...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

Schrödinger's Butterfly

544 statements
104 feature instances
66 referencing feature instances

Schrödinger's Butterfly	type	FeatureClass
Schrödinger's Butterfly	label	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly	page	SchrodingersButterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly	comment	When a story introduces the possibility of worlds within worlds, be they a Lotus-Eater Machine or perfectly lucid dreams, or rather instances of Through the Eyes of Madness, there will always be a nagging doubt in the back of a viewer's mind whether the story is real (that is to say, at the highest possible level of reality inside the work of fiction) or if they aren't dreaming or "still plugged in". This serves as a source of mystery and speculation in a story. Did the heroes really break the spell cast by the Master of Illusion, or are they all imagining it? Did they escape the Convenient Coma that trapped them in a Happy Place... or merely trade a perfect illusory world for a more realistic one? These doubts may never be resolved until a Sequel comes out or Word of God clarifies it. Sometimes, the ambiguity works in favor of the story, leaving it open to interpretation. Much like the other Schrödinger tropes, this plot point can also serve as an Author's Saving Throw by retroactively making it All Just a Dream or a Dream Within a Dream. Or if the author really wants to mess with us, end the movie or film on a Downer Ending, with a fading shot of the character's dying or still comatose body trapped in the illusion. The trope name is a reference to a poem by the fourth-century-BC Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, a Taoist philosopher who influenced Chinese Buddhism. It refers also to Erwin Schrödinger's thought experiment relating to quantum uncertainty. If you can't tell, we like to be well balanced in our geekery on this wiki. Compare Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory and Dream Apocalypse. Compare also Opening a Can of Clones, which has this effect regarding a character's uniqueness. Contrast Or Was It a Dream?. See also Unreliable Narrator, Mental World, Cuckoo Nest, Dying Dream, Through the Eyes of Madness, Masquerade, The Ending Changes Everything, Brainwashed and Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane. Not to be confused with Butterfly of Doom, a Time Travel trope. Expect spoilers.
Schrödinger's Butterfly	fetched	2023-10-05T08:29:25Z
Schrödinger's Butterfly	parsed	2023-10-05T08:29:25Z
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingComment	Dropped link to BellisariosMaxim: Not an Item - FEATURE
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingComment	Dropped link to CombatCommentator: Not an Item - FEATURE
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingComment	Dropped link to CruelTwistEnding: Not an Item - FEATURE
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingComment	Dropped link to Doppelganger: Not an Item - FEATURE
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingComment	Dropped link to ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Not an Item - FEATURE
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingComment	Dropped link to HandWave: Not an Item - FEATURE
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingComment	Dropped link to JonathanCoulton: Not an Item - IGNORE
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingComment	Dropped link to LotusEaterMachine: Not an Item - FEATURE
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingComment	Dropped link to MindScrew: Not an Item - FEATURE
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingComment	Dropped link to MultipleEndings: Not an Item - FEATURE
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingComment	Dropped link to MysticRiver: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingComment	Dropped link to OntologicalMystery: Not an Item - FEATURE
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingComment	Dropped link to OurGeniesAreDifferent: Not an Item - FEATURE
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingComment	Dropped link to Queen: Not an Item - IGNORE
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingComment	Dropped link to TheReveal: Not an Item - FEATURE
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingComment	Dropped link to invokedtrope: Not an Item - FEATURE
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingUnknown	MysticRiver
Schrödinger's Butterfly	isPartOf	DBTropes
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_109f7814	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_109f7814	comment	Sherlock: "The Abominable Bride" goes back and forth between the present-day setting and a 19th-century setting. Sherlock is dreaming one of them and keeps "waking up", but it's unclear which one is the dream. On one hand, the episode is framed as an alternative special set in the 19th century; on the other hand, the present-day setting continues where the third season finale leaves off. In the end, it's left ambiguous which setting is "real": present-day Sherlock claims he went deep inside his mind to run an elaborate thought experiment and 19th-century Sherlock claims he imagined what a future world might look like and how he would fit in it. Just to make it complicated, one segment of the present-day part turns out to be definitely a dream, and several characters in the 19th century sprinkle modern words in their dialog.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_109f7814	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_109f7814	featureConfidence	1.0
Sherlock	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_109f7814
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_1366b3fc	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_1366b3fc	comment	In Ubik, the line between the living and the dead existing in "half-life" becomes blurred in the end, after having been seemingly resolved.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_1366b3fc	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_1366b3fc	featureConfidence	1.0
Ubik	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_1366b3fc
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_192c0bd6	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_192c0bd6	comment	The Dreamer relies heavily on this trope, as Beatrice and the audience is unsure whether or not her dreams are simply that, or an Alternate Universe.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_192c0bd6	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_192c0bd6	featureConfidence	1.0
The Dreamer (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_192c0bd6
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_19ed47db	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_19ed47db	comment	The Question (whose Sensei nicknamed him "The Butterfly") is fond of throwing around the Zhuangzi quote, whether the context calls for it or not. He's even used it as a pick-up line.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_19ed47db	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_19ed47db	featureConfidence	1.0
The Question (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_19ed47db
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_1bb6d4b5	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_1bb6d4b5	comment	In Get Backers, in one of the episodes, an elderly homeless man asks the Get Backers to save his daughter from the mafia. When they arrive the girl doesn't want to go with them, and they leave her there. Upon seeing the old man being loaded onto an ambulance, Ban catches both the old man's and Ginji's eyes before the daughter runs up to tell her father that she loves and forgives him. It is never revealed whether the daughter truly showed up, or if Ban was showing both men a pleasant illusion. The viewer is often confused as to what is the illusion and what is reality, only being sure when Ban reveals his trick. In the original manga, Ginji asks him if he used the Evil Eye, and Ban replies with a dejected 'yeah'.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_1bb6d4b5	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_1bb6d4b5	featureConfidence	1.0
Get Backers (Manga)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_1bb6d4b5
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_1cc09117	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_1cc09117	comment	Aizen's zanpakutou ability in Bleach. Its very essence is to warp a victim's perception of reality.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_1cc09117	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_1cc09117	featureConfidence	1.0
Bleach (Manga)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_1cc09117
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_203f09b9	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_203f09b9	comment	The Lovely Bones, to a very small and brief degree, when Susie Salmon is attacked by George Harvey in the underground trap, she is seen running from the scene as though she has escaped and is running for her life. It is not until a little later we realise that she is actually dead and this is her ghost's immediate projection of what she wanted to happen. She had actually been killed in the underground lair, but she has no recollection of the event happening. This is absent in the original book version, where Susie remembers everything exactly how it happened, and describes it in painful detail.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_203f09b9	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_203f09b9	featureConfidence	1.0
The Lovely Bones	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_203f09b9
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2212773a	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2212773a	comment	Angel has a mini-version of this in "Awakening". Angel is seen to defeat the demon and (finally) go to bed with Cordelia. Then we realize it was a dream designed to make Angel lose his soul in a moment of perfect happiness. It intersects with Your Mind Makes It Real; it qualifies here because the audience doesn't realize it's a dream until it's over, and this event blurs the lines between (in-show) reality and dream. Also used in the fifth season episode "Soul Purpose". Angel is under the influence of a parasite the makes him go through his worst fears and insecurities; while under its effect each time it seems like he's finally woken up it turns out he's still under the effects of the parasite and is dreaming.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2212773a	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2212773a	featureConfidence	1.0
Angel	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2212773a
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_221678be	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_221678be	comment	The basic premise of Awake, in which Detective Michael Britten has one life in which his son died and his wife is still alive, another where it's vice versa. Both are equally real to him.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_221678be	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_221678be	featureConfidence	1.0
Awake	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_221678be
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_222c2051	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_222c2051	comment	Played with in Chuck but only for a moment. After an episode putting Chuck's mental health in question the end of the episode shows that Chuck is not crazy. However, then he wakes up back in the mental ward. However, the mental ward scene is only for a moment before it becomes clear that it is another vivid dream, and not!crazy Chuck is in fact reality.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_222c2051	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_222c2051	featureConfidence	1.0
Chuck	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_222c2051
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_257a9881	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_257a9881	comment	Some Choose Your Own Adventure books had the results of really bad screw-ups followed by "it was all a dream". An egregious example is Space and Beyond; one ending has it be All Just a Dream; the rest of the endings say that it is not.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_257a9881	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_257a9881	featureConfidence	1.0
Choose Your Own Adventure	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_257a9881
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_28724fb2	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_28724fb2	comment	The ending of Titanic (1997) makes it ambiguous as to whether the final scene is meant to be Rose's dream or if she's actually died and gone to Heaven reuniting with Jack.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_28724fb2	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_28724fb2	featureConfidence	1.0
Titanic (1997)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_28724fb2
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_295048d5	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_295048d5	comment	In Bloodborne, one cannot tell if the Hunter's Dream was a mere dream. In "Yharnam Sunrise" ending, you are freed by Gehrman via a Mercy Kill that wakes you up. The problem is, which one is the dream, and which one is the reality?
