Talk:Inkling

Inklings in MK8

For the final wave of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe BCP, it now appears that the inklings have moved to one position, similar to the villagers in Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U. Saw this on a GameXplain video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVd_QO8SfLs), and this also applies to the villagers. Mariofan1996 (talk) 12:00, November 1, 2023 (EDT)

Specialized artwork and infoboxes

Isn't the Smash Bros Inkling design specialized in it's own way? The arrow on the Ink Tank is intentionally placed, representing the ink required to throw a Splat Bomb. I think the video revealing Inkling's Smash Bros amiibo confirms that this arrow is lower on the Smash Bros character because it costs less ink to throw a Splat Bomb in that game. Basically, it's a Smash Bros variant design. Considering how the Smash Bros image is already in the article as in the Smash Bros specific infobox, I would prefer using the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe art for the main infobox. Salmancer (talk) 09:24, September 29, 2024 (EDT)

We could maybe use these artworks since they have been used as profile arts for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, at least on the back of the European box, but I'm personally unsure if the Wiki allows that since they did originate from a non-Mario title. rend (talk) (edits) 09:45, September 29, 2024 (EDT)

Retool as "Inkling Boy and Inkling Girl"

Currently, this article is about every Inkling. Which puts us in a bind because since its' about every Inkling we have to talk about Callie, Marie, and Pearl. I think we don't actually care about every Inkling, we only care about these characters in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and everything else written here is being carried by that appearance. If we only care about Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and that game uses "Inkling Girl" and "Inkling Boy", two specific Inkling "characters" as determinable from their specific amiibo, then we can dodge a decent amount of incidental crossover coverage by making the article about "Inkling Girl", "Inkling Boy", and no other Inklings. (Yes, this also would remove "Inkling Squid", its a separate design from "Inkling Boy" and "Inkling Girl".) I do not believe this means we get to cut Smash Bros. coverage, for anyone who really wants or really doesn't want that. My understanding is that the Inkling Super Smash Bros. amiibo registers as an Inkling Girl in games that predate the amiibo's release, meaning the Smash Bros. characters are incarnations of Inkling Girl and Inkling Boy that just happen to lack the second word of their names. Salmancer (talk) 23:53, September 2, 2025 (EDT)

To clarify, this retool would allow for removing:

• The clause in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. about the Inkling Squid Hat
• The full paragraph in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate about the Squid Sisters
• The template in the profiles section about the Inkling Squid spirit
• The clause in Yoshi's Woolly World about Inkling Squid Yoshi
• The clause in Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World about Orange Inkling Squid Yoshi
• The sentence in Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World about Callie Yoshi and Marie Yoshi
• The clause in Super Mario Maker about Inkling Squid
• The sentence in Super Mario Maker about Callie Yoshi and Marie Yoshi

It would also prevent anyone (probably me) from adding:

• A paragraph about Off the Hook in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, because Off the Hook has a spirit and Pearl is an Inkling
• A set of sentences the Inkling Squid spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and how to summon it

Oh, and all amiibo depicting Inklings are supported by Wario's amiibo Sketch, so in making this retool we would only cover six drawings in this article (the three Inkling Girls and the three Inkling Boys) instead of having to cover all twelve drawings (adding the three Inkling Squids, Callie, Marie, and Pearl). It would make the job of the poor sap (me) who has to remember to write Wario's amiibo Sketch sections so much easier. Salmancer (talk) 00:48, September 3, 2025 (EDT)

Welp, too late, all of the things listed here have been added. Salmancer (talk) 03:20, September 5, 2025 (EDT)

I don't see why Inkling Squid coverage needs to be removed altogether. All Inklings can turn from kid to squid and vice versa, and that includes the Inkling Girl and Inkling Boy in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, per one of their trick animations. rend (talk) (edits) 03:53, September 7, 2025 (EDT)

I'm saying the squid form of Inkling Girl and the squid form of Inkling Boy are not the character Inkling Squid. Which is entirely what the argument is based on. If Inkling Girl and Inkling Boy are legitimate characters, and not generic Inklings, such that we are able to make an article about "Inkling Girl and Inkling Boy", then Inkling Squid is also a legitimate character but neither an instance of Inkling Girl nor an instance of Inkling Boy. And since Inkling Squid is not a character in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, then that means we cannot cover instances of Inkling Squid. (unless we curveball the policies to let Inkling Squid content stay.) Salmancer (talk) 09:56, September 7, 2025 (EDT)

