Season of Mists Rewatch
Here's my two cents about the episode we're doing for this week's rewatch in our sandman community. Imma cover the differences between comics and the episode, dynamics between siblings, visuals, and Dream's narration.
Comics - Episode Differences
I watched the show first and then started reading the comics, so my perspective might be a bit different, but, maybe surprisingly, I would have preferred if they stuck more to the comics for the majority of things, even if the differences were minor. I feel like the changes they made mostly took away from the story/characterization.
Foreshadowing
They removed several bits of foreshadowing, and I don’t really see why.
I think his goodbye from Death would have been a really nice parallel with the last episode, and it would have been so simple to include. The second one, said while addressing all his subjects when he is telling them about his departure for Hell, could have easily been incorporated as well, just with Lucienne & Co. Again, it would subtly hint at the arc in vol. 2, and his saying my re-assumption of the role would also be significant to drive home the whole ‘Everything changes, nothing is truly lost’ point. It’s still him, just another aspect.
The only one for which I can sorta understand why it wasn’t included is the last one, because they would have to introduce the concept of Between places/Nowhere, and it would take additional time and budget. But it would nicely imply him being suicidal earlier in the season, though it doesn’t feel like this was an angle the show creators wanted to push. I'm not saying it wasn't still there, but in a season of tell don’t show, where they hit you over the head with a brick for every emotion they want you to notice, it felt like this wasn’t them being subtle, but rather pushing it as far to the back as they could while still keeping it. Here I don’t mean him going on a ‘suicide mission’ after he kills Orpheus, as Johanna puts it, because that was a textbook example of tell, but him simply wanting to die because he has been alive for so long and wants to be free of his responsibilities.
Other Changes
Now that I’ve read issue #21, I really wish they had included the narration about Destiny’s garden. It’s not strictly necessary for the plot, and that’s probably why they cut it, but it’s so thematically important and it really touched me.
I would have loved to see Dream and Death have their talk on the balcony overlooking the garden like in the comics. Not just from the aesthetic perspective but from a symbolic one as well. Destiny’s garden in a beautiful metaphor for choices and it would be a nice way to show how the decision to free Nada will have further impact on Dream’s life.
I also understand why Dream addressing all his subjects was cut. First of all, it would again be a budget issue, and second, they probably wanted to create a more intimate setting for saying goodbye. But I think it would have slowed down the pace a bit, which I would have liked, because it feels like Dream is running around like a headless chicken(as Lucienne says, ‘And apparently no time to prepare’).
What I liked was that Dream’s reactions at the family meeting were a bit more restrained. Maybe it’s because I watched the show first, but I can’t imagine him slamming his fist on the table or loudly exclaiming ‘WHAT?’ when Death tells him Desire was right and then pointing a finger at her dramatically, saying ‘You too? Even you turn on me, my sister?’😂. I found it funny in the comics, but on screen, it wouldn’t have worked for me.
Like that's Drama Queen behaviour right there:
Dream: But she defied me. Death: So you sentenced her to Hell. Dream: ...yes.
It was interesting to see the difference in Death’s reaction when Dream announces he’s going to Hell. While in the show, she tries to dissuade him from going, in the comics she simply accepts it, but has a stronger reaction once he’s gone—she sheds a tear. I don’t actually know what to make of it yet and will reflect on it further, but I think it’s a combination of them humanising Death more in the show(at times), and comic!Death being more aware of his destructive tendencies. Though I have to say, which one of them—the comics or the show version—feels more human varies I feel. But I’ll leave that for the Death discussion later this week.
Show!'s and comic!Lyta's situation at this point is pretty different. While in the show, Lyta was given actual information as to what was going on by both Dream and Rose, in the comics, no one told her anything, and she was left alone to deal with the aftermath, with no support & additional explanations that show!Lyta got from Rose. When Dream comes to visit Daniel, she doesn't even know who he is. And I don't know precisely how their paths diverge later on(I haven't read all the comics yet, but I do know Lyta properly loses it), so this'll be interesting to see.
