#It is more likely Pearl learn octarian in my opinion

[incorrect-splatoon]

Wait... in the side order trailers, Pearl understand Acht/Dedf1sh. Which means either:

Acht and Agent 8 speak and understand inkling.

Pearl learn octarian

And yes, no one pointed this one out.

[dr-spectre]

If Callie wasn’t brainwashed then what happened? Wasn’t it like she just grew disillusioned with inkling society and decided to go underground?

Alright so, I've said this in other blog posts and i have gone into it multiple times, BUT! I'll try and sum it all up on what happened to Callie in Splatoon 2. It is very vague and i don't entirely blame people for coming to certain conclusions because the game didn't do a good enough job in my opinion, and the English translation has issues too which doesn't help at all...

So during Splatoon 1 and when it was getting content updates, we got to learn about Callie and Marie. If you look at the dialogue present in Naughty Vs. Nice, Early Bird Vs. Night Owl and Callie Vs. Marie Splatfests, their dialogue is rather harsh and personal towards each other, showing that Callie has these dark traits about her.

These mean and harsh qualities of Callie were built up since Splatoon 1 and they come into the forefront in Splatoon 2 and I'll go over that shortly.

After the final Splatfest and Marie's victory, the Squid Sisters became a lot more famous and stepped down from their news presenting duties and gave it to Pearl and Marina. During this period, Callie and Marie became more estranged with each other as Callie became more and more popular, meaning she got a LOT more busy and had to work day in and day out every single day at an acting gig. In the Squid Sister Stories web series, Callie is stated to be "lost at sea herself" meaning that her acting career and fame are taking a tole on her, and it's pretty easy to see that with the Sunken Scrolls in Splatoon 2.

At some point Callie and Marie managed to hang out and they decided that they would go to Calamari County to visit family. However.... As we know, it didn't pan out that way. Callie at some point in chapter 7 became flustered at work and basically ran off, which her manager thought she wanted to go home.

But... She didn't... She stumbled across DJ Octavio after he broke out from his snow globe (don't ask how, we don't know and plus, octopuses are very clever and can easily get out of trapped spaces).

Now, Octavio is a man who knows how to use manipulation and propaganda to his advantage. He is the leader of an entire race of people that are on the brink of collapse, it's either they all die, or he pulls the right strings to motivate his people to fight and take the Great Zapfish so that they don't die. And now we have an emotional and mentally unwell Callie who is suffering from so much attention and overwork, of course Octavio, the main antagonist, wanted to take advantage of that. Callie is a very powerful woman with the ability to influence and inspire others with her voice, of course Octavio wanted that kind of power to help his race and get them motivated again after their loss in Splatoon 1.

So what did he do? Did he grab her and kidnap her and put on some "evil brain warping shades" and brainwash her while she was kicking and screaming trying to stop him? WRONG!!!!!!!!!! As stated by the OFFCIAL Splatoon 2 relationship chart that i love to bring up all the time, there seemed to be an on going conversation about Callie joining the Octarians, Octavio possibly appealed to her sense of isolation, hidden resentment for Marie and her being so overworked. And she says "Ok, fine. I'll hear you out." Does that scream kidnapping to you? I don't think so.

She's even called "the lovable rebel" implying she felt some distain for Inkling society from the way they treated her and wanted to rebel. Would the developers and writers of a character who was forcibly brainwashed and kidnapped display as her a rebel and pose her like this? I don't think so.

Like you would not see Marina Agitando for example in these sort of poses in artwork because the circumstances and conditions are so vastly different.

So now let's get into those god damn mother fucking bitch ass hypnoshades. As their name suggests, they are shades with an element of hypnosis of some kind, if they weren't hypnotic shades and just turned people evil and forced Octarian ideals into their brains then they wouldn't be given that name. "Hypno" is a very specific word choice and it's done on purpose. Callie was hypnotized, not brainwashed, that word is only used in English translations of the game and outside media and if you ask any hardcore fan of a series made in Japan then you would know that English scripts kinda fuck up the Japanese ones most of the time. Take me for example, I'm a Sonic the Hedgehog fan, the Japanese versions of Sonic stories are vastly different from the Western versions in tone, dialogue, call backs, personalities, etc. Same thing with Splatoon unfortunately. Take the English translation of the Splatoon scripts with a MASSIVE grain of salt. Like a meteor sized grain of salt lmao.

Now, what is being hypnotized like? is it like being a mindless puppet that follows the orders of the person doing the hypnosis? Well... Nope. Not true actually. The way it' s portrayed in media is completely wrong and untrue. Hypnosis is similar to being in a flow state, or being incredibly relaxed while also having heighten attention and suggestibility. Imagine being in a daydream while still having hyper awareness of the stuff around you. Now that part about suggestibility is important because this is where people mess up. If a hypnotized person is given a suggestion that goes against their morals and ideologies, they will NOT!!!!!!!! follow through with that suggestion. If a hypnotized person is told to murder their family, they will not do so UNLESS they secretly want to murder them and it's in line with their psychotic and fucked up wishes.

