History Main / PrefersTheIllusion

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!!Examples

* ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'': in the episode "Tachikoma Runs Away; The Movie Director's Dream--ESCAPE FROM", Section 9 acquires an computer programmed with a simulation created by a MadArtist. The simulation is just a movie theater playing the artist's final film on a constant loop. Everyone who enters the simulation becomes so engrossed with the film that they don't want to leave--[[TakeOurWordForIt the audience never sees any of the film]], but it's apparently just that good. Even the normally-stoic Major Kusanagi is moved to tears by the film, [[spoiler: but she ultimately has enough willpower to stop watching and shut the simulation down.]]

* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', the ending involves protagonist Shinji Ikari having to choose between [[spoiler: staying with all of humanity in the sea of LCL or returning to Earth as a singular being]]. He chooses the latter, but since [[spoiler: no one appears alongside him at the beach except Asuka]], one interpretation is that the [[spoiler: rest of humanity preferred to stay in the "perfect", unthinking, unfeeling LCL sea]].
* In a ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' filler arc, [[spoiler:Tenten figures out she's stuck in the Infinite Tsukuyomi and does everything she can to get out. However, after saving the day, she realizes maybe it's not so bad and decides to stay.]]

* The ending of ''ComicBook/TheQuestForTheTimeBird''. [[spoiler: It turns out the ActionGirl was a kind of holographic projection created by the SidekickCreatureNuisance. The hero, who had been led to believe she was his daughter, prefers to keep the creature (and therefore his daughter) alive rather than face the fact that her mother manipulated and betrayed him.]]

* In ''Film/TheMatrix'', Cypher [[FaceHeelTurn sides with the machines]] because he prefers the Matrix to the AfterTheEnd reality of Earth.

* In the second ''Literature/DeltoraQuest'' series, some of the Auron refugees created an illusory copy of their idyllic, sophisticated homeland on the underground island they fled to. To preserve the (emotional aspect of) this illusion, they forced all dissenters off the island and magically sealed its borders. [[spoiler:A millennium or so later, only one person still lives on Auron- he killed everyone else to keep the illusion 'pure', as they couldn't deny reality or their traumatic memories of it.]] The exiles, in comparison, adapted to the ocean's "strange, wild beauty" and thrived.
* In Creator/ArthurCClarke's novella "The Lion of Comarre", the protagonist discovers an automated city of [[LotusEaterMachine people living in virtual reality]]. When he tries to "liberate" two of the inhabitants, one is utterly confused by the return to reality and another understands what happened and [[UnwantedRescue tells him to go away and let him resume the fantasy]]. He leaves them to their dreams.
* In ''Literature/TheSilverChair'', when faced with the Lady of the Green Kirtle's claim that Aslan and Narnia are simply things they dreamed up, Puddleglum answers that if that's true he prefers them to reality.
* ''Literature/RedDwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'' ends with Lister, having discovered they're in Better Than Life, made an attempt to do something about it, and returned to his life in [[Film/ItsAWonderfulLife Bedford Falls]], reflecting that he couldn't leave his family on Christmas Eve. "But in Bedford Falls, it was always Christmas Eve". The sequel, describing Rimmer's more extreme fantasy world, notes that he's now well aware it's not real "and quite frankly, he couldn't give two hoots".

