Discover Top Posts Tagged with #sandman meta

Some Love for the Sandman Fandom Creators…

With more and more AI slop appearing, I thought: Why not start a reblog chain that celebrates all the incredible creators who keep this fandom alive?

Some people are new to fandom, some people don’t browse the tags and therefore hardly ever see anything that’s not been posted by mutuals, some people are simply looking for something new. Maybe we can turn this into a creator source (no AI-generated stuff please)?

So reblog this post with a shoutout for your favourites (as an important aside: Reblog creators you appreciate whenever you can because Likes don’t really help their creations to get seen):

Fic writers

Meta writers

Fanartists

Gifmakers & Editors

Cosplayers

Crafters

Podficcers

Bookbinders

or ANY other creative person who enriches this space for you

It can be just one or several, but let us know what they do. I’ll make a start (not all of these are Sandman blogs because it’s just idiots like me who hardly blog about anything else 🙈, but you’ll find their Sandman stuff via their blog search):

#the sandman #sandman #sandman fandom #sandman fanart #sandman meta #sandman fanfiction #sandman art #fandom community #queue crew

Apropos of nothing (apropos of EVERYTHING), may I present the last 2 panels of the Sandman comics that take place in the present:

Hob falls asleep at a Ren Faire after talking to Death, turning down her offer to die now that Dream is gone (which takes place here in the comics rather than at his funeral). As he sleeps, he dreams of suddenly running into Dream and "some bloke" that reminds him of a shitty pavement artist he met once a long time ago (Destruction, who Hob has no idea has any connection to Dream, nor that he'd been the one to tell Dream he could always LEAVE & come find him in the stars if he's so miserable in his function). Hob remembers Dream should be dead, realizes this is a dream, and laughs (and we know he knows now that Morpheus is the former King of Dreams and that many beings live in the Dreaming). The three of them decide to go off on an adventure "into the end of the story" when Hob is woken up.

This is the last moment that takes place in the present in the entire series. What happens next and what the implications of Hob's dream are is left to the reader to decide.

I don't know if we'll get this scene in the July 31 episode or not. I don't know if the show creators will think this scene is important enough to include in their truncated version of the story, because Morpheus is dead, why speculate where he may have gone with his sister after taking her hand now that Daniel's here?

But for me it's always meant the difference between a story of terrible tragedy, and a story with hope in SPITE of terrible tragedy. I hope it helps to know this scene exists, regardless of whether the show includes it in the bonus ep or not.

Edit: Now we know it's not included. But I hope anyone who needs to see this finds it, to know it existed in the original form.

#hob gadling #dream of the endless #the sandman #dreamling #destruction of the endless #the sandman netflix #sandman netflix #sandman spoilers #sandman season 2 #sandman s2 #sandman s2 spoilers #sandman #morpheus #sandman comics #sandman meta #the sandman spoilers #hobs dream #sunday mourning

Something I've noticed about Dream from the show as opposed to Dream from the comics, is that while Dream from the comics very much has a strong sense of personal justice and has this drive to always do "the right thing", the intensity of this drive is a lot stronger in Dream from the show. In the show you can feel Dream's need to make things right when he's fucked up, which he has done a lot. Whereas in the comic, he still has that need, it's just a bit more watered down.

I think there's something to be said about Dream using cognitive empathy as opposed to emotional empathy here. I think by his nature, he's so overwhelmed with empathy for every single creature because he knows their thoughts and dreams that he has to sort of shut that off in order to be functional. Thus he has to use cognitive empathy.

One of the things that leads me to believe that he relies on cognitive empathy is how he genuinely didn't seem to realize that condemning Nada to hell for 10000 years was not a just thing for him to do until Death informed him, but the moment he realized that, his moral compass did not allow him to just let it go, even as Death was begging him to. Which, he probably would have realized was wrong earlier if he could utilize emotional empathy.

It's the way he reacts to realizing he was wrong about something with almost surprise but complete willingness to make things right if he can. If given assistance, like Death encouraging him to speak with Delirium, he's able to rationalize someone else's point of view. It's the way he goes from being sure that he's in the right to being equally sure that he was in the wrong and eager to make things right that is one thing I find very interesting about him. This was true of him in the comics, but especially true in the show

#dream of the endless #the sandman #the sandman season 2 #sandman meta #I'm not sure if this makes sense

Reading interviews with Allan and with each interview I read my HRRRR HRRRR HRRRRRRR laugh gets louder and louder and louder

I'm putting it under a cut. It's critical. Critical of Sandman Season 2. Maybe critical of Sandman as a whole? I don't know. But be warned it's critical, don't read if you don't want that.

#the sandman #the sandman netflix #dream of the endless #morpheus #sandman spoilers #sandman s2 volume 2 spoilers #sandman s2 reviews #sandman s2 articles #sandman meta #i mean it's a meta in a bitchy sort of way?#too many emotions about the sandman #unhinged ranting #sandman comics spoilers

I really like how the show establishes that Orpheus's story takes place in Mycenaean Greece, which was (to paraphrase Red from Overly Sarcastic Productions) "the Ancient Greece of Ancient Greece." Hellenistic Greece thought of Mycenaean Greece as a mythical time, so it makes sense that Orpheus's tale would happen during this time. Especially since the first known Orphic texts (Orpheus had a religion/spiritual practice named after him, though from what I can gather, it was more about worshiping the themes of life, death, and rebirth in his stories than it was about him) we have date back to the 5th or 6th century BCE.

