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5%%This list is in alphabetical order. Please put new examples in the correct place.
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8[[quoteright:152:[[Comicstrip/CalvinAndHobbes https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/calvinandhobbes_popcorn_2571.png]]]]
9
10->''"Squidward, we don't need television. Not as long as we have our... '''Imaaginaaations!'''"''
11-->-- '''[=SpongeBob=]''', ''WesternAnimation/{{SpongeBob SquarePants}}'', "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS3E4NastyPattyIdiotBox Idiot Box]]"
12
13A person with a huge imagination, who spends most of the time in their own imaginary world, frequently out of touch with reality. Often the main character, and usually a CheerfulChild and/or a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}. A show with them has lots of [[FantasySequence imagination sequences]] (which they may or may not [[ActingOutADaydream act out]]), maybe also [[DreamSequence dream ones]]. May have an ImaginaryFriend. In many (but not all) instances, the imaginative character is a RealityWarper, and their odd daydreams [[YourMindMakesItReal can temporarily become real]].
14
15Contrast LackOfImagination, for someone who can't imagine very well.
16
17In UsefulNotes/AnimeFanSpeak this is one of the symptoms of "{{Chuunibyou}}", and the most famous. You might have been looking for ''Literature/LoveChunibyoAndOtherDelusions'' and also [[{{Chuunibyou}} the trope itself]].
18
19----
20!!Examples:
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22[[foldercontrol]]
23
24[[folder:Advertising]]
25* Non-character example: the "Use Your Imagination" promo that ran in the early 2000s on Creator/PBSKids to signal the start of the block as well as being at the beginning of tapes distributed by PBS pretty much is this trope, encouraging children to, well, use their imaginations. It even says "Even when it's raining, you can make the sky blue" in the most cheerful manner possible.
26[[/folder]]
27
28[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
29* ''Manga/AharenSanWaHakarenai'': Male lead Raido has a tendency to imagine elaborate scenarios over any seemingly odd behavior. When Aharen gives him a little decorative skull as a souvenir following a trip to the seaside, Raido imagines Aharen becoming a fish-poaching pirate who intends to see him join her. What actually happened was Aharen went to the beach by Tokyo Disney and the skull was a ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' souvenir.
30* Junichi from ''VisualNovel/AkaneIroNiSomaruSaka'' suffered from this -- it would seem all the "Geno Killer" rumours are based on how he acted back then, but exaggerated and spread by his friends. In fact he still fights with the old version of himself in his mind. He gets called out on this directly in the final episode of the anime when he claims to [[spoiler:have sealed his old self, with the aid of his old fingerless gloves]].
31* Suzu from ''Amuri in Star Ocean'' has an elaborate escapist fantasy world in her mind, complete with and ImaginaryFriend named General Panda.
32* Mira from ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'' is significantly more imaginative than the rest of the cast, often resulting in off-tangent {{Imagine Spot}}s in relation to the issue on hand. A RunningGag in this series is that she needs to get fact-checked by the character who happens to be close by, be it [[TheQuietOne Ao]], [[{{Tsundere}} Mikage]], or even [[LovableSexManiac Moe]].
33* ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'':
34** Osaka, as part of being a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, tends to come up with weird fantasy sequences.
35** Sakaki is prone to imagining stuff as well, though for the most part it's limited to [[CutenessProximity petting cute animals]], with special emphasis on [[KindheartedCatLover felines]].
36* While Teru of ''Manga/CastleTownDandelion'' does have [[SuperStrength a superpower]] that's appropriate for his delusions, he's the second-youngest child of a very ModestRoyalty, rather than a {{shonen}} hero. He watched too much anime, perhaps?
37* [[{{Bifauxnen}} Tsubasa]] of ''Manga/ComicGirls'' has a very active imagination and enjoys acting out the characters of [[SequentialArtist her manga]] in order to write their dialogue. Fall short of {{Chuunibyou}} by the fact that she's actually the most mature of the main quartet most of the time.
38* ''Anime/FiveCentimetersPerSecond'': Takaki imagines sequences where he is a bird flying over landscapes, and in his teenage years had dreams of being on an exotic alien planet with a woman who looks like Akari.
39* Kisaragi from ''Manga/GAGeijutsukaArtDesignClass'' has the tendency to withdraw into her rather extensive fantasies, which often involve kittens or bunnies.
40* Midori Asakusa, the principal character of ''Manga/KeepYourHandsOffEizouken'', has had a big imagination ever since she was a child and sometimes loses herself in flights of fancy while trying to imagine how the background elements in her anime would work.
41* From Creator/KyotoAnimation: ''Literature/LoveChunibyoAndOtherDelusions'':
42** All of the main cast are current or former examples of this trope due to their teenage delusions.
43** Yuuta was one when he was in middle school under the persona of "[[PlayingWithFire Dark Flame Master]]". It is a {{deconstruction}}, as he was given AllTheOtherReindeer treatment by his old schoolmates, eventually got over his past tendencies and treated that phase as his OldShame.
44** Rikka is still one despite being a tenth grader. She constantly sees the world through the lens of her imaginative identity, an ElegantGothicLolita "the Wicked Eye."
45** [[CanonImmigrant Sanae Dekomori]] is under the delusion of "Mjolnir Maul", a mid-range fighter/mage.
46** Like Yuuta, [[spoiler: Shinka was a former example, under the delusion of being a mage called "Mori Summer"]].
47** Satone is a special case--she knew her MagicalGirl delusion isn't real, but still acts like this trope because it is fun.
48* Keitaro from ''Manga/LoveHina'' was pretty bad about this, at least early on in the series.
49* [[MrFanservice Hosaka]] from ''Manga/MinamiKe'', usually centred around his obsession with [[MsFanservice Haruka]]. He even fantasizes that her younger sisters are his daughters after being told Haruka "had kids".
50* Takeya Yuki of ''Manga/SchoolLive'' is a tragically [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]] example: [[TragicDream imagining a normal, happy life]] in the midst of a ZombieApocalypse.
51* Ichigo from ''Manga/SeiyusLife'' created a persona of being a princess from the Strawberry Planet to make herself more memorable and will occasionally switch into it mid-sentence.
52%%* The titular Shimajiro from ''Anime/ShimaShimaToraNoShimajiro''.
53* The band [=ShingenCrimsonZ=] from ''Anime/ShowByRock'', The band ([[OnlySaneMan save Rom]]) generally acts like they're mysterious and powerful both on and off the stage. Aion in particular has AGodAmI down pat.
54* ''Manga/{{Sketchbook}}'':
55** Ryou and Fuu who manage to inhabit their imaginary world ''together''. This is more pronounced in the manga than in the anime, though.
56** Sora is also a dreamer to a lesser extent.
57* Okabe Rintaro from ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'', frequently pointed out by Makise Kurisu. Faris also has frequent bouts of this, which leads to some very entertaining scenes where she and Okabe build off each other's imaginations to create some truly epic fantasies. Okabe sometimes claims that Faris has an even more active and delusional imagination than he does, which is saying quite a lot.
58* Julia from ''Manga/StrawberryShakeSweet'' often has very vivid fantasies about Ran.
59%%* Bud from ''Anime/TransformersCybertron.''
60* ''Literature/WhenSupernaturalBattlesBecameCommonplace'': Andou's defining characteristic is being a super [[{{Chuunibyou}} chuuni]]. He is referred to as such multiple times per episode. And then there's Kiryuu. Ironically he's the most emotionally and socially mature of the club.
