History Main / ShatteringTheIllusion

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E67TheArrival The Arrival]]", Grant Sheckly's theory that Flight 107, which arrived without any crew or passengers, is nothing more than an illusion is proven when he puts his arm in the spinning propeller and the plane vanishes. His fellow investigators Bengston and Paul Malloy disappear as well, though, and it's soon revealed that the entire episode has been a hallucination that Sheckly has been having.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E67TheArrival The Arrival]]", Grant Sheckly's theory that Flight 107, which arrived without any crew or passengers, is nothing more than an illusion is proven when he puts his arm in the spinning propeller and the plane vanishes. His fellow investigators Bengston and Paul Malloy disappear as well.

A character is being fooled by an illusion, but for reasons that may vary (like AGlitchInTheMatrix or newfound self-confidence), the illusion is finally destroyed. Said illusion could be the work of a {{Shapeshifter}}, a LotusEaterMachine, or TheFinalTemptation.

A common consequence of SpottingTheThread. Compare AGlitchInTheMatrix, in which the illusion isn't necessarily destroyed, and PuffOfLogic, in which the illusion vanishes when the victim disbelieves it. A {{Glamour}} is often dispelled this way, causing GlamourFailure. May be brought on by AntiMagic. See also EpiphanicPrison, in which Shattering the Illusion allows the character to learn something.

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A common consequence of SpottingTheThread. Compare AGlitchInTheMatrix, in which the illusion isn't necessarily destroyed. See also ShapeshifterGuiltTrip. A {{Glamour}} is often dispelled this way, causing GlamourFailure. See also EpiphanicPrison, in which Shattering the Illusion allows the character to learn something.

* In, ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Touma Kamijou has [[AntiMagic Imagine Breaker]] sealed in his right hand, which can negate both magic and psychic phenomena, which naturally includes illusions, with said illusions breaking like glass when his right hand touches them. Heck, one of his [[CatchPhrase Catch Pharases]] even invokes this trope!

* Happens in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' if Zoroark is damaged while using the move Illusion.

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* When [[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime Finn and Jake]] are under the Worm Kings illusion, Finn breaks out of it by thinking up all of his worse fears, from the Lich, his fear of the ocean, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a clown]]. This stresses the Worm King till he's shriveled out.

* In, ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Touma Kamijou has [[AntiMagic Imagine Breaker]] sealed in his right hand, which can negate both magic and psychic phenomena, which naturally includes illusions, with said illusions breaking like glass when his right hand touches them. Heck, one of his [[CatchPhrase Catch Pharases]] even invokes this trope!

** The most common item are magic rings which can dispel illusions, showing up in ''Literature/CityOfThieves1983'', ''Literature/IslandOfTheLizardKing'', ''Literature/CryptOfTheSorcerer'' and ''Literature/ReturnToFiretopMountain'' (also it's direct sequel ''Literature/LegendOfZagor'') - upon being worn, the player hero can see through illusory tricks and defend themselves in time. Failing to collect these rings however and the player will instead receive a bad ending where they get killed in a NonStandardGameOver.

* Music/LindseyStirling's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiyPRqP5glY Transcendence]]" music video is themed around her discovering that the projected clothes, backgrounds, places, and so on are not real. When she realises she can step outside the image of a dress to reach for her violin, she is at first hesitant because of the shadows this casts on other projections, but then dances over the scenes like nobody's business, to the anger of the man creating the illusions.

** When a massive fireball seems to be [[OutrunTheFireball]], Golem charges at it to protect Mocchi and Genki after the former trips. He punches straight through it, and is ''very'' surprised by the lack of heat.

* Happens in ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' (manga and OVA) when [[spoiler: Seras]] is able to shatter [[spoiler: Zorin Blitz's]] illusion/MindRape powers. This is shortly followed by what is hands down [[spoiler: Seras']] SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome.

* Happens in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' whenever anyone has to break an opponent's [[LotusEaterMachine genjutsu]].

** Gerrard [[spoiler: does a FaceHeelTurn]] in order to win Hanna back from the dead. As he's going to give her [[spoiler: Urza's head]], however, he suddenly realizes she's nothing but an illusion created by [[BigBad Yawgmoth]]. He shatters the illusion by ''[[http://magiccards.info/ap/en/27.html slaying]]'' the fake Hanna.

* Happens to Literature/CiaphasCain whenever his aide Jurgen is around to prevent warpcraft from happening. Including rescuing him from a Slaaneshi witch using {{glamour}} and from a Chaos warlord with a CompellingVoice.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Ron manages to fight back the illusions created by the Horcrux and is finally able to destroy it.

* An episode of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' had a comedy variant of this, in which the characters started pointing out each other's flaws. Each "revelation" was accompanied by a sound of glass shattering as the "illusion" was shattered. Also, the episode tag had the illusion of a deaf person shatter by literally putting onscreen "Glass Shattering" in subtitles.
* ''Series/{{House}}'': season 2 finale has House realizing that nearly everything thus far in the episode has been a hallucination. He is only able to shatter the illusion by using a surgery robot to slice his Patient of the Week open lengthwise... and even then there's an agonizing few moments where he isn't sure there was an illusion in the first place.

* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'', you do a rather physical form of this: the oni demon Ongyo-Ki summons three illusory copies of himself to fight. Sock the right one and all three copies will be reduced to dust. [[spoiler: The catch is that if you attempt to use any move that hits more than one of the oni, ''it will fail and it will count as a missed attack''. Given a missed attack means a loss of two Press Turns, he can easily destroy you unless you know how to suss out the real one.]] How do you know the real one? [[spoiler:[[GlamourFailure When fought on the full moon, only the real one has a shadow]].]]

* When [[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime Finn and Jake]] are under the Worm Kings illusion, Finn breaks out of it by thinking up all of his worse fears, from the Lich, his fear of the ocean, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a clown]]. This stresses the Worm King till he's shriveled out.

* In ''Anime/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', Negi's part is en route to rescue him in the depths of Library Island, but Yue notices that it's taking far too long to descend... They are soon greeted by a small mage and her not-so-small magical creatures, and Takahata, their former teacher. Yue dares Takahata to hit her, which he naturally does... And she comes to the quick conclusion through some [[SpottingTheThread deduction in the illusion's errors]] (namely that he wouldn't hit their former students and his speech patterns are slightly amiss) that they're trapped in an illusion, and casts a spell using [[AntiMagic Asuna's]] ability to completely shatter the illusion, leaving the flustered [[spoiler:child]] mage completely at a loss.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': When the Order are trapped by a spell that makes them hallucinate a happy ending to their quest, [[TheDitz Elan]] breaks the illusion by [[EpiphanyTherapy admitting]] that his Dysfunctional family wouldn't and ''shouldn't'' reunite like they have in the vision.

!!Examples

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[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
* In episode 2 of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Twilight Sparkle and her friends are menaced by an illusion conjured by the BigBad that makes terrifying faces appear on the trees of the Everfree Forest. The happy-go-lucky Pinkie Pie is apparently unaffected, and helps her friends shatter the illusion by [[ThatRemindsMeOfASong singing a silly little song]] about laughing away your fears.
* When [[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime Finn and Jake]] are under the Worm Kings illusion, Finn breaks out of it by thinking up all of his worse fears, from the Lich, his fear of the ocean, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a clown]]. This stresses the Worm King till he's shriveled out.

[[folder:RealLife]]
* Usually, if you suddenly become aware that you're dreaming, you're going to wake up immediately after. If you don't, welcome to [[AGlitchInTheMatrix the world of lucid dreams]].