Gaiman was once asked to describe Sandman in as few words as possible, and says "The Lord of Dreams is faced with a choice to change or die, and makes his decision." In fact, you could say the whole point of the story is that Dream discovers his past rigid stricture for rules has no place in the modern world, and he needs to learn to be more kind, but can't without becoming a literal different person... so he does.

So I know Lewis has been calling Dream out on being a dick throughout this retrospective, but I think this finale shows why Dream gets leeway for that while someone like, say, Shaft from Youngblood does not: Dream being a dick is the whole point. He’s not doing dickish things while the story expects us to cheer him as a hero, the story recognises he’s a dick, people (including his own family) call him out on being a dick and consequences to his dickishness come down on his head. The whole story is Dream realising what a dick he’s been, realising the limits to how much he can change…and the increasing lengths he’ll go to to try and be better

In fact, the Wake has not double, but triple meaning! "...occurs in the WAKE of of what has gone before, "In which a WAKE is held", and "In which we WAKE"

6:08 Having re-read American Gods, love that Neil Gaiman went, "Y'know what? I gave Odin such a badass way of introducing himself, I'mma use it again!"

Linkara: No one is clicking on Par 4 of a retrospective without having seen the first three parts. Me: HOW DARE YOU ASSUME I KNOW HOW TO COUNT TO FOUR!!!!

I kinda assume that Daniel's protection is why Lyta didn't end up spending her life on the run from angry entities.

54:21 This is the reason why I still like Lewis Lovhaug, even though I don't watch much as I have when I first got into his videos. His kindness and words are something I believe are very underappreciated. To Lewis, thank you for the work you have created, for putting a smile on my face with your videos, may you have sweet dreams and may your future be brighter than the sun.

"The dreamer dies, but never dies the dream, Though Death shall call the whirlwind to his aid, Enlist men’s passions, trick their hearts with hate, Still shall the Vision live! Say never more That dreams are fragile things. What else endures Of all this broken world save only dreams!" Dana Burnet, "Who Dreams Shall Live"

Me "Well its time to sleep now after a long day" *Linkara posts the end of his retrospective* Wellllll i suppose there's no better reason to delay a Dream than to hear the conclusion of another one

So with the ending of the Sandman, this officialy means that Hawkman is the grandfather of the Lord of Dreams...as if his history couldn't get more confusing.

