Adventures in Coma Land: Difference between revisions

A character is unconscious and near-death, and has an abnormally realistic dream. The world may be completely different from our own, but the kicker is that what you do in the dreamworld is ''critical to whether you wake up in the real world.'' This can be a result of magic, divine intervention, or purely symbolic of their struggle to remain alive, but it will rarely be addressed since it's more fun to leave it up to the audience as to whether it was real or not. Having this be the premise of a story or sequence allows writers to have the benefits of a [[Dream Sequence]] or [[All Just a Dream]] story (it doesn't have to impact any other characters or the world in general, it can be much weirder than usual, and it can explore the character's mind in a more visible way) while avoiding the problem of the sequence seeming to not matter since it didn't really happen- if the character has to make an effort in the dream world to wake up, then the effort really does make a difference.

 

 

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* Near the end of ''[[I''s]]'', {{spoiler|Ichitaka is knocked into a coma. In it, he relives his school days from earlier in the series with Iori, only with the knowledge of the future. He's awoken by Iori through [[The Power of Love]].}}

* In ''[[Hekikai no AiON|Hekikai no Ai ON]]'' Tatsuya went into {{spoiler|Seine's}} induced dream in order to wake her up.

 

 

 

* The entire ''plot'' of [[Catherine Webb]]'s ''Mirror Dreams'' depends on this trope. Renna is a dreamer, a coma patient. This allows her to exist in the dream-world for much longer than normal dreamers, and also makes her more "real" in that world. In the end her choice (and the actions of the protagonist) allows her to {{spoiler|die, save the world (both of them) ''and'' preserve her own existence}}.

* Jayfeather in ''[[Warrior Cats]]'' has the ability to enter into other cats dreams. During the events of the [[Warrior Cats Power of Three|third arc]], a cat named Poppyfrost falls deathly ill, so he has to enter her mind so that he can find her and bring her back to reality.

 

* Played with in ''[[Life On Mars]]'' and ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'', though in different ways. Alex's 1981 is not Sam's 1973.

* On ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'', Earl spends the second half of the third season in a coma, during which he dreams he's in an old sitcom like the ones he used to watch as a child.

* The main plot of the Canadian live action kid's show ''[[The Odyssey (TV series)|The Odyssey]]''.

* ''[[The Sopranos]]'': {{spoiler|After getting shot by a delirious Uncle Junior, Tony spends a few episodes in a coma dream sequence. He was in a distant city, where he'd accidentally switched his wallet and briefcase with a man named Kevin Finnerty, and everyone else thinks he actually is this man. Curiously, in this dream, Tony's heavy New Jersey accent drops significantly and his posture is better.}}

* In ''[[The Drew Carey Show]],'' Drew once had to choose his real life over his idyllic-for-him coma life (he would have died if he'd stayed.)

* In ''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder]],'' Tommy had to do unmorphed battle with his ''past Ranger identities.'' After proving his will to live, he woke up, his powers restored and with a new [[Super Mode]].

** On another episode, a comatose young boy gets the entire cast into this trope as his dreams begin to infect the real world.

* In an episode of ''[[So Weird]]'', Fi is somehow able to communicate with a young woman who has been comatose for several years. In the woman's dream, she's still a little girl, and she's lost in an unpopulated version of her hometown and can't find her way home. Based on her descriptions of her surroundings and her family's corroborating details, Fi is able to put together a map of the town as it was back when the girl first fell into her coma and uses it to guide her back to her house. Finally home again, the girl walks through her front door and wakes up back in the real world.

* In the mid-season finale of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' season seven, most of the episode takes place inside of {{spoiler|Bobby Singer's}} head as he fights for his life after receiving a bullet to the head.

 

* Near the end of ''[[Fable II]]'', {{spoiler|your character has one of these after Lucien shoots you in the face (again!). Your character is apparently safe at home with your sister Rose... which is a pretty good clue something isn't right, since Rose is the ''proverbial'' [[Dead Little Sister|dead older sister]].}}

* Both ''[[Max Payne (series)|Max Payne]]'' games have Max in the nightmare world at certain points.

** The ones in the first game were [[Scrappy Level|a nightmare for players]] as well.

* ''[[Eternal Sonata]]''

* In ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]: Size Matters'' Ratchet ends up in a surreal hallucinatory dreamworld at one point. [[Fridge Logic|Interestingly]] you can collect ammo in the dream that carries over to the real world.

* The Scarecrow sequences in ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'' probably qualify.

* In ''[[Drawn to Life]]'', the {{spoiler|entire Raposa world}} is all just a coma dream. [[Or Was It a Dream?|Maybe]].

 

* In ''[[Erfworld]]'', Parson Gotti considers the idea that his trip to Erfworld is just a coma-induced hallucination. There's evidence both for and against this theory.

* ''[[Looking for Group]]'' has a variation - Richard is banished by magic, and endures a trial of his soul. Unfortunately for him, it's a [[Kangaroo Court]] of lesser demons where he has no defence and his crimes are betraying his alignment of [[Chaotic Evil]].

 

* ''[[Futurama]]'': In the episode ''The Sting,'' Leela has a strange experience when where Fry dies from being stung by an alien bee and she has strange dreams and hallucinations about him being alive. {{spoiler|Turns out it was all a dream induced by the venom, because SHE was stung as well (he was perfectly OK.)}}

 

 

* Real life example: Artur Lundkvist wrote an entire book about his adventures in Comaland, called ''Journeys in Dream and Imagination''.

 

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[[Category:Adventures in Coma Land]]