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All Good Things Must Come to an End, But Do We Have to Stop Putting Hats on the Statue?
Retrospective article written by Sorrel Ashcroft
Journalism Student with the Hammerlocke Headliner
There is hardly a single person in the world who hasn’t heard the name “Professor Faris Laventon” at least once. Celebrated as a man who inspired the culture of curiosity and harmony, discovery and companionship— whose work allows the world to exist as it does to this day.
The Father of Pokémon Research
From Kanto, to Sinnoh. From Unova to Orre. From Alola to Oblivia. From Galar to Paldea. Anyone who’s endured a history class would, of course, learn about regional history, worldwide events, politics and the like… but they would also learn about the things that unified even the most remote places in the world with the most bustling cities. The things that allowed countless scholars and figureheads to welcome curious minds to a place they call “The World of Pokémon”.
It is a strongly held belief that bridging the gap between people and Pokémon was possible on a large scale thanks to Professor Laventon’s research. His name is celebrated, recorded, cited, exalted… museums in Sinnoh have portraits of him and replicas of his Pokédex. Tons of books have his face in it, pictures he’d taken of his studies as well as portraits with his pupils who are regarded as the first journey-goers in modern history.
Naturally, the University of Hammerlocke celebrates him as well. Laventon was a graduate of Hammerlocke University, an accolade they are sure to boast, as within the foyer of the school, a proud bronze statue of the man stood as a centerpiece, greeting anyone with an inquisitive spirit.
The statue stands as a symbol of pride for Galarian scholars. Transparent photo provided by photography student "Bee".
The statue was funded by the Hawthorne family, who also provided the bronze to sculpt it, something easily accessible to a family administering the Galar Mineral Company.
It was commissioned shortly after word reached the people of Galar that Laventon died in Hisui. He died a death uncommon of Pokémon researchers of his time.
He died peacefully in his home. Surrounded by his loved ones, wife, children, grandchildren, Pokémon… his successor and her assistants promised at his grave that his dream would live on and the world would know his legacy.
And so, for 100 years at least, the statue of Faris Laventon stood nobly in the university, occasionally illuminated by the light peering through the windows of the school’s entrance.
The Missing Piece
About 30 years ago, some students made an observation about the statue. Something they found odd.
He was wearing a lab coat that flowed picturesquely behind him. He held an open book with his head tilted slightly toward the sky, an inspiring smile on his face. Those weren’t unusual.
What was unusual, however, was that the statue lacked the one characteristic every student was quick to point out when they’d first see a picture of him.
On the statue, he was portrayed with tight, curly hair which was combed back cleanly. This detail wasn’t incorrect, but some felt it was incorrect that they could see his hair at all.
After all, he was missing his hat!
Every year, educators teaching elementary history would have to brace themselves for the onslaught of laughter and teasing and questions that young students had about Professor Laventon’s hat.
"The Galaxy Survey Corps discussing mission details" photo generously provided by the Public Digital Archive of the Canalave Library
It looked cozy, hand knit. A large pom pom adorned it, and some students swore that it looked bigger in some pictures than others.
It was hard to prove as camera technology wasn’t completely reliable yet, but whether or not it was true, children would call him things like “Swablu Head”, or “Elder-goss”, and sometimes “Jumplufenton”. It wasn’t uncommon to find books with graffiti’d images of him where the only change was making the pompom so large that it could eclipse the sun.
I requested students to send me pictures of any graffitied textbooks they could find, however I worry that some of these are freshly done. I'd like to note that the Hammerlocke Headliner does NOT condone vandalizing university property.
Point being, everyone knew about the hat. There was hardly a picture of him taken in Hisui where he wasn’t seen with it on. At conferences, diplomatic meetings… any event save for his own wedding, he was seen with that hat.
Those students from about 30 years ago thought this was a grave injustice. The man needed a hat.
The Great Hattening Begins
The students who made this observation did what they felt was right in their hearts. One of them climbed the statue, removed the bowler hat they were wearing, and plopped it atop the statue’s head. It was definitely the wrong kind of hat, but he looked a bit less bare with it.
That day a student sacrificed their hat. They didn’t realize that impulsive actions made at night while a wee bit drunk was often how legends began.
Everyone in the university was talking about the newly hatted statue. Desperate to think about something other than due papers or upcoming finals, students chatted away and laughed at the hat on the statue. Eventually, a member of security removed the bowler cap. That particular hat was never seen again.
