Juniper

Each main-series Pokémon title has a professor who starts the player off on their adventure and encourages them to complete the Pokédex. But they usually don’t hold a role of much, if any, narrative importance. In Unova, however, the leading Pokémon researcher, Professor Juniper, is a role model and source of support for the player character and their friends. She keeps in touch through calls on the Xtransceiver and is up to date on the happenings of the player’s journey. She additionally leaves her lab to do field research, and meets up with the player and their friends to assist them at crucial moments in the game.

But she also knows when to keep her distance. Juniper delivers the package containing three starter Pokémon to the player’s house and lets them pick amongst themselves to make the process more personal and meaningful. The player grows connected not only to their new Pokémon, but to their friends throughout the affair. This is the player’s journey, after all, and a good role model knows when not to overstep their boundaries.

Still, that doesn’t mean she’s entirely absent once the games’ quick tutorials are over.

A contemporary interpretation of Plato’s allegory of the cave is that by learning from many different people, we break free from our preconceived notions and grow. This can be seen in Bianca’s character arc through her multiple sources of role models, including Gym Leaders such as Elesa. The original allegory makes it clear that only through listening to the words of a philosopher can one free themselves from their cave. But even this is applicable here—after all, it’s quite fitting that a professor be the “philosopher” in Pokémon’s iteration of the cave allegory.

When encountered inside Chargestone Cave, N refuses to listen to the words of the professor and sticks to only what he already knows. In comparison, Bianca has spent much time alongside not only Juniper but Fennel as well, and will later even accompany Cedric, learning from each one. Juniper, the most relevant of the three, opens new ways of thinking—potential new career paths—up to Bianca, who otherwise had no idea what she wanted to do, or what she was even capable of.

Just knowing a career path is technically open to you is actually not enough in reality. Without role models to show that people similar to yourself can take certain career positions and thrive in them, people will naturally not realize those options are available to them.¹ The Pokémon core series’s first female professor took fourteen years to arrive, but she certainly made the most of it. Her role as a positive influence on Bianca works precisely because she’s a woman that Bianca can look up to, and wouldn’t be nearly as effective had she been yet another male professor.

And this is indeed reflected in-game again, through the use of her father, Cedric Juniper. While he still has a role to play in the fight against Team Plasma, he never usurps his daughter’s importance, as she’s more frequently involved and relevant to Bianca, Cheren, and N’s character arcs: Cheren’s through allowing him the opportunity to showcase his innate knowledge, and N’s through their confrontation in Chargestone Cave. Although his assistance is greatly appreciated, Cedric predominantly exists for thematic strengthening. Both junipers and the Japanese yew—from the family’s Japanese name, Araragi—are evergreen trees, unaffected by the passing seasons and their cyclical nature. Instead, the passage of time is represented through the Juniper family themselves—the older father and the younger daughter, both old and new, not unlike the relationship between Drayden and his adopted daughter Iris.

Trees themselves, after which all series professors are named, are often “a metaphor for the whole of creation.”² The professor being the character who allows your journey to begin with the gift of a Pokémon and Pokédex certainly cements them as the metaphorical “tree of life” to your adventure, but this is exemplified further in Japanese. Most characters, very notably the Gym Leaders, are named after various plants—not just in Black and White, but all Pokémon games—continuing this almost nature-based underlying theme, with the professor being the tree from which everything stems.

Trees also represent the attainment of knowledge, bearing fruit that can be shared with others. An additional connection to Unova’s themes comes from their earthbound roots and heaven-bound branches, meaning trees are essentially natural towers.³ And while their branches spread out, each taking their own path in life, they’re all still connected by the same trunk in perfect unity.⁴ But it wouldn’t be Black and White without referencing dichotomy, and duality “in tree symbolism is usually represented by paired trees.”⁵ Juniper and Cedric are yin and yang, young and old, unified yet distinct—two paired trees completely cementing Cedric’s role as a symbolic figure while his daughter is on the narrative frontlines.

After defeating the Gym Leader at Opelucid City, you find Juniper waiting just outside. She felt it would be better to tell you what she has to say in person than over the Xtransceiver, making her final meeting with you all the more personal. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know how to revive the missing Dragon-type legendary Pokémon, although she’s certain when it deems someone worthy, it will awaken. Since you now have all eight badges, she takes the opportunity to lead you in the direction of the Pokémon League, which reminds her of the tour she gave you of the Pokémon Center in Accumula Town—the final way Opelucid City reflects its Accumula Town counterpart. She then asks you a serious question:

“Do you regret setting out on your Pokémon journey?”

If you say yes, she isn’t upset. Still, she’s happy you, Cheren, and Bianca went anyway, because it allowed you all to grow as people, and meet many other people and Pokémon.

If you say no, however, she’s relieved. “That’s the greatest answer you could give! I was really happy to be able to give you three those Pokémon as a present! Because Pokémon create chances to meet more wonderful people and Pokémon!”

Regardless of your answer, Juniper takes the opportunity to give you the Master Ball—the greatest Poké Ball that can capture any Pokémon without fail.

Throughout your journey, Juniper has been supporting you and your friends. She’s been the philosopher to guide Bianca, the role model to inspire her and have her recognize that certain career paths are in fact open to her. She brought to light N’s resolve, and supported Cheren even at his most stubborn points. She allowed you to begin your journey and was as much of a mentor as she could be without overstepping her boundaries. And as your journey’s end is coming into view, she gives you the Poké Ball that can capture anything, just like she’s given you the opportunity to capture new knowledge and experiences. Will you use it for your Pokédex, or perhaps to capture a rare and powerful Pokémon for your team? Maybe you won’t use it at all—that’s up to you. Ultimately, if you give a man a Master Ball, he can capture a Pokémon. But teach a man to capture a Pokémon, and he can complete the Pokédex—or become the Champion. Or change the world.

Which is exactly what Juniper has given you.