What Does Sunday Really Stand For?

If you played through the Penacony story quest, or at least started it, you’ll recognize the name “Sunday”. This is a non-playable character (as of version 2.5) whose role as a politician is to watch over Penacony and “save” the citizens by furthering the agenda of the Order so that there is no death nor tragedy of any kind to plague the planet or its guests. “There is no death in the dreamscape.”

Sunday, at the beginning and even during the middle of the story, is widely disliked. If you are a person who dislikes or even hates Sunday, you are one of two people:

1. Those who think he’s sadistic and has selfish, sinister means for an even more sinister end

2. Aventurine dickriders

This very blog was created to talk about what Sunday is really after during the Penacony quest, his origins, and ultimate ideology and why he thinks and acts the way he does. Let’s start with the first claim:

“Sunday is a sadistic politician, a dictator and control freak who enjoys witnessing the suffering and taking control over the citizens and guests of Penacony.”

Firstly, I will admit that yes, Sunday is a control freak. Several characters comment on his miniature Golden Hour in the mansion (white house?) saying that he needs mental help, or at the very least the fact that he has this model is concerning. (Ratio even says it to his face—”Honestly, you should get a shrink.”)

However, that is as far as correct claims go. The definition of sadism is “the tendency to derive pleasure... from inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on others.” Sunday does not enjoy seeing the people of Penacony suffer. In fact, he is actively against this, and the entire reason the dreamscape even exists is to relieve people from the misery that is reality.

You’ll remember that the dreamscape works by separating the consciousness from the physical body, sending it to a collective dream. Therefore, someone could attempt to harm themselves through any means necessary, but neither their consciousness nor their physical body are harmed in actuality. This means that people of the dreamscape could ignore anything that happens in the real world. The dreamscape is truly a paradise—heaven, even—for these people. We see this when Sunday takes us on a journey to talk to guests of the dreamscape. We first talk to an incredibly cheerful woman. She explains how she’s getting evicted in reality, but in this sweet dream she doesn’t have to worry about any financial problems whatsoever, and she can just drink Soulglad all night. We also talk to an old man, who tells us that he’s grateful he gets to live in the dreamscape, because his physical body is on the verge of death. It’s hooked up to IV bags and a heart rate monitor, in fact. From Sunday’s point of view, he’s helping these people live out their life in a bliss they could never be able to obtain in reality. He is their savior.

The story of the Charmony Dove even summarizes Sunday’s and Robin’s ideologies perfectly. The two of them took care of an injured dove. Robin wanted to release it when it was recovered and Sunday wanted to keep it caged because there was a chance that it would crash and die. When Robin was out on a tour, Sunday released the bird like Robin requested and, like he predicted, it fell to its death.

This interaction both sets up the reason for Sunday’s actions as well as possibly furthered his motivation for it, since Sunday was likely scarred after seeing something he so cared about die in front of him, after he nurtured it for so long. So although he does attempt to sacrifice someone and turn the entire planet into a cult to keep them “safe”, he’s not doing it for his own benefit. Quite the contrary, actually. 

Sunday is a character that has moral means, but attempts to obtain those means through immoral, unethical, and possibly even illegal ends. “If he really wanted to keep the people safe,” I hear you say, “then why does he do everything he does to obtain his goal? Surely, there was a better, more ethical way of going about things?”

And you’d be right. However, good characters are flawed, and Sunday is no Mary Sue. The reason Sunday went through this entire process is because he’s simply a product of his environment. Now, this isn’t an excuse to ignore everything he’s done. Of course what he did was objectively immoral and harmful to the people.

What I mean when I say that he’s a product of his environment is that he was truly isolated from his sister and the general public by Gopher Wood, the Dreammaster of Penacony. He was raised to be in on and further this agenda of the Order because he was indoctrinated in believing that this was the way to keep everyone safe and happy. It’s why he challenged the Astral Express to a “dual of beliefs” near the end of the story, because he’s never really interacted with people who disagree or have a different ideological viewpoint than him, especially in regards to how Penacony should be run. Sunday is the unfortunate product of an immoral upbringing.

There’s one more thing I might hear one of you say, which is “but Sunday’s decisions can’t be explained by his backstory because Robin’s ideology is the exact opposite of his!” Like I said, this can be explained through Sunday’s upbringing.

Robin was raised into the Iris Family, a family within the Family of Penacony that performs for the people ultimately engaging in social interaction much more frequently than the Oak Family. Sunday was raised to be, like I said, a ruling individual, a role model, and a person for the people, though ironically he’s disconnected by his isolating beliefs. His isolation is also the reason why he challenged the Express, because previously he’s never really interacted with someone who’s thought so much differently than him.

Now, onto refuting the second claim:

“Sunday hurt my cute dumb blond twink Aventurine!”

Sigh… the lore and actuality of canon Aventurine is another blog rant for another day. While yes, it is true that Sunday did doom Aventurine to die, Sunday doesn’t do this just because Aventurine is Sigonian. It has nothing to do with his race, actually.

Everyone acts as if Aventurine is the good guy and Sunday is the villain, but that genuinely couldn’t be further from the truth. In actuality, Aventurine and Sunday are two men in opposition with each other, clashing with the other because of their ultimate goals. Truly, Aventurine is only in Penacony to advance the IPC, getting them ownership over Penacony, while Sunday, like I mentioned before, used Aventurine for his agenda of furthering the Order.

Lastly, it wouldn’t make logical sense from a story perspective for Sunday to have acted emotionally and sacrifice Aventurine just because he’s a Sigonian. It makes his later acts of emotion less impactful, and he’d be acting out against Aventurine for such a dull and unimpactful, not to mention unnecessary reason.

All this is to say, Sunday is actually an empathetic (however mentally ill) character who was raised into an unfortunate upbringing. And if you decide to hate Sunday, at least go all the way.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk