#Unity Kinkaid

[amielot]

Sweet Tooth

I was joking on discord about Hob turning back around and Dream is just ugly crying into his pie.

so here's a very self indulgent bonus drawing.

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Masterpost

[sweet-like-cinnamon-5]

In which (1) person knows what's going on, and it's Unity Kinkaid 🩷

[writing-for-life]

Lost Hearts Everywhere…

…or why comics issue #16 is so central to the whole storyline of The Sandman

We are currently reading #16 of the comics in our community (join us!), and I don’t know about you, but seeing Lost Hearts in context of the whole run always makes me a bit unwell because the visual and thematic parallels are just so strong…

About Lips, Hearts, Living, Dying & Dreaming

Sleep of the Just : Lost Hearts

About Family, Gender, Losing Your Heart & Desire

Tales in the Sand : Lost Hearts

Speaking of Which: About Interfering Cats, Their Toys & Memory Fragments

Overture : Lost Hearts

About Not Wanting to Kill, the Consequences of Failing in One’s Duty & Why Responsibilities Mean Everything

Overture : Lost Hearts

About Being Tired & Walking Away, Victories & Defeats, Life & Death

Lost Hearts : The Kindly Ones

[bobbole]

Playing with dolls: the Corinthian and "this dream people call Human Life" - part I

Written for The Sandman Book Club

Since at The Sandman Book Club we are re-reading The Doll's House, and since the first chapter of this story marks the entry of the Corinthian, I would like to dwell on some of the distinctive traits of this character, how he is the embodiment of one of the great symbols of American and Western pop mythology (the serial killer) and how the netflix adaptation, while excellent, has completely deprived him of precisely those elements that made him so distinctive, while enhancing other important aspects.

Murderer vs. Killer, or when killing is a "work of art"

In The Dreaming, the spin-off series immediately following the canonical Sandman, there is a panel that I think is emblematic in defining what the Corinthian is, even before his being nightmare, black mirror, etc

Judging Cain like he's on Dancing with the Stars

There is a passage in which the Corinthian states that Cain is definitely a murderer, but not a very good killer. This because the word murderer here is linked to a primordial concept of homicide. Yes, Cain is the first murderer, but his act is something instinctual, part of his nature. Cain kills because he cannot do anything else and murder for him is an inevitable act, demonstrating his being part of a story from whose narrative he does not escape.

For the Corinthian, on the other hand, killing theoretically is not in his nature: he is after all a nightmare, which must terrify, unsettle, reflect the deepest fears and secrets of the human subconscious. A means to an end, not the end itself. For the Corinthian, killing is a deliberate act by which he tries to carve out a space of his own within a predetermined story.

The serial killer is a planner: in the Corinthian mind, an artist too. Even the fact that he appears on the scene not already in his nightmare function but primarily in that of being ready to kill a young man leaves no doubt about it: the Corinthian, in the way he perceives himself, is first and foremost a serial killer/artist.

This is not Vogue: comics vs show

In the netflix Sandman, episode one, the Corinthian has sensed that Dream is free. He wipes off the blood from his eyes and stands up, sensually stroking the head of his...victim? It would be better to say a model without eyes. Death here is not horror: there is something glamorous about this scene that irritates me deeply, not least because we are watching it from a spectator's pov, comfortable in our chairs. We are in a hotel room but the space is open, and the screen of the devices from which we are watching the episode gives us

1) an escape route

2) a way to dilute the horror of the scene (there is always hope if there is an escape route)

This Corinthian is elegant and sensual. He could disturbs us, if he wants, but definitely he's not scary.

Let's compare the netflix scene with the comic. First, fundamental change: the reader's pov, which coincides exactly with that of the Corinthian. We do not see the Corinthian in the panels, and we will not see him until after a long time. We look at the scene through his eyes, we read the words through his voice. From this perspective, it's as if behind the glasses, together with him, we were there, an active part of this crime.

Paradoxically, this scene should be less scary than the one in the TV show. There is no blood and the boy still has his eyes. But we perceive his terror, we see him tied up and helpless like a doll. We see his pimply face making ugly grimaces of fear (in the netflix episode the victim's face is perfect). There is no hope for this boy and while he begs for mercy in vain we brandish, together with the Corinthian, the knife that will kill him. There is no sensuality, there is no seduction, there is no sex here (better, sex and death are the same thing but I will return to the relationship between death and sexuality in the second part of this little essay). We are in a room with no escape, the scene in front of us is dirty, not at all glamorous, in which we readers are actively participating. This Corinthian is fucking scary.

