#he’s like cuttlefish but only like. octo expansion cuttlefish

[le-agent-egg]

guys. regarding the trigger splatty havoc au. you will get michi crumbs. i am unable to confirm or deny crumbs of any other captives. but there will be michi crumbs.

[arolesbianism]

Hashtag anger issues moment

[azuremist]

"A ship manifesto is a meta essay meant to introduce fans to a ship and promote it by explaining its appeal."

Fanlore, on the definition of a ship manifesto

Welcome to my Pearlina manifesto! In this essay, I will be introducing you to Splatoon, as well as the characters, Pearl and Marina. I will be going over their lore, their coding, and I hope that I will be able to make you understand their appeal as a romantic pairing.

First, though, I must get you caught up on the not-inherently gay lore of Splatoon. What you need to know is that, around 100 years ago, Octarians and Inklings coexisted in harmony. However, rising sea levels made it so the two had to battle over remaining territory. The Inklings came out victorious, and forced the Octarians to live underground and in much worse conditions. Nowadays, most Octarians are a part of the Octarian army, trying to regain control of the surface.

Also, for clarification: an Octarian is any octopus-like creature, but an Octoling is specifically the intelligent humanoid creature. All Octolings are Octarians, but not all Octarians are Octolings.

As for non-Pearlina key players, we have the Squid Sisters, also known as Callie and Marie. When they sing the Calamari Inkantation, it's known to snap Octarians out of their brainwashing. Because it's just that much of a bop.

Agent 8 was the first playable Octoling, introduced in Splatoon 2's DLC, Octo Expansion. They're an Octoling who had their memories wiped, and was one of the very first Octolings to escape the Octarian army and go to the surface for a new life. They are also the playable character of Splatoon 3's DLC, Side Order.

We have DJ Octavio, who is the leader of the Octarian army. He has some messed up methods, and he's sort of a war criminal, but he's also a funny old man so we forgive him. He's been around since the Octarian and Inkling war of old, along with Cap'n Cuttlefish. Cap'n Cuttlefish is an Inkling who enlists the named Agents, and the grandfather of Callie and Marie.

And lastly, there's a phone. This phone is known as Tartar. It's an AI driven to insanity by isolation, with a desire to wipe out all living beings on Earth to start anew. It frames itself as trying to help the Octolings who attempt to escape the underground, while actually leading the Octolings to their doom. Agent 8 is the first Octoling to escape its grasp alive.

Tartar is also the owner of what is known as Kamabo Co., which, among many other messed-up things, uses a process called "sanitization" to brainwash and wipe the memories of Octolings who work with them to escape to the surface. Sanitized Octolings are then used by Kamabo as test subjects, now mindless husks. Empty of all previous personality. Zombie-like creatures, made of Octolings who only wished to see the sun.

So, anyways, meet Pearl! She's an Inkling who likes rapping and the dualie class of weapons! She's a blunt speaker who uses slang a lot, and she's energetic, expressive, and brash, but ultimately friendly. Her personality is intended to clash with her appearance, which is that of a typical soft, cute Japanese pop princess. "Gap moe", as the kids say.

She was born rich, and with oddly-shaped vocal cords that made her able to be so loud that it could cause damage to her surroundings. She participated in a youth folks-singing contest as a child, which had to be cut short precisely because of the damage caused by her singing. Her using this ability is called her "Hypersonic Battlecry". Upon reaching adulthood, she started a heavy metal solo career, and she had a song that gained some fans, "#$@%* Dudes Be #$@%* Sleepin". However, besides that one song, she didn't have much luck. Even still, she practiced regularly; going to Mt. Nantai to be alone, due to the potential danger her singing can cause, when she did.

Marina is an Octoling who likes singing, music production, and is also generally good with tech! She draws in a shoujo manga-esque style, and likes the brella class of weapons. She speaks in a soft and sweet way, but she can get sassy if provoked. She's sentimental, shy and pretty bad socially, often coming across as awkward or oblivious. Even still, she expresses herself honestly, without embarrassment.

Marina was born into Octoling soldierhood, and was trained up from a child as a combat engineer. She was so intelligent that she skipped multiple grades, and went to an elite training facility, where she became an active soldier in the Octarian army. However, when she was on the surface on a mission, and heard the Calamari Inkantation, she deserted the army and Octarian society. She was at a severe disadvantage, of course; she didn't speak a word of the Inkling language. But she managed to escape, still, to Mt. Nantai.

Pearl and Marina met for the first time by chance, as Pearl was practicing in the mountains at the same time that Marina was escaping the army. They quickly grew close, and Pearl taught Marina the Inkling language and Inkling culture. She didn't know that Marina was an Octoling at this time.

After this first meeting, Marina returned to the mountains every day for two weeks in hopes of meeting Pearl again. When they finally did meet again, Marina showed Pearl a demo of a song she created, which Pearl loved. The two agreed to form Off the Hook, and they released a polished version of the demo as their first single, under the title "Ebb & Flow".

9 months after the events of Splatoon 1, Off the Hook was popular enough to take over hosting Inkopolis News for the Squid Sisters, who were now focusing on their solo careers.

Which leads us into Splatoon 2! Marina and Pearl don't have a big role in the main game. They get a bigger spotlight in the game's DLC. However, they host Inkopolis News and the Splatfests, so they have lots of dialogue for that!

But! There is another key player here. A rather important one, in fact, one who actually has a big say in Pearl and Marina's story.

So, basically, Nintendo of America hates queer people. The Japanese dialogue for Pearl and Marina make it VERY clear that the two are intended to be queercoded. But Nintendo of America didn't likey, so they censored the everloving shit out of it. They only got any better about this during the tail end of Splatoon 3's lifespan, ending around the time Side Order released. Even then, I personally suspect that they only did this because a lot of the fanbase took notice of how, hey, they sure are throwing the term "best friends" around a lot more in the English version… For that reason, a lot of the dialogue I'll be sharing for this section will be the original Japanese dialogue.

Note, these are just my personal favorite examples of dialogue between them. All dialogue referenced can be viewed on the indie Splatoon wiki, also known as Inkipedia.

During the first Splatfest, Marina says, "Even against Pearl-senpai, I will not lose," and tells Pearl that she won't hold back, despite how much she admires Pearl. We also have Marina inviting Pearl to eat with her after winning the Fries vs McNuggets Splatfest, and Pearl excitedly inviting Marina to see a movie together with her for Action vs Comedy. For the Knight vs Wizard Splatfest, Pearl says that she likes knights because they fight to protect everyone, and Marina, in response, says, "Ehehe, then I'll be a witch so you can protect me!" Marina also reveals that she learned how to make chicken the way that Pearl likes so that she can make some for her, despite it not being her taste, in the aftermath of the With vs Without Lemons Splatfest.

One of the rare English localization wins is Marina saying that she likes using the brella to "protect her precious Pearlie at all costs!" There is also a line in the German localization where Pearl says that the Ferris wheel glimmers and shines, and Marina replies, saying it doesn't glimmer and shine like Pearl's eyes.

Lastly, in one of the Sanrio Splatfests, Pearl talks about having a dream where she is with Hello Kitty, and Marina responds by saying it's too much cuteness for her to process. (Of course, her implying that Hello Kitty and Pearl are both cute, so them together makes her malfunction.)

I think one of the most underrated exchanges, though, is in the Friends vs Family dialogue, where Pearl is team family. Marina at first seems sad that Pearl would choose her family over her, and Pearl, noticing this, clarifies that she sees Marina as a part of her family. Marina, in response, exclaims that, in that case, she's joining Team Family too! It's SO cute. In the Japanese version of this exchange, she even does a keyboard smash in response because she's so flustered and happy.

Also, when describing one of her favorite manga, Marina describes a manga which seems to heavily parallel her own life: "The protagonist was born to be the prince of an evil army and the story progresses along with his troubles! And to say nothing of the romance elements on top of that! It gets me emotional every time!" It's clear that she sees herself in the protag, and is likely projecting her relationship with Pearl onto the romance, as her relationship with Pearl is what helped her escape her own "evil army".

I'd also like to invite you to check out the official Splatfest art of them! There are a few pieces that show them domestic and just hanging out, like Pulp vs No Pulp and Warm vs Cold Breakfast. There are also a few more overtly romance-coded ones. In the Sci-Fi vs Fantasy art, Marina is obviously swooning over Pearl, and the gay eye contact in the Kid vs Grown-Up promo art is so good. But my two personal favorites are the Knight vs Wizard and the Vampires vs Werewolves art. I adore the framing of knight Pearl protecting witch Marina, just like she talked about in her Splatfest dialogue, in the Knight vs Wizard art, and the dramatic lighting is gorgeous. For the Halloween Splatfest, I've never gotten over the detail that Pearl is gently touching Marina's face. Something about it just activates my neurons.

And speaking of Splatfests, after all is said and done, there has to be a final Splatfest, doesn't there? This one is themed around the Splatpocolypse! Pearl reps Team Chaos, and Marina reps Team Order, for the question of which kind of apocalypse would be more bearable. The results of Final Fests are known to be very important, and to affect what happens in future Splatoon games, so, when Pearl starts talking like the future of Off the Hook is depending on the result of this Splatfest, the threat is very real, despite her reassuring Marina that she cares about their band.

But, in the end, it's Pearl's team who comes out victorious! And so Off the Hook will break… into new musical genres! Ayy!

Marina is confused by this outcome, and voices that she thought that Off the Hook would be breaking up. Pearl is confused right back at this assumption, because she would never break the two of them up.