The next morning, however, a new hat was seen adorning the bronze statue. It was a simple sports cap, bearing the logo of the Galarian Fighting Gym. The hat didn’t suit the statue at all, but it was a sacrifice someone else was willing to make for the bit.
Security wasn’t as quick to remove the hat the next time around. It gave an air of levity to the otherwise stuffy and stressful atmosphere of the university.
A few weeks after that, the statue was wearing a silk top hat, stacked on top of the sports cap. The topic of Laventon’s hats headlined the student newspaper.
“Ol’ Lavvy’s New Style”, it read.
The War on Hat
The newspaper was brought by one of the professors to a board meeting and demanded that the statue needed to be less accessible to the students. The less contemporary of the staff agreed that it was outrageously disrespectful— that those kids would mess around with the statue of the Father of Pokémon Research.
A three foot tall metal fence now surrounded the statue. Of course, the school couldn’t raise the fence too high. The statue was a symbol in the school. That’s why it needed to be protected.
Of course, anyone who’s met an impulsive college student would roll their eyes at the measly barrier. It would take more than a fence to stop someone from putting a hat on that statue.
Such a sentiment was only proven correct, as the day after the barrier was installed, the statue was wearing a denim flat cap.
The Hat of the Week became a column in the Hammerlocke Headliner. The photographers for the newspaper were an impressively stealthy bunch, snapping their shots before security or other staff caught them.
After another few months and many entries in the Hat of the Week column, security cameras were installed, and the dean at the time swore that students caught disrespecting the statue would be disciplined severely.
Once again, though, anyone who has ever met a college student determined to do something ridiculous would know that security cameras weren’t enough to stop someone from trying to participate in the legend.
It was riskier, for sure. But cameras were obscenely easy to obscure. If not through mundane means, a perpetrator likely had a Pokémon companion to aide them in the Great Hattening of Laventon.
A generous, anonymous alumnus of Hammerlocke University submitted this hand drawn diagram from 1996. Allegedly, "Lil' Hatty the Hattena" was an internal mascot of the operation.
Nothing unified a student body more than trying to spite killjoy staff through petty means. In the periphery of ornery staff members, students took note of where each security camera lay. The notes passed around and any student wanting to participate in the Hattening kept a scribbled diagram of the lobby in their notebooks, carefully marking the cameras and their angles.
Security watching the camera footage were alarmed when the images whited out. They sprang to their feet and rushed for the foyer.
Lingering smoke, or perhaps steam, obscured their vision. One guard sent out their Galarian Weezing to clean out the air, and as it did, they were shocked to see the perpetrator had fled and left a party hat strapped to the statue as their calling card.
The guards retreated, leaving the hat in its place. The conical hat acted as a firm message to anti-hatters; where there’s a will, there’s a way. And if there’s a hatless statue, it will be hatted.
Resignation to Hat Designation
A new dean, Alicia Hazelton, took over during the War on Hats, and the unamused staff members tried to sway her to their side. She responded with laughter.
She pointed out that since the installment of security cameras, students have been calling on their Pokémon to help them with their little “task”. Given Laventon’s legacy, the dean thought the old boy would love seeing people working alongside Pokémon to do something as ridiculous and inconsequential as putting a hat on a statue. Dean Hazelton had then removed the obstructive fence but chose to leave the security cameras in place.
The senior staff members were appalled by her nonchalance, but she was firm in her stance that no student caught putting a hat on the statue would be punished for it.
The staff, at least, chose not to pass on the information.
And so, for years, decades, in a fashionable free-for-all, students snuck around with their Pokémon, stealthily attempting to hat the statue. There was a legend saying that if one were caught, they’d be expelled and blacklisted from all Schools of Pokémon Sciences.
Impulse leads to an idea. An idea leads to action. An action leads to replication. Replication makes tradition.
The tradition carried on strong and beloved by all students pouring through the university. It carried on for years. Eventually, the Hammerlocke Headliner went from print to web posting on a student run blog. The Hat of the Day was its own special section. People were allowed to submit pictures and suggestions regarding the hats.
The Legendary Selfie
One day, one particular history major made a move so bold, the anonymous admin for the Hat of the Day page was scared of posting the submission.
The picture depicted a young man posing with a wide grin and was slightly hanging off the statue. The statue was wearing a red beanie, and the ambitious student with determined eyes submitted a selfie of himself, proudly displaying his achievement.
Everyday the selfie wasn’t published, the student submitted the picture again. He was daring them— welcoming them. The blog admin made a vague-post addressing the student’s persistence.
