History Main / IRejectYourReality

* In the SeasonFinale of season 4 of ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'', Loki has gained the powers of the Sorcerer Supreme, and has used them to usurp Odin and summon a horrible darkness that infects Ygdrassil. When the Eye of Agamotto shows him that, for all his power, this will destroy him too, he insists it's lying and tears it off, shrieking "EVERYONE IS A LIAR EXCEPT ME!" Despite the fact he is now down to his regular power and facing Thor, a repowered Dr Strange, and [[spoiler: Jane Foster with Mjolnir]], he continues insisting that he's ''already won'' until the All-Dark envelops him.

*** Some of them also literally had the ability to "substitute their own": they would (in a manner totally unconnected to their actual power level as a mage) unconsciously [[RealityWarper warp the reality]] around them to conform to their delusion. So a Marauder who believed himself to be a NatureHero would walk down the street transforming buildings into gigantic old growth trees, cars into elephants or lions, and people into natives... and then they would all change back as soon as he left the area.

* ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'': When Luke, Candace's mother's boyfriend, tries to molest Candace, Candace's mother declares that "It never happened," establishing herself with this and crossing the MoralEventHorizon. It may not be done out of malice, but a defense mechanism to avoid the pure horror of considering the alternative.

* In the SeasonFinale of season 4 of ''WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'', Loki has gained the powers of the Sorcerer Supreme, and has used them to usurp Odin and summon a horrible darkness that infects Ygdrassil. When the Eye of Agamotto shows him that, for all his power, this will destroy him too, he insists it's lying and tears it off, shrieking "EVERYONE IS A LIAR EXCEPT ME!" Despite the fact he is now down to his regular power and facing Thor, a repowered Dr Strange, and [[spoiler: Jane Foster with Mjolnir]], he continues insisting that he's ''already won'' until the All-Dark envelops him.

This sort of character is a relative of the {{Cloudcuckoolander}} but with much more sinister overtones. They seem to live in a world of their own, they may live by the mantra of [[ScrewThisIndexIHaveTropes Screw the Rules]] when the "rules" are hard facts. They will stubbornly insist "their" reality is the true reality in the face of evidence to the contrary, much to the frustration of others and sometimes danger to companions, underlings, peers or themselves, especially when the fact they are rejecting is a consequence of [[NeverMyFault their own actions]]. If anything manages to pierce their iron-bound conviction, a breakdown, {{villainous|Breakdown}} or otherwise, is likely to ensue.

The poster child for many other tropes: BeliefMakesYouStupid, the InspectorJavert, the KnightTemplar, the LawfulStupid. Not to be confused with TheSparkOfGenius or the RealityWarper (who literally ''can'' reject and replace reality) although it is possible to combine this trope with either of the others; AGodAmI is usually the result. Also, if the reality is [[LotusEaterMachine fake to begin with]], rejecting it may be a right and necessary step to awaken.

Compare GravityIsOnlyATheory, WindmillPolitical and TheoryTunnelvision. Contrast MrImagination and the {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, who have the more peaceful philosophy that they can "substitute their own reality" ''without'' this kind of fighting against everyone else's reality which they have rejected. Also contrast the RealityWarper, who can ''actually'' reject your reality and substitute their own.

[[folder:Machinima]]
* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'':
** Sarge. Nothing will convince him that he isn't a brilliant mechanic, that the Blue Team is not their diabolical and dastardly enemy, or that Grif could ever make Sergeant - to the point where when they reunite and "Sergeant Grif" is introduced, he asks where the invisible officer with the unfortunate name is. Somehow, he still manages to be a more competent leader than the other Reds and is something of a GeniusDitz when it comes to warfare.
** To a lesser extent, Caboose also fits this, combining it heavily with {{Cloudcuckoolander}}. When Church has to [[JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind jump inside his head]], we see just what sort of "reality" Caboose sees: Church (who can't stand Caboose in reality) is his overprotective best friend, Tucker is even more of an idiot than usual, Caboose himself is smart and erudite, Sarge has a pirate accent, Grif [[RunningGag wears yellow]], Donut (pink armor!) is a girl, and Sister is Church's yellow-wearing identical twin with a personality identical to the real Church instead of Caboose's made-up Church.
[[/folder]]

* In ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', this is [[GeneralFailure Ironwood's]] problem; No matter how many times it fails, no matter how often it [[UnwittingPawn enables the villains' plans]], no matter what anyone tells him, Ironwood always assumes that his extremist ideas are the best way forward, and [[NeverMyFault blames whatever failures occurred on other people]].

A SisterTrope to ImplausibleDeniability. May overlap with InTheDreamingStageOfGrief if they rationalize this as "That was AllJustADream". BelievingTheirOwnLies is the logical conclusion if they continue. When applied to a series, this is FanonDiscontinuity.

* Calvin of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' can be quoted thus: "It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept."

* An inversion of the trope: ''Webcomic/ALoonaticsTale'' Issue #4: "Talking To Myself," is about Dr. Qubert giving the main characters a mental health interview; Dr. Qubert's own personal philosophy on the treatment of mental disorders is that if he can see reality the way his patient does, he can understand what makes him see it that way and the best way to fix it. So in a very real sense, he works by temporarily rejecting his own reality so that he can see how his patient needs to change ''their'' reality to bring it in line with what's medically considered normal.
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'''s KnightTemplar, Miko Miyazaki. Once she gets it into her head that someone is evil, nothing on heaven and earth will change her mind, not even if the gods themselves were to smite her. [[spoiler: Literally - she loses her alignment and paladin-hood when she kills her mentor, Lord Shojo, thinking he's a traitor. She dies thinking she did the right thing.]]
* ''Webcomic/EnsignSueMustDie'': Ensign Sue is totally convinced that she's the protagonist of a suefic, and always acts as if everyone else fits into one. She rejects any evidence that reality does not work that way and that her crewmates are trying to get rid of her by any means necessary. For example, when Spock fires a phaser at her (she survives), she thinks that he was trying to give a demonstration to her and the phaser went off accidentally. [[spoiler: When she's BroughtDownToNormal in the sequel, she is forcibly dragged back into reality.]]

* ''WebComic/{{Goblins}}'': The Maze of Many arc had an alternate universe version of Minmax who was a super-intelligent Psion. He decided that since the universe is so flawed, he would [[RetGone remove himself (and hundreds of other people who don't share his goal) from reality]]. While this is itself not an example of the trope - he recognizes that reality isn't what he wants it to be - he slips into this a few times on the way to fulfilling his goal. For example, he claims upon killing someone, that he didn't ask the universe to make death possible, it just works that way, [[InsaneTrollLogic so he's done no wrong]]. He even accuses others of deluding themselves into thinking they have an OmniscientMoralityLicense while having that exact delusion.

* ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'': Kazai Suizhan has been so thoroughly indoctrinated by Angel-Supremacist dogma that it ends up turning him against his sister, because 'she continues to delude herself' that angels and demons are not so different. This is best shown when he uses the raid on Saint Curtis as an excuse to treat demons as worthless beasts, ignoring the speed at which Saint Curtis has been re-growing thanks to the efforts of all races.

* ''Website/SFDebris'': It's a RunningGag in Chuck's ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' reviews that Dukat regularly re-imagines his interactions with the [=DS9=] crew to better suit his own delusional self-image.
--> '''Gul Dukat:''' (''After Major Kira throws a glass at his head'') "Why Major, I would love to have a drink with you, but duty calls."
* Filbert from ''Roleplay/RubyQuest''. He's one of the few who knows anything about what happened to the Metal Glen, but it's all mixed up in his madness. He believes that there is an infection ravaging the facility and that its spread can be stopped by emergency amputation, and at the same time, he remembers that [[spoiler: what actually happened was that the Metal Glen's doctors administrated a treatment to their patients that cured all the patient's ailments, including conditions present since birth, and even removed the need to eat or drink. The higher-ups then prescribed it to everyone, and Filbert enthusiastically followed their orders. The treatment turned out to be part of an EldritchAbomination and its use caused the facility to fall into the state it was in at the beginning of the quest]]. The only thing he is absolutely certain of is that he is the only one that's clean, and no [[spoiler: amount of BodyHorror]] will convince him that he is wrong.

* In Eurogamer's ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'' LetsPlay, after killing Father Gascoigne with the Saw Cleaver, Johnny Chiodini insists that it was actually the Kirhammer, his favourite weapon, and goes so far as to upgrade it as a reward for its performance.

