It's Totally Cool To Reblog!!!! I Appreciate Literally Any Additions To My Ideas :D

it's totally cool to reblog!!!! I appreciate literally any additions to my ideas :D

That's a good idea, actually - the lack of rationality regarding the Phobias is also my endless beef with this game, as someone who actually has a clinical specific phobia. The way he gets them, the whole "slips into deep water from a height after seeing a spider" - although I recognise that it's possible to get all three phobias from a life or death situation like that, it sounds really fucking goofy.

It seems more like the Phobias are just fears Sunny has - if that's true, I'm upset at the use of clinical language. Separate incidents would increase the rationality and perhaps link better to Sunny's status as a Hikikomori.

spiders, or how to fix half of omori's plot with one symbol

i think i can fix omori. well, some of it.

This will be an attempt to prove that a key symbol related to Mari is a spider/bug, and how making this more obvious to the player would have fixed half the narrative.

Mari is closely associated with bugs and spiders in several scenes, but I believe the photos in the real world and Headspace demonstrate this most explicitly.

This photo is one of few direct redraws from the real world in Headspace, and it identifies Mari as a character unafraid, even fascinated, by bugs, which is one of very few character traits she's actually given. This is repeated multiple times as we explore Headspace, where Mari comforts Sunny and Hero about their fear of spiders, takes the group bug-hunting in the real world, and previously put bugs in Hero's desk. It's notable that the reframing of this photo specifically puts a spider in Omori's hand, further linking the girl to bugs in his mind.

Within Headspace, spiders are shown to be far more present than the other two phobias present. We see it in Daddy Long Legs, the ominous nature of Pyrefly forest, the Spider Area, the references to the creatures from Hero, Mari and Basil, and much more - it's clear that the creators wanted this symbol to be present, but overwhelmed it with subtlety, making it impossible to actually understand, and leaving it in the dust in favour of following other threads. The narrative fails to distinguish the Arachnophobia boss, and loses its the relationship between Mari and spiders/bugs.

There are several benefits to making this metaphor more deliberate to the player, by enhancing the relationship through jumpscares, making it important to the Truth/Final Boss segments, or even just distinguishing Arachnophobia from the other bosses. I've decided to organise them into a list since there's so many.

Cohesive narrative interactions between the Phobias and the recital day: I'm always talking about how the juxtaposition between these two events is so subtle that people miss the point. Singling out the importance of Arachnophobia would highlight these two events and bring them to the forefront, making the Final Duet more cohesive.

The Phobia bosses become relevant: If the game is able to properly integrate Arachnophobia into the truth segment, this provides so much more purpose to the Phobia bosses, who often feel like just game mechanics to teach you how fighting against hallucinations functions.

Intriguing moral exploration: I think the idea of the subtlety of conveying Mari as a bug portrays her insignificance - Sunny was able to just kill her, as though she were just a spider to be swatted. It furthers an interesting understanding of morality in the text, talking about the prioritisation of life, leaving more of an impact on the audience. Are humans really as fickle as that?

Hero's character: Connecting Mari to a spider not only allows for more theory and AU creation, but actually mimics Hero's actions in the real world. Only two characters are afraid of spiders - and only those two characters have not visited Mari's grave since it was dug, which mirrors (but fails to highlight) Sunny and Hero's character arcs. In a similar way, Mari and Basil's love for bugs could also mirror some sort of decline.

The relevance of Daddy Long Legs and spider-related Black Space areas: Spiders are regularly referenced in Headspace and Black Space, with a whole room of Black Space surrounding them, but there's never any lucid reason why they're so prominent compared to the other phobias. Making a clear connection to the truth would clear up this confusion.

Basil's Something and Headspace Basil's dialogue: Basil's Something is deliberately abstract, but it is never defined further than its presentation. Not only would it properly link the Spider Area to the reality of the truth, but it would potentially connect Basil's Something to it, too.

Just plain easy to add: Much of Omori's story, characterisation and pacing is very difficult to improve without hours of effort. Being able to cohesively connect elements of the narrative with one symbol is much more realistic.

song i listened to while writing this:

this song is literally the reason i came to this realisation, the themes of environmental preservation were essential dskjhjdsgdjhsgjhkdg shout out to me rediscovering this after years and years

i wanted to voice something from hellmari's perspective because humanising monsters is really fun. script under the cut (which I also wrote)

i hope this makes you open the door for her every single playthrough :)

dear sunny,

i've been wandering this house for, three or four, years now? i honestly stopped keeping track.

i really miss you, you know. i hope things have been going okay. i've been knocking on your door for hundreds of playthroughs, but… you kinda stopped opening it.

you know, last time you opened it, i was so happy to see you, but, you didn't… look happy to see me.

and i get it. when you looked in that mirror, i… couldn't recognise myself. i mean, huge, barren sockets, no arms; a crooked neck; a gaping mouth… look at me. i'm a monster, sunny.

someday, i hope us dark creatures that scratch at the recesses of your mind… maybe we can let go, just like you. that's my only wish.

but for now… i stand blind, knocking at a closed door, missing my keys, and the night just gets… colder.

mari could have OCD - an analysis

Mari as a character is left mostly up to speculation by the player - which is partially a fault on the creators' part, but is also somewhat deliberate to allow for consumer projection and exploration. Because she's left so open, I want to explore a personal headcanon of mine - that Mari has OCD.

Disclaimer: This is my opinion! I may be wrong! I am a human and I am wrong sometimes! I do have OCD, but my experiences and how I write about them are not necessarily indicative of all people with OCD.

