The explanation Sela and Belinda receive makes the creature even more disturbing. It exists as a response to evil becoming too powerful, but its destruction reaches both sides.…

The explanation Sela and Belinda receive makes the creature even more disturbing. It exists as a response to evil becoming too powerful, but its destruction reaches both sides. Being one of the people trying to help doesn’t automatically put you outside its reach. That is a terrifying kind of safeguard. The people it is supposed to protect can be consumed along with the threat. Once it is loose, nobody gets much comfort from knowing what it was originally intended to do. Sela and Belinda working together belongs in that discussion. Their differences haven’t magically disappeared. They are facing a danger that makes continuing their own conflict less important than surviving it. The Dream Eater forces characters to deal with the limits of their usual divisions. Calling someone an enemy doesn’t change the fact that, in this situation, both of you may need the other alive.