“Selfie guy, if I publish this, I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into.”
In response, he submitted the selfie again, captioned “lol yeah”.
That was it. “lol yeah”. Like signing a waiver with a doodled Meowth paw. Even with “selfie guy’s” acknowledgment and approval, the blog admin was still hesitant to post it.
But the blog admin was also a stressed out college student, and dealt with moral conundrums the way many stressed out college students would. A beer or two, consumed with the submissions tab still open, waiting for sobriety to fade until posting it seemed like a good idea.
Regardless of sobriety, the admin knew it was a bad idea, but after getting a little drunk, the situation was funny enough that they didn’t care about the consequences that may fall of the selfie guy.
The selfie went live and became the talk of the school. Image fetched from the Hammerlocke Headliner's Archive on Bramblr.
Yes, THAT Raihan
When the post went live, it didn’t come as a surprise to fellow history student Sonia Magnolia that Raihan Al-Nasser was the talk of the school. A simple change in the formula, to impose one’s self in the image, divorcing any anonymity from the mighty deed, was enough to blow everyone’s mind.
“I thought he’d gone mad,” said Professor Sonia when I reached out to her to recall the event. “I tried talking him down every time he talked about submitting the selfie. He’d just lazily smile and wave me off.”
Most students assumed this would be the last they’d hear from Raihan. A break from tradition didn’t always mean revolution. In some cases, it meant understanding why unspoken rules were set in the first place.
Rumors spread fast among bored college students. The same day the selfie went up, a few spotted Raihan having a serious Pokémon battle with one of the veteran professors. The word on the wind had it that Raihan could keep his status as a student if he claimed victory over the staff.
This wasn’t true, of course. That day, Raihan was battling the Professor of Advanced Battle Theory, helping him to collect more data and experience on the ever complicated art of Double Battles.
“It’s almost funny how fast a population can cement the canon of their legends,” Sonia contemplated. “Within a day, individual recollections of the story end up being shockingly consistent.”
By the time word of his new reputation reached him through Sonia, he thought about what he should say in response.
The honorable thing to do, and they both knew it, was to explain why he was seen in battle and that the staff didn’t actually care as much as the legend told.
However, as two people who study myths and legends, it seemed like a shame to dispel the mystifying illusion the Great Hattening held. Sometimes, in history, the most important thing wasn’t the truth of the event itself, but rather the culture that followed in the wake of said event.
Sonia recalled the event with fondness. “After that, everyone started taking selfies with the hatted statue. It probably comes as no surprise that Raihan’s always been a bit of a trendsetter.”
“It actually inspired me to go sniff out other legends the school held and try to discern where it all began. I actually aced my sociology course with a paper based on oral traditions thanks to these events.”
In all schools, not just colleges, but in primary and secondary, in elementary and high, students defined their own culture and passed it down by word of mouth, year by year, from senior to junior, and so-on and so-forth. Hammerlocke University was no exception to this rule, and it had other traditions and legends to spare.
Sonia was happy to share an additional legend with me, as well as identifying its origin.
There was a whispered rumor that if one left their tea set in one particular study, room H-5 4, the next morning, it would be repossessed by Sinistea. As such, even the staff avoided leaving tea in that room. The legend had survived in the university for decades, and according to an entry in the personal log of Professor Eleanor Allium, the legend was present while she and Laventon were students themselves. In fact, the legend began when Laventon's half-finished cup of tea left in Allium's study was possessed the morning following.
A photo studio portrait of Eleanor Allium. The ominous artifacting to left side of the picture was a hotly debated topic until someone proved that certain cameras of the time period had a difficult time capturing Ghost-Type Pokémon. Photograph provided by the Hammerlocke Vault Museum.
Sonia and Raihan knew that the War on Hat must have had a clear starting point, as did the rumors surrounding the consequences of being caught, and in that moment, they both knew where the legend of the man who staked his scholarly ambitions for the right of students putting a hat on a statue began.
After breaking it down, the two had a good laugh. The situation and the tradition itself was harmless and ridiculous. Maybe one day, far in the future, one of them would tell the truth of the story to someone they trusted, so that an honest account of selfie guy existed in someone’s mythos. It was just a matter of whether or not that account would eventually meet the legend within the University of Hammerlocke.
Evidently, the accounts collide with the publication of this story.
The Rule Unspoken
After that fiasco, there was one last unspoken rule that went unaddressed. Nobody was to make a replica of Laventon’s signature hat for the statue to wear.