If Octavio told Callie to murder Marie instead of Agent 4, she wouldn't follow through with the suggestion. Callie doesn't wanna murder Marie but instead she wants her to leave because their relationship is ruined. Callie doesn't mind trying to kill Agent 4 because firstly, she's mentally unwell and isn't thinking clearly from having a mental illness, and two, she doesn't have any personal attachments to Agent 4 so she can just listen to the suggestions from Octavio and follow through with them. Even in the rematches, Callie doesn't know Agent 4 all that well compared to Marie and it's clear Callie is still not doing so well after Splatoon 2.

Callie while under the hypnoshades is more like herself than not. Like this line for example is just typical Callie but she's more aggressive and mean.

If she was truly brainwashed then her personality would be A LOT more different. She would be a lot more subservient to Octavio and the Octarian race and her dialogue would show this too, but it does NOT! In fact Callie berates and talks back to Octavio during the final boss.

The only real differences between Callie and Hypno Callie is that she's more harsh and angry compared to regular Callie. However this anger... this rage... this hate was always there. It was always under the surface, and due to Callie's mental state from being overworked and now under hypnotic shades, that pain and anger is at the surface and is clouding her mind and making her not think rationally. She's more chaotic, she's aggressive and doesn't care for Marie anymore.

Now i do wanna discuss this line as it has been brought up multiple times to me and other discussions on Hypno Callie i see online.

First off, like i mentioned previously, the English translations of Splatoon stories and media sometimes gets it wrong. If you want examples then look at Commander Tartar and Marina's dialogue in Octo Expansion. You can look up retranslations of Octo Expansion to see the differences of the English and retranslated version. The only other mention of remixing a brain is in the Dutch translation. The other translations mention hypnosis and nothing about warping Callie's brain directly.

Second of all, DJ Octavio is... you guessed it... A DJ! He says musical terms to make puns and he's a loud personality.

In fact that "remix" line is actually a call back to the Splatoon 1 final boss and you know what, I'll give prompts for the English translation team for doing that... Still hate them for everything else tho lol.

DJ Octavio didn't literally remix her brain with evil brain warping shades. He is just saying that because it's to show that he got Callie on his side. So the "remixing" is just Callie becoming "evil" and hearing out Octavio.

Brainwashing implies that there is a forcible aspect to it, however from the evidence i just laid out, that cannot be the case as Octavio didn't force Callie into anything she didn't want to do. He didn't torture her, he didn't abuse her. He didn't put the shades on her by force as if he tried to do that he would get destroyed by the more energetic, younger and stronger squid woman that isn't a disabled 130 year old Octoling stuck in his octopus form.

He let her decorate bases and added glittery ink which motivated and inspired his people. Hell his approval ratings went up because the Octarians were happy and inspired by Callie's presence.

Now you may say "but didn't she lose her memories while under the shades and therefore she got brainwashed?"

Well.... Not really. I want you to put yourself in the shoes of Callie, you're in a very focused and hypnotic state, like being in a very concentrated flow state and you have a lot of anger and aggression in you. Your head is so cloudy and you're under a lot of mental distress. So imagine an ink bullet flying at your eyeball, flinging you out of that hypnotic state in a very fast fashion. It's like someone snapping their fingers in front of your face while you're concentrated on a task, or someone smacking you at the back of your head while you're working on something in a deeply concentrated manner. You are left confused and dazed and need a second to gather your composure back. Callie when the shades are removed from her, acts dazed and holds her head like she has a bad headache, only left to sing and dance cause she's an idol and that stuff is natural to her.

Some of the side effects that may occur when under hypnosis include headaches and nausea, and look at Callie when she's flung out of that hypnotic state, it looks like she has a headache and is in pain.

Now when Marie plays the Calamari Inkantation, what is actually happening here is that the song is energizing and motivating Callie. It is not freeing her from "brainwashing." That is a very common misconception about the song, implying that all Octarians are brainwashed and are just mindless drones when that is NOT TRUE AT ALL and is yet another case of bad translation. The song is just extremely catchy and it gives Octarians the motivation to wanna leave to the surface. It also makes Cuttlefish get the strength to break out of his restraints in Splatoon 1 and makes Smallfry transform into Hugefry. The song is so damn powerful and catchy, that's all it is, it is not a mind control cure, that is fucking false.

