#Marina create side order

[incorrect-splatoon]

[commandertartarsmoocher]

Oh hey, it's Commander Tartar and Smollusk hanging out!

The silly has been contained...

... Smollusk seems to be having fun so it's fine, right?

This lovely humanoid Smollusk design was made by the very talented @melonenbrot !

[splatreference]

Control Room (Postgame) (Splatoon 3 - Side Order)

[nex-eats-eyes]

sadistic music factory??? no this is side order music factory idk what you’re talking about…

[crowroboros]

Side Order is fucking amazing. However, I cannot lie I could not stop going "XENOBLADE 3?!" at every plot/lore reveal in it

Of course, it's only surface level similarities and upon looking deeper at the lore there are significant differences. But it is still funny how similar the basic premise is.

[squidthusiast]

Ok, but why do I imagine Eight being the unofficial child of Pearl x Marina?

Because I imagine Eight was minding their business and all of a sudden, Pearl would slam the paper down and said “You’re adopted now”

Basically OTH at the start of their world tour haha, I love that they took Eight with them.

I have more detailed thoughts under the cut for those interested in my ramblings, analysis and interpretations of the characters.

Disclaimer: This is my own take on it, don’t let it ruin your fun!

I personally don’t really subscribe to the fandom’s ‘pearlina moms’ headcanon.

On the one hand, I am an absolute sucker for the ‘found family’ trope, and I definitely think Agent 8 and OTH fit in it!

On the other hand, I think people immediately put Pearl and Marina into the ‘parenthood’ box, a little too eagerly. Not saying this specific ask is that, btw, it just reminded me of some instances i’ve seen.

I personally think that the relationship between OTH and Agent 8 is a little more nuanced & sibling-esque, for the following reasons:

1. Within canon, we often see 8 being referred to as a friend by both Pearl and Marina.

Pearl does it more explicitly (see that one interview at her house), whereas with Marina it’s more insinuated (ex. In the Side Order dev diaries, she starts calling Agent 8 as ‘Eight’, which is stated to be a name used by their friends).

Pearl seems to be an accidental-duck-parent of sorts who haphazardly collects octoling teenagers & young musical talent. It goes in line with her whole mentor-esque leader personality, and i’m sure these disoriented teens find relief in an idol who seemingly knows what she’s doing (she really doesn’t).

However she doesn’t act in a parental manner. More-so like your estranged gay cousin who hit it big in another country and is down to show your queer little butt the ropes.

Marina on the other hand seems to have a more empathetic approach with Agent 8 (opposite to Pearl’s brashness). Marina clearly connects with Agent 8 through their shared experience as defected octoling soldiers, and probably sees her younger self in them. She’s already caring as it is, but this is accentuated during octo expansion given the circumstances.

I feel however that, unlike Pearl, Marina has a bit of a harder time actually forming a bond with Eight at the beginning. Their similarities (seemingly) end at their shared experience, and probably leaves Marina awkwardly wondering how to approach them further. What we can assume though is that they become closer friends during OTH’s world tour, given the events described in the Memverse Dev Diaries.

Meeting Eight during difficult circumstances (OE) and helping them get out creates a sense of camaraderie between them, which probably devolves into genuine care, established friendship and a strong bond amongst the three overtime.

2. Pearl and Marina are very career-centric both in Splat 2 and 3.

It is reasonable that the two young idols, who see their fame and musical recognition rise spectacularly & fast, are not particularly interested in settling down at this point in their lives.

Now entering her late 20s, Pearl is most definitely still interested in keeping the ball rolling with Off the Hook’s international success. Her character often points towards restlessness, freedom and discovery. There has definitely been character development in regards to her maturity in Splatoon 3, but these aforementioned traits are still ever present in her demeanour & decision-making.

Marina on the other hand can be seen slowly blossoming from a supporting character to being her own person. She definitely develops more self-confidence by Splatoon 3, but is still naturally bashful. It’s clear that she is allowing herself to explore & open up to new things for her own sake. She remains a caring and somewhat nurturing individual, but she is at a stage where she’s learning to live for herself and not for others.

Parenthood (and all the responsibilities and sacrifices it entails) at this moment of their lives would probably freak Pearl out, and stunt Marina’s personal growth.

3. The age gaps between OTH and Agent 8 are too close for it to create a parent/kid bond.

This makes their relationship a little hazy in regards to roles; 8 is still young enough that they may seek out rolemodels and mentors (still relatively influenceable), but they’re also nearing their 20s. By this point they are fairly self sufficient, have a sense of their personal values & identity, and they are relatively responsible & mature.

Pearl and Marina are 8’s seniors by approximately 4-6 years. However, in Splatoon 2 they’re entering their early 20s and their career has just begun to take off.

