History Main / DreamSue

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic series ''FanFic/TheShadowWars'', especially ''Fanfic/AnExtendedPerformance'' and ''Fanfic/TheRomanceOfTheOpenRoad'', Trixie Lulamoon imagines herself the near-flawless heroine of a never-ending high fantasy adventure as her stage persona, and this bleeds over into her real self-perception until it seems that she has trouble telling her own fictions from her real life as an itinerant showmare.

* The ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlack'' AnimatedAdaptation had an episode with an alien parasite LotusEaterMachine. One got J, and his dreams made him a MarySue.

* Sarah from ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2012-04-03 dreams herself as one of these]] for [[IJustWantToBeSpecial obvious reasons.]]

* In ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'', Snoopy's favorite ImagineSpot is where he's the heroic [[AcePilot World War I Flying Ace]]. Subverted however, as he's ''always'' shot down by his foe the Red Baron. Most of his other imaginary personas are "the world famous" something or other (parodied in one strip where he admits "Actually, there aren't more than a dozen world famous grocery clerks"), although again, there's often a FantasyTwist where he's not as good at it as he claims (his "world famous lawyer" never knows whether he's prosecution or defence until after the trial). Joe Cool is simply Snoopy's idea of what the coolest guy ever would be like.

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* There's a strange variation of this in ''ComicBook/LucyDreaming''. Lucy keeps entering dreams where she turns into a random badass action hero. However, it's the ''character'' she turns into who's a badass, not ''Lucy'' herself. So Lucy ends up terrified in situations that she's not sure how to handle, but manages to handle them anyway, to her own surprise.

* Shiratori in ''Manga/YandereKanojo'' is like this, and he normally would be right, if he wasn't in a GagSeries. As it is, he's the ButtMonkey and UnknownRival.

* Usopp in ''Manga/OnePiece'' sees his alter-ego Sogeking as the courageous warrior and hero he couldn't be. In Ussop's mind, Sogeking even has his own choreographed opening theme song... but to anyone else in reality (except Luffy and Chopper), Usopp is just [[ImagineSpot spacing out]] while singing badly.

* ''[[ComicBook/EmmieAndFriends Invisible Emmie]]'': The last chapter reveals that [[spoiler:Katie is a creation of Emmie, to serve as the popular, pretty, skilled girl Emmie wishes she was. She starts to go quiet as Emmie speaks up to others, and fades away completely when Emmie lets her go after confessing who she is to her best friend, Brianna.]]

* In ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'', Snoopy's favorite ImagineSpot is where he's the heroic [[AcePilot World War I Flying Ace]]. Subverted however, as he's ''always'' shot down by his foe the Red Baron. Most of his other imaginary personas are "the world famous" something or other (parodied in one strip where he admits "Actually, there aren't more than a dozen world famous grocery clerks"), although again, there's often a FantasyTwist where he's not as good at it as he claims (his "world famous lawyer" never knows whether he's prosecution or defence until after the trial). Joe Cool is simply Snoopy's idea of what the coolest guy ever would be like.

* In the WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic fanfic series FanFic/TheShadowWars, especially ''Fanfic/AnExtendedPerformance'' and ''Fanfic/TheRomanceOfTheOpenRoad'', Trixie Lulamoon imagines herself the near-flawless heroine of a never-ending high fantasy adventure as her stage persona, and this bleeds over into her real self-perception until it seems that she has trouble telling her own fictions from her real life as an itinerant showmare.

