#also not gonna comment on the allegations against Dream I don’t have any info there that’s not my place

[royalnugget42]

Last post I’m ever gonna make abt dream SMP I think, but here I go.

First off I think people forget that abusers are human. That they have human motivations and human failings. There might even be some likable things abt them, because fundamentally they are still humans, and humans are complicated and varied.

Let’s be clear. This ending did not redeem anyone. The story was cut short, because this is a tragedy, and I’ll discuss that in a second. I saw another post saying it better, but this idea that all abusers are manipulative liars who have carefully constructed every aspect of their persona is a fiction. Real abusers are usually human beings that genuinely believe they are in the right, no matter what they say or do. This actually makes them more dangerous, not less, and it makes it harder to hate them.

Dream is evil. I won’t mince words, he is evil in his actions, his thoughts, and his behavior, and Tommy is not, and has never been to blame for it. This conclusion is not about that (because to be honest it should never have been in question). Tommy realizes the utter tragedy of what happened. Because there was a time when Dream might’ve been called good. There was a time when he was a good person. Dream isn’t evil because he was born that way and he never changed, he’s evil because he did change, and at any point he could’ve stopped and listened and learned but he didn’t.

The tragedy is that Dream could’ve been an ally at the end. They could have been friends. The tragedy is that Dream was so caught up in himself that he both directly and indirectly Destroyed himself. His server is gone. He lost.

Tommy apologizing isn’t about forgiving the abuse, or apologizing for his tame little pranks. He’s sorry because Dream is pitiable here. The entire world is about to come crashing down around them, and all Tommy can think is “I’m sorry. I wish you could have been better, maybe in the next life you’ll be less of a fucking prick, and we can have some actual fun.” This is not a win for Dream, it’s the final stage of grief for Tommy.

He finally accepts that the person he once knew, the friend he could’ve had is gone. He’s apologizing because he couldn’t save Dream from himself.

It’s a tragic ending but anyone who tells you there’s no messages to be found in tragedy should read them more closely. The message here being (especially from Tubbo’s POV) that even if everything ends in tragedy, at least we tried in the meantime. Even if it all ends in flames, what’s more important is that somewhere in the middle of it all we were happy.

It’s sad now, because it didn’t have to end this way. But sometimes it does. What’s important was never the ending, but what lead us there, what we did in the meantime. In the middle of it all there were festivals, and jokes and games and cool projects, and sometimes there was even something that could be called hope.

Personally, I think that’s a very powerful message to put out in the world. Maybe it doesn’t answer all your questions, but even if it did, would you really be satisfied? Answer the questions yourself. We fans built this misshapen monstrosity with our own hands, and now it’s ours to tear apart or tie ribbons on as much as we please.