#splatoon lore

splatoonlore.ink is a website containing all the info on Splatoon's lore there is, from the in-game Sunken Scrolls to obscure info hidden in barely accessible media, after more than two years of development the website is finally launching!

You can check it out right now: splatoonlore.ink

I just launched my biggest project yet that I've been working on for more than two years:

splatoonlore.ink, a website that makes any lore info you could imagine easily accessible. From Sunken Scrolls to Developer Interviews and more obscure info like the CD Booklet articles, there's tons of stuff you can explore right now!

I also made a video going over what the website has to offer, check it out!

Also, I recently launched a Patreon, so if you like the stuff I do and want to support me, this is the best way!

https://www.patreon.com/ardnin

Side Order is generally considered to be a fairly good DLC overall, with a pretty solid (albeit barebones) main gameplay loop, a story that explores many of the lingering questions posed by Octo Expansion and a particularly interesting final boss dynamic where Order is recontextualised after its defeat through Smollusk (we learn much more about Order through Smollusk than Order lets on itself). However, there is one aspect that I've recently discovered which is a pretty significant detractor from the overall quality of the DLC, one which I'm quite surprised hasn't been brought up before. Side Order is unusual in that it quite intentionally tries to place itself in a position in time in-universe. Despite the prior story DLC, Octo Expansion, having some vague mentions to things that happen around it (e.g. the bonus chat room mentions that a splatfest happens vaguely around the time OE's story finishes) OE is very much "free floating" in terms of where it fits into Splatoon 2's chronology. There are never any concrete declarations by characters about how long ago things in the past happened that would tie OE down to an exact time interval within the lifetime of Splatoon 2. OE and S2's base hero mode could (therefore) conceivably happen in either order chronology-wise.

Side Order very intentionally avoids this. Marina's Dev Diaries (the main form of exposition for what Marina and Pearl have been doing between Splatoon 2's Final Fest and SO) are each dated with timestamps that place the events described as happening a certain amount of time before SO takes place. In elevator dialogue Marina says that her promotion to Octavio's wasabi supply unit (which occurs the same year as the Calamari Inkantation concert in S1's story mode) happened "about 8 years ago".

(dialogue brought to my attention by Cosmic)

This means that the earliest Side Order could have taken place in-universe is around the middle of 2023 ME (for an explanation of "Mollusk Era" as a year nomination, check out this video by @ardnin). This alone is fairly innocuous, as all it does is vaguely imply that SO takes place within about 9 months of when it was released IRL and after the release of Splatoon 3 (late 2022). However, this date becomes relevant when we look at the timeline of events created by Marina's Dev Diaries. The entries give us a lot of information, but I'll summarise the most important bits in order below: (Images taken from Inkipedia)

Entry 1: "Over 4 years ago" In the wake of the Final Fest, Pearl announces that Off the Hook are going on a world tour.

Entry 2: "2 years ago" Planning begins for Off the Hook's world tour.

Entry 9: "5 months ago" Off the Hook begin their world tour.

Entry 11: "1 month ago" Off the Hook enter the midway break of their world tour.

This paints a clear picture of the sequence of events leading up to Off the Hook's world tour, with the world tour itself starting 5 months before the events of Side Order.

Those of you who might have been following Splatoon JP's promotional tweets before the release of S3 may see the immediate issue.

Before release (June 2022), Off the Hook were described by SplatoonJP (translated accurately here by @rassicas as part of SplatoonENG) as already being on their world tour.

This is backed up by the S3 artbook (translated by @3600frames)

Note that this source stating that the S2 Final Fest took place in July 2019 ME, in conjunction with Entry 1 stating that the Final Fest ending was "over 4 years ago", further cements that Side Order can only take place in mid-late 2023 ME at the earliest. Therefore, Off the Hook's world tour (as described by Side Order) cannot start before 2023 ME.

However, Splatoon Base and the above Splatoon JP tweet both state that Pearl and Marina didn't start performing with the members of Damp Socks (who they made their new songs with) until during their world tour.

This means that Side Order's alleged timeline of events necessitates that "Candy-Coated Rocks" and "Tentacle to the Metal" could not have been released before 2023 ME. This contrasts with their release in-game, which was at Splatoon 3's initial release in 2022.

It's been well established that time in Splatoon's world moves at the same pace as real life. In "Ask the Developers Vol. 7 part 1", Seita Inoue reiterates this fact, and also directly states that Splatoon 3 starts in 2022 ME.

The same interview later goes into significant detail about how Splatoon's music is conceptualised as being in response to what has happened previously within the pop culture of Splatoon's world. With the interview's persistent themes of Splatoon's world progressing in parallel with ours, and C-side's music being symbolic of the cultural shift in the 5 years since S2's release, it's a reasonable assumption that C-side's music has been released by the time of Splatoon 3. As C-side's music was released in-game alongside that of Damp Socks feat. Off the Hook's, it is fair to assume that they were released roughly concurrently in-universe.

Previously released sources (such as this timeline that's part of Haikara Walker) also support the idea of the chronology of songs being directly tied to the order of the updates they were released .

Therefore, it is reasonable to make the assumption that the music attributed to Damp Socks feat. Off the Hook was released in-universe at the same time as it was introduced in-game (2022 ME).

However, in Side Order's series of events, Off the Hook don't start their world tour until 2023 ME, and so didn't meet the members of Damp Socks until that year too. Because of this, the earliest they could have written the songs the joint group perform together is also 2023 ME.

As a result, Side Order's series of events as described in the Dev Diaries introduced a significant chronology error.

So what caused this?

I think the answer lies in the Splatune 3 booklet interview between Marie, Marina and Big Man (released in April 2023). Marina talks about how she and Pearl had an argument, after which Pearl dropped off the face of the earth for a couple days, before reemerging after finding the members of Damp Socks.

This fight is something that Entry 2 describes (albeit vaguely).

Marina then goes on to mention that she's "put[ting her] energy into making new songs", which I think is in reference to the Damp Socks feat. Off the Hook songs that were released with S3.

The argument between Pearl and Marina leading to Pearl finding Damp Socks occurring about 2 years ago also makes sense. Entry 2 puts the argument in early 2022 ME, so this would have it take place before their new music released in September 2022 ME.

I think whoever was writing the Dev Diaries read that Pearl found the members of Damp Socks after having an argument with Marina (and knew that they needed to meet Damp Socks before September 2022 ME), but forgot that it had already been established that this meeting had occurred while Off the Hook was on their world tour. Because of this, they decided to make "argument -> finding Damp Socks" and "being on world tour" separate events because it fit better with later entries where Marina is struggling to get everything done while the tour was happening.

The only change that would be needed to fix the chronology issue would be for them to have moved Entry 9 to be the new Entry 2 (along with a little rewording in Entries 2, 3 and 8 to state that the tour is already going on rather than still being planned). But alas, this is not what we got.

So right now we've got a situation where Side Order just... has an unfixed continuity error in it. Honesty, the most realistic best case scenario is that Nintendo just leaves everything as is and quietly sweeps the Dev Diaries under the rug. I really do not want them to try and have it be a retcon of the timeline because of how needlessly confusing that would make everything.