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Potentially controversial opinion about Sunday Mourning (maybe not for people who still feel upset, so proceed at your own peril)…

I don’t think Sunday Mourning ever was about what became of Morpheus. It was about Hob. It was about closure for him. It was about grief and how we keep the ones we love alive in memories and dreams. It was a “dream gifted by Dream” (Daniel, who has all of Morpheus’ memories, and who also just met Destruction, who is walking the stars while Morpheus has become one, and he points at the sky several times). And that’s been implied with movie concept art, but I’m not sure whether we even needed that?

These three men/concepts also share the theme of “Your life and death are your own”. All three of them chose—one got out choosing life, the other choosing death (but truly, it’s transformation), the third chooses life for now and probably always will but can decide otherwise if he wishes to. It’s about choice. And all three of them chose what gave them peace/closure/whatever-you-want-to-call-it.

I personally don’t think Hob’s dream ever was about Morpheus living on somewhere and walking off into the proverbial sunset (he even nods when Hob asks him if he’s dead). And I could dig out an interview with the creator that Hob’s dream exactly mirrors his own experiences with the death of someone, and how he woke up from it with the deep realisation that person was truly gone and then finally felt at peace with it, but I’ll spare you that one for obvious reasons. If you feel so inclined, you can find it on my blog though…

Just like the whole of the Sandman, at least in my opinion, isn’t just about Morpheus, or about change or about hope. It is also a contemplation on grief. Many times over. And life (even if people are hurting right now and understandably struggle to see it), and how we keep on living even if we’re hurting over deep loss. About processing the stuff that cuts us open and seems senseless. It’s basically about everything people in fandom are feeling right now.

I simultaneously think it’s sad we are losing sight of so much of those deeper parts of the story, but I also understand that people are disappointed and wanted Sunday Mourning for the ambiguity they perceive in it. I just personally never found it ambiguous, and if I look at the show, I felt that Hob got the closure he needed in ep. 11 (and I got mine as well, already in ep. 10, but I think I sat with this story for so long that I didn’t expect anything else, so I’m not the best example because I’ve always been at peace with how it ends).

Maybe after a bit of time has passed and people had time to mourn, fandom can also get that closure via art, fic or simply moving on…

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saw a post with this exchange and immediately thought of them

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Love the comparison of Morpheus to a pathetic wet cat but I just found out about the African rain frog and

Thats just straight up him

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it's been a week.

i'm still a wreck.

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Please check on your friends who watch The Sandman we are not doing well

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I had fun with this edit of Sandman characters to songs from a famous French musical, but there was one song I couldn't edit back then. Now, I need to grieve, and the song fits perfectly. Therefore, may I present...

So this is goodbye | Requiem for a Dream

Watch on YouTube here

Translation by me – All rights to the show and song to their creators

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Sand man fix it idea.

Morpheus as the dream lord had to die and did die, but Daniel Hall as the dream lord can create a dream with a touch of nightmare in the image of Morpheus and give the dream Morpheus's memories.

Dream lord Morpheus died, Dream Morpheus lives.

Morpheus turned the nightmare into a dream like she wanted, and recreated the Corinthian. Daniel using Morpheus memories saved the friends who died. so Daniel can just make a dream Morpheus

Realistically, it wouldn't quite work unless he got rid of said memories to make dream!Morpheus and then he wouldn't know how to perform his function and he would be too much of the newborn he is to rule. Also, I'm not sure Morpheus would want to stay in the Dreaming after all that(?)

But at that point, I'd say yes to most fix it ideas because I need baby emo boy back

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Isn't it great how a ship that's 19 years old is still this high in the TOP 100 of femslash ships? 🥰 (and I know we can make it go higher)

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Very this.

I do firmly believe that Samael loved their wings and that they were perhaps the most precious thing they had. To show them to anyone, let alone to let anyone touch them would have beeen a great demonstration of trust.

For Lucifer, I still think their wings are very intimate and that not everyone can touch them, but those bat-like wings were the consequence of God casting them out of the Silver City. They're a reminder of pain. Of course to be free means to cut them off, and they could not possibly ask this of anyone. (In the Netflix show, it is said Lucifer asked Mazikeen, and I think that would have been the only other suitable alternative for them)

And of course Lucifer would play with Dream's feelings and then give him the key. It's they're killing three birds with one stone: freeing themself from Hell and their obligations, fulfilling their promise to destroy Morpheus, and shouting a big fuck you to God. And I don't think anybody would understand this except an Endless, and more specifically Morpheus. Morpheus who has known them basically forever, Morpheus who too knows both dream-like landscapes and nightmarish terrors, Morpheus whose father doesn't love him.