The waking world: a big doll's house to play in

This title takes on a different meaning depending on the various characters involved in this Sandman story. From my point of view, I believe that the characters who most of all are linked to the concept of a doll's house are Unity and the Corinthian.

Unity appears near an old doll house, and her clothes are also similar to those of an old doll

Unity was literally a doll for most of her life: her condition was caused by an external event and external people decided about her life, including her motherhood.

The Corinthian doll and the surrealist doll of Hans Bellmer: both obscene and disturbing toys

The Corinthian, on the other hand, is a sort of doll maker and the dolls are the human beings he kills and whose physiognomy he transforms with his knife.

This last thing is perhaps one of the elements that most differentiates the netflix Corinthian from the one in the comic. The Boyd Corinthian is almost a romantic character, a bohémien eager to savor human life in every sense, moved by contrasts and ambiguities that make him decidedly more similar to the Second Corinthian of the comic than to the First. He looks at humanity with a curiosity that is sometimes almost paternalistic: ruthless, but not cruel. He embodies a type of socially well-integrated serial killer, the "unsuspected type", who knows how to contain his impulses when necessary. Most important, with him sex is not always synonymous with death.

The Corinthian of comics, on contrary, never escapes this binomial: in him, sex and death are always intrinsically linked because they are the same thing. He is always cruel and brutal, seeing humans as meat to be cut. Humanity is nothing but fresh clay in his artist's hands: shaped dolls to play with in his new dark stories.

[windsweptinred]

Unity (The queen, insulted an Endless to his face five seconds after meeting him, the legend) Kinkaid

And

Desire (May act like a boss bitch but screams bratty sub so hard it kills me) of the Endless.

[tumbleringismycopingmechanism]

Can you imagine what Unity's parents went through? Their daughter fell asleep when she was 12, and never woke up again in their lifetime. So deeply asleep that she might as well have been dead. And then, suddenly, somehow, pregnant. They don't know it was a supernatural entity that she willingly* slept with in her dreams. How guilty they must have felt, that they could not protect her. That (seemingly) someone must have laid hand on her defenseless, sleeping form, impregnating their sweet little girl. And then dying, never knowing if she'll be okay one day.

*in the show, anyway

[samsalami66]

No Honour Amongst Justice Part 9/11 is up now!

Graphic Depictions of Violence | Dream/Hob | 28K | Mature

Summary:

The universe needs balance, and there's only one man who can provide it. Dream, better known to the world as The Sandman, is a first class assassin and head of the Dreaming, a company created to identify and eliminate threats to society by any means necessary. When one day he loses control over one of his agents, the Corinthian, he is forced to ask for help to ensure his creation will be stopped. Hob Gadling, the MI6 agent assigned to find and kill The Sandman, did not imagine he would agree to hunt down a serial killer with the most wanted man on the planet when he woke up that morning. Fuck, Jo might actually kill him this time.

Read on AO3 here!

[merinsedai]

Day 10- Fate

From the sandtober prompts by @orionsangel86 thank you!

‘Unity Kincaid should have been the vortex of this era’. Unity accepts her fate.

Silly little sketch featuring Unity, Lucienne and Rose.

[constantineinhell]

[thesandwomen]

it’s thinking about “my baby? i dreamed i had a baby” hours

[writing-for-life]

I wrote a bit more about the parallels to Ibsen’s Doll’s House here in case anyone’s interested:

Gender and Perspective I — We’re getting some beautiful entries in the haiku competition, don’t forget to submit yours!

[amielot]

This convo was inspired by the lovely @arialerendeair <3<3<3

I need to update the character height chart, cause Unity is.. very short next to Dream.

----------

Unity: "Have you considered that nice people exist?"

Dream: "pfft! sounds fake."

[sweet-like-cinnamon-5]

On the end of The Doll's House arc, the question of happy endings, and coping (or not coping) with It All in general

The Sandman Book Club is discussing Issue # 16, Lost Hearts, this week. Here are some thoughts on Unity Kinkaid and the end of the Doll's House arc.

