"Tomoya tells Ushio of the past events that happened from when he first met Nagisa, until after Ushio is born and Nagisa survives. When Ushio falls asleep during the story, Tomoya begins to quite clearly recall a more tragic set of circumstances."

I feel that means he simply could not experience this lifetime if it weren't for what he went through.. But hey, just a thought :)

Ah see what Zingy means though, the last episode turns the whole last arc into a dream.  But from the first episode they've built up to that, so it's not really a surprise.  I can see how one might feel it cheapens the experience, but I'm not too fussed about it.  I knew something was going to happen when Tomoya got one of those light things when his father left.

Something akin to a dream but not a dream by definition. Dreams are for the most part meaningless whereas Tomoya experienced something real - for a start - only, by experiencing what he did, he could have the perfect life he desired.

A miracle took place (the reset), for sure, but only when Tomoya lost everything after realizing the mistakes he made in his life after Nagisa passed away.

Actually, the only thing I think he needed to fix up was his relationship with his father.
None of the rest would've happened if Nagisa survived, so somewhat irrelevant.  It's not like he didn't know the "meaning of life".  In the story he just needed to learn to move on.

The movie's ending avoids this ep22 business so I somewhat like it better.  You can end on a happy note without doing their sort of business.

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