61* Tomoe from the third ''AudioPlay/YandereNoOnnaNoKo CD'' has delusions about being the Protagonist's lover in a past life.
62* Yotsuba from ''Manga/{{Yotsuba}}'' has shades of this, but she generally tries to involve other people in her fantasies. Where by "involve" we mean "drag along willy-nilly in her wake".
63[[/folder]]
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65[[folder:Comic Books]]
66* ''Cath et Son Chat'' occasionally has gags with Sushi (the cat in question) imagining something he would have wanted to be, or wants to do someday. This has left Cath and Nathan confused by his behavior at least once.
67* Even though all Franchise/{{Green Lantern}}s have an ImaginationBasedSuperpower, most of them tend to have underwhelming imaginations and generally fight as {{Barrier Warrior}}s. Kyle Rayner, however, stands out from the bunch for his powerful imagination, thanks to him being an artist, which allows him to come up with very creative ways to take down his foes.
68** John Stewart, an architect, also sometimes ([[DependingOnTheWriter depending on the artist]]) creates very detailed and precise constructs. Lampshaded in one story where it's mentioned that Hal's tend to be kind of cartoony, Kyle's are very artsy, and John's seem like machines with intricately working parts.
69* ''{{ComicBook/Fables}}'' spin off ''Jack of Fables'' introduces us to Babe the Blue Ox, who is generally oblivious to whatever's going on (when someone talks to him their speech bubbles appear as gibberish, and he seems totally uncaring of the fact that all hell can be breaking loose around him), instead having page-long monologues in his thought bubbles. The monologues are related to various fantastic stories he's making up on the spot (and don't appear to have any relation to what's actually happening), and there seems to be no continuous narrative thread between them.
70[[/folder]]
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72[[folder:Comic Strips]]
73* Calvin from ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' is a major example of this trope, as can be seen in the page image. More than half the time, he's in his own little world trying to escape the harshness and boredom of reality.
74%%* Alice Otterloop from ''ComicStrip/CulDeSac''.
75* ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} has his moments of doing this, typically to cope with the mundane boredom that comes with being a cat who belongs to a milquetoast loser like Jon. He's had his run-ins with ''THE COLESLAW THAT TIME FORGOT'' (AIIIIEEEEEE) while cleaning out the refridgerator, has imagined himself as all manner of different kind of cats, and once explained to viewers that "reality is what you make of it"... while imagining himself living with ''much'' finer accrouements than the box he sleeps in and the sludgy cat food he ususally eats.
76* Snoopy from ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' developed into a canine {{Expy}} of [[OlderThanTheyThink Walter Mitty]], beginning with [[https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1952/04/04 an early strip]] where he imagines himself talking and giving orders to humans instead of vice-versa.
77[[/folder]]
78
79[[folder:Fan Works]]
80* Deconstructed in the ''Sonic the Hedghog'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Fallen Angel|TylecAsroc}}''. Amy has a big imagination, however, being [[TokenMinority one of the only hedgehogs in town]] and [[FriendlessBackground being ignored by older kids]] at her orphanage, she needed to be imaginative in order to stop herself from getting bored or depressed.
81* Played with in a dark way for ''Fanfic/TheRugratsTheory''. In it, Angelica from ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' made up the babies (except Dil) after Tommy [[TragicStillbirth was stillborn]], Chuckie [[DeathOfAChild died]], Phil and Lil were aborted, and Kimi was taken away by social services. However, in some versions she's just imagining them because she has no friends apart from Susie, and in others, she's hallucinating them. In the original story, it was a bit of both-- she initially simply imagined them, but when she turned to drugs, she started hallucinating them.
82* Vale, from the ''[[Literature/TheHungerGames Hunger Games]]'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/SomeSemblanceOfMeaning'', used to be a female version, due to [[MostWritersAreWriters her writing aspirations]], but she has little time for daydreaming these days, seeing as she is currently stuck in the arena in the 44th Hunger Games.
83[[/folder]]
84
85[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
86* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBossBaby'', Tim has a greatly vivid imagination and his teaching the Boss Baby to share in the joys of this is a plot point. His greatest moments are often presented as an ImagineSpot, with an accompanying ArtShift.
87* The character Vincent from ''Anime/CowboyBebopKnockinOnHeavensDoor'' lives in a constantly delusional psychosis that makes him see butterflies everywhere. This is ''[[PlayedForDrama not]]'' [[PlayedForDrama played for comedy]], as his unstable mental state led him to become a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds.
88* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe1'': Agnes has very fanciful desires, such as wanting a pet unicorn and wanting to live in a house made of Gummi bears.
89* ''WesternAnimation/HortonHearsAWho2008'':
90** Horton is a bit of a dreamer, imagining himself as an anime hero and planning to build a secret society where everybody wears a funny hat.
91** Katie spends most of her time daydreaming, and she thinks up a world full of ponies who eat rainbows and poop butterflies.
92* ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'': Implied for Riley. Her imaginary friend at age three was a cat/elephant/dolphin hybrid who cried candy, and she has a place in her mind-dimension called Imagination Land, which is very vast and full of places with kooky names, such as "Princess Dream World".
93* ''Franchise/ToyStory'': Andy has a vivid imagination and acts out elaborate stories with the toys (who, unbeknown to him, are [[LivingToys sentient]]). While he stops playing with them in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'', the imagination never goes away, as demonstrated by him making up a story with Bonnie. Bonnie herself is also a Ms. Imagination, thinking up even ''crazier'' stories (such as a bakery haunted by [[PieInTheFace pie-throwing]] ghosts).
94[[/folder]]
95
96[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
97%%* A young French woman Amélie Poulain from ''Film/{{Amelie}}''.
98* ''Film/AntoniasLine'':
99** Antonia's daughter. For example, she imagines an angel statue hitting the priest with a wing, and imagines her dead grandmother sitting up and singing at her funeral.
100** Later, Antonia's great-granddaughter has a similar vision the day Antonia dies, seeing family members long dead happily visiting a family picket. Note that only two people in Antonia's line have the visions: the artist (the daughter) and the great-granddaughter (hinted to become a writer). The two that don't have any visions are Antonia (a farmer) and her granddaughter (a mathematician).
101* Nick Chapman, the protagonist of ''Film/TheBigPicture'', frequently imagines scenes from his life playing out the way they would in a movie. Understandable, as he did just graduate from film school.
102* ''Film/{{Brazil}}'' has a variant. Sam Lowry has a vivid dreamlife which he thinks about during his waking life. Specifically; the [[GirlOfMyDreams Girl Of His Dreams]].
103%%* Kitten from ''Film/BreakfastOnPluto''.
104* Carl Spackler from ''Film/{{Caddyshack}}'' is a lowly groundskeeper who spends his days fantasizing about becoming a champion golfer, and provides his own narration as well.
105* ''Film/{{Daredreamer}}'' revolves around Winston, a highly imaginative kid whose daydreams are so vivid the viewer sees them as really happening. This is deconstructed in that they're so realistic he has trouble with his schoolwork, while Jennie, who shares the compulsion, is much more high-functioning.
106* In ''Film/DoraAndTheLostCityOfGold'', Dora and Diego were like this as kids-- the [[WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer original series]] and its [[WesternAnimation/GoDiegoGo spinoff]] are rewritten to be just the childhood imaginings of Dora and Diego.
