Dream of the Endless/Hob Gadling

Pairing
Pairing:	Dream of the Endless/Hob Gadling
Alternative name(s):	Dreamling, Centennial Husbands
Gender category:	slash
Fandom:	The Sandman
Canonical?:	no
Prevalence:	popular
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Dream of the Endless/Hob Gadling, or Dreamling, is a slash ship in The Sandman fandom. After the Netflix adaptation of the comic, more fans started to ship Hob Gadling with Dream of the Endless, in fact, Dreamling is the most popular ship under The Sandman tag on AO3.

Fans Reactions

[bikerchickens]
I definitely picked up on romantic vibes (but not necessarily sexual), especially the interaction Dream and Hob had after Hob fought those guys.

I think its the combination of me not having read the comics and the fact that queer relationships were abundant in the show, that I was able to pick up on these undertones without climbing into my fangirl self (although I did question it lol).

Good to know that it was deliberate and the writers aren't denying the fact, unlike other shows.

[420technoblazeit]

why are you, as an immortal being in the vague shape of a man, wearing anachronistic eyeliner to meet your boy best friend once every hundred years? 🤨

[ocean_800]

I honestly do not think it was romantic at all. I thought I was really beautiful story about a strong friendship. I feel like we don't see good enough representations of strong male friendship in popular culture

[EyeMoon ]
Yeah I don't understand what was supposed to be romantic in their friendship either. Are they implying an emotional bond has to be romantic? If so it's pretty dumb but maybe I'm missing something. Also it's not even hinted at in the comic book so there's not much to work with, I think talking about romance is a big stretch.

[randyboozer]

No and I hate that fans of the show are actually taking that seriously.

Morpheus and Hob have such a great friendship in the comics. Morpheus learns that friendship shouldn't be transactional. That he doesn't need to take something from a mortal to make them worth his time. It's enough to just have someone to talk to.

The reason I hate "shipping" two male friends is because I think it diminishes actual male friendship and even worse stigmatizes it in a sense by implying that it's secretly gay. And this leads to a culture where straight men struggle to show affection to their friends in case someone thinks it's a "bromance" (I hate that word too) and they're actually in romantic love.

Enjoy whatever fantasies you want but "shipping" them would ruin their friendship just as much as if Dream starting plowing Death

[mwagneto]

loooove how the dream/hob thing had like 0 impact on or relevance to the plot they just dedicated half an episode to showing some multiple century long gay slowburn for no real reason and i very much respect that

Common Tropes in Fanworks

• Fishbowl Rescue - Hob rescues Dream from his imprisonment (usually with ensuing Hurt/Comfort)
• Holds a grudge against Shakespeare - This is almost always written comedically.
• "You need not have come to my defense" - In longer Dreamling fics, this line from the 1789 scene, or some play on it, is practically inevitable.
• Established Relationship - Two people dating and meeting each other once every century, fans love writing them in established relationship.

Example Fanworks & Fanac

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Awards

• The pairing was an entry in the third MLM Ship Bracket Tournament (2023)

Fanfic

• Real People by spqr
• The Knight of Cups by softestpunk
• grist for the mill by jamais_vu0