The sentiment was held dear in everyone’s heart. They knew the moment that statue was seen wearing what looked like the hat that something resembling completion would occur. Like locating the piece of a jigsaw puzzle that went missing underneath the couch ages ago, dressing the statue with the hat meant the tradition would end.
Some years after Raihan graduated with his bachelor’s degree and earned his position as Hammerlocke’s Gym Leader, Sonia would become a professor of Pokémon History herself. This meant speaking with others in her field, discussing theories, traveling far and away to attend conferences where she could share her findings…
One such conference was to be held at Hammerlocke in 2021, the 152nd Annual Conference of Pokémon Sciences, and with that brought a diverse array of illustrious researchers, Pokémon enthusiasts, and excitement to the atmosphere of the historic city.
What actually happened at the conference and convention wasn’t all that interesting or relevant to the topic of this article. It’s what happened the Monday afterwards that lead to the writing of this post.
Truth Stranger than Fiction
Habib “Hop” Pandit, Professor Sonia Magnolia’s assistant, brought the successor of recently retired Professor Denzel Rowan, Lucas Reinier, to the lobby of the University of Hammerlocke.
For readers who may be confused why this is a big deal, November 19, 2012, Lucas Reinier disappeared mysteriously from his home of Sandgem Town in the Sinnoh Region. In 2014 on the 28th of January, he was returned home. He was met with many interviews and questions about where he disappeared to. He answered that he was sent back in time by Arceus, into the Hisuian Era of Sinnoh.
These claims were confirmed as true when pictures he took on his phone, as well as pictures preserved at the Museum of Jubilife’s display of the Galaxy Expedition Team (temporarily referred to as the Hisuian Expedition Team from 2008-2016 due to the controversy with Team Galactic). If you want to know more about Lucas Reinier’s time in Hisui, click here.
All this to say that Professor Reinier once knew Professor Faris Laventon and worked closely with him until his eventual departure to the present.
Yes, this is a lot of build up, and you may be wondering what happened on that Monday after the conference. Before I can get into that, though, I need to reference an event that occurred the Thursday before the 150th Annual Conference of Pokémon Sciences, which was held in Jubilife City in 2019.
An event known as a “Space-Time Distortion” opened within the convention hall which allowed Professor Faris Laventon himself to speak with the Pokémon professors of present day. This event has also been confirmed by many esteemed scientists in attendance as well as photographic evidence taken by Hop Pandit’s Rotom Phone. To learn more about this occurrence, click here.
The image quickly became viral after Raihan posted to his Flamigos. Social Media page, captioned "wtf did hop just send me". In a Migos immediately following the post it was revealed the text was sent with "GUESS WHAT LOSER", to which Raihan replied: "ok sonia definitely sent this but still wtf"
One thing confirmed by the professors present for the occurrence was that Lucas shared some parting words with Laventon, and the two traded mementos with each other.
Finally, that’s what brings us to that Monday after the Conference of Pokémon Sciences that occurred in Hammerlocke.
Capping Things Off
That day, Lucas Reinier put a hat on the statue of Professor Laventon.
The image caught worldwide attention after Reinier posted it to his Pokégram page.
Not just any hat. Not just a replica of the Professor’s iconic hat. The actual authentic article given to him by Professor Laventon.
Professor Reinier posted a picture on his Pokégram captioned with “it found its way home u_u”.
It would seem Pandit and Reinier were not aware of the significance of this action as it very soon caused hoopla among the student populous. Opinions were mixed when I went to interview a few students.
“I thought it was awesome,” said Bernard Wright, a Linguistics major. “Like, he brought this full circle… …I wish he didn’t take the hat back after taking the selfie.”
“I’m fuming,” said Alexis Rhodes, a fourth year student. “He’s not a student here, and he up and ruined a tradition.”
“I don’t get what all the huff and puff is about,” commented Peonia Hawthorne, a first year student at the university. “I don’t think people should stop putting hats on the statue. It’s not like the guy left the hat behind. The statue is still begging to be hatted.”
We ran a poll last week asking our readers for their opinion:
Placing a crown atop the hat of the King of Pokémon Research was a great honor, a right of passage, and a fun game of Meowth and Morpeko. The names of who started the tradition have faded with time, but the memories and photos remain in our hearts.
What do you think? Should the statue be wearing another hat next week? Comment what you think below.
EDIT:: Featured Comment
DragonTamer96: lol yeah