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_295048d5	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_295048d5	featureConfidence	1.0
Bloodborne (Video Game)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_295048d5
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2988671e	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2988671e	comment	In the American version of Touching Evil, Creegan befriends Cyril, a homeless man who believes that he's dreaming the show's reality, and that when he goes to sleep, he's really waking up in the "real" world, the space colony Alpha 9.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2988671e	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2988671e	featureConfidence	1.0
Touching Evil	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2988671e
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2cad7105	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2cad7105	comment	Never really happens in El-Hazard: The Magnificent World, but at one point Makoto wakes up after having a weird dream. Since he's not entirely sure that El-Hazard itself isn't a dream, he gets a bit confused on the subject.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2cad7105	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2cad7105	featureConfidence	1.0
El-Hazard: The Magnificent World	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2cad7105
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2d1084bc	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2d1084bc	comment	Played with in the Beavis and Butt-Head episode "Cow Tipping" when the duo are watching the Violent Femmes' video for "Nightmares". Beavis mentions that he had a "real scary" nightmare the night before where "everything sucked". Butt-Head replies "But Beavis, everything does suck!", causing Beavis to scream in terror under the "revelation" that he is still in said dream where "everything sucks". The rest of the scene involves Beavis doing this every time Butt-Head or Beavis himself mentions that something "sucks".
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2d1084bc	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2d1084bc	featureConfidence	1.0
Beavis and Butt-Head	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_2d1084bc
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_30a5ebfd	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_30a5ebfd	comment	In Naruto, brothers Sasuke and Itachi Uchiha practice genjutsu, techniques centering around illusions. Thus, during the Sasuke vs Itachi fight, the first major stage of the battle consists of Sasuke and Itachi standing perfectly still while both add layer upon layer of illusions. The readers, of course, are ignorant of what is an illusion and what isn't until after the illusion breaks. As a result, there are several points in which the fight seems over, only for the illusion to break and reveal that the brothers hadn't actually started fighting yet. Practically lampshaded when Sasuke breaks Tsukuyomi (Itachi's strongest genjutsu), and Zetsu pretty much lets the reader know the rest of this isn't genjutsu.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_30a5ebfd	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_30a5ebfd	featureConfidence	1.0
Naruto (Manga)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_30a5ebfd
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_34176ccb	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_34176ccb	comment	Several times during the course of The Circle Series, Thomas Hunter actually asks himself whether he's dreaming or not. He never does figure out which he's actually living in.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_34176ccb	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_34176ccb	featureConfidence	1.0
The Circle Series	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_34176ccb
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_342d46c9	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_342d46c9	comment	Anderson: Psi-Division: In "Half Life", Judge Anderson, stuck in a coma after Judge Death tried to kill her in My Name is Death, finds herself living out the life of a girl named Sandra on what later became Deadworld before Death destroyed it. At one point she starts to wonder whether she's really Cassandra Anderson imagining that she's a teenage girl in another life, or Sandra imagining that she's a Psi-Judge from another dimension.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_342d46c9	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_342d46c9	featureConfidence	1.0
Anderson: Psi-Division (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_342d46c9
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_34f30f2e	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_34f30f2e	comment	Nightwish: Discussed Trope at the end. Kim wakes up, the whole movie apparently having been a nightmare, but it turns out that either she hasn't woken up for real or she's still trapped in a cave being fed on by alien parasites. As well, when she was in the dream she fell asleep at one point and dreamt that she was elsewhere as well.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_34f30f2e	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_34f30f2e	featureConfidence	1.0
Nightwish (1989)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_34f30f2e
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_3567a45c	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_3567a45c	comment	In Nijigahara Holograph, the story of Zhuangzi and his dream of the butterfly is taught by Sakaki in ch. 9. Beyond this, several characters at one point or another question how much of what has happened to them is something they've dreamed, and the story is set up in a way that makes it possible that parts of it are actually Arié's dreams while she lies comatose.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_3567a45c	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_3567a45c	featureConfidence	1.0
Nijigahara Holograph (Manga)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_3567a45c
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_37fc51ce	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_37fc51ce	comment	The powers that be apparently toyed with the idea of having the entire series (and therefore the entire Trek Verse?) being all Benny Russell's book.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_37fc51ce	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_37fc51ce	featureConfidence	1.0
Trek Verse (Franchise)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_37fc51ce
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_3ec5b7a6	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_3ec5b7a6	comment	House of Leaves has tons of this. There are multiple layers of narration; Johnny is editing a text written by Zampano about The Navidson Record, which is a movie made by Navidson about the house. Throughout the book, there are hints that Zampano or Johnny are altering or completely fabricating things, or that Zampano made up the film, or that Johnny made up both Zampano and the film, or that Johnny himself is also made up.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_3ec5b7a6	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_3ec5b7a6	featureConfidence	1.0
House of Leaves	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_3ec5b7a6
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_400469e	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_400469e	comment	Calvin and Hobbes: Invoked in one strip, when he wakes up, gets dressed, eats breakfast, walks outside, and hears his mother telling him to get up. Then he wakes up again in his bed. And later played for laughs and drama◊ when he puts on a coat, walks outside, trips over a rock, and falls off a cliff miles into the air. Then he wakes up, gets dressed, leaves the house, and falls out the door through the sky. Then he wakes up, and is clearly terrified to get out of bed. The trope is also alluded to even during the daytime - Calvin comments on his reflection in a pond's surface, and Hobbes posits the question of whether he's the reflection and the Calvin seen in the pond is the real boy who could make him disappear by leaving. In the last panel, Calvin is still standing at the edge of the pond after night has fallen with a worried expression on his face.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_400469e	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_400469e	featureConfidence	1.0
Calvin and Hobbes (Comic Strip)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_400469e
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_41d55d7a	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_41d55d7a	comment	Total Recall (1990): Is it a memory implant gone awry, or all real, or the way story implanted in the memory playing out correctly? In the short story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale that inspired this (can't say based on, can't even say very, very loosely based on), it did really happen.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_41d55d7a	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_41d55d7a	featureConfidence	1.0
Total Recall (1990)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_41d55d7a
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_42ad7fd4	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_42ad7fd4	comment	eXistenZ: How many levels of this virtual reality are there? And how do you know when you're in real life?