So what is happening with Callie is that the song is motivating her and flooding her head with good memories of her time with Marie. When the shades are flung off of her, she's still mad at Marie and still fights Agent 4, it takes a while but eventually she starts thinking more rationally, realizing that Marie has come to get her and what Callie has been doing was wrong. Songs are VERY powerful tools for memory and hearing a song you loved back when you were younger can bring out certain feelings and memories. Those happy memories flood Callie's mind and she goes "wait... what am i doing!? This isn't me, I REMEMBER! YEAH!" And she jumps into the air and transforms back into her iconic outfit sailor moon style.

With all of the information and context i presented, it really elevates everything that comes after. It makes Spicy Calamari Inkantation more powerful as a song as Callie has truly reunited with Marie. Fresh Start makes sense and fits perfectly with the narrative the writers wanted to tell. If you take the common and untrue narrative that people keep saying about Callie, Fresh Start literally makes zero sense in that untrue context.

It makes her eventual healing in Splatoon 3 and return to the public WAY MORE SATISFYING!

Callie has matured, she has grown up, she's more comfortable being in the spotlight again and can handle it as she has worked out her relationship with Marie. She used to suffer from being overworked and having an addiction to the shades as it gave her an escape from her life. She would rather be in a hypnotic state then go through her current life. It was only when Callie and Marie came together and truly changed things is when Callie was able to finally heal and get better.

That's why I'm so passionate about this, Callie truly went through a character arc, even it was rushed and poorly presented. I care about Callie and want people to get her story straight. Splatoon 2 was always about the Squid Sisters breaking up and eventually coming back together and becoming stronger. Callie is my comfort character and i want people to treat her better. She wasn't a powerless kidnap and brainwash victim. She was a woman with deep flaws, anger, sadness, aggression, that pain is gone now from her. She's finally... Happy. And that... makes me happy too.

[hiroshotreplica]

more side order rambling and pointless speculation that will probably be incorrect

WARNING: im rambling and not really thinking about it TOO hard. also this is based on like 50 different theories that have a good chance of Not being true. also ignore grammar/spelling errors (im bad at writing)

i believe ive talked about how i think there could be a metaphor/straight up depiction of healing from traumatic situations and/or learning how to cope with mental health struggles in the game in the past? anyway im gonna do it Again

this kind of hinges off the belief that the octoling shown in the trailer is octarian/not from the splatlands (whatever the correct term is i forgot). if the octoling is from splatsville then uh whoopsie. this is Not Relevant and will age like milk. anyway

octarian society definitely has a lot of strife. especially when in the military. suddenly trying to enter inkopolis and being met with turf wars suddenly being for fun and almost a complete lack of strife has to be wayyyy too much for some octolings. ive mentioned this in a prior post though thats from the perspective that the sr octoling is agent 8 (which im hesitant to believe but this is not the main point for this post specifically) id just like this to be true to contrast with what i think will be a revolving point around marina

and yeah, thats my main point, i think marina will have stuff to work through, too. i dont think she'll be an antagonist, but rather someone who's doing the wrong things for the right reasons or someone who caused a bad situation (which ill just call the death of coral here) on accident while trying to help. she was in the military at a very young age and escaped to inkling society, but the stuff after final fest is what im thinking about.

i can really only bring up NOA dialogue (aside from one thing, if i can find the source for it), so this may be off, but i dont have the resources to look up a 100% authentic translation

the fest stressed her out, and she was very worried about the band breaking up. this is clear in dialogue

though of course pearl comforts her that this isnt the case, i wonder if that fear still lingers in her mind. im not too knowledgeable on marina's characterization (i heard NOA isnt either so, lol) but it seems in character. she definitely hasnt unpacked(? i believe that is the right word) the fear on screen as far as i can tell, though, and i think side order might be about that, a little.

what interests me most is this unused dialogue from if team order won, though:

of course its unused so it doesnt hold as much weight as canon dialogue, but i wonder if she'll hold a similar mentality. she has control, and she sees that she can shape the world. i dont fully agree with her changing everyone to be the same, since she later says this:

if she were to do anything, i think she'd change the world that may try to be like this, but something in it would be functionally unsound and cause the whole thing to break. im not sure if she even would in the first place but i can acknowledge the possibility. itd be ironic, shes good at building machinery but not building a utopia.

i dont think she needs to be saved in this scenario, i think its best if she were to save herself. but this is verrryyy speculative so i cant say much.

tangent aside. marina understanding and moving on/healing from her fears being compared to the protagonist octoling's own journey on recovering would be great. itd be even better with agent 8 in my opinion, since theyve clearly gone through Some Shit and definitely need therapy for it, but i dont want to speculate too much. im expecting all of this to be Wrong but i cant ignore that ive been thinking about it like this lol

[snailvibes]

ALSO OPINIONS ON EACH OF THE IDOLS???

