Last week's Nintendo Direct event concluded with the announcement of Splatoon 3, the latest in the series of third-person shooter games starring ink-slinging "squid kids." Fans were intrigued by the fact that the trailer seemed to take place in a ruined, potentially post-apocalyptic wasteland, rather than the sprawling metropolises of previous Splatoon titles.
In particular, viewers were drawn to one bizarre detail. The trailer primarily focuses on an Inkling riding a train through a desert-like area, which Nintendo recently revealed to be named "the Splatlands." In one of the piles of rubble, what seems to be a destroyed, upside-down Eiffel Tower can be glimpsed for a brief moment.
Fans took to social media such as Reddit and Twitter to speculate about the possible fate of the country of France - or at least, the Splatoon universe's version of it. The phrase "Splatoon killed France" quickly became a hash tag on Twitter, with some even going so far as to joke that the trailer represented a deliberate anti-France political move on Nintendo's part. However, this is very likely not the case.
A connection was quickly made between the new meme and the trailer's seeming indication that gender options will be removed in Splatoon 3, allowing for players to create fully nonbinary characters for the first time in series history. Some fans joked that France was eliminated due to the language possessing linguistic genders, or that a gender reveal party was the source of the country's destruction (following news of multiple deadly gender reveal parties in the United States late last year).
Others have chosen to place the "blame" for the destroyed France on recurring Splatoon characters the Squid Sisters. The popular idol duo of Callie and Marie have previously performed a holographic concert in France, and promotional art for the event featured the two of them posing in front of a normal, non-destroyed version of the Eiffel Tower.
So far, Nintendo has not released any official statements discussing the appearance of the Eiffel Tower or a look-alike in the Splatoon 3 trailer. It is possible, however, that Splatoon 3's "Splatlands" location will be the in-universe equivalent to somewhere in Europe. Inkopolis, a major location appearing in previous Splatoon titles, drew some inspiration from Japan's capital city of Tokyo, including a landmark called "Inkopolis Tower" inspired by the real-life Tokyo Tower.
Other fans have theorized that the destroyed "Eiffel Tower" seen in the trailer is actually the somewhat visually similar Inkopolis Tower, and that the city was destroyed in some sort of major event occurring between Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 3. However, a reveal that stages from previous titles are apparently returning in Splatoon 3 may discredit this theory.
It is possible that fans will not know whether this "Eiffel Tower" appearance was more than just a clever Easter egg until the official release of Splatoon 3.
Splatoon 3 launches in 2022, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.