rewatching sandman already because god is it a good adaptation and i can’t stop thinking about it so i’m going to have a VERY long ramble about it here we go
some of the changes made were necessary in order to streamline the story for a ten-episode structure, like expanding the role of the corinthian to give this season a slightly more focused antagonist, or having lyta be more of a companion to rose and accompany her on her journey. the latter worked especially well for me - the comic is wonderful but if lyta’s story had been adapted as-is it would have felt really disordered. some things, like editing out lyta’s superhero backstory or having johanna constantine in the modern day, were likely due to licensing and copyright of existing characters, but the way they worked around that still paid off in a way that didn’t leave the story wanting.
some changes weren’t necessary but are a marked improvement anyway. i loved that ethel cripps got a little more airtime. replacing brute and glob with gault then giving them room to grow was a nice emotional payoff. lucifer taking choronzon’s place to fight dream ramped up the stakes that little bit further and for a moment it really does look like he’s going to get torn to shreds. john dee choosing to keep rosemary safe was (i think) a wise change from her death in the comic and a necessary moment to show that underneath everything, he’s still capable of empathy.
basically what i’m getting at is they knew what to leave in and what to take out. that’s so rare to see in adaptations these days, i think. it plays close to the source material for the most part but they weren’t so precious about it as to insist on a beat-for-beat recreation. i was worried they’d cut hob’s role down, or even cut him entirely, but they spent just the right amount of time with him for that little side story to have the necessary impact. “dream of a thousand cats” and “calliope”, in less capable hands, could so easily have been cut for runtime or squeezed into the main run of episodes; but the showrunners recognised that while they have something important to lend to the worldbuilding, the main narrative would have felt bloated if they’d been squashed in there. so they get their own separate little bonus episode, which is where stories like those belong, and it’s a wonderful addendum to the series proper.
also can we talk about casting? spot on. tom sturridge gives the exact flavour of lanky mopey soaking wet emo man i wanted to see in dream “stupid stubborn git” of the endless. kirby howell-baptiste absolutely nails death’s big-hearted no-nonsense sisterly charm and is pure serotonin to watch. vivienne acheampong brings a kindness and sort of pastoral air to lucienne and her long-suffering devotion to dream. mason alexander park was born to play desire and you can tell they’re having the time of their life doing it. razane jamal and kyo ra play off each other really nicely as rose and lyta, especially with their expanded on-screen friendship. stephen fry has always been fiddler’s green in my mind’s eye and it was lovely to see him come to life. boyd holbrook’s cocktail of affable and insidious is great for the corinthian. and gwendoline christie as lucifer???? hello????? not to be gay but hello?????
TL;DR the sandman is a story (or more accurately a sprawling collection of stories) that is one of my all-time faves and it makes me so happy to see something i love adapted so well and i’m excited to see what they do with the rest of the comic.
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ok I don't think we as a fandom talk about the way Vash cries blood enough
we only see it once or twice from what I remember, the one definite time being here ^ when the puppet attack first begins & he's dealing with the emotional agony of seeing so many of his family turn into puppets.
so it's clearly something that comes out only when he's in severe emotional distress.
the interesting thing is that Wolfwood is fucking TERRIFIED of him bc of it.
whatever this moment is, Vash is giving off the same sort of oppressive energy that Wolfwood's experienced with Knives. it's the first time during their travels that he's really been forced to recognize What Vash Is. he knew it of course, saw him in Jeneora, but he's such a goofy guy it's easy to forget.
but whatever Vash is doing here, it makes Wolfwood Incredibly aware of what he is.
so the real question i think is What exactly is going on here? is it unintentional? is it simply a response to the emotional agony?
Vash isn't the type to indiscriminately terrify everyone in the vicinity on purpose. he wouldn't be doing this purposefully out of anger while Wolfwood's there. no, in this moment, he's not even angry at all. he's Distraught.
going from This
to this
in just a moment.
yeah. that's some fucking emotional agony. i dont think Vash is doing this entirely on purpose.
but THEN...
as both Leonof and Wolfwood stare at him in fear, Both feeling his oppressive energy, Vash then lets out some sort of blast that blows against everything between him and Leonof. it doesn't destroy anything, doesn't even injure him, but it's a physically tangible effect that scares the Shit out of Leonof & spurs him into motion.
there may be some anger involved in this moment, but it's not the hair-trigger rage you would expect from seeing his family turned into puppets. it's something Quiet, something almost cold. he's distraught, Resigned, & retaliating just because he has to.
Vash hates all of this. he doesn't want to fight him. he fucking Knows this guy too, knew him as a kid, & none of this makes sense. but he knows that he needs to fight him, & doesn't have any kind of choice.
but he's not happy about it. not in the slightest.
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OKAY VASHWOOD KIDS ON THE HEAD THIS AFTERNOON HHNNG
While I do think that them having kids of their own is super cute and such a nice thing for them both, I am personally a Vash and Wolfwood adopting children truther. Best part is it was Not Even On Purpose.
The times are less aggressive, their lives are less violent (compared to before) and they are both a lot more free. They aren’t used to living a settled life, in spite of finally having a little home of their own at the outskirts of December.
