Tear Jerker / The Sandman (1989)

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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You would too.

Preludes and Nocturnes

• The fact that so many people were victims of a sleeping sickness as a result of Morpheus' imprisonment. Imagine how it would feel to find out that a family member fell asleep and can't wake up, despite them not being dead, or seeing a loved one not be able to sleep at all. Then there's the fact that some of those who suffered from it only woke up after 72 years and missed out on so much of their lives. Even worse, some of them never even got that far. Stefan Wasserman, a 14-year old boy who lied about his age to enlist in the German army, couldn't stand the horrors in his head anymore and killed himself to make them stop. How many similar cases to Stefan's exist? We don't know.
• Morpheus returns to the Dreaming after being imprisoned for more than seventy years... only to find his land barren, his castle in ruins, and nearly all of the dreams, nightmares, and servants gone, save Lucien the librarian (now sans a library) and the few who couldn't go anywhere else. His shocked, heartbroken expression when he sees the remains of the castle is startling, as is how utterly defeated he looks once he realizes what's happened.
  Lucien: Hurts me too, lord.
  Morpheus: Yes... hurts...
• When we first meet them, Cain is giving Abel a gift. Abel worries that it's just another way to murder him, but it turns out to actually be a gargoyle egg that immediately hatches. Abel is so happy that he decides to name it Irving, but Cain is outraged that he would name a gargoyle something that doesn't start with a G, and murders Abel. After Abel gets better, he's shown sitting with the hatchling Irving and crying while talking about two brothers who loved each other very much.
• In "24 Hours," a diner waitress is an aspiring writer who gives all her stories happy endings. In her internal monologue, she says this is because if you take any story to its conclusion, everyone dies. She has no idea how true this is for her, nor for the series in general.
• How Judy's death from the same issue impacts her ex and "token straight friend". She engaged in Domestic Abuse, but had the maturity to write an apology letter to Donna, who would later become Foxglove, that she would never get to send thanks to John Dee murdering her. Rose speaks in disbelief about how Judy just died like that, how it was so sudden and violent. Foxglove in the meantime feels both remorse for breaking up with Judy, and anger about Judy's Domestic Abuse. She then channels those feelings into her songs, and she sings a song from Judy's point-of-view in Death: The High Cost of Living.
• During "The Sound of Her Wings", a mother ducks out of her baby's room to get a bottle for her child, who is dead by the time she returns 2 panels later. The baby's short dialogue with Death is a particular Wham Line, and demonstrates the impartiality and inevitability of death and the tragedy of child mortality in a poignant way.
  Baby: But...is that all there was? Is that all I get?
  Death: Yes, I'm afraid so.

The Doll's House

• The whole story of Nada and Dream's short-lived tragic affair in "Tales in the Sand". Even though they should not have acted on that love, one can't help but feel sorry for them, especially Nada, since she was banished to Hell for rejecting Dream for a very good reason (not wanting the world to be destroyed). What makes it worse is that Nada knew that lovemaking was a bad idea, which was why she turned down Dream initially after realizing that he wasn't a mortal man. As a result, her kingdom is destroyed, and she commits suicide out of guilt.
• Rose is a Dream Vortex — a being that by its very nature tears apart the Dreaming, and the only way to stop terrible and permanent damage from happening (again) is to kill her. Dream's quiet apologies as he attempts to do just this are almost as heartbreaking as Rose's defiance and ultimate acceptance of her fate.
  Rose: FORCRISSAKES! Look, just do it. Stop friggin' apologizing and just do whatever you're going to do.
• After this dream, and Unity dies to take her place, Rose gives herself an Important Haircut a few months later. She cuts off her hair and dyes it auburn-purple, saying she needs a new look. All the while, she is monologuing about how she refuses to believe that Gilbert was a place in a world of dreams, because he was her friend, and that would mean life is meaningless. Her speech is more of a eulogy than an affirmation.

