Awesome / The Sandman (2022)

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

---

Chapter 1: Sleep of the Just

• One for the writer of the grimoire, considering it can imprison an Endless, a being Above the Gods.
• Our first look at The Dreaming, Dream's kingdom and domain.
• Jessamy infiltrates Fawney Rig, making it all the way down to Dream's prison. On the way, she sets a fire as a distraction by stealing a match, striking it, and dropping it on a paper—all in one motion while in flight.
• Not only does Ethel manage to escape Roderick Burgess, but she also gets away with all three of Dream's artifacts and several thousand in cash. Whatever else Ethel may be, the girl's got guts.
• Dream's escape. After a century of waiting and a couple of Hope Spots, the seal imprisoning him is finally marred. Dream takes the opportunity to invade the dreams of one of the guards and induce the man to open fire on his glass cage while sleepwalking. Finally free, Dream escapes into a dramatic swirling blue vortex in a scene ripped straight from the comics.
  • It's small, but Paul purposely smudging the protective markings around Dream's cage with Alex's wheelchair. He has presumably been told that doing so will doom him and his lover, but knowing that this being has been trapped in their basement for over a century doesn't sit well with him either. He even nods respectfully at Dream after he does so. As a result, Dream spares him from his wrath.
• Dream's retribution against Alex Burgess by granting him the ''gift" of eternal sleep, particularly when he first appears in the dream shrouded in shadows, his eyes black with white pinpoints that glow, looking a lot like his comic book self.

Chapter 2: Imperfect Hosts

• When the Corinthian decides to simply eat Ethel's eyes to find out the ruby's location, she demonstrates exactly how she's made it to 116 by splattering him to bits with her Hell-given amulet of protection.
  • Ethel's deal for the amulet is itself a low-key one of these. Choronzon acts contemptuous and thinks he got the better end of the deal, getting an artifact of one of the Endless for something that's implied to be fairly easy for a Duke of Hell to make or get, but look at how they end up: Ethel has something that helps her immensely in her daily life and keeps her son safe, the magical equivalent of Boring, but Practical. Choronzon, meanwhile, doesn't seem to have gotten much if anything out of having the Helm; all it does is draw Dream's ire to him and gets him publicly humiliated in front of the entirety of Hell.
• The way Dream goes about collecting gifts for The Three-In-One. In a farmer's dream, he picks up a crossroads like it's merely a toy. For a noose, he gets hanged through a cinephile's dream of an English horror movie. As he falls through the gallows, the tides of the Dreaming drag him around, forcing him to concentrate on his last gift. He approaches a snake that strikes at him, but he instead quickly wraps it up in his coat.
• Dream meeting the Three-In-One, who all receive him differently, but show how even the King of Dreams must bow and show deference to the ladies who hold the knowledge he seeks.

Chapter 3: Dream A Little Dream of Me

• Johanna coolly performing an exorcism on a demon who is practically begging her not to send him back to hell while Dream protests. She doesn't listen and continues with her job, snarkily telling Dream afterward that she has just tripled her fee.
  Johanna: Fuck off and go right back to hell.
• Johanna Constantine calls out Morpheus for intending to leave Rachel in torment from being exposed to his sand.
  Constantine: You said you needed to get that back to save humanity, well, here she is! If you're not willing to help, then what's the point of you?
  • Even better, this actually gets to Dream and makes him Pet the Dog.

