#omocat says that basil would do literally anything for sunny

[humornaut]

Sunny and Home and Basil (and Sweetheart?!)

Hey all! I've been thinking a lot about how home is represented in Omori, and especially about how Sunny thinks about home and imagines it. Omori Spoilers Ahead!

So to start this off, it has been noted quite a lot that Sunny associates the concept of home with Basil. The main thing that people point out to support this is the fact that before Memory Lane and right after the fight with Basil, it's Basil that is waiting for Sunny in front of his house to welcome him home, but there is so much more to look at when it comes to this concept.

For starters, the theme music for Basil's house in both the real world and Headspace is entitled "A Home for Flowers", but there are some very specific flowers that Basil's house is a home for. Within Headspace, it is a home for tulips, which is the flower associated with Sunny, courtesy of Basil. The other two flower versions of this are Sunflower and Daisy. Sunflower plays during the Birthday Memory of Memory Lane, and Daisy plays in Basil's Meadow after the true Something battle. Finally, the Empty version of this theme is what plays at Basil's house in the real world. Basil's home is also a home for Sunny, within Sunny's head. The Empty version shows that in the present day, Basil's home doesn't really provide any respite for either Sunny or Basil, because metaphorically, neither of them have been "home" since the Incident.

However, I'd also like to put forward that there's another big thing within Headspace that tells us a lot about how Sunny views the concept of "home".

Sweetheart's Castle

Sweetheart's Castle is a very interesting area of the game that the player spends a lot of time in. In fact, it can tell us a lot about how Sunny feels about the concept of "home" if you pay attention to the little details it gives us. For now, I would like to set aside the fact that the castle is associated with Sweetheart to talk about what happens in the castle itself.

To me, the castle is very clearly based off of Basil's house, or more specifically, the things that happen during this part of the game take a lot of inspiration from the memory of Basil's birthday.

To start out, there are four tasks that the player must complete while inside the castle. The first is assisting with preparing a strawberry cake, which is a clear parallel to the Birthday Memory, since it implies that Sunny was involved with the making of Basil's cake in the first place. The castle is also filled with many other strawberry cakes that Sunny/Omori associate with different smells, and bring the player to different areas of headspace. Check out my other analysis on Sunny's relationship with food and cooking for more details!

Within Sweetheart's bedroom, the player has to destroy a statue of Spaceboy, to be replaced with a statue of Sweetheart. In addition, Sweetheart's bedroom contains a bed that the player can rest at to heal, much like a picnic. To me, this very much relates to how Basil's bed is the only one that Sunny notes is comfortable, other than his own. It also is reminiscent of how Basil's birthday party in the Photo Album appears to have ended in a sleepover. The bedroom is also filled with different kinds of snacks and sodas, and this is also the area where you can get the Teapot weapon for Hero, and learn the Teatime skill.

Next, you have to go to the Royal Library to assist with the guest list. While I don't think the group had to think too hard at all about who was invited to Basil's birthday party, since it's pretty much just the friend group, there are some interesting things about this area. Sweetheart's Castle's purpose within Headspace is to cover up the Lost Library, so the fact that a library was included at all is interesting, considering the connotations. Within this area, you can find the Interesting Book for the "Fascinating Literature" side quest, a poetry book, and the Book charm, which can increase experience gain. To me, this relates back to Basil's love of reading, which he shared with Sunny.

Finally, you go to the Royal Ballroom to assist with preparing the Sprout Mole Choir to sing at the wedding. You might be able to say that this area is reminiscent of Basil's love of listening to Sunny and Mari practice their music, after all, it was Basil and Hero that moved all of the stools into the practice room to listen to the two. This room also contains a Sprout Mole that you can slow dance with to restore the party's Health and Juice. No matter if you dance with them with Aubrey or one of the boys, they will always say, "That was so much fun... Ah... What is this feeling? My heart is racing so fast... Thanks, hehe...". Just a little interesting thing for Sunny's mind to include in this area, specifically with the small plant creature that enjoys tofu.

The associations don't end there. There is also the Royal Gallery, which contains a bunch of art. Though we don't get to see it much in the real world, Headspace Kel notes that Basil does enjoy art, along with reading, flowers, and photography. The player can even become art in this area, by standing on a podium. You can once again do this with any character selected, so this could very much reference that Basil prefers to take pictures of his friends, since he is afraid of losing them.

Then you have the Royal Theater, where there are 11 different movies that the party could watch, which absolutely could represent how Sunny and Basil would have sleepovers where they would watch movies, or more generally represent the group watching movies as part of Basil's party. The castle also has a large garden, which is something that Sunny's mind also associates with Basil.

But What About Sweetheart?

I won't go into too much detail about what Sweetheart represents, as there is a very good post about it already, but to paraphrase what's important, Spaceboy and Sweetheart both represent aspects of Sunny, and his relationship with himself/Omori. Some people try and say it represents how Sunny really feels about how a relationship with Aubrey would go, but I think this concept is a little bit of a stretch. As far as we're concerned here, Sweetheart represents Sunny's broken idea of love following the incident, as well as his inability to even conceptualize what loving himself even means following what happened to Mari.

That being said, there is a character within Sweetheart's castle that does appear to represent someone other than Sunny...

Look at this dude, with his stupid dumb teal hair, pink hairclip and overalls. Wait

After finishing up the primary quest line in Sweetheart's Castle, you have the ability to meet a character by the name of Rococo. Rococo has some interesting similarities with Basil's story. He doesn't really have his own people due to his original planet being destroyed, in the same way that Basil doesn't really have his own family outside of his grandmother. He was taken in by Sweetheart and her family in a way that is similar to Basil being accepted into the friend group, and more specifically, how he appears to have spent a lot of time at Sunny and Mari's house. He'll paint pictures of Omori's party, in the same way that Basil in the real world would take photos of his friends, but not a lot of himself.

He sleeps on a futon with sheets made of the finest materials with a self-heating and cooling option. Seeing as Sunny recognizes Basil's bed as comfortable, this could be seen as a reference to Sunny sleeping on Basil's bed during sleepovers, while Basil himself slept on a rollout futon.

The fact that he has been sealed away from Sweetheart's castle reflects both how Headspace itself is filled with things that Basil loves while Basil is kept away from it by spending most of the game sealed away in Black Space or restricted to a picnic blanket, and how Sunny has physically shut out Basil in the real world for four years, keeping the two apart. Rococo is also depicted as being very lonely after being sealed away for so long, even growing desperate when the party tries to leave before he can tell his story, in a manner that resembles how Basil behaves during the real world segments of the game.

If you want to take the connections between Sweetheart & Rococo and Sunny & Basil literally, Rococo even says this:

Obviously, you don't have to take everything literally here if you don't believe there is any kind of romantic connection at all between Sunny and Basil, but this backstory does kind of parallel the way that the past is told in Omori. For instance, after meeting Sweetheart, Rococo has a gap in his memory of a few years leading up to he and Sweetheart falling in love and moving into the castle. Meanwhile, we know almost nothing about Sunny or Basil or anyone else in the group during the period of time between when Basil joined the friend group and when Basil started taking pictures for the photo album. Within the photo album, there are many things that imply that Sunny and Basil became closer throughout that final year than they were before, even if Basil already considered Sunny his best friend from the first picture. The falling out between Sweetheart and Rococo is more metaphorical than literal, as the thing that caused Sunny to lock Basil away both in his mind and in real life was the fact that he was a reminder of a past that Sunny desperately wanted to forget, not that Sunny was becoming more popular and receiving fan mail and requests from suitors, though you could see Rococo as representing the real Basil that was locked out and the suitors and popularity as representing the new friends that Sunny created within Headspace.