I think Lucifer knew what that poisoned gift would lead to, but also that Morpheus would find a solution to get rid of the key and make the most suitable choice possible (I'm not saying it's a good one, I'm saying Lucifer was not capable nor did they want to make that choice anymore).

Is Lucifer toxic? In more aspects than one. Was that move painful? Absolutely. Does this mean their speech was not heartfelt? No. I think Lucifer's emotions are complex and their relationship to Morpheus, as OP says, is too. Extremely complex. Then again, when did Dream not have a complex relationship with anyone, especially romantic ones?

They're both a mess, clearly. That's partly why I ship them.

Makes me SICK how Lucifer reminisced about how they and Dream used to be so similar, when they were Samael the Angel. Lucifer's going to have time to themselves, but they still talk about so many things with him, before burdening him with the key. To be so tender and open with him while he's so fraught with tension, and thinking of Nada. Then to hand him the key at the end, the petty toxic exes allegations are THERE. I just think of Lucifer presenting their wings to Dream, and imagining them doing the same as Samael so very long ago. In a different context 💋

Hello, I personally think that the Ship of Lucifer and Morpheus is quite complex.

I see it as something very deep and ancient. And Morpheus got married and all that. But they're not human; they don't live by our morals and values. I also think the fandom has taken it upon itself to sell a darker version of something that is romantic to a certain extent.

Wings can mean a lot and nothing at the same time.

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it's so wild to me that you absolutely cannot force a hyperfixation to happen. like you'll watch the most perfectly tailor-made-for-you content that everyone says you'll love and feel absolutely nothing, and then the thing you watch on a whim to fill time will reach through the screen and put its damn fingers in your brain and start rearranging the neurons right in front of you and every single time you're like THIS??? THIS??????? and this happens like every 6-12 months forever

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Beware!!!

My very complex analysis of the bonus Death episode!!!

Meh.

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It me.

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I know we are all used to hear bad news from the USA or UK when it comes to trans rights but this time Germany wants to play in the same league.

Our idiots at home ministry came up with the fucking idea to start a register for all transgender and nonbinary people which would mean every person working at some public position could always at any given time see your assigned gender at birth, your deadname, your address and who knows what else.

We had been there in the past. Hitler Germany called it the "Travestite Law" back then. Our politicians didn't learn.

We all know this is unacceptable.

Please, if you are German, sign it. If you are not, spread it wide and far.

This had been stopped once a few years ago. It needs to be stopped again.

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DaVinci observing the number of effects I use for a single edit — 2025, colourised

I think it's also disappointed at my micro-dosing colour grading.

Oh, well. It's my first time on that software and only my second edit ever. And I only had 10 editing classes this year. You'll get what you get.

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Okay I know everyone wants a Finnick or Johanna book but what we actually need is Lyme and we can bring back Gwendoline Christie for another Mockingjay-era movie with more of the rebellion (and I hate the pods section of MJ) and also I don’t think she died before the end of the war and I will fight anyone on this

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The Narrative Whiplash of Sandman S2.V2

When Trying to Do It Right By Everyone Near Breaks a Story

I’m going to precede this with:

There was a lot about S2 I liked. Cinematography, acting, some inspired changes that I thought were an improvement on the source material. People who know me will also know that I was never one who wanted a different ending, and they did give us the core tragedy (well, sorta, more about that later): Those of us who feel so inclined can still see and feel Morpheus’ existential tiredness, and I personally always thought that was important because we tend to forget that he is not human. We relate to him that way because we are. But it’s sometimes also good to remember that for him, “keep going” does not extend to the comparably short span of a mortal life. He has been around for billions of years. He has to keep going for (potentially) billions of years still. I think it’s hard to wrap our heads around what it would mean to live in emotional pain for so long (we honestly can’t, and I think therein lies the problem). He wanted out for so long (at least since The Tempest, but if you read the comics, you can’t help but think it must have been so much longer than that—the first signs were even there during The Heart of a Star, and that was ~four billion years ago)… There were moments in all the sanitising of major story beats that made me think they might pivot away from the comics ending, and I’m personally glad they didn’t (and I also totally get if people aren’t). And I loved seeing Daniel!Dream and thought Jacob Anderson was inspired casting. But I also thought that the show completely undermined its narrative integrity by trying to have its cake and eat it, too. And I’d like to sum it up as the “Maybe There’s Another Way”-problem…

I’m fairly certain the writers were pretty clear that there was no way around Morpheus’ comics ending. And Morpheus’ last scene and the transition as such, they nailed: It was heartbreaking, beautifully acted, and somewhat true to (what I perceive as) the core message. BUT throughout the whole of V2, they also kept inserting moments of hope that somewhat contradicted the sense of inevitability that made the comics IMHO far more powerful. Or at least, if you don’t want to call it “powerful”: more narratively coherent.