107* In''Film/TheFall'', much of the movie is made up of sequences Alexandria imagines while Roy tells the story. Her fantasies are the story acted out with people from around the hospital as the main characters.
108* ''Film/FightClub'': A darker variation on this is the adult (and apparently sane) [[spoiler:main character]].
109* James Barrie spends much of ''Film/FindingNeverland'' imagining a more fantastic version of the events he's experiencing, ranging from games with the Llewelyn Davies boys (a western shootout with the boys as cowboys and James as a native; a pirate ship with the boys as pirate captives of James and Sylvia) to "enhanced" versions of the events he's seeing (raining in the theater as his play bombs; the boys starting to fly as they jump on their beds).
110* ''Film/GleahanAndTheKnavesOfIndustry:'' Gleahan thinks he lives in a fantasy world.
111* ''Film/DrWaiInTheScriptureWithNoWords'', starring Jet Li as Chow, a writer struggling with writer's block, who often daydreams himself as his fictional creation, Dr. Wai the badass AdventurerArchaeologist (also played by Jet Li, in an ActingForTwo moment) while he writes his stories.
112%%* Bo Baker from ''Film/HighStakes''.
113* In ''Film/TheManWhoInventedChristmas'' Dickens' imagination is so vivid the characters come to life and converse with him and each other.
114* Nathan from ''Film/NathansKingdom'' has built an elaborate mythology around the titular kingdom, with an entire book full of writings and sketches, and costumes and personas for himself and Laura. He's constantly seeing things from his kingdom in real life.
115* Alice, in ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet4TheDreamMaster'' spent a lot of time in daydreams.
116* A heartbreakingly darker version is from ''[[Literature/{{Push}} Precious]]'' with the main character, an impoverished, morbidly obese, illiterate and pregnant [[spoiler:through incestuous rape]] Black teenager deals with her painful existence by fantasizing about how she is a world-famous and well-loved celebrity with a [[ButNotTooBlack light-skinned boyfriend]] and respected by her abusive mother and her indifferent teacher. Even when her mother informs her that [[spoiler: her father is dead from AIDS and that she possibly has been exposed herself]], Precious goes back into her fantasy world briefly, only for her mother to [[KickTheDog point out how irritated she is by her not listening to her due to her fantasizing.]]
117* In ''Film/RamonaAndBeezus'', Ramona has many imagination sequences, most involving her as a BoldExplorer.
118* The protagonist of ''Film/TheSecretLifeOfWalterMitty'' has a habit of spacing out and going on elaborate daydreams centered around either romancing the woman he has a crush on or confronting his asshole boss, AKA things that he lacks the backbone to do in real life. However, after he proceeds to go on adventures around the world the dreams become less frequent since he's living them out in real life.
119* Richard Sherman, the protagonist of ''Film/TheSevenYearItch''. He once actually imagines his wife telling him that he has an overactive imagination.
120* Teddy Daniels in ''Film/ShutterIsland'' thinks he's in an investigation solving the case of a lost patient while seeking revenge against Andrew Laeddis for killing his wife. He actually is [[spoiler:Andrew Laeddis and is a patient at Shutter Island.]]
121* The main character, Babydoll in ''Film/SuckerPunch'' spends most of the movie in imaginary dream sequences (in which she is engaging in erotic dancing). Near the end, we find the trope amplified since [[spoiler:she was lobotomized early in the film]].
122* ''Film/TooManyHusbands:'' Miss Houlihan, the secretary at Lowndes and Cardew, was in love with both her bosses; she fantasized about being Vicky and marrying both of them.
123* George Newman, Music/WeirdAlYankovic's character in ''Film/{{UHF}}'', often has flights of fancy parodying famous films such as ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', ''Film/FirstBlood'' and ''Film/GoneWithTheWind''. One daydream takes the form of a parody of Music/DireStraits' "Money for Nothing" video.
124[[/folder]]
125
126[[folder:Literature]]
127* ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfTomSawyer'': Tom, and to a lesser extent, his best friend Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, like to have imaginary adventures such as reenacting ''Myth/RobinHood'' and fantasising on their futures.
128* In the ''Alfie'' books, Alfie and Bernard like to pretend they're pirates, and at one point they pretend Annie Rose (Alfie's sister) is a crocodile.
129* In ''Alice the Fairy'', Alice [[NeverTrustATitle isn't really a fairy]]-- she only dresses as one and pretends to be one. She also pretends that her dinner is poison and legitimately tries to make her dog levitate.
130* An alternate interpretation of the novel/film ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'' is that Patrick Bateman is an horrifically morbid example of this trope.
131* L.M. Montgomery's ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'' series:
132** Anne Shirley, the main character, is the epitome of this trope. She likes imagining herself as a wealthy lady named Lady Cordelia, pretends her reflection and echo are separate girls, and thinks up creative names for various objects and places (e.g. calling Barry's Pond the "Lake of Shining Waters"). While she learns some lessons about not letting her imagination run away with her, she never completely outgrows this trope, even as an adult.
133** All of Anne's children fit this trope to some degree, though Nan is easily the most like her mother in how imaginative she is. Like Anne, as a young girl she learns how she shouldn't let her imagination blind her to reality.
134%%* An example with Karen, Kristy's stepsister, from ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub''.
135* ''Best Friends'' by Creator/StevenKellogg has Kathy constantly come up with elaborate fantasy sequences that often change in tone depending on her mood.
136%%* Billy Fisher from ''Literature/BillyLiar'' and ''Billy Liar on the Moon'' by Keith Waterhouse, and various adaptations.
137* In ''The Boy Who Made Things Up'', by Creator/MargaretMahy, the eponymous boy likes to go for walks and make some of the things he's saying up. He's such a good pretender that he even convinces his father that he has a sunburn when they pretend to go to the beach.
138* Leslie Burke from ''Literature/BridgeToTerabithia''. The titular magical kingdom is something she created with her imagination, and later on the magic is passed on to Jess Aarons [[spoiler: after her death]].
139* ''WesternAnimation/CharlieAndLola'': Lola plays pretend on the regular, and when Charlie explains something to her, she will often have a daydream sequence about it.
140* In ''The Day I Lost My Superpowers'', the girl pretends that she can fly, make things disappear, turn invisible, [[SpeaksFluentAnimal speak to animals]] and plants, breathe underwater, [[MindOverMatter move things without touching them]], and go back in time to when she was a baby.
141* Literature/DonQuixote who believes he's a knight and imagines many things that don't exist, such as a herd of sheep being an army and windmills being giants.
142* Fitz Kreiner of the Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures is first introduced using his imagination to pretend he's leading a much more interesting life than he actually has. After he meets [[DoomMagnet the Doctor]] and his life [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor becomes much more interesting]], he pretends to be heroic and glamorous characters to cope with terrifying and stressful situations. He's masqueraded as Film/JamesBond, [[Literature/TheSaint Simon Templar]] and Music/FrankSinatra, as well as a few {{Original Character}}s.
143* ''Literature/EmilysRunawayImagination'': The titular character has an imagination that "runs away" with her-- she pretends the washing machine can talk and the house is haunted, and is convinced that her neighbour wants to kidnap her in the last chapter.
144* ''Literature/EugeneOnegin'' by Creator/AlexanderPushkin:
145** Vladimir Lensky is a naive dreamer of a poet. Very cute.
146** Tatyana is Miss Imagination. She's shy, quiet and timid, a great reader, and dreams about perfect love and has deep feelings. When Onegin leaves the country, she visits his mansion and reads his books, imagining what his thoughts were when he was reading the books as she reads his notes and scribbles written on the pages.
147* ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'': Phantasies is an old man living in the castle of Alma whose room is filled with a fly for every passing thought a person can have and drawings of every image one could imagine. He meditates on these day in and day out, making him seem a bit of a madman.
148* In ''Literature/FireAndHemlock'', Polly is a daydreamer. When she meets Tom Lynn, and they start to make up stories together, those stories have a tendency to become real.
149%%* Rafael from ''Literature/GivesLight'' is an unusually grumpy example of this trope.
150* Adam from ''Literature/GoodOmens'' by Creator/TerryPratchett and Creator/NeilGaiman. It also takes on the RealityWarper subset. Namely, he likes to imagine things like [=UFOs=] and being leader of a fantasy kingdom... but because he's the Antichrist (albeit an AntiAntichrist) his imaginings change reality.
151* ''Literature/GroundControlToPsychoelectricGirl'' has Erio Touwa, who started believing she was an alien after she disappeared for six months, with no memory of what happened. There's also Yashiro Hoshimiya, who believes she's an Alien [[PsychicPowers ESPer]], and always wears a spacesuit.
152* Harold from ''Literature/HaroldAndThePurpleCrayon'' and other books qualifies, though to what extent is unclear. On the surface, it looks as though he's imagining things, drawing, and then the drawings come to life, but the coming to life may also just be his imagination too.
153* Haruhi Suzumiya of ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'' frequently melds her imagination with real life through {{Reality Warp|er}}ing -- ''[[LockedOutOfTheLoop and isn't even aware of it]]''. Her friends go to great lengths to keep her entertained and hide the truth from her out of concern that she might destroy the world they know and replace it with something far stranger.
154* Johnny Maxwell, the young teenager from the ''Literature/JohnnyMaxwellTrilogy'' (''Only You Can Save Mankind'', ''Johnny and the Dead'', ''Johnny and the Bomb'') by Creator/TerryPratchett. He is rather introverted, quiet, sober and has few friends. He isn't one of the cool kids, he isn't uncool, he's socially invisible. Of course, in the books reality is much stranger than Johnny's imagination, or sometimes his imagination spills over into reality. He listens, and the silent people begin talking to him; video game aliens speak to him in his dreams, he can see the spirits of the dead while walking home from school through the cemetery of his small English town, and he learns the ability to travel through time and to take others with him, from an old "differently sane" trolley (a shopping cart, for Americans) lady. In other cultures and times, Johnny would have been a shaman, or a visionary. When asked if the events of the books were "really happening", or were merely Johnny's imagination coping, [[WordOfGod Pratchett replied]] that it was probably both: "He deals with all the problems on their own terms and half the time he's projecting reality onto fantasy. So: is what happens in the books real? Yes. Does it all happen in Johnny's head? Yes."
155* ''Literature/KagerouDaze'': Kido is a [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] example; she leads the Mekakushi Dan (Blindfold Gang), and likes to invoke and cultivate a JapaneseDelinquents-esque image with simple rules like "always wear your hood up" and "block out the world with your headphones". The lyrics of her ImageSong, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM-U279Z03c Blindfold Code]], seem like she's describing the gang as a non-exclusive club of heroes, and that secret missions are a daily occurrence. [[spoiler:To be fair, the first thing we see the gang do is prevent a terrorist attack, and the story is on a time-loop lasting 2 days, so that last part is technically true]].
156* ''Kyla May Miss. Behaves'': The titular Kyla May is an adolescent girl with an ''incredibly'' overactive imagination; the books are presented as her diaries, which are brimming with drawings and vivid descriptions of her flights of fancy and dreams for the future. This is deconstructed in that this [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny seriously hinders her ability to focus]], often to the detriment of her grades, despite her being very clever. Her imagination and creativity are both portrayed as good qualities that make her a fun, cheerful person, but much of the series has her trying to strike a balance between her fantasy world and the real one.
157* ''Literature/LittleWomen'': Beth March, the shy and quiet one of the sisters. Her "little world was peopled with imaginary friends," and she cares for her sisters' cast-off dolls as if they were invalids in a hospital.
158* ''Literature/MadameBovary'': Poor Emma, she was a victim of this trope. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman with vivid imagination, but lacked common sense. She saw her life as a romantic novel and imagined herself as an aristocrat or at least a noble city dweller, and best would be Paris. She a farmer's daughter who married a stupid middle class doctor and they live in a small town. She's WrongGenreSavvy, and suffers terribly. Her family even more so.
159* Himeka of ''Literature/{{Oreshura}}'' can't stop talking about past lives and alternate dimensions. It seems that the protagonist, Eita, was an example of this in the past, as well, and being blackmailed over it is what kicks off the plot to begin with.
160* ''Literature/PeterPan'': Subverted for the Darling children, who seem to be having fantasies about the eponymous flying boy and his fantasy dimension called Neverland, but then it turns out that Peter and Neverland really exist.
161%%* Dallas in Sharon Creech's ''Ruby Holler''.
162* In ''Literature/SamBangsAndMoonshine'', Sam is very imaginative and makes things up such as her mother is a mermaid and she has a pet kangaroo.
163* The definitive example of this trope may be the main character of Creator/JamesThurber's short story "Literature/TheSecretLifeOfWalterMitty", first published in 1939. Indeed, "Walter Mitty" is often used as a kind of generic term for any ineffectual dreamer. Other famous Misters Imagination, like John Candy's character in ''Delirious'' or Snoopy, were based on his character.
164* Tre from ''Literature/{{Stuck}}'' begins off as one and, while he becomes less so in the later part of the book, he still has it. Definitely in the final chapters.
165* ''Literature/SwallowsAndAmazons'': All of the children spend most of their time imagining they're sailors on a stereotypical island with [[ImAHumanitarian cannibals]], etc. They refer to anyone not in on their game as "natives", and even when "Captain" Nancy gets the mumps, they [[ThrowItIn incorporate it into their game]] and make a plague flag.
166* This is how Tailchaser from ''Literature/TailchasersSong'' got his face-name. He was a dreamy kitten growing up. At his NamingCeremony, the elders thought that he was the type who wanted his tail-name (which cats must find on their own) before his face-name.
167* The [[NoNameGiven strictly speaking unnamed]] child protagonist in [[Literature/TheMoomins Tove Jansson's]] short story "A Tale of Horror" ("En hemsk historia"), who is very imaginative and can't tell apart reality and the things he imagines. After being left without dessert for claiming his little brother has been eaten by a snake, he decides to run away. He encounters Little My, who freaks him out by imagining even more horrible things than he does. Afterwards he's quite affronted that anyone could say such things when they are not really true.
168* [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in ''When the Windman comes'' By Antonia Michaelis. Pareidoile definitely has imagination - but since she imagines ''bad''' things (like [[spoiler: the Windman from the title]]), she lives in constant fear and is unable do many things other kids can.
169* In ''Literature/TheWorstThingAboutMySister'', Marty loves to make pretend adventures with her toy animals and write stories and draw comics of herself as a superhero.
170[[/folder]]
171
172[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
173* ''Series/AllyMcBeal'':
174** Ally. She dreams constantly and has a very, very vivid imagination. She sees herself literally dumping her boyfriends or being dumped by them, throwing people out of the window, being hit by arrows, hearing music in streets and people dancing to it, people singing and performing a dance number in their office and office bathroom, seeing an animated dancing baby or unicorns. It verges on (and sometimes crosses) the line of mental health and madness.