I want to talk about Mike Carey's Lucifer series a bit since you don't go much into it. More specifically I want to talk about how the Sandman and Lucifer contrast each other thematically and how Lucifer specifically is in many ways the opposite of Dream and his journey in many ways the opposite of his (this will obviously contain spoilers for that comic). On the surface, Lucifer and Dream share many similarities. Both are rulers of realms that contain hundreds of subjects and are important to the function of the universe, commonly invoked by mortals. Both have godlike powers and are rightfully feared by many. Both are extremely prideful and arrogant, often ruining their relationships because of selfishness. Both also struggle with freedom and in many ways both of their stories are about their struggles to grow and leave behind their responsibilities, obtaining true freedom. Yet in truth, the two could not be any more different. Dream's entire being centers around his responsibilities, his life literally begins and ends with those responsibilities and in many ways he is merely a anthropomorphic representation of those responsibilities. To him, the dreaming is everything that he is and there's no way to escape that fact whether he likes it or not. He is trapped by his responsibilities, a fact that does not change by the end of his series. His "death" is not escape from his role but rather as Abel puts it, a new point of view. Lucifer however is defined by his complete lack of responsibility. Indeed, Lucifer as a character is someone who embodies change and rebellion. Lucifer is constantly rebelling, constantly changing who he is. He is chaos personified. He rebelled against God. He rejected his rulership of Hell, he rejected owning the Lux. In his own series he tried becoming a new creator god only to reject that too. If dream is someone who is defined by his struggle between his responsibility and his existence as a being with free will, the Lucifer is defined by his pathological need to escape any form of responsibility as to Lucifer, any form of responsibility is merely tying him to his destiny and therefore to God. I think how the two handle relationships is a good way to illustrate this divide. Dream is someone, though loathe to admit it, who craves companionship. He surrounds himself with dreams and constantly seeks lovers to ease his loneliness. In many ways, Dream sees his relationship with others as a brief escape from responsibility and in many ways that's why his relationships fail: he fails to acknowledge that love is yet another form of responsibility. Lucifer by contrast acknowledges that love is responsibility and hates that fact. He views relationships of any kind be it as a brother, a lover, an uncle or even as someone who owes a debt as something that keeps him down and thus something to rebel against. Indeed, at the very end of his series Lucifer simply...leaves. He leaves the universe without a single companion, the loneliest existence. To Lucifer however, this is the ultimate freedom: he is no longer tied down by responsibility of other people, he does have not have to interact with anyone, he has no obligation or debt to anyone, even God and in that way, he has achieved freedom. Yet the irony is that Lucifer can never truly be free, because to seek freedom is his very nature, the way God built him. While Lucifer is someone who constantly seeks change, he ironically can never change the fact that he seeks change. His desire to be free from any burdens and the changes he undergoes are, at the end of the day, merely following his original design from God. He can never truly be free because to seek freedom is the very thing his God designed him to do: his very nature. To seek freedom is simply doing what God planned. Thus while at the end of his story, he obtains freedom from all burdens, there is one thing that he can never be free from: himself. In the very last issue of Lucifer, he has a chat with God where God brings up the story of the Monkey King and the Buddha. The Monkey King attempts to leave the Buddha's palm by escaping to the end of the universe but he discovers that that attempt merely brought him into the palm of the Buddha. I think this story is very illustrative for both the Sandman and Lucifer. As dream puts it when he talks to Shakespeare: Dream cannot leave his own island. He is trapped by his own responsibilities as the Dream King and since Dream IS the Dreaming, any attempt to escape it merely plays into his nature as Dream king. For Dream to escape his role is as futile as the Monkey King to escape the Buddha, his responsibilities and his nature trap him. Yet as Brief Lives demonstrates: in reality nothing in the universe is truly that different from him: Be it the endless, the gods or even great men like Shakespeare or Augustus Caesar, the story of the Sandman repeatedly demonstrates that all of us are bound by our own responsibilities to this world and to our relationship with others and ultimately, to our fates. Nothing can escape that fate. Both Sandman and Lucifer are stories about people trying to escape their "island", things that bind them to this world be they responsibility, love or ultimately, fate. Yet the stories end in opposite ways. At the end of the Sandman, dream does not escape the Dreaming. Dream of the Endless still exists and unlike Destruction he refuses to abandon is realm. However, "Morpheus" dies and is replaced by "Daniel", as Abel again puts it, the death of a "point of view" and the birth of a new one. This is how Dream gains true freedom: through change. "Daniel" is literally a new set of eyes that Dream can view the world from, a death and rebirth of his perspective. While his own situation has not changed, at the end Dream proves definitively that he can indeed change and thus is no longer stuck to his "island". By becoming someone else, by gaining a new perspective and appreciation of the world, Dream escapes his trauma and thus gains freedom, even if he never left the Dreaming. It's interesting then that Lucifer ends with God offering a similar proposition to Lucifer. God offers to exchange memories and experience with Lucifer, creating two new beings. This is exactly the same thing that happened to Dream: a new perspective, a literal new set of eyes to view the world. God offers to Lucifer the same thing that Dream got at the end of his series: an escape to his trauma. Yet Lucifer rejects this offer or rather he can never accept this offer. While accepting it would free Lucifer of his pain, it would also mean accepting the ultimate responsibility. He would be tied to the world and have a relationship he can literally never leave from. While Dream was able to grow as a person and learn to find freedom in spite of his responsibility binding him to the Dreaming, Lucifer, despite being a being defined by change, ultimately cannot change his own nature. So he refuses God's offer and departs into the void. Dream and Lucifer end their stories in opposite positions. Dream has grown as a character and at the very end, gained a new appreciation of his role. Lucifer has obtained the ultimate freedom: the freedom to leave, escaping all responsibilities, all people so that he can be alone forever. Dream recreates the dreaming, his world while Lucifer abandons his world. Dream obtains freedom through change while Lucifer obtains freedom by never changing.

