All Just a Dream: Difference between revisions

* One episode of ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch (Manga)|Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'' was a very, very strange New Year's dream in which Lucia uses her [[Idol Singer]] powers to become famous.

* The idea is poked fun at in the 6th episode of ''[[Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (Manga)|Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei]]'''s second season.

** Koizumi suggests this trope as an ending to Haruhi's movie that will subconsciously convince her that the events of the movie are fictional. This suggestion is met with blank stares from the rest of the Brigade.

* One of the [[Gainax Ending|great many]] interpretations of episodes 25-26 of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion (Anime)|Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. The episode 26 AU started with this... then it turned out that ''the AU'' was the dream, created to see if Shinji has a future without piloting his Eva.

* ''[[Tom Strong (Comic Book)|Tom Strong]]'' issues 29 & 30 had the eponymous hero awaken from his superheroic life into a gray world with no wonder or adventure where he was just a factory worker with a case of bad self-esteem. Then the clues mount that he really is a superhero - only to discover that he was a failed military experiment and [[Cuckoo Nest|all of his memories of a heroic life were delusions]]. But at the last moment, he breaks out of the hallucination - back into the superheroic world where the [[Big Bad]] of the story had been forcing him to hallucinate. He said later that he knew the world he had been in wasn't real because it was all gray, with no sense of hope or wonder in it. (Of course, a cynical person might just say that he was unable to cope with the truth and retreated into his dream-world ... à la that much-referenced episode of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''.)

* A two-week storyline in ''[[FoxTrot (Comic Strip)|FoxTrot]]'', parodying ''[[The Metamorphosis (Literature)|The Metamorphosis]]'', has Jason waking up one morning to find he's turned into a miniature version of his sister, Paige. Midway through the story, he [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this trope by saying he's figured out that he's dreaming, because he thinks that if this were real, [[The X-Files (TV)|Mulder and Scully]] would've come to investigate. (Dream-Peter then points out that Mulder and Scully [[This Is Reality|are TV characters]] -- and therefore [[Comically Missing the Point|only investigate incidents appropriate for primetime shows]]. Turning into a teenage girl is too horrific.)

* Two ''[[Spawn]]'' issues written by [[Neil Gaiman]] and [[Grant Morrison]] has Spawn dying accidentally after a fight with an angel warrior, and goes to a special level of Hell, where he finds all [[Marvel Comics]] and [[DC Comics]] superheroes imprisoned, and with help of [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo|Superman]], who gave him his power, he sets them all free. Next issue happens back on Earth, with the narrator saying "Let's come back to reality. Spawn has a bad dream last days."

* From ''[[Bloom County (Comic Strip)|Bloom County]]'', after a long-awaited wedding, Opus is knocked out when his nose collided with Lola's when they kiss. While unconscious, Opus dreams about Lola leaving him twenty years later with twenty-three tube-grown kids.<br />At another point, Opus ends up wandering lost in the desert. Suddenly, he's back home in Bloom County. He announces how happy he is it was all just a dream. Milo then says "No. ''This'' is the dream. You're still in the desert." And sure enough..

* In ''[[Nobody Dies (Fanfic)|Nobody Dies]]'', {{spoiler|much of chapter 66 is Shinji having a dream (really more of a nightmare) about Zeruel slaughtering everyone.}}

** Forget about that, {{spoiler|the ENTIRE 4th season is just a dream, made by Arael.}}

* In a parody fanfiction about ''[[Dragon Ball GT]]'', right after Goku's [[Heroic BSOD]] and [[Big No]] when learning that {{spoiler|after his 100 years with Shenron, his family and friends are dead.}}, we return to {{spoiler|Goku and Chichi's bedroom and he explains to her the ''entire events of GT'' as a nightmare!!}} Then, it becomes a [[Dream Within a Dream]] as Goku has a run in with {{spoiler|[[Dragon Ball Evolution]]'s Goku!!!}} The short story is on [http://rulkout1993.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2y63de deviantART.]

* The ''[[Star Trek New Voyages]]'' episode "To Serve All My Days", involving a delayed effect of [[Rapid Aging]] that afflicts Chekov to the point where he may have died, {{spoiler|in the final scene following the closing credits suggests that most of the whole episode was just a dream he had}}.

