u/Funny-Historian-933

Pancham!

It's literally the delinquent Pokemon! It evolves when it hangs around a bad influence (having a Dark-type Pokemon in your team). And Pangoro, despite being a delinquent, still dislikes bullying! But alas, you cannot catch this Pokemon in S/V, not even in the DLC.

One question which confused me for a little while was why Eri dresses and gestures like a pro-wrestling heel (her pro-wrestling name is 'The Infernal Eri', who are villains, when she has the personality of a cinnamon roll. Team Star do not see themselves as villainous, and while Eri is almost certainly trying to intimidate potential enemies of Team Star with her appearance, I'm sure that she could have been intimidating while dressing like a face.

I think a better reason for Eri to dress as a heel is that she is trying to present herself as the Academy's villain. It's akin to the mentality of: "Oh. You see us as villains? Fine. I'll be your villain." I suspect that her bullies spread false rumors about her which destroyed her image at the Academy, and the rumors likely persisted even after Operation Star. This may also be why she bleaches her normally brunette hair: in Japan, bleaching one's hair is a sign of delinquency. Through her appearance, Eri seems to express outright rebellion against the Academy, moreso than the other captains, who appear to choose their outfits out of preference and expression of their true selves.

I also get the hint that, more than the other Team Star captains, Eri may actually despise the Academy as an institution and view those who represent it as villains. She seems to be genuinely afraid that Operation Starfall aims to hurt the members of Team Star, while the other captains don't seem to have this fear. She's utterly desperate to defeat the MC in order to protect the rest of Team Star, while the other captains don't show this same desperation, even if they obviously oppose those who are trying to disband them and express anger upon losing. And when the MC beats her, Eri expresses surprise that a member of Operation Starfall could be a good person, which is a moral judgement which the other captains don't express.

Obviously this is nothing more than speculation, and I may be completely wrong. And it's not like S/V does much with this, because the non-linear plot structure of Starfall Street means that none of the captains get enough time to be fully developed. But I get the sense that at least one person who worked on S/V really liked Eri and wanted to do more with her character, but wasn't given the opportunity to do so. In some ways, she represents the potential which S/V could have had if it only had more time to be worked on.

So if Chalce's goal was just to get funding for her school, then why did she start working with Spinel before Gibeon's death? Did Gibeon and Hamber refuse to give her the funding she needed and Spinel offered it sooner? And if they did, then why would they break what they promised her?

So throughout Horizons, they build up this rivalry between Dot and Chalce, and have the two almost exclusively fight each other...only for Chalce to be redeemed through a battle with Roy, Uruto, and Friede? Why? What was the pay-off of the rivalry between Dot and Chalce? Why even bother with it, if it wasn't going to amount to anything?

It should have been Dot who showed Chalce the error of her ways, but I guess they had to involve Mega Evolution, and Dot can't Mega Evolve, so...

We're never going to learn which Pokemon is in Chalce's third Pokeball, are we? How could they do this?

I never liked Clavell's official team very much, so I decided to revise it to reflect various aspects of his personality:

Gardevoir: Clavell is highly empathetic and protective of his students. The Gardevoir is likely his research associate and manages his old lab which he had to leave to become the Director, but is willing to fight for him. Also, if Clavell ever got a Keystone, the Gardevoir would be able to Mega Evolve.

Cyclizar: Clavell is a friend of Professor Sada and/or Turo, so the Cyclizar reflects how he focuses on the present problems, as opposed to Sada focusing on the past and Turo focusing on the future. Also, Clavell's friend/relative Clive in the Pokemon Adventures S/V manga uses a Cyclizar.

Rotom: Clavell is adept at technology, which is reflected by the Rotom. The Rotom's form changes based on the starter which the player chose, so that it has a type advantage over the starter which the MC and Nemona did not choose.

Polteageist: Clavell is a distinguished gentleman ready to serve a cup of tea or coffee for his guests.

Armarouge: Another Pokemon which reflects Clavell's protective and honorable personality, as well as a native knight Pokemon of Paldea. The Armarouge likely serves as a mentor figure to the campus Charcadets, including Charlos.

Quaquaval: The starter which neither the player nor Nemona chose. I believe that Quaquaval suits Clavell the best of the three Paldean starters.

Let me know what you think of Clavell's team and whether you think other Pokemon suit him better. Also, what Pokemon team do you think Clive would have? He must have a strong team, given that he was able to battle Eri to a standstill.

Summary: If Clavell had never overheard Cassiopeia's phone call with the MC, then Operation Starfall would have failed in terms of getting Team Star to return to the Academy due to Penny's character flaws causing her to make incorrect assumptions.

I'm not sure if this is obvious or not well-known, but I almost never see it discussed. However, I do think that this was intentional on the part of the writers of S/V. I would argue that there are two primary reasons why Operation Starfall would have failed without Clavell's involvement:

1) Penny is conflict-avoidant and is very critical of herself and others. Therefore, she never asks the captains why they are truant, and instead hypothesizes that the captains are truant because they enjoy the power and status that their positions give them. She outright says this after the MC defeats all five captains:

"All five squad bosses have now been toppled from their pedestals. I imagine they'll leave Team Star before long now that they've lost their special positions. After that, they should soon be back attending classes at the academy."

But at this point, the player knows that the captains are only truant because they're waiting for their Big Boss to return, so I think that the writers intend for us to recognize that Penny's assumption is incorrect. And it makes sense for Penny to make this assumption: she has such low self-esteem that she can't imagine that the captains care enough about her to wait for her return, and she is rather critical of everyone, meaning that she sees the captains as worse people than they actually are. But because she bases Operation Starfall on a false assumption, she does not plan to meet the captains, and due to that, it is doubtful that the captains would have returned to the Academy even once they were all defeated. The only reason that they do is because Clavell organizes a meet-up between Penny and the captains without Penny's knowledge.

2) Penny does not try to convince the Academy's administration that Team Star were bully victims because she assumes they already know. After all, she told Harrington, and Harrington believed her. But Penny does not know about the ex-Deputy Director destroying the student records. Consequently, if Clavell never got involved in Operation Starfall and learned the truth, there is a very good chance that he would have given Team Star a very harsh punishment upon their return to the Academy, which likely would have convinced Team Star to just drop out entirely, something which Penny did not account for. But since Clavell does intervene and learns the truth about Team Star's past, he devises a 'punishment' which focuses on re-integrating Team Star back into the Academy and gives them an incentive to trust the Academy and stay.

Both of these points (though mainly 1)) tie directly into Penny's character development. Penny's major character flaws are that she is conflict-avoidant, and that she doesn't trust other people and is rather critical towards them. These flaws cause her to make false assumptions which would have led to the failure of Operation Starfall had not Clavell intervened. The job of Clavell in Starfall Street is to show Penny and the player how confrontation, clear communication, and trust are essential in connecting with others, learning their true motives, and working with them for the betterment of everyone.

Pictures of Clive were obtained from: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonScarletViolet/comments/110pjel/oh\_look\_the\_fact\_that\_gf\_made\_clive\_and\_clavell/.