WMG / Professor Layton

Subpages

• Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
• Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy
• Layton Brothers: Mystery Room

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The Dragonlord from Hoogland is...

Based on the boss of the same name from Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest IX He jumped dimensional plains to terrorise the unprotected Azran race, forcing them to create a shrine to him. Little did he know, they'd built a weather machine into the shrine to thwart him from the skies.

About the unwound future ending...

The boat Luke went on at the end of Unwound Future was the Titanic.Another troper remarked that both Layton and Luke dress like they're from the early 1920s. As years pass in the Layton games, it gets closer to the date of its maiden voyage. It would be exactly the kind of Laytonesque heart-wrenching twist we've come to expect from Level 5.

• Doesn't seem likely, since chances that Luke would have survived are slim and he plainly did survive, since he was later able to write a letter to the Professor about a 'new mystery' he wanted to investigate with him.
  • Jossed in the Layton Mystery Journey anime, where Luke is very clearly grown up, alive and kicking—literally! Those thugs are going to be sore on the morning.
  • AND coincidentally, Luke's boat when he comes back to London to visit the Professor *does* sink, but he makes it out alive and physically unharmed with a baby to prove it.

Luke was supposed to be Layton and Claire's child.

Basically, Luke's spirit was waiting to be born as Layton and Claire's child. But when she died, his spirit had nowhere to go. But he still wanted to be born so he could meet the professor. So he went into Clark and waited until he and his wife had a baby. Now, he doesn't remember any of that. But his since his spirit was supposed to be around the professor, that's why he took an instant liking to him. So much so, he even left behind his own father on many occasions.

Don Paolo killed Layton with the Ferris Wheel, and the other games are purgatory.

Think about it. All of the endings to the Professor Layton games are absolutely insane. A world based on puzzles? It is clear that what is going on is Layton's method of amusing himself in purgatory. What I think was going on was that Layton stumbled onto Don Paulo's assassination of Simon, and began making false links, such as assuming that a gear found near Simon had to do with the case. However, Don Paolo killed him with the Ferris wheel, and the rest of the games (even the prequel ones) are Layton making up complex stories and scenarios to stay busy.

Layton is a robot.

The series uses robots to explain anything from villages with strange inhabitants (Curious Village) to monsters attacking towns (Last Specter), so it could be that Layton himself is a robot akin to the ones from Curious Village. It would explain his great intelligence, improbable MacGyvering skills,and the way he seems bizarrely invulnerable despite getting into sword fights, getting fired at, having wolves released at him, having a Ferris Wheel of Doom released at him, etc.

Clive really was the future Luke after all.

Warning: Potential Mind Screw

Shortly after the events of Unwound Future, when Luke moves to New York City or Dublin or Boston wherever it was Luke was moving to, something terrible happens to Luke involving his parents and the legal system/society. This gets Luke sent back to London under the care of Professor Layton. Luke is glad to be with Layton for a time, but something about Layton seems different since the last time Luke saw him. As Luke grows older, Layton becomes less and less able to help Luke as he did before, and Luke starts to resent this as the professor starts to drive him insane. Once he is able to drive, Luke goes by himself back to Saint-Mystere to recover Flora's fortune, which he then uses to reactivate Dmitri's time machine he remembered from a previous adventure. Luke then gets this crazy idea that he can right Layton, his clueless youth, and his crazy society by setting up a massive scam involving Layton, his younger self, and the country's top scientists and prime minister taking place a few years ago. He uses the time machine to rack up money by buying winning lottery tickets, and then travels into the past to begin his plot. Once he is done, he invites Layton and his former self to the crazy fake future he built just for them, both wanting them to save him from complete madness and yet wanting to vengefully harass them. He laughs when Layton says he is really some guy called Clive because that's how Luke knows he has the professor fooled. The first thing Luke did with the time machine was to travel 20 years into the past, when Layton lost Claire, to create a false identity for himself named "Clive Dove". No one would suspect who he truly was. He then rushes to the Mobile Fortress of Mass Destruction he built to destroy the world as he knew it, yet wishing his mentor and his former self would stop him from doing so. After he is arrested, he soon disappears back into his own time, both feeling guilty for the ghastly deeds he had done and smug about the fact that he had the country's smartest man — his own beloved Hershel Layton — fooled, and the way that meant he would never get caught.

That's why Clive looks identical to Luke without the aid of any disguise, knows Luke's past, and calls for Professor Hershel Layton of all people to help him with his issues. He IS Luke.

• Jossed, partially. But knowing how timelines are erased and created at the whim of a decision it probably did happen.

Unwound Future was actually supposed to take place in the future early on in development

The entire plot makes little sense to the point where Layton and co actually traveling into the future makes more sense than the revealed twist of future London being an underground conspiracy to destroy the UK. I suspect the writers for the story wanted the game to actually take place in a Bad Future where Layton would have to fix it with Luke; but then realized that any sort of actual time travel elements with future versions of their own selves would lead to a paradox, thus creating more continuity issues than actually solving them. That being said, the game would probably be too straightforward if it were as simple as them going into the future, and that wouldn't be fun given the nature of the series.

Refusing the fortune was pointless.

Either way you end up with an Inferred Holocaust on your hands. St. Mystere is, as of Flora leaving, populated by Bruno, possibly with Matthew and one or two others, and a bunch of robots which are known to wear out and need repair. Layton, Luke, and Flora rejected the fortune because it might cause the village to shut down, and they want it to keep going as it was. Then Bruno is bound to keep working on robots in a self-sustaining, more-or-less visitorless, and ultimately pointless ersatz town with no or few real humans to keep him company, with nobody to care for him when he becomes ill, toiling for nothing until he dies; or he considers his obligation to the Baron fulfilled and leaves St. Mystere to its own devices. Either way, once he's gone, the robots will wear out and fall apart and the town will slowly come to a halt, everything that Layton & co. wanted to save still dying, delaying the inevitable for but a few years at most. And for this they sacrificed the fortune?

