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The Lounge => Media and Inspiration => Topic started by: Rob Necronomicon on August 11, 2022, 06:35:24 AM

Title: Sandman
Post by: Rob Necronomicon on August 11, 2022, 06:35:24 AM
I'm halfway through it... Decent enough. But clucking bell! It's THE most woke thing I've ever seen. They've literally race and gender-swapped everyone! They obviously don't like us crackers. lol

In all honesty, I usually don't mind a bit of it where appropriate, but when it's soooo freakin' blatant it really looks pathetic. And when you have well-established cannon it just seems like a bit of a kick in the teeth for the comic fans.

So Fluck off Neil Gaiman and your crew of pandering gimps at NF.

Worth a watch tho'.




Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: HappyDaze on August 11, 2022, 06:42:23 AM
I'm halfway through it... Decent enough. But clucking bell! It's THE most woke thing I've ever seen. They've literally race and gender-swapped everyone! They obviously don't like us crackers. lol

In all honesty, I usually don't mind a bit of it where appropriate, but when it's soooo freakin' blatant it really looks pathetic. And when you have well-established cannon it just seems like a bit of a kick in the teeth for the comic fans.

So Fluck off Neil Gaiman and your crew of pandering gimps at NF.

Worth a watch tho'.
Um...clucking bell, Fluck? You need to tame your autocorrect.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Rob Necronomicon on August 11, 2022, 06:43:58 AM
I'm halfway through it... Decent enough. But clucking bell! It's THE most woke thing I've ever seen. They've literally race and gender-swapped everyone! They obviously don't like us crackers. lol

In all honesty, I usually don't mind a bit of it where appropriate, but when it's soooo freakin' blatant it really looks pathetic. And when you have well-established cannon it just seems like a bit of a kick in the teeth for the comic fans.

So Fluck off Neil Gaiman and your crew of pandering gimps at NF.

Worth a watch tho'.
Um...clucking bell, Fluck? You need to tame your autocorrect.

Damn fucking auto-correct.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: BoxCrayonTales on August 11, 2022, 08:18:27 AM
Well, Gaiman apparently wanted it this way.

The whole racebending Death part is really silly for multiple reasons. At one point the show establishes that the Endless each look different depending on who looks at them, so Death could’ve been played by both a white actress and a black actress in different shots. Obviously that’s virtue signaling. Also, she only appears for a short period of time.

Around 3/4 of the characters who show any attraction are gay for no reason other than virtue signaling. Most don’t appear for more than one episode. The only recurring gay characters are a drag queen and a villain.

Desire’s casting was actually pretty on point, because the actor is a total creep in real life so totally sold desire being a creep.

Unfortunately, the show overall just wasn’t very strong because the storytelling is so outdated. Sometimes the dialogue is just cringy or unnatural.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Rob Necronomicon on August 11, 2022, 08:55:15 AM
Well, Gaiman apparently wanted it this way.

The whole racebending Death part is really silly for multiple reasons. At one point the show establishes that the Endless each look different depending on who looks at them, so Death could’ve been played by both a white actress and a black actress in different shots. Obviously that’s virtue signaling. Also, she only appears for a short period of time.

Around 3/4 of the characters who show any attraction are gay for no reason other than virtue signaling. Most don’t appear for more than one episode. The only recurring gay characters are a drag queen and a villain.

Desire’s casting was actually pretty on point, because the actor is a total creep in real life so totally sold desire being a creep.

Unfortunately, the show overall just wasn’t very strong because the storytelling is so outdated. Sometimes the dialogue is just cringy or unnatural.

Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me that Neil was behind those decisions and egged on by Shit Flix. It feels incredibly weird watching it because every side character or minor bit part is played by POC. It feels very forced in my opinion. But Neil the trickle of piss that he is didn't have the balls to make Sandman himself black. Why not? I mean if you're ripping the shit out of your creation, why not go all out so you can level up that virtue signaling?

And as you said (virtually) everyone is gay or bi. Not because they were originally but just because 'you can'. Again it feels very odd indeed.

Again, I don't mind chopping and changing some stuf. But Sandman is so horribly blatant about it - it just feels like Neil and his cohort of gimps are really trying to sell you the purest woke-scold shit in a bottle imaginable.

Definitely worth seeing it for the visuals... I think Desire is coming in the 6th episode which I'll watch tonight.

