Agent 8

Agent 8, also referred to as Number 10,008, is a playable Octoling and is the protagonist of the Octo Expansion.

Appearance


Depending on the player's choices, Agent 8 can have different eye and skin colors, as well as being either a boy or girl. The girl's default hairstyle features two thin tentacles, parted at the front, reaching slightly past her shoulders, and two larger but shorter tentacles in the back. Alternatively, they can have two tentacles tied at the back in a ponytail with two small tentacles as sideburns. The boy's default hairstyle features a mostly shaved cut with one main tentacle Mohawk down the center and three small tentacles lined up at the back. Alternatively, they can have an afro, reminiscent of an octopus' mantle. They all have white underneath their tentacles and ring-like spots at the ends of their tentacles, excluding the male's afro.

Their outfit consists of a black leather crop top for females or a slightly longer shirt for males with one long sleeve, a leather skirt for females or pants for males, high-heel boots for females or boots for males, and a type of neon yellow wristband on both their ankles and wrists. If they pick up armor, their shirt now has two sleeves that reach down to their wrists. When they are damaged, their sleeve will fall off and reveal a padded undershirt.

Personality
Despite being mute throughout the game, Agent 8 shows aspects of their personality through subtle means. Agent 8 has a fondness for poetry and writes one for every mem cake collected. Throughout these poems, Agent 8 demonstrates a yearning for life on the surface, participating in Turf Wars, finding a part-time job, and dressing up in fresh clothes. This resolve is shown most strongly in the final area of the Octo Expansion, where failing repeatedly activates a Skip Charge, showing Agent 8 with glowing eyes as they charge through the stage with the Calamari Inkantation motivating them. Their poems also show that they are considerably more compassionate and sympathetic than most other Octolings, even before being reformed, wondering if Inklings should be considered foes and wishing that they could all get along, and feeling heartbroken at the fact that their superiors were kidnapping the Zapfish and having to refrain from saving it themselves. Agent 8 also wishes to apologize to DJ Octavio for unceremoniously deserting the Octarians in pursuit of Inkopolis, as well as recollecting their old Octarian friends, specifically an Octoling warrior whom Agent 8 fondly remembers, and hoping that they do not think badly of their decision.

As a result of listening to the Calamari Inkantation, Agent 8 is a big fan of the Squid Sisters, anxiously planning their greeting to the pair upon reaching the surface every night. Agent 8 appears to have known about Marina's escape to the surface and was glad to hear that she had made it safely, though never knew her personally before the events of Octo Expansion. Agent 8 comes to greatly admire Marina, to the point of expressing the notion of wanting to be just like her. Agent 8 was also seen to be somewhat confused by Cap'n Cuttlefish's actions and personality, as seen from near the end when they awkwardly glanced at Cuttlefish when he was rapping with Pearl, and when he happily accepted being the "hype man" in the battle against Commander Tartar. The official Splatoon 2 relationship chart reveals that Agent 8 does respect Cap'n Cuttlefish, as they think the elderly should be treated with respect. It is also revealed that they think Agent 3 is cool and that Li'l Judd is adorable.

Agent 8, being an Octoling, is apparently disgusted and quite offended at how many squid-themed objects there are in Inkopolis such as Squid Bumpers, and asks people to consider how Octolings see the world. They are said to love the sea breeze and will go to the shore to feel it even though they cannot swim.

Agent 8 has shown a fondness for both Flow and Craymond. Interestingly, they are also said to enjoy listening to Sheldon rambling, in contrast to various other characters, possibly due to Octarian culture centering around technology and weaponry. They are also stated by their description for the Chaos vs. Order Splatfest (in which they were on Team Order) to be obsessed with cleaning, not being able to sleep before every nearby weapon is clean. Sheldon is therefore said to have considered hiring them.

History
Agent 8 was a trainee in the Octarian army and had a change of heart when they heard the Calamari Inkantation while observing the final battle of, etching it onto their soul. According to Marina, Octolings that hear the song become discontent with Octarian society and choose to strike out on their own. In Octo Valley, Agent 8 encountered Cap'n Cuttlefish and Agent 3, where Cuttlefish had Agent 3 attack Agent 8. The two battled until all three of them were attacked by someone and were knocked into the Deepsea Metro. Agent 8 lost their memories from injuries suffered during the fall through the ceiling and after teaming up with Cuttlefish and escaping the Abandoned Station became a test subject of the metro.

Agent 8's role is to complete various missions in the Deepsea Metro with the premise of reaching the promised land by finding and collecting the four thangs. Unbeknownst to Agent 8, the thangs actually form a blender; after the best test subjects are able to collect all four thangs, they are blended and their DNA is added to Commander Tartar's green sludge. The missions take place in an area that is supposedly a testing lab, with a variety of objectives.

After Agent 8 collects all the thangs and almost gets blended by them, the objective changes to escape the facility to the surface after Agent 3 manages to reveal a new path. There is a set of different phases that Agent 8 has to navigate through, each with its own objectives. When Agent 8 reaches the surface they have to fight Commander Tartar and the NILS Statue to defend Inkopolis from being destroyed.

