#sandman character analysis

[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 😭

[writing-for-life]

I wrote about this tangentially a while back, specifically also bringing in a comparison with the Corinthian stabbing him in The Doll’s House.

And I absolutely think keeping the scar is both a choice on his part, but bleeding is also deeper symbolism for his becoming more human (the adverb, not the noun).

The thing is: In TKO, he doesn’t just tell Lucien about the matching scars. He says he was the one who left the scar on Alianora’s cheek:

Of course we get the whole story in Overture, and we know then that he rather feels he caused it because she fought at his side. Or that the scar was “left” because he was the one to care for her when he healed it.

But there are question marks remaining, because we can’t forget that there are nearly 10 years between publishing TKO and Overture. At the time we all first read it in the 90s, that sentence could have meant anything, and it could have meant he did cause it physically. And the narration is unreliable on that part in Overture, because we still can’t tell for certain if we got the whole story, and if what we got was entirely true.

Having said this, I don’t want to imply he was physically abusive, only that we still don’t know the full story: We don’t know who Alianora was, and if she truly got the scar the way it’s implied.

There is a lot in Brief Lives in conjunction with Overture that makes the amount of Gods who attacked the Dreaming unreliable. We hear several times it was three, but then it’s only two in Overture, but the depictions still vary, too.

Two Gods:

But:

I’m really not sure if the one holding Dream here is the same one as the red one, and I’m not just referring to the colour because those panels are all blue-toned. I just honestly think it’s not the same God, and we’re still looking at three, even in Overture.

Add to this that we can’t be sure if the Endless truly can create a life out of nothing (in this case, Desire), and we are in the middle of wondering if Alianora could have been the youngest God (who was female) Dream had some regard for. And he felt regrets for the course of action necessary:

What if Desire was the one who made her want something (or someone!) enough so Dream could overpower her, or she turned against her own kind? What if she stayed in the Dreaming after her physical death, like others before her? What if that’s why she couldn’t return to her own plane?

We’ll never know, and there are a million other possibilities, but what I’m trying to say is that Alianora’s story is still mostly a mystery, that we don’t truly know how she ended up in the Dreaming, that she was a creature of light, and that the narration around her can’t be trusted because it’s constantly contradicted and questioned. There are many possibilities here that make both a literal and a more metaphorical reading very, very possible. And that he both caused her scar literally and figuratively.

So for me, his scar is a lot of things rolled into one: An admission of guilt (at this point regarding many things) that he consciously holds on to because he believes it irredeemable, but also, in more symbolic terms, his becoming human and vulnerable. To say it with my favourite Frank McConnell quote again:

“Dream has entered time, choice, guilt and regret—has entered the sphere of the human.”

yknow a moment from the comics i think about a lot is, when the fates slash morpheus' face, he bleeds and keeps the scar. the entire series, we see him face all kinds of adversaries, taking damage as much as he deals it, and never once does he bleed. there's no scars on his body, and we see all of it. he's smooth in a way that feels chosen, time and time again, until the idea of choice loses meaning. he's like that up until his final hours, and when he meets his end, it's with one, large, jagged scar on his jaw.

when matthew asks him why he kept the scar, he says that alianora had promised before she left that one day, they would bear matching scars. he could've healed it with a thought, but he didn't, because he remembered that promise. but why did he adhere to it?

did he realize he had wronged her, and wished to, in some way, repent? did he want to face death with a badge of that repentence? was it an admission of guilt or a cosmic balancing of scales? was he simply fulfilling some obligation to narrative symmetry?

he admits, once prompted, to having wronged alianora when talking with desire disguised as himself. when did he realize he was wrong? as soon as she left? when calliope left, too? was it related to pulling nada back out of hell? did it take seeing her, one final time as her dreamworld collapsed? what prompted this realization, and would he have admitted that to anyone, let alone desire? is facing his sister and his most trusted advisors and the cosmic entity witness to all his crimes that admission, or is it something else entirely? what does it mean that he shows off the most corporeal, emotional, fragile, and mortal part of himself as he dies? how is any meaning added to or taken away from because he takes on the wound whilst protecting his people?

it's just a lot, and there's no answer to any of this because its one of the last things morpheus does. my personal interpretation is that he sees the scar as a way of showing that he has changed, and understands he can never change enough, and that's why he needs to die. its equal parts admission and final grasp at control of his own narrative, saying "I must die, but I will die fittingly and with honor." and you don't have to subscribe to this interpretation! if you have a different one, by all means, share! i just think its a very interesting detail to include and dissect.

[ahli-stuff]

The Corinthian: more than an object but less than a human and a wretched reflection of his creator

My obsession with the Corinthian is so funny because at first it's like ok. Cool. He's this gay serial killer nightmare with creator issues who's turns out to be a charming antagonist while he's pitted against dream and going about his nefarious plans on screen. What's not to love?

But then there's the next layer of oh...he has preferences and quirks and interests, but he's not a person enough to be a human he's a tool.. that's why he gets unmade in the middle of the street by his lord!! That he had a couple millennia of history with!! Because it's easy.. Dream has the blueprints, therefore remaking the Corinthian and editing out these faulty design aspects is pragmatic. It's efficient. It's less effort and way less emotionally taxing that trying to wrangle in your rogue creation and trying coax them back into doing their job. A human makes a mistake, you correct and reprimand them and offer a better course of action. But if your wrench rusts, you throw it away and buy a new one. It doesn't matter if it's your prized or even your favorite wrench, if it's been rusted to the point of uselessness, you toss it.

