The Dreaming: Waking Hours

Dated Aug 28, 2022; last modified on Sat, 29 Jul 2023

A spin-off from Gaiman’s Sandman , featuring the reincarnated Lord Dream.

Notable Plot Points

[Morris] Professor Dunbar… The reason I asked you to be my advisor is because I thought you of all people would understand what it’s like to be a woman in academia. [Professor Dunbar] You mean you thought I’d cut you a break. But I never got a break. I was the only woman in my class at Oxford who left with a PhD, and for my trouble, I’m teaching at a no-name university in New Jersey.

[Dream] They know I will unmake them if they disobey me. So does Ruin, which is why his rebellion vexes me… What could prompt him to risk his very existence? He knows what I will do to him when he is caught…

[Heather] And maybe, secretly, that’s what you longed for all along. Maybe that’s why you took so many stupid risks. Maybe death was what you thought you wanted. And then the big reversal comes. You’re bested. You took one too many stupid risks. And you discover, to your surprise, that you wanted to live.

[Nuala] I wanted to bring justice, make things fair. To bestow favor not upon the wittiest or most beautiful, but who was most in need. But they wouldn’t listen. I sent supplies. Aid. I tried to make everyone see that I only wanted to be a better ruler than Auberon was. but they always wanted more than what they needed. They killed each other to hoard wealth. I thought I had failed. But then they came. The unseelie. And they offered to help. Soon, they were everywhere. The fighting stopped. But everything else stopped too. No more dancing, no more laughter. The trees didn’t even grow. The most beautiful of all realms started to die of fear. That’s when I realized I wasn’t really Queen, not anymore. It wasn’t my revolution at all. It was theirs.

Reminds me of CGP Grey’s The Rules for Rulers (adapted from Bueno de Mesquita and Smith’s The Dictators Handbook ), which discusses problems faced by rulers trying to bring about desired change.

References

  1. The Dreaming: Waking Hours. G. Willow Wilson; Nick Robles; Javier Rodriguez; M. K. Perker. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com . sandman.fandom.com . 2020.
  2. The Dreaming: Waking Hours. The Bard and the Bard, Part One. G. Willow Wilson; Nick Robles; Matheus Lopes; Simon Bowland. dc.fandom.com . 2020.
  3. The Dreaming: Waking Hours. The Bard and the Bard, Part Three. G. Willow Wilson; Nick Robles; Matheus Lopes; Simon Bowland. dc.fandom.com . 2020.
  4. The Dreaming: Waking Hours. Intermezzo, Part One. G. Willow Wilson; Javier Rodriguez; Simon Bowland. dc.fandom.com . 2021.
  5. The Dreaming: Waking Hours. The Faerie Queen, Part Four. G. Willow Wilson; Nick Robles; M. K. Perker; Matheus Lopes; Chris Sotomayor; Simon Bowland; Marguerite Sauvage. dc.fandom.com . 2021.