Have to say, Viga’s art for the thumbnails of each of the videos are phenomenal, expressing the Sandman series perfectly by being very moody and artistic. My favourite thumbnail being the one for Part 2 depicting the Key To Hell, where the colour palette of yellow, orange, red and blackish purple just blends together in a way I just really love.

The tragic part about Wesley Dodds’ eulogy for Morpheus is that he DID speak to him when they met in the one-shot Sandman Midnight Theatre. “You. I know you. There is some of me in you. Poor creature. It cannot be easy for you. There is nothing that you can do for me. Now, forget.” Wesley mirrors Morpheus in an interesting way. He constantly nightmares of crimes and atrocities. Solving the crimes and stopping the perpetrators doesn’t ease the bad dreams; if he wanted, he could ignore them and live his life. But, he can’t. He has a responsibility to listen to the nightmares, and he can’t bring himself to turn his back on them. When I say “mirrors”, I’m being literal. Wesley’s only memory of seeing Morpheus imprisoned in the Burgess manor is “some kind of mirror”, and he reasons that maybe the Sandman can remember what’s below the house, but he can’t. I wonder if, in Gaiman’s eyes (Gaiman having cowrote Sandman Midnight Theatre with Matt Wagner, the author on Sandman Mystery Theatre), the Sandman is, I don’t know… the universe compensating for Morpheus’ absence somehow? But then again, that wouldn’t exactly fit with Destruction leaving his post… It’s very complicated. I know I’m rambling about a relatively unrelated character. I just like the Golden Age Sandman a lot. Thanks for the retrospective.

So as someone who lost a brother, who happened to be a HUGE fan of the Sandman comics (he actually cosplayed Destruction at CONvergence) your toast at the end really got to me. Not ashamed to admit I am actually kinda crying right now. These videos were fantastic. You did an amazing job covering an amazing story. Hats off to you and everyone else who worked on the videos.

That whole entire closing bit... this is why a lot of us are still subbed and/or supporting through Patreon. For the most part, we came for the funny, but we've stayed for the insight and because, in a climate that seems determined to try and encourage one to embrace the worst aspects of oneself and revel in them, we could always use someone like Lewis to remind us that while it's harder to be good, it's always worth it in the end and people will appreciate it all the more. And while I can't speak for anyone but myself for the next bit, I know I'm not gonna stop anytime soon. ...Also, deez nuts. Definitely can't go without deez nuts. It's essential.

Flowers gathered in the morning, Afternoon they blossom on, Still are withered in the evening, You can be me when I'm gone. Thank you, Lewis, for another wonderful retrospective.

Not just a superb series in its own right, this might be one of your finest retrospectives yet. Sincerely, well done, sir, and a most enthusiastic salute to Viga, her art was inspired. Bravo.

I’m personally of the opinion that Morpheus did know exactly what he was doing, because he wanted to change his bad habits and honestly thought that he was too entrenched to succeed. But a new Dream could.

One Dream ends, another Dream begins...

@42:13 Wait wait wait...freakin' DARKSIED? Ha ha ha. Oh man, of all the attendees I expected to that event, freakin' Darksied was the last one I would have thought of. That's hilarious!

And while trauma suits Despair, in many ways it suits Dream even better.

I just realized something. Superman is at the dream funeral as Clark Kent. It proves what Linkara said YEARS ago in JLA: Act of God. He's Clark Kent BEFORE he's Superman, like how Batman is there in costume because the billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne persona is just a facade he keeps up

You know the part I really like about the Kindly Ones? Dream is defined by his responsibilities, however much he is chained by them. When killed, Abel mentioned that the Kindly Ones aren't actually allowed to kill (the entities within the Dreaming being a noted exception), their purpose is to torment until their targets find atonement or kill themselves to escape. Dream... could not kill himself to simply escape, even after all that happened, it's why he had to leave and the Dreaming to be on the brink of destruction before he accepted his fate. Dream wasn't killed by the Kindly Ones, he twisted his responsibilities to make it so killing himself was his only option to fulfill them.

