Discussing BancalaWalker stuff

QuagSass

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So the BancalaWalker is out and people have been posting things about it. Figured it might be nice to have a thread for people to discuss that stuff.
Other reason for making this thread is so I can talk about the only thing from there I care about and that I can't stop thinking about.

Amidst all the concept art and lore stuff and other boring and lame stuff there was a shining star. A gorgeous beauty unlike any other. She was so simple, so sweet. Too pure for Splatoon, hence her imprisonment in BancalaWalker.

BEHOLD!!!

sonata_censored.png


A SPLATLING!!!!!!!!!!!
and Marina I guess. who even cares about her.

Of course I just HAD to draw up a quick design based on that beautiful sketchy little mess. While the original sketch seems to be a Splatling-ified keyboard, the shape of it made me think of music boxes. Specifically the actual mechanisms of a music box. Changing the keys to a music box's notesheet I think makes the winding shape of the "ammunition belt" feel more realistic as well. Or perhaps believable is the better word?
The fun thing about basing the design on a music box also means that you can add some cute carvings on the actual Splatling body, which would give the weapon such a unique look.
I'm not exactly in love with the gimmick I gave to this Splatling. Balance-wise I don't think it'd work. But if the in-universe lore of the weapon is that it's an Octarian weapon, then it makes sense that it's a sort of weird combination of Ballpoint's gimmicks. Maybe the Octarian army was trying to develop their own, potentially better versions of the Inkling weapons? Or maybe this Splatling is one of Marina's personal experiments. Either way I think slapping Ballpoint's two modes into one continuos fire is a fitting gimmick for an experimental Splatling.
Also the sketch had an extra barrel in the middle and it made me go ?????? why??? So I decided to give it a purpose.
Of course a music-based weapon needs a music-based name. I rolled a couple ideas in my head, but I think I like the name Chromatic Splatling the most. Mainly because it's both a music-based name and a colour-based name. Perfectly mashing two types of art together. Sonata Splatling gets extra points for rolling off the tongue nicely and sounding very pretty <3

Anyways that's all I wanted to talk about.
Talk about your own BancalaWalker stuff too, or dont.
 

ikebro

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this book contains some of the coolest concept art from this series i've ever seen and i hate to be one of those "WE WERE ROBBED" ppl but like. it's possible that we could've had something way more focused on marina's psyche and mental health (which is what i was hoping for) and a much stronger and more prevalent story... and instead we got le quirky uwu spoon of doom imma detswoy you aww ;-; octopus baby and a dedf1sh retcon..............
bancalamarina.jpg

bancalamarina2.jpg
 

Azhdarcho

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Is there a translation for the text on that page? 👀
 

Mp3

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I like this one
I think it is for like a first version of the clear screen? But I like how the chips are in the corner of the screen
 

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sevenleaf

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i've still got to catch up on all the newly translated stuff floating around. i know rassicas translated a few things, i've read through their translation of the chirpy chips stream transcript which was very fun and i wish sid the best in college, but i haven't read any of the newer translations they've posted

i do wanna comment on baby marina though! i can't help but notice that her tentacles... look more inkling-like than i think anyone expected from art of a young octoling. paul in splatoon 2, at 10 years old, had a lot more octoling-like tentacles. the idea that both species start out looking similar and then 'specialize' into having their respective species' traits is interesting to me, and might give more credibility to the idea that young inklings especially have trouble telling the difference between the two species. (yeah yeah the standard assumption is 'inklings are just dumb/inattentive to detail' but i have trouble believing that's universally true)
 

Grushi

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I love how much universe lore they put in this, you can tell the art team is having a ton of fun fleshing out this universe. I too shall bow before baby marina
 

sevenleaf

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oh yay this thread got conveniently revived so i can post more without committing the extra super grave sin of tripleposting!! what perfect timing because someone translated #3 etude aka "that story about marina and acht everyone was dying to get their hands on"

gonna put my thoughts down here so yall can read it first without getting spoiled:

first of all. i'm not sure we've ever gotten a view into life in the octarian domes quite as direct as this and i am EATING IT UP. the thing that grabbed me the most was the description of the 'pseudo-sun' in the domes. how it can burn. that surprised me; i was kind of imagining it like "oh yeah they have a png of the sun somewhere in their fake sky but it's nothing special" but. i was wrong. lol

i also think there's something to be said about the detail that, in presumably s1-era, circa 2015 ME, marina having an instant camera was kind of a novelty. i didn't catch that on my first read but it's an interesting detail. the octarian military is known for having so much advanced tech at its disposal, but marina being able to take a photo and instantly see and print the result was something notable.

and also like... i'm kind of obsessed with thinking about the cultural climate down in the domes. how octarians treat one another, how they keep one another in line. so the bits about acht being concerned marina was ruining her own reputation by hanging out with a 'delinquent' like them made me go insaaaaaane. like. yes. tell me more about how octarian soldiers and trainees gossip and rumor-monger and etc etc

moving on i of course need to yell about this part:

“I’m not photogenic.”
My voice came out as more of a muffled whisper than I had expected.
“Photogenic…?”
“That’s why I hate taking pictures. I hate looking at photos of myself.”
Something was different compared to how I looked in the mirror. The version of myself I saw in photographs always seemed unnatural and awkward somehow. At the same time, I couldn’t help but feel like I was being confronted with the real version of myself and could never bear to look at them. Maybe a lack of photogenicity wasn’t the right way to put it, but it was close enough.

bestie, that is dysphoria. like... hello. this is literally how i feel seeing myself in photos sometimes, especially others' photos. i guess you could argue that it's non-gender-related depersonalization but i think the dysphoria angle is a more straightforward interpretation, especially considering... y'know... they use they/them in english and ボク in japanese... in another thread a while back the topic came up as to whether acht using they/them in english was a localization choice meant to approximate the bokukko thing, but with this popping up in bancala walker? i think it's more than that.

anyway i got home from my 16 hour shift to sit down and write about this story here and my brain's a little blank beyond this point so i'll close this off by saying. god. when i unlocked acht's letters i didn't realize how bittersweet that polaroid of them and marina was in context. it's almost 1 am now and im tearing up rereading acht's second letter after having read this story
 
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OCTöHEAD

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the lore ideas are building up in my head... axolotl cavalry?? working with crumbs haha
 

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