Headscratchers / Professor Layton and the Curious Village

• Baron Reinhold apparently created enough ridiculously human robots to populate the town of St. Mystere, and had his daughter grow up among them, to the point that they're really the only ones she can call family. And then set up the inheritance such that if anyone takes it, the robots will stop functioning and will essentially die. And Flora and Layton can't have that. So the question is, did the Baron intentionally set things up so that the entirety of his family's estate and wealth will go to waste? And he prides himself on intelligence?
  • Intelligence doesn't mean wisdom.
  • As noted in WMG, this may have been a Secret Test of Character. Makes sense to me imo.
    • The whole town is a Secret Test of Character. Proving that Layton and Flora are good people? Fine. Doing it in a way that ensures that she'll never see a cent of her inheritance if she passes? Not so fine.
    • The test isn't about ensuring she has wealth to live comfortably. The test is about ensuring she has love to live well. Besides, if they -really- need the money, they can ask the robots if it's okay to take the money.
  • It's possible that he thought once Flora found a suitable guardian, their purpose would be fulfilled. Flora, Luke, and Layton, however, happened to see them as their own people, and didn't go through with it.
  • It's also possible, though a bit of a stretch, that Bruno could figure out a way to rewire the robots if Flora really needs the money for whatever reason.
• If Bruno and the Reinholds know that they are the only ones in St. Mystere who aren't robots, why does Bruno have to operate in such secrecy? Why doesn't he just present himself as the "town doctor" and implant memories in the robots of coming to him for every little ache and pain, and wait for them to report for regular maintenance? It wouldn't even have to interfere with the plot of the game; Simon could still break down, and Layton and Luke could still run across Bruno carrying Ramon in a bag. The only difference would be that they would end up investigating the "mysterious doctor" instead of the "mysterious random guy," and the townsfolk wouldn't feel terrorized. Plus, Bruno would get to live out in the open as a distinguished member of the community.
  • I feel like Bruno's response to this idea would be: "Shit! Why didn't I think of that!".
• The apple tattoo. I accept the fact that it would only mark Flora as the true golden apple when she smiled, but the fact that this isn't explained bugs me. Is the Baron a wizard?
  • It's not a tattoo, it's a birthmark. The fact that it's in the shape of an apple is probably what prompted her father to dub her the Golden Apple. Now, why it only appears when she's happy is another matter altogether...
  • Perhaps Flora is just very expressive when she's happy, and laughing/smiling hard enough causes her neck/shoulder muscles to stretch in just the right way to make the birthmark look like an apple.
• Inspector Chelmey gives Layton a puzzle at least once, but the "Chelmey" here is really Don Paolo.
  • Sure, Don Paolo doesn't like Layton and theoretically has no reason to give him a puzzle based on that, but "Chelmey" has no reason to dislike Layton and Don Paolo is trying to keep up the disguise...
• When Claudia escapes at the start of Chapter 2, how on EARTH does he get across the river right outside the Manor? That really makes little sense.
  • Maybe someone picked him up and carried him across? Though given how he belongs to Lady Dahlia and all, you'd think that anyone seeing him would take him back to the manor... But that's all I've got.
  • At that specific point the river doesn't seem too wide, and there's a boat in the middle. It's possible Claudia simply jumped in the boat on one side and out the other. Alternately, he could have swum (while most cats don't particularly like water, they can still swim a little), although if Claudia is also a robot then you've got me there.
• This Headscratcher applies to all games, but I'm listing it here because it appeared here first: How do people present Layton and Luke with puzzles? The impression I get from the game is that they describe the puzzles to you, but that doesn't seem like it could work with the more visual puzzles. For instance, take the puzzles where you slide blocks into the right positions. How are those presented in-universe? Do people go around with pictures of them? And if so, how does Luke and Layton explain the answer to things like sliding block puzzlers? I guess you could explain verbally how you'd move the blocks, but it's be hard to keep up unless you had physical blocks to move around.
  • Perhaps Luke and Layton improvise with whatever materials are on hand to show someone how they'd solve the puzzle?
  • Or 'look at this puzzle' goes with the villager pulling out an actual 3D sliding puzzle.
• Is Claudia a robot cat or a real cat?
  • It's implied that she's also a robot, which is why Luke wasn't able to talk to her.