The Castle as Home

So how does this all line up with how Sunny sees "home"?

Below the castle is a little area with an NPC by the name of "The Keeper of the Castle".

The Keeper tells us that the castle takes the shape of one's deepest desires. "A place to return to. Somewhere to call home." In a way, since Sweetheart represents an aspect of Sunny, we could say that part of Sunny desires his home to be represented by this castle.

The Keeper also tells us that it knows that Sweetheart will soon leave, and it will need to look for a new owner. If you are playing the Hikikomori route, Omori will become the new owner of the castle. However, Omori/Sunny has rejected the real world in this route. He has rejected reconciling with his friends, ending the delusion, and he has rejected his special connection with Basil, with Basil's photo album no longer referring to the two as best friends, and instead referring to the friend group as a whole as Basil's best friends.

To that end, once Omori becomes the castle's new owner, all reminders of the reasons that Basil is associated with home are erased. All of the strawberry cakes, the art, the books, the garden, and Rococo himself are erased, leaving behind the "Boring Room", where all Omori/Sunny can do is sit, surrounded by pictures of a past that no longer exists, which is emblematic of how Sunny's own house must feel after those four years inside without his friends and his only family being a busy mother.

This is the hikikomori route's twisted version of Sunny "finding his way back home." No Basil, no Mewo, no Mari, and definitely no violin or Memory Lane. Only reminders of Sunny's broken family that he is confronted with every day, with all of the reminders of his friend group and especially Basil ripped away and forgotten. And this is how you get the "Welcome Home" achievement.

Hope you enjoyed!

[comedianflagwriting]

Writing/Roleplaying Basil from OMORI Guide

I am a writer and when I was in the Homestuck fandom, the roleplay guides were a great tool for assisting me in writing the characters and helping to have all the information in one place! I’m going to try and deliver that same level of help I got from there to this fandom! @derselord is my inspiration for this guide and I will be laying out a format similar to theirs. Be sure to check them out because I felt their character analysis was amazing. 

It is also important to note that the characters in OMORI leave a ton of room for interpretation and with the release of the manga I will make a part two to this with it in mind. I am going to try to go off of the physical facts as much as I can but I will have to draw conclusions from other less cut and dry events and dialogue. 

Disclaimer: These are my interpretations and opinions. I am but a random person behind a computer so if you disagree with anything that's completely fine! There is no right or wrong way to write or express a character, especially (Emphasis on this) in fanfiction! :)

Let’s get into it.

(MAJOR SPOILERS)

Personality/Character Analysis

First, we will look at what OMOCAT has to say about her character, then we will take a look at Fanon Basil, and finally some random likes and dislikes that people may forget.

Basil’s personality as stated by OMOCAT is supposed to come off as sweet and gentle, which is something we noticed right off the bat in the game. You enter the park and instantly meet up with Mari and are introduced to a flower-crown wearing boy who is bashful and humble, often talking down his skills in photography but still has a wholesome cheer to his hope. 

“The first iteration of him was calm and gentle- the type of character that has everything under control- a little more of a perfectionist, but all of those traits ended up on Mari instead. The next Basil iteration was Rowan, who didn’t have that calmness. He was just pure angst, supercharged with anger, and easy to cry. That type of character. That didn’t work well for me either, because I thought he was super annoying. So I made Basil by mixing parts of both Flower and Rowan. He seems angelic and caring from his appearance, mannerisms, and the way he’s thoughtful. But there’s still that angst underneath, which comes out through his nervousness. Even though he doesn’t admit it, it’s still there…” (OMOCAT, artbook.)

In this statement from OMOCAT as seen in the end pages of the artbook where she discusses the game and characters alongside the other artists in the ‘artists interview’, we can see from her eyes what kind of person she intended for Basil to be. His whole thing is looking sweet and gentle but having a very angsty side to him that he doesn’t like or want to admit despite very clearly being there. It’s like he is a coin and on either side is Flower or Rowan but with the lack of having it all together and an attempt to appear calm despite being a very nervous individual. She goes on to say that in response to The Truth Basil was completely unable to blame Sunny and had a dissonance of not being able to see him as a bad person. She also mentions when making a statement on how the friends are supposed to be set up, Basil’s description is “Basil… Basil is someone who you can always count on and will do literally anything for you.”

From this artist's interview, we can infer that Basil is a very caring individual who will do anything for his friends and has a very difficult time with understanding that people really can do bad things. An interesting thing to note is that he does seem to have this view at his core that doing a bad thing can make someone a bad person. This may explain why he is so uncomfortable with the thought of having what he may see as “undesirable traits.” He himself does not want to be a bad person. He truly wants to be a good person and aims to do what a good person would do but he often ends up going too far with it that it ends up hurting himself or others.

This shows when he doesn’t want to believe Sunny is a bad person for what he did. Sunny made a terrible, diabolical mistake, sure, but at least for you and I with a bird’s eye view and the power of literally seeing inside of his mind, we know he isn’t a bad person and is haunted by his mistake. 

This leads to the thought that Basil, who has these flaws and this internal insecurity, probably has an even deeper insecurity that he is as a whole a bad person. He knows what he did, he knows he has “undesirable traits”, and he doesn’t want to admit that to himself. This is a constant internal conflict for him and may be seen from an overly nice persona to mask it. 

It’s not even that he tries to hide this monstrous identity and that he’s some great big evil, it’s more that he just is unable to accept the fact that having some bad traits, trauma, or flaws isn’t actually enough to make him a bad person. The fact that he tries to hide that is at least thoughtful for the people around him, but like he does with helping others, he takes it way too far, and this leads him to being an incredibly avoidant character who has a hard time talking to people about things that are really bothering him.

Examples of Basil being avoidant and the lack of knowledge from his closest friends.

Kel, without knowing, gives him a way out of many situations. One such example is that “He has a weak stomach” and believing he went to the bathroom on Three Days Left because he was sick. Basil takes this and runs with it without mentioning that it was actually a panic attack. Then, Kel goes on to say that “He’s always had a weak stomach” implying that this is not the first time this has happened. 

RED FLAG: AVOIDANT

It also shows it has happened since their younger years which only pushes the idea that Basil, who is already an anxious character, has likely had this issue for a very long time, and has not told Kel about it at all. Not even when they were closer. 

"Huh? Y-Yesterday?

W-What do you mean?

A-Ah... Oh, right...

Yes, I feel much better now." -Basil when being asked how he is feeling after his 'stomach ache'

Kel wanted to hangout? Basil says no?

RED FLAG. AVOIDANT

Polly tries to talk to him but he is cold and locks himself in his room?

RED FLAG- you get the point.

Aubrey seems to know more about his state than Kel and is a little more intuitive about these situations, likely from their friendship before meeting the rest of the gang and perhaps from her own experiences at home. She could sense a huge difference in him after The Incident (Which would obviously cause him to be even more nervous). It is also mentioned that he “Went to the bathroom and she found the album on his bookshelf.” Which once again goes to show the bathroom is a safe space for him. She to some extent knows he has these tendencies but does not know how deep they run judging by her bullying. I will post a separate thread on her discussing her bullying and why it was so heated other than the obvious reasons soon. Basil has a similar issue with Aubrey as he does with Sunny by still looking at her from the lens of their childhood and refusing to accept that she was a bad person. This can be seen from the Japanese version of Omori where he referred to her as “Aubrey Chan” (I believe, do correct me if I am wrong) during an argument at the park. He also tries his best to approach her despite her clearly being angry showing a clear detachment from the reality that is their current situation.