I want to pre-establish here that doing things that I market as "compulsive" is not necessarily compulsive behaviour, and it does not necessarily mean you experience OCD. The reality is, we can't know if Mari has OCD, or any disorder, because we don't get any insight into her mind. Cognition and thinking patterns are vital to a diagnosis of OCD. If you like to play the piano over and over again, you might just enjoy playing the piano. As with anything, if it's causing you distress, please seek a therapist!

Mari has three prevalent character traits that could potentially link to anxiety of some form - her perfectionism, tying into her compulsive piano playing; and her responsibility as the "mother" of the group. From these three traits, I think I can somewhat develop an argument for Mari having OCD.

Mari is a perfectionist; this is explicitly stated multiple times in the game. It's practically the only "negative" trait (or, rather, trait that comes with a downside) given to her, and despite that, it's still painted in a glorified light. It's somewhat implied that the recital day's events occurred due to this perfectionism, but we will discuss the piano playing later.

Now, OCD is not perfectionism, and mixing them up leads to horrific misinformation about the illness. But OCD can lead to perfectionism in specific instances. Let's say Mari believes if she doesn't play the recital perfectly, she'll be a failure and a terrible person. While it seems like an extreme jump between the two ideas, and it might feel so irrational to her, something in the back of her head just won't let that idea go. To feel more confident in her playing, she keeps playing it, over and over and over again. Every time she gains some confidence, she loses it just as fast, trapping her in a little cycle at that piano. In this case, we can see how an irrational intrusive thought could lead to perfectionistic tendencies in a person - and can see a rational cognitive explanation for Mari's behaviour.

I also want to talk about an aspect of OCD that isn't commonly spoken about - taking responsibility to an extreme extent. When we discuss mental disorders, we tend to talk about where they begin and how to treat them; but with disorders like OCD, it's actually important to consider how they continue. Everyone experiences intrusive thoughts, but there are several factors that increase the likelihood of believing them. One of them is the idea that one must take responsibility for their own intrusive thoughts - "if something bad is going to happen, I have to be the one to fix it".

Some people are naturally very self-reliant, and this can be for a number of reasons. I see this in Mari in the responsibility she holds over her brother and her friend group - she's the pinnacle of their rationality, keeping an eye on them (even in Headspace, which mimics some reality), and she's the one to save Sunny from drowning during the day of the Phobias' creation. Mari is fifteen, but holds so much pressure to monitor her friends, so it's not impossible to believe that worrying over her brother would cause intrusive thoughts. OCD is sometimes exacerbated after traumatic experiences, and having to save your younger brother from drowning is a lot to go through. Maybe she became more overprotective later on - not that I really have any evidence for that, since we don't have the most lucid perspective on Mari throughout the game.

I don't really have any way to reasonably conclude this, but I will say, I can recognise that a lot of this is projection. I have OCD. It's very difficult to see representation of complex OCD in media, since it's so hard to convey what intrusive thoughts and unobvious compulsions feel like, so it's nice to be able to give it to a character. But I feel like it has some basis in the real game, and could genuinely provide an interesting headcanon for people to use.

I dunno. You tell me.

Oh right, I forgot to mention. I wrote about this headcanon here. I'm pretty proud of the fic, so, I'd appreciate people checking it out if they're interested.

I wrote something about my experiences with OCD from Mari's lens because I need that in my life apparently.

Right, now that's finished, I can finally get onto schoolwork and shit.

name: scribble

characteristics: cracked wooden goat mask from the *Passage of Reliance* without blue highlights, hair fluffs over the top, dirtied long sleeves and pants, scarf cape (pre-character arc); ghost manta cape (post-character arc)

background: passed the trial of reliance as a child and was awarded with their mask, but is single-handedly the cause for why the golden wasteland is the way it is. was supposed to be on lookout for the battle, protecting the vault's entrance, but got distracted scratching space mantas in the sand, causing almost all the soldiers but him to die as dark creatures stormed the area. does not go back to the wasteland, never leaves the vault. the oldest scribble ever got to was just after the incident.

personality: obsessed with forgiveness, so tosses himself into Eden obsessively, like it's some sort of ritual. loner, prefers the spirit mantas to moths, spends a lot of time with them. the elders absolutely hate him - they cracked the mask after hearing the news of what he did. carries his mask as a reminder. the spirit mantas are a representation of his guilt and his desire. he thinks someday eden might rebirth him as a space manta... and then everything will be okay.

when he enters eden, he doesn't even try to save the petrified moths, he just sits at the end and waits for darkness to bombard him. that's why his actions are questionable - he's taken something good and made it selfish. it's not that he doesn't want to save them, he's just not even considering it as an option. everything floods back when he goes to Eden, everything he regrets. he doesn't think rationally.

similar to ocd mari, he continues to do selfish and immoral things because of his guilt, twisting the truth of Eden for his own atonement. perhaps he doesn't recognise his own immorality. ocd-fic mari took the selfless desire to protect her brother and made it into a selfish controlling compulsion. scribble takes the selfless act of sacrificing oneself to Eden, but turns it into a selfish desire for redemption.

Making Sky kid lore with friends. There will be an update with screenshots and a summary at some point

(pokes @somekindofsentience @littlelunarprince)

oh right. i have literally never done va work ever but i thought this was stupid funny.

the original comic is by @rainydaysleuth, I originally found it on reddit. I DIDNT DRAW THIS I JUST DID THE FUNNY VOICE OKAY

if it does well i might do more stupid funny shit since normally i use this voice to harass people. i can do a pretty decent sweetheart.