#and 'octoling' in the english translation

[squidkidnerd]

Why is everyone so hung up on NoA's use of the word "inkling????" I've seen so many posts lately that are like "it doesn't make sense that the squid people are called inklings since octolings use ink too so it should be a general term and the squid people should be called squidlings!!!" and like. Yeah. That's true I guess. I dunno, I never really particularly cared about it that much, it's kind of a nitpick. And like—something about "squidling" as a word feels super weird and awkward to me and I don't entirely know why? I think it has something to do with the consonants? Or maybe it's my imagination, who knows. Either way I don't entirely get why people have been getting so hung up on it lately.

[dottedmage]

I think its fun. Inklings have 6 fingers on each hands because you know their design revolves aroun the number 6 and octolings have 4 fingers on each hand because same thing except with 4s

8: You have many fingers

4: How many fingers do You have?

8: 8

4: I can count more on my fingers than you

[rassicas]

Marina's Dev Diaries: localization differences

yeah so I just read through all of Marina's Dev Diaries in Japanese while cross checking it to English localization, just to see how faithfully translated it is and.... GREAT NEWS there's like no significant changes! Like there's the expected minor moving things and wording it different to flow well in english of course, but in terms of overall meaning and characterization its very faithful. I'll cover some minor changes I found but like. again these are so minor it doesn't really matter.

4th Entry Localization: "Poor Pearl doesn't know what to do with a free moment anymore. I'm always catching her bouncing with anticipation."

JP: "Pearl is always bouncing from side to side whenever she has a free moment" This is a reference to Pearl's side hops she did in octo expansion to get hyped and charge her special...this was localized to her "warming up her vocal cords" for the sake of story and the english version just refuses to acknowledge the side hops thing which is. minor inkling biology tidbit at most but eh whatever

8th Entry localization: "I'll handle system management myself! And I think user guidance would be a great fit for Pearl."

imo in JP marina seems more certain and enthused about pearl being in charge of user guidance? I considered not adding this to this post it's barely noteworthy. pearlina crumbs ig

8th Entry Localization: "All that experience making training stages from my days as a tutor at that training program is about to pay off!" JP specifies that Marina tutored at a Takozones training program. What's really annoying is that Takozones are just called something like "Rival Octoling" or "Enemy Octoling" or just "Octoling" in english, but they're supposed to be a specific rank of elite female octoling soldiers. this is just a longtime issue with how muddied octarian classifications are between english and jp lol

12th Entry Localization: "Pearl is joining us too. She doesn't seem to get what it's all about, but she's usually down for whatever. Together, the two of us will make sure Eight gets through it safe!" JP: "Pearl is joining us too. With her being like "I don't really get it, but 'cuz it sounds like fun I'll go!", us two will keep Eight safe!"

This is a super minor change but it's cute getting a quote from pearl where she sounds actually hyped for it vs a "yeah ig shes down for it"

Acht's Letter 1 Localization: ""You should be diligent and dedicated, like a true Octarian!" I heard it so many times that it turned into white noise."

I just wanted to share a pun here that doesn't translate instead of "white noise" Acht says an equivalent idiom of "I got calluses on my ears (from hearing the same thing over and over)" The word for "callus" is homophonous with "octopus", tako. lol octopus jokes

[nexlikestoyap101]

Happy Pride Month 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️...check out Splatoon!!🦑🐙

Splatoon is so diverse when it comes to sexuality and gender. Don't believe me? Here's a list:

Pearl and Marina, also known as Off the Hook - the most unsubtle non-confirmed lesbian couple (but it's pretty much canon by now). Check out this post full of evidence!

Acht - the series' first major confirmed nonbinary character, using they/them pronouns, correcting mistranslations from both official sources and fan translations. (Also commonly headcanoned as aroace or other variations, based on their reactions to romantic scenes between Off the Hook)

Orion (the green one) - nonbinary character from the supporting cast, confirmed by this dialogue from their friend. (Only video I could find of the dialogue in quesiton)

The band Diss-Pair - commonly headcanoned as a gay couple based on the fact that they appear in the Valentine's Day artwork for 2019 (by extension, the giant group in the front can be a polycule, if you really want them to be)

Cipher...

