The people needs a place where you can feel miserable and cry, because when you hit rock bottom, that's when you finally need to come up for air and learn to breathe again . - Despair
Despair is Desire's twin, and Dream's sister. She is the moment when all hope is gone, the bleakest of the Endless.
History[]
Backstory[]
As stated by Despair herself, she is in fact the second incarnation of Despair. As sometime in the distant past, her original incarnation was killed and she assumed the mantle of Despair, inheriting the original’s function and memories. She is the first Endless to be killed and reincarnated.
Orpheus Marriage[]
Millennia later Despair along with the rest of her siblings went to her nephew Orpheus's wedding to give their blessings, Despair told them to be very lucky since, according to her, many marriages ended in misery. She participated in the wedding ceremony but left later when the party began after the wedding.
Plotting against Dream[]
Despair contacted his twin sister Desire to tell her that Dream had found a way out of his cage and that they had a new plan in the works.
Desire manipulating Despair
Desire didn't believe that Dream had learned his lesson after 100 years of imprisonment, though Despair argued that their little games would never change Dream. To Desire, this was no game. They sought to put Dream in his place, as he often behaved as if his realm was superior to their own. Whatever their new scheme was, Despair was doubtful it would work, as they hadn't in the past. Desire retorted that Nada was a mistake and that Roderick Burgess was a diversion. Yet things have changed since then, as Desire revealed that there was a Dream Vortex, the first for a long time, a young girl named Rose. While the girl had no idea what she was, she was already doing what vortexes do: bringing in everything and everyone to her, including Morpheus.
Dead Boy Detectives[]
In Episode 7, titled "The Case of the Very Long Stairway," Edwin, tortured in the twists and turns of hell, ends up falling through a mirror into the misty domain of Despair, one of the Seven Endlessnesses and twin sister of Desire. There, in a realm composed of gray mist and numerous hanging mirrors, she revels in the punishment inflicted on Simon, Edwin's former classmate, slowly growing closer to the young ghost.
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She uses a fishhook ring to slightly mutilate herself, intensify her pleasure, and force her cold smile on Edwin. She whispers to him, "We're friends now. I'll call you when I need you," before sending him back to Hell.
Endlesses Reunion[]
Despair was called by her brother Destiny to attend the meeting of the Endless, Despair initially told him to wait a moment since she was observing a man whose wife discovered that he was making pornographic videos with their niece and she had gone to the police to report him, the man does not stop wondering if he can still escape or if he should turn himself in, numb from the despair and hopelessness that his life was now over, which delights Despair, she finally agrees to go to the meeting after explaining this situation to her brother.
Consoling Dream[]
When Dream is distraught over spilling family blood, Despair momentarily summons him to her realm. She tries to cheer him up and confesses to Morpheus that she would secretly visit her nephew, he would sing her nice songs, especially Billy Holiday and Nick Drake from time to time and in return she would answer his questions about his father, which wasn't very easy since they almost never interact, although she understands it since if she had a sister named Dispair she wouldn't want to spend time with her either.
Dream apologizes to her for not being a more attentive brother, but she tells him that he is here with her now, but Dream tells her that it will not be for long, that maybe a better Dream will come, which Despair denies will happen, when Dream mentions Daniel Hall, Despair realizes that he had heard that name before, uses his power to manipulate mirrors and discovers that Daniel Hall was kidnapped.
Dream's Funeral[]
To be added
Physical Appearance[]
Despair is a frumpy overweight woman with long unkempt blond-auburn hair and pale blue eyes.
Personality[]
In Season 1, Despair is an omnipresent, icy entity that delights in human pain. Masochistic, manipulative, and addicted to despair, she offers a chilling and lasting connection to those who suffer, and this connection, disguised as friendship, promises a painful return when she deems it necessary.
However, despite her generally depressive and bleak outlook and sadomasochistic tendencies of revealing in observing all those in despair in the universe, Despair does have a few positive sides to herself. Despite reveling in the despair, sadness and misery of all beings within her domain, Despair has acknowledged the necessity of her realm for the betterment of living things. As shown when she comforted her brother Dream, Despair describes her realm and function as a necessity for people to overcome their despair, a place where they can feel their grief, sadness and misery and process it. Allowing them to then figure out where and how to overcome it and keep going with their lives.
Another more caring side to Despair is her love towards her family. As shown during Destiny's family meeting, Despair greatly cares about her siblings and attempts to diffuse any tension and argument between them. Having tried to stop Dream and Desire from arguing and fighting with each other. Later, Despair would lament how distant their family had become and how they don't really see each other anymore after Destruction left the family.