Spoiler warning for all of the Sandman comics 🖤

Unity Kinkaid and the end of The Doll's House arc

I've said before how much I like the ending of the Doll's House arc. Unity Kinkaid, a character who has been manipulated and controlled and played with like a doll for her entire life- takes full control of everything, grabs the narrative with both hands, and, if it's not too corny to say, basically saves the entire day. Unity ex machina.

Here's what we know of Unity's life:

Sleep of the Just:

-1916, in her very first appearance: "She dreams of a tall, dark man. His eyes burn like twin stars in her head." She is dreaming of Dream himself, probably in an indication that she is about to manifest as the Dream Vortex.

-Before she can start manifesting as the Dream Vortex: Dream is captured and imprisoned in the binding circle. Unity falls victim to the Sleepy Sickness.

-While asleep, Unity is impregnated by Desire and gives birth.

-Decades pass, Unity's parents die, she is moved into a nursing home. She's still asleep. More years pass. "The nursing home staff pretend that Unity is awake. They wheel her from room to room with the other patients. Asleep, she watches television. Asleep, she relaxes in the sun."

-1988: Dream breaks out of jail, Unity wakes up.

The Doll's House

The next time we see Unity, she's doing MUCH better. She's awake and alert, she's fully in control of her faculties, and she's located her missing family and arranged for them to travel to her.

However.

In Unity's own words, to Rose:

"I was... ill for a very long time, dear. I only came to my senses last year. Whilst I was ill I... I had a baby. That was your mother, Rose. That was Miranda. My family arranged for the baby to be adopted. When I recovered, I called in Mr. Holdaway. I told him I wanted to know about the baby. At first he lied to me. Eventually he admitted the truth. There had been a baby...

"...I am a very rich woman. We hired private detectives to find the child. The trail was very cold, but there had been records. Eventually they found Miranda, and you, Rose. I had Holdaway send you two the letters, and the airfare... and... well... here you are."

Ok!

So Unity: as a young woman was starting to manifest as a Vortex- then fell into the Sleepy Sickness- then was violated and impregnated and gave birth while sleeping- then continued to sleep for decades and missed out on most of her life- then was moved to a nursing home and moved around from room to room, like a doll, by the nursing home staff, while still sleeping- then woke up and recovered, hooray- but then REMEMBERED her baby that she had given birth to while asleep- and then was LIED TO by her family solicitor about the existence of said baby- and then, after her solicitor finally acknowledged that yes, correct, this baby does exist, had to go through private investigators to find her lost family- and then finally had to try to have Rose untangle the custody/foster care mystery of what had happened to Jed.

-From initially being the Vortex (caused by Dream, unintentionally)

-to losing decades of her life to the sleepy sickness (caused by Burgess, a side effect of his imprisoning Dream)

-to being impregnated by Desire (as part of Desire's plan to destroy Dream)

-to being moved around like a doll by the nursing home staff

-to being lied to by her solicitor about the existence of her baby:

Unity has been... let's say, jerked around. By forces great and small. For most of her life. Controlled and manipulated and moved around like a doll in a doll's house. Obviously there's a lot of variety in these instances (from the nursing home staff, who seem to have provided excellent care to the sleeping Unity over the years, on one end... to Desire, who is happy to impregnate Unity as a means to their own ends, on the other)- but the one thing they have in common is that Unity isn't in control.

And that's why I like the ending.

"Unity hears a voice, her own voice, and it whispers to her in the darkness. The voice whispers to her of her life before the long sleep. Whispers childhood dreams of a tall, dark man, whose eyes danced like twin stars in her head. Whispers the truth. And then she gives in to sleep, her breath shallow and halt. Dying, in a world she finally understands... Unity dreams."

Unity is the one to figure it out. SHE should have been the vortex.

Unity is the one to act. SHE can be the vortex again now.

Fiddler's Green is hoping and praying for a solution (and yes, very sweetly offering his life for Rose's- but unfortunately, since he's not the vortex, that won't do it). Matthew is trying to convince Rose that dying isn't so bad. Dream is apologizing over and over and over. None of them want Rose to die. We, the readers, don't want Rose to die. But killing vortices is one of Dream's most important duties. There doesn't seem to be any way out.

And then!

Look at this absolute queen, here to save the day!