** Another has Al making a deal with the Devil (Robert Englund) to lead a football team to the Super Bowl. He gets his wish but is killed in a tackle and taken to Hell where his family and friends also end up (as a result of improbable accidents after his death, oddly enough). After three hundred years in Hell, Al can't take it anymore and challenges the Devil to a football match. The Devil picks some of the world's worst historical figures for his team. Al manages to win (even though given an offer to go back with beautiful women and loads of cash which, in a rare moment selflessness, he passes up). Al then wakes up back where he was before the Devil appeared and it appears to be a dream to him... least until he pulls out some Red Hots candy the Devil had given him.

* Sent up by Robert Rankin in ''[[Far Fetched Fiction|Armageddon, The Musical]]''. A planet of aliens have been controlling Earth so they can watch us as a soap opera. [[Executive Meddling|Meddling executives]] decide that allowing [[World War III]] was a mistake and try to [[Re Boot]] the series by having [[Elvis]] wake up and discover it was all a dream of what ''would'' happen if he joined the army instead of lending his voice to the anti-war movement. In minutes, the whole story turns into an [[Anachronism Stew]].

* This trope's application in the ''[[Newhart]]'' episode "The Last Newhart" resulted in what is widely considered one of the best series [[Grand Finale|finales]], ever. In the end it was revealed that the entire show was a nightmare of Robert Hartley, the star of ''[[The Bob Newhart Show]]'', also played by Bob Newhart. Interestingly, ''[[The Bob Newhart Show]]'' received a crossover from ''[[St Elsewhere]]'', which combined with the previous entry could make ''[[Newhart]]'' a [[Dream Within a Dream]].

** If that's true, explain {{spoiler|the parody at the end of his 1995 episode of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''.}} Was that a [[Dream Within a Dream]], too?

* In ''[[Black Adder]]'' (3rd season, 2nd episode) Blackadder dreams that he overslept and Dr. Johnson is arriving, whose dictionary has been burned. Then, Dr. Johnson suddenly confesses that he never liked the dictionary anyways, then things get really surreal... and then he really wakes up. Of course, he has overslept, the book is still burned, and Dr. Johnson is arriving.

* In one episode of ''[[Lost (TV)|Lost]]'', Locke causes Boone to hallucinate that his step-sister/{{spoiler|lover}} is being mutilated and killed by ''smearing goop on his head''. Allegedly to teach Boone a lesson.

** Inverted in the 2008 episode "Silence in the Library". A little girl on what looks like present-day Earth dreams of a futuristic library in which several people (including the Doctor and Donna) are in danger. Her psychiatrist tells her confidentially {{spoiler|(in a complete reversal of expectations) that her dream is real and that the people in danger need her help.}}

** On the other hand, the entirety of Season 23 is revealed in "The Ultimate Foe" to have been an inaccurate reconstruction of what really happened. Of particular note, it turns out that the death of the Doctor's companion Peri in "Mindwarp" never really happened and instead she is happily living with King Yrcanos (despite the fact that he seems to be violently insane).

** It also appears in another episode. When Frasier meets a supermodel-zoologist on an airplane, he comments that "This is usually the part where I wake up." Cut to Frasier opening his eyes - [[Subverted Trope|and the camera panning out for a]] [[Bedmate Reveal]].

* ''[[Roseanne]]'' essentially ended the series with a version of this.

* At the end of the fourth season of ''[[Oz]]'', Tobias Beecher is up for parole. His lawyer enters the room and tells Beecher the Parole Board have approved his release. Everyone cheers as he returns to Em City, and a last minute assassination attempt by the Aryans is barely averted. Beecher is then shown walking out into the sunshine (showing the exterior of Oswald Prison for the first time) then playing with his daughter and new girlfriend in the park. Then he wakes up in his cell, and we flashback to his lawyer telling him that the Parole Board did ''not'' approve his release.

* One episode of the Charlie Drake [[Britcom]] ''The Worker'' has the title character experiencing an increasingly surreal series of events which culminate in his arrival at a TV studio, where it turns out that he's the leading actor in a TV [[Sit Com]] called ''The Worker''... Drake liked this plot so much he reused it in a later episode. A more conventional use of the trope occurs when the Worker gets hit on the head by a boomerang and has a surreal dream about Aborigines (possibly inspired by Drake's earlier comic song "My Boomerang Won't Come Back". Except this time it did).

