Pokemon Scarlet & Violet fans can’t decide who the Teal Mask villain is
The Pokemon CompanyPokemon Scarlet & Violet’s first DLC the Teal Mask is dividing players on who the story’s antagonist is. One fan has an interesting theory that the player character is actually the dastardly villain of the story but not everyone’s convinced.
Pokemon has a storied history of cartoonishly evil bad guys that dates all the way back to the callous crime boss Giovani and his Team Rocket goons. In more recent titles though, Pokemon games have obscured the intentions of their antagonists somewhat.
In Scarlet & Violet, in particular, the nefarious seeming Team Star is not what they appear. The game is also punctuated with a massive twist that is surprisingly full-on for a Pokemon game. No spoilers here though.
Apparently continuing that trend, Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’s Teal Mask DLC has some fans split on whose motives are the least pure. According to Reddit user u/PokeCat55, even your own character isn’t immune from suspicion.
u/PokeCat55 qualifies by saying that they’re not done with the Teal Mask DLC story just yet, but plenty of folks who have are picking up similar vibes to them. “I am not a fan of the story,” u/PokeCat55 explained. “It feels like I’m the villain.”
They explain their position by pointing out that the prominent character Carmine is super “mean” to her younger brother Kieran and your character is usually complicit in that. You spend a fair bit of time lying to poor Kieran throughout the story and u/PokeCat55 wishes there was “an alternative path” where you could tell him the truth.
“This. Everyone wanted an option to tell the truth and I wanted an option to be like dude not cool you know I promised,” another user agreed. Not everyone is reading the events of the Teal Mask this way and some players understand Carmine’s motivations.
“I mean the reason why she told you to not tell Kieran the truth is because she was worried about her brother and didn’t want him to feel like he was rejected by Ogerpon,” one user commented. “It was ultimately a bad choice on her part, but she made it with good intentions.”
The Pokemon CompanyEven we’re a bit turned around because, despite some quirks, Kieran’s a likable character with a good heart. Maybe a little guilt for all the lies we told on our trip to Kitakami is warranted.
This isn’t the last we’ll see of Carmine and Kieran though. Both characters will appear in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’s follow-up DLC the Indigo Disk. Maybe we can make amends.