#don't get me wrong - interpersonal abuse is definitely used to justify systemic abuse

[swordfright]

I love your dsmp analisis!! expecially the ones about the final. You expressed the thoughts I've been trying to put in words prefectly and make me think again about some details of the story I wasnt watching well. The thing you said about the way how interpersonal abuse is used to justified systhemic abuse remenbers me about how justice and prisons work today

Immensely relieved to hear someone still finds my finale reaction post interesting because honestly i cringed a little when i rediscovered it. I feel this way about most of my old posts, not because I think I was wrong (i stand by that shit!!!) ) but I guess because like...the emotional intensity...lmao. That stream really had me going through it. To quote Veggie Tales, "I laughed. I cried. It moved me, Bob."

Although I suppose it's worth mentioning that there is one detail I've changed my mind on. Tbh I don't think i'd still use the word "systemic" to describe the abuse c!Dream deals with. At the time I wrote that post, I was trying to express that the cruelty c!Tommy suffers and the crulety c!Dream suffers are different but connected, and that the excuses used (by both characters and fans) to justify c!Dream's abuse mirrored IRL conversations about punitive justice.

While I do think the Pandora arc and its aftermath happen to work really well as an anti-prison allegory, I don't think we can really call anything in DSMP canon "systemic" because like...there are no systems! The server is, what, 30-something people split into half a dozen factions? There is no state on that server cohesive enough to codify anything into a system. [More on this here but it's tangential.]

All that said, I do 100% stand by the main point of that post, which was that violence perpetuates itself and the finale was largely about recognizing this and choosing something else. It's not too late. It's not too late, and even when it is too late, the end can always be a beginning if you let it :'') Good shit!!