Some Hellmari theories (spoilers)

[starrbar]

I posted this before I had finished playing through the Sunny route in Omori and I think it's fun to read now that I know which parts were closer to accurate and which ones were far off hehe.

OMORI SPOILERS FROM HERE ☞

So here were all my Omori theories by the time I got to Black Space WITHOUT going into the red door yet.

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I'm at Black Space, and have been forced to take a break before finding out the truth because I had to go to bed, RIP. So while I was at work today, I started pondering the things Omori/Sunny sees.

I understand why he would see his sister as a white spirit or create a fake version of her to spend time with forever. I understand why he sees the intense, exaggerated depictions of spiders, deep water, and an endless staircase.

However, I am very curious about why he's seeing stuff like his cat being killed by his own hand ("Do you want to cut open Mewo?") or Basil dying next to him seemingly by an accident Omori caused (stepping on the next melon and Basil explodes instead).

I am beginning to wonder if Basil is also dead in the real world, or if he simply isn't the same anymore, like Aubrey in the Sunny segments (which I am not 100% certain if they are in the actual present or not, but I feel like they are...?)

I am also wondering why Sunny keeps seeing a horrific, twisted depiction of his sister (the Hellmari thing and even the white sprite of her changing and lunging at him later on). If he misses her and wants her back, why would he feel haunted by her in some kind of malevolent way?

I thought, whoa, what if he IS scared of Mari? I don't actually know anything about the real her, nor his parents, besides the notes his mom leaves. But his friends all seem to miss her and don't seem to resent her, so perhaps that theory is wrong.

Then again, I suppose there's always the possibility that Sunny never saw Mari the same way his friends all did. If this is the case, if Mari was awful to him in real life, why would he create her in Headspace to begin with? Perhaps to fill a void she left, as the sister he wished she had been to him? Ah, my theory is starting to sound far-fetched, but I have one other idea for now.

Instead, Sunny does love and miss his sister in a straight-forward way, but he fears her being truly gone, hence why he created a version of her in Headspace. And he also fears what may be there in her absence. Perhaps a part of him knows that the Mari in Headspace isn't real, and then his anxiety says, "If that's not Mari, then it must be a monster impersonating her."

Oh, and Basil totally found Mari's body at the bottom of the stairs (I'm guessing that's how she died because of the photo, the Basil tape, the mention of "sister with the bad knees", and Sunny's extreme fear of heights). Worse yet, maybe he is the reason she fell, and he saw it happen?? I don't think he would do that on purpose, but he could have caused an accident? Or he could have had nothing to do with it, but Aubrey perceived it to be his fault anyway? I'm so curious about what Basil supposedly "did" to make Aubrey hate him, and why it seems that at least Kel is not aware of what she thinks he did.

Omg, sudden add-on: It seems obvious that Basil was the closest to Sunny out of everyone. If I entertain my first theory again: What if Basil did intentionally shove Mari down the stairs because he was the only person who knew of how much she frightened Sunny, and he felt like he was helping his friend, but it wasn't that simple at all? So Sunny retreated into Headspace so he could pretend that his sister would never hurt him, that Basil would never attack her, that Aubrey would never grow so angry and resentful of her friends, etc.

And regardless of how wrong any of my theories are, I also wonder if Basil mentioning that Sunny had already left him once is referring to him disappearing into his house for 4 years and becoming unable to function in day-to-day life. Unable to be there for Basil the way he used to be.

When I get home, I'm gonna keep playing until I reach the end and then look up every secret I missed hahaha. I'm so excited to find out what's really going on and what really happened to all these kids.

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Next, I wrote this much later, after I had finished the game:

Ooh! Sudden tiny Omori thought.

I used to wonder why Sunny was seeing Hellmari, and obviously there's probably tons of reasons, but this came to me when re-watching the first night when he opens the door for her.

Perhaps this scene was Sunny's mind calling out, trying to get him to finally leave the house, and it used Mari to encourage him. But then his fears overwhelmed him, and what he saw instead was a grotesque manifestation of what he believes are the consequences of ever going outside again. He feels like somehow, the truth will come out at that point, and Hellmari is just a way to scare him back in without revealing exactly what the truth is yet.