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_42ad7fd4	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_42ad7fd4	featureConfidence	1.0
eXistenZ	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_42ad7fd4
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_43576f5	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_43576f5	comment	Supernatural: The show's version of the genie seen in "What Is and What Should Never Be" works that way: he grants you your wish by making you hallucinate he did, while feeding on you till you die. Because Supernatural is optimistic. The Season 3 episode "Dream a Little Dream of Me" follows a similar plot to the movie Inception (although the episode predates the film by a couple of years), with people hopping in and out of one another's dreams and controlling them; the similarity extends to the episode being a total Mind Screw in places. Invoked in season 7. Sam's hallucination of Lucifer taunts him with the idea that he never escaped from Hell and the events of seasons 6 and 7 was just Lucifer using his Reality Warper abilities to mess with him. After a confrontation with Dean, Sam (and the show) decide that this isn't the case, but that hasn't stopped the Epileptic Trees.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_43576f5	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_43576f5	featureConfidence	1.0
Supernatural	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_43576f5
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_44e0b783	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_44e0b783	comment	Garfield's delusional Halloween strip week, anyone? While Word of God has apparently stated that this was a one-off event and that the comics aren't really the result of a delusional Garfield, some fans still speculate.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_44e0b783	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_44e0b783	featureConfidence	1.0
Garfield (Comic Strip)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_44e0b783
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_475b7e5c	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_475b7e5c	comment	1408: The whole movie plays with this concept a lot but especially when the main character (as well as the viewing audience) is tricked into thinking that he escapes the hotel room and has returned to a normal life before he realizes that it was all a vicious illusion. This arguably comes to an end when he burns the place down and escapes, but there's still the feeling that too could possibly be an illusion. Only in the theatrical ending, though. In the director's cut it's clear he burned the entire room down, though at the cost of his life.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_475b7e5c	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_475b7e5c	featureConfidence	1.0
1408	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_475b7e5c
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_4885590d	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_4885590d	comment	The Forever Knight tie-in novel, "Imitations of Mortality", has Nick having a series of dreams where he and other vampire characters are human, while the human characters are vampires. Each time he goes to sleep in one world, he wakes up in the other.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_4885590d	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_4885590d	featureConfidence	1.0
Forever Knight	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_4885590d
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_4b882a66	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_4b882a66	comment	The ultimate example of this is the Tommy Westphall Universe theory. The final episode of St. Elsewhere reveals the entire show to be in the imagination of an autistic boy named Tommy Westphall. The show had a crossover with Homicide: Life on the Street, a show that has John Munch who appeared on eight other shows, meaning that all these shows and all the shows those shows had crossovers with and so on and so on are a figment of his imagination. There are, of course, arguments against this theory, such as saying that Tommy Westphall simply watched the show Homicide: Life on the Street and imagined his characters having a crossover with them. Another is that if a person has a dream about something, i.e. a real place like London, that doesn't mean that place exists only in that Universe. It was simply that Universe's version of the place or person. Because of this, we'll never know if dozens (if not hundreds) of shows take place in his imagination or not.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_4b882a66	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_4b882a66	featureConfidence	1.0
St. Elsewhere	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_4b882a66
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_4c87ec4a	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_4c87ec4a	comment	In Repo Men, we are told throughout the Company has produced a device that can create a idyllic fantasy dream for someone on a life support machine. When the palm tree that is featured in its advert appears for 'real', we discover the entire second half of the film had been a fabrication to placate the conscience of the lead's best friend.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_4c87ec4a	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_4c87ec4a	featureConfidence	1.0
Repo Men	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_4c87ec4a
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_50cb8af5	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_50cb8af5	comment	The Vision of Escaflowne: Every episode for the first half or so of the episodes starts with "Was it all just a dream? Or maybe a vision... no, it was real!" In addition, on several occasions she does go to the other reality in a dream. First episode has her see a vision of Van appearing through a beam of light before she passes out, later on in the episode this actually happens. While in Gaea she has several dreams where she is back with her friends in Japan.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_50cb8af5	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_50cb8af5	featureConfidence	1.0
The Vision of Escaflowne	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_50cb8af5
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5144055f	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5144055f	comment	Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge has an infamous Gainax Ending that makes it extremely unclear what exactly happened. Once Guybrush finds Big Whoop, things become progressively weirder until he finds himself in what is either a Lotus-Eater Machine or reality... until things are made even more confusing as during The Stinger another character is shown impatiently waiting for him in the "other" reality. The next game cleared all this up, though (by applying heavy retconning). Then Return to Monkey Island clarifies that the ending really did happen...to Guybrush's son, in the future, to whom Guybrush has been telling stories about his adventures. The ending still leaves it unclear whether anything in the series really happened, was just Guybrush deluding himself, or was just some kind of metaphor.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5144055f	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5144055f	featureConfidence	1.0
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (Video Game)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5144055f
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_53a0bd32	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_53a0bd32	comment	The Twilight Zone (1959): In one episode, the entire story consists of a woman's repeatedly waking up from nightmares, only to find each time that she was still dreaming.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_53a0bd32	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_53a0bd32	featureConfidence	1.0
The Twilight Zone (1959)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_53a0bd32
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_53a10f26	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_53a10f26	comment	The Twilight Zone (2002): Happens In-Universe as part of a condemned criminal's sentence: he's doomed to have nightmares of being murdered by his victim over and over again, "waking up" from one nightmare to the next.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_53a10f26	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_53a10f26	featureConfidence	1.0
The Twilight Zone (2002)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_53a10f26
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5755b96a	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5755b96a	comment	Spoofed in The Order of the Stick. Shortly after escaping from a Lotus-Eater Machine, Roy thanks Elan and says he did a good job. Elan panics and thinks he's still in the dream, and Haley has to assure him that Roy was being sincere.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5755b96a	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5755b96a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5755b96a
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5a1506e6	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5a1506e6	comment	The whole point of Eternal Sonata is the question of whether Frédéric Chopin is just having an extremely lucid fever dream, or if he really is in another world. He eventually decides that it is a dream designed to have him accept death, but having deduced that Polka is trapped in a "Groundhog Day" Loop, attempts a Suicide by Cop to end the dream and spare her from her fate. When he is defeated but does not wake up, he realises that the world is reality to its inhabitants, and uses his powers over the dreamworld to save Polka.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5a1506e6	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5a1506e6	featureConfidence	1.0
Eternal Sonata (Video Game)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5a1506e6
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5bb3aaab	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5bb3aaab	comment	In Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Batou and Togusa meet a cyborg hacker with the ability to completely alter the perception of people with any kinds of brain implants. When they notice they are trapped in an illusion, they manage to break out, only to realize they are just in another illusion, before they finally manage to break free for real. Of course, they wonder if perhaps they never actually left the false realities, and if they might unknowingly live out the rest of their lives in an illusion. Scary!