Dynamics Between Siblings
Uffff many thoughts, but I’ll keep it short.
Delirium looks like she hasn’t integrated into the family in a way that others, no matter how reclusive(Dream) or antagonistic(Desire) they are, don’t. Everyone looks kind of uncomfortable with her presence and even Death, who in the comics puts a casual hand on her shoulders with a ‘Hi, sis. How are you doing?’ is reserved and her smile is strained.
If you go looking for any glimpse of a bond Destiny has with any of them, funnily enough, my answer would be Delirium. This is probably the most emotion we see on him(that and when he begs Dream not to ask him where to find Destruction. And okay I guess when he tells Death she should change her clothes and when the Fates visit him, but my point still stands).
Despair and Destruction. They make me curious because we know absolutely nothing about how they were with each other, but at the meeting, Despair is, besides Delirium, the one who misses him the most(see: ‘I was hoping he’d called.' ‘I miss him,’ a line that was originally given to Death in the comics, ‘After all, there’s only six of us now.’ ‘But he would have made a joke about it or something.’ And when Del asks if they ever wonder where he is, if he’s alright, and she immediately says ‘All the time.’). Even in season one, when Desire says they have news, she immediately asks if it’s about the Prodigal. Just. :((
I wonder what the dynamic was between Dream and Destruction, because those two were passing the roles of older and younger sibling between them like a couple of hot potatoes. I wanna know what the actual age difference there is, because I think both are each other’s closest in age, and I’d think that create a sense of closeness. And the only hug Dream ever gets in the show is from him. And Destruction spoke to him, not anyone else, about his difficulties with his function.
While we get a lot of Dream-Desire(at least compared to most others, they still don’t have much screen time together), I know they were once each other’s favorite, and I so want to know what that was like. It would have been nice to get some throwaway line in the show about that, even if it wasn’t expanded upon, but I’m afraid it wouldn’t come up naturally in dialogue and we’d just end up with more exposition.
I’ll end with Desire and Delirium, because while Desire constantly picks on Delirium, they also seemed genuinely concerned at the end of episode 4 when Delirium closed her realm(and when they say, ‘You knew how fragile she was,’? Uugh.) and they were the first Delirium went to about looking for Destruction. But at the same time, it also felt like they pushed Delirium to her breaking point only so they could blame Dream? I don’t know. But these two are complicated.
Honestly I could go on, but I gotta stop at one point.
Visuals
I’m just going to make a bullet point list, otherwise this post will never end.
Transition from the remaking of the castle to it being inside the sphere. Awesome. Also the following reference to comic panel nicely done.
Delirium’s walk in. From the tension the colors melting creates to when the boot hits the ground and the special effect there(I don’t know what it’s called, but it fits perfectly). The unsettling music just completes the whole thing.
Dream’s eyes in the Nada flashback. Yes I’m a sucker for them so what.
When Nada finds Dream in the not-really-throne-room. Reminded me of Wakanda afterlife instantly. Love the whole set, the purple-orange combination of the fire and the night sky, how Dream is silhouetted and you can’t really see his face when he speaks, the echo, it all really gives the otherworldly vibe. And how the angle from which Dream is shot changes high to low as he goes from more-than-a-god, untouchable atop the stairs to vulnerable kneeling in front of Nada?(I was thinking about making a post about functions of different shot angles and how they are used to invoke different emotions with examples from the Sandman, if anyone would be interested?). They really did a great job on this one.
Transition from Nada and Dream kissing to the meteor
Subtle starry eyes right before he goes to visit Daniel Hall & his shots while he's talking to Lyta; also the shot from above when he leaves and she rushes to Daniel conveyed the urgency better than a regular shot would imo.
Dream’s Narration
Oh my god. Until I started writing the kick off post for this week, I didn’t even realize what a missed opportunity this was. It’s a story about stories. This was the perfect set up to have an in-show narrator. And Dream is the perfect narrator, stories are his domain. Like. Come on. It really would have given a different and unique vibe that would enhance the whole storytelling theme. And they could even throw in some of that exposition they seem to like that much.