• Not necessarily. With the objective complete, there's no reason the town needs to remain ignorant of its nature. At the very least, a few could be told, and thus take up the responsibility of repairing the others and the like.

The recording stating that the town will shut down completely, if the fortune is touched, was a Secret Test of Character

.It was fairly clear that the Baron didn't know very much about robotics. But having lived there so long, he had to see they were at least somewhat sentient, and raising his daughter at that. Considering that the whole goal was to find a kind guardian, it seems strange that the baron would encourage them to effectively wipe out the entire town. What would have actually happened I can't say, but it seems far more likely to me that it was a "fail safe" should an uncaring individual manage to get that far.

• What. How would deactivating the robots if the inheritance was disturbed discourage a Jerkass from taking it and leaving Flora's corpse in a ditch somewhere? There's no way that it would...
  • A Jerkass wouldn't care if the robots deactivated... I understand the idea of the WMG, yet it seems like it should be the other way around. If it is a Secret Test of Character, then it shouldn't be set up to where a Jerkass that shuts down the robots gets Flora her money, but a nice guy that lets what's essentially her family live gets her none of her money.
  • Booby-trapped fortune. You touch the money, something unpleasant happens. My guess is the drawbridge collapses to give Bruno time to do something about it, rather than the town shutting down. Probably Bruno or somebody has a bypass that can get at the wealth without setting off the trap if it's needed.

The Professor takes care of Luke because he himself was abandoned or ignored by his parents.

Judging by the recent trailers, Luke's father doesn't seem to be around for his child, although his presence in the fourth game is confirmed. Maybe Layton went through the same thing as a child (this series loves the Parental Abandonment trope, after all) and took Luke in as a surrogate son because he didn't want others to go down the same route. However, officially and legally they have no relationship — that's also why the Un Reveal mentioned in the article happens. Layton enjoys things being perfectly right, and when he tried to speak up, he was actually going to correct the Inspector on the nature of their relationship. Luke was simply stopping him from revealing the illegal nature of their relationship.

• Additionally, this theory would result in Luke being the actual brains of the outfit, at least in real-life situations... which fits in with a later event in the second game where Layton (deliberately or not) takes the request for 'that hat' in its most liberal sense and gives an NPC the nearest matching hat to his own that he can find. Layton seems genuinely mistaken, but oblivious to this fact at the same time.
  • Layton acknowledges that he took it in a sense more liberal than possible, and then states that, quite simply, he will not remove his hat.
• Luke lives with his parents and has a good relationship with them, so Luke's half of the WMG is jossed.
  • However, this theory could just as easily be applied to Layton's relationship with Flora.
  • We meet Layton's parents in Miracle Mask, and they seem like perfectly decent and loving people. However, his mother is a huge worrier, and parents who worry often raise children who worry too.
  • However, later, we find that Bronev Reinel, the head of Targent, is Layton's real father and his mother passed away after the pair had been kidnapped for researching the Azran, in the captivity of Targent years before, encouraging Bronev to lead it. It is also revealed Descole is Layton's brother and the TRUE Hershel, while Layton's real full name is Leppard Reinel.

Layton is Luke's uncle.

Bear with me, (I've only played the first game,) but this was inspired by what Luke says if you give him the violin. "Perfect! I'm learning the violin at home!" This implies that he does in fact have a home separate from Professor Layton. Luke's parents wouldn't like him running around with a someone completely unrelated, so he must be related in some way.

• Layton and Luke's father are best friends, so it's not completely farfetched. I wouldn't be surprised if he was Luke's godfather, though.
  • If Layton is Luke's godfather, there's still the question of why Luke doesn't seem aware of their relationship; though given the amount of trouble Luke's gotten into just by being Layton's apprentice, one can imagine that being known as Layton's godson would be even more dangerous.

Professor Layton actually knows every puzzle on Earth.

This is why he's called the puzzle master. He only teaches classes when he's bored.

• Actually, he's an archaeology professor. Now if you'll excuse him, he has to go find the Lost Ark.

Luke is Flapjack's brother.

From The Marvelous Misadventuresof Flapjack. Think about it. Similar hairstyles, both wear hats, similar personalities, hang out with older men, the list goes on and on.

Professor Layton takes place in an alternate Europe where the dominant religion is centered around puzzles.

It would explain everyone's fascination with them.

• The 'alternate Europe' part is pretty nearly canon, considering the Anachronism Stew and everything, so this is extremely plausible.

Folsense isn't a complete sham.

The city is definitely dilapidated, but it and its residents exist and are real. And many of them are much older than they appear. A few of the little kids will mention that they get tired faster than they used to, and wonder if they're getting old. The fact is, they are getting older. But because of the hallucinogens around Folsense, they fool everyone around them and themselves into seeing them as children by insisting that they are children.

• This troper has always assumed this to be true, mainly because it rather neatly ties up a lot of the things people get confused over.

How the NPCs get to the floors of the tower before our heroes...

Okay, we know that the residents of St. Mystere are actually robots, and part of a test to see who was worthy to take care of the Baron's daughter. This opens up a few possibilities:1. As their creator is still alive, it would perhaps not be too much trouble to make multiples of some of them and place them on certain floors.2. The robots are built for puzzles. It may be that when they want to go up or down, they solve the puzzle on the gate, go through, and reset the puzzle. If this is the case, then it's likely that Flora and Bruno know the solutions by heart, or Bruno may have them written down somewhere.3. NPC service entrance. This would, of course, only be accessible to those involved in the administration of the test: NPCs, Bruno of course, and Flora.

• I think #3 is the most probable. The service entrance probably leads to an elevator, so Bruno can do things like check on Flora and bring her meals and stuff without putting too much strain on his aging knees. They didn't use the elevator to escape because it would have been too easy to become trapped, much like how you're never supposed to use an elevator during a fire.
  • Or Flora isn't actually involved in the administration at all (why go about town in disguise if you're the only real person walking the streets?), and therefore doesn't know about the service entrance at all. It's entirely possible that she worked out all the puzzles beforehand though.

