So, fandom seems to have all jumped on the Dream-can-shapeshift train. Mostly from Alex’s dream where Morpheus gets his revenge in the show. And then likely Tale of a Thousand Cats.
However in the comics, Alex is following the cat that was sacrificed to summon Death and then Dream shows himself. And it’s also a bit clearer that the cat (like any living thing) is viewing Dream’s feline aspect.
So the question is…do you think Dream (or any Endless) Can shape shift in canon? Or is this just a headcanon run wild because it makes for good fan fiction?
i mean, i'm never one for ruining fandom's fun, so i think if people are enjoying that headcanon, then by all means run wild with it - there's no reason why he couldn't, in theory, shapeshift
(he can certainly modify elements of his appearance, see: i hate it when you get big, or delirium changing forms every five seconds)
and i think going back to the comics it's not necessarily a given that the cat in alex's dream isn't dream?
however you are right in that shapeshifting is not normally what dream is doing when we see him change forms
and i definitely get where the confusion is coming from, particularly for show only fans, because the show doesn't really explain what's going on, the best you have to infer it is the kai'ckul scene, and if you haven't read the comics i think it's a little hard to follow that to the correct conclusion
but i think the actual answer is even cooler! so, for show fans who are interested, i'll avoid plot spoilers on this one, but to explain what's actually happening
the endless have thousands and thousands of forms, one for every species and culture that experiences them, in this case, everyone who dreams has a personalized Dream
and every endless is always all of those forms at once - it's likened to gemstones, in the comics, you only see one facet at a time, but that doesn't mean there isn't many more, and if you turn it you'll see a different shape - but the stone was always all of those shapes (and we'll never be able to see the true form of the endless in the same way you can't infer the whole diamond when all you can see is one triangle)
who knows how the endless see each other when they're alone, with no other creature to inform their shape, but the fact that dream always looks human is explicitly because the reader is a character in the story. we have to look at him to read the comics or watch the tv show, and therefore we will see him in a familiar shape
still, that familiar shape is nothing but whatever you call an optical illusion when it concerns all of your senses
it's not a hologram, you can touch him, he can interact with things, and it looks like he's doing so as a human - but the endless do bend reality just a little bit around them, and to a different species of observer dream's gonna interact with things in a slightly different way. again to the gemstones, it's like we're 2d beings trying to watch a 3d shape move around - there's always going to be some motion that seems nonsensical and makes it look like the 3d shape is changing forms, because we can't see that extra dimension informing it
even among humans, like we saw with nada - it doesn't always mean you'll see the pale skinny dream. it depends on who's watching
(what they were trying to convey in that scene in the show, is that matthew is seeing the dream played by tom sturridge the whole time, but nada only ever sees kai'ckul - dream doesn't change shape, the camera changes perspective)
so if a human and a cat are looking at dream at the same time, the human will see our familiar dream, and the cat will see the king of cats - but he's both, he's always been both, and he's never going to stop being both
and yeah, while i have absolutely no issue with "hob has to deal with meowpheus" fic (i say this with love, but let's be real, it's always dreamling fic), i'd love to see more of "hob has to deal with the realisation that dream is in cat form right now, he just can't see it"