They are both still relatively youngsters, albeit older & more mature(? glancing at Pearl) youngsters than 8. This places them in a position where they can guide 8 and offer certain support and resources, but lack the maturity and experience of a full-fledged adult. This would approximate their relationship closer to that of siblings in a family setting.

Pearl & Marina are also less likely to feel a duty towards Eight as an adult would with a child. Instead, the latter’s circumstances are more likely to incite feelings of rapport and compassion as a fellow young inkfish.

Now, with all of this said, I will acknowledge that friendship/found family is MUCH more nuanced than a strict binary.

From personal experience in my last years of college, I did find myself caring for my fellow freshmen as though they were my kids, in certain ways. Hell, I called them my kids.

I acted as a proud parent whenever some of them achieved something, attempted to pass down my knowledge to them, and was protective of them to a certain extent.

They also annoyed me sometimes, like younger people do haha. And i’m sure I annoyed them too!

So I wouldn’t put it past OTH to call Eight their kid and have this mentor/parent-esque rapport with them in certain circumstances.

This is all based both on canon & my own interpretations of it, but still closely aligned to what has been shown in-game.

So if you have a different interpretation of Agent 8 and OTH, that’s great! I love to see people’s personal headcanons. Ultimately, Agent 8 is meant to be somewhat of a blank slate for the players to mold, with some hinted-at personality traits of their own.

As long as you have fun with these characters, that’s all that matters. This is just my personal opinion on their relationship in-game.

If you read all of this, you deserve the biggest golden star for listening to my incessant yapping 🤲⭐️

Feel free to bother me about this or other opinions you may have in my inbox, just be kind please!

[rassicas]

my general Side Order thoughts:

I don't have much of anything groundbreaking to say. I haven't publicly said much in relation to side order in the first place, i don't want to build up crazy expectations, and I've seen much of the fanbase making solid theories anyways. also there has been a lot less information compared to ROTM which is great, I don't want to be able to predict the whole story before the game comes out. I'd rather be surprised like i was with octo expansion! here I just want to put out my thoughts real quick so people know where I stand and that yes i am aware of the Hints and Foreshadowing

Marina's quote at the end of her interview in Splatune 3 is relevant of course, gives us a sense of what this whole world of order is. But did she build it this whole digital simulation, or was it something she found? (mix of both perhaps? found it, contributed to parts of it and it went out of her control?)

Mem cakes, agent 8, cerebral theming...very interested where this all goes. love all the references to OE keep em coming

People have been talking about this already, and the foreshadowing was acknowledged back in haikara walker in 2018. the hat logos on dedf1sh and paul gotta be connected to this thing.

It'd be a huge waste for a more grown-up paul to not show up in s3, either as someone mentioned by Acht or for him to make some sort of musical return post side order.

Glen fiddler has always been interesting to me (in that i anticipated he would become plot relevant somehow) with how he was fully 3d modeled in his sunken scroll. im not 100% on if hes gonna be in side order but the copy machine connections in side order (the fish skeletons in splatoween, also the recent poster?) are sus

^has to be agent 4. of course. seeing enemy inklings instead of enemy octolings sounds awesome btw

I'm expecting the inkopolis square hub to come back as a thing you can access post-game. pearl and marina splatfest concerts

iso padre please come back to me (maybe in said inkopolis square hub world)

who the fuck are you. not a mantis shrimp, looks too soft to be a crustacean to me. closest thing i can compare this to is a black dragonfish nymph but i kind of doubt it. maybe it is some guy who was created to manage things, like CQ to the deepsea metro?

[crazysnor1ax]

Unanswered things in Side Order

After finishing Side Order, unlocking all the dev diaries, and getting/seeing what I believe is all dialogue lines, I still have several lore questions that never got answered. Figured I’d put em in a post for folks to either answer or speculate about :3

Major main game and post-game spoilers below:

If Acht willingly got sanitized like promotional material confirmed years ago during Octo Expansion’s release, why does Acht suggest that they were forcefully sanitized? One of their early game quotes says that “someone or something there took [their] will away” and that they “were forced to DJ for it”. The way I interpret this is that Acht suggests they were unwillingly sanitized (their final dev diary also kind of suggests this, especially in the art), but it could also be implying that Acht’s sanitization isn’t what they expected it to be…? It could also just be a lore retcon which would suck but. Yknow.

How and why is Acht in the Memverse to begin with? We know that they weren’t there when Pearl, Marina and Eight tested out Dramatic Days in Orderland for the first time, so were they pulled in by Order? If so, how long ago? And how did Marina not know they were in there?

What’s Acht been up to in between Octo Expansion and Side Order? How long after Tartar was defeated did Acht break out of sanitization?

