Giacomo

Giacomo
Information
Gender	Male
Region	Paldea
Occupation	Boss of Team Star's Segin Squad Naranja Academy student (Pokémon Scarlet) Uva Academy student (Pokémon Violet)
Appears in	Generation IX
Debut	Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet
In other languages
Japanese	Name ピーニャ
Japanese	Name ピーニャ
English	Name Giacomo
English	Name 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 young man with black hair, black eyes, and an overbite. He wears a white baseball cap with red and green symbols, a black backpack in his back with red, yellow and green rectangles. A black jacket with his school uniform underneath, consisting of a white shirt a blue or yellow vest with the Team Star symbol, black pants, white, green and red sneakers and pokeball headphones in his neck. He is seen carrying a laptop with the symbol on it.

Giacomo's preference for Dark types is reflected in his radical appearance, but particularly his interest in music. The neon light patterns 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 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, an orange tie with the academy symbol on it, and a pair of dark purple colored knee high shorts. 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.

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. Sometimes, he gives one-man surprise concerts with his DJ software.

Despite his appearance, Giacomo is actually a by-the-books and caring person, as he was known in the Student Council for making everyone follow the rules to look out for them. Even after joining Team Star, he helped draft up the code that they use to this day. He gave up being a member of the Student Council and the leader of Team Star despite this because he noticed that everyone was miserable under his leadership since he took the job too seriously. His modest and caring nature despite that is what gave him a ton of respect among Team Star as being leader like. Though thanks to not having the burden of the 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. Even though having the weakest Pokémon, he does seem to focus more on his social skills than training, but that could allude to how he doesn't want to be an enforcer so he almost deliberately keeps his team weak.

Biography

Giacomo was initially a straitlaced top student at the academy, at one point even becoming the Student Council President. However, his rigid rules made many of the students turned off at his policies, 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.

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		—	Metal Sound	Swift

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		Thunder Punch	Psychic	Tailwind
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		Ice Fang	Dragon Claw	Fire Fang
Kingambit
Base article	Type	Dark /  Steel
	Gender	Male
	Level	66
	Ability	Defiant
	Item	None
	Moves	Kowtow Cleave	Iron Head
Swords Dance		Stone Edge

Trivia

• Giacomo uses Timer Balls in battle, representing the time he takes to form his plans.
• 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.