And

6. Smollusk - ^ both characters who use it/its pronouns. Listed on their individual wiki pages.

7. Finn - a presumed transgender female fish if we think about real life betta fish biology.

8. Shiver - initially speculated to be nonbinary, based on their pronouns in the Japanese version. Later confirmed to be female in English.

Some of these are more canon than others, but let's just have fun regardless, yeah? And celebrate what we do have!

Some more things I can think of:

Craig Cuttlefish and DJ Octavio - popularly headcanoned as the 'textbook definition of old men yaoi lovers to enemies 🎵'

Agent 24 - popular ship between Agent 3 and Agent 8 (3x8=24, math puns!), due to promotional art + 2020's Valentines Day Artwork. (The characters often change in gender in appearence in promotional artwork)

Multiple ships between the games large cast of female characters

Removal of gendered hair/clothing options in Splatoon 3.

Various same-sex ships from the spin-off manga, Coroika.

Multiple of the above pairings listed are Inkling/Octoling ships (Squid/Octopus) - a reoccuring theme in the game is the opression of Octolings, mirroring real world issues of discrimination and 'forbidden love.'

Jumping off from that middle point, the game is female-centric (with lots of female characters + the default for the playable character being female-presenting), as the developers discuss in a 2015 Famitsu interview:

Splatoon has always been a franchise where hopefully people can see themselves represented in game, particularly young girls. As the franchise develops, more and more diverse characters are added for this exact purpose.

This is an amazing series where hopefully all sorts of people can feel represented in one way or another!

Sorry if I got any details about any of the characters/events wrong - I'm going off of my memory and observations about the fandom, mostly. I just really wanted to share these facts with everyone! You're welcome to share your own intrepratations and facts in the reblogs too! :) Let me know if I missed anything!

Happy pride! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🦑🐙

[mollusc-era]

(o)raian chirpy chips has a really interesting design to me. not only are they a cirrate octopus- a subgenus of deep sea octopus that produce neither ink nor change color, but they don't really... look like the type of octopus they're supposed to be that much..?

(o)raian is an opisthoteuthis depressa, a species of flapjack octopus that has a common name in japanese but not in english, which is why it's usually just translated to flapjack octopus (at least in the context of raian). they're a bit more wrinkly looking than other flapjack octopsues, and from what i've seen their color ranges from red to orange, and, well. they can't change color.

while raian does have orange hands/feet and red tips of their tentacles, they're primarily green? that, along with the shape of their head and face, makes me think that their design was probably meant to resemble a classic green alien, which is really interesting when you consider the fact that the term octarian was originally supposed to be a portmanteau of octopus and alien, something that was kind of lost in localization when the r wasn't switched to an l.

do i think this means that raian is supposed to be an octarian? eh, not really. i think the most likely explanation for this is that raian's design was reused octarian concept art.

i do think the concept of them being an octarian/octoling is really interesting though, and so despite the fact that i don't think the intention is that they're an octoling in disguise, i like interpreting them that way, both because of the whole alien thing and for some other reasons relating to cirrate octopuses in splatoon concept art.

i'll probably make another post at some point about octopus species + how they influence my designs n how i think of it in an in-universe sense, but for now, this post is just about raian :)

[emile-hides]

Top ten in-universe reasons for Grizz’s personality shift in the English Translation

As Grizz’s plan came closer to the conclusion he simply mellowed out, as there was less urgency to collect golden eggs

The Inkopolis Branch of Grizzco was run entirely by Lil’ Judd, and the “Grizz” speaking to us is just Lil’ Judd with a voice changer. Little dude full of rage

Grizz found Inkopolis residents were more likely to attempt to “Prove him wrong” when criticized, thus leading to better results after a failed shift

Grizz was just so irritated by how far away Inkopolis was and how much transfer costs for golden eggs was across boarders that he took it out on us

