History Heartwarming / TheSandman1989

* Moreover on Destruction, him briefly breaking his strictly mantained self-exile to meet Daniel-Dream, give hin some advice and assure him he will do well. And, when he says goodbye, he predicts that, with all probability, they will see each other again.

** Hob's girlfriend, an African-American woman, complains about how she never gets to play the role of Queen because the organizers think there were no black queens of England. Not only does Hob say he thinks she would be perfect for the role of Queen, but he counters the argument by pointing out UsefulNotes/CatherineOfAragon who was Spanish, which while not African (though he points out that she very well may have been since Spain had a sizeable African population at the time) was what would have been considered "black" at the time.[[labelnote:History Lesson]]The idea that White=European and Black=African was largely invented during the 18- and early 19-hundreds, and the idea of Blackness being a distinct inferior race to lower-class Whites was used to enforce slavery.[[/folder]]

** Hob's girlfriend, an African-American woman, complains about how she never gets to play the role of Queen because the organizers think there were no black queens of England. Not only does Hob say he thinks she would be perfect for the role of Queen, but he counters the argument by pointing out UsefulNotes/CatherineOfAragon who was Spanish, which while not African (though he points out that she very well may have been since Spain had a sizeable African population at the time) was what would have been considered "black" at the time.

* The stand-alone issue "Three Septembers and a January" is BasedOnATrueStory: the tale of Joshua Norton, Emperor of the United States (see the Real Life entry in the CrazyIsCool page for more details.) In ''Sandman'''s version, Norton is at his lowest point, a poverty-stricken man on the point of suicide. He belongs to Despair now, and she challenges Dream to give Norton the will to live out his natural days without falling victim to Despair, Desire, or Delirium. Dream has to be goaded into "playing your game," but he wins effortlessly. Joshua Norton is inspired by a dream that stays with him the rest of his life.

* Moreover on Destruction, him briefly breaking his seriously mantained self-exile to meet Daniel-Dream, give hin some advice and assure him he wil do well. And, when he says goodbye, he predicts that, with all probability, they will see each other again.

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[[AC: Preludes and Nocturnes]]

-->'''Death:''' I've met a ''lot'' of kings, and emperors and heads of state in my time, Joshua. ''I've'' met them ''all''. And you ''know'' something? I think I liked ''you best.'' [...] [That's] a ''[[NiceHat great hat]]''. Can I try it on?

* Lucien has stayed at the ruined Castle of the Dreaming even when the Library disappeared because of being so loyal to Dream.
* "The Sound of Her Wings"
** Dream has a HeroicBSOD after dealing with John Dee and getting his items back. He whiles the time away feeding breadcrumbs to pigeons. Then his big sister Death appears, to ask how he's doing. She rips the bread out of his hands and tosses it at him because she had AngerBornOfWorry. As she says, [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot he ought to have sent distress calls]] because she was worried sick about him, not to mention that his captors didn't follow the rules so someone could have rescued him. Dream sincerely apologizes to Death for worrying her.

* Rose Walker and Gilbert's relationship. His EstablishingCharacterMoment is he saves her from muggers after politely suggesting she "wants to keep her purse and her body". Then they go on a road trip to find her brother Jed, and he attempts to comfort her when the police find signs that Jed was abused by his relatives, who are now dead. Then when they encounter the Corinthian at the "cereal" convention, Gilbert gives Rose Morpheus's name to recite in case of emergency, while he goes off to rescue Jed. If not for his actions, Rose would have died earlier, and on learning she is the Vortex, Gilbert turns himself in to Dream and offers to die in her place. When that fails, he apologizes to her and says she can stay in his realm, Fiddler's Green, after she dies. Rose afterward refuses to believe that he was just one of Dream's creations because then it would mean human lives are meaningless, and Gilbert wasn't meaningless.

