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.
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The Problem With Thessaly
I’m sure plenty of fans would agree with me that there are certain elements of the Sandman comics that are going to be very difficult to adapt for television. I don’t envy the mammoth task Neil and the creative team on the show have ahead of them. But one element in particular which has been on my mind frequently is how they are going to introduce Thessaly to our screens.
It’s not just that she’s a TERF. It’s that she’s a cold, cruel, selfish, and inconsiderate bitch who only ever thinks about herself. Oh yeah, and she’s a huge TERF. There isn’t a single likeable element to her.
And yet.
We are supposed to somehow believe that our main protagonist, idiotic as he may sometimes be, depressed and seriously down on his luck as he is, will fall head over heels in love with her.
Sorry. But it ain’t happening. Something has gotta change. So here are my thoughts on how they could fix the Thessaly Problem.
Under a cut for comic spoilers (and its a bit long)
I kinda get the reason it happens in the comics. Kinda. I can’t remember the exact quote, or where I read it, but Neil explained it as “two people who you know are absolutely not right for each other and no one who knows them can understand why they are together.” He purposely wrote it to be a really weird match that didn’t make sense.
From Dream’s perspective, at this point in the story he has just had some of his biggest romantic disasters slapped in his face (at one point literally) all within a very short space of time for an entity as long lived as him. First Calliope, then Nada, and then Alianora, and he is hurting from all of them. Having to face his romantic failures one after another within the space of a few years AFTER having to go through 70 odd years of relentless suffering trapped in a glass prison has GOT to mess with your head. So I think Thessaly is basically the worst rebound in history. They are only canonically together for a few weeks but he somehow falls head over heels for this plain, dull, horrible person. 100% this is a rebound. He’s messed up. So yeah, I kinda get it.
From Thessaly’s perspective it seems she just really liked the idea of being the object of someones attention and desire even though she never returned his feelings and left him the minute he stopped devoting all his attention to her (god she really is a bitch).
So why don’t I think this will work in the show?
Because the show is a kinder universe than the comic. Dream is different in the show. He is already more thoughtful, warm, compassionate, and has a better self awareness when it comes to his shortcomings. He’s also a far more romantic character in the show, which is probably thanks to Tom Sturridge’s excellent performance and likeability and absolutely maddening sexual chemistry with literally every character he interacts with (his pretty face doesn’t hurt either). You just have to look at his scenes with Calliope to know that they are playing up the romance and kindness there when in the comics Dream is extremely cold to Calliope throughout their very short interactions.
Given the news that the writing team on Game of You will include trans writers specifically to cover the sensitivities of honouring Wanda, I don’t know how they will adapt the transphobia she suffers at Thessaly’s hand, or whether they will include that at all - personally I think they should remove it. Not to make Thessaly more likeable, but because it reinforces a really wrong view of witchcraft and magick that modern witches and pagans are working extremely hard to reject. Not to get too deep into these topics, but transphobia is a fucking plague in those communities and the last thing we need is more people thinking everyone who practices witchcraft is a fucking TERF. The comic even goes so far as to imply the actual MOON is transphobic. Like WTF? The moon isn’t fucking transphobic and “womb magic” is stupid. If I ever have to read the words “divine feminine” in a witchcraft FB group again I’m gonna scream.
Anyway my point is that I don’t think those scenes in the comic are necessary and there are plenty of other ways to adapt that story without resorting to transphobia.
The other issue is that if they do keep it in, they somehow have to deal with the fact that their protagonist is seemingly totally cool with dating a transphobic murderous bitch. Um. Yeah, not cool Dream. I think the show is going to do everything it can to make Dream MORE likeable and based on what we have seen so far I definitely think that’s the route they are taking.
So yeah Dream won’t be falling in love with a TERF in the show, that I am sure of.
The thing is, the best way they can deal with the Thessaly problem is also the simplest - Don’t include her. Just don’t write her into the show. Simples.
