I can't believe I went through a whole thing talking about LGBTQ+ Nintendo characters and didn't think to bring up Vivian I am such a fake fan

Autism? More like octism

She's also obsessed with excavators

Being autistic like marina should not feel like such a big accomplishment, but it is for me.

I'm convinced that Pearl and Marina are absolutely frothing at the mouth for each other but they're still convinced the other couldn't possibly be interested. If they had a single conversation where one of them admits their feelings they'd marry on the spot

as an autistic lesbian marina just speaks so much to me and i ADORE marina!! it probably was never intended for marina to be autistic, but it's still just as canon to me as pearlina is!

Lets be honest both pearl and marina are both neurodivergent coded.

18:04 Marina drawing the lil gremlin (affectionate) Pearl in a Lady Oscar-esque shoujo style is a whole mood ngl.

Marina not picking up on the backhanded compliment and saying "thanks! you're not too bad yourself" is so fucking real

For me, Marina knew exactly what she was doing during the rap battle, she's been quite sassy and sarcastic before, but also she was giving the best answers you can give to someone doing backhanded compliments, straight up agreeing and refusing to give them the answer they want from you lol

No one ever talks about how Nintendo literally confirmed it when in side order, Marina asked Acht not to hit on Pearl in front of her (even though that was the opposite of what Acht was doing) so that basically confirmed it

I like to think that Marina hyper-focuses on tasks that allow her to indulge in her special interests which is why she’s so quick and precise (like Memverse), she could also have a perfectionist personality outside of her ASD that makes her strive to perform at the best of her ability which is why she was valued so highly amongst her Octarian peers. And I’m super convinced she’s AUDHD!!

*I actually would like to add some evidence you didn't include :)

The side order dialogues are literally just pearlina, most of the time. These dialogues can single-handedly prove pearlina is very likely canon. Some of them are kinda sus too (like one of them saying when they get out of the memverse they will finally have some real quality time or something but you know what that means)

She's really in the "spectrum obligato"

The photo of marina’s background made me laugh out loud. I have the same photo of my boyfriend (pose and lighting) as my wallpaper. That’s proof as far as I’m concerned

SPLATOON MANGA SPOTTED, LAUNCHING INKSTRIKE