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5bb3aaab	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5bb3aaab	featureConfidence	1.0
Ghost in the Shell (1995)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5bb3aaab
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5d354f8	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5d354f8	comment	Red Dwarf: "Better Than Life" from series II, and at least one novel. By the end of the series, it's impossible to tell whether they've really escaped the game, or the game just lets them think they have. (It does explain a lot of the self-admitted implausible science.) The episode plays it almost entirely for laughs. The book version is much darker. The show version is basically the Holodeck driven by whatever your surface wish was; no mistaking it for reality. The book lets us go a good while thinking the cast has fully made it home. Over much of the rest of the book they manage to escape, and find that things were still a little too good to be true. When they escape for real, a message left by the creator of the game appears to congratulate them, and they finally return to the real world. Hopefully. Apparently, they wanted to do it this way all along in the show but budget or something didn't allow — in "Future Echoes", elderly Lister has "U=BTL" etched into his arm. No attention is called to it at the time (or ever, in the show. In the book, we see this happen in book 1 and Lister notices. Better than Life is book 2). "Back to Reality", the series V finale. The crew dies, only to see the "Game Over" text appear and shortly afterwards wake up in VR-game chairs... The series continued after that episode, of course. It plays the concept very seriously. Not only did this sort of go hand in hand with the series "growing up" over time, it also helped create multiple levels of Mind Screw. At the end of series VI in "Out of Time". Just before the cataclysmic ending, Starbug hits a "reality mine", a pocket of alternate history space. Followed immediately by Rimmer deliberately triggering a strange sort of Grandfather Paradox. Followed immediately by the future Dwarfers triggering another Grandfather Paradox. How many layers of unreality can two minutes of airtime possibly layer...? In "Back in the Red: Part III", they return to the reconstructed Red Dwarf, courtesy of the Nanites, and are placed in the brig after signing agreements to participate in a trial involving psychotropic drugs that will cause them to hallucinate. They engineer a daring escape before the trial and make it out into space, at which point they realize that the entire escape attempt has been a hallucination. They enlist the aid of the reconstructed Rimmer and break out again... and realize that, once again, they've all been duped. When they finally make it out of their hallucinated trial, Rimmer asks, "Is this reality? But how can we be sure?" Cat poignantly states, "Why do we care? Nothing makes any sense no matter where we are!"
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5d354f8	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5d354f8	featureConfidence	1.0
Red Dwarf	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_5d354f8
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_605dd875	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_605dd875	comment	Stargate: Played with at the end of a Lotus-Eater Machine episode of Stargate SG-1 — the protagonists are certain they're in the real world. The guy who trapped them in virtual reality wouldn't be freaking out over the other people they've led to escape ruining his beloved garden if it were virtual. Stargate Atlantis: "Home" ends with McKay asking if they were really relased from the fake mental world projected to them by a cloud of sentient gas. The gas then yells at him that it's real. "The Real World" ends with the heroes briefly wondering if the reality they're in is real or another Asuran deception, then quickly deciding they'd rather not know.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_605dd875	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_605dd875	featureConfidence	1.0
Stargate-verse (Franchise)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_605dd875
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6365ff2d	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6365ff2d	comment	Dragon Quest: From the SNES version onwards, if you accept the Dragonlord's offer, you wake up in an inn, and the innkeeper tells you woke up from a bad dream. If you accept again, you begin wondering whether you are still dreaming or not.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6365ff2d	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6365ff2d	featureConfidence	1.0
Dragon Quest (Video Game)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6365ff2d
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_68ff28c8	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_68ff28c8	comment	Silent Hill's Bad Ending shows us the protagonist dying in his broken car; apparently all the game was just a dream he had between the car crash and his death. Other endings are less unhappy, though... except for the one where he kills his daughter and he and an Innocent Bystander get roasted alive in a collapsing hell-dimension. Oh, and there are four sequels; he's revealed to have survived in the third only to be killed off-screen.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_68ff28c8	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_68ff28c8	featureConfidence	1.0
Silent Hill (Video Game)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_68ff28c8
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6909a0a9	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6909a0a9	comment	This is basically the plot of The Red King, the second novel in the Star Trek: Titan series. The novel features an eponymous intelligence, which resides within a protouniverse overlapping with our own. As a result of this overlap, its expansion threatens several worlds with destruction. The legends of many local races' speak of the protouniverse, or at least the associated intelligence. They describe it as a sleeping dreamer, the surrounding region of space being the content of the dream. The expansion and its resultant destruction is therefore supposedly the dream coming to an end as the being begins to wake. Frane, a native of the Neyel (whose world is part of the threatened region), describes the myth to the Titan's crew:
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6909a0a9	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6909a0a9	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek: Titan	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6909a0a9
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_691be369	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_691be369	comment	The X-Files: The episode "Field Trip" deals with this trope.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_691be369	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_691be369	featureConfidence	1.0
The X-Files	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_691be369
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6ae1d164	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6ae1d164	comment	Not a dream, but Galaxy of Fear: The Nightmare Machine has the titular Nightmare Machine, a real-seeming simulation. A large chunk of the book, by the end, is revealed to have been simulated through it; the protagonists thought they had gone in for a minute, experienced a brief simulation, and left, but of course they had not.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6ae1d164	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6ae1d164	featureConfidence	1.0
Galaxy of Fear	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6ae1d164
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6e1d5f36	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6e1d5f36	comment	Interesting to note in this case is that typically, when this trope occurs in an episode/issue of a running series, the possibility of still being trapped in the illusion is almost NEVER brought up in later episodes. Farscape features an aversion in that, at the start of the next episode, Crichton and Noranti pull up to Moya in a transport pod, only to find that there's no response, exactly as it had happened in the game's simulation of the real world. John momentarily wonders if they had not actually escaped at all... only to realise that Moya's been invaded by a gang of bounty hunters.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6e1d5f36	featureApplicability	-1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6e1d5f36	featureConfidence	1.0
Farscape	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_6e1d5f36
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_70da6e51	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_70da6e51	comment	The Goosebumps book I Live In Your Basement, to the point of being a Mind Screw.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_70da6e51	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_70da6e51	featureConfidence	1.0
Goosebumps	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_70da6e51
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_73d7930f	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_73d7930f	comment	An undeveloped script idea for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had Chief O'Brien and Julian Bashir trapped in a virtual reality prison. They escape and make it back to DS9, only to find that they're still in prison, so they escape again and make it back to DS9. The episode was to end with O'Brien telling his wife that he didn't know for sure if he'd actually escaped, and he never will. It's likely this script was repurposed for the season 4 episode "Hard Time".
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_73d7930f	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_73d7930f	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_73d7930f
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_755fadab	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_755fadab	comment	Are we all (as in, all of objective reality, not just the reality within the series) but a dream of Haruhi Suzumiya? At least Koizumi sets this as one of the possible theories.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_755fadab	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_755fadab	featureConfidence	1.0
Haruhi Suzumiya	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_755fadab
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7616a253	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7616a253	comment	×××HOLiC actually even refers to the above quote and it is an allegory of a central theme in the series—tellingly, Yuuko's symbol is the butterfly, apt for someone who's in a state of artificially extended existence when she was supposed to have died a long time ago, and who basically disappears in a Puff of Logic after the truth catches up to her.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7616a253	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7616a253	featureConfidence	1.0
×××HOLiC (Manga)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7616a253
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_76cb191b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_76cb191b	comment	The Invisibles: Jack Frost tries to engage in one-on-one psychic combat with the King-of-All-Tears. Among the various tactics it uses (such as Mind Rape) is having illusions of his teammates show up, telling him that they've managed to win, and he can break that warding circle now... The comic actually provides several alternative explanations of how everything that happens in it may be a case of Recursive Reality: the whole story might have been a drug hallucination experienced by one of the characters, or an in-universe example of Self-Insert Fic by another character, or a futuristic video game produced by a third character, or...
