Anyone else with me on the theory that Isabelle is actually the real mayor

She has more power in things than the mayor does. "You can't place it there." "You can only have 3 bridges in the town that YOU run." And she never leaves town hall. My theory is she is supposed to be the real mayor. I mean she manages to get things done in record time but you, the unwilling mayor of sleepy Anytown, has to wait days or weeks to unlock stuff.

Anyone else with me on this theory?
She and Tortimer are conspiring some kind of something against the human mayor.


As I type this, i realize this theory sounds like something out of a bad movie.

I think it doesn't make sense.

After all, Nintendo would make false advertising.

Besides, Isabelle cannot act without OUR consent.

If she says that we can't place a project next to another, then it's because we are ignoring the tile rule.

You can't just merge a public project with someone's house and the pwp are usually bigger than we can picture.

The bridge limit is a insight since players could try to fill the town with bridges which could cover the rivers and making them impossible to fish.

I don't think so, only because I can't see Tortimer just abandoning a town with no mayor for an indefinite amount of time. Plus there would be no real reason not to make her the mayor with what she knows, so there has to be some reason that Tortimer didn't hire her and instead left the town to some rando that happened to stop in on a train. I think she's really just a loyal secretary who is content with being so, and the reason she knows all the pwp restrictions is because it's her secretary job to know.

Yeah, I kind of figured. My writer's brain is making up all kinds of theories lol

Theory: When Tortimer retired, Isabelle wanted to take over, but was refused. When she realized nobody in the village knew what the next mayor would look like, she came up with a plan. Isabelle, being a mayor's secretary, had access to the information about traveling by train. She found out who the next mayor was, as well as the child arriving to live in the village. She sent a message to the new mayor that there was a change of plans and someone else would take over, causing them to cancel their trip. (This is why they never seemed to arrive in town.) Isabelle didn't want to risk trying to convince the villagers that she was supposed to be mayor, so instead she decided to put those responsibilities on the other person, the child.
She knew that since the child would much rather have fun living as a regular villager, that would leave all the mayoral work to her. Plus, being an adult, she had an authority over the child despite them being her superior. So, when the child arrived, Isabelle convinced everyone it was the new mayor, and would not let the child refuse. Now that there was no actual qualified mayor in place, all Isabelle had to do was grant the child a few special abilities (ordinances + pwps) and she would be the unofficial mayor of the village at last.
Fortunately, Isabelle isn't evil or anything, so her plan to take over the village doesn't actually affect anyone else too much. Maybe Tortimer ended up being an awful leader, and when he was close to retiring Isabelle saw her chance to change the town for the better, and sabotaged the new mayor's trip to the village because she couldn't trust anyone that Tortimer did.

this probably isn't even close to plausible but...let me have fun

I think Rover was supposed to be the next mayor, but didn't want to give up his freedom of riding around to new towns meeting new people. He knew that Isabelle was expecting the mayor to be coming on the train, so when he saw that the player was going to the exact same destination as him, he stayed onboard and let them take his job.

I think Isabelle has always just been a secretary. She seems too scatterbrained to be the mayor, but she is young and full of energy and enthusiasm that Tortimer would have needed for a secretary seeing he was so old.

Isabelle only show some interest in becoming mayor in puzzle league, but we should not take seriously since it's non canon.
If she was the mayor then she would have done everything which she wanted.

As for Rover, I doubt it was him, since he is a wanderer.

I believe that Tortimer was meant to be the mayor again, but decided against it in the last minute, so they had to find a replacement.

Again, if Isabelle was the real mayor, then everything would be set at once and we would have public projects completed rather quickly.

Remember that enacting ordinances costs money and it's not something obtained from donations.

No I don't think so.
I mean if anything I'd say the opposite she could've been mayor but decided she didn't want the responsibility.
The person who should've been mayor does send you a letter.
I always figured it was tortimers kid maybe or something.
Hah hah what if Reese was supposed to be mayor and she didn't want to and Cyrus supported it.
Or maybe...Maybe there was no other mayor at all and the whole thing is a conspiracy and everyone in town but you is in on it. In reality there was no other mayor they just picked the first person off the train.

IRL, a mayor has very little actual power. He/she is more of a director/co-ordinator and scapegoat. There are elections with all the usual promises to not repeat the mistakes of the past or current mayor/tyrant. I can't imagine a real mayor NOT wanting an Isabelle. The power behind the throne?