#OP #Orpheus #Sandman #The Sandman #does me pointing out a neat detail I noticed count as meta?#fuck it tagging it anyway #meta #sandman meta

Thinking about Hob Gadling in 1589, or rather in the decades leading up to 1589 when we see him as Sir Robert Gadlen

Thinking about how he went north, twice, to come back as his own son, presumably to build the myth of the Gadlen family. Before that, as a soldier, a brigand, and a tradesman in printing, he probably didn't have enough money to need to "leave it" to a son, because he'd had no real assets. No houses, no businesses, nothing besides his weapons and armor, the proverbial clothes on his back, and what spoils of war could be carried with him.

But to make money you have to spend it, you have to have it, you have to invest it. 1389, the year of Hob gaining immortality, corresponds to the birth year of Cosimo de' Medici, the man who would establish the great banking dynasty of Florence, Italy. I note this because this transformation in Europe corresponds with Hob's progress through immortality and rather roughly corresponds to when, as I see it, he would have moved from an individual soldier of fortune to make his living to needing some sort of continuity of identity if he was going to move beyond that.

In this instance, pretending to be his own son (or relative) would be a necessity to inherit his own wealth so he could carry it forward for the next 10-30 years, before he'd have to reinvent himself again. The money to buy a knighthood would be the work of generations.

I'm thinking about Hob building himself up from being a printer's apprentice (because printing was so new a trade that it was probably one of the few where he could get in as a man perpetually in his 30s, most apprenticeships would require you to begin as a child) to gaining his knighthood. By his own admission of faking his death twice by 1589, he'd be Robert Gadlen the Third, possibly the Fourth (not that this was a naming convention back then for commoners, but more to illustrate where 1589 Hob stood in the line of his own fictional family inheritance).

The first half of the 1500s in England under Henry VIII still saw a predominance of nobility holding the lion's share of power, but it did see something of a shift where you had noteworthy men rise to great heights from common origin, like Thomas Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell (yes, I'm rewatching Wolf Hall, why do you ask?).

But now to the point that got me thinking about this: imagine Hob in the 1500s. At the beginning of the century he is the first of his name, building his fortune. Robert Gadlen, who made his money in the printing business then invested it, through a great stroke of luck in to the powers-that-would-be that century: the Tudor shipyards. Hob building himself from very nearly nothing, peasant stock, nothing more than a soldier and a brigand before that. It's still grubby to build oneself up from trade, better to have been born to wealth of course, this isn't American Yankeedom and we're before the Puritans, where showing one's hard work was a virtue rather than an ugly necessity of the common people. But Hob still did it, with his own hands.

Imagining Robert Gadlen II, and Robert Gadlen III, the "scion" of a family on the rise, sniffing around the edges of the Tudor court, eventually finding his way in, having enough gold to buy himself a knighthood.

Imagining Robert Gadlen, meeting one of those common men in the service of Henry VIII, noting with chagrin their own common birth, the sons of blacksmiths and butchers, unlike Sir Robert, whose father was a man of means who left a growing fortune to his son.

And I can't help but imagine Hob smiling, a little slyly because he did it, he slipped passed the censors, no one knows of the fact he was born to peasant stock almost 200 years ago, and no one ever will. As far as anyone knows, he was born wealthy, a gentleman in the rising social consciousness that all it takes to be a gentleman is to have the money to act as one.

But I can't help but wonder if that smile would be just a little uncomfortable, too. Because no one will ever know. No one will ever know that Sir Robert Gadlen didn't inherit his money, that he's not some child of nepotism and generational wealth who has never worked and never starved. He is the founder of his own family, he built it himself and with each generation that goes by he has to leave more and more of that story behind him. Except with Dream.

#the sandman #sandman meta #hob gadling

Listen. Listen. In no universe will I pretend that Dream wasn’t in the wrong when he condemned Nada to Hell. That was fucked up.

But bear with me and trust that I know that while we take a step back from that for a second to talk about something else.

Nada saw Dream from afar, fell in love with him, and went on a quest to track him down. Once she finds Some Guy In A Mask (not realizing who he is) she talks about how she loves this mystery man so much. Mask Guy is like “For real?” and she’s like “For real for real!!” Then he takes off his mask and is like “this is amazing I absolutely love you too!!” and Nada is immediately like “oh shit, Dream?? Of the Endless??? Nvm gotta go”

Everything after that is 100% shitty of Dream. Not arguing that. However, treating this as fictional characters in a story….

A woman saw Dream, claimed to love him enough to track him down, and then as soon as she found out who he was she was horrified.

So anyway when I think about Dream not wanting to reveal his identity to Hob that’s what I’m thinking about.