* J. Jonah Jameson from the ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' comics has an unhealthy tendency to make people who correctly believe that Spider-Man is a hero to have second thoughts. He also refuses to believe that Spider-Man himself is a hero and just sees him a disruptive force of destruction. In many adaptations, this is one of his {{Flanderized}} qualities taken UpToEleven.

[[folder:Film]]

"What do you mean that guy from ''Series/MythBusters'' [[ParodyDisplacement wasn't the first one to say it]]?"

In RealLife, this is commonly known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denialism denialism]]. That said, it is unfortunately so common and politically charged that [[Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease we won't list any examples]].

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Briefly happens in episode 9 of ''Anime/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts''. The main characters come to the conclusion that Akihisa is in a secret relationship and follow him to his home to find out more. When they find various feminine items such as underwear and a cotton pad (for makeup), Himeji refuses to accept reality and believes that the underwear belongs to Akihisa and the cotton pad is a fishcake. She only starts to accept reality when she finds a lunch that was obviously made by a woman. [[spoiler:They were all wrong in their assumptions; the assorted items belong to Akihisa's sister, who has recently returned to look after her brother]].
* Jiren of ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' has this in spades. [[spoiler:Having lost his family, village, master, and friends to a mysterious villain, he rejects ThePowerOfFriendship in favor of MightMakesRight. He gladly and [[SmugSuper smugly]] espouses this viewpoint as a HopeCrusher, intending on smashing every bit of chance and hope of anything other than pure, unadulterated strength being the worthwhile power. However, when Goku ends up mastering Ultra Instinct and beats Jiren into the ground, he's told that he's gained this through the trust of his TrueCompanions ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Frieza]]). Jiren cannot wrap his head around this concept ''at all'' and tries to disprove it by ''attempting to kill them''. This proves to be a big mistake and ultimately leads to his downfall.]]
* Phryne Jamil of ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'' is very bad with this. She's a [[{{Gonk}} hideous frog-faced woman]] who thinks of herself as the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman who has men of all scores head over heels over her. What she refuses to believe is that the men she [[RapeAsDrama "tastes"]] are traumatized to the point of complete impotence rather than so utterly love-struck that they won't be "satisfied" by anyone else. Nothing can change her mind, not her own teammates who are rightfully disgusted to be around her or a damn mirror. Her delusion is so twisted that she thinks herself more beautiful than the story's actual goddess of beauty, [[spoiler:and she had the balls to say it to the face of said goddess' NumberTwo, who promptly kills her both for her stupidity and for bad-mouthing his goddess]].
* ''Anime/LoveChunibyoAndOtherDelusions'' gives us Rikka Takanashi, who for the most part is just a {{Chuunibyou}}, but the one part of her fantasy that she absolutely will not let go of is [[spoiler:that her old home still exists, and that her father is still alive on the other side of the "invisible boundary line"]].
* [[spoiler:Obito]] from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' [[spoiler:refuses to acknowledge a world in which Rin chose to sacrifice herself and Kakashi was unable to protect her, and chooses to believe the current world is fake. His main goal is to use Infinite Tsukuyomi to replace reality with a dream world where he can pretend Rin is still alive.]]
* IdiotHero [[ManChild Luffy]] from the anime and manga ''Franchise/OnePiece'' pulls this often.
-->'''Luffy:''' I refuse!\\
'''Sanji:''' What do you ''mean'' you refuse?\\
'''Luffy:''' I refuse your refusal!
** An even more ridiculous example from the same series is Zeo, a bad guy from the Fishman Island arc. This trope is his main personality trait, from rejecting the fact that he was ignored by claiming he was speaking quietly (he was yelling), to rejecting the fact he got stabbed and instead insisting he was trying to break off the offending sword's tip with his own body. One of the best ones is that he even rejected the fact that someone was stepping on his face, insisting that he was ''headbutting the person's foot''. The last and very best one is when [[spoiler:Zeo and the rest of the bad guys have been aged into old men due to the Energy Steroids they took, really an age-accelerating substance. Note that absolutely none of them knew this would happen...]]
--->'''Zeo''': [[spoiler:I became old on purpose.]]
* In ''Manga/{{Pluto}}'', this failing is used as the identifier for the first ever truly perfect artificial intelligence. The ability to lie has never been programmed into any robot, yet the most advanced ones are capable of doing so anyway, in an example of complex emergent behaviour. The first true A.I. is so advanced that it can lie even to itself, [[spoiler:ignoring [[ThreeLawsCompliant three laws compliance]] because it believes itself to be human, evidence to the contrary be damned]].
* ''Anime/Pokemon3'' focuses on a delusional little girl named Molly Hale whose connection with a bunch of reality-bending Psychic-types allows her to bend reality. But even when confronted with things she can't change, she still insists her version is the correct one. Most likely because she's six or so and because her father disappeared leaving her all alone since her mother left her father some years ago. As [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] put it, the movie is basically ''Franchise/SilentHill'' [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids for children.]]
-->'''Ash''': If you come with us, you can have real Pokémon.\\
'''Molly''': ''[conjures up crystal Pokémon]'' I already have real Pokémon! NOW, GO AWAY!
* ''Anime/RanmaOneHalf'': This is the attitude of ''many'' of the characters, but the one that showcases this to the highest levels of annoyance to the rest of the cast is Tatewaki Kuno, who believes himself to be a top-notch warrior and God's gift to women (if anything, he's the weakest of the whole cast and is pretty repugnant), and that Ranma Saotome is not only a womanizer that has managed to get Akane Tendo and "the pig-tailed girl" (who is really Ranma's [[GenderBender female form]]) under his grasp, but that he is a "foul sorcerer" that has won every [[CurbStompBattle "fight"]] he's had with Kuno and has enslaved the 'pig-tailed girl' using his magic (and so defeating Ranma will not only release the 'girl' but make her instantly fall head-over-heels for Kuno). There is absolutely nothing, no amount of beat-downs or even changing forms in front of him, that will make him change his mind about Ranma.
* A straight variant and a lighter, less visible variant of this is seen between [[DistaffCounterpart counterparts]] Mikage and Utena in ''Manga/RevolutionaryGirlUtena''. For Mikage, he doggedly draws in young students, during a time when they feel down and out, and manipulates them to duel for him - [[spoiler:and it seems that he's been keeping this up for [[OlderThanTheyLook years and years]], possibly being DeadAllAlong, seeking an "eternity" where he and his old lover Tokiko and her brother Mamiya can flourish. When Utena begins to break through it, he [[SanitySlippage breaks down]] and vanishes]]. So, what makes Utena his counterpart? She rejects the hardships that her fellow classmates go through, rejects the feelings that she gets for [[spoiler:Akio]] because of the need to become "princely", and consistently rejects the notion that the [[SubvertedTrope seemingly pure]] and [[ExtremeDoormat doormat-like]] Anthy [[spoiler:is manipulative of everyone else and is afraid to step outside of her boundaries - the outside world - from being the Rose Bride]]. Whereas the other duelists manage to cope with their problems, Utena remains childish in behavior and ideals, [[spoiler:and if the stabs of a million swords at the Rose Gate are anything to go by, doing that bit her in the ass pretty hard]].
* As far as Motoyasu from ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'' is concerned, he's the archetypical KnightInShiningArmor, the most powerful and virtuous of the Three Heroes, while the titular outcast Shield Hero Naofumi is the Devil incarnate, whose every action is pure, unforgivable evil and who's companions are unfortunate souls brainwashed into servitude, and that [[ManipulativeBitch Malty]] is a pure, uncorrupted maiden who's never done anything wrong in her entire life. He'll never stop believing this no matter what the undeniable facts in front of him or even common sense says. [[spoiler: Deconstructed, as this not only makes it easy for bad guys like Malty and the corrupt fanatics in the Three Heroes Church to manipulate Motoyasu into doing their dirty work since Naofumi is their chief target, but the latter gets so fed up with dealing with someone so monumentally blind to reality to the point of unwittingly putting the people around him in danger that he was prepared to let him get killed by the Church's ringleader at one point. Finally, when he suffers a TraumaCongaLine that forces him to realize that he's not nearly as great as he thinks he is, culminating with him being betrayed and thrown away by the one person he had deluded himself into seeing in a positive light in the face of so much evidence, he goes completely insane.]]
** Itsuki, the Hero of the Bow, is in the same boat as well, but with more of a NeverMyFault attitude since his massive ego refuses to let him see himself as anything else but a virtuous HumbleHero that can do no wrong. This leads to him blaming Naofumi for "stealing credit" for assassinating a governor in secret, believing that doing so would improve the lives of the people under him. He refuses to listen when he's told that there's no logical way for him or anyone else to even know about what he did without telling someone directly ''because'' he did so in secret, or that things only got better temporarily before the civilians went destitute because of what happened after. [[spoiler: This only gets worse when his Curse Series Weapon awakens, and he starts brainwashing people into following him, claiming that he's bringing justice by "making them see his point of view" while ironically accusing Naofumi of the same.]]
* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'':