[[folder:Film]]

* John Brown has one at the beginning of ''Film/InspectorGadget1999''.
* Ralph from ''Film/AChristmasStory'' often imagines himself as a genius whenever nervous or angry. These include being a boy who charms his teacher without even trying, or a child star who loathes his parents for cleaning his "dirty mouth" with soap after he let slip the AtomicFBomb.
* In a more depressing example, the titular character from the novel-based movie, ''{{Film/Precious}}'', often escapes her cruel reality by imagining herself as things she believes she can never be, such as a successful celebrity loved by everyone, a girl capable of getting a very handsome boyfriend, a beautiful white teenager, or, in the saddest example, a girl who's recognized in her yearbook, with friendly teachers and a loving family. This is a TearJerker, as in reality she is often outcast, has to resort to extremes to get what she wants, is morbidly obese, is despised and abused by her mother, and raped and impregnated twice by her father.
* The opening scene of ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda1'' portrays a legendary kung-fu warrior who can make his enemies blind [[AwesomenessIsAForce just by his pure awesomeness]]. Then a voice that's later revealed to belong to Po's (adopted) dad tells him to wake up, and we cut to Po falling out of his bed in surprise.

* ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld:'' In a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_iOTgLoru0 deleted scene]], Loki, now a prisoner for life fantasizes about being crowned the King of Asgard while holding Mjölnir, with the Asgardians cheering at him. He breaks the illusion only when Frigga asks whether it helps him feel better and warns him against forgetting what is real.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', Mei imagines herself as one of these in her ImagineSpot of the 4*Town concert including her getting to not only get up on stage, but be proposed to by Robaire during the concert.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
** In the episode "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy", the Doctor installs a daydreaming subroutine where he imagines himself constantly having to assume command of Voyager as the Emergency Command Hologram, who gets the crew out of situations even more single-handedly and [[LargeHam hammily]] than most real Franchise/StarTrek captains, ''and'' scores with Seven of Nine, Janeway, and B'Elanna. It turns out an alien race monitors these daydreams and thinks they're reality, eventually causing the crew to find out, much to his embarrassment.
** He also has a holodeck fantasy where he is completely human and is the wise, loved, respected, patriarch of the perfect American family. It takes other crew members to point out how unrealistically Stepford all this is.

* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "[[Recap/SupernaturalS02E15TallTales Tall Tales]]" (which is TheRashomon), Dean retells an evening in a bar to Bobby as if he is a romantic Dream Sue, with hints of being a perfect [[HunterOfMonsters hunter]] as well. The entire setting is glamorized, and a girl just completely swoons over him and showers him with praise, while he insists that he has to do his "duty" of interviewing her because lives are at stake. Sam, by contrast, is turned into a whiny jerk who simply wants to interrupt Dean and his lover, eventually just descending into whining "BlahBlahBlah".

* ''Series/TheSandman2022''. In "[[Recap/TheSandman2022S01E08PlayingHouse Playing House]]", Jed Walker is introduced as a child superhero, with his mother as MissionControl. He wakes up in the rat-infested basement of his abusive foster parents. His mother is actually a rogue from the Dream world who thinks she's helping him escape his torment, but Morpheus accuses her of trapping the boy in a LotusEaterMachine instead of helping him escape it in the Waking World.

* ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'' has a inversion where the main character Saitama is a GodModeSue who is so over powered that he finds winning [[OneHitKill easy]] and [[VictoryIsBoring boring]] leading to his dream giving him a much needed [[BroughtDownToBadass challenge]].

* ''Webcomic/YumeHime'' is about what happens when an OccidentalOtaku's childhood Dream Sue [[CerebusSyndrome comes back in her nightmares later in life]].