Ya know what bugs me about this? It's the fact that we're just taking the info about the other Inklings and throwing it away. This information relates to Mario to, it ain't like we're just putting information about them in Splatoon games. Conkdor! (T|C) 19:48, September 29, 2025 (EDT)

While there is an appeal to this, this would be far from the first time we've tossed writing out over being outside our coverage policy. See the suite of proposals about cutting down on Game & Watch Gallery coverage that isn't linked to the Super Mario property (1 2 3) and the proposal about removing sections about non Super Mario special moves in the Super Smash Bros. series (Keep in mind that once upon a time those special moves actually had full articles.) Also, not everything that is not originally a Super Mario concept that is related to Super Mario gets a page, see how the proposal on granting pages to every Costume Mario character failed. (Callie and Marie have no Mario appearances more significant than Costume Mario, and therefore shouldn't be covered on a dedicated page.) And ultimately, we have to serve readers in the present. We should always be re-evaluating decisions made in the past, like the decision to have the Inkling page be for a species rather than characters, in order to ensure the wiki is doing the best it can be at covering the Super Mario franchise. I think Waluigi Time said it better than I ever could in the first of the linked proposals, about deleting Game & Watch articles for games that are in Game & Watch Gallery games but do not have modern versions and therefore do not invoke the Super Mario cast, so quoting him: "Yes, work was put into them, but that's a moot point if they're not related to the Mario series". Salmancer (talk) 23:16, September 29, 2025 (EDT)

What if the page was renamed to "Inkling (character)", as in the customizable playable character from Splatoon, instead of the species? The latest name is from Smash Ultimate (simply "Inkling"), it would allow Inkling Squid content to stay, and would allow the removal of Callie/Marie/Pearl since they are not the Inkling character, just members of the same species. Smash Bros and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe both includes a lot of different costumes based on customization options in Splatoon games, including lime-green like the Inkling Squid, so it just seems fair to keep the Splatoon playable Inkling information, and remove other distinct Inklings like the idols. Villager from Animal Crossing is in a similar scenario, the page has information on WarioWare minigames that do not contain designs seen in Smash Bros or Mario Kart, yet coverage is allowed since it's about the customizable Animal Crossing character and not the "species". --Metalex123 (talk) 23:58, November 20, 2025 (EST)

Shouldn't this be a proposal? SeanWheeler (talk) 00:27, April 5, 2026 (UTC)

Proposals need to be written. I haven't done it yet. (High standards, no time!) Mainly, you'd need to accumulate names from across official material. Including names from Smash Bros. marketing, which is slightly harder to come by now that the Youtube algorithm no longer forces the recommended videos for Nintendo of America videos to be other Nintendo of America videos Salmancer (talk) 00:35, April 5, 2026 (UTC)

Oh, and also the matter of formulating the argument, which the initial post doesn't really do. Which includes trying to account for Splatoon 3 having an Inkling figure instead of Inkling Boy, Inkling Girl, and Inkling Squid figures as best as I can. Salmancer (talk) 01:03, April 5, 2026 (UTC)

Personally, I don't think we need to remove Inkling Squid, as thanks to amiibo it is marketed in things like Maker and Wooly World as one of the "main" Inkling entities. That's just my two cents. Callie and Marie are definitely divorced enough from the concept of "standard Inkling" to remove them, though. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 01:32, April 5, 2026 (UTC)

Refocus this article on coverage solely pertaining to the standard playable Inklings rather than the species as a whole

This talk page proposal has already been settled. Please do not edit this section or its subsections. If you wish to discuss the article, please do so in a new section below the proposal.