** Most of the Aincrad arc is actually an aversion of this. Despite Sword Art Online being a VRMMORPG, the fact it is a death game where dying in the game means dying in real life, means players need to accept the game as their new reality until it gets cleared. Kirito heavily delves into the philosophy of whether the virtual world was 'real' or not, with his belief that the virtual world could be as real as the real world if designed right.
** Kyouji had given up on the real world and instead turned to the virtual world of a VRMMORPG, Gun Gale Online. When he doesn't succeed at that either, he decides to move onto the next reality after death and tries to take his crush Sinon with him.
** In the abridged version of the series, Kirito uses this line as a PreMortemOneLiner during the climactic fight against Kyaba, bringing their shared gag of referencing old B-Movies to a nice close.
* In ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'', Mr. Fujinami WantedASonInstead so badly that not only has he ''forcibly'' [[RaisedAsTheOppositeGender raised his daughter Ryunosuke as a boy]], but he's even convinced '''himself''' that she's actually a boy. To the point he will literally deny blatant evidence to the contrary and insist on Ryunosuke's masculinity no matter what the situation is. As early as their second appearance, he registers Ryunosuke at Tomobiki High School as a boy, and when her home-room teacher protests that he can't put Ryunosuke in the male side of the Physical Education class, Mr. Fujinami insists to the principal that Ryunosuke is actually a boy... even when Onsen-Mark points out he's ''seen Ryunosuke's bosom'', and Ryunosuke herself admits she's a girl.
* Seto Kaiba, from ''Anime/YuGiOh'' [[FlatEarthAtheist vehemently denies the existence of any sort of magic]] throughout the English dub, despite evidence to the contrary. The [[DubText dub itself]] eventually started making fun of this.
-->'''Dartz:''' Is that YourAnswerToEverything, Kaiba? You really need a new catchphrase.
** Made funnier, is the fact that Kaiba's past self was an actual sorcerer/priest who could cast magic.
** His absolute refusal to accept that he lost to Yugi and he isn't as good as the Pharaoh really delves into this territory [[BestOutOfInfinity considering the many times he's forced Yugi into a rematch]] -- when the final film ends, we find out in TheStinger that he ''built a machine to chase the Pharaoh into the afterlife'' to challenge him yet again.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Fanfic/AllYouNeedIsLove'':
-->'''Naomi:''' It's like you have this belief that if you say things enough times they suddenly become true.\\
'''Light:''' I do not.\\
'''Naomi:''' I'm the god of the new world?\\
'''Light''' ''[confused]'': But [[AGodAmI I am the god of the new world]].\\
'''Naomi:''' [[ShutUpHannibal No you're not.]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist I have good intentions?]] [[TheRival Raye Penber]] [[ExtremeDoormat is wallpaper?]] I don't get high off the murders of rapists and other murderers? I can keep going, you know, if I really want to.\\
'''Light:''' [[InsaneTrollLogic All true, I don't say them to make them true I just have to remind everyone else that they're true.]] If I didn't say anything people would assume that [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Matsuda's theories]] are correct, and I just won't stand for that.\\
'''Naomi:''' Yeah, completely buying that.
* Akane in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11701126/7/Anything-Goes-Game-Changer Anything Goes Game Changer]]'' struggles to accept that she isn't the best. Not only does she flat out reject that she's lost several spars, but she insists that only freaks can do what the various Sekirei and better martial artists can, especially RoofHopping.
** She eventually grows out of this after a battle against a Sekirei leaves her with a broken arm, with WordOfGod stating not even her delusions could ignore a long-lasting injury like that.
* In ''FanFic/CatarinaClaesMustDie'', Henrietta Garland is a noblewoman that in her previous life was a bullied high schooler who enjoyed the gruesome death of [[AlphaBitch Catarina]] in the game ''Fortune Lover''. However, the world she is in is one where [[NiceGirl Catarina]] regained the memories of her old life and became a kinder girl. Henrietta rejects any news or statement that this world's Catarina is different, and rectifies the image that she is a clever BitchInSheepsClothing that bullies Maria and Keith in secret, which in reality is very much false.
** When Catarina doesn't get exiled or killed like she expects, Henrietta takes matters into her own hands and tries to kill her. Thankfully Catarina survives, and Geordo and Mary are able to find out that Henrietta was responsible. Once she is outed, she admits that she did try to kill Catarina and did so to "protect" Maria and Keith. Even when the two protest the accusation that Catarina had abused them, Henrietta thinks the two are being weak for letting Catarina walk all over them. As a result of her admitting that she tried to kill the Academy Saintess under false pretenses and her declaration that she would do so again, Henrietta's former best friend attacks her, resulting in her being beaten by a mob until Catarina pleads for them to stop and Geordo orders the Town Guard to arrest Henrietta.
** However, [[spoiler:Henrietta's worldview fell apart when Geordo and Mary confront her after her arrest and reveal Catarina's journal, which contains her foreknowledge of the game in Japanese, which Catarina and Henrietta both spoke in their past lives.[[note]]At this point, Catarina had already revealed her past life and "doom flags" to her close friends[[/note]] The two tell Henrietta that not only had Catarina had regained memories of her past life, but she also sincerely befriended those around her and helped them with their problems. Henrietta on the other hand was ''obsessed'' with seeing Catarina die, ignoring the fact that Catarina is widely admired by the student body because she is a kind and empathetic girl. They also point out that Henrietta didn't do anything at all to help others despite having the foreknowledge of what is to come when she entered the Academy because all she wants is to see Catarina dead. This is a stark contrast to Catarina who did use her foreknowledge to protect Keith that lead to his vindication and giving him a stable home life and later to Maria from the the bullying, the very things that Henrietta claimed that she did, among other things. And despite the fact that both she and Catarina think that the world will play the events of ''Fortune Lover'', at least Catarina tried to change her fate by helping others and tried to survive without her life being cut off again like her past life. Therefore, the [[NiceGirl Catarina]] that Henrietta tried to kill is not the [[AlphaBitch Catarina]] that she believes she is, meaning she attempted to murder an innocent woman all along. The revelation left her in a VillainousBSOD and eventually led her to realize how all her actions fueled by this trope resulted in a repeat of her past life's pain and suffering, this time she brought upon herself.]]
* ''[[Fanfic/TheLamentSeriesChaoticNeutral Chloe's Lament]]'': Chloe is completely unable to handle the notion that the reason [[TheFriendNobodyLikes everybody dislikes her]] is because she's a SpoiledBrat who [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections abuses her status as the Mayor's Daughter]] to [[KarmaHoudini dodge the consequences of her actions]], who completely [[LackOfEmpathy lacks empathy or concern]] for [[ItsAllAboutMe anyone aside from herself]]. She also rejects the idea that [[NiceGirl Marinette]] ''isn't'' [[PsychologicalProjection secretly just as bad as her]], and makes this literal by using a [[RealityWarpingIsNotAToy reality warping Wish]] to [[RoleSwapAU swap places with her]], convinced that [[WrongGenreSavvy this will make her the new Ladybug and ensure that everybody loves her]] while Marinette becomes just as hated and despised as ''she'' was.
* ''Fanfic/CursedBlood'': In Bakugo's mind, he is the next Number One Pro Hero, while his former friend Izuku is the next supervillain that he is fated to fight, just waiting to show his true colors. In reality, Bakugo is TheSociopath who got sent to a mental institution after he almost murdered Izuku and two fellow students just because Izuku defeated him in a training battle, while Izuku is the victim of a BadPowersGoodPeople perception, being actually heroic and self-sacrificing to the point that the only reason he's not dead multiple times is thanks to his HealingFactor.
* In ''[[FanFic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed Equestria: A History Revealed]]'', the LemonyNarrator seems to be deadset on [[ConfirmationBias proving the Celestia-centered conspiracy]] surrounding Equestria's history, even when history, multiple sources, and reality clearly state otherwise.
* In ''FanFic/ForHisOwnSake'', [[ShipperOnDeck Mutsumi]] refuses to accept that [[GrewASpine Keitaro]] broke up with [[NeverMyFault Naru]] because their [[AllTakeAndNoGive relationship was too toxic]], and is dead set on getting them back together. She even believes that Keitaro will thank her for this, despite him repeatedly telling her to back off, stop meddling in his life, and leave him alone. Even Naru agrees that they shouldn't get back together, though naturally she blames Keitaro for everything.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/10984500/chapters/24462450 How to Catch a Ladybug]]'', where Lila, upon discovering that Marinette is Ladybug, convinces herself she's an evil liar with an impressive facade of niceness that comes from a broken house with incredibly strict parents and desperately tries to fit the mounting evidence of the contrary in her view just as she's starting to be drawn in by Marinette's genuine niceness.
* In ''FanFic/IfBellaWereSane'', [[Literature/{{Twilight}} Edward]] doesn't seem to listen when Bella (who is a DeadpanSnarker in this fic) says she doesn't love him, and no matter how many times she tries to tell him she doesn't, he continues to believe she does.