And the Corinthian, the agonized wrench, can probably only think: "Did I really mean so little to you?"

I think it totally fucks with his mind. The fact that Dream refers to the Corinthian as his masterpiece and yet he is still lesser in every form of his being—his agency is lesser in every form.

But you can't really blame Dream, can you?

Dream treats the corinthans agency like he treats his own—unnegotiable. For him, it has always been perform your function or die.

Dream: We are, each of us, born with responsibilities. Even I am not free to choose to be other than what I am.

And the Corinthian, in his own eye teeths, has performed his prescribed duty perfectly without hesitation or fail for thousands of years as well and worn as a well used knife—but he knows he can do more, so he does. Because if his function is to chase and slaughter in the dreaming, what's to say can't do it in the waking too?

Besides, in the waking, he's realer. More combobulated. More valued. If you're a mirror for long enough you start to crave a look of your own.

And oh, even with the thrill of newfound freedom, he loves his lord. He's eager for to give to him—to share with him—everything that's ever been dreamed of. In the Corinthians long, long, life he has only ever had his purpose and his lord and for a while that was enough, but his expectations evolve, he changes.

And that's really what dooms him.

Over the course of The Sandman you can see that looking deeper into Dream's ideology "perform your function or die" reveals one of the true themes of the sandman which is "change yourself or die." The Corinthian, whether intentionally or unintentionally serves as a mirror to dreams own character arc and the way dream treats himself.

Like how people put facets of themselves in their original characters, I think that in the corinthian Dream put a version of his own insatiable hunger; to break every rule, to run freely, to enjoy hedonistically. In creating the Corinthian as a mirror Dream unknowingly reflected a distorted face of one of his own buried desires—and i think he couldn’t accept that.

The Corinthian even calls dream out for it at the serial convention (even though he's advocating for murder) he's also jabbing at Dream's unwillingness to show emotional vulnerability and the cage he's built around himself.

Corinthian: Or you might actually feel something.

The dream the Corinthian knows he always cared exceptionally little for humans save for a select few, so what remains is this. Dream might've cared for the Corinthian, but he would unmake him, his prized creation, not for any moral justice, not for a personal slight, but for his rules and nothing else.

For the corinthian, who has spent years upon years upon years with his lord, fighting in his wars, chasing after his approval, pouring every ounce of love and loyalty to him—it stings.

And then there's this scene.

Dream: You're right. This was my fault, not yours. I had so much hope for you. But I created you poorly then.

This is the Corinthian, knowing he is about to die, spilling his frustration and spite to his creator for maybe the first and last time and trying, desperately, to make dream understand that none of this is fair (it's never been, for either of them. It's been the function and nothing else for an eternity but they could be happy.)

This is Dream purposely misinterpreting the Corinthian in the way that is guaranteed to hurt the him the most. Dream, with a writer's indifference, reduces the Corinthian's complicated desperate desire for freedom, rebellion, and his creator's love to his typo. Like a character’s grievance towards their writer, like a man’s outrage towards their god, Dream decides not to deign the corinthian with even the right to call his treason his own. He will not even let him have that bit of agency. No, Dream made the Corinthian wrong.

And then Boyd Holbrook does a phenomenal piece of acting here—he knows how to play evil and charming so well but the Corinthian’s vulnerability is so starkly on display it feels like a knife.

And when you imagine he is about to burst into bloody tears and anguished final words, this is how it ends: they leave each other cruel and jagged, because the corinthian will not end pathetic and he will have the last word.

The Corinthian: I am only sorry I won’t be here to see Rose Walker do the same to you.

The first Corinthian never gets a happy ending.

I don’t think there’s any universe where he doesn’t bite more than he’s allowed to and there is no world where he can really be forgiven. As there is no universe where Morpheus Dream does not stubbornly tie himself to his function and hurt himself and those around him with his pride.

In objectification and the inability to change, they exist as wretched mirrors of each other: The first Corinthian, sick of his function and executed for abandoning it, and Dream, unendurably tired, taking his sister's hand in his when he can no longer bear to perform his duty.

[dyke-will-graham]

CHARLES ROWLAND RANT INCOMING:

I think Charles is in love with Edwin and I can tell you why I think that. Charles doesn’t know love, not the kind of love Edwin has for him. He’s used to probably quick hook ups and infatuations when he was alive and then his home life included abuse and his supposed friends murdered him. Charles is a lover, but he doesn’t know love when it’s directed at him. His relationship with Crystal is familiar, probably similar to the flirtatious style he used to use before. BUT when they kissed Charles focused to feel it in his mind. We know that. He used memory of kissing to make the image and feeling as real as possible.

Now let me explain why Charles is in love with Edwin and really it’s quite easily explained with a single moment. Sure we can talk about the Monty/Edwin jealousy, the smirks and obvious checking out Charles does of Edwin every five seconds but it’s so much deeper than that. In the beginning of the show Charles and Edwin hug, something that is familiar for the rest of the show. But this hug, Charles rubbed his chest, he laid his palm over his heart and rubbed softly looking down in confusion. HE FELT SOMETHING it’s unfamiliar it’s new and he has no idea what to name it so he calls it love for his best friend. He names it affection and he says “you’re my best mate” because that’s as close as he can get to naming this feeling.

