Let Me Tell You A Story...

So one day, Aubrey drags her friends to a drag show. Because she wants to support a new venue but none of the hooligans live near them now and going to drag shows alone sucks. So Kel, Sunny, and Basil go with her.

It's fun enough, Basil's a little overwhelmed by all the energetic atmosphere and Sunny's completely lost as to what the fuck is going on and why. Kel doesn't really get why drag is appealing to the performers but it's good fun all around so he's having a good time.

And then the next performer gets on stage, seeming like she's nervous but as her performance goes on she's fine, but Kel can't help but feel weird about it because she seems familiar somehow? It's not until they're all leaving and some other patron jokes about Kel looking like one of the queens that he realizes- Oh, that one queen looked like Hero.

Well that's a weird thing to consider. Kel doesn't say anything to the rest of their friends.

Instead, he talks to Hero the next morning, Hero making conversation while cooking breakfast, and when Hero asks how their night out went, Kel asks if Hero had a good time at the show too. Hero freezes up and looks horrified.

He didn't realize Aubrey was taking them all to a drag show, he'd turned her down the moment she asked if he was doing anything that evening, saying that he was very busy. Well, he hadn't lied.

Kel doesn't really mind Hero doing drag, obviously, he's just pretty surprised, plus he doesn't really get why or why Hero hid it from them. Hero doesn't wanna talk about it so Kel lets it go.

Though of course, Kel wasn't the only one to figure it out. Aubrey and Basil are at least more subtle about their encouragement, though it doesn't really work because they incorrectly assume why he's doing it. Aubrey thinks he's not comfortable being out of the closet yet, which to be fair is partially true, especially considering he's not even out to any of his friends yet (He did tell Kel after Kel came out to him tho), but Hero being pansexual has nothing to do with why he does drag. Basil thinks he might be trans or something, which is just completely wrong.

Sunny's the only one who actually cottons on to why the hell Hero does it, it's so obvious to him that Hero's just absurdly repressed because of all the pressure that's been placed on him. Sunny decides to approach it in a more direct way than Basil or Aubrey, but still ineffectively.

Because he just decides to tell Hero he's interested in drag and wants some help looking into that stuff. After all, he always goes to Hero for advice about basically anything, so it's not that weird.

To be fair, it's not a lie, Sunny is legitimately curious about the whole thing. Maybe not enough to consider getting on stage, but dressing up seems fun. Plus it'd be a good opportunity for Hero to just admit he knows stuff because he does drag himself, but Hero doesn't. He just talks about doing research and such.

Eventually Hero does figure out they all realized he was the performer and just. Calls an intervention. He wants to die but there's no point hiding it. He's at least able to set things straight about why he does drag and stuff, telling them they can lay off about the rest. Aubrey doesn't need to convince him to come out of the closet, Basil doesn't need to try to assure him it's okay if he wants to be a girl, and Sunny doesn't need to pretend to be interested in drag.

Sunny: ... But I actually am interested. Hero: Uh. Everyone else: -staring at Sunny- Sunny: What? It seemed fun.

So Hero keeps doing drag now with the support of his friends and brother (which he eventually admits actually does help his nerves). They still don't tell anyone else because Hero's not comfy with it being well-known and also if their parents find out, they will kill him. Which is kinda a huge part of why Hero was so secretive about it in the first place.

Y'know what tends to happen to 'gifted' kids when they make a mistake, at least in my experience? That mistake is blown out of proportion and made to be a terrible personal flaw, even in relation to things that have nothing to do with the initial mistake.

Hero lashes out at Kel under extreme duress in an incredibly low point to his life, nearly immediately realizes his mistake and apologizes. Seemingly from this, people characterize Hero as a horrible brother who would despise Sunny upon finding out the truth.

Because those things definitely have something to do with each other, lol.

Like, I absolutely recognize I extrapolate and project some things because I see Hero's family situation and it reminds me sharply of my own, but maybe that's part of why? Because I see all that stuff and I realize the possible stuff going on behind it.

