We all love the “becoming the very thing you sought to destroy,” trope. but I have a growing fondness for “destroying the very thing you sought to become”
there’s so many versions of it is the thing.
like, you can crush it in your fury at being denied
you can look at it clear-eyed and realize it can’t morally be permitted to exist
you can find that your imposition of your will on the world had an impact that made your goal impossible to ever realize
and on and on
but they’re all going to have that same internal rending feeling of killing off the part of yourself that was invested in the dream.