#meaning he just fell back into old exile and pogtopia habits of sympathizing with cDream

[anxiouslyextroverted]

DSMP finale and why its not as bad as people say it was - understanding is not forgiveness.

Everyone is saying that its written badly, and that its damage control but Tommy has said this was in the works for months now. Everyone is saying that it isn't a satisfactory conclusion, and maybe that is the case for us; the audience but it is satisfactory for cTommy.

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cTommy never forgave cDream. He understood him, he saw cDreams past and realised that cDream had morals and had goals. He understood what those goals now were. He saw that happy server that was in the past and realised that cDream missed it. This is not him at all forgiving cDream, this is not him saying that everything that happened to him was fine, he is simply seeing cDreams perspective.

Sure, he apologises but thats him apologising for his own actions and for the bad things he has done in general, this never was meant to imply that cDream was in the right. cTommy even says that he doesn't agree with anything cDream did, he just says that he can see his point now. -

At a surface level, cTommy being sympathetic towards cDream makes no sense, but then you consider his goal behind everything. Why he always went after cDream? and its for closure.

He wanted closure not with cDream dying (as we see in prison lore he can't kill cDream) He thinks he can do it but he can't and thats because by killing him, he never finds out why cDream harmed him.

Abuse victims often need to figure out why their abusers harmed them so they can have that closure, that understanding, they no longer will be kept awake at night wondering for hours 'what did I do wrong?' 'why did they do it to me?' 'did they like hurting me?' ..and if you look at cTommy, he's always wondered why cDream targetted him and what did he do wrong. He just wanted to know why. And this finale provided that answer to him.

cDream isn't being redeemed, he says things like 'you deserved it' and he never apologises. But this isn't about them reconciling, and becoming friends. This is about cTommy finally knowing why he was hurt so many times, and it co-exists with the fact that cDream was never justified in hurting him.

cDream was never forgiven or excused, he was only explained. None of cDreams motivations and desires were painted as correct. And cTommy seeing cDream as human isn't him forgiving him.

You have to consider that cTommys trauma has a big role to play in this whole thing. Why sympathize with cDream? He always did even before exile, he always tried to understand him but got left with evil monologues in response, never knowing the true reasons until he saw that limbo. He just wants it over, he just wants to be free, he smiles because he is free, he gets the reassurance, he realises why cDream thinks everythings his fault and then he finally was at peace.

until the nuke went off.

Theres even a chance that if the nuke didn't go off, cDream would betray cTommy eventually but we'll never know.

The finale ended off with cTommy putting his heart over his head, and also empathizing with the person that hurt him the most just as cTommy has done in the past over and over. Fits cTommy perfectly.

But then both cTommy and cDream achieve what they wanted; the server being simple again.