Relating to the above kinda, Acht says they heard a voice that snapped them out of sanitization. It’s later implied to be Pearl’s killer wail in Octo Expansion (Acht later says “I just get the feeling I’ve heard Pearl’s voice before somehow”), but the conversation where it’s first brought up (and Marina talks about developing the Memverse to help sanitized Octarians) Marina says, “…since we’re having this conversation, that means it must’ve worked!” to which Acht replies, “Huh. So that was you, was it?” I could 100% be misinterpreting this but which is it? If it wasn’t Pearl, whose specific voice was it and how did Acht hear it? Also did they regain their pre-sanitization memories back instantly or did they never lose them (I haven’t memorized exactly how sanitization works tho I know it’s explained in Haikara walker). My understanding was that Acht heard Pearl’s killer wail and it snapped them out of sanitization because it killed Tartar, but now I’m not sure.

When were each of Acht’s dev diaries/letters written? The first two seem like they were written before Side Order (implying Acht could’ve been in touch with Marina before they got pulled in), and the final one is definitely after.

How did Acht get to the surface, like their final letter mentions?

Are Order and Smollusk the exact same entity? I know they kind of are but why do they act so different? And why does defeating Order causes it to “transform” into Smollusk? Could it be that Smollusk was an AI originally coded into the Memverse but it got corrupted because of Marina and the octoling’s desire for order?

When was Order created in the Memverse dev timeline? How long had it existed prior to Pearl, Marina and Eight testing it out?

What in the ever-loving FUCK is Parallel Canon? I’m half-joking in saying that and I do like how vague it is, but is it Agent 4 or just using their soul or likeness? The fact that we get its mask does NOT bode well for 4 I think

Does. Does Marina force sanitized Octarians to go through the Spire and fight the Jelletons to get their will/memories back. Do they have to fight Overlorder at the end why are we traumatizing them more-

Why the hell did Pearl and Marina shit on 4 for no reason at the beginning of the game that was so uncalled for 😭

[meowdyjac]

HAPPY GHOST SWAP WEEK!!

This was created for @fyeahghosttrick's Ghost Swap!

My prompt: Block A - 74. The man in red dressed like Pearl from Side Order

Bonus sketch : Pearl as the man in red and Marina as Cabanela

[dr-spectre]

Talking about Side Order and... Marina. (SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!)

You know, i really enjoyed Side Order, like it wasn't perfect or anything but i had such a blast with it and if they continue to expand on it we could have something REALLY amazing. My reaction to the GOD DAMN TUTORIAL BOSS GOT ME HYPERVENTILATING! IM NOT JOKING! IT WAS SO EXCITING AND SHOCKING!!! THE FINAL BOSS WAS INCREDIBLE TOO! I was singing along to Spectrum Obligato and WHEN THEY BROUGHT IN THE STUFF FROM THE LIVE CONCERT VERSION OF EBB AND FLOW MY JAW DROPPED!!!

However i gotta admit, the story could have been better, what was the deal with the Octoling engineers Marina was talking about? That goes completely nowhere and i thought it was gonna build to something with the repeat playthroughs of the final boss.

And of course, the biggest missed opportunity in my opinion, Marina Agitando.

Now look, i wanna say right off the bat, the design is excellent, it was so smart to bring back her Order outfit and make her into a giant abomination that moves in such a weird way that makes you feel uncomfortable. When i saw her for the very first time when you enter the room, i stood there for at least a solid minute in complete disbelief and shock seeing a giant Marina in some octopus tentacle heart thingy that beats and pumps with the music. The song that plays too "Unconscience" is such a BANGER and honestly it rivals Octo Callie's Bomb Rush Blush remix in my opinion.

The build up for this was pretty good too, seeing Marina say "help me" before she was knocked unconscious and then possessed by Overlorder BROKE ME! I was like "OH NO! ITS HAPPENING AGAIN! NOT MARINA!!" The build up to the 10th floor was so anxiety inducing because you know in the back of your mind that Marina is gonna fight you but you don't know what it's gonna look like, if you were there since Splatoon 2 and have watched Pearl and Marina since the beginning then this build up is even more anxiety inducing and its pretty damn good. And once you free Marina she feels so sorry about what happened and helps you out to put things right, heck she goes through a small character arc of embracing chaos.... but... i have to say...

It is unfortunately not executed that well or with any depth in my opinion because they repeated the whole thing of "oh no a character we know is evil because of (quote on quote) mind control!!!! oh noooo!!" Which is a tired trope in this series that needs to stop or else I'm gonna get REALLYYYYYY pissed off.

