The TRUTH about Animal Crossing's Tom Nook

Tom Nook you probably know it was animal Crossing's most iconic and longest lasting main character but do you really know him just who is he is he a mean generating coin collector echidna mr. krabs a power-hungry capital is spent on assimilating control or a genuinely nice guy just trying to lend a hand with a brand new Animal Crossing finally in our grass I decided to dig in every nook and cranny I could to uncover anything I could about Tom nooks lore and the truth surprised me let's talk about it [Music] most people stance on Tom Nook seems to fall into one of two camps people that believe Tom is good and people who believe he's evil the Thomas evil camp typically sites his obsession with money his omnipresent ownership over various town facilities and his sarcastic and borderline cruel tone when talking to the player the Thomas good camp usually mentions that Tom offers you a place to live a job and alone with no interest rate that can be paid back at any time without penalty when we go back to the original Animal Crossing or well the original Western Animal Crossing for GameCube it's easy to understand where people would get a negative first impression of the guy I even remember back in the 2002 Nintendo Power Awards Tom was nominated and mentioned in the best new villain category from a gameplay perspective Tom Nook is the closest thing to animal Crossing's boss not like this kind of boss even though that's also true but this kind of boss despite there not being a true end game paying off tom nooks loans is the game's one main obstacle Tom comes off as kind of a used car salesman type making deals that sound better than they really are for example he mentions how he'll throw in a radio into your house for free just before uttering under his breath that he was never able to sell the thing in the first place he chastises you and you don't have enough money to pay off your first house when you're forced into a part-time job to begin making a dent in your loan look constantly chastises you for being late no matter how quickly you come back to him he's also genuinely bossy snap to it you don't need your mother to change you do you he barks as you shuffle into your mandatory work uniform job to work without your uniform and he'll nearly have a heart attack and why aren't you and you an iPod he will eventually concede on the uniform and an attempt to stay hip with the kids he's kind of the boomer of Animal Crossing he's also a little bit of a prankster if you don't pay back 1,000 bells a week I'll send for the raccoon goons Oh jk jk was just a prank bro I didn't mean it there is a certain charm about his quirky dialogue and his attempts to teach the player responsibility but for many this is a bad first impression that lasted a lifetime it's interesting to note Tom nooks animal type the tanuki both his English name and Japanese names are a play on the word tanuki while the tanuki is a very real raccoon dog animal that you can find in Japan the tanuki plays a recurring role in Japanese folklore the animal is usually written as a trickster magically transforming itself to prank unsuspecting humans the tanuki is already a big part of Nintendo's history most notably in the Super Mario series the Tanooki suit much like the magical tanuki a folklore grants Mario the ability to transform the tanuki has a close relationship to another animal in Japanese folklore the kitsune or Fox both animals are described as magical having the ability to transform and having a history of deceiving humans some Japanese media has the two animals working together although quite a lot of it has them actually fighting against each other kitsune are often painted is more magically powerful and pure evil than the tanuki but it had to head battles and stories they're often defeated by the more chaotic leaning and prank loving raccoon dogs this same lure reflects an animal crossing if Tom Nook is the light hearted swindler tanuki then crazy red is the evil trickster kitsune both animals run shops but Red's black market inflated prices and counterfeit material certainly puts him on the more evil side of the spectrum now I'm here today for a lot more than the not as evil as crazy red award I want to figure Tom out and while the original Animal Crossing is our first look at the man it wasn't until the future games that we've really started to get some real deep lore on the characters in general I found that the juicier the animal crossing info was the harder it was to track down out of every single Animal Crossing title no game reveals more about Tom Nook than the Nintendo DS's wild world even though wild world is one of the best-selling Animal Crossing titles of all time due to the massive success of the DS I feel like it's the least revisited game I think a big part of this is because it is without a doubt the ugliest Animal Crossing game but if you squint hard enough at the blurs Tom nooks boggy past becomes clear wild world introduces a mechanic that many in the community called episodes multi-part soap opera-like stories that unfold over multiple different days at specific times of the year remember how I mentioned that these are obscure they're stupid obscure you'll notice that an episode has started when a character makes an exasperated sigh of depression before talking to them and you then begin the story by asking them what's wrong in a special dialogue option each episode starts on a specific day for example the longest episode of the game Mabel and sable in January starts on the second Wednesday of January and is seven parts long part two of an episode is always four days after the first episode then each subsequent episode after two is always three days after the previous episode I think the game gives you a one day buffer where you can catch an episode you missed one day after it initially triggers but that is still a really well-hidden time commitment throughout these stories we learned that sable is the only character in Animal Crossing who is no nook since childhood Mabel was too young at the time to remember the interactions but sable and Tom grew up together explored together shared their dreams together went on the roof and looked at the sky together and I know you're thinking is there real Canon evidence of sable and Tom Nook as a couple and to then I say be very careful because more than once sable describes Tom as the Big Brother she never had both sable and Tom's lives were forever changed when Tom decided to follow his dreams and pursue a life making it big in the city during this time sable and Mabel's parents passed away forcing sable to take over the shop and essentially raise her younger sister herself meanwhile Tom's naive optimism was eaten alive in the cold hard corporate world he suffered hard working conditions was dejected by the cruelty of the city and was betrayed by someone for all the money he had he returned home with his tail between his legs feeling they could complete and utter failure and falling into depression during those bitter years he damaged his relationship with sable because he felt like such a failure that he pushed even his biggest supporters away Tom alludes to having all his money being stolen in a get-rich-quick scheme from someone he used to trust and in a completely unrelated story in wild world it seems like crazy rod has a brand-new