#im sure this user is a lovely person and is just frustrated and didnt articulate their thoughts as nuanced as they are in their head

[twipsai]

MAJOR SPLATOON SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!!! <this is mostly a caution for my friend whos going thru splatoon rn lolz hi Bee if ur reading this

screenshotting this post w/out the url and im turning rbs off cuz i dont wanna start beef, but like. i have never seen a more stupid fucking opinion of rotm. are you fucking kidding me.

first of all, the conflict between inklings and octarians was one-sided in modern times. it was simply a suffering civilization trying to take revenge on on whom they believed to be their enemies, not even knowing that the war they had fought is long dead and the inklings that inhabit the surface would welcome them with open arms. because, let me get one thing very clear: all of the weird racism metaphors in octo expansion are literally just a result of poor translation with the original being nowhere NEAR as overt in how they portray octolings as a sort of "stand-in" for the struggles that poc face irl. obviously, theres some tension between the two species, but there was never a story thread about this conflict. ya feel?

(^THIS SECTION IS WORDED WEIRDLY AND ISNT ENTIRELY REFLECTIVE OF MY OPINIONS ABOUT THIS PORTION OF THE GAME CUZ IM SLEEPY!!!!)

second of all, are we forgetting the part where the splatlands WERE effected by the Flood? it literally flooded the entire land!!! but instead of this dividing the people who inhabited it, they came together and drained it. drained it into Alterna. which is WHY we see these different tribes lasting in modern day with Deep Cut, why we see inklings and octolings living side-by-side with zero tension, and yet recognition and celebration of each others differences. is that not beautifully poetic?

we even see the fact that octarians have integrated back on the surface with the technology being used, particularly the use of floating machines! theres even octarian language on the splatana stamper! all of this life that was breathed into the game is all around you and it takes so little effort to just look!

i just wanna make one thing clear: so far, ALL of splatoons hero modes have been caused by humanity, be it directly or indirectly. in splatoon 1 and 2, we see the long-term effects of octarians living underground for 100 years rear its head and lash out, trying to survive. conditions underground are harsh. why are they underground in the first place? they lost the great turf war. a fight for land due to the rising sea levels. which was LITERALLY CAUSED by a nation 12000 years ago dropping a bomb on Antarctica as an intimidation tactic, as well as general global warming reaching a tipping point after wwV.

octo expansion? a broken machine left behind by humanity goes insane in its loneliness and tries to perfect the new intelligent life after sitting and watching for so long. splatoon 3? the last mammal, in its grief, tries to regain what he has lost.

the entire franchise is about letting go of the past, living in the moment, and looking forward to the future. half the songs naming conventions are based around momentum. its now or never.

how can you not see how this game has built its world so beautifully? it just makes me sad to think about

people are entitled to their own opinions, and its fine if you didnt like splatoon 3's story. but why are you, in a game franchise that ends with the line "the times have changed. the world can never be as it was. moving forward... is the future" so stuck in what could have been?