Professor Layton never takes off his hat because...

...he actually has a huge brain that occupies all the space inside his hat and doesn't want anyone to find out. This the the reason for his high intelligence and ability to remember an almost infinite amount of puzzles.

• Spoiler for Unwound Future: he does take off his hat at the end and he has a perfectly normal head.

Clive's name will be changed back to Klaus when the 3rd game comes to Europe

Please, Level 5, please!

• No such luck.
• I expect the reason his name is and was KEPT Clive is because it's a very British name, usually not used outside Britain. It's probably supposed to represent some sense of irony, considering what Clive's ultimate plan was. It's also to some degree a Meaningful Name. Why do people take such issue with some of the name changes?

Beasly (the puzzle bee) was Subject 2.

He says it himself during the cutscene, his story is "a gripping tale of a lonely drone's triumph over adversity... To become a puzzle bee!" We know that the parrot is Subject 1, the rabbit thing was Subject 3. Things they all had in common? They all talked, and according to Subject 3, had pretty horrible lives as research subjects.

• Considering the fact that his backstory was otherwise unexplained, he shared traits with the other Subjects, and it is otherwise unexplained as to how he can talk, I'd say this one was as good as confirmed.

Granny Riddleton is an incarnation of Ravel Puzzlewell.

Because it is just too obvious.

Pavel is The Man Behind the Man.

There is no legitimate reason for this goofball to wander into every game and claim that he got lost on his way to somewhere else. He speaks multiple languages — sometimes at the same time — and is very good at putting on an innocent act. I submit that when the series comes to its eventual conclusion, we will discover that Pavel was the Big Bad pulling everyone's strings all along.

Rando Ascad and Jean Descole are one and the same.

Layton's close friend from school, Rando was obsessed with archaeology — a trait shared with Descole. It would explain how Descole seems to know Layton so intimately, and why Layton gets the feeling he's met Descole somewhere before.

• Jossed - Descole and Randall appear on-screen together in Miracle Mask, and it turns out the former was manipulating the latter.
• Jossed to the extreme in Azran Legacy, as Descole turns out to be Layton's brother.

In the Ace Attorney crossover, Maya will, at some point, be Don Paolo in disguise.

Because Don Paulo only disguises himself as major characters, has been known to imitate girls Maya's age (Flora), and Wright is a playable character. Otherwise, Don will probably impersonate another AA character; probably Gumshoe, Edgeworth, or The Judge, in order of likelihood of being impersonated/present. Also depends on what charactershow up from each series.

• Alternately, Maya will, at some point, be Descole in disguise. I mean, he could disguise himself as Angela.
  • Unfortunately jossed.

Dr. Schrader was saved by his analytical mind.

We know that the Elysian Box killed people because it was infused with the Folsense gas, which caused people to believe their expectations to be true. Dr. Schrader undoubtedly believed that the box was genuinely deadly, but also believed that there must have been a rational medical explanation for those deaths. Thus, instead of dying outright as if from a curse, he went into a deep but potentially survivable coma as if from a strange biologically dangerous substance.

• This is quite close to the canon explanation.

Puzzlette is closely related to Professor Layton.

Well, think about it for a second. If you've seen the latest Mask of Miracle trailer, you've seen how crazy the Professor's hair was, and Puzzlette's beehive is about as outlandish; her hair is about the same color, as well. They're exceedingly similar, right down to the dot eyes, button noses, and their fixation with puzzles. So then, that begs the question: is she Layton and Claire's daughter from a skewed timeline (assuming Riddleton is one of Bruno's robots)? Are they related through Granny Riddleton (assuming she's NOT one of Bruno's robots)? Or is it something else entirely?

The third game was all a hallucination caused by the leftover gas from the Elysian Box

How else do you explain plot twists as frigging insane as "the future is actually underground"?

• It's explained by it being from the Professor Layton series, where everything is awesome and logic-defying.

When Layton opened the Elysian Box, Luke subconsciously expected not death, but a twist.

Layton believed that it would be empty, but Luke hadn't come to that conclusion. Subconsciously, he'd simply assumed that it would contain a dramatic and plot-deepening twist. He may have seen the precise twist of an empty box because it matched not only his expectations, but also reality.

Only Luke saw the Elysian Box glow when Layton first opened it

.He's a kid. That's exactly the kind of dramatic effect he'd expect.

Professor Layton is the same type demon as Neuro in Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro.

Professor Layton is not solving puzzles out of curiosity but to feed himself and keep himself alive. Layton hired Luke because he has trouble understanding human emotions.

Luke is developing a serious illness as of Unwound Future.

When you tap around at different locations to examine things and find hint coins, he mentions being dizzy. If it only happened when he looked at the gears just over the bus stop, that would be one thing — but he says he's dizzy practically a dozen times throughout the game. Maybe he just assumes it's because of the scenery, but no one else seems affected.

• He also seems to feel very sick after time travelling even though they're really just in a shaky elevator. No one else appears to be seriously affected by this except for Flora, but she's probably just a lightweight.
• Maybe part of it comes from anxiety over moving away from the Professor at the end of the game.
• And that would also go with the comparison to the statue of the old man, and the boy who died of an illness.
• And that could mean that the reason Clark took a new job overseas is A) there's a highly respected doctor in America, and/or B) to pay the medical bills... hang on, this troper's going to go cry from how much sense this makes.
• I really like this WMG, but a possible solution could simply be that Luke is reacting to the dense pollution in the air that is used to hide the lack of a real sky and that the clock shop goes straight up and never ends. There's enough pollution that it gets commented on. His reaction is more severe due to being younger and originally from a town full of mist. The moisture in the air would keep it somewhat cleaner than other places. Of course, both could be true, and that Luke suffers from the same ailment as Juniper Woods, but his reactions are, so far, manifesting as dizziness, not coughing, and the smog makes it worse.

Professor Layton is a Time Lord.

Seriously, he's not even trying to hide it. His study of "archaeology" consists of going back in time and taking notes.