Grizz recorded all his Inkopolis voice lines first after devising the plan and was still just so peeved about the state of the world he didn’t have the composer to censor his hate for all sea life like he does now

Inkopolis residents just, in general, did worse than Splatsville residents, and thus deserved to be verbally abused for a failed shift

Grizz recorded his Splatsville voice lines first, while still learning Inkling/Octoling language, thus leading to a much more calm neutral tone

The Splastville voice lines are ripped directly from old footage Grizz found of Office Comedies that he thought sounded cool and practiced to himself over and over (thus why he also uses them in his boss fight)

Grizz has barely any clue what he’s saying he spied on other Bosses that spoke the Inkling/Octoling language and is just repeating what he heard at random

HR pulled Grizz into their office to discuss the way he speaks to his employees sometime between games

[t00nyah]

i came up with a small idea for splatoon 3 au and accidentally made a new oc i think

au idea: so you know how a lot of things in splatoon 3 hero mode aren't welcome to octarians even tho you can play as an octoling? well i made an au where neo agent 3 - an inkling - has an octoling girlfriend, and together they follow craig and now both of them (with smallfry of course) are recruited as new nss agents!

now they both are salty over cuttlefish's negative octarian remarks lol

meet agent 6(they made smallfry into agent 5 - 5mallfry) — Arctic/Arcty (she/her) — an octoling from a family of archeologists(?) who inspect anything they can find left from human civilization, trying to decrypt little of ancient texts they discover, to understand ancient human languages for over a century. she herself has a passion for linguistics and therefore she is studying to become a linguist in college!

for all that reasoning Arctic has a little journal with all the researches and something like a dictionary (which can in fact be incorrect i like to imagine how some japanese or english words were mistranslated by her family)

i also like to think that if alterna logs were written in some kind of a human language then it would be fun if Arctic took it as her responsability to try to translate them, so her and Neo would spend days on that...and they would run to the Captain with great news that they finally decyphered some of alterna logs...and it might even end up incorrect lol (i know that alterna logs are probably NOT in any human languages since o.r.c.a. specifically gives access to you and it would be silly if it didn't know that you can't read them)

also a little side note: Neo learned octarian for Arcty, so they sometimes talk on octarian when they're too salty over cuttlefish's behavior, but little did they know that he also knows octarian...

also they first met in Tableturf Battles Dojo!

Neo enjoys collecting cards mostly, but when they get into playing it doesn't take long for them to become caught up in battle. so, being a cocky person they are, Neo tried to challenge Arctic, because thought they could get a win easy when they've got lots of funky cards — spoiler alert, they did not. but Arctic liked their attitude so she tried to meet them again, and actually did! after some time they grew to like each other, so now they're the coolest girlfriends in the world and secret agents, isn't that cool?

(check image description for text on pictures...i guess...i hope i understood how they work correctly qwq)

[arglemouf]

can someone explain to me why big man speaks like "ay ay! (human translation here)"?? like the inklings and octolings definitely don't speak english/human language either, and i'm pretty sure (cmiiw) they speak a different language to each other, but are still mutually intelligible? so why have they never made a deal out of the language difference except for big man. im genuinely asking, i'm curious for any canon or fanon explanations.

is it like, he says "ay ay!" aloud and then (whispers) his actual message? or is "ay" just the sound his language makes. but then why aren't other characters' translations parenthesised in the same way??

[mentally-insane-splatoon-fan]

It's probably true that inklings and octolings at least know about English, and sometimes can use it. There's definitely something more to it than the languages we hear from them, and I have some evidence:

Why does everything they say have the ability to be translated to English? The infamous "genderless bathrooms" in barnacle and dime shows that there is a translation that can be made into English, but how would they know of the English language if they only use their veemos and woomys? It's because they know about, and probably can use, the English language.