Pearl's Japanese dialogue reads: "That's exactly why! Our, Off the Hook's, best, unbeatable color will repaint the world! After all, I need you… Making music without you is no fun! Now, now, settle down… Are you okay, Marina? There's still more coming up for Off the Hook!"

And her English dialogue reads: "You and me are gonna rock the mic together until the end of time! Or at least until I can get my solo career off the ground. BAHAHA! I'm just playin', Marina. You know I love you. It's you and me against the universe, 'Rina!"

In all versions of the dialogue, Marina bursts into tears on-air out of joy, and Pearl tries her best to comfort her, assuring her that she never wanted to leave her behind, and never would want to. (She also directs the cameraperson to point the camera at her, trying to save Marina from any embarrassment.)

Special art for the Splatfest shows Pearl putting her signature crown on Marina's head. In Splatoon 3, we get to see an in-game selfie of the two which confirms that this happened, presumably once they were off-air.

Splatoon 2's DLC is called Octo Expansion, and follows Agent 8. Octo Expansion is where a lot of the lore with Octolings gets explored, including Marina being one! Because, yes, up until the release of this DLC, Marina has just VISIBLY been an Octoling this whole time, with nobody addressing it. It drove the fandom nuts. It was pretty funny.

Agent 8, with amnesia, finds themself in an underground subway system, stuck with Cap'n Cuttlefish and a desire to see the surface. Pearl and Marina accidentally get in contact with Agent 8 and Cap'n Cuttlefish because of a glitch in their communication device, and decide to help them out. As such, Pearl, Marina and Cuttlefish all end up in a group chat together to discuss strategy, and the player can read through their chat logs. It's in these chat logs that Pearl and Marina relay much of their previously-discussed backstory. However, Marina never brings up her own past before meeting Pearl.

Which Cuttlefish decides to fix via outing Marina as an Octoling! Very cool. He sends Pearl information about Marina from when she was in the Octarian army, while Marina is away from the chat. Pearl is, of course, surprised, but isn't stunned for long, as she immediately starts jumping all over Cuttlefish, threatening him to make sure no harm comes to Marina. World's tiniest attack dog, truly.

When Marina returns, she goes silent when Pearl tells her that Cuttlefish shared her past, but, when Pearl reassures her that she's still accepted, Marina's implied to start crying out of joy via the emoticons she uses.

Something worth noting is that the Inkling/Octoling conflict is heavily coded to be analogous to racial and xenophobia-related issues, especially from this DLC-onward. Past wars are used as an excuse for bigotry, Marina and Agent 8 are both dark-skinned, Octoling culture seems to take inspiration from black culture, and Cuttlefish quite literally says, "I don't see species" while complimenting Marina on how "articulate" she is.

In the final battle against Tartar, Marina and Pearl play a huge part! Marina uses her hacking skills to determine how to weaken Tartar's blast, which would destroy all inkfish. Pearl uses her Hypersonic Battlecry to push back against the blast, and destroys the weapon in the process, after planning it with Marina (who uses a really gay shoujou manga-like drawing of Pearl, with sparkles around her, to illustrate the plan). This, of course, leads to the iconic scene where Marina glomps Pearl and nuzzles into her face at such force that she makes both of them fall over. They can be seen on the floor in the following shot, where Marina is still nuzzling into Pearl's face.

While we're in between Splatoon 2 and 3, I thought now would be a good time to sprinkle in some miscellaneous fun facts that don't really belong anywhere else!

Pearl and Marina have nicknames for each other! Marina calls Pearl "my precious Pearlie", or just "Pearlie", and Pearl calls Marina "'Rina".

In the Japanese text, Marina calls Pearl "senpai", while referring to everyone else with the "-san" honorific. This is likely both because Pearl is older than her and because she has a lot of respect for Pearl. (Because yes, Pearl is the older one, despite their height difference suggesting otherwise! She is 21, while Marina is 18.)

Marina's feelings for Pearl are 100% confirmed romantic! In the official relationship chart, Marina, in relation to Pearl, is described as "koisuru otome". "Koisuru" means "to fall in love", and "otome" means "maiden", especially in romantic contexts like otome games. So she's a "maiden who has fallen in love"! Nintendo of America, predictably, censored this in their localization of the chart.

They seem to have a princess and knight motif! This is made more explicit in Splatoon 3, but Pearl's Japanese name, Hime, means 'princess', and she is known as MC Princess in English. Her appearance is based on that of a "pop princess". Marina, of course, was a top-ranking Octarian soldier. But Pearl is braver and is more protective of Marina, while Marina swoons at the idea of Pearl saving and protecting her in the Japanese text for Knights vs Witches. In appearance, Pearl is the princess and Marina is the knight, but in personality, it's swapped.

In "Suffer No Fools", Pearl refers to Marina as attractive and intelligent in various ways, depending on the language. In English, her line is, "She's divine, one of a kind, voice so fine, BIG mind!" In Dutch, it's, "She is without equal! Hell of a voice and won't give an inch!" In French, it's, "Divine and seductive, ravishing voice and GORGEOUS brains!" In Italian, the line is, "She is divine, a darling, crystalline voice, refined mind!" And, my personal favorite, the German version of the line: "My beauty writes tunes and she's smart like a dream!"

Also, Suffer No Fools is a rap battle. So one of Frye's disses is targeted at Marina, calling her Pearl's "grouper". This is a fish pun on "groupie", which is someone who follows a pop star around in hopes of forming a romantic connection.

The Final Fest of Splatoon 1 was Callie vs Marie, so many people were expecting Splatoon 2's to be Marina vs Pearl. When asked why this wasn't the case, a head developer stated that the reason was that the Squid Sisters always had a hint of rivalry in their relationship. However, Pearl and Marina hold only care for each other. This is even directly addressed in the Final Fest's pre-Fest dialogue, where Pearl states she knows that Marina is more popular than her, without a hint of bitterness.

Nintendo likes to give the idols of Splatoon faux-interviews, to make it feel like they're real idols! One such interview asked Pearl what the most precious gift she's ever received was, to which her answer was, "The chance to meet Marina!"

Lastly, in the Splatfest performances of "We're So Back", there is an extended section where Marina places her hand on Pearl's lower back as they dance. Kinda gay.

With that, let's get back to the story! Stop me if you've heard this before — but Pearl and Marina don't get a lot of focus in Splatoon 3's main mode, instead getting the spotlight in the game's DLC. They're super busy, after all, on their world tour!! Agent 8 went on tour with them, too, in order to help out behind the scenes. It's also heavily implied that they moved in together between Splatoon 2 and 3, as, multiple times in 2, they say they have separate houses, but, in Splatoon 3, Pearl mentions "our (her and Marina's) yard". (Oh my God, they were roommates.)

Onto Splatoon 3's DLC, titled, "Side Order"! As Splatoon 3's general main story mode took on the chaotic aesthetic due to it winning 2's Final Fest, Side Order is what takes on the aesthetic of Team Order.

And, remember how I said that Nintendo of America only got better about censoring Pearl and Marina being queercoded with the release of Side Order? Yeah, we're gonna be referencing the English dialogue a lot more from now on.

In Side Order, Agent 8 is transported to a virtual world created by Marina, named Order Sector. This world was originally created to help sanitized Octarians regain their memories! However, it seems to have been corrupted, somehow…

In Order Sector, Pearl is turned into a drone! Together, she, Acht (also known by their stage name, Dedf1sh) and Agent 8 climb the Spire of Order to save Marina, who they can hear calling out to Pearl from the spire.

Quick Acht break. I would like to bring to attention the fact that Acht is canonically non-binary, and are only referred to with they/them pronouns in-game. This means that Splatoon is willing to go there, in terms of purposefully putting queer characters in the official canon. Just in case you needed more convincing, regarding Pearl and Marina's queercoding being 100% intentional.

Anyhow. Upon reaching the control room, the 3 of them encounter Marina, now mind-controlled with a visor and called Marina Agitando. This new name for the controlled version of Marina matches the naming conventions of the other Side Order bosses. "Agitando" means agitated or restless, and an "agitato" in musical composition means that something must be played with force and accuracy (of course, leaning into the theme of order).

After freeing Marina, Agent 8 and Pearl are confronted by Order, an AI who seized control of Marina's virtual world, and whose goal is to force everyone in the outside world into Order Sector, and to then establish a colorless world of order, where independent thought does not exist.

Marina, obviously distressed by her altruistic project being hijacked for a horrible purpose, resolves to help Agent 8, Pearl and Acht with subsequent journeys up the Spire. After rescuing Marina, Pearl is also able to freely transform between being a drone and an Inkling, but chooses to be a drone most of the time, as that form helps Agent 8 more on their missions.

(By the way, it's around this time that we learn that Marina's computer background is a picture of Pearl lying seductively in her Final Fest outfit. I'm not kidding.)

In subsequent climbs up the Spire, Marina joins you, and there is dialogue in between her, Pearl and Acht between stages. This dialogue had a tendency to be Very Gay. Standouts include but aren't limited to:

Marina doing her usual gushing about how cool and cute and incredible Pearl is.

Pearl being protective of Marina, threatening violence if anyone is mean to her.

Pearl talking about a planned break after the tour, saying: "I promised her that we could find a quiet spot together and take it easy for a while."

Pearl confessing that she isn't scared of the usual enemies in the Spire, and the only time she did get scared was when she was fighting Marina. It frightened her that she didn't know if Marina would be okay. (Again, knight/princess, you get it.)

Multiple instances of Acht saying "I'm glad you're here, 8," or something to that effect, after Pearl and Marina have a moment. With the implication being that they're glad they don't have to third-wheel these dorks alone.

