Sydney Bronson

* Young
* "Adult"

I'm really tough.*
— Sydney to himself

**Sydney "Syd" Bronson** is a character in Echo. He was a childhood friend of the main cast, and his drowning in Lake Emma left a lasting impact on the group.

## Appearance

Sydney was a young river otter with brown fur, a thick tail, and short legs. The fur from the underside of his chin down to his stomach was a lighter shade of brown. He had striking blue eyes, considered unusual for his species. As a younger member of the gang, Syd was on the short side and was said to be smaller than his fellow otter Chase.

In flashbacks, he wears a black shirt with gray sleeves, tan pants, and a black baseball cap decorated with a skull and crossbones. While out hunting with his father, he wears a green camouflage shirt.

According to Flynn, Sydney often spoke with a ‘fake, gravelly cadence' to deepen his voice and make himself sound tougher.

The hypothetical version of adult Sydney seen in Flynn's route is taller and considerably more muscular than his child self. He wears a black t-shirt with a skull and crossbones, a black cap, tan cargo shorts, and a black sweatband on either wrist. "Adult Sydney" also has silver piercings in his left ear. His sclera are noticeably darker (bordering on black), possibly hinting at his paranormal origins.

## Personality

Sydney was a rambunctious child who loved to rough house and play-fight, oftentimes taking things to extremes. He is also shown to have had a creative side, devising 'treasure hunts' for his friends to complete that often involved riddles. According to Carl's route in Route 65, he had an interest in pirates, wrestling, puzzles, ninjas, and so-bad-it's-good music called "butt rock." His favorite place to spend time was the forest near Echo, where he and his friends often played capture the flag.

He is shown during a dream sequence in Flynn's route to have repressed many of his interests because of his controlling home life. He was particularly reprimanded by his father for his love of masked wrestling.

A notable aspect of Sydney's personality was the tendency to "switch" from normal to extremely aggressive behavior; during these episodes he often bullied his friends to the point of physical injuries. It is possible that this was caused or exacerbated at least in part by supernatural forces holding sway over him.

## Story

### Life

Sydney was born and raised in Echo, and grew up in a deeply religious Mormon family. He loved pirates and lucha libre wrestling but his father considered many of his interests inappropriate and attempted to tightly restrict Sydney's enjoyment of them, badly straining their relationship. When Sydney was around nine years old, his father unexpectedly committed suicide in front of him while they were on a hunting trip together. This seems to have brought Sydney even closer to his best friend Flynn, who consoled him in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, but it also worsened tensions between Sydney and the rest of his friend group, especially as his behavior became increasingly erratic in the months afterward and a rumor began circulating in town that Sydney may have been the one responsible for his father's death.

In 2003, Sydney drowned in Lake Emma under mysterious circumstances. His death initially served as a significant bonding moment for his friends, but later became a source of conflict. During the group's reunion in 2015, TJ, the only direct witness to Sydney's death, is repeatedly questioned by a resentful and suspicious Flynn, who believes he is withholding details about the drowning.

### TJ's Route

On Wednesday, Carl discovers what appears to be one of Sydney's treasure hunt clues in the crawl space of his basement. Despite being confused about the clue's origins, TJ and Chase decide to follow the treasure hunt in hopes of bringing closure to Sydney's death by solving his final puzzle. Chase, however, comes to suspect that the hunt has been staged after the clues seemingly begin targeting him and start to include references to events that occurred after Sydney's death.

Ultimately, Sydney's degree of involvement in creating the hunt, be it through mundane or more supernatural means, is left ambiguous.

### Flynn's Route

Sydney appears several times in flashbacks and hallucinations, including as an adult in what is indicated to be an illusory projection based on Flynn's idea of who Sydney would have become if he had lived. The flashbacks recount Sydney's home life and his relationship with Flynn, showing that they were close friends and that Sydney considered Flynn to be like an older brother.

On Thursday, Sam exits Chase and runs into a figure that is most likely an apparition of Sydney; it is described as having a thick tail and blunt claws, and is dripping with water 'even after all these years.' The figure is furious at Sam and attacks him on sight.