I've done enough ranting about Callie's villain arc and how that has been misinterpreted and stuff, but for Marina, i really wish they didn't do the whole "oh no a character is evil because of an evil character oh nooo!! we gotta save them!!" thing again and i wish Marina was more of a villain with a sad motivation for her actions. As much as its cute to see Pearl and Marina act all flirty with each other in Side Order, it kinda ruins the mysterious and dark tone of the story that was teased from the trailers and the tutorial in my opinion. Everything is also explained so quickly early on which really sucks. I really wish Marina was actually conscious throughout her time as Marina Agitando and most of it should have been her fault. She does blame herself for creating Overlorder but it's kinda brushed aside quickly and Marina ends up being totally fine and free of guilt. There isn't enough depth to it which is so lame and a missed opportunity.

Marina is flawed, she makes mistakes and acts emotional and angry sometimes. We have seen a side of Marina where she snaps at Pearl when she loses Splatfests and has shown signs that she still hasn't recovered from her time before she met Pearl.

She picked team Order because she was genuinely scared that her new life would fall apart and she doesn't wanna lose the people (especially Pearl) that she's met and grown to love. Marina is also heavily theorized to be on the autism spectrum and as someone who is autistic, i can see myself in Marina, they could have really explored Marina's psyche and mental health in Side Order but they just... didn't. Instead she's put to sleep and controlled by her ai child and all of the focus is put on stopping it like a traditional "oh no we gotta stop an evil ai!! oh noo!!" story... ugh... I mean Smollusk is cute i guess but there's not a ton to them and they come off as yet another "evil ai that wants order and control!! roarrr!!!"

From reading the most recent interview on Side Order and seeing the concept art, they said that they wanted to tell a story about Marina losing herself to a machine that she created. Could you imagine how tragic it would have been to learn more about Marina and how she's so wrapped up in anxiety that she decides to make this replica of Inkopolis Square and make the Memverse? Maybe at first she makes it to help Sanitized Octolings just like in the dlc, but then maybe due to overwork and burnout (which Pearl mentions in the tutorial by the way), her emotions and anxiety become so strong that she becomes consumed by it, this obsession of order and trying to achieve happiness takes over her and then she gets the idea to spread this order to the real world, where her friends can be "happy" and "safe." Maybe Overlorder is still there but they just whisper to Marina, manipulate and point her in the right direction to continue to her mission of order instead of just fucking knocking her out and using her as a meat puppet for 5 minutes.

Could you imagine how much better the build up would have been to not see Marina until you get to the 30th floor for the first time and you got to unlock her diary entries beforehand? Seeing her thought process and her slow descent into becoming an antagonist. I'm not sure how they would have changed the permanent upgrades but they could have thought of something man. I get that they wanted to subvert expectations but, i think they should have gone WAY further with Marina Agitando.

I was waiting for Pearl and Marina to have their "Tidal Rush" moment where it's this emotional battle between the two, could you imagine how DEVISTATING a remix of Ebb and Flow would have been if it had gotten that "Tidal Rush" type of remix? Pearl singing her parts in this chaotic and emotional way, on the brink of tears trying to get Marina back and calm her down, and Marina trying to fight back against her words, not wanting to believe her because she's so wrapped up trying to make them both happy in her way. She's so caught up in order that she has forgotten what Pearl wants, that Pearl wants to be with her and go against any obstacle that stands in their way together. God i would have cried seeing that I'm not gonna lie. Maybe once Marina starts to think rationally, she breaks free from the machine and then leaps into Pearl's arms, and then we have to go back up the 30 floors to fight Overlorder and we slowly see Marina learn to embrace chaos throughout the floors instead of it just being at the final boss.

I really do feel like Splatoon has this issue of trying to appeal way too hard to kids and being really scared to dive into the flaws of these characters. They are so avoidant of being more serious and they hide it away in optional collectables and obscure posts on social media that creates misinformation and stories that feel way too undeveloped. They just say "oh this character has been brainwashed!!" which is such a lazy and bullshit trope they slap on these characters to avoid getting into their flaws for some stupid reason. (Hell that word has lost all meaning to me now to be honest. Like no, Callie wasn't "brainwashed" per say, hypnosis is not brainwashing or mind control I've said that a trillion times in other blog posts but whatever. Agent 3 was knocked out and had no clue on what was happening. They weren't "brainwashed" they were used as a puppet from a fucking goopy telephone for five minutes while they were asleep. Maybe its poor translation i don't know.)

I know that Splatoon is made for all ages and primarily for children but, i find that to be a stupid excuse for bad storytelling, a good story with depth that's explored and set up properly can be applied to all kinds of age groups not just adults. And the adults that say that shit too, why do you think like that? Why do you wish to dismiss that sort of thing in media? So what if it's made for kids? Adults write these stories and plant themes and arcs into them. Why do you think people cried over the Rosalina storybook in Mario Galaxy and think its the best part of that game? You don't want that kind of stuff in games because "they are made for kids"? Why do you think there are so many adults in the Splatoon community hmm?