* Dream saying he cannot find it in his heart to punish Fiddler's Green aka Gilbert for his disobedience near the end of the arc. While it would have been a major KickTheDog moment if he had done so (considering Fiddler's Green did nobody any harm through his actions and was a really nice guy), this was before a lot of Dream's CharacterDevelopment, when viciously punishing an otherwise innocent person for slighting him would have been totally in-character (and comes soon after an ambiguous moment wherein he horribly punished two other rogue dreams, and whether it was for any part they played in the torment of a child or simply because they "wantonly defied" ''his'' law during his absence, or he's being pragmatic about the latter leading to the former, is all left highly open to interpretation). While he had shown moments of affection before (mainly to Death and Hob Gadling,) this was the first time he showed mercy and forgiveness.

** Calliope and Dream had a bad breakup, owing to how cruelly he treated Orpheus. Then he kicked Calliope out of the Dreaming when she showed interest in reconciling. She only sends a distress call to him out of desperation, since the Three Furies tell her that "Oneiros" is the only one that can break her bondage. Dream breaks free of the Burgess cage, gets his powers back and starts to restore order, getting her distress signal. [[CharacterDevelopment He comes]].

** Considering that Richard Madoc raped his ex and used her, Dream's initial response to him is quite tame. He appears in Richard's home and politely asks him to release Calliope. Dream only brings the big guns when Richard refuses, justifying that he needs Calliope for the ideas.
** Calliope regains her freedom, her status, and her standard Greek robes. She admits her time has passed in this world but plans to enjoy it regardless. Calliope thanks Dream for freeing her, noting that he's much kinder, and asks if they can rekindle their relationship. He gently turns her down, and she admits that it's probably for the best. Her only request is that he frees Richard Madoc from the curse of excessive ideas, saying that he's been punished enough. It shows how merciful Calliope is.
* "The Dream Of A Thousand Cats"

* Pretty much everything that Death does in "Facade" is this [[DontFearTheReaper (not as strange as it sounds)]]. For example, when she goes to comfort the suicidal Urania Blackwell, and the following exchange ensues:

* Dream forgiving Nada and letting her go via her being reincarnated. More importantly, Nada forgiving Dream despite his actions.

* At the end, Barbie crosses out "Alvin" on Wanda's gravestone and writes "Wanda" above it. The few pages leading up to that moment count as well.

* Dream asks Johanna Constantine to fetch Orpheus's head from France. In the middle of the French Revolution. In return, he'll grant her a favor. Johanna and Orpheus find themselves as odd bedfellows, teaming up to escape Robespierre who wants to destroy the head despite not believing that it's real. She hides the head in the catacombs, covers her ears when the revolutionaries investigate, and shouts for him to sing. Robespierre finds out the hard way that some of the worst myths are true, including that Orpheus could make harpies cry and Cerberus yield to him. Johanna then takes Orpheus to an island paradise, where caretakers will watch him for his immortality, per Dream's instructions. Orpheus recounts that his father abandoned him on a beach after he lost his body; he wonders if Dream has changed. Johanna doesn't know. She wishes him well though.
* The stand-alone issue "Three Septembers and a January" is BasedOnATrueStory: the tale of Joshua Norton, Emperor of the United States (see the Real Life entry in the CrazyIsCool page for more details.) In ''Sandman's'' version, Norton is at his lowest point, a poverty-stricken man on the point of suicide. He belongs to Despair now, and she challenges Dream to give Norton the will to live out his natural days without falling victim to Despair, Desire or Delirium. Dream has to be goaded into "playing your game," but he wins effortlessly. Joshua Norton is inspired by a dream that stays with him the rest of his life.

* In the one-shot "Fear of Falling", collected in some printings of ''Fables and Reflections'' Dream talking to Todd, a playwright paralyzed by fear as his latest play draws closer to the opening night, dating back to when he was falling in a dream as a child, felt certain that he would die for real if he died in the dream, and then woke up but lay there paralyzed for the night. In his present dream, Morpheus offers him some cryptic advice about TakingAThirdOption, and then knocks him off a great height again. As a terrified Todd starts to fall, and prepare to wake himself up again, he remembers what Morpheus said. The next morning, he arrives at the theater his play is being held, with a new sense of confidence due to his experience in the dream, and explains why

* Dream is shown to be good with children as he has a polite conversation with a young girl named Chloe on the plane he and Delirium take to travel to the United States.

