Back with another theory about Octarians, this one may sound ridiculous at first, but after taking a look at some evidence, it will make sense later on.
Now, as I have explained before, 99% of Octarian species are either just one tentacle or a mass of tentacles, the only one that doesn't have that simple trait is the Octoling. Why I mention this will make sense once I get to the Octoling part.
In real-world biology, asexual reproduction only needs one parent rather than two and the offspring from that will always be the same gender as the parent. The way that tentacle Octarians are created is when they are cut from a host, so the type of asexual reproduction for Octarians is really just Fragmentation, and NOT Budding. Those two can easily be confused if the differences are not looked at: Fragmentation is when an already existing part of the body is separated from the rest become its own being. Budding is when a lump or an additional part of the body is grown just for it to fall off on its own so it becomes its own being.
So after looking at the evidence, there are indeed male and female Octarians who are not capable of reproduction, with the Octo Samurai being a canon example of a tentacle based Octarian having gender. This conclusion can also be drawn for the rest of the tentacle based Octarians, there are male and female varieties of the tentacle variants.
About the Octolings, well, it's heavily implied that they are the hosts given the lack of a central host, moreover, DJ Octavio's tentacle being cloned to be put into an Octoweapon gives more credence to the idea that Octolings are essentially the parents of the rest of the Octarians as DJ Octavio is confirmed to be an Octoling himself. This is what gives credence of Octolings being the parents of the Octarians. Octolings do reproduce sexually because they were the ones who have evolved from the octopus, which is an animal only capable of sexual reproduction. The separated tentacle having a life on its own is simply an additional evolutionary trait that Octolings have acquired. Octarians having gender can also explain why some of them are able to become Octolings themselves.
And finally, I know some will bring up that some cephalopods in Splatoon do develop faster as in the case of Callie and Marie obtaining full humanoid forms much earlier than the Inklings seen in the game. Now, this argument can't really be said about Sashimori's Octoling, if that was the case, that Octoling would already have the humanoid form's skin tone or would still have the white stripe of Octarians on the face down, which neither of these is the case. What I'm talking about is that someone might claim that all Octolings start as tentacles, but this is simply not true.
To close off the theory, I'm going to say Octolings were just introduced as playable characters in Splatoon 2, so off course the developers will save lore about them for future Splatoon games, and even more being saved for future Artbooks. The Octo Expansion Artbook really just revealed lore on the Octarians in general and not much on the Octoling specifically. With developer interviews saying that Octolings will play greater roles in future Splatoon games, more lore on them will be revealed.
Another long theory done, I had this one on my mind for a few days now and I really wanted to get it off my chest.
Now, as I have explained before, 99% of Octarian species are either just one tentacle or a mass of tentacles, the only one that doesn't have that simple trait is the Octoling. Why I mention this will make sense once I get to the Octoling part.
In real-world biology, asexual reproduction only needs one parent rather than two and the offspring from that will always be the same gender as the parent. The way that tentacle Octarians are created is when they are cut from a host, so the type of asexual reproduction for Octarians is really just Fragmentation, and NOT Budding. Those two can easily be confused if the differences are not looked at: Fragmentation is when an already existing part of the body is separated from the rest become its own being. Budding is when a lump or an additional part of the body is grown just for it to fall off on its own so it becomes its own being.
So after looking at the evidence, there are indeed male and female Octarians who are not capable of reproduction, with the Octo Samurai being a canon example of a tentacle based Octarian having gender. This conclusion can also be drawn for the rest of the tentacle based Octarians, there are male and female varieties of the tentacle variants.
About the Octolings, well, it's heavily implied that they are the hosts given the lack of a central host, moreover, DJ Octavio's tentacle being cloned to be put into an Octoweapon gives more credence to the idea that Octolings are essentially the parents of the rest of the Octarians as DJ Octavio is confirmed to be an Octoling himself. This is what gives credence of Octolings being the parents of the Octarians. Octolings do reproduce sexually because they were the ones who have evolved from the octopus, which is an animal only capable of sexual reproduction. The separated tentacle having a life on its own is simply an additional evolutionary trait that Octolings have acquired. Octarians having gender can also explain why some of them are able to become Octolings themselves.
And finally, I know some will bring up that some cephalopods in Splatoon do develop faster as in the case of Callie and Marie obtaining full humanoid forms much earlier than the Inklings seen in the game. Now, this argument can't really be said about Sashimori's Octoling, if that was the case, that Octoling would already have the humanoid form's skin tone or would still have the white stripe of Octarians on the face down, which neither of these is the case. What I'm talking about is that someone might claim that all Octolings start as tentacles, but this is simply not true.
To close off the theory, I'm going to say Octolings were just introduced as playable characters in Splatoon 2, so off course the developers will save lore about them for future Splatoon games, and even more being saved for future Artbooks. The Octo Expansion Artbook really just revealed lore on the Octarians in general and not much on the Octoling specifically. With developer interviews saying that Octolings will play greater roles in future Splatoon games, more lore on them will be revealed.
Another long theory done, I had this one on my mind for a few days now and I really wanted to get it off my chest.
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