I am so worried for Deep Cut in the next game because i really don't want this to happen again, i want an actual proper villain arc for either Frye or Shiver. No hypnosis, no brainwashing, no mind control. Just a pure fucking villain arc caused by the flaws of the characters and without the involvement of a third party. Please, i wanna see growth in these characters that is explored way more clearly and better. Or maybe don't do a villain arc again and just have Deep Cut be fully happy with each other and develop their relationship more with lore and backstory. PLEASE!

Anyways ramble over, thank you for reading!

[nephilimbrute]

Yo, how you doin' ? Did you play Side Order ? What are your (gay) though ?

i'm doin alriighhtt :3 i didn't play side order actually (I don't have a switch.) but i went through a gameplay with my friend and i'm scrounging up more lore >w< we were freaking tf out the whole time. especially me. i was screaming at every cutscene

like when marina showed us her computer background i goofy-screamed Out Loud (i probably did that like 8 times in total). there's literally No straight explanation for that, pearl's literally holding marina's zipper in that and he's laying down. nonone has a pic of their Best Friend (heavy quotes) laying down smiling all pretty and handsome like that

OHHHHH THIS ONEEE😭😭😭my girl is literally tearing up she's so happy😭😭😭😭😭 all the dev diaries were sooooo fwjgwgkxkgwkhcjcxjg😭😭😭😭

AND ALL THE PEARLINA???????? my GOD this girl is crazy i hate them so much!!!! /affectionate

jesus CHRIST girl pull yourself toGETHER... "aw pearlie! you say the coolest things" "she's sooooo coool" "pearl, don't drool over my diaries. i'm right here!" "i can't help it! pearl's just too precious. she's fearless at the core and adorable on top!" among many other marina quotes. i'm speechless

and ohhhhhh dedf1sh's letters😭😭😭😭 little marina i can't do this. i get so emotional when i see her, she was just a kid😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭AHHHHHJJJJJJJ😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

marina's hyperfixation on excavators persists. she's such a nerdddddd!!!!!!!

and ughhhghhghjf marina agitando. i was freaking out so bad when i saw her AND PARALLEL CANON. the lore implications THE LORE IMPLICATIONS×@!!!!! this also gives me some new content to use in my AU.....devilish

i said this before but the Order you see in the dlc is in my AU as a type of malware that marina created for herself. she encrypts it into the personal software she uses as an attempt to. self destruct (off) herself. but (Un)fortunately it didn't work. she's just stuck forever wallowing in her own grief

the memverse in my AU is where marina puts everyone she has under her mind control thingy. they're all hooked into the same memverse, marina has her own that she messes with to see the possible consequences of every action she does and. stuff.

and i also said this on my alt twt acc but in the Normal Side Order(...??) my agent 4 turns into parallel canon either voluntarily or unvoluntarily. and since there's others with him i decided to make them robotic clones of 8 and cap3. and they only serve to mock agent 8 and what little they remember of their lovers and themself, a materialized deteriorating memory

tbh i was more focused on the theme of side order instead of dedf1sh stuck in the elevator with two lesbians that would do the unthinkable if they weren't there

here's how i see it. so much for your memories fading away while you are actively trying to get them back

i also kept freaking out At dedf1sh. i shouted them for to get off the screen each time they popped up (also affectionate). creepy zombie GET OUT. dedf1sh and their dumb puppy eyes

unconscience is sooooo good i only listened to it twice and if i did any more times i would be gone and in the woods somewhere

i loved all the bosses.........marina and parallel are my favs....also rondo. That thing's so horrifying i love it. when i saw it i was like "what kind of panopticon shit is this....." and was absolutely THRILLED! to see that it was actually based on a panopticon as well as the floor level (0ct0ptic0n)

and these album covers??????they're so fucking AWESOMEEEEeee i love the album art of splatoon. when i saw all the stuff in alterna i was so amazed. the gear is so awesome too i wish i played splatoon. i'd grind the shit out of side order tbh......smollusk is so cute the. Awwww awww

also this dlc made me realize i'm a big machine but make it girly

as Side Order C.E.O i feasted GOOD this was a bountiful harvest

[zhongrin]

┋ The Steambird Issue No.517

article commissioned by the fontaine steambird magazine and written by ✾ mei/rin ✾

[Breaking News!] Our Fontaine gadget makers did it again, folks!

A collaboration project between Fontaine's best gadget makers and the scholars at Sumeru Akademiya has resulted in a prototype device inspired by the now-obsolete AKASHA system.

Not many details have been revealed, but as the scholars described it, they are aiming to use the concept of AKASHA to create a virtual space, called TeyvaTweets, where people can communicate with one another without seeing each other's faces! Yes - much quite like a communication device, but one that utilizes text instead of the usual verbal methods of communication.

