Booker: the Oblivia carpenter who hides boats for Pokémon

Booker builds boats that nobody ordered from him. An old carpenter from Cocona Village, in the Oblivia archipelago, he is the first face seen by the hero of Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs, washed up soaking wet on a beach. Nearly everything made of wood in the region comes out of his workshop — a bridge, a ship, a ukulele — and behind that track record he has left a twenty-year falling-out with his own brother.

Contents

• The first man you meet
• Lifeboats nobody asked him for
• Ukulele Pichu, an instrument carved from offcuts
• A bridge, a ship, and an apprentice he's hard on
• The old man who knows things
• Twenty years of silence and a red Berry
• Booker at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

The first man you meet

Booker lives in Cocona Village, on Renbow Island, but the player comes across him somewhere else: on Dolce Island, where he had just come ashore by boat after seeing flying saucers speed toward it from his own beach. He arrives too late to stop the island's Pokémon from being kidnapped and only sees the scene from afar, without understanding who he's dealing with.

The Ranger, meanwhile, has just washed up there, with no partner and soaking wet clothes. The old man refuses to let the hero sleep outdoors and brings them home, on the neighboring island, for the night. The whole first hour of the game hinges on that decision: it's through this carpenter that the hero enters the archipelago.

You recognize him first by the way he talks — clipped words, old-fashioned exclamations, instant familiarity — and then by the sheer range of what he knows. He knows the history and geography of the islands better than anyone, and he's the one who points the player toward Rand, the local Area Ranger, mentioning that the Ranger's daughter works wonders with machines and might be able to fix a broken Capture Styler.

Lifeboats nobody asked him for

Dolce Island is completely flat: the slightest tidal wave would swallow it whole. So Booker goes there regularly to put together small boats, for the sole purpose of giving Pokémon that can't swim or fly something to float on if that day ever comes.

He doesn't leave these boats out in plain sight. He hides them in the island's undergrowth, ready to use, with no order, no customer, and without those they're meant for knowing anything about it. It's a precaution he takes on his own, against a disaster with no warning signs.

The day the island disappears for good, Booker admits he had never imagined such a disaster: the Pokémon are saved, but the island isn't. Booker admits he can't get over it, while still feeling that what mattered most was saved. His foresight also has a comic flip side — in too much of a hurry, he once forgets to moor his own boat and has to launch the unfinished one he was still building.

Ukulele Pichu, an instrument carved from offcuts

He talks to the Pichu of Dolce Island as if they were his own children, and one of them gets special treatment. The nickname Ukulele Pichu is his invention, and so is the blue instrument that earned it: he carved it from the wood left over after building the boats.

The object is a thank-you gift, and more of a toy than a musical instrument. The little Pokémon doesn't really play it: its electric shocks are what make the strings vibrate, which is enough to produce a melody. The carpenter admits that looking at that little face sets his mind straight after a long day of cutting wood.

This music isn't just for show. It soothes Pokémon and makes captures easier, and Booker takes the time to explain how to use it before the hero sets off. Above all, he offers the hero Ukulele Pichu as a Partner Pokémon: so it's a village craftsman, not the Ranger Union, who entrusts the player with the companion for the entire adventure.

He also takes care of the aftermath. Once peace returns to the archipelago, he has taken in seven Pichu rescued from Dolce Island, one of which stayed with him while six scattered across the archipelago; the quest "The Pichu of Dolce Island" has you bring those six back so that his own stops moping. Renbow Island becomes their new home.

🎸 Booker's little protégé in cuddly form: browse the section Pokémon plushies.

A bridge, a ship, and an apprentice he's hard on

Almost all the woodwork in Oblivia bears his mark. He built nearly every wooden structure in the archipelago before settling down to small hulls, and two pieces top the list: Big Booker Bridge, which links Renbow Island to Mitonga Island, and the Union, the Ranger Union's ship.

When the bridge is destroyed, he doesn't delegate a thing. He announces that he'll rebuild it himself and asks for a few days, with help from the island's residents. The Union, for its part, turns up at Tilt Village harbor with a hole in its hull: Booker asks for good tools, inspects the ship, declares it well maintained, and Murph comes to thank him once the work is done.

The workshop has one apprentice, Nick, a diligent boy carried away by his imagination, who spins disaster scenarios at the slightest excuse. Booker cuts him off bluntly and scolds him for wasting on what-ifs the time he could spend finding solutions — he can come across as heavy-handed with the boy, which doesn't stop him from recognizing a job well done when he sees one.

The old man who knows things

The rainbow cup displayed during the village festival is a fake, and he's the one who made it. He molded the copy from fired clay and built the matching altar, for lack of anything better: no one in the village had ever made it to the real one, kept deep inside Rasp Cavern.

The key to the room where the true trial takes place is also in his hands. He walks the player to the cave to open the door, warning that villagers came to grief there decades ago and that the only way through is to keep a cool head.

His memory comes in handy one last time on Lapras Beach, where the village adults become infatuated with a blue stone they take for a legendary treasure. Booker immediately recognizes it as a Manaphy Egg, having come across one at sea back in his sailing days, and arranges for it to be entrusted to a Trainer from another region so it can return where it belongs.

Twenty years of silence and a red Berry

Professor Hastings, the chief researcher of the Pokémon Ranger series, is his younger brother, and Ralph, the village kid, is his grandson. The two brothers had lost touch for years, and the game only lets this slip in the course of a side quest.

The rift dates back to the building of the Union, more than twenty years earlier: Booker had gathered young craftsmen to build it, and his brother had landed him a captain's post in the Ranger Union. He turned it down, unable to picture himself leaving his homeland. Each called the other ungrateful, and two such headstrong personalities never found their way back to each other.

The first step toward reconciliation comes from the younger brother: instead of letting the ship be scrapped, he sent it into service in Oblivia. The quest "The Precious Red Berry" asks the player to shake the right tree in the archipelago to bring back the rare fruit the old carpenter wants to give his brother. The reunion immediately goes off the rails over a model boat broken decades earlier, which settles the question of family resemblance.

Booker at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Booker in Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs?
  He's the carpenter of Cocona Village, on Renbow Island. He's the first Oblivia resident the player meets: he takes the player in after they wash ashore, then serves as a living memory of the archipelago's history and geography.
• Why does Booker build boats on Dolce Island?
  Because the island has no high ground and would be completely submerged by a tidal wave. He puts together small boats there and hides them in the undergrowth, so that Pokémon that can neither swim nor fly can escape if needed.
• Who made Ukulele Pichu's ukulele?
  Booker, from the wood left over after building his boats, as a thank-you gift. The Pichu's nickname also comes from him. The little creature doesn't actually play it: its electric shocks make the strings vibrate, and the resulting melody soothes Pokémon.
• What's the connection between Booker and Professor Hastings?
  They're brothers, with Booker the elder of the two. A quarrel over a captain's post at the Ranger Union that he turned down kept them apart for years, until the Red Berry quest brings them face to face again.
• What does Booker guard in Rasp Cavern?
  The key to the room where the true Hero's trial takes place, at the far end of which lies the genuine rainbow cup. The cup shown during the village festival is only a clay copy he made himself.

In short

Booker is a village craftsman whom the game places at every turning point: he picks up the shipwrecked hero, gives them their Partner Pokémon, repairs the bridge, patches up the ship that will save the archipelago, and holds the key to its oldest trial. Yet his most telling gesture is also the least spectacular — boats stashed in the undergrowth of an island, for Pokémon that never asked him for anything and will never know who put them there.