It is only now, as I stare at the ruined buildings and piles of ashes around me, that I truly understand why so many people fought as I tried again and again to impose my will on what I viewed as a world to dull to realize what was happening. It is only now, after I have crushed and possible resistance to dust and stand in one of the cities the so proudly defended, that I realize why no matter what I did to crush their spirits, there was always more to stand strong and call those who I had already dismissed as defeated and broken back into a battle whose outcome was so clear to me that I could see no possible path to my defeat. It is only now, as I stand in the oppresive post-battle silence that is truly, utterly deafening that I realize that my earlier thoughts should've instead been that there was no possible way for either side to win that battle, as long as both sides continued the fight. And it is only now, as I see the direct consequences of my so-called 'victory', that I stop and wish that just this once I could've had the sense to just give up and lose, because what is left for the villain to do when the hero is gone, and all that remains of the civilization they were trying so determinedly to conquer is a few smoldering husks?