Let's Play Pokemon Violet, Part 18: Bullies & Backstories

With me completing both the Victory Road and the Path of Legends storylines, I guess it's about damn time to take down Team Star! And I decide to just go through the last two ones before I get too over-levelled for the endgame. First up is the leader of the Fairy-using Ruchbah Squad, which... if we're going by story progression, probably should've been best done last? The story still flows because it's the Clive/Cassiopeia/Penny conversations before and after taking down the base that really changes, but the Ortega supporting character really is the one that reveals the biggest thing about the nature of Team Star. 

First up, though, we get a Team Star member talking to some dude called Harrington, who calls Ortega 'young master' and is waiting for him to come for a piano lesson. Pretty much a pampered rich kid, right? It's a typical trope in these anime-inspired games and shows, and Harrington ends up being the obligatory pre-base fight. He sends out a Morgrem and a Hattrem, before walking off. 

The random Grunt, however, gives me one hell of a bombshell. Harrington used to be the academic director of Uva Academy... wait, hold on. So he is Clavell's predecessor, then? And he got reduced to a butler or tutor type? Anyway, it's time for a 'Star Raid', and... I don't really have anything against Fairy types other than Clodsire's Poison, but Ortega's goons are sending out Impidimps and Jigglypuffs against me, so they really aren't the most threatening. 

Anyway, Ortega shows up with his pimped-out Starmobile, and pimped out is the right word to say for this Fairy-type Starmobile! He also has a cane.-staff thing. He talks a bit of a big game, thinking that I'd be a bit 'beefier' (he's one to talk, you wimp!) and talks about who I'm going to lose regardless. 

His Pokemon are... not the most threatening. I respect Azumarill from my competitive-Wi-Fi days with Belly Drum and stuff, but this one just tries to Aqua Tail my Clodsire for no reason (Clodsire absorbs Water moves!) and gets Poison Tailed to death. The Wigglytuff and the Daschbun aren't much threats either to Clodsire. As with the other Team Star members, his final Pokemon is the big pure-Fairy Revavroom, who just gets taken out pretty quickly. 

As usual, we do get a flashback, and I think Ortega's flows pretty quick. It's clear that each member of Team Star does have their own little role or whatever, and Ortega's is that of a mechanic. He kept trying to build the Starmobile, kept failing, and has a brief moment where he wonders if he should asked his mother to just casually buy a car for them... and the other members of Team Star -- well, mostly Mela -- just all get testy at Ortega 'saying stupid things like that', since they have agreed to stop relying on bags of parental cash to fix their problems. This leads to Mela's own story too, I think, where she decides to train up her Charcadet and have them evolve, thereby solving the problem of the fuel source that Ortega is facing. 

All very nice and good, but the actual Team Star story content comes from Harrington. Ortega is about to head home, but Harrington comes in with his 'friend' Clive, a distant acquaintance. The two of them clearly talked to each other off-screen, and Clive/Clavell wants to understand why the son of a wealthy family would join a group of hoodlums like Team Star. The answer is something that was most apparent before with Atticus's story -- bullying. And Clive is super shocked to realize that, yes, Uva Academy did used to have an issue with bullying, in contrast to the very nice sunshine-and-rainbows vibe that it has now. 

Ortega also answers one of the biggest questions I had when reading about the bullying story from Atticus and Giacomo's stories. Whatever happened to the original bullies? After all, Team Star seems to be the only bullies around, and they mostly keep to their bases. Ortega explains that the bullies from back then no longer go to school.

And Harrington gives us the explanation to what happened one and a half years ago with Operation Star! Apparently, when the founders of Team Star finally confronted the students who bullied them, a huge altercation happened... which ended with the original bullies all withdrawing from school. Out of fear, however, because Team Star just showed up and intimidated them with their massive Starmobiles. 

But Clive has no idea this happened, because all records of that incident is hidden by Harrington's deputy out of shame. 

Also, the original 'big boss' of Team Star also declared that they would take responsibility for all of Team Star's actions, in exchange for exonerating the other Team Star members of any blame -- something that both Ortega and Clive had no idea about. This leader ends up being assigned to an 18-month overseas study trip to Galar to cool off. 