The subplot of rose kinda implied that when Desire has to die, rose WILL become the next Desire

Loved your delivery for "Or become Medusa. I really should have taken that job offer."

“Terror in a handful of dust, and relief from that terror through ink and quill.” “You may have your blood vengeance, Furies, but I also die on my terms: with my loving sister’s hand in my own.” I’m not crying, you are.

25:20 Perhaps it is such a reality storm that is affecting the Contest of Champions storyline to this day

Can't wait for the compilation video to come out so we can spend 3 hours straight listening to Linkara talk about The Sandman, only for it to end with deez nuts lmao

With that line by Martian Manhunter, I wonder if that was a dig at the recently failed Justice League TV pilot. Idk if they align with their individual releases, but that would be kinda funny

I like how Loki even figured out in the end that he was a pawn in Morpheus' plans all along despite him doing everything he did.

Thank you *so* much for this. I've always loved your work, your retrospectives in particular. But this one has a special meaning for me. This was the story that first taught me about stories. And the many facets they have that reflect our lives. Seeing this is like learning it all over again, with fresh eyes. A new perspective. And that's something I'll always appreciate. Thank you.

Infinite Crisis -> Desire Final Crisis -> Delirium So who's the one in the shit for Dark Crisis? .....Despair?

Darksied attending a funeral is as surreal as him sitting on a comfy chair. Man, wonder how the show will handle all of this

I fondly remember a NPR interview with Neil Gaiman back in the early 2000s. When the subject of The Sandman came up, I remember that Gaiman said something to the effect of: "At the end of that story, Dream is faced with a choice. He can either die, or he can change. Readers will know which choice he made..." Very cheeky, Neil.

11:13 “Hey Linkara, did you know that Schrödinger’s Cat is a concept in physics that- (gets stomped into the mud)” In all seriousness, I thought the multiple destinies was just more siblings caused by Zero Hour

Way back when, I remember attending a local convention that you attended and I asked if you’d ever get around to covering Neil Gaiman comics (I think you posted an old Q&A of it). Back then you said Gaiman never wrote anything worth burning and that the Sandman comics are quite good. It makes me very happy to see that circle completed with you reviewing one of my all-time favorites series. Thanks for the memory and the review!

Watching the last video of Linkara's Sandman reviews before the other Sandman comes to help me sleep. Great job.

Just glad everyone seems to love Hob.

Actually read The Sandman so I could experience it along with the retrospective A really enjoyable experience, even though this section made me cry a lot Really glad I finally read it

I think your choice of where the inciting incident has some support in the story. Recall that Gaiman puts the frame of Dream crying in the issue after he deliberately calls back to the start of the book with Rose going back to England and seeing Alex. I also think that it connects to Orpheus too, who Dream left in a similar prison for centuries. I think Rose's subplot is a deliberate choice to reconnect the beginning of the story with it's ending. It's meant to suggest questions about when Morpheus started planning for his death. Has this entire series been a long suicide, with Morpheus hanging on for just long enough to fulfill his responsibility and ensure that a new aspect of Dream was ready to take his position?

So wait, The Sandman really likes Spider-Man? Then why is always doing crimes and trying to kick the crap out of him?

Thank you Lewis Lovhaug for making this retrospective, as watching it has been a thrill and an eyeopening experience. Id wait every week for the next episode to come by to enjoy. While watching these, did pick the first volume of Sandman remaster for 30th celebration, that contains the beginning of this all. What a ride it has been.

Best Viga title card so far.

I loved your interpretation as that wasn't something I has thought of initially. It made Morpheus feel more...human

Time to wake, but what a dream it was. Thanks, Linkara. You really pulled out the stops for this one and it shows.

Out of all your retrospectives so far, this one has hit me in such an emotional way. Of inspiration and thought provocation. Thank you so much for covering it Lewis 😁

Hobs will always be my favorite character. He has such a will to live and go on and that's something you can really look up too. Great retrospective.

It seems very apt that this retrospective should end in the middle of the night - in some time zones, I suppose. One last story to put us all to sleep and may dreams take us well.

