With Splatoon Raiders coming out, I want to talk about necropolitics.
Necropolitics is the study of how systems of power determine whose lives are protected and whose are treated as expendable. The term was developed by Achille Mbembe in his 2003 essay Necropolitics.
In games, this can be a part of not only through stories but also the mechanics, asking which characters are valued, or made into disposable enemies.
I think the Salmonids are a great demonstration because they don’t have a direct one-to-one real-world analogue. They’re just fiction, they don’t represent a real-world race or ethnic group.
With Salmonids, Splatoon creates a population that is already positioned as killable.
Biological framing: Salmonids are modeled after Pacific salmon, whose spawning cycle ends in death. Mortality is built into their identity.
Cultural framing: The lore that Salmonids view being eaten as honorable or desirable presents death as a socially expected outcome rather than a tragedy.
Mechanical framing: The player's interaction is almost exclusively violent. The game doesn't offer systems for communication, diplomacy, or coexistence; the Salmonids exist primarily as targets
That last point is especially applicable to other games. Many games establish certain NPCs as “killable subjects”: entities the player is meant to kill without questioning whether other alternatives are available.
While Salmonids are fictional, other games model “killable subjects” off of real groups of people. It’s worth asking, can necropolitics in video games encourage players to devalue certain lives?
An important caveat is that using necropolitics to analyze a game doesn't necessarily mean the game endorses those forms of power. Critical analysis asks questions like “does the game invite the player to reflect on the consequences of those actions?” or “Does it critique institutions that render those lives expendable?”
And even Splatoon is critical of the treatment of Salmonids.
Grizzco Industries is obviously a scummy company, and Mr Grizz is a villain.
in Splatoon 3, we befriend a Salmonid: Smallfry.
And Splatoon 3’s story mode makes an illusion between the Shark, Eel, and Manta clans coming together to stop a natural disaster, and Octolings, Inklings, and Salmonids coming together against Mr Grizz.
I’m excited to see what Splatoon Raiders does with the Salmonids and how it extends their story.