Christ... I pray he never remakes 'Neverwhere'.








Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: HappyDaze on August 11, 2022, 09:20:27 AM
As someone that never read the comic, I'm anticipating that the complaints being discussed will do little to hurt my impressions of the show when I start watching it next week.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Rob Necronomicon on August 11, 2022, 09:28:59 AM
As someone that never read the comic, I'm anticipating that the complaints being discussed will do little to hurt my impressions of the show when I start watching it next week.

Oh, I'm not trying to tell anyone not to enjoy it. But even if you've not read the comic it's still exceedingly blatant IMO.

And again I've no problem with adding in some POC. I just don't like all the nuclear warhead-like virtue signaling.

Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: GeekyBugle on August 11, 2022, 11:09:39 AM
Well, Gaiman apparently wanted it this way.

The whole racebending Death part is really silly for multiple reasons. At one point the show establishes that the Endless each look different depending on who looks at them, so Death could’ve been played by both a white actress and a black actress in different shots. Obviously that’s virtue signaling. Also, she only appears for a short period of time.

Around 3/4 of the characters who show any attraction are gay for no reason other than virtue signaling. Most don’t appear for more than one episode. The only recurring gay characters are a drag queen and a villain.

Desire’s casting was actually pretty on point, because the actor is a total creep in real life so totally sold desire being a creep.

Unfortunately, the show overall just wasn’t very strong because the storytelling is so outdated. Sometimes the dialogue is just cringy or unnatural.

Of course Gaiman "wanted it this way", we have a say7ing in spanish, no idea if there's something similar in english: "Poderoso Caballero es Don Dinero".

In short Gaiman had lot$ of rea$on$ to "want it this way", meaning he sold the rights for the TV Show and I bet the contract prohibits him from badmouthing it.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Rob Necronomicon on August 11, 2022, 11:18:39 AM
In short Gaiman had lot$ of rea$on$ to "want it this way", meaning he sold the rights for the TV Show and I bet the contract prohibits him from badmouthing it.

Indeed... $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

As far as I know, though, he was also quite heavily with some of the decision-making and has lashed out at a lot of peeps who've been slagging it off for it being woke as fuck. Honestly, I've never seen such pandering to the woke-scold audience before. Even more than the lack-luster American Gods series.

I'm not actually a huge fan of his with the exception of Never Where. If they made it now god knows what it would be like.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: GeekyBugle on August 11, 2022, 11:29:23 AM
In short Gaiman had lot$ of rea$on$ to "want it this way", meaning he sold the rights for the TV Show and I bet the contract prohibits him from badmouthing it.

Indeed... $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

As far as I know, though, he was also quite heavily with some of the decision-making and has lashed out at a lot of peeps who've been slagging it off for it being woke as fuck. Honestly, I've never seen such pandering to the woke-scold audience before. Even more than the lack-luster American Gods series.

I'm not actually a huge fan of his with the exception of Never Where. If they made it now god knows what it would be like.

I've come to the conclusion that fans should stop being fans. Divest themselves of ANY emotional ties to IPs they don't own or control.

I've got the comic books I liked, they can't change that. As for Gaiman yeah, never was really into his stuff.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Rob Necronomicon on August 11, 2022, 11:33:44 AM

I've come to the conclusion that fans should stop being fans. Divest themselves of ANY emotional ties to IPs they don't own or control.

I've got the comic books I liked, they can't change that. As for Gaiman yeah, never was really into his stuff.

Yeah, I think that's definitely the way to think about it mate. I think the days of directors trying to do an IP any justice is long gone. Now it's just about the cash and virtual twitter back slaps. Ugh!
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: GeekyBugle on August 11, 2022, 12:04:18 PM

I've come to the conclusion that fans should stop being fans. Divest themselves of ANY emotional ties to IPs they don't own or control.

I've got the comic books I liked, they can't change that. As for Gaiman yeah, never was really into his stuff.

Yeah, I think that's definitely the way to think about it mate. I think the days of directors trying to do an IP any justice is long gone. Now it's just about the cash and virtual twitter back slaps. Ugh!

Something that does not usually go hand in hand.

The cash and virtue signaling I mean.

