Squids, Lore and birds ig

SirNerdbird's backup archive/place without annoying character limits

[sirnerdbird]

The Spiral deepens

[splatoonloreink]

Introducing splatoonlore.ink!

splatoonlore.ink is a website containing all the info on Splatoon's lore there is, from the in-game Sunken Scrolls to obscure info hidden in barely accessible media, after more than two years of development the website is finally launching!

You can check it out right now: splatoonlore.ink

This website is being developed by @ardnin

[sirnerdbird]

The Alterna Experience

[toothpaste-for-the-skin]

Absolutely insane salmon photo i found while browsing iNaturalist (link)

Wait a minute..

[sirnerdbird]

Side Order introduced a continuity error

Side Order is generally considered to be a fairly good DLC overall, with a pretty solid (albeit barebones) main gameplay loop, a story that explores many of the lingering questions posed by Octo Expansion and a particularly interesting final boss dynamic where Order is recontextualised after its defeat through Smollusk (we learn much more about Order through Smollusk than Order lets on itself). However, there is one aspect that I've recently discovered which is a pretty significant detractor from the overall quality of the DLC, one which I'm quite surprised hasn't been brought up before. Side Order is unusual in that it quite intentionally tries to place itself in a position in time in-universe. Despite the prior story DLC, Octo Expansion, having some vague mentions to things that happen around it (e.g. the bonus chat room mentions that a splatfest happens vaguely around the time OE's story finishes) OE is very much "free floating" in terms of where it fits into Splatoon 2's chronology. There are never any concrete declarations by characters about how long ago things in the past happened that would tie OE down to an exact time interval within the lifetime of Splatoon 2. OE and S2's base hero mode could (therefore) conceivably happen in either order chronology-wise.

Side Order very intentionally avoids this. Marina's Dev Diaries (the main form of exposition for what Marina and Pearl have been doing between Splatoon 2's Final Fest and SO) are each dated with timestamps that place the events described as happening a certain amount of time before SO takes place. In elevator dialogue Marina says that her promotion to Octavio's wasabi supply unit (which occurs the same year as the Calamari Inkantation concert in S1's story mode) happened "about 8 years ago".

(dialogue brought to my attention by Cosmic)

This means that the earliest Side Order could have taken place in-universe is around the middle of 2023 ME (for an explanation of "Mollusk Era" as a year nomination, check out this video by @ardnin). This alone is fairly innocuous, as all it does is vaguely imply that SO takes place within about 9 months of when it was released IRL and after the release of Splatoon 3 (late 2022). However, this date becomes relevant when we look at the timeline of events created by Marina's Dev Diaries. The entries give us a lot of information, but I'll summarise the most important bits in order below: (Images taken from Inkipedia)

Entry 1: "Over 4 years ago" In the wake of the Final Fest, Pearl announces that Off the Hook are going on a world tour.

Entry 2: "2 years ago" Planning begins for Off the Hook's world tour.

Entry 9: "5 months ago" Off the Hook begin their world tour.

Entry 11: "1 month ago" Off the Hook enter the midway break of their world tour.

This paints a clear picture of the sequence of events leading up to Off the Hook's world tour, with the world tour itself starting 5 months before the events of Side Order.

Those of you who might have been following Splatoon JP's promotional tweets before the release of S3 may see the immediate issue.

Before release (June 2022), Off the Hook were described by SplatoonJP (translated accurately here by @rassicas as part of SplatoonENG) as already being on their world tour.

This is backed up by the S3 artbook (translated by @3600frames)

Note that this source stating that the S2 Final Fest took place in July 2019 ME, in conjunction with Entry 1 stating that the Final Fest ending was "over 4 years ago", further cements that Side Order can only take place in mid-late 2023 ME at the earliest. Therefore, Off the Hook's world tour (as described by Side Order) cannot start before 2023 ME.

However, Splatoon Base and the above Splatoon JP tweet both state that Pearl and Marina didn't start performing with the members of Damp Socks (who they made their new songs with) until during their world tour.

This means that Side Order's alleged timeline of events necessitates that "Candy-Coated Rocks" and "Tentacle to the Metal" could not have been released before 2023 ME. This contrasts with their release in-game, which was at Splatoon 3's initial release in 2022.

It's been well established that time in Splatoon's world moves at the same pace as real life. In "Ask the Developers Vol. 7 part 1", Seita Inoue reiterates this fact, and also directly states that Splatoon 3 starts in 2022 ME.

The same interview later goes into significant detail about how Splatoon's music is conceptualised as being in response to what has happened previously within the pop culture of Splatoon's world. With the interview's persistent themes of Splatoon's world progressing in parallel with ours, and C-side's music being symbolic of the cultural shift in the 5 years since S2's release, it's a reasonable assumption that C-side's music has been released by the time of Splatoon 3. As C-side's music was released in-game alongside that of Damp Socks feat. Off the Hook's, it is fair to assume that they were released roughly concurrently in-universe.

