#Sandman: A Game of you

[cornsword]

Happy International Women’s Day

[milfzatannaz]

no thoughts just the girls

[stardusted-bookworm]

"Hob?"

Hob Gadling smiles, eyes tired. He loves that voice so much.

"Hullo, Dream." Even to his own ears, his voice sounds slurred, tight with exhaustion.

"It has been many a night since I've seen you in my kingdom last. Are you well?"

Hob chuckles. How far they've come. "Yeah, I'm all right, love. It's just been difficult for me to sleep recently."

Dream hums, seemingly upset on his behalf. "Your new neighbor."

It wasn't a question and yet he answers it like one.

"Yeah." He sighs. He doesn't know if he has the strength to continue.

The bed dips gently as Dream settles beside him. Hob hopes this liberty will go unpunished as his head rests upon his friend's shoulder. Dream briefly stiffens before relaxing, accommodating the new touch with relative ease.

"She's young," Hob continues. "My neighbor, I mean. But these walls are thin, and after a couple nights, it becomes difficult to stay asleep when all you can hear is the clicking of a keyboard and shouting at a video game."

Silence reigns over the apartment for but a moment. Then, the noise Hob had talked about begins to fill the space.

He smiles. So tired, he's so tired.

A hand threads through his hair, gentle, soothing.

"Sleep, my friend. I have you. None will disturb you as long as I am here."

And what could Hob do but listen? Dream guides him down until he was resting on his lap. Lithe fingers continue to brush through Hob's hair, lulling him to sleep.

The best and most continuous night of sleep he's had in such a long time.

[writing-for-life]

The Portrayal of Womanhood in A Game of You

I’ll be honest with you: Writing about The Sandman with a focus on (queer) women surely feels different in light of the recent allegations.

This meta has been languishing in my drafts for a long time, and since I’m currently clearing the pile, I will still publish it. Mostly because these views are mine and not someone else’s. And also because they’re critical to a degree. However, if you feel that these are topics that you currently find hard to engage with, this is the exit sign (I totally get it).

With that out of the road, let’s talk about the women of A Game of You (and why it was always one of my least favourite arcs, despite the fact that my literary and thematic preferences should have made it one of my favourite ones)…

Gender roles are a central theme in A Game of You. Before the arc even moves into these themes on a deeper level, we already get this:

Barbie tells Wanda that she wasn’t allowed to read comics when she was a young girl. And that immediately struck a chord with me upon my first reading as a teenager: I was allowed to read comics, but I still remember getting the side-eye, especially from boys. Somehow, you didn’t belong to their club (even if you arguably knew more about Batman than they did 🤣). The reason Barbie gives us is that reading comics supposedly rendered her “unladylike” (yes, comics were considered “boyish”, at least when I was a teenager, and this is exactly the time we’re talking about here). But it’s not just about how a girl is supposed to act—it’s also about actively excluding her from something that’s only for men/boys. And while the topic of, “What’s a girl supposed (and allowed!) to be like?” isn’t something either particularly dwell on in that moment, Wanda faces the struggle of having to define and fight for her womanhood daily: As a trans woman, she feels resistance on a constant basis. When she talks about Weirdzos from the Hyperman comics, this is actually a nod to DC’s Bizarro, who could be described as Superman’s shadow (there’s a whole story why they were called Weirdzos instead of Bizarros in The Sandman, but that’d lead too far here. You’ll probably find it on Google).

Close enough to the “real thing”, but always “slightly off”

And Wanda carries the shadow of her biology. All the time. There’s no escape for her, no respite, no true support.

We also see this in a scene with Hazel, one of Wanda's neighbours who lives in a lesbian relationship with her girlfriend Foxglove. Hazel noticed that Wanda has "a thingie." Despite the fact that a lot of “weird” things are happening in those panels, part of that is definitely that Wanda has not fully (in Hazel’s eyes) transitioned:

What is she, exactly (not who)?

And that question gets answered very painfully when Wanda, Hazel, Foxglove, and Thessaly come together to free Barbie from being trapped in the Dreaming. Thessaly is sure she can defeat the Cuckoo that holds Barbie captive. However, she needs menstrual blood to perform a ritual that will allow them to traverse the Moon Road into the Dreaming. During this process, Thessaly insensitively refers to Wanda as a man and prevents her from joining the journey with Foxglove and Hazel (and no, this isn’t about “Thessaly the TERF”—I already made my position on that clear and think that whole discussion needs a lot more nuance than fandom is often willing to engage in).