Weirdly enough I had a dream Linkara sat at my table at a hospital's McDonalds before finding out this uploaded. What a coincidence.

"Oh boy, part 4 of a series I didn't watch!" -somebody I don't know

I did look up what was going on with the Rose Walker subplot with Desire Apparently when Rose gave away her heart, she lost the ability to love (and also stopped aging), but then Desire made her fall in love with the butler guy and that brought back her ability to love and the lighter is Desire giving Rose back her heart Apparently I would agree the whole Rose plot is just confusing and doesn’t seem all that relevant to everything else going on. Maybe there’s something thematically or symbolically significant that parallels with Morpheus’s story, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Mostly I feel like if I had to look up what was going on, I don’t think it was well told

For some reason, I'm reminded of Captain Marvel's last words in TDKSA: "Where's a dream go when you wake up and don't remember it? Nowhere. Give everybody my best. It's been nice...existing." As shitty as that title was, it was great moment.

Thanks for this retrospective, Linkara. I've been having a very rough time recently, and this has helped me get through it.

Genuinely sad to see this one end. Really, this is one of your best retrospectives

I think my favorite part of The Sandman was when Morpheus said "It's morphing time!" and then he morphed all over those guys.

Thank you so much for going over this amazing series. I probably wouldn’t have invested in buying the entire series without this retrospective. Please take a break as long as you can.

These retrospectives have been terrific, and every video has pointed out aspects I'd been unaware of previously. It was also nice to see someone articulate the issues I had with "A Game of You" that I've never been able to quite express on my own for 30+ years, so thanks for that help. One aspect where we'll have to disagree, however, is that I don't think there's any question of Dream's deliberate orchestration of his death in "The Kindly Ones" (and long before.) While some story elements may not line up perfectly, overall the story makes it pretty clear that he out all of this into motion. On that topic, I don't think Thessaly/Larissa's protection of Lyta is a plot hole. There's nothing to suggest that Dream knew about Thessaly's protection of Lyta, but even if Lyta wasn't under protection and Dream did use his right to kill her, it wouldn't have ended the Furies' threat. It only would have removed the focus of their power. Taking Lyta "off the board" wouldn't undo the fact that he'd killed Orpheus and given the Furies righteous cause to torment him. It would have just reduced their power for the time being and delayed their attacks, but they were still going to keep hounding him and would have found another conduit eventually.

I admit, I was mostly excited about this because of Lyta Hall and you did not disappoint, I was punching the air when you mentioned the JSA run with Hector and Lyta because that was my first real exposure to the Sandman mythos.

The thing about Gaiman, is his works always feel more real. Formula is avoided, his stories are awkwardly paced, his characters always defy cliché' and his endings are always twistedly poetic. It's never truly about entertaining, more about making sure no matter how fantastic the situations, it's actors all seem their own people. Sleep well Mr. Gaiman.

33:43- I was expecting Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor from Superman Returns to shout "WRONG!", but speaking as a diehard Star Wars fan, this clip works too.

and with that, I am caught up with atop the fourth wall again

I gotta say the end of sandman and the end of this retrospective gave me goosebumps. Truly this was a great comic and a beautiful story.

... thinking in the dream realm, time moves in Jeremy Berimy.

The way Linkara says 'Pleasant Dreams' at the end fills me with chills.

It is a Chinese nobleman in "Exiles", you can tell because he mentions the Chinese Civil exams that all administrators had to take in the old empire.

What a way to close. Also, you should definitely read the Superman 78 comics.

Fantastic retrospective

29:43 "Issue 69" "It is nice" I see what you did there.

