#FREAKIN' WHAAT??? SPYKE GOT THAT GUCCI DRIP

[cal-inka]

@naturallyflavoredspringwater how right did you think you were gonna be today?

Ok, this is so weird. Seriously,

Where is Spyke?

(Image from the Splatoon Wiki)

His complete disappearance is an anomaly to me, since he's such a staple to the series (for me, at least.)

The fact that he has a poster in the Splatoon 2 final fest, specifically chaos, should indicate his appearance, and yet, we have a teenage Murch instead (who, by the way, sided with Team Order, and dresses in a fairly clean style, as opposed to Spyke's preference to baggier clothing). Despite all the crevices in Splatsville's main area, he's nowhere to be found, and the entrance to the café he likes is just stairs - you can't even go in.

This gives me some theories:

He's just gone - Spyke's given his job completely over to Murch and continues to live off of the money he gained,

He'll be back in an update along with new stages, or

He'll be involved with the DLC, possibly as a way to upgrade or modify gear, or maybe something else entirely.

Spyke is an essential character to the Splatoon story, because without him, we wouldn't have Murch. This is further inferenced after Murch has appeared to pick up Spyke's accent and lingo, such as better sales pitching and adopting more English phrases ("battle like mad") as opposed to the shorter, more amateurish tone in Splatoon 2; plus, he's a lot nicer than 2. If Spyke wasn't important anymore, why would the devs allow the NA localization team to do this? Is it just NA, or does Europe/Oceania also have this mix, just without all the Cockney influence?

What is going on???