History Main / DreamStealer

The effects of having one's dreams stolen vary greatly. Victims of dream theft may [[TheInsomniac become unable to sleep properly]], [[CreativeSterility lose their creativity]], or even go completely insane. In some cases, there may not be any side effects at all, particularly if the dream is merely being shared or copied rather than completely removed. If the dream being stolen is a ''nightmare'', the effect on the dream-theft subject may even be beneficial, though it might end up being [[TooSpicyForYogSototh harmful to the dream-thief]].

The effects of having one's dreams stolen vary greatly. Victims of dream theft may [[TheInsomniac become unable to sleep properly]], [[CreativeSterility lose their creativity]], or even go completely insane. In some cases, there may not be any side effects at all, particularly if the dream is merely being shared or copied rather than completely removed. If the dream being stolen is a ''nightmare'', the effect on the dream-theft subject may even be beneficial, though it might end up being [[TooSpicyForYogSogoth harmful to the dream-thief]].

The opposite of a DreamWeaver, this is a character that steals, destroys, or eats the dreams of others, usually because they gain something from doing so. Perhaps they themselves are normally unable to dream and want to experience it, perhaps dreams are the food source of their species, or perhaps they're just doing it for fun. Usually, this takes the form of dreams being drained and consumed entirely, but a Dream Stealer may be able to selectively remove parts of a dream; in these cases, they are likely to own a great deal of interesting curious that were TakenFromADream.

The effects of having one's dreams stolen vary greatly. Victims of dream theft may [[TheInsomniac become unable to sleep properly]], [[CreativeSterility lose their creativity]] or even go completely insane. In some cases, there may not be any side effects at all, particularly if the dream is merely being shared or copied rather than completely removed.

The opposite of a DreamWeaver, this is a character that steals/destroys/eats the dreams of others, usually because they gain something from doing so. Perhaps they themselves are normally unable to dream and want to experience it, perhaps dreams are the food source of their species, or perhaps they're just doing it for fun.

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Campari from ''Manga/KingOfBanditJing'' has the ability to steal dreams from other people and encapsulate them in a ball. He usually sells them to other people so they can dream about some specific thing, though he can also turn them into reality in emergency situations.
* ''Franchise/HelloKitty and Friends'' had an episode where a monster was eating the dreams of Kitty and her friends. The monster was part of a race of monsters whose job was to eat nightmares, but this monster was a mischievous child who was eating pleasant dreams because they tasted better...until they gave him a stomachache.

* A baku appears in the second ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' movie to help bring the (extra) weirdness to a close.
* Muma (Dream Demons) in ''Manga/DreamEaterMerry'' can do this, though they usually just place themselves in the dreams their host have

* In a prior series depicting the Red and Blue era a giant Haunter is the villain of an arc that gym leader Sabrina has a history with. It's capable of using the Dream Eater move with enough strength that it devours victims' ''souls''.

[[folder:Film]]
* A variation is used in ''Film/{{Inception}}''. Cobb does not steal the dreams themselves but rather uses the dreams to steal thoughts and ideas from people's minds.
* Synonamess Botch's vulture minions from ''WesternAnimation/TwiceUponATime'' will sometimes find Figmen, who provide good dreams to people, and kill them, destroying the good dreams with them (the vultures deliver nightmares).
* ''Film/TheCityOfLostChildren'' is about a mad scientist who cannot dream and kidnaps children to try to steal their dreams.

* The title character in Truman Capote's short story "Master Misery" buys dreams at $5 a pop, but the idea is very similar in terms of the detrimental effect the selling of the dreams has on the heroine and her clown friend.
* In the ''Literature/DreambloodDuology'', Sharers and Gatherers both harvest the dreams of others and are good-aligned examples. Sharers use the dreamichor harvested from dreams to perform their healing and Gatherers gather dreamblood from those whose time it is to die and [[DreamWeaver shape pleasing final dreams]] for the departing.

