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reframing Omori, or are the endings really black and white?

MAJOR OMORI SPOILERS FOR EVERY SINGLE ENDING PLEASE PLAY THIS GAME I SWEAR ITS SUPER GOOD PLAY ALL THE ENDINGS (OR AT LEAST KNOW ABOUT THEM IF YOU'RE TOO SCARED TO PLAY THE NEUTRAL ENDING BECAUSE GOD KNOWS I WAS TOO)

TW: SUICIDE, GRIEF, LOSS, DEPRESSION, MENTAL ILLNESS, GAME-TYPICAL CONTENT

THIS IS ALSO REALLY LONG BECAUSE I'M INSANE. SORRY.

Right. This will be a big write-up of multiple interpretations of the different Omori endings. I feel like the game is quite black-and-white with how the endings should be interpreted, the achievements literally state what is good and bad for the player (and "other", which is also referred to as the neutral ending). But I don't think things are as good or as bad or as neutral as they seem.

Let's be explicit here - you're meant to get the good ending. The game does everything it can to ensure you get the good ending - even scrapping a daytime Hellmari jumpscare to ensure the player would keep opening the door for Kel. You're meant to save Basil. You're meant to defeat Omori. You're meant to uncover the Truth. You're meant to sit there and cry when Sunny and Mari play that Final Duet. And also, we like a story where there's the possibility for a happier ending! Don't you want these little babies you've follow around for 20 or 80 hours to get some closure and peace?

For these reasons, the good ending is usually considered canon, and I personally think the secret ending is also canon. I'll also be considering both canon for the sake of this post, although that isn't really relevant, since I'm going through all endings.

With this in mind, let's consider each ending.

THE "GOOD" AND SECRET ENDING.

This one is by far the easiest to flip the switch on. Since it's left ambiguous as to whether or not Sunny is forgiven by his friends, it could easily lead to a far worse ending where Hero throws Sunny down the stairs, or he is never forgiven, or other horrible events occur. Arguably, the point of the game is Sunny's personal acceptance, so whether or not his friends forgive him is so irrelevant that it's up for player speculation.

But that's all so simple, and all personal interpretation. I think considering the actual canon is far more interesting, particularly how it may affect Basil.

You could consider the secret ending to be an objective "good" ending - Sunny and Basil are smiling, and the Somethings fade away. But take a look where each Something goes.

Sunny's fades away entirely behind him, because his character arc surrounds finding and accepting the truth, and this means admitting to his friends what he has done. In this way, he also somewhat frees Basil from needing to obsessively hide the truth from the others, which is part of Basil's character arc, and quite crucial for the specific event that traumatised them both. This is healing specifically from Mari's death and the coverup.

But Basil's Something seems to... hide itself. It doesn't fade. It is still there.

Furthermore, the credits. Despite everything, Sunny does move from Faraway, the credits of a car rolling by definitely suggest this. I also don't think this fight would deter Sunny's Mom from wanting to start a new life - in fact, she'd probably want to do so more.

Basil's abandonment issues are unanswered.

I believe these issues have occurred for longer than the day of the recital - Basil takes photos of things he is "afraid to lose", we know Basil's parents are absent - and therefore they are a separate problem Basil needs to heal from. (omocat make an Omori 2 about basil pls it would be so good i swear i swear)

Basil means a lot to Sunny. We can see this in the numerous Basil-related things that appear in Headspace - all the little flower facts, the photo album's integrity to the group, Headspace's insistence they are best friends - and we juxtapose this to Basil's absolute state of panic over potential further abandonment, which is heartbreaking to witness, ending with his psychotic meltdown, furiously begging Sunny to stop leaving him. The abandonment of Basil had a massive affect on Sunny's mindscape, where his friend is constantly missing and tormented in Black Space, a forever reminder of the truth and the world he shut away. And from the way their Follow-Up Moves work, a hurt Basil is also hurt Sunny.

This comes to my final point - the Good ending is not objectively "Good" because of the implications it has for Basil, who has the ability to influence Sunny. Basil is missing a massive part of his healing, which is often why he is mischaracterised by the fandom as an insane yandere. Sure, the ending has the potential for future healing, but this ending also has the potential for further mental decline, and even points to the latter.

The ending is better than the others, yes. But it is far from a "good" ending.

Whether or not Sunny is aware of all this is up to you, which could be altered by whether or not you believe the two share dreams.

THE "BAD" ENDING.

Obviously the bad ending is bad. I am absolutely not encouraging the events of that ending, and I genuinely thought it was the worst possible ending - you did all that work to seek the truth and mend friendships and it leads to... that? - up until I watched this one amazing animation by _ysther. Please watch it for context.

Rolling Girl is about suicide, or severe mental illness, at least. Many people believe that the 'rolling' within the song is a metaphor for self-harm, but you may also consider that it is a metaphor for some half-baked existence - this feeling of being barely alive, surviving off the next hit of a potential future.

This animation frames the ending in a slightly different way, at least in my interpretation - that Sunny is exhaustedly trudging through Headspace, trying to see if there is something there for him, and there isn't. Omori and Sunny's hug at the end of the animation is notable - Sunny is in his hospital gown, and the headspace background fades through the air... this is implicit of the Bad Ending. This animation ends with the bad ending, and in the context of the song, Omori accepts Sunny's exhaustion, and sets him free.

Ultimately, the Truth is overwhelming. That's why Sunny repressed it for four years - it is so horrific that he cannot function in daily life without dissociation, and even with it, he's still a barely functional shut-in. He creates Omori and White/Black/Red Space, and daydreams to cope with his loneliness. At the end of the game, he faces Omori, who convinces him that death is the only option left in a seemingly sadistic way.

But Omori's purpose - just as any mind with suicidal intentions - is not to kill Sunny. His purpose is not only to repress the Truth, but to protect and support him. This is shown in Omori's final hug. When things get overwhelming, Omori convinces Sunny into suicide for their own freedom from suffering. It is a selfish act, which is why Omori spends time deeming Sunny worthy of committing it, but it is also a freeing act.

Furthermore, we know Headspace repeats over, and this repetitive cycle is innate to Sunny's (and many other people's) trauma. Repress, uncover, repress, uncover. Sunny's final fight with Omori was probably not the first, and if Sunny had survived the bad ending, it probably wouldn't have been the last. Omori is the absolute last line of defense, protecting Sunny and his friends from the Truth. This suggests that Sunny wasn't ready for healing, which lead to the bad ending.

The "bad" ending isn't explicitly bad - it is some twisted form of freedom. By killing him, Omori is freeing Sunny from the guilt and pain that has been destroying him for years. This suicide is the ultimate form of self-protection, Omori's final love note to Sunny.

But it is also a symbol of immaturity, though not necessarily a negative one. The bad ending is the implication that Headspace should have repeated, and the Truth needed further repression before Sunny could accept it. Sunny fell into Omori's trap because he simply wasn't ready, and this led to his death.

People always consider this ending in the context of what is best for the group and everyone outside of Sunny's mind, but they don't consider that, to himself and Omori, Sunny is a selfish person who is worthy of one final selfish act for peace.

THE "NEUTRAL" ENDINGS.

While the other segments were focused on greying out the black and white, demonstrating the more subtle implications of the endings, this will be proving that the word "neutral" should never be associated with these endings ever again.

Please note that I am only talking about the neutral endings that occur when you choose not to save Basil on the final night - we will discuss the implications of the Hikikomori route and its endings later.

The neutral endings are, hands down, the worst possible route you can take during the game. One of them is the only ending where three people explicitly die during the game. If you won't take this from a Basil lover, I'm going to prove objectively that this is the worst route for all members of the group, including Sunny.

Firstly, we have to talk about the dialogue that Aubrey, Kel and Hero say when Basil commit suicide.

Aubrey thinks it is her fault, for everything she did to Basil. Aubrey will forever blame herself for Basil's suicide, and this quote implies that. Looking at her expression, she's completely despondent. She isn't crying, she is feeling horrific guilt - not unlike the guilt Sunny feels for the truth. She might even slip into his habits of isolation and repression, or perhaps lash out further to cope.

Kel, on the other hand, is crying - which is incredibly notable for him, because his whole thing is ignorance and smiles - but he isn't blaming himself or the group or even Aubrey, but comparing this death to Mari's. Kel is such a complex character that I have difficulty analysing this particular line, but I personally think Kel is holding some of that childlike confusion, something similar to when he interacted with the depressed Hero. Why does this keep happening? Kel holds his own cycle of ignorance, and here it's broken. Perhaps he's questioning his own ability to "be happy" just as much as he is questioning the deaths.

idk. i'd love to here people's takes on this.

Hero's use of the second font is particularly notable. This font is associated with truth, and in particular, distortion. The most notable characters who use this distorted font are Basil during a breakdown and Omori - both characters associated with severe trauma and repression, trying to hide something. To me, this suggests that Hero is next.

Hero feels like he is the caretaker of the group - and he's failed, again. He thinks he hasn't been doing enough to protect everyone. He may experience another depressive episode, or that same repression followed by obsessively behaviour, trying to keep everyone alive safe. Whatever it may be, Hero is completely broken, as is the rest of the group. This is the end of any remaining functionality that they worked so hard to build up.

After this, viewing Basil's body leads to his door disappearing, as Sunny slips further into his repression. Something is yet again behind Sunny in the mirror, reminding him of the Truth.

I want to now draw your attention to something stated by the disembodied voice in the Map of Truth.

'They' is referring to both Basil and Mari, and at this point, Basil and Mari are dead. Sunny is the only person still alive who knows the Truth.

There is no way he can live with this, which is why the Knife Ending is readily accessible - but only if you explicitly seek it out. Within the knife ending, a dial-up rings forever for a call that will never be answered, as Sunny bleeds out on his bed. Sunny's Mom has lost both her children, and Kel, Aubrey and Hero have lost three of their friends, close enough to be family. This is in no way a "neutral" ending, this is the worst case scenario.

But even the Abandon Ending is unbearable. Sunny is the only one left who knows the truth of Mari's death. Implicitly, he has also killed Basil by the player's choice not to save him - which you could take as suggesting he somehow knew Basil was going to die.

The game shows to us that complete repression of the Truth is not possible. Even in the Hikikomori route, cracks of the Truth show in abstract ways - including Black Space 2 and the simulated Mari fight are good examples, as well as the horrific repeated jumpscares prevalent on the night in the real world before moving day. Even if Sunny moves away from the two ghosts he left behind, he will never be able to repress the Truth forever.

These endings are in no way neutral, and I think that's obvious to everyone. These are the worst endings you can receive, even the biggest Basil hater couldn't stomach all of this. I think.

THE HIKKIOMORI ROUTE.

If the good ending has elements of bad, and the bad ending has elements of good, and the neutral endings...

Well. Then the Hikikomori route is the perfect combination of both good and bad. It captures perfect game mechanics, and the peak of repression, but in some ways, it is the worst route you could consider taking.

On one hand, it's the perfect route for die-hard players. Peak exploration, unique information, the chance to level up and buff your characters, free access to the photo album, boss rush, and so much more. I personally love it, and I carefully plan out every aspect of what I'll do on that One Day Left. For Sunny, it is also a symbol that Omori has achieved his goal of "repression", or the façade of it, and will now sleep forever in peace. Dreamworld Basil is no longer a threat to Omori's perfect world (of which the meeting of the two literally felt like a wedding) and defeating the three Somethings achieves repression. Everything is okay, in Sunny's head.