Sunny is an entirely different ballpark. While it can be argued that the incident led Basil to hermit himself and become more isolated, it can not be ignored that he has a habit of bottling his feelings and hiding his issues from his friends. Sunny was the friend he talked to the most towards the end and they grew to be best friends and shared a lot of common interests. Basil states in game that he likes taking care of things and that he sees Sunny as “the baby of the group” and that he needs to be taken care of. This could be due to Sunny’s own anxieties, reserved nature, and calmness. With someone who is quiet and calm and doesn’t really push people to reflect on themselves such as Aubrey, Sunny was likely the friend he could tell anything to without being judged. 

“Yeah! We talk about how cool and composed OMORI is all the time... Or about how AUBREY is so caring about everything…” (HS Basil during a picnic. This is kind of a sad but funny dialogue because I am sure at one point this was true but it’s also Sunny being a lil goof in his head. Then again this is hikikomori route so Sunny hasn’t exactly been outside to see the insanity.)

He appreciates all of the traits his friends bring, but Sunny and him share a special bond that feels safe. This is why I can see them growing close because both of them have that inner turmoil but neither one of them is judging the other for it (to their face). This also leads to conflict as resentment can (and did) begin to boil over from their lack of being completely truthful and upfront with each other. 

This is a difficult thing for him to do anyway due to his worries he will be perceived as a bad person by himself and others. If Basil begins to think his actions are bad, then that causes him to have to work circles on whether or not someone else is bad, and the cycle continues leading to a confusion on how he really feels because he’s too afraid to actually feel those things. 

He avoids Sunny and Kel and rejects hanging out with them and is pretty curt with the “no thank you” statement. It is in his mind that not only does he think he’s a bad person but he thinks Sunny believes this too and doesn’t want to place a burden on him. This is a common trend seen in his character, the word burden shows up constantly with him.

"But somehow... whenever I try to help... I always end up burdening you instead."

Alright dude, a little guilting but I'll let it slide.

Anyways he isn't someone to blow up a lot and he's not going to freak out. Until he does. And when he does, it usually ends up pretty intense. It’s hard to properly gauge what his emotional explosions would be like considering we see him at one of the objectively worst times in his life, but from what OMOCAT has to say about his character and his history of repressing his true emotions that he, unlike Sunny at the current time of the game, knows are there, I can’t assume it will be good. There is just too much baggage that he tries to carry and he swings from one extreme to the other and it usually takes a lot to bring him to his breaking point, but even before that point, the issues he harbors internally only get worse with time.

“Hey... I'm really sorry to bring this up, but...Something has been really bothering me…” -Headspace Basil trying to vent to Sunny but being really gentle about it.

Fandom VS Canon VS Interpretation

Basil is seen as kind of a wimp. He quick to cry, leans heavily on other people to unhealthy degrees, his emotions are extreme and everyone in the group notices, and is typically sad and pessimistic while loving flowers and talking sweetly and innocently about little things he likes. This, however, is not exactly Basil. Basil does depend on people to unhealthy degrees but he doesn’t make that known because he isn’t exactly proud of it. To some people, such as Sunny given the situation, he absolutely becomes desperate in an attempt to navigate the problem together given Sunny is directly involved and there isn’t anyone else to talk to about it. This isn’t how he is with the others though. He will hint, tip-toe, and unconfidently try to convey that he’s worried he is bothering someone with his presence but will not outright talk about his feelings unless he is at his complete limit which may come as a surprise to the person he is flipping out on. I do subscribe to the idea that he’s quick to cry though because Rowan was quick to cry and in many of his emotion profiles he is crying be it from anger, sadness, or even happiness. He doesn’t tend to cry in front of people though, he is more of the type to lock himself away in his room or the bathroom and try to organize his thoughts. He also isn’t always sad and pessimistic and most people who are suffering from mental health disorders are not either. It is seen from a majority of the flashbacks that he enjoys poking fun at his friends, having a good laugh, and enjoying the small things. In the current time, there aren't a lot of things to laugh about but this should be noted from the game.

"Hehe...

Don't worry about it. You'll find out soon enough.

Shhhh... Don't tell anyone, okay?" -Basil being devious about poker.

A big thing also is that the friends all react to him very differently. Sunny can tell when something is off but doesn’t know how to approach it (though in the end it’s hopeful he will have a better idea of what he needs to do). He is very careful with Basil and the two of them seem to be able to talk about anything. Sunny is scared of him though. I think he sees the darkness inside himself and because Basil is so close to what happened he can feel that uncomfortable feeling. He is definitely scared from the way Basil reacts when he is under intense stress and his frantic back and forths. This can be seen when he tries to leave the room. Note that it was not always this way as Basil stated he could go to Sunny about anything.

Aubrey can also tell and is seen to be very gentle with him until you meet her in the present time and she’s not happy… at all. It should be noted that her emotions can definitely get in the way of this, but shouldn’t be dismissed that she is the one who recommended the group should stay the night at his house on One Day Left. She noticed him when he was acting strange after The Incident and tried to hangout with him to the point of begging to come over, and in Headspace, she cries at the thought he may be in danger and is worried to tears. I know Headspace isn’t reliable but I do believe it is an important detail because she cried on two separate occasions and was one of the last to forget about him. This shows me that Sunny knows they were close and that she would be worried if Headspace were to be taking place for real in the timeframe he is imagining. I personally believe that based on their closeness as children they were once very close and that’s why it really hit Aubrey hard when she thought Basil was a nutcase who scribbled out the photos. It would definitely hit hard for someone you really trusted to turn out to be a big goober. In the end he didn’t do that but he also did the other thing so I guess it balances out. However she did push him into the lake so there’s that too. That’s a lot of angry feelings for one person to have about another and typically it shows how much they meant to you before for you to feel so betrayed. Similar thoughts to her relationship with Kel and Sunny but that’s for another post.

Kel on the other hand, our sweet summer child, is often oblivious. He does notice when things are off and he is afraid to make them worse, but he really does have a habit of missing the big things. He doesn’t realize that Basil is having issues even to the point of stating,

 “You just focus on going back to being your happy, carefree self!” On Three Days left. He is completely unaware of what is actually brewing underneath but is also a very ‘To Your Face’ type of person and likely assumes that is how his friend will be and that his friend will be honest with him.

One last thing to touch up on in the analysis that’s very important is his codependency on other people. He wants people to like him and to care about him but he also isn’t used to it and as a result doesn’t know how to do it to a healthy degree himself. He has his grandmother and Polly, the latter of which he is cold to. His parents had dumped him off at his grandmother’s and Polly who had been there for either two years or three months depending on which dialogue you want to go off of, had only seen them one time and Sunny never.

Which is odd because they had spent a ton of time together. Like a lot. 

From this, it can be gathered that he has some intense abandonment issues. He also may have gained a lot of (seen in general) feminine traits such as his enjoyment of hygiene (reminding Kel to wash his hands and telling his friends to white their feet off on the mat), gardening, photography, and wearing hair clips and dressing like his grandmother picks out his clothes. He is gentle and incredibly effective. Why? This guy was raised by a gardening grandma and grandma’s (most) don’t really enjoy when someone is messy or dressing weird. Seriously, my grandmother cried every time I cut my hair and would put me in these little outfits. I don’t know, this just makes sense to me.

He is also used to having his birthday missed as he assumed his friends had forgotten and was delighted to know they had surprised him instead.