* In ''Fanfic/KarmaInRetrograde'', [[FishOutOfTemporalWater Touya's]] immediate response to learning that he becomes the [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis serial killer Dabi]] is to vehemently deny it as [[AllJustADream a horrible nightmare.]] He reluctantly accepts it when he hears Shouto tapping "real" in [[EveryoneKnowsMorse Morse code]] from behind the one-way glass.
-->'''Touya:''' I-I don’t…. How? What happened to make me…? ''[shakes his head]'' No, I don’t believe it. This isn’t real.
* ''Fanfic/LovedAndLost'':
** [[ManipulativeBastard Jewelius]] is able to make Twilight [[CorruptTheCutie lose all trust in her friends, brother, and mentor]] by arguing that they refused to see any truth in [[ProperlyParanoid her suspicions regarding the false Cadance]] because they lived in this mindset.
--->'''Jewelius''': They don't care about the truth. They want to see the world the way they want it to be. The reality of things frightens them so they'd rather ignore it than accept it. And in the end, it was that kind of backwards thinking that sealed their fates.
** Ironically, Jewelius himself succumbs to this mindset as he [[SkewedPriorities becomes so obsessed with capturing and further tormenting Twilight's loved ones (whom Canterlot's citizens are slowly starting to forgive), that he refuses to believe that]] [[spoiler:the escaped Changelings pose any immediate threat]], much to the chagrin of Fancy Pants, Twilight, and Canterlot's citizens who all insist otherwise. He pays the price for this in the end when [[spoiler:Queen Chrysalis and her Changelings [[DevouredByTheHorde eat a cornered and helpless Jewelius alive]] for betraying them]].
** Conversely, the [[HeroWithBadPublicity dishonored heroes]] fully own up to their mistakes that contributed to the Changeling invasion and admit some unpleasant truths about their selfish/foolish behavior during the wedding preparations[[note]]such as not postponing the wedding before taking care of the then-unknown threat and disregarding the safety of Canterlot's citizens[[/note]]. This convinces Twilight to give her loved ones the benefit of the doubt, thus restoring her trust in them and providing the heroes with an opportunity to [[MustMakeAmends fully reconcile with each other]].
* ''Fanfic/MastermindRiseOfAnarchy'': Bakugou Katsuki embodies this:
** Despite the fact that Izuku [[FromNobodyToNightmare proved dangerous enough]] to become an S-class villain in ''Fanfic/MastermindStrategistForHire'', Katsuki insists that he's ''still'' just a 'useless Deku'. He also refuses to acknowledge that [[NeverMyFault bullying him was wrong]] -- in fact, he believes that Deku 'forgot his place' when he ''stopped'' actively tormenting him.
** As he descends into violent vigilantism as 'King', he gets personally insulted whenever anyone accuses him of acting villainously, refusing to regard his actions as anything other than good. He's beating up crooks, after all; how could anyone see that as bad?!
** Eventually, this reaches the point that he's legitimately ''outraged'' when [[spoiler:he's placed under house arrest after murdering a petty crook]]... because he thinks that he's being ''personally insulted''. To his mind, [[spoiler:he's ''obviously'' a bigger threat than Deku, so why aren't they sending him to Tartarus]]?!
* In ''FanFic/TheNewRetcons'', [[ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse Elly Patterson's]] madness begins when she denies that April was ever her daughter and that this was the eighties (in 2008), her (present-day adult) children were little kids, and her dog Edgar was his father Farley. It got worse from there.
* In ''FanFic/OfPatienceAndPettiness'', Alya falls HARD into this after [[LiarRevealed Lila's true nature is exposed]] to the whole class. She expects everything to go [[StatusQuoIsGod right back to normal]], insisting that she's still besties with Marinette despite publicly disowning her and calling ''Lila'' her BFF on the Ladyblog. Despite Marinette telling her off several times, making quite clear that she's moving on with her life, Alya clings to her pretty fiction, to the point that she gets akumatized into Fixateur.
** Fixateur weaponizes this, being a RealityWarper who makes her victims believe what she wants them to believe. However, this power is limited; [[spoiler:when she uses it on Marinette, it doesn't work because Alya is too deluded to understand her former friend's mindset. She's convinced herself that Mari is ''faking'' her anger, and still considers her to be her bestie. Thus, her attempt to erase her 'fake anger' fails]].
* In ''FanFic/OhGodNotAgain'', [[spoiler:Sirius chooses to pretend he was in Majorca instead of Azkaban for over a decade]]. Everyone goes with it. Legally speaking, [[spoiler:since he ''was'' acquitted of all those murders,]] the reality he rejects "[[MetaphoricallyTrue didn't happen]]".
* ''FanFic/OneStepBackwardsAndThreeForwards'': After [[FaceHeelTurn betraying Ladybug]], [[TheBadGuyWins helping Hawkmoth win]], and [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Wishing on the stolen Miraculous]], Alya plunges ''deep'' into denial as [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty the consequences of her actions come calling]].
** Faced with Chat Noir seemingly following them into the [[RealityWarper new timeline]], she theorizes that his vengefulness is fueled by SanitySlippage, with his worst traits being amplified somehow. The notion that he has every reason to want revenge upon those who betrayed him and Ladybug is something she dances around, along with the fact that she personally contributed to reality being rewritten with her Wish.
** Along similar lines, she applies the same theory to Marinette, attributing her occasional testiness and shortness with her to [[DrivenByEnvy being jealous of Lila hooking up with Adrien]]. Despite the fact that Marinette is happily dating Felix ([[{{Irony}} who is actually the original Adrien]]), and most of her moments of SugaryMalice come out in response to Alya's attempts to meddle in that relationship.
* This is part of ''why'' the titular VillainProtagonist of ''FanFic/TheRiseOfDarthVulcan'' is on his deadly course, along with his MoralMyopia.
* The ''WebComic/ScarletLady'' AU was kicked off by [[ForWantOfANail Fu putting the Ladybug Earrings in Marinette's purse]] and [[AlphaBitch Chloé]] stealing them, leading to her becoming the titular '[[HeroWithAnFInGood heroine]]' instead. Despite knowing how she got the earrings -- and how Tikki greeted her ''as'' Marinette when she first appeared -- Chloé has convinced herself that '''she''' was [[TheChosenOne chosen from the start]]. When Tikki points this out in "Lady [=WiFi=]", the series' fifth episode, Chloé blithely ignores her.
** Along similar lines, she acts completely oblivious to just how much Adrien has been put off by her bullying and clinginess. "Reflekta" illustrates this mental disconnect perfectly, as she sabotages the photoshoot so she can stand next to him... and the resulting picture captures him shoving her away. Yet she still sees it as 'her photo with Adrien' and wants to preserve it at any cost, despite how it immortalizes his ''anger'' and frustration with her.
** As time passes, it becomes clear that becoming Scarlet Lady turned Chlo&eacute into a full-blown narcissist that believes herself the darling of Paris in and out of costume. In chapter 29, this is demonstrated when it shows to believe that both Adrian and now Luka are sweet on her when in realtiy they greatly dislike and are vying for the affection of [[NiceGirl Marinette]].
* [[EntitledToHaveYou Brett]] in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13310857/1/Through-His-Eyes Through His Eyes]]'' refuses to accept that [[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians Percy Jackson]] is anything but a dangerous criminal who abuses Annabeth Chase despite all evidence to the contrary. [[spoiler: Even when he gives up at the end, its not a JerkassRealization that he broke into her apartment to find evidence, but "accepting" that nothing he can do will convince anyone he's right.]]
* ''Fanfic/AShadowOfTheTitans'' has this happen to [[spoiler: Kitten]] after her EmergencyTransformation. Between the trauma of the near-death experience that required said transformation to save her life, and the shock at having lost her humanity, she [[FreakOut completely snaps]] and puts herself into a delusional state where she believes she's still human, reacting violently whenever anyone or anything points out the contrary.
* ''Fanfic/WolfInTheStreetsSardineInTheSheets'': In this AlternateUniverse, a tragic accident at Genjuro's lab killed his wife and one of his daughters, with the other two (Fuka and Desco) barely surviving. The girls end up at Valvatorez's rehabilitation home after their father is arrested for the incident; however, Fuka refuses to acknowledge this as anything other than a temporary measure, dismissing the incident at the lab as 'a bad dream' and insisting that their father is just busy at work.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Lady Schrapnell of ''Literature/ToSayNothingOfTheDog'', has as one of her mantras that "rules are meant to be broken". This includes the laws of time travel and physics. [[TemporalSickness Time lag?]] No such thing, you're trying to shirk work with a lame excuse. Bring artifacts back from the past? Well, [[spoiler: they find a loophole in the end but]] who cares if it can't be done? [[NoEqualOpportunityTimeTravel Too dangerous to send the black grad student back to do the work?]] Nonsense, it's only an air raid, how bad can it be?
* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'':
** Cornelius Fudge in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' is in utter denial about the return of Voldemort - by ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order Of the Phoenix]]'', the Ministry of Magic is outright denying the comeback until the battle in the Ministry itself forces the issue. On the other hand, Voldemort is specifically lying low to accommodate this, so...
** This is taken UpToEleven in ''Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical'', with Fudge denying Voldemort's return not only after seeing Voldemort's latest Flootube post but even while Voldemort's standing right in front of him. Killing him. "A heart attack! It's got to be!"
* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'':