Charles doesn’t know what it’s like to be in love, not consciously, so this unique love he has for Edwin? He chalks it up to something else. I mean Edwin just learned to name his own feelings what makes y’all think Charles is any more adjusted when his whole arc in season one was his ability to protect through violence but his desire to be soft and kind and happy for his friends?

They’re both disasters. Now please renew the damn show so I can see them work through it all together.

[shaylogic]

Charles' "Abuse PTSD" stare vs his "Looking for Death's Arrival" stare

[writing-for-life]

Controversial opinion, but not quite unreasonable to assume:

He chose her because she is Eve (because Lucien was Adam, pretty much canonically).

Whether we get her rolled into one with Eve in the show or not doesn’t even matter (perhaps we might—she already looks after the ravens in a way), because I think that’s still who she stands for: Humanity from day one, so to speak (I’m not religious, so I prefer a reading of “humanity in its entirety/essence”, but if people want to see her as actual biblical Eve, they can do that, too, I guess):

Deeply flawed, definitely NOT whole, hurt, constantly grappling with questions that have no true answers (that’s another reason to be a librarian I guess). And being self-aware and acknowledging her own PERSONHOOD, because that’s what Eve stands for and always did (it’s just that white, churchy-type men always had a thing for condemning that type of woman and saw them as sinful. Oh how afraid they are. And that’s why I love that they gave us Lucienne instead of Lucien, because while the idea is the same, it shifts the narrative in ways that are important. To me anyway, the hater of misogynists I am 🤣)

And maybe, just maybe, all of Dream’s talking about not having his own story is important in this context. Because he chose someone who is very aware of her personhood, in all her incarnations (that she was his first raven doesn’t change anything about that at all, or do people believe Matthew isn’t aware of his personhood just because he’s a raven now?). Just sayin’…

But no, she is most certainly not whole(some), as in untainted with no broken parts (you can still be whole without being “whole”, and broken without being beyond repair, but that’s semantics). That would be diametrically opposed to why she is who she is in the first place. And to assume that her seeming in control is some sign of no inner turmoil is… just so odd to me? The most hurting, most broken people often seemingly have it all together. People have different coping mechanisms. If your inner world shatters, some will outwardly unravel and fall apart, and others will busy themselves, stay meticulously in control of stuff because that’s the only control they have left and can hold on to. Until they can’t. And just because we can’t see that happening to Lucienne because the camera is on Dream, so to speak, doesn’t mean it’s not there. It’s wild to me that people can see all these patterns in him (rightly so), but can’t step back for a second and think, “Wait, she can’t be well, can she?”

Next: I honestly don’t get all these fic portrayals of Lucienne as some sort of cheerleader for you-know-what (*any* of his relationships to be frank. I just see her inwardly, and often outwardly, roll her eyes). Or being servile, or being almost afraid of him. She is not afraid of him. She is the one person (yes, person) who can tell him what she thinks. She is the one person who is allowed to tell him off. He might theatrically huff and puff about it to save face, but I think he doesn’t truly mind. And if and when he does, he will huff a bit more, but he will always think about it. Because he knows what he is, and he knows what she is, and why he chose her to be where she is in the first place. Because he wants her there for very specific reasons. He gave her access to everything he is for even more specific reasons.

[Sidenote: Even in my own fic, and even though I have no canon love interests for him but an OC, Lucienne has a very special status he even points out very clearly, and there are things and reasons and… things. And she is the only one who will actually tell him off, and remind him of… stuff. And she will do it with her head held high and an unwavering stare. Plus, I personally also like to think while fiercely loyal, that doesn’t exclude the possibility that she’s actually a bit of a gossip when the doors are closed. But she knows the doors are never fully closed when you’re in the Dreaming, so even that isn’t straightforward. And the closest she ever gets to “cheering” is when she comments about a “good match” [but to her, that doesn’t necessary equal “being good for each other”. It’s pretty much, “Yes, shame, and now he’s hurting, maybe that’s even hurting me if I think too closely about it, but let’s not linger on it and move on.” Because that’s what she does, for better, for worse]. Plus plus, there are moments in the sequel when we get a glimpse of other… stuff and inner emotional workings, but never mind.]

And while I personally see them as platonic, mainly for the reason that romantic entanglement between them would be catastrophic (I think she’d need to stop being his librarian to avoid major fallout when things go wrong, as they canonically would because they always do, and that’s on him because he is unreality, and she very much isn’t, even if she is in the Dreaming), I honestly think that if one wanted to spin the thought further for fic, there are a million-and-one more reasons for them to be emotionally close and understanding of each other than with a guy he meets for an hour every hundred years. I wonder what ship we would have had if Lucienne were still Lucien. But what do I know…

Calliope is a tricky one for me (canonically, they’re my OTP). Yes, divine pride and tragedy (in that way, they are so similar, and their conceptual closeness is undoubtedly what attracted them to each other in the first place). But it was ultimately him who shut her out. Yes, she told him off and left, but she went back. I think (I obviously can’t know if she would’ve scratched his eyes out again) she would have talked things through, but he didn’t let her back in and basically pretended he didn’t know her. Because the Guardians of the Gate are basically him, even if he gave them sentience. Like everything in the Dreaming apart from a few characters, of which Lucienne and Matthew are the most prominent ones, but there are a handful of others. Which brings us back to the point. Both Matthew and Lucienne can talk back to him without real consequence to them. Calliope couldn’t (until he spent some time in a fishbowl that changed him). People can make of that what they want.

