Schrödinger's Butterfly: Difference between revisions

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{{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]]'''}}

When a story introduces the possibility of [[Recursive Reality|worlds within worlds]], be they a [[Lotus Eater Machine]] or perfectly lucid dreams, there will always be a nagging doubt in the back of a viewer's mind whether the story is real (well, that is to say, real inside the work of fiction) or if they aren't dreaming or "still plugged in".

When a story introduces the possibility of [[Recursive Reality|worlds within worlds]], be they a [[Lotus Eater Machine]] or perfectly [[Lucid Dream|lucid dreams]], there will always be a nagging doubt in the back of a viewer's mind whether the story is real (well, that is to say, real inside the work of fiction) or if they aren't dreaming or "still plugged in".

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.]]