I Don't Think Basil is Straight | Omori Analysis

EDIT: So it's been brought to my attention that the reddit post I linked and mentioned in the video has been taken down. The details as to why are still fuzzy to me, but I'm greatly disappointed in the Omori reddit for how they decided to handle the situation if what I've heard about what happened with the original poster is true. It was a genuinely fantastic and sympathetic post about Basil's mental state and his thought process throughout the course of the game, and I hope the original poster is doing okay.

The line: "They're comfortable, simple, modest, and perfect. Just like SUNNY." is fruity as hell.

Thinking about how Basil's bed is the only bed other than his own Sunny finds comfortable.

When playing Omori for the first time, I definitely got the sense that Basil has some sort of feelings for Sunny beyond friendship. Though, I don't think he fully understands them.

One of my favorite parts of the Sunflower ship honestly is just imagining Sunny as an adult trying to explain to people how his best friend literally gouged his eye out with garden shears, and not only were they still friends, but they ended up falling in love lmfao

Also, basil KNOWS about flower symbolism and language, he talks about the symbolism of the plants that represents his friend group and how they correlate with how he sees them. The fact that sunny knows what the egret orchid symbolises implies that basil talked to Sunny about flower symbolism. THERE IS NO WAY Basil didn't know what tulips represented, boy is definitely implying something 😳

thinking about how it was Basil's idea to get the violin for Sunny, and how Sunny playing that violin was the first thing that he took a picture of, and how months later when he got the photo album for his birthday he went back and had that picture of Sunny playing that violin be the first picture in an album entitled "Basil's Memories", rather than his birthday pictures, but didn't include any other pictures from that Christmas like to imagine 11 year old Basil hearing Kel talk about Sunny trying to play his old mini violin and immediately walking into Hobbeez with no concept of how expensive a violin is, presumably to actually get it for Sunny's birthday over the summer, before realizing that he was going to have to actually get the entire friend group to work the entire summer for it

Also on a side note Sunny can rate others' beds and Basil's is the only one other than his own that he considers comfortable (NOT IN THAT WAY), implying he feels at home in Basil's room, after having spent so much time in it. I really like the whole, bed thing, because in reality, if it's not a mattress you've slept in, it's not all that comfortable. Ugh, and not to mention that Sunny doesn't find his own mom's bed comfortable (which is really sad and I know from personal experience that once you feel too old or you feel you and your parents' relationship has gotten bad, their bed is no longer safe or comfortable) and coupled with the fact that we never see her and she's always sending him voicemails (and yes I know they're going through a big change, moving and all that but *still*), my guess is that their relationship is slightly functional at best and strained at worse.

I feel like Basil is actually the (physically) strongest person in the friend group. Have you ever tried to garden for your entire life? Bro's out here lugging soil bags around and carefully tending to multiple plants every day. I wanna see Basil lift Kel above his head in front of the entire friend group, ngl.

Kel is definitely a lot more complex than people think. He is actually similar to Sunny in some ways. Both characters put the feelings of others above themselves. With Sunny, this is what led to the incident.

I think that the OMORI fandom could do with recognizing the difference between "I think Basil and Sunny are in love" and "I think Basil and Sunny would be perfectly happy as a couple". When I say I ship Sunflower, I mean that they have weird, messy, romantic feelings for each other, and I want to explore that dynamic-- what is, what was, what could have been. That's why I'm annoyed by people saying "Sunflower is toxic" as if that's not half of why it's so interesting to me. I'm not the one saying they SHOULD be gay, I think they ARE gay already, and I want to see all that it implies.

also if you look at Sunny’s side of things, in headspace its shown that he isn’t very fond of physical touch. for example when they all sit on that sofa in the over world and aubrey leans closer to omori and he leans away. or in the tag cards omori tends to not reciprocate any touch from his friends. however if you unlock boss rush mode on the switch, omori tags basil by holding his hand tightly and dosent seem to deny physical touch with basil. its overall a really cute touch in my opinion.

How did you perfectly express my headcanon lol Also yup I agree Basil gets too much hate smh

One of the artists for the game, Archeia, was a sunflower shipper even during the game's development. You can still find an unused test sprite sheet depicting what basically is a Sunny/Basil ship child in the game's files.

11:55 there is something so true for me about this. Normally with fictional characters I understand when people dislike them and am perfectly fine with agreeing to disagree, but the reasons I see often baffle me when it comes to Basil. Basil is the most selfless, kind, and tragic character and to see him portrayed as some sort of evil psychopath because of his mental breakdown at the end of the game pisses me off so much. Basil’s parents left him with his grandmother because they didn’t have time for him, and because of this he’s super attached to Sunny and his mental health has been suffering. The fact that Basil knew how to stage a suicide suggests that he may have considered it at some point. He then gets abandoned by the person closest to him after doing the worst thing he’s ever done, and he’s then subsequently bullied by another friend for something he didn’t do. He spends 4 years in this small town deluding himself, trying to get through each day and still managing to take care of all of his plants, and finally Sunny comes out of his house! Maybe things can be how they were before, maybe he can get some reprieve from the constant turmoil. He then learns that Sunny is moving in three days and that hope is shattered. He gets pushed into the lake by someone he thought to be a friend, and is now on the brink of suicide, when the boy he’s been deluded about walks in.Basil is not a bad person, he’s a person who has been broken in many ways throughout his life and can no longer tell the difference between reality and delusion. I’d go into how much I hate the idea that Sunny despises Basil, but this comment is already too long so I’ll leave it at that

I'm a straight girl, and I can see that Basil is gay AF. I mean, he helped cover a manslaughter without hesitation and kept it under wraps for four years, and was ready to take the secret to the grave! There's only two kind of people who do something like that for another person: their mother and their spouse! And I also love Sunflower for the healing together angle, but also because, let's face it, nobody would be able to understand Sunny and Basil's situation but each other And thanks for recognising Kel has issues too, and he's just better at hiding it. Justice for our stepford smiler jock!!

Thank you for this video. It was really well made! As a gay man from a small religious community who also grew up in the 90's/00's, I immediately saw myself in Basil and just... assumed he was intentionally written to be read as gay. I didn't realize it was a controversial opinion because to me it seemed so obvious. Of course, I don't really care or mind when people see Basil as something other than gay, but it does irk me when people act like they can't understand why people do read him as gay. Thank you for putting so many good points together so succinctly! I also think it's worth pointing out that daisies (the other flower that Basil is associated with) are often used as a depiction of perfect/true love, because it is technically two flowers that grew as one. :) As for Sunny, I read him as bi the whole time. The 'string of fate that ties you together' felt like a big nod to the 'red string of fate' of true love. Not to mention Omori caries the rescued Basil princess-style in the Hikkikomori route hahaha. Thank you for your hard work on this :)

I also would like to add something to the flower language pile! So we all know that Basil associates himself with the sunflower, but he says that sunflowers is what he WANTS to be, not necessarily the flower that is most close to his personality. There is a popular theory that daisies are the flower that represents Basil the best, and what do daises mean in flower language? True love. Also, in Basil's real world sprite, he wears a pink daisy and pink daises mean gentleness, love and romance (they also symbolize feminine energy so interpret that to whatever you like)

Remember guys Basil is (gay) Suffering from extreme mental trauma, and his 'devotion' to Sunny is born from a deep rooted fear of being alone, resulting in his breakdown when he is told Sunny is leaving. He can't handle not having Sunny around, jokes aside as a Sunflower shipper i find this video unironically really great

Oh please, do a bi-disaster analysis of Sunny as well, PLEASE ~ 🥺🙏