175** John Cage, a brilliant BunnyEarsLawyer, mentions he used to be a dreamer as a child. His fantasies were so intense that he felt them to be real. He also imagines himself to be Barry White in order to be confident with women and increase his charisma and sex appeal.
176** One episode featured Ally's former teacher who imagined a whole new life for herself to avoid facing her real life of loneliness. She imagined having a husband and several kids, though they were rather poor and faced troubles of normal life.
177%%* Andy from ''Series/AndyRichterControlsTheUniverse''.
178* The main character from the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Love and Monsters". An unintentionally darker example, as it could also count as a slight SanitySlippage.
179%%* Reginald Perrin in ''Series/TheFallAndRiseOfReginaldPerrin''.
180* ''Series/TheGoShow'' has Norman, the [[LivingToys sentient teddy bear]]. His favourite thing to do is pretend to be different occupations, such as pilot or submarine driver.
181* This is definitely PlayedWith in ''Series/{{House}}''. House, who already has a good deal of psychological problems, is also blessed with a tendency to experience massive hallucinations, mostly because of his drug (ab)use. This can lead to very weird, {{Mind Screw}}-esque situations, including (but not limited to) the end of season five, where House [[spoiler: hallucinates his intercourse with Cuddy]], or the end of season two, where House [[spoiler: ends up hallucinating ''an entire episode'' after being shot]].
182* ''Series/MurdochMysteries'': Detective William Murdoch is a highly rational version of Mr. Imagination. He frequently imagines himself to be at the crime scene as an observer of the murder when he deducts who is the killer. He often drifts off into DaydreamSurprise and ImagineSpot sequences, involving his love interest, a beautiful pathologist Dr. Ogden, or he imagines his future family life with a much-desired son who shares his passion for science.
183* One of the first examples on a television series, John Monroe (William Windom), the protagonist of ''Series/MyWorldAndWelcomeToIt''.
184* ''Series/TheNoddyShop'' has Kate Tomten, who often tells stories using dolls to help herself solve problems that she and her younger brother run into, and Planet Pup, who constantly pretends that he is a superhero from outer space.
185* In ''Series/ResshaSentaiToQger,'' the [=ToQgers=] are ''all'' this; their imagination-fueled powers demand it. The clearest example is Pink: normally more the type to duck and cover than do ChopSockey if a bunch of the BigBad's goon squad show up, when in battle she's at her most scared she imagines herself having super powers, and we get a cutesy ImagineSpot... followed by her using that power to deliver epic beatdowns. With the power of IMAGINAAAAAATION!!! the least Rangerly Ranger of all time is suddenly ''breaking metal chains with her bare hands.''
186* Kasumi of ''Series/SamuraiGourmet'' is a subdued example. His imagination produces vignettes where a nameless samurai shows him one way he could solve his current social dilemma. Since Kasumi is not a samurai, the amount of inspiration that can apply to the real world varies.
187* J.D. of ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' is one of the most well-known and highly-developed adult examples of this trope. His {{Imagine Spot}}s are rather famous.
188* [[BunnyEarsLawyer Lieutenant Barclay]] from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' had at least fifteen holodeck fantasy worlds in the episode "Hollow Pursuits", including one involving the senior officers in the role of the "Goddess of Empathy" and Literature/TheThreeMusketeers. After he realizes that he doesn't need that kind of escapism, he deletes all of his holodeck programs -- [[MrViceGuy except for number 9]]. There's also Geordi and Picard, who both like reenacting detective stories on the holodeck, although they do this more for fun than escapism.
189* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
190** Janeway, Paris, and Harry Kim aren't "in their own worlds" by any means, but they do like running a simulation of an old-timey Irish village. [[NotSoAboveItAll Janeway]] and Harry have even dated some of the simulated people!
191** The EMH becomes one in "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy" when he adds a program to his mind that enables him to daydream. He ends up spending most of his time [[HerCodeNameWasMarySue imagining himself as a hero]].
192* At the end of the series ''Series/StElsewhere'', we find the entire series has taken place in an autistic child's imagination.
193* A ''constructive'' variation is in the old Tvontario educational series, ''Series/WriteOn!'' where half the episodes were of Henry, a young reporter, gets reamed out by his editor on a mistake in writing and suddenly has a Walter Mittyesque daydream where he is a dashing hero having strange adventures that illustrate the particular writing lesson. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sSLbBeAK7w Here's a complete episode with one such daydream]].
194[[/folder]]
195
196[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
197* The kids from ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'' are the Reality Warper version of this-- they imagined that Barney, their stuffie dinosaur was real, which [[LivingToys causes him to come to life]].
198* Blue the dog from ''Series/BluesRoom'', a spin-off of ''WesternAnimation/BluesClues''.
199* Chica of ''Series/TheChicaShow'', as well as Kelly, Stitches, and Bunji.
200* ''Series/SesameStreet'':
201** Zoe, who pretends that her [[CompanionCube pet rock]] Rocco can talk, and holds conversations with it.
202** Dorothy, Elmo's goldfish, who keeps imagining Elmo as different things.
203** Susie Kabloozie has a song called "I Can Do it in My Head", about the things she can do in her head, but not in real life. They range from the mundane (be a movie star, leap a great big hurdle) to the bizarre (ride on the back of an ant, go to the moon on a manatee).
204** Ernie tends to have an imagination that runs away with him, worrying, for instance, that he's not there when Bert says, "I didn't know you were there". He also plays pretend a lot.
205** Telly, much like Ernie, keeps imagining ridiculous scenarios and worrying about them (e.g. that [[{{Balloonacy}} Maria will buy too many balloons and float up to space]]).
206** Cecille has a song called "The Game of Make-Believe", in which she imagines she's on the beach, doing things like dancing with a mango and swimming in chocolate.
207** One Claymation skit features [[WesternAnimation/HeyArnold a boy named Arnold]], who imagines his chair can fly, that the birds can talk, etc.
208[[/folder]]
209
210[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
211* Dreamers in ''Grimm'' were like this in the real world. This is ''mostly'' a good thing in the Grimm Lands, as it's based on imagination and fairy tales. Not only do they understand it better than anyone, but they're experts at reshaping it to their will -- any child with Imagination as their iconic core trait can do this, but not only do Dreamers have the highest starting Imagination, they get it as a ''free'' iconic core trait and can spend their normal one on another to increase their options, or on Imagination to have each Imagination they expend for this purpose count as two. The downside? Their getting lost in their own fantasies, thoughts, and nightmares makes them more susceptible to things that toy with their mind, like illusions or charm spells.
212* In Steve Jackson Games' ''TabletopGame/{{Toon}}: The Cartoon RPG'', the "Toony Tykes Adventures" setting allows players to make kid characters. All of them gain the power "Overactive Imagination" by default, which basically allows them to enact this trope.
213* TabletopGame/InDarkAlleys: one the character types is a ''Wonderlander''. People who find that the vivid imaginary worlds and friends they had as children are beginning to bleed into the real world. Wonderlanders can draw power from this but sometimes the effects can get out of control.
214[[/folder]]
215
216[[folder:Theater]]
217* Charlie Bucket in the 2013 stage musical version of ''Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' is more in touch with reality than most, prone to daydreaming but also using his vibrant imagination to make the best of his meager circumstances. As it turns out, a certain Mr. Willy Wonka (as suggested in his first song, "It Must Be Believed to Be Seen") started out this way as well, and from there became the MadScientist of sweets we know today...
