At The Risk Of Sounding Like Some Kind Of Mad Conspirator, Please Just Hear Me Out.

At the risk of sounding like some kind of mad conspirator, please just hear me out.

If the Octoling in the Side Order trailer does end up being Agent 8, a part of me is kind of hoping that they’ll touch on their relationship with Three.

People may not realize it, but Three has left an impact on Eight’s life for better or for worse, and it’s an incredibly important part of this series. There’s still so much about the character that we don’t know prior to the events of Octo Expansion.

If we’re to assume the battle against Octavio in Splatoon 1’s Octo Valley played a crucial part in freeing Eight from Octarian society, then having some insight into how exactly the two of them crossed paths would be a good place to start. We know Three had fought Eight prior to the two of them becoming lost in the Metro, but what was Eight doing before that? Were they aware of who Agent Three was prior to hearing the Inkantation?

Then there’s the secret final boss with Inner Agent 3, where you remember the fight against the enemy soldier you first encountered and put the demons of your past to bed once and for all as you prepare to take your first steps towards a new life. Defeating the hero within is something that screams “you did it”, and opens so many possibilities for Eight’s character that didn’t exist before (such as when they were enemies with Three).

Then, there’s the endorsements that Nintendo has been putting out for the two of them. I want to go back to the Valentine’s Day and White Day posts from 2020, the many, *many* pictures we see of them in Haikara Walker, how Eight canonically looks up to Three in the official relationship chart, and how Three admires Eight as well.

Even with all the variables that the fandom has chosen to adopt between the two of them, it’s clear to me that Nintendo has an agenda going on with Three and Eight. It’s surprising to me how they SPECIFICALLY went with showing Three and Eight together in two separate events alluding to romance, and they’ve never bothered to pair Eight with anyone else, nor have they made any character-specific posts for Valentine’s Day or White Day after that one. Not to mention, if OE was going to take on a drastically different direction during its early stages of development, what exactly did they plan to do with Three and Eight? And if we go by the original Japanese translation of these posts, then that only raises MORE questions.

Eight has made no appearance in Return of the Mammalians, and this entire little thread that the two of them have has been outright ignored. I’m hoping that Side Order will shed some more insight into Eight’s character and provide more context towards what they’ve been trying to tell us with Three and Eight.

Say what you will to this, call me crazy, but you CANNOT deny that there is *something* going on, what with the amount of times they’ve put these two together in artwork, whether it be concept or promotional, combined with what went down in OE.

Like, I’m not even speaking as someone who ships them. I’m just talking about their relationship in GENERAL. Are they friends? Did they ever interact after the events of Octo Expansion? Better yet, what’s the current status of their relationship following the gap between Splatoon 2 & 3?

WE NEED CONTEXT FOR ALL THIS STUFF YOU’VE BEEN THROWING AT US, NINTENDO.

I SAW THE LATEST SPLATFEST RESULTS, I’M ONTO YOUR SHIT. YOU CAN’T KEEP AVOIDING IT FOREVER.