Sorry but Netflix Sandman Bent Over Backwards to Give Us a Kinder Ending
I know people are upset. A lot of people do not understand why this show gave us hope, after hope, after hope only to have those hopes fail. It feels cruel to those people.
I understand this. I respectfully disagree.
Because this was always going to happen.
Morpheus was dead to begin with.
For me? The hope was the point.
We didn't GET Overture so we had to see the hope somehow.
The point is that we have to have hope, even when it feels like there is no point, because it is through hope that opportunity is created. That's where the multiple Destinies come from - which we got instead of Desire's ship after Hope the Girl died. Hope is the point literally and metaphorically in Overture and since we can't go there? The Sandman carries it as a through line in the show, in the face of something that should be as impossible as saving a dying universe - that is defeating the Furies.
Furthermore seeing a Dream who wasn't suicidal, who didn't want to die, who did everything possible to live even when it was impossible for him because of his values and his available choices was beautiful and important to me.
Because sometimes? There is no other way out of a situation based on who one is, and what one is willing to do.
Because Morpheus could have done a lot of things to survive! But if he had? It would have changed reality for the worse, or it would have changed him for the worse, or it would have been crueler.
Or it would have been a deus ex machina. And that isn't the story we have.
Like Daniel said, sometimes things just happen that are unfair and stories are generated to create an explanation.
But this show took Morpheus's story out of the comic? And it made it kinder, it gave him more support, it gave him more empathy more understanding, more people who care about him, and it made the people who care about him more able to hear him and be heard by him, and it gave him more love, just, generally, coming and going.
Sometimes? Terrible things happen and the only solace to be found is that we have done everything possible to try to stop it. And while you can look at that has the show teasing you with false hope? Th fact is that Morpheus did try everything before resigning himself to death, which, in the words of Hob's therapist is checking his work thoroughly, which, I can tell you, are anti-anxiety and radical acceptance techniques I have my own patients use.
I get wanting him to show up ala Hob's dream. I do. And I have my issues with season too.
But Dream's arc isn't one of them.
Maybe it's because of where I am with my own life?
But sometimes stories and in life? The kindest ending is the one where everyone tried their hardest and things still ended badly, but you get to know that everyone still tried, and in trying, things do get better in some ways, despite the losing. There is power and strength and profound beauty and unquantifiable value in remaining hopeful when things are absolutely hopeless; if only because doing so creates a better future in ways that will not be known until the smoke clears as the generational curses begin to break.
Thats what this ending is about for me. The last scene in particular.
That it wasn't pointless, that it did matter, all of it mattered, and everything Dream did and gave and changed, it mattered for him, because he got to experience all that growth and newness and for the world, and for his loved ones, and for the new family he created when he left them behind.
It wasn't elegant. It wasn't done well. But they said it over and over.
Hope. Love. Effort. Change. Kindness. Care. That trying matters, even if it doesn't prevent disaster.
But the effort to communicate this was made, if you care to look for it, which I did.
It may not have succeeded but considering the point of the message of show was that change can be achieved even if it doesn't save you and effort put towards love and kindness and hope matters I personally feel like appreciating that in the show's message matters too, even if it doesnt go as far, as artfully, as skillfully, as well, as gently as I might want it too.
I'm trying to accept the flaws of Season 2 in the spirit of the thesis - that the attempt at positive change and the love and kindness and hope that things will be good enough, does, in fact, make a difference.
I think that leaning into that is worth it.
I choose to change in this way. I think that's a message worth accepting.
And as far as Morpheus is concerned? I would remind you all that Dream of 1000 Cats means that all universes are canon if 1000 people are into it at the same time. So all Morpheuses can be canon.
1000 people believe the Hob Dream is real at the same time, so it is real. That's not an opinion. That's canon, according to the lore. You don't need the show to affirm that for you.
It is. That's what makes comics fun.
And so are all the fanfic that have 1000 people who have read them at the same time.
That's what makes that lore so brilliant. It's ALL canon with enough support.
It fixed the DCU's rebooting issue, and it fixes this too.
You don't need them to affirm that Morpheus is out there. If he isn't, already? Enough angry tumblrinas already dreamed him into being. The multiverse has room for him, he's out there somewhere.