218* Georgina Allerton in ''Theatre/DreamGirl'' is constantly drifting off into daydreams. Clark eventually notices this and tells her that "dreaming is easy and life is hard."
219%%* The song "On My Own" from ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' is all about this.
220%%* Jojo from ''Theatre/{{Seussical}}''.
221[[/folder]]
222
223[[folder:Theme Parks]]
224* Dreamfinder in the ''Ride/JourneyIntoImagination'' ride at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Epcot]] is all about imagination, though in this case he's actually able to bring anything that comes out of his or Figment's imagination to life. Which would make this overlap with ImaginationBasedSuperpower.
225[[/folder]]
226
227[[folder:Video Games]]
228* Alice of ''VideoGame/AmericanMcgeesAlice'' and ''VideoGame/AliceMadnessReturns'', as per [[Literature/AliceInWonderland the source material]]. Deconstructed in that she has obvious issues and is pretty delusional due her BreakTheCutie backstory in an insane asylum.
229* ''VideoGame/TheAwesomeAdventuresOfCaptainSpirit'' is ''all'' about this, as the main character Chris habitually pretends to be a superhero. Then deconstructed in his later appearance in ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange2'', where indulging in his fantasies results in him [[spoiler:getting hit by a police car and breaking some bones]].
230* The trailer for ''Private VideoGame/{{BEMANI}} Academy'', a cross-game event with various BEMANI in-house musicians in a HighSchoolAU, features MAX MAXIMIZER as a NewTransferStudent introducing himself as "the last guardian of corruption and despair" in a [[LargeHam hammy]] distorted voice while wearing a hooded cloak. It's clear he's just LostInCharacter in-universe and his antics aren't taken seriously, as his friend DJ TOTTO chimes in casually introducing himself as a fellow transfer student.
231* Deconstructed with the eponymous character of ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'', as his stories are influenced by growing up with an alcoholic father and Christian fundamentalist mother. How bad is it? [[spoiler:His idea of a bedtime story is one in which he imagines himself going through a basement full of monsters as he suffocates to death inside his toy chest]].
232* Melvin, one of the Nerds in ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}'', seems to be so addicted to his tabletop game persona that he appears to lose his touch with reality every now and then. He sometimes asks where his "rings of protection" are when being beat up, leaves conversations to "save a princess", and speaks in [[YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe broken Shakespearian English]] occasionally.
233* The title character of the NES game ''VideoGame/DayDreaminDavey'', since his imaginative daydreams often lead to trouble at school.
234* In ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'' you play as a police detective who can conduct conversations with the various pieces of his own mind, and with inanimated objects, provided enough points are put into the Inland Empire skill. How much of what's going on in his head is just his imagination versus hallucinations he can't control versus [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane the real possibility of some kind of supra-natural sixth sense]] is something of a sliding scale, and the game doesn't confirm anything one way or the other. In particular, the skills Esprit de Corps, Shivers, and most of all Inland Empire all provide "visions" of other people, places, and times he couldn't really be seeing -- yet the information is often scarily accurate. Even Visual Calculus, one of the game's most straightforward, sensible skills, fills your vision with glowing images of diagrams and measurements.
235* In ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasyVersus'', Lowain's victory animation reveals that the entire battle was simply a story he and his bros told each other at a tavern.
236* Sachiko Tanaka, one of the many recruitable characters in ''VideoGame/LoveLiveSchoolIdolFestival'', is always depicted as wearing a witch cloak, pretending to channel some sort of power, or otherwise putting her imagination to use.
237%%* ''VideoGame/ManaKhemiaAlchemistsOfAlrevis'':
238%%** The LadyOfWar Anna.
239%%** Lily in the sequel.
240* ''VideoGame/MaxAnAutisticJourney'': Max takes ordinary life situations and imagines him and his friends fighting monsters and going on adventures throughout. The exposition near the beginning even mentions that Max is creative and imaginative.
241* ''VideoGame/MoshiMonsters'': Potty Pipsqueaks are a whole species of this. They steal the eggshells of another species so that they can pretend to be astronauts, pilots, or deep-sea divers.
242* Ned Needlemeyer from the obscure pc game ''VideoGame/NightmareNed'', about a young boy with a hyperactive imagination, which mixed with his anxiety is the cause of his wacky and terrifying nightmares.
243* Deconstructed heavily in ''VideoGame/{{Omori}}'' through Sunny, who is quickly established to be using his fantasy world to escape from his harsh reality. Deliberately indulging in his ultimately unhealthy coping mechanism ''does not end well''.
244* Nick, Booker's apprentice from ''VideoGame/PokemonRanger: Guardian Signs'', does this by constantly worrying about negative outcomes of events in the game, to the point where he creates elaborate stories of how everything could go horribly wrong. Booker refers to these as 'daynightmares'.
245* The Pyro from ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', who sees everything in the waking world as a SugarBowl known as Pyroland.
246* ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'' has Oka Ruto, who has some chuunibyou-type personality traits. She's the president of an Occult Club, claims to have AuraVision, and [[StalkerWithoutACrush stalks]] two of her classmates to find evidence that they are supernatural beings. Her idea of a fun club activity? Attempting to summon demons on campus (she never succeeds).
247* ''VideoGame/YakuzaLikeADragon'' contextualizes the fights in the game as Ichiban Kasuga imagining the brawls he gets into as ''VideoGame/DragonQuest''-inspired turn-based RPG battles. He and his comrades employ fantastical over-the-top attacks, calling for backup plays out like SummonMagic, and his enemies fill various RPG tropes.
248* Madotsuki from ''VideoGame/YumeNikki'', a {{hikikomori}} whom spends almost all her time in her dreams... most of which are [[NightmareSequence nightmares]].
249[[/folder]]
250
251[[folder:Visual Novels]]
252* Deconstructed in ''VisualNovel/ChaosHead'' -- main character Takumi is delusionally insane, and much of what he sees is ''not'' pleasant. His personality and his whole life for that matter has suffered as a result.
253* Gundham Tanaka in ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' sees himself as an EvilOverlord with a mastery of BlackMagic, which keeps him from being as useful as he could be during investigations.
254* In ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'', Okosan and later on [[spoiler:Anghel]] are prone to mix the real world with their imagination and drag you along their fantasies. It goes even further than that, [[spoiler: as this syndrome is rationalized by a scientific biological explanation]].
255* Both Maria Ushiromiya and [[spoiler:Sayo Yasuda]] in ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' are this, namely by creating {{Imaginary Friend}}s to make up for their lack of real friends [[spoiler:and in Sayo's case, dressing up and acting like their imaginary friends]]. However, they're both more depressing examples of this trope; Maria is this in order to cope with her mother Rosa's [[AbusiveParents abusive behaviour]], while [[spoiler:Sayo is this to deal with being friendless at first, but they retreat more and more into their fantasies once their life gets progressively worse]].
256[[/folder]]
257
258[[folder:Webcomics]]
259* The main character of ''[[http://www.alicecomics.com/ Alice]]'' is this with her frequent fantasy sequences. At one point she actually got lost within her own imagination when it disconnected from her and decided to become its own being.
260%%* Katie from ''Webcomic/CountYourSheep''.
