Warning of sweeping spoilers for both the original Sandman and the newer Sandman Universe comics
Morpheus had black word balloons and wavy white letters. Daniel has white word balloons and wavy black letters. Ananse also has white word balloons with wavy black letters. Morpheus had a unique, subjective avatar for each person who interacts with him. Have all the avatars of Dream shifted from Morpheus to Daniel…? Considering Daniel’s role in the fourth Dreaming volume and ‘Dead in America’, there may be some relevance to his overall character arc.
Granted, Daniel/Dream is absent from the Dreaming at that point in the SU chronology. We know, for sure, that Dream takes whatever shape is best depending on who he’s talking to. But what if a bunch of people see the same shape and compare notes? How many myths could spring up in world history, from that? Perhaps Ananse and other storytelling tricksters like him?
If dream-kind deities could spring from this, then maybe a few of Dream’s personal avatars have become less personal and more cultural. Maybe some of them- in their current state -would not necessarily disappear with Dream but continue to reflect and channel him.
The legacy of Morpheus’s psychic infrastructure under Daniel (to say nothing of third parties) is a major plot point in ‘Dead in America’.
Morpheus may not have been a humanitarian but his intensity and seriousness seemed to grow with his closeness to humanity. In ‘Three Septembers and a January’, Morpheus initially looks down on Despair, Desire and Delirium over their wager on Joshua Norton’s soul. It is beneath their dignity, beside their duties and affects innocent people. Despair browbeats Morpheus/Dream into joining them by comparing him to Destruction. Morpheus/Dream wins the game in the end, simply by using Joshua’s dreams to empower him against the others.
I don’t think Daniel/Dream would have the same reactions. Perhaps not even the same strategy.
I was nervous about Daniel when the first volumes of the reboot of The Dreaming came out. It looked as if Daniel was just stepping into the same romantic and emotional rut as his predeccesor. But what if it was more of a recapitulation period? Daniel has a brief and stormy love affair with Ivy Walker which causes him to leave the Dreaming and the whole drama with Judge Gallows and Wan unfolds in his absence.
Then Daniel returns. We still don’t know everything that happened between him and Ivy. What if the relationship had a firm, decisive ending, with no looking back? Perhaps Daniel completely “shook off” his Morpheus baggage after that.
Morpheus grew more stern as he drew closer to humanity. Daniel does not seem stern. Daniel smiles and his smile troubles John Constantine. Both Nightmare Country and the fourth volume of the rebooted Dreaming show Daniel in a more mercurial light. In ‘Dead in America’, Constantine barely manages to talk Daniel down from completely wiping the Kindly Ones from existence (Constantine, as usual, had his own reasons).
If Ananse started out as an aspect of Dream, which then changed when Dream himself did…then maybe Ananse’s eagerness to claim and devour could tell us something about Daniel.
AilixChaerea 