It kind of sucks that a lot of people boil down Splatoon’s Final Splatfest- Callie vs. Marie- to a “Waifu War” and nothing else. Honestly, when you look back on it, it really does serve a specific purpose in the same way Splatoon 2’s Chaos vs. Order does. It seems like a bit of a disservice to not acknowledge it as such.
I personally believe the Callie vs. Marie Splatfest was indicative of the Squid Sisters’s rapidly dissolving relationship. Throughout the course of Splatoon, we saw Marie relentlessly insult, bully, and humiliate Callie on live television. As much as people don’t want to admit it… This was an intentional move by the writers. Marie was not being “sassy,” she was being extremely, overtly mean, entirely unprompted, to Callie’s face, on live fucking television. Callie dealt with this at first, because taking a few digs from your friend now and then is par for the course, but over time… We see it start affecting Callie more and more.
There were times where Callie would snap back at her in self defense, actually getting fed up with Marie’s relentless insults. It was undeniable that Marie was crossing a line- several, even!- but she kept at it anyway, because she’s… Honestly just not a very nice person. Hell, she even basically told Callie, through the language of Splatoon, to kill herself in the middle of a broadcast!! The tensions between the two of them were high by the time the Final Splatfest was rolling around- and for good reason, especially on Callie’s end.
The Final Splatfest represents this tension, and it does so extremely literally- by directly pitting the two of them against each other. It’s showing the divide between them at its worst! That’s why Splatoon 2’s Final Splatfest had no fight over which member of Off the Hook was better- Pearl and Marina genuinely didn’t have anything against each other, so it wouldn’t have made any thematic sense. It wouldn’t have been a satisfying Final Splatfest, because I honestly think the Final Splatfests are an embodiment of what divides the idols the most. For the Squid Sisters, it was their own failing relationship. And for Off the Hook, it was their opposing world views.
It makes you wonder what Splatoon 3 has in store for us…
