Giacomo

Giacomo is the boss of Team Star's Dark Crew, a student at the Naranja/Uva Academies, and a major antagonist in the Starfall Street storyline of Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. He specializes in Dark-type Pokémon.

Appearance[]

Giacomo is a tall young man with a lanky, slim body, and olive complexion. His face is oval shaped with a straight small nose, thick angular eye brows, and droopy, shaded eyes that give him a somewhat mean look contrary to his personality. His black eyes could be described as dull, with white pupils possibly alluding to his eyes being reflective. His black hair comes out in long, upturned wisps, while a few locks frame the sides of his face, giving a wild and rebellious look to his design. Due to his long face, when he smiles, Giacomo appears to have an overbite.

For his Team Star outfit, which is a lot more simple compared to the other Bosses, Giacomo wears a school uniform vest (blue in Scarlet, yellow in Violet) with the team logo on the right, with a white shirt left slightly unbuttoned at the collar, while the bottom of the shirt hangs loose under his vest. He also wears black skinny sweatpants, bulky white sneakers, with green shiny plastic on the toe and red shiny plastic on the back cuff. Over his modified school uniform he wears a loose black jacket with a white design along the front and pockets in the shape of a slider on a sound board. On his head he wears a white cotton baseball cap with red and green embroidery to decorate it. The embroidery is in the shape of the symbols for the play button and the fast-forward, rewind and pause buttons.

On his back is a bulky black backpack in his back with red, yellow and green rectangles along the zipper, and the straps, referencing the sound bars on a stereo.

To complete his DJ look, he wears Poké Ball headphones around his neck and has a white laptop which is a full touch panel PC he uses to DJ and remix music.

Among his friends, Giacomo is much taller than Ortega, Penny and Mela, but noticeably shorter than Eri, while he and Atticus are around the same height.

Giacomo's preference for Dark-types is reflected in his radical appearance, but particularly his interest in music. The neon light patterns on his backpack, shoes and his bright laptop shine more in a dark room like a music hall and music is easier to enjoy in a dark setting where one cannot see much to be distracted from the music. He also has the typical shady eyes indicating that he does most of his work in the dark and probably sleeps during the day. His clothes have a counter-culture like aesthetic to make him appear socially rebellious, despite otherwise being a nice person if not still radical.

During the DLC bonus game content, Giacomo is shown to wear his school uniform, which gives him a more by-the-book appearance, wearing a black sweater vest over a white button up with black wrist cuffs, a tie with the academy symbol on it and a pair of dark purple colored knee high shorts (both the tie and the shorts have different colors depending on the version). He wears plain black uniform shoes as well as black knee high socks, standing with a more closed and stiff posture compared to his usual laid back posture. Giacomo also doesn't wear his signature baseball cap, which usually hides his prominent forehead.

Pre-game Giacomo is a stark contrast to his current self. While we don't see his full uniform in his concept art, it's possible he wore the Academy's 'Winter Uniform' as intended, with the dark grey jacket, a button up shirt with a (violet or orange) tie, a (yellow or blue) vest underneath and (violet or orange) pants. His hair is also a lot shorter, in a well combed, neat style, parted in the middle, typical of bookish or nerdy characters in media.

Personality[]

Giacomo enjoys partying and music, as he also goes by the name DJ Vice and initially refers to the protagonist as a party crasher. He brings people together, so the rest of Team Star rely on him with the absence of their Boss. Sometimes, he gives one-man surprise concerts with his DJ software to live things up at his Segin Base.

Despite his appearance, Giacomo is actually a by-the-books, kind, compassionate and caring person who is doing his best to look out for his friends. When Cassiopeia, the Big Boss of Team Star, disappeared, Giacomo seemed to have taken on the role as leader in order to protect the kids who relied on him, showing he has a good sense of responsibility. This lead to the other Bosses looking to Giacomo for help to create an Honor Code for the other members to follow. However Giacomo was hesitant, stating he'd been too strict in the past and everyone ended up miserable when he was in charge of enforcing rules (even making up a few very specific ones himself) but eventually he relented and created the Honor Code Team Star uses in-game.

Giacomo, like his other friends, is also shown to be extremely loyal. In the Manga, he admits that Team Star isn't on the best path, but due to his loyalty and sense of responsibility to his friends, couldn't bring himself to just give up his position without a fight. And this leads him to even lending a bit of help to Violet through contacting Arven.

His modest, laid back and caring nature despite his past is what gave him a ton of respect as a leader among Team Star. Though thanks to not having the burden of the Student President title, he is able to let his own radical personality shine in his actions, and ironically, when he acts rebellious, he seems to win the favor of most of his peers, being seen as a fun person to hang with. Though he's also shown to get flustered easily when praised or his softer side is pointed out.

Having the weakest Pokémon team, Giacomo seems to focus more on his social and music skills than training his Pokémon. Though that could allude to how he doesn't want to be seen as oppressive like in the past so he almost deliberately keeps his team weak. In spite of this, the events of the post game with the DLC, it's implied that Giacomo either used some of his time for self study, or is just naturally good at school work, seeing as he and Eri help their friends with a Study Group.