Because we already have a character in the show universe who technically doesn’t exist in comic canon, who knows magic and the occult, and who is MUCH more likeable and kind whilst still being a bit messy and selfish and totally a terrible match for Dream... Oh, and who also happens to be played by possibly the most well known actor on the shows main cast list.
Johanna Constantine.
Jenna Coleman is a fairly big name and one of the primary stars for the show. At least Netflix seemed to think so since her face was all over the marketing and she was included in basically every cast interview, even though her character only turns up in 1 and a half episodes. She is also playing a new version of an already well known character in pop culture and I am convinced Netflix is already considering spin off options for her. So there is no way they aren’t going to include her in future episodes of the Sandman.
Except thats where Netflix has a problem if it wants to stick to comic canon. Lady Johanna Constantine only turns up in one more Sandman story, and John Constantine doesn’t show up again at all in the comics.
So my piece of speculation that I’m almost 90% certain will happen, is that they will bring back modern Johanna Constantine in an extended or adapted role based on another character.
My money is on Thessaly. Remove Thessaly, replace her with Johanna.
I’m not just saying this because I think Johanna and Morpheus hooking up will be hot (it will be, don’t deny it. My bisexual ass knows a hot couple when I see them). But because it makes sense.
Yeah okay we have that pesky little rule about the Endless not dating mortals - but that rule currently doesn’t exist in show canon either, so theres no reason why they can’t just also scrap that for the sake of some sexy, messy, and definitely disastrous bi4bi action.
All jokes aside, with only a few tweaks to the story in a Game of You, you could seemlessly fit Johanna into it. She can be in New York for a specific case, hell, maybe Barbie and the sudden appearance of Martin Tenbones on a busy New York street IS the case she’s investigating? She can still find a way to break Hazel and Foxglove into the Dreaming AND when Morpheus shows up they can have another tantalising showdown like they did in episode 3. It works better with Johanna tbh. She actually cares about people, the motivation is there for her to want to save Barbie and protect people from supernatural sources. We can just make the storm and the collapse of the apartment block be caused by George or the cuckoo or something (or not have it happen at all since I am also practically certain that Wanda is NOT going to die in the show).
This ALSO means that much later on, when Lyta is having her breakdown and destroying the Dreaming, having Johanna being the one to protect her from Morpheus rather than Thessaly also adds a more human element to it. Morpheus has never been a killer, but sometimes his duties demand it. He goes to kill Lyta to prevent the Kindly Ones destroying the Dreaming. If it is Johanna blocking him instead of Thessaly, their motives align. Johanna would protect Lyta for the simple fact that she won’t let a supernatural creature harm a human (as much as she can - sorry Kevin), and Morpheus, being hesitant about killing anyway, would be easily talked out of it by Johanna. “Find another way to save the Dreaming, I won’t let you harm her.”
It just adds an emotional weight that isn’t there with Thessaly, who only protects Lyta because she made a deal with the Kindly Ones in exchange for more centuries of life - an ironic request when Morpheus (and Death) are keeping Hob Gadling alive simply so he can be Dream’s BFF.
It just works for me. Scrap the “no mortals” rule and you can have them have the messy disastrous relationship that doesn’t work out. It is far more believable that Johanna Constantine could break Dream’s heart - she���s already a known heartbreaker in the show (sorry Rachel). It’s a doomed love story a modern audience can get behind, makes sense, the actors already have insane sexual chemistry, and it could definitely hit all those story beats needed to get the show to a version of the Kindly Ones whilst also actively improving it.
I may first and foremost be a Dreamling shipper, but talking in terms of canon I very much want Morpheus to have a passionate short-lived heart breaking affair with Johanna. Fuck Thessaly. Keep her relegated to comic canon. Morphanna all the way.
And THAT is how we fix the problem with Thessaly.