I have many more thoughts but no more time, so I’ll stop here. Ramble ramble… 🤣

ok sorry the OTHER thing about lucienne is like. as previously stated she is dream's handpicked emissary from the waking world to the dreaming she's the diplomat in chief she's the translator she's the bridge. because the dreaming is, in a very real way, dream's own psyche, this is tantamount to giving lucienne a tremendous degree of access to his interiority and by transitive property also tantamount to entering into a deeply emotionally intimate relationship with her (unimportant for the purposes of this post whether that relationship is platonic or romantic).

now, in general, looking at the pattern of dream's close emotional relationships—dream doesn't share himself with people as a rule (beyond the access that all things that live have to the dreaming; but i'm talking about his self here, the one he doesn't like to acknowledge he even has), but when he does share with people, it's with people who have some shadow on the soul, so to speak. just looking at attested relationships in show canon, his deepest emotional connection seems to be with death, who embodies the duality of light and dark even better than he does himself. calliope is the muse of epic poetry—heroism and tragedy—and also bears the sort of divine pride that led her to cut dream off for hundreds or thousands of years when he wronged her. the less said about that other guy, the better, but he's no sunshine-rainbows-unicorns type—he's a soldier of fortune, a bandit and a killer, a man who profits from the sale of human life. even best bird matthew, in comix canon, had a sordid past that will maybe be partially retconned for the show but has still been gestured at.

dream likes the complicated ones. he's drawn to them. they speak to something in him that he won't acknowledge in himself (he has to be Whole, fully integrated, without reservation, because he is the king and he is the dreaming and if the dreaming ain't whole then the universe is in trouble—but he feels that ache nonetheless).

all that is to say: when people try to portray lucienne as dream's Designated Well-Adjusted Neurotypical Friend, i begin to harm and maim.

[bobbole]

Hob vs Shakespeare: or capitalism vs Art (and the corresponding visions of immortality)

written for The Sandman Book Club

Leaving aside the holy transfiguration that has been made by fandom in recent years, the character of Hob is very significant. Representing the literary topos of the ordinary man, the man without qualities, the all-too-human human, he is characterized not by his virtues (and if we want, not even by his vices) but precisely by being a normal, banal creature, as all human creatures are in the eyes of the gods.

Hob's entry in Men of Good Fortune also has countless references in mythological literature. Two deities, Death and Dream, who observe human beings with the curiosity of those who never, or almost never, get down in the middle but are always up high (It might be interesting...). Can eternity be humanly bearable? Can a human being eternally refuse the embrace of death? It reminds me a little of the wager between God and the Devil on poor Job in the Bible: will Job be able to endure the most terrible misfortunes without denying the name of God?

But Hob isn't a man of faith. He does not see in eternal life a means to elevate himself as a human being but to enjoy earthly opportunities. He is an entrepreneur, an ante litteram capitalist: whether it is the war, the printing or the slave industry, Hob's actions have value as instruments to make money and a high standard of living. Love and pain, however great and lacerating, do not deter him from the one constant goal in a life full of ups and downs: to live forever. The ambition, precisely, of an ordinary man without qualities, whose interpretation of eternity can only coincide with the desire for the eternal, abundant satisfaction of materialistic needs.

Hob's vision of immortality is particularly jarring in a story full of great writers' cameos. Chaucer. Marlowe. Shakespeare. Immortals too, of another idea of immortality, achieved through art. There could not be a more stark contrast between these two visions and it is no coincidence that Hob's immortality is the result of a game between gods and human while that of the artists often is a deal with the divinity, be it benevolent or malevolent. Hob's immortality is an immortality without sacrifice, or rather, without there being anything really worth sacrificing for: no love is so great as to make him give it up. The immortality of the artist, on the other hand, is one for which the artist sacrifices everything, primarily himself.

Yet it is not the immortality of artists that we identify with. It fascinates us, seduces us, but it is to the immortality of the common man, the immortality of Hob, that most of us would look with envy. Capitalist immortality in a capitalist society: Live & Consume. Forever.

[imjustmessy]

Random though: As someone who really likes contrast in pretty much everything (clothing, hair color, decoration) now that I’m drawing Cori I realize how monochromatic and “boring” his color palette is, especially in the show, not that I haven’t realized watching his scenes before but when you draw him is even more noticeable

[writing-for-life]

I am also someone who thinks we’ll get the same ending as in the comics because there’s already been far too much foreshadowing for it not to happen, BUT I’d like to specifically focus on the suicide angle a tiny bit. Not just because I think this is where we will see change (more in the way of overall character development), but also with the understanding of his ending in the comics. Because I think even in the comics, it's not as simple as saying "it was *just* suicide."

I still have a meta about this in the making but I can’t find the time to complete it (the writing is never the problem because I’m a speedwriting blabberer and can write 1,000 words in 15 minutes when I’m warm. But the research, quotes and image/panel sourcing *are*, because they take a shit-ton of time. If you want to do analysis and quote properly, it takes so friggin’ long, and I’m always like 😭), but I think we often focus on the *planned* suicide too much, and that’s what leaves a bitter taste in a lot of people’s mouths in my opinion.

