#GUESS WE DOING SPLATOON AGAIN

[its-raining-cats]

The path we walked will blaze forever.

Team Present || Team Future (coming soon)

"We will carry the wishes of those who came before us, and use their legacy to guide the way of those who come next." —River

"Past mistakes pave the way for growth. Don't let it burden you, but it's a part of us whether we like it or not." —Dust

"The past is full of beautiful stories that deserve to be heard and information that can't be lost to time. Everything was meaningful to someone once." —Kenny

"Even if it's hard, even if it's painful, we need to remember our pasts. Those we've lost would want to be remembered, wouldn't they?" —Seafoam

[dan-crimes]

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND SPLATOON does anyone know what the logic is behind how many points you lose when playing these Challenges cuz I literally get top of the team in every single match the most inked and the most kills and when we lose bcuz my team dies at the last 30 seconds I get hit with -42 points

[pa-pa-plasma]

got an overwhelming sense of grief after suddenly wanting to play Attack on Titan Tribute Game for the first time since 2015 & finding out it's gone forever

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Neo Bowser City (aka Koopa City in PAL regions)

Debut: Mario Kart 7

Do you ever think of all the weird locations we only ever see in Mario Kart games? Despite being the biggest of all of Mario's spin-off franchises, when you really get down to it, remarkably few Mario Kart courses are actually based on established Mario locations!

It's not none, there's the occasional Donut Plains and Tick-Tock Clock and Airship Fortress, but most of the courses are these weird one-off locations we never see outside the context of that specific racetrack.

But have you ever taken a moment to step back and like, think of the Lore Implications of some of these places?

Like okay! Bowser just owns this whole dang cyberpunk city and we only ever see it in the context of Kart Racing! How messed up is that?!

One day Mario and Friends were looking for new places to race, and Bowser must have said something like "Gwah-hah-hah! I bet you puny punks could NEVER beat me in a race in my cyberpunk metropolis!" and right then and there it was established that Bowser owns a cyberpunk metropolis. Neo Bowser City is a city that exists in the Super Mario World and aside from returning in other Mario Kart games, it hasn't been acknowledged before or since.

Neo Bowser City first appeared in Mario Kart 7, as the third course in the Star Cup. Despite its flashy visuals, it actually doesn't really have a whole lot going on. It's a difficult track with some tight turns made more difficult by the rain making things more slippery, but besides that it doesn't really have any of the Wacky Obstacles that define so many Mario Kart courses.

Then it returned in Mario Kart 8 looking more gorgeous than ever! The bright colors really pop out, and the whole track is just oozing with detail that really emphasizes the scale of this city!

But like, the emphasized scale really only further raises the question of where this exists in the Mario World. Clearly, the fact that Bowser is plastered all over the billboards and the fact it's named "Neo Bowser City" helps us deduce that this city probably belongs to Bowser. Is this located in Bowser's Kingdom? Just how big is Bowser's Kingdom? And why does he own so many separate castles?

Maybe Neo Bowser City exists in the future? Is this a bad timeline? I mean, Mario Kart is allowed to have time-travel shenanigans. There's a Splatoon battle arena and that exists thousands of years in the future so sure, dust off Mario's Time Machine and head to the bad future where Bowser wins. Should've pressed that New Super Mario Bros. big yellow P-Switch!

I asked my friend Mod Chikako for their input and their theory is that Neo Bowser City isn't the future of Mario's world, but of our world. Clearly Bowser just couldn't take Wreck-It-Ralph losing the Oscar vote!

But in that case I guess it's a cooler cyberpunk future than the one we're living in right now. Corporate monopolies that run mass-surveillance with little government intervention due to their extreme wealth giving them extensive political power? No thank you! Neo Bowser City has bright neon colors, and flying cars! If I'm going to live in a dystopia, I want it to be a fun one. The only advertisements I want to see plastered everywhere are ones advertising Bowser!

Boo! That's the bad guy! Thumbs down!

The course returns again in that pitiful mobile game with another redesign, this time letting us see his Coney Island Disco Palace off in the distance. Does Bowser live in his Neo City? Is this worldbuilding we've been missing out on for decades, finally answered by a kart racer? Is this the capital city of Bowser's Kingdom? Am I once again falling victim to my perpetual hubris of overthinking the Mario franchise?

Really, I can't offer too much in terms of wacky fan theories, because I'm still thinking about this location existing in the first place. I'd love to know the Lore and worldbuilding here, but I guess the nature of Mario's canon is that it doesn't need to be over-analyzed. Bowser simply owns a cyberpunk metropolis, we'll only ever see it in the context of kart racing, and maybe that's okay.

Of course, this post wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention Dinohattan from the 1993 Super Mario Bros. Movie, which we've barely talked about on this blog somehow. You see, when the meteor hit, some of the dinosaurs escaped into a parallel timeline where they then evolved into humans, and then they built Dinohattan instead of Manhattan. Get it? Yeah, that movie is all sorts of bonkers. I wouldn't say it's very good, but I kinda love it. I'd recommend checking it out, if only to see a vastly different take on Mario than you'd be used to.

Anyway I bring this up because it's a completely separate instance of a version of Bowser building a large cyberpunk metropolis, and it actually predates Neo Bowser City! Do you think they could be connected? Are Dinohattan and Neo Bowser City one and the same...?

