Trope Talk: All A Dream

Ahh, history's most maligned plot twist. But does it deserve 100% of the vitriol? Maybe a conservative 80%. Anyway, let's discuss!

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[runningcommentary]

I read one children's book where at one point the protagonist is in a dangerous situation, then wakes up, perfectly safe. Then it is immediately revealed that the person who just woke up is a completely separate person with the same name miles away, and the protagonist really is still in danger. I always found that funny.

[dynamicworlds]

"I'm willing to suspend my disbelief. I'm not willing to hang it from the neck until dead."

[fleamarketsnack]

The trope can basically be summed up to

“this work of fiction is fiction”

[LilypadPanda]

"Was it all a dream?" is a question with only one response: "Give me back the part of my life I wasted on reading this."
*- Hirohiko Araki*

[chitrikala]

Whenever we used to write fantasy essays in middle school, our teachers told us NEVER to use dream endings. I see why..

[adolhein]

Hope we get "Trope Talk: Crossovers" in the future.

[krazyfan]

Remembered this from a post.

"“you just successfully wrote a world that feels separate from our own, but got frightened last minute and shoe-horned in normalcy. You showed that you were afraid to commit to something different and interesting.” "people who write coma theories and the like are afraid to accept that the world of the story is separate from our own. They like everything wrapped up in this crazy little realism box where nothing out of the ordinary happens in fiction."

[OctagonalGolbat]

I'm glad we're finally talking about how the Sherlock writers really primed us for an "it was all fake" reveal and then made fun of us for coming to that conclusion.

[Somber_Knight]

when you write an autobiography and end with "but it was all a dream"

[colonelsanders]

The best dream in fiction is “NO FIRE LORD OZAI, YOU ARE NOT WEARING PANTS!”

[nathanielchoi]

I remember there was a Phineas and Ferb episode that was just one large nightmare in Perry's head, since the OWCA removes the family from the house and Perry that he will need to be relocated. Right after that's said, Perry wakes up terrified before being reassured by Phineas that he was having a nightmare.

It doesn't really disappoint the audience because the whole episode was pretty weird to begin with (for half of it, Candace was tripping balls after touching some weird moss/fungi). I like it because it reaffirms to the audience that Perry genuinely cares about his family, and isn't simply using them as a cover for his spy work.

[nomdeplume]

I like the idea of a story that ends with "it was all a dream" that has a sequel where the main character's life enters a downward spiral due to them being convinced the dream was real and trying to get back

[matthewdaye]

This trope is widely regarded as a middle finger to the audience.

[Kimosabeshot]

Ah yes, Schrödinger's Canon. The only way to make everything Canon and Non-Canon at the same time.

[kyleflanagan]

I love the Doctor Who episode where there were two entirely different scenarios going on simultaneously, and the Doctor kept waking up from one into the other.

One was real, one was a dream, both were potentially life threatening, and the goal was to find out which one was real...

[tinyetoile]

I think the reasons Link's Awakening works really well as an "all just a dream" story is, firstly, because you find out it's a dream in the middle of the story, not just at the ending- so you have time to process that it's a dream, and relating to that, the fact that it's a dream becomes thematically important after you learn that, along with getting the player to consider the moral implications of the fact that it's a dream and that ending the dream will also annihilate the island and all it's inhabitants. Good stuff!

[NoctisRegalis]

Feels like red is telling authors “COMMIT YOU COWARDS” 🤣🤣🤣

[GrandCatapult]

Enter an additional variant: "I'm telling you a story" as per The Princess Bride.

[SergioPerez-vmzw]

There's a Spanish play called La Vida es Sueño in which:
1) The king imprisons his son because a prophesy foretold that he'd grow up to be a tyrant
2) when the prince grows up, the king laces his food with sedatives to transport him to the castle while he sleeps
3) the king has him experience the life he deserves by birthright for a day, as a test.(this power immediately goes to his head, he throws a dude out the window, blah, blah)
4) lace his food again, take him back to prison, hit 'im with the 'ole "it was all a dream" thing. Character development happens.
5) peasant uprising frees the prince. Prince does not know what is happening. More character development!.
6) If I can not tell life and dream apart, why not be kind, so that if it is a dream, I have a good story to tell, and if not, I have a new friend?
7) The king is overthrown.

[StormbornDragon]

i like wandavision’s “all a dream/a fake reality” take because it analyzes grief more than anything and dosent need to have happened to everyone for it to be important for wandas character