5th Gen Professor Juni... who?

Professor Juniper, Unova's regional professor was around for most of Black and White. In Black 2 and White 2 she was almost completely absent, and relied on Bianca for everything. She IS the first (and only) female professor, but completely leaving new trainers in the dark two years later??? That's not cool!

What did you think of her as a professor? Is there anyone you'd have liked to have seen instead? Did she represent the women of Pokemon well? What about her father?

I personally think she was just dull. I mean yeah she IS a professor, which isn't really an exciting role but... look at Elm and Oak. Those dudes are classics. Juniper didn't even act motherly to your character either, which sucks (given your own mother is absent, like most protagonist parents). I think her dad would've been cooler in BW, then her take over in B2W2 - Bianca could've still been an assistant but character development for both Juniper and the father would've made the games a little more interesting.

I totally agree with you here. I'd of rather seen her dad first too, then her take over in 2's would of given her more time to grown on people. And it wouldn't affect Bianca being an assistant either. Guess it all was an afterthought of Gamefreak, but I would of like to see her be closer to the protag and be a little less forgettable :/

Wait, the protagonist's mother is absent, like in most Pokemon games? No, it's the father who's always absent. The mother is present in B/W and in B2/W2. And no, I do not believe Juniper needs to 'represent' women or be motherly. I don't see any value in trying to have one character represent a whole group they happen to be a part of, nor do I see why they have to adhere to stereotypes. We don't see the male professors all being super manly and strong (except Kukui).

Caaethil said:

Wait, the protagonist's mother is absent, like in most Pokemon games? No, it's the father who's always absent. The mother is present in B/W and in B2/W2. And no, I do not believe Juniper needs to 'represent' women or be motherly. I don't see any value in trying to have one character represent a whole group they happen to be a part of, nor do I see why they have to adhere to stereotypes. We don't see the male professors all being super manly and strong (except Kukui).

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Yeah but after the early part of the game your mother disappears. Not as bad as your father but still a little too trusting of their kid.

Thing is she was the first. She doesn't have to be motherly but it's more that she should have been more memorable, done something more. Like female Pokémon players were waiting for a female professor for so long and... she didn't really do much more than the male professors did. With Pokémon being primarily aimed at boys (from the start) it was supposed to be a big thing for us. Like acknowledging that a female could be the most knowledgeable but she did nothing to prove her worth over the other professors.

Itcheeee said:

I totally agree with you here. I'd of rather seen her dad first too, then her take over in 2's would of given her more time to grown on people. And it wouldn't affect Bianca being an assistant either. Guess it all was an afterthought of Gamefreak, but I would of like to see her be closer to the protag and be a little less forgettable :/

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Mhm. Why bother having her dad? Why not let her get the Iris treatment (understudy sorta then Champion) yknow?

Forever said:

Yeah but after the early part of the game your mother disappears. Not as bad as your father but still a little too trusting of their kid.

Thing is she was the first. She doesn't have to be motherly but it's more that she should have been more memorable, done something more. Like female Pokémon players were waiting for a female professor for so long and... she didn't really do much more than the male professors did. With Pokémon being primarily aimed at boys (from the start) it was supposed to be a big thing for us. Like acknowledging that a female could be the most knowledgeable but she did nothing to prove her worth over the other professors.

Mhm. Why bother having her dad? Why not let her get the Iris treatment (understudy sorta then Champion) yknow?

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I honestly don't remember anyone getting excited about Juniper being female or having any expectations. But then, I wasn't following much at the time, I just wanted the game when it came out and thought Snivy looked cool. I do think that it's silly to expect a female professor to be 'special', though. Honestly, I know this is maybe a bit of a null point since I'm clearly not, but if I was a girl, I don't think I'd care.

Maybe the reason she didn't get the Iris treatment was because Iris got the Iris treatment? Also, what you're talking about is basically what Bianca is supposed to be. That's Bianca's thing. Sure, Bianca doesn't get an actual title, but that's literally what her story arc is. I think it's way cooler to have your rival grow to take that role than a professor's daughter who nobody would really care about in the first place.

Caaethil said:

I honestly don't remember anyone getting excited about Juniper being female or having any expectations. But then, I wasn't following much at the time, I just wanted the game when it came out and thought Snivy looked cool. I do think that it's silly to expect a female professor to be 'special', though. Honestly, I know this is maybe a bit of a null point since I'm clearly not, but if I was a girl, I don't think I'd care.

Maybe the reason she didn't get the Iris treatment was because Iris got the Iris treatment? Also, what you're talking about is basically what Bianca is supposed to be. That's Bianca's thing. Sure, Bianca doesn't get an actual title, but that's literally what her story arc is. I think it's way cooler to have your rival grow to take that role than a professor's daughter who nobody would really care about in the first place.

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Nah here on PC everyone was hyping it up. They thought wow I wonder what she can achieve etc. I guess being a girl means that this issue is taken a little more heavily, given we didn't even get protagonist treatment to crystal. That's kinda why from a female perspective (mine) it's kinda a let down because everyone had high expectations. That and fifth generation was parallel to rby with the new start etc so people thought she could rival oak in being a memorable professor.

But Bianca never got the professor role. Yeah, she could have but it couldve gone like this:

- Juniper's dad is the professor
- Alder is the champion
- they could have known each other for years
- Juniper realises that his daughter is taking an interest in wanting to learn more about researching
- Alder also starts considering retirement, maybe it's time for fresh blood
- juniper, throughout the game, makes his daughter his assistant - which inspires Bianca in turn
- Juniper doesn't tell his daughter his plans
- end of BW he announces his retirement and let's juniper takeover, and pick her own assistant
- Alder was busy searching fir his own replacement, his kid is too young so he awards it to Iris after all she's done for the region

Like a backstory in that would have given the games even more depth imo.