Dream Country

• In "Calliope", the titular muse is imprisoned for over sixty years, kept in horrific conditions and constantly raped, so that her captors can plunder inspiration for their stories. At one point she's naked, emaciated, and prone on the floor, begging the Three to aid her, but even they can't help her, and she's left pleading for anyone to save her.
• The heroine of "A Dream of a Thousand Cats" is a Siamese cat who gives birth to a litter of kittens, and joyfully anticipates raising them... but, since the father was a feral tomcat, her owners see the kittens as worthless, and the husband takes them away from her and drowns them. Even worse, the cat hears her children calling out to her as they die.
• An off-hand remark in "A Midsummer's Night's Dream" does this. Shakespeare's son bemoans that the only way his father would care about him is if he died, because then he'd make a play about it. The boy's name is Hamnet, and he did die, aged eleven.
  • Even worse is that his father did care about him. When Shakespeare meets Dream for the last time, one of the first things he asks is whether Hamnet would have lived if he had never made the deal with Dream.
• All of "Facades", especially if you or someone you know has suffered from suicidal thoughts just as Rainie Blackwell does.
  • With Rainie's powers, she could regain her Elemental Girl superhero persona and do good. The problem is the side effects: she has a disfigured body that she has to hide with masks and clothes. Death encourages her that there are other alternatives and that Rainie can make her own heaven or hell. Rainie doesn't listen, so Death reluctantly gives her a means to shed her immortality.
  • Rainie has a friend at her old workplace, who talks to her once a week and makes sure her welfare checks are sent on time. When she has a Freak Out and calls him a few days earlier saying that she had an emergency, he's unable to respond for a couple of hours. When he finally dials back, knowing it's not like Rainie to call frantically asking for help, Death answers the phone and says Rainie has gone away, forever.

A Game Of You

• Barbie isn't coping well after her divorce from Ken. She answers the door when her neighbor Wanda knocks without any of her makeup or hair products. Worst of all, she hasn't dreamed since that awful night. Barbie doesn't know what Rose did, but she knows that it broke up their marriage. Ken didn't like Barbie's dream fantasies any more than she liked his.
• We find out that Barbie had to return to the Land not to save it, but to allow it to be destroyed. She returns to the Land full of joy and optimism that they can stop the Cuckoo and she can be the Princess again. Then her friend Luz betrays her to the Cuckoo, who has an army and is revealed to be a little girl. Specifically, she is Barbie's childhood self, and she is tired of this world. The Cuckoo compels Barbie to destroy the Porpentine, and nearly does her and her human friends who came to mount a rescue in, if it hadn't been for Dream's timely arrival. Dream explicitly says that cuckoos are his creations that go into various realms, grow up, and leave.
• Luz going into Dream's palm along with the Land. The art draws her as shuffling and apologetic, that this death is final and is partly her fault even if it was bound to happen. Barbie says that she can't hate Luz, because the Cuckoo both compelled them to commit acts of destruction. Martin Tenbones waves at Barbie in farewell.
• There is a brief moment where Dream tells Barbie that, per her boon that she inherited as dreamer of the Land, she could have anything within his power to grant. Barbie asks with hope if it means that he could restore the Land and her dream friends. He says that he could. Barbie seriously considers it. Then she remembers her friends are on the barren island, and Dream plans to leave them there as a Cruel Mercy. Thessaly, refusing to admit she needs help since she broke the rules of the Dreaming to find the Cuckoo, tells Barbie to kill the Cuckoo and she'll find an exit. Barbie, startling her with a Death Glare, gives her a Big "SHUT UP!" and says that her boon is that everyone returns home, safely and soundly. You can see how much of a sacrifice it is for her.
• The transphobia that Wanda has to deal with can hit home hard for anyone who is on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum and is not accepted by their family. It doesn't help that it culminates in Wanda being buried under her deadname and in men's clothes. There is a bittersweet moment in which Wanda's soul is shown as that of the woman she really is when she and Death appear in Barbie's dream in the epilogue, though.

