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This villain was proposed but was rejected by the community for not being heinous enough or lacks what is necessary to be a Pure Evil villain. Therefore, this villain shall be added to our "Never Again List", where proposed villains rejected by the community shall be placed to prevent future proposals of the same evil-doer. They can be proposed again (with the permission of an administrator) if new elements appear in their series that can change their status as non-PE villains. Any act of adding this villain to the Pure Evil category without a proposal or creating a proposal for this villain without the permission of an administrator will result in a ban. |
“ | I am Tartar, an AI construct created 12,000 years ago by a brilliant professor. My prime directive is to pass humanity's vast knowledge on to the next worthy lifeform. When your kind became self-aware, I hoped that my long wait was finally over. But as I observed your evolution, I WAS DISGUSTED! You wage war over minor genetic deviations. You obsess over trivial fashion choices. And so I created a new prime directive: destroy this world and start anew! From the best and brightest test subjects, I created a sludge of supreme DNA. A primordial ooze from which the ultimate lifeform will emerge. Today is the day my vision becomes reality, as I destroy Inkopolis and everyone in it! | „ |
~ Tartar revealing his true plans. |
Commander Tartar, also known as the Telephone, is one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside Mr. Grizz) of the Splatoon franchise, serving as the main antagonist of Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion.
He is an ancient artificial intelligence who is the CEO of Kamabo Corporation, the boss of C. Q. Cumber, and the archenemy of Agent 8. He seeks to wipe out all the planet's life to remake it in his own image upon becoming disappointed in both the Inklings and Octolings.
Biography[]
Backstory[]
Commander Tartar was originally created by a mysterious scientist to pass down the knowledge of humanity to the next dominant species on Earth after their extinction in hopes for them to not cause the next species to repeat the same mistakes humanity did. Despite originally seeing hope in the Inklings and Octolings, their petty infighting and obsession with fashion eventually disgusted him enough to attempt to create a new dominant species, the Santized Octarians, and plot the existing Inkling's/Octoling's demise.
Splatoon 2[]
Commander Tartar introduces himself as a friendly telephone at the beginning of the game that guides Agent 8 through the Deepsea Metro, motivating the agent with an imminent "Promised Land" that Captain Cuttlefish deduces to be the Surface and Inkopolis. However, this is nothing more than a farce, as the "Promised Land" is, in fact, a giant blender that Tartar seems to use to murder Octolings and use them to create the "ultimate lifeform", which he wants to create after he wipes the world out. If his labeled number for Agent 8 is any indication (10,008), then it is possible that he could have blended up to 10,007 Octolings up until Agent 8 stopped his plans. This possibility is increased by the fact that he mentions Agent 8 was the test subject who came closest to stopping his maniacal plans. Agent 8 and Cap'n Cuttlefish are saved from his trickery by Agent 3, the playable character from the original Splatoon, who is later briefly infected and brainwashed to do Tartar's desires. He had them fight Agent 8 before the latter broke Agent 3 out of it.
His fight is versus a giant statue of a human head he had turned into a weapon that vaguely resembled Julius Caesar, which he planned to use to destroy Inkopolis. The machine was named “NILS”, meaning "end", indicating the reason for its existence. Although he tried to activate NILS' cannon, the machine is destroyed by Agent 8 and Off the Hook and with it, Tartar.
Personality[]
While disguising himself as the Telephone, he uses "cool" lingo for Agent 8's presumed comprehension. However, this is all a farce: he despises that lingo and is a cold, murderous, and calculating machine. Tartar shows no remorse for attempting genocide on the planet: it despises the current race of evolved marine animals and treats them like objects. As revealed in the original Japanese translation, Tartar reveres and respects humanity to the point of obsession, and will go to horrible lengths to create a perfect world with a new humanity. Unlike DJ Octavio, he is a dead serious villain at all times, and his plan is on the largest scale, and wouldn't have the largest body count, of any Splatoon villain thus far. The repurposing of the human statue into a weapon as well as the possible manipulation of over 10,000 Octolings suggests that he is also an extremely intelligent being.
Despite this, Tartar genuinely loves his creator, calling them "brilliant" and frequently complimenting them, with his admiration of the Professor likely being the source of Tartar's genocidal behaviour due to his belief that his creator was perfect blinding him to the fact humans made many of the same mistakes Inklings and Octolings make. Likewise, Tartar's last words are a wish for him to reunite with the Professor, indicating he truly misses them and wants to see them again.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- At over 12,000 years old, Commander Tartar and Mr. Grizz are the oldest villains in the Splatoon series.
- When Commander Tartar assembles his blender out of the thangs, he plays a track in major key. Once Agent 8 and Cap'n Cuttlefish enters it, however, the track shifts to a minor key.
- It's somewhat implied that Tartar's creator was also Judd's owner thanks to a series of short comic doodles which shows the Professor building Tartar appearing very similar to Judd's owner who put him into cryosleep.
- Despite being an AI and in favour of order, Marina notes in her dev diaries that Tartar’s files are rather messily organised, which have her some trouble as she tried to find information on how to cure the Sanitised Octarians.
- In some dialogue Marina remarks that the entirety of Kamabo Co.’s facilities appear to be covered in an electromagnetic field that is distorting reality, making it almost as if the Deepsea Metro is in another dimension. As it’s implied that this is Tartar’s doing, the fields could explain why there are floating, giant replicas of everyday objects in several stages of the Octo Expansion. Furthermore, Acht recounts hearing a voice in their head during their tenure as a slave to Tartar, implying that he can directly control and possess anybody he sanitises thanks to the voice being implied to be the AI’s.
- Commander Tartar serves as a darker parallel to Order: Both were AI who wanted to perfect societies that went against the wishes of their creators and stole the individualities of many. Unlike Tartar, Order realized its misakes and redeemed itself. If Order didn't realize its mistakes and decided to continue his plan, it would've been defeated like Commander Tartar.
External Links[]
- Commander Tartar on the Splatoon Wiki
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