#i ventured into the 'omori analysis' tag out of pure morbid curiosity and it's needless to say that I shouldn't have

[woodchipp]

hoo boy

"it's fiction, it's supposed to/has the right to be extreme!"

Omocat herself said the plotline of "Sunny kills Mari" that's featured in the final product was chosen primarily because it was considered "a believable circumstance" lmao. because a 12 yo kid improvising a cover-up for his bestie's manslaughter sure does sound believable. happened to my buddy Eric once

Secondly, the entire theme of the game is guilt and forgiving yourself and making Mari's death intentional will minimize the message.

If you want a story that handles themes of guilt and forgiveness with actual nuance and tact, you already have Silent Hill 2. Or even Bojack Horseman, for that matter. OMORI having a different message won't be a significant loss because it can't even handle those themes right.

Just make Sunny's arc about trying to deal with that "I made her feel unloved before she died, I should've noticed she was unwell, I should have died instead" type of guilt and understanding there's no point in beating himself up over Mari killing herself because it wasn't his fault. Characters tend to elicit more sympathy when they're fucked over by circumstances they couldn't control (as an example, this is why what happens with Lucas' family in Mother 3 is so tragic in the first place), and since OMORI really wants you to see Sunny as the Poow Widdle Bapy who was dealt a bad hand (even though he was responsible for killing Mari and thus created most of his problems himself), the only feasible way to rewrite the game without deviating from the game's original framework would be to screw Sunny over by circumstances he couldn't control.

the Mewo room in black space orchestrates and demonstrates the feeling of hopelessness

If you don't remember about the "Stab" option, that is. Speaking of that

It orchestrates and demonstrates the feeling of hopelessness, and that ending your life (choosing the stab option) is a much better option than facing whatever horrible reality (cutting Mewo). However, if you do in fact cut open Mewo, you are shamed.

Okay, wait. I need to unpack this.

The post asserts that cutting Mewo open represents "facing horrible reality" right before mentioning that you're shamed for cutting Mewo open. So the game actually insinuates that ending your life would be the better option in this case. bruh

If this game had better writing, I'd be able to write that off as Sunny's thought process being warped by his suicidal ideation. But since the narrative (how the story is presented to the player) never contradicts Sunny's unreliable narration (and even reinforces it at some points), I can't.

It's also important to note that the interpretation of the Mewo room presented in this post is just that- an interpretation. The game itself doesn't give you any solid clues to figure out why it suddenly wants you to kill a cat.

So, how does the "truth" help amplify the guilt? Simply by making the player blame Sunny

Name one OMORI fan who played the game and blamed Sunny. I'd give them head

If the game's intention really was to make the player blame him, one look at the fandom will tell you that it failed. Horribly.

Coming back to the intentional death option, I think it would be a more realistic approach, but it lacks the psychological turn (not events, but emotions!)

"Psychological turn" is quite a fancy way to say that the game pulls a plot twist out of its ass just for the sake of subverting the audience's expectations without regard to how it might impact the story.

Ah, but of course

(not events, but emotions!)

Whether a plot point logically makes sense for the story you're telling doesn't matter. It's all about the emotional impact said plot point will have.

Feels before Reals.

It's straightforward, and the player would sympathize with Sunny. They know, for a fact, that it wouldn't be his fault if Mari took her own life.

Sometimes, "straightforward" doesn't mean "bad."

"the player would sympathize with Sunny" OMORI's entire plot is built around pushing you to sympathize with him lmao

But with the other scenario, we get a deeper understanding of Sunny's guilt/fears from his perspective.

And we wouldn't be able to get a deeper understanding of Sunny if his sister killed herself because...?

No, seriously, what is this point even supposed to insinuate? Do you really think that the pain of losing a loved one to suicide is somehow less complex and easier to deal with?

I like that this post never mentions that having Mari commit suicide would've allowed the story to take a deeper look into Mari herself by elaborating on the reasons why she felt compelled to take her life.

But of course Mari's never relevant in such discussions. She's just the girl in the fridge, after all.