Maiden, Mother and Crone

Thessaly's statement, "This isn’t your route. It can’t be," further highlights the discrimination Wanda faces on a daily basis. She “isn’t” seen as a woman now, and she “can’t” ever be, even if she had reassignment surgery—Wanda would still be seen as a man by the ancient powers that be.

Wanda's struggle, more than any other character's, highlights the ongoing conflict between self-identity and societal perception of women. And that’s unfortunately still a struggle most women face. But Wanda’s character is particularly poignant because she is repeatedly forced to reaffirm her sense of self, only to be torn down again and again. Even Barbie, who always supports her and would probably never knowingly hurt her, says this when Wanda reveals her childhood name:

“Alvin? That's your real name?"

Please imagine what it must feel like if even the ones closest to you refer to your dead name as your “real” name, even if it’s without malicious intent (of course Barbie makes good on that later, but…).

Wanda can never truly find comfort in anyone. She is constantly confronted with the disparity between her self-perception and how the world views her. Ultimately, Wanda's exclusion from entering the Dreaming (and there’s more symbolism in that than you can shake a stick at—not just because she’s denied her womanhood, but also because she is denied entering a place of hope and possibility, and not least because she is denied being capable and having agency: Thessaly repeatedly acknowledges Wanda is important, and that she needs her help. But that’s on her terms, not Wanda’s) leads to her tragic death: The storm caused by drawing down the moon destroys the apartment where Wanda remains to watch over Barbie’s body.

And that’s why Wanda’s arc in the comics will always stay problematic to me (I don’t know how optimistic I can be for the TV series, because we’ve already seen her headstone in BTS shots, even if her overall arc seems to have changed): Dream grants Barbie a boon, which she uses to save the women in the Dreaming, but Wanda is not among them. There is no saving her—not in this world, not in any other.

Wanda's conservative parents bury her with her deadname Alvin Mann (and her second name adds insult to injury, because it is the German spelling of “man”, as in “male”. And again, I’m somewhat glad they have changed this for the series, as seen on said headstone, because I never got why choosing that name was necessary in the first place. Or let’s say: I get it, but I don’t think it was needed and was layered on too thick. Sometimes subtle does it, sorry).

Why is Wanda so consistently shamed, while Hazel and Foxglove's lesbian relationship is regarded not a big deal (I’m obviously not insinuating it should be, see my disclaimer at the bottom of this post)? Although I have to admit there are things about that one that always rubbed me up the wrong way, too: The dumbing down of Hazel (honestly, most of us were not that clueless about reproduction in the 80s and 90s, lesbians or otherwise), the play on butch/femme stereotypes to then clumsily try to turn them on their heads (which did not work for me), the still somewhat male gaze applied to Foxglove (she didn’t have to sleep naked with her tits on display, did she?), the implication that all women somehow end up as mothers (if they don’t end up dead), even if just “accidentally”… There’s a whole lot to be said about the topic of motherhood, and how it gets instrumentalised in several Sandman arcs, but maybe that’s for another time...

To explore that question, I want to have a closer look at Barbie, who is a (in my view, often clumsy) stand-in for the gender-identity of many (CIS) women.

A quick throwback to The Doll’s House

The first signs of Barbie's identity crisis don't appear in A Game of You, but rather in The Doll's House. She is introduced as one half of “Ken-Barbie”: They finish each other's sentences, Barbie lacks a distinct personality and is completely overshadowed by being a “traditional wife” (maybe not the type of trad wife we think about today, and yet…). The fact that she and Ken share names with plastic dolls underscores the artificial nature of their identities and their relationship.

Barbie's dream-life always felt more authentic and meaningful to her than her waking reality—that’s why she is only a shell of herself when she can’t dream (after the vortex interlude with Rose Walker). She is passive, conforms to her father's expectations of being "ladylike" and adheres to “good” CIS- and heteronormative behaviour. And then, after her divorce, she feels uprooted, shows little motivation and relies on Wanda for support. Freeing herself from her shackles could have been a story of reclaiming her power without the layer of implied loneliness (I’ll get to that). Instead, she needs to suffer for a bit…

Barbie being trapped in her dream world also traps her in a state of passivity: Dreams are not real. You can make them real, but that’s not what she does—they are a maladjusted escape for her. And yet (or maybe rather “because”), instead of directly confronting and fighting the Cuckoo, Barbie smashes the Porpentine (much to the Cuckoo's delight).