“(2/18 - MY BIRTHDAY): It's my 12th birthday today! I thought my friends forgot, but they all surprised me with a strawberry cake. I feel so lucky... This year is looking to be a good year!”

He is a person who is terrified of losing anything which is why photographs are the perfect way to showcase this character. He loves his photography because he loves his friends and wants to hold them close and take care of them just like he takes care of his flowers. He is passionate about his hobbies (up until you meet him in the RW) and although there is this soft sweet side to him, there is also a side that is in VERY deep turmoil and pain that he hides.

“It's hard to remember now, but... I think... at the time... I took photos of what I was most afraid to lose.”

In summary from this little spot, Basil is often boiled down to a few different traits but in reality is insanely complex!

Fanon- He's either Flower or Rowan essentially. Find baaalance

Canon- He's a nervous Flower but with Rowan lurking underneath (generalized)

Interpretation- Whatever else you believe/headcanon

Bonus Personal Head canon: I headcanon him as having some light scars after the encounter because they were slinging sharp shears all over the place.

Random Facts and Things to Remember

It is stated by HS Aubrey that Basil is a very considerate person who wouldn’t just wander off without telling anyone. This shows that at least in the past it could be assumed that he thinks of his friends first before taking on an action such as disappearing for long periods of time.

He rejects hanging out with Sunny and Kel

He wasn't the one who scribbled out the photos and was crushed by it

He was neglecting his hobbies when we meet him in RW

In the beta it is stated his favorite food is Tofu

He AND HIS GRANDMA have a staring problem.

Snow makes him sad 

H-Huh? Oh... It's nothing!

Sorry... It's kind of silly.

I don't know why... but snow makes me really sad.

He is NOT an honest person. This isn’t to say he is a huge liar liar pants on fire, but he definitely lies. For example, he will NOT tell Aubrey that you think dying her hair pink is a bad idea if you answer “no” when prompted. This is actually kind of sweet.

What do you think, SUNNY?

Hmm... Maybe we shouldn't tell AUBREY that.

“Don't worry... I know I can always tell you guys anything.” -Basil, who is lying. 

I do think he genuinely meant he could tell his friends things, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he will. Aubrey had to press him to actually answer.

HS Aubrey mentions he would not like a gambling joint.

Kel mentions he has a weak stomach

He does not like his shots being terrorized by Hector and his shenanigans 

He knows that you need a good poker face when playing the game

Kel in HS outs him for being good with a camera and puts him on the spot. He doesn’t seem to like this or have the confidence to take a photo and mumbles: “Kel… why…”

He likes spiders because they help him with his garden and Kel once again offers him up and puts him on the spot to try and calm a terrified Hero. He is once again doubtful of himself but talks at lengths of their benefits anyway.

He says “ah” All the time.

He likes things that are cute. He’s called Sunny and Mari cute as well as Aubrey. Sorry Kel.

Dude is pretty mentally strong for going so long like this but is also a very haunted person

Was planning his suicide since before we see him

It is mentioned he is a very forgiving person

Aubrey straight thinks he is helpless and needs defended (HS) In RW he needs defending from her lol.

He's somewhat outgoing and a little too optimistic but it's usually a front. Not always, but usually. He just has an innocent outlook. Picture a traumatized stuffed animal.

“Ah! I'm sorry, AUBREY. I just thought you looked cute! I'll show you when it's ready.”

(Not a fact but funny thing is he’s called her cute, Hero straight outted Kel and told Aubrey that Kel used to think she was cute, and Sunny thinks she’s cute. Possible love triangle? Jk…. Maybe. NYAHAHAHAHA)

On Writing and Roleplaying (finally)

He does stutter when he’s nervous. Absolutely and this can be shown. Just don’t go too far! His stumbling and stuttering doesn’t always happen and typically only comes from when he’s flustered or upset. This can be shown in either the dialogue itself or from a description of the dialogue. He usually only stumbles on the first couple of words and sometimes he will pause in a sentence if he feels like he is revealing too many emotions and will turn it back around to make it pleasant or less suspicious halfway through.

 He also repeats himself if he is really bent out of shape and has a very child-like way of arguing when he’s upset which showcases the lack of development from the last four years and the impact on his psyche. Another thing to note is he hides his feelings behind a smile and is very hellbent on making it work. A

"But... tomorrow... you're going away.

H-HOW COULD YOU DO THAT!?!?

That's mean, SUNNY. That's so mean!

here are you going!?

S-Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!

I don't... want to be... alone... not again.

You... can't... leave me... again...

No... You wouldn't leave me. That's not like you, SUNNY!"

__________________

"H-How are you doing, SUNNY?

Is everything okay with you?

... Okay... N-Nevermind, then."

His delusions stem from him force-feeding his brain things that he knows aren’t true and pushing cognitive dissonance down his throat. This seems to stem mostly from him secretly believing that bad traits can cause a person to be a bad person which then turns into a need for his friends to not be seen as a bad person and then deluding himself from there. He does not want to admit that someone is bad. He even hesitated on asking Kel and Sunny for help with the photo album likely because of this exact reason. When writing from this perspective, just try to make sure there is actually a reason he is losing his mind and try to see the grounds that cause this problem. The main root of it is abandonment and not wanting a friend to be “bad” and cause them to disappear. It’s the same reason he doesn’t want to be seen as a burden because he believes people will not like him if he shares his secrets which creates an endless cycle of pushing people away. People often project their own worries and he is no exception to this. 

He appears to be very close to his grandmother and it seems she was attentive to him. There’s only so much an elderly parent-figure can do though and it was likely he didn’t want to bother her with his issues either. She seemed like the only person who truly cared so my heart hurts for him that she passed away.

"H-HOW COULD YOU DO THAT!?!? That's mean, SUNNY. That's so mean!"

Basil crying in my opinion is absolutely not out of character and I am all for pushing characters to their limits and making them surprising but truth be told, he really doesn’t just spill his guts out to people the majority of the time. It is mentioned he talks to Sunny privately based on the game and based on Aubrey’s knowledge of him she probably knows more than most would think as well. Kel is the only person I’d be doubtful he’d be super open with but they both do have a good relationship. Kel is the person who puts him on the spot because he believes in him to a very high degree. This is usually counteracted with Basil being completely unsure of himself and vaguely putting himself down. 

He seems to be an easy crier if you go off of HS portraits. Again, HS is not reliable but I do feel like the developers did have the character’s natures in mind for the majority of their HS writing though of course they are Sunny-centric since it’s in his head and he wants it to be that way. He is very sentimental and it honestly seems like he is easy to get his feelings hurt but isn’t the type to admit it until he’s at a breaking point. Just make sure you have some good conflict here if he’s like, exploding.

I thought he had tears in this one but I was wrong. You can't convince me he isn't a happy crier though.

Look. See those tears welling up?

Bro is an angry crier

Look at that stream. He does wear his emotions on his face despite trying to claim he feels a certain way. LOOK AT THIS!

You are not fooling anyone but Kel bro.

 "Psh… nothing wrong over here! Just… enjoying the winter weather… Aaaah, it’s so nice…"

Bro has a blushing problem so be sure to add that if you want.

He isn’t super obsessive in the way many paint him out to be but that doesn’t mean he’s completely innocent from this tag. His beliefs and behaviors show that he does in fact get very in his head about things and kind of assumes the worst about himself which leads to him apologizing for trivial things likely in the hopes of getting reassurement, which his friends often provide. If he were a real person, this would become a regular thing as people like being reassured and if hinting and apologizing gives them that sense of comfort, they will continue to do it. He does seem to think at the current time of the game that everyone hates him and is to such a point that he is outright asking. Repeatedly. 