Unity is HERE, and she's going to resume being the vortex, sacrifice herself, save the Dreaming, save the world, save Dream from spilling family blood (not that she knows that part), save Rose, and call Dream an idiot right to his face. Honestly, what a hero. And, in my opinion, what a deeply satisfying ending to this arc- as Unity, who has been in control of so little of her entire life- who has been played like a doll by so many forces beyond her control- is the one writing it all.

The Question of Happy Endings

So Unity has saved the day. And then, to make things ever better, Dream is going to save Jed! Everything is looking up for the Walker siblings!

This is truly the happiest ending possible that this arc could have had.

And maybe I thought the next page would be- Unity hanging out in Fiddler's Green, enjoying her afterlife in the Dreaming. Maybe she's becoming friends with Matthew. Maybe Dream walks by and subtly smiles. Maybe Rose visits her in a dream and grandmother and granddaughter are able to emotionally process together. Maybe everything is great, and all the characters are enjoying this happy ending that occurred.

Well.

If I had thought that, I would've been in for quite a surprise.

Unity exits the narrative and is never heard from again. (For reasons that are completely unclear to me btw??? Brief side note but wouldn't she have been a great character to reappear in TKO and/or The Wake? I don't believe she is even at Morpheus's funeral? Am I wrong about this?)

And as for Rose-

On the next page it's 6 months later and she is pretty traumatized from everything she went through and is decidedly Not Doing Well.

And I will admit that I had a bit of whiplash the first time I read this ("We just had a happy ending?? Why isn't everyone happy??") but it probably is incredibly realistic for anyone who had such a direct brush with the Endless and everything that that entails. Because in the world of The Sandman, for there to be such inconceivably powerful forces at work- and for us, as humans, to bump into them so directly- I can only imagine that it would fuck anyone up. It's like Rose came face to face with truths of existence that are just too much for any of us, as humans, to comprehend.

Yeah. I would like to think that in her place I'd be like, "Well Lord Morpheus, that was cool, let's be friends now!" - but honestly - I too would probably be like - "well that was traumatizing, I'm going back to pretending that that was all Just A Dream, because otherwise I will completely lose my shit and be unable to function."

On Dealing With "It All" ... or not

And speaking of comforting lies that we tell ourselves in order to be able to function...

No one wants to think of themselves as a doll, powerless to the whims of the universe, being played with and manipulated by forces outside of their control. Whether it's someone as comparatively powerless as a human mortal, or someone as inconceivably powerful as Desire of the Endless.

So Desire goes back to their favorite (and honestly for them fairly effective) coping mechanism: denial.

And it's not the first time that I've had thoughts about the various Endless siblings, and their ways of dealing (or, honestly, not dealing). Even Desire, in a briefly self-aware moment, considers the coping mechanisms available and the... reactions to everything that some of the various Endless siblings choose.

Desire briefly considers how they, and how Delirium, and how Destruction cope. And if you ask me, this is how all of the Endless siblings cope/have coped with things:

Temporarily quit and then find a (possibly? hopefully?) healthy way to deal: Death

Go completely insane (and maybe possibly find some sanity within that? maybe a "just crazy enough to be sane" sort of deal?): Delirium

Go into complete denial: Desire

Leave: Destruction

Die: Despair and Dream

Whatever the hell Destiny does

(🤷‍♀️😬)

Although this arc ends on pretty much as happy a note as possible, there's still an underlying sense of uneasiness, a bad feeling that we're possibly all (human and Endless alike) hanging on by a thread.

But at the same time, things aren't entirely hopeless. Rose has been traumatized and isolated for 6 months, but then she does decide to leave her room and rejoin the land of the living. Rose and Jed and Miranda are all together. Jed seems to be doing remarkably well after everything he has been through.

And so the arc ends. The Walker siblings are off to look at foxes. Desire is wandering their doll-like realm and refusing to acknowledge their doll-like properties. Dream himself is doing ok, has successfully dealt with the vortex (or really, has had Unity deal with it for him), and has successfully uncovered Desire's entire complicated scheme from a pretty small amount of clues. And Unity? We don't know. But I'm pretty sure she's enjoying her afterlife in the Dreaming, after rewriting her end and saving the entire world.

why did i make this

[writing-for-life]

The Sandman Overture and Exiles: Omnia Mutantur, Nihil Interit

Everything Changes, Nothing Is Truly Lost—Not Even Hope

There once was a little girl (well, not a human girl) known by the name Hope Beautiful Lost Nebula, egg-daughter of Clearly who died in childbirth, sperm-daughter of Troubling World who was murdered by reavers. She is one of the most meaningful characters of the whole Sandman, so why does fandom hardly talk about her, not even those who have read the comics?

