I've wanted to make a Stranger emotion sheet for a while, so for the past month, I've been working on this. This has taken me at least 30 hours to draw, and another 15 to fully and properly animate and save. Possibly one of the largest projects I've drawn!
Below the cut, I've added a little bit of extra info behind the design choices as well as the lineart-only version and the dark version.
Since the full sheet is rather low-res, in the reblogs, I'll also add individual versions of each emotion—one for the full version, one for lines, and one for dark version ;v;
---
Neutral
The basis for all emotions was based on how many Stranger fan artists draw him. While his eyes are more hooded in his main sprite in the game, I went for more open eyes to make him more expressive in the others. He received the shirt that current day Basil wears and is based on his 16-year-old design. His mouth isn’t visible in this state.
Injured
Beaten and bruised. Might resemble something else bloody that could potentially disturb Sunny when he’s reminded of her, so that even damaging Stranger threatens Omori’s purpose.
Defeated
Like Omori, Stranger does not succumb, as he is an intrinsic part of Sunny’s psyche. His physical form lets loose, and his colours invert.
Happy
When Omori looks at you :D
Ecstatic
A winner’s grin and jolting shoulders betray Stranger’s emotional state as he tries to hold in his laughter. Whether he’s mocking you or he’s just happy to see you is up to you.
Manic
Now having snapped, Stranger full on lets out a nasty snicker and a boisterous laugh, looking down on his enemies in mocking amusement.
Sad
When Omori ignores you :(
Depressed
Ghosts can cry?
Miserable
End of life type of misery. Paralysed by grief, Stranger might choose to put an end to himself rather than waiting for defeat, but might in turn damage Sunny’s brain by harming part of himself. In a last-ditch effort to guilt him into facing the truth, he uses familiar imagery that might shock Sunny enough to snap him out of this nightmare.
Angry
Stranger isn’t easy to anger, so his first stage of anger is more like exasperated annoyance.
Enraged
As his anger ramps up, Stranger prepares his vines to grab and skewer any enemy who might seek to enrage him.
Furious
Molten fury tears into the fabric of the dream, collapsing it into a mess of glitches and weaving his tar rage into its matrix as he seeks revenge on not just Omori, but the dream itself. This is the point of no return.
Afraid
Nervous, Stranger tries to control his breathing and stay calm.
Stressed Out
As his pulse hammers through his body and he heaves, Stranger’s outlines have inverted in sheer panic.
Terrified
The whites disperse into cyan, magenta, and yellow. Some say it is a survival instinct to evaporate into nothingness.
I got this commission drawn by Aoiro_arts on twitter/instagram, posted here with their permission!
For an AU of mine where Omori is the little brother of Sunny and Mari. Mari is fifteen, Sunny twelve, and Omori around four at the time of this picture.
Omori is a silly little guy, although he's rather aloof and sometimes downright antisocial. He's strongly attached to his big sister, and Mari doesn't mind reading his favourite book to him every day. He doesn't have a great number of friends, but the Faraway gang love him and he's besties with Basil's little brother of around his age.
(The knife is a plushie)
Please go support Aoiro, whom I commissioned for this! They have such gorgeous, lively art 💖
People pitting Sunny and Basil against each other in a game of who's an evil demon and who's an innocent angel as if they aren't holding hands and shivering together like a bunch of startled bunnies and as if they wouldn't stand up for the other's innocence and self-deprecate to save their best friend's image
Something I really love about Sunny that I don't see mentioned a lot in discussions about his character is his guilt over ruining Basil's life and how it manifests in his vivid fantasy.
Basil appearing in black space and getting killed over and over, first by the environment, then by the others, and finally by Omori has gotten many interpretations. Less believable ones like Sunny secretly having hated Basil all along and more believable ones like Omori wanting to protect Sunny from the boy who knows the truth.
But what I like is how it could also show a part of Sunny he doesn't express often, and that is the guilt he feels for dragging Basil into the accident and making him an accomplice by being the one who caused there to be a situation that made Basil act so inhumanely. When Sunny finally leaves the house, he sees the effect that had on Basil for the first time: he has lost all of his friends, one of his closest friends now leads a band that bullies him, he lost his most prized possession, and that bright, sunny, sassy boy now barely dares speak, exhibits signs of suicidal ideation like giving up his hobbies and giving away his important possessions, and has lost all that personality that made him such a charming little kid when he was twelve. And through it all, Sunny wasn't there for him. Like being trapped wandering in black space, Basil had to face it alone.
Knowing that, black space can take on another layer: look at what I've done to you, taking your life away from you and turning your friends against you. I might as well have killed you myself. It's a reel of the outcome of Sunny's actions, put on display as another point of shame and regret in his life.
And I think that's pretty neat. In the good ending, I can see him struggle with facing this part of what he's done as it makes his reconciliation with Basil tougher, albeit that much more cathartic when they do reconcile.