On the other hand... it's the guiltiest route. The player is making an active decision to reject Kel and reality, which makes you feel guilty. It is incredibly difficult to take this route by pure accident, unless you were paralysed by the Hellmari jumpscare the night before. Unlike the other endings, Sunny never sees the truth in this route, only distorted fragments in Black Space and Black Space 2. Sunny never experiences the Something boss fight, but does still experience a Stranger fight, Headspace's final prayer to accept the truth, before Omori takes over forever.

And I don't know about you. But watching that piano fade away in the Lost Library... I felt shameful. It makes you want to apologise for the world you left behind.

It's quite easy to forget all this in the blur of Headspace, but Basil and Mari at the picnic blanket are a constant reminder. The blanket represents safety and protection, both for the party, but also the two left behind in it. Perhaps the fact he is present in the picnic blanket specifically suggests that Sunny is somewhat aware that Basil has committed suicide.

This route's endings are no more notable than the neutral endings, except Basil doesn't explicitly die in them, but it can be inferred he does from the results of the neutral endings. But the fact that we cannot confirm this just brings back that regret - Sunny has abandoned Basil and his old friends forever, for unrealistic Headspace reflections that Sunny made up. As I stated before, there is no way the Truth can be repressed forever, but it's pure speculation as to what happens after you abandon the group on the Hikikomori route.

thanks for reading, lol. i don't know how to conclusion. let me know your thoughts! this almost felt like stating the obvious half the time but i dunno, it felt cathartic to write.

i may write something about my journey with omori and i may not. this is a place for me to, idk, ruminate on things. i hope i don't become obsessed.

meet the me:

certified wet rat-like mess and omori lover

pansexual, trans guy, he/him

The Omori Dreamscape AU Fan of all time

myboyfriedn is soft nd ilikehim

never sleep enough, am terrified of everything all the time including my own insane hyperfixations

chronic intrusive thoughts, sometimes i talk about my experiences with OCD

i write analyses when im meant to be doing uni shit bc for some reason i cant do anything until ive finished an already planned analysis

i wrote a fun AU where i gave Mari OCD because i needed a means for processing my own OCD - it's here. i'm quite proud of it, i think it's a pretty good exploration of her non-existent character lol.

i can voice act mari, sweetheart, dreamscape's candace and maybe aubrey if i try.

other things i enjoy: any etherane games, vocaloid, zelda botw/totk, scott pilgrim takes off, splatoon (octo expansion), wanshengjie, danganronpa, oshi no ko, bojack horseman, my friends

the nature of unrequited love, or personal headcanons on sunny and aubrey

SPOILER WARNING: MAJOR OMORI SPOILERS

CONTENT WARNING: GRIEF, LOSS, GAME-TYPICAL CONTENT

READING-THIS WARNING: I REALLY DON'T WANT A FIGHT, THIS IS MOSTLY ME BACKING UP MY PERSONAL HEADCANONS THANKS :) also i would like to clarify that i DO NOT support shipping the older members of the squad with younger ones. that's gross. it is literally not that hard to do better. (also i believe sunburn requires a lot less therapy than sunflower, and i can totally see it post-game, so i really don't wanna fight with sunburn fans. )

Alright. The goal of this post will be to attempt to prove that Sunny's childhood crush on Aubrey is one-sided, and due to the nature of Aubrey and Mari's relationship, that there is a possibility Aubrey had a slight crush on Mari as a kid. Alternatively, I'd at least like to highlight how much of Aubrey's life revolves around Mari still, even somewhat in secret.

Again, to clarify, I don't condone Mari x Aubrey (are there not three other kids for y'all to ship Aubrey with??) , but rather we should consider the fact that many kids get small crushes on older teens or adults they look up to. I'm sure Aubrey was confident it would never happen anyway - HeroMari is basically canon, and Aubrey is far from emotionally ignorant - but I still think there's a potential that she may have had some unrequited feelings for Mari.

I'll bring in all my evidence and speculation and you can think on it :)

SUNNY'S RELATIONSHIP WITH AUBREY - COMPARING HEADSPACE AND THE REAL WORLD

(If this segment seems similar to another analysis post on here, please let me know because I'd actually like to cite it here as inspiring me, but I can't find it and it annoys me that I can't. Look at me and my great citations, good work sentience.)

Within Headspace, Aubrey's crush on Omori is prevalent and obvious. She tries to get his attention, wants to go on adventures with him alone, and defends him from the Slime Girls. Conversely, Omori rarely reciprocates, likely because at this point, his emotions are so repressed that he can't express more than the simple emotion mechanics required to fight. Aubrey, Kel and Hero all express emotion in their conversations, but Omori remains numb, the effects of repression seeping into the character himself.

We have to remember that Headspace is an extension of Sunny's mind, and while it is heavily influenced by the real world, it's still unreliable. I personally don't like it when people use Headspace evidence to support Real World theories, or vice versa - we need to be clear that these are separate, and Headspace is heavily biased.

There are two pretty key pieces of evidence in Headspace that point toward Sunny's crush on Aubrey being one-sided, and those are the Aubrey School Event and the Rainy Day memory.

The Aubrey School Event is found in Lost Forest 2 (also known as Looping Forest) in Black Space 2, but it is also found when interacting with a TV in the Otherworld using the universal remote. It is a short sequence, oddly colourful in the dark realm of Black Space, where several Aubreys fight to the toast for Omori's love. Omori is asked to choose between the last two Aubreys standing, and the event abruptly ends and Omori returns to Black Space.

The ending is particularly interesting...

We know Sunny daydreams a lot from the Lost Library excerpts...

I personally think that this fantasy and its parallels to the way Aubrey acts in Headspace suggest that the Aubrey School event is one Sunny regularly fantasised about, now present in Black Space 2 as a small remnant of the world he left behind. I also think this points to Sunny's crush being one-sided - if Aubrey's Headspace reflection is similar to Sunny's fantasy of her, then it suggests that this isn't the real Aubrey, and the real-world Aubrey may not have reciprocated feelings or Sunny may have been too shy to own up to them.

We see a big difference between their relationship in the real world and Headspace with the Rainy Day memory. Unlike Aubrey's constant expression of love for Omori, in the Rainy Day memory, the roles are reversed - Sunny is instead the one who wants to see the picture of Aubrey, and Basil even teases him about it, to which Sunny doesn't try to deny it.

Not many of the real world photos feature Aubrey and Sunny alone or conversing together, and Aubrey was asleep when her head fell onto Sunny's shoulder during the Lost Library excerpts. Aubrey is usually arguing with Kel, or hanging out with Mari, or with the group as a whole; and Sunny tends to be with Basil, or typically with the group. Obviously these photos are missing a significant amount of background as to what life was like before Mari's death (which a surprising amount of people tend to forget - those photos are by no means a reflection of the reality!!), but they provide some insight into character and relationship dynamics.

In my opinion, Headspace and the Real World just don't add up for Aubrey pre-incident. Which is why we're going to discuss...

AUBREY'S RELATIONSHIP WITH MARI - PAST AND PRESENT

Past

I believe the actions of present-day Aubrey hold some more weight, so this segment is mostly speculation.

We know that Aubrey and Mari were very close before her death. Due to the dysfunctional nature of Aubrey's household, it's likely she saw the friendship group as her family.

In a lot of the Faraway photos, we see Aubrey and Mari together, whether that be Mari reading to her, the two licking popsicles, Aubrey falling asleep on her shoulder, or the two's promise to dye their hair together, it's clear they're very close.

While we don't have a lot of information other than the album about life before the recital day, Aubrey in Headspace is also very fond of Mari, rushing excitedly to see her. Despite it being heavily influenced by Sunny, there is no real reason for him to obscure other relationship dynamics as it means nothing to Omori's goal.

Which is why I'd like to propose that Aubrey had a little childhood crush on Mari, which she was probably aware would not be reciprocated. She's 12, so she somewhat understands what love is, although considering time context, Aubrey may not have understood lesbianism and might have just assumed she was really fond of Mari, or something.

Mari would never reciprocate, as most of the rest of the group seems relatively aware that Mari and Hero are an item, so Aubrey probably pushed it all down, and was devastated when Mari died. Her friend, but someone who truly cared about her, which Aubrey didn't get a lot of as a child.

She watched the friendship group fall apart, and felt so angry, how could they betray Mari like that? Hou could they betray Aubrey like that?

Present

This post explores how much of Aubrey's current identity revolves around Mari - Aubrey continues to dye her hair regularly (as is evident by the visual absence of any roots), Aubrey spends all her time at the church and the graveyard, and she clings onto the photos of Mari that were defaced.

I find the fact that Aubrey spends her time in the church incredibly interesting. For one, considering what Sunny and Kel have to do just to know where she's gone, it seems as though Aubrey keeps her visits to the church a secret from her friends, aside from the closest. We also know that Aubrey is relentlessly judged by those at the church,...

Aubrey is a complete outcast at this place, and there is no way she's unaware of this. Despite this, Aubrey's nature is to stay true to herself, and clearly Mari means so much to her that she's willing to undergo judgement and ostracization just to feel close to Mari again.

But we can also consider the way Aubrey acts after Mari's death holistically, instead of parts of a greater whole. If she truly just looked up to and wanted to be like Mari, wouldn't she tend toward mimicking Mari's behaviour after her death? Why does Aubrey instead feel vehement anger toward others for "betraying" Mari, and spend all her time near Mari's resting place?

It is possible that Aubrey felt she couldn't be Mari, and she gave up and instead sought for her protection; or that she tried to reconcile the group, but the sheer betrayal and ignorance of Kel, Sunny, Basil and Hero broke her, and she flipped. I'm not going to deny the possibility of these.

But I think there's also a possibility that Aubrey doesn't want to be like Mari, but instead mourns her death as the loss of someone she had a crush on. As a result of this, Aubrey's life centers around Mari, and she is incredibly focused on trying to understand why Mari did it, which is why she spends her time near Mari's resting place. She does these things so she can feel close to Mari again, not so she can follow in Mari's footsteps.

Aubrey misses Mari more than she wants to be Mari. Which is a perfectly normal response to loss.

My main concern with this headcanon is it makes it significantly harder for Aubrey to forgive Sunny and Basil. If she is still much closer to Mari than those two, then I can't see her forgiving them anytime soon. and i am a massive baby and really want her to forgive them

Thanks for reading! idk what else to say. reminder that aubrey x mari is disgusting and so is shipping hero or mari with anyone else in the gang, especially during the events of the game, as hero is LITERALLY TWENTY and everyone else is LITERALLY A MINOR. omfg.

Omori and its parallels with OCD, or my personal connection to this game

SPOILER WARNING: AS USUAL, MAJOR OMORI SPOILERS FOR MOST ENDINGS AND THINGS.

CONTENT WARNING: MENTIONS OF SELF-HARM, SUICIDE, SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS, DEATH, LOSS AND OMORI-TYPICAL CONTENT. I will also be referring to my own intrusive thoughts a lot, so please take caution if it might trigger you to spiral.