One thing that I don’t see addressed a lot is how he would feel towards Kel being Kel got Sunny out of his house and spent all that time with him while Basil (despite isolating himself) wasn’t able to get Sunny out. I do wonder what’s going on in his brain about that because he was super angry on One Day Left and there is bound to be resentment. He does get annoyed, we see it very rarely, but it can be seen not only during the obvious Sunny-Basil fight but also during his small remarks when being put on the spot. It seems he rejects the idea that he has any skill in anything and isn’t the type to enjoy that kind of situation. 

Ahhh... Okay, I'll try!

Look at his face when he says he will try to convince Hero that spiders are not something to fear as per the request of Kel.

He is very unamused and this is also his sad sprite. I enjoy the explanation mark at the end of his statement paired with this frame lol. 

Here’s the one with the photograph thing when Kel put him on the spot.

Agh... Why KEL...

S-Sorry... I'm not all that good... Or even trying to be really!

I just take photos for fun!

B-But... I'm not trying to sell myself…

Wanna see the faces? Lol. Here.

Completely mortified

Attempting to be pleasant and recover

*Sweats nervously praying he did that right

He is DEFINITELY the passive-aggressive type so when he gets into general arguments, he wouldn’t be the type to lay out the insults but would rather start off by being incredibly passive. It’s more of the hinting/tip toeing behavior commonly seen. He is also more likely to take things out on himself, bottle up his annoyance, and then harbor resentment if the issue persists. Such as with our boy Sunny. RIP Aubrey, she’ll probably get a couple of those small quips but he’s also the type to feel HORRIBLE about feeling ill on others and is seen to be incredibly forgiving. He is definitely the type of person to make a lake joke I think, but it would be out of the blue, one singular time, when everyone least expects it. Stuff like that.

There was definitely resentment between both him and Sunny there which I personally believe to have been mostly repaired by the end of the game. He still cares about him to a very deep level but, just as Sunny, there is some anger. This is mostly from, once again, abandonment. When writing scenes with them, a good tip for post good ending fics is to think in the way he thinks and create a little bit of uncertainty between them because they both need to have a good long talk and they both tend to keep things from the other that they fear would hurt feelings. Basil tries really hard to make things seem like they’ll be okay but Sunny isn’t a dummy and sees through this. Basil knows this, he chooses to continue hoping anyways. There’s just this thing in both of them where they know each other too well to the point it can be uncomfortable because they can tell when the other one is hiding something.

One good thing to note is be sure to show off his good traits and harbor a depth to him because all in all, it’s who he is. Some guy who is friendly and sweet but who also has a lot of emotional baggage and turmoil following him around. He is actually pretty funny but he’s usually very unassuming with it like when Aubrey called Kel a prick and he didn’t disagree or when when Kel called Aubrey stubborn and he dismissed it.

He is also compliment heavy to the point it can get uncomfortable. He finds these very unique traits that are specific to the person he’s complimenting and he makes it very well known to them when he can. He also seems to be more of a touchy-feely type of friend with the hand holding, hugging, and brushing hair thing. Kel is also in this box. He’s the type of friend that hugs you and you’re confused on why he’s doing that and a little uncomfortable but you just roll with it because that’s just who he is.

He is the type of person who wants people to care as deeply as he does but does not give them an avenue or a chance to do just that and then begins to wonder why they don’t while knowing in the end it is from his own actions.

He does try occasionally to bring up his problems mostly to Sunny but is very hesitant to do so.

He fakes his smiles but is also TERRIBLE at it and just looks kind of scary in the process haha.

His friends mean the world to him and he is willing to destroy everything unintentionally for them. He also battles with a deep inner conflict that causes him to think irrationally at times. Very sentimental and sweet this guy cries with most emotions when they are intense but you usually wont see it because he will go into a private space so he doesn't feel like a burden. Keep this in mind when writing emotional scenes. He’s also either completely straight and sharp to his point before backpedaling or he beats around the bush so he can awkwardly bring up whatever is bothering him.

Basil does NOOOT like confrontation. Not at all. Remember when we looked at how he will take Kel’s assumptions and run with them? He is very hesitant when approaching something that bothers him (of course unless he’s at his limit and even then he teeters back and forth on what he wants to say and how he feels) and he will actively avoid it for as long as he can unless he truly believes he can talk through something. An unfortunate thing was that in his situation with Aubrey, there wasn’t a whole lot he could say but he did try. He’s not completely against trying and he will attempt for as long as he can if he feels there might be some hope, but in regards to his feelings and emotions specifically, he’s pretty bad with confronting them even though he really wants to. This is a parallel to Sunny who does not want to confront his problems and throughout the game has to work to finally allow for the necessary actions to be taken for the greater good of everyone and himself. A lot of Basil’s issues do boils down to a flaw of wanting and not wanting something at the same time and not seeking avenues to mend them. He didn’t want to tell Aubrey about the photo album but he did want to talk to her about getting it back. We do not know what it is he was going to tell her the two times he tried to talk to her, but he’d have to say something if she had given him the room to talk. He didn’t want to be out on the spot about his panic attacks and he did not reveal any of it to Kel but did to Sunny once Sunny saw firsthand. It seems to be that he is very much a one on one person where he would rather talk to an individual about a problem than to talk to a bunch of people at once about the same problem that may affect everyone. Once the cat is out of the bag with him, he seems to immediately go into repair mode and try to either elicit comfort out of someone or backpedal completely. He’s very complex in this manner. I think it looks kind of like this.

Issue- He will talk to one person at a time rather than the group of friends in their entirety. He doesn’t seem to enjoy being the center of attention and he talks to each character differently.

Emotional confrontation- Either very tip toe through the tulips and hesitant to reach a conclusion or an emotional explosion after holding everything in

Internal issues- completely hidden (such as his suicidal ideations, panic attacks, anger) unless confronted and then he has no clue how to approach the confrontation and goes back and forth on how he feels because he doesn’t even know. Is quick to point out what has been pissing him off or hurting his feelings. Will state exact causes but will also break down and be confused why someone would do something mean like that.

External issues (photo album)- will try to talk it out and if it has to do with someone first and if that fails he is prone to giving up. He does seem to find a small bit of strength if there are people on his side but he is still not confident in himself.

Another thing to keep in mind is how back and forth he is. Cognitive dissonance does this to people and can be seen during the Sunny Basil fight when he’s not only verbally going back and forth on what he believes and how he feels, but his moods change at the drop of a dime as well as his expressions. It was so terrifying when I first played through. Can you imagine being in Sunny’s shoes? He was switching so fast and didn’t know what to believe. It was a pivotal moment for him. This can be expressed in writing in a myriad of ways. One thing to avoid is to make him too straight to the point and one-lane focused.

At the end of the True Ending we can see Sunny and Basil’s nothings disappearing and some may speculate Basil’s didn’t entirely disappear. A part of me is cool with this theory because he didn’t really get a lot accomplished on his end other than waking up to Sunny smiling at him. I think BOTH of them still have a long way to go but I think Sunny has finally started and is able to begin healing whereas Basil is pointing in the right direction but still needs to walk for a bit. Keep in mind when writing post good end fics that this kind of thing will leave lasting imprints forever and that people can heal but still have hurdles along the way. There are also always times people do fall down after doing good for awhile and returning to having issues. Basil is a very back and forth character and with the way the friends were so gentle with him as a child it could be thought he’s had some issues for awhile and they are aware and treat him accordingly. Be sure to reflect on this because when everyone just goes back to normal or hates each other without any of the lessons from the game it feels off in a way. Create some nuance! Give them mixed feelings. (If you believe that is what they would feel)

Talking to Characters

He talks to of the characters differently and I feel like it goes something sort of like this.