And, of course, the iconic dialogue where Acht says, "Hey, Pearl. Have we met? You seem familiar," and Marina immediately responds, "What?! Acht, come on! You can't seriously be hitting on Pearl in front of…!"

Ah, sweet, sweet, blatant queercoding. We could've been having this level of it this whole time in the English version, if Nintendo of America weren't cowards.

Additionally, one of the rewards for completing missions in Side Order is being able to read Marina's dev diaries! These give the player a lot of insight into the development of the virtual world.

We learn, among other things, that Marina planned for Pearl to be the player's guide from the beginning, and that she personally crafted a model for her to use for this purpose. She writes: "It's really, truly all starting to come together! I'll put myself at the top of the tower, so Pearl has to climb it to get the user to me. ❤️ Wait… would that make me like a storybook princess? ❓ Hahaha, now I HAVE to do it! I'll build you a tower worth the climb, brave Pearl!" (Again with, in terms of personality, Marina being the princess, and Pearl being her brave knight.)

Also, is now a good time to mention that the currency in the virtual world Marina created are called "Prlz"?

Marina also writes: "When I felt lost and directionless after deserting from the army, it was Pearl who showed me hope. ✨ The two of us formed Off the Hook, and ever since, I've felt like I'm just waiting to wake up from a dream! ❤️ Sniff- sorry, something's in my eye!" Then she does a gay keysmash and crying emoji.

Plus, with each diary entry, we get a picture taken by Marina! This is where we get the selfie of her in Pearl's crown, post-Final Fest. We also see, via her pictures, that she has plushies of her and Pearl on top of her computer setup, and has a sticky note doodle of Pearl with a heart in a speech bubble stuck to her computer. Among other gay shoujou drawings of Pearl we get to see, of course.

Once again, Pearl and Marina help Agent 8 a lot with the DLC's final boss!

When you reach the top of the spire, before Order attacks 8, Marina is seen pleading with Order, trying to explain why its idea of a perfect world is dysfunctional. Her words, comparing everyone's different thoughts to colors that mix together, closely parallel what Pearl told her in the Japanese text to comfort her after the Final Fest, showing that she's truly internalized what Pearl told her.

When Agent 8 is knocked out by Overlorder, Order's battle form, it seems, for a moment, all is lost. The screen is slowly losing its color. Marina desperately types away at her computer, scrambling to see if she can do anything, anything at all, to stop Order, but it's no use.

Marina herself turns gray, and begins to glitch, just like everything around her. Everything slows. Realizing that she's about to lose everything, she speaks, her voice distorted from Order's influence: "Pearl… I…"

She's not able to finish. The screen turns gray.

However, Acht had rushed over to Marina's laptop, running and reaching out to just barely press the correct key. Agent 8's heart begins to pump again – pumping to a beat.

Marina and Acht had begun playing a new version of Ebb & Flow, "Spectrum Obligato", in defiance of Order's ideals. Pearl, hyped up by the music, uses her Hypersonic Battlecry to destroy the control room!

After Agent 8 destroys Overlorder's barrier, and collects all the color chips that were lost, Pearl uses a unique special, dubbed the Color Wail, which combines her Hypersonic Battlecry with the Killer Wail. The usage of "Spectrum" in the new version of the song, the collection of all of the color chips, and the new special being Color Wail all, of course, additionally call back to what Pearl told Marina.

This final attack causes Overlorder to explode, and in its place…! Reveal a tiny octopus, who baby-talks. This little guy is known as Smollusk, a childlike, heavily-damaged, and restricted version of Order. Like this, Order no longer poses any real threat.

In additional runs after this final boss, the player learns that Order was made of the desire from Marina, and other Octoling programmers she brought on, for an unchanging world. This adds additional meaning to the continuous callbacks to Pearl's comforting words to Marina. Order is a manifestation of Marina's desire for the world to never change, so she never loses Pearl, and, for Order to be defeated, it needs to be reminded again and again of Pearl's words of comfort: that, even if the type of music Off the Hook makes changes, that change makes the world more colorful. But what will never change is that Pearl needs Marina by her side.

In these subsequent runs, as well, Pearl and Marina grow gradually more fond of this childlike version of Smollosk, who grows to like them in turn. Which, of course, leads to the fandom in-joke that they're Smollosk's moms, helped by the fact that Marina did, quite literally, make Order.

Which leads us to the Final Fest of Splatoon 3! But, I'd like to take a small break again, if you'll indulge me. I'd like to provide a quick list of some of the romantic tropes that Pearl and Marina fall into. Yoinked from TVtropes!

Love Doodles: Drawing love symbols and writing initials and names, indicating someone has a secret crush. (I'd argue Marina's doodles of Pearl fall into this trope.)

The Glomp: Tackling and hugging one's love interest tightly.

Interrupted Declaration of Love: Character tries to confess their love for somebody, but is interrupted. (During the final boss of "Side Order".)

Love at First Note: Falling in love with somebody when you hear them sing. (Marina first encountered Pearl when she was practicing her music.)

One Head Taller: A couple where one partner towers over the other partner.

Pitbull Dates Puppy: A rough and tough character (Pearl) falls in love with someone of a softer, gentler nature (Marina).

Please, Don't Leave Me: A character pleads the love of their life not to leave them. (The point of conflict in Splatoon 2's Final Fest.)

Sickeningly Sweethearts: Two people love each other to a sickeningly sweet level. (A sentiment expressed by Acht and Shiver.)

Violently Protective Girlfriend: This girl will not let anyone harm her significant other. (Pearl is very consistently shown with this trait.)

Like an Old Married Couple: Friends bicker and banter the way a married couple might, but without being married. (Seen a lot during Splatfest dialogue.)

There are even more tropes that Pearlina falls into that didn't have a proper label on TVtropes (learning a loved one's language, "it isn't fun without you", having your loved one as your phone or computer wallpaper, etc…), so just know that their story falls into many established romantic tropes.

Which brings us to the grand finale of Splatoon 3; a grand fest! Some may even say, the Grand Fest: Past vs Present vs Future! This was a very unique Splatfest in that each team is represented by a different idol group! Team Past is represented by Callie and Marie, Team Future is represented by Splatoon 3's idol group, Deep Cut, and Team Present is represented by Pearl and Marina! Their team choice is a culmination of the lessons they've learned since their own Final Fest. In Pearl's own words, from the Grand Fest announcement: "Get all you can out of the present, and the future will take care of itself. That's real!" Which prompts Marina to agree, "I can take or leave my past. But my present with Off the Hook means so much to me!"

Indeed, the general theme with Pearl and Marina's promotion of Team Present is that the reason why they love the present is because they love each other, and they love their present with the other. This is displayed no better than in their portions of the song, "Three Wishes."

"Three Wishes" is a song, sung by all of the idols, about why their team choice is important to them. Callie and Marie sing about their past, shared memories, and how far they've come. Shiver, Frye and Big Man of Deep Cut sing about their hope and excitement for the future, and determination to cut down anything that gets in their way. Pearl and Marina, though, have many, many lines dedicated solely to how much they deeply care for each other, and how that makes them love the present.

A good example to illustrate this difference is each team's lines following "Here we stand in time—endless past, present, and future span. / Our wishes are the flame that lights up history." Callie and Marie's are, "All life here is one—intermingled in the hourglass. / No start, no end, it lasts for all eternity." Shiver, Frye and Big Man's are, "Surging down the line—glowing promise we hold in our hands. / Reflecting off themselves to build a guiding gleam." Both being rather directly about the appeal and importance of the past and the future. Pearl and Marina's, though? "In the infinite sea of people passing in the dark, / My brightly burning radiance drew you to me." Not referencing the present as much as their wonder and joy in the fact that, in such a wide world, they still managed to find each other.

Furthermore, in their extended section, Marina sings, "I've been searching, all of my life, / Finally I've found my north star. / My heart's synched up, a satellite, / Orbiting wherever you are." Following this up, Pearl raps, "So your life sucks? Down on your luck? Gotta free yourself, get your mind unstuck. / Let fear push you on through, can do— Use some colors in your palette but blue, / Paint it new!" Her language echoing the way she comforted Marina during their Final Fest, with talk of colors and paint, and the fact that this follows up Marina talking about meeting Pearl, seems to imply that these lyrics are directed at a past version of Marina. The following section being question-and-answer (Marina singing, "When is the moment you should chase your dreams?", and Pearl responding, "It's right now!") seems to reinforce this idea.

After this, they sing together, in order to close out their dedicated section: "Overlapping cycles, binary stardom / Nothing can knock us out of our groove / Overlapping cycles, binary stardom / With you, nothing can stand in my way." But, just in case you thought that would be a really romantic note to end on, don't worry! They have one more shared line, which they sing together near the very end of the song:

"Having you by my side makes today perfect."

That is what they provide us as their closer; their ultimate reason why they live in the present. Why would they want to be anywhere else, when the other is here? This is also represented visually, in the trailer which revealed their outfits; they are not only holding hands, but them holding hands is the central point of the piece's composition. Your eyes are meant to be drawn to it. On top of that, you can see them tighten their grip on each other as the camera pans out, drawing your eyes to that motion. You are meant to see and take notice of the fact that they are holding hands. That is the point. That is their point.

(By the way, one of Pearl's lines in the Japanese version of "Three Wishes" is, "Hey! Give us a stage, romantic, and we'll reminisce in the café." The English translation is otherwise pretty accurate, so I didn't feel the need to provide the Japanese versions of the text, but… yeah, sure. Namedrop a romantic café as the place where you and Marina ("we'll") would reminisce. Why not, at this point.)