But then Harrington's deputy erased all traces of the Team Star and bullying incident, which Harrington finds out... and he fires the deputy. Before resigning alongside the entire teaching staff. Which explains that the current teaching staff had no idea about the bullying problem. 

Except. 

Except somehow, despite all this, Uva Academy clearly still enjoys a status of a highly-regarded institution. And I get it, all records of the bullying is hidden, and Team Star's reputation got screwed over by rumours. But you'd think the fact that the entire teaching staff of a prestigious academy changing would raise some eyebrows. 

ALSO, despite knowing all these, Harrington never made a proper handover to Clavell about the circumstances, leading to him making the whole 'Team Star needs to return or be expelled' ultimatum. Also ALSO, he never told any of the Team Star students, who all probably thought that they were still expelled. 

ALSO ALSO ALSO, he's... working for Ortega's rich parents, quite literally in speaking distance probably every day with one of the six most important people in Team Star, so it isn't because he can't access them like if he's in prison or hospital or something. 

So yeah. All of this is Harrington's fault, because the dumbass is too happy being a butler for a rich family and never bothered to communicate this super-messy situation to anyone. God damn it, Harrington! Great story, though it all is Harrington's fault.

Anyway, Cassiopeia also gives us a version of the story, enforcing that Team Star relied more on fear as opposed to violence, scaring off their original bullies without even throwing a punch, but the fact that all the bullies quit school ended up with Team Star becoming the villain. Penny also shows up, gets licked by Miraidon again, and then mutters about how the teachers and students are all messed up for thinking that Team Star are the villains of the story considering the actual events. And... well, it's pretty clear that either Penny or Cassiopeia or both of them are the original big boss of Team Star. Which two -- or all of them -- are the same person is, I think, the twist. 

At the very least, Cassiopeia is the boss, since she talks about being in a gang before and being surprised at Eri retreating, so she definitely knows the Team Star members. It's just how Penny fits into all this, because I could see them making her the Team Star Big Boss as much as her being just one of the victims rescued or inspired by Team Star...

I just power through the fifth and final Team Star base, and after reaching there through climbing some mountains, we get a brief scene where Cassiopeia and Clive talk to each other, with Cassiopeia confirming that we're going to have to take down the main big boss, who will come out into the open after the five squadron leaders are taken down. Clive also thinks about a 'final decision' while flexing his pompadour. 

And then we get to see the aftermath of an off-screen battle between Clive and Eri, whose fashion sense is... it sure is interesting, I'll give you that. They compliment each other's skills, before Clive points out the strangeness of the squadron boss herself guarding the gates instead of it being one of the goons. A neat nod to how in the previous four Team Star bases, Cassiopeia always gives us a reason why the boss isn't outside, whether by some character quirk or their own strategy. Eri, meanwhile, is outside because she's the toughest and because she doesn't want to risk anyone else getting hurt -- which are basically her two defining character traits. Neat!

A Team Star grunt called Carmen shows up and tells Eri to get back inside, while Eri whines about how she has to protect Caph Squad until 'big boss' comes back. But Carmen twists her arm enough to get her to go back.

And Caph Base... is quite cool! Instead of several huge fields, Caph Base actually is like a bunch of mountain roads and the Fighting-type Pokemon used by the Team Star Grunts are actually probably far more powerful-looking than the bosses of other squadrons! Primeape, Crabrawler, Falinks, Passimian, Breloom, Hariyama... even a Gallade at one point! I'm sorry, other villainous teams use like, Stunky and Poochyena and Zubat. You guys are running around with Brelooms and Gallades!

Eri then fights me, as usual, on top of her Starmobile. She has a party of five, which makes her pretty damn cool. She starts off with a Toxicroak which I finish off quickly with my Rabsca. She follows up with a Lucario, who shoots out a... Dragon Pulse at my Clodsire? Okay? Lucario isn't a Pokemon I thought Nintendo would give an 'evil' team, but I guess at this point we realize that Team Star are just misunderstood, huh? Clodsire takes out Lucario with an Earthquake. 