* Batgirl has a dream at the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' where she saves Batman from Two-Face, Penguin, and Joker single-handedly. Just as they're about to make out, Dick Grayson wakes her from her nap.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E19ADogAndPonyShow "A Dog and Pony Show"]], Rarity is kidnapped, and Spike imagines himself as an unstoppable KnightInShiningArmor who'll SaveThePrincess (as Rarity is dressed as a PrincessClassic in his fantasy).
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}''. the titular character has several moments per episode where he seems to break from reality and imagine himself as this perfect kid doing things even most adults can't do, like lead an army despite being 12, solve an impossible equation, and save the world as a superhero who conserves his identity without even trying.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "From A to Z-Z-Z-Z", elementary school student Ralph Philips keeps daydreaming in class, and has a lot of Dream Sues, imagining himself as a Pony Express rider fighting his way past hordes of Indians, a deep-sea diver fighting a shark and rescuing a sub, a boxer fighting and [=KOing=] a big, muscular opponent, and even as General Douglas [=MacArthur=].
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'' short ''The Wizard'', Daffy Duck spends [[HeavySleeper 3 days of sleep]] dreaming that he's the most powerful wizard in the universe.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'', episode "Married", Rhonda, using a folding paper fortune teller, shows that Arnold and Helga are meant to be married. The rest of the episode shows them dreaming about what it would be like. Helga dreams about being HappilyMarried with Arnold, watching him drop Lila, becoming President, and later saving him from a terrorist who turns out to be [[spoiler: Lila]]. Arnold's dream, however is a whole other [[AwfulWeddedLife trope]]...
* The ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlack'' AnimatedAdaptation had an episode with an alien parasite LotusEaterMachine. One got J, and his dreams made him a MarySue.
* In ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse'', Goofy dreams he is a terrific athlete.

* Muttley, the canine cohort of Dick Dastardly, daydreams of himself as important or heroic figures in the Magnificent Muttley segments of ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines.'' It subverts his actual villainous role on the series.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': "A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!" shows that both Dewey and Huey have dreams to this effect. The former dreams that he's a highly popular high school basketball player, singer, and dancer (a la [[Film/HighSchoolMusical Troy Bolton]]) at a school that is literally all about him; the latter dreams that he's taller than everyone else, believing that this will give him the respect from his siblings that he currently lacks.

* ''WesternAnimation/DogCity'': The episode "In Your Dreams" presents a [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] of this. Eliot, tired after a long day at work on his cartoon ShowWithinAShow, falls asleep and dreams about being a character in said show, working alongside [[TheHero Ace]]. Only instead, he upstages the detective by abusing his power as Dog City's creator, solving the case with ease, and earning the attraction of Chief Rosie (whom Ace himself has a crush on). Unlike in most examples of this trope, Ace's behavior being the same as usual means he doesn't idolize Eliot in the least for his ill-gotten accomplishments, and so his disgust with his creator over the whole thing is completely understandable.

* ''WebAnimation'': In Jake’s first song, "My Gaming Life", he day-dreams that he’s invincible.

* In ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'', Snoopy's favorite ImagineSpot is where he's the heroic [[AcePilot World War I Flying Ace]]. Subverted however, as he's ''always'' shot down by his foe the Red Baron. Most of his other imaginary personas are "the world famous" something or other (parodied in one strip where he admits "Actually, there aren't more than a dozen world famous grocery clerks", although again, there's often a FantasyTwist where he's not as good at it as he claims (his "world famous lawyer" never knows whether he's prosecution or defence until after the trial). Joe Cool is simply Snoopy's idea of what the coolest guy ever would be like.

* In ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'', Snoopy's favorite ImagineSpot is where he's the heroic [[AcePilot World War I Flying Ace]]. Subverted however, as he's ''always'' shot down by his foe the Red Baron. Most of his other imaginary personas are "the world famous" something or other. Joe Cool is simply Snoopy's idea of what the coolest guy ever would be like.

* In ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'', Snoopy's favorite ImagineSpot is where he's the heroic [[AcePilot World War I Flying Ace]]. Subverted however, as he's ''always'' shot down by his foe the Red Baron.

* In "Literature/TheSecretLifeOfWalterMitty", Walter constantly dreams of himself being the best of anything, whether a brilliant fighter plane pilot, or a skilled surgeon, or a noble martyr, as opposed to his real life as a HenpeckedHusband.

* The opening scene of ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' portrays a legendary kung-fu warrior who can make his enemies blind [[AwesomenessIsAForce just by his pure awesomeness]]. Then a voice that's later revealed to belong to Po's (adopted) dad tells him to wake up, and we cut to Po falling out of his bed in surprise.

* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'' actually uses this as a gameplay mechanic. The plot involves Mario jumping into Luigi's dreams, where Luigi is capable of numerous super-useful abilities such as [[MesACrowd multiplying himself many times over]] for both exploration and combat and [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever turning himself into a giant]] in order to take on giant bosses. The one giant boss who gives him the biggest run for his money is [[spoiler:Bowser, who basically dreams ''himself'' into a Dream Sue as well.]] This is downplayed as Dreamy Luigi is still a CowardlyLion.

* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'' actually uses this as a gameplay mechanic. The plot involves Mario jumping into Luigi's dreams, where Luigi is capable of numerous super-useful abilities such as [[MesACrowd multiplying himself many times over]] for both exploration and combat and [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever turning himself into a giant]] in order to take on giant bosses. The one giant boss who gives him the biggest run for his money is [[spoiler:Bowser, who basically dreams ''himself'' into a Dream Sue as well.]]

* ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'': This happens to George during his January 27, 2022 stream, though we don't find out it's a dream until the end. To summarize: in the dream, he killed [[TheDreaded Dream and Techno]] in a 2v1 fight, killed several of the server's pets (including Shroud, Steve, Edward, Carl, and a good chunk of Techno's dog army) destroyed a large chunk of the server (killing Quackity, Karl, and Callahan -- the last one multiple times -- along the way), traveled to a stronghold, killed ''[[PhysicalGod DreamXD himself]]'', went to the End, and apparently killed the dragon (with the End Crystals being destroyed already to make it easier).

* In the opening scene of ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'', Po dreams that he's a legendary kung-fu warrior who can make his enemies blind [[AwesomenessIsAForce just by his pure awesomeness]].

* ''WesternAnimation/DogCity'': The episode "In Your Dreams" presents a [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] of this. Eliot, tired after a long day at work on his cartoon ShowWithinAShow, falls asleep and dreams about being a character in said show, working alongside Ace. Only instead, he upstages the detective by abusing his power as Dog City's creator, solving the case with ease, and earning the attraction of Chief Rosie, whom Ace himself has a crush on. Unlike in most examples of this trope, Ace's behavior being the same as usual means he doesn't idolize Eliot in the least for his ill-gotten accomplishments, and his disgust with Eliot over the whole thing is completely understandable.

** Tamaki views himself as the one man who can charm anyone. This sorta works on half of the student body, since their rich stereotypes, but doesn't work on the normal (or "poor"). He often has fantasies with himself charming Haruhi and winning her love. This dream is unique as it not only shows Tamaki as a Dream Sue, but Haruhi as an AsianAirhead, laughing "Tee hee" as she wears a dress (despite having to pose as a boy), letting Tamaki twirl her around, stopping only to eat fatty tuna. The other members have given this fake Haruhi the nickname of "Dream-Haruhi".
** Played for laughs when a new transfer student who looks a lot like Haruhi transfers, and happened to be both a genius, an air head, and head-over-the-heels in love with Tamaki.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E5And6OnlyADream Only a Dream]]", the opening sequence is John Dee single-handedly crushing the League and then being congratulated by the whole of the Legion of Doom (mainly by Lex Luthor, the Joker and Grundy). The sequence ends and it's revealed to have been a dream induced by an experimental machine; Dee in reality is a {{Mook}} of Luthor's who went to prison after being caught participating in one of Luthor's schemes. When he later gains dream powers, he decides to make the dream a reality by trapping the Justice League members in [[YourWorstNightmare their worst nightmares]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'', episode ''Married'', Rhonda, using a folding paper fortune teller, shows that Arnold and Helga are meant to be married. The rest of the episode shows them dreaming about what it would be like. Helga dreams about being HappilyMarried with Arnold, watching him drop Lila, becoming President, and later saving him from a terrorist who turns out to be [[spoiler: Lila]]. Arnold's dream, however is a whole other [[AwfulWeddedLife trope]]...

* John Brown from the LiveActionAdaptation of ''Film/InspectorGadget'' has one at the beginning of the film.