Discussion Main / OrWasItADream

The following Zero Context Examples have been commented out and moved here. Please don't add them back unless you also add context to show how they fit this trope.

Anime and Manga

• Miyuki-chan in Wonderland.
• Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni uses this trope in the Saikoroshi-hen chapter. Or possibly not, since it was a real world, as well. But since Rika did not choose that one, it becomes a dream. But her matricide still exists.
• Shinji after defeating Sachiel in the manga adaptation of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Film

• Inception is built around this trope.
• Dead Of Night.
• The Polar Express.
• Used as a repeated narrative device in the Satoshi Kon film Perfect Blue.

Literature

• The Frost-Giant's Daughter by Robert E. Howard.

Live Action TV

• The dream episode near the end of Walker Texas Ranger ends with this possibility.
• This occurs at the end of the Radio Active episode "Daydreams".
• Ultraseven's superior officer from M-78 in his first appearance.

Video Games

• Marcus Kane (Roadkill)'s ending in Twisted Metal 2.
• One of the bad endings in Bubble Symphony.
• The intro to Kingdom Hearts.
• The end of Monster Madness.

Web Originals

• Alex's dreams in The Sick Land, especially those concerning Bob.

Western Animation

• Pinky and the Brain does this in the episode "You'll Never Eat Food Pellets in This Town Again."
• SpongeBob SquarePants
  • Played with in a episode where Mrs. Puff ends in jail after Spongebob causes havoc in a boat.
  • Same thing happens in the medieval-themed episode "Dunces and Dragons."

Where would Dungeons And Dragons stories uploaded to You Tube like this one go? In it a Mind Flayer in a haunted mansion toyed with the players' characters. Afterwards, the characters wake up in an inn, making it seem like the whole adventure had been a dream, but there's the implication that it wasn't since the characters had scars from the injuries they sustained in the adventure.

I suppose in an example of the fourth wall can't protect, after reading a midsummer night's dream in school this happened. I woke up, and I thought my dog was barking somewhat musically (as happened in the story). Later, I woke up again. Did I fall asleep again, or was the first waking up a dream? (Although old, the story was really meta, in both literal and symbolic ways. The higher levels of the metaness broke the fourth wall a little.)

The following Weblinks Are Not Examples have been commented out and copied to Discussion. Please don't add them back unless you also add context to show how they fit this trope.

Comics

• This strip◊ from Quino. Slightly NSFW.

Web Comics

• Also done a second time.

• Used in this classic Pokey The Penguin strip.