But they've got the ESG funds to avoid going broke.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Rob Necronomicon on August 11, 2022, 01:03:21 PM

I've come to the conclusion that fans should stop being fans. Divest themselves of ANY emotional ties to IPs they don't own or control.

I've got the comic books I liked, they can't change that. As for Gaiman yeah, never was really into his stuff.

Yeah, I think that's definitely the way to think about it mate. I think the days of directors trying to do an IP any justice is long gone. Now it's just about the cash and virtual twitter back slaps. Ugh!

Something that does not usually go hand in hand.

The cash and virtue signaling I mean.

But they've got the ESG funds to avoid going broke.

That's true.

It's sad to see a lot of the really good IPs slipping away into becoming shadows of their former selves. I wish people would start making good shows again without all this obligatory injection of wokescold political piss.



Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: GeekyBugle on August 11, 2022, 03:10:22 PM

I've come to the conclusion that fans should stop being fans. Divest themselves of ANY emotional ties to IPs they don't own or control.

I've got the comic books I liked, they can't change that. As for Gaiman yeah, never was really into his stuff.

Yeah, I think that's definitely the way to think about it mate. I think the days of directors trying to do an IP any justice is long gone. Now it's just about the cash and virtual twitter back slaps. Ugh!

Something that does not usually go hand in hand.

The cash and virtue signaling I mean.

But they've got the ESG funds to avoid going broke.

That's true.

It's sad to see a lot of the really good IPs slipping away into becoming shadows of their former selves. I wish people would start making good shows again without all this obligatory injection of wokescold political piss.

The worst part is it's now easier than ever to do so, all it takes is someone with the talent, will and able to find the money.

The last part is really the hardest. But you could totally make a 3d animated film/tv show without spending anything but your time, finding the voice actors is what would cost you money, if you're willing to invest the time/effort you could do the rest by yourself.

Then you own everything, release a chapter on YT for free and promote the hell out of it.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Rob Necronomicon on August 11, 2022, 06:11:45 PM

I've come to the conclusion that fans should stop being fans. Divest themselves of ANY emotional ties to IPs they don't own or control.

I've got the comic books I liked, they can't change that. As for Gaiman yeah, never was really into his stuff.

Yeah, I think that's definitely the way to think about it mate. I think the days of directors trying to do an IP any justice is long gone. Now it's just about the cash and virtual twitter back slaps. Ugh!

Something that does not usually go hand in hand.

The cash and virtue signaling I mean.

But they've got the ESG funds to avoid going broke.

That's true.

It's sad to see a lot of the really good IPs slipping away into becoming shadows of their former selves. I wish people would start making good shows again without all this obligatory injection of wokescold political piss.

The worst part is it's now easier than ever to do so, all it takes is someone with the talent, will and able to find the money.

The last part is really the hardest. But you could totally make a 3d animated film/tv show without spending anything but your time, finding the voice actors is what would cost you money, if you're willing to invest the time/effort you could do the rest by yourself.

Then you own everything, release a chapter on YT for free and promote the hell out of it.

Well, that's true as well. You've got KS, etc for finding funds too. Damn creative people get your acts together!

Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Rob Necronomicon on August 11, 2022, 06:14:22 PM
Well, I just watched another two episodes.

Wow... I keep thinking I'm watching the Cosby show, but without humor and sprinkled with mythical beings.

Sandman is basically the 'token' white guy. lol




Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: zircher on August 11, 2022, 10:25:12 PM
Not having read the original, is it possible to enjoy the series on Netflix?  Hoping that with no expectation to dash, it might be worth watching.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Rob Necronomicon on August 11, 2022, 10:29:27 PM
Not having read the original, is it possible to enjoy the series on Netflix?  Hoping that with no expectation to dash, it might be worth watching.

Definitely. I'm on the 8th episode now and overall I think it's pretty decent and certainly worth a watch! Especially, if you 'steel yourself' and just filter out the woke side of it. Or try to! lol
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Reckall on August 12, 2022, 04:41:41 PM
I watched the first two episodes and they were fine. I wasn't convinced, back then, by the pictures of the actor who plays The Sandman, but I now like him in the role. It should be a bit taller and more unsettling but I was thinking that this would have been a good show.

Then on the scene arrived "Johanna Constantine" and the show took a dive at once.