#the sandman #dreamling #sandman meta #I personally like the reading that the Nada story is a metaphor #I can’t remember who said it but someone mentioned that if we’re being literal Nada doesn’t act like someone who was in Hell for 10k years #she acts like a pissed off ex who had a bad breakup #but I digress this post isn’t about that #it’s about Dream having personal experience of someone claiming to love him until they learn his identity #Hob flirting: so who are you? what’s your name? ;)#Dream: *war flashbacks*

so. I have thoughts about Sandman s2.

and the main one is that the writers very clearly tried to have their cake and eat it. the whole arc of the show has been -- quite distinct from the comics -- that Dream has changed, and continues to change. Christ, that's half of Fiddler's Green's dialogue in the show -- 'the old Morpheus wouldn't have done that', etc.

I've personally always had a problem with the comics' overall arc. I know that you can read Dream's death as a sacrifice for the Dreaming, for love, etc, and indeed that in the end it's all about stories. but for me, what comes out of the arc is a really fucking grim edgelord narrative that the best thing for Dream to do is die. (let's not even talk about how it's very clearly a suicide, in the end. I will never, ever be willing to accept a narrative that suggests suicide is the best choice. that's political for me.)

beyond that, the way the story is constructed suggests that Dream was just doomed from the start to die in the way he did. yes, I understand how tragedy works. yes, I understand that the narrative of the comics is 'change or die' -- and Dream dies. but if you unpack the plot a bit more, it's not the same: Dream dies because he changes. he changes enough to go reconcile with Orpheus, and that brings about his destruction. so that's an existing tension in the comics that is deeply tragic, and I like it. I like that there's such a conflict in Dream over whether he is a person or not. but I don't necessarily like that in allowing himself to be one, and in allowing himself to change, that puts him on a narrative track where the only option is suicide. I don't like the ramifications of that.

so I was delighted when s1 ended with that very clear assertion that Dream was aware that he was changing. and I really loved how much they inserted it into s2. it was one of the most poignant parts of volume 1, for me: the way he is in conflict between what he wants as a man, and what he is supposed to do as an Endless. (we'll talk another day about what it means to me to have a character whose entire thing is that they've been told to be something for their entire existence.) his conversations with Destruction in ep 6 are heartbreaking for that.

and we had the chance of there being alternatives, that's what Del's presence seemed to be constantly suggesting, especially when she turns up in volume 2. there are alternative paths. (again, I'm not a subscriber to any narrative where the eventual end has to be suicide or death. free will, motherfucker.) even though Time told Dream there was noting that could have altered Orpheus' fate, we still had the multiple destinies. Dream was still fighting to find an alternative. we were constantly being told he didn't have to die at the end. the scene with Despair!

the final episode was the most frustrating for that. it did a weird heel-turn: on the one hand, we had all the people telling us how much Dream had changed. but then arbitrarily it wasn't enough change??? I don't know: to me, it seemed like they were doubling back on themselves because they'd chickened out of actually properly rewriting the end of the comics. so all the build up about Dream's changing went nowhere and was ultimately very unsatisfying. (and tragic, I guess, in another way, because it sort of suggests that even though he changed it still didn't fucking matter, which is the sort of fatalism I cannot fucking abide.)

my partner, who watched beside me without much interest, noticed how much the show seemed to be suggesting there were alternate paths. if it's palpable to non-Sandman fans, I think that's a real indicator of a failure of dramaturgy. it smacks of writing by committee.

in summation: if they'd stuck more closely to the comics and left both Lucifer and Destruction's stories as tragic counterparts to Dream's inability to change, that would have been a creative decision that I'd have understood more than what they did. instead, they hedged and tried to have it both ways, and I don't think that's satisfying storytelling.

I'd like to think that they'll keep that famous comic frame of Hob, Dream and Destruction on the beach together. that's the one moment of hope in the comics' original ending, and I think it would help to tie up the various loose ends that this series has created by introducing the theme of Dream's potential ability to change.

but I'm not particularly hopeful, because the conversation between Death and Hob at the Renaissance faire in 'Sunday Mourning' got moved into episode 11. if I were a dramaturg -- and I'm of course speculating on what the 'bonus' episode is about -- I'd combine Death's 'featured' story with the Ren Faire conversation, because I think thematically that works far better. and I think them shoving 'The Tempest' in the way they did was a little too on the nose, and again served to shut down the idea that Dream could ever change. it felt like writers ex machina telling us how to interpret it.

(the one point of hope left is that Dream's body zoomed off to be a star in a very, very similar way (visually) to how Destruction disappeared into the sky at the end of episode 6. but I'm already fully in clown makeup at this point so I think I should stop hoping.)

#sandman s2 spoilers #sandman #sandman meta #sandman s2 #sandman netflix #sandman wank

Reading interviews with Allan and with each interview I read my HRRRR HRRRR HRRRRRRR laugh gets louder and louder and louder

I'm putting it under a cut. It's critical. Critical of Sandman Season 2. Maybe critical of Sandman as a whole? I don't know. But be warned it's critical, don't read if you don't want that.

#sandman meta

Trending Tags

Recently Viewed Tags

#sandman meta