#The Sandman: Overture

[ennas-aesthetic]

I have prayed for an ending. I did not think that you would be the one to grant it.

(a.k.a Dream trying to be a better father than Time had ever been.)

The Sandman: Overture 4, 2014 // Brief Lives: Part 9, 1993

[thenightling]

I feel thick (headed). I just realized something that I think should have been obvious.

Remember how in Overture Morpheus got captured by Lovecraftian Old Ones? They locked him in his own dungeon so he called out to each sibling for help and one by one they refused (part of why he didn't try to call out for help when captured by Roderick Burgess). Anyway, when he called to Delight she said she couldn't help because she was "changing."

Obviously this is because she was turning into Delirium. But something occurred to me. There was no madness in the universe before Delight became Delirium. What was happening in the universe to invoke the existence of madness?

Well, The Lovecraftian Old Gods came into being.

Is it possible that the Lovecraftian beings merely existing upset the balance of the universe? Morpheus was captured and Delight was transformed into Delirium. Or could they be a side effect OF Delirium's transformation?

It never occurred to me before that there seems to be a connection.

Lovecraftian entities = The creation of the living embodiment of Madndess.

[ghostly-penumbra]

Father and Sons

Ao3 FFN

Summary: Clockwork is Danny's loving, adoptive grandpa. Time is the Endless' neglectful father. They are one and the same.

Chapter One: First Meeting

- - -

Dream of the Endless stepped into his father's realm and found himself alone. Neither Dream of the Cats nor Hope Beautiful Lost Nebula had come with him. This wouldn't affect him, he would carry on.

He walked down the sprawling garden and stumbled then upon a young boy wearing his father's sygil in a purple cloak, not unlike one his father might use when seen by humans.

The boy stopped dead in his tracks when he saw him, the tilted watering can still spilling its content with no end in sight.

"Uh… hello?" He asked tentatively, the can still tipped. "May I help y—?"

"Who are you?" Dream asked bluntly, straightforward, looking at this child whose identity and dreams were blurred to him, being from a different time period than him, and his father's realm not being a Soft Place nor Dream's jurisdiction.

"Oh! That's- I'm… not supposed to just give my name to strangers." He trailed off, and finally straightened the watering can. "I'll… go get my grandpa." He turned and flew away, giving the perplexed Lord Shaper one last look before vanishing from sight.

"Dream." His father's voice had him turn around and there he was, shifting in shape through ages.

A toddler, a child, an old man, a younger man, if time could truly be described as a man, but always, invariably, with a jagged scar going across his eye.

Next to him stood the boy, looking between father and son with green eyes full of human curiosity, but ultimately leaning towards Dream's father with ease.

"What do you want?" His father asked as his beard vanished to give way to a toddler's impassive face. "You only come here if you want something."

"Can't a son see his father with no motive other than to wish him well?" He asked instead of answering.

This was unscripted. As it often did with his father, being in his presence was to step in loops and whorls of someone else's design, leaving Dream wrong-footed, regardless of where he stepped.

But for that same reason a strange child trailing after his father and referring to him as 'his grandpa' would not deter him from what he had come here for.

It did make him wonder, though…

"Of course you can," Father Time was saying, "but you never do. If any of you or your siblings visit is because you need my help."

"Siblings?! How many children do you have?" The boy almost shouted in what he seemed to believe was a whisper.

Dream turned his gaze upon him, the intense cosmos in his eyes having him shrink, abashedly, behind his father's figure once again.

Dream's father closed his eyes for one second – or a dozen. Or a year, or seventy, or a century – and then opened them again and turned his head towards his companion. "Seven." Was all he said.

"Damn!"

And against anything Dream would have thought, his father smiled, small but genuine. Fond.

"As you well know, I am older than dust."

They were making their way through the garden, where some plants grew and flourished or perished or even returned to seeds as Time approached them, and his father picked two apples, one of which he handed to the boy – who was now floating after Father Time –, and the other he offered to Dream.

"I'm not hungry."

"You will be."

Dream disregarded his father's remark and ignored the proffered fruit, even as the boy happily bit into his own.

"I wasn't travelling alone." Dream said. "Why am I the only one here?"

"You were planning on bringing your friends, uninvited, to my domain, son?" His father asked, his youthful face at odds with the rotting fruit in his hands.

"Not friends, no. A cat, who is also me. And a girl."

His father held a hand to his forehead and sighed, before looking back up at Dream whilst he handed the fresh apple to… his grandson.

"What do you want, Dream?"

"Help me, father. Help me."

- - -

[Chapter Two]

[endlessthedestiny]

[ometochtli2rabbit]

Another re-read: "The Sandman: Overture" by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by J.H. Williams III. This is the Deluxe Edition. To read it in order, I had to read Book 9: The Kindly Ones and Book 10: The Wake. I watched the show a few months ago, so this was a reminder of how great this series really is.

[reality-perhaps]

Me, when people want to discuss gender but they haven't unlocked that level of friendship:

[b-plot-butch]

j.h. williams iii really said i am going to draw a dream that is so slutty

[ID. dream with his brow furrowed in concern and confusion, saying “where is here?” he wears a black coat with a high flared collar. underneath it is a silky looking black robe with a very deep v-neck, exposing his pale chest. a large ruby pendant hangs around his neck. end ID.]

