
It's largely believed that Legends Arceus is a take on the colonization of Hokkaido. A quick google places this event around 1869, not too long after and not too long before the times that Tajirin and Nishinomori were active according to these accounts from the early days of the franchise. Now, clearly more than 30-80 monsters have been discovered by the time of this game, if only based on flashbacks to 3,000 years ago we've seen throughout the game series. And clearly the Pokeball, in some form, exists at this point in this timeline, so Nishinomori, if he still exists in the developers' minds, exists earlier in the timeline than he was first imagined. And similarly, if Count Tajirin still exists, I could see his existence being moved up a bit in the timeline, to coincide with this game.
Being coy about the identity of the professor makes sense if they are a timetraveling character that we know, or an ancestor of a character we know, but it also makes sense if they are a standin for the creator of the franchise. And a Kalosian nobleman traveling the world cataloging Pokemon, visiting Sinnoh with three of the monsters he's come across in his travels, and enlisting the player to assist him in cataloging the creatures that can be found in this new (to him) region fits very well with what we know so far. Failing that, I think Professor Nishinomori is also a good candidate-- though I'm not sure they would beat around the bush, given that I'm not sure his name is a reference to anyone. Either way I do think it is possible that Nishinomori will appear or be mentioned as the creator of this early Pokeball.
Now I do think there's a chance that we're wrong about the timeframe, and Legends Arceus actually takes place 3,000 years ago (I half-wonder if any and all Legends games will take place in that timeframe, given how suspicious it is that so many events in recent games took place around then-- would be neat if all the Legends games were roughly contemporary with each other), in which case both Tajirin and Nishinomori seem less likely (though still possible depending on what the scenario writers want to do). But this is just a neat idea that occurred to me last night as I read up on Zukan and I do think that if they're hinting at the professor being someone of note, a Tajiri standin makes a lot of sense.
Anyway, who do you think the professor is? How likely is the above supposition, in your mind? Should we discuss Zukan further in the General Pokemon forum (we should)?
A lot of possibilities have been proposed-- a time-traveling Cyrus (would explain the old-timey Galactic symbols), an identical ancestor of Rowan or Cynthia or Oak-- all seem like they have a decent chance.
But I've got a new idea: Count Tajirin.
This probably deserves its own thread in the General Pokemon forum, but something that's been a topic of discussion on Twitter and Reddit recently is Pocket Monsters Zukan, an encyclopedia released in Japan in 1996 that sheds a lot of light on mysteries and background of the franchise. For instance: Nidorina/Nidoqueen are intentionally infertile, this was part of their lore years before breeding was implemented. Venonat and Venomoth were intentionally made with the idea of their evolution being a surprise-- their pages in the book are not next to each other and their Japanese names do not indicate a relationship-- Venonat's resemblance to Butterfree was most likely part of maintaining that mystery. Similarly, the book doesn't indicate a relationship between Magikarp and Gyarados, claiming that Magikarp is worthless but hinting that it has some dragon DNA found on its scales. The Pokedex entry about a boy turning into Kadabra? That's not meant to be an actual event that happened, it's referencing an in-universe book that's a take on Kafka's Metamorphosis. Dratini had only recently been discovered in-universe, previously believed to be only a legend, which sparked a worldwide search for other Pokemon mentioned only in mythology. The anime thing of Electabuzz having a thing for the color red is found here, it likes living in red areas, Scyther likes living in green areas, it's a reference to the games they're found in.
There's loads more, but the thing that got me thinking about LA was some in-universe background on the history of the Pokemon world leading up to the events of Red/Green. Now, a lot of this stuff is clearly no longer canon in the years since Pokemon's international success, Tajiri's departure from the franchise starting with Gen 3, the introduction of new regions and worldbuilding, and TPCi's increased role in the franchise. The book indicates that Pokemon are separate from normal animals, which still existed in the Pokemon world at this point in the minds of the developers. Oak specifically was originally studying biology but became more fascinated with Pokemon because they were outside of the human/animal evolutionary tree (obviously at this point the Sinnoh games have established that Pokemon and humans actually do have shared origins). The Kabutops skeleton was discovered six years before RG (a reference to the six years the game was in development) and the fossil record indicates that Pokemon appeared suddenly just 2 million years ago (now we know that Pokemon have been around for hundreds of millions of years and also since the beginning of time).
The book claims that the first person to attempt to catalog Pokemon was a French writer named Count Tajirin (his name an obvious reference to Pokemon creator Satoshi Tajiri) in the late 1700's. He managed to catalog just 30, by 1925 when Professor Nishinomori invented the Pokeball (again this event has obviously changed in the current canon) 80 monsters had been cataloged, and of course 150 by 1996 when RG take place. Nishinomori's story is interesting in that he was experimenting on a Primeape when the enraged monster, out of survival instinct, went into the professor's glasses case (seemingly implying that shrinking/turning into energy to fit into a smaller space is a natural ability of Pokemon).
It's largely believed that Legends Arceus is a take on the colonization of Hokkaido. A quick google places this event around 1869, not too long after and not too long before the times that Tajirin and Nishinomori were active according to these accounts from the early days of the franchise. Now, clearly more than 30-80 monsters have been discovered by the time of this game, if only based on flashbacks to 3,000 years ago we've seen throughout the game series. And clearly the Pokeball, in some form, exists at this point in this timeline, so Nishinomori, if he still exists in the developers' minds, exists earlier in the timeline than he was first imagined. And similarly, if Count Tajirin still exists, I could see his existence being moved up a bit in the timeline, to coincide with this game.
Being coy about the identity of the professor makes sense if they are a timetraveling character that we know, or an ancestor of a character we know, but it also makes sense if they are a standin for the creator of the franchise. And a Kalosian nobleman traveling the world cataloging Pokemon, visiting Sinnoh with three of the monsters he's come across in his travels, and enlisting the player to assist him in cataloging the creatures that can be found in this new (to him) region fits very well with what we know so far. Failing that, I think Professor Nishinomori is also a good candidate-- though I'm not sure they would beat around the bush, given that I'm not sure his name is a reference to anyone. Either way I do think it is possible that Nishinomori will appear or be mentioned as the creator of this early Pokeball.
Now I do think there's a chance that we're wrong about the timeframe, and Legends Arceus actually takes place 3,000 years ago (I half-wonder if any and all Legends games will take place in that timeframe, given how suspicious it is that so many events in recent games took place around then-- would be neat if all the Legends games were roughly contemporary with each other), in which case both Tajirin and Nishinomori seem less likely (though still possible depending on what the scenario writers want to do). But this is just a neat idea that occurred to me last night as I read up on Zukan and I do think that if they're hinting at the professor being someone of note, a Tajiri standin makes a lot of sense.
Anyway, who do you think the professor is? How likely is the above supposition, in your mind? Should we discuss Zukan further in the General Pokemon forum (we should)?
