The entire premise of Netflix’s fantasy series The Sandman relies on the after-effects of Dream, one of the seven powerful Endless, getting captured. Him being locked up leads to a myriad of dire consequences like dreams and nightmares running rogue in the waking world, his realm turning into ruins, and the human world being plagued with Sleepy Sickness. Well, if this is what happens when Dream is imprisoned, what would happen if any of the other Endless — Despair, Death, Destiny, Delirium, Destruction, or Desire — were the ones locked away with no means of instant escape?
Before we hop on this rather intriguing journey of deducing what exactly would follow the capture of the remaining Endless siblings, two things need to be kept in mind. Firstly, even when such an entity is imprisoned or ceases to do its duties, its function doesn’t stop happening. They still take place but in an out-of-control, wild manner, which more often than not, end up making it obvious that something is seriously wrong.
Secondly, an Endless doesn’t just personify one end of the spectrum of their duties. For example, Death doesn’t just signify dying, she also represents life as nothing would take birth without things perishing. She is not just present when someone is dying but also when a new life is born. Similarly, Dream not only rules the dreams but also defines reality — after all, it is the distinction between dreams and reality that make the latter more believable and fuels many to pursue or fear the former. The same goes for the rest of the Endless.
So, ready to board the imagination train?
Death
Death in captivity won’t cease the cycle of death and birth — it would just make it chaotic. Thus, if Roderick Burgess had managed to capture Death — as he had originally intended — the process of dying and birth would be messed up. There would be some who would not die, no matter how much dire or intolerable their physical ailments or injuries. This doesn’t just include humans, but bacteria, viruses, and other organisms whose life and subsequent death are equally important. Imagine not being able to get rid of viruses and they continue multiplying, undefeated in the face of the best vaccines? Hell on Earth indeed.
But this would be the minority. The majority of the cases would see erratic demises, like some dying when they are not supposed to. For the ones who do take their last breath when their predestined time comes, their deaths won’t stick and they will come back to life, some instantly and some may return in their terrifying rotting and decaying bodies if some time passes after they die.
As Death is the one to take souls to Heaven or Hell, in her absence maybe they would be stranded, roaming the Earthly plane, unable to live and finding it impossible to move on.
As the process of death would be skewered, the procedure of birth would also take a hit as well, as Death is the one to give all living beings their first breath of life… Either new beings won’t be born or the ones which are conceived might perish before taking their first breath or remain stuck in a limbo between death and life.
Despair
Some would think if Despair was locked away, it would be a good thing. In the beginning, yes, but there is only so long that her absence will not be noticeable. While despair is undoubtedly a rather unwelcome feeling, without it, noticing, experiencing, and embracing that which comes after would be next to impossible.
If there is no despair, hope will cease to have any meaning. Sure, yes, without despair, hope is all that will exist, but unless one journeys through the undeniably rough terrain of despair, they will never truly heal. The hope they have will be hollow, devoid of any real meaning. A person cloaked in hope will fail to see the bigger picture — while the positive feeling will allow them to hop from one hurdle to another, they will never understand the deeper meaning, the lesson hidden in adversity. They will fail to comprehend why a pattern continues to repeat as no matter how traumatizing wallowing in despair is, it is what grounds a person and allows them to recognize the why behind a bad situation.
With Despair locked up, the biggest achievements or the mightiest joys would lose their value and worth because their achiever would have never properly felt what it means to have no hope. Yes, despair strips a person of their confidence and even their will to go on at times, but it is in trumping it that one strives to find inspiration and makes attempts to move forward.
If Despair is imprisoned, this cycle would be seriously messed up. Some would be doped up on happiness to the point where their dreams and aspirations would take a backseat as they are too comfortable to care about their growth. On the other hand, the suicide rate might spike as there will be few who would be lost in their depthless despair as in the absence of the Endless, finding a way out of it would be impossible.
Desire
Like Despair, the sentiment applies here too that it would be a jolly world if Desire was locked up somewhere. After all, it is the desire to attain, to possess something that sends many down the darkest paths.
But there is a reason Desire and Despair are twins. When Despair bogs down someone’s morale, it is the desire to find hope and to live a better life that spurs an individual. Desire in prison would have an effect somewhat like Dream’s imprisonment had — instead of people unable to dream, there would be many who would simply, aimlessly live life because they no longer have the drive, the “desire” to achieve their goals anymore.