Even when they lose, they still manage to make it about how much they love each other! When Marie prompts, "In honor of Team Past's victory, let's hear some of everyone's favorite memories!", Marina is quick to respond, "Mine would be the day I first heard Pearl's voice at Mt. Nantai! Let me set the stage…" (She loves her wife so much. She needs you to know this!) Before she can continue, though, Shiver interrupts: "Um... not sure we have the airtime to go THAT far back. Save it for a podcast." One last time, someone has to shut Marina down before she starts gushing about Pearl, before they go off-air.

And that is the complete timeline of Splatoon, as-of my time writing this!

So, basically, these inkfish are gay. Good for them! Good for them. I mean, if you have Nintendo of America censoring your dialogue for being too queer, and weirdos on Twitter are using you as an example of Nintendo going woke, then you know you've got it made.

Pearl and Marina genuinely love and care about each other so much, it makes me feel ill. They balance each other out in personality, able to banter and tease each other, but they are also both open about how much they admire and cherish the other. Both need the other in their lives, not just as their musical duo partner, but as their life companion. Marina will follow Pearl wherever she goes, and Pearl will protect Marina at all costs. Pearl doesn't find any joy in making music without Marina, her muse, and after being a child soldier for the vast majority of her life, Marina is able to rely on and relax around her precious Pearlie, knowing and trusting that she is safe with her. They are both each other's most precious gift.

[sockeye-station]

Wait is your four the captain? How did that happen?

YES! YES!! I GOT SOMEONE TO ASK ABOUT IT! I WIN!!!!

CLEARS THROAT. OKAY OKAY OKAY IVE HAD THIS ROTATING IN MY HEAD FOR A HOT FUCKN MINUTE AND ILL TRY MY BEST TO EXPLAIN IT IN A WAY THAT MAKES SENSE

OKAY. LETS REWIND ALL THE WAY BACK TO OCTO EXPANSION!!!

so! octo expansion goes all normally, we have our agent 8 fighting through the entire structure to escape, agent 3 gets brainwashed, they have to fight, yadda yadda. you probably know how it goes by now. But here's the thing.

what if i went ahead and changed a tiny thing. just the teensiest detail.

what if instead of spamming splashdowns, tartar decides to use one big fuck off booyah bomb.

"but, didn't booyah bomb come out after octo expansion?"

yes. yes it did. and that's why i chose booyah bomb specifically.

tartar whipped out the idea to use a booyah bomb from some prototypes it found out about after abducting god-knows-who, and used it despite its unstable build. No one, at that moment, knew whatever that was, what it did, how dangerous it was, or anything of the sort. This was some sort of last hurrah, as it knew that this was its last shot at stopping this failure from escaping the facility. And so it exerted Agent 3 into giving it everything he's got. Quite literally, even! It pushed him so hard, he too became unstable while trying to mantain and boost the energy ball.

The Booyah Bomb is thrown with as much power as Tartar could muster out of that creature, pretty much covering most of the arena. Once the ink settles, and Agent 8 gathers his senses, he looks around. Agent 3 is nowhere to be seen.

at no point in canon is sanitized agent 3 properly splatted throughout the fight — you only break their shield, they superjump back to their platform, and you eventually knock them out. you never splat them. so who's to say that, just like agent 8 during the ascent, they don't have a respawn anchor?

That's what I decided to play with here. Agent 3 is splatted with no respawn anchor. Agent 3 is dead.

The rest of octo expansion plays as normal, only that there's no passed out Agent 3 waiting at the helicopter.

Starting from here, Agent 8 becomes affiliated with the NSS through Cuttlefish after breaking the news, feeling like he needs to make it up for the loss they suffered as he feels responsible for it. He grows closer with Agent 4, and eventually they become closer friends, even staying at her place after she invited him once their friendship was more developed. This paragraph is mostly to explain how they know each other and how their friendship started, also explaining why my Agent 8 gives OtH Agent 4's number instead of Cuttlefish.

Okay! Now, back to the point of this ask. I actually had a bit of this typed out in a server I'm in!

[Agent 4] didn't really have a choice when it came to becoming Captain, being the fifth longest-standing member of the NSS after craig, the squisters and agent 3. craig was retiring, the squid sisters were still busy with their inkopolis celebrity scene, and [Agent 3] was dead. so she was the next best option.

she didnt really ask for this in the first place, and yet she accepted out of hopes of being acknowledged. When she was just an agent, the rest of the team didn't keep in touch with her much (except for Agent 8) after the events of OE, and at one point even stopped being called for whenever Callie got the shades on again. Whenever she patrolled, she did it without any previous call, and was rarely acknowledged by the others. She still kept visiting the canyon whenever she could after everyone else had moved on.

even after becoming the "captain", the others didnt usually reach out to her for assistance, and instead tended to act on their own. they never really took her as captain, rarely listening to her. so obviously this whole mess made her feel like absolute dogshit, questioning why she even decided to go through with this.

that title was meant for [Agent 3]. not for her. he was the one that came before her, and was better than her in so many ways. at least that's what the others kept repeating around her.

as much of a punch in the gut being constantly compared to someone else was, she kept pushing to try and make herself known, separate from the other's achievements. which is why she ended up accepting marina's request.

[starshadyy]

what your favorite splatoon character says about YOU!

obligatory “this is a joke” disclaimer, please don’t take offense i’m only being silly👉👈

☆ ★ ☆

callie: you are a diehard squid sisters fan. you have an intrinsic sense for design and are probably super creative. you hate it when people misinterpret her. others wouldn’t assume it, but you actually need therapy more than most others on this list…😔

marie: you’re really intimidating but probably super nice. you’re actually good at the game and are well-versed in the meta. you may not be the best at communication, but you have a strong intuition and are good at reading people

pearl: an absolute feral crackhead who needs to be kept on a leash. definitely queer. nasty majesty is your national anthem. you breathe life and energy into every situation you enter, and others appreciate you for it. you are pearlina’s strongest soldier! 🩷🩵

marina: you are a massive nerd /affectionate. you either wanna be her friend or you have a fat crush on her. you listen to splatoon ost all the time. your room is packed with stuff from the media you like, including mountains of plushies

shiver: you join her team during splatfests even when you don’t necessarily agree with the platform. you’re likely very sarcastic and always speak your mind. oh yeah, and you’re a weeb

frye: you loved her from the start and defended her honor back when everyone was clowning on her design. you’re very talented but humble about your accomplishments. you would bite someone if allowed

big man: you act laid back but are probably filled with anxiety. i get the vibe that you would own an unconventional pet of some kind [turtle, frog, ferret, etc.]. you’re for sure the mom friend. you know nothing about splatoon lore

captain 3: you are the BACKBONE of this fandom and i have nothing but respect for you. you’re probably ranked pretty high in competitive and are likely a completionist

agent 4: you grew up on splatoon 2 and were sure that they would show up in side order only to be… uh, half right? i’m so sorry sweet prince /gn. don’t you worry, your day [splatoon 4] is fast approaching…

eight: you’re very analytical and derive great joy from the story aspects of splatoon. you either write or read fanfiction and maybe cosplay too. you LIVE for the found family trope, and also probably ship them with captain 3. you have amazing taste :]

neo agent 3: you think lil buddy is the most adorable creature to walk the planet. you wish their initial outfit was actually accessible in the game. you’ve probably only played splatoon 3

cap’n cuttlefish: you’re an og who’s been around since splatoon 1 but still know next to nothing about the lore. you don’t main a weapon, and instead prefer to bounce around. you are… an inscrutable crackhead who i want to study

dj octavio: you’re willing to die on the hill that he is not a villain and only did what he did to support his people [you’re right btw]. you’re actually really chill and fun and i have a lot of respect for you. also, i’m liable to believe that you ship him with cuttlefish, don’t you? DON’T YOU?!?

commander tartar: you’re… ME??? villainous characters are always your favorites. you think octo expansion is a masterpiece [and you’re entirely right]. you’re a splatoon scholar and scour every obscure twitter post and artbook note to satiate your hunger for that sweet sweet lore. there’s something deeply wrong in your head.

mr. grizz: you play a lot of salmon run but are actually kinda bad at it [shhh i won’t tell]. you suffered through after alterna just for his backstory log and the bear ears. i’m going to go out on a limb here and say… you have daddy issues

smollusk: you LOVE the idea that marina and pearl are its adoptive moms. you’ve beaten side order with every palette. you overuse the “🥺” emoji. you miiight be a little annoying, but your heart is in the right place… probably

acht: either the chillest person you’ll ever meet or the most insane. probably both. you’re 100% queer and probably neurodivergent too. i bet you listen to will wood and / or tally hall. i wanna be your friend

harmony: you know every chirpy chips song by heart. you’re probably really sweet and i know you make banger fanart. you have an affinity for cute things and i bet your favorite pokémon type is fairy. DEFINITELY neurodivergent.

cq cumber: ???you both confuse and frighten me!!! what can i even say? you’re a cryptid! but honestly, you’re kinda iconic. i salute you, you freak of nature🫡

iso padre: I LOVE YOU. you’re accepting of all people and are just an absolute saint in general. daddy issues, but you’re coping way better than the grizz fans. also, i’m betting that you’re neurodivergent

sheldon: i didn’t think you existed, but turns out that you do? you actually listen to his rambles. splatoon 2 is your favorite game in the series. you’re able to see the value in things that others tear down and y'know what? i respect that [not saying i approve of your character choice though]

judd: wait, why him? ohh wait, i know! you probably just don’t care about splatoon’s story at all and / or love cats. there, that’s totally it, right?

lil judd: you either DON’T know his lore and just like the cute little kitten, or you DO know his lore and you’re unhinged. i’m scared of you

spyke: you’d bark for him without hesitation and DON’T pretend you wouldn’t. you clown. you absolute freak. i know what you are. /j

murch: if i had to bet, you’re probably the shy type who prefers to let others do the talking for them. you might secretly be a little freaky though, and i think you should embrace that side of yourself. you’re safe here. be free.