Previously released sources (such as this timeline that's part of Haikara Walker) also support the idea of the chronology of songs being directly tied to the order of the updates they were released .

Therefore, it is reasonable to make the assumption that the music attributed to Damp Socks feat. Off the Hook was released in-universe at the same time as it was introduced in-game (2022 ME).

However, in Side Order's series of events, Off the Hook don't start their world tour until 2023 ME, and so didn't meet the members of Damp Socks until that year too. Because of this, the earliest they could have written the songs the joint group perform together is also 2023 ME.

As a result, Side Order's series of events as described in the Dev Diaries introduced a significant chronology error.

So what caused this?

I think the answer lies in the Splatune 3 booklet interview between Marie, Marina and Big Man (released in April 2023). Marina talks about how she and Pearl had an argument, after which Pearl dropped off the face of the earth for a couple days, before reemerging after finding the members of Damp Socks.

This fight is something that Entry 2 describes (albeit vaguely).

Marina then goes on to mention that she's "put[ting her] energy into making new songs", which I think is in reference to the Damp Socks feat. Off the Hook songs that were released with S3.

The argument between Pearl and Marina leading to Pearl finding Damp Socks occurring about 2 years ago also makes sense. Entry 2 puts the argument in early 2022 ME, so this would have it take place before their new music released in September 2022 ME.

I think whoever was writing the Dev Diaries read that Pearl found the members of Damp Socks after having an argument with Marina (and knew that they needed to meet Damp Socks before September 2022 ME), but forgot that it had already been established that this meeting had occurred while Off the Hook was on their world tour. Because of this, they decided to make "argument -> finding Damp Socks" and "being on world tour" separate events because it fit better with later entries where Marina is struggling to get everything done while the tour was happening.

The only change that would be needed to fix the chronology issue would be for them to have moved Entry 9 to be the new Entry 2 (along with a little rewording in Entries 2, 3 and 8 to state that the tour is already going on rather than still being planned). But alas, this is not what we got.

So right now we've got a situation where Side Order just... has an unfixed continuity error in it. Honesty, the most realistic best case scenario is that Nintendo just leaves everything as is and quietly sweeps the Dev Diaries under the rug. I really do not want them to try and have it be a retcon of the timeline because of how needlessly confusing that would make everything.

Let's hope that this was picked up on internally and Raiders doesn't bring anything like this.

[sirnerdbird]

Just a reminder - Big Betrayal was NOT staged

I've seen people spread this idea a lot since the song originally came out, and I want to provide some evidence that I hope puts this idea to bed.

On the face of it, it makes much more sense to think that Deep Cut staged the whole thing. Given that Big Man is the one who writes Deep Cut's music, the idea that he would

Get attacked by Shiver and Frye

Record the fight

Turn the recording of the fight into a song

and then the three members release the song together, seems completely incomprehensible. It makes sense that people would come to the conclusion that all of this is staged, and is actually Deep Cut trying to stoke drama for fan engagement.

But this brings us to something that has been true of Splatoon since the beginning, but isn't talked about very often.

The Idols in Splatoon do NOT have a difference between their stage persona and their actual, genuine selves.

Irl, idols and performers often project a front and create a "character" of sorts that serves as a marketable public face. The idea that this is the "real" face of the performer is often a main aim of the act to make them seem more personable, but it doesn't make that true. irl Japanese Idol groups (which are the main inspiration for Callie and Marie) are particularly well-known for cultivating parasocial relationships between the group and their followers. As another extreme example, consider vtubers that are part of corporate groups. They are effectively actors playing a character, even if these people do share real stories from their lives with their viewers in the guise of their character. If the idol groups from Splatoon were real people, then all of this would be true for them too.

However, in Splatoon itself, there's never been an example of characters acting differently between their work hosting the news or during splatfests when compared to how they act in the story modes. Even while trying to actively hide their identities in Splatoon 1, Callie and Marie's personalities don't change while acting as Agents 1 and 2. Callie is still a bit of a goofball and Marie is still sarcastic, in exactly the same way that they are when they're presenting the news or performing for crowds. We don't see any indication at all that this very marketable self is a fake projection like it would be for an irl performer. Instead we get the opposite, the idea that they are just like that all the time. Even though they are secret agents that are part of a clandestine vigilante organisation, and they'd quite like for people to not know that they're agents 1 and 2, there's no actual gulf in personality between "The Squid Sisters" and "Callie and Marie".

Additionally, although we know Callie and Marie have agents and people who help them manage their work, we've never seen any evidence of any kind of "stage persona" or deviation between how they feel and act as people, and how they present themselves when they're working. From the Squid Sister Stories, we know that the idols genuinely do believe that the splatfest choices they represent are the correct answer to the prompts, rather than them just being assigned a side regardless of their real opinion. We've also never seen any indication of the idols or people who work with them trying to cultivate the same kind of parasocial link to their fanbase that their real-world equivalents might.

