Pokemon Legends: Z-A's Mable is the Pokemon Professor I…

Pokemon Legends: Z-A, like its Arceus-driven predecessor, breaks a lot of Pokemon conventions in a spirited fashion. From its real-time combat to its narrow scope focused on Lumiose City, Pokemon Legends: Z-A does a lot to set itself apart from the mainline games. At the same time, certain traditions survive, including the time-honored Pokemon professor character archetype. I've been playing Pokemon games long enough to remember a whole host of scruffy-haired older men eager to teach young Trainers-in-training; since then, new professors have broken the mold of that archetype many times over, but if you ask me, Mable arguably does it best.

Unlike most professors, who are newly made for their particular games, Mable has some history in the Pokemon series already. She was a minor character in Pokemon X and Y, a researcher for Team Flare. In the five years that have apparently passed since then, she's changed a lot, becoming the acting director of the Pokemon Research Lab in Professor Sycamore's stead. That's all well and good, but what first caught my attention is that Mable is kind of a jerk. She's got a short temper and doesn't mince words with the player or anyone else, much like in X and Y. That got me thinking about all the other ways Mable cuts against the grain, and becomes one of the best Pokemon professors as a result.

Mable is arguably a bit part in Pokemon X and Y, but she enjoyed a much more robust supporting role in Pokemon the Series and the Pokemon Adventures manga.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A Makes Mable's Faults Into Her Greatest Strengths

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Whether a Pokemon professor is a dapper younger man, a warm-hearted klutz, or a wizened elder, they almost always have one thing in common: they're nice. Mable, oftentimes, is not. The first thing she does in Pokemon Legends: Z-A is call someone an "incompetent nitwit" in the middle of a tirade about Lumiose City's new Wild Zones. Game Freak establishes right off the bat that Mable is an angry person — but not a cruel one. She's angry because she cares. Her frustrations may boil over sometimes, but that's only because she wants the best for Lumiose's wild Pokemon. In my eyes, allowing her to be flawed makes her a more complete person than some past professors.

To underline that ponit, her relationship with the player doesn't start from a place of altruism, as is the case for many other professors. Mable doesn't meet the player by giving them a free Pokemon; she was dangling a carrot on a stick, hoping some capable trainer would show up with five Pokedex entries in exchange for a prize, and admits to your face that this was her plan to lure in a lackey to do her field research. From that point, Mable readily acknowledges the player's talents, but doesn't fawn over them either. She wants you to get to work, and if you give her attitude (which I did), she'll answer in kind. It's a testy relationship that I think is very funny, and very memorable.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A is Mable's Fresh Start

I don't think the redemption arc aspect should be left out either. I fully admit I'm a sucker for redemption arcs (in middle school, I always named my Pokemon trainer Zuko) so I find it pretty exciting to meet a professor who's undergoing an implicit redemption. Mable was fairly callous during her tenure under Lysandre, helping create an apocalyptic scenario where only Team Flare survives, but now she's using her research to help everyone, human and Pokemon, in Lumiose City. Given that Team Flare used to work for the common good, Mable is returning to her roots, but her role model is Professor Sycamore now, not Lysandre.

Mable is Another Stage of Pokemon's Growth

I didn't expect Mable to be one of my favorite parts of Pokemon Legends: Z-A so far, but she is. Thanks to the recent major Pokemon leaks, I'm already wondering how Gen 10 will handle professors. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's professors made some creative choices too, so I have plenty of reason to hope that Pokemon will continue exploring new possibilities with this central character type. For now, though, I'll see what other research tasks Mable has for me.

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