(This same incident has also led to a lot of making Kel into a SadBoi which I have feelings about but at least that has a lot more room for interpretation and there's very much the implication that Kel potentially does hide things, I interpret it a different way but the point is he's a lot more open)

But it's especially this narrative I see constantly where Hero would hate Sunny after finding out the truth. Because it's just... It's baffling. The way people do it paints Hero in such a selfish, overwhelmingly negative light, and I legitimately don't understand it. Again, maybe it's because of my personal experience with similarities with Hero, but like...

Aubrey? Maybe she would hate them. And maybe Hero might hate Basil for his role in the whole incident. But Sunny?

I could maybe see Hero being incredibly upset with Sunny, especially at first, and maybe not able to handle being around him for a time. But I just can't see him hating Sunny, not at all. And it genuinely ruins a lot of otherwise interesting concepts for post-good ending because it feels like there's this fundamental misunderstanding of his character.

So I was reading this post about some parallels in stuff in OMORI, unrelated to Basil, but it got me thinking about how Basil and Mari manifest in Headspace and Black Space.

It's not as if Sunny is completely incapable of separating events and pushing things down. One of the things that always bothered me about Headspace Mari is that she's just so... Perfect. She's kind and mostly gentle (if sometimes stern) and sweet and loving, and always, always helpful. My theory was that he was denying some ugly part of her deep down, and I wasn't necessarily wrong, I think.

Headspace Mari is perfect, I believe, because any and all negative emotions Sunny may have towards her are intrinsically linked with her death. The biggest (and honestly only) flaw we see in the real Mari is that she's a perfectionist that pushes Sunny too hard, and Sunny lashing out at her for that caused her death. Not to mention it's probably only natural for him to view her in the best light possible after she's gone, regardless of whether it was suicide or an accident by his hand.

So what about Basil? Why is he portrayed in the ways that he is in the game; perfectly kind and sweet and forgiving up until he finds the picture pointing toward the truth, after which Omori secretly banishes him to Black Space and views him as a shadowy Stranger?

At first I was wondering why this was happening to Basil and not Mari, since both are intrinsically linked to the truth, but then I remembered- We're told that Mari did find her way to the truth. That's why she's confined to the picnic blanket.

This cycle has happened at least four times prior, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were even more we haven't heard about. After all, the cycle we see is only a few days long. Sure, this is primarily for gameplay purposes, and most cycles probably weren't that short, but I think it'd still be safe to assume that there could definitely have been more cycles we weren't told about in that 3-4 year span of time between Sunny locking himself away and the start of the game.

What most likely happened was that Headspace Mari more often found the truth, and/or found it sooner than Basil, which is why she's been confined and he hasn't yet. In the Hikikomori Route, the current cycle was the last straw and he is subsequently stuck on the picnic blanket with Mari during the "postgame" content.

I couldn't explain to you why the picnic blanket works as a way to prevent them from finding the truth. In actuality, there's every chance that it doesn't work, and that it simply hasn't come up yet because Basil still found ways to reveal Black Space where Mari doesn't get as much of a chance. The game hints at the current cycle to repress the truth once more being futile, asking Omori how he plans to hide it Black Space this time and hinting that the reason things are so different this time is because of the news of Sunny's move.

There's every chance that, in the Hikikomori Route, Black Space is going to continue to resurface, perhaps even without Headspace Basil or Mari's influence, since ultimately, it's just a manifestation of Sunny's own associations. Basil and Mari are the ones directly connected to the repressed memories, so they were the ones to find the cracks in Headspace.

So why is Basil treated so... interestingly in Sunny's mind? Especially in Black Space 2, we see Basil repeatedly be harmed and/or killed. In the standard route, as well, we see Omori outright stab Headspace Basil to death. Why the hell is he seemingly wishing violence upon someone he cares about?

Well, let's tackle the caring thing first, since I've seen that concept be contentious among some, the idea that Sunny does genuinely care about Basil.