This idea that the characters are always being "genuine" is one of the aspects of Splatoon that requires suspension of disbelief because of how it deviates from the real world. But this is what the evidence we have supports. With this all being established, how does it tie back into Big Betrayal?

Big Betrayal was the start of Deep Cut's vague character arc during the update cycle of Splatoon 3 regarding their willingness to work with people from Inkopolis. However, in a manner of speaking, it actually happens twice, for two different reasons. Both are important for the events of Splatoon 3.

The initial reason for the song was when Shiver and Frye confronted Big Man about working with the Squid Sisters to produce Liquid Sunshine as Ian BMG. He isn't able to explain himself as Shiver and Frye accuse him of ditching them for money and fame given by people in Inkopolis. This is the version of the song that plays in-game, and was released during the Deep Cut splatfest around the game's first anniversary. Although we don't get any translated lyrics or indication of what it's about, Daybreaker Anthem (which was released after the splatfest concluded) could be interpreted as a end to the immediate conflict between the three idols due to its tone, and is likely related to Big Betrayal because of it.

During the events of the live concert at Nintendo Live 2024 Big Man was attacked by Shiver and Frye for being unable to stop Pearl and Marina from coming onto the stage and doing a set while Shiver and Frye were having a break. The lyrics in this live version song are different to the translated lyrics in the original song and Frye can be seen to physically attack him. This is important as it sets the stage for Shiver and Frye doing a stage invasion at a later Off the Hook concert, leading to the events of Suffer No Fools and the eventual formation of the Now Or Never Seven, a collection of all 3 groups.

Given that we have never seen any evidence of the idols having any deviation between their show persona and their real selves (and I really do want to repeat that we have never seen any evidence, despite stories from different idols' perspectives and their genuine opinions through the various relationship charts), it doesn't make any sense for all 3 idol groups to actually have been orchestrating the drama between them that unfolds because of the latter version of Big Betrayal.

I hope this explains why we can actually fairly reliably say that the events of both Big Betrayal(s) aren't staged, and are actually based on recording of Shiver and Frye genuinely attacking Big Man.

[rassicas]

How do Inklings and Octolings bathe?

some headcanons+doodles about how i think inklings and octolings (inkfish) bathe, taking the water weakness into account. I think it's boring to ignore the water weakness and it is undeniably canon, see this post for more info!

I've heard ideas like ink-based piping or attachments that change water as it comes out into ink, but imo the former sounds expensive to install everywhere, most species aren't ink based and like water, and even inklings and octolings still use water. The latter seems too... magical?

I also wanted to keep it simple. high pressure mist showers or bath bombs are modern inventions, but sitting at the edge of a hot spring and wiping ones body down with a damp sea sponge is something i can imagine an inkling doing 1000 years ago if they had that bathing culture.

These are just a few ideas. The way we humans bathe differs depending on culture and time, and even the individual, and I'm sure there would be truth to that for inkfish too.

(final note, suction cup teeth on inklings aren't canon LOL but since its a trait some species of real squids have, i think there would be inklings that have it too.) anyway if you want to adopt these headcanons, then please do<3

[wwraithsart]

silly warmup

[ardnin]

I uploaded a new video!

It’s about a theory I had on what O.R.C.A.’s true intentions might be… It always irked me how there’s seemingly no reason for O.R.C.A. to conduct these tests in Alterna, but I think I have an idea that should be somewhat realistic

[courtesycalling]

[semisentientseafood]

The splatfest experience

[ardnin]

[xvisualtreasure09x]

[mariecuttlefish]

How many Splatoon fans are aware of the canon Toni Kensa underwear line

[mariecuttlefish]

@vampyrobot @bombcollar It comes from this official promo art shared during the Splatoon 2 era:

Most people who saw this primarily paid attention to Callie and Marie's outfits or Agent 4's face in the corner. (It provided a lot of fuel to the "Agent 4 is a chaotic goofball" crowd.)

...but if you look closer, the artist went to the trouble of adding the brand logo on the visible portion of Marina's underwear here:

She's rocking Toni Kensa undies. I have no idea why they bothered including this, but it's my new favorite obscure detail.

[ardnin]

I uploaded a new short video!

It’s an edit of #14 crush that I used in my Dedf1sh mix I uploaded years ago. Since then a bunch of people asked if I could upload the full thing separately, so here it is! In this edit I was able to separate some instruments for an interesting sound.

In reality though it is a pretty simple effect you can use yourself in Audacity for example, so throughout the video I also did some animations explaining how the effect works

[jotheweirdoz]

Grizzco Wants YOU!

I quickly threw this together for the Big Run announcement.

[ardnin]

I finished my latest main video. I made a narration of the Alterna Logs!