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acacia-may · 1 month

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Hi Acacia! Got some Omori ships for the game: what are your thoughts on Sunburn, Cotton Candy, and (naturally) HeroMari?

Hey friend! What a pleasant surprise ^^ Welcome to my main. It's kind of messy & all over the place here with a ton of different fandoms, but I like to think that keeps things interesting. 😁

Thank you so much for this ask! 💖 I don't think I've ever written an actual, serious discussion about my OMORI ship opinions, so this will be fun. To avoid OMORI spoilers though, I'm going to put all this under the cut.

(Warnings: MAJOR Spoilers for OMORI. Mentioned heavy themes related to the game such as trauma and grief)

Sunburn

Aww it's cute. I think it makes sense, and I like it well enough. I love their friendship, their dynamic, and their interactions a lot. Sunny admires Aubrey and her strength so much, and Aubrey really shows off this delightful soft side in her interactions with him. The scene on the swings is very sweet, and I love that Aubrey finally managed to ask Sunny to keep in touch on One Day Left (even if it was a little awkward for her). When some of my friends came over to play the game, they actually audibly "Aww"ed during that scene, and I think that's very telling because Sunburn is a wholesome and feel-good ship. I can definitely see the appeal of it, and I enjoy a lot of content made by its passionate supporters.

That said, for me personally, I find it personally difficult to vibe with the idea of pairing Sunny off with anyone who was close to Mari and, therefore, is entangled in his trauma. For that reason, I much prefer to think about and enjoy his relationships with his friends in a platonic sense. This feeling extends to pretty much every ship involving any main cast member of OMORI to varying degrees, as I'll admit I still really enjoy some ships even if I personally, genuinely believe that after Mari's death, everyone would probably be better off just pairing off with random people we aren’t introduced to in the game if they wanted romantic relationships. (A/N: It goes without saying that HeroMari is not included in this because they were just flawless until they were doomed and brutally torn apart by the narrative through no fault of their own {Yes I am still bitter about that} and that if Mari had lived they would have gotten married & lived happily ever after, I have no doubt in the mind about that (more on that later...), but we are, unfortunately, talking about the world after Mari's death here).

I think especially for Sunny, the degrees of separation from Mari and his trauma are probably really important and a natural safeguard for him to avoid codependency in a relationship and his romance turning into “free therapy” in a way, if that makes sense? I feel like any ship with Sunny in it has the potential to go to a kind of unhealthy place if he hasn’t healed and gotten the help he needs before he tries to enter into that kind of intimacy and romance with that other person, but it’s just exasperated the closer that person is/was to Mari and the trauma. There’s a lot of healing that would need to happen before Sunny would be ready for any relationship with anyone, in my opinion, but especially one like that which, I think, personally gives me reservations about Sunburn as a pairing.

All of that said, my younger sister is a huge Sunburn enthusiast so, thanks to her, I have definitely thought about this pairing a lot more than I would have just left to my own devices and personal tastes. I can vividly imagine how and when they would get together. In my mind, they go to the same university and start spending a lot of time one-on-one together and really deepen their relationship there which eventually leads to love, marriage, and kids. I've never written in this Sunburn End Game universe, but it exists in my mind.

I will also admit that there is something really intriguing about Sunburn in the Neutral Ending (where Basil dies and Sunny moves away). Yes, it would be very dysfunctional, but I think there would be something so compelling and poetic in an incredibly depressed Sunny meeting up with a very jaded Aubrey years later and after rebuilding a relationship finally confessing the Truth to her and getting to reassure her that Basil's death wasn't her fault. I would read the heck out of that, but even though I can sometimes have a morbid curiosity with dysfunctional pining and broken relationships, I do like to think of Sunburn (in the good ending) as a functional and happy pairing for the both of them which is what they deserve after everything they've been through.

And I think the idea of Sunny and Aubrey being happy is the big selling point of this ship, and I can definitely vibe with that because I want good things for them. It's just not my personal favorite. But that is, of course, only my personal opinion and I am very supportive of the pairing and respectful of people who love it (like my sister). I certainly see the appeal because they really are very cute together and should they decide to pursue a relationship with each other in the future, I'd support it.

Cotton Candy

To be honest, I really don't personally vibe with any romantic pairings with Kim in them. I have nothing against shipping Kim, and I can certainly understand why people do, but for me personally, I think I really just perceive/headcanon Kim as someone who is just not at all interested in that kind of relationship with anyone.

In my mind, I like to imagine that Kim just kind of throws herself wholeheartedly into her future career as a paleontologist and that her one true love in life is dinosaurs (and possibly candy is a close second lol). I think she has very meaningful platonic relationships with her friends and her brother, and that's fulfilling for her so she doesn't have a want or interest for anything more than that. But that's just my personal headcanon about her, and I have nothing against anyone who sees or who wants to see Kim in a more romantic way. That's the fun thing about media--we can all have different perceptions, headcanons, and opinions. And I have a lot of respect for that and for the fact that we can all love the same story and characters while having our own perceptions and opinions about them and their relationships. I've enjoyed content that portrays Kim in a more romantic way than how I personally imagine her, but in general, it's really hard for me to imagine my personal perception of Kim in a romantic relationship or even wanting one, so I personally think of all of her relationships as strictly platonic.

