#Asexual or Demisexual Morpheus

[gelatomesomeironqrow]

My attempt at a character study on Dream of the Endless.

(Potential spoilers for those currently or planning on reading the comics)

Now, I have not yet read the comics (but after the show. I am definitely reading it now) so this is purely based on what I've seen from the show and from what I've read off of the wiki page. Anyways. I relate so much to Dream. Like ya'll have no idea.

So let's start with the basics. Dream is older than most if not all Gods. He's lived through and seen so much, he's had brief but fleeting relationships knowing that they will one day end. He's a very passionate and devoted lover/partner to the point where he is possessive and reacts extremely poorly to when these relationships he knows are going to end, end.

I'll briefly mention his comic book lovers/wives/partners before I go on to those who made it into the Live Action adaptation.

Killala of the Glow, Nada, Calliope, Titania, Alianora and Thessaly.

Alianora in particular was given one of his jewels and her own section of the Dreaming from my understanding.

From what I've read, way way way in the beginning of time, Dream was apparently more open with his feelings than what we see in the show and comics. But due to his meddling sibling Desire, he shuts down and keeps his feelings to himself. This doesn't stop him from forming strong attachments to people that develop into relationships. Each of them ends poorly. Sometimes because of Dream, sometimes because of Desire or sometimes because of the passing of time.

Anyways, Dream doesn't talk about his past relationships, the two I know about are the show ones and even then, it's probably not everything. So let's talk about Nada and Calliope.

Now I read some stuff about Nada and Dream's past, and all I have to say is that Desire admitting that Nada was a mistake is huge. It shows they feel bad about it. Probably mostly because it's the relationship that really made Dream shut his emotions down (probably why Desire continues to try to "ruin" him. In their own way, they probably just want him to open back up. Maybe.) Anyways, the relationship was not meant to be. Nada was young and fell hard for Dream whereas Dream became possessive. Which is a huge red flag. Them being together caused a higher entity to burn Nada's city to the ground and Nada in her grief blamed herself and their relationship and off'ed herself. Dream tracked his spirit down. Demanded her to become his queen of the Dreaming and when she refused, he threw her in Hell. Dream does eventually launch a rescue mission but still, kind of a harsh punishment and probably the only time I don't like Dream.

Anyways, from what I've read and seen, it does not look like this relationship was a sexual one.

Moving on to the only relationship Dream has had sexual relations to, my personal favorite.

Calliope. The muse. Their relationship is tragic and probably the only one that ended somewhat amicably. From my understanding anyways. They were in love, had a child who died young, and ended their relationship because of their grief. It happens all the time, parents whose child dies before they do, they can't stay together any longer. But yet, Dream still harbors deep attachment to her, even if he denied her request to visit him in the Dreaming. He probably would have said yes had she wanted to see him but he isn't ready to process or accept their child's death even though it had been thousands of years.

Now, why did I delve into his relationships? And why did I say I relate to him so much?

Because I believe him to be Ace or Demisexual. He is somewhere on the spectrum. Like I am. I can see it in his every move and decisions.

Asexuality is the lack of sexual attraction to others, or low or absent interest in or desire for sexual activity. 

He is an anthropomorphic representation of a human. He has appeared as a cat. I don't think him incapable of have sex (clearly since he had a child), I just personally don't think he is interested in sexual relations. He has strong attachments. He can get obsessive and/or possessive. He loves with everything and when it ends he either punishes his lover/partner and/or goes into a depressive state of being.

Sure he's been married. But some asexuals have been in relationships, alot of them successful. Communication is key to any healthy relationship. The point of it is, none of his relationships lasted. Again for various reasons but the general gist is that there was no communication. He expected alot out of his partners and when they failed to meet his expectations he lost interest (never attachment or subsequent feelings related to those attachments) but he was no longer interested in the relationship itself.

As far as I know, he has no other children and hasn't engaged in any other sexual acts.

He finds people intriguing only when they talk about dreams and stories, like when he is on his date with Hob and listens in to Will Shakespeare talk about wanting to inspire people, otherwise he walks around moping all the time. He literally dresses in black at all times and wears eyeliner. Not a representation of Asexual people, just an observation.