First, the episode with John Constantine is one of the best in the whole comic book series. He immediately turns into a faithful servant of Morpheus after finding him standing right outside his apartment door. Their quest for the "bag of sand" is full of both humor and drama. The return of John Constantine was one of the most asked stories by the fans.

Here Johanna Constantine is the tired "Grrrl!" trope ("I just had a decaying tooth pulled out without anesthesia. They even pulled out the wrong tooth. Grrr.") OF COURSE she is lesbian. OF COURSE her (ex?) lover is a black woman. OF COURSE she lectures The Sandman. No one lectures The Sandman: you end up sleeping, unaging, for 1000 years having only nightmares - if you are lucky. She is played by Jenna Coleman. I like Jenna Coleman. I hated this travesty of a wonderful character.

Meanwhile the "B" plot is two people talking, and talking, and talking, and talking... We had 34 scenes of two people talking for a plotline that required 3. It was unending.

The only good thing is the Raven.

Amazing. The Sandman is woke. It was woke in 1988! I love it anyway, just adapt it! No. As usual, as soon as they wanted to be wokier than woke everything floundered.

I'll continue to watch it - knowing that they reached an early pinnacle of the series and they immediately dropped the ball.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: David Johansen on August 12, 2022, 07:35:09 PM
I thought it was cleaner and tighter than the comics, which I read as they came out until about issue 40 when I gave up.  It had plenty of "woke agenda" from the very beginning but it crept in more and more over time.  I think, if they were going to cast a black Death (heh) they probably should have made the rest of the family black as well but it doesn't matter anyhow, the actress did fine.  Personally I'd have made all the endless starkly white, not peach coloured but that's just me.  I think there is too much "you need to change" dialog, maybe that's what you have to do when you don't have years to build up the character and show their rigidity. 

Sometimes I think the dialog was a bit stronger in the comics.  But it's been forty years since I looked at them.

Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Rob Necronomicon on August 12, 2022, 07:58:10 PM
I watched the first two episodes and they were fine. I wasn't convinced, back then, by the pictures of the actor who plays The Sandman, but I now like him in the role. It should be a bit taller and more unsettling but I was thinking that this would have been a good show.

Then on the scene arrived "Johanna Constantine" and the show took a dive at once.

First, the episode with John Constantine is one of the best in the whole comic book series. He immediately turns into a faithful servant of Morpheus after finding him standing right outside his apartment door. Their quest for the "bag of sand" is full of both humor and drama. The return of John Constantine was one of the most asked stories by the fans.

Here Johanna Constantine is the tired "Grrrl!" trope ("I just had a decaying tooth pulled out without anesthesia. They even pulled out the wrong tooth. Grrr.") OF COURSE she is lesbian. OF COURSE her (ex?) lover is a black woman. OF COURSE she lectures The Sandman. No one lectures The Sandman: you end up sleeping, unaging, for 1000 years having only nightmares - if you are lucky. She is played by Jenna Coleman. I like Jenna Coleman. I hated this travesty of a wonderful character.

Meanwhile the "B" plot is two people talking, and talking, and talking, and talking... We had 34 scenes of two people talking for a plotline that required 3. It was unending.

The only good thing is the Raven.

Amazing. The Sandman is woke. It was woke in 1988! I love it anyway, just adapt it! No. As usual, as soon as they wanted to be wokier than woke everything floundered.

I'll continue to watch it - knowing that they reached an early pinnacle of the series and they immediately dropped the ball.

I finished it tonight and overall I enjoyed it to be fair... But I did 'filter out' all the childish woke stuff. Again, I've no problem with a bit of chopping and changing but when it feels like a highly deliberate exercise just to tick every conceivable woke box that's a tad obnoxious.

As you say, Jonna Contintine was egregious and as you say, had to be 'bi' and date a POC. She's actually a great actress that girl who plays Joanna.
And again nothing wrong with a person's sexual preferences. But virtually EVERY character had to be either gay or at the very least dating a POC. And all the main bystanders were very noticeably non-white.

Yeah and lots of emotional finger-wagging at the lord of dreams.

And Gimpy Gaiman was always a bit woke - that was okay back then. Until he decided to drop a nuclear warhead on top of us.