[lexie-squirrel]

[keycomicbooks]

THE SANDMAN: OVERTURE #2 (2013) Dave McKean Variant / Neil Gaiman Story / J. H. Williams III Pencils / 1st Appearance Dream's Kryptonian Aspect & Night

#THESANDMAN: OVERTURE #2 (2013) #DaveMcKean Variant / #NeilGaiman Story / #JHWilliamsIII Pencils / 1st Appearance Dream's Kryptonian Aspect & Night "Chapter Two" The Sandman's epic origin story continues in the second issue of the new miniseries by the superstar team of writer Neil Gaiman and artist J.H. Williams III! SAVE ON SHIPPING COST - NOW AVAILABLE FOR LOCAL PICK UP IN DELTONA, FLORIDA https://www.rarecomicbooks.fashionablewebs.com/THE%20SANDMAN%20OVERTURE.html#2b   #KeyComicBooks #DCComics #DCU #DCUniverse #KeyIssue

[thenightling]

If you look carefully Alianora’s story is told on the gates of horn in The Netflix series.

at the moment do you have any plans to adapt alianoras story in overture into the netflix series?

We definitely hope to adapt Overture, if Sandman goes on long enough.

[onehundredandeleventropicalfish]

so the netflix show has already shown us two of dream's other aspects, kai'ckul and the king of cats, but one of my favourite things about the endless in the comics is that they have a different incarnation for every single species and culture that has ever experienced them, in this case, if your people dream, you have a personalised Dream

and the comics are also part of the dcu, which means there are a LOT of other species out there to dream

many of these screenshots were taken from one issue which involves a meeting in dream's head between all of his different incarnations, some are just from other places in the comic, but my personal favourites include:

l'zoril, dream god of the green martians

to fill out the superheroes requirement, kryptonian dream

fish dream

flower dream, and tree dream

femme dream, with just as much dedication to not wearing a shirt as her masculine counterpart

bird dream, insect dream, and robotic insect dream

two different kinds of cat person

these funky lil guys

whatever is going on here with the tentacle robot, the teen titans looking motherfucker, the dragon, and the guy in the witch hat (all equally dream of the endless)

a literal stone statue that speaks mostly in egyptian hieroglyphs

and then there's this guy

[writing-for-life]

The Truth of Mankind…

…Is Also Dream’s

These quotes are from episode 5 (24/7):

“Garry dreams of proving his father he was wrong about him.”

“Kate dreams of running away where no one will find her.”

[But you do, and we see your star in so many panels of The Wake 🥺]

“Bette dreams of creating something that matters to people.”

You are the magician who became the man, Morpheus. And you are the king who left his kingdom, but not without making sure everyone else would be okay first--perhaps that is a different definition of a graceful ending, but it is graceful nonetheless.

You’re so painfully human, and yet, you are also not 😭

[natuart]

Happy Birthday Neil Gaiman! ♡

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@neil-gaiman If you see this I hope you have a beautiful day!! ♡

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I share this sketch that I did in 2019 because I didn't have time to make a drawing today hahahaha

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So after waking up, I was drinking tea and enjoying the rain. I left the house to walk through the garden, soon joined by my cat, Vampi, although it wasn't long before he ran to hide when the rain came back a little harder. At that moment, for some reason I remembered that it was November 10th and I hadn't done the birthday drawing as I had planned. Luckily, I remembered drawing Neil in a sketchbook back in 2019. And here he is. I present to you a drawing that I made before the pandemic, it is strange that those drawings come to light.

My English is bad, so this is all Google Translate, I hope it's not bad xD

[the-cloudy-dreamer]

Sandman Inktober 2023, Day 5 Sigils

“My siblings I stand not in my gallery and I don’t hold your sigils but I need your help”

So for this one I was inspired by this panel of Sandman Overture:

Art wise Sandman Overture is my favorite Sandman volume ( with Sandman Dream Hunters not very far behind) and this was one of my favorite scenes in the comic so it felt appropriate for today’s prompt 🖤

[buttercups-song]

Oh overture is making me insane actually. Dream who is still young and asks his siblings for help and they never come. No wonder he never asked for their help again, not when they left him in a dungeon listening to his creations’ screams, not when desire ‘helped’ by sending alianora when he explicitly told them he didn’t want a lover. Young dream who has never killed before being forced to murder an innocent. Dream who was not made to kill innocents having to kill a universe and death turning it into some kind of messed up lesson. Dream still sparing a single star (and of course that comes back to haunt him). Dream being kind to a child because of course he is. Dream offering to wipe hope’s memories of the murder of her father and accepting her choice not to. Dream taking her with him and making sure she eats and sleeps taking breaks even though he has no need for rest. Dream giving her good dreams. Dream and Hope holding hands because dreams and hope go hand in hand. Dream being afraid. Dream who could not even save a child (an oh oh that one hurt because of course he couldn’t save a child not when ha couldn’t save his own son). Dream torn apart in a black whole only to be left there by his mother. Dream still wanting his parents to be proud of him for saving the universe. Dream exhausted beyond belief wanting to go home only to be captured and held captive in a glass cage for decades. His sibling already planning his death not knowing dream will die anyway by his own design. I’m so so normal about overture.

[bobbole]

Dream - art by JH Williams III