[rassicas]

random question, but in the english version of the tartar fight, pearl says something like "Blowing out my voice is a small price to pay for saving the world!" but no matter where i look, i can't seem to find anything like that in the jp version. i can't shake the feeling that i've missed something…

what do we know about hime's senpai cannon in the jp version? was ‘blowing out my voice’ just an invention of the localization team?

ignore the youtube loading bar this is the JP of the 'blowing out my voice' line, she's saying something like '...got it. ill give my voice if it means saving the world!' so its not really that different.

however, what's notably different is what comes before this.

(timestamp 1:13:17)

in the english version, marina instructs pearl to warm up her vocal chords. in JP, marina tells her to build up emotional energy/excitement/hype (テンション） to use her special. afterwards as well, just before pulling out the princess cannon, instead of saying "vocal chords ready!" she says something like "hype to the max!" to announce that her special is ready. during the time when you ink the statue, if you look up at the helicopter, you can see pearl hopping from side to side. again, this isnt her warming up her vocal chords, but rather charging up her special! it's a small change, but it leaves out a neat piece of info about inkling/octoling biology: specials are directly linked to emotional energy! this info pops up here and there in JP, like in splatfest dialogue, but in english not so much.

the art of splatoon book mentions it, but the way its worded makes it seem like it only applies to inkzooka. i looked at the JP text for this tho and i remember that this translation being a little weird and the jp text not implying that its only inkzooka that uses that kind of ink.

this art also shows the link between specials and emotions, pearl getting so upset over losing in smash that she charges her special LOL

i assume the lines were changed in localization for the sake of story flow and simplicity. they hadn't really been making those specials=emotional energy references in the english dialogue before, so it wouldn't make sense to start then. it is what it is i guess.

[dr-spectre]

honestly the only thing i wish now since team past won is that we don't get a great turf war game.

A more past based aesthetic sounds inherently cooler for a game no matter what people say.

I think i was being a little too harsh and mean towards Team Past and I was riding the high of the Grand Fest....

At the end of the day, what makes Splatoon's world so special is that it's world follows our time, a year passes in our world, a year passes over there. Stopping the timeline would be a bad idea and I think the developers know better. I have faith in them.

I dont think we're gonna get a great turf war game because Splatoon 4 was most likely already in pre-production before the Grand Fest, and they are just choosing what aesthetic to wrap the game in. They probably have a bunch of storylines planned out too and now they can get to work on the next game. That's just how game development works, especially Nintendo ones where gameplay is first and story is second.

The results of the final Splatfest of each game do make an impact but not THAT big of an impact. Callie vs. Marie decided who was gonna play the villain role in the next hero mode as they already placed down the set up for that story line in the songs Tide Goes Out and Bomb Rush Blush, as well as the Splatfest dialogue creating tension between the two.

Marie won so the developers gave Callie some angst, and she strolled down to Octo Canyon, said to good ol' Octavio "Hey I wanna be evil and stuff." And Octavio was like, "aight sick yo. But you gotta wear these hypnotic shades first tho." And Callie was like "COOL! :D"

Chaos vs. Order impacted what the next game was gonna look like aesthetic wise, and even then it's not as extreme as a lot of people envisioned. Splatsville is Inkopolis but basically... a little bit more chaotic and clearly not as wealthy of a city as Inkopolis. Deep Cut's aesthetics and personality were based on the theme of chaos, we would have probably gotten a three person Idol group regardless but what team won in Splatoon 2 impacted what they were gonna look like. The rest of Splatoon 3 is just regular ol' Splatoon. It's not a crazy Mad Max chaotic land like what some were expecting and that Inkopolis was gonna be up in smoke.

And, of course, the losing team was yet again the central theme of the villain, this time, the idea of Order itself and even then its different from how Callie vs. Marie played out. Marina becomes Marina Agitando at the start of the story to get it out of the way and to subvert expectations. And then the real villain, Overlorder takes centre stage.

I dont think we're gonna see the whole "losing team becomes evil" thing because its a tired old trope and it created so much just.... bullshit in the community, I'm gonna be so real. Like you know this already and my stances on Hypno Callie and what people say about her but... I digress!!

I wanna end off my rambles by saying that the best part of Team Past winning, is that Callie and Marie got to win TOGETHER! It feels like the perfect cap to their arcs and it feels... good.... you know? It just, makes me happy that these two girls are just finally happy and are on each other's wavelengths so well. They even show that in Blushing Tide but ive already gushed about that song.

I feel like thematically Team Past/Squid Sisters winning feels.... perfect? It feels... right? I guess? Starting off in darkness and hate, fighting each other, coming together after being reminded of the good times they've had, healing their broken bond, finally winning... as a team...

I think im taking the loss pretty well LMAO! I mean I was on the winning team of Chaos vs. Order so I'm perfectly fine with coming in second place.

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

Marina: I'm guessing all my stuff got thrown out after I deserted the octarian army?

Acht: Yeah. It's probably in a trash compacter somewhere.

Marina: Oh...

Marina: ;_;

Acht, Pearl, Eight: .........

-> SPLATOON 4 PROBABALY

Marina: WHAT DO YOU MEAN EIGHT AND PEARL ARE IN THE OCTOVALLEY TRASH COMPACTOR??????

