We have all been thinking about the Endless family since the new Netflix version of the Sandman comics. Because they represent notions and ideas that are connected to real-life, all of the characters are incredibly relatable.
Despair is one of the Endless family members that we only see briefly in the series. She is the anthropomorphic representation of the emotions of despair, sadness, and sorrow, thus when you look at her, you can not help but feel depressed.
She enjoys causing herself agony, and she has the power to make others want to kill themselves. Although she does not get much screen time in the first season, the writers have undoubtedly dropped more hints about her than you can possibly imagine. This video will cover every aspect of the Despair character, from her origins in the comics to how she is portrayed in the show. So let us watch the video now without further ado.
Despair Backstory Explored
In issue #10 of the second collection, titled The Doll’s House, the character of Despair makes her debut in the anthropomorphic world of the Sandman comics. When the first living things capable of despairing arrived in the cosmos, despair entered the cosmos. She has an elder twin named Desire and is the second youngest Endless child.
In the comics, we get to see the realm where Despair resides, and it looks like a dark, gloomy, and foggy place that is infested by rats. She is also surrounded by mirrors in her realm, which she uses to observe people when they are experiencing despair. The mirrors act as windows into the mortal realm.
Each of the seven Endless has a sigil that is kept in the galleries of their siblings and can be used by them to call upon each other. The sigil that belongs to Despair is a sharp, hooked ring that she wears on her left hand. Since Despair is the actual embodiment of the emotion of despair and dread, she uses that hooked ring to tear into her own skin and cut her cheeks constantly.
In the Sandman comics, we have two versions of Despair. This is because even though the Endless family is impossible to kill, yet, when any one of them dies, their duties and responsibilities are passed down to another embodiment of their aspect. So, in the first appearance of Despair in the comics, we actually have her second incarnation. This is because around 100,000 years ago, long before the story arc of the Sandman, the original Despair was killed by a man.
It is never made clear who murdered Despair or how she died, but after her death, all the Endless siblings went to bury her body in the Necropolis Litharege. The Necropolis is a place that is situated in another dimension of existence, and its inhabitants are apparently neither dead nor alive, but both. The sole purpose of the Necropolis is to dispose of the remains of its clients in a respectful way.
We get a brief glimpse of the first incarnation of Despair, which can be called the original Despair, with the release of a graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman in September 2003, which is known as Endless Nights.
In this story arc, we see her trying to persuade the anthropomorphic embodiment of the Kryptonian sun, which is known as Rao, to produce life on a highly volatile planet. She appears to be a chatty, confident, and intelligent creator of misery. She thinks that it is a “perfectly beautiful” work of art if they allow one person to survive the annihilation of this planet. It is evident through her words that she considers sorrow and misery to be good things that can happen to an individual.
In her current incarnation, Despair is seen to be perpetually depressed and closed off within herself. Even her voice is hardly audible. She happens to use tragedy to spread suffering and sadness. Although it is not clear if she simply witnesses the grief of human beings or deliberately tries to manipulate them as her twin sibling Desire does through their aspect. Despair is particularly close to Desire than any other Endless, and the two often come up with schemes to annoy and disrupt the life of their older brother, Dream.
Desire is the one who usually convinces Despair to believe in their plans. Another sibling that Despair is extremely fond of is Destruction. They share a great bond and often come to each other’s aid. Destruction usually confides in Despair because she understands him. However, one day, Destruction revealed to the Endless in a family meeting that he was going to leave his post.
Despair begged him and tried her best to get through to her brother to stop him from leaving the family, but Destruction did not listen because he had already made his decision. Ever since then, he has been missing, and Despair perpetually waits for the day when she will hear the news of his return.
Since Despair embodies despair, she never has anything to look forward to, so she indulges in Desire’s constant machinations. Both Despair and Desire want to prove to Dream that their realm is not inferior to that of their elder brother and that they have more power over the lives of human beings. So, in order to prove this, Despair once challenged Dream.
There was a man known as Joshua Abraham Norton. He was a failed businessman who was living a life full of despair and misery. He was on the verge of complete ruin and even contemplated suicide. So, Despair challenged Dream to try and save Joshua Norton through dreams. Soon, Lord Morpheus found out that Joshua dreamed of achieving great success and wanted to become the Emperor of the United States.
So, for the sake of the challenge and to prove to Despair that despair would not exist without dreams, Morpheus granted Joshua his dreams and made him the Emperor of the United States. Norton lived the rest of his life as the first and only emperor. He never visited Despair’s realm even once and eventually died without despair. As a result, Despair lost, and Dream won the challenge.