Heck, I'm in a relationship with someone and I'm Asexual. (And currently struggling to keep said relationship because I can't bring myself to tell my boyfriend I'm not interested in him like that. But I digress.)

Okay. Moving away from his relationships and sexuality.

He interacts with very few people. He has little to no friends. (I have little to no friends) he probably thinks the few people he is on good terms are exhausting and not worth the time half the time (again. I'm guilty of that). If he isn't an antisocial OCD perfectionist, I don't know what that makes me.

He has a very clear idea of what his job is and performs it well. He gets upset when things don't go his way. He prefers to handle things alone because he's convinced himself no one will help him. He won't ask for help so most of the time no one even knows he needs help.

(The one time he asked for help. Desire literally just sent him his next lover and said good luck, bye.)

He is stubborn and so so so depressed. But despite all of that, he finds something to keep himself going, he draws inspiration from his life and the people who visit his Dreaming at night. It took one visit from his sister to get him to go and see Hob Gadling who he admits is his boyfriend.

Like look at this gif and tell me they aren't flirting.

Anyways. Dream of the Endless is a complicated being that no one may ever truly figure out. He's definitely the embodiment of a wet cat.

I love him. He is doing amazing.

I need a season 2. ASAP.

[boobi-boy]

i know we're trying to get the aspec tags trending by valentines day so im gonna name some characters thatre aspec bc im aspec and i said so!

sherlock holmes (sherlock, bbc) - asexual, demiromantic.

he literally only has sex with one person ever and its for a case.

ppl come onto him and he doesnt even know???

he literally doesnt understand the difference between a date and hanging out with your friends. the difference being that a date might end in sex. he never thinks about sex so he doesnt see the correlation

morpheus (the sandman) - demisexual, biromantic

in canon hes only ever had kids/had sex with people he had to go through actual emotional turmoil to get to

also like aro-spec probs demiromantic bc it takes him several centuries to realise he likes hob (centennial husbands is cannon idc)

man is obviously a hopeless romantic which is why the existence of any of his exes plummets him into misery, which means hed see sex as an act of romance not lust. demisexual. bc i said so.

johnny c (johnny the homicidal maniac) - asexual, greyromantic

this man feels vague romantic attraction once in his whole source material and is so befuddled he tries to murder the bitch, ruining any chance he had with her because he made her agoraphobic

he HATES bodily fluids. sex repulsed. he doesnt wanna see ur jizz.

bro has no time for sex. bros gotta feed a wall.

five hargreeves (the umbrella academy) - asexual, aromantic

blud dated a mannequin. he does not understand relationships. because he doesnt want one!

dolores was simply a projection of the fact that romance is supposed to make you feel whole or whatever and he went crazy while living alone in the apocalypse

and hes so fucking autistic so he got really attached to the object bc that what the tism does to a man

thats all for now. goodnight tumblr.

[cha0ticr0b0tic]

God OK soooooo I’m demisexual and panromantic and it is SO HARD finding any sort of asexual-spectrum representation in media, let alone a specifically demi character. 

All good things to those who wait I guess, because I headcanon Dream from Sandman to be the same! I’m not totally sure what his relationship with Hob is beyond being generally queerplatonic, but I love the interpretation that he’s demi and Hob is one of the few that he feels attraction to. 

The icing on the cake is that (as many of y’all have pointed out already) Dream has quite a few neurospicy traits – and I know he kinda sorta falls into the “neurodivergent-coded nonhuman” trope but he’s also so deeply empathetic and creative, he just has trouble expressing those emotions sometimes! And that’s OK, he’s a work in progress! He has a support system helping him grow and he *does* want to be better. He’s trying! 

That’s relatable too, I’m not officially diagnosed with anything but I’m fairly confident that I’m also neurospicy, and I struggle with identifying my own emotions sometimes. I use movies, TV, and my own creative writing projects to help me work through my emotions and my understanding of myself. So, to see the Lord of Dreams himself work through the same stuff I’m working through – it’s pretty cool. Didn’t think I’d find myself relating to *actual Morpheus* but hey, I’m not complaining. 