Yay the sandman retrospective the finals this should be fun 🤩

I'm really glad that you used Mr. Sandman by The Chordettes because the song is just the perfect way to end the Sandman retrospective

Wesley did meet dream In the special issue of The mystery theatre called "Sandman midnight theatre"

Your theory is largely accurate, but there's one other bit of nuance. Aside from the guards he wouldn't speak to and the wizards occasionally making demands, Dream was by himself for all those decades. That's a lot of time to consider what you've done in life. To examine your successes, your triumphs, you failures and flaws. What if Morpheus saw all that he was... but didn't like the reflection? But he is the most resistant of The Endless to change, so the entire plot begins. A god that is all too human forcing himself to change the only way he can think of. Side note to the above, wonder how different things would have been if he'd gotten therapy. PTSD and Depression are no one's friend. I think what Desire was going for was a genuine attempt to help their granddaughter. Rose had been bottling up a lot over the volume (plus other stuff from earlier volumes) so Desire gave her a chance to truly vent everything. They didn't explain that to her because they wanted Rose to *want* to let everything out to someone who would listen. Even an Endless as flighty as Desire is still bound by their function. So, here's an interesting thing. The three who doomed Morpheus have connections. Nuala looks young and beautiful, but is naïve. Lyta is a loving mother willing to burn the world for her son. Thessaly is an old and spiteful witch. In other words, Morpheus was lured into The Furies' trap by an incarnation of The Kindly Ones. Even better, what was Lyta's superhero name? *Fury.* Desire being in danger for *Infinite Crisis* makes sense. The survivors of the Multiverse all wanted things. Alexander Luthor wants a perfect Earth, Superboy-Prime wants his Earth and heroes to be like what he remembers, and Superman-2 just wants to save Lois Lane. I can never take Jed Walker seriously in The Wake. He looks like Shaggy, which only makes him sitting next to Darkseid funnier. Jed: "Like, I'm starving, man. Do you know where we could get some grub?" Darkseid: "Darkseid Is... not sure. I usually eat at home."

You know, I have to wonder if Morpheus's refusal to put off his responsibilities is itself a form of hypocrisy. I'm reminded of one incident from early on in the retrospective. Hob Gadling. Morpheus made a bet with Death, and the agreement included that Death couldn't take him until he truly requested it. But...isn't that encouraging his sister to put off her duties? Or does the fact that she will, *eventually,* reap him - even if he winds up being literally the only existence remaining in the universe apart from herself at "closing time" - mean that it's less her shirking her responsibilities and more her just changing her schedule? But that itself feels more like *procrastination* ...

It really is crazy to me how much The Sandman probably changed the way most looked at comic book stories, maybe it wasn't the first in any category like themes, philosophy, or even non-super hero stories, but something I think can be said that i don't think anyone else will is that it's about peace, one ends, one begins, but peace lives on not being forgotten and more people will look at the Sandman as an example of that

I'm kind of surprised Daniel's meeting with Lita didn't include any indication that he finally explained everything Morpheus didn't. Seems like a good time to fix that mistake and stop it from causing any more problems.

It's astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself into, if one works at it. And astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself out of, if one assumes that everything will, somehow or other, work out for the best. Is a quote that I have lived My Life by it was a combination of atop The Fourth Wall and the sandman that got me to be a comic fan and to linkara and to Neil gaiman I say thank you you have changed my life

I kind of love how Neil Gaimain just straight up uses the likeness of G.K. Chesterton as a character in his stories (Gilbert, or Fiddlers' Green).

7:13 Raphael (Balder's Gate 3): Neither, I am the fox watching from the bushes

Crisis on Infinite Earths was caused by the Death of Destiny (every alternate world and thus it's potential was destroyed only to be cobbled together into a single world) Zero Hour was the Death of Dream (an act of insanity that brought multiple alternative and fictional creatures into existence and nearly caused reality itself to reboot) Infinite Crisis was the Death of Destruction (causing the rebirth of the multiverse) And Final Crisis was the Death of Death (because the entire multiverse legitimately died and was only brought back by Superman building some crazy machine that just reset the damage)

Nothing has made me want to read the Sandman as much as this retropsective. It was always something I'd wanted to, but figured there was too much of it and that I wouldn't have the time. After this, though, I think I know what I'm tackling next after I'm done finally reading Discworld. Thank you.

Just finished all 4. Fantastic work Lewis.

Man, I'm gonna miss that awesome retrospective intro.

Wanted to just raise a glass to how spectacularly you did this retrospective and it serving as a reminder why I've diligently followed for years 💜💚

Great work on this series!

