Splatoon's Story and What It Means To Be Human

Hey guys! Thank you so much for watching. This video has been a passion project of mine for the past few months, and I’m really excited to finally release it. Between scripting, voiceover, illustration, animation, and editing, this project took at least a couple hundred hours to complete, and it’s hard to believe it’s actually finished. Please keep in mind that this essay is a bit more personal than my “discussion” videos. The goal wasn’t really to analyze the games objectively as much as it was to explain my own reasons for falling in love with the world of Splatoon. I hope by listening to these thoughts, you might find something new to take away from this series and video games in general. At the very least, I hope you enjoy!

I wish people during my time in high school understood why I was into this game. I would sort of get clowned on by a lot of people for it. Now in college the new people I've met show interest in it even if they never heard of it. One quick gander at the my consoles screen, sketchpad, or backpack is all it takes to know what it is. Really this game is what got me to go to college since I appreciate its love for the arts. Art is really the only thing I see myself doing with my life. I keep to myself as a means of protecting myself from being disappointed, hated, and hurt. What I create does the talking for me because I can't ever seem to allow myself to verbally say anything.

Idk where all the criminally underrated splatoon channels are coming from, but im here for it

I've heard a theory talking about how Tartar and Judd were meant to be together, with Judd being the emotional side and Tartar being the logical side. With Tartar being by themselves for thousands years made him essentially lose any humanity he'd had and just made decisions by logic, coming to the conclusion that killing and remaking is better than teaching.

A perfect phrase to describe Splatoon culture and history would be this. "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

sometimes i get really emotional thinking about wave goodbye, the splatoon 3 credits song, because you can hear human voices chanting the calamari inkantation. this implies that it was written by humans and passed down to inklings and octolings, even if by accident, and that it is quite literally IN their dna. it makes me wonder if inklings and octolings, upon hearing this song, feel the same hope and joy that we feel when embracing our human nature and indomitable spirit. i know its really silly but its how i feel.

honestly, i feel like Splatoon 3's hero mode is actually the perfect addendum to your point about how the power of creation can change lives for the better. the game's ending is not only a fanservice-y "everyone is here!" moment outside of characters in splatoon 2's octo expansion, but also the first time all 3 sides, Inkling, Octoling, and Salmonid, are working together. it's a unification of all former sea life that CAN fight to do so to protect their only home from yet another misinterpretation of what might as well of been Humanity's Last Will and Testament to this world. we have new Agent 3 on the front lines of space, the anarchy trio joining with the squid sisters and octavio to drop the fattest musical beat to kick ass with, and Little Buddy, your sidekick goes from the little sidekick to a secondary protagonist empowered by the inkantation as well. the battle in space is a spectacle of a statement that says "the next generation will always create greater and greater feats" basically. it's also the first Base Game storyline where you can play as an Octoling, which can be looked into from the standpoint of mercifully putting thier fuzzified former friends out of their misery.

The first day I played Splatoon 3 and learned that Inklings and Octolings basically came to be because of those crystals that showed the dreams of humanity changed my view of the whole game... It is so sad yet beautiful

I always interpreted Tartar’s speech as darkly ironic. He, like many fascists, idealizes civilizations of the past, looking at their successes while ignoring their flaws. Octo Expansion celebrates the fact that there will never be a perfect civilization, but that lack of perfection, as you say early on, is what makes interesting worlds - what makes us human. When we kill him, we destroy the last direct link to humanity. It’s horribly melancholy, but it’s a necessary step - we must let go of the past to meet the future. I’m so glad this game series exists. (Also, this was an absolutely incredible video. You should be very proud of it.)

i have NEVER seen anyone describe why exactly i adore splatoon's art and lore, but this video is exactly that, and exactly what i needed after side order's release. i've been thinking about why the themes of this series, the appreciation of humanity, art, and connection, and why they speak so much to me, but it's not so easy to put into words. but this sums it up SO WELL. it also perfectly illustrates why octo expansion changed my damn brain chemistry forever. i wish i could telepathically beam this video into everyone's head, oh my god

I was genuinely emotional moved by this video. Even thinking about Splatoon as strictly a video game, there's no doubt it has flaws, and yet, it still unites a bunch of people together to connect over it.

Reason #635894 why Octo will forever be the best Splatoon campaign

37:43 “eight” actually IS a nickname (very very very very very small side order spoilers to the point where it kinda isnt even a spoiler but still technically is) in one of the dev diaries in Side Order, Marina states “agent 8 felt to formal,” so she said “yo, eight!” To agent 8, and 8 gave her a big smile. neat

Me when clicking on this video: "Hmm... I'll watch this for a bit but I'm a bit too busy to watch the whole thing..." Your superior writing and storytelling to 99% of channels like this blocking the door on my way out:

Oh this? This is a great video essay. When I say I love Splatoon's lore, I sometimes find it hard to express what I mean by that... Like, people assume lore=plot and get confused because on the whole, Splatoon's story mode plotlines and writing is uh...y'know. LOL But no, it is the WORLD of Splatoon that has an iron grip on my brain. The level of detail put into the most random aspects of the Inkling's society and culture, the way the developers have thought about the world in a way that feels realistic and subtly dark despite the colorful cartoony exterior, the morally gray conflict between species that isn't fully addressed in the main stories but certainly exists in the background, the sociopolitical parallels to our own world and the way the echoes of humanity influences their society and- it's hard to express! You've wonderfully encapsulated here WHY you, I, so many people love the world of Splatoon despite the surface level plot being far from the pinnacle of storytelling. Also really refreshing to see someone who actually GETS IT analyze Splatoon's story on a deeper level and what it's all about. excellent narration, editing, production quality, 888 out of 10

Those human voices chanting the Calamari Inkantation hitting my feels like a frying pan to the head frfr

I want to tie in Chaos vs Order. It’s a beautiful miracle that Chaos won. Pearl was the embodiment of change. She wanted expression and free will. She stood up for everyone, especially those she loved. Her victory is the perfect end cap to Octo Expansion’s ending. Because she won, we got a more accepting society with a mishmash of cultures all smeared onto one canvas. That’s pretty special

I wonder if Tartar was actually "disgusted" by the new species specifically because they had already made the same mistakes humans had, before Tartar even got the chance to relay the humans' information/knowledge? Perhaps one of his goals was to relay the humans' knowledge for the specific purpose of preventing new sentient life from making the same mistakes that they did. I wonder if wiping out the species entirely was a conclusion that the AI came to itself - lacking that sense of humanity - or if it was something that humans had programmed into it, thinking it would be more "humane" to stop another species from potentially suffering the way they did? Tartar and the extinction of the humans in the Splatoon universe is so spooky to think about!!! Anyways. This video made me SO EMOTIONAL. It is SO GOOD. I want more people to see how amazing the message from the Splatoon world is!!! Definitely going to share this video as much as possible!!! :)

Side order spoilers - - - I think your retrospective fits in nicely with side order, Marina wanted to take things slower and was afraid of life and the relationships she's apart of changing so she unintentionally made order a static being. I think it fits in nicely with the rest of the splatoon storyline.

You really just- explained WHY Splatoon feels so alive ❤❤❤