Upon waking…

Upon waking, Barbie's personality hasn't changed much from the woman we first met. When she goes to Wanda’s funeral, she struggles to defend Wanda from her transphobic aunt despite trying.

However, she engages in a small but significant act of rebellion by crossing out "Alvin" on Wanda's headstone with her favourite lipstick and writes her real name instead.

Barbie then recalls a dream she had while traveling to Wanda's funeral. In this dream, she sees Wanda not as she was in life, but as an idealised version of herself—soft, more curved, and wearing a pink dress. Death stands beside Wanda, symbolising that she is recognised for who she truly is.

And I get it: The idea was to say, “She was always a woman, even to the cosmic powers that be. Eat that, Thessaly and everyone else.” But there’s also the part of me that wants to say, “You know what? She was good the way she was. Perfect in her imperfection. We didn’t need to affirm her womanhood by showing her as a stereotypical woman.” The use of “perfect” and “drop-dead gorgeous” always really rubbed me up the wrong way in relation to the way she was portrayed in that panel. Because it portrays a stereotypical woman: That’s what you look like if you need to/want to pass. And this applies, sadly enough, to all women in one way or another, no matter what gender we were assigned at birth. But if that scene holds meaning to people, I also get it. My more critical take on it is maybe down to my own history (again: disclaimer at the bottom of this post).

Simultaneously, the destruction of the Land in the Dreaming grants Barbie a newfound independence. She is now alone, without her best friend or the friends of her dreams, but these losses have given her freedom. And for a moment, loneliness becomes the ultimate resolution to Barbie's identity conflict. And I found that idea horrible, I’ll be brutally honest with you:

On the final page of A Game of You, Barbie is shown alone, waiting for a bus to an unknown destination. She reflects on her dream of Wanda, where she had the chance to say goodbye to her past life. For a moment, she stands rigidly still, and that moment feels… really long? Separated from her past and facing an uncertain future, she is free from anyone's expectations or desires. And maybe, in that simplicity, she finds freedom.

And maybe, A Game of You challenges the idea that we have full control over our identities. Our self-perception and how others perceive us are always influenced by external factors. And somewhat, I could never quite shake the feeling the story equates the removal of the ties that bind us (in this case: relationships) and/or death with freedom: Wanda only fully realises her identity in death, and Barbie feels most liberated when she is free from past entanglements and future obligations. Whether that notion is truly rejected in the end is probably down to the reader: Barbie turns and runs towards her bus, heading into a future that, while uncertain, maybe also holds a glimmer of hope. Unfortunately, none of the women of The Sandman get off particularly well in that department, and that is a common theme…

Disclaimer: I write this as a CIS bisexual woman in her 40s who has been in relationships with both women and men for 30+ years. Two of them led to marriage/civil partnership: One with a CIS woman, also bi (we were together for 10 years, 3 of them in a CP), one with my now husband (CIS straight man, married for 10 years, together longer, and we have a kid together). I don’t need to tell you this, but I am because I think it is important to disclose my own bias and experiences as a queer woman in the 90s, which include coming out, experiencing bi-erasure and misogyny from both inside and outside the LGBTQ+ community. As such, they will definitely colour the way I read and interpret A Game of You.

[thesandwomen]

you decide the length and destination of the road trip, and if you like, describe in the tags what you think it would be like!

lmao i really said “do not separate” twice on this poll

[jazzy-a]

You ever read a fanfic and immediately go:

"F*ck You!" *clicks bookmark* "..I'm keeping this forever."

[subjecting-dream-to-the-horrors]

:)

[martybaker]

Thank you @amielot for tagging me in last line tag game like forever ago 🙈 I’ve been in real life hell with no time to spare for any creative endeavors, but today I took up the proverbial pen once again to prod at my unfinished modern au ice-skating fic (you can find part one here)

and I wanted to share this bit with y’all, because I think it’s pretty funny. Enjoy.

——

Hob laughs out loud. “Wow. Okay, I deserved that one. But how about this one: Say, Professor Endeles, what would a perfect date look like for you?”

Dream pretends to ponder this deeply.

“A nice spring day,” he starts, “not too cold or too hot, we have a picnic on a hill… with a beautiful view of the city of Verona below us.”