Another thing, how are they knowledgeable about food, like ramen and pizza, if they never saw a translation of it ever? I know that everything in alterna is translated, which brings up a whole host of other confusing questions (none of which I'm sure I'll get answers to), but how would they know how to cook fucking RAMEN?! It's never stated that there was a translation into their language before, and it's clear that they know of its existence (there's literally an entire stage focused on it). So they must have translated it from English into their language, then cooked it! But how did they know how to translate it? Because they know the English language!

[squid-ink-symphony]

RASSICAS TRANSLATED AN INTERVIEW

first of all, huge thnak you to them and everything they do for the english splatoon community. They make so much of the lore accessible for everyone and they deserve the world. I'm only going to be sharing my thoughts on the side order portions of the interview, but the whole thing was a very interesting read which was chock full of cool information. So i suggest you check it out yourself and show rassicas some love if you do.

And now, WHOS READY FOR MY RAMBLING!!!!!!

Ok. So they still aren't confirming one way or another if the octoling is 8, but at least we now know that this is on purpose. As for why they are not telling us? I think that we won't be fully sure at the begining of the DLC either, and that we will later learn that they indeed aren't 8. But that's just my idea.

So this whole part doesn't really tell us much other than the fact that Off The Hook will appear in the DLC, which we already knew. But what i'm interested in is the part where they say the gameplay for Side Order will be "different and new" which has me VERY intrigued. I'm really excited to know what new mechanics they could introduce to make it feel different. If they had just said the story will feel different that would be one thing. I mean the trailer was so ominous and weird we could have already guessed that. But the GAMEPLAY being new is much more interesting news.

So, we finally have confirmation that the concept is based off of "if Team Order had won". How this will actually work out is up to debate, but as someone who thought that idea was kinda silly(won't get into it for the sake of this not being a long and negative post) i can't say i'm not a little bit disappointed. Anyway, i'm sure i'll love the DLC no matter what happens in it so i really couldn't care less lol.

[squidsavior]

You think localization is hard? The english translators made a canon character racist. And didn't mention a single bit in the third game about how he's just a forgetful old man. To the point fandom has decided "the old man is racist because he's a boomer- also he called the player character a slur if you play as an octoling"

Do you like having to deal with the hivemind?

Justice for Cuttlefish.

[tenten-ten]

I’m having issues make inkling/octoling heads and I’m trying to make a 3/4 head view can you show how to make head views

I apologize that I am so late.

”what app/website do you use to make art and what brushes do you use.”

↓

I used to paint on my PC, but recently I have been using I use iPad.

I use Photoshop and Procreate as applications！

We often use the two types of pens in the image.

6B (pencil) → Drafts and scribbles

Hard airbrush → line drawing and coloring

”I’m having issues make inkling/octoling heads and I’m trying to make a 3/4 head view can you show how to make head views”

↓

I create characters as I like them, so this may not be helpful, but I either create the visuals I like and then think about personality, or I think about visuals, equipment, hairstyle, etc. from the personality.

I am conscious of not changing too much from the original hairstyle so as not to spoil the image as much as possible.

I then prepare the image and observe it carefully before drawing it.

※For some reason, it is inverted.

I do not speak English, so I am using a translation app. Sorry if some parts are hard to understand or not helpful.🙇

[somethingforsenro]

to whom it may concern

it's about rassicas… kinda… but really just an excuse to ramble about headcanons.

~ { • • • } ~

hey, so… fair disclosure.

firstly, this is gonna ramble on for a long, long time. so, if you don't have it in you to do a stupid amount of reading… oue deeply apologize.

secondly, this isn't anything serious. it's not about to be eggman's announcement 2, making a call-out post on tumblr.com. so, if you're hoping for anything actually important, you should probably check out now.

this is just the ramblings of yet another autistic person currently hyperfixating on splatoon. that's all.

also, oue actually really like rassicas. if it weren't for their noble sacrifices of blood, sweat, and tears (that are definitely NOT made of ink), there would be countless millions living their whole lives never knowing that there was some developer interview, somewhere, that never got translated out of japanese, where someone said that some of the younger octolings on the surface, might, maybe, be starting to forget that they are, in fact, octolings, and how could we ever live without that knowledge?

in all seriousness, though, they're singlehandedly carrying the entire splatoon theory community on their back every day. "ceo of splatoon lore" is right.

on that note, oue would personally put a teeny-tiny asterisk on that very impressive resume. let's talk about it!