Understanding Hope, her story and her connection to Dream, is more or less understanding the entirety of The Sandman, and that's why I want to write about Hope and hope.

This contains major spoilers for Overture, Exiles and the ending of the Sandman, so if you’d rather not, this is your exit sign…

Pictures often speak louder than words, so I would like to start with these [I will add Alt text gradually, it’s a lot]…

If you haven't read Overture, you would not know that the words Dream speaks in Hell when he wins the Oldest Game are a direct mirror of Hope's words, down to repeating "I am...". It is not a sudden epiphany about how to win—it is a memory.

How much Morpheus truly remembers about the universe before the reset in Overture—it is something we cannot know for certain, and we have discussed it on here many, many times. I personally lean towards his remembering a lot more than we might think, and I've written about it in other metas before, e.g. here (super long with many tangents) or here. The narration is unreliable on this, because Desire in cat-form says in Overture that “there won’t be anything to remember”, but also that Dream will be “the only one to remember”. But whether he remembers every detail, or whether it is exactly the way Glory states in the above panel and it’s just that Hope's name is there for him when he needs it most, is secondary. What matters is that he does remember (side-note: It also matters because Dream promised her himself. And he never goes back on a promise, for better, for worse).

The above conversation with Glory is often taken as proof that there is no hope in the new universe, and by extension, the whole of the Sandman turns into a story with a hopeless ending. But in my opinion, that isn’t true. Yes, as a mortal being, Hope does not exist in the universe we are now in. But two very specific panels in Overture are directly contradicted by what happens in the later arcs of The Sandman:

The Star says here, after Hope's above statement that she is not nothing, that she is Hope, "As if saying that might ever change something." [And the Star’s tone is equally mocking than that of Lucifer Morningstar when they say, “What are you then, Dream Lord?”, but that just as an aside.]

And since Hope is killed in the very next panel (because Time pulled Dream out of that situation, so he wasn't able to protect her anymore. Who needs parents, right?), we might be inclined to believe this.

But by now, we all know that the Star is WRONG. These are not "three words that mean nothing." Once again:

And also this (I couldn’t find a gif with the bit where she says, “I will never give up hope,” but we all know she does say these words):

What else makes Dream/s prevail in Hell, what else are the dreams Morpheus speaks about here than hopes?

The Star is directly proven wrong. And so are we if we assume that Hope’s spirit doesn’t exist anymore. Because hope as a concept, hope as the thing that Morpheus remembers when he fights Lucifer/Choronzon in Hell, still exists. Even though this was said in the old universe before the reset, it DOES mean something. It DOES change something. Because Morpheus remembers.

Remembering Hope means to have hope.

And if we believe there isn’t any H/hope, we are also directly proven wrong by Time, who tells us that there will always be a universe in which Hope (the being) exists, and that there will always be one in which she doesn’t. And they, in a way, exist simultaneously. So even in a universe without Hope, her spirit, her memory, prevails. That is not a universe entirely without hope.

And that is also our tie-in to Exiles, because Morpheus and Daniel also exist simultaneously. Omnia mutantur, nihil interit—everything changes, nothing is truly lost.

Morpheus has moved on, but he still exists—in story, in memory of those who cared about him, in Daniel!Dream, in the “Soft Places” at the fray where reality and dreams meet. And it is exactly what H/hope is in the Sandman universe—it keeps on existing: In stories, in memories, in the “soft places”. Because to hope means to love, and to love means to hope.

Sometimes, you need to find hope…

Sometimes, she needs a bit of coaxing. Sometimes, hope means not to forget, so you keep going and remember what truly matters…

Sometimes, we lose her, and even Hope loses memory of who she was, but we can be reminded…

Hope might transform, but she never truly disappears in The Sandman.