So although I’m not quoting and panel-sourcing right now and therefore firmly in hunching territory (although fairly informed hunching, spoilers ahead):

I absolutely think it is true that Morpheus wanted a way out for a long time. A lot longer than Preludes and Nocturnes (we can close our eyes all we want to The Sound of her Wings, but it’s there—in both comics AND show. In the latter, he didn’t just reach for his sister’s hands and then ultimately went for her lower arms because he was touch-starved. She didn’t look confused and taken aback at that gesture for nothing. In the former, he didn’t recite the poem for nothing. The undertones are deliberate and really fairly obvious). You can’t read Dream Hunters, which is set a lot further back in time, and not see it either. We can't not think about Puck and Loki and Morpheus being the architect of his own demise, it’s all true.

BUT, and this is a big one: I personally don’t think he planned for it to go down *exactly* the way it did. Was it a suicide in the end? Well quite strictly speaking I guess so, but I think it was more of a surrender, for lack of better term--also and already in the comics. Surrender of self (and that’s loaded on purpose). He didn’t fight it because he was at peace with his decision, and he could justify it because he didn’t want to cause any more damage to the Dreaming. But I also think that he would have done it more “elegantly” (again for lack of better term) if the chess pieces had moved slightly differently. How that exactly would have looked, we’ll never know, but I also think he *did* see Daniel as his way out, and given the way his mind operates, he was also convinced it was for the better. And that is a realisation that was mostly exacerbated by the time he spent in the fishbowl and the events that began to unfold after, because we all know that forced him to think about past mistakes, become less aloof and, yes, more human in the sense of being vulnerable but also kinder. No one denies, or ever did, that he changed and was fully capable of it bar him, also not in the comics. Not even Lucien (he refers to how Morpheus related to change, not how he does).

I would love to write so much more about this and have touched on much of this in previous metas, but for today, I’ll just keep it at: 

It might have panned out slightly differently, but he backed himself into a corner on several occasions because he couldn’t let go of his sense of duty and rigidity (that is his fatal flaw, and they haven’t removed that from the show either). But I also believe there is a strong possibility he didn’t want it to happen exactly this way.

There are simply too many signs that he didn’t: I genuinely believe while he did a deal with Loki, he was double-crossed, and he planned for things to go differently (again, we’ll never know how exactly) and then made the best of a bad situation. And it would surprise me if we didn’t see some type of change around that in the show, because that whole child burning thing would not land well in my opinion. But who knows.

He also tried to stop Lyta. One could say so she doesn’t cause more damage—despite knowing he could repair most of it, he doesn’t like seeing the denizens of the Dreaming hurt; it hurts him since he is the Dreaming (now, if you wanted a really uncharitable reading, you could call that self-punishment or -flagellation of course). But he gave them sentience, and IMHO, it’s just not him to hurt sentient beings and not care (just think of Rose or the first vortex, and even though he was awful to Nada, it still hurt him, plus there’s a whole different dimension to her rejecting him as a concept—she is the one who rejected hope and hence what he stands for outright by committing suicide, which is an awful mirror in a way). If he can avoid it, he will.

Then that looks of course totally at odds with his leaving the Dreaming when Nuala calls in her boon, but that’s where the fatal flaw comes into play: He HAS to keep his promises. He always does. It’s impossible for him not to, but if you just look at his face in that scene, you KNOW he is genuinely devastated about it and didn’t just leave the Dreaming because none of it mattered anyway: He had promised her, and you keep a promise, for better, for worse. Because it is the right thing to do EVEN IF IT COMES AT GREAT COST TO YOURSELF. Lessons were learned—read Dream Hunters with that in mind, I can’t repeat it often enough. It is so, so important. It makes so many jigsaw pieces fall into place, and this is just one of them.

Just like you kill your son because you promised, even if you fully understand what that means.

There’s also a lot in the relationship to Nuala that needs further exploration in my view (while I don’t ship them, I don’t think it is as simple as it is often made out to be, because he cared about her A LOT. Much more than he ever let on, and I personally think he told her a few white lies in the end to protect her, but that’s of course mere speculation on my part. But there is a lot of subtext to their relationship that really isn’t straightforward at all).

And since I mentioned “surrender”: I have a hunch this is perhaps what we will see in the show—surrender. I think it will end pretty much the same way, but I would imagine (and could be entirely wrong) they might remove some of that bitter aftertaste of “he just offed himself”. I could see how we get more of a “noble sacrifice”, as already mentioned, but I also think we will absolutely get his heaviness of heart, his weariness and brokenness, especially after Orpheus (because there is no way they won’t give us killing him) and his being at peace with his decision in the end.

And in terms of looking at media: Just because we see his rough edges filed off and get some changes in the show that hint at different dynamics and his capability to change, doesn’t mean the ending will be different. Because the more you see him as a person (using that term loosely here), the more you can identify with his plight (comics!Morpheus was an arsehole for a long time who often only showed compassion because it was *rational* to do so, and that would be VERY hard to empathise with for a show audience that basically has to be on board from episode one to keep watching), the more it will pull the rug from under your feet, the more you will FEEL if he still dies.