[dr-spectre]

Helloooo, just saw the big ol Callie rant and thought I’d share my (albeit not as detailed) thoughts cause the first Splatoon game I played was Splatoon 2 and I took my sweet time on the story mode.

Despite her being your main companion throughout the story mode, I found Marie’s spiteful and clearly discriminatory language towards the Octarians to be consistent overkill, while she was obviously mad about Callie “going missing”, these fellas were only doing their jobs and it was painfully clear that Marie had an inherent dislike for their entire species. Since I hadn’t seen Craig Cuttlefish before I didn’t know that this discrimination came from him, with a distinct parallel between their jabs (aggression being directed and focussed at the Octarian species at a whole rather than the reason you’re here in the first place) and with the fact that I was the one barging in and committing wanton destruction and violence in their territory the universal hate felt incredibly undeserved.

As for Callie, no Squid Sisters songs feel so authentic and genuine as the ones made in Octo Canyon. Even Bomb Rush Blush isn’t trying to sound perfect for any pop lover’s fragile little ears, it’s erratic and fills every silence like a one sided argument. With each song sounding like a vent album and the art showing Callie to be miserable and having to desperately hide it on the surface, she’s seemingly using her distance from Inklings as an opportunity to be completely outwardly honest and express the deeper emotions that wouldn’t be accepted in the media she’s surrounded by. Rather than “I REMEMBER!!!” being some ooga booga the cool glasses magic has been dispelled, I saw it more as Callie accepting these emotions she’d kept from expressing and realising her lifestyle and family meant enough to her that it would be more worth it to try and work through those feelings with them rather than use an outlet that worries them. Additionally, she has quite the opposite view on Octarians to Marie, finding them consistently cute and clearly still being friends with Octavio as they collaborated during the Low Water Party after the events of Octo Expansion (discreet lore but it shows she truly had an enjoyable time there!)

Now I could ramble about DJ Octavio for hours so I will cut this short, while - as you mentioned - Octavio was helping Callie escape the stress of her lifestyle in the interest of his own species, (uh oh the can of worms is threatening to open) insert the fact that Octavio winning means species equality through political negotiations put off for hundreds of years. I know! Oh goodness gracious how terrifying! The spicy beats man has used drastic measures due to neglect and forced poverty of a substantially sized society through giving stressed squid sanctuary! Next he might use his technological advancements in energy efficiency to revolutionise our industrial infrastructure- SHIELD YOUR EYES, CHILDREN!!

oh hey! cheers for reading the full thing!

Oh... oh damn... you just plopped your own rant in here, jesus.

I respect it honestly, i respect the hustle.

You know what's kinda crazy? From my knowledge and what people say online, Marie's hatred for Octarians as a species is a NoA localisation thing and not something in the original Japanese version of Splatoon 2. I could be wrong on that but that's just something I've heard in the grapevine.

Yet another example of poor localisation due to deadlines and rushed development cycles!!! ISNT IT SO FUN HOW IT KEEPS OCCURRING AND HOW PEOPLE BELIEVE IT INCLUDING LOUD VOICES IN THE COMMUNITY AND WIKIS TAKING THE NOA VERSIONS AS THE HOLY GRAIL?!?!?! SO FUN!!!!

(Massive fucking sarcasm.)

I dont have much else to say in response to your ask but, I wanna touch on DJ Octavio for a bit because I think the way that Nintendo treats him as well as the fanbase treats him kinda fucking sucks and flips flops between different personalities and actions he's done.

I swear to god people have such different takes on his personality and what he's done over the three games and it's a real headache to deal with. And the way that a lot of people talk about what he did in Splatoon 2 and the suggestions people say.... ugh... they make him so unredeemable and disgusting.

In Splatoon 1, depending on if you play the NoA version or European/Japanese version, he's either very silly and in your face, making musical puns and being a loud mouth. Or he's trying to be intimating and he gets to the point in his dialogue instead of making musical puns.

The worst things he did in that game was kidnap Cuttlefish and tie him up as bait to fight Agent 3, and stealing the power source for the Inklings. Cuttlefish is a frail old man and Octavio has anger towards him, so it makes sense he would go after him and snatch him up.

And then in Splatoon 2, people wanna fucking say that Octavio kidnapped Callie and brainwashed her, removing all of her memories and making her into a slave for the Octarian army... LIKE... WHAT?!?!?! OCTAVIO IN SPLATOON 1 WASNT THAT EVIL!!! WHY DO PEOPLE SUDDENLY SAY HE DID SOMETHING INCREDIBLY UNREDEEMABLE LIKE THAT?!?! WHY DOES NINTENDO PUSH THAT SHIT TOO?!?! ITS SO ANNOYING!!!!

AND PEOPLE BRING UP THIS PIECE OF CONCEPT ART TOO AND GUYS!!! ITS JUST FUCKING CONCEPT ART!!! ITS NOT CANON!! THERES NO EVIDENCE TO PROVE THAT THIS HAPPENED IN THE REMATCH FIGHTS!!! YOU BRAIN DEAD SONS OF-

You can't just go from "im gonna use Cuttlefish as bait because I hate that guy!" To "neheheh, when Callie isn't looking... I'm gonna grab her and brainwash her!" And then to "IM GONNA GET THAT OLD BASTARD AGAIN! HE TOOK MY ARMY!!!" You can't flip flop between silly old guy wanting vengeance against his lover to enemy Cuttlefish, to a malicious beast that kidnaps young women dude. You can't just do that.

You see the issue here? People give Octavio this ultra dark stain on his legacy and I think it ultimately ruins his redemption in Splatoon 3. He did something unredeemable and you cannot go back from that.

It makes more logical sense for Octavio to use his abilities of propaganda and manipulation out of desperation to convince Callie to join him. Octavio is a general and does things out of rage and vengeance from the past. He is not malicious in his actions and a lot of them can be justifiable. It makes more sense for Octavio to go "I need Callie because my peeps are dying, I'll convince her to join me and then I'll hypnotise her so she's more comfortable in the Octo Canyon to help my troops!"

Octavio is still obviously in the wrong for hypnotising Callie, duh. But, like I've said a trillion times, hypnosis isn't mind control, you cannot force someone to do something against their knowledge and morals. So it's more justifiable for Octavio to hypnotise Callie than to literally kidnap her and brainwash her while she was kicking and screaming, trying to stop him. Okay? WE GOOD SPLATOON COMMUNITY?!?!?!

Ugh.

[somethingforsenro]

splatoon without the splatoon

(the splatoon franchise without the new squidbeak splatoon)

so, i was scrolling through amino, the world's worst social media platform, when i found a very interesting question:

What would happen if the Squidbeak Splatoon disbanded after taking down Octavio during the events of Splatoon 1? Would that change anything down the road?

well, i looked at the comments and saw people basically all agreeing that it would be a complete and utter apocalypse. the world would end, like, three times over.

but if there's one thing i know about the internet, it's that people are stubborn little buggers who'll find their way around just about anything. so, i don't think that's right. i think life would find a way.

here's why.

‎‎

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~🐙~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

first of all, octo expansion wouldn't happen bc agent 3 wouldn't be there to fight eight before the dlc's start. in fact, eight might not be freed at all, because we know that only happened AFTER callie was brainwashed (just look at callie's mem cake in oe) and therefore happened during splatoon 2. i say ‘might not’ for a good reason, which i'll get to in a minute.

anyway, no 10008 means that tartar wouldn't find the perfect subject (at least, not with eight) and his plan would be delayed for the foreseeable future. that means octo expansion wouldn't happen, or at least wouldn't happen so soon; if it did eventually happen nonetheless, it's possible that the oe-equivalent protagonist of that timeline would find another way to stop tartar's plans, so i would hesitate to say that inkopolis is doomed in this scenario. i'll talk about that more in a minute, but first, let's get back to that ‘might not’ from earlier and have a chat about hero mode 2.

okay, hot take: even without squidbeak, i think callie would STILL be rescued either way, and the squid sisters would still perform the spicy calamari inkantation. squidbeak or no squidbeak, it's not like marie's just going to stand back and LET her cousin be kidnapped, and she still would have all the same information she does in the normal timeline. (we know that no one was around to help her when callie got kidnapped, so she figured it all out on her own.) she would still recruit agent four to help her (although she wouldn't give them that title or the agent uniform), and they would still rescue callie, so that happens more or less the same way.

however, cap'n cuttlefish and three still wouldn't be out there to fight octarians, so i still don't think oe would happen either way. that also means eight never loses their memories, never becomes a test subject, and never meets pearl or marina. even if you subscribe to the "agent eight is a clone/lab engineered" theory, then they would just wake up alone in the metro, be inducted as 10008, and then… (imho) not be special at all, because eight is only so successful through the help of pearl, marina, and cap'n cuttlefish, and pearl+marina only contact eight through the cap'n's phone. so, eight would still be a test subject, but probably wouldn't be exceptional.

but let's say you disagree. let's say they still WERE exceptional. well, then – they would just get blended and added to the ooze, at which point tartar would presumably create the perfect lifeforms as he planned. but since there's no eight escaping to the surface, he wouldn't have to resort to taking all the ooze he worked for 12,000 years to create and immediately blasting it out of the cannon. i theorize that he would invade inkopolis with the "Perfected Sanitized Army" first, and only use the mega death cannon as a last resort/when he's about to win, at which point pearl and marina would probably have figured out what was going on and take action on their own, eight or no eight.