On that note: I totally understand the attachment to Morpheus as a character. He is my favourite character, too. I cried buckets when I first knew what was going to happen (decades ago I dare say, and not at the end of The Kindly Ones, but during World’s End). And I think it is totally legitimate to want him to survive. Part of me does, too. It is a bit baffling to assume that people who read the story with acceptance and find meaning in it don’t care enough about Morpheus as a character to want him to survive, and that they are even a bit stupid for thinking The Sandman’s underlying message is one of hope. I don’t know many people who aren’t heartbroken in one way or another. But the story had to end the way it ended because it is not just about Morpheus and humanising him.

I often feel that by clinging to his character and person alone, we are losing sight of the deeper meaning, and we are closing our eyes to all the messages that are there, in plain sight, if we just let them speak to us:

The Sandman is not simply a story about Morpheus. He is the protagonist (even that could be argued), but he is also a vessel for the meaning and power of change, for letting go instead of clinging to what doesn’t serve us (and isn’t it ironic that by desperately wanting him to live and getting upset about the fact he doesn’t, we are doing exactly that instead of leaning into catharsis that actually has the potential to bring on change in us?).

Dream does not die because Dream cannot die. He changes. What dies is a point of view (symbolised by Morpheus). That’s it. That is the message. Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.

Hope is not gone. Not in this universe or in any other. Her spirit prevails. Because when she calls you out, when she touches you, you remember what matters:

“I’m not,” he says after thinking for a hot second, and proceeds to do exactly that regardless.

She touches him, she holds his hand, and calls him out.

She touches him, she holds his hand, and he is honest with himself, for once.

Hope touched Dream, but did she touch Desire in the same way? I already wrote about it here, and I think in certain ways, she did:

Hope prevails…

Hope is what saved the universe in the first place.

Hope is what Morpheus remembers when it matters.

Hope is what Nada finds again in A Hope in Hell after she gave up hope in Tales in the Sand.

Hope is what drives Unity and ultimately lets Rose survive.

Hope springs eternal in people like Rosemary who are willing to help and overcome their own fears. And in the TV series, that hope gets rewarded, and that’s important (I am glad they made that change).

Hope is even what drives Morpheus, but to see that, we need to take our eyes off only focusing on his having hope for himself, his having hope for his point of view (that does not serve him or anyone else, and he knows). If that’s the hope we’re looking for, we won’t find it. No, that’s not entirely true either. Because again, Dream can’t die. But the true reason is:

Morpheus is bigger than that. The story is bigger than that.

He has hope for humanity and sentient beings that are under his purview—what else are dreams but hopes? And Morpheus as the “point of view” understands that said point of view needs to make space for a better, kinder, more human (for lack of better term—human=/=man but human=with humanity) Dream to exist. And said Dream comes into existence with Daniel, but he also still contains all that was Morpheus. See it as having learned from experience and moving on with a new point of view instead of letting our hurt define us and holding on to it indefinitely. It is something we recommend in real life all the time—why can’t we find it in this story? Because it is right there, again, in plain sight: Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.

I am not saying this is how you have to see it. But I am saying that engaging with the story on this level makes it easier to come to terms with an ending that is commonly interpreted as hopeless because we can't see the forest for the trees.

Hope is hope. And she saved the universe and us. Not just once, but many times over. The new universe isn’t the hopeless, sad universe. The old one was. The new one has hope because it keeps existing. With Hope’s spirit and a Dream who has changed…

[windsweptinred]

I had a play adding some colour to my Desunity pic originally posted here.

What a difference it makes! Hesitantly eyes my pile of past pen and inks...

[shaylogic]

getting fucked up about the place Edwin was in being called the Doll's House

which is a reference to the volume 2 title of the Sandman graphic novels, which had a yellow-green color scheme baby doll abstract art concept in the margins of the beginning and end notes that matches the set in the show, as George said in an interview was an easter egg

but that volume wasn't about a plane of Hell or anything like that

but it WAS about the recurring theme of trying to "play house"

Unity Kinkaid trying to meet her family and form a home, but then she sacrifices herself and doesn't get to spend time with them

Hector and Lyta trying to build a home and have a baby in the Dreaming, but he's a ghost that's meant to move on so they're separated and don't get to have that home and family together

not sure if I have all that right. Sandman stuff is honestly too above my head personally but Dead Boy Detectives?

what do you mean the found family or possible soulmate situation between Edwin & Charles is culminating to a climax in the Doll's House?