Sunny does care about Basil. This is not in question and I'm not sure why some people seem to think he doesn't.

If Sunny didn't care about Basil, he wouldn't be in Headspace, and their friends wouldn't question his absence, and there wouldn't be a minor mission to save him for most of that part of the game. We wouldn't save him in the Hikikomori route. So that begs the question; why the violence?

There's a couple points where we see Omori's questionable behavior towards Basil, both directly and indirectly.

The easiest to explain, for me, is when Omori stabs Headspace Basil in the standard route but saves Headspace Basil in the Hikikomori route. This is because in the standard route, it's not really about Basil at all. It's a sign of Omori's frustration about Sunny's actions, I think. Omori is Sunny's coping mechanism, the thing used to protect himself both from the truth and from the outside world. For some reason, though, Sunny has decided to go out there, to face reality in some capacity. Omori stabs Headspace Basil because the game is over, because he's frustrated both at the real Basil and at Sunny. Sunny has no interest in resetting headspace, and Omori's just waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Sunny to confront the thing they're both hiding down in Black Space. There's another aspect to it, more directly concerning Sunny's feelings about Basil, that I think is at play, but it's better addressed later.

The most interesting thing to explain is the trio forgetting Basil during the Last Resort/Deeper Well sections. I think this is Omori's last ditch attempt to keep things under wraps, that maybe, just maybe, if he can erase Basil entirely from Headspace, he can stop this. But the adventure continuing and finding the Keys makes it clear that Basil's presence doesn't matter, Black Space will continue leaking out. It's a feeble, futile attempt because even if he makes everyone else forget, he can't. Basil's just too significant for Sunny to repress.

Lastly is all the violent stuff that happens to Basil in Black Space 2. This one was the most interesting to consider, because Omori isn't directly responsible for any of these (the raft one could be read as him doing something in the dark, but it's not shown so I'm going to take it as just another Black Space event rather than Omori doing it himself).

Obviously, Omori's in control of most of White/Head/Black Space, but I don't think his control is absolute just as no one has true control over their own mind. After all, if he was in complete control, why would Black Space keep getting found?

With that said, I don't think Omori is necessarily in control of these events. I think they're a subconscious manifestation of his conflicting feelings about Basil, and it's one of the things that fascinates me most about Basil and Sunny's relationship.

Like I said before, Sunny clearly cares about Basil deeply. They were best friends. But Basil is also connected to the worst day of Sunny's life, and in quite an interesting way. After all, Mari just died. Basil, however, helped cover it up.

I don't think it's hard to say that Basil made things worse. I'm not saying he's horrible for it or anything, obviously not; he was a terrified kid who'd just witnessed something horrible and wanted to protect his friend. But that doesn't change the fact that Basil's actions that day did make the whole situation worse. He prevented everyone from knowing the truth, and ultimately prevented both himself and Sunny from getting the help they needed in dealing with Mari's death.

While I'm not sure Sunny is fully aware of all that, I think that subconsciously at least, Omori/Sunny believe that, if it weren't for Basil, they would have been properly punished for their actions. And that manifests in Black Space 2 as him indirectly hurting his internal versions of Basil in terrible ways.

The biggest example of this is Hero prompting Aubrey and Kel to beat Basil to death. This is probably the most direct representation of Sunny's fears, that their friends would hate and never forgive them for what they did.

Circling back to Omori stabbing Headspace Basil in the regular route, I think it's similar here, except more direct in action by Omori because Sunny has finally been face to face with the fallout of their actions, how their friendships have fallen apart, he's been forced to face reality. And so, Omori takes this anger out on Basil, whom he probably views as largely responsible for it (And wouldn't necessarily be wrong).

Sources: Models and Stage

This one is from when I quit for the night to go to bed. I just found it amusing, the poses I left them in. I ended up having to completely change up how Neku was sitting, which was a bit of an issue, but it worked out in the end.