Tom Nook is an honest contractor. He will build you a house and let you pay for it on the honor system with no deadline.

Isabelle is the one to watch...

She finds a patsy off the train to gaslight into being the mayor. A puppet who's only role is showing up for sign ceremonies.

(edit: here she is caught on tape greeting her victim by suppressing his pleas that he is no mayor. His confusion may imply a train hijacking as well)

Presumably there was another mayor, one that disappears and is never heard from again.

Old Mayor, Tortimer knows. He's in exile, hiding on an island where she can't get to him.

Her puppy dog eyes have got you under her spell.

EDIT: The responses seem to have been focused on Nook and ignore any investigation of Isabelle. Since the release of New Horizons it's looking more and more likely that the two are in cahoots. What are they plotting in that town hall, all cooped up together 24 hours a day?

Tom Nook will literally buy your town and all of the community buildings, common areas, and publicly funded projects in it for millions, tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of bells. A con man of a real estate mogul who put his name on his business and has his family run it? A raccoon whose ego has grown so large that he thinks he can buy his way into running the government? Sound familiar? Tom Nook can't be trusted. Tom Nook is a criminal.

Impeach Tom Nook.

In the first Animal Crossing, Tom Nook literally """jokes""" about sending racoon goons after you if you don't pay him back.

He would 100% smash your knees in with a bat.

"He will build you a house and let you pay for it on the honor system with no deadline."

This only works because he's in a closed system, there's nowhere for you to disappear or leave him hanging. He'll get his bells. In the meantime, you do all this work to develop the town, all of which benefits Nook. The rich get richer.

@effache@ben_h

Maybe he's in league with Isabelle, sounds very possible to me. Or is she paying you all off to slander Nook? I find it interesting how you all are deflecting away from the real issue I'm pointing out here.

You're missing the vital question here. If Isabelle wants to run the town why doesn't she just run for mayor herself? She's clearly qualified. Currently the day-to-day operations are run by her, but she can't even decide what public work projects to build. Why would she go through all this trouble and then avoid taking an active role in reshaping the town?

Quite simply, the town is too racist to elect a dog mayor. Heck, they only recently let K.K. have a job, he used to just be a vagabond. Tortimer is fine on the island and the player character gets a cushy gig, so who is Isabelle hurting exactly?

Meanwhile, Tom Nook is an oligarch. He created a monopoly where he runs the only store in town. There are no other distributors of products and if you want to work the land, which he now owns by the way, you have to buy HIS shovels and HIS fishing rods. If you want to have a roof over your head you have to go through HIS company. You want to import a piece of furniture from those amiibo cards? Well guess where the machine that does that is. That's right, TOM NOOK'S STORE!

Heck, even the public work projects cost bells. But what are the bells good for? Where do bells come from? That's right, Tom Nook! Bells are just company scrip that somehow managed to worm their way into government.

Get out of here with your "Tom Nook ain't so bad, Isabelle's a cop" bullshit.

;tldr: Isabelle is a victim of systemic racism, Tom Nook is a member of the 1%.

@rejizzle: Isabelle, a cop? At worst she's a murderer and crime lord, at best a suspect in the case of the missing mayor. You're saying just because she's a dog it should be ignored?

Why would she run for mayor of a town she already (allegedly) controls? She likely doesn't want the attention. There was no election. She can pick strangers off the train and name them mayor. Even if they decline, she won't accept no for an answer.

This thread isn't about Nook, maybe he's involved, I can't say. As mayor of my own town, I can tell you I have no power to keep Nook in check. Isabelle just gives her hand picked mayor a superficial list of items she's preapproved.

Frankly, the hostility I'm getting for even suggesting she should be looked into is staggering. She may be more powerful than I even imagined.

This is maybe the funniest thread I've ever read. Thanks for the laughs guys!

Due to a similar discussion on this week's Beast Cast I feel like now is a good time to bring this discussion to light again. @alex raised similar concerns on Isabelle's activities.

In response to that podcast I feel it needs to be said, BLATHERS IS A SAINT!! He's working night and day by himself to maintain that place. Not to mention maintain an aquarium, art museum and care for precious fossils. There's simply no room for Flick's insect wing. Blathers faces his fears every day to give the living insects quality care. To force that upon him is simply monstrously cruel.

Thank you for bumping this thread, because I missed it the first time around and it is cracking me up.