However, so long as Splatoon is an online third-person shooter with two games worth of unrepped weapons, I can't really see another option not feeling weird.
My issue with this perspective is that playable idols would use weapons too… they are Inklings / Octolings all the same. Pearl would use dualies, Marina would use a splatbrella, and we’d be killing two birds with one stone by representing new weapons AND applying them to extremely popular and well defined characters. I don’t see anything weird about it
Avatar Octoling will still be playable, I feel like everyone who endorses idols or Octavio still believes this. I think Splatoon is the most likely series outside of Mario to get more than one newcomer. But obviously how unique Octoling would be is a common sticking point and I believe we have some differing opinions on that. I struggle to see Smash making Octoling anything beyond a semiclone, given the series existing precedent with characters who are near identical in role, silhouette, general stats and / or ability in their home series. Every character like this has at least
started as a derivative no matter how unique fans say they have the potential to be. So far, at least.
Notably characters like Isabelle or Lucas were never intended as low effort or low priority additions and still were intentionally designed to share many basic traits with their partnered character. And for as long as Falco has been around, and with the return of Wolf, the Fox special kit has remained in tact albeit functionally distinct. Luigi is the one who has shed this the most, and kinda just by proxy with the addition of Side Specials in Melee and Mario not having the Tornado anymore. Not trying to be a stickler here but just trying to lay out why I feel this way as clearly as I can. Isabelle does at least support the use of one or two new tools, maybe Roller gets swapped out, but I hesitate to put much stock in anything past that.
So it’s this same observation of a need for new weapon variety in Smash, and the belief that Splatoon absolutely deserves a fully unique new character that leads me to endorse Off the Hook. We’re on the same page about the motive but I’m much more pessimistic about Octoling’s would-be role in the game and honestly pretty unflinching in how I feel about it until the current precedent is broken.