DISCLAIMER: I AM BY NO MEANS A MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL. I am in the process of seeking a diagnosis (we're getting there :) ), but it has been otherwise confirmed by professionals that I experience OCD. This post is about my personal experience with OCD and trauma, and the way I believe these feeling manifest in the game. I don't believe Sunny or Basil experience OCD, but I want to compare my experiences with obsession, compulsions and trauma-related OCD. Other people may have completely different experiences, and those are valid!

You could call this catharsis, some form of healing. Really I'm doing this for myself, which was kind of why I started writing Omori analysis in the first place (???). and im a nerd for this game

Guilt

Guilt has always been one of my biggest hurdles, and it's also a very relevant theme in Omori.

For the longest time, my brain and I have been actively trying to develop compulsions to cope with guilt, and it seems to consistently fail. I've tried singing songs on repeat, extreme self-harm, distraction, avoidance ect, and nothing seems to work. Sure, I've never committed recital day, but even small things can make me feel horrifically guilty, as my intrusive thoughts tell me I'm a horrible person or a liar.

I see this in Sunny, too. For the longest time, his mind has been trying to cope with the guilt, and it chose to delve deep into repression. But no matter how much he represses, the truth is still there, and so that guilt is still there.

The Fear Polaroids in the Omori Route are also a representation of guilt, as is the mirror during the Truth segment, both depicting Sunny has a hideous demon. My intrusive thoughts depict me as a demon, too, doing horrific things to myself and others. The images of mutilated, demonic Sunny capture the... inhumanity that my mind makes me feel.

I get it, Sunny. I don't feel human either.

Mewo's Death as an Intrusive Thought

Cat Dissection is an interesting area of Black Space, in that its immediate relevance to the truth is less obvious. It's also one of the more horrifying ones - on my first playthrough, I was running blind, and I figured you'd have to kill Mewo for the key. You do not. my biggest regret

Mewo is obviously linked to Mari, but at the time, we'd only ever seen this slightly mentioned in the real world photo album. At that point in Black Space, Mewo was closely tied to Sunny and Omori, being an essential part of White Space.

The player can stab themselves to get out, or cut open Mewo and suffer the regret. This room feels very reminiscent of a gruesome intrusive thought that just won't go away, those days where you see yourself murdering all your friends, or violently injuring yourself. Much of Sunny's hallucinations, or creatures like Something, also mimic this kind of thing.

That room has far deeper analysis to dive into, but this is as far as I'll go for this segment.

Compulsive Behaviour - Repetition

Basil is probably the first character that comes to mind when I think of compulsive behaviour. His most iconic line...

This sort of repetitive action is the root of a compulsion - an attempt to relieve anxiety. Whether or not Basil fits the criteria of needing repeat those words otherwise something bad might happen is unknown, but this sort of behaviour is very relatable in my experience.

I have a tendency to not be consciously aware, but others notice that I'll mumble things to myself. Typically this is me trying to talk back to my intrusive thoughts, as far as I know, and trying to confirm to myself that they're wrong. This will often end in asking someone else or doing research to confirm.

By repeating these things, Basil is trying to ward off the reality, which is that everything isn't okay at all, and likely won't be. But the specific framing is future-oriented - he isn't saying that things are okay right now, he's saying that they will be. This could link to my later point about uncertainty.

Avoidance

Not many people talk about avoidance behaviours as a compulsion, which is probably why much of my OCD went unnoticed as a child. You don't really consider mental compulsions, and avoidance can be very easily hidden, especially if you the ability to force yourself through something if you have no other options.

While it's not exactly the same, Sunny's repression of rooms in his house and the shaking head that prevents you from going to particular areas are forms of avoidance. The sliding glass door that leads to the backyard and the piano room are the most notable - it's not repressed, it's there, but Sunny shakes his head every time you interact with it. He can't go in there. He just can't. There's no explanation for the player.

I relate to that. I have strange rules that mean I can't do things. I just can't. There's no real explanation for myself, either, and sometimes I don't even get intrusive thoughts of the consequences, just some insistence that I can't do it. Perhaps this was confusing or frustrating for the player, but I found it incredibly realistic.

Uncertainty and Abandonment Issues

I've heard somewhere that OCD is, ultimately, a fear of uncertainty. As a result of this disorder, combined with trauma, I also have abandonment issues the way Basil does.

Even before the recital day, Basil's abandonment issues are prevalent. He clings to the group with the photo album, preserving his memories. He took photos of the things he didn't want to lose. After the recital day, Basil really did lose everything, and he was broken as a result of that.

I imagine this sort of thing was one of his regular worries, everyone abandoning him, Sunny in particular. And I can relate to that - one of my more common intrusive thoughts is others leaving me after they find out I've done something horrible. It makes you want to shut off from relationships, just to be safe - what if everyone leaves?

I think that 'what if' is what made Basil so attached to Sunny in the present day of the game. He wants to save Sunny, he wants to make things back to the way they were before, but at the same time, there's this uncertainty - Sunny is moving? Sunny is leaving? What will happen? What if everything gets worse?

This wasn't the easiest to write, but thank you for reading.

posting tiny snippets of fanfic until someone finds it interesting and i am motivated to finish it, part 3

[KEL MULTIVERSE 1 - 332]

Kel scoured the Cool Forest. It was one of those recurring places he came to, looking for more flowers. He thought he’d been here hundreds of times before, but obviously there must be something he missed. 

Kel looked around. The eerie blue leaves of white-bark trees blocked out most light, so he had to rely on the glowing red lanterns that floated among them. The lanterns were naturally formed - originally, Kel thought they were fruit, but they tasted disgusting, and they didn't make good soup, so now they lit the way during his journeys in the forest. 

They worked relatively well as soap, too. The glow came from the lanterns being filled with a strange liquid that cleaned, but didn’t strip off his flesh like the river. 

Little creatures with dozens of yellow eyes fearfully scuttled into the purple bushes as Kel peeked into them. He worked systematically, like the repetitive nature of the forest, a tree surrounded by a circle of bushes, another tree surrounded by a circle of bushes, so on, so forth. It felt like it had been copy-pasted by some vengeful God.

Ah.

He kneeled down when he spotted the soft blue glow - but froze angrily when he got a clear look into the flower.

There’s that goddamn black glass again.

Unlike the clear crystal flower from last night, this one was tinted black, swaying in the wind like it was taunting Kel. 

Why were these fucking failed-flowers even created? They didn’t even work. People can’t die twice in the same universe. He couldn’t even enter them properly, they just erred out after the double-death and he was forcefully removed. It all felt so stupid.

Kel angrily kicked at the Lily of the Valley, and it smashed on the floor, black glass shattering over the lime green dirt floor. The glow instantly died. Good riddance.

He pulled out a worn leather notebook, and took a small note, pen cap in his mouth. ‘Lily of the Valley, #2,252. Failure.’

Kel furiously searched through more bushes. If he didn’t find anything good, he was going to be so fucking mad, but there was nothing to do with that anger, except yell at the sky deliriously. He liked to pretend he was taking revenge on someone, some God, but the sky never responded, unless streaming and fading pulsing light as time changed counts as a reply.

He felt like her in those moments, in the universes where she managed to live past the age of 12. Sometimes it made it all feel better, but sometimes it just made everything worse. 

Reminded him endlessly of the point of all this.

through the looking glass, or understanding windows and their relation to colour theory in OMORI

WARNING: MAJOR OMORI SPOILERS. PLEASE PLAY THE GAME FOR YOURSELF IT IS BEAUTIFUL

CONTENT WARNING: REFERENCES TO SUICIDE, DEATH, LOSS, AND GRIEF

READING-THIS WARNING: ITS VERY LONG IM SORRY I AM INCAPABLE OF SHUTTING UP AND I ALSO GO IN TANGENTS ALL THE TIME

I feel as though people miss the smaller symbols in this game.

Obviously it's easy to look at, say, flowers throughout the game, or what Something and Stranger demonstrate, or maybe even mirrors and our understanding of reflection, but there's plenty of symbols that people don't look at or write about, because they feel less relevant. Symbols are easy to overlook when you're no longer studying English Lit.

But I am your certified Wet Rat, and I spend hours overthinking this game, so I'm going to talk about what windows represent in Omori, and how this relates to colour theory.

There are several colours that are designed to remind players of the truth, or at least hint toward it, and these are bright red (light), saturated blue, and monochrome. These are all somewhat relevant here, so I'll go through them, and explain their connections with windows.

Windows as a Foreshadower of Truth, but also Repression

Before we discuss the relevance of red light shining through windows in foreshadowing Truth, we have to understand why they stand out among the rest of the house.

To do this, let's discuss saturated blue.

Saturated blue is a very deliberate choice - we know this from Omocat herself - it is the colour of the Phobias, and Sunny's house during Phobia sequences, as well as Basil's boss fight. The use of saturation conveys intensity and fear, and there is a sense of impending failure - we cannot "beat" any of these boss fights by normal means, but instead are doomed to lose or wait until Mari consoles us. This blue is also deliberately not black - this somewhat disconnects these segments from the Truth, because the ultimate purpose of the Phobia bosses is to provide a comparison between Mari saving Sunny's life and Sunny ending hers. Within the Basil boss fight, more features are monochrome, which ties it more closely with the Truth. (Saturated blue is also the colour of Hellmari, but she's more relevant when I talk about Spirit Mari later down the line.) It's prevalent in the Deeper Well, but notably absent from many Black Space rooms, who choose to use solid monochrome or other colours to convey emotion. It still exists within Black Space despite this.

Red (light, specifically in windows) is symbolic of distortion, but it also foreshadows the Truth creeping into Sunny's life. I am talking about red light in particular - while red is carefully used in the final boss fight, Red Space, several areas of further Black Space and in the Red Hands, red has more complex meanings in this game, where it depends entirely on the other colours around it (red and black represents malicious intention, red and white is more closely tied to repression, and red standing out against the Dreamworld is tied to Truth).

It is designed to feel wrong, the same way the encroaching fog across vast forest feels wrong, and the deeper well's atmosphere feels wrong. This discomfort is very well-captured throughout the game, and the careful use of red contributes to this.

In several segments, red light streaming through a window is shown to represent repression of Truth. We know that the sky was not red when Mari was killed - it was late afternoon, with some light streaming through the trees - so, in some ways, the Truth has already been distorted, being shown as worse and more horrific than the actual events. This is likely a result of Sunny's repression.

There is one particular moment where this glowing red light represents repression. This occurs in the Hikikomori Route, if you wake Sunny up during the night. You see several horror sequences relevant to the truth, and the piano room lit with a red glow. Entering it reveals this...

I'll talk more about the symbolism of that particular window later, but we know that the piano is being repressed here. Instead of the pure red light, we see the combination of black and red - which we know represents malicious intent - showing how Sunny's repression of the Truth has become more powerful than Sunny himself, and Omori is now taking over his mind.

Windows as a Door to the Truth

During the Truth sequence, there are red windows in almost every room, aside from backstage-like areas. We know from the previous section that this foreshadows the Truth, and the increasing number of these windows brings it to the player's attention, standing out more than it did previously. The same glow is also found coming from the TV in the first room. Sunny is notably drawn to this glow, as is the player, and you are also required to interact with (which implies potentially entering) the window in the Hospital sequence to proceed.

To understand windows acting as doors, we need to talk about the sliding glass door.