* In ''Series/AllyMcBeal'', one of the clients at Ally's firm is a sad, lonely, but very wealthy spinster. She has sequential dreams of a life where she met a man, got married, and raised a happy family. She is petitioning the court to put her in a chemically induced coma so she can sleep forever and live the life where she's actually happy.
* In the ''Series/PhilipKDicksElectricDreams'' episode "[[Recap/PhilipKDicksElectricDreamsS1E5RealLife Real Life]]", we are presented with alternating versions of reality: a slightly more advanced 21st century and a stereotypical "flying cars and holograms" distant future. George (living in the former) and Sarah (living in the latter) are suffering from a trauma and are using experimental VR tech to dream about each other's lives. Eventually, both start thinking that their VR simulation is the real world, and they're just sleeping. [[spoiler:Sarah turns out to be the real person, but she opts to stay as George due to her SurvivorGuilt subconsciously forcing her to desire punishment.]]
* In ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' episode "The Refuge", Raymond Dalton, a journalist with wanderlust, falls in love with a kind, lovely nurse named Gina Beaumont in what turns out to be a virtual reality environment which he experienced while cryonically frozen. He is revived once a cure for his brain tumor is found. One of the other people in the environment, Sanford Vallé, has the ability to alter the others' personalities at will. As such, Raymond is relieved to discover that the "real" Gina has the same personality as the first version of her that he met, the only difference being that she is a doctor in the real world as opposed to a nurse. Gina cannot be taken out of stasis as she is suffering from the Osaka virus (which she caught as a result of her work as a doctor) so Raymond elects to re-enter stasis to be with her. He helps Gina and the others defeat Vallé, who dies in the real world as a result. Gina attempts to convince Raymond that he is missing out on his life by staying in the virtual reality environment with her. He replies, "Out there is the dream. In here with you is the reality."
* ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'': In "Gone, Part II", after Maia is kidnapped and transported back in time to 1832, Alana creates a fantasy world for Diana so that she can come to terms with her loss. However, Diana decides to remain in this illusion because she can't bear the idea of living the rest of her life without Maia. As a result, her health is severely affected. She develops an intercranial hemorrhage and there is a significant rise in her metabolic rate. Her life expectancy is about two months. When Tom and Alana enter her mind and explain the situation to her, Diana still refuses to leave as, [[YearInsideHourOutside given that time passes differently in these fantasy worlds]], she and Maia will still have a lifetime together.

* A truly heartbreaking example occurs in ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire''. Blanche [=DuBois=] has constructed an elaborate fantasy world for herself, in which she's a young, pretty, wealthy Southern belle. It's all to deny the harsh realities of her life--her first husband killed himself [[spoiler: after Blanche saw him having an affair with another man and [[DrivenToSuicide unthinkingly revealed she knew the secret in the middle of a crowded dance hall, terrifying him]]]] when they were both extremely young, and as a result, she spends all of her days at home having sex with every young man who comes her way in a desperate bid to replace him. She flees to her sister Stella's home after losing the family estate and being driven out of town as a social pariah...only to encounter [[ManChild Stanley]] [[TheBrute Kowalski]], Stella's husband and a crude, simple man. Much of the show's conflict centers on Blanche's increasingly-panicked attempts to maintain her fantasy and Stanley, who represents the "real world," attacking her illusions. [[spoiler: After Stanley [[RapeAsDrama rapes her]], Blanche completely loses her mind and permanently retreats into her fantasy world, and Stella is forced to institutionalize her.]]

* In the ending to ''VideoGame/DrawnToLife 2'', [[spoiler:the villain, Wilfre, had discovered that the whole world was AllJustADream created by a boy in a coma. Rather than allowing the boy to wake up, thus [[DreamApocalypse ending the world as they knew it]], he conspired to keep him in his coma so as to continue their existence. He also briefly convinced Mari to help him, but she later decided it'd be more noble to sacrifice their entire world so one boy could wake up back in his.]]
* In the second ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' expansion, at one point the illithid Elder Brain may force you into a LotusEaterMachine illusion. You can break out, or you can choose to stay for a NonStandardGameOver of your body tolling away as a mindless slave.
* Within ''VideoGame/TheMatrixOnline'', there's a group of people called "Cypherites" who argue that Cypher was right and that Neo and the people of Zion had no right to decide for the rest of humanity. After all, who would want to live in a dead, post-apocalyptic world that humans themselves were largely responsible for?

* The plot of ''Videogame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' involves Earth being turned into a medieval fantasy world by a grimoire, and protagonist Marche, his two friends Mewt and Ritz, and his little brother Donned being the only ones who remember the old world (though in Mewt's case is a bit unclear). While Marche wants to return the world to normal, his feel their lives are much better now: Ritz used to be bullied, while now she's TheChosenOne of a clan of Vieras; Mewt, on top of also being bullied, greatly missed his dead mom and lamented how her death drew his dad to alcoholism and unemployment, but here he's the prince of Ivalice, his mom is alive and well and his father has a very important job as the Head Judge; and lastly, Donned was a very sick child on top of being wheelchair-bound, but here he's completely healthy and is able to walk.