~ { • • • } ~

so, if you've ever talked to the average young-ish squid person fan, you probably have a good idea of the sort of ignorance rassicas is fighting on a daily basis with all that translating.

people can get pretty defensive of their canon-that's-actually-fanon. it says in the english localization of the game, after all, that marina lived in the ‘ruthless oppression of octarian society, that was definitely caused entirely by dj octavio, and this is totally a direct quote’.

sometimes, they don't really BELIEVE you, or at least don't WANT to believe you, when you tell them that maybe they're wrong.

trust ous. oue know. people have insisted to ous, very heatedly, that marie is agent 1 and callie is agent 2. even though they're definitely not. even noa got THAT part right.

point is, there comes a time when you have to put your foot down and say in no uncertain terms that no, hypnotized octolings are NOT canon to splatoon jp. among other things.

but this is where oure problem lies. not to say that this is by any means an intentional action on ki's part, or at all what they intend to tell people – in fact, oue're pretty sure they've said the exact same thing oue're about to say in several of their oft-referenced yt videos…

but it seems like SOME people haven't gotten the message, so…

just because it's not canon doesn't mean you can't headcanon it.

“now, hold on, senro,” oue hear you saying, “i am but a wee raccoon, surfing the seven cyber-seas, borne of the waves of tumblopolis. i don't know what a ‘headcanon’ is. it sounds like a foul, black magic to me – which is exactly why i must know just what you mean.”

thank you, captain raccoon. oue will explain what a headcanon is.

in case anyone doesn't know, a headcanon is something that isn't really a fact within the universe, but you think it's cool, so you choose to believe it's true, anyway. these are normal things that pretty much anyone with opinions can make up about the stuff they're passionate about, and splatoon is no exception.

and, yes. ‘hypnotized octolings’ does, in fact, qualify as a headcanon. as long as you acknowledge, in some deep, dank, dark part of your soul, that it's not really been confirmed by nintendo – actively contradicted, in fact – that octolings are hypnotized…

well, you're not gonna hurt anyone. except octavio, maybe. but then again, he seems to have absolutely no qualms with brainwashing them all a different way by constantly blasting propaganda at them 24/7, so maybe not even he would care.

on that note, the rest of this post will just be ous rambling about oureselves and oure own personal headcanons. if some demonic force somehow possesses you to care, you can read on, but if not… woe befall all ye who enter here.

~ { • • • } ~

as an author, and a roleplayer, oue personally like to mix together little ideas from various sources to make one greater whole. for example:

splatoon jp's ‘octolings are not immune to propaganda, and the octarian species's survival is existentially threatened’

splatoon en's ‘modern octarian society is very oppressive, and modern octavio and craig are both bumbling idiots – how the hell did they even get here’

splatoon community fanon, like ‘octolings are hypnotized just like callie, and the calamari inkantation can overpower it’

the shiny things that other people came up with and oue snatched up, like ‘callie is actually really emotionally attached to her shades because they give her a kind of emotional stability that she usually doesn't get’

oure own personal thoughts, like ‘the shooting off of the Hypnoshades gave callie a dissociative identity who acts exactly like her hypnotized self did; their name is Aori, and they are her Big Momma Bear that helps her be more assertive and emotionally independent than she was in the Squid Sisters Stories. also, the Hypnoshades are literally a sentient fucking being that marie is casually imprisoning in a cabinet drawer, its name is hypnos and its pronouns are it/they/she AND it somehow needs even MORE therapy than callie does!’

as you might be able to tell from all that, it's a pretty hectic mix. it's chaotic, it's messy, and to less knowledgeable friends, oue often have trouble communicating which stuff is jp canon, eng canon, fanon, or headcanon.