Mari- He compliments her a lot and looks very highly of her. He does seem to enjoy talking to her and Hero and it gave me the vibes of someone who had to grow up a little too fast and was comfortable talking to the older kids and understanding their wish to keep everyone from arguing with each other. He sees Mari as someone who has everything all together and that’s something he wants for himself. He’s very inspired by her.

Hero- There isn’t a whole lot of dialogue between them but I feel like it’s on par with Mari. Hero is calm and has a humble side to him that I think Basil would really enjoy. He seems to like that Hero watches over them all so they don’t get too rowdy such as when they were fighting over the Polaroid in HS which I’m sure I’d likely based on a true event because it just makes sense. I think these two would have a similar mood structure for a generalized calmness and humbleness but they also don’t have a lot of common hobbies and Hero is skilled and trophied whereas Basil hardly believes he can take decent photos. There’s more confidence on Hero’s end than there is Basil’s and that would cause a difference between them.

Sunny- Sunny is one of Basil’s closest friends leading up to the incident and he refers to him as his best friend. He deeply cares for Sunny and wants to make sure he’s taken care of. Sunny is shyer and quieter than Basil, and being that Basil has his anxious tendencies and prefers quieter hobbies, it is likely he has picked up on this and wants to make sure Sunny is heard and understood. It’s what a good friend does after all and it’s something Basil would want out of a friendship too. Sunny listens to Basil talk at lengths about his hopes, dreams, worries, and fears and they used to spend a lot of time together! He also always looks for Sunny’s opinions but generally only speaks on it if his opinion isn’t going to hurt someone’s feelings. (Aubrey’s hair, for example.) he’s a huge supporter and can seem to pick up on things very easy by seeing patterns and assuming based on expression. An example of this is Sunny’s crush on Aubrey. He picked up on this from Sunny asking to look at the picture of Aubrey and noticed a pattern in wanting to see. After the good ending, Basil is probably worried constantly about how Sunny feels about him due to the whole eye poke thing and likely still has a lot of hurt feelings to navigate through. They will definitely remain friends though. There is this deep understanding they have of each other but with their personalities being conflict-avoidant, it makes it so difficult for them to be able to fix a conflict the two of them share. Basil wants to but can’t by himself and Sunny is trying to run away from it. Basil takes it very personally and is incredibly hurt because who wouldn’t be and Sunny is terrified. Sunny picks up on Basil’s small issues easily but isn’t vocal about them like Aubrey is. He’s more of a physically be there and Basil seems to understand this and is alright with it. An example is Sunny following Basil into the bathroom or his bedroom and knowing something is wrong but being unable to say anything. In the end, Sunny had gotten the shears from Basil after popping him in the eye with his fist or something, and the two of them had a HUGE fight due to all their boiled conflict finally just exploding. This is something I feel would be common between them with smaller conflicts on a smaller scale because while they are there for each other, Sunny is terrible at talking about it which is something Basil wants and will try to force out of him because he’s making himself panic. The thing that tends to chill Basil out is talking through things essentially and Sunny’s not good at it. I feel like this would be something Sunny learns he needs to fix because at the end of the fic he finally does just that.

Kel- Kel is different when Basil and is one of the people that I feel is really fun to write for when it comes to dynamics here. The two of them are close and Kel often cheers Basil on buuuut he is loud, confident, and excited about it. I like how Basil gently talks to Sunny and cheers him on, Kel talks to Basil and SCREAMS that he’s awesome. Kel is a Chad for this. Basil, however, not enjoying being the center of attention, gets slightly irritated or nervous in response but generally caves under pressure unless he’s really unsure of himself. I feel he and Kel would have some of the best laughs but otherwise, there is a huge disconnect between the two of them. He definitely does see Kel as being an awesome person though because despite not liking being put on the spot, Basil sees the good intentions. Sunny is also very close to Kel and I occasionally wonder if there was ever a hidden nervousness around that seeing as Basil and Kel are so different and Basil is shown to be very wishful he had the “good” traits other people had. I don’t see a lot of deep talks between the two of them but I do see a lot of laughs, cheering, and an occasional very deep conversation about other characters or situations. There is just this fundamental disconnect where Basil seems to think Kel will not understand the issues he is having OR that he does not want to tell him out of embarrassment or worrying about burdening him. He does better when people pick up on his cues such as how he picks up on Sunny. The thing is though, Kel is very supportive and does have a depth to him that he occasionally brings out such as the graveyard scene. He’s just a very hyperactive person which I think freaks Basil out a little bit.

Aubrey and him have my personal favorite dynamic because it’s soooo messy. Basil and Aubrey grew up as neighbors and share a dysfunctional family dynamic and she was the one who introduced him to the group. There will be some personal interpretation here based on the contents of the game so keep this in mind. Aubrey was the person who picked up on Basil’s cues such and Sunny knew this. You can tell because in headspace, despite her HS counterpart being in love with OMORI, he didn’t wash out how much she cared about Basil. This is supposed to parallel her RW character too. She cried over him being missing, was one of the last to forget about him, talked about how she missed when he brushed her hair, lamented he wouldn’t like the Last Resort and was offended at Kel’s poor drawing, and picked up on his behaviors when he was sad. What this tells me is that prior to the incident these two were very close. Sunny either didn’t want to delete that from her character or was unable to dismiss it because it was so fundamental. Basil doesn’t usually explicitly say what’s bothering him unless promoted and Aubrey was the person that prompted him and noticed and for that she was a special person to him. She is capable of being very rowdy and loud just as Kel is, but the difference is that she also enjoys the calmness of small things, shares hobbies with Basil such as arts and crafts, and sees a side to him that he doesn’t like to share and is more than happy to comfort him. This is why I can see her drastic change being so believable because she felt like everyone abandoned her and when Basil was one of her first friends and in her mind avoided her and scribbled out all of the photos, she was blind sighted with rage and pain and thought it was more of a situation of him not caring, not wanting to be around her, being a huge nutcase, and her being completely wrong about his character the entire time than it was her just hating him to hate him. She mentions at the lake how he is the worst of all for what he had done and pushes him away. She immediately regrets this as she mutters “shoot” under her breath and in the walkthrough guide the art shows her crying as they carry him away. She is so distraught at her actions that she locks herself in her room and opens up to her old friends about their story at the end of the game. Aubrey hates rejection and when she felt rejected she took it completely to heart. She tells the group they should stay at his house that night and tries to talk to him when he locks himself away. This shows that she genuinely feels awful about it all and realizes her error in that he did care about her. How do I know it’s not just about the photo album and has more to do with their friendship? It’s obvious because she never even learned he wasn’t the one that did that. She begins crying because she feels awful and is finally humbled to the point she actually has to think about it all and approach it from an end she didn’t want to out of anger. She assumed Basil didn’t want to be around her but didn’t realize the depth of it. It was never about her as much as it was about all the other things she wouldn’t have even begin to know to think about. Her staying at his house that night is clear she knows something is VERY wrong and wants to be there to be safe. She knows a side to him that only Sunny also seems to really know and that is why she is so gentle with him (in the past) and so supportive of him. People get their dynamic as one extreme or the other so much that I feel it’s very important to talk about them because there are so many small details that are so easily missed. I feel like Aubrey and Basil’s friendship has a lot in common with Sunny and his honestly. Sunny was more in his head and Aubrey was outward. She also never hits him with the bat, even in the manga she kicks him over instead which is still diabolical. In the game though, Kim is the butt who hits him (dang it Kim) and Aubrey is more of the person who isn’t really actively doing that but does let the bullying happen.

