I was surprised to find someone in my Sandman Facebook group actually complaining about “The Oldest Game” in The Sandman Netflix series (episode 4). They seemed disappointed that it wasn’t a “Real” battle but instead it was “like watching them play Dungeons and Dragons.” Meanwhile the majority of us Sandman fans loved the scene. When I first read that scene that was when I knew I was reading something truly different from the usual DC content. I was reading something truly special.
To the person complaining about it, I am afraid The Sandman might not be to your taste. There is very little physical combat and scenes like The Oldest Game / “I am Hope” are what hooked a lot of us.
The Oldest Game is based on something TV Tropes (and The Sword in the Stone) calls a “Wizard’s Duel” or a Wizard Duel. The concept turns up a lot in folklore and mythology. It’s where two magical entities (sometimes sorcerers, sometimes Gods, sometimes shapeshifters) have a duel of wits and creativity using their powers and imagination.
In The Sandman this battle was for Morpheus’s helm. If he won he got his helm back. If Morpheus lost he would have been enslaved by Choronzon The Demon.
Here’s how the game usually works. The challenged usually gets to make the first move. They pick a form or a spell and it is usually non-lethal. You’re supposed to start small and build up to bigger / more imposing things. The battle follows TBL (Turn based Logic) like in a tabletop or online text based role playing game. So the Dungeons and Dragons comparison isn’t actually wrong so much as it’s not quite the right role playing game. (Yes, I AM a nerd. Thank you for noticing.)
After the first move is made the opponent may take the hit and then make an offensive move (attack) in return or instead of taking the hit, they can make a defensive counter move to avoid taking the hit but in doing so the person loses the opportunity to make a offensive move. If you’re clever you can sometimes get away with a single move that does both but that is tricky. So the choice is usually take damage and attack or protect from damage and not attack until the next turn. The game is usually about “one upping” the opponent so you go for something slightly bigger and better than what they used.
In some versions of the game you are allowed to defend yourself and then make an attack move during the same turn so you don’t have to make the choice of defense or attack. In both variations, if you’re clever enough you can come up with a combo of attack and defense in one move but that’s rare.
Usually it’s like this. If your opponent throws a magical dart, you can create a shield or shoot a similar projectile but in some variations you can do both if you can pull it off in a single concept (like creating an armored knight holding a sword and shield). If the rival turned into a rat, you can turn into a cat. Hopefully you get the idea. You can’t go too big too fast or the creativity and strategy the game is known for is lost. It’s a game of wits and creativity after all, not really brute force.
Recently I have seen some people try to argue that during the Lucifer and Morpheus version of the duel that Despair can kill Hope and that Lucifer could have won if she was willing to say she is Despair. No, that may have just caused an unhappy stalemate because pretty much everything that can destroy Hope can also be destroyed by Hope. Hope kills Despair as surely as Despair kills Hope. They are two sides of the same coin after all. It would just be an infinite loop at that point. However there is also the argument that Hope springs eternal while Despair is always only temporary, depending on your perspective.
I have provided three pop culture examples of The Wizard’s Duel. The first is the version in Netflix’s The Sandman between Lucifer and Morpheus.
The second is from Disney’s Sword in the Stone between Mim and Merlin.
The third is from the 1963 film The Raven starring Vincent Price and Boris Karloff. I have a bias in favor of this one since I love this movie. It was written by the late Richard Matheson, directed by Roger Corman, and starred Vincent Price. It came out the same year as Disney’s The Sword in the Stone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZOwaeAEIw0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxqhjWcS8zQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2gBhMdJ23Q
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