He smiles at the image, continuing, “I shiver in the light breeze, underdressed, and Pedro Pascal lends me his jacket-” Hob bursts out laughing at that- “he lends me his jacket, hand feeds me strawberries and italian cheese, we drink Chardonnay...”

Hob laughs so hard it makes him bend in half. “Pedro Pascal??? Pedro Pascal hand feeds you strawberries?!”

Dream gives him a cheeky grin. “Yes.”

“Okay, incredible. I’m skying in the Alps with Keanu Reeves if you even care,” Hob parries.

Dream smiles at him beatifically. “I don’t. Pedro’s taking me to Teatro alla Scala to see Carmen in the evening.”

By this point Hob is straight up wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. “Oh my god. Okay. You absolute madman, you win this round. I concede defeat.”

——

And I’m tagging @zigzag-wanderer @seiya-starsniper and @omgcinnamoncakes if you feel like sharing :)

[orionsangel86]

SANDMAN SPOILERS

(Im a slut for spoilers)

Soooo we got Tom, Kirby, and Indya Moore filming in a graveyard. There is a mysterious red book. Clearly set in modern times. Indya looks very glamourous and at one point is holding hands with Death.

So my speculation is that this is Wanda's graveyard scene (its not announced but it does look most likely that Indya will be our Wanda? Maybe? Who else could this be?). The presence of Dream and not Barbie however is rather interesting. Then again we know that Wanda is getting some form of expanded/combined role so perhaps this is a deviation from the comics? Who knows!

Still its exciting. Credit to the *gag* Daily Mail *gag* for doing what they do best and spying on film shoots and celebrities.

[mayapapaya33]

To anyone who wants to replace Thessaly with Johanna Constantine in the TV show... Why would you want to do that to poor Constantine? Firstly, just to inflict dating Dream on the poor woman is bad enough lol. But also you're casting her in the role of antagonist / villain (depending on your pov, unpleasant either way you slice it). Either you haven't read All of Sandman or you've repressed some traumatic memories because Thessaly is part of the reason that Dream REDACTED.

(It's fine if you don't like Thessaly. I don't like Thessaly, she's not there to be liked).

[writing-for-life]

A Game of You—Shawn McManus

[jack-the-fool]

Dream: "Did I hear you say you have no intention of ever dying?"

Hob: *internally* "Weird pickup line but not the weirdest i've heard"

[valiantstarlights]

Last Line Tag Game

Thanks for tagging me, @valeriianz and @lenreli ! 🙇‍♀️

So um, this is from Loving You is Cherry Pie (AO3 | tumblr). You know, the...omegaverse daddy kink oyakodon parent-child incest dreamling one? 👀

No pressure tagging, and apologies if you've already been tagged before and have already posted your responses 😖: @seiya-starsniper @teejaystumbles @mallory-x @gabessquishytum

CW: Spicy spice. As in, this is literally just me being horny on main for Papa alpha!Hob at two in the morning. 😂

Edit: Okay fine I'll put everything under the cut 😂

--

More slick dribbles out of Dream, and his hole twitches as his Papa continues to trail soft, worshipful kisses down his body. Hob's attention at the moment is fully on Dream's small omega tits, sucking at his nipples while one hand holds his right leg open, while the other massages his left hip.

"Papa..." Dream whines when Hob does nothing but suck on his nipples until his tits start to feel bigger than usual. He wants more. He wants his Papa inside.

Hob's dark eyes flick up and makes eye contact with him. "Yeah, baby?"

"More, please." He's so wet, he feels like he's lying on a puddle of slick. An impossibility, of course, but with his strong, handsome Papa on top of him, pupils blown wide and big alpha cock a long hard line against Dream's thigh, it certainly feels that way. "I want your...Inside me..."

Hob smiles, mirth making his eyes crinkle. "My what, darling? My fingers? My tongue?"

Dream shuts his eyes as his imagination floods his brain with images of his Papa in between his legs, looking drunk with pleasure as he eats Dream out, his stubble rubbing against the sensitive skin of Dream's wet folds, one hand pumping his thick cock while his other is holding Dream's hips down. "Y-yes, but..."

"But?"

"Your c-cock too, please, Papa."

"Oh, good boy. So polite for me even in the midst of his heat," Hob praises. Dream moans as Hob's hand, the one on his hip, moves even closer to where he wants it most, but not quite yet. "But Papa wants to take his time with you. Make your first time a really memorable experience. I mean, what kind of Papa would I be if I didn't make my baby cum at least twice before I pop his cherry with my big daddy cock?"