Despite losing, Despair was not grateful to Dream and did not see this as a learning experience. In fact, she went on to take part in other schemes that Desire came up with, and together they continued to interfere in the affairs of Dream.
In both her versions in the comics, Despair is shown as a short and obese woman. Her hair is rough and dark, and she is almost always in a messy bun. Her hooked ring is always seen on her hand, and she never wears any clothes. She looks more like a depressed creature than a person. The original Despair had red tattoos or blood marks on her body which are never seen in the current incarnation. Other than that, both incarnations share the same features. In fact, the second Despair has pale skin and a colder outlook. Her grey eyes appear to be lifeless, and her entire structure embodies the emotion of despair.
Amazing story of Despair from The Sandman Netflix Series
In the Netflix series, we are first introduced to the character of Despair in the seventh episode which is titled The Doll’s House. This is the only episode where she appears, as Despair has a very brief role in this season. Her twin sibling Desire, is holding Despair’s sigil in her hands and asks her to come to Desire’s realm, which is known as the Threshold.
Despair’s sigil is shown exactly the way it is in the comics, a sharp hooked ring. Despair does not arrive for a while, so Desire calls for her once again and tells her to talk to them. Soon after, Despair appears at the Threshold and informs Desire that she is always there to listen to them. Her character immediately sets the gloomy tone as Despair sits on the chair in a slouched position with messy hair and shabby clothes while wearing the hooked ring in her left hand.
She is seen fidgeting with the ring as she listens to Desire. When Desire tells her that they have some news to share, Despair automatically assumes that it is about their absent brother who might have returned. In the series, the identity of this mysterious Endless is never revealed, but the person Despair is asking about is Destruction, who left the family ages ago.
Despair is once again saddened when Desire tells her that Destruction is still missing. They have called Despair to the Threshold to talk about Dream. Desire has come up with a new plan to take down Dream. Despair says that these plans are silly games, but Desire confesses that this time, it is not for mere fun. Nonetheless, Despair believes that no matter what plan they have, it will never succeed because even in the past, all of their schemes have failed.
But Desire reassures Despair that this time they will achieve the downfall of Dream because a dream vortex has appeared. Upon hearing this, Despair’s sadistic aspect lights up, and we see a smile on her face. This plan will surely lead to Dream’s ruin, and when Despair thinks about it, she gets excited. Due to this feeling, Despair jabs her hooked ring into her cheek and drags it around the edges of her face.
It appears that Despair also likes to inflict pain on herself because she never flinches, even for a moment when she is bleeding. She trusts Desire with the plan and leaves the Threshold. She is not seen again for the rest of the season, even though, in the end, their plan failed. The Netflix series manages to capture the aspect of Despair in the most perfect form and stays true to the story.
However, we do not get to know a lot about Despair. It is also never revealed if she is the second incarnation or not. Even though her relationship with Destruction is not explored, we do get to see a hint of their closeness as Despair seems to be the only Endless who cares about his return. The character of Despair is portrayed by the British actor and writer Donna Preston, who is known for many of her incredible roles in films as well as television series.
She captures the depth and depression of Despair as we know her from the comics. However, a significant difference would be that in the series, Despair is shown as an ordinary-looking woman as opposed to her obese structure in the comics. Other than that, she appears to be a subdued character who is loyal to her twin sibling.
What Makes Despair So Powerful?
Despair is the personification of the emotion of despair, and that is what makes her an Endless. Just like all the Endless siblings, Despair has immense knowledge and mastery of magic and is omnipotent. Her realm is entirely under her control. Since she holds power over the emotions of hopelessness, anxiety, and misery, she is able to inflict them upon human beings by inserting a tiny hook into their hearts.
She can make them feel despair whenever she wants. Since every human has some amount of despair within their hearts, the character of Despair is omnipresent. She can enter and exit the mortal realm whenever she wants and is also able to visit the magical realms of all her siblings as long as she asks for permission and shows proper respect.
Similar to her twin sibling Desire, Despair also has the power of shapeshifting and can change her clothes and appearance at will. Although we never see her using this power because she is the embodiment of despair, and the only thing she lacks the most is her will power. Despair is practically ageless and immortal since she is an Endless.
As much as Despair tends to inflict pain on human beings through her aspect, she also constantly physically hurts herself by cutting her own skin with her hooked ring. She is the perfect representation of this dreadful emotion that drives people to take their own lives. Since doing so is in the very nature of Despair, she also does not feel any remorse for it. After watching the first season of the Sandman Netflix series, we can hope to see a lot more of Despair in the future.
Well, guys, that is all for today; we hope you enjoyed watching this video as much as we enjoyed making it for you. Have a fantastic day ahead!