so, all told, i don't think the world ends in splatoon 2. splatoon 3? well… let's have a look.

no cuttlefish means new 3 never checks out the manhole. there's no heroes looking for the great zapfish. so, the world is totally screwed, right? WRONG.

y'see, there is at least ONE person who exists independently of squidbeak, who also is an enemy of grizz from the start. ONE person who has ALSO lost something dear to them because of the bear's schemes, and who knew to go to the Crater and investigate more deeply. that person is none other than DJ fucking Octavio.

grizz stole his army, so he went to the crater – so CLEARLY he knew WHERE his troops went, he just didn't know who took them. in our timeline, he thought squidbeak did it, but here, because squidbeak doesn't exist, he knows there's something else afoot. he would take the refurbished octobot king out there, and because new 3 isn't clearing out the stages, he would see his fuzzified troops in full force crawling all over the crater. and octavio would be PISSED as HELL.

so, i theorize that octavio would be the protagonist of this alternate return of the mammalians. he would fight to free his people, fall/break into alterna, and beat up deep cut. he might humor them and give them the "treasure", he might not – if he didn't, they wouldn't show up to help him later on, but… that doesn't really matter.

either way, he'd eventually make it to the rocket, and just like in the original timeline, he'd go to space to fight grizz for the sake of his army and the entire world as he knew it. it would be a lot more drawn-out, but i think octavio COULD have taken grizz on his own, especially with the added motivation and anger he has in this timeline. so i say octavio beats grizz to a pulp, and the world is saved.

now, all that leaves is side order, so…

side order spoilers ahead. proceed with caution.

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side order might still happen, because it's focused on pearl and marina, who aren't affected by the whole squidbeak thing. EDIT: however, as comments are reminding me, the memverse was made to cure sanitization. no oe means no experience with sanitization, no memverse, and no side order. if you think some variant of oe would still happen in the 6.5 years between s2 and side order, and pearl+marina would still be involved, then adapt accordingly.

but EVEN IF side order happened, because agent eight doesn't exist (or never met them, at least), there would be no side order protagonist. but – and this is gonna sound familiar at this point – that doesn't NECESSARILY mean order prevails, just that the fight is closer and takes a lot longer.

acht was fighting on their own before eight and pearl came. in OUR timeline, pearl spent a while trying to wake eight up while acht fought and got injured in the spire. but here, she doesn't have anyone to wait on, so she goes straight to the spire of order. it's possible, i think, for her to catch acht BEFORE their injury, and to give them the dualies and her support (after a confused argument, at least). i think acht could then beat the spire with pearl's help, freeing marina, and the rest would go on basically just like the dlc.

however, that one is DEFINITELY the most situational. there's no guarantee that pearl would be fast enough, and if acht WAS injured regardless, there wouldn't be anything to stop order. in that case, it would probably stay in control of marina for a lot longer, at least until acht healed (which could take weeks or even months).

even in THAT situation, acht would still eventually get back into fighting shape. but would they be too late to save marina? it's definitely possible. however, we DO know that greyscaling is reversible – eight managed it. so, it's POSSIBLE  that they could free marina, even in THIS timeline.

and even if they COULDN'T free marina, they could still free (almost) everyone else. marina would be gone, but they would most likely be able to take down order EVENTUALLY, if much slower.

the only real killstate there is if order managed to greyscale acht and pearl. and if you ask me, the two of them seemed pretty fine and dandy the whole time, especially pearl – i mean, this is MARINA'S simulation, after all, so she WOULD give the people she cared about some level of protection or even enhanced access. (acht might even be able to hack into the simulation a little, although they wouldn't be nearly as cracked at it as marina is.)

so, i don't think order would succeed either way – although it might permanently greyscale a considerable number of people, including marina and possibly four. (remember, marie still recruits four's help, even if she doesn't technically call them agent four. they wouldn't be called agent four, but they still exist.)

so, that's definitely a bit more dire than in the main timeline, at least – but far from apocalyptic, i'd say.

…except for pearl. pearl would be pretty fucked up.

[bigblueoctoling]

I Hate Octavio With All Of My Heart

I'm genuinely so pissed about Octavio being at the grand fest at all. Like it's genuinely a serious hampering on what is otherwise a really nice event. It's even worse that cuttlefish is there. This genuinely severely lowers my opinion of the Splatoon writers.

So like. On its face, I despise the general angle of going easy on Octavio. It's not headcanon that he's objectively a pretty terrible person for a lot of reasons- like, it feels very intentional that one is meant to read it like Octavio is an old war vet who's artificially keeping the "us vs them" mentality of the great turf war. It feels intentional that one is meant to read him as a very vain and controlling person who actively spreads propaganda (see Splatoon 1). It feels intentional that, at the *VERY* least, what Octavio did to Callie in Splatoon 2 was Bad, if not Morally Reprehensible. It feels like, with the way Octarian society is described in Octo Expansion and Side Order, we're textually meant to read the hyper-militarization of their society as a bad thing.

I feel like, if Splatoon was ultimately intending to present Octavio as a morally grey antihero type of character, they have completely and utterly failed to do so. Merely having him be the leader of Octarians doesn't implicitly make him a good guy just because Octarians are oppressed- Octavio is obviously, on some level, a figure with political power in Octarian society. Octo Expansion largely served to show that the surface world has progressed past the conflict of the Great War- so if Octarians are still facing oppression, that only really falls into the hands of the Octarian elite. If the intent was EVER to imply that that doesn't define Octavio, they made literally no effort to show it.

All of this being said, you could still argue that Octavio's help in Splatoon 3's ending is meant to represent him turning a new leaf- It's an argument that I'd still fervently disagree with, but you could hypothetically make that argument.

Except Splatoon also doesn't make that argument. Literally one line Marie says in the post-game has her posit that Octavio might have turned a new leaf- A line I've always hated, but it feels as though the game has just sort of ignored the busywork of actually showing that any change has been made to the primary antagonist of the franchise and has just leapt to the conclusion because Octavio has done one vaguely morally good action ever- an action done to save the planet, which obviously is also in his own personal best interest.

Isn't Octavio, like, a threat? Like, he literally has a criminal record and is a military leader, why is he allowed at this venue?

Moreover, why are Octavio and Cuttlefish suddenly chummy?

The fact that Octavio is sat with Cuttlefish makes this feel like a cheap, hollow gesture to appeal to the fandom- like, yeah, people like to ship cuttlefish and octavio, but that's not, like... basis to decide what the canon is? Like, you need to actually establish their relationship in the canon first, you need to show them interacting together LITERALLY A SINGLE TIME BEFORE JUST ACTING LIKE THEY'RE BEST FRIENDS WHEN EVERY SINGLE PREVIOUS INTERACTION BETWEEN THEM WAS DIRECTLY ANTAGONISTIC.

And, just to reiterate: I DESPISE the idea of shipping the two of them. Not for any moral reasons, I just personally find both characters wretched people. But like, if you wanted to do this, you should actually do it? Instead of just plopping a literal war criminal in the middle of a venue as if it's totally fine. Like I genuinely despise that he's here. It's so fucking lame.

I think if you actually give a shit about Octavio's character, you should be pissed too. Like... They're just acting like they've totally redeemed Octavio and he's gone through a whole redemption arc when he's done literally ONE GOOD THING EVER, and it was still something exclusively for his personal gain (the planet not being destroyed). This is pretty major character development they're just not actually bothering to do or explain they're just sort of shoving him and cuttlefish together as if that instantly makes them best friends. It's so fucking lame and pandering, it feels like the end of a cheap kids movie where they have a funny dance party and the main antagonist is also there for no reason.

Like, I genuinely gotta wonder, is it my fault? Am I the one who doesn't see the textual evidence of Octavio being a good guy, somehow? Have I somehow missed something? Because it genuinely feels like a complete rejection of how they've characterized him up to this point, to just suddenly act like Octavio has been redeemed and there's totally nothing wrong with being his best friend. Like I feel like I've been playing a different Splatoon Franchise than anyone who'd think that's normal.

[lilaclever]

Hey yo, your agents are pretty cool. Got any cool lore with them? Maybe some crumbs???

ACK omg I wish I could be more prepared. I'm actually in the process of revamping my captain but I do have some things I can share

Daryl is my agent 4 aged 17-23 ->(hero mode 2 - Side order) .. he was born with some slightly defective fins leading to the cut short look his "ears" now have, he's actually very self conscious about them, so when his hero suit came with the headphones resembling squid fins he was all for them... He's also a certified idiot and has completely mixed up the identities of Agents 1 and 2, and Callie and Marie

Ashton is my agent 8, aged 18-23 ->(Octo expansion- Side order), prior to the events of the actual story he was an octoling who had actually just managed to stumble his way up and out of the metro. But his luck really wasn't there for him, cause immediately after he was ambushed and fought against the then agent 3. (Aged 17). Prolonged exposure, as well as a second helping of Sanitization has led to a permanent blue in his tentacles. Only the tips are colored differently.

Nelle is my Agent 3 neo! Aged 16-18 ->(ROTM- Grandfest) she's relatively new, but before the Squidbeak Splatoon he really was just off to the streets, she and little buddy both were scraping by, but they enjoyed the simple things well enough. After joining as agent 3 Nelle later went on to work at one of the many shops in Splatsville and later found himself constantly changing his style every other day. Every day, a new fit, he's always been passionate about dressing fresh but only now could she do so on a regular budget.