• The Laytonmobile is his TARDIS, and we've already seen that his trunk can hold a suspiciously large number of objects...
• This is now my own personal canon.

Mr. Beluga is a human Goomba.

He has the small fangs, the black angry eyebrows.. His head is even almost the exact shape of a Goomba's! Also, I'm pretty sure that there's at least one Goomba somewhat like him in the Paper Mario series.

Professor Layton is transgender.

It's why he's so obsessed with being a gentleman — it was drilled into him by his father after he discovered his son was behaving like a girl — growing out his hair, wearing dresses, etc.. It's also why he constantly berates Luke for not being a proper gentleman. Don't blame me, blame the Layton Meme.

• I understand the nature of this WMG, but it was actually Claire who made him 'realise the importance of being a true gentleman'. (Also, the prompt on the meme was 'being a woman on the inside', not transgender.)

Alternatively, he's a trans man. He's obsessed with being the perfect gentleman so nobody could mistake him for a woman ever again.

Descole is doomed to die, or is trying to save someone who is dying.

Apparently, in Specter's Flute, Descole was trying to draw out the guardian of Mist Haley, who was the only thing that could lead him to a rumored kingdom under the town called Paradise. Also, the legends said that anyone guided to Paradise by the guardian would be completely healed of all illnesses. Then, in The Eternal Diva, he's trying to find Ambrosia, a kingdom that invented a miracle medicine that could cure everything and grant eternal life. Is anyone else noticing a trend here...?

• Maybe he's Dimitri.
• This would totally explain why he keeps getting angry and throwing tantrums if he doesn't find what he's looking for right this minute. He's frightened and desperate and taking out his frustrations on what he perceives to be the barrier in his way, not realising that he should really listen to all those useless hint coins and look at the puzzle from a different perspective. He can't look at it differently because he's in a panic and believes himself to be running out of time. And this is now my new canon.

Luke has bulimia.

They DO say that he has a legendary appetite in the second game and this is further shown in the third game. However, he's too thin despite being such a big eater. He was somewhat plump in the fourth game and movie, so it might no be that he has a fast metabolism and he doesn't seem to have grown taller in the three years of difference between the fourth game and Curious Village (using the professor's height as a reference here), so it couldn't have been a growth spurt.

Layton has a mullet.

Come on, you can totally see in the flashbacks XD

Don Paolo is Flora in disguise.

Consider the following:

• Flora grew up surrounded by mechanical contraptions. Don Paolo builds mechanical contraptions.
• They never, ever, EVER appear together. (With the exception of that one cutscene at the end of Curious Village... I mean, it's not as if someone could build a robotic doppelganger or something crazy like that.)
• She always wants to be around the Professor. Don Paolo can't leave the Professor alone, to the point of pretty well constantly seeking him out.
• Flora has difficulty talking to strangers. Don Paolo has the air of a man who shuns all company but his own (and the Professor's).
• Flora gets left behind all the time while Luke goes on adventures with the Professor. Don Paolo can't stand Luke.
• Flora is a girl. Don Paolo's manliness is arguable.
• And most importantly, they are both masters of disguise.
  • In Unwound Future, they spend loads of time on-screen together. He treats her very nicely.
    • See caveat to the second dot point above.

In Folsense, Layton and Luke subconsciously knew its secret all along.

Although the strange gas of Folsense caused then to see the town as a lively place, they subconsciously knew it to be a tragically abandoned place, likely inhabited by people unknowingly living a lie (see the 'Folsense isn't a complete sham' WMG above). This is why they find the place unsettling, and why subdued music plays throughout.

Hershel's middle name is Edwin.

• It's gotta be something nerdy like that.
• Given what we find out in Azran Legacy, it's probably closer to Leonovich

Inspector Gilbert was killed by Bill Hawks

.

• After completing the core 155 puzzles in Last Specter, the player unlocks an 'episode' which shows Chelmey's past and his old mentor/boss/friend, Inspector Gilbert. Gilbert sacrificed his life to save Chelmey's, promoting him to Inspector with his last words. However, the episode just finishes mentioning an experiment catching fire with two scientists trapped and a woman killed, which is obviously the time machine accident. It's unlikely that the accident would have been mentioned if the two things weren't linked, subtly implying the criminal was the instigator of the original fire... ergo, Bill Hawks! Considering how hostile Chelmey was toward Hawks at the end of Unwound Future...

Luke is actually related to Clive

I mean, come on. Clive's disguise consists entirely of dressing in a similar style to Luke, and when he reveals himself, all he does is take off his hat, instead of, say, a wig, and he still looks quite a bit like an older Luke. To say nothing of the fact that, in that flashback picture, young Clive looks almost identical to Luke!

Two people who look that much alike is way too convenient, even for the Layton series. My guess is that Clive and Luke are perhaps cousins (or even second cousins, as Luke doesn't seem to be familiar with him) who have a very Uncanny Family Resemblance. Hey, it makes much more sense than what we're given.

• This troper thought that they were half-brothers through Clark from a brief relationship he had as a teenager. It makes sense when you do the maths: assuming that Clark is the same age as Layton, Luke was born when Clark was 24. Clive seems to be around about 21, meaning that Clark would have been around 16 when Clive was conceived/born. Clark could have broken up with Clive's mother shortly after his conception, meaning that he would have no idea that Clive even existed, and Clive's mother could have ditched her baby at an orphanage due to her not being able to cope, where he got adopted. Far-fetched, perhaps, but all very possible.
  • No. Clive ended up at an orphanage because his parents were killed as a result of the time machine accident, remember? He lived with both of his parents as a kid, before they died, so the only way that Clark being Clive's biological father would be possible would be if Clive's mother remarried and he grew up with a stepfather.
    • "Remarried" is definitely not the case- she could have just BEEN a married woman Clark had an affair with, or she got married soon after Clive was born and he was just never told he had a different bio dad. The WMG states it was a teenage romance, not a full commitment. But overall it doesn't make much sense due to the ages, since Clive's mother would have had to married the person he identified as his father either before, during, or very soon after the pregnancy for him to never question it. Which would most likely mean his mother is a predator or married VERY young if Clark was just 16, both of which are horrifying scenarios. For Clark to be Clive's father, most likely he had to be in his early 20's at the time and it was a straight-up affair he had with a married or engaged woman, who told her husband Clive was his, and Clark had Luke in his late not mid-twenties. It's also plausible Clive is not in his 20's at all, but is in his very late teens, 17-19, to close the gap more to make it fit. But overall it really doesn't fit.