Splatoon manga
Agent 8 appears in Chapter 24 of the Splatoon manga as an Octoling boy with red eyes and the Mohawk hairstyle and wears the Squidlife Headphones, Null Boots Replica, and unique pants and top, and wields a Blaster. He found Goggles, who had previously attempted to land on the Grizzco boat when Super Jumping back and ended up sinking into the water. Agent 8 is shown to have a hand in machinery, like Octolings are said to, and made Goggles a new set of gear for him, a Splattershot and the same ink tank that he has. Due to forgetting his name, Cap'n Cuttlefish refers to him as Agent 8, while Goggles refers to him as Eight. A female Octoling named Seven, wearing the full outfit Agent 8 wears in the game, also appears initially from Eight's flashbacks, and is not seen physically until Chapter 26. Two other Octolings, Burns and Ponytail (nicknamed after their hairstyles), appear in Chapter 28 after the NILS Statue is destroyed and are also wearing the full outfit Agent 8 wears in the game. They are all set to be Eight's teammates where they all partake in Turf Wars after reaching Inkopolis.

As Eight and Seven wear the clothes that Agent 8 in the game wears, but without the yellow tags on their wrist and ankle, in the flashbacks taking place before they were taken to the Kamabo Co. facility, it is possible that the clothes Agent 8 wears are what younger Octolings wear. Burns and Ponytail also seem to be lacking the yellow tags when they are rescued.

Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show
Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show also features Agent 8 in CoroCoro's separate August 2018 issue, appearing as an Octoling boy with orange eyes and the mohawk hairstyle.

Trivia

 * Agent 8 was first revealed as a character on 2018-03-08, along with the rest of the Octo Expansion.
 * Agent 8 notably looks very different from the Octolings seen in the Hero Modes for and, having rather unique features.
 * Their rounded ears could be based on the dumbo octopus, a deep-sea creature that relates to the theme of the deep sea in the Octo Expansion.
 * Their left ear is more indented than their right ear, referencing the octopus' siphon that lies on one side.
 * They are the first playable character to use any sort of dialogue, as it is implied that they wrote the poems for the mem cakes. Additionally, the "Your guess is as good as mine" quote when viewing a Hazy Memory may be a form of dialogue as well.
 * Agent 8 is the only player character to not wield the hero weapons, wielding different sets of main and sub weapons instead.
 * They are the first player character to have a first-person camera view, specifically the cutscene at the start of Octo Expansion when Cap'n Cuttlefish wakes them up and talks to them, before switching to another cutscene where the player customizes how they look.
 * They are the first playable character to wield the Octo Shot as well as be unarmed in certain levels.
 * Unlike Agent 3 and Agent 4, Agent 8 is the only playable character to not have a weapon in the hub world, though they still have an ink tank on.
 * It is unknown if Agent 8's outfit was what they wore when they were part of the Octarian army or if when they fell into the Deepsea Metro and were given the tags on their wrist and ankle.
 * After escaping the Deepsea Metro, if Agent 8 watches Off the Hook with the zoomed-in view, they will respond differently, showing that Pearl and Marina recognize them.
 * Apparently, when Agent 8 was in Octarian society, they felt heartbroken at the fact that their superiors were kidnapping the Zapfish and had to refrain from saving them themselves, as shown in the eighth mem cake of the Line I series, implying that Agent 8 was possibly more compassionate than other Octolings to start off with.
 * In a Splatoon 2 anniversary Famitsu interview with the developers, it was revealed that Agent 8 dies and does not respawn if they get splatted during the escape phases. It is further explained that during multiplayer battles and the test stations, Agent 8 gets resurrected at the spawn points, but failing during the escape and choosing to continue playing just has the player "go back in time" to when Agent 8 still was alive.
 * Furthermore, in the game, the checkpoints that Agent 8 encounters during the escape are flashing red, which is the same animation the checkpoints have in the tests when the player is down to their last respawn. However, there is an exception during the Spinal Phase, as the checkpoints there show the normal animation. The reason for this is unknown.
 * If Agent 8 gets splatted during the escape, characters will shout their name in a worried fashion. When the player chooses to continue, the respawn animation (where the "ghost" comes back to form the body) does not play, instead cutting back to Agent 8 already standing.
 * When Agent 8's Skip Charge fills up to 100% during the Escape phases, the beginning section of Calamari Inkantation plays.
 * Female Agent 8's primary design has varied somewhat, appearing with grey eyes in the key art, promotional art, release art, download card, and Twitter celebration art and with orange eyes in the trailer, amiibo, and website renders.
 * Agent 8 is also nicknamed "Eight" by Off the Hook.
 * The English localization of 2018-03-08 Nintendo Direct refers to Agent 8 with she/her pronouns, since the Direct shows the female variant of Agent 8.
 * A drawing of Agent 8 that appears when viewing individual mem cakes and when given a prompt to skip escape levels always have the lightest skin tone regardless of their customized skin tone.
 * It was originally believed that Agent 8 must have been a member of the Octarian army at the time of Agent 3's battle with Octavio and therefore must be at least 16. A Famitsu interview with the developers contradicts this, as a developer stated that Agent 8 is at least 14 much like the Inklings.
 * It is also never explicitly stated that Agent 8 was in the military, though it can be interpreted that way from some of the mem cake poems and the similarities between their escape and Marina's.