Refocus on standard playable Inklings 11-0
As discussed above, this article currently covers the Inkling species as a whole, which also includes coverage on specific members of said species, such as Callie, Marie, and Pearl. The problem with this is that those aforementioned characters do not yet have any notable enough appearances in the Super Mario franchise to warrant coverage per MarioWiki:Coverage, so coverage on them in this article feels very arbitrary. After all, the reason the Inklings have a dedicated article on this wiki in the first place is because of the standard Inklings being playable in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Because of this, I think it makes the most sense to refocus this article on coverage solely pertaining to the standard playable Inklings rather than the species as a whole. This allows the article to avoid having to cover specific characters that don't have enough notability in the Super Mario franchise to warrant coverage. This means all information pertaining to Callie, Marie, and Pearl (the Assist Trophy, spirit battles, and Mii costumes in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and the Mystery Mushroom costumes in Super Mario Maker) will be removed from this article. This also means that the infobox will incidentally be changed from the species infobox template to the character infobox template, similar to how the Villager from the Animal Crossing series uses the character infobox template instead of the species infobox template due to being treated as a singular character in their Super Mario-related appearances despite technically being a "species" (as in, multiple human Villagers can co-exist in the Animal Crossing series).

Coverage on the Inkling Squid will still be allowed though, as that is simply a form that the Inklings can naturally transform into without the need of a power-up or any other outside interference. After all, the Inklings transform into an Inkling Squid for one of their Jump Boosts in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, while swimming as their Mystery Mushroom costumes in Super Mario Maker, and for their dash in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It would be like removing coverage on Zero Suit Samus from the Samus article or Young Link and Toon Link from the Link article. They're just a different form or iteration of the same character, so there should be no reason not to include them. It is also helps that the Inkling Squid's Mystery Mushroom costume transforms into a standard Inkling for its poseMedia:Inkling Squid pose SMM.png, essentially giving even less of a reason to remove coverage on the Inkling Squid. With that being said, information on the Inkling Squid forms of CallieMedia:SMM Callie Underwater.png and MarieMedia:SMM Marie Underwater.png will be removed if this proposal passes, as those are quite literally just different forms of Callie and Marie, characters who I have already explained don't warrant coverage.

TL;DR: I propose that this article be refocused on solely covering information pertaining to the standard playable Inklings (including the Inkling Squid) instead of merely the species as a whole, therefore removing all information pertaining to specific characters (i.e. Callie, Marie, and Pearl), as said characters do not yet have any notable enough appearances in the Super Mario franchise to warrant coverage per MarioWiki:Coverage.

Proposer: Wilben (talk)
Deadline: April 28, 2026, 23:59 UTC Closed early on April 21, 2026, 23:59 UTC

Support

1. Wilben (talk) Per above.
2. Rykitu (talk) Per proposal. This kind of information should be moved to a Crossovers with Splatoon article.
3. Hewer (talk) Never really made sense to cover the Squid Sisters on a page about the playable Inkling characters. Let's freshen up this article.
4. EvieMaybe (talk) per Rykitu.
5. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) C+M and similar subjects are well-removed from "standard Inkling."
6. Camwoodstock (talk) Per all, especially Rykitu. This page is caught between being a species and a character pretty badly, and adding the Squid Sisters here isn't helping that case.
7. Brett (talk) While I agree with most of the proposals, I think we should instead use the group infobox, as the character infobox is not used when the article is about several characters (see Kat & Ana's article for example).
8. Dive Rocket Launcher (talk) Per proposal.
9. Power Flotzo (talk) Per all.
10. Paradox (talk) Per proposal. I agree with Rykitu, we should do that.
11. Metalex123 (talk) Per all.

Comments

@Brett I don't think the group infobox template makes perfect sense here, as the Inklings are grouped together as a singular character in both Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Granted, the Inkling Boy and Inkling Girl used to be seperated in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but not only is that not the case anymore with the game's final updates, but there's also the fact that the male and female versions of Villager also used to be seperated, and yet they still use the character infobox, so making the Inklings use the group infobox but not Villager would be weirdly inconsistent. Wilben (talk) 06:52, April 16, 2026 (UTC)

I agree on also using the group infobox for the Villager. The thing is that these characters are in a odd position in which they both consist of a group of generic characters, but were mostly only represented as a singular one in Super Mario medias. Brett (talk) 07:51, April 16, 2026 (UTC)