Meanwhile, during his days at the Academy before the events leading to the formation of Team Star, Giacomo was known to be much more strict, and stiff about rule following, leading to him being hated by other students.

Biography[]

Giacomo was initially a straitlaced person and atop student at the academy, at one point even becoming the Student Council President. However, his rigid rules made many of the students miserable and uncomfortable. It was these students who bullied and forced him out of the position. Therefore, he and his friends banded up as Team Star to carry out an operation in order to defend themselves from bullies. During the preparation, he became the captain of the Segin Squad and was the one who composed their battle music and team codes. Due to their actions, however, a scandal about the academy's bullying broke out, and Giacomo and the other Team Star captains hadn't heard from their boss since for a year and a half.

Prior to the events of the game, he began training Dark-type Pokémon.

Once Operation Starfall was enacted, the player raided his base, defeating his subordinates and caused him to confront them himself. He was defeated in the ensuing battle and per the code, gave up his badge and also rewarded them with the TM Foul Play. He then inquired about their Pokémon and asked if everything was well at the academy. Clive then arrived and asked why they continued their truancy as they were risking expulsion, in which he explained that he and the others were waiting for their boss.

After the player defeated Cassiopeia, Giacomo and the others reunited with their friend and agreed to host Star Training Centers, where the player can have daily rematches with him. Giacomo's age isn't stated in neither the game or manga, but it's theorized like Arven, Giacomo is an upperclassmen.

In the post-game, it's stated that Giacomo and Eri have the easiest time studying and both quickly go through they make up exams to get their school life back on track. This implies that aside from being strict, Giacomo was a student who had good grades, but prioritized studying over socializing or Pokémon training.

Pokémon[]

Initial Battle[]

Trainer
Giacomo
				Poké Balls	—
				Items	—
Pawniard				Segin Starmobile
Base article	Type	Dark / Steel		Base article	Type	Dark

	Gender	Male			Gender	Genderless
	Level	21			Level	20
	Ability	Defiant			Ability	Intimidate
	Item	None			Item	None
	Moves	Metal Claw	Fury Cutter		Moves	Wicked Torque	Snarl
Aerial Ace	Moves	—	Metal Sound	Swift	Moves

Rematch[]

Trainer
Giacomo
				Poké Balls	—
				Items	—
Cacturne				Honchkrow
Base article	Type	Grass / Dark		Base article	Type	Dark / Flying

	Gender	Female			Gender	Male
	Level	65			Level	65
	Ability	Sand Veil			Ability	Insomnia
	Item	None			Item	None
	Moves	Bullet Seed	Sucker Punch		Moves	Hurricane	Dark Pulse
Spiky Shield	Moves	Thunder Punch	Psychic	Tailwind	Moves
Mabosstiff				Krookodile
Base article	Type	Dark		Base article	Type	Ground / Dark

	Gender	Male			Gender	Female
	Level	65			Level	20
	Ability	Intimidate			Ability	Intimidate
	Item	None			Item	None
	Moves	Play Rough	Crunch		Moves	Earthquake	Crunch
Payback	Moves	Ice Fang	Dragon Claw	Fire Fang	Moves
Kingambit
Base article	Type	Dark / Steel

	Gender	Male
	Level	66
	Ability	Defiant
	Item	None
	Moves	Kowtow Cleave	Iron Head
Swords Dance	Moves	Stone Edge

Trivia[]

Giacomo uses Timer Balls in battle, representing the time he takes to form his plans as well as music being very timing and rhythm based.
In the Manga, Giacomo uses his musical talents in battle as his music mixing during battle helps him by using a sound frequency only Pawmi can hear. However, his method is quickly discovered by Violet leading to Giacomo's defeat.
His appearance is one you expect from a dark type user, despite his outfit having a lot of color, it's mainly black, white and yellow, referencing his typing as well as his Japanese name. His Japanese name, Piña, means Pineapple, which is shown with his yellow vest and spiky hair in his official art. Though his spiky hair could also reference his entire Pokémon team, which all have edgy spiky aspects to their designs. While his connection to pineapples may also hint to his personality being very sweet despite his intimidating appearance.
The name "Giacomo" (pronounced a Yah-como or Ja-como depending on the region) could also reference Pineapples in a round about way, as there is a real life Artist by the name Giacomo who makes sculptures of pineapples. Meanwhile the name Giacomo means "supplanter" (which means to replace through force, trickery, or strategy) which could allude to Giacomo's forced removal as Student Council President and later his role as suto leader of Team Star after Cassiopeia disappeared.
Giacomo continues the trend of Dark-type Trainers being very kind and compassionate despite their appearance, reflecting the common idea of "Never judge a book by its cover". With the exception of Nanu, all Dark-type Trainers have been kind but socially rejected due to their scary appearance and/or history, being more feared than respected as Elite Four members (or Gym Leaders in Piers's case).
Giacomo flips the trend of Dark-type Trainers usually being among the strongest Trainers, as he surprisingly is the second weakest of all major Trainers, only Katy having a slightly less powerful team. The game even mentions this directly.