Basic Trope: A person chooses to stay in a constructed, "false" reality.
- Straight: Bob has been hooked up to a Lotus-Eater Machine, but even when he realizes it's fake, he still wants to stay in the projected world it's been creating for him.
- Exaggerated: Every single person ever placed in the Lotus-Eater Machine chose to stay.
- Downplayed: Bob reluctantly agrees to leave for a mission, but states he's coming back when it's over.
- Justified:
- What Bob has in the "fake" world is something he can't attain in reality.
- Bob's real life is so terrible that he wants the illusion of a good life.
- Inverted: Bob absolutely hates the false reality and wants to get out of it immediately.
- Subverted: Bob tells the main heroes he'd rather prefer the false reality over the real world, only to break down and reveal that he wants out.
- Double Subverted: Only for Bob to have the heroes right where he wants them, for Bob is actually a plant hired by Dr Evilstein to trap the heroes in his Lotus-Eater Machine.
- Parodied: The "fake reality" has been badly made with paper and cardboard. Bob still wants to stay.
- Zig Zagged: Bob struggles back and forth about whether he wants to leave or stay in his constructed reality.
- Averted: Bob doesn't get stuck in any sort of false reality.
- Enforced: The executives are going for an Anti-Escapism Aesop.
- Lampshaded: "This world is fake, I know. The cereal tastes like pixels and sometimes the sky just disappears but honestly? That's what makes it worth living."
- Invoked: Dr. Evilstein purposely makes the machine create a world that matches the deepest wishes of its victim so no one would want to break out.
- Exploited: Dr Evilstein creates a Lotus-Eater Machine tailored to create a world that fits the desires of it's victims and advertises it to entrap as many people as people, allowing Emperor Evulz to take over the world with little opposition. Furthermore, the illusion is preferable to the hellhole that Evulz's world is, making the illusion all the more effective.
- Defied: Bob accepts that the world is fake and decides to leave, feeling like the real world has more to offer him.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: ???
- Reconstructed: ???
- Played for Laughs:???
- Played for Horror:: Bob is trapped in a Lotus-Eater Machine that he prefers strongly to reality... and once Bob is thoroughly ensnared, Dr. Evilstein begins using him for Human Resources.
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