Great retrospective you did here, Linkara. Larissa/Thessaly's eulogy of Dream touches upon a topic that was introduced much earlier on The Sandman, in the story of the Werewolf Grandpa. That "the price of getting what you want, is getting what you once wanted." and the analysis you made of it, reflects this feeling precisely. It's a thematic that shows up in the series a few times after Gaiman introduces it, and it's present there, near the end. A creative choice I greatly appreciate is how we never see the Kindly Ones, we only see things from their point-of-view, we only get a glimpse of them from their shadow, and that makes them more terrifying than any design could have made them. A great decision that enhanced their presence. One interesting bit of trivia: Gaiman had written many more eulogies to be presented at Morpheus' wake, but he had to cut them because of lack of page space. One of the eulogies he had written was Death's. He decided to leave it out, because he realized what he actually put on the page was so much better than any speech of could write for her. That describing the feeling that Death's speech would give would be that more powerful that way. The multiple versions of Destiny can be seen as being tied to something Destruction suggests in Brief Lives, that the Endless not only embody their concept, but also its opposite. Destruction and creation, Delirium and Delight, Dream and Reality, Destiny and Free Will, Death and Life. Notably, if I remember correctly, Destiny never at any point reads ahead on his book, he's always reading events as events are happening, and several times he enacts what is the book says. And then there's Death, breathing life into Eblis O'Shaughnessy, creating life rather than taking, to which I refer something destruction says of Death in The Song of Orpheus, that everyone and everything meets Death twice: When we die, but we've already met her when we were born, it's just nobody and nothing ever remembers that conversation. Rose Walker getting the lighter is a metaphor for her getting her heart back, the heart she sacrificed at the end of The Doll's House, so that everything could be saved. The lighter is heart-shaped, and it was left to her by Desire, her grandfather. Who better than Desire to give a heart back?

Pleasent dreams Linkara.

This has been delightful. Thank you.

Wonderful look at an amazing story! Thank you for just, all the amazing work you do and always being so awesome and wholesome about it!

41:25 That’s actually Commissioner Gordon. But you are correct in that he’s comparing coats with John Constantine and the Phantom Stranger.

I first started watching your show a while ago. While I never fully got into comics, you and some other recommendations did inspire to check out the Sandman, which has since become one of my favorite works of art in any medium. It’s funny to see this come around full circle from my perspective and I’m very grateful for this retrospective making me think about the Sandman again.

Holy shit, it's here!

Thanks for covering Neil Gaiman’s saga of dreams and stories. I hope one day you’ll do additional retrospective entries on the Sandman spin-off series. We’ll be seeing the eventual compilation soon enough, but for now, we’ll say good night and pleasant dreams for all.

Well done! I enjoyed the journey.

I like how Corithian 2.0 squares up to Death, and admits he has no chance. Like, the Endless aren't warriors mostly, but She's Death and Life. She is the only one truly endless. To paraphrase, she was there for the first birth and when existence dies she'll put the chairs up and move to the next iteration. The other DC Reapers either inadvertently work for her or are aspects of her. Nekron is the black sheep of that.

Mr. Linkara, your summation of the series was very moving. Thank you. Have a good day.

20:25 No peace pipe, no peace, many corpseeees, yes.

Intro Skeleton: HEY GUYS, WATCH ME SHOVE THIS WHOLE APPLE INTO MY MOUTH!

My impression has been that the task Morpheus freed Loki for is, essentially, what happened. He knew if he put Loki in his debt Loki would lash out at him, and since Morpheus himself wouldn't know the specifics he could lose without having to deliberately hobble himself or abandon his responsibilities - hence why he still goes after Lyta to try and stop things. Basically I think he tricked a trickster god into helping him with assisted suicide. Because Morpheus wanted/needed to change even as he couldn't allow himself to, and this let him do so by changing his point of view.

37:25 - 37:49 10th Doctor: "Even if I change, it feels like dying. Everything that *I am* dies, and some new man goes sauntering away... And I'm dead."

41:29 _The Trenchcoat Brigade_ four-parter was such an odd little book. Never has a more serious group of characters assembled under such a goofy name.