[intro]
Bakugou is a prideful, arrogant person. He holds himself to the highest standard; he is the best and everyone else is simply below him. Everything he has ever done was in pursuit of being number one, shining above the rest. He has to have a perfect victory, he has to be a perfect student, he has to win to save.
He pushes and pushes and won’t let anyone see his weaknesses or his insecurities. He can never lose, he can never fail, he can never show that he regrets or hesitates or that he hasn’t thought everything through. He must never be vulnerable in every sense of the word.
Then why is he standing in the rain.
To apologize shouldn’t be a sacrifice, but it is for Bakugou. To pour his feelings, to admit his wrong, to let down all of the walls he has built and be vulnerable. And in front of his whole class.
He is willing to sacrifice his pride, to fully sacrifice any superiority he could have, to bare his soul and even risk rejection. Because he knows Midoriya is more important. Because he wants him to come home, he wants him to know his true feelings, because he wants things to change.
Because Midoriya has changed him. Midoriya has opened his eyes; by showing him he’s allowed to be open, that his feelings should be expressed, that he has so much to learn, and so much of that was learned through Midoriya just existing.
He isn’t sacrificing his safety frivolously because he’s expected to as a hero; he is doing it because he has grown. He is doing it because he has finally admitted to himself that he wants Midoriya to be with him and safe.
So I will sacrifice this for you. Not because it will change anything, as much as I want that I know that I can’t just fix all the wrong with just this. And I am willing to do as much as it takes to earn your forgiveness. But I don’t need that from you, not now and not ever if you don’t want that, I just need you to rest. I did so much wrong. And I am sorry for everything. You don’t have to do this alone. Lean on us. You are so strong and being supported doesn’t discount that. You’ve taught me that.
I hate the rain. But I will brave it for you.
He would do everything in his power, admit so many things, just to get Midoriya to take care of himself. We see him being the most vulnerable he has ever been in front of people that aren’t Midoriya. He does so much completely out of character, all in pursuit of being there for Midoriya.
For Izuku.
He finally gets over himself and finally tells Midoriya the feelings he has felt for so long.
He lets go of this idea he is inherently better and finally acknowledges that his hatred for Midoriya has always been about his own shortcomings and insecurities. But he still wants to be better, they are still rivals. He isn’t going to sacrifice that part of him because that is just who he is; he is still going to push to number one.
But now it’s different.
There is verbal and vocal acceptance and respect. Before it was unspoken; their relationship had changed ever since Ground Beta. They were proper rivals, with mutual respect and care, they were actively making each other better.
But Bakugo finally verbalizes it and tells Midoriya, not only is he sorry, but he wants to actually have a proper friendship; he wants to continue to become better and earn his forgiveness. He wants them to push each other to be better, he wants to continue to fight for the top spot, he still wants to be the best.
But when did it become something else?
When was the turning point when it started to shift from wanting to surpass Midoriya and be the best, to wanting to keep up with Midoriya and stay by his side?
Bakugou has already sacrificed himself for Midoriya before. His body moved on its own; with no hesitation, he would save Midoriya. He has already risked his life for him. But there is a layer to it that I don’t think people talk about.
He tells Midoriya he shouldn’t try to win this on his own.
He disguises his concern with an insistence that he’s in it to fight for himself when he initially joins the battle. But it is to fight by Midoriya’s side and support him.
But taking the hit for Midoriya, jumping in the way isn’t just support. This is sacrifice. This is giving yourself to ensure the safety of someone. And it was second nature.
There are two reasons and both are a sacrifice of something in the moment.
It is knowing someone is so valuable, so great, in all senses of the word, that they must be protected. Bakugou is sacrificing his body and admitting that Midoriya needs to stay alive, for personal reasons and/or for the world. He needs Midoriya to be okay, Midoriya can’t fight alone and Bakugou will do anything to make sure he will be okay.
But the sacrifice of ideology.
With every development, he has relinquished parts of himself. When he sacrifices himself he is not only sacrificing his body but is admitting that he can’t do this on his own; he needs Midoriya too. This isn’t him wanting to be better than Midoriya, it’s him wanting to do it together.
Midoriya changed him.
He doesn’t die for Midoriya. He wakes up and just as his last thought was Midoriya, so was his first as he woke up. He runs to his side. People are dragging him back, trying to have him rest, knowing before he even said anything that he would lose his mind over Midoriya’s situation.
Everyone sees how Bakugou feels about Midoriya.
He sacrifices himself because Midoriya can not die on him. Midoriya has to stay alive. Midoriya has to keep fighting.
There can not be a world that doesn’t have him in it.
This is the culmination of what has been developing ever since the final exam where Bakugou finally works with Midoriya; the day that win to save, save to win was noticed. Then furthered after Ground Beta where they finally talked to each other and something changed within them both.
But the final sacrifice is the culmination of Bakugou’s character.
He knows what this decision will mean. Everyone screams for him not to. He knows that he is going to die. He knows he will not win this fight.
This isn’t dying for the cause. This isn’t just a hero complex. This is because he can help Midoriya and he will. This is for Izuku.
I will sacrifice myself for you. To give you more time, to give you even the slightest chance of winning. I will sacrifice myself for you because you are who can win. I am going to die. I am going to die and in my final thoughts, I will ask if I will still be able to be by your side.
