Schrödinger's Butterfly: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

{{quote|''Once I dreamt I was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with myself and doing as I pleased. I didn't know I was myself. Suddenly I woke up and there I was, solid and unmistakably myself. But I didn't know if I was myself who had dreamt I was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was me.''|'''[[Zhuangzi]]'''}}

 

 

This serves as a source of mystery and speculation in a story. Did the heroes really break the spell cast by the [[Master of Illusion]], or are they all imagining it? Did they escape the [[Convenient Coma]] that trapped them in a [[Happy Place]]... or merely trade a perfect illusory world for a more realist one? These doubts may never be resolved until a [[Sequel]] comes out or [[Word of God]] clarifies it. Sometimes, the ambiguity works in favor of the story, leaving it [[Leave the Plot Threads Hanging|open to interpretation.]]

 

 

The trope name is a reference to a poem by the 4th century BC Chinese philosopher [[Zhuangzi]], a Taoist philosopher who influenced Chinese Buddhism. It refers also to [[Schrödinger's Cat|Erwin Schrödinger's thought experiment relating to quantum uncertainty]]. If you can't tell, we like to be well balanced in our [[geek]]ery on this wiki.

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* In ''[[Naruto]]'', brothers Sasuke and Itachi Uchiha practice ''genjutsu,'' techniques centering around illusions. Thus, during the Sasuke vs Itachi fight, the first major stage of the battle consists of Sasuke and Itachi standing perfectly still while both add layer upon layer of illusions. The readers, of course, are ignorant of what is an illusion and what isn't until after the illusion breaks. As a result, there are several points in which the fight seems over, only for the illusion to break and reveal that the brothers ''hadn't actually started fighting yet.''

** Practically lampshaded when Sasuke breaks Tsukuyomi (Itachi's strongest genjutsu), and [[Combat Commentator|Zetsu]] pretty much lets the reader know the rest of this ''isn't'' genjutsu.

* In ''[[GetBackers]]'', in one of the episodes, an elderly homeless man asks the Get Backers to save his daughter from the mafia. {{spoiler|When they arrive the girl doesn't want to go with them, and they leave her there. Upon seeing the old man being loaded onto an ambulance, Ban catches both the old man's and Ginji's eyes before the daughter runs up to tell her father that she loves and forgives him. It is never revealed whether the daughter truly showed up, or if Ban was showing both men a pleasant illusion.}} The viewer is often confused as to what is the illusion and what is reality, only being sure when Ban reveals his trick.

** It's a dream. In the original Manga, Ginji asks him if he used the Evil Eye, and Ban replies with a dejected 'yeah'.

While in Gaea she has several dreams where she is back with her friends in Japan. }}

* Are we all (as in, all of objective reality, not just the reality within the series) but a dream of [[Haruhi Suzumiya]]? At least Koizumi sets this as one of the possible theories.

 

== Comic Books ==

* Zhuangzi's poem is the source of all the butterfly symbolism in the ''[[Persona (video game)|Persona]]'' games, as referenced by ''Megami Ibunroku Persona's'' intro. The remake even references this in the opening lyrics.

{{quote|''Dream of butterfly / Or is life a dream? / Don't wanna wake up / [[Spoiler Opening|Cause I'm happy here]]'''}}

* ''[[Silent Hill 1]]'s'' Bad Ending shows us the protagonist dying in his broken car; apparently all the game was just [[Dying Dream|a dream he had between the car crash and his death]]. Other endings are less unhappy, though... except for the one where he kills his daughter and he and an [[Innocent Bystander]] get roasted alive in a collapsing [[Dark World|hell-dimension]]. Oh, and there are four sequels; he's revealed to have survived in the third {{spoiler|[[Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome|only to be killed off-screen]]}}.

* Part of the ending of the Ciel route in ''[[Tsukihime]]'' involves Shiki in a mental dream world where there are no vampires, Ciel is just a normal girl and he doesn't have his [[Evil Eye|Eyes of Death Perception.]] He catches on pretty quick and has a little chat with his Nanaya side over whether he wants to leave or not, because leaving most likely means death.

== Web Comics ==

* In [http://www.jsayers.com/thingpart/thingpart218.html this] ''[http://www.jsayers.com/thingpart/thingpart.html thingpart]'', is the boy hallucinating on a subway, is he hallucinating that he's playing with psychologist dolls, is he hallucinating that he's hallucinating on a subway, is he hallucinating that he's hallucinating on a subway from the other direction, is he not hallucinating at all and either the whole thing is a [[Mind Screw]] or the second through fourth panels or first through third panels are hypothetical, or doe the rabbit hole go even deeper in unseen panels?

** A more straightforward example: [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/011223c Waking up from the Megaman universe] is [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/011224c just a dream]

* ''[[The Dreamer]]'' relies heavily on this trope, as Beatrice and the audience is unsure whether or not her dreams are simply that, or an [[Alternate Universe]].

 

== [[Web Original]] ==