Yell at me about the picture of dorian gray and omori
idk what digging you did to find whenever I mentioned Dorian Gray but I will gladly yell about it
and by yell about it I mean I will now force everyone to see how insane the Basil Basil paradox is (that's what I jokingly call the fact that Basil OMORI and Basil Hallward are just. the same fuckin' guy)
drives me nuts
and. I don't want to spoil what happens in this book but if you know you know, and that One Scene only drives home the point farther that OMORI was at least partially inspired by stuff that happens here. or, specifically Basil at least. and Dorian isn't really anything like Sunny but still, him festering in his growing contempt for Basil that culminates in what he ends up doing to him is so. it's so!!!
Oh, but I DID find that Dorian paralleled aspects of Sunny's personality and thematic relevance very much! It was just as though they had taken a darker turn in Dorian. Both Sunny and Dorian are presented as characters who are impressionable followers, which is also the core trait that leads to their downfall and "corruption." They're both insatiably curious when it comes to ideas of the world and of men, wanting to pick apart how things work at the seams, and wrap their thoughts about it in some digestible way. They're both obsessed with the idea of self preservation of purity, in one way or another. Dorian feels sick in seeing that his decaying portrait reflects his lacking moral state in physical form (and the family portrait that has the faces scribbled over + Sunny's distorted face in the mirror in the painting-covered Red room? Absolutely sick parallels). Sunny is stuck inside his relentless mental looping, his idea that he is disgusting, unforgivable, and sick being what stops him from changing his destructive ways (and did I mention they're both self-destructive?).
Narratively, both of their journeys culminate in a spontaneous episode of bearing their heart open to an emotionally wounded Basil. While Dorian reacts defensively, and we don't know how Sunny reacts, the result is that they both lash out at him in a rash frenzy. And oh my god, they're also both SUCH romantics, for better or for worse?? The way Dorian got so quickly attached to the theatre actress, only to be like, 'oh, holy shit I just like the idea of you, and I didn't really like you, and I got so wrapped up in my fantasy of how lovely this idea was to carefully look at this reality, and now you're emotionally wounded for it?' That is SO Sunny, another soul invested in ideas of perfection, sentimentality, and goodness, in which they're almost a novelty to somehow be pinned down to a physical culmination like a butterfly hung up on a wall. Observed, but never truly touched.
Dorian's thing is that he's so subtly self loathing, while Sunny is super transparent about it, so there's a difference there. Dorian tries to outwardly 'own it' like Lord Henry does, then has a mental breakdown later before going out for fucking tea or something. I would say Sunny is *generally* more well intentioned than Dorian, but it's difficult, because there's still a degree of self centeredness that fucks everyone over they ever could've cared for.
As a character, they both also have thematic aspects of 'purity being corrupted,' and through both stories, this is really emphasized through Basil's perceptions of them, which transfers to how the audience views Dorian. It's kind of similar to the Nick-Gatsby dynamic, but in a less deceptive portrayal, with how this person (Dorian and Sunny) could never have been this emblem of purity and goodness you wanted them to be, and that they've likely always been given more credit in that department than they deserve, which makes their downfall hurt all the more. Projection of desires, if you will.
It's my reblog, so I'll spoil if I want to, but the Neutral endings are haunting in that they are the endings where Sunny and Dorian unite with how their characters turn out. The True Ending of OMORI, in my eyes, is if Dorian stopped trying to be a second Lord Henry, and took Basil's hand when he offered to pray for him. And in both stories, Basil was ironically the one who truly acted as the genuine symbol of purity, staying unchanging and faithful throughout the whole story, his only fault being that his flattery and goodwill stoked flames of delusion, and making it their mission to remind Dorian and Sunny of the person that they could be, if they tried to change and move on.