Chapter 4: A Hope in Hell

• Lucifer's entire character. From the threatening sweetness of their greeting to the ornate robe, reminiscent of Dolores Umbridge.
• In trolling Dream, Lucifer casually summons all of the demons in hell and asks how Dream will go about finding his helm. Even Dream seems slightly disturbed by the number of the damned.
• When Dream demands that the demon Choronzon turn over his helm, the demon refuses, leading to the Dream Lord formally challenging him and appointing himself as his own champion. Unlike the comic, where Choronzon faced the Endless himself, he opts to have a champion fight for him... and chooses his liege Lucifer themself. Not only that, but he has the balls to demand Dream's eternal servitude in Hell should he lose.
  • The challenge itself is impressive, as unlike in the comic where it's more a game of illusions, Lucifer and Morpheus' moves actually do physical harm to each other. They begin simply enough, such as Lucifer choosing a wolf and Dream choosing a hunter, before escalating into cosmic concepts, with Dream declaring himself the universe and Lucifer declaring herself anti-life, the encompassing darkness at the end of all things which leaves Dream on the ground almost immobile. So what, the Devil asks, is there left afterward?
    Dream: I ... am... hope.
    [cue the whole of Hell being bathed in golden light]
  • Unlike in the comics, where Choronzon has a Villainous Breakdown after losing, Lucifer has only a moment of shock before regaining their composure and immediately demanding the demon return the helm. When Choronzon refuses, Mazikeen just walks up to him, grabs him by the throat, and takes the helm before chucking him over the ledge into the crowd of demons below.
• After Dream wins, Lucifer ponders why Dream should be allowed to leave when dreams have no power in Hell. Dream simply points out that Hell couldn't exist without dreams, for what torment could Hell hold were its residents not capable of dreaming of Heaven? That is why hope can't be killed.
  Lucifer: (clearly struggling with containing their anger) One day, Morpheus... we shall destroy you.
  Dream: (bowing mockingly) Until that day, Light Bringer.
• John not only manages to regain his ruby, but has changed it to the point it no longer recognizes Dream as its master. When Dream initially goes to retrieve it, he instead gets thrown backward in the container and knocked unconscious.

Chapter 5: 24/ 7

• The effects used to make it seem like a gigantic Morpheus is holding a much tinier John Dee in one hand after the latter destroys the ruby and restores more power to the former.

Chapter 6: The Sound of Her Wings

• Hob's pure tenacity for life should be commented on. Not only did he likely live through some of the worst moments in history, and his own life, but he keeps going forward, still declaring he has so much to live for. Even Dream can't help but admire the man's sheer desire to live despite everything.
• Hob beats up Lady Johanna's thugs with nothing more than a teacup and his bare hands.
  • Dream himself simply blowing a handful of sand into Lady Johanna's eyes, immediately incapacitating her. In the next century, Dream informs Hob he later sent Lady Johanna out on a task which she managed to pass, with Dream actually sounding impressed.

Chapter 7: The Doll's House

• Hal's song in the drag show. The entire thing is played with a distinct comical edge, but the song is really good, and Hal has both an amazing voice and a great stage presence. No wonder the audience is so engaged!
• Rose Walker unexpectedly clobbers one of her would-be assailants, even before Gilbert can step in with his sword cane.

Chapter 8: Playing House

• Gault stands up to Dream even as he sentences her to "The Darkness" for disobeying her intended function as a nightmare. While Dream insists she tried to build up her own version of the Dreaming with Jed Walker as a puppet king, Gault earnestly proclaims she was only trying to help Jed as best she could due to the horrific abuse he suffers from his foster parents. Even if all she could do was give Jed an escape that "wasn't productive," Gault shows no remorse for trying to give Jed comfort when he needed it. For that matter, she also spitefully asks Dream and Lucienne if those who returned to the Dreaming did so out of loyalty to their intended functions or out of fear that Dream would hunt them down if they didn't.

Chapter 9: Collectors

• While talking to Funland, Rose manages to swipe two ID's, allowing her and Gilbert to snoop around the convention.

Chapter 10: Lost Hearts

• Dream's brutal justice upon the Collectors. Denouncing them for their murders and cruelty, Dream removes their fantasies from them and imposes the truth of what they are upon them, mentally breaking every single one of them.
  Dream: You have sustained fantasies in which you are the victims, confident daydreams in which you are always right. But no more. The dream is over. I have taken it away. For this is my judgment upon you. That you shall know from this moment exactly how craven and selfish and monstrous you are. That you shall feel the pain of those you have slaughtered. And the grief of those that mourn them still. And you shall carry that pain and grief and guilt with you until the end of time.

Chapter 11: A Dream of A Thousand Cats/Calliope

• The kitten manages to leap at least six feet from the attic window to a tree branch. She still needs to work on her landings, though.
• Calliope manages to summon Dream, who is understandably furios with Richard for hurting her and vows to give him hell for what he did. After running into Dream, Richard runs up to Calliope's room to ask what she has done to him. After everything he put her through, all she does is smile at him, politely calls him unthinking, insensitive, and ignorant and says he had already sealed his fate.
  Dream: Hold your tongue. She has been held captive for more than sixty years. Demeaned. Abused. Defiled. And you will not set her free because you need ideas? Well, if it's ideas you want, then you shall have them. In abundance.

---