-->It's... at first, you think it's real. But everything... everything is in your mind.
-->It's literally impossible to surprise yourself. If you don't like something, it fades away.

* In a WhatIf episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' Homer is shown what his life would have been like had he won Student Council President in high school. He's shown this in a pot of [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext magic spaghetti sauce]]. At one point he shouts "I want to live in the sauce!" and jumps in. He is conked by the chef who prepared the alternate-universe-showing sauce, who says "If you could live in the sauce, don't you think ''I'd'' live in the sauce?"
* The finale for ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' shows the only reason Mabel hasn't freed herself from Bill's [[LotusEaterMachine bubble prison]] by the time Dipper, Wendy, and Soos break in to rescue her is because she's aware of the nature of the bubble and has decided she'd rather stay. Leaving the bubble would result in facing the next year without Dipper, she believed he intended to stay in Gravity Falls when she returned home for school. The bubble lets her live in a world filled with glitter and rainbows, populated with talking stuffed animals and a cooler, more supportive version of Dipper (a.k.a. Dippy-Fresh). It takes a lot of convincing on Dipper's part to get her to leave the bubble, which she eventually does.

* At the end of the first color WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes film "The Hep Cat," the title feline snogs the girl cat puppet the dog used earlier. A random bird flies in:

'''Cat:''' (''imitating Jerry Colonna'') Well, I can dream, can't I?
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Game of Tones," Farnsworth places Fry in a dream state that allows him to relive his last day in the 21st century so that he can gather some forgotten information. Although Fry never loses his awareness that it's just a dream, he gets sidetracked from the mission by the chance to spend even an imaginary last evening with his family, whom he NeverGotToSayGoodbye to.

->''"You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? ''[Takes a bite of steak]'' Ignorance is bliss."''

[[folder:Film]]

* In the Alter horror short [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqSmb3n0j8o "The Dollmaker"]], this is the reason the dollmaker warns against spending more than one hour a day with his dolls which can project an illusion of a deceased person. Spend too much time with the doll, and you'll forget that it's not actually the real person and find yourself living a lie. This pans out when the man's wife ends up dedicating more and more of her time and life into taking care of a doll based on her dead son at the expense of everything else, much to the man's increasing concern and frustration. [[spoiler:It reaches a breaking point when he decides to force her outside so she'll see the doll for what it is... only for it to be revealed that the ''husband'' is also under an illusion when his wife is revealed to also be a doll, [[DrivenToSuicide the real one having perished]] after being separated from her doll son. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Unable to cope with her death and his role in it]], he takes the doll back into the house to restore the illusion.]]

* In the Alter horror short [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqSmb3n0j8o "The Dollmaker"]], this is the reason the dollmaker warns against spending more than one hour a day with his dolls which can project an illusion of a deceased person. Spend too much time with the doll, and you'll forget that it's not actually the real person and find yourself living a lie. [[spoiler:In the end, when the husband remembers that he had commissioned a doll to replace his deceased wife he takes the doll back into the house to restore the illusion.]]

* Subverted in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode, "Homeward." A group of relatively primitive people are tricked into thinking that they are still on their home planet--simply traveling to a new region--when in fact they are inside a holodeck, and are the only survivors of a cataclysm that destroyed their world, in transit to a new one. When one discovers the truth, he's offered a chance to remain on board the Enterprise. Instead, he commits suicide.

* The ending of ''ComicBook/LaQueteDeLOiseauDuTemps''. [[spoiler: It turns out the ActionGirl was a kind of holographic projection created by the SidekickCreatureNuisance. The hero, who had been led to believe she was his daughter, prefers to keep the creature (and therefore his daughter) alive rather than face the fact that her mother manipulated and betrayed him.]]

* Within ''Videogame/TheMatrixOnline'', there's a group of people called "Cypherites" who argue that Cypher was right and that Neo and the people of Zion had no right to decide for the rest of humanity. After all, who would want to live in a dead, post-apocalyptic world that humans themselves were largely responsible for?

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Early in ''WebComic/OneOverZero'' Ribby [[https://www.undefined.net/1/0/?strip=30 leaves their world for his dream bubble]]. [[https://www.undefined.net/1/0/?strip=981 Near the end]], when the comic universe is being unraveled, he is pulled out and describes the dream world as "the most horrible thing ever".