Let’s Discuss Clichés: All Just a Dream · 7:56am Jun 13th, 2016
Today's discussion is about a very old cliche. It is so ubiquitous that I'm many of you have encountered it in multiple places before. Just because it is commonplace, however, doesn't mean that we can't examine it and try to do better.
What is it? “All just a dream” is when one or more scenes are abruptly revealed to to audience as a dream sequence. The difference between this and a regular dream sequence is that the audience isn't given any clue or warning of the fact that it is a dream, until the sequence is already over.
These scenes often lack any surrealistic elements normally found in dream sequences, to better mask the surprise. They often end with the character abruptly waking up, then announcing "it was all just a dream".
Why do people still use it? I think this persists for one major reason. It's an easy way to create shock or surprise. Because the dream sequence doesn't need to adhere to a larger plot or demands of logic, it can show the audience a very unusual or unlikely scenario without having to follow through on the consequences.
This cliche is also used as a way to retcon/change a story. If the author made a blunder or wants to change something after publishing it, this can be a way to invalidate unwanted developments. This really isn't that common anymore, but it still shows up now and then. There was a TV show (Dallas) that infamously undid an entire season this way.
Why is it a bad idea? What makes it trite? This cliché has one major problem. While it may shock the audience, it also wastes their time. Because the sequence is a dream, it has absolutely zero effect on the plot. It's only purpose is as a bait and switch. In the cases where a dream is important to the plot, it is often clear to the audience beforehand that the dream is a dream.
The Law of Conservation of Detail states that something which isn't crucial to the plot shouldn't get any screen time. Even if these sequences are brief, they are still completely superfluous to the plot. They only exist to deliver a cheap emotional surprise to the audience. A good story, however, should already be affecting the audience's emotions without resorting to lazy tricks.
What could we, as writers, use instead? Using a dream sequence to create tension is a valid story telling technique. It should be used, however, in a way that makes the dream a critical component of the plot. It should also be made obvious to the audience that they are viewing a dream, so the story isn't over-relying on a lazy twist.
One way to do this can be to set up a twist that makes it look like a part of the story was a dream, but then reveal that those events actually happened. If you ever watched Moon, then it does just that near the beginning of the story.
The trick here is to make the transition convincing. Perhaps the story is edited in such a way to make the audience infer it was a dream, before events refute that idea (like in Moon). Or perhaps there is magic/technology/whatever that caused a given character to think they were dreaming, when they weren't.
How might the above look? To illustrate this, I'm actually going to use a scene from one of my discarded stories. The story had a few too many problems to pursue as a project, but I did like the way the initial scene turned out. It takes place in a universe where Nightmare Moon won, but eventually hopped to a different timeline after being overcome with guilt. Notice the way the scene transitions from dream to reality.
Celestia smiled. Her ceremonial barding had rusted slightly, her coat looked dingy and unkempt. Most noticeable was her hair; black streaks accompanied its usual multicolored luster. They looked like discolorations in an old photograph.
“Hello, Nightmare Moon,” she whispered.
“Celestia? What are you doing here? Why do you look so different?”
“Why, Nightmare Moon, don’t you recognize me? I suppose it has been a long time, for you, but I did not think you would forget me so easily.” Celestia gripped her chestplate in her magic, and moved it to the side, slowly, painfully slowly.
Princess Nightmare Moon recoiled. “It can’t be.” A long, jagged scar wound across Celestia’s chest.
“Oh, but it is,” Celestia whispered. She traced the scar with her hoof. “That’s the spot where you tore out my heart.”
Nightmare Moon jolted awake. She twisted sideways and fell off her bed, the sweaty sheets sticking to her body. She tried to force them off before they tangled, but only succeeded in bunching them onto her hind legs.
“Oh, I’m sorry, did I startle you?”
Nightmare Moon froze. “It can’t...” She turned to the foot of her bed. Celestia stood there, the same Celestia from her nightmare.
Celestia tilted her head. “I was so eager say hello, but I did not want to wake you. Perhaps the dream spell was a little too potent?”
Nightmare Moon backed up, tripped over her blankets. “How... why can you be here? I...”
“Killed me? But Nightmare Moon, that’s exactly why I’m here.” Celestia’s smile was so bright. It cut through the darkness of the room, contrasted so greatly with the dullness of her coat and mane. “You never checked on my body, did you? Never thought to make sure it was still there during any of that time?”
Nightmare Moon ran a hoof through her mane. “Discord...”
“Yes, he bores rather easily. I suppose you should have expected that, when you left him to his own devices.” Celestia laughed. It sounded as light and musical as it always did. “But then, you were never particularly good at planning, were you?”
As mentioned above, Moon could also demonstrate this idea in action. Certain parts of Puella Magi Madoka Magica could, as well.