261%%* The main character Lucy is this in ''[[http://www.adayoflucy.thecomicseries.com/ A Day of Lucy]]''
262* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', the visuals during the "Duel of the Discs" storyline are [[https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2012-09-06 provided courtesy of Grace's overactive imagination]].
263* Over in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', the Wayward Vagabond, who builds a town out of cans and books and appoints himself mayor - multiple times. It starts out hilarious and [[HarsherInHindsight eventually gains massively tragic overtones]].
264%%* ''Webcomic/{{minus}}'':
265%%** minus.
266%%** omnipotent.
267* ''Webcomic/PebbleAndWren'': Both main characters seem to be very imaginative, frequently playing games such as pretending they're in space, having fun lucid dreaming, etc.
268* ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'':
269** This is an actual power there and the imagination world is an actual place that can also be accessed by jumping through a window. But only when that window is turned on. It makes sense in context. It was introduced originally as a euphemism for being drunk.
270** Pickle Inspector has the highest IMAGINATION stat, which grants him [[RealityWarper potent reality warping powers]] while in the imagination world. [[SquishyWizard This is at the expense of his VIM (strength) stat]].
271%%* Unnamed Character from ''Walfas''. [[http://www.walfas.org/ A link.]] Imagination Sequence, go!
272* Mel from ''Webcomic/WhatsNormalAnyway'' is imaginative and has a lot of imagine spots.
273[[/folder]]
274
275[[folder:Web Original]]
276* The Protege in ''Literature/{{Brennus}}'' has spent the last five and a half years doing this -- completely unmoving, [[{{Immortality}} sustained by his power]]. It's not clear how much is in his head, or how much is in ''[[TheEmpath other peoples']]''.
277[[/folder]]
278
279[[folder:Web Video]]
280* Jane Eyre in a SettingUpdate adaptation ''WebVideo/TheAutobiographyOfJaneEyre'' likes dreaming a lot. She says she likes wandering in a rose garden and pretends it's summer all the time. She likes playing, dancing and singing in empty houses. In episode 13, she can't sleep and says that she would like to read, but her book got too scary.
281* Lizzie Bennet of ''WebVideo/TheLizzieBennetDiaries'' is a toned down Miss Imagination. A natural and hilarious story-teller, she likes dramatizing her life in a vlog series. However, she's also a very intelligent Communications Major student.
282[[/folder]]
283
284[[folder:Western Animation]]
285* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'':
286** Jake is sometimes close to being Mr. Imagination, particularly in the episode where everything he imagines becomes real.
287** BMO. The episode "BMO Noire" is entirely dedicated to BMO's FilmNoir style fantasies.
288* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': Downplayed for the main child characters. They play make-believe games on occasion and sometimes have elaborate fantasy spots, but describing any one of them as "in their own world" is a bit of a stretch.
289* The characters from ''WesternAnimation/TheBackyardigans''. They're quite the FiveManBand (although a lot of the time they switch character type) and on their adventures they have become many different things. For instance, in a Halloween special, Tasha played a MadScientist with Austin playing her assistant, Tyrone playing a mummy, Pablo playing a vampire, and Uniqua playing the part of a werewolf.
290* This was the case in ''WesternAnimation/{{Bali}}'', a somewhat obscure SliceOfLife French animated series that aired for a while on [=PBS=] in the United States by way of PBS Kids. In every story, the title character, Bali, would have an extended (generally running about 3-4 minutes) segment in which he would go into his imagination and explore what was happening in the story with an imaginary character, complete with a song for each FantasySequence.
291* The eponymous character Ian from ''WesternAnimation/BeingIan''. Ian is intelligent, if somewhat naïve, and he has a very large imagination, and often gets lost in daydreams (many of which are parodies of famous films).
292* ''WesternAnimation/{{Billy}}'' revolves around Billy, a boy who lives an ordinary life but goes on wild adventures in his daydreams. The bulk of each episode is spent in his imagination.
293* Eddie Storkowitz, the lead character of ''WesternAnimation/{{Birdz}}'', spends a lot of his time fantasizing that his peers are in movie settings.
294* Bobby Generic from ''WesternAnimation/BobbysWorld'' would often misinterpret or try to solve things through his imagination, which his mother convinces him that it makes him special.
295* The titular character of ''WesternAnimation/{{Caillou}}'' is a preschooler who uses his imagination to make tasks that may seem hard fun or activities that are impossible for him to do.
296* ''WesternAnimation/TheCasagrandes'' has C.J., who spends a lot of time pretending he's a pirate or a superhero.
297* Chirp from ''WesternAnimation/{{Chirp}}'', as well as Squawk and Tweet.
298* Chloe from ''WesternAnimation/ChloesCloset'', as well as Jet, Tara, Danni, Lily, and Mac.
299* ''WesternAnimation/CraigOfTheCreek'' is about the everyday adventures of a kid named Craig and his friends JP and Kelsey, whose vivid imaginations turn ordinary playtime into epic quests.
300* ''WesternAnimation/DanielTigersNeighborhood'': The titular Daniel loves to imagine scenarios related to the plot of the episode he is in.
301* The "Magnificent Muttley" bits on ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines''.
302--> '''Dick Dastardly''': Wake up there, Muttley! You're dreaming again!
303--> You're not Myth/RobinHood, and you're not Film/GungaDin!
304--> You're not a brave knight, or a king who's been crowned!
305--> You're just plain old Muttley, the snickering hound.
306* WesternAnimation/{{Doug}} is constantly going into {{imagine spot}}s.
307* Rufus is this in spades in the pilot for ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone''. Oddly despite being a dominant trait, and the key reason he gets a job assisting the Dream Maker, it is only referred to in a handful of episodes afterwards.
308* Eliot from ''WesternAnimation/EliotKid''; a little kid with an overactive imagination that turns the most commonplace situations into Hollywood action-adventure blockbusters.
309* Ellen from ''WesternAnimation/EllensAcres''. Each episode begins with Ellen narrating the adventure she had in her imagination, but she says, "Actually...",
310* Elliot from ''WesternAnimation/ElliotMoose'', as well as Socks.
311%%* WesternAnimation/FanboyAndChumChum.
312* Mac of ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' is the most-often seen one, though his ''own'' "imaginary friend" Bloo has an active imagination himself. Goo, however, is this as her main characteristic. In her première episode, she creates a crisis in that her imagination is way too active that her imaginary friends, which become real, immediately overcrowd the mansion the show is set in.
313%%* ''WesternAnimation/FrannysFeet'': Franny.
314* ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'': Orson Pig occasionally gets carried away with his active imagination and love of reading. "He should be carried away!".%%Garfield's no slouch either.
315* ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldsBabesAndBullets'': The whole story begins with Garfield entering a closet, donning a hat and coat, and picturing himself as a private detective; it ends with Jon opening the closet, finding him inside and asking what he was doing.
316%%* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': Arnold starts out as this, before the show expanded and began to put the spotlight on its many characters.%%ZCE. How is he an example?
317* ''WesternAnimation/JibberJabber''. The eponymous protagonists of the series, Jibber and Jabber are seven-year-old fraternal (non-identical) twins. They have very active imaginations, and both share the same vision of their adventures.
318* Justin from ''WesternAnimation/JustinTime2011''.
319* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': The titular character is a very imaginative young girl who uses her imagination to make even the most mundane things seem exciting. Nobody else on the show does this -- they see mundane things as boring and mundane, and they don't understand her imaginative approach (in one episode, [[TheCynic Mr. Cat]] actually asks her if she's been smoking weed).