Acht: Calm down, they're perfectly safe.

Eight, texting frantically: 👋👀👉⏰💣📉🦑🐙🍳💥🚩🚩

Acht: We have everything under control.

Pear, over the radio: YO ACHT! GAMEPLAN 'surprise her' IS A F***ING NO GO- CAN YOU ASK MARINA TO HACK THE MURDER DUMPSTER BEFORE THIS F***ING THING F***ING KILL-AMARIS OUT INKANTATIONS!??!?!?!

Acht, handing Marina the computer: If you'll just cancel this delete all order someone accidentally triggered, we will have everything under control.

Marina, typing frantically: if anyone gets hurt from this im throwing you in after them and then i am going to CRY

Acht: ....if anyone gets hurt, starting now, you mean? Or if they were hurt during any part of this?

Marina: .....

-> Into the Octovalley Trash Compactor

Pearl: What the- Acht?? What're YOU doin' down here? I thought you were clamming tight to the security beat!

Acht: Marina decided I needed some fresh air.

Eight: ?

Acht: Yes I know the air here is anything but fresh. It's a metaphor.

Pearl: Yeah? A metaphor for what?

Acht: For Marina being angry with me, and at her own inability to come in here herself to help you while also hacking the system. So I'm on an active security detail today.

Pearl: Ohhhhh....

Pearl: ....she fo' real tossed you in the trash huh?

Marina, over the radio: It's in an enclosed space, so they should be perfectly fine with it~

Pearl: BWAAHAHAA!

Eight: 🤣👏👌

Acht: Once again Eight, I'm sorry for selecting the "compress files" option. I didn't realize it was.... literal.

Eight: 👍

Pearl: COD MARINA THAT'S SO FLIPPING FRESH! GO OFF MY QUEEN!!!

Marina: Aww Pearlie~ I'd rather be your princess~

Pearl: Hey yo, watch it now!

Pearl: Queen of my heart, don't even let her start- I'm climbing to her tower on each and every hour- you know she a work of art, cracking all your codes apart- nothing you can do to wow her- she turn the tables, got the power- no, no one can ever best her, oh I'd die to be her jester!

Marina: P-Pearlie...

Pearl: But if she wants a knight instead-? Yo it goes straight to my head! WHOA this princess holds the crown, ain't no one EVER take her down-!

Acht: They can't seriously always be like this?

Eight: ....

Acht: I see.

Acht: Marina, please select the compress files option.

[fandomwonderer]

Evidence of Pearlina PT. 1

Otherwise known as a masterlist of every queer interaction between Pearl Hōzuki and Marina Ida

Pearl: Because the knight is all the better? He feels like he’s fighting to protect everyone

Marina: Ehehe, then I’ll be a witch because I’ll be protected by senpai!

Authors note: in the Japanese version of the game she refers to Pearl as the honorific of ‘Senpai’

Source: Witch Vs Knight Splatfest dialogue Japan

—————————————————————————————————————

Dialogue: “what is the best gift you’ve ever received?”

Pearl: The chance to meet Marina

Source: Exclusive Japanese Inkpolife Magazine interview

—————————————————————————————————————

Pearl: Marina! What’s the appeal of using a brella on this stage?

Marina: protecting my precious pearlie at all costs!

Source: Assorted Stage dialogue English version

—————————————————————————————————————

Pearl:You know I love you.

Marina: I'm so happy right now

Pearl: It's me and you against the universe.

Source: Chaos Vs Order Post-splatfest dialogue

—————————————————————————————————————

Marina: What? Acht, come on! You can’t seriously be hitting on Pearl in front of me

Source: Splatoon 3 Side order DLC assorted dialogue

—————————————————————————————————————

Pearl: Ooooh. Marina Look how the Ferris wheel flashes and sparkles!!

Marina: But it doesnt compare to your eyes!

Source: Assorted Stage dialogue English version

—————————————————————————————————————

Pearl: She's the DJ. Im the rapper is what

I'm saying. Cap! What don't you get about this??

Source: Splatoon 2 DLC Octo Expansion Chatlogs

—————————————————————————————————————

Marina: Anyway. I know we talk a lot of smack on the show and all. but I just wanted to say thanks. For everything.

Source: Splatoon 2 DLC Octo Expansion Chatlogs

—————————————————————————————————————

Pearl: I suddenly slide out of the wall with my Dualies! Pew pew pew pew!

Marina: You're too cute when you're hiding in the wall!

Source: Assorted Stage dialogue Japanese version

—————————————————————————————————————

Marina: You're so adorable,Pearl

Source: Assorted Stage dialogue English version

—————————————————————————————————————

Marina: Watch out, Inkopolis! Here comes my Pearlie!

Source: Assorted Stage dialogue Spanish version

—————————————————————————————————————

Pearl:Sorry... I mean, I always knew you were different, even if we never talked about it. I always figured...you know... with the jokes and stuff...


Marina: never knew how to talk to you about it. Do you think...


Marina: Do you think I'll still be welcome in Inkopolis? Once everyone knows I'm an Octoling?


Pearl: ARE YOU KIDDING? Of course you will! everyone loves you!