Fables and Reflections

• The end of "Ramadan," with its flash-forward from Harun al-Rashid's Baghdad to a little boy hearing stories about it in a bombed-out area of present-day Baghdad.
• "August" follows Augustus Caesar as he pretends to be a beggar for a day in order to avoid the gods' attention. A central aspect of his character as presented in the story is his continued, unprocessed, and severe trauma over his brutal and repeated rape as a teenager by his uncle, Julius Caesar, whom he initially had idolized; he is still having nightmares about it into his seventies. Realizing that the societal expectations of him at the time, especially given his status, would have prevented him from ever talking about this to anyone makes it worse.
• Orpheus' story, which was already a massive Tear Jerker outside of the series—after losing his wife Eurydice on their wedding day, he petitioned Hades and Persephone with his music and was granted a chance to bring her back to life as long as he didn't look back at her. Orpheus, doubting Hades' promise, turned at the last second and saw her die again.
  • Orpheus' aunt, Death, sadly watches Eurydice dance and remarks that she has things to do later, foreshadowing her imminent demise.
  • The moment when Dream abandons him.
  "I have no son."
  • There's a line near the end about how when Dream walks off, he doesn't look back. You could take that to mean that Orpheus should have had that much willpower, and then he wouldn't be in this mess. Or you could take it the other way: by not looking back, Dream reveals a level of cold-heartedness completely opposite the temperament of his son (at least on the surface). It makes Orpheus's failure more forgivable... and because you don't judge him as harshly now, the punishment seems even worse.

Brief Lives

• The scene where Despair reminisces on her last meeting with Destruction, then bursts into tears. Desire attempts to contact her, but Despair doesn't react.
• Dream tells Delirium that their quest has ended and they should return to their realms, despite her pleas and thinking that he wanted to be around her. Her final words before she heads home are gutwrenching. Shortly after, Death appears and asks that he apologize to their sister, not wanting her to disappear the same way Destruction did.
  Delirium: Well, I'll be back in my realm then. If you want me. If anyone wants me.
• Orpheus's last day alive begins with fragments of a dream he has where Eurydice is alive and they have children and grandchildren, and he teaches them to sing. His tears end up waking him.
• The ending of the story arc with a montage of each of the minor characters met during the tale, each of them coping with a loss underscoring just how brief life really is. At the end, Andros realizes he will not live long enough to taste the cherries that will bloom from Orpheus' tree.
• Just before the ending, Morpheus washes the blood of Orpheus from his hands and gazes at his memories, which are now visible in the water. A falling tear ripples the surface of the memory, when Morpheus hears himself say; "So live." to his grieving son. He repeats these words, now truly grasping their weight, and begins to cry.

World's End

• "I think I fell in love with her, a little bit. Isn't that dumb? But it was like I knew her. Like she was my oldest, dearest friend. The kind of person you can tell anything to, no matter how bad, and they'll still love you, because they know you. I wanted to go with her. I wanted her to notice me. And then she stopped walking. Under the moon, she stopped. And looked at us. She looked at me. Maybe she was trying to tell me something; I don't know. She probably didn't even know I was there. But I'll always love her. All my life." Especially when you consider Brant (the one saying this) is talking about Death.

The Kindly Ones

• Rose's situation. She reverts from her Important Haircut to her multicolored hair and has become an Emotionless Girl since giving her heart to Unity. Rose also comes to say that she believes in "weird shit," showing that she's come to terms with Gilbert leaving her to resume his place in the Dreaming. She spends her time writing a screenplay she can't sell, sleeping with any man attracted to her regardless of their sexual orientation, and comforting Chantal and Zelda. Then Loki knocks her out while she's babysitting Daniel to kidnap the baby, and she says "it was my responsibility". Oh, and then Desire offers Rose's heart back, compelling Rose to give a speech that the world is full of pain, as is love, and it hurts but she wants to feel it anyway. Desire, in a case of O.O.C. Is Serious Business, mocks their granddaughter but gives Rose some space to grieve the sudden influx of feelings.
• The fates of Dream's griffin and Dream himself ("Dream? Give me your hand.") among others.
  • What about Fiddler's Green? Those last words reflecting on the small pleasures of his life — "A kiss once...from a friend..." — and then slumping dead. Almost as tear-jerking is the revelation that, following Daniel's reincarnation as the new Dream, he offers pretty much all of the casualties of the Kindly Ones new life. Fiddler's Green is the only one who refuses, as he feels that this would cheapen the whole point of death.
  • Or Abel... poor Abel, with the grieving Goldie perched on his chest.
    • For that matter, Cain, who does clearly love his brother in their opening scene, but cannot change the nature of their relationship.
  • The realisation that when Death asks where her brother is. It's been foreshadowed for a while now what would happen, and this just makes it all the more real.
• Morpheus's death.
  • Specifically, the expression on Death's face when she utters the below line: sad for him personally, but no more sentimental about his death than for any of the others in the entire saga.
    Death: Dream? Take my hand.
• Nuala's realization of Dream's motivation for everything post-Brief Lives. "You... You want them to kill you, don't you? You want to be punished for your son's death." The look on Dream's face in the next panel is heartwrenching.