• I always thought that Clive got away with it because both he and Luke have really common features that loads of people have. Light brown hair and dark eyes aren't uncommon in the slightest, and those were the two things that really made Clive look like Luke. Everything else was actually different, such as the shape of their faces and skin tones, and could be Handwaved as Clive being older and the fact that people's facial features do change with age. Luke (despite being 13ish...) still looks really young and has a round childlike face and probably a rather childish nose and mouth, too. The dress sense I actually chalk up as the fact that both boys were part of wealthy families, and that style might not be all that uncommon for wealthy young boys. The fact that both wore hats makes sense because a lot of people in-universe wear hats. Clive kept that style because it made it easier to enhance what little resemblance he actually did have to Luke, which again, could have amounted to nothing more than the same hair and eye colour, which in-universe, are pretty common. Luke's dad, Flora, Bill Hawks, Granny Riddleton, Lady Dahlia, Cogg, and a good number other NCPs have light brown hair of similar shades to Luke's. It would be easier to list who doesn't have dark eyes in the games. The only real Contrived Coincidence is that they have the same eye shape, since it's not common among NC Ps. So for me, it could be just a matter of having the same eyes and hair colour and that's it, with Luke actually looking almost nothing like Clive when he himself hit 23.

St. Mystere wasn't set up to find Flora a new guardian

For solving the mystery, Layton was supposed to become her spouse. If you're trying to find someone to raise your child once you're gone, you don't give specific instructions to hold off the search until she's out of childhood.

• Dear God. If this is true, I really hope the search happening as soon as it did was simply because Bruno got impatient. Otherwise, Flora's damn lucky that Layton misinterpreted Baron Reinhold's final wishes.
  • Not to mention she'd be incredibly lucky that the Professor is such a gentleman. If this WMG is true, it's a good thing the village is set up like a Secret Test of Character...
  • Bruno is an old man. It might be less that he got impatient and more that he worried he was running out of time, especially since they couldn't possibly have guessed that someone smart enough to solve all the riddles would show up that quickly and might have expected it to take years more (then once it didn't he just went along with the 'adoption' idea, yes, that's totally what the plan was for, nothing else, really).
• This is practically canon, since it's actually the butt of the entire situation in the Japanese version. They make out that the one who ultimately looks after Flora could refer to a spouse as much as a guardian and turn it into a running gag in which Flora constantly insists that she's Layton's wife. This was flat out left out of the localization for obvious reasons.

The whereabouts of Emmy in the first trilogy

The Last Specter introduces us to Emmy, and she's a prominent character in the prequel trilogy and the Eternal Diva. Where then, is she in the original trilogy? This troper's theories are:

• Layton assigns her to other assignments.
• Emmy leaves Layton in between the two trilogies.
• To give the final game a huge bang in vein to the Unwound Future, Emmy will die.
  • This seems Laytonesque, but to do that, Emmy's character will have to develop more and more emotional attachment will have to be placed on her for her death to be dramatically successful.
    • There's a moment in the Azran Legacies trailer where Emmy is shown with in shadow, with sad eyes. "Goodbye, Professor Layton". The game also has a mysterious girl who seems to be frozen in ice. Perhaps Emmy ends up having to take the girl's place in order to preserve the legacy of the civilization?
• It is revealed in The Azran Legacy that she had been a mole for Targent all along. After betraying Professor Layton, she deems herself unworthy of being his assistant anymore and leaves. According to the game's Japanese guidebook, she later wrote a letter to Layton explaining she'd become a reporter for the World Times newspaper and hopes to meet him again someday.

Descole is actually... an alternate Professor Hershel Layton who must change the future to save himself from his death or a horrible event in the future

.It makes sense after all if you think about it. In The Last Specter and The Eternal Diva, Descole looks for a cure or some kind of healing item (Paradise and The Elixir of Life), and if he does not find it or get his way he becomes angered and loses control, which really can be attributed to the fact that he's actually panicked and scared for his life and must hide his true feelings to not reveal how he actually feels, but by doing this, all he also does is make it hard to see puzzles like his regular self, which is at all angles and perspectives. (also makes sense if you think of psychology, thus explaining the outbursts). He is Layton not just because he hides himself, but because Layton is the only one who seems to recognize him at all but can't seem to remember where (subconsciously). In the Miracle Mask, it is intentionally made clear that his identity is of someone we know and to put it even further, it seems he recognized Broneph and his organization Targent, and my theory is that he is a Layton from the future that is dying from a condition caused by something in his life or trying to stop a horrible event in the future, and using what he knows about the past and his knowledge gained to change it, that is also why at the end of The Last Specter he tells the Professor that one day there will be a time where he cannot win, because he knows exactly what may happen which caused him to become Jean Descole. Even more to this theory is that Jean Descole is the complete polar opposite of the Professor, as seen in The Last Specter. And for the horrible event, I'd say it has to do with The Unwound Future, which chronologically is the last game in the series, so it may have been an event around that time.