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_76cb191b	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_76cb191b	featureConfidence	1.0
The Invisibles (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_76cb191b
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7aaf9e41	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7aaf9e41	comment	In one Batman story, Batman has been subjected to a nightmarish fantasy Cuckoos Nest Psychological Torment Zone by the Mad Hatter in an attempt to break him. After making his way through it and returning to reality, the Mad Hatter tries to taunt Batman with this trope and the fact that he can never be certain what is or isn't reality after what he's experienced. However, unfortunately for the Mad Hatter, it's subverted; Batman, who by this point is in no mood for any of this nonsense, simply notes that if this is true, and he is still trapped in his own fantasy, then this means that he no longer has to worry about holding back when beating the ever-loving shit out of someone in case he goes too far and kills him. Someone such as the Mad Hatter, for instance. After a few seconds preview of what this means for him, the Mad Hatter is quick to respond along the lines of "Hahaha, actually, forget that funny joke I made about you maybe still being trapped in a dream, this actually is reality (oh god I'm sorry please don't hurt me)."
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7aaf9e41	featureApplicability	-0.3
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7aaf9e41	featureConfidence	1.0
Batman (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7aaf9e41
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7f90caa7	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7f90caa7	comment	Two examples from Touhou's print works. Gensokyo's historian Hieda no Akyuu mentions a theory that the outside world is nothing but a dream of Yukari Yakumo, the resident youkai of boundaries. Meanwhile in the near-future, a student named Maribel Hearn, who has the ability to see and sometimes cross supernatural boundaries, has inadvertently stumbled into Gensokyo in her dreams. As if that wasn't enough, Maribel looks very much like a younger version of Yukari... In Touhou lore there is also something that takes this to the logical conclusion called Dream Fantasy Disease. It causes the affected to enter Gensokyo in their dreams,note Presumably this is what's affecting Maribel but it also causes their real dreams to become displaced and become a Doppelgänger should the dreams not find a new host. This of course causes someone to be both awake and sleeping, dreaming and real all at the same time. And it is perhaps needless to say what would happen should the two existences meet. The series as a whole uses this as one of it's mayor backbones in it's narrative. The lyrics for Innocent Treasures put's further allusions to this by referencing the original story. Played with Eirin Yagokoro's Sweet Dream Pills, which provide a night of sleep characterized by dreams of being a butterfly.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7f90caa7	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7f90caa7	featureConfidence	1.0
Touhou	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7f90caa7
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7fb486bc	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7fb486bc	comment	The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. The island is nothing but one big dream, and the point of gathering the 8 dungeon items this time around is to wake both you and the Wind Fish up. Link is oblivious to this since you aren't directly told that it's a dream until late in the game, but the owl and boss monsters don't really try to hide this fact from you.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7fb486bc	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7fb486bc	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Video Game)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_7fb486bc
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_81692f99	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_81692f99	comment	Star Trek: Star Trek: The Next Generation: This trope is invoked in the first season episode that introduced the holodeck into the Star Trek universe, "The Big Goodbye". "The Inner Light" sees Picard live out an entire simulated life in a real-life moment. During which he came to accept that his actual life must have been merely a dream or delirium. In "Ship in a Bottle", Picard and Data were in a holographic simulation of the Enterprise, thinking they had exited the program, trying to fulfill Moriarty's request to be let out. They were still in the Holodeck, and Moriarty was actually holding them hostage. They eventually catch on. At the end a holographic Moriarty thinks he escaped from the computer — but he is actually "exploring" a 24th-century screen saver. At the end, Picard speculates about his crew being someone else's entertainment in a little box... oooh, meta. "Frame of Mind" both explores and inverts this trope, nearly driving Commander Riker insane. The combination of time-jumping and hallucinations experienced by Picard in "All Good Things..." leads to heavy invocation of this trope. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: An undeveloped script idea for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had Chief O'Brien and Julian Bashir trapped in a virtual reality prison. They escape and make it back to DS9, only to find that they're still in prison, so they escape again and make it back to DS9. The episode was to end with O'Brien telling his wife that he didn't know for sure if he'd actually escaped, and he never will. It's likely this script was repurposed for the season 4 episode "Hard Time". The season 7 episode "Extreme Measures" does this exact thing with O'Brien and Bashir, when Sloan's mind tricks them into believing they've returned to reality (when in actuality they are still inside his mind, slowly dying with him). A similar concept would also be used in the 6th season episode "Far Beyond the Stars" in which Sisko hallucinates that he is Benny Russell, a pulp fiction writer, whose latest story stars none other than Sisko. It gets even more extreme in that Benny Russell has hallucinations about being Sisko. At the end of the episode Sisko is telling his father that for all he knows he is a figment of his own (alter-ego Benny Russell's) imagination. The powers that be apparently toyed with the idea of having the entire series (and therefore the entire Trek Verse?) being all Benny Russell's book. Star Trek: Voyager: "Waking Moments" involves a species which spend their entire life dreaming. Only Native American spirit magic can free the crew... or something. In "Bliss", the crew falls prey to a gigantic space pitcher plant. It makes the crew see what they want to see (a worm hole to Earth), but they would actually be flying into its stomach. Seven of Nine and Naomi Wildman are the only ones immune because Seven was a Borg since childhood and Naomi was born on the ship; the whole "getting home" thing is not either's ultimate ambition. However, at one point Seven believes the ship has escaped. It turns out that it is just the creature showing her what she wants to see (that is, Voyager outside the creature), because not getting eaten is very much something Seven and Naomi both desire.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_81692f99	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_81692f99	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek (Franchise)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_81692f99
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_86fa6d5b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_86fa6d5b	comment	.hack//SIGN ends with Helba forcibly deleting Net Slum in a desperate effort to stop Skeith, causing everyone to be ejected from the game as the server crashes. This results in Tsukasa finally logging out of the game for the first time in the entire series and having a heartwarming meeting with Subaru in the real world...but when their hands touch, a distinctly cyberspace-y hexagon grid appears, and it then cuts to a scene of what appears to be the ruins of Net Slum (which is very similar to the very start of the first episode), with a mysterious monologue from Morganna. It doesn't help either that the "real world" segment of Tsukasa leaving the hospital and meeting Subaru has a somewhat surreal tone to it, what with the whole silent movie style and all. Ultimately, it's not really clear until later installments in the .hack series whether or not Tsukasa actually ever managed to log out.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_86fa6d5b	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_86fa6d5b	featureConfidence	1.0
.hack//SIGN	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_86fa6d5b
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_880276e0	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_880276e0	comment	Taxi Driver shows our sociopathic "hero" getting great praise for his shoot out, right after being probably gunned down. Even if he really did live, you can bet he's still crazy.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_880276e0	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_880276e0	featureConfidence	1.0
Taxi Driver	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_880276e0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8c5f856b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8c5f856b	comment	The final episode of Being Human. The devil creates different dreamworlds for all the main characters in which they have to choose their previous lives or the new ones. There is also a big debate whether the trio is now in the real world or in a dream after killing the devil. If you want a more definite answer there is an extra scene.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8c5f856b	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8c5f856b	featureConfidence	1.0
Being Human (UK)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8c5f856b
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8c9f7023	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8c9f7023	comment	Eyes Wide Shut. Very subtle hints in the movie provide clues that Dr. Harford dreamed up the events of the movie.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8c9f7023	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8c9f7023	featureConfidence	1.0
Eyes Wide Shut	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8c9f7023
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8d817ccb	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8d817ccb	comment	Lost: Hurley spent an episode believing that the Island was a hallucination and that he was still back at Santa Rosa Hospital. Desmond seems to have these reality doubts sometimes too.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8d817ccb	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8d817ccb	featureConfidence	1.0
