The Telephone, or Commander Tartar is an AI created by a human scientist referred to as "the professor" 12,000 years before the events of Splatoon 2. Its purpose was to pass down all of humanity's knowledge to the next capable species. The professor's intention to do so was to prevent the next intelligent species from repeating the same mistakes that lead humanity to extinction. However, due to spending all those millennia isolated and alone, the AI's thought process ended up going in a different direction.
Commander Tartar initially saw hope in the Inklings and Octarians, but eventually became repulsed by their evolution, needless wars, and fashion obsession, ultimately concluding that they were unfit for its knowledge and reprogramming itself to create a new form of life that would be worthy of its patronage, while annihilating the existing lifeforms on Earth. The Sanitized Octarians are its creations, spawned from the biomass it has collected from the remains of its previous test subjects and refined into "the perfect life".
This dropdown contains the synopsis of Commander Tartar’s story. Read at your own risk as you may be spoiled otherwise!
Biography
Backstory
Commander Tartar was originally created by a mysterious scientist to pass down the knowledge of humanity to the next dominant species on Earth after their extinction in hopes for them to not cause the next species to repeat the same mistakes humanity did. Despite originally seeing hope in the Inklings and Octolings, their ways eventually disgusted him enough to attempt to create a new dominant species, the Santized Octarians, and plot the existing Inkling's/Octoling's demise.
Splatoon 2
Commander Tartar introduces himself as a friendly telephone at the beginning of the game that guides Agent 8 through the Deepsea Metro, motivating the agent with an imminent "Promised Land" that Captain Cuttlefish deduces to be the Surface and Inkopolis. However, this is nothing more than a farce, as the "Promised Land" is, in fact, a giant blender that Tartar seems to use to murder Octolings and use them to create the "ultimate lifeform", which he wants to create after he wipes the world out. If his labeled number for Agent 8 is any indication (10,008), then it is possible that he could have blended up to 10,007 Octolings up until Agent 8 stopped his plans. This possibility is increased by the fact that he mentions Agent 8 was the test subject who came closest to stopping his maniacal plans. Agent 8 and Cap'n Cuttlefish are saved from his trickery by Agent 3, the playable character from the original Splatoon, who is later briefly infected and brainwashed to do Tartar's desires. He had them fight Agent 8 before the latter broke Agent 3 out of it.
His fight is versus a giant statue of a human head he had turned into a weapon that vaguely resembled Julius Caesar. The machine was named “NILS”, meaning "end", indicating the reason for its existence. Although he tried to activate NILS' cannon, the machine is destroyed by Agent 8 and Off the Hook and with it, Tartar.
Personality
While disguising himself as the Telephone, he uses "cool" lingo for Agent 8's presumed comprehension. However, this is all a farce: he despises that lingo and is a cold, murderous, and calculating machine. Tartar shows no remorse for attempting genocide on the planet: he despises all living species and treats them like objects. Unlike DJ Octavio, he is a dead serious villain at all times, and his plan is on the largest scale, and wouldn't have the largest body count, of any Splatoon villain thus far. The repurposing of the human statue into a weapon as well as the manipulation of over 10,000 Octolings shows his true colors and intentions.
Alignment:Chaotic Evil (Was able to trick thousands of his test subjects to collect the 4 thangs to reach the promised land and convinced them all to get inside the assembled 4 Thangs to blend them alive into his Sanitized Ink. Sanitized Ink corrupts anyone hit by it to be completely loyal to Commander Tartar and Kamabo Corporation which wants to destroy the world and kill off all livings things so Tartars ultimate lifeforms can emerge and start anew. Tartar believes that the current civilization is a disgrace to humans and the only way to save it is for him to destroy it all with the NILS Cannon)
Codex Statistics
Key:Base | NILS statue
Tier8-C, at least 8-C with the 4 Thangs Assembled | High 6-A with the NILS statue
All previous abilities. Large Size (Type 2), Negation to Low-Godly Regeneration, and Forcefield Creation (Would be able to ignore Spawn Point's invulnerable forcefields which are immune to Pearl's Princess Cannon which is stronger and will prevent Inklings from regenerating to wipe them out)
Weaknesses: Tartar has to convince their opponent to get inside the 4 thangs assembled in order to attack with it. The NILS statue takes 3 Minutes to charge and it's charging can be stopped if the entire thing is covered in ink so it can't absorb sunlight.