History Main / ImaginaryEnemy

* In ''Comicbook/DoomPatrol'', Dorothy Spinner's main power is that she has imaginary friends who can affect the world in some very non-imaginary ways. Unfortunately, that includes [[EldritchAbomination The Candlemaker]], who's not a nice person...
* Vertigo Comic's ''"Imaginary Fiends"'' is set in a world where inter dimensional beings latch parasitically onto the minds of children to draw sustenance from their emotions in the guise of their imaginary friends. Some fade with time as the interest of their charges wanes, others get more greedy and grow stronger, eventually moving onto drawing fear out of multiple hosts.
* PlayedForDrama in ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel.'' It's revealed that Batman has created contingency plans to destroy every other member of the Justice League in case any of them ever [[FaceHeelTurn go bad]] -- and then Ra's al-Ghul steals and implements them. Since ComicBook/WonderWoman lacks the KryptoniteFactor of other heroes, the Caped Crusader instead develops a VR chip that will make her hallucinate an endless wave of imaginary enemies. Batman knows that Diana [[HeroicWillpower will never willingly give up a battle]]; the imaginary attack will eventually force her body to shut down because her mind won't.
* In IDW's Franchise/{{Transformers}} comics, [[TheStarscream Starscream]] has finally achieved his ambition of becoming ruler of Cybertron, but finds himself haunted by a hallucination of the late Bumblebee who tries to force him to do thing he never would... like become a wise and just leader who acts for the greater good. [[spoiler: It's eventually revealed that Bumblebee isn't nearly as imaginary as Starscream thinks]].
* Comicbook/XMen

* In IDW's {{Transformers}} comics, [[TheStarscream Starscream]] has finally achieved his ambition of becoming ruler of Cybertron, but finds himself haunted by a hallucination of the late Bumblebee who tries to force him to do thing he never would... like become a wise and just leader who acts for the greater good. [[spoiler: It's eventually revealed that Bumblebee isn't nearly as imaginary as Starscream thinks]].

->'''Darien Fawkes''': C'mon, didn't you have an invisible friend as a kid?\\
'''Bobby Hobbes''': I had invisible enemies.

* Gaius' fantasy Six in the new ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' series. Strangely, Six later begins seeing an imaginary Baltar. And Baltar begins seeing an imaginary ''himself''.
** And then it turns out that they were just [[spoiler: "angels" trying to prod humans and cylons down a path that wouldn't lead to EternalRecurrence.]]

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': In the episode "Confidence and Paranoia," there's a discussion of how every human being has the two titular imaginary enemies inside their head: Confidence telling you that you can do anything (even if you can't) and Paranoia telling you that you're bound to fail (even if you aren't). Unfortunately, this discussion occurs while Lister is suffering from a mutated YourMindMakesItReal disease, so they don't stay imaginary long.
* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''. In the MirrorUniverse episode, Jonathan Archer discovers that his counterpart in the other universe is a famous starship captain, and for the rest of the episode gets taunted by his imaginary counterpart, who constantly implies that he'll never amount to anything.

* ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'': One episode featured a lonely man who kept his imaginary friend into adulthood. Said friend isn't too happy when he gets a girlfriend. [[spoiler:He ends up disposing of the man and taking over his life.]]

%% Please see thread to discuss a replacement.

[[quoteright:265:[[Theatre/ManOfLaMancha https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/knight_of_mirrors.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:265:Literature/DonQuixote [[ComicStrip/{{Pogo}} has met his enemy, and it is him.]]]]

[[caption-width-right:265:Literature/DonQuixote [[ComicStrip/{{Pogo}} has met his enemy, and it is him]]]]

* ''Webcomic/OriginalLife'' features a [[http://jaynaylor.com/originallife/archives/2012/04/304.html creepy anthropomorphic cigarette]] (who is also smoking a cigarette) representing smoking withdrawal symptoms.

* A major plot point in ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry''. The first arc reveals that when Rena wasn't living in Hinamizawa, she reported footsteps behind her and thought someone (or rather, [[BigBad Oyashiro-sama]]) was watching her all the time. This also happens to Keiichi and especially Shion. [[spoiler:Paranoia of this sort is actually a symptom of the HatePlague, which can also make innocents seem creepy/trying to kill you. Subverted in that the shadowy presence watching people is usually Oyashiro/Hanyuu, she is [[GoodAllAlong just not evil]]]].

* PlayedForDrama in ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel.'' It's revealed that Batman has created contingency plans to destroy every other member of the Justice League in case any of them ever [[FaceHeelTurn go bad]]--and then Ra's al-Ghul steals and implements them. Since ComicBook/WonderWoman lacks the KryptoniteFactor of other heroes, the Caped Crusader instead develops a VR chip that will make her hallucinate an endless wave of imaginary enemies. Batman knows that Diana [[HeroicWillpower will never willingly give up a battle]]; the imaginary attack will eventually force her body to shut down because her mind won't.

* The ''Literature/BoneChillers'' book "Strange Brew" eventually revealed that the source of the magic spellbook was Tori's imaginary friend, who wanted to keep her brand of 'fun' going forever.

* In the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'', Tahiri spends several books haunted by visions of Riina, the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Yuuzhan Vong]] personality brainwashed into her earlier in the series. It's eventually revealed that, thanks to the incomplete nature of the brainwashing (and likely Tahiri's connection to the Force) that Riina has become an almost entirely seperate entity still attached to Tahiri's mind and soul. Since Tahiri can't get rid of Riina without destroying herself in the process, she ends up [[SplitPersonalityMerge merging]] with her instead.

* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series Rand al'Thor is driven to distraction by the voice of an insane Lews Therin Telamon (his past life) in his head, bordering on becoming an EnemyWithin at times.

* In ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', John comes close to being driven crazy by a mental clone of Scorpius (whom he names "Film/{{Harvey}}"), on behalf of a chip in his head. Towards the end of the series the clone becomes more of a confidante and sounding board than anything else, however.

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'''s seventh season, Sam begins hallucinating that Lucifer (the BigBad of season five) is tormenting him as a result of having his soul mangled in Hell. Even though this Lucifer is a hallucination, and Sam knows he's a hallucination, he still manages to cause quite a bit of trouble, including invoking SchrodingersButterfly and nearly tricking Sam into shooting his brother Dean. The hallucinations get worse as the season progresses, until finally Sam has a mental breakdown and can't even manage basic functions like eating and sleeping. [[spoiler:Castiel saves Sam by transferring the hallucination to his own mind. Being an angel, he eventually recovers.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': in ''WesternAnimation/StuporDuck'', ''WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck'' thinks there is an [[BigBad arch-villian]] on the loose, but he simply overheard him ranting on a fictional tv show.

* In one of the Treehouse of Horror specials of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Lisa's imaginary friend began killing random people and pinning their deaths on her out of anger for moving on. She is defeated when Lisa forcibly forgets her, causing her to disappear once again.