** A group of Dwarves in ''Literature/TheLastBattle'' decided that Aslan wasn't real so they couldn't see that they were in Aslan's Country, thinking they were in a small dark shack. When they were given wonderful food they ate it but thought it tasted like shit, because they expected food scavenged out of a dingy stable to taste like shit.
** In ''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew'', there is a similar scene where the titular magician sees Aslan as just a lion that goes around growling at people.
* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' employs reality-rejection as a sociological tool (it '''is''' the trope namer for the OrwellianRetcon). The residents of that world will even reject their ''own'' reality if it's no longer in accordance with new updates in doctrine.
--> Eurasia had always been at war with Eastasia.
* ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'': Among the book's themes is that the governments and the failed businesses are denying reality (in the form of what amounts to Objectivism: reality is objective, morality is not subjective, and all the capitalist and "man qua man" philosophy attached to it) and should be left to suffer the consequences.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** Lord Rust owns this trope, with his mind refusing to accept various conversations, and on one occasion an entire person. This seems to have some effect on reality as well; he is perhaps the worst general in fiction, but events always conspire to keep him from ever being killed (even though he's only ever lost battles, he's always survived them). Arrows will curve in their paths to miss him and hit the man behind him. He believes that just being an Ankh-Morpork aristocrat makes him unbeatable.
** Reg Shoe in ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'' is what happens when you cross a ConspiracyTheorist with TheOnlyBeliever and face him with his actual impact on the world. Vimes outright explains to him that absolutely no one on either side ''cares'' about who he is or what he does, with Reg's reaction being to continue further into its fantasy. He takes Ankh-Morpork's FullCircleRevolution particularly hard, to the point where this characterization disappears in (chronologically) later appearances.
* Discussed in British statesman Lord Chesterfield's ''Literature/LettersToHisSon'': "Doctor Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, a very worthy, ingenious, and learned man, has written a book, to prove that there is no such thing as matter, and that nothing exists but in idea: that you and I only fancy ourselves eating, drinking, and sleeping; you at Leipsig, and I at London: that we think we have flesh and blood, legs, arms, etc., but that we are only spirit. His arguments are, strictly speaking, unanswerable; but yet I am so far from being convinced by them, that I am determined to go on to eat and drink, and walk and ride, in order to keep that MATTER, [[SarcasmMode which I so mistakenly imagine my body at present to consist of]], in as good plight as possible." (letter 52)
* [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Zeus]], [[TopGod King of the gods]] from the ''Literature/{{Percy Jackson|AndTheOlympians}}'' and ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'' series has a tendency to do this thanks to his {{pride}} much to the annoyance and detriment of the heroes and other gods. In the first, he denies the return of the Titans until presented with impossible to refuse evidence and by then it is too late to do anything to stop them before another war. In the second, he knows the giants are rising, but thinks ignoring the problem will cause it to go away and the gods do not need demigod help. This is despite several of the giants already having risen and knowing from past experience that the giants are impossible to kill without a mortal's help. Once again other gods and heroes have to work behind his back to save the world till he comes around and then he gets in a huff at being embarrassed when proven wrong.
* Lady Granleigh from ''Literature/MairelonTheMagician'' constantly ignores others in favor of her version of events, but as she has considerable power most people don't call her out on it. Until the end of the book where she actually manages to ignore the entire summation of the plot and accuse the villain of something that they actually ''haven't'' done. The villain is the only one to call her out on it: "I congratulate you. I have never before met anyone with so great a talent for seeing the world as she wishes it to be."
* In ''Come Nineveh, Come Tyre'', U.S. President Ted Jason absolutely refuses to face the possibility that the Soviet Union is openly attacking the United States. Invasion of Alaska? Eh, the Soviet paratroopers got lost on a training mission. American soldiers being captured in Panama and sent to POW camps in the Ukraine? A friendly attempt to rescue those soldiers. Soviet ships blockading American fleets from escaping? They're just exercising their right to sea travel. Eventually, during an emergency summit in Moscow, the Soviet premier has to flat out state that the Soviet Union is trying to take over the world, which sends Jason into full HeroicBSOD mode.
* ''Literature/{{Edgedancer}}'' (a novella of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive''): Nale is convinced that the Desolation is ''not'' coming, despite several people telling him that they saw the tell-tale signs of it. In his reality, those are all either unconnected coincidences or remnants of the previous Desolation - [[spoiler:at least until he sees the Voidbringers himself]].
* In ''Literature/TheWitchlands'', grief-maddened Merik is absolutely convinced that his sister was the one to kill him, even though there's no proof she was and a mountain of evidence against her involvement - evidence he refuses to acknowledge.
* In ''Literature/CodexAlera'', Senator Arnos would be a great commander except for two things: [[BadBoss he's willing to sacrifice any number of troops to further his own career]] and he rejects ''anything'' that doesn't fit into how he sees the world. There's a new enemy out there, dangerous enough to completely chew up a Marat and an Aleran force and whose sole motivation is [[HordeOfAlienLocusts killing everything alive that's not it]]? Just lies. Marat are barbarians and can't be trusted, you know. The Canim have invented crossbows? Nope, Canim are just beasts who couldn't possibly innovate anything, and the sample crossbow that you have isn't enough evidence. The Canim are building ships in order to get away from Alera? Can't be, since Canim only exist to make Alerans miserable. Allowing them to build ships would just result in sea-going Canim raiders. Pretty much everyone else is aware of this and thinks Arnos a fool for it, but he's in a high enough position that he can't be ignored (and is being backed by Lady Aquitaine, who's using him as a pawn).
* ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'': The Bandakar are philosophical skeptics who believe there's no reality as our senses are not reliable. When something goes wrong, they start chanting "Nothing is wrong" (until Richard [[EasyEvangelism easily shows this view is absurd]]).
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': Sauron slowly drives Denethor past the DespairEventHorizon and into madness by manipulating Denethor's CrystalBall to [[ManipulativeEditing only show Mordor's greatest victories]], convincing him that Sauron is an unstoppable InvincibleVillain and that all attempts to fight him are doomed. This madness soon becomes so pronounced that ''nothing'' can dissuade Denethor from believing the end is nigh, even direct evidence to the contrary; when Faramir is comatose from injuries sustained in battle, no force on the planet is able to convince Denethor that Faramir is not actually dead and that burning him in a funeral pyre is a ''really bad idea''.
* Michael Bingham/Blood Spider in ''Literature/MarvelsSpiderManHostileTakeover'' has a bad tendency to try to rework the world through his own perspective. Case in point, he doesn't consider Spider-Man worthy of his power and title, hence he himself is the Spider-Man and the hero of New York is an imposter. Also he makes up claims that his mother neglected him despite the fact she was one of the few people in his life to be genuinely kind to him.
* ''Literature/WorldsOfShadow'': One character is convinced the events of the story are a dream, and suffers a mental breakdown as a result since it becomes a full-on psychological delusion. Nothing he experiences nor anyone says will change his mind about this.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'': In the second series, the Queen on the colour of elephants.
--> '''Queenie:''' I think you'll find it was orange, Lord Melchett.
--> '''Melchett:''' Grey is more ''usual'', ma'am.
--> '''Queenie:''' ({{Beat}}) Who's Queen?
--> '''Melchett:''' (Fearing execution) As I said, there were these magnificent ''orange'' elephants...
* Andrew from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' was very prone to twist facts, particularly concerning his time as a supervillain, in order to make a more interesting story, and on some level seemed to believe his outrageous claims, even when they contradicted the outrageous claims he made two minutes earlier.
* ''Series/{{Cheers}}:'' In her worse moments, Diane Chambers gets like this, refusing to listen to anyone telling her she and Sam don't belong together forever, even when that person is Sam himself. One episode in particular has a marriage counselor telling her, at length, that their relationship is toxic and doomed. Diane keeps going back to "prove" he's wrong, dragging an entirely reluctant Sam with her, even as he exasperatedly tells her he's ''not'' testing them, and finally has a spectacular breakdown. And since said counselor is played by Creator/JohnCleese, the breakdown is spectacular indeed.
* ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'': Dyatlov, the engineer in charge of the fatal test, is absolutely in denial about what just happened, to the point of denying that there was any graphite debris ''when he saw some himself'' (graphite is only used in the core- seeing it elsewhere is bad news), attributing the beam of blue light coming from the destroyed reactor to the Cherenkov Effect (which anyone with nuclear training should know only occurs ''underwater'') and insisting he's fine even as he suffers clear symptoms of radiation poisoning. This being ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'', his stubbornness leads several men to their [[CruelAndUnusualDeath cruel and unusual deaths]], when he sends them to do stuff like cool the core that just exploded and was beyond any help, which exposes them to lethal amounts of radiation.
