Team Past Propaganda

Team Past Propaganda

Because I started thinking about it again and now I'm all emotional-

I want to convey in words why I chose Team Past and why I don't think it contradicts the themes of the Splatoon story modes, because while the Squid Sisters do a great job of describing my basic reasoning in the Splatfest introduction, I understand why the story modes might feel like Present or Future are the "correct" answers.

(Spoilers ahead for all story modes, including Octo Expansion and Side Order)

Nearly every Splatoon villain is stuck in the past or heavily influenced by it in some way.

Mr Grizz and Tartar are the obvious ones: Grizz wants to see the return of mammals, and Tartar is disgusted with the current ex-sea life running the planet and wants to wipe it out and start over in favor of creatures more like his beloved humans.

In a way, being born of the regrets and desires of some escaped Octolings to return to their more orderly roots, Order/Smollusk can also be described as being motivated by the past. Even DJ Octavio does much of what he does because of the outcome of the Great Turf War and old grudges.

A recurring overall theme of these story modes, started in Octo Expansion and then expanded on (heh) in Rise of the Mammalians and Side Order, is that you can't turn back the clock, and you can't escape change. Even if Tartar and Grizz had "won", nothing would have brought back Tartar's scientist or the old mammals. In fact, their plans would have, ironically, destroyed humanity's last remnants. (And don't get me started on the thematic symbolism of Mr Grizz becoming biologically more fuzzy ink monstrosity than actual bear-)

I don't think it's a stretch to say that Grizz at the end of RotM is speaking with authorial intent in his final moment of clarity: "The times have changed. The world can never be as it was. Moving forward...is the future."

So the point of these story modes is that you can't move backwards. You can't rewind time; what's done is done, what's past is past, and obsessing over it and trying to revive it at the cost of the present and future isn't healthy (and doesn't work anyways).

But that doesn't mean you should never look back.

Rise of the Mammalians, like every other story mode dating all the way back to the Wii U, has optional lore, and it dropped an absolute bombshell for us lore nerds: the current ex-sea life of the Splatoon world didn't just evolve after humanity fell, their evolution was influenced by the desires of the last humans in Alterna. The species grew to leave the water because the Alternans' last wishes were to see the sun again. (And it was somehow transmitted through crystal detritus, which is some interesting sci-fi, but sure, why not?)

And this, in my opinion, is a pretty emotional reveal, and is treated as such.

Suddenly, all the significance given to Calamari Inkantation over the series pulls itself together - the fact it is an old, practically ancient folksong, described as being part of Inklings' very DNA, yet with the power to compel Octolings to seek the surface as well, and even transform Smallfry? If all that isn't enough to spell it out for you, the Inkantation is sampled in the credits' theme Wave Goodbye... Chanted by human vocals. The song that's been an Inkling battle anthem and the inciting moment of so many Octoling character arcs was passed down by humanity. Those scrolls from Splatoon 1 casually dropping that our colorful squid-kid world is a post-apocalyptic one come full circle.

Rise of the Mammalians tells us not to get so obsessed with the past that we try to turn back time... But in the same breath, reveals the past of the Inklings and Octolings and sea creatures we love so much and uses it to tie them together in the present.

Even Marina, a character who can "take or leave" her past and continually, consciously chooses to focus on the present (and to a certain extent, the future), goes out of her way to create the Memverse to help sanitized Octolings regain their memories of the past. She's also happy to reunite with Acht, who she shares a lot of history with. An exclusively present focused view could theoretically tell those Octolings that they don't need their memories to be whoever they want to be now, or could bristle at someone showing up from a problematic past, but Marina clearly doesn't hold to anything like that. She values the present the most, but she doesn't scorn the past.

And I think that's what I like about this Splatfest so much, and why it made me think about my choice for so long. Like Chaos vs. Order, (where they're careful to make clear that Pearl doesn't hate the status quo, and Marina doesn't necessarily want nothing to ever change), I feel they were careful to try and be clear that there isn't a definitive "correct" answer to this one. Callie herself points out at the start of her defense that all three of Past, Present, and Future are important, and I agree.

Splatoon as a series emphasizes living in the Present and not being afraid of a changing Future, but I believe it also values the Past. It loves to show where its characters and world came from to inform a little more about who they are today. (Just look at each member of Deep Cut getting a dedicated Sunken Sea Scroll about their family history!) I believe it takes a similar stance I do, that while your Past doesn't entirely define you (again, see Marina), it is nonetheless important - crucial even - to understanding who you are.

And someday, as you move onward through the present towards a brighter future, you'll look back at today - at the past - to see how far you've come.

So, uh, yeah. This cephalopod game makes me emotional and I love finding excuses to blab about it, so might as well get it in words before the actual Grand Fest starts.

If you read this whole thing, thank you so much, and whatever team you pick, I wish you the best!

Splatoon 3 Grandfest 7/?

Keity Pop and Mari Kikuma [Callie and Marie VAs] are playing together for Team Past~

he's a lot harder to fit on this canvas size..

small versions and bonus colors. palettes from the Yellow Version's sprites of Snorlax, Mew, Beedrill, Butterfree, and Ivysaur respectively.

End-of-Splatoon thoughts.

Thinking about how since the very start, Splatoon has had a feature where players can draw and post artwork and spot them as graffiti on walls or billboards. Or how the weapons have always been paint brushes and rollers and ballpoint pens. Since its inception, Splatoon has been dedicated to engaging its players with the act of creation and creative expression, showing them how their art can build communities and (literally) change the world.

Thinking about finding human-made music discs buried underground for thousands of years, and a grand finale music festival. About those human handprints etched into concrete in Alterna. Did those human artists know it would end like this? First a fiery death and then, eventually, a worldwide celebration of music to represent our shared past, present, and future. Did they know that their songs, insignificant in the face of extinction, would one day become the solution that will save the next dominant life-form from the same fate?

Thinking about how eerily similar the Octarian domes are to Alterna. About how close Inklings and Octolings were to repeating the same mistakes as humans. But their doomed fates were undone not by some miracle technology or military power or a rocket, but by music.

Thinking about how humans wiped themselves out with war, and our parting gifts were liquid crystals that somehow paired with the DNA of primeval inklings and somehow infused them with our memories and culture and a Song. And 12,000 years in the future, that same Song will end a war.

Thinking about how art and music and punk culture and rock & roll and friendly competition and petty arguments and water guns aren’t uniquely human concepts, but the fundamental qualities of intelligent life. An inheritable spirit that can cross evolutionary bounds.

Thinking about the theme of Splatoon, that art and music and fun will not die with the human race. That every piece of art we create is a seed we sow for future generations to reap. That our legacy is ingrained into the crust of the earth. That long after we’re gone, the oceans will remember, and they’ll pick up where we left off.

Thinking about how Splatoon says that the essence of humanity –– the thing that will outlive us –– isn't war or prejudice or destruction or greed, it's a song.

In some other Anniversary News, a new album was announced: Ordertune

Bonus Pic of Acht because holy carp, look at that genuine smile

Now you can hear #47 Onward with this on mind