A few selected testers have been invited to try it out, and if you're one of the lucky ones - congratulations! We look forward to seeing how this new technology will help connect people across Teyvat.

——————————⟡⟡⟡ ✉️ ⟡⟡⟡——————————

Dear <USER>,

𝒞ongratulations! You have been selected to help with testing out the fruits of our labor, here at the Sumeru-Fontaine collaboration project. Enclosed is the device containing the application: TeyvaTweets. Have fun perusing it, and we look forward to your feedback.

⧽ [ Turn on the device ]         [ Leave it off ]

ps. user manual and warnings attached on a separate page.

𝚄𝚜𝚎𝚛 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚞𝚊𝚕 𝚟𝟷.𝟶.

you should be able to open it using both phone and pc (it's just a normal website).

clicking on pfp/name/username in a tweet (orange box) will open the profile of that person. clicking the 'x' icon on the popup box's top right side will close the user profile.

clicking the tweet on the main page will open the tweet's replies thread. clicking the back button will bring you back to the main page.

𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜.

there are suggestive contents inside, but nothing explicit.

some of you make cameos under other people's tweets too! see if you can spot yourself ;)

there's a lot of images for this one so the page might load slowly for you, especially if your internet isn't fast. i'm also using a free hosting service from GitHub, so yeah.

in order to indulge everyone, please pretend the tweet reply threads that 'overlap' with one another is a separate world on their own (e.g. if multiple people are flirting with a character and they flirt back in the reply thread don't point fingers and say that they're unfaithful / is cheating / ruin someone else's fun in general ;;;)

tested on chrome & safari web browsers on a mac and iphone + google pixel. crossing my fingers that it works on other devices too...

created for 𝓏𝒽𝑜𝓃𝑔𝓇𝒾𝓃'𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 (submissions are closed)

might make a y/n-ify version of this in the future bc my brain accidentally fleshed out a whole concept of how it would work, but don't count me on that bc it's gonna take a lot more effort than this and honestly idk if it's even worth it-

——————————⟡⟡⟡ ✉️ ⟡⟡⟡——————————

© zhongrin | 2023 ◆ no repost. reblogs much appreciated. feel free to reach out to submit suggestions, feedback, comments, or if you just want to talk!

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[creatingblackcharacters]

Saw your post about favourite Black characters, and while I was tempted to submit Wyll Ravengard right away, but I went for a character from a game I'm currently playing instead because I set aside BG3 for now.

This is Marina Ida, and she's an Octoling introduced in Splatoon 2, carried into its DLC, Octo Expansion, as well as Splatoon 3 and its game DLC, Side Order. [Tried to attach her Splatoon 2 design, but there was weird Tumblr cropping]

She is one of two idols in the second game, which is essentially whoever is announcing the maps, festival results, and other game news. She's one of my favourite characters in the series due to how she's grown to become such a major part of it. Initial impressions wise, she's an archetypal shy, nerdy girl who keeps to her own and within her circle, but as more is revealed about her, she becomes much more than just "the quiet one" in her relationships. Sje was a mechanic for the Octarian Army before defecting, and was one of the first Octolings to take their chances on the surface and find success and happiness, inspiring countless Octolings to follow in her footsteps [including Agent 8, the Octo Expansion protagonist]. She's a bit of an oddball when it comes to her passions, as well as having a very prominent crush on her bandmate, Pearl, where her notebooks and plans feature cutesy drawings of Pearl scribbled on them.

She's a composer and singer, making most of her own tracks, and often singing in Octarian, as opposed to using Inkling language. She represents the broader inbetween a lot of Octolings live in, where they still miss what they had to leave behind and don't hate their past life, but wanted a freedom that wasn't available in Octarian society [this is due to Inklings creating a culture of fear where Octarians constantly feel they need to defend themselves, and are often justified in this fear, reinforcing a military upbringing where you must always be prepared]. There's a lot of real-world ways you could relate those cultural feelings to, even if Marina is not the only character going through them.

She has plenty of flaws, sure, including the fact she is immensely afraid of change and having to let go of the idea her life can be perfect, orderly, and stay as it is now, but it just adds to her ambitions and experiences further as a person.

Sorry this one's a bit long - the lore is pretty lengthy and Marina is definitely a meaty character! Her dynamics with others are always interesting, and I like how she's allowed to have these complex relationships with her home and people around her without it being framed as the incorrect way to feel.

I've seen this character before, but I didn't know there was so much lore behind her! Thank you!