The sliding glass door in Omori is both a window and a door - letting in the eerie red light, but also letting the player (and Sunny) access it and understand it for the first time. This makes it the ultimate foreshadower of Truth, and we must enter it in order to view the entirety of the Truth photo album.

Sunny never represses the sliding glass door, but will refuse to go outside until forced by his friends in Faraway visiting the Treehouse. In the real world, it is shaded over, making it impossible for the player to see through (save for a short Stranger encounter). This opaque nature is present in the Truth segment as well, except it is glowing red.

You can't see through it, but you can finally enter it.

This door leads us to the peak combination of our colour theory.

To the eyes, this first looks like a fade between red and purple, but the only possible relevance purple would have is its association with Mari.

This colour scheme is actually the result of a fade between red and saturated blue. Combining the colours of the Phobias, fear, as well as Mari's support and safety, and the day of the Phobias' creation; and the Truth, repression, and the fateful day of the recital. Although subtle, this is the game's big comparison, and the main purpose of mentioning the creation of the Phobias at all.

These two days are designed to compare Mari and Sunny, increasing his guilt as he remembers the way his sister generously saved his life, and remembers what he did to kill her.

Windows as a Symbol of Ascension

Monochrome is a key colour associated with Truth in Omori, and it does so in a relatively obviously. It is the colour of White Space, Black Space, Something, Stranger, and, notably, the colours of the photos that show the player the Truth. In this way, monochrome simultaneously represents repression of the Truth and the past; but also the desire to uncover it. Areas and characters that contain more black than they do white tend to represent truth, whereas the opposite tend to represent repression, save for portions of the Final Duet and the Hospital, where white represents acceptance. White also symbolises Sunny, shown in the pinwheels, and it has further meaning in the multiple flowers associated with it.

Spirit Mari is also associated with monochrome, her sprites existing in this colour. We contrast this to Hellmari, who is coloured in the saturated blue beforehand, and we can start to understand the mechanics of Headspace as a whole.

Despite Stranger's quote, Sunny, Basil and Mari are all split in halves, each half with different goals. Sunny, although he doesn't always know it, wants to seek the Truth; but Omori wants to repress it. Stranger wants to free the real world's Basil; but Headspace Basil is a representation of desire, the idea that everything is okay. In a similar way, Spirit Mari wants Sunny to seek forgiveness, and Hellmari is a hallucination of a Mari who would never forgive him.

I personally do not believe that Spirit Mari is Mari's actual spirit trying to communicate with Sunny - as much as that is a nice thought, and even though it is backed up with meaning of the White Egret Orchid, I choose to believe that Spirit Mari is Sunny's own desire for acceptance. As much as Sunny hates himself, the game is about seeking and forgiving yourself for what happened that day, and that requires this hidden desire, which is channeled through Mari.

The window above the piano room is found in several locations in Headspace. It is found in the first Black Space room, just above the first ever key you collect, and Mari is found hallucinated in front of it several times in the Real World. It is an important reminder of the real world, everything Sunny is leaving behind.

Spirit Mari also ascends through the this window during the North Lake sequence, and again during the Final Duet.

The whiteness of the area is highlighted with a light, pastel blue. Unlike the horror of saturation, pastel in-game represents peace and purity, being directly contrasted with each other. Pastel isn't symbolic of repression, although it is the main theme during the happier segments of Headspace. These particular colours - white and pastel blue - are also found in the Hospital, and in the final scene of the good ending. Pastel means acceptance, and it means there is no need to "saturate" the events of the recital day.

Here, the colour gradient, and Mari ascending through the window, are symbols of freedom. Sunny has accepted the Truth, and can now properly grieve his lost sister in peace. Simultaneously, you could argue Mari's spirit is finally free - she isn't tied down by Sunny's repression, and her ascending through the window is symbolic of finally entering the afterlife.

sorry for going so off-topic. as with most of my analyses, the idea came to me at 5am when i was half-asleep and i just had to write it out. lmaooooo.

the relevance of arcs in the DreamScape AU, or trying my best to make predictions

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE OMORI DREAMSCAPE AU - THIS ANALYSIS ASSUMES YOU HAVE READ UP TO THE CURRENT LATEST CHAPTER (14) PLEASE READ IT!!! ITS GOOD!!

CONTENT WARNING: MENTIONS OF SUICIDE.

READING-THIS WARNING: I'M STUPID AND MISINTERPRET THINGS SOMETIMES, ITS ALL MY ANALYSIS AND DO REMEMBER THAT IT CAN BE WRONG/BAD/STUPID SOMETIMES

*cracks knuckles*

Let's do this.

Determining the Goal of Each Arc

If a story is formatted in a particular way, typically it has a specific goal for that. You learn this back in the years of High School English, when you start to understand the point of plays being separated into acts. They have somewhat different stories, but ultimately link to the same final goal, or final climax of the story.

In DreamScape's instance, it is split into three arcs. An arc (in other contexts) typically refers to the development and eventual resolution of a particular theme or aspect - such as a character arc, which portrays character development over a period of time. I tend to use arc when referring to characters, so I'll capitalise when referring to the actual in-text arcs.

I believe that it is possible to use our understandings of the current Arcs to determine where loose ends might be tied up in Arc 3. We know for certain the ending is "bittersweet" - somewhat good, somewhat bad, not unlike the original game.

Arc 1

The first Arc provides us with the most understanding, since it's complete, but it's relatively easy to miss the goal of the Arc, considering how much is going on. We gain understanding of DreamScape as a location and a plot device, and begin to understand the characters centered around it, which is a lot to process.

The importance of the events that occur is obvious. Sunny fucks with the program, revives Mari, and causes a shit ton of problems, including seriously injuring Basil. Basil knows the truth of Mari's weird online activity, and Sunny is trying to fix the problem he made, causing more problems on the way. In the meantime, Kel and Hero wrestle a dysfunctional relationship, and Aubrey and Basil aren't on good terms.

Despite all this, the finale of the Arc is focused on Aubrey's relationship with Sunny, and it deliberately doesn't end with the creation of the Mari virus - that's the beginning. Having it as an ending would be a relatively reasonable ending for a beginning arc, so why wasn't it?

I believe the goal of the first Arc revolves around Aubrey/Kim/Kel discovering what Sunny has done, and also reader discovering the "truth" about Mari's death, as well as the way Sunny's life rotates around it. Rather than a journey of creation, it is a journey of discovery.

Mari's suicide is first directly described in Chapter 10, and so is Sunny's suicide attempt (mimicking his sister's). We also see Sunny's direct involvement in Mari's death - while her legs breaking was already mentioned, here we see Sunny curled up in the corner, sitting with Mari's dead body, when Aubrey finds him. We see Sunny mimic Mari's suicide, and we get one of the most key lines of this arc-

From this, we learn more about Sunny as a character before the events of her death, and the nature of the destruction of Aubrey and Sunny's relationship, indirectly destroying Aubrey and Basil's relationship at the same time. Similar to the original game (except actually explicit), we watch how the friendship group broke up. This is the goal of the first Arc - much like the Truth Segment of the original game, we are understanding what happened in the past.

The first Arc also introduces Kel and Hero's clashing personalities, and also introduces Kim, to act as "Aubrey's Hero" (at least for this section). Kim and Hero are third-parties who don't like and rarely interact with DreamScape, although they are later required to. I believe setting up these characters makes them more relevant later.

Arc 2

As of current writing, this Arc is incomplete, which makes it difficult to determine its main goal. However, we can look at the current state of events and determine a potential conclusion from there.

Arc 2 has us understand more about the Mari virus, and its interaction and storage of memory. It also introduces Sweetheart, as well as Hero's bargain with her, and it foreshadows/demonstrates severe destruction of DreamScape.

The sequences wherein Sunny enters Mari's memories are very reminiscent of several Truth sequences in the original game. Even the images reflect this, depicting Sunny falling through a red sea; or the hospital. It depicts a continuum of Mari's memory, which also foreshadows the destruction of the way Sunny perceives time.

Despite the horrific nature of it, we know Sunny enjoys being with Mari or acting as her, in her memories - his obsession with his sister has driven him to insane lengths to see and feel her again, punishing himself . In this way, Sunny now acts as an antagonist, where his goals are somewhat beyond reader empathisation and understanding, pivoting them to want him to get help. It may be that we rarely see Sunny as the main perspective onward, but it's perfectly possible for that to not happen as well.

It is likely the game will be immensely broken from here on, or at least somewhat changed. I also predict Sunny will break free from Sweetheart's weird little lab to cause further destruction, because it would ultimately lead to a more interesting future climax.

Considering Loose Ends for Arc 3

The Potential Ending of DreamScape (as a game): Considering the best possibility for a bittersweet ending, the destruction/abandonment of DreamScape as a game would tie up Sunny's grieving and acceptance character arc. Though Hero's focuses on the use of DreamScape to heal grief, Sunny is more relevant and requires more support. Either the virus itself will ruin the game, or Sunny will choose to leave it.

Understanding the Mari Virus: At the present moment, Sunny (and everyone else) has a very limited understanding of the virus - we understand why it is there, and somewhat understand what it can do, but nothing of its extent. Surprisingly, we also understand little about its creation. Either another character will introduce a better understanding of it and its potential, or we learn from Sunny's experience.

A Possible Sunny Final Boss Fight?: Could be an interesting avenue to go down as complete corruption threatens the game, but also threatens Sunny's safety. Aubrey has already fought Sunny before, so it's not impossible. However, that fight also didn't achieve any goals of the other parts of the main cast.

Kel and Hero's relationship: I feel absolutely confident it won't stay this way forever, and we can already see slight change. This also goes for Aubrey and Basil. Whether or not the entire friendship group is revived is debatable, and potentially unlikely, considering Sunny's apparent differences.

Kim as a Character: Putting this here because she's apparently going to get more relevant. This may be because she knows something we do not, or perhaps to understand Aubrey more.

Sweetheart and her Crew: These characters definitely know more about DreamScape than the reader, as is evident by their relevance in the second Arc, as such I believe they might be beneficial to keep around for the next Arc.

Sunny's Eviction/Expulsion Threat: While stated to be five months away, time has been slipping from Sunny's grasp recently, meaning that this is definitely going to become relevant again soon.

Sunny's Physical and Mental Wellbeing: Need I say more?

Basil and Unrequited Love: The pining is probably going to get worse from here, especially considering Sunny's current state. It is possible Basil will have an internal strife between his desire to see Sunny happy and what is best for him.

There's definitely more. It's like, insanely early. I stopped having a train of thought twenty minutes ago. But I hope you enjoyed this!

ooooh yesss more VHS lore. The devices themselves quite literally need their own computers just to run, as they're constantly tasked to read sensors covering parts of the player's body _and_ run a game at the same time. The consoles went through multiple iterations before eventually being discontinued. However, just about everyone who owns one has cracked it in order to keep using it. As mentioned in a few chapters though, this hasn't been an entirely 'ethical' or 'safe'. Thing. Reports of injuries have been cropping up left and right, with Chapter 6 showing Basil to be one of them. It only gets worse from here.

OCD in Hello Charlotte 3, or why Charles Eyler doesn't (necessarily) have Dissociative Identity Disorder

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR HELLO CHARLOTTE 3

CONTENT WARNING: Discussions of severe mental illness, including intrusive thoughts and psychosis. Please be warned if this may cause you to spiral out of control, and take care of yourself.