Might as Well talk about Leo, Aged 14 -21 -> (Splatoon 1 - ROTM) and captain of the new squidbeak Splatoon. As expected he's the most experienced of them all. Leo is calculative and truly the best pick Craig Cuttlefish could've made. He often gets so focused on work though that he forgets to clean up after himself, but luckily agents 1 and 2 keep him in check, just like their old man.

That's it for my agents, at least in this form of chat, thanks for asking! I really appreciate it 🥺

[a-oct0]

Octo Expansion lore for my Agents!!

This is just a rough outline for what happens to my Eight and Three during OE, I did try to keep it brief but- didn't do that to well lol- I plan to elaborate on certain moments more in later posts but anyone is free to ask any questions! (especially since I haven't proof read this lol)

So it begins just like how it does in game with OE, waking up, no memories with Cuttlefish yelling in his face. They go through that tutorial area without issue and end up at the metro station. They then approach Tartar (who is obviously not known as Tartar just- 'The telephone') who despite clearly just being some sort of talking phone, gives Eight bad vibes. Anyway "nice" talk, gets the CQ-80 and the two head for the first level/test. 

Eight's first encounter with a sanitized Octarian is that of pure confusion, cause like- clearly its an Octarian like him but also why are they green??? And hostile to boot?? He assumes its part of the test and rolls with it, clearing the level with ease. Cuttlefish makes his usual remarks during the level. After which the two head back onto the train only to be greeted by the sight of Three taking a nap (he got bored waiting on them finishing the test). Cuttlefish proceeds to smack Three on the head with his cane to wake him up. Three and Eight just kinda lock eyes for a moment, a very awkward moment before Three jumps to his feet surprised to see Eight. Cuttlefish (horridly) deescalates the situation. For the whole next line of tests theres an awkward (one sided on Three's part) tension between Three and Eight (Eight thinks he's just being weird). Eight is the only one taking part in the tests, which is kinda boring Three to death as he has to sit either on the train or watch Eight from the sidelines. On the train rides between test stations Eight tries to get Three to talk of which- Three at first doesn't wanna do. Eight is persistent however and just keeps rambling to Three, (Eight's inklish is very broken this early on it gets better as they keep going) but eventually by the end of the first line Three starts to talk back with Eight, much to the octolings delight. Cuttlefish also interjects here and there. Pearl and Marina first make contact right after Eight finishes the first line. They act pretty much the same as they do in game, same with Cuttlefish tbf. Three is in shock cause Holy shit it's that music duo is little sister is obsessed with. Eight is just surprised to hear new voices. So they keep going, Eight doing tests, OTH give advice, Three sulking he's bored, Cuttlefish failing at rapping and collect the thangs. Nothing major happens between the first line and collecting the third thang.

Eight and Three spend most of the time between stations kinda bonding?? Three explaining to Eight what the surface is like, Eight in awe of it all. Three also tries to help Eight recover some of his memories as the memcakes only help to a degree. They also spend time laughing at the messages between OTH and Cuttlefish. While their time isn't exactly pleasant Eight does end up having some fun during some tests, others are nightmares to complete. After colllected the third thang, like the previous they bring it back to the main station. When exiting the train Three notices something lying down on the ground by the- weird telephone thing. He grabs it, noticing its actually an employee model CQ-80 however before he can even think to tell Eight and Cuttlefish they call him over to help get the thang down off the train so he puts it in his pocket and kinda forgets about it. Eight goes through the next few tests but during the ride to one something unexpectedly goes wrong with the train, CQ Cumber informs them that there's been a malfunction and the train must return to the main station for repairs which may take a few hours. Initially the three of them just sit in the train car but after a few minutes Three gets up to start pacing, bored out his mind. The others notice this so Marina actually suggests they try and explore the rest of the metro while waiting but Cuttlefish dismisses the idea not wanting the pair to get lost. That's when Three remembers the CQ-80 he found which happens to have a map for the non train parts of the metro. So Cuttlefish relents letting the pair go off while he stays behind to make sure the train doesn't leave without them. Initially they have contact with Marina and Pearl who helps guide them with a hacked copy of the metro map (its mainly empty rooms or locked doors) but as they go deeper they end up losing the connection to Marina and Pearl. They contemplate turning back, getting bad vibes from the area they're in- there's paper files scattered everywhere, stains all over the place. It honestly stopped looking like a train station and more like an abandoned hospital. Right before turning back Eight notices a file a top a table, it looks so much cleaner than the rest- his curiosity gets the better of him as he picks it up to check. "10,005" stamped on the front, the pair check it- horrified to see a familiar face- a face Eight thought he had forgotten... His sister April with a big "SANITIZED" stamped over top. Three basically has to drag Eight back to the train as he's frozen from shock. Eight dropped the file along the way not realising till they got back.

Cuttlefish waves them down, the train is back up and running. Marina quizzes them on what happened after the disconnect but the two don't elaborate. They realise now something is very wrong with the metro but they don't wish to panic the others so Three quietly disappears off to investigate more while Eight continues with the tests. Telling the others Three just needed extra time to wander about. Every test finished leaves an uneasy feeling in Eights stomach- the closer he gets to the last thang the more sick he feels. He tries to fight as little of the sanitized Octarians as possible. Finally they receive the finally thang, they take it back the station. Three is not yet back but the telephone doesn't care, building up the "promised land" device and telling them to step inside. Cuttlefish rambles that "Three will find his own way back, he's a smart kid blah blah" as he then steps inside. Eight is hesitant considering the info he had learnt a little earlier- but everyone is encouraging him to get inside so against every fibre in him he does. The blender scene plays pretty similar to how it is in game, Marina contacting Three via the CQ-80 he has, him bursting through the roof and breaking the blender. Unlike game Three doesn't knock himself out but he does injure his leg, cut from the glass shards. Cuttlefish still encourages Eight to go on head without them, he'd stay and help Three back to his feet. Eight is reluctant to the leave the two but Three and Marina convince him to go. The escape is basically the same then the fight against sanitized Three. Well it's pretty similar to the game, just a bit more intense with Eight trying to not hurt Three but also stop and snap him out of it. Eight wins the fight, Three is left... Scarred. Eight is horrified feeling it's his fault somehow but he and Cuttlefish press on up and out- Carrying an unconscious Three between them. They finally reach the surface- Eight is mesmerised by it- but its cut short by OTH in their helicopters and Tartar revealing himself with the NILS statue- this fight goes how it does in game but there is more dialogue between all the characters which I'll elaborate on a later post- Anyway they win- End credits.

Post OE- Three helps Eight settle into living in Inkopolis along with Four while Three must now learn to deal with his partial sanitization.

[superluigiglitchy]

Triple Dose Timeline (canon is puddy in my hands)

here's an explanation on how exactly Meggy got fucked over by the universe 3 times

note: The following events replace the anime arc because everyone was to busy searching for Meggy that the anime challenge never happened

Meggy was kidnapped by a group of octarians (who were ordered to do so because DJ Octavia discovered Agent 3 had a sister and had a big brained idea to not only brainwash Callie but also her as well) and got brainwashed by a second pair of hypnoshades that Octavia made (though she didn't quite go down without a fight, Octavia can attest to that)

Agent 3 (Paige) was too busy on a separate mission to go looking for Meggy much to their frustration so Marie recruiting Harbor as Agent 4 came in clutch and also Mario coming along because of course he does which both makes things easier but also more complicated

However during the final battle around the time Marie and Sheldon came barging in the platform Meggy was on ended up collapsing and she fell into the abyss below much to Mario's and everyone else's horror

Fast forward a couple weeks and after hundreds of dead ends and countless sleepless nights, the NSS were finally able to find a lead to where Meggy ended up (and also got confirmation that she still lives thank god, Paige cried a lot at the news out of relief) and so Cuttlefish and Agent 3 are off without hesitation to search for Agent 3's sister in the Metro

Meanwhile Meggy has been Sanitised by Commander Tartar who found her unconscious in the subway, and is currently accompanying Cuttlefish, 8, Desti and The Octoposse who are all stuck in this medical nightmare hell hole because of course and all (well except cuttlefish) of them are missing their memories

Cuttlefish is really worried how 3 will react to their sister being well, green now and zombie like

However despite being sanitised, partially emotionless and amnesiac she is still technically Meggy so sparks still fly between her and Desti much to the others chagrin

At least it makes solving the puzzles easier (especially the 8 ball thank GOD)

The plot of octo expansion stays relatively the same albeit with more people and a more chaotic group chat

They all end up having to team up against a partially sanitised Paige who is somehow stronger than in canon which is terrifying, and it took everything to knock them out

When the boss fight with the giant statue and Tartar happens (who wants to blow up the world because it's gone insane and so has he from the meme energy) Meggy, Desti and the Octoposse jump in the assist 8 in inking the statue to high heaven

Sanitised Meggy is basically a watered down version of canon Meggy having her emotions and memories stripped from her, she still has the desire to win splatfest ofc but she doesn't quite have the drive that made her want her to, and this deeply scares Paige and Mario

A couple years have passed since the incident and Meggy is MOSTLY back to her old self, still a bit amnesiac and lacks the reaction speed for certain emotions but better now

Then she gets fuzzified by Mr. Grizz

Meggy started to work at Grizzco. Via the suggestion of Harbor because she felt self conscious about how she looks during turf wars now cause well she looks like a zombie and it went pretty well for about 3 years

Harbor did a total fuck up and Meggy not wanting him to get fired ended up taking the fall for him

unfortunately this ended up with Mr. Grizz fucking up her back a bit, kidnapping her and then getting fuzzified which FINE

and somewhere during that struggle Meggy ends up in the Splatlands an FAR from Grizzco. and ends up running into Andi and being found thankfully by Cuttlefish

unfortunately they all soon end up falling into Alterna but hey at least she reunited with the others!

splatoon 3 remains relatively the same albiet they know mr. grizz's plan to rid he world of sea life MUCH sooner

[summerf0x]

splatoon for the ask thing

Favorite male character

This one’s a bit hard considering how most of the leads are female, but probably Iso Padre. He has a nice design and the fact that he washed out of the Deepsea Metro’s testing system but has been riding the train for so long he’s forgotten his own name is a really quick and effective way to make the player weary of the place. I like that he gets to make to the surface eventually as well. Hope he’s enjoying his coffee :)

2. Favorite female character

Who else but Agent Four? Maybe I’m a bit biased because I played Hero Mode a ton when I first got Splatoon 2 due to the lack of online (seriously scummy Nintendo) and really got into the deepest recesses of Octo Canyon and therefore her character, but there’s a ton of cool stuff about her that no one else aside from the other Fourheads seem to care about. Parallel Canon leaves me with so many questions I wish the game would answer. Just you wait, she’ll come back in Splatoon 4 and they’ll throw her a grand parade! You’ll see! You’ll all see!