It is no longer can I beat you. It is no longer can I surpass you. It is can I still catch up to you. It is can I still even be equal to you. He has already sacrificed the idea that he could beat Midoriya, that isn’t what he wants anymore. What he wants is to stay here with him.
I will sacrifice everything I am. I have wanted to be the best. All my life I have wanted to surpass you and everyone around me. But you. I will let that go for you. I let it go in my mind for so long now and I have never wanted to admit it. Is it even possible? Is it even possible for me to catch up to you? Is it even possible for me to stay by your side. I can’t be that anymore. I am sacrificing even that now. I will never be number one now. I will never become the person I always dreamed to be. I will never surpass you. I am forever sacrificing that now. I will die here.
But can I still be with you?
The sacrifice of his life is him fully relinquishing everything he is, admitting that he can’t keep up, losing all of the progress he has made, letting go of everything that made up his character.
And the last thing on his mind is if he can still be able to be by Midoriya’s side.
He won’t let him go again.
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Ngl, a big reason I'm obsessed with OMORI so much (and why it's as infuriating as it is to me) is because it had a lot of potential to be, at the very least, a decently compelling story and seeing said potential be so spectacularly wasted is just. horrible
I know that Mari and Hero are the group's "mom" and the "dad" only because the main cast needed to be pigeonholed into Tumblr found family roles, but the implication that Sunny views them as more of a mom and dad than his real parents - his biological mother and father only appear in portraits scattered throughout remote corners of his dream world - is pretty interesting! The game could've made a point that the financial well-being of Sunny and Mari's family came at the price of the parents failing to properly connect with their children; sure, their jobs are well-paying, but they're married to them, so to speak.
Mari could've felt compelled to care for Sunny as if she was his mom (with Hero trying his best to help her out whenever he can because he notices how exhausted she is) since their parents weren't around much in general. Alternatively, when their parents did have the time to get involved in their children's lives, they only pushed Sunny and Mari to perform well academically without paying attention to how it impacted their children mentally.
Maybe that could've been the whole reason Mari is a perfectionist, the emotional distance of her parents convincing her that she'll never measure up to what they expect of her and making her push herself to achieve an impossible ideal. Maybe that would've allowed Sunny to be characterized as a people-pleaser, always putting others' needs above himself because seeing Mari's hard work receiving praise from their parents gradually convinced him that being useful to others is the same thing as being genuinely loved.
What if Mari's knee injury forcing her to quit softball was indirectly caused by her own overworking? What if it was a significant blow to her already shaky self-esteem and she took up piano practice to compensate? What if her drowning herself in work made her more and more distant from Sunny? What if that made Sunny obsessively try his best to make his friends happy to the point of suppressing his own needs because he didn't consider himself important ("my parents clearly like Mari more and she's the reason why my friends are my friends in the first place, so why would I matter?") and because he was secretly afraid that Mari distanced himself from him since he wasn't good enough for her?
That way, their big argument would have probably been the result of their issues boiling over; Mari's perfectionism becomes unreasonable due to being exacerbated by her fear of the upcoming recital (with Sunny feeling that she wants the precision of a machine from him) and Sunny's long-suppressed needs finally make themselves known via him impulsively destroying the violin and starting the argument himself. Maybe Sunny could've put his hands on Mari in his rage (without shoving her down the stairs lmao) or viceversa.
And, well. Maybe that argument could've been the straw that broke the camel's back for Mari, the final push she needed to hang herself.
If Sunny was the one to put his hands on Mari, he could've blamed himself for making her feel unloved and erroneously assumed that she hanged herself because of him. If Mari was the one to put her hands on Sunny, he could've blamed himself for not recognizing that as a sign that she wasn't doing well. Either way, his situation would've probably become more genuinely tragic since he's beating himself up for circumstances he never had much control over. I think that'd have very neatly explained his status as a silent protagonist too - from his point of view, his beloved sister died the last time he dared to open his mouth, so he chose to deliberately flatten himself out because he's afraid of hurting anyone ever again.
Maybe the game could've subtly conveyed Sunny's efforts to move on from his grief via Mari's grave in the church's cemetery. Since I believe that the game would've had more time to properly pace its content if the events took at least five days, the idea could've been executed like this:
on the first day, Sunny wouldn't even see the door to the cemetery just like he doesn't see the closet room's door and like he makes the door to Basil's room disappear when he sees the latter's corpse
on the second and third days, the door to the cemetery would be visible if you visit the church, but trying to interact with it will just have Sunny shaking his head
on the fourth day, the cemetery would finally become accessible… except for Mari's grave. it would have collision, like there's a sprite supposed to be there, but it'd be invisible the exact same way Mari's piano is on the Hikikomori route, and when interacted with, Sunny would just say that "There is nothing here."
finally, on the fifth day, you'll get to see the grave and even lay flowers on it if you want
Maybe Black Space could've been an anti-Memory Lane of sorts instead of being a YN rip-off - if Memory Lane was supposed to represent Sunny's most cherished memories, Black Space should've represented the worst ones he had. What if Black Space actually provided set-up for the argument by chronicling the gradual deterioration of his relationship with Mari over the course of their practicing? It'd make sense that he'd try to bury these as deep inside of his mind as possible.
There was a nice story here. It's gone now.
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