Basil/Sunny

Pairing
Pairing:	Basil/Sunny
Alternative name(s):	Sunflower
Gender category:	Slash
Fandom:	OMORI
Canonical?:	No
Prevalence:
Archives:	Basil/Sunny tag on Ao3
Other:
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Basil/Sunny is the OMORI slash pairing involving Basil and Sunny.

Canon

Spoiler Warning: This article or section may contain spoilers. If this bothers you, proceed with caution.

As children, Basil and Sunny were in a friendship group along with Sunny's older sister, Mari, Aubrey, Kel, and his older brother Hero. Basil considered Sunny his "best friend" and felt that he could vent to Sunny. On the day of Mari's death, Basil came over to Sunny's house. Upon discovering that Sunny had accidentally killed Mari, Basil helped fake her suicide and reassured Sunny that "everything is going to be okay."

In Headspace, a world Sunny made up to cope with the trauma of killing Mari, Basil was erased due to reminding Sunny, Omori in Headspace, of Mari's death. The majority of the gameplay in Headspace is spent trying to find Basil. They are described by the people of Headspace as having a red string of fate connecting them.

In the real world, four years after Mari's death, Basil and Sunny still had a connection, though they were deeply traumatized. Basil viewed Sunny so highly that he became convinced that Sunny didn't kill Mari and it was instead Something, a reoccurring enemy representing Sunny and Basil's fears. In one route, Basil and Sunny fought, Sunny to stop Basil from committing suicide and Basil out of a desire to protect Sunny from Something. Basil stabbed out Sunny's eye and they both went to the hospital. If the player gets the Good Ending and watered Basil's flowers in Headspace, they will get a secret ending where Basil and Sunny smile at each other, showing that they forgive each other after everything.

Fandom

There is some controversy to if Basil/Sunny is a toxic ship, as touched upon in Nerdy Arty's video on Basil's queercoding.

There seems to be an uptick in people who dislike the romantic pairing of Sunny and Basil because it's "toxic and codependent." For my experience in the fandom, lurking for a few months after the game came out, making one piece of fanart, entering a cryosleep for two years, and waking up to a more fully formed fandom, I noticed that Sunflower went from one of the most popular and common ships, to a ship that's still popular but seen as invalid or toxic by it's detractors.

Before I go into why it really isn't as toxic as people make it out to be, I'm just about to go out and say it: liking a romantic pairing because of its toxic implications is valid actually. I'm not saying that a toxic interpretation of Sunflower doesn't exist. Because... ooh boy, I know there is. And I consume that shit like the finest cuisine. Some people aren't shipping characters because they think they represent a romantic ideal to follow in their personal lives. Some people use the escape of fiction to explore fucked up dynamics as a way to cope with trauma, or to quell a morbid curiosity that exists in literally everyone's head. [...]

With that, there comes a responsibility to engage in content in a way that is thoughtful and doesn't promote unhealthy dynamics in the real world. Whether people are engaging in the media responsibly, though, has nothing to do with the validity of such interpretations in fiction.

But then there's the people who do see Sunflower as their romantic ideal. Wanting the Basil to their Sunny and vice versa. What about those guys? Are they romanticizing a toxic dynamic? No. They're simply interpreting the pairing from another completely valid angle.

To put it simply, the main through-line of OMORI is forgiveness and growth. The cutscene in the secret ending implies that telling the truth sets both Sunny and Basil free, and onto a path of emotional healing. [...] When it's put that way, don't you think the idea of healing together from shared trauma and coming out the end a better person is... kind of poetic and beautiful?

This quote explains how Basil/Sunny went from one of the most popular fics in the early OMORI fandom to a popular but controversial ship later on. She states that she understands the toxic interpretations of Basil/Sunny and even interprets them as such on occasion, but believe the healthy interpretations are valid, hopeful, and fit with the themes of the game. She also states that the view that Basil and Sunny are too mentally ill to date to be harmful.

Meta

• I Don't Think Basil is Straight | Omori Analysis by Nerdy Arty; an analysis of Basil's queercoding, including analyzing his feelings towards Sunny

• The Fruity Implications of Sunny's Headspace | Omori Analysis by Nerdy Arty; an analysis of Headspace (including Black Space), Sunny's queercoding, and his relationship with Basil.

Events

• Another Sunflower Week
• smiles2m's Sunflowotober
• Sunflower Inktober

Links & Resources

Basil/Sunny tag on Archive of Our Own