Lost	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8d817ccb
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8e9812bc	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8e9812bc	comment	The second series of Hawkmoon novels by Michael Moorcock start with the hero trying to be happy with his wife and young family but being haunted by the ghosts of his friends who died at the climax of the first series. It then switches around to him being comforted by those friends having recovered from a delusion caused by the death of his new wife instead.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8e9812bc	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8e9812bc	featureConfidence	1.0
The History of the Runestaff	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8e9812bc
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8ee238c9	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8ee238c9	comment	Zhuangzi's poem is the source of all the butterfly symbolism in the Persona games, as referenced by Megami Ibunroku Persona's intro. The remake even references this in the opening lyrics.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8ee238c9	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8ee238c9	featureConfidence	1.0
Persona (Franchise)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_8ee238c9
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_93e8b35e	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_93e8b35e	comment	In the Alice in Wonderland sequel, Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, the question is repeatedly brought up as to whether this is all the Red King's dream, and what might happen if the Red King wakes up while Alice is still in it.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_93e8b35e	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_93e8b35e	featureConfidence	1.0
AliceInWonderland	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_93e8b35e
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_94b6b60a	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_94b6b60a	comment	The world of the Buildingverse (Roommates, Girls Next Door, Down the Street and Superintendent) is by definition recursive and mind screwy (things like fiction being real and also acknowledged to be fiction is normal) but there was also interaction with Inception and a full blown Lotus-Eater Machine. Even the readers routinely joke about their own possible fictionality.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_94b6b60a	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_94b6b60a	featureConfidence	1.0
Buildingverse (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_94b6b60a
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_96e8b542	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_96e8b542	comment	Liar by Justine Larbalestier is told from the point of view of a compulsive liar, who lies to the reader. To make things worse, she even lies about her lies, most notably on the issue of whether Jordan is alive or not, or even if he's real.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_96e8b542	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_96e8b542	featureConfidence	1.0
Liar (2009)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_96e8b542
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_9888a110	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_9888a110	comment	The complete mind screw ending of The Man in the High Castle which seems to somehow end in our world.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_9888a110	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_9888a110	featureConfidence	1.0
The Man in the High Castle	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_9888a110
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_9a7088bc	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_9a7088bc	comment	Happens in-universe in the Star Trek fan story "A Private Anecdote". Cpt. Christopher Pike was captain of the Enterprise when it visited Talos VII, where he was subject to very realistic mental illusions by the Talosians. In this story, years later, he thinks back over his adventures he's had since then; each time, he would briefly wonder: "What if this isn't real?" In other words, was he actually still on Talos experiencing yet another illusion?
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_9a7088bc	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_9a7088bc	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek: The Original Series	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_9a7088bc
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_9fa7d06a	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_9fa7d06a	comment	Used in episode 6 of the second season of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei. Zhuangzi is even quoted.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_9fa7d06a	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_9fa7d06a	featureConfidence	1.0
Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Manga)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_9fa7d06a
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a09b76a	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a09b76a	comment	The Thirteenth Floor (which is based on the novel Simulacron-3) has someone invent an artificial virtual reality world at the beginning, then reveal that their world is also a virtual reality world.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a09b76a	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a09b76a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Thirteenth Floor	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a09b76a
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a183d57f	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a183d57f	comment	Bender in Futurama Lampshades this when the episode "Obsoletely Fabulous" turns out to be just a dream while he gets a compatibility upgrade: "Anthology of Interest 1" shows several characters' theoretical scenarios playing out on the Professor's "What if" machine, only for it to be revealed at the end that the whole episode was one big "What if" scenario for Professor's Fing-longer invention shown at the beginning. This raises certain questions when the "What if" machine makes a repeat appearance in "Anthology of Interest 2".
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a183d57f	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a183d57f	featureConfidence	1.0
Futurama	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a183d57f
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a3748187	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a3748187	comment	JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind: Gold Experience Requiem's powers are like this, specifically the endless chain of "waking" only to be in another fabricated scenario. The victim catches on after about three times that he's no longer alive, but that doesn't change the fact that he'll never die, either.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a3748187	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a3748187	featureConfidence	1.0
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind (Manga)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a3748187
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a7aada08	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a7aada08	comment	In Sylvie and Bruno, the narrator explicitly thinks it:
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a7aada08	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a7aada08	featureConfidence	1.0
Sylvie and Bruno	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a7aada08
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a8a4211b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a8a4211b	comment	In Mass Effect 3, Joker discusses this trope after Shepard takes a virtual trip through the geth consensus, wondering if you really came back out or if you're still in there and everything you're seeing now is an illusion.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a8a4211b	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a8a4211b	featureConfidence	1.0
Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_a8a4211b
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_aaaf816f	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_aaaf816f	comment	One of the overarching questions of Mister Miracle (2017) is whether or not the reality the series takes place in is "real", both in the sense of whether it fits in the canon DC universe, and in the life of Scott Free, aka Mister Miracle. There is something definitely wrong with his life — he's become so overwhelmed by years of previously-repressed trauma over his Dark and Troubled Past that the series begins with his suicide attempt, and the fabric of his reality has bizarre continuity and visual lapses that are played as either something breaking in Scott's mind, in reality itself, or both. Pretty early on, he openly questions that perhaps he was previously hit by the Anti-Life Equation, and this reality is its way of tormenting Scott until he crosses the Despair Event Horizon. The ending suggests that he is in a fake reality, but it's left ambiguous exactly what's causing it — not that it really matters to him, because by the end of the story, he's managed to overcome his demons by the very real love he feels for his wife and children, earning a happy ending that's "real" enough to him.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_aaaf816f	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_aaaf816f	featureConfidence	1.0
Mister Miracle (2017) (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_aaaf816f
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_b0ff5776	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_b0ff5776	comment	Young Sheldon: The concept is mentioned by Prof. Ericson in "A Philosophy Class and Worms That Can Chase You".
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_b0ff5776	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_b0ff5776	featureConfidence	1.0
Young Sheldon	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_b0ff5776
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_b2c5aa62	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_b2c5aa62	comment	Mr. Nobody. From a two-hour film, the most popular conclusion is that only around twenty minutes of it actually happened.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_b2c5aa62	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_b2c5aa62	featureConfidence	1.0
Mr. Nobody	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_b2c5aa62
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_b36b109d	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_b36b109d	comment	In Gozu, when the hero wakes from a nightmare he finds the letter that was handed to him in the dream. Is this just another illusion? Or wasn't it a dream in the first place?