[based-bobcat]

I just finished reading Sandman vol #5; 'A Game of You'. (Sandman being my usual Summer read, I take it with me to the beach. I think I've been reading it once a year for for at least decade now.)

I will be completely honest and say that in my first and second readthrough I never really liked it. It was full of normal humans, Morpheus barely showed up and the ending was too dour for my tastes. All in all, I used to describe it as filler. (Sorry)

It was on a later read-through it really clicked for me though. How Gods of old don't actually care for their flock, how regular human lives can be effected by those who don't consider them worth noting, human or otherwise. I fell in love with Barbie's attitude, Wanda's loyalty to her friends, Hazel and Foxglove's love for each other and Thessaly was there too I guess. That humanity will go to bat for on another when the chips are down.

It seems like they want to push back (or even worse skip) A Game of you in the Netflix adaption. Season of Mist will likely be followed by Brief Lives, and although BL is my favorite arcs, I think that is a mistake. The grand bluster of the Gods loses it's shine when you ignore the richness of the regular people. You show A game of You to those suits and producers and all they'll ask is how it feeds in to the main plot. (It does, but subtely). I hope they will only push it back, because Game of You is peak Sandman

I'll always recommend Gaiman's Sandman.

[two-hands-toward-the-sun]

and to be completely honest i don’t even think the majority of the show!sandman fandom on tumblr would even like a game of you! dream barely shows up. there aren’t really any (human) male characters to ship, only—qué horror—canonically queer women. hell, who’s the white dude people are gonna latch onto? fuckin’ george, the asshole whose face gets sliced from his head, brought back to life, and nailed to a wall while the rest of his corpse hangs out in the bathtub? and aside from the tumblr fandom, imdb ratings went down significantly when season 1 pivoted to focus on rose, and reviewers complained about how there wasn’t enough of dream. multiple factors point to the idea that a game of you would have an extremely disappointing audience response, and unfortunately that might reinforce the idea to executives and such that people don’t want to see wlw stories at front and center. and our girls deserve so much better than all of this potential bullshit. so i would in fact prefer for a game of you not to get adapted in full, because it would break my heart a little to see people hate on it.

[im-not-corrupted]

Oh I would adore to hear about bygone sin, I’m obsessed with that fic! (🤘five-and-dimes)

Of course!

Chapter five is actually mostly complete! I say mostly because I haven't begun edits yet, and I'm still incredibly unsure whether it's what I need it to be. But once I finish stuff for the Sandman fic exchange, I'll start edits.

”Dream,” he murmured, and he seemed—unsure. Nervous. “I know I asked already, but are you—are you sure you’re alright?” When Dream didn’t reply, he lowered his voice. It was but a whisper, now, shared only between the two of them. Perhaps, in another circumstance, Dream might’ve found it…somewhat intimate. Perhaps. ”It’s okay if you aren’t,” Hob assured him. “You’re allowed to not be okay.” He tensed again. That, there—that was anger, flashing bright red and ugly, but it was familiar. It was heated, melted away the remnants of fear that gripped him when that glass shattered like it did, and he glared up at Hob Gadling, who simply stared back, unafraid. Later, he’d wonder when that had happened. When Hob Gadling became unafraid of him. When they had grown familiar enough to warrant only a soft sigh, one that sounded almost disappointed. For now, though—for now, he allowed himself to ask through gritted teeth, “Why would I not be alright, Robert Gadling?” To not be is a weakness, Dream wanted to add. Do you think me weak? He thought of his hand, bleeding from a knife wound, and the tenderness with which Hob cared for him. He thought of the comfort offered and bestowed upon him as though it was so easy. It was not the suggestion of weakness that inspired anger, not really. It was the knowledge that, in the end, Hob Gadling was right. Dream was weak—he relied so heavily on these meetings that he attended only to repay a damned debt, he sought out Hob’s company not because his presence was owed to the other man but because, somehow, Hob had started to…to represent something.  Warmth. Friendship. Care, which was the most baffling out of all of them. Hob offered all these things easily, simply, as though Dream was deserving of such things. As though he thought him worthy of it. He was not. He was not, but he was too selfish to deny it for himself. Those warm welcomes, the way Hob continued to hold open the door to his apartment above The New Inn even though Dream still didn’t understand what led him to do so, the soft smiles tender touches be was offered—they meant too much, and he was terribly selfish. Too much so to consider letting this go.