Conclusion: Dream sequences can and should have a place in storytelling. Their surrealist nature can do all sorts of things, including deliver symbolism and motivate characters. Yes, it can even be a good way to frighten the audience, an appropriate place to encounter things that simply don't exist in reality.
Using them as a cheap shock or twist, however, is a lazy gimmick at best. At worst, it is an insult to the intellect and time of the audience. Just because dreams can be a part of a good story doesn't mean they can excuse lazy writing or pointless reveals. Hopefully this post has helped explore some of the reasons why this cliche can be so damaging to a narrative, and ways that it might be exploited/used better.
Thanks for reading. As always, comments, counterpoints, and criticism are welcome.
Now, what about dreams that significantly impact the character and drive the plot? This is mlp after all. We have a Princess of dreams.
Project Horizons demonstrates how to both do this wrong and do it right.
An early scene features the protagonist waking up after 15 years have passed, and everything's gone to extra-shit. It's believable at first, but as events get more and more surreal and awful, it becomes obvious it's a dream, and then it's revealed to be one. It comes back to haunt her later on, but it was a definite rug-pull, "you wasted my time" moment.
Later on, though, she wakes up in a mental hospital, where all the characters she's encountered during her life are alive and working as staff or fellow inmates. A doctor tries to convince her everything that's happened in the story up to that point was a creation of her subconscious to cover up and cope with a traumatic event. She slowly tries to unravel the 'dream' (it's more an induced fantasy?) from the inside, while having other, more dreamlike dreams that help keep the scenario believable as "this is really happening". It was a great sequence thanks to the combination of realism and "this can't be real" (and no doubt my love of in-universe AUs), and it was absolutely plot relevant. That last point might be the most relevant, honestly.
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In MLP context, Luna's an "it's a dream" tell, so the same applies.
4019302 Not quite sure you answered my question, PP. I'm saying in mlp dreams are frequently very important, and have a huge impact on the story being told. I get that wasting your reader's time is a problem, but sometimes a dream is necessary to demonstrate something about a character, perhaps something they didn't know about themselves.
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Well yeah, if it does demonstrate something important about a character, then it's by definition not wasting anyone's time.
I'm just saying that it's hard to do the bait-and-switch dream sequences in the first place if Luna is involved, because she's a dead giveaway. :B
4019486 That makes more sense. Thanks!
As with all things, something needs to either advance the plot or advance characterization, and preferably both.
I think a big part of it is also length - something which only goes on for a minute or two, and sets up for a later plot point, is generally more forgivable. Prophetic dreams or dreams that echo of choices can work in this regard, where the character ends up seeing the circumstances unfolding again and chooses differently, illustrating their character development.
"All Just A Dream", then, is something which should not be used to end a story, because it renders the rest of the story pointless.
One obvious example of using this bait and switch well is that when they wake up they realize how much they miss something about the dream, then change their behavior because of it. Maybe even making a choice in the dream that they suddenly realize they would make in real life, they just hadn't thought of it. If done right, if the character says, it's all just a dream, they are just trying to convince themselves it's meaningless, rather than it actually being so. One obvious example is a pony suddenly realizing, oh, I love Rarity because for a moment I was confused and thought the dream was real and now I'm really disappointed it's not. This works for non-romantic realizations too, and the length can add to the effect, since in retrospect it is clearly a dream, but it doesn't seem like it at the time. It's not a bad way to show a purely mental conflict that involves a lack of thought, or outright avoidance, and making it seem real suggests, regardless of if it's acutally true, that they think it's real and would do the same thing in real life. Which can be quite a conflict, especially if say to us the above not fleshed out example Rarity is married already. A clear impetus like a dream is much better then a character just deciding their in love for no reason, or being told by a third party they are when due to the situation they have every reason to never even consider a thing for no reason.
4028901 That could be a valid approach. That raises a question, though: if the dream is a valid impetus for a decision, then why does its nature as a dream need to be hidden from the audience? Does the cheap reveal add anything to its use as a plot point?
4035043 Because it sells the character's sense that it was real. Though it is worth mentioning I almost always right first person where this makes more sense. As I said, it's very possible to have the sense something isn't a dream and sticking to either no, or very subtle clues sells the mindset of the character better, including the , wait, it wasn't a dream moment later where the suddenly reassess their life. You could still do this in a less limited pov but the there really is no particularly good reason becasue you don't have that focus. Then again it could be fun to make it obvious, but the main character doesn't question anything until they wake up. The point is if the whole point is you're less trying to trick the readers and more get them in the mindset of the character so their surprise when they wake up echoes the reader, at least to some degree. Probably the best is some odd details that in retrospect make it obvious, but first read though aren't at all.