Marina: Thanks, Pearlie. ;__;


Pearl: OK stop it with the waterworks before I change my mind

Source: Splatoon 2 DLC Octo Expansion Chatlogs

—————————————————————————————————————

Marina: Haha, remember when we first met, Pearl? I had just come to the surface, and I didn't understand Inkopolis at all. You taught me everything I needed to know.

Pearl: LOL yeah. I remember thinking you were some country bumpkin when we first met on Mt. Nantai.

Marina:I went to Mount Nantai every day for a week, just hoping you would show up again.


Pearl: Bahaha yeah, I thought you were a stalker. I remember you singing when I showed up and then out of nowhere you were all like "LET'S START A BAND!"


Marina: I just had a feeling about you. I guess it worked out, cause look at us now!

Source: Splatoon 2 DLC Octo Expansion Chatlogs

—————————————————————————————————————

Pearl: They're a pain but not really scary. Fighting Marina in that first tower was WAY scarier.

Marina: What?! R-really?

Pearl: Obviously! Wondering if you were stuck that way forever, never going back to normal... I was scared!

Source: Splatoon 3 Side order DLC assorted dialogue

—————————————————————————————————————

Marina: can't help it! Pearl's just too precious. She's fearless at the core and adorable on top!

Source: Splatoon 3 Side order DLC assorted dialogue

—————————————————————————————————————

Pearl: Yeah! Our world tour finished without a hitch, but we haven't gotten that "us time" I promised! I wanna get this over with so we can go have some REAL fun.

Source: Splatoon 3 Side order DLC assorted dialogue

Other:

• Pearl is portrayed as very handsome and knowledgeable, similar to shōjo love interests when drawn by Marina (Dear Pearl Manga)

•A large amount of sparkles and flower petals are present in almost every panel that features Pearl that Marina Draws (Dear Pearl Manga)

•At the end of the manga, it is revealed that Marina is writing a confession letter to Pearl, which likely contains the title in its greeting. Alternatively, the manga as a whole may be intended as a love letter to Pearl (Dear Pearl Manga)

•Marina: "[she is] so small...but [she is] so big." In the panels showing the letter that Marina is writing, she muses about wanting to shout out "these feelings [for Pearl]"(Dear Pearl Manga)

•In the Japanese version of the Splatoon Base website, Marina was labeled as a "maiden in love" in her feelings towards Pearl (Dear Pearl Manga)

•They both refer to each other by nicknames such as “Pearlie” and “Rina”

•Hisashi Nogami stated that the final Splatfest was not based on Pearl vs. Marina because unlike the Squid Sisters, who had a form of a rivalry between them, Off the Hook is based on Pearl and Marina being together, with their bond being the strongest part of them.

•in Side Order, where Marina frequently uses heart emojis when speaking about Pearl in her dev diaries and compares herself to a "storybook princess" at the top of a tower who "brave Pearl" must rescue.

•after hearing the Squid Sisters sing the Calamari Inkantation. According to witnesses, her only comment was "This changes everything." She escaped to Mount Nantai, even though she didn't know a word of the Inkling language. While there, she met an Inkling named Pearl, who was practicing singing. Growing on each other, Pearl then taught Marina about Inkling culture and customs. After this, Marina came back to Mount Nantai every day for two weeks, hoping to find Pearl again. When she did, she showed Pearl her musical abilities through her demo of Ebb & Flow and Pearl immediately agreed to them starting a band that they decided to call Off the Hook. (Splatoon 2 DLC Octo Expansion chat logs)

•When discussing with Cuttlefish about Marina's technological achievements, Pearl finally discovered her history as a member of the Octarian army, and despite being deeply shocked, she promised to remain friends with her. (Splatoon 2 DLC Octo Expansion chat logs)

This is just the text based evidence. Tumblr has a ten image limit so I plan to attach those in a different post. I am making this for those who try to deny the queer aspect of Pearl and Marina’s relationship. Please feel free to DM or reblog with additional evidence that can be added, and if possible please attach the source. They will be added if I can validate the information as authentic. The rest of the information can be found under the tag #pearlina evidence masterlist

[aviivix]

can we stop the team past = racism thing

I'm kinda tired of the take that "Past is most important" automatically means "I miss Jim Crowe", or the "i guess racism beats hope and lesbians".

Has the erasure of history worked so well that we have forgotten about black history? Queer history? Trans historical figures? A time when indigenous people didn't have their land literally stolen? A time when loved ones were alive? Hell, a time before AI? Early internet?

Even bad things themselves. A time when books were burned and lives were lost. Victims of horrific events, including victims of things like police brutality or genocide. Remembering victims and not letting their names fade away is an important part of activism. Remembering atrocities and not letting people pretend they didn't happen is how we ensure they don't happen again.

On a shallower level because sure, maybe most Splatoon fans didn't pick their team because of all that philosophical stuff. Most likely, people were on Team Past because of nostalgia - for earlier games or for the Squid Sisters. Loving Splatoon (and the squid sisters) and looking back on their memories fondly - hell, we're already doing this. Current Splatoon 3 meta is kinda meh, Nintendo has said they're going to reduce their game quality to AA going forward so there's anxiety about that, and a lot of us are holding onto our love for the game that stretches as far back as the Splatoon 1 demo or as recent back as Inkjet meta. (Also people wanting to see The War. That too.)