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hi, I know that answers about upcoming projects are usually just "wait and see", and I know that the sandman season 2 hasn't even been greenlit yet, but as a trans person, I want to know. In "A dream of you" Thessaly's magic is very bioessentialist and the character herself is transphobic in her remarks to wanda several times, telling her things along the lines of "she's not a "real woman"". If/When we get to "A dream of you" will that storyline be updated like the rest of the show? I understand those attitudes were commonplace for the time period it was written (even as secondwave feminism was coming to a close) and even now pagan and magic communities have problems with bioessentialism, idk, it just makes me sad that one of the last conversations Wanda had before she died was someone telling her that the moon cares more about her body than who she is inside, and her fears of bottom surgery are relatable
I don't know what we'll do on Season 2 of the Netflix Sandman yet, but we updated it gently in Act 2 of the Audible version of Sandman in ways that I hope will make you feel better about it.
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More Sandman S2 Pics
Now, that’s an unholy amount of outdoor lighting, so we’re definitely talking a scene that needs a well-lit outside of a building.
Source
So let’s put it all together:
They only filmed for a few hours (between 2pm and 1am), which pretty much excludes major changes to the outside set-up, which brings us to:
We have snow. Tons of it, not just a tiny scattering
The architecture is Saracenic with onion domes
There’s a balcony that’s lit like a Christmas tree
Murphy wears his long coat he only wears in the Dreaming
The inside of the Royal Pavilion would in theory make for a very good banquet hall, BUT we are on a very, very tight schedule
If you’ve ever done any film acting, you know how painfully long even the shortest scenes are to set up and shoot. While I would love to think they did any of the banquet scenes (esp. the family dinner), I think that won’t have happened, simply because they were only there for less than 12 hours and seemed to have focused on the outside during a lot of that time. But you can certainly take a few inside shots and do the rest in a studio later.
The balcony is useable for both Season of Mists and Brief Lives. Again, the time question comes into play.
And why the snow? That hints very strongly at either The Hunt or A Game of You, although I think the latter makes less sense because of the seeming importance of the building (there is none in that scene in AGoY that remotely looks like it, plus Morpheus isn’t in that bit).
I am slightly confused at this point because there are so many options, so I’m thinking:
Outside for The Hunt because of the snow and the onion domes
Balcony potentially for either SoM or Brief Lives, although I’m leaning strongly towards the former at this stage (did anyone see Kirby or know where she is right now?)
If there’s any time left, they’re going to use the inside for some ambient shots for some banquet scene, but they’ll neither do the full family dinner nor any of the “key of hell” stuff because it would take far longer than a few hours to do all of the inside and outside shots. The schedule is simply too tight.
Also putting the link to the poll back in for the other shots and your vote, because we’re back on our guessing game bullshit and worse than ever 🤣:
So what does everyone think?
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okay but seriously im rereading a game of you to try and understand what the fuck dream saw in thessaly and like. no! it’s not any easier to understand the second time!
like i know we’re told later that a lot of their courting happened off screen but like. this is all we get, in game of you, that isn’t outright hostile
and then the next time it’s brought up in the comic we’re told that they dated for a couple months and then broke up and dream is very much Not Over It
is this you flirting? is that what this is? was your point of commonality that you’re both incapable of being normal? crack? is it crack you smoke?
like, okay, thessaly later realises she was never actually in love with him she just thought she was, so i won’t question her motives too much, he’s pretty, fair enough
but dream???? this is the relationship you flooded the dreaming for three weeks over? you abhor murder and she does casual necromancy and mutilation for fun. literally all we’ve seen her do on screen is make your life harder with fucked up witch magic
were you just bored, and she was the only immortal around? or do you get a kick out of dating someone who is so opposed to your own existence, to the point where you genuinely loved her? (or at least believed you did)
like look normally im of the opinion that merv is a little too critical of you and brief lives’ “real life. that’s what guys like him never have to face up to” quote is a good example, but in this case if you’d been disrupting my life for three weeks over this bullshit i would punt you through a wall with a broom myself
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