(Also, it's funny both Dorian and Sunny are given the "baby boy, baby!" treatment by like, everyone, lmao)
oh my god Mirror you are so smart all the time, I never considered like. any of this (though, psychoanalyzing character writing has never been my strong suit aha.)
now that I’m thinking about it, the parallels ARE so strong, I can’t believe I hadn’t put that much together, because it’s true!! there are so many similarities, but maybe it’s because their core personalities are so different I hadn’t realized? either way, thank you so much for this addition I love it
adding on what I’ve noticed (so far) as someone who picked up The Picture of Dorian Gray solely bc of the rumors that Basil OMORI is a Basil Hallward reference:
Not really an addition but I wanna emphasize the point abt Dorian and Sunny both having baby boy / pretty boy privilege and not-so-secretly loving it bc it was honestly the first thing that stuck out to me
Dorian and Sunny are also both musicians which is just a silly parallel! (Also specifically, upon meeting Dorian, Basil is told he either plays piano or violin which is an insane coincidence if it is merely so) (In a world where Basil OMORI had read TPODG I feel like he’d see that and be like :o)
There’s also some flower language that feels reminiscent of the book too, though this could obviously just be a coincidence related to flower language itself. But like specifically, in the first chapter, right before Hallward fully tells Wotton about Dorian, Wotton picks up a pink daisy, which may very well be the flower in Faraway Basil’s hair during most of the game. Plus, the rest of that scene also takes place for the most part in a field of daisies, which we can deduce Sunny associates his Basil w bc of that one blackspace room. Also, while it once again may very well be a coincidence, Oscar Wilde himself was also heavily associated with sunflowers (I actually don’t fully know the context behind this but I found it from Wilde’s wiki page)
I also just wanna note the first part of Wotton’s follow up to Hallward being like “[Dorian] likes me” because i think it also works as a read on Basil OMORI and his nostalgia too all too well “‘Days in summer, Basil, are apt to linger’” (Wilde 21)
I think OP’s post was getting at this point too, but I also wanted to reiterate how both Basils have a very similar art process in how they cherish natural (candid, in the case of Basil OMORI) poses, almost to a point of having an off putting obsession with such (this is def more noticeable in Hallward but there are a few lines (specifically that thing that HS Kel says in Humphrey) that suggest that Basil OMORI’s emphasis on getting candid shots was kinda off-putting at times too)
(Also Dorian and Sunny are both highkey autistic coded but what who said that-)
Edit: Here's the entire excerpt for the "days in summer are apt to linger" section- because alongside portraying Omori thematic relevance, I also just want to inflict everyone with pain from one of my favorite books
Shoutout to Basil being a "YOU DONT KNOW HIM LIKE I DO" no matter what universe he's in lmao
I'm not sure about in Headspace since I'm at work right now and can't do a deep dive, but a few times in Memory Lane and the photo album, people comment on Basil's habit of taking photos when they least expect it.
These moments in particular all have other reasons they didn't want the pictures taken, but I seem to remember feeling like it was never mentioned at all in Headspace and feeling like it was an intentional change.
hi. sorry i heard “omori/dorian gray parallels and my ears pricked up like a dog’s. hope it’s okay to add onto this post a little.
if i can circle back to flower symbolism for a second. i read this series of blog posts the other week that outlines how the types of flowers/flower language is used in dorian gray and several points felt very relevant to omori: linking it here bc it’s a really interesting read
especially when the author points out in part one that basil hallward is never compared to a specific flower like some of the other characters, which to me felt similar to basil omori in the sense that his flower-symbolism is slightly more indefinite and arguable compared to the others (sunflower vs daisy conversation and whatnot). not sure it means anything just another parallel lol
this is also brought up in the aforementioned blog posts but the reference to basil hallward’s soul as the flower dorian wears in his coat is also something i routinely lose it over— the first quote about it, which is pictured above (4th screenshot), seems very relevant to sunny and basil’s relationship, and then there is also this one that appears right before dorian murders basil:
the symbolism here is pretty obvious, but i just wanted to point this part out because no-one has yet. it reminds me a lot of basil’s garden withering on night three of headspace, and also of basil losing the flower in his hair as we move into one day left. the presence and absence of flowers as the presence and absence of one’s soul and all that. combined with all of the in-game and official art of omori/sunny wearing a flower in his hair, it’s just really fascinating to me.
