Hob Gadling

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Character
Name: Robert "Hob" Gadling
Occupation: soldier (1389), printer (1489), knight/courtier (1589), beggar (1689), unspecified involvement in the transatlantic slave trade (1789), teacher/professor (2020's), and likely many others unspecified
Relationships: Dream of the Endless (friend), Eleanor (wife, late 16th century), Robyn (son, late 16th century), Peg (wife; comics, mid 20th century), Gwen (girlfriend; comics, late 20th century)
Fandom: The Sandman
Other:
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Hob Gadling is an immortal human character in The Sandman, and a friend of Dream of the Endless. He is portrayed in the 2022 Netflix adaptation by Ferdinand Kingsley.

Canon

Hob's first appearance is in #13 Men of Good Fortune/Episode 6: The Sound of Her Wings. In an outing to the human world in 1389, Death and Dream overhear Hob talk about his experiences with death and his intention to simply not ever die.

Look, I've seen death. I lost half my village to the Black Death. I fought under Buckingham in Burgundy, and you know what a pig's ear that was. It's not like I don't know what death is.

The two Endless are amused, and Death decides to grant Hob's wish. Dream approaches Hob's table and makes plans with him to meet at the same tavern, which is called the White Horse, in one hundred years' time.

Dream's expectation that Hob will be more than ready to die by 1489 is proven incorrect, as Hob expresses his wonderment at developments in technology and his happiness that he is getting to experience them. They continue to meet at the White Horse every 100 years, with Hob's fortunes rising and falling, but even when he is utterly miserable, he maintains the desire to keep living.

In 1989, there is a divergence between the comics and the show due to their being set in the time periods in which they were made; in the comics, Dream has escaped from his imprisonment in time to make it to the meeting, which he does, and admits to Hob that he considers them friends. In the show, Dream does not escape until well into the 21st century, and so misses their meeting. Hob waits at his table for several hours before forlornly going to the bar and ordering whiskey. When the bartender asks if he's waiting for someone, he explains that he had been, but he doesn't think his friend is coming because they had had a fight the last time they saw each other. To the bartender's reassurance that plenty of friends get into fights in pubs only to laugh about it together later, Hob responds wryly with, "Maybe in another hundred years."

The bartender explains regretfully that the White Horse is set to be demolished, distressing Hob further. When Dream finally escapes decades later, he finds Hob at the New Inn a short distance away, drinking a beer and grading papers. Hob is very happy to see him, and they reconcile.

Near the end of the comics, Death approaches Hob after Morpheus's funeral to ask if he is ready to die, but he declines, still enjoying life and wanting more of it.

In Fandom

Prior to the release of the show adaptation, Hob Gadling was relatively rare to see in fanworks (though a handful of ship fics pairing him with Dream did exist). However, his popularity in creative fandom exploded after the release of the first season of the show, with a large majority enthusiastically shipping him with Dream. The missed meeting in 1989 was absolute catnip to angst enjoyers, and fic set in the show-canonical 'verse almost universally depicts him as greatly impacted by it, whether or not he is being shipped with Dream romantically.

Another detail changed in the show that shippers got a lot of mileage out of is in the 1789 tavern scene, where Lady Johanna and her thugs crash their meeting. In the comic, Dream simply incapacitates all three with his power, but in the adaptation, Hob takes both men down with brutal efficiency before Dream even moves.

It is very heavily implied in the show, to the point of being accepted as canon, that Hob built or otherwise began the New Inn so that they would have a place to meet, and is the person who spray-painted the arrows leading to it on the barrier around the derelict White Horse; accordingly, in most fic where the New Inn exists, Hob is its sole or partial owner, and often lives in a flat over the pub.

The details of how his immortality works are not explained in canon, and so authors have various takes on how quickly he heals from injuries, whether or not he can get sick, and whether or not he can scar (and/or get piercings and tattoos).

Aside from his relationship (of whatever nature) with Dream, Hob is frequently depicted as having interactions, and often friendships, with Death, modern Johanna Constantine, and Rose Walker. Desire is the other Endless who often interacts with Hob in some fashion in fic, though in their case those interactions run the gamut from friendly to antagonistic. Calliope makes fairly frequent appearances as well, and sometimes becomes part of a throuple with Dream and Hob. (Pairing Hob and Calliope without Dream involved is usually a transition state to said throuple.) The Corinthian is another frequent sexual and/or romantic pairing partner with Hob, often but not always as a throuple (or threesome; the relationship isn't always depicted as an ongoing thing) with Dream.

Common Ships

Common Tropes

  • Actual ray of sunshine - Hob is usually depicted as relentlessly positive and good-humored, particularly in modern times.
  • Hyper-competent - He's had a lot of time to practice a lot of things...
  • ...prominently including sex. He is usually depicted as cheerfully bisexual and absolutely spectacular in bed.
  • Gentle Dom/Service Top - this applies when shipping him with both Dream and the Corinthian. Less so with Calliope.
  • Monsterfucker - with both Dream and The Corinthian
  • Cryptid professor - Modern!Hob's students (and sometimes his colleagues) are often very curious about both the eccentricities Hob has developed over six hundred years, and that bits of weirdness that regularly associating with Dream makes inevitable.
  • Hurt/Comfort - There's plenty of trauma to go around in the fandom, and Hob and his typical shipping counterparts have far more than their fair share of it.
  • Went/goes on an extended bender of substance use and/or questionable hookups for several years after Dream misses the 1989 meeting. This is alluded to in fic simply as having happened more often than it is directly depicted; direct depictions are often a setup for pairing him with the Corinthian.

Dreamling-Specific Tropes

  • 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.

Fanworks

Fanfiction

Fanart

Links

References


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