Pearl/Marina
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Pearl/Marina |
| Alternative name(s): | Pearlina, pearlrina |
| Gender category: | femslash |
| Fandom: | Splatoon |
| Canonical?: | Technically no, but also not not canon |
| Prevalence: | Popular |
| Archives: | |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
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Pearl Houzuki/Marina Ida, also known as Pearlina, is one of the biggest ships in the Splatoon fandom. As of March 2024, they are the most popular ship for Splatoon on AO3 with over 1200 fanworks.
Pearl and Marina have a two-person band called Off the Hook, who are often credited for many in-game songs in Splatoon 2 and 3. They were the main newscasters of Splatoon 2, and returned as non-playable characters in Splatoon 3's DLC, Side Order.
Relationship to Canon
Pearl and Marina are not technically in a canonically confirmed romantic relationship. However, there is a significant amount of subtext in Splatoon 2, Octo Expansion, and Splatoon 3: Side Order that heavily imply mutual romantic interest between both characters, as well as additional canon media, such as Marina's manga "Dear Pearl" wherein she draws Pearl as a bishounen; and Pearl's Octotune interview, where she says that the greatest gift she's ever received is "the chance to meet Marina." In Side Order, the subtext goes even further when Marina outright expresses jealousy at the idea of Acht, her childhood friend, flirting with Pearl. Marina's laptop background is also revealed to be a picture of Pearl, and she constantly writes hearts around Pearl's name. Many fans consider the heavy subtext enough to consider their relationship canon.
Neither Nintendo nor the Splatoon developers have outright stated the nature of Pearl and Marina's relationship. Marina's character profile on the Splatoon Base, however, describes her as a "maiden in love" in terms of her relationship with Pearl.[1]
Fandom
Most of the Splatoon LGBT fanbase are Marina/Pearl shippers.
As Splatoon has a much larger fanart scene (compared to fanfiction) in terms of fanworks, Pearlina art is also quite easy to come by on Twitter and Tumblr.
Rarely do English-speaking Splatoon fans dislike the Pearlina ship for reasons other than homophobia. Because Splatoon's gameplay itself has features appealing to LGBT people, women, and people of color, at worst most fans are more likely to be accepting of the ship.
Fanwork Examples
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fanart
Fanfiction
Meta
- Having You By My Side Makes Today Perfect: The Pearlina Manifesto by azuremist, a ship manifesto (2024)
Links & Resources
- Off the Hook on Inkipedia
- Pearl/Marina fanworks on AO3
- Pearlina Week on Twitter
Citations
- ^ Taken from Marina's character profile on the Splatoon Wiki: "Translators notes: 恋する乙女 koisuru otome, from koisuru meaning "to fall in love" and otome meaning maiden, often used in romantic contexts such as otome games (dating sims). The relationship text says "センパイ！ついていきます！" senpai tsuite ikimasu, which translates as "senpai, I'll go wherever you go" (lit. "senpai, I'll follow you")." Marina canonically refers to Pearl as "senpai," being 3 years younger than her. Accessed March 1, 2024.