• Confirmed! I can't believe it! The parts where I said he was trying to change an event in the future using an event from his past is actually true! SPOILERS! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZU5yAqZ52k
  • ...What. He wants to solve the Azran mystery before Targent, as revenge against Azran/Targent. There is nothing about changing an event in the future.
• That's what I mean by future. My real flaw was what I meant by future and him being an alternate Hershel Layton. He IS Hershel. The future event would be Bronev/Targent awakening the Azran Legacies and plunging the world into despair, which would destroy it. Hence him saying his prophecy was to discover the Azran civilization before Bronev. Watch the video more closely, then watch the video with Emmy's true motives. Since he was a child he wanted to stop Bronev from getting the legacy, hence the tragic event in the future, future being the timeline Azran Legacies takes place in, which he must prevent Bronev from discovering the Azran legacies. Here is another video proving it even more. Make sure to read Aria's lines as well. It is more than just revenge, and if you see the final scene in the game, he actually helps Layton and Bronev, aka "preventing the tragic event from the future" Emmy's Secrets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlMB_zF98JM
  • In a trunk episode he outright say "world without [his wife and daughter] is meaningless, and the world could just perish". They also just learned moments ago that solving the Azran Mystery could cause The End of the World as We Know It, and Descole used Aria's dispirit over learning that to get the Key Stone and run off to solve Azran. Every time his motivations comes up it is always "revenge against Targent"/"revenge against Azran". Saying this wmg is confirmed is really stretching it.
• Nope, it's jossed. He's Hershel Bronev, AKA Layton's brother. Layton's real name was Theodore Bronev.

Clark was in charge of the Golden Garden dig before becoming mayor.

• He's an archaeologist, so why else would he move to Misthallery? "Doland" talked about needing Clark's knowledge of Misthallery’s geography, climate, soil, and geological makeup is vital to him.

Emmy married Grosky at some point after the third prequel.

It's why she's not in the original 3 games.

• Jossed. It's pointed out in Grosky's profile that he actually has a very lovely but estranged wife. He's probably more married to his job at this point...

Monte d'Or and other towns in Miracle Mask are ex-pat communities.

This is this troper's headcanon, anyway. There are no deserts in the UK, but there are plenty British ex-pat communities across the world. This troper favours the idea that Monte d'Or, Stansbury, and Craggy Dale, are all ex-pat hotspots somewhere either in South America, or North Africa.

Descole is a Zoroark

From Pokémon. How else can you explain him disguising himself as Doland, an old, wrinkled man about half his size and Angela, a woman?

• Maybe Don Paolo is too. Some of his disguises were equally ridiculous, after all.

Claire was one of the few in Layton's life who was ever made aware of his past.

She never gave up on him, though, and instead taught him about being a gentleman as a means of helping him to recover so that one day, he could face up to it with dignity and courage. Through this, Claire brought him out of his shell.

Emmy is actually Bronev's niece, and by extension, accomplice

Emmy is a skilled photographer and martial artist, the latter skill taught to her by her uncle. Bronev has photographs of the Garden of Healing and Ambrosia laid out on his table in one of the cutscenes, both locations which Emmy visited, and Bronev is also shown to be a skilled fighter in the post-credits cutscene. It would explain why she doesn't appear in the original trilogy.

• Wow, this one is right on the mark. Not a single flaw. Azran Legacies confirms that Emmy is indeed Bronev's niece and the photos that were taken came from her. She is an agent of Targent working under Bronev because he is her uncle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlMB_zF98JM *MAJOR SPOILERS*

Because it will be the final Layton series game with Layton as the main character, that game will contain a storytelling minigame whose stories mirror the entire Layton series.

It will involve new characters, but the similarities will be undeniable. The movie/s will be represented. There may also be an adaptation of Professor Layton VS Ace Attorney that crosses over with another metafictional property. To avoid spoilers, the final episode, based on the very game it is a part of, will only become available after the game is finished, and may end with a hint toward the future of the Layton series - Layton Brothers, or something involving Luke.

The Enigma Coin hints at the continuation of the series after the sixth game.

It's already known that the sixth game is Layton's last (un-chronological) adventure, but the coin itself has the same top hat with the letter R printed on it. We just need to find somebody whose last name starts with an R!

• Broneph Reinel?
• This troper took it as a clue hinting toward the Masked Gentleman's true identity as Randall. After all, the Gentleman wears a top hat and his true name starts with the letter R.
  • That was what this troper (the one who suggested Broneph Reinel) thought at first, too, but if that was indeed the case, shouldn't it have been an "A" instead of an "R", since on the hint coins it's an "L" instead of a "H"?
  • But then again, Layton's real name is Leppard Reinel, which would suggest L stands for either his real first name or fake last name. So then it could be any of the Reinels, Flora or Randall...mysterious.

Descole is Desmond Sycamore

I was just watching the new game trailers from YouTube when I noticed this: Simon's butler LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE Descole's butler◊! Coincidence? I think not!

I could be wrong, but this IS WMG. And this is just way too good to pass up. I'm calling it now while no one else seems to have gotten the same idea...

• Moreover, Desmond's butler is named Raymond, in one of the books Descole's butler was also named Raymond. Also, both Desmond and Raymond is called mysterious on the official site.

Edit: I saw a video of the newly-released Azran Legacies that spans the first 70 minutes plus of the game on YouTube. It was all in Japanese so I couldn't understand EVERYTHING. However, listen to Sycamore's voice (39:56) and tell me you don't think it's strange that it sounds like Descole's Japanese voiceover (1:42). Of course, this could just be a case of having the same Japanese VA. But that voice sounds like Descole's whenever he's calm.

• The big flaw I see in my own theory, however, is that the main characters don't seem to notice the similarities themselves. Or maybe they Knew It All Along...?

It's not his true identity, but Descole is in fact Desmond Sycamore.

An expansion to that one Descole theory above, since hey, it's the WMG. May as well cover the bases. Sycamore is actually a cover set up by Descole years before Specter's Flute, because Descole needed to make his real self vanish due to the threat of Targent/other reasons in his past. Once he did what he needed to establish the character, he could interact with society and continue his research more or less unhindered under everyone's noses, even after he started committing his crimes as 'Jean Descole'.

The two roles appear similar to each other, but this is actually because they're individually similar to Descole's true identity. Him as Descole bears much more similarity, because after years of keeping his real self out of the public eye, he felt reassured (and tempted) enough to let more of himself show through. Thus, Layton's comment about faintly knowing Descole from somewhere. Level 5's making the connection too blatant for there not be something else going on, after all.

