ALSO COMPLETELY VALID. from my experience at least people tend to... take the flattest approach to splatoon's lore and cultures. it is saddening but alas

NONO DON'T WORRY I GET YOU. your problem is moreso with people mischaracterizing him as evil, right? thats completely fair.

the fandom has a problem of black and white thinking. they feel like craig or octavio have to be pure evil or perfect heroes, no inbetween. its much more nuanced.

<- and wears a kabuto in his humanoid form. even if his policies (which we don't know much of pre-war, but based on him promoting chaos unlike the rest of the orderly octarians) were focused on freedoms and change, he is still technically a dictator.

take this with a grain of salt cause my splatoon interpretation has 500 layers of theorizing and worldbuilding but octavio *would* be a dictator, even if not an ill-intended one.

he is most likely a Shogun, which is a form of military dictatorship. after all he is the general of the Octarians ->

hello mario.