It was all a dream/computer simulation/kid staring at a snowglobe!

So, let's talk about endings for a moment. Or, at least, big twists.

So you've slogged through some scrappy fucker's bajillion-word magnum opus and endured every twist, turn, and lilt of the plot. You've stuck through the ridiculousness and even some raw, bareback canon-fucking because you just really want to see where they're going with this.

So, at or near the end of the grand finale, it's revealed that everything is not what it seems. It's all a dream, or a simulation, or one of a billion possible universes being presided over by a bored god. There has been, if even briefly, a jarring change of perspective that wildly alters how you view the events of the fanfiction up to this point and (if applicable) beyond.

What's your reaction? Do you feel cheated? Has the author shot the gravitas of their whole story in the foot? Is this an amusing little nod to their own shaping and deviating from the canon or a major cop-out? Does it all depend on the execution, or is it always worthy of dismissal?

This is something I've been considering for a long time with one of my projects and it's one of several twists I might incorporate, even simultaneously. So, I'm curious what people think of that kind of big revelation and whether or not it's ever worth doing.

edited 5th Feb '15 8:37:26 PM by ShengDongJiXi

It can be done well. I'd say it works if you foreshadow it, and if the real plot outside the dream/simulation/whatever is at least as interesting as the plot inside it. Or if you can establish that the plot inside the dream matters in some way.

I can think of one story in particular where I really liked the "it's all a dream" twist ending, but I'm reluctant to say too much about it for fear of spoilers. But it's initially presented as an Alternate Universe Fic which rehashes the first episode of the original show, just with all the main characters as dysfunctional jerkasses for no apparent reason. Weird inconsistencies keep popping up in the story, and the protagonist keeps getting flashbacks to the actual canon 'verse. In other words, it's clear from the very first chapter that something is fundamentally wrong with the universe in this fic. So when two characters realize that they're dreaming in the last chapter, my reaction is "Of course, that makes perfect sense!" But it isn't just an ordinary dream: an enemy has trapped the main characters in a series of nested dreams designed to kill them. A hell of a lot more interesting than "rehash the first episode", if you ask me—and the contents of the dream still matter because it can kill them in reality.

What series, at least?

edited 6th Feb '15 3:30:17 AM by KarkatTheDalek

Goddamn that sounds awesome.

It's obviously planned out that way a lot more than what I intend to do - I don't want to call it an afterthought, but it's not something that's going to be important until way later. Really, where I feel like it might be a point of concern is that it's not the point of the fic. It's almost a justification, though I don't know if that's the right way of putting it.

edited 6th Feb '15 10:57:00 AM by ShengDongJiXi

Those I think are the key words as to why your example works.

As the trope page for All Just a Dream states, people tend to not like it because it comes off as a Deus ex Machina, which is notable for being sudden and unexpected. Character wakes up, and all of a sudden everything's wrapped up and fine without having to deal with any potential consequences. So I figure the best way to pull this trope off is give the audience a good reason to suspect it.

I see. Care to go into more detail?

Since it's not a fic I publicized I guess I can provide some more details, since it's neither 'all a dream' nor is it something set up from the beginning. I've gotten kind of curious as to where this lies on the spectrum, so to speak.

Basically, it's all a computer simulation. Not Matrix-style either - none of the characters in the story exist outside of a program being run on someone's computer. The main antagonist is the program's reset function, when it's activated it brings about the apocalypse and resets the simulation, and when it fails the simulation resolves itself in such a way that it can continue. There's really only going to be one scene with the computer and the person who started the program in the first place, and then it's going to move into epilogues.

It's going to be alluded to in pieces, mainly in the antagonist's dialogue, and none of the characters (except for one minor character, arguably) will be aware of it. Even when the bad guy is brought low and the simulation resolves itself, they still won't know exactly what happened or why.

Is this too jarring? Too invalidating?

edited 8th Feb '15 11:05:36 PM by ShengDongJiXi

My thoughts:

I think that, as long as the audience is aware that the story is going to be a dream, you could probably get away with a dream ending. I mean, if you're gonna use an ending like this, make sure you at least let the reader/audience know it'll end like that. It will be a little disappointing to see everything that has been done go to waste. You could make subtle references to it being a dream, like, say, something obvious is slightly different than reality, someone outright telling someone (or even themselves) that they're dreaming, or something else that hints to the story being a dream.

I will admit that I've fallen victim to the "Dues Ex Dreamachina" ending a few times when I've written stories/fan fiction, myself. Nowadays I usually try to make sure there's a hint to the story being All Just a Dream if I decide to end a story that way.

That's just my opinion though.

edited 9th Feb '15 2:06:29 PM by kablammin45

For what it's worth, having an episode (or chapter, or whatever) turn out to be a dream might be interesting if you gave it lasting consequences somehow. Most people probably dislike endings like that because nothing comes out of them.

I wonder if I've done any better or if I've done worse.

In two of my fan fictions spring from the same universe / for the same fandom - two different fics, different storylines, I used a canon wish-granting cosmic MacGuffin as a way of resetting the universe at the end.

In one of the stories, the idea was that someone needed to Set Right What Once Went Wrong by obtaining access to the MacGuffin, but that the person who obtained it would be the sole person to retain all of the memories of the broken world - including the memory of anyone they had to kill along the way, even when said people were brought back to life. It turned out a couple of cosmic/divine characters also retained memories of the broken universe in the end, to the angst of the main character.

In the other of the stories where I used the same plot device (it was a silly Halloween-fic, so I didn't feel the need to be overly meticulous in creating an original plot since it was "silly thing for the fandom for fun") there were actually three alternate endings and in the "Golden Ending" the MacGuffin was obtained and it looked like everyone had forgotten the bad universe, but they actually all remembered and had some fun trolling the protagonist. The universe was reset and everyone remembered - as it not being a dream, but something that happened in a different world.

I still feel cheap. Then again, I tend to write fan fiction for fun rather than as serious fiction.

I think that would work. I'd say what you're planning is more akin to the Tomato Surprise (though that's not an exact fit, either) than to All Just a Dream. The main objection to "It was all a computer simulation all along!" is because most of the time it implies "None of what you just read was actually real." But when your cast is native to the simulation, then it's all real to them, regardless of what the guy running the computer might think. So your twist is less "None of that really happened", and more akin to "The fundamental nature of what you just read is different than you were led to believe... but it's still real on some level."

Thank you. Since I made this thread I've thought about it more and more, and I've been very cautious about how I'm going to allude to it all being a simulation. There's really only a handful of characters who can properly do so, but I'm less worried now about it coming completely out of left field. I think things can be built up in such a way that it'll be obvious there's some huge revelation to be made, it's just that it'll only be made clear to the readers and not the characters.