This could even trigger a mass apocalypse of sorts where people stop eating, drinking, or just walk into oncoming traffic because they would no longer have the will to survive.
As for the ones who would be overdosed on the feeling of desire while the Endless is biding their time in their cage, they might find themselves indulging in reckless actions as they would be desperate to get what they want. They would pay no heed to the dire consequences of their actions as their savage thirst to quench their craving would be uncontrollable.
Destiny
Anyone who has read the Sandman comic books is aware that Destiny largely plays the part of an observer as the various destinies have already been written in his book — he doesn’t dole them out personally. But that doesn’t mean that him getting captured and unable to access his powers wouldn’t throw the entire system out of whack.
It is because of Destiny that everyone has a predetermined path — a set destination in life that gives a person’s life meaning. One follows this path and their every action — voluntary or not — leads them to it. In Destiny’s absence, these paths may get lost and while there is no visibly glowing road guiding one to their set destination in life, there is this underlying sense that it all leads somewhere. This crucial aspect, which gives one’s life meaning, would be misplaced in Destiny’s absence.
It is also possible that — thanks to the glitch in the system — some will end up with another’s destiny. But seeing that it is not the path they were originally destined to walk on, it will only end in catastrophes.
The Endless is the reason that even when one goes through the most heartbreaking event, they justify it as “everything happens for a reason.” Without Destiny, this reason will be lost. Things will just take place without holding any actual importance.
Another rather chilling possibility is there will be no justified consequences for any actions or choices because the outcome of what we do or decide is also a by-product of destiny. People will just live and ultimately die without really achieving or even understanding life — they will just go from one end of the spectrum to another, not knowing whether they ever had a purpose they lived for.
Destruction
Now, this one is both tricky and easy to deduce at the same time. He is the mysterious “Prodigal” who is missing throughout the series and is one of the hot topics of discussion in The Sandman. Destruction gave up on his role decades ago and some would say that his “functions” have continued to carry themselves out without any drastic consequences that would be caused by say Death or Dream’s absence. Well, you just need to look closer to see how his M.I.A. status has really affected the universe (the DC universe, even though the series is trying its best to keep its distance).
As Destruction himself said in Brief Lives, “Destruction did not cease with my abandonment of my realm, no more than people would cease to dream should you abandon yours. Perhaps it’s more uncontrolled, wilder. Perhaps not. But it’s no longer anyone’s responsibility.” This is something aptly described in this Reddit post:
“All of modern DC history, in every version of the universe, took place in a time when Destruction had abandoned his realm. Every Crisis and Rebirth in the comics took place in a cosmos where Destruction was out of balance. Every Rebirth introduced more and more destructive beings into the cosmic hierarchy; Anti-Monitor, Parallax, Alexander Luthor Jr, Superboy-Prime, the Empty Hand, Mandrakk, Darkseid, Barbatos, the Darkest Knight, all perhaps borne from an unbalanced cosmos attempting to correct that balance, and never can whilst the Prodigal refuses to take responsibility for his realm.”
If this is what happens when Destruction is just not managing things but is in full control of his powers, it is downright horrifying to imagine what would transpire if he was rendered unable to use his abilities.
Delirium
As it is Delirium’s presence that is the personification of sanity and insanity, her getting captured will upset the delicate scale keeping the two ends balanced. When balanced, delirium fuels imagination, making even the impossible seem attainable, and often acts as a catalyst to the greatest creations. But when it would be out of order, either people would be too sane; exceptionally rational and too disciplined to indulge in the craziness that gives birth to ideas.
Some would be teetering on the opposite edge of this knife — going insane as they would be unable to discern where their delirium-fueled imagination ends and reality begins. The end of the world would follow soon. What is stopping a person in power if they get fixated on a deranged idea say, triggering a Third World War by unleashing an army of all deadly nukes? Yes, such deadly wars have taken place in the DC universe, but they are nothing compared to the ones that never saw the light of day just because someone let their sanity have a say. In the absence of Delirium bringing order to the chaos, the chances of this insane plan getting vetoed are slim to none.
The Sandman is streaming on Netflix.