#Basil’s grandmother Omori

[im-tired1124]

Some little drawings I did of Basil’s grandmother today.

I was wonder what kind of person she was before she was bedridden. I think I’m gonna call her Rosemary.

Happy holidays folks.

[zipsunz]

the garden of basil rowan moore 🌿

art by me, script by @sunkitty143! (we no longer allow comic dubs!)

some notes:

aside from basil's parents' general design and the implication that they're busy and rich, everything else about his family outside of his grandmother is cat's headcanon!

the flowers assigned to each family member are olive blossom (oliver), dahlia (dahlia), sea aster (oliver's father), goldenrod (elijah), rosemary (rosemary), and azaleas (basil's grandmother)

the flowers in the last part represent the people (new and old) in basil's life!

dahlias are in the same family as daisies and sunflowers!

basil's dream of his family tree/garden is inspired by the meadow in headspace

spirit mari takes the form of her 15 year old self to basil, as he never wants to turn away from the truth again

thank you again for the patience and encouragement as we worked on this!! i honestly wouldn't have gotten through this much work over the months if i wasn't in love with what cat wrote, so i hope you enjoy it! 🫶

[cheezyhamster]

Delinquent Basil

Made 4 versions (with/without cel shading and with/without the bg) (rest under cut)

I think I'm finally getting a grip on phone drawing (computer is still my go-to though)

[dannybobany]

Really sad omori headcanon I have (small spoilers) (Basil thing)

So, it’s never said which side of the family basils grandmother was on, but in my head she was basils maternal grandmother (as in his mom’s mom) and while this was something I just arbitrarily decided one day and didn’t give a lot of thought to…. Thinking of it now I can’t help but imagine that towards the end of her life Basils grandmother began to mistake Basil for her daughter,

And Basil wouldn’t correct her, wouldn’t tell her how she was mistaken and he was not his mother, he would let her believe that her daughter was there for her, that she had not abandoned them both … because not only did Basils parents leave him in the darkest days of his life, but they left Basils grandmother in the dying days of hers

Basils mother left her son to take her place, to let his hair grow out more then usual, to let his grandmother call him “daughter” when her real daughter had left them both behind :(

(We may not know much about Basils family but where there is potential I will FIND the angst and I will share it with everyone I can to make you all sad too)

[yumiiyummech]

Where did wendy live after sunny moved away?

good question!

yknow i havent really thought it all through but i wanna imagine that she started working at a cute little (non canon) shop that the owner allowed her to stay upstairs with the exchange of working!

[crowbasils]

Also random headcanon but - I headcanon that sometimes Basil goes to visit some relatives on their ranch and he helps them out with the horses and sometimes even helps trains the horses

ooo? not sure if i can see this (considering him & his grandmother and his parents seem to be pretty distant to an extent—which probably does extend to his relatives 😭) but it’s an interesting hc :D

[thebasilbuffet]

Basil, do you eat meat yes or no?

"When it's offered. Though eating deer makes me feel bad."

[nav-i-nav]

Actually, while we are at it, can we talk about how awful a lot of the fanbase treats Basil? My man can’t catch a break because almost everyone misinterprets him one way or another.

Where do I even start? Literally everything he does is taken the wrong way. There’s the people who characterize him as an obsessive yandere who only cares about Sunny and did everything in his power to isolate him. On the other hand, we have people who just remove one of the basic core aspects of him as a whole and make him an empty husk with no real personality.

Headacanon him however you want, but also try to understand him? I don’t know how people can say he only cares about Sunny when it’s clear he deeply appreciates his friends. He has a stronger bond with Sunny, but that doesn’t mean he’s a possessive and obsessed person who is toxic.

He definitely fucked up along the way, but his actions were never intended to hurt Sunny intentionally. He was in a panic and all he wanted was to keep his best friend safe. People constantly treat him as he’s a disgusting person for simple fact he shows mental illness signs, which is incredibly disheartening because there IS people in real life who act this way and can’t help it! What a relief it is to know people will treat me or my friends like this if we dare show an ounce of distress or panic!

Being mentally ill does not justify your actions, but this also doesn’t mean you are allowed to treat people who suffer from them like scum. People like Basil deserve to get help, to have people who support them so they can start healing. Basil clearly didn’t have that support, the only person that was there for him being his bedridden grandmother who he eventually lost.

And on the other hand, we have people who just choose to get rid of Basil’s personality altogether and characterise him as this character who is all suffering and trauma based off things that are NOT canon. It’s true that Basil’s life doesn’t exactly fit a “normal” childhood (having to live with his grandmother for unknown reasons) but that doesn’t immediately mean he is beyond traumatized? Basil is a little shy, sure, but a lot of people are. Basil used to be a smart and lively kid who loved his friends dearly. It wasn’t until AFTER the incident that he spiralled to the point he is where we see him in game.

