#excuse me as i continue to lose my mind over Hob Gadling

[avelera]

It's so weird to think about how Hob is one of the few immortals I can think of in fiction that I can imagine having a life when the Major Events of the Story Plot aren't happening.

Like, what does you average dramatic Anne Rice vampire do when not Living Dramatically and dealing with the Anguish of their Cursed Existence? One reason "What We Do In the Shadows" is so funny to me is because it speaks directly to what absolute pillocks these vampires would look like if they weren't brooding under the perfectly toned shadows of their lairs but actually needed to walk into a 7/11 at 2 AM. Because dramatic vampires outside of their dramatic scenes just become immediately ridiculous and their over-the-top personalities kind of begs the question, "What if they're just normal people outside of the immortality and that means, sometimes, they're idiots?"

We only see most immortal characters when something big and important is happening historically, at a royal ball, a terrible battle, or otherwise at the heart of notable events. What do they do when they're just not really feeling it some night and curl up in their pajamas at home with a book?

To Neil Gaiman's credit, two of the other immortals I can picture going about life when the Major Plot Events aren't happening are Aziraphale and Crowley, whose entire emotional journeys in Good Omens are about the fact they want the Major Plot Events they were literally created to facilitate to stop so they can go back to getting takeout together.

(Nicky and Joe from The Old Guard are another exception, for any other fellow connoisseurs out there.)

And to bring it all back to Hob, he has got to be one of the most Major Plot Events-avoiding immortals I've ever seen. The guy is the best friend of an actual supernatural cosmic entity at the center of the events of our story, one who tangles with Lucifer, stops the destruction of the world as we know it, and who has impacted the events of our world for millennia. And Hob has no idea about any of this. He doesn't even know Dream's name.

Hob is just there to meet his friend for a drink in the pub, and then he'll probably go back to his job, like his normal job he needs to live in comfort and otherwise stay busy (since he doesn't need it to survive) and in the meantime, he has friends and even family and he does stuff and stays engaged with the world but, critically, with the normal day to day world. Hob is just out there living his best life, almost completely oblivious to the world-ending catastrophes happening almost under his nose, because he's just a guy living his life with all the little ups and downs and dramas, but also with nights curled up with a book, eating takeout because you can't be bothered to cook and unlike almost every other immortal in fiction, you can just so easily picture having a normal life when the drama spigot of the Plot turns off.

#the sandman #hob gadling #dreamling #i love him your honor #excuse me as i continue to lose my mind over Hob Gadling #sandman meta