We got scene after scene of characters suggesting there might be “another way”. It’s like the writers were constantly winking at us, saying “Don’t worry, maybe he won’t actually have to die!”

Playing to Both Sides

I get it. The show has attracted fans who never read the comics, and even to fans of the comics, Morpheus’ death was devastating. The “suicide in slow motion”-interpretation (there are others obviously, and again: I somewhat use suicide as a shorthand here because Morpheus is not human. Dream can’t die, he can only transform) has always been controversial, even among fans of the first hour. But to me, it felt that by neither committing to a truly faithful adaptation nor a meaningful departure, the writers tried to thread an impossible needle.

They tried to satisfy comics fans with the original ending while at the same time attempting to comfort tragedy-adverse fans by suggesting it might not happen. But can/should you really constantly try to soften the blow by adding hope for an escape?

In the comics, there’s a clear sense that Morpheus is existentially tired and walks knowingly towards his fate, that this is the only way things can end given who he is and what he’s done. But the show feels like he’s fighting it at times, looking for a way out despite accepting that what he has done might lead to his death sooner or later. We’re given hope at every turn. Show!Morpheus already is what Daniel is supposed to stand for, and they hammered that message home at every corner. And by removing the last shreds of comics!Morpheus’ more problematic nature (e.g. NOT forgiving Alex himself), it all felt a bit… contrived? As if they were waving a big signpost at us constantly that read: “He’s a good one, you know?”

Maybe they had this idea that by giving people more hope, they would feel the loss more acutely (sometimes that is a thing writers do), and they certainly succeeded in that. Because they essentially spent four episodes going “but maybe…”, only to then pull the rug.

I just wish the show had trusted its audience with the reality of what was happening instead of trying to cushion every blow and removing every bit about Morpheus that made him less “palatable”. I’m still seething about Allan Heinberg’s comment that they changed Morpheus so audiences would “love him and root for him.” Because in light of how S2 went, I can only call it out for what it is:

The writers didn’t trust in the actual story being enough (or rather: too much?). They were worried modern audiences might not take to certain tones about it, so they had to add constant meta-commentary about “finding another way” that was never going to pay off—and they knew it wouldn’t. It made the genuine moments of beauty and tragedy feel a bit… cheap? Like it was written by committee, trying to please everyone and ultimately serving no one.

Having said all of this, I do think, as I already said, that the show is beautiful. Tom Sturridge’s performance as Morpheus is probably career-defining. The visual storytelling is stunning. But I can’t shake the feeling that this could have been so much better if they’d just picked a lane, any lane, and stayed in it.

Or maybe they thought more casual fans needed those moments of hope to make the ending bearable, but I think it just made it worse for everyone who either didn’t know what to expect or always had a problem with the comics. It felt like the show neither trusted the source material nor its audience, and I honestly believe the story suffered for it. And there was other stuff that felt disappointing to me…

Justice for Matthew

Perhaps the most glaring omission is basically completely cutting Matthew’s speech from The Wake. In the comics, Matthew’s speech about his relationship with Morpheus is one of the most emotionally devastating moments. A simple, honest and incredibly raw eulogy from someone who genuinely cared about his friend. More importantly, Matthew was always a stand-in for us, the audience. He struggled to accept Daniel as the new Dream like many of us initially did. Giving him a few half-sentences instead… I don’t know, it just felt off. I also missed Matthew’s buddy cop dynamic with the Corinthian in The Kindly Ones. I get they might not have been able to do this with real ravens and it would have turned into a massive CGI fest, but I still missed them. Which brings me to the next point:

Jo x Cori

I loved Jenna Coleman’s Johanna Constantine. I loved Boyd Holbrook’s Corinthian. I honestly loved their dynamic, their chemistry, and they were a lot of fun. Without any further background, I can totally get behind them, and my recent joke in the community that if Morpheus can’t have her, Cori should obviously came back to bite me in the arse big time 🤣 BUT the fun aspect aside: The writers turned the Corinthian into someone he simply isn’t in the comics, at least not to that degree. This is long enough as it is, so I won’t elaborate on this point too much, but I’ve written tons of meta about Cori 1.0 and Cori 2.0, and why understanding him is also integral to understanding Dream. And it felt like… the writers didn’t understand him at all? Instead, they gave us a bi romance that felt a bit forced (at least to me). And to say this very clearly: I’m bi. I lived in a civil partnership with a woman for years and I’m married to a man now. I love good bi representation and I think we need more of it—especially the one that is “straight-presenting”. Because I honestly hate that every time a bi relationship presents as m/m or f/f, people on here will go, “Slay!”, but that every bi m/f relationship gets called “straight” and “heteronormative”. It’s honestly insulting. But this wasn’t it in my view, the reason being the weird undertones it created. The Corinthian was recreated to be a better version of Cori 1.0 (that’s not equivalent to “puppy dog”—he’s still a nightmare and he’s still very much Dream’s Shadow with a capital S). And I know they already said he was pan in S1, but to me, he honestly didn’t present as such just because he had the ability to be “charming with the ladies”. Comics!Corinthian was clearly gay, and for very specific reasons based on what I would call fairly recent history. And while we maybe didn’t need those reasons anymore, I still think show!Cori 1.0 presented gay. If he was pan, he had at least a clear preference for men, and together with the fact who and what Cori 2.0 represents, that does make where they took him… a bit homophobic? It just felt strange in more than one way. But even if we put all discussions about his sexuality aside: The most glaring problem for me was that they turned the Corinthian a bit into an “idiot in love.” I don’t know, man…