DISCLAIMER: A lot of this is coming from my personal experience and understanding of OCD. While I do not experience DID, I don't really focus much on it in this, more reframing Scarlett Eyler as a character. You can take Charles' experiences however you feel is accurate.

I feel like the fandom gets tripped up when Charles calls Scarlett Eyler a tulpa.

I've seen a lot of people state that this quote directly implies Charles has DID, and that's therefore canon. But I'd actually like to propose a different take, that Scarlett is a physical manifestation of Charles' intrusive thoughts.

First of all, a tulpa implies a sense of desire - it is willingly created through spiritual meditation. Scarlett is, in no way, a desired existence that haunts Charles. There is some debate as to whether or not the game was originally in Russian or English, but regardless, tulpa just may be what Charles refers to the phenomenon as. It's not as if this directly confirms anything, as we know in-game Charles is only diagnosed with autism, and takes medication for psychosis.

Charles experiences many symptoms of OCD, contamination OCD in particular. He is intensely preoccupied with purity and disease, insisting that the majority of the population has a "parasite", aside from a select few people (Vincent being one of them, and by the end, the only one).

OCD and psychosis have several unique overlaps when acting as comorbid conditions. It has a relatively high comorbidity, due to both conditions often suffering with heightened paranoia. I couldn't find any research which suggests it can cause the hallucination of intrusive thoughts, but OCD does make people more susceptible to hallucinatory disorders, and vice versa.

Many people with OCD, especially those who have experienced symptoms since being a child, start to conceptualise these thoughts as a being - appearing as imaginary friends which act and react negatively. It definitely happened to me - I genuinely thought I had DID for a year or so of my life, because I had this voice in my head that hated me, and it didn't feel like myself. As a child, it just felt like my own mind was trying to bully me, and I didn't understand why.

We know that Scarlett Eyler is the instigator of "punishment" for Charles' actions...

This sort of "punishing" is very reminiscent of OCD. The rule-breaking itself is confusing to an outsiders, and the punishments even more so. However, I find this rule-and-punishment system very relatable, and I'd argue that some people with OCD might have even more confusing rules and punishments - for example, I can't watch very specific youtube videos, I can't explain what the rules I have surrounding them are, and I have strange punishments for this (that which I will not disclose).

Scarlett also doesn't exhibit typical alter behaviour. She never takes over, Charles doesn't seem to lose time, she does little more than act as a harsh observer, and also physically threaten Charles. She seems very real to him, aside from the fact that he knows taking pills will make her "disappear".

For Charles, Scarlett is simply a being who threatens and instigates intrusive thoughts, but in a particular way. Charles still experiences other intrusive thoughts - Scarlett never discusses the parasites, even though that's a very prevalent fear of Charles'.

Scarlett is the manifestation of intrusive thought that Charles is a failure, rather than being a separate existence to Charles.

my little rat analysis lmaoooo. this was my first hello charlotte one, i've always loved charles, he's just peak gender in so many ways, incredibly relatable.

hope your little polycule goes well salutes

a place between unreality and lucidity, or understanding the intentions of Chapter 12

CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSIONS OF DEATH, SUICIDE, AND ABUSE. I ALSO TALK A LOT ABOUT LUCID DREAMING, WHICH CAN BE DISSOCIATIVE FOR READERS, SO PLEASE TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.

SPOILER WARNING: REFERENCED YUME NIKKI AND OMORI SPOILERS, AND OBVIOUSLY, DREAMSCAPE SPOILERS.

We're back bois, and we're back with my favourite chapter.

I love Chapter 12 so much, the same way I adore the Truth Sequence in Omori. Originally I was going to compare the two, but I realised there's little overlap other than the intentions they're written with.

...so I wrote about the intentions instead. The little bitch boy intentions. You'll see what I mean.

Buckle up, this one takes some insane turns. I had wild epiphanies while churning all this out in a couple hours. I think I may be losing my mind.

understanding what I mean by "lucidity", and discussing dreams as plot devices

Lucidity is a very particular type of plot device that I find difficult to describe - it is a specific type of fragmented narrative that fragments location, exploring an impossibility that often has links to deeper meaning. Typically it is an abstract way of foreshadowing or revealing something to the reader, and it mirrors the concept of a "liminal space".

Dreams in texts have been used as a method of foreshadowing for hundreds of years. While the human brain has no ability to predict the future, but only reframe the past, the uncontrollable fragments of memory that are spat back out at you during unconsciousness have captured human fascination since we first started sleeping.

Dreamscape itself isn't a dream, but it is a different form of consciousness, and the creator has stated that Chapter 12 draws a lot from lucid dreaming, which suggests this counts as part of the 'Lucidity' narrative trope. As someone who does not dream much, I find this shit fascinating. Like I'm sure it's horrific as hell but. It seems so fucking cool.

Perhaps some of the best examples of the use of lucid dreaming to form narrative are Yume Nikki and its fangames, as well as Omori. Yume Nikki was a catalyst for the creation of many RPG maker horror games, and it's an excellent piece of work. No concrete story, just wandering an endless abyss of Madotsuki's mind, observing the horrors within it. The fangames branched off this concept (I personally recommend .flow ) and added more aspects, but never being concrete about the trauma.

Things are illogical in the Yume Nikki dreamverse, but they don't have to be logical, and things don't have to make sense to the player - it is purely up for speculation. At the same time, we know it has to mean something. There's an innate sense of exploration and meaning in dreams, despite the real life version often being meaningless bullshit.

This is where Omori explicitly diverts - it outright states what happened on the Recital day, in a short, distorted sequence known ominously as "The Truth". While the entire game is about lucid dreaming, this section captures the horror due to the illogical nature of it, where Sunny travels from his living room, to a hospital, to stairs, his bedroom, backstage... things are wrong. At the same time, the player is focused on completing the album and collecting the polaroids, with the confusing nature of the locations building to the horror of the final moment.

Despite all this, none of these sequences are the big moment, or even nearing the climax.

Yume Nikki doesn't have a big moment, unless you see the ending as significant enough for that title. It is a game about wandering unreality, and without a plot, it can't have a climax. It uses lucidity to provide a sense of narrative, even when there isn't one, tricking the player into trying to comprehend an impossible universe.

Omori is not building up to that that one sequence, but rather, it is a stepping stone leading to the Final Duet, which is the true climax of the game. It's an emotional release for Sunny and the player, a sense of finality in a game without a proper "ending". The Truth sequence is merely a way for the player to understand plot and build horror, and without the Truth's photo album... we would understand nothing at all. An impossible universe.

This leads to my big theory...

the purpose of chapter 12 - you can't understand it

Chapter 12 is a lying piece of shit and won't admit to us more than cookie crumbs about the future of the Dreamscape universe. And I still love it. And here's why.

Due to the abstract nature of it, we can't understand it. Perhaps Sunny can, to some extent, but since we're not sure the cause nor purpose for it, we can't understand it. We can speculate, but we can't understand. Just like Yume Nikki, we might never properly understand what each segment means.

Here's some little nuggets I've been scrambling through for information.

The beginning talks about time and distortion of it, which mimics some of the issues with time Sunny has in real life. This may be foreshadowing his eviction or declining physical state.

Body horror is incredibly prevalent, particularly self-mutilation. This has several implications, but it likely hints to Sunny's feelings for himself. It may also foreshadow what Mari looked like during the Recital day scene, which I'm starting to realise hasn't actually been shown yet. Interesting.

While this is one of the first times we see Mari as more than a virus or a corpse in the text, it's also completely distorted by Sunny's unreliable narration. Despite the slightly manipulative conversation held between them, Sunny is completely frozen in grief, desperate to beg for her forgiveness.

Sunny sits there with her pain in that hospital, insisting he deserves it. It hints further to Sunny's declining mental state, but that doesn't tell us anything more than his own self-loathing. Both this and the above point foreshadow Mari's potentially abusive nature.

Sunny is completely determined to stay within the lucid dream, and is also very insistent that Mari is somewhere at the end, which turns out to be right. How he knows this is not shown to the reader.

Segments of this are related to Mari's own memory, which provides us with a better understand of the VHS system, and of the accident that lead to her suicide.

The lucid dream is a representation of Sunny's unending trauma through what he perceives to be Mari's eyes, perhaps even a representation of what he feels he needs to do for her forgiveness.

We also learn a bit more about Pianoboy, who we know is a clone of Sunny, and he specifically highlights a connected feeling of isolation. At the same time, it has to go further than that, but we're again limited by understanding. There's more, but not enough to guess what 'more' means.

But those tidbits mean nothing. And I can't do much more than spew nonsense about segments, with no ultimate conclusion.

Because Chapter 12 is not designed to be understood, but rather, it's something to look back on when you finally do understand. It's foreshadowing in its most complex form, hinting ominously to what you don't understand. It is also similar to Black Space in this way - no-one can figure out the truth of the Recital Day from Black Space alone.

I could spend hours trying to understand every symbol, every room, the essence of Chapter 12 itself, and fuck me because i totally would but ultimately, it's all fragments of a deeper narrative, more complex than our limited understanding.

And it's a horrible, horrible thing to do to a reader. An unanswerable segment, dangling understanding right in front of their nose, but making it unreachable. Haunting them with the human desire to see patterns in chaos. What utter cruelty. How could you do this to me, @omoriboii. Why would you do this to me, the analysis God, with the most overthink-y brain in existence, and yet give me, ultimately, nothing to lead to. Why leave me a crumb to look back on, something I can never understand with the information I hold. I may be stupid, but I can understand when I am beat.

It's perfection.

why even torture someone with the inability to understand?

Building horror is incredibly difficult, because it's so easy to do foreshadowing incredibly wrong. We've all seen horror movies that are so bad they're funny, relying entirely on petty jumpscares, terrible props and showing off the killer way too fast-

Wait a minute. Showing off the killer too fast ruins everything? Dammit, I wanted to flex my big sharp knife. That's right guys. I'm the serial killer of this blog. ?????

Anyway, demonstrating the inability to understand something to the reader is a common feeling that gets the emotional brain hooked and the cogs whirring in the logical segments. You need to understand. You develop theories, you discuss them with others, seeking evidence, only to find something that changes your view, ruining everything, forcing you to start again. Being teased is fun. I am kinky

That's my favourite feeling of all time. It's why I spent hours searching for that again after I played Omori. I still remember my first theories of the truth of the game, right up until the one I had just before I discovered the real Truth. Even after that, there was more for me to analyse. Analysis. I love analysis. Yk?

I love a good challenge, and analysing these segments are so much of a challenge that I actually can't do it, which is why I get so hyped over it. Why do I do this to myself?

I actually don't really know how to end this, but I think you get my point. It's fun. I like it. I love suffering. uhh. dreams cool.

new bit: song i wrote this listening to.

today's song, the main title theme from Tomorrow Won't Come for those without.

i needed a reminder of what horrible liminality feels like, and that goddamn game does it better than anyone. i love it so much. thanks, etherane, your games cursed me with a sick desire for unreality.

special thanks to all the games who ever bullied me for having boring ass dreams.

katya and dmitry (my beloveds), or discussing mutation motifs in texts from a biological and psychological standpoint

CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSIONS OF MENTAL ILLNESS AND HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION.