People either disregard his trauma and paint him as a villain (let’s make one thing clear, there are NO villains in OMORI), or try to give him even more trauma for no apparent reason. All we know is that his parents aren’t really present in his life, and while that may bring some issues, from what we can see in cutscenes and the photo album, Basil lived a comfortable life surrounded by a loving family member and friends who cared about him.

You are free to explore Basil’s character however you like, but there’s a point where it no longer feels like Basil.

There is nothing wrong with showing his gentle side, just as how there’s nothing wrong to explore his unhealthy behaviour. But focusing on only one of the aspects of his entire self just turns him into a one-dimensional character with no redeemable qualities.

In my opinion, Basil is one of the best examples of a person struggling with mentally illness in media, yet people choose to ignore the complexity of his character to have either a selfish and dangerous yandere or a cute and shy femboy who’s only there to look pretty.

Write him like the mess he is. He is unstable. He is resentful, he is paranoid. That’s what makes Basil’s character so loved. That’s what makes him feel so relatable and human. Ignoring one side of his self takes away all of that. OMORI is a game about acceptance and forgiving. Why shouldn’t we apply those terms to their characters? It’s rather hypocritical for the fanbase to treat Sunny as a poor boy who only did what he did due to stress and trauma and then mark Basil as a psychopath with no redeemable features as if he wasn’t also a scared child who witnessed his very best friend push his sister down the stairs.

[sirenspells]

Yo so I've had an idea for a fantasy/medieval omori au for about a year now that I've pretty much never had the opportunity to post about, mainly cause I would have a hard time drawing up designs for the characters. So I've decided I'm just gonna make a post describing what I've got for the au so far, cause I've put enough thought into it to at least tell people about it:

As stated, the AU takes place in a medieval/fantasy setting, and mainly focuses on Sunny and Mari, the prince and princess of the Faraway Kingdom. Both of the siblings have never been happy about their royalty status, especially with the issue of becoming king/queen. For Mari, she's expected to marry a prince from another kingdom and become that kingdom's queen, but she doesn't want to leave Faraway and marry someone she doesn't know. Sunny just doesn't want to become king in general, as the idea of it stresses him out.

When Sunny is 12 and Mari is 15, they find out that their parents are intending to step down within the next few years, meaning that the siblings will be forced to assume their positions of king and queen much sooner than they expected. They aren't happy about this news, and that night, as the two of them open up to each other about how much they hate the roles they've been forced into, Mari gets the idea of sneaking out of the castle for a night to get some fresh air and relieve their stress. Important to note that Mari and Sunny are not allowed to leave the castle by themselves, something they've also always disliked about their status as royalty. Sunny is convinced and the two of them sneak out, wearing cloaks to hide their identities.

While out in the kingdom, they run into Kel, Hero, Aubrey, and Basil (the four of them already know each other by this time), and the siblings immediately get along well with them. Afterwards, what started out as just one night of sneaking out turns into a routine for Sunny and Mari, and after spending more time with the other four and becoming close to them, they eventually reveal their true identities to them

I don't have much else in terms of main plot after this, so I'll move on to character information I got

Hero: He helps his family at the bakery that they own, and that he himself will be expected to run one day when he's older. While Hero enjoys baking and is glad to help his family, he is discouraged by the fact that the bakery doesn't get much business, and so his family struggles financially as a result. The bakery was one of the first places that Sunny and Mari went to when they left the castle for the first time, and they continue to visit it frequently. Hero and Mari do end up falling in love, but Mari is saddened by the fact that she shouldn't be with him due to her being forbidden from being with a commoner

Kel: He's also expected to run the bakery along with Hero, but it's not something that interests him. He finds it difficult to focus on baking and he hates being cooped up in a kitchen all day, and he much prefers going out and about. One day, he takes notice of the kingdom's dragon riders, those who train dragons and ride on them for delivery and scouting. Kel is intrigued and ends up talking with their captain, who likes Kel's enthusiasm and offers to train him to become a dragon rider, which Kel accepts. The dragon Kel is assigned to train is a fluffy, orange and white one named Hector

Aubrey: Okay I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't quite figured out what's going on with Aubrey? Backstory wise I'm thinking she wasn't originally from the Faraway Kingdom and she started living there after she ran away from her shitty mom. Also like in canon she met Basil before the others did, she protected him after she saw someone heckling him. Besides that I haven't thought of what she's actually doing yet...

Basil: He is a mage who lives with his grandmother on the outskirts of the kingdom's borders. His grandmother is also a mage, he got his powers from her, and she teaches Basil how to use them, with Basil specializing in plant-based magic

Omori: A young dragon who was cursed into a human form (this takes place two years after the story's start, Sunny's 14 by this point). He's found by Sunny and Mari after sneaking into the courtyard during a storm, and they sneak him into the castle, concerned by how thin he is, and they basically end up adopting him. Omori starts off very quiet, and even after he starts talking more, he's very secretive about his past and where he's from, refusing to elaborate any more than the fact that he's not from Faraway

Stranger: An ancient and powerful faerie who lives in the deepest and darkest part of the woods outside Faraway, along with many mysterious crows who act as his spies. Humans and magical creatures alike know not to trespass on his part of the woods, as he's notorious for cursing those who get in his way. He was the one who cursed Omori, and did so after Omori entered his part of the woods and killed and ate one of his crows

[lazyapperence9754]

The pidgin!AU is an AU where everyone in the main group are pidgin dolls. They live in a funny little version of Faraway that’s small and void of anyone else.

