So I don't know how hot this take is, or if most people are already aware, but I have never seen a full write-up of all the evidence that supports this, so I thought I'll make a post about it.
WHY SUNFLOWERS?
Most people associate Basil with sunflowers because of this scene:
(don't know why he is telling a tree about this)
It makes sense, right? In this sequence, he goes through all the flowers in his garden and for each of them, he explicitly says that he associates them with each of the major characters. Lily of the valley for Mari, roses for Hero, gladioluses for Aubrey, cacti for Kel, and tulips for Sunny.
Except, he doesn't actually say this for sunflowers. It's just easy assume because that would parallel all the other flowers he discusses. Instead, he says that sunflowers represent what he wants to be like.
An unspoiled player won't know at this point that this is not the real world of the game, but instead just a figment of Sunny's imagination. That also makes it easier to take at face value, and by the time we learn about this we have already internalised this information and don't question it again.
I think it's reasonable to assume that real world Basil has said something like this, and this sequence is a representation of that in Sunny's headspace, because I don't think Sunny would come up with something like that on his own.
Still, it's important to keep in mind the nature of headspace Basil here as well: later, when we meet Stranger in Black Space, he tells us that Basil was "split in half". Stranger reflects the less happy aspects of Basil in Sunny's mind, the ones that confront him both with the existence of The Truth and also that Basil is a real person in the real world who is suffering because of Sunny's avoidance of the truth.
In turn, headspace Basil is an idealised version of Basil that only has his most positive traits. We see this in his introduction in the prologue. He is happy and cheerful and sociable around his friends, and even willing to immediately forgive and befriend a guy that wanted to kidnap him. Once we meet real world Basil, it becomes clear that this elides other aspects of his personality: his insecurity and awkwardness and skittishness and social anxiety.
They are inconvenient for Sunny's perfect headspace world, so that part of him gets banished to Black Space. So in a sense, headspace Basil may actually come close to the aspiration he mentions, coming close to what the sunflower represents. Insecure real world Basil, not really.
(This turned out really long so I put my evidence under a readmore. Please click through.)
RAIN AREA
Okay. So we have reason to be skeptical of the sunflower. But why daisies? The game gives a few hints. The first is this Black Space room:
When you pick up the key, you find this single daisy where Stranger has been standing. Why a daisy? It feels odd, because it apparently doesn't connect to anything. In fact, the whole room feels a little odd, because unlike other room it doesn't really reference anything from Sunny's memory (besides maybe the Rain Memory). That in itself makes the daisy significant.
This is what Stranger says to Omori before he disappears:
Notably, he addresses Omori as SUNNY here. And this is also the most direct plea he makes to him to do what he needs to do to come back to Basil and his friends.
Most direct connection to Basil, followed by the daisy.
A HOME FOR FLOWERS
My next piece of evidence comes from the soundtrack. As you know, Basil's theme, "A Home For Flowers", has several variations, usually named after flowers:
A Home For Flowers (Tulip)
A Home For Flowers (Empty)
A Home For Flowers (Daisy)
A Home For Flowers (Sunflower)
We know why tulips and sunflowers are here, given the above imagery. But again, what are daisies doing here? If we look at where these pieces are used, it becomes even clearer.
Tulip is Basil's house in headspace. It uses Sunny's flower because headspace Basil has been created to please Sunny. Empty is Basil's house in Faraway. Pretty sure the "empty" refers to Basil's life being empty of joy ever since Mari's death and Sunny's isolation, absent of the flowers that make him happy.
Where does daisy play? It's here:
Basil's meadow. It's the closest peaceful place to the truth, and its Basil is closest to the real Basil. Stranger confirms this:
So again, at least in Sunny's mind, daisies are associated with the actual Basil. In fact, this version of the piece is named "theme_basil".
What about the sunflower version? It plays during the Birthday Memory. Basil's birthday is one of the most important album memories centered on Basil and I'd wager it's one of his most precious memories from before the friend group broke up as well.
So the sunflower as a symbol of when Basil is and feels at his best makes sense.
HAIRCLIPS
My last piece of evidence is this:
Omori's Tulip hairstick. You get it (and similar hairclips with their associated flowers for the other characters) from Basil in the hikikomori route. But where did Sunny get the idea?
Right here. I think that's a flower hairstick just like they get in headspace. But everyone else got one for "their" flower, and this isn't a sunflower. It's a pink daisy:
And it would make sense that Basil would pick a flower that he thinks suits him best.
FINAL BONUS
I looked up the flower language meaning for daisies and would you look at that:
I think all of them fit to some degree. New beginnings reflects the good ending, and Basil's desire to make new memories with Sunny and his friends. True love certainly fits if you like the Sunny/Basil ship.
But especially the last one stands out to me. It matches Basil's decision to keep Sunny's secret even if it ruined his life so well that it's definite proof to me that this flower was a deliberate choice by Omocat.
I like the W.A.S. scale for rating anime. It stands for Weeb Ass Shit, and you rate each of those things on a 10 point scale.
So like, a series that requires extensive knowledge of japanese culture, or one that relies on the audience already being very familiar with the media tropes that it’s parodying, would have a high Weeb score while one that any 10-year old american would totally understand would have a low Weeb score.
The Ass column is for how much gratuitous nudity or attempts at titilation there is, with pure and innocent things like most ghibli films getting really low numbers, things like Bakemonogatari or Kill la Kill ending up in the middle of the scale, and borderline hentai at the top.
And finally, the Shit column covers things that are just fucking stupid, or poorly implemented. Low numbers indicate a series that is extremely well written and has a lot of good ideas, higher values come from plot holes, idiot plots, authors shoehorning in some incredibly nonsensical philosophy, etc.
Some people don’t mind the weeb nonsense at all, so they only have to look at the other two categories. Some people have very little tolerance for ass, even in a series that is otherwise of high quality. Some people decide based on a combined score, like they can tolerate more ass if the shit level is really low or vice versa but refuse to deal with both at the same time.
I literally was looking for someone in the notes to mention the Weeb Ass Shit scale, bless you for explaining! Also I feel like even if the person you’re recommending things to is unfamiliar with this scale, it’s a helpful tool to help you break down and analyze different elements of the show.
reblogging for the second time because I still laugh uncontrollably. in my mind the cows are trying to be gracious about their strange gift. ‘yes we love it thank u’
If/when you have children please let them (as soon as they're able) pick the theme of their birthday parties.
The girl who used to do my hair let her toddler pick the theme of her 3rd birthday and she chose Target. Like, the store. So everything was red and white and covered in bullseyes and I'm just so full of joy looking at the pictures on Facebook right now because it is obvious that this little girl is having the time of her life and that her parents put so much love and creativity into making the decorations and cupcakes.
Children will come up with some of the best and most fascinating ideas if you let them.
A former coworker told me her daughter chose a retirement themed 6th birthday party, so they had a whole bunch of decorations that said "happy retirement" etc. and I was like Jess your daughter is an absolute icon
I am currently working construction at a new Amazon fulfillment center (650,000 sq ft). This is the fourth of fifth floor. That is fog in the background.
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