READING-THIS WARNING: I MISINTERPRET STUFF A LOT, THIS IS PURELY MY INTERPRETATION OF THE SERIES. SORRY IF I'M WRONG. :(

When I first watched through Parties are for Losers and its respective songs, my brain was already whirring. Come on. I'm a Vocaloid nerd, obviously I have to look into it, and I know something is up, which means the analysis brain begins. I really enjoyed the Evillous Chronicles, and it seemed as though this was similar. Unlike it, this was actually in English (being set in Russia), and the narrative felt inherently more understandable, although that may just be because it's only 13 songs, compared to Evillous' 82.

AND it covers topics of biology and its affects on psychology. it's perfect. why have i never heard of this before??!?!?!?

There's a lot of aspects to explore within PafL, but I want to specifically focus on Katya (KT) and Dmitry, and their mutations, taking a biological and social approach to their current mental state. I will refer to Katya by her full "name" because it feels a little more humanising, and our baby girl deserves that.

Human experimentation/mutation is a fascinating topic to explore, because it questions the essence of humanity itself - how could you do that to another human being, a child, no less? End and Save is one of my favourite webtoon comics because of this. The abilities that these children gain typically have significant disadvantages, due to the inherently unethical nature of the creation. In some ways, the mutation itself explores corruption.

Biologically, genetic mutations are a natural occurrence, resultant from selection. We are nowhere near the current level needed to cause significant mutation like that of Katya and Dmitry's, and despite what most people think, there's actually no real intention to head in that direction. Therapeutic gene editing (LITERALLY MY SPECIALISED INTEREST. LIKE I WANT TO GO INTO THIS IN THE FUTURE. THIS IS PERFECT.) strays away from eugenics, and focuses on curing genetic disease. It's a fascinating topic of research, and one I hold dear to me. CRISPR my beloved

Katya's mutant ability is directly related to stress. It causes the extensive growth of tissue when she's in a stressful situation, and she has limited control over the flesh. This then has to be cut off, leaving serious wounds to heal on her skin.

art by Ferry

Taking this biologically, it would have to be mutation related to extreme cell division in tissue - in more simple terms, it's not unlike cancer, where a cell does not consider the required markers for division, and instead rapidly divides. Katya's seems far more controlled than cancer, sticking only to particular sites, and also significantly more extreme. Considering the stress required, it may actually be related to an influx of hormonal changes during stress sequences.

As a result of this, Katya is hypersensitive to the emotion of others and can tolerate a high amount of stress, with inherent optimism. She's relatively simple, and tries her best not to let her abilities weigh her down. In the end, she resigns herself to undeserving of true kindness, suggesting she has some well-hidden low self-esteem.

Dmitry's mutant ability seems more controllable, and therefore powerful, than Katya's. He has the ability to pick up anything, with vague limitations on weight, provided he knows specific location and it is within a 15 metre radius.

art by Ferry

Telekinesis from a biological standpoint? I'm not opening that can of worms. I'm not even gonna try. Make it up yourself. I'm pretty sure A Certain Scientific Railgun couldn't even really explain Kuroko's powers, and I'm one small scrawny rat.

Dmitry suffers severe physical consequences as a result of this ability, even using it regularly - severe headaches, loss of consciousness, and dizziness, which can been seen when he attempts to save Anya. Dmitry is significantly more cautious of the outside world than Katya is, and he's somewhat more hostile, threatening Yura and Sanya when he is blackmailed. However, he's practical, likely from the skills taught to him through use of telekinesis.

Dmitry and Katya were set out to have a negative relationship, due to the power dynamics between the two of them making them inherently different people. Dmitry was used for several years as an "assistant" to test Katya's abilities, and seems to hold a grudge with her over that. They have differing opinions on the outside world, particularly due to the way Dmitry's inhumanity was repeated to him often, as the lab researchers began to fear his power. He's not so pessimistic that he acts as contrast to Katya, but the clashing elements still causes them to go their separate ways in KT's Guide.

I couldn't find any specific links between the use of GUMI as KT and Fukase as Dmitry, but I'm sure there is some when considering the different Vocaloids used as a whole. I just wish I could understand what it was, but I don't quite know enough about Vocaloid as a whole for that. Alternatively, it could just be because of gender and the fact that both sound good with the style of the song.

song i wrote this listening to (after PafL, of course): sleep thru ur alarms by Lontalius

it's been a rough night, okay? i needed this as a distraction.

thanks so much to powercoreact for the suggestion! i genuinely really enjoyed this, and you hit my secret hidden love for vocaloid right in the feels. can you believe i watched this like an hour ago??? i feel like i've known it for years.

i can never shut the fuck up ever

Another based submission from 🍩OMO’s Shit Shack (18+)🍩's most rabid and insane fan.

I kinda helped them with this so there's not much to critique LMFAO it's just some extra silly lore content for the fellow autisms who wanna know about the VHS tech and the dev teams silly shenanigans'. (Without the spoilers for later arcs of course 😇)

car crashes and windmills, or why supernaturality is just an excuse for the events of Petscop

CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSIONS OF DEATH, CAR ACCIDENTS, KIDNAPPING AND CHILD ABUSE

READING-THIS WARNING: THROUGHOUT THIS, THERE IS AN ASSUMPTION YOU HAVE SOME IDEA OF RELEVANT PETSCOP THEORIES. IF ANYTHING DOESN'T MAKE SENSE, YOU'LL PROBABLY FIND A WRITE-UP OF THE THEORY ON REDDIT. ALSO, I'M BAD AND MAY MINSINTERPRET OR NOT FULLY UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING.

READING-THIS WARNING 2: THIS IS VERY RAMBLY. LIKE, SUPER RAMBLY. SORRY.

Alright. Petscop. That's a dead kid.

I've spent about two days running down a rabbithole with this series, trying to ignore the sheer horror of it all. It's fascinating in the way it captures this despite being so metaphorical - it reminds me of Yume Nikki and Chapter 12 of Dreamscape, which as we already know, I love and understand very well.

Anyway, I've been reading nonstop theories about this game for some time, trying my best to make sense of it all. And after a few sleepless nights, I think I'm ready to get into analytical about Petscop.

What better way to get rid of that sinking feeling of horror than to write about it?

I don't believe in the supernatural - I probably never will - but instead I believe in the power of coincidence. It's very probable that strange things happen sometimes, but they can all be explained, and we have a tendency to see patterns in the chaos. Things are often more simple than they seem.

Obviously, because Petscop and the world surrounding it are fictitious, the potential that something irrational or out-of-this-world occurred is much higher. However, I want to demonstrate that the idea that it is all reality is far more horrifying than pretending it's all a few ghosts and time travel.

The series clearly draws on the idea that Paul knows (some of) the people mentioned within the game, and is even implied to be a part of the family himself.

If it's not ghosts and time travel... then what's the point of Petscop?

evaluating some petscop theories that imply reality

Paul alludes several times to the game being haunted, or at least it trying to trick him into thinking it's haunted, but he seems unconvinced. He also alludes to the possibility of AI within the game, which is likely too complicated for the game being developed in ~1995-6.

What is a more likely theory surrounding both of these is that a singular game can be accessed from multiple consoles by multiple players, which also explains the prevalence of DEMO recordings and the interactions between Marvin/Belle/the Pink TOOL and Paul. The Pink TOOL is not literally the ghost of Mike trying to communicate with Paul, but rather Belle (considering the handwriting's similarities to Draw Mode) communicating with Paul.

Paul could potentially be Care, but is suffering amnesia as a result of trauma inflicted on him, where the goal of the game (from Rainer's perspective) is to help Paul uncover the truth of his past. There's plenty of debate surrounding the "trans theory" that I'm not really interested in getting into, but the game definitely links Paul and Care, particularly in the "Care-with-Mike's-Eyebrows" room, as well as events in the house aligning with events Paul states he has experienced, and their exact same birthday. I don't know if I agree with the twin theory, but that itself is more plausible than other proposed supernatural theories linking the two.

Both Belle and Care are implied to have been kidnapped (by Marvin?) and forced to undergo some sort of rebirthing therapy (potentially involving the Needles Piano) inside an abandoned elementary school. The rebirthing is implied to be Marvin's attempt to bring back the late Lina, It's possible that the DEMO recordings of Belle are taken during her kidnapping, as the game has reportedly been left on for ~17 years.

Much of the confusion surrounding Lina's death is related to the windmill - how did it and Lina simply disappear, and why is she "unable to be seen"? However, the game makes regular references to car accidents, and Lina's grave says "They didn't see her", which suggests that perhaps she was hit by a car, unseen by the driver, and buried in an unmarked grave (possibly by Marvin, since he knows where it is). Alternatively, the idea that Lina died stuck in a machine within the windmill still alludes to reality.

The game itself is very deliberate, and after Mike dies in 1995, it seems as though Rainer continued it to expose Marvin ("I started it in 1996, for Marvin"). If we consider the possibility that multiple players can access the game from differing perspectives, and the game can track their movements, then Rainer had different purposes for each player. It's suggested that the game reflects real world places, so taking that into account, we can try to determine the purpose of these.

During the segment where Marvin is given a speed boost, it seems as though Rainer wants to know the location of Lina's grave, and perhaps expose Marvin for his kidnapping and child abuse. He also provides deliberate messages to Belle during her demo sections, seemingly trying to break her out of the Newmaker Plane. Paul's journey also seems to surround exposing what Marvin has done, or at least trying to highlight what is in the School and what happened to Care (who may be Paul himself). These goals may correspond with the 'cycles' that were noted in the Comprehensive Progress Document.

The game is also implied to be an elaborate suicide note - the Pet description for Care A ends with, "Fuck you all, and fuck me as well. Merry Christmas. Check your bathroom now.", which is signed by Rainer. This, along with some events in the House, suggest this game might be an exploration of Rainer's guilt over working with Marvin on the rebirthing process.

Time is particularly prevalent during the game - the colours of the calendars representing different years, for example - but it is still distinguished, which is to note. This suggests that time travel isn't necessarily occurring.

reality as a pathway to trauma procession

Allusions to reality in texts can act as a path for characters to begin trauma procession, which may be the intentions of deliberately connecting Paul and Care within Petscop. The idea of things being realistic is infinitely more horrifying that unrealism, because unrealism forces a disconnection between the viewer and the events unfolding.

This is actually the reason why I really dislike the idea that Basil was dream-sharing with Sunny, or Spirit Mari is literally Mari's spirit trying to communicate with Sunny - it's because it misses the presentation of forgiveness, abandonment and regret in the text. Stranger is a representation of guilt over leaving Basil behind, and Spirit Mari is a representation of Sunny's hidden desire for forgiveness.

Taking things as the supernatural in this type of game tends to make you overlook the purpose of their existence. For example, blankly taking the Pink TOOL's words as Mike from the grave misses the discovery that they are Belle's previous attempts to connect with the outside world.

It's easy to miss the finer details this way, which is why I've always disliked these theories. There's more to it, keep digging!

special thanks to the giant document on the Petscop reddit that details everything.

i'll admit it, this was just a big excuse for me to write about what i think petscop is about... jhshjsjhshjs.

song i listened to while writing this: YY by 23.exe.

i'm such a pussy that i need to blast upbeat vocaloid music when thinking about Petscop. isn't it so weird that i absolutely adore psychological horror but i'm a massive wimp who can barely sit through it?

trans dreamscape sunny (PtA), or discussing how to properly change a protagonist to an antagonist

SPOILER WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS SPOILS ALL OF DREAMSCAPE UP TO CHAPTER 15!!! YES THERES A NEW CHAPTER!! GO READ IT!! NOW

I also spoil Omori, Danganronpa 2/Danganronpa 3: Despair Arc and the School for Good and Evil in my discussions. If you haven't read/seen these, I've tried to explain them enough so that they are understandable without needing to.

CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSIONS OF ABUSE AND IMPLIED SUICIDE

Strap in, this one is long.

Throughout Dreamscape, we can slowly see Sunny morph from the protagonist to the antagonist. Perhaps this is most prevalent in the latest Chapter - but really, it's been happening all along, and we just didn't notice it.

This isn't the most common trope, and when it does exist, it often isn't written well. Naturally, an author wants a reader to sympathise when their protagonist, follow them on their goals, and feel their emotions, which means they slip into writing a naïve antagonist, or some similar trait that downplays the villainous one.

While this seems obviously good from a reader standpoint - you get to suffer just a bit less - it makes for relatively repetitive writing. Every good guy has to remain good, regardless of the events that occur, even in potentially illogical situations, they remain chained to an obsessive moral compass.

A proper transition from a protagonist to an antagonist, regardless of whether their goals remain relatively the same or completely change, is a wholehearted switch in mindset and understanding of self.

I personally love this trope, I have an entire anime planned around manipulating the reader (as usual, it sits in my brain and I do nothing with it), and I think Dreamscape is maybe one of the best examples of this trope I've seen yet.

First, some slight historical backstory that I feel is relevant. There are several theories as to why the concept of Good vs Evil exists, and it's a big discussion within philosophy. Are human morals innate, or taught? Some speculate religion started this, but some believe morals were taught within society, and some think they were innate to humanity, logically formed from evolutionary group survival.

In classic Greek tragedies, the "hero" exists as a tragic hero with a fatal flaw, often existing as the antagonist to their own story. These acted as moral warnings for their audience, an understanding of how a single villainous trait can cause mass death and destruction. Here we can see the existence of a protagonist and antagonist within the same character, greying out their moral compass.

As time goes on, we begin to understand that humanity itself is morally grey, artists will continue to write this into story. Good works can make us question morality itself, tackling loopholes in our understanding of the world.

why do characters make that transition?

There are several understandings a protagonist can make in order to transition to an antagonist, and typically it's a change in their understanding of self. Whereas protagonists are often fighting against a major power or the world around them, to become an antagonist means to discover something about yourself that likens you to evil.

For example, in The School for Good and Evil, we see Sophie, who's demonstrated to us that she is 'Good' over the opening chapters, immediately reject her set role as "Evil". With the status as "protagonist and antagonist" being known to the characters, it allows them to react to their own true nature and respond accordingly.

In the second book, Sophie attempts to reject her status as antagonist yet again, only to be abused into embracing it and setting out (with her shitty wimp husband) to destroy morality itself. Here, Sophie comes to a realisation about her own existence - her mother was never truly a good person, but rather, a horrible woman who abused magic to have a child with her father. Sophie learns she was an unwanted child from the beginning, and her mother was never the idol Sophie needed her to be.

In the Despair Arc of Danganronpa, Hajime Hinata is talentless in a world where talent means everything. He hates this about himself, and chooses to undergo human experimentation in order to feel good enough about himself. During this, he completely loses his personality, and becomes a weapon of a human who is used to completely destroy the world - Izuru Kamukura.

Unfortunately, Danganronpa 2 falls Hajime into the naïve antagonist trope at the end, where he is unknowing of everything his alter ego did to the world. As is the nature of these tropes, the ending implies him and the group attempting to fix everything they broke with the second chance at life they were given.

As an antagonist mutates, a protagonist must also develop to move the plot forward. In the School for Good and Evil, this is Agatha, who must learn to embrace her "set" role as princess; and as a doomed narrative, the Despair Arc has no true protagonist, since no-one was ever going to win. Instead, Hajime himself redeems his character in the second game, going against Izuru Kamukura.

In both of these examples, the characters discover or inherently have a self-loathing trait, which is the trait that they embrace when they become "evil". They try to change this, but either get more than what they ask for, or the truth comes out eventually.

why is Sunny a good character to abuse this for?

Perhaps the main reason why Sunny is a good character to use the protagonist to antagonist transition is because this exists in the original game, where Omori morphs into the ultimate antagonist, from the original "good guy" he was at the beginning.

Being in a game format, Omori has the ability to win, which differs it from the previous examples. SGE has no player choice in the events, and you can't really "lose" Danganronpa 2, at least not in the way where the protagonist-to-antagonist wins the scenario.

However, Omori's goals can be completely understood and also succeed. I wrote about this in my analysis of the game endings, Omori is acting as any brain does under that amount of pressure - despite being counter-intuitive, it is a self-protective measure. You can understand why he has become the final boss, why he does the things he does, because he's a reflection of severe trauma and guilt.

Like the previous examples, Omori is not only inherently self-loathing, but the personification of self-hate. He isn't the manifestation of everything Sunny hates about himself, but rather, the manifestation of what Sunny could be, who loathes the real Sunny for everything he did.

Sunny himself, however, is the protagonist who takes Omori's place, as the player loses touch with Omori's goals. This leaves him open for further destruction of mental state. I've always liked the concept of headspace "coming back", or existing in a different form that allows Sunny to make that antagonist transition.

Well, here we are.

why does Dreamscape do this well?

Within Dreamscape, Sunny's goals were made somewhat known to the reader, but the extent of them isn't until the most recent chapter - where we also discover a major player into why he wants this, which is his father's physical and emotional abuse, all because he isn't Mari, and isn't perfect.

It's true that the existence of "reviving Mari" has been known to the reader since about the beginning. You can read between the lines in the first chapter and understand what he wants from there, but the narrative tricks you into believing Sunny simply wants to apologise to Mari, when in reality, that wasn't his goal at all.

Over time, we have seen a slow shift in the way narrative perspective is used in the fic, which subtly foreshadowed Sunny's transition. As the reader became less and less able to empathise with Sunny's goals, we lost the ability to see the world from his perspective, and understand his thoughts and feelings. Sunny is unreachable - both by the other character perspectives, but also the reader themself.

It was possible to see the signs that Mari would take over Sunny's body, but I falsely believed that this would be from Mari's control alone, not considering the idea that Sunny might have wanted this all along. The reveal about Sunny's father was a jaw-drop - but it made sense within the context of the narrative.

Hero exists as the current "protagonist", at least to some extent, but Aubrey-Kel-Basil also exist as a hero, when composite. Both parties have different purposes for wanting to save/destroy Sunny - Hero has to hold up his deal with Candace (although I believe his goals are changing, to what I'm not sure), whereas the Sunny Simp Squad just want their friend back, regretting their neglect of him.

Now, where is this going to lead us? Sunny/Mari is likely going to become a "main boss" of some sort, and the Sunny Simp Squad are in the process of trying to shut down the virus from inside the game. However, considering the fact that we are barely halfway through the fic, the chances of the goals of the characters changing are incredibly high.

There's been some implication that Basil is the focus of Arc 3, which possibly changes where Arc 2 is going to end. Hero is in an incredibly unstable state at the moment, and due to his attachment to Mari, he might genuinely slip into a supporting antagonist - it comes down to whether or not his morals and care for Sunny outweigh his love for Mari, and I'm starting to think they don't.

didya like my trans joke in the title?

omori dreamscape au by @omoriboii, tis very good.

anyyyywayyy, song i wrote this to: villain by Teniwoha

"XとかYとか~", such an iconic gender song. i felt the title and trans themes were fitting for this analysis.

a place where i lost my sanity, or understanding the intentions of Chapter 12 part 2

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE OMORI DREAMSCAPE AU, INCLUDING THE LATEST CHAPTER!

I WOULD RECCOMEND READING THIS ANALYSIS BEFORE READING ITS PART 2!

NOW!

Where we last left off, our protagonist had gone fucking insane with his conspiracy board.

Here is a gorgeous depiction. (art by @omoriboii but i did all the text)

Wait.

Wait a minute.

...wait.

So I was... looking at it wrong the entire time?

Chapter 12 was never... a foreshadowing... it was never... as deep as a shallow lake... it was... a decision... a point of no return...

It... tied into my... protagonist to antagonist analysis... the- the entire time?

THE ENTIRE FUCKING TIME

I WAS LOOKING

AT CHAPTER 12

AS IF IT WAS BLACK SPACE

SIMPLY A REPRESENTATION

OF UNREALITY AND FORESHADOWING

WHEN REALLY

IT WAS A PLOT POINT ALL ALONG?

...

Well. Fuck THIS SHIT.

why secret anger is a better tool than secret sadness, or hiding rage under a persona of nurture.

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR: OMORI, DEMON SLAYER AND OSHI NO KO. I WILL BE SPOILING THE LATTER TWO'S MANGA SO BEAR IN MIND THAT WATCHING THE ANIME ONLY WILL NOT PREVENT YOU FROM FURTHER SPOILERS.

WARNING: DISCUSSIONS OF SUICIDE, GRIEF, LOSS AND MENTAL ILLNESS

We've all seen the character who has secretly been very sad their entire lives. Fuck, some of us are that character, and maybe have been for a while.

It's relatively easy to hide a sad backstory for a character, and it opens room to give them depth later on. And, unique to side or background characters, it allows the protagonist (and by extension, the reader) to connect further with them, giving the façade of plot and sub-plot depth. Of course, it's perfectly possible to do this well - it's possible to do every trope well - but it's also very possible to do this poorly.

And... it's so boring.

Like come on. Sad woman sad. Very sad. We're all sad, because we've been told to feel sad by the author. How sad.

I believe that there are far more fascinating tropes to explore, with much more depth - and I'd like to talk about one of my favourite forms of this. Hiding inner anger is infinitely more interesting, especially if the character can hide it well.

I've chosen three characters to discuss for this - Mari from OMORI, Ai Hoshino from Oshi No Ko, and Shinobu Kochou from Demon Slayer. I think all three of them perfectly capture the "hidden anger" trope very well, and I'll connect all of them, which allows us to understand the purpose of this character archetype overall.

Mari is an incredibly complex character, one whose complexity is actually very easy to miss. Due to Sunny's unreliable narration, we perceive Mari as perfect, since he blocks out any of her personality which mimics the truth. In Headspace, she's an incredibly default NPC, acting as a pillar for quest clues, healing and saving the game. As a player, you come to see her as some sort of comfort, a recurring symbol in irregular places. This evidently changes when Sunny discovers the truth, and we come to accept what he has done. However, Mari is never properly portrayed in the game - we only see her through the lens of the others - which means a lot of the fandom doesn't quite understand her character, let alone understand the selfish nature of perfectionism. There is nothing in the game that suggests she had external pressure causing her perfectionism (although I personally headcanon this), so we must go off it being internally driven.

Mari is not a tragically sad, or gorgeously happy character. She has been punishing herself with pent-up anger. Imagine you've been practicing something for months, over and over, only to find out your duet partner doesn't care anywhere near as much as you do. No-one cares as much as you do. All those months of practice ultimately mean nothing. Every time you pushed yourself to play the same song on repeat until it drove you insane mean nothing, because of this one moment, one stupid angry moment from your brother.