Their “parents” are their creators, all created as either commissions or fun little favors for the now owner of the dolls.

Sunny and Mari-

Sunny and Mari were a pair of dolls created to mourn for the miscarriages their creator (their mother) experienced. Their father did nothing but provide the supplies needed to create them before divorcing their mother.

The two originally came with their own instruments, with Sunny holding the violin and Mari playing the piano. But as the years passed, their little trinkets broke down and rotted away. They still have glue on their fingers where the instruments used to be placed.

Kel and Hero-

Kel and Hero were a pair of dolls created to entertain the creator’s (their mother and father) child, a girl named Sally. Hero was created as the doll that the parents wanted their son, if they’d had one, to be. Perfect, charming, and smart. Kel was created as the “Barbie Doll” for Sally, the doll she could do anything she wanted to.

The two had come with an assortment of trinkets, such as a frying pan and an apron for Hero and a basketball and toy dog (Hector) for Kel. The dog went missing before anyone could even blink, and the ball eventually popped and deflated. Hero is still in perfect condition to this day, while Kel looks like what happens when a Barbie meets a child with a pair of scissors.

Aubrey-

Aubrey was created by a starving artist (her mother) as a commission for money, but when the buyer bailed on her, she fell into such a rage that she threw the doll into a wall, popping off an arm. She had originally came with a nailed bat and a teal bow, but those items were lost over time.

Basil-

Basil was created as a fun little project by his creators (his mother and father), then gifted to his doll hoarding grandmother when they lost interest.

He had originally come with a flower crown and a camera, but those were lost within the depths of his grandmother’s home.

All the dolls were collected and placed into Faraway by an unknown doll collector, going by the name OMORI.

Either from garage sales, dumpsters, and even stolen from homes, the dolls came from anywhere and everywhere.

[bean-named-rifty]

Abandonment issues and Internet incel boyfriend

I don’t really talk about my Omori AU, called Houseplant, mostly because the Rain World hyperfixation is real.

Anyways here’s some stuff about Houseplant AU:

-another sibling AU with Rowan/Flower being Basil’s older sibling, and Omoriboy being Mari and Sunny’s older sibling. I was writing a fic which took place 2 years after Mari’s death, but I thought it was cringeworthy after posting the first chapter, so it no longer exists.

-Omoriboy is called Akira in the real world, but one day, Sunny called him Omori by accident. Mari thought the name was cute, so the nickname stuck around, eventually morphing into Omoriboy

-Only Omoriboy calls Rowan, “Flower”. The nickname also sticks around for Omoriboy’s headspace

-Omoriboy is still our chronically online Redditor. He works at the Faraway grocery store, and doesn’t really know what to do with his life, but tries his best rekindling past friendships.

-Rowan has abandonment issues after Omoriboy cuts contact with him after Mari’s death. He has a bit of a temper, and puts his grandmother and Basil’s needs first before his, often going out for errands and doing small jobs around town.

The entire premise of the AU was mostly a reflection of my past relationships.

[zipsunz]

MARCH 13, 1999

(art by me, script by @sunkitty143!)

[bigfrogdraws]

been playing Omori w my friends so i drew ponies about it.

more about them under the cut :3 (and omori spoilers too)

i wanted to keep their names as similar as possible the best i could. Day Dream's name was already in my head when i started drawing him, while everyone else's i had to workshop. I liked the idea of all their nicknames being their actual names, so Aubergine Bloom could go by Aubrey, kaleidoscope could go by Kel, etc etc.

I never intended for there to be an equal mix of earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, but it worked out well. Kel's design was the hardest to hash out, bc i wanted his name to fit his design. i was really happy with his name and i really didnt want to change it.

Mari's design was also hard to has out, but i like how she turned out. Aubrey's is my favorite design by far, i think it fits her character and name perfectly. i like to think that since aubrey brought basil to the friend group, they probably met in the equivalent of cloudsdale

mari never got her cutiemark, but i like to think that if they performed their recital she would have gotten it, and it would have been related to music. Hero's is a shield, which he gets when he "wakes up" from his depression and makes sure Kel is safe after snapping at him.

