the thing about sapnap being the one to kill dream (besides being able to neatly avoid the “victim kills their abuser” plotline i always find too celebratory and unnuanced for me to appreciate) is that it makes an ending so goddamn impactful, bittersweet, and satisfying for nearly everybody. sapnap is caught in a spiral of guilt, penance, and grief that makes him willing to kill his best friend no matter the cost. (he promised dream that he would. he gave his word.) the way dream’s self-fulfilling prophecy of how nobody understands him, everybody leaves him, is both true and deeply false — because in the end, it’s him and his best friend, who makes good on his word, and it’s because dream forced his hand. there was a very specific set of circumstances that would cause sapnap to turn on them, and he TOLD DREAM WHAT THEY WERE, and dream did it anyway. went even further and taunted him about it. it’s dream’s own self-destructive (and externally destructive) decisions that bring him very poetically to his own death. it’s safety for tommy, who finally has someone stand up for him and protect him, who takes his stead in front of dream so he doesn’t have to, and equally tubbo is not forced into a battle that isn’t his nor paying a price he shouldn’t have to. it is, beautifully, almost not at all about them in the end, because they SHOULD have the freedom to not have to worry about this guy. they should be allowed to heal.
it’s about dream and sapnap now. just like it started. and it’s dream’s fault, and it’s sapnap’s a little bit too, and sapnap is going to carry it forever when he buries dream alone.