We empathise most with people we are rooting for. And we also cry most for them. 

So I’d personally be very wary to think that any of the changes we’ve seen in the show, significant as they were, will change the outcome in any way. They will just make the inevitable hurt more, and that’s how movies and shows without happy endings work. I personally don’t have a problem with it because I like the catharsis that comes with feeling deeply, being absolutely devastated and crying my eyes out. I also get that some people don’t like that feeling and are more inclined to wish for happy endings (but what would happen to all our fanfics in that case? Nothing to write about because all problems are solved. That’s why we are writing, folks! Because it inspires us to want him to do better and live. Well, unless we’re writing porn of course, then it doesn’t matter, apart from the living part for as long as they’re at it🤣). It’s very personal…

Yeah, speedwriting blabbering and a lot of tangents 🙈

Every time I write a new meta exploring the Netflix adaptation of the Sandman comics and what they changed, I draw the same conclusion. Even if I don't start the meta even considering that conclusion I can't get away from it. I've been wrapped up in the comic canon for a while now and the comics only have one ending and no other ending is really possible unless you really hyperfocus on Hob's dream. I totally support comic analysis that concludes that the ending is paramount and fixed and cannot be changed. Comic focused meta writers are adament the story must play out as per the comics and I respect that reading.

But then I delve into show meta again and I once again reach the same conclusion: they are changing it. They must be changing it. The show canon doesnt allign with the comics. Its too hopeful, too kind, too supportive.

Maybe too much hope is as much of a bad thing as not enough? There was never any hope in the comic universe. Overture makes that very clear. But the Netflix universe? Oodles of hope. Hope in all corners. Filled to the brim with hope.

I'm completely at a loss and in two minds about it. I'm fascinated and terrified about it. Perhaps we wont even get that far though. Maybe Netflix will cancel the show before we get a chance to see its natural ending. Season 2 could also totally do a 180 on the groundwork season 1 laid down so there is that. I don't know... I'm so confused by it all.

[so-i-grudgingly-joined-this-site]

So, while we're discussing the subject of what Dream of the Endless does or doesn't cover genre-wise (having determined that he would NOT discard the genre of romance from his repertoire), who do we think covers adaptations and fanfiction?

Because in the Death comics, which are as far as I know full canon, Death insists that Dream HATES adaptations or changes because they "ruin" the story's "true form". She specifically cites him hating Disney's The Little Mermaid, for changing the Hans Christian Andersen story.

(I've seen some "fans" use this as an excuse to hate on the Netflix show, since Dream hates any change to a story and even just adapting it to television would be a technical change...)

So, if he disowns adapted or altered storytelling...my guess is on Destruction. Because you're "destroying" an existing story and using the pieces to create a new one... and Destruction, IIRC, also embodies creation. Plus we know he likes making stuff for fun, regardless of the outcome, which feels very much in the spirit of fan-works.

But then again, it's also been stated by Neil that the ONLY Endless to care about stories at all is Dream... so does he just actively despise a subsection of his realm and the people who dwell in it? (I guess that might be part of why he hates his job so fucking much...) Are adaptational authors under the "no gods no kings" zone? How much strict adherence to canon does he demand--would filming a Shakespeare play with mostly the original script but a different setting be too spicy for him? Would filming what was intended to be a live play already be too much "change" to the "proper" form of the story?

I really think Neil's statement totally disregards Destruction's well established creative/artistic hobbies (or heck, even the way Desire tends to "live for the drama" could fall under the enjoyment of stories, since they enjoy seeing how people act out), but hey, I'm not the author...

Thoughts?

@duckland @orionsangel86 @academicblorbo @roguelov @notallsandmen

[writing-for-life]

Only Hope (!) calls you out like that…

Since I’m currently in the process of writing the mother of all “H/hope in the Sandman”-metas, just a couple of random panels about Hope, Dream and Desire. This one, obviously everyone talks about quite often…

And this is doubly important since this happens after a certain 1889 meeting, but before the fishbowl. So Dream didn’t have the experience of being captured yet that furthered his change. And yet, his reaction to her is very different than the reaction to Hob (also: Can we talk about the symbolism in Hope reaching out her hand, touching him and his allowing it?). Because she is Hope.

(And innocence I dare say—she is a child for a reason.)

But the panel hardly anyone ever talks about is this one:

That’s Hope saying the exact same thing to Desire. And they have the same reaction. And she calls them out on their bullshit in exactly the same way. (And again, can we talk about the symbolism in asking Hope to join you and her replying she will come with you? That’s more than just the obvious “We’re saving the universe and you stand for the afterlife”, which is also a biggie, but that’s for the other meta). Because she is Hope.

Both Dream and Desire are so lonely (I’d hazard a guess she could say this to all the Endless btw). And they both cope with it in such maladjusted ways. But they let a child call them out like no one else is allowed to call them out. They bristle, but they don’t overreact like they do with others (especially Dream). Because she is Hope.

(And all of that’s to say: She is the personification of H/hope, not any of the other side-characters that commonly get hope projected on them. And D/dream(s) are hopes and always will be because she touches/d them.)