Kel's cutie mark is a basket ball, and he would have gotten it the first high school basket ball game he played. Aubrey's is a needle and thread. her cutiemark represents her ability to patch and fix things, both relationships and physical items (fixing gruff guy's pipe, restoring the old pictures, bringing basil to the friend group, forming her own friend group after Mari's death, and re-joining the old friend group later on).

basil's is a sprout in a polaroid frame, and he got it when he took his first picture of his friends. however, he doesn't have it in headspace. sunny day never gets a cutie mark, and is a blank flank. he gets his cutie mark if you get to complete the recital in the good ending, which is a violin and sheet music.

some other fun stuff! aubergine dyes her mane and feathers pink when she's a teen. Kaleidoscope and Hero are technically the same height, but Hero has him beat out with the added height of his horn, which makes kaleidoscope very upset.

sunny days barely grows in the 4 years since marigold's death. if anything he gets a little lanky and much thinner, since he lives such a sedentary life.

kaleidoscope gets furry hooves like Hero when he's older, making them more apparent mirrors of each other.

i planned on drawing sally but forgot. she's a baby unicorn.

bonus basil sprout drawing plus his grandmother who i designed w the help of a random name generator

[dannybobany]

Hey hey it’s Marzenie posting again, very simple statement I would like to make about this AU

Basil looks like his mom.

That’s it, that’s the post ignoring the many many tags

[woodchipp]

@megabitchgetter

>>"girl's worst crime was done in anger"

Alright, so

She went through Basil's photo album without his permission while he wasn't in the room. Although she portrays the photo album as a shared group possession, it's Basil's property since Mari bought it for him. Aubrey breached her bestie's privacy by snooping through his shit behind his back

After seeing the ruined photos, Aubrey's first thought was that her bestie totally must've been the one to ruin them... for no reason in particular. Instead of trying to give him the benefit of the doubt or a chance to explain himself, she instantly believed her unfounded assumption and condemned her close friend as a nutcase... for no reason in particular

Instead of simply avoiding Basil if she believed him to be a nutcase, Aubrey consciously chose to bully Basil, which eventually resulted in others joining in and presumably contributed to Basil's already unstable mental state getting even worse

When confronted, Aubrey expresses more concern over being perceived as a bully than making genuine amends with her victim. The label “bully” damages her self-image and seems to distress her more than the thought of having harmed someone she used to be good friends with

And all of that happened before she accidentally pushed him in the lake. She didn't even try to dive in to save him herself since arguing with Kel on the pier was more of a priority, apparently.

Aubrey is an asshole.

>>"later explained by her blatant lack of stability and shitty parents or any adult figure in her life. "

Again, there is a major difference between being anguished that your friend group has fallen apart and lashing out as a result, and making the conscious choice to bully someone you used to consider a friend because you assumed the worst of them. OMORI treats the latter like the former. Aubrey appears disingenuous when she insists she isn’t a bully because by her own admission, she did bully someone, a former close friend who is known for being sensitive, and she bullied him for four years.

>>"And again, there's a child who hung someone, who did have multiple adult figures in his life??"

Basil also has a horrible home life, actually. His parents left him in the care of his grandmother when he was a toddler and don’t seem to visit him much, if at all, much like Aubrey's mother neglects her; Polly doesn’t know how to approach him, and the grandmother is dying. I think they're even here.

"hung someone" Aubrey was perfectly willing to attack Sunny and Kel, her (former) childhood friends, with a nail bat.

I hope all of that answers your question.

[crowbasils]

BASIL (OMORI) — A complete (for now) analysis

spoilers under the cut !! ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶

BASIL is actually more nuanced than the game makes him out to be, and has hid his emotions far before KEL has, and is as tragic, if not more tragic, as AUBREY is.

HIS CHILDHOOD （＾_＾）

Let’s start off before he met the friend group. As POLLY says in-game, his parents left him when he was a toddler, with his grandmother being the only one there for him. She also does note that she’s only ever seen them once.

…This is obviously something that affected BASIL’s life a lot. Being left with only one person—an old one at that. She cares, yes, but the thing is, we don’t know how she was like. All we get is old art, old concepts, but even then, it’s how SUNNY sees her. Maybe she was pretty strict, maybe she was someone that was lax but when upset, her punishments would be severe, traumatizing, even. Even then, despite the fact that he’s left with someone that cares for him, it’s still pretty bad. Why? Because he would realize that she isn’t his parent. That his grandmother isn’t his parent. And that realization hurts. He’s left to wonder why his parents left him. Why his parents abandoned, and neglected him. Why he seemed unwanted compared to others. Was it because they found him to be weak? Was it because they hated him? Was it because they had no time for him? We never know, and he really never did, either. It does not help that canon implies that there was no communication from him to his parents either.

This can actually cause children to feel like an alien. To feel like they are abnormal in comparison to others. To feel like they aren’t human. To feel that they can’t “connect” with society. They don’t know how to interact “properly” with people, because they can’t relate to other’s experiences. Because they have not experienced interacting much with people. Because they don’t know how to relate, they don’t interact much easily. Because they don’t know how to relate, their speech and manner of expression may not be up to standard. They don't know what a “parent’s love” is, a “mother’s love”, or what “love” is in general, because they weren’t exposed to that. This is, most probably, the case with BASIL. Even though he has a grandmother, it’s not really enough. It’s not enough, because it’s not his parents, it’s not the ones who gave birth to him. It’s not the ones who others would say “would love you unconditionally”. It’s not the ones who others would say “would love you the most”.

