Salmonids in Raiders; my critique, lore analysis, deep sad sighs, and rambles.
FIRST OF ALL; I love Raiders- and Splatoon in general of course.
But I will always want to critique Splatoons treatment on the salmonids, I understand theres cases of the devs wanting to say theyre not inherently evil or bad guys and that the world building itself supports that they're getting taken advantage of and the people who do so are bad (Grizzco)- but its still very unfortunate seeing how theyre treated by the plot and characters that still let it happen or taken advantage of it, and are greatly rewarded for it. The same plot couldve happened, this same world building couldve happened, but if there was moments of sympathy or at least character growth for "hey its a shame we gotta fight these guys but its gotta happen…" I think it couldve done a lot, and still be the bare minimum. I dunno.
Working with what we have though with this; I wonder if the reason salmonids are so entranced and then further corrupted by the spirahlite is because theyre in the spawning age of their life, which makes them less delicious if not gross to eat- making their attraction to it on the basis of re-seasoning, powering back up, or attempting to preserve their rotting bodies- all with the madness it gives them.
A culture of dying deliciously, of giving nutrients back to the environment and world- and you missed your shot. Your internal compass and ability to not go berserk is wacked out by the electrical signals coming from the inkfish and their tech. So you go to the islands where it calls for you, where something ancient and purposefilling waits, and makes you corrupt your body more to re/obtain greatness. But becoming Too Salty isnt delicious anymore. But youre too influenced by too many things to care. But the salt makes it even harder to live and is a detriment (Stingers unable to ever touch the ground again). But you must. The salt. The salt. Help. The salt.
Deep Sad Sighs;
That's my interpretation / what Im running with to make it make sense in my brain. But I still wish and will always wish they do better about the Salmonids. I feel like me exploring this lore and trying to make it work is me making excuses for the devs to let us keep hurting them, which bums me the hell out cause I really like the salmonids. They're inherently flawed, but they couldve really worked in a less two dimensional way- or at least- worked in a plot that was more receptive to them.
This kind of writings stuff that isnt just bad for the salmonids but leaves a bitter taste in so many peoples mouths about more than them- but like- the universe of Splatoon, the characters we're supposed to root for- that are doing very bad things without repercussions or development. And it isnt, new, either. This is an octarian problem too.
Rubbing my eyes. Splatoon is really good at world building and gives a lot of room for creative introspection and reads but its not good at resolving these in universe problems without creating a LOT of things to wince about.
TLDR I love Splatoon, but I will still happily critique it even though I also really like diving into their, and just general splatoon lore, with the mindset of "how do I make this work or get deeper"
...I also think the spiral-salmonids are gross to eat. Theyre too salty, and theyre rotting. And I found that tragic to their established culture.
...THAT WAS THE MAIN REASON I WROTE THIS ASS ESSAY IT WAS JUST CAUSE OF THAT THOUGH IM AGHHCH-!
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