• Some problems with my theory here include:
  • 1. Why would he write to Layton and get him involved? (Possibility: he knew Targent wouldn't be far behind, and needed something to distract/interfere with them, if only temporarily. He's learned the hard way what Layton is capable of, and figured that he could use that to his advantage. That outweighed the risk of being discovered.)
  • 2. Wouldn't he, as Sycamore, look too obvious to Layton? (Possibility: When he first invented the role, he wasn't as good as disguises and voices as he'd be later, and also had to keep things simple enough in order to maintain it over a much longer period of time. This backfires on him once Layton's in the picture for the sixth game, but the identity was well set up by this point and it was too late to change. Why he couldn't consider different slacks and shoes, however, still escapes me.)
  • 3. If Descole's age or Sycamore's reported age is younger than Layton's by several years, then this could hit a snag.
  • 4. And most of all: Raymond the butler. Targent has already spotted Raymond with Descole. It was brief, but that seems like too much of a risk already. (...I've got nothing.)
• This is very unlikely; if you compare Sycamore's hair to what little we see of Descole's hair throughout the series, you can immediately tell that they don't match (ginger bread hair vs. blond-ish normal hair).
  • Considered that at first too, but then figured that Sycamore's hair could easily be another wig from Descole's stash of disguises.

• Confirmed! Descole's alias without his mask is Desmond Sycamore. It was invented when Bronev/Descole wanted to live a normal life. He contacted Layton because he needed help to beat Targent to the legacy. His last scene heavily implies that Sycamore's look is itself a disguise, so no one really knows what he actually looks like.

Descole is NOT Sycamore

It will turn out everything stated above is just a Red Herring, and Descole will turn out to be someone else.

• As the person who made the "Descole is Sycamore" theory, I actually wish that this is the case, only because it would make things more interesting. It could be that Raymond is working temporarily with Simon under Descole's or maybe even BRONEV'S orders as The Mole.
• Jossed.
• Or maybe...

Descole is Desmond Sycamore's brother

Because, let's face it, they do look kind of similar (and even then, siblings don't have to look similar, as another Level-5 series proved to us). Sycamore could either be working with Layton to bring his brother to justice, or be secretly collaborating with Descole to bring both Layton and Targent down, in which case a tremendous Heel–Face Turn scene could occur.

• Jossed.

Desmond Sycamore

is Descole's accomplice.

It would explain why Raymond is with him. Descole always has someone working with him in his plans and we always see them in the trailer (Jakes, Mr. Whistler, Masked Gentleman/Randall). There doesn’t seem to be anyone else that could fit the role of Descole’s partner but this. The fact that he's is the one who contacted Layton makes it seem even more like he’s helping Descole. In the trailer, Targent agents seem to be scattered all over the place to keep watch on everything. With Layton around, Bronev’s attention will be drawn to them while Descole can carry out his plans without being bothered.

• Jossed.

Melina never really left Janice

• She just didn't want her father obsessing over her. Though she is allowing her personality to take a back seat to Janice, and she's just enjoying the ride.

Descole sold all those tickets to raise money for his projects

He couldn't get all his money from Offscreen Villain Dark Matter.

Descole eventually planned to use the mind transfer machine on himself.

If the whole the "Elixir of Eternal Life" thing didn't pan out.

• Nina and Amelia were just test subjects to see how well it worked.
  • Why would he want to transfer over someone else's soul and lose control of his own one, though?
  • He would've used the machine to transfer his mind to someone else's body.
• Jossed.

The upcoming Azran Legends will be a bridge game to connect the two trilogies and visit the plot point mentioned at the end of Unwound Future.

It's been stated that this one will be the final game starring Layton. To ensure that things will seamlessly flow into the original trilogy and tie up loose ends, it'll utilize the plot thread that was brought at the end of Unwound Future.

Level-5 will release an Updated Re-release of the original trilogy for the 3DS.

They could redesign the graphics and animated cutscenes in 3D, redo the voice acting to make it of higher quality (and for Curious Village, just include new dubs for other languages), include slightly more challenging puzzles (maybe at the cost of reducing the number of puzzles), include the live versions of soundtracks, and retcon some of the dialogue to reference the second trilogy. Sure, this is all very far-fetched, and a single 3DS cartridge might not be enough to hold all the data, but hey, this is Wild Mass Guessing.

• Slightly Jossed, they did release remastered versions for Mobile Phones, and possibly something like a Nintendo Switch version down the line - Sadly nothing like a PC version since it is a point-and-click game...

Descolé was one of the Professor's students.

Mostly just because of that one scene in Eternal Diva where Layton corrects Descolé on the songs represented in the seal, and points out the Song of the Sun. That always felt very like a stern teacher correcting an errant student. Perhaps for Descolé, Layton was always something of a "Well Done, Son" Guy — Descolé was a decent student, but prone to silly mistakes or not looking close enough. It would have frustrated him deeply, because all he wanted was Layton's approval. So when Layton once again shows him up, he's absolutely furious. It also explains his frustrations in Spectre's Call. (Although as this troper thinks of it, he was surprisingly calm at the end of Miracle Mask....)

• Jossed.

Descolé is the boy from the Trunk Episode with how Emmy met Layton.

The last you see of him in Spectre is Layton talking to him about possible courses to study, it's inevitable that Layton likely would have mentioned archaeology, his own subject. Keep that in mind that the preceding incident would also have been his first time being foiled by Layton, and that we know he has a thing for white clothing from the shoes he bought...

• Problem is, Descole must be from a very rich family, judging from all the projects he builds, the accomplices he employs, and the clothes he wear; Descole wouldn't have needed to "steal" the money from his mother, if he really were that rich. His parents probably would've bought the shoes for him. Not to mention, the boy looks nothing like Descole, and looks way too young to be him, anyway (Spectre's Call takes place six years after that incident, at which time he must be thirteen at most, so Descole would be nineteen - far too young to be going about destroying towns with huge robots and fencing on top of a mobile fortress he built).
  • Descole is older than Layton, though.
• Jossed.