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_b36b109d	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_b36b109d	featureConfidence	1.0
Gozu	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_b36b109d
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ba6cc3a1	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ba6cc3a1	comment	In Granblue Fantasy, Scathacha's primary form is a dragon, yet chose to have a human-sized Erune body when travelling with the crew outside of Alster Island. Currently, her Erune body is active while her dragon body sleeps and vice versa.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ba6cc3a1	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ba6cc3a1	featureConfidence	1.0
Granblue Fantasy (Video Game)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ba6cc3a1
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_c0c57462	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_c0c57462	comment	Parodied in Chrono Trigger while in the Kingdom of Zeal.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_c0c57462	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_c0c57462	featureConfidence	1.0
Chrono Trigger (Video Game)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_c0c57462
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_c43df4d8	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_c43df4d8	comment	Doctor Who: Played with in "Amy's Choice". The "Dream Lord" traps the Doctor and his two companions in two deadly situations which they switch between by falling asleep every five minutes or so, claiming one of them is real and one of them is a dream. In the end, the Doctor, in a twist of genius, realises that the Dream Lord gave them a choice between two dreams, because he "conceded defeat" and revived the dead TARDIS when he is supposed to have no power over reality. The Doctor subsequently blows up the TARDIS to kill them all and they all wake up in reality. It turns out that they were brought into a collective hallucination by a few grams of psychotropic pollen, and the Dream Lord is just an inner demon within the Doctor. "Last Christmas" plays out this trope while Deconstruction the show's "isolated base under attack" trope. There are enough dream layers and ambiguities that viewers have questioned if the "top level" is still just the dream.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_c43df4d8	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_c43df4d8	featureConfidence	1.0
Doctor Who	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_c43df4d8
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_c75986ad	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_c75986ad	comment	Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid uses several of these, nesting several layers of drama. In the dialogue "Little Harmonic Labyrinth," Achilles and the Tortoise are on an airship and start reading a book about themselves. The bad news is that the story doesn't "pop back" all the way to the last level, and the initial story is still left hanging. The good news is that the Tortoise and Achilles can move up to a previous level using popcorn.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_c75986ad	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_c75986ad	featureConfidence	1.0
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_c75986ad
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cb2942e9	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cb2942e9	comment	Waking Life is a series of psychedelic sequences which mostly feature the main character as an observer, and many of them segue with him waking up yet again.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cb2942e9	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cb2942e9	featureConfidence	1.0
Waking Life	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cb2942e9
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cc6bd7b5	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cc6bd7b5	comment	The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch involves a plot to Take Over the World through hallucinogens that in theory could take a thousand years to wear off. Every main character takes the drugs at one point or another, more than once a seeming recovery is merely hallucinated. By the end, it's virtually impossible to decide what's "real" and what's not.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cc6bd7b5	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cc6bd7b5	featureConfidence	1.0
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cc6bd7b5
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cd6bad8a	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cd6bad8a	comment	The Twilight Zone: The Twilight Zone (1959): In one episode, the entire story consists of a woman's repeatedly waking up from nightmares, only to find each time that she was still dreaming. The Twilight Zone (2002): Happens In-Universe as part of a condemned criminal's sentence: he's doomed to have nightmares of being murdered by his victim over and over again, "waking up" from one nightmare to the next.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cd6bad8a	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cd6bad8a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Twilight Zone (Franchise)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cd6bad8a
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cd899ed6	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cd899ed6	comment	The Grand Finale of Community features a parody of the idea. In The Tag, we see a fake commercial for the family playing Community the board game. The characters have a debate as to whether the show is really just them playing the game or if the game is a part of the show. At one point, after revealing the snow globe that claims the show is their game, another character reveals the script of the episode they are in. At that point, the first character comments that this means they don't actually exist.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cd899ed6	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cd899ed6	featureConfidence	1.0
Grand Finale	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cd899ed6
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cf2068cf	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cf2068cf	comment	Ultraman Max had an episode titled "The Butterfly's Dream" in reference to this concept. It is completely insane, and revolves around the worlds of a writer for Ultraman Max and Kaito becoming disturbingly warped and their lives getting switched around due to the machinations of a mysterious monster-making lady and a protean egg-like entity Madeus. It's a lot weirder than it sounds.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cf2068cf	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cf2068cf	featureConfidence	1.0
Ultraman Max	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cf2068cf
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cf3bcedc	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cf3bcedc	comment	This is basically the entire premise of a Jostein Gaarder novel Sophie's World.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cf3bcedc	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cf3bcedc	featureConfidence	1.0
Sophie's World	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_cf3bcedc
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_d7c4626a	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_d7c4626a	comment	In The Sandman (1989), Dream subjects a character (who'd accidentally captured Dream in an attempt to seal Death and gain immortality) to a punishment of "eternal waking". The character in question continually dreams that he's woken up, only to see some nightmarish thing that tells him he's still dreaming, only to wake up from that dream... for five real-time years.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_d7c4626a	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_d7c4626a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Sandman (1989) (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_d7c4626a
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_dcdb5ca9	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_dcdb5ca9	comment	Part of the ending of the Ciel route in Tsukihime involves Shiki in a mental dream world where there are no vampires, Ciel is just a normal girl and he doesn't have his Eyes of Death Perception. He catches on pretty quick and has a little chat with his Nanaya side over whether he wants to leave or not, because leaving most likely means death.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_dcdb5ca9	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_dcdb5ca9	featureConfidence	1.0
Tsukihime (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_dcdb5ca9
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e28573ba	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e28573ba	comment	The Electric Wonderland story "The New Adventures of the Nettropolis Narvel" starts off with eponymous Narvel performing typical superheroic duties in cyberspace, only to abruptly find himself in a psych ward. He soon learns that he's not really a superhero, but a madman who lived his life in a simulation chamber to entertain viewers of a Venezuelan TV channel. However, Narvel eventually re-enters the life he led as a crimefighter, revealing that the world in which he had superpowers was nothing more than a simulation in a chamber in cyberspace.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e28573ba	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e28573ba	featureConfidence	1.0
Electric Wonderland (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e28573ba
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e2888530	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e2888530	comment	This is the entire premise of Jacob's Ladder, too. The main character keeps bouncing back and forth between two realities, each of which shares some people and places in common, but both of which seem to have demons in them as well. It's finally shown that he had died in Vietnam, and this was all just an in-your-head Purgatory.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e2888530	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e2888530	featureConfidence	1.0
Jacob's Ladder	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e2888530
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e293455a	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e293455a	comment	The Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Normal Again" has her "wake up" in a mental institution, having imagined the last six seasons in a fugue. In the end, Buffy decides that Sunnydale is real and saves her friends... and then we see her psychologist pronounce her too far gone to save. Presumably the rest of the series is her continued hallucinations; how Angel fits in is anybody's guess. The writers of that episode admitted in the commentary that they were going for a Mind Screw and didn't think so many people would go as far as to declare the entire series and its spinoff a delusion. Joss Whedon told the New York Times that the matter is open to interpretation and that he personally subscribes to the belief that Buffy's life in Sunnydale is not a delusion.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e293455a	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e293455a	featureConfidence	1.0
Buffy the Vampire Slayer	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e293455a
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e4732abc	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e4732abc	comment	Stargate Atlantis: "Home" ends with McKay asking if they were really relased from the fake mental world projected to them by a cloud of sentient gas. The gas then yells at him that it's real. "The Real World" ends with the heroes briefly wondering if the reality they're in is real or another Asuran deception, then quickly deciding they'd rather not know.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e4732abc	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e4732abc	featureConfidence	1.0
Stargate Atlantis	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e4732abc
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e8d13e52	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e8d13e52	comment	The Urusei Yatsura movie Beautiful Dreamer references this several times. Once by Mujaki, the dream demon, explains this verbatim while attempting to lull Sakura into a false sense of security. The second is near the end while Ataru tries to escape the dream and continuously wakes in an new dream. And a third time at the end when the whole cast awakens from the dream world only to find Mujaki may or may not still have them trapped in a dream.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e8d13e52	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e8d13e52	featureConfidence	1.0
Urusei Yatsura (Manga)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e8d13e52
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e955ccd	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e955ccd	comment	Dream Machine in Doraemon: Nobita's Three Visionary Swordsmen can swap reality for dream, which means that if the users of the machine are killed in the dream, instead of waking up in the reality, they are Killed Off for Real. And the Dream Land the said users are in is full of creatures capable of killing them instantly. They now also perceive their original reality as a dream, wondering why there is someone in it called 'Mama' ever bother to annoy them and tell them to 'wake up'...
