Plasma Wing: Removing
- One interpretation of the Pokemon anime holds that everything after the bike accident is actually a coma-dream of Ash's, which explains why he never makes it to Pokemon Master status, among other things; and that this interpretation makes the show not the bubbly wad of tripe it's usually taken for, but instead a deep and depressing view of a young boy's comatose psyche.
Something like that seems more appropriate for WMG.
- Cliche: Cool! A great example of Fan Dumb on this wiki! Specifically, The Toxic Visionary! Besides, it's a shitty theory anyways for those who know what solipsism is.
FurrySaint: Replaced "An episode in Smallville both uses and subverts this trope, as a girl with dreamwalking powers is the Freak Of The Week?." With
Monster Of The Week, since it's just a different name of the same thing.
Pro-Mole: I still wonder who's referred in "At least one children's author opens a book by promising that the forthcoming events will
not be
All Just A Dream"... could the author of this article be more specific, just for further information?
Devils Advocate: Removed the statement that
Futurama's use in "The Sting" is possibly the greatest example of this trope in TV history, on the grounds that I'm a
huge fan of
Futurama, yet even I acknowledge that that doesn't hold a candle to the brilliant
Newhart finale.
Inyssius: The children's author, I think, is Lemony Snicket (Series of Unfortunate Events).
DomaDoma: Edited the Pan's Labyrinth entry.
Unless someone can explain away the flowering tree, the mandrake and the chalk door?
Whatever: I have an answer to this.
- But what point that would serve, storywise? The narrator disagrees with this interpretation, in any case. Notably, Ophelia did fulfill the final task, spilling innocent blood on the stones of the Labyrinth, after a fashion.
I was going to put it in the main page, but it seems like natter, so I'll put it here for now. Unless y'all think it isn't natter?
- Well, it would open up a whole new interpretation. That the third task really was for her to kill her baby brother may imply that the kingdom she was trying to get into was just as dark a place as she was already in. Especially considering that the faun kept calling it "The Underworld." He said that the tests were to see if she was untainted by living with the humans, yes? Perhaps the third one, as well as opening the gateway, was a test to see if she hadn't become "good," by being raised by one. And yes, she did fulfill the task, but the faun and her kingdom had really abandoned her, what good would that do?
I'm not saying it's a certianity or the "right," answer, because in the interview linked to on the main page, Del Toro made it pretty clear that although he believed it to be real, he had intentionally made it with the
All Just A Dream possibilities, and there was no right answer, it was a matter of interpretation. I thought of a third option, and I like it the best, so that's the one I'm taking.
Ruthie A: I'm generally pretty good at spotting these (even before the point in which I'm "supposed to"). I've found that some good ways to tell if an episode is
All Just A Dream are:
- Something happens that seriously disrupts the status quo (at least if it's that kind of show)
- It's completely from the prospective of one character or group of characters (meaning that there are no scenes without that character or group of characters)
- There are shifts in reality (similar to a Cuckoos Nest scenario, but without the asylum elements)
- There are no transitional scenes (like scenes of people walking or driving somewhere)
There might be others, but I probably won't remember them until another
All Just A Dream episode comes on TV.
Lale: Those can also be signs that someone is trapped in a
Lotus Eater Machine.
Ruthie A: That's true...mostly they're just signs that the episode is taking place inside a character's mind in some way.
Lord Seth: Deleted:
- Also; logically speaking, if events are in fact All Just A Dream of a certain character; then every scene in that dream had better be experienced from that character's perspective. If there's ever any asides or dialogue shown to the audience that the supposedly dreaming character doesn't see; then it's clear that the writers committed an Ass Pull.
Because this is completely incorrect. In
real life people have seen things in a dream that wasn't from their own perspective.
Trogga: Why was the
Futurama quote deleted?
Tanto: I haven't the slightest idea. It's a much better quote than the
Dinosaur Comics thing.
Ophicius: Why was
Red Dwarf listed under Anime?
Lord Seth: Deleted:
It is generally agreed that if one does this, then it had better be from the dreamer's perspective the entire time. If the dreamer has a conversation with the Carpenter and the Walrus, and then leaves the room; what discussion those two have alone should not be mentioned unless the dreamer was spying on them. It's a clear sign of an
asspull otherwise.
For the reason, look up a few lines.
Vampire Buddha: Removed the natter:
**Although the last shot of the episode in question has the doctor of mental institution examining Buffy and telling her parents that they "lost her", so you never know.
*** Considering the alternate universes mentioned in the series, it's probably more likely that both realities are true and the demon's psycho venom just causes one to have intermittent psychic contact with parallel selves.
*** Note that the episode ends before they actually give her the antidote.
**Also, considering that Buffy is on the St. Elsewhere list, one could conclude that this massive-verse is not actually an autistic boy's dream but rather a massive psychic dream plane that both the boy and Buffy are irreparably linked to.
Meiriona: PLEASE someone who isn't on a handheld, pare down the spoilers. We don't need spoilered examples almost as long as the actual description of the trope. If I do it, I'll end up cutting them down to near nothing without regard for what information people familliar with the media would think important.
Cliche: I remember that in elementary school, more than one teacher told the class to not use this trope because it is overdone and anticlimactic. Should we have a sentence in the introduction mentioning how teachers tend to frown on this trope?
Tanto: Nah — keep in value-neutral. The quality of any trope lies in its presentation.
Novium: The examples and the page description seem to be somewhat at odds, in that the examples simply cover instances in which something turns out to have been a dream/illusion/hallucination, or in which a character has a dream that they think is real (and not necessarily something that takes up a whole episode). The description seems to be focused on when that trope is used as a cheap cop out. More than a few examples on the page though seem to be fairly well done versions of this trope, and not the big lazy-writing reset button versions the description seems to be focused on.
Quoted from main page: "Another classic, Its A Wonderful Life revolves around Jimmy Stewart's George Bailey character dreaming about life in his town without his influence." Er, nowhere in the movie is it indicated at any point that George Baily is dreaming. He's experiencing an alternate reality.
Larange: Why is Fight Club not one of the examples? If we are counting hallucinations I think made up people in your head should count. Can someone with a less heinous grasp of the english language add it please?
