Nick: Oblivia's Apprentice Who Always Expects the Worst

Nick spends the whole game picturing disasters that never come. An apprentice carpenter in Cocona Village, in the Oblivia archipelago, he assists Booker on the jobs that fill Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs — a ukulele to fix, a hull to patch — and builds the bridge on the Latolato Trail all by himself. The story first uses him as comic relief, then takes him through a step few supporting characters ever get to take — he changes his mind about the world.

Contents

• Booker's apprentice in Cocona Village
• Pichu's ukulele, his first real mission
• "What if…": the worst-case machine
• The bridge with the longest name in the world
• The Union, the hull breach and the ten-year promise
• The Hero's trial and the rainbow cup
• Nick at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Booker's apprentice in Cocona Village

Nick lives in Cocona Village and works under Booker, the local carpenter. He's set on becoming a carpenter and wants to build boats, a goal he never strays from, and he says he admires his master as much as he did on the first day of his apprenticeship.

His own place, though, never feels secure to him. When the game's hero walks into the workshop, he immediately concludes that someone has come to take his workbench and that all he can do now is pack his bags; Booker cuts that short by sending him off to make coffee. The rest of the time, he promises to look after the village and the old man.

The workshop carries a lot of weight in the region. Booker built the ship named the Union, the Big Booker Bridge and the windmills of Pueltown — just about everything made of wood on the islands of Oblivia, as his apprentice puts it, for whom master and material are one and the same. Along the way, Nick also learns that Professor Hastings of the Ranger Union is Booker's younger brother.

Pichu's ukulele, his first real mission

Pichu's ukulele is broken, and the repair runs into a problem with the material: it needs a rare kind of wood found only on Dolce Island, in the hollow of an old stump. Booker, who usually sends him back to his cutting exercises, lets him handle it for once.

The expedition turns into a comedy sketch. Nick wakes up some Sunkern sleeping in the stump and apologizes at length, then refuses to carry the wood himself, for fear of thinking about it so hard he'd forget how to talk. Back at the workshop, Booker entrusts him with the repair itself and afterward gives the result his approval: good work, done with heart.

He doesn't stop there, and fine-tunes the instrument several times. The sound grows fuller and the melody rings out longer, which makes captures easier for the Pichu that plays it. At the village festival, the performance by Nick and Ukulele Pichu is hailed as a moment to remember.

🎸 Pichu and its kin in cuddly form: browse our Pokémon plushies.

"What if…": the worst-case machine

The whole character fits in one formula. He opens with "What if…" and then spins out a chain of hypotheses that runs from trivial detail to disaster: a passerby might bite their tongue while reading a sign, then be unable to eat anything, grow weak, and end up in the water.

The people around him cut him off every single time. Booker scolds him for rambling and advises him to spend that time looking for solutions; Ralph reminds him that he thinks too much. Nick admits it himself and asks people to cut him off, since he can't stop on his own.

The game doesn't settle for a running gag. Nick ends up wondering whether his imagination is to blame for some of Oblivia's misfortunes, panics at the idea that the rift between Booker and his brother might be his fault, and turns the Pokémon Pinchers' saucers into a shrink ray that supposedly miniaturized a missing Ranger.

The bridge with the longest name in the world

The bridge on the Latolato Trail is his very own work, and his pride and joy. Yet it stays nameless until the quest "Ralph's Bright Idea," in which Ralph and Nema take care of it for him and come up with a never-ending name.

The name starts with "The Over the Creek in the Green Forest, the Red-and-White-Striped, Wonderfully Crafted…" and goes on for a long time: it promises that the bridge won't creak even under Raikou, that it is renowned all over the world for connecting yesterday and tomorrow, and that it was proudly built by Nick. It takes three signs to write it out in full, and in the French version of the game, Nema eventually admits she slipped in one "Rouge et Blanc" (Red and White) too many.

Ralph's argument wins the day: a name nobody wants to read will make the bridge famous, and tourists will come to have their picture taken on it. Nick then decides to imagine nothing but positive things, and his first optimistic projection is true to form — he won't build the longest name, but the longest bridge in the world, a hundred times the length of the Big Booker Bridge, long enough to walk all the way to Almia and Fiore.

The Union, the hull breach and the ten-year promise

When he hears that the Ranger Union's ship has reappeared, Booker refuses to believe it until he has seen it with his own eyes, then asks for good tools to patch the hole in the hull. Nick shows up at the worksite without being asked: he wants to help too.

The old carpenter built this ship in his youth and talks about it like a member of the family, a point not lost on Murph. Nick owns the comparison without batting an eye: the ship was made with love, he says, and there's no reason to hide it.

Wood can also save lives. The boats Booker patiently put together make it possible to evacuate the Pichu from Dolce Island, along with every Pokémon that can't fly or swim. That's what Nick builds his goal on: in ten years, to build a second Union, and hope the Ranger will take command of it.

The Hero's trial and the rainbow cup

On festival day, Nick plays master of ceremonies in front of the Hero's floor. He opens in a solemn tone, keeps it up for a few sentences, then gives up and goes back to being himself — talking like that, he admits, is beyond him. Nobody had shown up yet, and the wait was starting to weigh on him.

The rule he lays out is a path puzzle. Sixteen tiles form a four-by-four square, two of which glow: you start on one, you have to step on all the others without ever crossing a spot you've already walked on, then reach the second glowing tile. Stepping out of the square sends you back to the start, and broken tiles are off-limits.

The prize is the rainbow cup, and you can't leave without it. Nick mentions in passing that Booker cried during the trial the year before, warns the winners that they might break the cup on the way home, then daydreams out loud about playing the Hero next year — before giving up on the idea as he pictures himself dropping it.

Nick at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Nick in Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs?
  He's a resident of Cocona Village and the apprentice of Booker the carpenter. He wants to become a carpenter and build boats, and he assists his master on most of Oblivia's woodworking projects.
• Why does Nick always imagine the worst?
  It's what makes his character tick: he opens with "What if…" and strings together darker and darker hypotheses until they turn absurd. Booker and Ralph regularly cut him off, and he admits himself that he can't stop on his own.
• What role does Nick play in repairing Pichu's ukulele?
  He goes to Dolce Island to fetch the rare wood hidden in an old stump, then Booker entrusts him with the repair itself. He then fine-tunes the instrument several times: the sound carries further and the melody lasts longer.
• Why does the bridge Nick built have such a long name?
  Ralph and Nema name it during the quest "Ralph's Bright Idea." Ralph argues that an outlandish name will draw tourists and souvenir photos. It takes three signs to display it in full.
• What is the Hero's trial that Nick presents?
  A square of sixteen tiles, two of which glow: you start on one, pass over all the others without ever retracing your steps, and reach the second one. Stepping outside the square or back onto a tile means starting over, and winning earns you the rainbow cup.

In short

Nick is a supporting character the game takes seriously right to the end: you laugh at his disaster scenarios, then you watch him build a bridge, repair an instrument and help patch a hull. His arc comes down to one decision, made in front of a ridiculous sign: to imagine only the positive from now on. What comes next, a second Union in ten years, is proof enough that moderation was never his strong suit.