Janice is a spirit medium

She had been channelling Melina the entire time. As for why her appearance didn't change :1. She is probably a weak spirit medium.2. There is indeed a change in physical appearance, it's just not noticeable to the viewer (the same way Don Paolo could masquerading as an entirely different person).

• Or she's not using the Kurain technique. There are other techniques, but the Kurain is the only one that actually alters the appearance of the medium. We know there's others because Pearl asks Phoenix what training school he's from, though we also learnt hat only women can use the Kurain technique. Ergo, there must be other techniques, plus whatever Ami Fey built the Kurain technique on.

Stachenscarfen is Mario

He cameos in plenty of other games.

A future game in the series will feature grown-up Luke as the main character...

with the reincarnated Aurora as his assistant. They'd make a pretty good team, don't you think?

There is something seriously up with Pavel.

There's something really, really, really off about the guy. Like sure he gets lost but the man gets lost in the weirdest places that he shouldn't even be in and I at least, don't trust him.

Chi's Sweet Home is a series of Japanese cat videos in the Professor Layton universe that leaked out to the real world.

All of the people look Laytonesque, after all, and they are, basically, anime cat videos. Since cat videos are the one thing nobody cares what language it's in, everyone watches it. Chi is essentially the Laytonverse Grumpy Cat, except instead she's just famous for being a popular cat video series, rather than for looking grumpy.

A future game or trilogy will focus around Descole.

We learned a lot about him in Azran Legacy, but there's still a lot to be learned about him, like previous adventures, what he did after the events of the game, or who his wife and daughter were and how they died. And since Aurora believed there's some good left in him that he's not seeing, these games could also serve as his redemption story, starting with a few Pet the Dog moments, then eventually developing into a full blown Heel–Face Turn.

Emmy is Descole's daughter.

• Sycamore mentions he had a daughter at some point who would've been the same age as Emmy.
• There is a small resemblance between Sycamore and Emmy
• If he had believed her killed by Targent, it would provide further reason for wanting revenge against Targent.
• Bronev isn't actually Emmy's Uncle, but she was raised by him, and if the above WMG is true, would actually make Bronev her grandfather and Layton's neice.

Janice married Professor Layton sometime after Unwound Future.

Nothing really to base this off of but..

• He does canonically have a son and daughter.
• The Professor got some closure with Clare after Unwound Future.
• He's known Janice for a while now, even after she stopped being his student, meeting up with her even 3yrs after her case was solved in Eternal Diva.
• Emmy, the only other person who'd likely fit, is probably Layton's niece.
• According to Melina, Janice is very, very fond of him.

The Professor Layton series takes place in an alternate universe 1960's

We know that Level 5 was going for a 1960's look for the series (as stated in their design artbook), and there are a few clues that the series definitely takes place in that decade. However, it's definetly an alternate universe version of the 60s, with little relevance to our timeline.

• The Laytonmobile is an old 2CV which is in relatively good condition, meaning it's not all that old.
• The Targent uses 1950s-era military equipment which appears to be modeled off of US and Russian stuff of that era - In fact, their helicopters are pretty much just chinooks. In the Unwound Future, you can find stuff like a V2 and a Sherman Tank, while the family use the M1928's and the M79 'Bloop Tube' Grenade Launcher. Unwound future even has a nuclear power plant in it's background scenes, showing that they have nuclear power.
• Most of the Mechs and Equipment seen throughout the games are very analogue in design, looking like stuff designed from the mid 20th century. Don Paulo's flying machine is really just an early type of helicopter
• Vinyl records are still sold and used, and people still have black and white TVs (With some color ones seen in the anime). There are no cassettes or computers to be seen, minus the old fashioned IBM mainframe-style computers used back in the 1950s, meaning that the transistor hasn't surpassed the stage of amateur electronics
• In some concept art, the time machine background for The Unwound Future shows the year changing from a year in the 60's to a year in the 70's. Additionally, the prime minister mentions historical events like the space race, which would have started in the early 60s with Yuri Gagarin and ended with the Apollo 11 missions.
• Going by their appearance and position relative to the Houses of Parliament, Scotland Yard is located in what appears to be the Norman Shaw Buildings. The Met was based here until 1967.
• Additionally, Traditonal fashion in the UK would have been the same, rather it was counterculture (which is also portrayed as 50s rock-n-roll in the games) which changed dramatically. Even if they dress like the victorian era, that's probably also how alot of people dressed in Real life for the most part.
• Finally, given the lack of cold-war references (which would be most certainly prevalent in a game set in our 1960s), it's possible that there is no cold-war happening in their 1960s; possibly meaning that WW2 probably never happened due to their WW1 ending differently... If it even happened in the same way at all.

Most of the residents of "Future London" in Unwound Future are actors.

Clive hired actors and told them it was a reality TV show or something along those lines, about a bunch of people who thought they'd time-traveled into the future. Cameras were supposedly built into the "set" (aka Fake Future London) so as not to tip off the "main characters" (the scientists, as well as Layton and friends). They were all given basically the same story about Future London that Layton was, except they knew it was fictional - this is why Layton and co. never actually get hurt or even too seriously hindered, because the actors were told to make sure it went that way for the show. They may not have known that Clive was their employer, but they were aware that he was one of the "protagonists". This is why none of them look too terribly surprised when they arrive in Real London at the end. They knew the underground London wasn't real all along.

Katrielle is Luke's daughter, not the Professor's

• Based on two commonalities.
  • Both can talk to animals. Kat has a lesser version in that she can only talk to Sherl, and not just any animal.
  • Both Luke and Katrielle have enormous appetites.
• Jossed by the anime, she's not biologically related to either of them.

Katrielle is Flora's daughter.

There is a certain similarity to their character designs, and it could explain why Flora's missing from the series.

• Jossed by the anime.

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