[dishwasherfish]

(side order spoilers)

Somehow it took Side Order to make me realize that every single Splatoon campaign has centered around control vs free will. Octavio uses music to keep his armies content with fighting for him and mind controls Callie. Sanitized inklings lose their free will and are basically aimless. Order’s pulling people into VR and taking away their will to live in reality, so that they’ll be forced to wander aimlessly in Memverse. And then you get the added element of characters with free will choosing to give it up in exchange for stability. Acht gave up their free will out of the belief that doing so would make creating music easier. It’s vaguely implied that Callie sought out Octavio because she was so overwhelmed and was seeking out stability. Marina made Memverse to provide stability to octolings who went through the metro, only for that stability to be turned into complete control and sameness. MANNN.

[sunlightsilence]

MY THOUGHTS ON SIDE ORDER

If you see this, you don't have #side order or #side order spoilers blocked. .

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So. Side order's gameplay is fantastic to me, I've completed it with all 12 palettes now. I love splatoon and I love roguelikes so this was sort of a match made in heaven for me.

Creating the OP builds, the final boss, the general colours and music and vibe of the game is amazing! Everything to do with Pearl and Marina are *amazing* and they're so hella gay it's adorable :D And I love that they're not even hiding the queer representation now. Marina having a sprawled out Pearl as her desktop background is so cute, even seeing an elevator scene where they gush about eachother, and another one where Marina worries that Acht is hitting on Pearl.

And... cannon They/Them Acht! I remember all the people on Reddit being like "it's just the marketing team mistranslating their pronouns in a tweet!" NOPE, it's in game too!

Hell yeah :D Smollusk is adorable and I love him, and maybe we finally have a splatoon villain tumblr won't turn into a tumblr sexyman since he's a literal infant xD

And Pearl Drone is so hecking cute, I love her so much!! If you spin around in the lobby she spins too, and if you stay still she falls asleep :D

I did my first run with Brella cause it's my fav and it has my beloved inkstorm kit from S2! It took me three tries before I beat the tower for the first time, but then every run afterwards with different weapons I've always cleared it (I was got bounced off the tower for that first death and the second I was caught offguard by how fast the reefslider spam is)! Brella was definitely my favourite run, but I also really enjoyed the roller and brush runs. My roughest run was with the Splatling. I had dreaded doing charger after that, but charger turned into my fastest run!

I could see myself unwinding in this mode hundreds more times. I am saying this all to demonstrate that I really love this DLC, it might be my favourite of all the single player modes so far, either that or S2 hero mode. So my following criticisms are out of love for it because it's close to perfect. So the big one is... "the dlc is too short!" I hear that a lot on both tumblr and reddit and someone inevitably chimes in with "You don't play a lot of roguelikes, do you?" I mean... do YOU? I've done over 100 runs in Wizard of Legend, and thousands of hours on Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and Etrian Mystery Dungeon. Yes it's made to be run multiple times, but when a run is only 20-30 minutes it's still only about 6 hours of content if you do all the palettes. And these could be fixed with the assets they already have! Like imagine an Endless mode where the difficulty (enemy speed and hp values and number of spawns) kept ramping up higher and higher each floor, with the leader board being kept track of on the app. Or a daily tower run to save a random cephalopod from being grayscaled - the daily inkling/octoling's palette giving you a random weapon/sub/special for that day that followed the rules of 8's Octoshot (more hacks = less chip slots). Or like a super hard difficulty mode - imagine a mode where every floor had a danger modifier, and maybe a Parallel Cannon spawns into the stage to try to hunt you down (maybe it's even invincible so you have to run away from it while doing the stage objective?) I know the Octoshot is kind of the "hard mode" (it's still not too bad though since it's basically just like starting from the beginning without hacks), but it's not fun being limited to just the one weapon type. Especially for it for people who find the regular shooters boring. I don't feel like this is an unreasonable request either, Wizard of Legend - a roguelike made by *two* people - for instance has a few options for post game challenge runs (a randomized mode, a mode where the enemies start from the highest difficulty from floor 1, an extra long run that touches on all the bosses, a BOSS RUSH mode, Curses - basically one thing gets massively buffed while a second thing gets massively debuffed). The Mystery Dungeon games tend to have unlockable MASSIVE dungeons that start you off from having nothing. (like imagine a 99 floor floor tower where you started with no hacks, and a basic shooter with no sub/special and you had to earn new weapons/subs/specials/hacks as you go). Could do the Curse style idea with extra special Marina hacks. "Hey 8, I just figured out a hack that turns everyone's Max HP to 1 - both yours and your opponents!" "This hack will make you much faster but the floors will always be dark!" Or those Bonus challenges, imagine if there was an option to do conditional runs with them. Like "Beat the Tower without using your special, unlock a specific splat tag banner" Again, I am only criticizing because I love it. It's just also the easiest and shortest of all the single player campaigns we've gotten I feel, and if they were going to lean into the roguelike genre, I wish they looked into how other roguelikes reuse assets to lengthen the gameplay and provide extra challenges to keep players interested for a long time.