320* ''WesternAnimation/KateAndMimMim'': This is the basic idea of the show. Kate's imagination is so powerful that in each episode she goes on detailed adventures with an animate version of her stuffed bunny friend, Mim-Mim, and their other friends in Mimiloo.
321-->'''Kate''': Mim-Mim, funny bunny friend, it's time to come to life again!\
322'''Mim-Mim''': Kate and Mim-Mim, me and you, let's twirl away to Mimiloo.
323* ''Literature/LittleBear'': The child characters, especially the titular character, frequently lapse into imagination sequences, which can make the show kind of surreal at times since it's sometimes unclear where an imagination sequence starts and ends. They also play make-believe games a lot.
324%%* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': "Boyhood Daze" and "From A to Zzzzz" feature a boy named Ralph Phillips who is always doing this.
325* ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'': WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck is this in the short "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi_hcwB8i64 Daffy Duck the Wizard]]", imagining himself as a mighty wizard while doing various mundane things -- for instance, waiting for a green light at a crossing becomes him casting a spell to freeze battling monsters in their tracks.
326* ''Literature/MillyMolly'': The cartoon version has Humphrey, a boy who often pretends he's from outer space.
327* ''WesternAnimation/{{Milo}}'': Milo spends a lot of his time playing pretend games, and in one episode, he and his father George spent the whole episode pretending the vehicles were wild animals.
328* ''WesternAnimation/MonaTheVampire'' follows the adventures of Mona Parker, who refers to herself as "Mona the Vampire", as well as her two best friends, Lily Duncan ("Princess Giant") and Charley Bones ("Zapman"), and her pet cat, Fang, as they imagine themselves confronting a new supernatural foe, or solving a supernatural mystery, in every episode, but there are always rational explanations for what they see.
329* ''WesternAnimation/{{Motorcity}}'': Texas, such as coming up with impossible plans to fight Kane or more notably in the episode "Threat Level: Texas!" where he retells the events of previous episodes, only he's the hero and everyone else is out of character.
330* ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies1984'': The titular characters. A lot of their adventures had footage from movies such as ''Labyrinth'', ''Star Wars'' and ''Oliver''.
331* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E23InspirationManifestation Inspiration Manifestation]]", the titular spell turns Rarity into this by giving her the ability to transform reality to match her fantasies. Thankfully, the spell was removed before she could change all Equestria and the world with her creativity running amok.
332* ''WesternAnimation/OhYeahCartoons'': The premise of "Earth to Obie", where Obie imagines that he's at a prison for breakfast cereal mascots when his mother takes him to the supermarket.
333* The [[TitleCharacter titular character]] of ''Olive the Ostrich'' is characterized as this, spending most of her time daydreaming while the rest of her family are "running, pecking, and laying eggs". The episodes of the show are the wild {{Fantasy Sequence}}s she has with her head in the sand.
334* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'':
335** It's implied that Isabella Garcia-Shapiro spends much of her time daydreaming about her crush, Phineas, turning into a centaur and carrying her off along a rainbow. She calls this fantasy "Phineasland" and can drift off even while Phineas is ''actually talking to her''.
336%%zce and grammar** Also Phineas is likes imagination as well.
337** Ferb to a slightly lesser extent. Anything they set out to do, they ''will'' do it, even though it seems to break the laws of logic and indeed, physics.
338* Sydney from ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'' has this as her defining character trait. Her purpose on the show is to represent the power of imagination in science. She often leads the gang in various {{Imagine Spot}}s, usually themed after her favorite franchise, ''[[ShowWithinAShow Commander Cressida]]''.
339* Many episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' are centered on the babies imagining some mundane task as a great adventure, with occasional flashes of what is really happening interrupting it.
340* There was a cartoon called ''The Secret Life of Walter Kitty''. If you're read the rest of this page, no points for guessing what 'inspired' it.
341* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
342** Lisa occasionally drifts off into a fantasy world to avoid the grim reality of living life in Springfield.
343** Homer had several fantasies that would figure out his real life problems. It included life under the sea, the robbing of Kwik-E-Mart or living in a chocolate land. A lots of them are listed under trope IfIWereARichMan.
344** Marge unleashed her imagination when she wrote her clichéd historical novel. However, it ended as a bit of in-universe SelfInsertFic about a woman who married a boorish man.
345* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
346** A literal Mr. Imagination who takes the kids to "Imaginationland", a place where all imaginary things exist (and of which he's the Mayor).
347** Among the actual kids, Butters is this. He's depicted as a savior of Imaginationland ''because'' of this trait, and when he's playing ninjas as Professor Chaos with the four boys, he beats them ''all''. At least, up until he's hit in the eye with a real shuriken.
348* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' provides the page quote. Another example (though it doesn't spell it out as clearly) is an episode where Spongebob manages to have lots of fun with only a piece of paper Squidward discarded. When Squidward tries, he can't do any of the things with the piece of paper Spongebob did, probably because he has no imagination.
349* Stacy and Bradley of ''WesternAnimation/StickinAround''; part of the ThemeSong went ''for your big fat information, this is our imagination''.
350%%* The Warden of ''{{WesternAnimation/Superjail}}''
351* Taz is portrayed as this in several episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'', such as "Sub Commander Taz" and "The Origin of the Beginning of the Incredible Taz-Man".
352* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'':
353** The short, "Bunny Daze" from the episode, "[[Recap/TinyToonAdventuresS1E29RainyDaze Rainy Daze]]" provides a female example; Babs Bunny uses her imagination to make household chores fun.
354** In the short, "Fit to Be Toyed" from the episode, "[[Recap/TinyToonAdventuresS2E5PlaytimeToons Playtime Toons]]", [[VillainProtagonist Montana Max]] get his old toys taken away by his father when he is caught blowing them up to make room for new ones. He goes to the attic, where he meets his imagination, who has shrunk down to the size of a mouse, and teaches him new ways to play with a paddle ball.
355* ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'': Larry the Cucumber likes to go around pretending to be a superhero named "Larry-Boy", which is the basis of the entire SpinOff.
356* The titular Winston from ''WesternAnimation/WinstonsPottyChair'' is a very imaginative little boy. When he tries wearing his potty on his head, he imagines that he's the chief of [[HollywoodNatives a tribe]], and when his older brother Tony tells him he's supposed to sit on his potty, Winston imagines that his potty is a car seat, jet ski, and saddle. He also imagines that he's in a prehistoric forest when he reads a book about dinosaurs.
357[[/folder]]
358
359[[folder:Real Life]]
360* This trait is referred to as a "fantasy-prone personality."
361* Many people in the entertainment business and fiction authors of any genre, which are two fields that require a large and constantly expanding imagination in order to be successful.
362* Children, from preschool to school age, can be this, as they often use their imagination and play "make-believe".
363* In the UsefulNotes/MyersBriggs test, most people who get typed as a [=INxx=] type will usually fall under this trope, though [=INFPs=] tend to be the quintessential example.
364* Despite stereotypes saying the opposite, many [[UsefulNotes/HighFunctioningAutism autistic]] [[UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome people]] are exactly this.
365* Some people write them down, or paint/draw them; they're called 'authors' and 'artists.'
366* By technicality, ''everyone'' is this trope. You cannot do a single action without imagining first.
367* Many people with [[UsefulNotes/PersonalityDisorders Schizoid Personality Disorder]] are prone to intense fantasy and daydreaming.
368[[/folder]]

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