Seeing her in the mirror right after could be his mind hammering it in, like, "There's always going to be something behind you. You can't go out and let other people see it, can you? I can't believe you thought you could."

Comments

Re: Intressting Theories!

[starrbar]

Awww, that's cute, Omori's friends just trying to help him feel emotions again. x3c

Ahh, let's see... I'm trying to remember if I watched or read anything about Omori before finishing the game. I think I did. I would watch let's plays, but not past whatever part I had left off. And I would sometimes look up specific compilations of moments that got me haha.

I don't remember where I posted about this part, but when I first opened the door and saw Hellmari, I flipped out like, "WHAT!!? I didn't know it was THAT kind of game!!" hahaha and then, to make my experience even more brilliant, I never went back into the bathroom until the night Kel and Hero stayed over. Actually yeah, lemme find where I wrote about that cause like, it hit me SUPER hard compared to if I had just seen it the same night I opened the door.

"The cherry on top is that I had already walked into Sunny's bedroom and talked to the brothers in their adorable pillow forte with lovely music playing and all that. And then I immediately went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and saw this, for as long as I wanted to stare at it. And this... timing for me REALLY pierced me with Sunny's loneliness.

To have two people you trust sleeping in the same room as you, having created a cozy, warm, inviting, safe little space to spend with you. And to still be haunted by such horrific visions IN THE NEXT ROOM OVER is goddamn tragic. I know you can get other jumpscares in the mirror on this night as well, but for me, HellMari was always one of the scariest images in the game, at least for awhile until I got used to her. And this was only my second time even seeing her, the first being a split-second glimpse. So yeah. Absolutely terrifying and further indicative of how mentally isolated Sunny is."

Ah! I also got SLIGHTLY spoiled simply with a vague, colorful screenshot (a video thumbnail) and the idea of Basil's "deaths", and I was like, "Wh—?? Huh??"

Omg when the watermelon thing happened to me, it was one of the most amazing experiences I've had playing a video game x'D hilarious, and yet downright disturbing. The Mewo room was just disturbing haha.

Also when I approached the real Basil's room and it asked, "Do you want to save Basil?" I was screaming in my head, with all the urgency, "YESSS!!!!" like I was si freakin invested, and that's the magic of interactive media haha!!

Oh man, my first like, fight with Aubrey was intense too. I was so angry with her for bullying her friends, but I knew there had to be something going in behind the scenes too. What a satisfying story.

Okay I've been putting it off long enough, but I think my favorite individual line off the top of my head is, "Just because you've done something bad doesn't make you bad." I even felt inspired to explain that to one of my close friends when she was worrying about her own past.

A couple other scenes that made me very emotional were Stranger Basil leading the gang through the forest and repeating the flower comparisons he made at the beginning, and then switching Omori to Sunny aaaaaa

And also the music and visuals for the final Omori boss fight cut me omg, just listening to the song makes me feel emotional in this really intense way, makes me think exactly of the situation Sunny was in, desperately clawing and fighting his way to healing with so much determination.

I didn't like, "get" this game fully at first? Idk, maybe the fear battles didn't register with me as feeling the same as the way I experience panic attacks, but they certainly succeeded in freaking me out either way. And I loved putting all the pieces together after discovering what the core source of all Sunny's fear and despair was, how it connects to everything else, etc.

Wow I did NOT expect to ramble that much? But thank you for prompting me, and I hope it wasn't overwhelming. ^^;

I'll correct any of my typos later ahahaa

Re: Re: Intressting Theories!

[anxious_songbird]

I don't mind the ramble, I'm happy you enjoyed the game this much ^_^

I don't know if you wanna post about it more (it's perfectly cool if you don't) but I would love to hear you ramble about this game some more!

(Also kinda random but I love that Basil's your favorite (carrd), like, he's not my fav on most days, but I'm really glad he's somebody's favorite)

Re: Re: Intressting Theories!

[starrbar]

Awww, that's a sweet way to look at it! Also, holy crap, I'm so sorry for dropping off the face of the earth. I hardly ever check my Dreamwidth. ^^; But if you wanna keep talking after I reply to your comments again, I'll happily give you my Discord. ovo