AND I AM STILL MAD YOU CAN'T PLAY AS A SQUID AND THEY REMOVED THE PLAYABLE SQUIDBEATZ (half joking. Not really upset, but I do find it odd now that there's more campaigns you can play as an octoling than an inking on the switch now despite inklings being the mascots...... rotm/oe/so vs just s2hero/rotm. And I don't see why we can't just have minigames back, they remove more minigames each entry and paying to listen to music now is frustrating...) Haha... But yes, overall, I loved it. It's a 9/10 from me. Adding squidbeatz and some post game longevity / challenge modes would have made it a 10/10. I can't wait to play more, I can't wait to visit Inkopolis Square again next splatfest :')

Now, onto random observations!

The lobby has jump ramps on the back corner pillars. I don't know why!

You can turn Color Lock on in the main game and it *does* affect Side Order. It gives you permanently Blue+yellow or Blue+green ink, even in the hub area.

So with this boss, it uses the hairstyle from your S2 hero mode data to get their appearance... But I swear mine is using the feminine voice here and when being splat, despite that hairstyle being locked to masculine inkling voices in Splatoon 2? I do use it with the feminine voice in Splatoon 3. Or maybe the voices are just mixed into one here, I can't quite tell? Well it made enby me happy to see. I do kinda wish we got a challenging superboss fight with 4, these felt a bit weak.. but it seems to imply they aren't specifically 4 but Order made them based on their data... So...where is the real 4?!!! Did she never show up to work? Speaking of that boss....

Around the room are these white pipe like structures...

That will be instantly recognizable to anyone who dabbles in japanese model kits - they're sprue trees, like the kind used in Gunpla.

The robotic boss has robot model kit building pieces in the background :D

I still don't quite get the intro scene where everything goes digital on the train.... So it's implying either A) your character got Grayscaled.... But your character is fine when you go back to town... you don't even see any characters standing around suffering it's effects, they could have had some npcs spacing out or acting weird ala Persona 3... or B) you're getting pulled into the memverse too, but there's no sign of your S3 character *at all*... (though this would have been a good way to let us play as an inkling too nintendo >:l *angry woomy noises*)

Honestly I felt kinda like Acht's inclusion was sort of superfluous at first... mostly their role felt like "Pearl & Marina: *does something gay* Acht: wow these two sure are hella gay right 8? i feel like we're third wheels". I kept waiting for some kind of...reveal? Their memories are pretty much fully restored instantly rather than rolled out gradually like I was expecting...I was thinking maybe they'd, like, link them to Paul, or follow up on the recognizing Pearl somehow or being linked to the engineers that created Order or...SOMETHING, but it never came. Other than maybe dropping a hint about the person who instructed them and Marina when they were in school? Their role was really just "I'll hold the elevator and jump in for a song"... But maybe that's okay, eight and Acht are trauma victims and this was meant to be a place to heal them. Maybe it's okay that we take it slow getting to know them.

Okay that's all that's brainworming away at me for now, I'm sure I'll think of more later. Again, I really love it, definitely a 9/10 for me. I hope yall enjoyed it too :)

[vin-lord-of-squid]

I’ve seen a lot of people saying that they don’t want Marina to be a villain in Side Order, and I felt like giving my own two cents on this.

Let’s put something straight right now: 99% of people who say that they don’t want Marina to be a villain would probably actually be fine with her being the villain. What you *actually* don’t want is for:

a. Marina to be a damsel in distress (whether that means kidnapped or mind-controlled),

b. Marina to have a stupid reason for being evil (ie. being upset about losing the Final Fest or something),

or c. Marina to just flip on a dime and start being a mustache-twirling villain out of nowhere.

I actually like the idea of Marina being a villain, if it’s done well. I like the idea of Marina feeling that the world is imperfect, and burrowing deeper into her own delusions (maybe through some sort of outside influence) and going too far by creating the Side Order world. But something that I DEFINITELY don’t want to happen is Marina betraying Pearl in any way shape or form. It’s made very clear through Marina’s Shojo manga about and love letter to Pearl that she thinks Pearl is perfect. Maybe that’s Marina’s goal: To make everything as perfect and beautiful as Pearl and what she has with her (hence the ink and environmental colors being very similar to Pearl’s ink colors.) But through some sort of virus, or other villain, Marina doesn’t realize the harm her actions are causing others, especially Pearl. Maybe that’s what happens at the climax: Pearl finally gets through to Marina about how much she loves her and the world, regardless of whether or not it’s perfect. She tells Marina that it’s all gonna be okay, as long as she’s with her.

In short, I don’t mind Marina being the villain if it’s done well, and neither do most of you probably.