I've seen a lot of threads debating how Despair died or why Del changed but I've never seen anyone discuss this other tit bit from Endless Nights. You've gotta wonder how such a major personality change could take place. Any ideas?

yes.

I can't find the story I was looking for, perhaps it was over more than one, but it was to do with her becoming mortal for one day a century, and then she realised what people had in life, and their fear of death...or something like that!

Hmm, makes sense. I'll have to keep an eye out for the story in question.

She's high on embalming fluid?

Was it called The Time of Your Life or something?

quote:

Originally posted by pkitty:
Was it called The Time of Your Life or something?

that was based on one of her days, but she was already perky by then.

I know there was a day in the main sandman series where she's a young chinese girl, I don't know if that was 'the' day, or just another example of one. she may have just spoken about 'the' day. does she not mention it in 'sound of her wings?'

I don't think so. I've read it about ten times so I think I would remember.

the bit where they explain her one day in every century is in the prelude to season of mists i think, where he gives a little bit of story for each of the endless. except the one day is described in dream's bit.

" And there is Death"
Is all the description we are given of her in the beginning of Season of Mysts...must be some other place

The only Death book I've been able to find is the manga-style one that takes place during "A Season of Mists."

HP

there are 2 death books, the high cost of living, and time of your life.

but i'm sure it wasn't here but the series.

Death's day as a mortal is first introduced in Season of Mists, under the section about Dream, where it talks about how he broods on that rumor, but never asks her about it, perhaps for fear that she would answer it.

It's briefly mentioned again in Brief Lives, and confirmed as it were, when Destiny pages are flipping and we see that one such day Death spent as a Chinese peasant girl, talking to a young and ambitious ox driver.

The story which has one of Death's days, in its totality, is Death: The High Cost of Living, in which she spends a day with a depressed teen considering suicide. (And finding things for old witches, dodging wizards who aren't as evil as they appear, etc).

Also, something else about Death being perky, I was suddenly reminded of an attempt I made to describe Death to a non Sandman reader, which went something like:

Try to think of someone so old, so experienced, that it's like they've gone beyond age, beyond being old, and come out again young on the other side. Someone that you get the sense of tremendous age, but they are also no longer concerned about boundaries, who is as carefree and confident and optimistic as a child.

I think Death's experiences as a mortal are part of that, but not the whole or sole reason. I think it's also just the affect that time and general experience have on us.

In 'The sound of her wings' (last issue of Preludes and nocturnes or first one of Doll's house, depending on your edition) there's a brief reference that says that Dream once heard that Death takes human form blahblah.
The story of how she came to that decission and her first day as mortal, from Death's point of view, is included in Vertigo Winter's Edge 2 special. drawn beautifully by Jeff Jones.



****SPOILER****
it basically explains how Death was sick of everything and stopped working, and nothing died. eventually she came back coz there was no option, and one girl told her "How would you feel?" so she decided to take human life and was surprised at how mad she was at herself when it came the moemnt to die.
***SPOILER*****

But with beautiful pictures and better words

::hugs clover::

that was it! that was the one I was thinking of.

thank you, i'm not cracking up...well, not about that anyway

*hugs back*

:mentally runs through the comic in question:

Nope, sorry, still not ringing any bells. There's a bit where Dream is musing over why people fear his sister, there's Dee saying something to the effect of "it gets me down too, they usually fear me yet they enter your realm each night without fear" (sorry if I got it wrong), and there's that poem but I don't recall The Day being mentioned.

quote:

Originally posted by clover:
In 'The sound of her wings' (last issue of Preludes and nocturnes or first one of Doll's house, depending on your edition) there's a brief reference that says that Dream once heard that Death takes human form blahblah.

forget that, I was wrong. I think now it might be in the first issue of Season of Mists, in the introductions that are made for every character, but I can't check that now.

And the story from death's point of view is definitely in Vertigo's Winter's Edge 2 -checked that.

i just started reading endless nights...and i think there's a sentence in there that said it took a long time for death to become like she is. i'll have to look it up again.

It's in the intro and it's something to the effect of;

"It would be several hundred million years before Death would cheer up and longer before Delight became Delirium. The Despair we see is the first Despair."