Analysis of Pyrefly Forest; Part 2 of Who Listens to Sunny?
Hey all! I've recently become pretty obsessed with focusing in on specific parts of Headspace to figure out what they represent, and as part of that, I really want to go over one of my favorite short and sweet segments of the game, Pyrefly Forest. I want to note that this post will almost read as a follow-up to my first post about Black Space, though I will cover the relevant parts of that analysis here, so don't feel pressured to go back and read that. I should also note that this analysis is going to dive fairly deep into personal interpretation at parts, and you may disagree with some of the conclusions I come to, which is very fair, because honestly, this analysis has me feeling a little delusional at times, but heck, it's all in good fun anyway when it comes to analyzing a game I love! Omori Spoilers Ahead!
Connection to Black Space
The first thing I want to get out of the way before really diving into the actual interpretation of the forest itself is it's connection to Black Space, and specifically the Spider Area. If you haven't read my previous analysis on this topic, the thing that is important to note from it is that the memory that Headspace Basil gets back in this area of Black Space is the memory of Sunny talking to him about his fears in regards to the Lake Incident, in which he almost drowned after a spider landed on his shoulder causing him to fall. Real world dialogue and scenes imply that Sunny didn't talk about these fears with the rest of his friends, as Hero doesn't realize that a spider is the reason that Sunny fell in the first place when the topic comes up, and neither Aubrey or Kel ever acknowledge Sunny's fears with regards to drowning or spiders in the relevant scenes.
Pyrefly Forest is home to one of the very few new picnic conversations that you can access upon completing the Hikikomori route. In it, Kel has Basil try and talk some sense into Hero with regards to Hero's fear of spiders, though it doesn't really work. What is relevant about this picnic conversation, though, is that the dialogue that Basil uses when talking about Hero's fear of spiders here is identical to what he says in the Spider Area (unique parts about Sunny's Lake Incident not withstanding).
In the picnic conversation:
Vs in Black Space:
Summary of Pyrefly Forest
As far as gameplay is concerned, Pyrefly Forest serves as the transitionary segment between the playground hub area of Headspace and the Sweetheart portion of the game. It highlights not just Sunny's own conquered fear of spiders, but Hero's unconquered fear of spiders as well.
Ignoring the side content, the main thing that you are doing here is completing the minecart track so you can ride that through the forest to get to Sweetheart's castle.
Pyrefly Forest's Real World Inspirations
Pyrefly Forest as a whole, as noted by the wiki, appears to be inspired by the day that the group went beetle catching in the photo album. One of the photos added to the album after the completion of the Hikikomori route even references this by copying one of the real photos, replacing the beetle Mari found with a spider. It's also interesting to note that this is the only new photo in the album post-Hikikomori route that is a copy of a photo from the real world album, rather than a completely new and unique image.
I think it is interesting to note that Sunny appears to associate this memory with spiders specifically, rather than beetles. In fact, beetles don't appear at all within Headspace. You can even see in the photo album pictures that where in the real world, the focus was on Mari taking care of a beetle that surprised the group, Headspace puts the focus on Basil taking care of a spider that surprised the group, showing that Sunny may have relied on Basil to help him with his fears, especially when it comes to spiders.
One of the photo album images for this day has Basil noting that Sunny looks "sleepy" in the background of an image of Kel.
I really wish I could see a clearer or more high definition version of this image, but to me, Sunny appears to be holding himself or a tree while staring up at something on another tree. All things considered, Basil may be misinterpreting Sunny being afraid of a spider as him being sleepy. This may have even led to Sunny opening up to Basil about his fear of spiders overall. We know that in the current day, Basil is able to tell that Sunny is scared during the bathroom scene, despite Sunny not really emoting fear when you look into the mirror during that scene.