* Chandler from ''Series/{{Friends}}'' does this in "The One With the Routine" regarding [[PornStash something]] under his gym bag.
-->'''Chandler:''' You don’t… like go into the back of my closet, and look under my gym bag or anything?\\
'''Phoebe and Rachel:''' No, we never do that! ''[They turn away and laugh]''\\
'''Chandler:''' Because that’s where Joey gave me some stuff to store that I’ve never seen before in my life! Okay, that did not just happen! ''[He does a weird clicky motion with his fingers]''
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** Sansa Stark hates the world she lives in. In the real world, the truth is either boring or horrible, so she makes up stories in her mind to survive. This is taking a toll on her sanity.
** In season 6's "Battle of the Bastards", Ramsey Bolton literally cannot accept the fact he's losing even when the charging armies of the Vale are slaughtering his men. When he retreats to his castle, he stuns his aides by telling the castle holders that "the Stark army is broken." When one man points out ''his'' army just got routed, Ramsey scoffs that it doesn't matter as the Starks don't have the manpower or the supplies to mount a siege. At which point, a giant smashes the door to the castle down to let Jon lead a charge. Ramsey then avoids taking a shot with an arrow as he thinks he can still weasel out of beating Jon. Even when Jon is beating the hell out of him, Ramsey just laughs as if thinking he's winning. Unfortunately for him, the reality of his situation doesn't dawn on him until [[spoiler: he's locked in a cage with his hounds...[[HoistByHisOwnPetard the same hounds he consistently starves so they will not discriminate between animal or human flesh.]]]]
*** Even when tossed into a cell, Ramsey gloats to Sansa that he'll get out of this and they'll bow to the Bolton banner. At which point, Sansa reminds Ramsey that because he killed all his family, there ''are'' no more Boltons. She then introduces [[spoiler: Ramsey's dogs who he spent days starving as he intended to feed Jon to them. Ramsey honestly believes his hounds will never turn on their master and is almost bored telling them to sit. It's when they keep coming that it breaks into Ramsey that their hunger is outweighing any "loyalty" and it takes their teeth sinking into him for Ramsey to ''finally'' accept he's lost in every way that matters.]]
** By Season 7, Cersei Lannister. '''Oh so much'''. By this point she may be Queen of the Seven Kingdoms but she has effectively killed the Lannister dynasty and alienated ''literally everyone else'' on the continent, and Daenarys' superior forces are pouring in to bring her down. Only by Jaime's martial brilliance do the Lannisters manage to win a few battles, but even he realises they're fighting an unwinnable war. She doesn't listen to him. [[spoiler:Later she dismisses the threat posed by the Night King despite seeing a zombie with her own eyes, and seems insistent that she can still win the war; just because she correctly guesses that Daenarys' dragons are killable, she believes that she can destroy both Daenarys' and the Night King's forces just by hiring enough mercenaries, this despite her scorpion ballista failed to critically injure Drogon one bit, let alone kill him, and the Night King possesses means to kill Daenarys' dragons very easily. She pretty much doesn't care if Westeros is ravaged and destroyed by the armies of the dead, as long as she still gets to sit on the throne.]]
*** In season 8, Cersei [[spoiler: is completely unable to accept how Daenerys' forces are taking over King's Landing. She insists "the Iron Fleet will hold them" despite how the fleet is currently burning, the walls have fallen and her sellswords are running for their lives and her own troops surrendering rather than stay and fight the Unsullied. Even when she finally meets her end, Cersei seems to not grasp how her actions have led the entire kingdom to ruin. It's remarkable she even acknowledges the Keep (which she had stated was "the safest part of the city") is literally burning around her.]]
* Much of the time ''Series/MythBusters'' is devoted to debunking nutty hypotheses - free energy, Moon landing hoax, and so on. Adam may also have been [[OlderThanTheyThink quoting]] the old '80s film ''Film/TheDungeonmaster''.
** Adam Savage recently in a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WFFhicVeXI video on his Tested channel]] stated he got the joke from Ralph Miller, a modelmaker whom Adam worked with before ''Mythbusters'' came to be. Adam liked the joke and decided to keep it in mind, originally unaware it was from the film until after he said it on the show and someone told him about it. However, he does confirm the joke originally came from the film.
* In ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'', [[spoiler: DJ Sagara tells Kota that since power can only be used to destroy, if he wants to protect people, he should reject and destroy the rule of reality that hope can only be won with sacrifice]].
* Gul Dukat in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' is a master at remembering any event in his life in a way that makes him feel better -- especially if it involves the occupation, in which he was a benevolent father to a planet of ungrateful Bajorans.
* In ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' the bots spin a complicated yarn about the existence of a ''Carnival Magic'' Cinematic Universe, comprised of sequels, spin-offs, and a reboot which to their surprise [[SuperGullible Jonah seems to believe every word of]]...at least until they take it even further and invent a phony trailer park based production studio. Leading to this exchange.
--> '''Jonah:''' Were any of those movies real?\\
'''Tom:''' Of course not, Jonah!\\
'''Crow:''' I just watched ''Carnival Magic'' and I'm not even sure that was real.\\
'''Jonah:''' That's a good point...did we even watch a movie just now?
* In ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' Season 2, "Real S.H.I.E.L.D." does this ''a lot''. They frequently criticize Coulson's actions and try to brush off any (factual) counterarguments they get. This is done most frequently with his decision to go to an ancient city with alien artifacts. Whenever it's pointed out that was done to deny HYDRA powerful weapons, they always try to twist things so that HYDRA doesn't matter. They also blame Fury's tendency towards secrets as the reason S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, once again smoothly ignoring that that was HYDRA.
* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'': Gavin Millarrrrrrrrrrrrrr's analysis of Neville Shunt's play which uses railway timetables as metaphors for a murder mystery goes on to say that "reality is illusion and the ambiguity is the only truth." Only the truth can't exist because the ambiguity within the play's context has made no room for it.
* Lorna on ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'', mostly due to her serious mental problems.
** In the first season, Lorna talks of her fiancee Christopher and how he's waiting for her to get out of jail. She seems heartbroken to hear he's moved on and engaged to someone else. In season 2, flashbacks reveal that Christopher is a man she went on ''one'' date with then ruthlessly stalked. At her trial for trying to put a bomb into the car of his real girlfriend, Christopher is talking about how he had to change homes and jobs twice while Lorna is smiling to her lawyer. "It sounds worse than it was."
** In season 6, Lorna marries Vince and gives birth to a child. In the final season, Vince breaks it to her that their son died after a short illness. Lorna is in total denial over it to the point of setting up her own Instagram account using pictures of other babies and telling everyone they're her son. When Vince talks to her, he sees she's so far gone that he has to divorce her. The final episode has Lorna in a mental ward in Florida still talking as if her son is alive.
* PlayedForLaughs on the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' "Bill Swerski's Superfans" skit. The group always believes "da Bears" will emerge victorious no matter what the current state of the team is or who their opponent is. Any time the team loses, they either assume Coach Ditka threw the game for a noble cause or flat out ignore it happened.
-->'''Bob Swerski:''' So far, da Bears are four and eight. And although they are technically mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, do not count them out.
** A 2020 sketch called "Sportsmax" imagines a sports network that continues to insist the New York Jets (winless at the time) were somehow undefeated, ignoring all evidence of 13 losses.
* The short-lived comedy ''Sunnyside'' has disgraced city councilman Garrett often in denial on how his drunken arrest caught on video has ruined what was already a pretty rough political career. The opening scene has him living in his office as he's dead broke due to overspending massively, thinking he could never lose his job. When a woman enters to kick him out, he tells her that "this is all going to blow over" and she's amazed he doesn't get he's been fired.
-->'''Diana''': The council voted to remove you. Unanimously.\\
'''Garrett''': ''[scoffing]'' "Unanimously?" What does that even mean?
* ''Series/KamenRiderZiO'' takes this trope to another meaning when [[FinalBoss Another Decade]] demonstrated the ability to put his victims and trap them in an endless GroundhogDayLoop pocket dimension where they were forced to relive their most regretful moments being replaced to suit their intended outcome (eg; Yukihiro reuniting with his deceased lover, Nishimura winning a past race that he actually lost).
* ''Series/WandaVision'': Throughout the show, more and more hints are dropped that Wanda is using her RealityWarper powers to reject her TraumaCongaLine reality and live in a safe sitcom instead.
* A key part of ''Series/You2018'' is Joe refusing to accept any life except being the nice guy in a rom-com seeking love, ignoring he's really a sociopathic and murderous stalker manipulating everyone.