Out of all their siblings, Despair is closest with her twin Desire, with the twins mutually sharing each others schemes and plots and always taking the other’s side when in conflicts with their other siblings. And despite her hostile relationship towards her older brother Dream, Despair has implied to not resent him as much as Desire, as shown when Desire consulted her about their plan to once again destroy their brother Dream, Despair made a slight attempt to dissuade her twin from further hurting their older brother, stating that he might have suffered enough during his hundred year imprisonment by Roderick Burgess and reminded Desire of all their previous attempt to hurt him, all of which caused him significant pain and misery. Later, while he was wallowing in sadness and grieving for his son, Despair showcased her care for Dream and tried to comfort him. Despair showed that while not close to her older brother, she still cared for him very deeply and tried to give him advice on how to overcome his despair. Later, she would even help her brother by alerting him to the disappearance of Daniel by his enemies using her mirrors.
Despair was also shown to have had a close relationship with her other older brother Destruction. As shown where alongside Delirium, Despair has shown to be one of the siblings who misses him the most, frequently hoping that he would change his mind about leaving their family and return to them. As shown in Destiny’s family meeting, Despair has showcased to deeply miss Destruction’s presence and felt that he was the mood maker and peacekeeper of their family, as Despair reminisced that Destruction would always smoothly diffuse the tension between their family whenever the siblings fought. With Despair admitting that like Delirium, she frequently misses him and wonders if he was alright. Despair would also reveal that she was also close to her nephew Orpheus, and would visit him in secret, keeping him company and listen to him sing Bilie Holiday in exchange for her answering his questions about his father to help better understand him.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Despair Personification: As one of The Endless, Despair is the metaphysical manifestation of Despair itself and is afforded immense power due to her role and status in maintaining the universe. As the personification of the state of despair, melancholy and hopelessness, Despair has divine, omnipotent authority and absolute control over despair and is linked to everything related to it. With these powers, she is almost completely omnipotent.
- Magic: Despair can use magic like the rest of her siblings, all of her spells and enchantments are likely based on the feelings or state of despair.
- Omniscience: Due to being the embodiment of despair and hopelessness, Despair exists everywhere in the cosmos, although not in a form visible to mortal, and is afforded immense knowledge and information and the ability to come and go to anywhere she wants, even to other realms provided she gains entry from its monarch. Furthermore, as shown when she invited Edwin Payne into her realm, Despair typically uses her omniscience to see all the sentient beings in the universe that is currently in a state of despair using her mirror. As shown where Despair was able to observe Edwin and his old schoolmate Simon, the one responsible for dragging him into Hell in the first place, in Hell from one of the numerous mirrors in her realm as they wallowed in their despair and hopelessness from their eternal punishments. Later, she was able to help her brother Dream be alerted of Daniel’s abduction thanks to one of her mirrors showcasing Lyta and Rose’s misery and despair at his disappearance.
- Realm Manipulation: Due to her status as an Endless and her function, Despair is able to seemingly by-pass some of the rules of the after lives. This is seen where she could observe any being from her realm provided they are in a state of despair through her mirrors and they can even unknowingly enter into her realm provided that they are miserable enough. This is seen where she briefly pulled Edwin into her realm despite him being a condemned soul in Hell. And later, she banished him back to Hell with a wave of her hand. Dream was shown to have unknowingly entered into Despair’s realm when he was grieving his son and wallowing in misery for his impending death.
- Immortality: Despair, like the rest of her family, is immortal and is normally immune to mortal ailments. And even if should Despair be killed, she will reincarnate in a different aspect of herself, inheriting the first Despair’s memories, powers and function. Despair is noted to be the first Endless to have been killed and reincarnated, with the current Despair making it clear that she considered herself different from her previous incarnation and seeing the two of them as two separate people.
Weaknesses[]
- Ancient Rules: Despite her great powers, Despair, like the rest of the Endless, is bound to a complex set of rules and customs.
- One requires her to never spill the blood of family or she is no longer protected as the personification of Despair from other Personifications.
- Another is that she cannot fall in love with a mortal or the mortal's downfall is assured.
- Despair cannot take a mortal life unless they become a active threat to herself and her realms.
- Respect roles and domains. Each Endless embodies a specific concept and must stick to their own domain. Should Despair leave and abandon her role, the aspect of existence supervised by her becomes more random and chaotic, disrupting the cosmic order.
Appearances[]
The Sandman[]
Season 1[]
Season 2[]
- Chapter 12: Season of Mists
- Chapter 16: The Song of Orpheus
- Chapter 19: Fuel for the Fire
- Chapter 22: A Tale of Graceful Ends
Dead Boy Detectives[]
Gallery[]