* ''VideoGame/DreamfallTheLongestJourney'' is ALL about this (the title is a hint). The most obvious example would be the Starkian BigBad [[spoiler:Alvin Peats]] who literally leeches off people's dreams. We also have an EldritchAbomination called Undreaming, which is implied to be this.
* [[BigBad Antasma]] of ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'' [[spoiler:was once an ordinary bat, until he gained power by feeding on the dream of a Pi'illo]].
* Nightmare in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' is an ancient fear demon that [[TimeAbyss existed since the First Blight and possibly before it]]. Nightmare feeds on the fears of mortals, including literal nightmares. It is the reason people do not remember bad dreams in full detail after waking up. [[DarkIsNotEvil While this may have been a blessing once]], Nightmare is now actively working with [[BigBad The Elder One]] to create more fear to feed on [[spoiler:by sending the False Calling to the Grey Wardens]]. It also consumes [[LaserGuidedAmnesia memories of fearful events]] [[spoiler:such as the Inquisitor's memories of the Conclave.]]
* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, this is a power of Vaermina, the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Prince]] of Nightmares. It is also theorized that she uses the dreams of mortals as some sort of source of power. Her most (in)famous artifact is the Skull of Corruption, a MagicStaff that steals the dreams of sleeping mortals to become more powerful.

* Dream Eaters in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' do exactly as their name suggests. While the hostile Nightmares consume good dreams, the benevolent Spirits feed on bad ones. [[DarkIsEvil The former]] are the main enemies of the game; [[DarkIsNotEvil the latter]] serve as {{Mons}}.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Builder}}'', people can "room steal" in order to expand their territory.
* Deconstructed in ''Webcomic/AliceAndTheNightmare'': Stealing dreams is frequently lethal to the dream harvesters and some unfortunate dreamers, but they have to do it or their technologies will run out of power and their world will collapse on itself.

* In ''WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake: The Sweet Dreams Movie'', The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak takes over the Land of Dreams and plans to keep all the dreams for himself because he never got any dreams as a child.

* [[spoiler:Nocturne, the ghost of sleep and dreams]] from ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' can draw power from dreams.
* One episode of WesternAnimation/{{Bonkers}} had a {{Toon}} [[CountingSheep Sheep]] stealing Bonkers' dreams so she could have her own.

* In ''Anime/SailorMoon'', the Amazon Quartet would summon Lemures who consumed the dreams of their victims after confirming that [[LivingMacGuffin Pegasus]] was not found there. The dreams themselves appeared as floating pink mirrors. And in the season finale, [[spoiler:it's explained that Queen Nehellenia, the BigBad of the season, ate the dream mirrors of her royal court to keep herself young and beautiful]].

* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' has Tapirmon, who is based off the dream-eating Baku and is said to have the same abilities. There's also Pillomon, [[CountingSheep a sheep Digimon]] who also eats dreams and has the ability to inflict pleasant slumber or horrific nightmares on others.

* In a prior series depicting the Red and Blue era a giant Haunter is the villain of an arc that gym leader Sabrina has history with. It's capable of using the Dream Eater move with enough strength that it devours victim's ''souls''.

* A variation is used in ''Film/{{Inception}}''. Cobb does not steal the dreams themselves, but rather uses the dreams to steal thoughts and ideas from people's minds.

* In the ''Literature/DreambloodDuology'', Sharers and Gatherers both harvest the dreams of others and are good-aligned exaples. Sharers use the dreamichor harvested from dreams to perform their healing and Gatherers gather dreamblood from those whose time it is to die and [[DreamWeaver shape pleasing final dreams]] for the departing.

* The {{Baku}} of Myth/JapaneseMythology is a creature which devours bad dreams, and is the base for many references in {{anime}} and {{manga}} series. According to some legends it can be called upon to do this but doing it too many times runs the risk of it devouring your regular dreams along with them, leaving you without ambition or aspiration forever. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baku_%28spirit%29 The other wiki discribes it here.]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcatcher Dreamcatchers]] are objects originally used by the Ojibwa First Nation peoples, but are now much more widespread. They're said to be able to filter out their users' bad dreams, and ensure that the users only have good ones.

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, this is a power of Vaermina, the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Prince]] of Nightmares. It is also theorized that she uses the dreams of mortals as some sort of source of power. Her most (in)famous artifact is the Skull of Corruption, a MagicStaff which steals the dreams of sleeping mortals to become more powerful.

* In ''WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake: The Sweet Dreams Movie'', The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak takes over the Land of Dreams and plans to keep all the dreams for himself, because he never got any dreams as a child.