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This article is about Despair from the comic series. You may be looking for Despair from the Netflix adaptation.


"Take away the despair and there is nothing left. Nothing but an empty room, and a hook of the perfect shape and size for snagging your heart."


Despair and her older twin, Desire, are second youngest of the Endless. To the ancient Greeks, she was known as Aponoia. Despair's sigil is a hooked ring she wears on her left hand which she uses to tear into her flesh. Her realm, the Gray Realm, is a gray, foggy space filled with rats and mirrors, which she uses to look upon people in their despair.

History[]

Despair 3

100,000 years ago, Despair was the first Endless to die and then have a new aspect of herself assume her position.[1] How or why the first Despair was killed is unknown, although in The Wake, Dream tells Hippolyta that the person who was responsible for the death of the first Despair will take an eternity to die and that he had better cause for what he did than her motive for killing Morpheus.

In 19th century San Francisco, Despair challenged Dream to a contest over a failed businessman, to see which of them had more sway over the lives of mortals. Dream gave Joshua Abraham Norton the dream of being Emperor Norton I, which kept him from falling into the depths of despair, as well as keeping him from the traps set by Desire and Delirium. By so doing, he won the contest, angering Desire.

In later years, Despair routinely took part in her twin's machinations, albeit usually her role was more that of an audience. She pointed out that "the elder three don't play our little games", which sheds light on their mutual perception of such plots.[2]

Appearance[]

Both incarnations of Despair are depicted as short, obese woman with unkempt, dark hair that is styled in a messy bun. She does not wear clothing of any kind, but always wears her hooked ring. She is the shortest of the Endless. The original Despair had a rosier skin tone (similar to Destruction), black hair, and is covered in red tattoos or markings. The present incarnation of Despair has a cold, muted appearance, with features like pale, clammy skin, lifeless gray eyes, and dark, grayish hair, but otherwise had the same shape as the previous Despair. According to the narrator, while Despair has no odor, her shadow smells musky and pungent, like the skin of a snake.

Depending upon the artist, her other features can change. She sometimes has tusks, an underbite, sharp teeth, a disfigured eye, or a troll-like appearance.

Physically, both incarnations of Despair resembles their mother in figure.

Personality[]

First Despair[]

The original Despair is only shown briefly in Endless Nights. From what is seen, she is talkative, confident, and is a thoughtful architect of sorrow. She is shown convincing the anthropomorphic personification of Rao (the Kryptonian sun) to create life on an unstable planet. She describes allowing one inhabitant to survive the destruction of the planet and mourn as a "perfectly beautiful" piece of art.

While what happened has not yet been revealed, it has been admitted by Daniel that the original Despair was killed and that the one responsible had done so for good reason, implying further hints to her personality and nature.

Second Despair[]

In her current aspect, Despair is perpetually somber and maintains a cold, quietly intelligent manner. Her voice is little more than a whisper, and she expresses no emotion barring the one she personifies. While she seeks to sow misery and unhappiness through tragedy, it is unclear if she willfully manipulates subjects (in the way her predecessor did) or if she passively observes sorrow playing out. Either way, Despair's current aspect is shown delighting in sadness, just like the original. In Brief Lives, she tells Delirium about a depressed man she has been watching with fascination, and describes his cowardice toward suicide as a beautiful sight. She has a habit of carving her flesh with a hooked ring (which is also her sigil). Sometimes she's shown doing this in response to memories or emotions, but that's not always the case.

Despair and Desire often work together, and they're shown as being particularly close (compared to their other siblings). In Fables and Reflections, Despair challenges Dream to a contest over the life of Joshua Abraham Norton, knowing that Desire would stand with her. She's also confident that Delirium will aid her. Despair was also particularly fond of her brother Destruction. However, in Brief Lives, Despair's loyalty to Desire prevents her from aiding Delirium in her quest to find Destruction, although not aiding Delirium in her search causes her to reminisce on the time they spent together, and later, she regrets her choice to remain in her realm.

Powers and Abilities[]

  • Personification of Despair: One of the seven Endless, inconceivably powerful beings, Despair is both the mistress and the personification of all despair and hope. She has full access to human despair, going so far as to monitor and observe it.
    • Omnipresence: Despair can be everywhere on Earth at virtually the same time, being in a form not visible to humans.
    • Immortality: She is eternal and virtually immortal, having existed since the beginning of everything. Even though she was destroyed several millennia ago for unknown reasons, she reformed and reincarnated in a new aspect of herself.
    • Teleportation: Despair can teleport anywhere she wants between her siblings' realms and other realms in general, as long as she maintains respect for them and follows proper procedure with the Realm's masters.
    • Creation: Similar to her brother, Dream, Despair is capable of creating things out of thin air using her vast power. In the past, Despair had created both the House of Whispers and the House of Watchers, with her creating the House of Whispers from murmurs and rumors made by Despair out of dejection, while the House of Watchers was made possessing similar abilities to her realm, where there are mirrors showing all the events happening due to despair.[3] As revealed by Erzulie, the House's themselves are immensely powerful, and attempting to become its owners/keepers without permission and dispensation from Despair herself, would even cause a God to be shattered to pieces under their weight.[4]
    • Resurrection: Despair has shown to have a level of control over the souls of mortals, much like the rest of her siblings. When the House of Watchers needed a keeper, Despair collected the soul of Aesop right as he was killed, and after convincing him to become the House's keeper, Despair revived him.[3]

Behind the Scenes[]

  • Her sigil in the galleries of the other Endless is a ring with a fishhook sticking out from the top.

References[]

  1. The Annotated Sandman
  2. The Sandman: The Doll's House #1, "The Doll's House".
  3. 3.0 3.1 The Sandman Universe: House of Whispers #15, "The Doors of His Face".
  4. The Sandman Universe: House of Whispers #17, "In the Desert On a Horse With No Name".
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