i've always avoided making posts that view the game in a negative light or come across as overly negative toward the story as a whole. in general, i don't like doing that, even though criticism should always be allowed. before i archived my previous blog, i did always mention i am canon divergent, but i figured i should make a more detailed post explaining why and have it linked somewhere, especially with the influx of new followers.
considering it was clear that they were going to do something more with sunday after 2.2, i delayed fully deciding what i wanted to do with my own portrayal of him because i wanted to give the direction a chance, even though i already had a feeling it wouldn't be my cup of tea. after many different patches, i can safely say my initial feeling was more than correct.
i'm not an AE sunday rejecter, far from it. (even though i personally loved the idea of stellaron hunter sunday far more, especially since that was something officially teased before being changed permanently). my issue is that i don't think the development he was given feels satisfying, at least not to me.
sunday is a complex and philosophical character, yet the astral express/trailblaze has never truly countered his vision with a compelling argument. in fact, the story often ends up reinforcing exactly what he preached in the first place, and later on characters even begin repeating ideas he himself said earlier. personally, i feel the issue of protagonist privilege became more apparent as the story progressed, where the AE is consistently framed as being right. with penacony this is even more uncomfortable because the trailblaze itself is deeply tied to those who came before.
there was an entire war of independence against the IPC, the one mikhail fought alongside others, only for his successors to later buy penacony's shares from the IPC. yet almost none of the characters meaningfully respond to this. not from the two characters who fought in that war or sunday who undoubtedly knows penacony's history, also says nothing about it because the story needs him on that train instead.
as if we don't have an entire visualisation of what the IPC does with his former home: bleeding it dry.
sunday is by no means perfect, and neither is his vision. but he isn't necessarily wrong; he simply pursued it the wrong way. as gallagher said, his flaw is ambition, caring too much. if he had succeeded in creating that paradise he and robin envisioned solely for penacony it would have not been enough for him. he would have wanted to save the entire universe.
people should have been allowed a choice in whether they wanted to join something like that and, more importantly, the freedom to leave whenever they wished (looking at you, the good place). at the same time, sunday also does not need to shoulder every burden and sacrifice himself alone.
the beauty of the siblings is that they are both right and wrong. instead of the story only criticising one side (and let's not forget that awful comment regarding end-of-life care), both perspectives should be challenged. their themes were never about determining who was entirely correct; the answer lies somewhere in the middle. their strengths and weaknesses complement one another and both could grow if they reunited and worked together.
the sunday we met was an ambitious man whose love for humanity was so immense that he was willing to sacrifice himself for his dream. but he was also incredibly lonely. that man does not need a new mentor, a father figure or a found family when he already has family right there. robin. what he truly needs is a friend.
to me, the current version of sunday in the story feels like an incredibly toned-down version of his original philosophy, altered to make him more palatable. that is why i decided to go canon divergent a long time ago. i do not think he needs to be toned down or converted entirely to one side in order to grow or develop as a character.