[[folder:Machinima]]
* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'':
** Sarge. Nothing will convince him that he isn't a brilliant mechanic, that the Blue Team is not their diabolical and dastardly enemy, or that Grif could ever make Sergeant - to the point where when they reunite and "Sergeant Grif" is introduced, he asks where the invisible officer with the unfortunate name is. Somehow, he still manages to be a more competent leader than the other Reds and is something of a GeniusDitz when it comes to warfare.
** To a lesser extent, Caboose also fits this, combining it heavily with {{Cloudcuckoolander}}. When Church has to [[JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind jump inside his head]], we see just what sort of "reality" Caboose sees: Church (who can't stand Caboose in reality) is his overprotective best friend, Tucker is even more of an idiot than usual, Caboose himself is smart and erudite, Sarge has a pirate accent, Grif [[RunningGag wears yellow]], Donut (pink armor!) is a girl, and Sister is Church's yellow-wearing identical twin with a personality identical to the real Church instead of Caboose's made-up Church.

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/DoctorSteel is crazy. And a big believer in visualization and subjective reality. He calls himself a "Doctor of Reality Engineering."
* In Music/DeathspellOmega's ''The Furnaces of Palingenesia'', this is a major part of [[ANaziByAnyOtherName The Order's]] philosophy
--> We shall make you so impervious to the world that should all the Angels descend upon you and prove you wrong, [[NoSell you would simply shut your eyes and stop your ears]], for they would not deserve to be either seen or heard. Our teachings shall shield you from the world and turn you into an island in dead waters with high cliffs and no coves
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'': When Luke, Candace's mother's boyfriend, tries to molest Candace, Candace's mother declares that "It never happened," establishing herself with this and crossing the MoralEventHorizon. It may not be done out of malice, but a defense mechanism to avoid the pure horror of considering the alternative.
* Calvin of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' can be quoted thus: "It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The Soldier of ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''. In his ExcusePlot backstory, it's mentioned that he was rejected from the U.S. military but went to fight UsefulNotes/WorldWarII anyway. By himself. And he only stopped killing Germans when he heard that the war was over. In 1949.
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' series, this is revealed to be [[spoiler:how the Gnosis alien race thinks, and in fact, what makes them literally exist: The rejection of reality as it is]].
* The Qunari in ''Franchise/DragonAge'' are masters of willful ignorance whenever they have to deal with people who don't fit perfectly into the Qun. For example, it's established that only men can be soldiers. The fact that some of those soldiers happen to lack certain male attributes (as in, all of them) is irrelevant. They're soldiers, so they ''can't'' be women. Alternatively, they'll be shunted into one of the many combat roles that are not, strictly and technically, "soldiers" (it's a caste thing). Same goes for mages. Under the Qun, mages are dangerous things ("saarebas" literally means dangerous thing) that must be chained and leashed at all times. Anyone who earns the Qunari's respect that is able to use magic is not considered a mage. They are considered non-mages who just happen to be able to launch fireballs from their hands.
** The Iron Bull of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' shows this off in greater detail. He considers all warriors men, as long as they're suited up. Thus his Lieutenant Krem, a transgender man, always qualifies as male in his eyes while Bull only classes Cassandra, a cisgender woman, as male when she wears armor. This is because the Qunari can accept transgender individuals as long as that individual still conforms to gender roles. Similarly, while he's terrified of spirits and demons Cole is okay because "you may be a weird squirrely kid, but you're my weird squirrely kid."
** Sera of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' takes this to an even more baffling degree than many Qunari. She fights for the "common people" however she strictly defines "common people" as "non-noble, non-mage humans or surface dwarves." The Dalish? They weird common humans out so they must deserve what they get. [[BoomerangBigot City elves? Deserve what they get for being too "elfy"]]. Mages? Their power scares other people so they deserve to be locked up in the Circle system. Any amount of oppression faced by any group she does not like is that group's own fault and any part of the world that does not fit her worldview is "stupid". She will use any number of fallacies to argue her points and does ''not'' like being disagreed with, even if it's to offer a third option to a seemingly black and white question. She gets a little better in the epilogue DLC ''Trespasser'' and undergoes a bit of character development there.
* Halfway into ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'', [[spoiler:protagonist Captain Walker already ignored his orders to simply scout out the situation and instead gotten involved in Dubai's conflict, leading to his team making enemies of the American soldiers stationed there. When he uses white phosphorus mortars to clear out an enemy camp and finds the corpses of dozens of civilians in the aftermath, Walker snaps. He blames everything on the renegade Colonel Konrad and declares that he never had a choice in proceeding, and continues to go forward with his "mission" of making the colonel and the 33rd Infantry pay for what "they" did. It's only at the end of the game, when he sees [[DeadAllAlong Konrad's corpse]], that Walker is forced to confront the truth]].
* Captain Cook in ''VideoGame/EiyuuSenkiTheWorldConquest'' is deathly afraid of ghosts and her character arc involves investigating a way to overcome that fear. She does so by coming to the conclusion that ghosts do not actually exist and, therefore, that isn't what she's fighting against despite the fact the player's party faces off against numerous ghost units and one of the playable characters is a ghost herself.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'''s DLC has Dara Hubble, leader of [[ChurchOfHappyology the Hubologists]], who has brought her followers to the Nuka-World amusement park in search of a spaceship that will take her and her followers to the alien paradise that is the center of their religion. The player character, being considerably smarter than her, can point out that the "spaceship" she's so fixated on is nothing more than a decommissioned [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitron Gravitron]] ride. Dara promptly claims that the player's mind is too "limited by Neurodynes" to see the truth available to her, with her "expanded mental powers". [[spoiler: This can come back to bite her; if the player fully charges up the ride, its broken controls means it proceeds to whip her and the rest of her followers around so hard that they are all ''torn apart'' by the centrifugal forces.]]
* Salvatore in ''VideoGame/Disgaea3AbsenceOfJustice'' believes so strongly in her own authority over everyone (including people she is currently battling), that she frequently gives them completely impossible instructions to follow, and is incapable of understanding that her requests are unreasonable, even in the crazy Disgaea universe. This has interesting results in her DLC scenario in ''VideoGame/DisgaeaD2ABrighterDarkness'' when she meets the LawfulStupid Barbara, who is so conditioned to follow orders that she [[AchievementsInIgnorance actually obeys]].
-->'''Salvatore:''' Master Big Star, you will burrow underground and attack me with 5,000,000°C magma! Aim for my heart! The rest of you, transform into a giant invincible robot and blast the area with a -5000°C blizzard!
** ''VideoGame/Disgaea4'': The director of Netherworld Communications insists TheBattleDidntCount. Repeatedly. Despite being the only breathing member remaining. Valvatorez counters by threatening to whoop her ass every time she says that.
** ''VideoGame/Disgaea4'' also features Fuka, who refuses to accept that she's died and reincarnated in Hades as an 'unprinny'. Instead, she staunchly insists that her experiences are AllJustADream, long past the point of any deniability.
* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'': At the end of the game, [[spoiler:Batman is unmasked as Bruce Wayne by Scarecrow on live television]]. The Riddler refuses to believe it, telling Batman he's far too smart to fall for such a trick. To him, a RichIdiotWithNoDayJob like Bruce Wayne couldn't have the intelligence of Batman or even the average citizen, thus this is an impossibly large ruse with everyone working together to fool him. The fact that ''literally everyone else'' sees it as the truth is taken by him as proof of it being a lie, since he's clearly smarter than them anyway.
* At the end of the first season of ''VideoGame/BatmanTheTelltaleSeries'', if Batman chooses to reveal his identity to BigBad [[spoiler:Vicki Vale, she]] cannot wrap [[spoiler:her]] head around the truth as [[spoiler:she's convinced that Bruce is just as bad as [[AdaptationalVillainy his father, Thomas]]]] it's rejected and claims that he uses his identity as Batman to prey on the innocent.
* In the climax of ''VideoGame/Halo2'', Tartarus is told in no uncertain terms that the Halo rings are weapons of mass destruction designed to wipe out all life in the galaxy, not religious artifacts as the Covenant religion claims. He refuses to accept it [[spoiler:and activates the ring]]. This is actually exactly why the Prophet of Truth had the Brutes replace the Elites in the Covenant's FantasticCasteSystem, the Elites' intelligence and honor would allow them to recognize the truth (evidenced by the fact that the Arbiter ''does'' accept it), whereas the Brutes were blindly obedient.
* The true villain of ''VideoGame/Psychonauts2'', [[spoiler: Gristol aka Nick Johnsmith]], while not mentally ill like many of the other minds Raz has explored, has built his entire worldview upon [[spoiler: delusions of grandeur and a childish sense of entitlement that colors everything he does. He equates his own childhood luxury to Grulovia's prosperity, when really it was a PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny that was plagued with unrest from the peasantry, and the ruling class responded by using Lucy as a one-woman attack-squad to silence them. He thinks of Maligula as his country's secret weapon and that the Psychonauts were a meddling foreign power jealous of their greatness, when really she was a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds who snapped under the stress his family put her through and that the Psychic Six were recruited by the rebel peasantry to prevent her from destroying the world. He believes his family lived homeless and in squalor, when really his family managed to escape their own country [[KarmaHoudini with their lives and fortune virtually unscathed]], subsisting on caviar in a five-star luxury hotel. His entire end-goal is to find Maligula and revive her, thinking that she will remain loyal to his family, [[DidntThinkThisThrough completely overlooking]] the fact that his own father tried to kill her when she grew out of control, that she might not be happy to see him and that [[EvilIsNotAToy her destructive power is about as discriminating as a nuclear bomb]].]]
[[/folder]]