(because, let's face it, those are all completely different beasts. they overlap at times, yes, but you're never gonna get anything even vaguely coherent if you try to make them all the same.)

however, oue mix stuff together anyway. not out of any malicious desire to mislead, but because it's just more fun to write that way. and, honestly, what's the point of being in this community if you never let yourself have any fun?

so, on that note…

a little advice.

~ { • • • } ~

if you want to know the japanese localization's lore, go to literally any content by rassicas, or watch jexst's ‘exhaustively comprehensive explanation of the splatoon series's main story (with timeline)’.

if you want to know the english localization's lore, look up "splatoon iceberg" and get ready for something absolutely off-the-walls. the upper layers tend to have a lot of popular fanon, too, so be ready for that. either way, it's not a good iceberg unless they mention THE TOFU and pearl's octo form at some point.

and if you want to hear the stuff that various people like you have come up with, look no further than right here on tumblr! there are plenty of super creative headcanons to be found here just by doomscrolling, and you don't even have to traumatize yourself for life quite as much as you would on twitter or amino!

on that note… oue're so sorry that you had to subject yourself to this post.

also, toodle pip, and thanks for reading!

[rassicas]

random question, but in the english version of the tartar fight, pearl says something like "Blowing out my voice is a small price to pay for saving the world!" but no matter where i look, i can't seem to find anything like that in the jp version. i can't shake the feeling that i've missed something…

what do we know about hime's senpai cannon in the jp version? was ‘blowing out my voice’ just an invention of the localization team?

ignore the youtube loading bar this is the JP of the 'blowing out my voice' line, she's saying something like '...got it. ill give my voice if it means saving the world!' so its not really that different.

however, what's notably different is what comes before this.

(timestamp 1:13:17)

in the english version, marina instructs pearl to warm up her vocal chords. in JP, marina tells her to build up emotional energy/excitement/hype (テンション） to use her special. afterwards as well, just before pulling out the princess cannon, instead of saying "vocal chords ready!" she says something like "hype to the max!" to announce that her special is ready. during the time when you ink the statue, if you look up at the helicopter, you can see pearl hopping from side to side. again, this isnt her warming up her vocal chords, but rather charging up her special! it's a small change, but it leaves out a neat piece of info about inkling/octoling biology: specials are directly linked to emotional energy! this info pops up here and there in JP, like in splatfest dialogue, but in english not so much.

the art of splatoon book mentions it, but the way its worded makes it seem like it only applies to inkzooka. i looked at the JP text for this tho and i remember that this translation being a little weird and the jp text not implying that its only inkzooka that uses that kind of ink.

this art also shows the link between specials and emotions, pearl getting so upset over losing in smash that she charges her special LOL

i assume the lines were changed in localization for the sake of story flow and simplicity. they hadn't really been making those specials=emotional energy references in the english dialogue before, so it wouldn't make sense to start then. it is what it is i guess.

[hyp3rsh0ck]

Octoling be upon ye

His name is deimos and he translated breaking bad from English to the Splatoon language somehow (he is also extremely silly)

[suffering-for-eternity]

Splatoon headcanons!

inklings and octolings are collectively called inklings, with subdivisions of squidlings and octolings

the inklings you see in the advertisement are paid models and (head)canonically advertise turf wars and splatfests and fashion

Black ink is not used in turf wars because it's too expensive due to its concentration and would just be a waste of money. It has no properties different to other inks besides that.

inklings are often hired for fashion jobs because they can produce nearly any vibrant colors out of ink. these fashion jobs include modeling because it's more cost-effective to use clothing on similar body types to the designer.

Inklings are just casually racist. just. they had a splatfest over which race was better, reenacting the great turf war in a friendlier way. I think this is actually canon, inklings are just racist.

adding onto that, inklings tend to leave out other races when designing clothing and infrastucture, leading to hiring assistants whose only purpose is to make things more friendly for other species.

much like people do now, inklings use ancient characters such as japanese and, to a lesser extent (because it's less pretty) english in wildly incorrect ways. They can translate most ancient languages, they just don't in this case.