Considering that it’s his grandmother, BASIL might’ve actually had to tend to himself and mature faster than anyone did. His grandmother is old, and old people do have quite a lot of complications to deal with. Even if they’re healthy, they’re a bit fragile. He might’ve had to run errands for her, do house chores for her, and stuff like that. A grandmother isn’t the most reliable parental figure, because they could fall ill at any moment, they could die at any moment. He probably knows this, actually. If you take the hunter thing as canon, this does kind of add to the… y’know since he does have to see carcasses. We also don’t know if she’s actually nice. We don’t know if she was a good grandmother, we don’t know if she was a bad one either.

… Anyways. All that combined probably makes you think that BASIL would turn out to be a really sad and depressed kid. As in, something like post-incident SUNNY. But… surprisingly, he’s not. He’s happy, smiling, and if you look at the pre-incident art, more than SUNNY (although, SUNNY states that he doesn’t really like to smile in the traditional sense. BASIL sees right through him though, and knows if he’s smiling or not.). He’s smiling more than SUNNY, which admittedly, makes no sense if you take it as something that indicates “Oh!!! BASIL is happier than SUNNY and SUNNY pre-incident is traumatized!!!!” when you consider both of their childhoods. Which brings us to the next point…

THE INSIDE (PRE-INCIDENT) ( T_T)＼(^-^ )

While not specifically expressed in canon (SUNNY and OMORI aren’t reliable narrators and their views won’t always be accurate), it is pretty implied that he hides feelings. Probably the most obvious indicators of that would be the fact that he vents to SUNNY, and the existence of STRANGER (who is implied to be the parts of BASIL that Sunny finds “unpleasant” while also being a positive figure and guide to him. Not to say that he dislikes BASIL, but he pretty much has this black and white view when it comes to the world because yeah, he’s young and has experienced a lot less pre-incident) and some parts of BLACKSPACE.

He probably has hid more feelings than the game lets on. Maybe he thinks of himself as “inhuman” and feels “strange” compared to everyone because he can’t relate that well to their experiences with their parents and peers, and uses smiling and laughing as a way to cope and/or cover that. Maybe he thinks of himself as “less”, that sometimes, he feels empty, sad, and even angry, and that’s why he acts the way he does. He involves himself in the activities of the friend group, because he’s so scared of being left alone again. To avoid being forgotten and abandoned, he helps everyone and tries to be the reliable friend everyone needs. Maybe because he’s never been able to make a lot of human interaction, he is the way he is. Maybe, he even exaggerated some of his emotions, for a lack of a better word. He wants to get “in” to the moment, truly feel it for what it is, which leads to his emotions being a mix of genuine and a mix of a slight exaggeration. He feels joy and does feel genuinely happy, but he exaggerates it at times. To him, it will all be but a fleeting moment, and when time comes, the friend group will collapse. He values his relationships with the friend group more than anyone, because to him, they are his true family. He takes photos of them, because he’s afraid to lose them.

They say, “opposites attract”, correct? Then perhaps the reason why BASIL hangs out more with SUNNY, is because he is the very opposite to him, by technicality. SUNNY isn’t physically expressive with his emotions. SUNNY doesn’t smile, neither does he laugh a lot, but unlike him, But at the same time, SUNNY isn’t empty. SUNNY is so full of life. He is full of dreams, imagination, often good and fantastical. SUNNY has been around people who love and trust him his entire childhood, while BASIL hasn’t. SUNNY has been loved and cherished by everyone his entire childhood, but BASIL hasn’t. BASIL wasn’t as loved and cherished by everyone as SUNNY was. SUNNY had many people care for him before the friend group, while BASIL didn’t. SUNNY experienced parental love, but BASIL didn’t, and will never experience it. In his eyes, SUNNY is perfect, because he experienced what he cannot. Because he is loved by everyone. Because he is cherished, and treasured. He is what BASIL cannot be, and will not ever be. He is the “good person” he wishes to be, yet cannot be.

With that being said, BASIL probably does have trust and abandonment issues that he hid as well. His photo album can be a sign of that. Abandonment issues, caused by his parents leaving and the fact that his grandmother can fall ill / die at any moment, and trust issues caused by the abandonment issues. The photo album is also described as a collection of “things he is afraid to lose”.

He is also implied to be depressed and/or suicidal in a certain incident which will be addressed in the next section

“THE INCIDENT” ∑(ﾟДﾟ)

The incident is a major part of the OMORI story. It is the very thing that serves as the catalyst for all the events ingame. As for this section of the analysis, it will attempt to give a reason—but not excuse—as to why BASIL did what, and what it may imply when it comes to his character. As well as clearing common misconceptions on why a character did certain things and why the misconception is incorrect.

