Diksha Sundriyal
The second season of Netflix’s ‘The Sandman’ expands the Endless family by introducing the remaining seven siblings. The most important of them is Delirium, the youngest of them, who plays an instrumental role in how things eventually play out for Dream. In one of the conversations, it is revealed that Delirium used to be Delight, but some circumstances led her to change. The show never reveals what she was like when she was Delight, but it does raise the question about her transformation. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Delight’s Transformation Remains a Major Mystery in the Sandman Universe
The expanse of the ‘The Sandman’ universe means that there is a lot of information about a lot of characters, but some things are never really resolved. Delight’s change into Delirium is one of those things. To begin with, it is clarified that this change happened a long time ago. One of the flashback scenes in the comics suggests that it happened in prehistoric times. This means that as the events of ‘The Sandman’ unfold, Delight has been Delirium for a very long time now. Even in the show, the only time we see her as Delight is in the portrait that Destiny uses to summon her for the family meeting.
Evidence also suggests that her siblings might not really be aware of why this change happened. She uses this to point out to Destiny that even though he is supposed to know everything that is to go down in the history of the universe, there are paths outside of his garden that he is not aware of, and there are things that are not written in his book. This means that while her siblings have witnessed her transition, they might not really be aware of its cause.
While neither the comics nor the show reveals what happened to Delight to turn her into Delirium, fans have picked up on breadcrumbs thrown around so far. For example, at one point, Delirium reveals that she was almost married to someone, but it never happened. Could it be that this was the event that caused the change in her, or could it be that the break-up was a result of her change rather than the cause? There are also theories about her being a survivor of sexual assault, but there is nothing that proves that she may have suffered something traumatic like that. Rather, there is a very different theory that reveals that Delirium’s transformation is not done yet.
Delirium is Destined to Change Into Something Else
When talking about the change of Delight into Delirium, ‘The Sandman’ creator Neil Gaiman once mentioned that the character was always supposed to be in a state of flux. This means that her change from Delight to Delirium is not permanent, but a phase, which will eventually give way to her changing into something else. What exactly she is supposed to change into is not revealed, but the author did drop hints about this impending state of events in the comics. In ‘Brief Lives,’ when Delirium and Dream finally find Destruction, who is in an exile of his own choosing, he has a chat with his siblings before leaving again.
As he says his goodbyes, he tells Delirium that he wishes her next change will be easier for her. This suggests that she is still changing and might turn into something else in a while. But this still doesn’t answer what is causing her to change. One way to view this change is not to see it as a degradation but as an evolution. One could say that from the peaceful and orderly nature of Delight, the chaos and turbulence of Delirium feel like a step down. But this isn’t necessarily so.
The Endless were created at the dawn of the universe, and each of them came into being the moment things started to form. For example, before the first thing was born, Death was there to greet it; and before the first being woke up, Dream was there to welcome it into the Dreaming. Delight, though born last, still came around the same time. If this is compared to the birth of the universe, then one must note that things have gone from orderly to chaotic over the course of time. A general rule suggests that the entropy (and in a way chaos) of the universe is always increasing, and it will keep increasing until the point comes for another turn.
Perhaps, Delight/Delirium represents this change. She is bound to change with the universe, which is why this transformation is out of her control. She gets more chaotic with each day, and whenever she tries to push some order onto herself (like forcing her eyes to be of the same color), it physically hurts her. She is destined for this chaos, and when the time comes for the universe to take the next step, she, too, will evolve into something else.
Read More: Will Dream Die in The Sandman? Theories