In addition, both picnics in Pyrefly Forest have tofu as their healing item, which as I've noted before, is a food associated with Basil. Obviously, within Headspace, the food is associated with the Sprout Moles, but I do think that it is interesting that tofu is used for these picnics, rather than in the Sprout Mole village picnic, or even somewhere within Sweetheart's Castle.
The Sidequests of Pyrefly Forest
There are three sidequests that the player has access to within Pyrefly Forest, and I think that all 3 are worth mentioning for different reasons, so I'd like to go through them separately.
Fascinating Literature
This sidequest is initiated by speaking to Demi at a bookshelf in one of the side areas that you need to go to get a rail segment.
This sidequest of the three is the most up-front with it's interpretation. Basil and Sunny had a relationship in which, at the very least, Basil would recommend books for Sunny to read, while Sunny would read them. Demi even has a passing resemblance to Sunny, so I think it is pretty clear that this sidequest is referencing that aspect of Basil and Sunny's relationship.
A Good Listener
Right off the bat, we can tell that this quest is also related to Sunny and Basil, as it's title is directly lifted from how Basil describes Sunny in the photo album. It involves finding Candlie's missing teddy bear and returning it to her. The missing Teddy is found in the Fanmail Graveyard section of Sweetheart's Castle, and is acquired after a fight with it as a Rare Bear enemy.
It is easy to see the teddy bear as representative of Sunny, while Candlie represents Basil in this quest, considering the quest being about the teddy bear being a good listener to Candlie, but I think you could very well make a very different interpretation of this quest with everything else going on in this segment of the game.
The first thing to make note of here is that Sunny is the one associated with owning plushies, not Basil. In Sunny's backyard, in fact, he even owns a teddy bear that has been abandoned to the elements.
Keeping in mind the references to Sunny talking to Basil about his fear of spiders, this side quest could actually be representative of how Sunny would come to view Basil as a confidant as well. This is definitely delving into some deep personal interpretation/headcanony territory, but this could even represent how Sunny would deal with his own worries prior to when he began opening up to Basil, by venting it out to his stuffed animals, but the Lake Incident and the trauma associated with it was too much for that kind of thing to work, leading Sunny to open up about it to Basil. The fact that Teddy attacks you during this sidequest certainly could imply that Sunny doesn't exactly have a positive opinion of it. The fact that Teddy was lost could also reference the fact that Basil is lost within Headspace and you are trying to find him.
On the other hand, we could buy into the more obvious interpretation of Candlie representing Basil and Teddy representing Sunny here. The Teddy attacking you could just represent how Sunny does not have a positive opinion of himself or his actions. The fact that Candlie is a candle is also fairly specific for Pyrefly Forest, as lighting candles is what allows the player to avoid groups of spiders, possibly referencing how Basil would take care of and relocate spiders that Sunny was afraid of.
You also get a little cutscene of Candlie hugging Teddy when you bring him back. This is interesting, because it's one of the few times we actually see a hug represented through the sprites in the overworld (also seen with Omori & Mari, Hero & Mari, and Basil & Sunny), and it's applied to such a small little sidequest.
You also get a rubber duck that doesn't like you as a reward. I'm not sure what that's supposed to represent.
Weeping Willow
So this quest is the one where you have to fill out a jokebook and have Hero tell jokes to the titular Weeping Willow to cheer her up (the jokes are too embarrassing for anyone else to say). When you finally can get her to laugh using the construction joke, she bestows upon you the "LOL Sword", which is a weapon that can be used by Hero and allows him to start the battle happy.
The LOL Sword is a very unique weapon for Hero. All of his other weapons take the form of kitchen tools, while this one is an actual weapon. In addition, the way that this weapon works allows Hero to start the battle Happy, even against enemies that would usually set Hero in a state of fear. This would seem to imply that the way Hero deals with his fear of spiders is distracting himself through humor, though we don't see this in-game when a spider is encountered in the real world.