[stuckasmain]

Besting death-

The idea of besting death and gaining  immortality is something that spans across most cultures. A lot of mythology across the world has stories of someone trying to be immortal for one reason or another. In the sandman there are two notable characters who have bested or made a deal with death and cannot die. Orpheus and Hob. It’s interesting to me because neither of them really set out to obtain immortality. Hob was just drunk and Orpheus just wanted to save his wife. It’s the ‘be careful what you wish for’ lesson but with two very different outcomes.

⚠️comic series spoilers⚠️

Bright side of life-

Hob hasn’t always had a easy life, he’s had many mind you but he reminds me of a farmer. He really lives under “feast or famine” he can have a great decade/century or a horrible one. It all depends. Though his later ones have been very well off, even if he has to deal with the heart ache of wives, loved ones and friends dying off and it becoming a cycle. He’s had his fight with the bad parts of humanity but ultimately came out with a lust and love for life, he wants to stick around and see what’s next.

Consequence of love-

Orpheus on the other hand never intended to live forever. He just didn’t read the fine print to the deal he had made with his aunt- stubborn and grieving he charged headfirst towards death and the underworld. One thing on his mind. And for his love, for his stubbornness, he suffers eternally. He has no body, no friends or loves - he has his grief and that is it. He got the hard lesson, he got the endless pain and begging for death that Dream expected Hob to have after a few centuries! It’s actually insane how connected these two characters are, in this sense at least.

[practically-an-x-man]

Prometheus x Corinthian Playlist Analysis (Part One)

Took a page out of my friend's book (thanks for inspiring me @can-of-pringles) and made a playlist for one of my ships. And since these lyrics are just chock-full of symbolism, here's analysis of some of my favorites:

Secret Worlds - The Amazing Devil

This one's the title of the fic, and the song that I personally feel fits these two best. Plus, there are several Amazing Devil songs on here, and it seems to me that Joey's parts always seem to line up with the Corinthian, and Madeleine's parts always seem to line up with Prometheus.

Notable lyrics:

I'd reach out for your hand, you'd sing/ Do I have to be who I was? (you're not)/ Do I have to be who I am? - This line could connect to both Prometheus and Corinthian, but I like to think of it as Corinthian's pondering and Prometheus urging him towards change ("you're not"), just like what happens in the fic

I look at those/ Secret worlds you call eyes - Kind of self explanatory...

And wonder if we might/ Let something change (there's something weaved/ Leaves like broken shards of stained glass/ Windows, shining in your light - Ah yes, the lyric that prompted the title of the fic! This line just has everything. Beginning with the discussion of change and transformation, the reference to stained glass connecting to the shifting windows in the Dreaming, and the "shining in your light" taken to mean Prometheus' torch.

Battle Cries - The Amazing Devil

Alright, not the order of the playlist itself (there really is no order, I just kinda threw songs in as I found them) but I'm gonna put all the Amazing Devil songs here while I'm on the subject

Notable lyrics:

I won't leave you without a fight (I won't let you turn our last night into this) - To me, this connects to the "Corruption" ending of the fic. In the song, the parentheses are Joey's lyrics while the non-parentheses are Madeleine's, which still links back to Corinthian and Prometheus

All it took to unearth in the dust and the dirt/ Some release or respite from the heat and the hurt - Representing Prometheus' initial transformation into a dream.

(And we'd laugh at the ghosts of our fears)/ We were gods (we were kids) - The "ghosts of our fears" as well as the connection to kids links closely back to Prometheus and how they used to be a nightmare (the fear of the dark, in fact), and the fact that the two of them always meet while protecting children from nightmares.

The Calling - The Amazing Devil

Notable lyrics:

I'd burn so bright it blinded/ Now I know that light guided me here - This lyric in particular represents Prometheus very well, with their present themes of reaching for the light and carrying their torch

I walked into the river/ To wring those embers from my broken heart and broken liver - Again, the embers to represent Prometheus' fire and torch, and combined with the "broken liver" to represent the original Prometheus from Greek mythology

Shoulder the sky/ Open those eyes/ There's a kind of calling, calling - Links to the Corinthian, being "called" by Prometheus in both the Corruption and Redemption endings of the fic

New York Torch Song - The Amazing Devil

Okay, this is the last Amazing Devil song I have on this playlist, I promise. For now, at least. They just have so many incredibly rich lyrics!

Notable lyrics:

It starts off like a pinprick/ A trick of the light oil slick/ Then grows to the size of your hand - This represents the inner "spark" within Prometheus (and later the Corinthian as well) that starts out small but eventually grows as they "reach for the light"

But your blood does not bleed red no more/ It's whiter than the sun burns, bright with every hum/ From within this gaping wound of ours/ A new us has begun. - Another reference to the transformation from nightmare to dream, and this one's fairly obvious. Bonus points for another reference to light and fire, and double bonus points just for the line "a new us has begun"

(There's also a reference to Cain and Abel in the lyrics, which is a little funny)

Okay, now past the Amazing Devil and their amazing music, and on to the other songs in this playlist. Starting simply...