* This is pretty much the embodiment of Cartman's character on ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''.
** The episode "Fishsticks" has Jimmy and Cartman (mostly Jimmy) come up with a ridiculously popular joke. Over the course of the episode, we keep seeing Cartman's flashbacks of how they came up with it, [[SelfServingMemory each more glorifying Cartman than the last]]. In the end, Cartman has himself so convinced he SOLELY came up with the joke, that he won't admit otherwise, even when threatened with death, and has himself convinced that Jimmy is the delusional one for remembering accurately.
** Best evidenced when, after [[CurbstompBattle getting completely thrashed by Wendy]], he decides that the other boys saying they never thought he was cool meant that they were trying to spare his feelings, [[InsaneTrollLogic thus proving he was cool]].

* This seems to be Peep's attitude toward Heloise on ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes''. No matter how angrily or violently she rejects his advances, Peep is convinced she's just teasing, and that Heloise will love him too. Not helping is the fact that Heloise ''did'' date him, but only [[OperationJealousy to make Jimmy jealous]].

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''. Ronaldo Fryman, upon hearing his insane conspiracy theories proven false:
--> '''Ronaldo''': Don't get hung up on these minor facts! Truth is about ''more'' than that! Truth is a ''feeling in your gut'' that you ''know'' is true! Truth is searching for ''anything'' that proves you're right ''no matter how small'', and holding on to that, no matter what.
--> '''Steven''': That kinda sounds like the opposite of truth.

-->'''Detective:''' You know, she's just an actress.
-->'''Nelson:''' Shut up! Some of us prefer illusion to despair!

Compare GravityIsOnlyATheory, WindmillPolitical and TheoryTunnelvision. Contrast MrImagination and the {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, who have the more peaceful philosophy that they can "substitute their own reality" ''without'' this kind of fighting against everyone else's reality which they have rejected.

* [[EntitledToHaveYou Brett]] in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13310857/1/Through-His-Eyes Through His Eyes]]'' refuses to accept that [[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians Percy Jackson]] is anything but a dangerous criminal who abuses Annabeth Chase despite all evidence to the contrary.

** To a lesser extent, Caboose also fits this, combining it heavily with [=Cloudcuckoolander=]. When Church has to [[JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind jump inside his head]], we see just what sort of "reality" Caboose sees: Church (who can't stand Caboose in reality) is his overprotective best friend, Tucker is even more of an idiot than usual, Caboose himself is smart and erudite, Sarge has a pirate accent, Grif [[RunningGag wears yellow]], Donut (pink armor!) is a girl, and Sister is Church's yellow-wearing identical twin with a personality identical to the real Church instead of Caboose's made-up Church.

* Salvatore in ''VideoGame/Disgaea3AbsenceOfJustice'' believes so strongly in her own authority over everyone (including people she is currently battling), that she frequently gives them completely impossible instructions to follow, and is incapable of understanding that her requests are unreasonable, even in the crazy Disgaea universe. This has interesting results in her DLC scenario in Disgaea D2 when she meets the LawfulStupid Barbara, who is so conditioned to follow orders that she [[AchievementsInIgnorance actually obeys]].

"What do you mean that guy from ''Series/MythBusters'' [[WeirdAlEffect wasn't the first one to say it]]?"

'''Naomi:''' [[ShutUpHannibal No you're not.]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist I have good intentions?]] [[TheRival Raye Penber]] [[ExtremeDoormat is wallpaper?]] [[LooksLikeSheIsEnjoyingIt I don't get high off the murders of rapists and other murderers?]] I can keep going, you know, if I really want to.\\

* ''WebComic/EightBitTheater''. If a character is around long enough they ''will'' do this at some point. Highlights include Fighter's belief that he's best friends with Black Mage, and everything involving King Steve or Red Mage. Of course, oftentimes the "crazy" person's version of reality will be ''right'', usually because it's [[RuleOfFunny funnier that way]].