The question “Why did BASIL hang MARI?” is a question asked by a lot of people. The answer to that is… quite simple, and that is because he didn’t want SUNNY to get in trouble, and hated by everyone. “But he could’ve called the ambulance!!! Or even his parents!!!” That is true, but consider, he was in a stressful situation, and he didn’t even know what to do, as witnessing a death of a friend caused by another friend is a hard thing to take. This and the fact that the police and medical services in OMORI FARAWAY seem quite incompetent and/or lacking, considering how AUBREY was able to get away scot-free while having a bat with nails on it. Also, him hanging MARI does also implies that he knows how to tie a noose. While that can be excused as something that comes from gardening, the thing is that. he knows that it’s for suicide, which also in turn, implies that he knows how to commit it. Which is concerning, especially when you take into consideration that he’s a 12 year old, and that it’s pretty rare for a 12 year old to know that back in the time OMORI is implied to have taken place in. The internet also didn’t exist back then, which makes it pretty impossible for Basil to know what suicide is and how to do it unless he planned to do it himself.

A common yet popular misconception in the fandom is that he is the one who scribbled up the photo album, and to that I say, “No, he wasn’t.” It was SUNNY. SUNNY was the one who scribbled up the photos, and BASIL just took the blame so that he wouldn’t get in trouble and be hated by everyone. BASIL actually says that it was SUNNY in an earlier version of the dialogue before the BASIL fight. (SUNNY even takes a step back when the rest of the gang (minus BASIL) hugs AUBREY! Which is an indicator of at least something.

Another common yet popular misconception is that this is the only reason why BASIL is depressed/sad and that after the game, he’ll go back to being happy again, and to that I say, nope. Absolutely not. It’s not the only reason why BASIL is like that. Even if he healed from the trauma the incident has caused, a lot of his issues are still left unaddressed. The feelings from his grandmother dying, the worsened abandonment and trust issues, the strong yet not acknowledged and repressed feelings from AUBREY bullying him, the feelings from SUNNY leaving him, the feelings from… pretty much everyone leaving him are still there. Him also being suicidal and scared yet again to reunite, because he feels like it will dissolve even faster than before. He’s also still scared that they hate him, and even if they say they don’t, he feels like they’re lying and inside, they hate him and want him to die.

…Also, the incident is not completely BASIL’s fault. He wasn’t the reason why SUNNY shut himself in his room and became a shut-in / hikikomori. And while yes, his SOMETHING is in the shape of hanged MARI, SUNNY became a shut-in / hikikomori due to the guilt of killing Mari, and not because of BASIL hanging her. It’s not BASIL’s fault that SUNNY became a shut-in and that the group fell apart, because the group would’ve fallen apart anyway. It’s just that it’s no longer only SUNNY’s fault that the group did. And even if the hanging didn’t happen, the majority of the group wouldn’t be mature enough to understand the situation fully. We, as the players/readers understand it, because we have almost all of the pieces of the puzzle, but they won’t.

POST-INCIDENT, FARAWAY SECTION (¬_¬)

Before I’d like to start off this segment, what the fandom fails to acknowledge most of the time is that BASIL is 16. He’s not a crybaby. He’s not scared of everything. He’s not a scaredy-cat. Most of those assumptions come from the fandom’s inability to recognize that BASIL has suffered as much as SUNNY and AUBREY have. He is as pained and hurt as them. He was hurt and in pain because of them, too.

The first time we see BASIL, we see him asking for his photo album, but getting bullied and getting told “no” instead. This makes a pretty bad first impression to younger fans and illiterate fans, and because of that, he is often watered down into this “uwu coward soft boy who cries a lot”, which he isn’t. He may seem like it, but he isn’t. The second time we see BASIL, he is at the old hangout spot, and calling for help. This… actually does imply a lot of things, one of them being suicide. He might’ve came there to die in a place where he missed, to look at the place one last time before he would commit suicide, but he was stopped by the hooligans. which most likely bullied him (even though they say they didn’t). And the last time, the sleepover, he either kills himself, or stabs SUNNY in the eye due to hallucinations and stress.

The BASIL we see here, in Faraway, is a more broken version of BASIL. He still acts and hides feelings—or at least tries. It’s not as effective as before. One thing I’d like to point out is the fact that we never really actually see BASIL do anything connected to his past interests. While yes, his photo album being missing may be a part of it, he doesn’t really take photos anymore. We don’t see him taking care of his flowers, either. Maybe he could’ve lost interest in it, as a result of the incident. One POLLY line actually does say that he stopped taking care of his flowers completely at some point before the game.

BASIL probably doesn’t eat much. We don’t see BASIL eat the food in the time SUNNY and KEL were in his house. POLLY does state that he’s been going to the bathroom a lot, too.