* Dream's breakdown when he realizes he has to go to Orpheus to find his brother, and the fact that despite his stubbornness, he DOES go, even though he knows it'll probably result in his son's death. Also from that segment we have Delirium being sane to allow Dream a moment, and Destruction giving Delirium his dog.

* At the end of ''The Wake'' the Endless (sans Daniel-Dream and Destruction) are sitting around a table discussing the new Dream in anticipation of meeting him. Despair recalls how scared she was when she took her mantle, and professes that she will try to be kind. Destiny notes that they ''all'' will. Desire protests, saying that they ought to see how he shapes up first, but, well, Destiny has already spoken.

** Likewise, his forgiveness of Lyta and giving her his protection since she was not sane during all of her actions in the previous story arc. It shows that Daniel!Dream intends to be nicer than Morpheus was and it helps that Lyta later becomes TheAtoner.

* Daniel-Dream frees Richard Madoc of his WritersBlock, feeling the time for his sentence has long passed. Madoc was institutionalized for writing his excess of ideas on the walls in his blood, permanently damaging his hands. He's still in a sanitarium but starts writing again, for himself.
* Hob Gadling, forced to attend a Renaissance Fair where his new girlfriend is working, is going through a depressive funk because he knows from his dreams that his best friend is dead. As he mopes about, he comes across remembrances of his past lives, haunting him and making his mood worse. Confronted by Death, who lets him know the "game" she was playing with Dream to let Hob live as long as he wants is over, and he's free to accept her Gift if he chooses. Tempted by the idea that dying in a make-believe fair would be a funny way to go, Hob realizes he still wants to live, something Death is willing to let happen due to Dream's friendship with him. The comic ends with Hob celebrating by [[RedemptionInTheRain making love to his girlfriend in the rain]] and remembering a recent dream he had of Morpheus and Destruction walking together with him on the beach, foretelling a future meeting.

* ''Death: The Time of Your Life'',

* In the one-shot ''Fear of Falling'', collected in some printings of ''Fables and Reflections'' Dream talking to Todd, a playwright paralyzed by fear as his latest play draws closer to the opening night, dating back to when he was falling in a dream as a child, felt certain that he would die for real if he died in the dream, and then woke up but lay there paralyzed for the night. In his present dream, Morpheus offers him some cryptic advice about TakingAThirdOption, and then knocks him off a great height again. As a terrified Todd starts to fall, and prepare to wake himself up again, he remembers what Morpheus said. The next morning, he arrives at the theater his play is being held, with a new sense of confidence due to his experience in the dream, and explains why

* Hob Gadling, forced to attend a Renaissance Fair where his new girlfriend is working, is going through a depressive funk because he knows from his dreams that his best friend is dead. As he mopes about, he comes across remembrances of his past lives, haunting him and making his mood worse. Confronted by Death, who lets him know the "game" she was playing with Dream to let Hob live as long as he wants is over, and he's free to accept her Gift if he chooses. Tempted by the idea that dying in a make-believe fair would be a funny way to go, Hob realizes he still wants to live, something Death is willing to let happen due to Dream's friendship with him. The comic ends with Hob celebrating by [[RedemptionInTheRain making love to his girlfriend in the rain]] and remembering a recent dream he had of Daniel (now as Dream) and Destruction walking together on the beach, foretelling a future meeting.

* In ''Endless Nights'', after Delirium gets lost in her realm and Dream arranges a team to get her out, the family decide someone should watch her. Destruction then takes her under his wing for at least a while, as you see them camping. He broke his centuries-long self-imposed exile because his baby sister needed him.

** Earlier, Nuala admits she disobeyed Dream and warned Barbie about what was coming. Dream first curtly accepts it and walks away, then comes back and tells her she did the right thing.

--> '''Todd:''' Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall [[spoiler: you fly]].