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e955ccd	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e955ccd	featureConfidence	1.0
Doraemon: Nobita's Three Visionary Swordsmen	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e955ccd
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e995d4bf	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e995d4bf	comment	During the Third Night of The Tale of the Exile Gaven Morren, the protagonist, is dosed with a potent hallucinogen. As he's the narrator, we only see things from his point of view, making his perception of events questionable at best. How much of the danger he faces is real and how much is in his head is an open question, especially since his guide isn't being honest with him. For good reason, too, as She'll cease to exist if he stops believing in her presence.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e995d4bf	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e995d4bf	featureConfidence	1.0
The Tale of the Exile	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_e995d4bf
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ef076a36	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ef076a36	comment	Star Trek: Voyager: "Waking Moments" involves a species which spend their entire life dreaming. Only Native American spirit magic can free the crew... or something. In "Bliss", the crew falls prey to a gigantic space pitcher plant. It makes the crew see what they want to see (a worm hole to Earth), but they would actually be flying into its stomach. Seven of Nine and Naomi Wildman are the only ones immune because Seven was a Borg since childhood and Naomi was born on the ship; the whole "getting home" thing is not either's ultimate ambition. However, at one point Seven believes the ship has escaped. It turns out that it is just the creature showing her what she wants to see (that is, Voyager outside the creature), because not getting eaten is very much something Seven and Naomi both desire.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ef076a36	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ef076a36	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek: Voyager	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ef076a36
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ef200c23	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ef200c23	comment	Occurs in a particularly soul-crushing way at the end of Realms of the Haunting.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ef200c23	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ef200c23	featureConfidence	1.0
Realms of the Haunting (Video Game)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ef200c23
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ef337a8b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ef337a8b	comment	Happens in Power Corrupts series by DarkMatter2525. After trying and failing to overthrow Yahweh for years Jeffrey realises that he actually never left the original simulation and all the events in the 'real' world were just distractions manufactured by Yahweh. He resolves to reach an actual reality in order to stop whatever plot is unraveling there.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ef337a8b	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ef337a8b	featureConfidence	1.0
DarkMatter2525 (Web Animation)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ef337a8b
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_f3e6e0f3	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_f3e6e0f3	comment	The Call of C'Russo revolves around the world being the dream of an ancient cephalophoid monster slumbering in a city at the bottom of the sea. Yes, there exists a Donald Duck Cosmic Horror Story.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_f3e6e0f3	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_f3e6e0f3	featureConfidence	1.0
The Call of C'Russo (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_f3e6e0f3
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_fa86ed4e	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_fa86ed4e	comment	Catherine: The day before Vincent's final climb, he wakes up to find Catherine in his bed and Katherine banging on his door. There's a tense scene between the three until the K/ Catherines start to fight. Katherine backs up to a sink, looking for a knife that Catherine already has. The two women fight and Catherine ends up getting stabbed before Vincent and Katherine are pulled into the dream world and have to climb to escape a monster demon form of Catherine. At the top, Katherine tries to throw herself off but Vincent saves her, and going through the top door....wakes him up. He realizes it was all a dream when Katherine shows up and he openly admits to her about Catherine in an attempt to explain the dream and she admits to having already known about Vincent's other woman.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_fa86ed4e	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_fa86ed4e	featureConfidence	1.0
Catherine (Video Game)	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_fa86ed4e
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_fbf33963	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_fbf33963	comment	This is a concern in Inception, so those involved take precautions. It's also the cliffhanger ending
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_fbf33963	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_fbf33963	featureConfidence	1.0
Inception	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_fbf33963
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ff9ab17f	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ff9ab17f	comment	Star Trek: The Next Generation: This trope is invoked in the first season episode that introduced the holodeck into the Star Trek universe, "The Big Goodbye". "The Inner Light" sees Picard live out an entire simulated life in a real-life moment. During which he came to accept that his actual life must have been merely a dream or delirium. In "Ship in a Bottle", Picard and Data were in a holographic simulation of the Enterprise, thinking they had exited the program, trying to fulfill Moriarty's request to be let out. They were still in the Holodeck, and Moriarty was actually holding them hostage. They eventually catch on. At the end a holographic Moriarty thinks he escaped from the computer — but he is actually "exploring" a 24th-century screen saver. At the end, Picard speculates about his crew being someone else's entertainment in a little box... oooh, meta. "Frame of Mind" both explores and inverts this trope, nearly driving Commander Riker insane. The combination of time-jumping and hallucinations experienced by Picard in "All Good Things..." leads to heavy invocation of this trope.
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ff9ab17f	featureApplicability	1.0
Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ff9ab17f	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek: The Next Generation	hasFeature	Schrödinger's Butterfly / int_ff9ab17f

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingCategory2	Dream Tropes
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingCategory2	Philosophy Tropes
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingCategory2	Plots
Schrödinger's Butterfly	processingCategory2	This Might Be an Index
Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
.hack//SIGN / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Ghost in the Shell (1995) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Gregory Horror Show / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Anderson: Psi-Division (Comic Book) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Mister Miracle (2017) (Comic Book) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
The Question (Comic Book) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Deadpool: Wade Wilson's War / Comicbook / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Birdman / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Brazil / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
eXistenZ / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Gozu / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Inception / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Jacob's Ladder / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Lost Highway / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Minority Report / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Mr. Nobody / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Mulholland Dr. / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Star Trek: Generations / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Total Recall (1990) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
X2: X-Men United / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
A Taste of Honey / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Johnny Maxwell Trilogy / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Mune Shinri / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Rachel Griffin / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Sylvie and Bruno / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
The Garden of Sinners / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
ActionChatroom	seeAlso	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Grimalkin	seeAlso	Schrödinger's Butterfly
JulioCortazar	seeAlso	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Solipsism	seeAlso	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Joshiraku (Manga) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
×××HOLiC (Manga)	seeAlso	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches (Manga) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Epica (Music) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
GFRIEND (Music) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Touhou â€“ ZUN's Music Collection (Music) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
CDT Dream II (Roleplay) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
NineAndZero2	seeAlso	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Dallas / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
St. Elsewhere / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Star Trek: Voyager / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Stargate Atlantis / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Ultra Q Dark Fantasy / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Would I Lie to You? / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Action Chatroom (Video Game) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Aisle (Video Game) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Bloodborne (Video Game) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory (Video Game) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Kinder (Video Game) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Persona (Video Game) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Video Game) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (Video Game) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Baldr Sky (Visual Novel) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Awful Hospital (Webcomic) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Romantically Apocalyptic (Webcomic) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Roommates (Webcomic) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Overused Sci-Fi Storylines (Website) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
×××HOLiC (Manga) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly
Being Human (UK) / int_9637893b	type	Schrödinger's Butterfly

Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.