That aside, let’s get deeper into it. BASIL, in faraway, is most likely at the lowest point of his life. He had to see his friends leave him one by one (even KEL! even HERO!), and have one bullying him. He no longer has an outlet for his extremely bottled up emotions. He doesn’t have anyone, and his grandmother fell ill as well. POLLY is also paid to be there for him too, which means she doesn’t really count as someone he has. She isn’t close to him, either. She isn’t as close to him as the fandom makes her out to be. She cares, yes. But she isn’t close to BASIL at all. She does say it as well

The reason behind why BASIL stabbed SUNNY’s eye was because he was hallucinating, and not because he actually wanted to stab SUNNY. He stabbed SUNNY’s eye because he thought his eye was a part of SOMETHING (that… he is implied to hallucinate heavier for whatever reason), and not SUNNY. Although, it’s not completely all because of that, it’s a key part of it. His repressed anger and hatred, him being genuinely upset, as well as his desire to protect SUNNY from SOMETHING—a thing that he genuinely and wholeheartedly believes is real and something that exists in reality—is also a part of it too. This part does not mean that BASIL put his selfish desires first, this does not mean that BASIL puts his desire to keep his best friend above SUNNY’s safety. This doesn’t mean that he’s only concerned with what SUNNY can do for him and not concerned with what is best for him. BASIL was going through a breakdown, so a lot of the things he says are in this confused state where he doesn’t know what he’s feeling, what is really happening, and isn’t thinking clearly. BASIL is not doing all this with a clear head and mind. Both the safety of SUNNY and not wanting SUNNY to leave are both on the forefront of his mind, it’s just that, because of the overwhelming stress and the fact that his thoughts aren’t that clear, his method and way of protecting SUNNY is a bit “confusing”. He cares, he cares for SUNNY’s safety, but in this context, the “normal” way of caring doesn’t apply, because the situation isn’t really normal to begin with. The part where he states that he’ll end both of their pains (by murder-suicide) is most likely out of stress, because his situation is extremely stressful, and it’s sad that nobody recognizes it.

He also does use toxic positivity, saying “Everything will be okay…” even if it won’t. It’s just… less recognized.

POST-INCIDENT RELATIONSHIPS & WHAT LIES BEYOND (・・?)

BASIL, post-incident, probably also does have a lot of hidden feelings as well. This time, feelings like anger and even hatred towards his friends, an intense and deeper emptiness, and a lot more worsened negative feelings are added to it.

BASIL still thinks of himself as “weird” compared to everyone else in the friend group, especially after the incident. He feels inhuman, even worse now because if people knew what he did, he knows that they would think of him as a monster and someone unforgivable. He knows now that what he did could be considered inhuman, and feels regret for it. His problems have been intensified, his mental health took a nosedive, and so much more.

With that being said, deep down, maybe he did resent SUNNY. For leaving him when they promised that they would be there for each other. For leaving for 4 years and making him bear the brunt of the judgment. For leaving him when he needed help the most. For leaving him and letting him take fault for something he did (blacking out the photos). But he can’t help but still love him through all of that, whether you take it platonically or romantically. They are tied by a string of fate, they will find each other no matter what, and will try to forgive themselves and each other. The path to recovery is laid with hardships, and complicated feelings. BASIL and SUNNY are each other’s weakness, but each other’s reasons for going on. SUNNY’s desire to save HEADSPACE BASIL that carried on to the FARAWAY BASIL, and BASIL’s desire to see SUNNY again, if only for a while. It is not only KEL who helped SUNNY stay alive, but BASIL as well. Even if BASIL thinks that he’s too far gone to be found, if he’s someone who cannot be helped anymore, SUNNY still tries to help him. SUNNY wants to help him. It is not BASIL that forces him to, but SUNNY’s own desire. BASIL doesn’t force him to, he asks him to, but not force him. SUNNY is doing it on his own accord, because he wants to help BASIL. BASIL understands SUNNY, and SUNNY understands BASIL, both on a much deeper level than anyone else. They have hurt each other, yes, but everyone in the group has hurt each other at some point. They are each other’s triggers, but they are also each other’s sources of comfort. They are why they were able to face and accept the truth of the accident and incident. It is because of each other that SUNNY was able to accept that MARI died, and that SUNNY was the one who was at fault when it comes to MARI’s death and the accident. Even if SUNNY lost his eye because of BASIL, it is also because of BASIL that he was able to remember and face the truth of the accident and incident.

