I find myself stuck on the issue of degrees of power in Neil Gaiman's Sandman series of graphic novels. We have the siblings of Endless: Dream, Desire, Despair, and Death that have been met so far in the first two books. Focusing specifically on Dream and Desire, both seem to be intricately connected. It could be said that they are in fact the same drive. Both deal with wanting for what are Dreams but our subconscious Desires brought out in sleep. We see Dream as the elder sibling while Desire is very much the epitome of a younger, immature sibling, out of control and with a disregard for anyone he/she/it may harm. So Dream is the elder. Would that mean that he is a more mature element of wanting?
I see it more that they have not been separated enough. Desire is certainly portrayed as being a "villain" in the series, having raped Unity and trying to bring down Dream. I have been thinking of sibling dynamics recently for my own writing and observing how siblings and their interactions are portrayed. I said that Dream and Desire would seem to be the same but that can not be true. There is no reason to have two Endless with similar jobs. So they must be different. Perhaps though, that difference is not evident even to the characters themselves just as they are not readily apparent to the reader. It could be possible the Desire's antagonistic behavior toward Dream is really a Desire to be out of his/her/its brother's shadow. Siblings, especially if they feel overlooked in their family, will go out of their way to be different from their siblings to draw attention to themselves.
Desire acts as a destructive force, forcing changes in thinking out of humanity. Dream allows an escape and a chance, through nightmares, to bring about change in individuals as well but their methods and thus their purposes need to be different. This difference is what is lurking just out of reach and perhaps leading even the characters to strive to find it. Everyone wants to be unique after all.