So I'll now need a ritual cleanse after watching it... I usually go back to Black Adder 2 and 3 which calms my nerves. lol







Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: DocJones on August 13, 2022, 11:17:13 PM
I had no idea what this was. 
I only watched it because I saw Charles Dance was in it.
Also I detected there would be woke stuff .
So I have no reason to watch any further than episode one.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Reckall on August 14, 2022, 12:09:48 PM
I had no idea what this was. 
I only watched it because I saw Charles Dance was in it.
Also I detected there would be woke stuff .
So I have no reason to watch any further than episode one.

The paradox is that The Sandman was already woke and it is considered one of the best comic books ever created (I like "Hellblazer" and John Constantine more, but it is woke too). This is an example of the current "We the Woke are never satisfied" - followed by the usual downfall of something that was very good before being altered.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Manic Modron on August 15, 2022, 06:56:00 PM
Of all the things to gripe about Joanna Constantine, the same sex relationship shouldn't even be on the list.  John's been bi for thirty years, that part at least is true to character.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Rob Necronomicon on August 15, 2022, 07:00:10 PM
Of all the things to gripe about Joanna Constantine, the same sex relationship shouldn't even be on the list.  John's been bi for thirty years, that part at least is true to character.

Well, we are griping about a great number of things not just John's sexuality. Plus, it's at least a few decades since I read the Sandman.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: tenbones on August 22, 2022, 09:10:08 AM
I watched the first episode. It's hamfisted and treats the viewers as stupid for the purposes of cheap sentimentality - the introduction of the raven they surreptitiously kill at the beginning introduced an obvious plothole as the bird could have freed Morpheus at *any* time by breaking the circle... but instead is used to create an unnecessary cheap sentiment towards the Magus's son (and equally cheaply killed off to underscore that purpose.)

Its funny because only a couple of years ago Gaiman was on Twitter chastising woke-assholes about race-swapping as being bad as it risks alienating the fans.

https://twitter.com/JonThomasNC/status/1402914097713319938/photo/1

Now he's basically doing it himself for whatever reasons and attacking the fans he's now saying supports these idiotic changes.

IF you really want to check out Sandman- in DIRECT opposition to this, go check out the audible teleplay of it. It's fantastic. It delights me to hear Gaiman narrating the descriptions of his own characters perfectly and energetically which is in direct opposition to his TV show (and it's way better).
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Visitor Q on August 22, 2022, 12:46:25 PM
I enjoyed the comics. That said it's probably worth noting that the comics and Neil Gaiman have always had a liberal and progressive stance. It means that although yes the TV adaptation has gone full woke it isn't as jarring as when this occurs in other IPs.

The ironic thing is that it has been done in such a hapahazard manner that there is an argument to be made that (inadvertently I am sure) behind the surface level wokeness there are some pretty socially conservative messages being pushed.

Some examples off the top of my head...

Almost every homosexual character is depicted as being a degenerate or a criminal or both.

The main characters of the first two thirds of the series are all white; three men and one woman. All of the principle white male characters in the series struggle with power and how to use it and do so in understandable if not always virtuous ways. They have fleshed out story arcs which complement each other. In other stories these casting choices wouldn't be that interesting but it's almost come full circle here that ultimately despite all of the race and gender swapping the most significant storylines concerning the responsibility of power are given to white men.

Abortion is represented as an evil and exploitative thing.

Black Magic, Hell and Demons exist and are represented as wholly malevolent forces.

A core message of the show is the inherent damage that is done when rights are not balanced with responsibilities and the stability and health of a system/world/culture is jeopardised because of personal feelings of unfairness.

Objective morality is presented and a character chastised on this basis by someone in authority in direct opposition to the idea that morality is subjective to culture or "the times you are living in "

Supposed social progress as a driver of change is secondary to human nature (a slightly subtle one but one of the background themes of the immortal character subplot).

(Not going into too much detail because of spoilers..).

As I say, I don't think any of the above was intentional but it has made me laugh how past the surface level casting choices the show really isn't portraying woke culture in a very good light.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Wntrlnd on August 22, 2022, 07:30:16 PM
Not to mention the character in episode 11 who calls themself a feminist and is virtuesignaling like hell but really is a horrible person.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Rob Necronomicon on August 22, 2022, 07:42:34 PM

https://twitter.com/JonThomasNC/status/1402914097713319938/photo/1

Now he's basically doing it himself for whatever reasons and attacking the fans he's now saying supports these idiotic changes.