Saturday starts with the first extended flashback to Sydney's childhood. In it, Sydney watches a masked wrestling match on TV early in the morning and imagines himself in the position of a big, strong 'heel' facing off against a "goody-tissues" opponent, and plays up his part for a large jeering crowd that he knows loves to hate him.

To Sydney's distress, his father Mr. Bronson walks in and, after berating him for failing to prepare for their imminent hunting trip, notices what Sydney is watching and belittles his interest in wrestling, for its violence and seemingly also because of its homoeroticism. Mr. Bronson alludes to a threat made previously that Sydney will be sent "up north" to his uncle if his behavior does not improve.

Sydney holds back tears so as not to give his father the satisfaction of seeing him cry, and retreats back into his fantasy. Having endured several hits in the ring because he is so tough, he pays his opponent back in kind, using underhanded tactics. Sydney decides to humiliate him in front of the crowd by unmasking him, planning to then pull him into a hug in front of the crowd so everyone can see that Sydney is the real good guy.

During the hunting trip, Sydney's father criticizes him for taking too long to fire a shot at a bird and the two begin arguing, which escalates until Sydney snaps and curses at his father. Mr. Bronson slaps him and asks if he learned such language from Flynn, whose sexuality he disparages, and Sydney defiantly says Flynn is awesome and curses more.

Mr. Bronson is disgusted and declares that Sydney will be sent "up north" when they get home. He steps forward with his fists raised and Sydney, in his frustrated desperation not to be hit anymore, raises the hunting rifle at his father, then throws it down and screams at him for his cruelty, even calling him pathetic, before running off into the woods.

Mr. Bronson chases him and the two soon come across an abandoned old van. The sight induces some kind of breakdown in Mr. Bronson and he begins praying and muttering. Sydney glimpses a face through the van's back window and a flash of red, but sees nothing when he presses his face against it. Mr. Bronson, who now just looks 'empty' instead of angry, heads back the direction they came from but Sydney stays put.

Time passes and Sydney tries to stay tough, coming to terms with the fact that if he is actually about to be sent up north at least he will be away from his parents. He fails to start a fire, and wishes he had Flynn around to share his survival skills.

Sydney grows frustrated and imagines a happy place, just like his school counselor advised him. He returns to the wrestling ring and looks out into the crowd, left incredulous by his victory, and knows everyone he sees hates him except for one person, who sits in his usual spot near the back.

Sydney finds Mr. Bronson standing despondently in a clearing, holding the rifle to his chin. He says he loves his father and begs him to stop, but Mr. Bronson is unresponsive and distraught. Sydney again sees a face in the back of the van, and grabs his father's paw to wrench his fingers from the trigger. The gun fires, killing Mr. Bronson, and it is left ultimately ambiguous whether Sydney caused it to go off or if his father pulled the trigger despite his intervention.

When the flashback later resumes, now from Flynn's perspective, Sydney takes his father's truck and manages to find Flynn. Sydney somberly leads him to Mr. Bronson's body, then denies responsibility for killing him with an outburst of nearly hysterical fear. He also mentions that his head hurts, and worries that everyone will believe he is guilty because they think he is a monster. Flynn consoles him, then digs a makeshift grave and buries the corpse.

Afterward, Flynn observes a chance in Sydney's expression that makes him seem like he is no longer himself, and Sydney says that they will be okay because they are tough and 'none of this matters.'

Near the end of the route, Flynn seemingly encounters an adult Sydney at the dive bar that houses The Smoke Room. This version of Sydney has grown up to be a professional wrestler, though has evidently struggled with heroin addiction. This encounter is later revealed to be a Hysteria-induced hallucination caused by Sam, seemingly based on Flynn's conception of who Sydney would be if he had lived.

### Other Routes

In Carl's route, Jenna mentions that as the mass hysteria began affecting Echo, TJ started seeing visions of Sydney following him and became violent and paranoid as a result.

In Jenna's route, Micha tells Chase about a dream he had in which Chase was holding him under the water and drowning him, possibly indicating that it was a memory from Sydney's point of view. Notably, Micha remarks that instead of angry he felt grateful as it was happening, as if he were being set free.

