For the original post these comments were made on, see here (part 2 of this post).
Here’s the “Sweetheart rant” in question.
As for the “it was an accident” argument, here’s a post explaining why that falls apart under scrutiny. If you can’t read the whole thing because you don’t have an account, I’ve provided a transcript below.
Transcript
I think there’s a solid case to be made that what Sunny did actually constitutes murder as opposed to manslaughter.
First of all, it is essential to establish that Mari doesn’t appear to have used any sort of physical force on him during their argument. Photo of a Fight itself is too blurry to see anything, but the caption, which would most likely note a detail as important, only says she blocked his way (by standing in front of him) and yelled at him. Therefore, the notion he acted in self-defense is invalid - unless Mari had a history of being abusive towards Sunny (which is not textually supported by the game), there is no reason for him to interpret her as a threat big enough to retaliate with physical force.
Secondly, the first point means there was nothing preventing Sunny from hiding in his room. This implies that his decision to get violent with Mari was conscious; moreover, Photo of an Argument implies said decision stemmed from him blaming Mari for his own pain and a petty desire to hurt her, as if doing so would alleviate it.
Finally, Photo of a Murder implies that Sunny seems to have been… unusually cognizant of the staircase behind Mari when he shoved her.
There is no “break” in the narration to convey Sunny shoved her in the heat of the moment without perceiving the stairs, like
Photo 1’s caption: All of this is her fault! You shove her-
Photo 2’s caption: …down the staircase.
and while this could be chalked up to the Doylist “Omocat is a shitty writer”, it doesn’t do Sunny any favors from a Watsonian perspective.
(with this in mind, “You lose all sense” almost feels like an excuse, both from Sunny and from the game itself. see, he totally didn’t know what came over him, honest!)
The general definition of second-degree murder is “murder with malicious intent, but not premeditated.” The mens rea (criminal intent) of the accused is “intent to kill, intent to cause serious bodily harm, or act with […] reckless conduct lacking concern for human life.” Since Sunny consciously chose to shove Mari down the stairs when another option was available to him and seems to have been entirely aware of what he was doing, he could be said to have acted with mailcious intent - specifically, intent to cause serious bodily harm. Alternatively, he could be said to have acted with reckless conduct lacking concern for Mari’s life.
By definition, Sunny is a murderer. Guess there’s a good reason Photo of a Murder is named as such, eh?
#of course the differences between degrees of murder vary by jurisdiction. which varies by state
#but since the game doesn’t specifiy where Faraway Town is located I’m talking in general terms