Skeletons - Brothers Osborne - no particular symbolism in these lyrics, it's just the Corinthian's signature song and I had to include it

Fear of the Dark - Iron Maiden - again, no particularly poetic lyrics, the song's mainly in here to represent how Prometheus was once the fear of the dark before becoming a dream

Nightmare - AViVA - another song about Prometheus' past as the fear of the dark ("I am the thing that goes bump in the night")

Welcome to My Nightmare - Alice Cooper - another song to set the tone of dreams and nightmares, and the way they always meet in nightmares

The Outside - Twenty One Pilots - not much direct symbolism here, I just felt like this one represented breaking from the norm or the predetermined role that's been set for each of them

Dancing in the Dark - Imagine Dragons - no major symbolism here, just the idea of two lovers meeting in the darkness :)

Carve Away the Stone - Rush

Notable lyrics:

Try to put the sins of the past night behind you - Another lyrics that can connect equally to both Prometheus and Corinthian, as well as the idea of transformation

Roll away the stone/ If you could just move yours/ I could get working on my own - This lyric represents the need for them to support each other. As far as who's speaking to whom, I think that depends on the ending (Corruption or Redemption)

Bonus points for this one: this song references Sisyphus, who was the original king of.... Corinth! Pretty convenient, huh?

Torches - X Ambassadors

This song was suggested to me by @photographypunk, and I'm kind of in awe of how well it fits!

Notable lyrics:

And if you get lost in the shadows/ There's a fire inside you/ Be the light that guides you - Primarily, this links back to Prometheus' transformation into a dream and finding the light, but I think it can connect to each of the two endings as well - getting lost in the shadows being the Corruption ending, finding the fire within being the Redemption ending

Come on, carry your flame/ Carry it higher/ Leave it in the darkness/ Carry your torches - Self explanatory, and the main chorus of the song!

I Like the Way - lovelytheband

Like the previous song, this one was suggested to me (thanks @can-of-pringles!!) and again, fits incredibly well with the theme! Honestly, this and Torches are what inspired me to make a playlist, since it made me realize how many song lyrics I could link back to this story

Notable lyrics:

I had dreams/ You're a nightmare/ But I loved it/ No one else compares - I mean... need I say more? Really?

Oh, I like the way you mess with my heart/ Baby, I like the way it hurts/ Oh, I like the things we do in the dark/ Baby, I like the way it hurts - Bit of a reference to the buildup of their relationship, as well as the way they keep meeting in the dark and the shadows of the nightmares

You seem nice/ I seem confident/ I'm a fool/ I won't get over this - Personally, I see this line from Corinthian's perspective, realizing how much he's fallen for Prometheus without even meaning to

I'm gonna leave this one here, I'll do the rest in multiple parts!

(Part Two) (Part Three)

[bobbole]

@windsweptinred Yes!!! it's indeed a fascinating aspect and your tags made me think of how truly exceptional is, in Nightmare Country, that Daniel allows the Corinthian to investigate in the waking world (despite Lucien practically constantly propagandising against the Nightmare). Morpheus would NEVER have allowed it! It's true, he puts Madison Flynn near him as a 'control system', but it's actually a great transgression of those very rules in which Daniel believes, as you rightly write, fanatically!

And I also think back to the scene in Azazel's club, how the demon practically puts temptation at his fingertips but the Corinthian does not take it, goes ahead, follows the 'rules' but not in a servile way: following Daniel's rules is a way of asserting his role, in relation to the First and also in relation to Daniel.

Daniel and the Corinthian are united by being an exception, an 'anomaly' (pass me the term) within The Dreaming, and they are also united by the fact that they are each other's exceptions. For you, I will break the rules; for you, I will follow the rules.

my favorite ship dynamic is betrayal. not when they betray each other but when one or both of them turn against their cause, their principles and/or loved ones for the other. bonus points if the person they're abandoning everything for didn't remotely expect it. ultimate declaration of love. "you mean more to me than everything i ever believed in. i am more loyal to you than my conscience. i love you more than the thing i would die for."

[shaylogic]

There's Something in the Water = Demons

"You're LYING" ~Crystal, Episode 7 He created a portal [to Hell?]!!!

Crystal, girl, you need to learn some demonology and get David's real name. He's some kind of aquatic-based demon. Some sort of brown fish based off Kelli Dunmore's costume Design.

Cat King and Monty had designs based off their animals. Even Esther FINCH had Finch-colored costumes.

@captainfantasticalright has god-tier posts on all the characters' costume designs. Here's the post on Crystal.

I've been noticing Crystal wears lots of brown, which seems to be the demon's color. You especially see these in relevant scenes with the demon, like when she's exorcised and wearing brown shorts.

She's got brown overalls on her hero color purple shirt when she confronts and buries David.

She also has a brown (demon) letterman jacket (reference to Charles' Harrington jacket -- in a boyfriend jacket vibe?) on with a hem that has burgundy/yellow-stripes (like Charles' collar). This is during the episode when she banished David from her head. She's still wrapped up in the concern of him.

Crystal similarly has the red and white stripe hem in ep 4 (with blue jacket to rep Edwin after she bonded with him in the Devlin house). I made a brief post on this here. Here's the image from it:

The demon's name is not David.

That's the human's name.

ALSO ON KELLI DUNSMORE'S WEBSITE she has pics of her work, including the costumes on Dead Boy Detectives, and she had THIS PICTURE FOR SOME REASON

Not really showing the costume design well in this shot that we NEVER SAW IN THE SHOW! Is this a deleted scene!?

I THINK THIS IS HUMAN!DAVID GETTING POSSESSED!!!!

In season 2, Crystal will need to learn the demon's True Name to banish him like Johanna Constantine did in Sandman.

What are we thinking this bitch looks like in his true form?