People didn't vote Team Past because of racism. Hell, anecdotally, I saw some idiot with the name Trump 2024 and they were on Team Future. I didn't run into anything bigoted on Team Past in my grind to Ruler.

Present and Future are massively important and personally I was hoping Future would win even if I was on Team Past, but it was genuinely a tossup. All three are massively important and it's hard to quantify the difference in importance. Just as you could flanderize Past to just racism and bigotry, you could flanderize the present to self-serving instant gratification, or the future to WALL-E style apocalypse. We all gotta be better than that.

[hewkii]

Demystifying Splatband Signatures

Recently I've seen people talking about Acht and Paul's signatures apparently being right next to each other on a Grandfest banner. I really want to believe it bc that's adorable, but after spending entirely too long digging for a source, making spreadsheets, and attempting to identify each signature for myself I've concluded that it's most likely not true :(

full ramble below. get ready for an autism blast

So to start. It's probably decently well known at this point that the signatures outside Hotlantis correspond to every artist that had battle music in Splatoon 1 and 2. However, if you tally up the number of band members (36) vs the apparent number of signatures (37), we wind up with one mystery signature.

After skimming the artbooks and Inkipedia I didn't find anything officially matching any signature to any specific characters (besides the idols), but online I found two fanmade charts attempting to do it themselves. One by @/inaRNP on Twitter in August 2022 (which is missing one signature, and assigns the mystery sig to Karen), and another that circulated on Discord before being reposted to Tumblr in November 2022. This second one seems to be where the idea that the mystery signature belongs to Dedf1sh comes from. It definitely seems more likely than it being Bob Dub or something.

HOWEVER. Acht's lore in Side Order heavily contradicts this theory. In all likelihood they were autopiloting around the Deepsea Metro from the end of OE right up until they got pulled into the Memverse, never coming anywhere close to Hotlantis. It is possible that it was intended to be theirs but plans changed, as technically SO's plot wasn't nailed down at Splatoon 3's launch, but to that I point to Haikara Walker. If they were intended to have escaped the Metro after OE, then they likely wouldn't have opened at the Low Water Party. (page 261 if you don't know what that is)

But with the signature's reappearance on the Grandfest banners, I think I've worked out exactly what happened here.

According to the charts, these are the signatures of Paul and Taichi. Both were noticeably redrawn for their appearance on the Team Past banner, and I think that's the key to solving this whole mystery. Redesigning Paul's makes sense; he was a kid when he did the first one and he's a teen now. Of course his handwriting would change. But why redesign Taichi's?

Or, what if what we thought was Taichi's signature was actually just part of Paul's the whole time?

That would bring the amount of Hotlantis signatures down to 36, meaning there was never an extra signature to begin with, and the mystery signature simply belongs to a member of Sashimori.

Of course, that still doesn't explain why it's so far away from the other Sashimori members. But then again, Paul's is also pretty far away. Maybe there just wasn't enough room to group them together like everyone else ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Plus, it's next to everyone else's on the Grandfest banner. Speaking of which...

Here's my guesses as to whose signatures are whose on the banners, including the new ones. forgive the microsoft paint

Things to note:

I can't actually tell how many new signatures are on the Team Present banner. I just circled all of them and called it Yoko & the Gold Bazookas, but there are only four Y&tGB members that aren't also in Ink Theory and there definitely seem to be more than four signatures there. we might have an actual mystery signature on our hands this time

Front Roe's sigs are different than the ones on Hotlantis, but I'm confident it's them because they all have 00X (as in 003Soss) worked into them.

dot--png pointed out in the comments that one of the signatures I guessed was Riot Act seems to have a doodle of a squid, so that might actually be Beika's

Team Past doesn't have any Splatoon 3 characters on it, which makes sense now that I think about it

i made a whole ass spreadsheet to help me figure this out and i feel like it would be a waste not to link it here

[triedpklove]

Cool tidbit: Dedf1sh's name has always been Acht/Eight

DISCLAIMER: I made this post before Acht was actively confirmed to have they/them pronouns. It’s been having the rounds once again and I wanted to elaborate on the usage of she/her rather than they/them. Thank you for understanding.

So I'm sure we've all been obsessing over the name drop of Dedf1sh in the trailer for Side Order. Acht! Eight in German. However, because of some posts I was reminded of her feature in Haikara Walker and how we've known her name for quite a bit.

In Haikara Walker (the non-localized Octo Expansion artbook), we learn of Dedf1sh's backstory and her original name: ミズタ　アハト, or Mizuta Ahato (Ahato Mizuta in Western order).

Image from my own personal copy of Haikara Walker.

Image from @/rassicas's translations of Haikara Walker.

The first half of her name, Mizuta, is what she's called in the Japanese translation of Side Order, as seen in the Japanese trailer for the game:

(Also she uses 'boku' which I think is cute hehe)

Now, you may be wondering, what does Ahato have to do with Acht? They don't exactly sound alike. Wouldn't it sound more like アクト　(Akuto) if it were pronounced like the German pronunciation of the word (akt)?

Well, Splatoon 3 isn't the only game to use German numericals as a naming system. The visual novel spin off of the BlazBlue series, XBlaze, has 4 characters that are named after German numbers. And what's one of those character's names? You guessed it - Acht. And how is her name written in Katakana?

Yup -- アハト!