The irony... What a fuckwit.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: BoxCrayonTales on August 22, 2022, 08:23:32 PM
Not to mention the character in episode 11 who calls themself a feminist and is virtuesignaling like hell but really is a horrible person.
Yeah, I was actually surprised when that scene happened. That's a common talking point on anti-woke commentaries, especially from TERFs who absolutely despise wokebros, so I was surprised that a woke show used the wokebro willie meme completely seriously. The script almost reads like it was written by a TERF. The only part that feels distinctly non-TERFy is the ending, because it is nowhere near as vindictive, ironic, or violent as a TERF ending would be (tbh, I'm disappointed the ending wasn't as horrific as the actual Greek myths, because I adore that "fate worse than death" shit!). For reference, TERFs despise Gaiman because he's a wokebro misogynist.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: mightybrain on September 05, 2022, 06:10:36 PM
Not to mention the character in episode 11 who calls themself a feminist and is virtuesignaling like hell but really is a horrible person.

I assumed it was autobiographical.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Ocule on September 05, 2022, 07:13:53 PM
I've lost all respect for Gaiman, it doesn't surprise me. He is very pro "political correctness" and has been since the whole woke movement started. I was reading the Elric saga and it had an intro written by him, a short story he wrote that was the cringiest most pedophilic thing I've ever read. Half the story is talking about boys masturbating and blowing their teachers at a boarding school. Literally in the text. It's soured me on just about everything he's ever touched. Still haven't started sandman for that reason
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: Rob Necronomicon on September 05, 2022, 07:16:06 PM
I've lost all respect for Gaiman, it doesn't surprise me. He is very pro "political correctness" and has been since the whole woke movement started. I was reading the Elric saga and it had an intro written by him, a short story he wrote that was the cringiest most pedophilic thing I've ever read. Half the story is talking about boys masturbating and blowing their teachers at a boarding school. Literally in the text. It's soured me on just about everything he's ever touched. Still haven't started sandman for that reason

The whole show to me just feels utterly forced. I don't mind diversity but when it's like a jackhammer on your skull it's so pathetic and pretensious.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: David Johansen on September 05, 2022, 10:05:59 PM
I'm not surprised they toned down Calliope and added some heavy moralizing comentary.  Quite honestly I'm surprised they did it at all.

I think the woke parts, well, you can see pretty clearly how it's damned if you do damned if your don't.  If you change it you're erasing and minimizing the impact of a difficult subject and if you keep it you're clearly a bigot for reminding people about it, whatever it may be they can go after you no matter what you do.  There's a lesson in there.

But as much as it's cleaner and clearer, I think the Sandman TV show is doomed to obscurity.  The comic's rough, sharp edges drew blood and that was why it was great.  It was written in the time of liberation when the Comics Code Authority had lost all power.  Now some people want to lock things down again.  Some things never change.
Title: Re: Sandman
Post by: BoxCrayonTales on September 06, 2022, 12:23:18 PM
I've lost all respect for Gaiman, it doesn't surprise me. He is very pro "political correctness" and has been since the whole woke movement started. I was reading the Elric saga and it had an intro written by him, a short story he wrote that was the cringiest most pedophilic thing I've ever read. Half the story is talking about boys masturbating and blowing their teachers at a boarding school. Literally in the text. It's soured me on just about everything he's ever touched. Still haven't started sandman for that reason
What the fuck? I just got that exact book and now my anticipation is soured. What a pig. If you're going to write disgusting fetish porn, then don't shoehorn it into something that isn't disgusting fetish porn.

I'm not surprised they toned down Calliope and added some heavy moralizing comentary.  Quite honestly I'm surprised they did it at all.

I think the woke parts, well, you can see pretty clearly how it's damned if you do damned if your don't.  If you change it you're erasing and minimizing the impact of a difficult subject and if you keep it you're clearly a bigot for reminding people about it, whatever it may be they can go after you no matter what you do.  There's a lesson in there.

But as much as it's cleaner and clearer, I think the Sandman TV show is doomed to obscurity.  The comic's rough, sharp edges drew blood and that was why it was great.  It was written in the time of liberation when the Comics Code Authority had lost all power.  Now some people want to lock things down again.  Some things never change.
Actually, the feminist articles I read said that the story was improved by not actually showing the rape itself. I agree that it doesn't need to be shown.