Forever said:

Nah here on PC everyone was hyping it up. They thought wow I wonder what she can achieve etc. I guess being a girl means that this issue is taken a little more heavily, given we didn't even get protagonist treatment to crystal. That's kinda why from a female perspective (mine) it's kinda a let down because everyone had high expectations. That and fifth generation was parallel to rby with the new start etc so people thought she could rival oak in being a memorable professor.

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Eh, I just don't see the reason to hype it up just because she's female, nor do I feel the need to use that as a reason why she should have had a feminine role in the name of uniqueness. That's just me though so I'll leave it there.

Forever said:

But Bianca never got the professor role. Yeah, she could have but it couldve gone like this:

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I know she didn't. What I'm saying is she had basically the same story arc as you're saying Juniper should have had. The title means nothing.

Forever said:

- Juniper's dad is the professor
- Alder is the champion
- they could have known each other for years
- Juniper realises that his daughter is taking an interest in wanting to learn more about researching
- Alder also starts considering retirement, maybe it's time for fresh blood
- juniper, throughout the game, makes his daughter his assistant - which inspires Bianca in turn
- Juniper doesn't tell his daughter his plans
- end of BW he announces his retirement and let's juniper takeover, and pick her own assistant
- Alder was busy searching fir his own replacement, his kid is too young so he awards it to Iris after all she's done for the region

Like a backstory in that would have given the games even more depth imo.

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So three different characters (Iris, Juniper, Bianca) have basically the same character progression? That sounds really boring. Iris and Bianca had it differently enough that it was interesting, but having both Juniper and Bianca go through pretty much the exact same thing, one slightly delayed, would be boring. I can't help but feel you're suggesting that Bianca's story should have just been applied to Juniper with the added feature of throwing the word professor on there. It's not interesting to me at all.

Forever said:

Yeah but after the early part of the game your mother disappears. Not as bad as your father but still a little too trusting of their kid.

Thing is she was the first. She doesn't have to be motherly but it's more that she should have been more memorable, done something more. Like female Pokémon players were waiting for a female professor for so long and... she didn't really do much more than the male professors did. With Pokémon being primarily aimed at boys (from the start) it was supposed to be a big thing for us. Like acknowledging that a female could be the most knowledgeable but she did nothing to prove her worth over the other professors.



Mhm. Why bother having her dad? Why not let her get the Iris treatment (understudy sorta then Champion) yknow?

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That would of been great for her to really go somewhere, actually she would of made an intresting Champion. Or even having a former Professor become one, would of been neat to see and actualy give her goal. Would of been surprizing to the player aswell to see that happen, especially in BW2.

I do admit that it would have been cooler to have her start as an assistant to her father and then promote into a full-fledged professor for the sake of giving her character development (and also making her father have more of a reason for existing at all). But Game Freak didn't really start having professors getting more involved with the protagonists/story until XY (which, in an old interview, Masuda said was because of the shifting relationship in Japan with teachers being more friend-like towards students). So while there is definitely room for improvement for her involvement and development, I'd still say she was one of our best--if not best--professors until Sycamore came around.

I appreciated that she was our first female professor and I really liked that she had a backstory with Fennel. Past professors didn't have much going for them either, save for Oak being your rival's grandfather and Birch being father of Brendan/May. The only thing is, as I already mentioned, her father really didn't serve any purpose, and I thought it was odd for him to be included. There's no way he can really overshadow anyone since he doesn't really do anything, but I thought it was kind of... weird how they added another male professor when Juniper was already there performing her duties as our first female professor. I guess it was to give Juniper more people to have a connection to, but I remember it didn't sit quite right with me when I first played through BW. But that may just have been me overthinking things.

Lets compare her with Oak .
Oak -
He is the most experienced and depicted as in Gen 2 he does the Radio show .
He also interact a lot and comes to visit us when we win the E4 .
While Juniper would only interact like more than halfway after the game starts for something important , she does so because there is disturbance in Unova .
So does she rely on a 10 year old to save the world ?
Oak didn't say so , he even gave us the pokemon as the world is dangerous .

Umm..... I think Forever is right. She is really dull. And for this Oak is my favourite. And this is not good to leave everythink to
her assistant Bienca. Is it?

I like Juniper. She does her own thing, she used to be a Backpacker, and even as a prof, she doesn't mind getting her hands dirty and doing field work. Thing is, she was used, yes. She's the Pokemon Professor, so she'll be doing a lot of explaining and tutorial stuff, which doesn't really help with developing her character. And she's also the lever to Bianca's development, and that's fine, because well, she's not really part of the main cast. Just because she's a supporting character doesn't mean she's uninteresting.

And I really don't like the whole "she's the first female prof, she should've been so much more". I'm a programmer, so as a woman in a man's world, I've witnessed first-hand that just because I'm female, they expect me to perform so much better than the guys, like I'd need to prove myself. Yeah, women shouldn't need to prove themselves, so I don't think Juniper needs to be better than the male profs in any way. She shouldn't be special just because she's a woman.

PercyX said:

Lets compare her with Oak .
Oak -
He is the most experienced and depicted as in Gen 2 he does the Radio show .
He also interact a lot and comes to visit us when we win the E4 .
While Juniper would only interact like more than halfway after the game starts for something important , she does so because there is disturbance in Unova .
So does she rely on a 10 year old to save the world ?
Oak didn't say so , he even gave us the pokemon as the world is dangerous .

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In comparison with Oak she's just forgettable. If she actually did something if worth she'd be memorable not just for being female but for being one of the best professors. You and her could have teamed up against Plasma :(