#sunnykel

One of the prettiest scenes in the game imo is in the Blackspace church, when Basil is released by the dark tendrils holding him in the air and he falls. Omori valiantly catches him and carries him bridal style while Basil himself wordlessly trusts Omori will save him. I think this is how Sunny ideally wants to be with Basil, strong enough to support him and deserve his trust.

Most importantly though imo is what happens in the Hikikomori route after Omori saves Basil. Basil is relegated to always being on the picnic blanket with Mari, always there to happily greet Omori, show the photo album and have picnics with him and their friends.

This is really important because there’s various Headspace characters (the Coral tree, Daddy Longlegs) that remind you of the reason Mari is in eternal picnics: it’s Sunny’s way of keeping her forever happy and safe in his mind, always there to heal him with absolutely nothing capable of hurting her. The fact that he does the same thing with Basil after saving him but not with his other friends is extremely meaningful in both good and bad ways. It shows that Sunny loves Basil, yes, but also that he has a tendency of putting Basil on an unrealistic pedestal of “purity” because he can’t face the other parts of Basil. Basil himself says it in Blackspace: the day they hung Mari, Basil was split in two inside Sunny’s mind.

Sunny proves he does love all of Basil in the good ending fight while the other endings show him either running away or giving up completely. Otherwise, the game doesn’t outright say they have romantic feelings for each other but I definitely think they love each other in a way more intense manner than they do their other friends.

The sad part here tho is that I personally feel like this extreme fixation they have with each other happened partly due to trauma bonding. I feel like what they did to Mari simultaneously pulled them apart while also emotionally linking them together forever. It’s nothing that can’t be overcome but it’s still bittersweet.