get-rich-quick scheme in this game we get a brand new shady character Lyle who will frequently hound you to purchase one of his new insurance packages which will never pay out as much money as they cost to buy even offers additional protection against buying fraudulent art Lyle will mention crazy red which will eventually determine what day red shows up it's more than implied that this dastardly duo of Lyle and Redd worked together to scam you of maximum bells the combination of fraudulent insurance and fraudulent art it's a wild wild world out there but through these stories one thing became extremely clear to me Tom was without a doubt hardened by the city life and his failures when he was younger are a huge contributing factor for why he pushes himself so hard for success back at home but he is without a doubt a good person in my opinion here's the facts sable mentions that during some Atomos lowest moments in the city he still took the time to write her frequently and even though his job paid poorly and things were hard he still found the time and the money to send her an incredibly nice pair of scissors for her birthday sable also reveals that she's the creator of his clothes and even though he guards his feelings tightly she's delighted to hear that he appreciates the work she's done for him what if tongue hooks statements during his time in the city caught my attention take the big city banks for example they will deny a young man alone though they know nothing of his character this is probably what inspired Tom's now iconic zero interest zero rush loans he also shows true remorse at pushing Sabol away and mentions the despite his rock-bottom her wisdom still guides him he also shows that he cares about Timmy and Tommy who we haven't talked about little rascals yet have we Tom Duke clears up a pretty crucial misconception that I still here today Timmy and Tommy are not related to Tom by blood they're not my children we're not related at all I like to think of them as my pupils and myself as their mentor Tom wants to teach others good economic principles in order to help them from suffering the same pitfalls he did when growing up that goes for Timmy Tommy and even you the player ironically despite all this talk of city folk in wild world the actual next animal crossing title city fulk spends a lot less time talking about the individual character backstories there's only one set of soap opera-like episodes but it focuses instead on sable and Mabel's relationship with their estranged sister labelled a lot of similar parallels play out in this game though especially with the theme of simple living versus pursuing your dreams in the corporate world and speaking of the corporate world it seems that Lisle got caught during his wild world schemes at some point he now works for the happy room Academy but constantly complains about how much he hates his job and how he's struggling to enjoy his new clean lifestyle in Animal Crossing new leaf we start to see some real significant shifts in power I mean you're the one with the power now you're the mayor a lot of people felt uncomfortable with the majority of all housing and shopping going through this one man but in this game we see Tom taking a much larger step back from his old powerful capitalist ways there are now a variety of different shops from a variety of different owners including new store owners like retail or Leafs gardening store Timmy and Tommy now run a shop on Main Street by themselves reflecting well on nooks time would them as a mentor Nick now runs just the home side of things with his new company still running his patented loans alongside a new employee Lyle Lyle seems considerably happier with this job than the one he had in city folk I like to think that this reflects well on Tom through Tom Wow found a way to make an honest living for himself find his place in the world and still show off his usual Flair in fact funnily enough Lyle is the main character that facilitates the episode like more of new leaf every once in a while while we'll give you a special dialogue option that allows you to learn more about the various main NPCs there are Lyle we get more nods at nukes history with the able sisters a nice bit about how nuke trained Timmy and Tommy about competition in the business world and other similar tales remember how I mentioned that the better the Animal Crossing lore is the harder it is to find well my final stash of info comes from quite the unexpected place happy home designer and amiibo cards huge props to Rene for collecting all of these but by scanning them in a happy home designer you can summon special NPCs and build houses for them once you finish building you can chat with each NPC to get a few more lines of special dialogue from each of them here we get all kinds of juicy little tidbits like this one from sable where she worries about Tom Nook getting lonely and also mentions that he is a wonderful singing voice of all things Nick himself has a lot to say almost all of which fits with the Tom Nook that I learned about over the course of today's video he says that 90% of his earnings go to charity that charity work is rewarding and then an orphanage a few towns over even as a wing named after him even straight up addresses the misconceptions that we're looking at in today's video I've heard some folks believed on the ruthless and heartless businessman this is not true hmm perhaps I can see the value of having a boogeyman everyone can unite against but paying for one's debts is important if I must be villainized in my pursuit of teaching then so be it Tom Nook just might be the most misunderstood character of all in Animal Crossing and over the last 20 years he's come a really long way in fact literally as I was finishing editing this video I saw this exact same thing in a ver jart achill Animal Crossing his creators think Tom Nook is misunderstood they cite Tom is caring and repeat that same thing that happy home designer says that Tom serves as someone who can help teach the player responsibility as of today's video New Horizons is officially out the world couldn't be happier and I can't wait to see how Tom Dukes story continues to close today's video I'll leave you guys with one final gem from happy home designer have you ever worked at the Fox yes foxes are never to be trusted hmm I worked with the Fox once in my life never again not after the incident and a lot of it has them actually fighting against each other and was betrayed by someone for all the money he had come on the more evil side of the spectrum it was red red was the one who cheated Tom in the city and broke his spirit Tom Nook shouldn't be on this Nintendo Power villain list it should be red he's the true villain oh wait he is actually here he's the winner of the most misunderstood character the audacity [Music]

Channel: TheJWittz

Views: 1,668,279

Rating: 4.9405251 out of 5

Keywords: Animal Crossing, Animal Crossing Switch, New Horizons, New Horizon, Animal Crossing New Horizon, Tom Nook Twitter, Nintendo Switch, Gamecube, Wild World, City Folk, New Leaf, Redd, Crazy Redd, Upgrades, Timmy Tommy, Super Smash Bros, Lore, Backstory, Facts

Id: rvfmPtkhqok

Length: 14min 34sec (874 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 21 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Little_Derp_xD]

I’ve seen this video, the ending with Redd always gets me