Now, to AUBREY, deep down, he probably resents her too, possibly much more than SUNNY. One thing that I’d like to mention is that bullying is, in fact, a form of abuse. I’m not calling AUBREY an abuser, but she did do fucked up things. She was a horrible person, but she wasn’t evil. He’s not calm because he understands, he’s calm because he thinks the one at fault. He thinks he deserves it. He understands, yes, but that’s not why he’s calm. He’s calm because he genuinely thinks there’s something wrong with him, and that he’s the one who needs to adjust. People who get bullied tend to think that there’s something wrong with them, that they have to be the one to adjust, especially if said person was close to you before it. Some don’t realize it’s bullying either until they reflect and think more about it, especially if they were once a friend, or a family member. Technically, what she did Is abuse, since bullying is considered abuse. It doesn’t matter if it was verbal abuse at first, it still counts as it. Verbal bullying is STILL bullying, and it is also still abuse. It’s a pretty gray area when it comes to AUBREY, because I don’t want to be too harsh and call her an abuser, but yeah. In terms of forgiveness, words and feelings don’t matter without actions, much like how actions don’t matter much without the words, which is why AUBREY does need to be treated a bit harsher by the fandom, since the bullying isn’t something you should brush off when it comes to analyzing BASIL’s character. Forgiveness from BASIL will take a long time, it’s going to be a rocky road for them to be even comfortable with each other, for BASIL to not flinch every time AUBREY tries to get close. To not feel uncomfortable whenever she even gets close. Which is not a thing that is acknowledged when it comes to BASIL.

Onto KEL. I think it’s pretty clear that KEL and BASIL haven’t interacted much before the 3 days left. KEL even acts surprised about BASIL being there, with this line.

While there isn’t much to say about them, BASIL might’ve resented him too, just not as much as SUNNY and especially AUBREY. KEL left him too, even if KEL mentioned that they wouldn’t really respond, it doesn’t stop BASIL from feeling that way. Maybe he would’ve resented the fact that he seemed to prioritize SUNNY over him, maybe he would’ve felt like he was less important to the eyes of KEL. And while yes, this may not make sense to us players/viewers because we know why KEL is knocking, BASIL doesn’t know. The mind is both rational and irrational, after all. Even if another person feels something, it does not stop someone from feeling, well, another thing. BASIL most likely doesn’t know if he should resent him or not, he knows that it might be because SUNNY’s house is marked “for sale”, but he wishes the same effort was spent for him, as well. He might’ve felt like KEL prioritized him the least, he might of thought that KEL sees him as “less”. Keep in mind, his feelings and thoughts are not necessarily true, so these aren’t facts. KEL does care, but it doesn’t stop BASIL from feeling like that. (Just thought I had to make that clear because some people might take this wrongly)

BASIL and HERO… There isn’t much to say about this segment. While it’s understandable that HERO left because of college, sometimes he does resent him for leaving like everyone else. He resents all of them for leaving, some even more because of certain factors or actions. But…

BASIL still loves all his friends. He does. He cherishes them all, but he can’t help but feel that way towards all of them. He can’t help it. He feels disgusted for feeling that way towards all of them, he feels disgusted for feeling negatively, but he can’t help but still feel it. No matter how much he tries to tell himself he doesn’t deserve to feel like that towards his friends, to think negatively of them, he will always feel these things deep down.

POST-TRUTH REVEAL FEELINGS AND POST-GAME SPECULATIONS (´ｰ｀)

Post game, a lot of BASIL’s problems go unsolved. He isn’t exactly portrayed to have reconciled with the rest. While yes, you can take the “Let’s make new memories together, okay?” line as BASIL wanting to make new memories with his friends, it’s DREAM BASIL that says that, and he, despite looking like FARAWAY BASIL, isn’t BASIL himself, so that isn’t reliable. His grandmother, his only source of comfort for those 4 years also dies, leaving him with someone who he isn’t sure he can trust due to her being there because of a job, and obligation. All that combined does just feel like instead of getting better, his problems will just fester into something worse. He’s basically alone as well. Even more so due to the reactions to the truth. SUNNY left yet again, he took the brunt of the reactions, he isn’t close to the friend group, he is still suicidal. POLLY isn’t someone who is a mother figure to BASIL. She isn’t even close to him. He doesn’t even feel comfortable with her.

… That’s not saying that the friend group won’t try to get closer to him again, because yeah, they do have a chance to try to get closer to him, it’s just that BASIL’s issues and problems go unresolved because he probably won’t open up to them for a while, or even open up to them at all. His problems still aren’t solved, either. Yeah, sure, he might admit some things, but they won’t be the closest anymore. It’ll probably take a very long time for BASIL to even warm up to them again. Might even take 2 years. Maybe he even tries to be more like himself pre-incident because he perceives it as a way for him to be redeemed in their eyes, but because of that, he hurts himself even more. He wants to be himself around everyone, but maybe he feels that “himself” isn’t who they want.

This part is mostly just speculation, although it is something that should be acknowledged more. His problems are still there, and even if you give him therapy, his problems will still be there, therapy is not something that solves your problems, it helps you until you can deal with it. It is not something that will magically make you emotionally intelligent, but more of something that helps you identify emotions better.

CONCLUSION ☆彡

Overall, I think BASIL is the character least talked about in this much depth, and often mischaracterized along with HERO and MARI. Many people fail to recognize that he’s also as tragic as SUNNY AND AUBREY are. Many people fail to recognize that his issues go far beyond the incident as well. Not a lot of people recognize that SUNNY’s issues and trauma isn’t worse than BASIL