In the Kindly Ones, Neil does something incredibly mean.

He leaves the reasoning behind the death of Morpheus out in the open.
Who planned such a death?
Anyone have ideas on this?
Mine is that Morpheus planned his own death.
Reasoning is that in the Endless Nights Neil's sums up the story in that the Sandman story is about the Lord of Dreams who must change or die. Knowing that he cannot change because he is a "point of view".

Any opinions?

Hmm...I thought it was Desire whom was trying to make him kill one of his blood so that the same thing would happen. But you may well be right.

I don't see a "planner" in the Dream Lord's death, just that time passed and changed what had to be changed. Morpheus refused to change, and so time just took care of it with the escalation of outside forces. It just had to be.

probably not so much planned as inevitable. if there was any planning going on, I would think it was Morpheus'—he claimed the baby in the first place. then someone hired Loki and Puck to steal him, and, since what they did when they stole him was take away his mortality, you have to think about who would want the child to be immortal. Morpheus is the only possible choice. he sent the Corinthian and Matthew to "find" Daniel because he had to encourage loyalty to the new Dream in them.

It's not explicitly said, but Morpheus manipulates events so that he can be killed. He planned it, in soft places, in season of mists, in dream country.

He won't kill himself outright, but he set things up so they were inevitable. He didn't have to kill orpheus himself, he let Loki go free, knowing Loki's nature and made a deal with him, he allowed himself to leave the dreaming at a critical point.

It isn't said in so many words, but if it wasn't dream then i'm repossessing the genius award i gave Gaiman when i finished Sandman.

quote:

Originally posted by Murphy (is resolutely unimpressed):
It's not explicitly said, but Morpheus manipulates events so that he can be killed. He planned it, in soft places, in season of mists, in dream country.

How does "Soft Places" play into it?

also, I don't think Morpheus was a stagnant personality. he was a specific aspect of dream, yes, but that aspect...matured throughout the story. after all, you can't have a believable protaganist without a character arc.