* The [[Multiple Endings|Forgotten Dream endings]] of ''[[Yo Jin Bo (Visual Novel)|Yo Jin Bo]]'' have Sayori waking up at home, alone, in her own bed, and barely able to remember the guy she fell in love with, assuming the entire adventure to have been a dream.

* Ling Xiaoyu's ending in ''[[Tekken]] 6'' ''looks'' like a [[Squee]] moment for Xiaoyu and Jin shippers, with Xiaoyu going as far as to hug him... cut to [[Fan Service|Xiaoyu in bed in her underwear]] hugging Panda, who knocks her awake.

* In ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants (Animation)|SpongeBob SquarePants]]: Creature from the Krusty Krab'', {{spoiler|1=the entire story is found to be just a dream of SpongeBob's, [[Dream Within a Dream|then just a dream of Patrick's, and then just a dream of Plankton's]]}}, and it goes on and on after that. {{spoiler|Until it turns out it was just Gary dreaming. .}}

* Occasionally, this is the case in the 1999 [[PS 1]] game ''The Adventures of Alundra'' or just ''[[Alundra (Video Game)|Alundra]]'' among fans. The twist, however, is that the dream is not the protagonist's. Instead, he enters other people's dreams and slay whatever monsters may be invading their dreams, trying to kill them. Most of the unnecessarily complicated dungeons are actually dreams. Stupid villagers not being able to dream of some puzzles that don't necessarily require the player to consult a walkthrough.

* ''[[The Perry Bible Fellowship]]'' sets this up, [http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF044-Falling_Dream.gif then subverts it].

* ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2008/12/11/episode-1070-what-were-you-expecting/ had one of these] as a fake final episode, since its author loves [[Anticlimax|jokes that are on the reader]]. Except that what was intended to cause [[Internet Backdraft]] instead resulted in numerous fans genuinely pleased with the horrible ending, as it fit the comic perfectly, and ''thanking'' the author for years of free entertainment.

* ''[[Silent Hill Promise]]'' uses this in the beginning, before getting to the real horror.

* [http://explosm.net/comics/1590/ This] ''[[Cyanide and Happiness (Webcomic)|Cyanide and Happiness]]'' comic plays with this trope.

* Naturally, ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]'' has parodied this numerous times.

** In the season six episode entitled "Lisa's Rival", Lisa is competing against a new student, Allison, for the first chair saxophone position when she faints in the middle of it. After "regaining consciousness", she's told that Allison got the chair and Lisa screams. The screen then blacks out and she really wakes up... only to be told the exact same thing with the added disclaimer, "And believe me, this is not a dream!"

** Even the specific tendency of soap operas to rely on this trope is parodied. In one episode, Moe lands a role on [[Soap Within a Show|a soap called]] ''[[Soap Within a Show|It Never Ends]]'', only to stumble upon a future script in which his character is killed off. He angrily confronts the producer.

{{quote| '''Producer:''' ''(holds up script)'' You idiot! Pink pages always mean a dream!<br />

** [http://www.simulation-argument.com/ The Simulation Argument] postulates that: it is overwhelmingly likely that ''either'' 1) we are living in an "ancestor simulation" created by our descendants ''or'' 2) humanity can never be technologically advanced enough to stage ancestor simulations. Neither conclusion is very palatable.

** "Perfectly simulate real life while making the subject forget real life"? Why are we talking about ''[[The Sims]]''?

* The trope may have arisen from a dream those grieving a deceased loved one often experience. In the dream, the griever learns that the loved one is not dead and that the "death" was nothing but a very bad dream. The griever then wakes up, only to realize that the death really took place and the "miraculous survival" was in fact the dream. Although not every griever experiences this dream, it's common enough to be considered a normal part of the grieving process. Children who experience the dream may not be able to differentiate the dream from reality and therefore may suspect that the deceased person didn't really die (a common fallacy among bereaved children). ''Books'' by reputable scientists have been written on this phenomenon.

** Interestingly, it's possible to have an inversion of that--someone dreams of losing a loved one (or ones), only to wake up and realize it was [[All Just a Dream]]. [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Heartwarming]] moments may follow along with a LOT of relief.

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]

[[Category:All Just A Dream]]