To become an Imperial Scholar, Anya begins trying to get Stella Stars with the help of Loid and Yor.
Tropes associated with Stella Star Arc:
- Affectionate Parody: The dodgeball game seems to be a parody of sports arcs with high-stakes, as Henderson informs Bill and the other students they won't be getting a Stella for one dodgeball game.
- All for Nothing: The dodgeball game:
- Bill had trained a lot using scenarios to win the dodgeball game for the Stella. His overzealous efforts ended up nearly getting him a Tonitrus instead due to his poor behavior.
- Similarly, Anya had trained with Yor to throw dodgeballs and even weathers Bill trying to force an out, but her last "ultimate" shot becomes a dud and she ends up losing.
- Hollywood Drowning: Averted. Ken falls in the pool without so much as a splash, and with a broken leg he can't flail in the water.
- Malicious Slander: Defied. After Anya gets her first Stella Star for saving a boy from drowning, her classmates are unable to believe it, since they all think she's some violent delinquent due to punching Damian on her first day of school. As such, they start debating that she may have gotten it via underhanded methods e.g. she pushed the boy into the pool to make it look like she saved him. Damian, however, is quick to shut these rumours down, pointing out that there's no way the faculty would give a Stella Star to someone who hadn't earned it, they're tarnishing Eden Academy's good name by honestly suggesting such a thing, and that if they don't like how the school does things they can just transfer somewhere else. Notably, this is the moment that convinces Anya that Damian might be worth befriending after all.
- Mood Whiplash: Loid and Anya's quest to gain a Stella at the hospital starts as comedic: Anya manages to mess up every last task the staff tried to assign her, which becomes serious during the end as Anya reads the mind of a drowning child and nearly ended up drowning herself while trying to save him.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: After poor academic grades and massive hurdles, Anya finally earns a Stella for her efforts to save Ken from drowning.
- Truth in Television: The near-drowning at the hospital highlights a horrifying truth: in most drowning cases, people don't realize something's wrong until it's too late. Here, a boy with a broken leg fell in the pool for the brief moment his caretaker had her attention away, and it happened so quietly that nobody, not even others in the pool, noticed.
- Wham Shot: A big dog kept in poor conditions has a premonition - of being adopted by the Forgers.
- Younger Than They Look: Bill Watkins is 6 years old despite his imposing stature. Becky lampshades it, outright refusing to believe he's the same age as them.
