[Analysis] Omori - Does Sunny Deserve Forgiveness?

 Biggest Ultra Omega God-Form Giga Super Saiyan Blue Spoilers! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T COMPLETED THE GAME! 

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With that out of the way, I ask you: Does Sunny deserve forgiveness, or not? Is his crime so abhorrent that he is unworthy of being forgiven for it, no matter how sorry he is, or how regretful and guilty he feels? Is it more important that he forgive himself, and not ask for forgiveness from others?

I'm not asking "will be be forgiven", but "should he?".

I checked out the Omori General on /vg/, and before it devolved into circlejerk RPing, AU nonsense, people posting about Sunny being molested by Mari(like, fuck you. Seriously. I'm not talking Bro/Sis incest ship here, I'm talking her straight up raping him. If one of you fuckers ever sees this I want you to know that you should jump from the nearest hospital building, you don't deserve forgiveness, oyasumi motherfucker.), I saw a brief series of posts talking about the merits of happier vs more bittersweet or darker outcomes for after the ending. 

The consensus ended up similar to how I feel; The unrealistic "they all forgive him in the hospital" scenario is bad, but so is them hating him forever or those ones where like, Hero throws Sunny down the stairs. That's not going to happen, but neither are them pretty much immediately hanging out again. However, there's one piece that sticks out in that.

It was specified that they probably wouldn't ever fully forgive him, but that they wouldn't hate him or Basil. I agree... the interesting part of that, though, was the posters' stating they do not believe he deserves to be forgiven.

The post was too far at the top so I didn't respond to ask why, but I suppose I can guess.

Everyone has their own reactions to The Truth, everyone has their own perspectives on it. Some outright believe Sunny is a bad person, even insane and violent, and his friends should hate him. I think those people are missing the point, but I also don't know if the game is trying to say he should be forgiven.

I feel that way. My answer is yes. However, why? Is it just because I see enough of myself in Sunny? Because he was my player character? Because I saw from his perspective, and felt his pain? Am I simply not able to divorce myself from that and acknowledge that...

He's done something terrible. 

Is this a crime too great to forgive? On the one hand I think it kind of is, isn't it? After beating the game I now feel a gnawing sadness every time I think about Mari's death. I think about what she left behind, how it destroyed people's lives, how Hero lost the love of his life. Mari was like a sister to Aubrey. They all loved her. And... he was the one that took all that from them. From himself, even.

He killed his own sister. Does it matter if it was an accident? If he regrets it so heavily? If he would take it back, put himself in her place, in a heartbeat? 

I can't help but feel that it does, but I don't know if that's just my bias towards the boy. If I could divorce myself from that, and see from outside the perspective of the one who guided him through his character arc, would I still feel the same way?

Well... probably. I'm always very lenient on fictional characters. I find myself never hating one if they aren't poorly written. I just can't. I only hate characters who suck, who miss their marks, who are annoying because they're just bad characters.

But objectively speaking, as objective as you can be when speaking about personal beliefs at least, would I?

I suppose it would depend on how he chose to tried to atone, and if he would. As Kel said, doing something bad does not make you a bad person. I believe that, while actions speak louder than words, while actions are what define you, and actions are either good or bad... I do not think any bad action necessarily makes one evil, or unworthy of forgiveness, not inherently. 

What matters is intent, reaction, and decision.

When one does something wrong, it needs to be without malicious intent. If it is with malicious intent, one must regret the action and their malicious feelings. Should they, they must then take action to rectify, apologize, atone and make amends somehow. A person who has done something wrong, especially with ill intent, must recognize what it is they've done, agree that it was bad, and then do something about it.

What needs to be done, how sorry you need to be, and how hard it should be for someone to forgive you, depends on how horrible the crime was, which is based on not just what was done but what the intent and reaction was.

The Incident is kept vague enough to interpret malicious intent, the reaction likewise to interpret much more worry over his own fate than for his lost sister. The cut and then datamined text to accompany the memory photos in The Truth reveals much more set in stone ideas of accident and mourning, but they are not canon because they were taken out of the game. For the express purpose of asking ourselves this question.

While robbing the world of Mari is indeed a grave sin, I do not believe that it would be unforgiveable, even if it were completely intentional, even if he was more worried for himself than sad he had killed his sister. Neither do I think it is unforgiveable that he hid it, and that he rejected his friends instead of telling the truth for 4 years.

I don't know if we'd be shown all of this were the game trying to say otherwise, but it's still up to you I think. Perhaps it was a test: Can you close your heart and judge this sinner, despite seeing deep into his soul? 

It really is all up to you, personally, but for me: I think it all really depends on how he goes forward from here. He's already made an important step towards earning forgiveness. He has owned up to his mistake, and told the truth. One cannot be forgiven for a crime one does not admit to committing. I don't think Sunny would try to shift the blame away or make a bunch of excuses either, he won't try and justify himself. I think he will want to take responsibility for it now.

Which is why, if he does, and continues to, then the answer is probably yes.

Because if he does what he needs to to earn it, then of course he deserves to be forgiven. At the state he's at right at the end? No. But it's clear this story will continue without us.

Because like the ending song says "Though the pain remains, and though it may be hard, I'll carry on."