It makes sense that people wouldn't be able to really connect the dots as Haikara Walker isn't localized and not everyone knows Japanese or the intricacies of localizing German numbers, but I thought it was a cool fact! She's always been Acht/Eight, and since I haven't seen any other translators or anything similar pointed out, I thought to make a post about it. :)

[psudopod]

Splatmas is coming, and you know what that means?

Bet none of you guessed it's Psudopod's Big Lecture on How Y'all Need SPORTSMANSHIP!

Sportsmanship is behaviour and attitudes that show respect for the rules of a game and for the other players. 

Part 1: Rules of the Game.

There are indeed rules, here they are!

In Splatoon 3 you may be reported for breaking the rules for the following infractions;

Inappropriate Nickname

Inactivity

Intentional Disconnection

Unsportsmanlike Play (Self-Destruction)

Unsportsmanlike Play (Disrupting Team)

Intentionally Not Contributing

Network Manipulation

Malicious Use of Glitches or Errors

Cheating

Griefing (the action or an act of deliberately spoiling other players' enjoyment of a game by playing in a way that is intentionally disruptive and aggravating)

I've bolded the rules I see broken, often, especially during splatfests. Thankfully, I rarely see the ones I didn't bold. What I do see, pretty often, is Bad Sportsmanship.

I am referring to mid-match squid parties.

What are squid parties? A squid party is when the players ignore the in-game objectives and do... Whatever they feel like! Usually, this is seen as people standing around squidbagging together. It's honestly pretty fun! When everyone is on the same wavelength and the full lobby parties, it can be a cool time to explore how the game feels, play party games, and be silly! Note however, I said the full lobby. To play by your own rules when any single player is playing by the game's rules, is unsportsmanlike.

Thankfully, for all you partiers, there is a simple and easy way to make sure every player in your lobby is playing by the same rules; private lobbies! Make a private lobby, invite your friends, or join a pool to make some friends! I imagine "Squidparty" is a code you could use, but please do share any codes you've tried in your reblog. You can even plan games in lobbies, like "bumper brushes" or "hide-and-seek"!

Please, if you want to party, join a private lobby. Everyone else there will want to party, too. Assume everyone in public lobbies is there to play the game as described by the rules, even if they leave you to party.

If you are in a lobby to play, don't ignore partiers. They are just as often "Griefing" with intentions to use your mercy against you. Kill. Leave the lobby. Report. Move on. Pick any of the multiple rules that apply to squid party behavior. You can find the report button in the battle logs section of the terminal. Don't join a private lobby and report the goofs going on there, don't join a public battle and goof.

Part 2: Respect for Other Players

The Sportsmanship life doesn't end when you put the controller down! Y'all still Unsportsmanlike in the community. You need to treat other players right. We don't have Rules out here, but here's some bullshit I'm sick of seeing:

Racism (colorism and xenophobia)

Bullying (extreme language, hate mail harassment)

Being a sore loser (BS points 1 and 2, really.)

I don't need to re-hash the colorism issues. This is an old problem. Stop. Please remember your comments on the physical features of the idols can be hurtful, real people share those features.

What I do have to hash is the xenophobia. Y'all aware that blaming an entire nationality for you losing is bigoted? Y'all aware that claiming an entire nationality is just too good at the game is a stupid stereotype? Stop saying weird shit about Japanese players.

Bullying- hey, are you aware saying "KYS," any suicide baiting, is bullying and harassment? This is EXTREME language. Do not throw that shit around in the Splatfest tags when you're sad you lost. Do not throw that shit around in plaza posts. You will lose your plaza posting ability, account-wide. I dare you to send that shit on anon. I will drag your ass. Again.

It's ok to be sad you lost, but please be aware that lashing your negative feelings out on real people, or in ways that can hurt real people, is POOR SPORTSMANSHIP. Do you remember, in grade school sports, how the coach would tell you to line up and tell each member of the opponent team "good game"? You ever wonder why?

You should always be grateful and courteous, respectful, and constructive to every one of your opponents. You would not be able to play the game without opponents.

This splatfest, I really hope to see some better sportsmanship inside and outside the game.

I've said way too much already, I'll leave you with homework. This 'fest, I'd like for you to thank your opponents. Even when they beat you. Especially then. They did their best and respected you with a display of the fruits of their effort.

[dokidokitsuna]

I f-finally cleared all the palettes in Side Order...( ＿ ＿)ノ*collapses*

If you don't know what you're in for with Eight's Palette, I won't spoil it for you. All I'll say is that its particular mechanic is very evil and very challenging, and getting through it once was quite enough for me, thanks. ^^;;; I look forward to climbing the spire for funzies and grinding for Prlz with the easy weapons from now on. 👍

I'm a little disappointed that the ordeal didn't end up giving any additional relevance to Agent 8's character...I liked seeing the backstory of [spoiler] but I don't see what that has to do with Eight's Palette (i.e. their identity, memory, and soul) in any significant way. ._. It seems the directors' burgeoning habit of throwing fan-favorite character backstories into random places because "we gotta reveal 'em somewhere" persisted in Side Order after all. :/

Anyway, I guess I shouldn't have expected much-- at this point, it's pretty clear that the Agents are more or less blank slates, which fits with their highly-customizable nature. It just irks me that the story very often treats them as if they are actual characters, piling on depth and trivia and yet never allowing them to develop.