### Arches

While Sydney is not named explicitly, Cameron claims to see a "young otter" on the road near Lake Emma that causes him to swerve Devon's car and maroon it. Afterward, the otter vanishes completely. Devon then describes a drowning that matches the circumstances of Sydney's death as one of the many cases of people dying in Lake Emma.

## Relationships

### Flynn

Flynn and Sydney were very close as children. Sydney looked up to Flynn like an older sibling, and admired him for his independence and capability. Sydney was aware of Flynn's sexuality and was unbothered by it. After his father's death, a distraught Sydney sought out Flynn's assistance, and Flynn was immediately willing to help.

Because of their friendship, Flynn saw a much different, more nuanced side to Sydney than their other friends, and has retained a much more sympathetic memory of him.

### Chase

Sydney considered Chase a close friend. Chase's relationship to Sydney when they were children is ambiguous, but Flynn mentions that Chase was willing to step in to stop Sydney when his aggression went too far.

Notably, Chase must have had held some degree of conviction that Sydney was dangerous if left unchecked, since he passed on the rumor that Sydney had killed his father to Carl and TJ and seems to have believed it himself. Crucially, it is this internalized sense of Sydney's malicious nature, whether fair to Sydney or not, that encouraged Chase to intervene on TJ's behalf on that fateful day at Lake Emma.

### TJ

Sydney's aggressive tendencies meant that he frequently tormented TJ, whose sensitivity made him an easy target. Chase's friends recall that Sydney could switch from being playful to violent towards TJ with very little warning. In TJ's route, Chase notes that during the summer prior to his death Sydney was actually getting along better with TJ, but still continued to inflict the physical bullying that seems to have characterized much of their relationship.

Despite this, Flynn reveals at the end of his route that Sydney actually admired TJ for his goodness and his ability to sincerely believe in something.

### Mr. Bronson

Sydney and his father had a tense, strained relationship. Mr. Bronson set strict standards for Sydney's behavior and was harshly critical whenever his son failed to meet them in his eyes. Mr. Bronson deeply disapproved of Sydney's choice of friends, denigrated his hobbies, and seems to have been routinely willing to use threats and violence to control him.

### Leo

Leo and Sydney's dynamic is not deeply explored, but Leo presumably looked out for Sydney once he became part of the group.

Leo considered Sydney's death a personal failure, and the tragedy cemented Leo's self-image as the group's protector. In the years afterward he seems to have mostly distanced himself from the memory of Sydney, preferring to focus on uniting his remaining friends rather than bringing up past traumas.

### Carl

Carl and Sydney rarely got along, but they both greatly enjoyed wrestling and were able to bond over it. In Route 65, the end of Carl's route shows that Carl listed Sydney as one of his best friends on social media, but Sydney did not reciprocate.

### Jenna

Jenna seems to have resented the way Sydney mistreated others, especially TJ, and went so far as to confess to Carl after Sydney's drowning that she was glad he died. She is nonetheless deeply moved by the appearance of Sydney's final treasure hunt in TJ's Route, indicating that she may have simply been speaking emotionally in that moment or attempting to rationalize her trauma by vilifying Sydney.

In *Echo: Route 65* screens at Carl's end show that Sydney considered Jenna one of his best friends. It's unlikely she reciprocated that friendship, however.

## Trivia

* Alongside Jenna and Leo, Sydney is confirmed to have siblings.
* Sydney's ancestor Todd appears in the Echo prequel game, The Smoke Room.
* In The Smoke Room's Fall Special, set in a lighthearted modern-day alternate universe instead of 1915 like the base game, protagonist Samuel Ayers can choose to put on a Halloween costume that resembles the clothing worn by the apparition of adult Sydney. Selecting this outfit causes Sam to vaguely reference the fact that his spirit possessed Sydney in the continuity of Echo.

## Gallery

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*All child sprites were created by Tiago*

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DefaultWorriedSadCryingSyd in his hunting outfitA hypothetical version of Sydney as an adult created by Sam.Sydney's official pin, designed by Orion.