Despite all this, Mari isn't allowed to be angry, which is why the Truth segments still show her acting in an adult fashion (taking the unused Truth descriptions as canon).

In the photos of the truth, Mari looks like a disappointed mother, telling off Sunny. She says she "isn't finished talking...", like a parent. Mari was fifteen when she died. She had no outlet for this rage at all, no time to be a teenager, when she was the mother figure of the group. Her character trope as the "nurturer" trapped her in a hellish cycle of perfectionism, hiding everything until her absolute breaking point - which lead to her death.

In Oshi no Ko, Ai Hoshino is a perfect mother, perfect idol, perfect person. This seems widely agreed by literally everyone, and the manga follows her son's attempts to avenge her murder, and her daughter's attempts to follow in her footsteps. Although the goals of the children change partway through, when Ruby learns the truth of Ai's death and Aqua loses faith in his scheme... Ai remains a pillar of gold. And yet, we find out during the creation of the movie on Ai's life that people around her suspect she was hiding anger.

While I have perhaps... fallen behind... in my reading of Oshi No Ko, I'm just going to go purely off this panel and the previous chapters to analyse. Forgive me, I completely forgot which character says this, everyone's hair looks the same and I can't tell if it's Akane or the lady that adopted Aqua and Ruby. It's been a while.

Ultimately, Ai Hoshino is confused, and this makes her angry. We know she's never felt love before in her life - not until she had her children - which would be incredibly frustrating. You see everyone around you experience happiness and joy, and yet life keeps reminding you that your childhood was shitty, you work in the most insane industry of all time and you're exhausted. There's some implication that Ai's relationship with Aqua and Ruby's father was complicated, so perhaps that's the reason she's furious.

Regardless, Ai is far more complicated than every character portrays her as, which makes her interesting. As a reader, you smell a rat instantly. Something is off about the way she is glamourised, and you know you're missing a piece of this puzzle.

Shinobu outright states that she's been angry her entire life, at least since Kanae's death. She's been mimicking Kanae's sweet smile as an act of remembrance, but Shinobu is not happy, not calm, not sweet like Kanae was. Now, Shinobu isn't the most nurturing figure - at least not to Tanjirou, and not much to Kanao either - but she still acts in that calm, motherly demeanor, mimicking her older sister. In that way, Shinobu is also a perfectionist - she's just got a standard to match up to.

Shinobu is often mocked in the fandom for being "weak", but I think that's not the right way to understand her character. The fact that she doesn't fight off raw strength alone is symbolic, because it tricks the reader into thinking she's sweet and calm. No-one who is that weak can be full of such rage... right?

Mari and Ai Hoshino have further links due to the way they are portrayed after their death - as perfect. Sunny heavily misconstrues his sister, acting as an unreliable narrator for her personality, and it seems as though no-one will ever know what Ai was truly like inside. Instead, characters remark on their outward traits, which fandoms then fall into... guys. you're literally being trapped by the same trap their families and friends fell into. you're being gaslit by two dead women. please try to look past the silly little mirror they tried to reflect themselves in.

Now, what is the purpose of this archetype? They aren't main characters, and they aren't there as a fake display of depth, so what are they there for? All three of these characters die to further the plot - but more importantly, they act as a catalyst for character change in their sibling or children. Mari's death single-handedly destroys an entire friendship group, but it is also the reason they are brought back together. She alone allows Sunny to forgive himself, and within that, he must accept that she wasn't perfect, just as he isn't. Ai's death ruins Aqua and Ruby, but it gives them goals, something to work toward (symbolised with stars in their eyes). Shinobu's death allows Kanao to step forward and confront Akaza, which changes Kanao as a character, but it also ties up Kanae's subplot neatly.

To the player/reader, their deaths are far more important than their lives, but there is much more to explore in their lives than people understand. This is true complexity, and it's frustrating when it's brushed over in aus or fanfics.

Please, dig deeper. Look harder. Turn these dolls into humans, because they are corpses for a reason.

can you tell i find scary women pretty aggagagahgagsa

song i listened to while writing this: テレパス by Yorushika

The song is very good at capturing loneliness, and rage is quite an isolating emotion. Mari, Ai and Shinobu are all hiding an inner version of themselves, and they took that form to their graves.

okay this is spoilers for the omori dreamscape au but i thought it was really really really funny and i edited it and i'm notoriously cool and epic.

art by @omoriboii obviously

video is from brandon farris. he is funny.

tomorrow won't come for those without, or exploring disconnection in the procession of mental illness and trauma

SPOILER? WARNING: This analysis assumes you have played the game's noise ending at least once. I'll provide screengrabs of things where I can. I do believe it's a masterpiece of a game, and would highly recommend it.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussions and allusions to suicide, severe mental illness, grief and religious trauma/criticisms of religion.

Tomorrow won't come for those without (TWC for short) is really... confusing. To the extent where I've got a notebook with pasted cut-outs of dialogue and imagery simply to try and... understand it.

As with much of the things I write about, I don't think it's designed to be understood - etherane's work often revolves around very personal and complex depictions of mental illness, as is evident from the hello charlotte series, so this is to be expected.

I want to discuss Rem, celestials and the Dithyrambs in this, saving conversations of Mari and the Choir for when I better understand it.

Rem is not human, he's a celestial - this is revealed in the noise ending, where he melts into his true form. We can also determine what type of celestial Rem is, from the way his form manifests.

Domain: Shadow; The Eldest. Distorts continuity, converting affected areas into liminal spaces.

Now, at first, I spent much of my time trying to associate these cards (and as such, the Celestials) to specific mental illnesses, but I realised it didn't work. While 'Domain: Post-Truth' (Card Type 3) could be associated with PTSD and 'Domain: Thighs' (Card Type 12) could be associated with body dysmorphia, many cards do not fit a specific mental illness, and much of them instead reference dissociation or other specific symptoms. It's somewhat implied Mari had the celestial present in Card Type 12.

It makes sense for a different universe to identify mental illness in a different way, considering there's little evidence that the characters have information on "pre-humanity". Instead of our current system surrounding mental health, the Choir demonises Celestials, and attempts to 'purify' them.

One particular line during the noise ending stands out to me.

"Tell me, how do I stop the noise in my head?"

Ori is not, by any means, a stable character. That's not to say Rem is stable, but Ori is somewhat less rational, losing his mind over the Choir and his Rosary. He devotedly follows the Conductor up until the noise ending, where he loses his grip on purity and reality, wanting to stay in the 'Dark' and '...play in the forest', rejecting the suppression of creativity by the Conductor.

The Dithyrambs is the noise in Ori's head - somewhat implied to be caused by the celestial. When Ori first wakes up, the Rosary insists that he must "...find the source of the Dithyrambs," perhaps implying that the Rosary is corrupt in the same way Ori and the Choir are, although it does not state to destroy the source. This noise causes Ori a lot of pain.

Alright. That is my discussion of the actual evidence present in the game. The next section is going to be a lot of personal speculation, on what I feel the game is representing.

I compare the relationship between Ori and Rem to that of Charles and Scarlett in Hello Charlotte 3, although it is framed differently. Instead of Rem being portrayed as horrific and irrational, Rem is scared, small; humanised, distrustful.

I believe that Scarlett Eyler and Rem represent fundamentally the same thing - intrusive thoughts, anxiety and OCD. Unlike Scarlett, who is fixated on tormenting Charles, Rem's representation of this manifests toward himself, and his desire to be caged for safety.

Fundamentally, OCD is a disorder surrounding fear. As much as it feels like your brain just, absolutely fucking hates you, it's as scared as you are. In a similar way, Rem is terrified of the liminal hotel that he and Ori reside in, and he's terrified of the outside world. He responds by shutting himself away - rather than Ori's desire to reach the end of the veils, Rem begins the game locked in a bathroom, and must be coaxed out.

Rem is incredibly "human" for a nonhuman being. Humanisation of intrusive thoughts is an interesting concept, especially considering the demon Scarlett Eyler was in HC3. Rem is far more disconnected from Ori, far more skeptical of the world around them. Rem isn't there to punish, but more to question and doubt, contrasting with Ori's inherently trusting nature.

Hmm. I feel like I haven't properly explained it, but I hope it somewhat makes sense.

Despite that, this is just my own interpretation of it, and I don't feel it really aligns with the game, necessarily. It's just me. lol.

song i listened to while writing:

I enjoy playing TWC with the BGM turned down and this song playing. It makes me feel pure, like my regrets can be washed off. I suppose that's not the point of TWC LMAOO.

oh right i forgot i wrote a chapter 2 to this

negative focuses on more personal experiences of OCD

i think that the possibility of a Mari with OCD isn't too far-fetched. lots of people only ever write or portray her as perfect, which isn't true, but Sunny doesn't provide enough perspective on what Mari was actually like and apparently half the fandom can't look past his idea of her.

i was interested in writing an analysis exploring the way Mari is portrayed but i think i sorta explained what i wanted to say in this analysis exploring angry dead women. it's just fascinating to me that the fandom falls into the same trap that Sunny fell into, some weird desire for the perfect older sister.

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.

tossing around the idea of a heromari spiderverse au...

mostly because you could very easily make hero miles and make mari gwen and keep most things the same, lmao.

and i'm a heromari guy and i love them so much please kiss heromari.

(spiderverse and omori spoilers, under the cut, obviously)

because i'm not an artist, but rather, a nerd, i want to explore things based on what will better enhance or explore character development/arcs.

the addition of siblings would really change the spiderverse series, i think. imagine the implications of gwen's choice to leave her father in the second film if she had a younger brother who admires and loves her waiting for her at home. sunny could even be (overtly or secretly) obsessed with spiderwoman, increasing tension in the home.

in a similar way, it'd be interesting to see the conflict caused in sunny's family if sunny's mom died. we know the family becomes completely shaken after mari's death, and if we take their father's choice to abandon the family as a habit, watching him struggle to pull the strings together after the loss of their mom would pressure his character more. this could even trap him further into his "duty" to catch spiderwoman.

figuring out who gwen's peter parker would be is difficult, but i've decided on hero. in fact, it would be interesting to explore how a gwen-esque character would cope with the having miles in his position in her universe, and needing to reconcile with this idea that he is alive, but he is not the same. giving mari restraint despite the desire to see "her hero" again would also be very interesting to explore.

also MAYBE i just wanna see mari drawn in the gwen watercolour style. i wanna kiss her. leave me alone.

miles honestly feels like the kel sibling, so i'd prefer to just have him be hero with kel characteristics. however, there is more to it than just that - hero's character would inhibit the story of spiderverse at multiple points, because of his maturity, so he needs kel's immaturity to choose to take particular actions. if you need an example, miles' choice to enter the portal after gwen was an impulsive, emotional decision, which simply doesn't fit hero's character.

this scene was absolutely gorgeous btw. i can't believe people don't talk about it, the upside down scene was amazing but THIS. THIS. and sorry for awful quality

there are several aspects to miles' character that mimic hero's personality. the pining for gwen and miles' surprise when he sees her again could easily fit into hero's character. although implied in the original movie, having hero as a character could bring miles' acceptance that he might never see his friends again to the forefront. (although the desire to study physics could replace hero's desire to be a chef in the original game, to smoothen out the story.)

i'm not sure how to input kel or basil, but aubrey would make a good peni parker, i think.