And in that way, I do love her relationship with Aubrey as a BROTP. They have so much in common while also having these great differences because I think Kim is very abrasive whereas Aubrey is rough around the edges but honestly a lot softer than how I imagine Kim is. I'm also so glad that they have each other, especially for Aubrey to be able to have a close friend after her childhood friend group fell apart after Mari passed away. I like to think that they really connected and had a deep sympathy and understanding for each other having both come from homes where their parents had divorced. I think we get to see that Kim is very devoted to Aubrey, and given that Aubrey has a lot of abandonment issues, it's really nice to see how fiercely loyal Kim and the other Hooligans are to her. My sister and I make jokes a lot about the Hooligans (and especially Kim) kind of just adopting Aubrey's grudges towards Kel and Basil without any explanation. They're so ride-or-die, and I love that about them, especially Kim. I'm so weirdly fond of Kim, honestly. I actually have this (sort of wild) dinosaur plushie wearing cat ears and a flower crown that I named after her, and I really do love her relationship with Aubrey in a platonic sense but that's just me.

HeroMari

What can I say? It's objectively the best one! I think about them all the time and have actually cried real, genuine tears over how tragic this pairing is and how they deserved so much better. (Seriously I can't count the times I've put on BANNERS' "It's Gonna Be OK" and just bawled thinking about them).

Unfortunately, I don't find a lot of comfort in Mari Lives AUs (though I'll admit had way too much fun writing one for HeroMari week this year). They make me feel better for a little bit, but then I'll just start thinking: "It's not real. She's dead, and Hero is super miserable" so Hero finding healing and learning to be happy after Mari's death really became my niche which I've always been really worried about because I don't want to give the impression that I don't like HeroMari and don't wish that they had ended up together.

Obviously, without question, my favorite pairing for Hero is hands down HeroMari, and my ideal ending for him would be a world where she had lived and they had gotten to live happily ever after together. There is no doubt in my mind that they would have eventually married each other, probably had a bunch of kids, and grown old together in a world where she had lived, and I honestly can't imagine either of them with anyone else in a world where they are both alive. Unfortunately, that isn't an option anymore which is the only reason I even consider other pairings for Hero. The thing about Hero is that we know he had so many of these domestic dreams of settling down & having a family that he essentially gave up on when Mari died, and I wouldn’t want to see those be lost to him forever, if that really was something he wanted. So long story short, my desire for Hero to be happy even in a world without Mari tends to win out over my intense passion for HeroMari as a pairing and the fact that I can't imagine them with anyone else in a world where both of them are alive, if that makes sense? But I digress and that could probably be the subject of it's own super long, meta post so I'm cutting myself off...

Anyway, I've always been a huge HeroMari shipper. I actually kind of knew about it before I started the game, but I had misinterpreted some of the bits and pieces my sister had mentioned to me offhand and thought it was one of those situations where Hero had been in love with her but hadn't ever expressed it and/or that it hadn't been returned. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I finally played OMORI and learned this ship was the most obviously mutual, canon, and wholesomely in love pairing of all time. It's kind of a funny story because my sister (who is even more of a huge HeroMari shipper than me) was actually getting kind of worried because I hadn't mentioned the pairing at all while we were playing the game. When I finally made an offhand, shippy comment about them, my sister was so relieved and revealed she was worried I hadn't shipped them because I hadn't mentioned it. I said, "I thought I didn't have to. It's like saying 'Water is wet.' They're in love. What else is there to say?"

And that's HeroMari to me. They're in love. It makes sense and is extremely compelling, especially getting to see the heart-wrenching way Hero grieves for her after she is gone. To be honest, as much as I want them to be happy and wish they had gotten their "forever," the angst of this ship elevates it and gives it a depth that I find incredibly interesting and that has really stuck with me long after I finished the game.

I would also be amiss if I didn't mention how much I just adore their friendship, their devotion to one another, and the way they respected, admired, and understood each other. I think the fact they were best friends and (arguably) knew each other better than anyone else often gets overshadowed by the fact that they were in love, and I feel like there should be more discussion about how their relationship went so far beyond just the romantic feelings they had for each other which really makes that loss so much more devastating for Hero. Not only did he lose the girl he loved but he also lost his best friend in the world, and there is an added dimension of grief to that which I wish was explored a little more often.

Overall, Hero and Mari together whether in love or in friendship was just perfect. They truly brought out the best in each other, and I don't have words for how much I wish they had gotten to be together in the end. 💙💜

#MAJOR SPOILERS (you’ve been warned)#acacia discusses om0ri pairings (for the first & possibly only time ever)#i've decided not to tag any of the pairings #but please know I adore heroxmari so much #they're so in love your honor #acacia's ramblings #ship ask games #thanks for the ask!

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