The following contains spoilers for The Sandman Season 1, now streaming on Netflix.
Within the universe of Netflix's The Sandman, one family -- the Endless -- stands out as the first beings birthed into the universe, who are given the keys to existence to lock up once everything is done. Powerful beings with cosmic importance and rocky interpersonal relations, the siblings Destiny, Death, Dream, Desire, Despair, Destruction and Delirium all spend their time guarding their respective aspects of the human experience. However, on the show there seems to be more intermingling shenanigans between two of the siblings in particular.
The main character of The Sandman, both the graphic novel and television series, is Dream, the ruler of the dreamworld and all who inhabit it. The story of the series involves Dream being manipulated by their sibling Desire, the being of pure passion and craving. The two are said to have had multiple altercations in the family's long past.
With the ideas of Dream and Desire at their core, it’s not hard for one to assume that these two should get along more... after all people dream of their desires for a better life. And it is shown in the graphic novel that there was once a time when Desire and Dream did get along. However, it seems Dream slighted Desire, and their twin Despair, by thinking himself better than them, and thus Desire made it their mission to take Dream down.
While Dream's capture has not been shown to be a part of Desire's plan, they were most likely happy to suggest to the remaining Endless that they not help him -- partially to further humiliate Dream, but also to cause further chaos in the waking world while the dreamworld collapsed without Dream. It is hard to know just how much was within Desire's plan or what more is to come with their devious actions that show exactly how different they are from their calmer, big brother.
For now, it's only known that Desire's plan was to make a dream vortex in an effort to get under Dream's skin. In this action, some differences between the siblings are revealed. Where Desire is more an "of-the-moment" initiator, Dream is passively powerful while still being short-sighted in certain actions. This makes him a good flawed character to watch overcome his shortcomings, but will also leave him open to his sibling's more calculated actions against him, especially with Desire getting help from their sister Despair or one of the many enemies Dream has made in his many years.
The relationships between the Endless siblings are tentative at best, some are on better terms than others, and their courteousness is subject to change given significant time. But, at the end of the day, they are a family. The constant opposition between Desire and Dream is interesting for an audience to watch and learn about the minute separations between these two beings and the metaphysical concepts they inhabit. But still, the reconciliation of Dream and Desire would make for an interesting plot point with the Endless family together and truly happy.
Season 1 of The Sandman is now streaming on Netflix.