OOOOO OOO OOO OOO VERY EXCITED TO ANSWER THIS ONE

Marie: when I first got into splatoon I didn’t like Marie too much for whatever reason but by the time I finished hero mode and got into the fandom I grew to love her, but she’s grown to REALLY be up there on the comfort characters list ever since the Marie and agent 4 brainrot grew this bad lol. She’s really strong for everything she’s had to deal with, having her gramps kidnapped in splatoon 1, the whole final fest and being so distant from Callie as a result of it, having to train an agent all by herself, all that stuff. Marie’s honestly so incredibly cool, very fun to draw too and i hope in splatoon 3 we get to see more of the silliness from her the hero mode gave us!

Callie: I love Callie so much, I think her character out of all the idols is the most fun for me to analyze and also her design and outfits are so cool I used to doodle her 24/7. I’m a lover of angst ofc and I’d like to thank nintendo for giving us brainwashed Callie and all the ideas with it that I’ve written a full fic about in my head that I’ve yet to actually do anything with <3 She’s so fun and I don’t know what it is about her that makes me love so much really? I’d love to see her have more of a present role in splatoon 3 because I think it’d be fun to see more of her cheerful and hyper personality as well as the times where she can be serious

Pearl: PEARL I LOVE PEARL SO MUCH I’ll go ahead and admit it she is my favorite out of the four, I’ve always loved her ever since I got the game she just stood out to me and I really love her energy and the way she talks and how like in the octo expansion even if she doesn’t fully understand the situation she’s willing to help out and do her best. Even if she teases them a lot it’s obvious pearl really does love and care for her friends, she’s made me laugh so much whether it be from splatfest and news dialogue or the octo expansion chat logs, along with agent 4 she’s also a major comfort character

Marina: I ALSO RLLY ADORE MARINA she’s such an interesting character to learn about and it’s so incredibly cool how smart she is and how when she was so young she was able to make all that machinery. The fandom tends to portray her as pretty shy all the time when she was the one to ask pearl to start off the hook and also escaped octarian society all by herself, as well as stayed cool under the pressure of Tartar literally charging a canon to sanitize her entire city and manage to DRAW A REALLY COOL DETAILED PLAN FOR THEM TO STOP IT IN SUCH SHORT TIME??? She’s a lot braver than the fandom gives her credit for! I love marina so much I think it’s really cool how passionate she is about her interests and how kind and sweet she is

[zombunnys]

pearl splatoon!

favorite thing about them: GOD... EVERYTHING..... her fashion and demeanor..... aopoiggh she pulls off every look so well it’s ridiculous  least favorite thing about them: when people draw her super feminine and cutesy, OR, draw her incredibly short with an over-exaggerated, shiny forehead because heahuigehhpoggjj gremlin aha favorite line: ANYTHING??? anything with her and marina brOTP: her and squid sisters !!!!!!! I like how she tries to act so cool around them While obviously fang*rling (censored for your safety) OTP: PEARLINA :pleading: nOTP: anything with her and a guy. also any of the agents random headcanon: she knows German!! or the inkling equivalent. she tried to learn octarian after finding out abt marina but even with her help it didn’t go as well unpopular opinion: I need her in more fuckboy fashion... song i associate with them: god that’s hard.......; uuuahh,,,,, anything punk really favorite picture of them: 

( PLEASE hold my hand ) 

[dr-spectre]

I'm glad to hear that, especially since I did a second silly

your comment reminded me of that one meme with the hamster having war flashbacks

I love how you draw my Octoling with the Pearl hoodie on from that one image i sent. It's a sick as hell hoodie i love it, i want an irl version so badly....

I wanna say though, Callie vs Marie is a dumb debate. They are the Squid SISTERS! You cannot have one without the other! THEY LITERALLY FALL APART WHEN BROKEN UP! SPLATOON 2 WAS ALL ABOUT THAT! WHEN THESE TWO FIGHT OR ARE SEPERATED! IT ONLY ENDS IN BAD THINGS FOR THEM MENTALLY! Marie ends up ruminating and feeling depressed, Callie becomes emotional and resentful which lead to her joining the Octarians out of her own freewill.

They work best when they are together, when they are a unit. They both contrast and complement each other, they have their own strengths and weaknesses which balance each other out. Their best appearance in my opinion is in Splatoon 3 ROTM. They are so cute together and truly feel like loving family members, it feels even more satisfying when you take the time to learn about Splatoon 2's story as well.

Fighting over who is better is a waste of time and undermines their strengths as a duo. Getting into Idol wars to defend your "waifu" is so lame man. We should be celebrating these characters, not pitting them against each other like action figures!!!!!!!

Sorry for rambling HAHAHA!