It should also be considered that despite this she did call him names and was very cruel to him and it inspired others to do the same so I presume there is a chance she isn’t his only bully since she told Hero other’s joined in on calling him a creep and stuff. This all comes down to her wanting to not only push him away but being so resentful that he wronged her and Mari that she wants him to feel bad about it and no longer cares what he has to say to her because she feels like he is only going to lie and didn’t want to be around her when she was hurting anyways. In Aubrey’s mind she went out of her way to be around him after the incident but he didn’t want that and scribbled their history away. It’s very nuanced! They say hate is one side of the coin as love and I think that her deep friendship with him from the past is made so obvious for this exact reason. This can be said for Sunny as well who was incredibly troubled by his opinion on Basil but eventually came through and realized that he mattered so much to him that he’d do something he’d been running from so that he could fix things. I love coins.

Thanks for reading, I used the Wiki and the Omori Quote goats.dev website!!! Thank you to the people responsible. Please check out my fanfic! There are Petals All Around Us and Loser Committee on AO3, I will cry. They aren't perfect but I've really gotten into them and I have enjoyed learning how to write for these characters. I will have more character things so follow me if you wanna seeee!

-CF

[lilac-udon]

oh no I’m clowning myself again

As a basil defender

Most people stand w sunny and how often I see online is “basil ruins Sunny’s life ” . Would argue sunny ruined his life unintentionally, and basil actively chose to jump into the water with him. I can imagine basil never think that far into the consequences of his actions but the first instinct is to help Sunny. I can’t understand why basil did what he did ,and for me I do felt it’s overkill. My explanation is the writer needs it to be this extreme to connect the plot(and shock value . If sunny and mari are both basils friends, I cannot think of why he would throw Mari into the bus like that(I’m saying, thinking mari is already dead, need to save Sunny, but not in the point or any idea of, saving mari. He see Sunny action , but on the other hand he accepts mari is dead already too quickly in my taste)(I mean I don’t understand basil a lot a lot, I just don’t make sense but also he probably get push to do something because he think he is the only one to rely on when Sunny is suffering at that moment,add the point of he never really have parents supervise him, I guess that add a possibility of him not seeking others (parental figure) help but trying to fix stuff on its own. I have theory of he mostly solve stuff on his own, and no one helps or guides him, and he might be the one taking care of his grandma more than his grandma taking care of him

(((no , I will tell u this, a lot of people don’t like to think about any reason for basil bc they “hate basil” . I read other ship involving sunny and see how many write basil should get hate by his actions))))(((not that u can’t hate a character but , write it from another character lens(besides hero), ok cool?) (ah I know I ask too much, cute ship fluff no canon involved because it’s too much sure whatever)

I want to point out how much he valued to “help ”Sunny in that moment than anything else. Even it’s a very very awful idea. But I also want to say, as passive as Sunny is, didn’t he also ruined basil life. And the lack of people see it this way just annoys me, what did you mean basil deserved it, where if basil never met sunny he could at least had a normal childhood ; but for Sunny , sunny still needs to face the reality of mari is gone, wether or not basil is there to help him “cover up ”?

I always see both of them are in the wrong, even though so many people see them as cute little meow meows , nooo . Especially sunny, sunny is passive, but he is not entirely blank(I don’t know how to explain but I always use “cute” to explain?) this is more of my taste I guess, but I really like to put Omori characters into sunny as well, I see omori as what he is thinking, sunny just has the issue to showing all those thoughts he have. They are good kids but sunny has this attitude (read Omori note) removing it from him making him so cute and eepy as soft is just not how I imagine sunny I guess; ; ( where is his dark thoughts and edginess?

Basil being overall kind ? Huh, there is also this very weird thing of Basil literally shut off himself to only interact with sunny a tiny bit. After the incident he cut off from most of his friends. I think I don’t know how to think about him because there is too little information then from Omori point of view of dream basil (I can believe omocat probably don’t know too or probably very simple but I or the fandom over complicated him) I just always felt he do favor sunny, but that also can be explained he doesn’t know what to do and can only open with sunny because sunny literally causes them both in the dumpster. Or can think as he IS really this kind, waiting for sunny to do something than just snitching sunny, you know if he hate sunny or anything, he can twist the story or just tell it before sunny think through his trauma but he didn’t

Also to point out, sunny at the end of the game did somehow get a conclusion of his thoughts but not basil, just pointing out, we don’t know how he feels, he probably has unresolved trauma +the guilt of hurting sunny, also we are not sure if he is ok sunny just spell the beans like that, he might just want to talk with sunny but haven’t prepared to share it w his friends yet so yeah, I hope they are on the same page (someone reminded me that his something disappeared , so they are both fine)

Add

So sunny eye, I always see it as an apology of ruining basils life, but most people think it’s too much

[winters-sketches]

fellow kel enjoyers will already know this, but related to the last post i wanted to talk about just how fascinating Kel is within the game and his canon cause like..

compared to everyone else? we hardly get to know anything about how everything impacted him.

We know plenty about Hero; Hero talks about how it impacted him, we get to see him grieving for Mari at her piano, we’re explicitly told that he’s not ready to see her grave, heck, KEL talks more about Hero’s emotions than his own in the scene that is about his own experience. We see pictures of Mari and Hero together, their pinwheels together, their headspace counterparts, etc. We know just how much Mari meant to him, and we know how it impacted him, too.

Similarly with Basil and Aubrey, we get to know a lot about how they felt simply because of how they act or what they’ve explicitly said. Both of them are fairly obvious with how they feel, whether it be through dialogue, actions, etc. Aubrey’s close relationship with Mari is very clear (hair dyeing plans come to mind with that one), and to an extent, so is Basil’s (Mari stealing his camera, flower crowns, etc.) (and obviously Basil is highly involved in. y’know. everything)

And Sunny’s the main character who we literally see the dreams and subconscious thoughts of, so. y’know. yeah.

Compare that all to Kel? We have scraps.

We don’t really get to see much about how he felt after everything, not from outside that happy exterior he always has. The most we get are that he’s lonely (as told by Sunny’s mom), he distracted himself by involving himself in sports, and he didn’t know how to help anyone. Of course he misses Mari a lot, but that’s about the extent of what he tells us. The most significant thing he mentions is his one-sided argument with Hero, and even then he talks more about how it affected Hero than himself.

In addition to this, we hardly know anything about his relationship with Mari. We’re never told how he feels about her, we don’t know anything about how they interacted with each other, and their Headspace versions don’t interact all that much as far as I can tell (do lmk if there’s anything of note that has happened, i’m not as familiar with the headspace portions of the game). They don’t share a single direct interaction in the photo album, either. As far as we know, maybe Kel just wasn’t as close with Mari as the others were. It’s left to the player to speculate to what extent that’s true.

As the main story presents it, Kel just seems to be the most stable person in the friend group: the one who moved on, the one who was happy-go-lucky enough to move forwards despite everything. He’s the instigator of the good ending, and the only reason why Sunny even left his house.

He’s simple. He’s funny. He’s happy, for the most part. That’s what Omocat seems to present to us, at least.

Until you look deeper into the subtle intricacies of the game, and beyond the game, and find that there’s so much more hiding within the tiny details.

Take the Comeback skill, for example. Most effective when Kel is sad, it makes him happy instead. Why is that? It seems to suggest that Kel is able to effectively bury his sad emotions with his happiness… which also implies that in real life, Kel may be doing the same.