[serinmatheson1]

Sex and Morphienne

I’m doing this mostly because I haven’t been obsessed enough with a show to do any sort deep dive --or even puddle dive--on the characters and I’ve missed it.  Also my friend loaned me the Sandman Omnibus but I’m only part way through it so I’m basing most of this on the TV show. 

So I think we can all agree that there are couples that give you mad passionate vibes and Morphienne is not one of them.  Like these two are not constantly banging on every surface of the Dreaming.  That’s not their vibe. Or at least not the vibe I’m getting from them. I get more of a softer vibe.  Like cuddles in the night or holding hands as you walk through the library.  More romance than passion.

Now we all know Morpheus fucks.  Like the man has a son and a list of exes longer than he is tall.  But he doesn’t going around fucking indiscriminately.  That’s more Desire’s area really.  (One wonders what their ex list looks like...) So I’m thinking he’s probably demisexual.  He doesn’t go to town untilhe’s formed a deep conntection to a person.  Yes, he seems to fall in love almost at the drop of a hat but that’s neither here nor there.  Once he has a strong connection to someone, he wants them.  And he’s known Lucienne a long time. 

I feel like Lucienne is more asexual.  Maybe it’s just because I’m ace and she’s my favorite character but I’m not getting a lot of sexual vibes off her.  She’s not a sex repulsed asexual.  More...sex neutral.  it’s not something she’s seeking out for herself.  If her partner wants to initiate, she’s probably going to go along and probably enjoy it.  But she prefers romance over passion.  Not that she’s not getting plenty of both from dream. Because we know Dream.  

So yeah, those are my headcanons. 

[corinthian-og-begay-docrime]

My Sandman headcanons

Morpheus is autistic and has RSD

Morpheus is demisexual

The Corinthian is aromantic

Lucienne is asexual

Lucienne is also autistic

Jed walker is adhd

Hob and Morpheus have a soft QPR going on :)

Lucienne is a she/they

Corinthian is a he/they

Morpheus is a whatever he don’t care

Most denizens of the Dreaming that left left to go look for Dream and got lost

Edit:

Corinthian is autistic

Matthew is the baby

Gault is trans

[orionsangel86]

Interesting analysis. I love Niel Gaiman but I am not a fan of his choices regarding Morpheus and sex, he definitely let his own bias get into it.

Can I ask what choices exactly it is that you aren't a fan of? Is it just the limited cishet-ness of it all? What would be your preference?

I think we all tend to let our own biases slip into our character interpretations. I'm bisexual, but otherwise allo and cis and I usually prefer to headcanon characters to be like me if there isn't any strong basis for other interpretations (example: Castiel in SPN is imo gay and demisexual, not bisexual, and not sex repulsed asexual either, and I think canon supports these views more than any other interpretations (though others are valid) even though I sometimes would prefer to view Cas as bi leaning just for fun with a stronger appetite for sexual attraction and sexual gratification than perhaps canon would support - but thats why we have fanfics!).

For me, I headcanon Morpheus as pan (in that gender is irrelevant compared to bisexual where gender is relevant and I am attracted to pretty much all of em) but other than that he's most comfortable in male form, with male genitalia, and does not fall on the asexual scale.

I recognise in my own headcanon, that I am possibly projecting onto him a bit, as there really isn't anything in canon to indicate he is attracted to beings with male presenting forms (other than maaaybe Lucifer if you squint). Its far easier to project onto Hob Gadling - who can easily be intepreted as bi/pan who was canonically married to a trans man.

Thats not to say that ace headcanons of Morpheus arent valid of course. Perhaps thats the issue? Again I wonder if perhaps I am stepping into some worrying discourse in fandom that I have missed involving aphobia? Just because the dude has sex in canon doesn't mean he CAN'T be ace after all? If ace people wanna view him that way thats fine.

