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A character, usually male, first meets a stranger, usually a girl and presumably a future Love Interest, in a dream of his, before meeting her in real life and discovering that she wasn't just an invention of his subconscious. She really is the "girl of his dreams".
How did a real person like her end up in his dreams? Maybe they were Prophetic Dreams. Maybe it was Telepathy on her part. Or maybe they happened to meet each other's consciousness in a collective Dream Land.
Either way, meeting someone of your desired gender in a dream always means that the person is special, or otherworldly, or fated to be yours. Romantic love is practically guaranteed.
Examples:
Film
- Terry Gilliam's Brazil
- ...as well as 12 Monkeys (but the recurring dream was caused by a childhood memory of seeing something horrible happen to his time-traveling future self and his lover.
- Total Recall. A psychiatrist is trying to convince Quaid that what he's experiencing isn't real, but an implanted memory.
Psychiatrist: And what about the girl? Brunette, athletic, sleazy and demure? Just as you specified. Is that coincidence?
Quaid: She's real. I dreamt about her before I even went to Rekall.
Psychiatrist: Mr. Quaid. Can you hear yourself? She's real because you dreamed her?
Quaid: That's right.
- Valentine is a male version in Mirror Mask.
- Next.
Anime and Manga
- Played with in Yumeria where the main character Tomokazu first meets a strange girl named Mone in a dream of his. The next morning the girl appears to have come out of the Dream Land and is currently sleeping in bed next to him... naked. Hilarity Ensues.
- Boys Love example: Koi wa Ina Mono Myouna Mono or Secret Love, a manga by Taishi Zaou: The high school boy Masafumi Tamura have several dreamed that he had sex with another boy. In the high school he then to his fear meet the boy, Narumi Seiwa, who sure is interested in to make the dreams come truth.
- Female dreaming of male example: Nanoha dreams of Yuuno via telepathy in the very first episode of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. How much they fit the "Romantic love is practically guaranteed" part of this trope mostly depends on which side of the Ship To Ship Combat you are.
- Another genderflipped example is from Card Captor Sakura: the first time Sakura Kinomoto saw Li Syaoran was in one of her Prophetic Dreams. Unlike the aforementioned example, they're VERY much an Official Couple.
- In Chrono Crusade, Azmaria has a dream about Joshua near the beginning of volume 2, and finds out in the same chapter that he's Rosette's missing brother. They don't actually meet in person until volume 5. In the epilogue, Azmaria is shown holding Joshua's hand at Rosette's funeral. A ring is clearly visible, implying that, yes—they did actually get married.
- In Digimon Tamers, Takato first sees Ruki in a dream, rocking a Badass Longcoat and generally being awesome. Takato/Ruki is a major Fan Preferred Couple in the fandom; Takato actually has a crush on one of his classmates, Juri, and she more or less returns it in the end.
Web Comics
Comic Books
- Scott Pilgrim in the first volume of Scott Pilgrim has his dreams rudely interrupted by a courier-girl named Ramona. This is because one of the "subspace highways" she uses regularly passes through the Dream Land of his mind. (Despite what she says, it is a bit like Super Mario Bros 2.)
- In W.I.T.C.H. Cornelia dreams of Caleb, a guy living in other dimension before meeting him.
Live Action TV
- Heroes: Matt Parkman sees a future where he's married to Daphne Milbrook, and they even have a kid together. They end up finding each other back in the present during Volume 3 and become a very sweet (if awkward) couple.
- Unfortunately, Matt's dreams of the future also predicted Daphne dying in his arms. In the Volume 4 episode "Cold Snap", she passes away in a heart-breaking Tear Jerker of a scene, but from a septic gunshot wound, not a subversion of Outrun The Fireball.
- Tragically narrowly averted in the Doctor Who episode Forest Of The Dead- Donna's fake husband turns out to be a real person uploaded into the computer, but his stutter makes him unable to get her attention before she leaves, so she never knows he's real.
Literature
- In Mercedes Lackey's Chrome Circle, Tannim and Shar have repeated dreams of one another long before they ever meet.
- M'k'n'zy dreams about Elizabeth Shelby before meeting her in Star Trek New Frontier, and they end up married. Though that same dream also involved Picard...
- Dune. Paul Atreides has dreams of the future where he sees the Fremen girl Chani he will eventually meet and fall in love with.
- This troper remembers reading a collection of dream-themed folktales that included one in which the prince and princess meet in a dream and refuse to marry anyone else, much to their respective families' annoyance.
- Belgarath the Sorcerer: Riva Iron-Grip dreamt of his future betrothed continuously for years courtesy of his God, Belar... and since Belar knows his people, the dream girl didn't wear much. On the other hand, she was roughly newborn when the dreams started, and had to wait a while to grow up. Riva was very happy to meet her for real finally.
- Inigo and Giulietta in the sequel fragment at the end of The Princess Bride.
Video Games
- This can happen to Ness in Earth Bound, as a psychic plea from the imprisoned Paula.
- In Space Quest 4, it isn't quite a dream, but pretty much all of the events of that game feel like a really weird dream to Roger Senior. More importantly (as far as this trope is concerned), it is in this game, during a particularly weird segment at the end, that Roger Senior first sees Beatrice, the woman who will bear his son, Roger Junior.
- Extremely offbeat adventure game Chulip starts with the hero dreaming of a girl on a nap while he moves to a new town. Then he discovers that she actually lives in said town... And he wants to figure out how to win her heart.
- Chrono Cross starts with a dream sequence dungeon featuring the protagonist Serge, a random third party member, and most significantly his future significant other, Kid.
- The opening of The Legend Of Zelda: A Link to the Past may be a partial example - Link's sleep is interrupted by a telepathic message from Princess Zelda, and immediately sets out to find her.
- Played with in the beginning of Shin Megami Tensei: during the game's opening dream sequence, the protagonist is asked to name his two (male) allies who will eventually become the Law Hero and the Chaos Hero, and depending on your choices one or both will be at your throat by the end of the game before meeting a mysterious woman named Yuriko who claims to be the protagonist's "eternal partner". She's actually none other than Lilith, and she plans to create a new humankind with the protagonist.
- Although a short while later you get another dream sequence, where you meet the Heroine, the real "eternal partner".
Western Animation
- Aang from Avatar The Last Airbender sees Toph is a vision before ever having met her. When they do run into her short time later, Aang is positively convinced the she, and no-one else, is destined to be his Earth Bending teacher. The romantic part exists only in the minds of the fandom, as Aang was in love with Katara all along.
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