Or the bits of Kel burying his emotions in official art that Omocat has made, including both concept art and post-game art:

(both drawn by omocat)

Like, the fact that this behavior is never addressed, and only barely implied in-game?? It feels like there’s so much more to say about Kel, so many more feelings left unaddressed, and yet Kel is always just the way he is in the story. He has more depth, it’s clearly there, Omocat has shown that it’s there, and yet we never get the chance to see that.

Everything we do know about Kel’s feelings come from vague mentions in game or very subtle details that, if you weren’t already expecting a deeper meaning, you would brush off as something positive.

And maybe that’s the point. Because if he’s so good at hiding his feelings, you’d never notice. You’re not supposed to know if he’s upset. Because he’s not. He’s the happy one, remember? The happy friend of the group, the happy one who can stop being sad, the happy one on the emotions chart.Every explicit detail associates him with happiness, which makes it all the more jarring when things imply that he’s not, when the neutral ending hits and real Kel expresses sorrow for the only scene he does so in the entire game.

There’s just so much mystery and depth locked behind the cheerful exterior of Kel’s character, and the lack of content means it’s so much more fun to speculate about what’s going on behind the scenes.

-grabby hands- give us Kel lore, Omocat. tell us what’s going on with best boi.

[princesable]

wwait please do tell ur issues with omori if u feel like it. as a somewhat omori enjoyer (<omocat sucks) i wanna see others' opinions as well

ok on my puter here u go. im not gonna write out like. an essay im just gonna list things out in bullet points because thats easier for me so sorry if this is hard to read/understand. quick side note i've played this game around 3 times because i love showing it to people so they can get mad about it with me. i feel like this is important because ive like. actually played the game and not pulling all of this out of a cut down letsplay (also just so no one gets mad at me i pirated it) but also my memory is awful. i am planning to play it again and actively take notes so i can write something more coherent. also putting it under a read more because i didnt realize how much i had to say about this

the story sucks tbh. like its an interesting concept that could have been done in an extremely impactful way but i felt nothing. like i didnt care about mari and i didnt care about sunny because he had like. no personality outside of "silent main character everyone likes". like if you dont care about mari the whole story falls apart. it relies very heavily on you caring about the two of them which is FINE but they do a really bad job of making me actually give a shit.

hero got like fucking nothing in the story and that bothers me like. outside of sunny we should have seen how mari's death impacted him the most because. you know. THEY WERE DATING? but we never get to spend time with hero. like all he is is "the nice one" i wish we got to see. anything with him but i swear they just weren't allowed to have him express emotions that werent extremely mild or something. actually now that i think about it it feels like hero was an after thought in like. everything. his dream word ability is barely used and when it is it feels like anyone could have done it. have it literally just be that he can flip switches is stupid. you could remove hero from the game and it would impact nothing.

AUBREYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY the church confrontation scene was like. GENUINELY GOOD? and then after that they just forget to do anything with her. like it pisses me off how that scene was actually good and the only part that genuinely got me to feel anything and then she just gets nothing. like her "bully" scenes are pretty good and i genuinely sympathized with her but it kind of felt like. you werent supposed to? idk if that makes sense because you totally WERE supposed to feel bad for aubrey but having the kel high fives directly after multiple scene where you make her cry felt so. fucking weird. maybe that was the point idk. aubrey's my favorite character i wish omocat knew how to write

SPEAKING OF KEL. I REALLY REALLY DONT LIKE HOW THE GAME TREATS HIM. he's supposed to be the comic relief but like. EVERY joke is either "kel is gross/stupid" or "aubrey is mean to him for no fucking reason" and it gets old really fast because he's just a kid??? like him and aubrey are just mean to each other thats their whole thing which is FINE i GUESS but its not funny?? its just incredibly mean spirited and not fair to him as a character. why couldnt he have just been silly without the game seemingly hating him for trying to have fun. like most of his moveset is based around being annoying its. its weird man idk. also the fact this is a fucking item in the game

when i got this for the first time i put my head in my fucking hands man this sucks.

Basil. basil could have been an EXTREMELY interesting character but hes just so. whiny. it gets old really fast. the final fight with him was pretty good i guess. i dont have much to say about him sadly because i just like. dont remember. nothing with him stuck with me. OH WAIT the black space bit where you repeatedly kill him in extremely gruesome ways was. kind of fucking weird. because hes 10. it was unnecessary like if you REALLY wanted the fact that sunny is trying so hard to repress anything that reminds him of what he did to be represented through basil dying you could have just done it a couple times idk. weird scene.

ok moving on from characters the art is. a lot. its very hard to tell the dream world party members apart because omocat just has really bad same fact syndrome, it doesnt help that they all have the same color palettes. speaking of color palettes why do the overworld sprites white wash kel and hero. its less noticeable with hero but like. come on man its not hard to color pick your own art

still on the art the fact everything moves is fun in concept but REALLY distracting in execution. theres been multiple fights (specifically sweetheart, the king crawler and humphrey) where i've gotten awful headaches and had to take a break because i felt sick from all the movement lol. also the animation for releasing energy does NOT help who thought making the screen shake that much was a good idea dear god. like seriously this game needs to have some kind of warning

using sweetheart as an excuse to talk about how the dream world its such a fucking slog. i UNDERSTAND the point is that sunny is doing everything in his power to not reach the truth so he creates roadblocks but oh my goddddddd its so annoying to constantly have the plot take a backseat so we can go to a wedding or go to a casino or GO IN THAT STUPID FUCKING WHALE. the fact that there is a fucking mod that removes the humphrey segment should say enough. like that part in particular was soooooo fucking bad. its so boring. the humphrey fight has THREE FUCKING PHASES. I DONT KNOW WHO THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA BUT THEY SHOULD BE KILLED. ITS AN AWFUL EXPERIENCE

the emotion system is an interesting idea but i wish they did more with it. once you figure out that everyone has one theyre best with you stop playing with them. it stopped being fun to battle because its just make aubrey angry -> make sunny sad -> make kel happy -> have hero do fucking nothing -> hit them. idk maybe they could have had like. special emotions for boss fights?? im not sure how that'd work but i wish they added little twists every now and then to keep all the battles from feeling the same.

the real world isnt much better honestly. all the aubrey shit made me angry and the battles are so weirdly unfair its just not fun. like it doesnt penalize you for losing real world battles but its like. idk they suck. also the fact it doesnt tell you food doesnt heal you in the real world fucked me up when i first played because i was so used to the dream world i spent all my money on soda and then spent the entirety of the real world on like 1 hp i cant add spoilers on tumblr so animal harm/death and suicide warning for this next part. if you dont want to read that theres nothing else after it so youre good to just stop reading now

i dont like the black space. like i briefly went over it in the basil segment but it left such a bad taste in my mouth. especially the part where you are seemingly "forced" to cut your fucking cat open as it begs you to free it and the only way to not hurt it is to kill yourself?? ok.

speaking of which the fact the only way to leave the dream world and wake up is to kill yourself complete with a little sound effect is weird to me. idk man omori is 10 im not exactly keen on watching a child kill himself several times.

honestly the games handling of suicide is gross to me. obviously i dont think you should never talk about suicide i think its a very important topic but they way its handled in omori is almost. glorified? idk if that the right word. omori/sunny can kill himself so many times in this game and i just found that a little weird. also basil can kill himself and you can see his body just. sitting there. ok im running out of writing steam if i think of anything else i'll make another post or you have any follow up questions let me know im gonna go watch scott the woz