Then her next Pokemon is an Annihilape, which is a nice little showcase of the Paldean Pokemon, which gets Shadow Balled by Brambleghast. Then a Passimian gets killed by Psychic, before the Psychic-type Revavroom takes on center stage and gets Psychic'd by Rabsca to death. Rabsca does a lot in this fight!

And then we get the flashback. Eri's basically a bit of a meathead and a training freak, and is the one responsible for training the other four admins of Team Star. They are all appreciative of Eri for training them so hard (Mela is clearly slacking, though, based on her Pokemon levels) and Eri is just.. super-duper intent that she's just training all four of them without rest whereas they take breaks. She's just so energized by the fact that she has friends to protect. 

And while she recognizes that I'm not a bad guy, falling and failing to protect her base sends her crying off into the corner, at which point Carmen explains the situation to Clive and I. Carmen used to be Eri's bully, actually, the alpha bitch of the class who's jealous at Eri for being even more popular than her when she arrived. But because teenagers are fickle, the target of bullying ended up shifting from Eri to Carmen... but then Eri shows up to defend Carmen from the bullies. Clive gets confused about rumous regarding Team Star engaging in bullying, but Carmen gets pissed off at that. I guess, uh, those grunts that tried to pressure Penny into joining earlier in the game are just either new or just too enthusiastic. 

With another word about how Team Star is their treasure, we cut away to Cassiopeia and Clive. Penny doesn't show up this time around, and... yeah, I think Penny, Big Boss and Cassiopeia are all the same? Clive takes over as being the supply unit rep, and Cassiopeia talks about how Operation Starfall has entered its final stage. And Cassiopeia reveals herself as the Big Boss of Team Star. Which, yeah, from her dialogue, at this point it's kind of obvious. The fact that Penny is also absent and she's clearly the student that's going to follow us to Area Zero with Arven and Nemona makes me think that she's probably also Cassiopeia?

Cassiopeia's motivations are also pretty clear, especially after we learn about Clive's ultimatum. She wanted her treasured friends to not continue holding on to the past, and if things go on like this they won't be any good to anyone. So she makes use of the code they make to force them to disband, because Team Star doesn't work on giving orders. Cassiopeia wants to fight me after dark at school, which is where we'll go next, to complete Starfall Street and most of the original objectives before the endgame!

Well, that's interesting. I do think that the backstory given -- particularly Harrington and the fact that all the bullies and irresponsible teachers are already out offscreen -- is kind of a way for Nintendo to not have a full, proper vile villain and have us confront them. I do think that this is certainly a very interesting standalone story within the games, for sure, and Scarlet/Violet is definitely stronger for it! Next up, the conclusion to this!

Random Notes:

• Mela, Giacomo, Atticus and Eri all have their own bases, yes, but I think Ortega's walled-off boggy area takes up the biggest part of the map! It even 'eats' the lighthouse on the Northern end of Paldea! Damn rich kid!
  
• All the Team Star leaders use one of the Poke Mart special balls. These two are pretty appropriate! Ortega is a spoiled rich brat so he uses Luxury Balls. Eri's real personality is someone who protects her friends, so she uses Heal Balls. Mela's a hothead, so she uses Quick Balls. Atticus uses two Revavrooms in his party, so he uses a Repeat Ball. Giacomo uses Timer Balls, and I'm not 100% sure why. I guess he's the most patient of the gang?
• Did you guys ever notice that two tiny Varooms are attached to the rear wheels of the Starmobile? I didn't until the Ortega/Eri sequence here!
• Is Eri's face paint meant to be her Toxicroak? The markings are almost correct, though those white bits next to her mouth and the black lower jaw reminds me more of like a World of Warcraft orc or troll.
• Ortega apparently couldn't have evolved his Pokemon if not for Eri's help, based on the flashback. Um... between Wigglytuff, Azumarill and Dachsbun, which one did you have trouble evolving, my guy? 
• I gloss over the area where Eri's base is at, but there's a very strong Japanese garden vibe music from that place. Lots of Bisharps there, too, and the Kingambit is based on a shogun, so...
• Eri yells RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH a lot. 
• Yeah, I really do like the fact that we transition to a catchphrase that the Team Star squad leaders use to them saying the same thing 18 months ago.