The Wake

• Lyta Hall telling a pregnant Rose Walker to "kill [the baby] now. Kill it before it breaks your heart."
  • Also Matthew's speech, and the guilt and rage he's feeling.
  • As well as Thessaly's speech: "...And I swore...I swore I would never shed another tear for him," right while she's crying and showing us she actually has feelings other than rage and spite.
  • Delirium's speech: "He was my big brother. He really was. I was always a bit scared of him. But I'm not scared of him any more. I'm a bit sad of him instead. Okay. That's all."
  • Hob waking up weeping is one, and the speech right when Daniel-Dream opens the door: "...And then, fighting to stay asleep, wishing it would go on forever, sure that once the dream was over, it would never come back...you woke up." Dream's star shining in the sky and that feeling that after 70+ issues...it was over. Amazing.
    • Arguably, also heartwarming, if only a little. Every brilliant series ends eventually, and you have to say goodbye, but it isn't often that the series itself says it back, which is what "The Wake" really is.
  • The scene when Hob dreams about meeting Morpheus and a "pavement artist" (who is very obviously Destruction) somewhere.
  • Hob Gadling's reaction to Morpheus' death. This is particularly bad when you consider that it comes right after the death of his girlfriend, and that Morpheus was the one person he must have been certain would not go and die on him. You'd think an immortal man would have become used to the people he's close to dying, but instead, his mourning at the grave of his most recent love is painful because of how real it is.
  "I thought we'd have longer. It never gets any easier. People you love not being there any more."
• Something that's both a Tear Jerker and Fridge Horror is the idea that Morpheus may very well have been orchestrating this ending since before the main timeline of the comic began, as far back as what happened with his son, Orpheus. Death and Nuala both lampshade this, and the story supports it, repainting the events of the comics as an elaborate and subconsciously planned suicide, every event lining up to bring about the ending.
• Morpheus' confession to Shakespeare in the final issue: "I am... in my fashion... an island."
  • What's even more sad and beautiful about that moment is that he couldn't be more wrong. Over all the issues of The Sandman, we see Dream change, and love and need other people and act like a man, and finally leave his kingdom — through death - because at last he realised that he had changed.
• Throughout the series, it's implied that killing one of the Endless brings about terrible punishment, even with good intentions. After the climax of The Kindly Ones, Lyta Hall, Morpheus's killer is expressly reminded this, with the further warning that the last person to kill one of the Endless is now suffering for all eternity, when his motives were purer by far. The penalty handed down is to be allowed to walk away with no further harm done to her — a Cruel Mercy, as her efforts were All for Nothing, and everything she did ensured she'd never see her son again, as Morpheus' death meant that Daniel was reincarnated into the new Dream.
  • It turns into a Heartwarming Moment when Daniel!Dream forgives her in the Wake, though he does give her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech and Calling the Old Man Out because her quest for revenge nearly caused a literal Dream Apocalypse, and it meant that Daniel would never reunite with his mother. He also unofficially exiles her from the Dreaming for her crimes, and they don't reunite until a sequel series, where Hippolyta has made up for her actions as The Atoner.
  • This gets a bittersweet sequel in JSA: Lyta and a reincarnated Hector are killed by a maddened Spectre, and Daniel welcomes his parents' souls into the Dreaming forever.
• When Despair receives the message for Dream's funeral, we can see the pictures in her gallery of those who have been struck by despair. One of them is Destiny.

Endless Nights

• "Dream — The Heart of a Star": Dream finding out that Killala has cheated on him and is leaving him for Sto-Oa, events (at least partially) caused by Desire, who thought it was funny. One really can't help but feel sorry for him.
• "15 Portraits of Despair": Chances are one of them will be much too close to home for you to shrug off.
  I am Despair — and all those who despair are me.