It's hard to feel anything about Agent 8 befriending Off the Hook when they have very little discernible personality...the same way I felt nothing when I saw that Agent 3 (original) became the new Captain. At most my reactions to these things are just "that's cute, I guess" and it's starting to bother me...Nintendo games are full of silent, blank-slate protagonists, and yet Splatoon is the only series I know that treats them so weirdly. If you insist on trying to give them continuous storylines, maybe show them doing something in-game besides following orders, staring blankly, and being vaguely nice? Like, it wouldn't take much to properly characterize them; just a couple seconds of expressive animation here and there would be more than enough.

It hurts most with Eight because they have a LOT of depth. There's so much you could do with a character like them, with their origins and past, and established goals...they're supposed to be an amnesiac, for crying out loud! And yet they feel no different from Agent 3 (new), who doesn't have any of those character details. So what's the point, then??

When Side Order was first announced, I assumed that Agent 8 was the protagonist again for a reason, something beyond "they just happened to be the first person Marina chose". If they were replaced with Agent 3 or Agent 4 or a totally new character, it would barely affect the story, and that's...disappointing. I'd still rate the game mode a 10/10, but I definitely expected more.

[analog-smiles]

Could i hear the headcanon you were talking about related to the little white flecks you put on mckrakens skin? (I got curious + love your yapping 🙏 ^▽^)

oh boy you are opening a Can Of Worms [ this is a good thing, i like to yap, this is just me thinking way too hard about something that was probably just meant to look really cool ]

ok so in ykw1, the presence of mckraken [ and maybe white yokai in general ] had this really weird effect on the world around them, right? like the yokai world faded to white as you encountered more white yokai and approached lord's gate, and mount wildwood experienced the same when mckraken was up there

but there was never really any explanation of why that happened, and it all just sort of Went Away and never happened again

on a similar note, it's never really explained Why the white yokai are white, other than it being an obvious indicator of mckraken's more dedicated supporters. and they also just Go Away after ykw1 and we never see them again [ except for in blasters i guess but i hesitate to consider any part of blasters canon, other than the fact that the blasters teams Do exist ]

for a while i thought that maybe the faded patches in the world were connected to why white yokai were that color, like spending too long in a faded area would start to cause the colors of a yokai to fade, and that's why the yokai who hang around mckraken so much look Like That. but mckraken kind of threw a wrench into that concept because he doesn't exactly follow the color scheme of his henchmen - he Wears a lot of white, and some parts of his body match, but overall he's not Completely White like the others, despite residing in the area of the yokai world that's most affected by the fading. plus that theory kind of didn't answer the question of Why the world was fading in the first place. my original thought on that was that maybe mckraken was marking his turf splatoon-style, but then i remembered that he has normal black ink until he transforms in the human world lol.

so then i messed around a little with the idea of it being the other way around, with white yokai causing the world around them to fade out

as a quick recap/clarification of my personal headcanons/lore, a 'white yokai' is a yokai that has abandoned their medal, and by extension a fragment of their soul. this process is sometimes referred to by other yokai as 'going blank', and the name for yokai who do such a thing alternate between 'white' and 'blank' depending on preference

now, a blank yokai doesn't ditch their medal somewhere and immediately turn white. it's a gradual process, and how long it takes tends to vary depending on the overall power of the yokai in question. for a rank-E yokai, it might only take a few hours, but for rank-A yokai [ like most of mckraken's followers. i think there's one exception who's rank-B ], it could be a few days or even a couple weeks

eventually, this weird affliction starts to spread from the yokai themself to their surroundings - they sort of just radiate this feeling of something being Wrong, because something is Very Wrong. affected land isn't dangerous to yokai, and it returns to normal after a little while once the yokai causing it leaves, but it's considered a sort of bad omen whenever it's seen, and most yokai won't go anywhere near it to avoid potentially encountering white yokai.

and now we get to the part of this whole speculation/yap session that actually pertains to mckraken himself

not only is he a high-ranking yokai, he's also a boss yokai - pretty much the strongest there is at the time of ykw1, with the exception of the inferno dwellers. it takes a Long Time for him to actually fade out like his followers on account of that - his tentacles and a few patches of skin are the only parts that have actually turned white thus far. which is pretty impressive, considering he was one of the first to actually 'go blank'

but the little flecks and patches on his skin are the signs of that slowly going on over time. in theory, they would spread and cover more area over time until he more closely resembled other white yokai [ or until something somehow convinced him to reclaim his medal. in that case, some of the fading would reverse, leaving a few markings and faded areas - this is what i imagine happened to most of the white yokai after mckraken was assumed dead at the end of ykw1 :-) ]

[bluestrawberrybunny]

Garth from @ask-marios-apprentice ask

Okay I can work with that. I'm sure I've gotten better fighting. I can brush up on courtship rituals until then.

I actually have a few questions that I hope you can answer

Tari. Which one of you made the first move? I want to know so I can prepare. Maybe there's some similarities

That's mainly the question I have towards romantic intentions.

I actually have some other questions I was hoping could be answered.

If smg4 was born earlier in the timeline. Would he have become a different SUPERS meme guardian. Or Another Person's meme guardian entirely. Or would he become like an audio or video guardian.