3. Least favorite character

This one’s also hard, but I think I’d have to go with Smolusk. All of the other villains have something that makes them interesting, from Octavio’s mix of both a leader put in a hard position to protect their people and DJ jargon to Mr Grizz’s corporate persona eventually morphing into the giant bear trying to cling onto the past. Smolusk has that too, being a literal manifestation of Marina’s fears of chaos and what it does blown out of control. They’re fine, I guess. I just don’t really find baby characters that entertaining.

4. Favorite ship

I don’t really have one of these for Splatoon, but Pearlina is one of the main ships for a reason. An ex-weapons engineer escaping to the surface and meeting a headstrong, freshly kicked out of her band inkling who wants to form her own band with her practically writes itself, and Side Order is filled with stuff with them to the point where their final song is called SPECTRUM Obligato and they bring back the greyscaled world with rainbows. Octo Expansion is my personal favorite with them as well.

5. Favorite friendship

Four and Eight. I saw the official art of them being roommates and something just clicked in me. I could talk more, but I wrote an in-progress fic about them as well.

6. Favorite quote

“Right on time, kid. I got work for you.”

Salmon Run is my favorite game mode hands down, so almost all of Mr Grizz’s voicelines are carved into my mind.

7. Worst character death

Splatoon’s lore has many deaths, but I’ll only count the ones we see on screen. Captain Cuttlefish’s fake out death was just kind of unnecessary. I knew he wasn’t really going to die, so it just felt awkward as the giant rocket literally right in front of us started to take off.

8. “This made me so happy you have no idea” moment

Parallel Canon’s reveal. It was a short lived happiness, but a happiness nonetheless. I was literally that one wojack pointing image, and was so ready to see what would happen next with Four. (So much for that)

9. Saddest moment

Going through Kamabo Co and realizing what happened to all of the other test subjects that succeeded. Going through hellish trials all in hopes that you’ll one day make it to the surface only to have it ripped out from under you as you get sliced to death and your remains will be used to essentially zombifiy people.

10. Favorite location

The Ruins of Arc Polaris. It’s a cobbled together station welded together with human signs spread around the place with GRIND RAILS and a GIANT ROCKET IN THE BACKGROUND. I was pretty saddened when it didn’t return in Splatoon 3.

[arolesbianism]

Mark meeting ded is just gonna be him going btw have you heard of the music producer 8ballin' 👉👈? And ae is just gonna sit there like I've been in every wrong place that you can imagine for the past half a decade you tell me

[splatoonpolls]

SPLATOON OC TOURNEY ROUND 2 BATTLE 15

Samuel by @salt-pile vs The Inkoid Typhoon that Ravages the Shoreline (Typhoon for short) by @nylonvintage

PROPAGNADA/BACKSTORY

samuel

He ran away from home at the age of 14 to try and forge his own path rather than the boring life his parents wanted him to have. When he first entered Inkopolis, he was a silly squid, but after he became Agent 3 of the NSS he became more serious and got so focused on meeting his self-set expectations of being an agent that he began to overwork himself, which came to a head in Octo Expansion (where the whole ordeal left him blind in his right eye). After that mission and some major self-reflection, he mellowed out, and began to make an effort to take more breaks and pace himself more (with the help of the Squid Sisters and Cap’n Cuttlefish), leading to him being the silly and laid-back captain we know of today.

typhoon

Her egg got stolen and taken home by an inkling to be sold off and she ended up hatching in Splatsville, but later when she was little she got stolen back during a Big Run. Now she's inkfish-shaped and she Hates it (according to lore the salmonids have different builds based on where they hatched/how they grew up). Currently she plays drums (pots and pans) in a band and likes to take grizzco weapons from players to blast their faces off with. She also wears stolen grizzco uniforms bc they're the only clothes she has access to that fit her

also this post

[silliestcolressfan]

I am going to do some infodumping about my silly lil 1776×Splatoon au because its taking over my brain ^_^

I'm also gonna make a specific tag for this: Splatoon 1776

Alr so number one, uhhhhhhh TJ

I've decided that's he's gonna be Agent 3 because like, why the fuck not?? Also, JA is gonna be Agent 8 so ^_^

So like, he lives a quiet life and enjoys the company of his intimates, RHL, his wife, Martha (yes, they're all gonna be legally adults), and a few others, depending on what I do with this au in future. He also plays the violin really well, to the point some believe that he should make music for a career, but he really doesn't want to. Too much attention and not such a quiet life

As an agent, he works hard, stays focused, and gets the job done!!!! He was really surprised when he saw JA in the deepsea metro, and even more surprised to see Abigail there. He has the scar from tartars hypnosis (I think that's what it's called? I'm not sure, sorry 😓😓)

He also mains the Octobrush

Next we have John Dickinson as Agent 4!!!!

Again, he was chosen for why the fuck not. Also, because I'm a strong believer that Parallel Canon is Agent 4, and one thing that happens in 1776 is that Adams and Dickinson fight.

He tends to just do his thing, ig (I'll have to ask @pingskumonium for help with Dickinson 😓) I just know that's he's friends with George Read, that he doesn't write straight, and that he disagreed with JA 🙏🙏

I think he'd either main the Splattershot or be a tenta missiles spammer with the Reef Lux 450

Next is JA as 8, as mentioned twice before ^_^

I chose him to be 8 because, well, their whole thing is like escaping the deepsea metro, saving the octolings, and defeating evils (eg, tartar, order). I've also took some creative liberties (with help from coroika) to put Abigail with him because he deserves his wife 🫶

So like, they got married and lived happily together in Octo Valley until she just. Disappeared. That's around when he encountered TJ (3) and Capn Cuttlefish, all three of which were attacked, and he woke up in the deepsea metro separated from 3, and everything I'm the Octo Expansion. Now, here's where more of my ideas come in. In 'Fake Plastic Station', Adams doesn't actually splat Abigail, who is the last sanitised octoling there, and instead spares her because he recognises her just ever so slightly. Also because she dropped her glasses and broke them after the ink jet (she has never used one until then), which the mechanism took as her being splatted. Therefore, the two return to the station together, as she no longer has the glasses (I'm like, 90% sure they have hypnosis powers. Even if they don't, this is my au so :333)

And the rest of Octo Expansion goes the way it does

Abigail is only sanitised because I wanted an excuse to put her in Side Order

JA would main Enperry Splat Dualies and Abigail would main the Octoshot. Change my mind 😋

[geesegoosen]

I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this so I'm going to just put this out there.

All of this is the result of speculation and theory crafting with a friend of mine so not all ideas present are 100% mine.

*NOTE* we may have gotten some things wrong or miss understood some information, plus this is all just speculation. so please keep that in mind!

So DJ Octavio...He's a giant Octoling constantly in swim form and we think we've figured out why.

Since the Splatoon 3 story mode has shown us what Ex- Cap Cuttlefish looks like in swim form (mind you some proportions may be off due to dehydration) we now know that swim form size is not affected by age for the most part.

So then why is Octavio so large? simple! Kraken form!

Its a common head cannon amongst people in the fandom that Octavio used an octobrush as his weapon of choice in fights. In Splatoon 1 that such weapon had the Kraken special. That special increased the size of your swim form. This would explain why he's so large in comparison to Inklings and other Octolings.

the Kraken was also widely known as a very scary special; in the lore (as far as we know) it was removed from common use in turf wars for this and some other reasons. Due to the fear factor a kraken holds it would make sense as to why Octavio would wish to stay in that form.

But then how can he stay like that for so long? To this we look at salmonids and Octo expansion.

The boss salmonids mostly seem to share a common trait. This being they have abilities based on special weapons (Stingers = killer wail, Big shot = wave breaker, Steel head = Inkstrike, etc) what does this have to due with Octavio being in kraken form? Well these boss salmonids use these special like abilities almost constantly and get these abilities from the gear they use/wear. All this gear that comes from the Octarians! This means that Octarians are the ones who started the development on technology that allows for the consistent use of special weapons. This such feat is seen in full use during Octo expansion. Which is the first time we see levels dedicated to using only a special to complete it.

this means,

Octavio is in constant use of the kraken special from splatoon 1. Using the terrifying appearance of a Kraken to intimidate others. He is capable of staying in this form due to Octarian technology. All of this explains why he is larger in his swim form then other individuals.

Is everything in this post correct? probably not! But this just fun speculation and head cannoning for stuff that's not really explained in game (as far as we are aware).