I'm not gonna ramble too much more on this point. Everyone is gonna have their own interpretations, and at the end of the day, the rule I always stress is that so long as you arent inflicting and enforcing your interpretations and headcanons onto everyone else, and policing fandom for daring to interpret things differently, you can interpret things however you like and play with characters like the dolls in the dollhouse. Fandom is a sandbox. So play.

[itsbitmxdinhere]

In celebration of pride month I’m dropping all my muses sexualities, genders and all that 

Also this way you don’t need to check their bios constantly to figure out, also some of my canon muses and OOCs still need a Bio page so yeh at least you have this alkjlksdfnslakdnmf

Spoiler alert, none of them are straight

Original Characters

Shang Wu ( Dragon Shifter ) :  - He/Him - Cis - Demisexual, Biromantic Rei Takahashi ( Ghoul ): He/Him - Cis - Gay Alec Cold ( Leviathan ) : He/They/She - GenderFluid - Pansexual Dolores Lawgod ( Witch ) : She/They - Genderfluid - Pansexual Dal Jae-Sung (Superhuman) : He/They - Genderfluid - Demisexual, Panromantic Toshiro Hirai ( Kitsune ) : He/They - Genderfluid - Bisexual Luna Williams ( Dragon Shifter ) : She/Her - Cis - Asexual, Demiromantic Hel/Hela ( Godess of the Death (Norse myth) : She/They - Genderfluid  - Pansexual Morpheus ( God of Dreams (Greek myth) : He/She/They - Genderfluid - Pansexual

“Canon” Muses

Will Byers: He/Him - Cis - Gay Eddie Munson: He/They - Queer Henry Creel/Peter Ballard/001 : He/They - Genderfluid - Pansexual Steve harrington: He/Him - Bisexual A.J.Crowley : They/Them He/Him She/Her - Genderfluid - Demisexual, Panromantic Peter hale: He/HIm - Cis - Bisexual Cora Hale: She/Her - Cis - Lesbian Stiles Stilinski: He/HIm - Cis - Bisexual Jackson Whittemore: He/They - Genderfluid - Bisexual Laurits Seier: He/Him They/Them She/Her -  Genderfluid - Pansexual Will Turner: He/Him - Cis - Bisexual Jeferson ( Mad Hatter ): He/Him - Cis - Bisexual Robert Alexander III (Moose) : They/Them - Agender - Pansexual Jaskier: He/Him - Cis - Pansexual Ahkmenrah: He/They - Genderfluid - Bisexual Jedediah: He/HIm - Cis - Bisexual Sam Winchester : He/They - Genderfluid - Demisexual, Biromantic Jack Kline: They/Them - Agender - Asexual Crowley: He/They - Genderfluid - Pansexual Amara: She/They - Genderfluid -Pansexual Phil J. Coulson: He/Him - Cis - Bisexual Sam Wilson: He/Him - Cis - Bisexual Joaquin Torres: He/They - Genderfluid - Bisexual Loki Laufeyson (KID): He/Him They/Them She/Her - Genderfluid- Pansexual Mobius M. Mobius: He/Him - Cis - Pansexual Thena: They/Them - Pansexual Phastos : He/They - Gay Kingo: He/Him - Bisexual Theodora Crane: She/They - Trans - Lesbian Luke Crane: He/Him - Cis - Demisexual Jamie: She/Her - Cis - Lesbian Miles Wingrave: He/Him - Cis - ??? Owen Sharma: He/Him - Cis - Bisexual Jim JImenez : They/Them - Genderfluid - Bisexual Stede Bonnet : He/HIm - Cis - Gay Blackbeard (Edward Teach) : He/They - Genderfluid - Bisexual Obi-Wan Kenobi: He/Him - Cis - Demisexual Boba Fett: He/Him - Bisexual Fennec Shand: She/They - Genderfluid - Pansexual Din Djarin: He/They - Genderfluid - Asexual , panromantic Number Five: He/Him - Cis - Bisexual Ben Hargreeves: He/Him - Cis - Bisexual Klaus Hargreeves: He/They - Genderfluid - Gay