What is your apprenticeship routine like.

Are there any other game universes that exist. I know AGES uses a machine to travel to alternate timelines and universes for their Sonic games.

But outside of Splatoon and F-zero. Most of the video game industry make stuff based on fictional stuff.

What is Santa Claus like in your universe. The one in mine is Bom-omb who is a former Air Force pilot in the 60s.

SMG5 and SMG6 how similar are you to your Avatar, Luigi.

Like can you do things like high jump and death stare and use the poultergust.

I mean technically anyone can use the poltergust.

But like how much of you is adapted from the original Avatar.

Did you see the trailer for the new Mage movie. You know the one that SMG0 and Niles came from. I think Elvira is in it.

Tari: Oh… um… Meggy made the first move. I wasn’t exactly sure how to go about it. It was… really simple. Just us playing video games together and Meggy and I started cuddling, and she let it slip during conversation. It’s nothing big, really…

SMG4: Depends on your universe for the second question. We aren’t really born. We crash-land in a USB. We don’t really have childhoods, so… yeah. I know our avatar is based on who is the one most important to the universe, which is why Mario is our avatar. Luigi being an avatar was kind of… added to the world’s code. But he still has some avatar abilities, so I think it’s permanent.

SMG6: Our routine is pretty standard, I think. We train sometimes.

SMG5: We try to train our meme guardian powers at least once or twice a week, since SMG4 can get a little busy with videos and the cafe tends to get busy every now and again.

Tari: I can answer the question about video games! So, there are still many video games here!

SMG6: Yeah! And there are apparently a bunch of other video games with their own meme guardians! SMG2 told me.

SMG3: There’s what…?

Mario: SMG3 once kidnapped Santa Claus for his Christmas party, but then Santa escaped and dropped a bomb on the cafe and the castle so we had to spend Christmas in the dump with Bob

Mario: Mario hasn’t heard from him since…

SMG3: Yeah… there’s a reason for that, dude… he’s kind of avoiding us after that whole thing?

Mario: True!

SMG5: As for how similar we are to Luigi, well… we do have the ability to jump higher than Mario, SMG3, and SMG4. We also have a sort of… I guess affinity for the poltergust?

SMG6: Yeah! We actually went ghost hunting together too!

Luigi: They both do really like ghost hunting… SMG5 also tends to be more… timid like myself at times? To be honest, SMG6’s personality reminds me more of our Mario.

Luigi: As for the death stare… *leans in close* They both got that too. Neither of them really know it, though.

Mr. Puzzles: I can take the last question! None of us have seen the trailer, but now I simply must! It sounds interesting!

SMG3: Don’t know if that would be a thing, man-

Mr. Puzzles: We have a device that can communicate to other dimensions. So, obviously, we can try and view the trailer.

[rassicas]

hi guys! im back. i went tokyo for a few days. got back at 7 this morning after taking an overnight 7 hour bus ride.... that i did not sleep on bc i cant sleep in moving vehicles. this will be something closer to a proper blog post i guess. splatoon related convention? experience below

i've kept my mouth shut about my plans to go because its not as well known on the english side of the fanbase and i didnt wanna make people too jealous sorry LOL , but i went to splaket 22! it's an unofficial, splatoon-only doujinshi market/artists alley. this was my first convention-sort-of event ive been to since i was... in high school. i also dont really get to meet many other hardcore splatoon fans irl. i was nervous about it because i don't know a whole lot of people on the JP side nor do i have a lot of confidence in my japanese speaking/listening, but in the end it was SUPER fun. i wish i couldve talked a bit more to the artists i did encounter to comment on what i liked about their works but. Skill Issue very few non-japanese people at this event of course but one of the only english speakers i saw i called out to bc they were wearing a shirt with this exact image printed on it no video and no photos outside of designated areas were allowed so i got like. zero pics of my own. but there was a lot of cosplayers i saw! oh and here's the Loot Haul. a few doujin, a clear file, stickers, microfiber cloth and a keychain. im surprised at how little i got, i think i shouldve gone a bit crazier with it

the one with Tao Blu and oonie in the top left (by sachikazerick) I came across by chance and bought because it was cute, featured splatband characters, and also because it all in some familiar inkling language (the last point of which i told the artist as i was buying) when i finally got home and saw the back credits...

SMALL FUCKIN WORLD LOL (i tweeted at the artist afterwards to let him know i came by the table and to thank him for using me and my friend's inkling language fonts!) though truly, i think ardnin deserved the credit more rather than me since he made most of those fonts! ah well, still cool to see more and more fan works using deciphered inkling language. top middle book is a story with some salmonid characters that i havent read yet but im looking forward to it, the art is lovely. top right one was the first thing i bought. the artist is rk_splaworks, whose art i love, and we've been mutuals for a few years and have talked a bit here and there! i was so fucking nervous to meet them in person since my japanese sucks LMAO but they were happy to meet me too and we got a selfie together yippy <3 also havent read their doujin Yet since ill have to rub all my brain cells together and huddle over the dictionary, but i want their oc lore

ok that's all i'll say, next splaket is...june 22. very soon....im already thinking ill. go again. yknow. while im still in japan and all that. i guess ill have to study harder on my jp in the meantime teehee ...i doubt it, but in the off chance anyone following me is going to the next splaket in june lemme know!