Where TF was Calliope?

It was so disappointing to me that none of Dream’s lovers got a voice at The Wake. I understand the show wasn’t quite the same, but not even Calliope? The mother of his son who suffered beyond comprehension as well? She honestly deserved that moment, and I think they could have given it to her without going into the nitty gritty of their sex life like in the comics 🙈🤣 Maybe just parts of it, like this:

But they IMHO did Calliope dirty throughout the whole of S2, and I’m still not okay about it (and I wrote about how this affected fandom empathy as well, and jeez was I right about how people tear into Lyta)…

The Pacing Was Still Shot to Bits & They Missed Opportunities

Volume two suffers from the same tonal inconsistencies that have plagued volume one. The show sometimes rushes through crucial emotional beats while lingering on IMHO less essential moments. I get that it had to be extremely condensed, that they had to tackle the impossible task of cramming so much into one season. And maybe it’s just me, but I think the weight of Morpheus’ death wasn’t given any time to breathe in the same way as in the comics. And the biggest mistake, for me, was that they rushed through the last three issues, with maybe the exception of Sunday Mourning. My take on this might be controversial, but Sunday Mourning was never about what becomes of Morpheus to me (and it’s okay if people see it differently), but rather about closure for Hob and driving the point home that those we love live on in memory and story (and we can reasonably assume the dream was gifted to him by Daniel). So as long as Hob is still alive, there will be someone who remembers Morpheus. And the story angle is central to Exiles and The Tempest, too (I wrote about this before). Especially Exiles would have tied up so many loose ends, and while I get that the story in its entirety would have been hard to incorporate, I think at least its message would have helped a lot of people who don’t know the comics with processing. Omnia mutantur, nihil interit—Everything changes, nothing is truly lost. How they didn’t build on that much more than in the split second that no one who doesn’t know the comics would even recognise, and not even saying those words, is quite frankly beyond me when they spent so much time on stuff that was far more inconsequential or even a bit off. I mean, what were those added lines in Gilbert’s speech? Love or hate Gilbert’s decision not to come back, but in the comics, it made sense for him. It was a decision I could respect because of who he was. It had integrity, and I could totally understand why. To extend it in a weirdly patronising [to the audience] way and add those lines about bringing back Morpheus THAT WEREN’T EVEN IN THE COMICS was honestly a big mistake in my view. These lines were not just “opinionated”, but absolutely nonsensical (“You’re a different Dream already. Morpheus never apologised,” he says, while we’ve seen Morpheus apologising several times. And even Gilbert himself had commented on how much he had changed 🙈).

There’s much more, both in the critical and positive sense, but I think this will get far too long if I keep going at this point, so maybe I’ll write about other stuff separately.

It’s a, “I like it as a standalone for many reasons, but it’s neither a faithful adaptation, nor is it always narratively tight,” for me. All in all, they brought Morpheus’ story to a close, and I’m supremely grateful we got that. While the execution isn’t perfect and many decisions feel like genuine missteps, it’s over and done (bar one remaining episode). Those of us who love the comics will always have those. Those who don’t will move on or learn to take the show for what it is: Extremely flawed in some parts and beautiful in others. And on a meta-level, maybe there’s something to be taken from that, too…

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Hi! I'm fairly new to Tumblr, and as a big Sandman fan, I'm so glad I found your page. It's incredible! I was actually wondering if I could share a Sandman fan film I made a few years back with you? It's called "Black Sand" and is loosely based on Dream a Little Dream of Me. It actually won best film at the LA Fan Film Awards. And I would love to hear what you think.

Black Sand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHIE_2fQVrY

Thanks again for running a great blog. Glad to be here :)

Hey there, glad you’ve found your way to the blog (there’s also a community btw in case you like to yap).

I love your film (it’s heartbreaking in all the right ways), and congratulations on winning the award. I hope other people will check it out (CW for drugs, nudity, injury), it’s such an interesting take on some of the messages of #3.

Once again, glad you’re around 🙂