I think that an interesting idea here is that humor is how Sunny may have dealt with his own fears, prior to the Incident. Obviously, the way his fears manifest in the current day is a bit more extreme than they likely manifested themselves as prior to the Incident, but they still existed following when he almost drowned in the lake pre-canon. In the Lost Library memory for the construction of the treehouse, Sunny appears to make special note of how much time has passed since Mari has climbed down her ladder, perhaps indicating that Sunny is not willing to climb up the ladder himself at this point in time, due to his fear of heights. If you buy into the idea that Sunny opened up about his fears to Basil, I think it could become easy to imagine Basil doing things like telling jokes to Sunny as he climbed the ladder to the treehouse to distract him from his fear of heights, which would have been enough at that point in time, even if it didn't end up being a permanent solution. And if you buy into this interpretation and want to dive into delusion with me even further, the fact that the joke book is too embarrassing for anyone except Hero to read could represent that Sunny was too embarrassed by his fears to open up about them to the others. The fact that it has to be Hero specifically is relevant, as Hero himself doesn't really have any shame in expressing his fear of spiders.
One last thing to mention here is that originally, one of the books that Sunny would own in the Hikikomori route was titled "Weeping Willow", which would have tied back into Basil and Sunny's reading interest, and a weeping willow is a type of tree, which has some pretty specific connotations in OMORI.
Lost Forest
The final thing that I feel is relevant to note about this area is the connection to the Lost Forest. Overall, the Lost Forest portion of the game is more to set the player up for the existence of a Truth that has been forgotten, as it wasn't really mentioned during the previous night in Headspace. Since I'm focusing more on Basil right now, I won't go too in-depth on this very interesting area, but there are some notable things that you can see and find. You are able to find a "Pearl" item on the dock in area 3 of the Lost Forest, which could be seen as representing the gang's hideout, as well as this being the only time Pearls appear in the game outside of Sweetheart's Castle, which is a location that I've noted before as being fairly connected to Sunny and Basil's relationship.
Stranger appears at the beginning of the area, then appears again alongside an apparition of Basil in the fifth area of the Lost Forest before disappearing. There is also a hanging Mari from the Fishbowl Area of Black Space that Appears in the final room as a WTF Event. I find this interesting, as that area of Black Space heavily focuses on Sunny and Basil's relationship. The OST for that area is White Pillars (also the 143rd song on the soundtrack), which has so many different things that it could refer to. One interpretation that I like is that the "White Pillars" that the song refers to are the hanging Maris that appear within that area of Black Space, as well as here. The metaphorical "White Pillars" that has allowed Sunny to force himself to forget and live in delusion all goes back to Basil's lie. Sunny wouldn't be able to live within Headspace and forget his crimes if everyone knew about them. The presence of a hanging Mari from the Fishbowl Area here, of all places, plays into that interpretation, as this is the room where Daddy Longlegs discusses the creation and purpose of Headspace. It makes sense for a reference to that to appear here.
Conclusion
Like I said at the beginning of this post, a lot of my analysis of this area goes back to personal interpretation, and even I can see that there are parts where I'm stretching a bit, but I do think that at the very least, the sidequests and other details of this area allow you to build a solid reading on this portion of the game being about Sunny and Basil's relationship, which will be expanded on right after with Sweetheart's Castle.
The fact that both "Interesting Literature" and "A Good Listener" are both accessed through areas that you only have to go to due to the rails needing repaired could even represent how Headspace itself is breaking down and that to repair it and continue or break the delusion, Sunny has to expose himself to reminders of his relationship with Basil.
Also: something that I didn't mention in my previous post on this topic. While I do believe that Sunny did come to see Basil as someone he could open up to, I don't think that Sunny ever would have told him about his worries with the violin. Basil is the one that had the idea for the violin in the first place, and I don't think Sunny would bring it up to him due to his known drive to avoid disappointing his friends. I think that that actually adds to OMORI's tragedy: the two people that Sunny could open up to about things were the two people that Sunny would see as being most disappointed in him for wanting to quit, eventually leading to the incident.