They still travel around without an aim or clear purpose most often than not. They would visit old friends and the times they decided to stay in a place for a bit longer would either be at Home or the Hopeland Orphanage.
They like it that way. It’s familiar and they don’t have to watch for their heads as much as they did before. They are finally experiencing a much more gentler life of their own.
I imagine them stumbling with some kids, let’s say three, that live on their own in one of their trips. They offer to bring them to the Hopeland Orphanage like they usually do to orphaned kids, so they can live more peacefully. They accept after some more convincing.
During that trip they get to live a bit more closely with the children compared to the way they do with the kids back at the orphanage. They love them oh they do, with all their heart, but the closeness they experience with everyone at the orphanage is more of a caretaker sort of approach and nothing as intimate as taking care of them so personally.
The bumpy trip basically obligated them to be more close to the kids, spending nights and days with them, protecting them from danger, cooking meals for their little group of five, spending a few days in different towns to unwind and buy more resources. It was nice, traveling together like that (even if it did get a little dangerous every now and then when they stumbled upon a fight or two).
The kids start to get very attached to them, and both Vash and Wolfwood admittedly were feeling the same way too. They knew they couldn’t keep the kids, not with their wanderers life style and the danger that was still always present (not as terrible as before, but trouble would always be a part of them as it seemed).
Once they got to December to finally leave the kids at the Orphanage, they decide it’s a good time for them to have one of their long stays at the orphanage until their next trip. All of the kids love them both, and they return the sentiment as well. However, it’s evident how their closeness was bigger with the kids they just traveled around with. They knew a bit more about each other with more precision, they were a bit more affectionate with them, the kids would look for Wolfwood and Vash so they could spend more time together. It wasn’t rare for the kids to go and sleep with either of them at night or taking naps with them, but those three particular children would always sleep with them, all snuggled up and warm in their embrace.
It was nice, it almost felt like a little family of their own. Wolfwood remembers how nice it was to live in the orphanage with the other kids, and Vash loved his time with Rem and Knives when they were little, not to mention the people at Home later on, but neither of them really had a grasp of something in their lives they could call wholly theirs, something stable, something constant.
Their stay at the orphanage lasted from their usual month and a half to two months, and then three, until they thought it was a good time for some time of their own back at their little house (living with so many kids always around the corner didn’t provide much space for privacy, much less now that the three kids would follow them as if they were their shadows).
The kids were disappointed and a little sad that their time to leave had come already, even if they had stayed longer than what they usually did this time. Their three little kids were the ones that looked the most anguished from them all, and neither Nick or Vash missed that detail.
When they arrived to their home, they cleaned first, the dust had settled in their house and they could barely move without gusts of it coming to invade their lungs. After they quickly got rid of the most they could they finally got to rest and get some alone time of their own.
The days passed, and the quiet time between them was appreciated, but it felt a bit too quiet. They had quickly grown used to the noise that came with being around the kids in that short time. Maybe it was thanks to the fact that their lives were much kinder now, but something inside of them itched at the thought of not having the kids by their side, of not being together.
They knew what it was after sparing it a second to think of it a bit more.
“You know, I think it would be nice if we stay in here for a bit longer” Vash said out of the blue one day while they were making breakfast together, a soft and genuine smile hanging on his face.
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing” Wolfwood answered back with a smile of his own, focused at chopping a portion of vegetables a bit too big for two people, it was probably enough to feed five mouths perhaps.
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Do you think Home and Bardaby would end up- if not friends than at least allies eventually in your fantasy au? I think it would be a real shame if Wally's best friend & his patron couldn't find some common ground. Maybe they could both keep an eye on Wally for each other? I know Home is literally Always There with him, but there are some human(puppet?) issues that an elder god just wouldn't really get. idk, I just think it's a bit of a shame that they don't get along, since Barnaby's the only other person besides Wally to actually interact with home in the original ARG.
oh no yeah! they do Eventually! it just takes a while and some work. Home in this au is pretty protective of Wally for Reasons, and it takes a lot to make them go "hey, you're chill. i like you". unfortunately Barn is also protective (not nearly to Home's extent but yk) so they naturally clash where they should get along
i have the full process In My Mind but essentially: Home, if given express permission, can "possess" Wally (put in quotes bc technically Wally is already possessed by them). this happens either when Wally wants a fucking break / is overwhelmed and wants Home to take the wheel (Wally's consciousness is kinda 'turned off' - it falls into a deep sleep!), or if Home does Wally a favor - they trade the favor for a set amount of possession time. because Home would like to have a body & make the decisions from time to time <3
during one of these "Home has the wheel" periods, i imagine that some shit goes down that forces Barnaby & Home to work together w/o a mediator. and during this time they're trying to get through this while keeping Wally's body relatively unharmed - Barnaby experiences a nice disconnect of "this is Wally but its also not Wally & its also a being i don't like very much bc its a dick-". but through the power for Forced Interaction, they realize that yeah, they have common ground, but they're also not too bad :]. catch Wally taking the wheel and being perplexed at how Barnaby is all "hey say hi to Home for me!" or asking for Home's opinion on things.
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