History Main / PrefersTheIllusion

* ''ComicBook/MisterMiracle2017'' manages to play this in one of the most simultaneously depressing yet strangely hopeful ways possible, which has to do with the nature of the illusion itself: by the end of the series, it's revealed that [[ComicBook/NewGods Scott Free (aka Mister Miracle)]] is trapped in some kind of false reality as a direct result of succumbing to the Anti-Life Equation, whose sole existential purpose is to break people [[DespairEventHorizon into giving up on happiness, hope, and life itself]]. However, despite the traumas of the warped realm Scott's forced to endure --from the truckloads of unrecognized PTSD born from his past relationships to [[AdultFear his mundane fears of becoming a father]]-- he manages to [[TheEndOrIsIt at least tentatively]] overcome his demons and [[HopeSpringsEternal salvages genuine solace]] within his newly born son and loving relationship with Big Barda. He ends up giving up on trying to escape this reality even knowing it's possibly fake, [[EarnYourHappyEnding if only because the happiness he's managed to claim for himself is real enough to him.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheMatrix https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cyphermatrix.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Cypher contemplating the illusion of steak.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cyphermatrix.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[Film/TheMatrix Cypher]] contemplating the illusion of steak.]]

* In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', this is the ending of both the original unbroadcast pilot "The Cage", and the two-part episode of the main series it was re-edited and expanded into, "The Menagerie". In "The Cage", Captain Pike's love-interest Vina turns out to have been left severely disfigured and disabled by a spaceship crash and the well-intentioned but ignorant medical treatment she was given by a species of aliens with no prior experience of humans. She prefers to stay in the virtual reality created by the aliens where she is beautiful and able-bodied. In the ending of "The Menagerie", Pike, who has been left almost completely paralysed by an accident since the past events, decides to join her for the same reason.

* In ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' episode "The Refuge", Raymond Dalton, a journalist with wanderlust, falls in love with a kind, lovely nurse named Gina Beaumont in what turns out to be a virtual reality environment which he experienced while cryonically frozen. He is revived once a cure for his brain tumour is found. One of the other people in the environment, Sanford Vallé, has the ability to alter the others' personalities at will. As such, Raymond is relieved to discover that the "real" Gina has the same personality as the first version of her that he met, the only difference being that she is a doctor in the real world as opposed to a nurse. Gina cannot be taken out of stasis as she is suffering from the Osaka virus (which she caught as a result of her work as a doctor) so Raymond elects to re-enter stasis to be with her. He helps Gina and the others defeat Vallé, who dies in the real world as a result. Gina attempts to convince Raymond that he is missing out on his life by staying in the virtual reality environment with her. He replies, "Out there is the dream. In here with you is the reality."

* In the Alter horror short [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqSmb3n0j8o "The Dollmaker"]], this is the reason the dollmaker warns against spending more than one hour a day with his dolls which can project an illusion of a deceased person. Spend too much time with the doll, and you'll forget that it's not actually the real person and find yourself living a lie. [[spoiler:Both parents ultimately fail to heed the warning.]]

* The ending of ''ComicBook/LaQueteDeLOiseauDuTemps''. [[spoiler: It turns out the ActionGirl was a kind of holographic projection created by the SmallAnnoyingCreature. The hero, who had been led to believe she was his daughter, prefers to keep the creature (and therefore his daughter) alive rather than face the fact that her mother manipulated and betrayed him.]]

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' filler arc, [[spoiler:Tenten figures out she's stuck in the Infinite Tsukuyomi and does everything she can to get out. However, after saving the day, she realizes maybe it's not so bad and decides to stay.]]

* In ''Manga/Naruto'' filler, [[spoiler:Tenten figures out she's stuck in the Infinite Tsukuyomi and does everything she can to get out. However, after saving the day, she realizes maybe it's not so bad and decides to stay.]]

->''"You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? ''[Takes a bite of steak]'' IgnoranceIsBliss."''

* In a WhatIf episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' Homer is shown what his life would have been like had he won Student Council President in high school. He's shown this in a pot of [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext magic spaghetti sauce]]. At one point he shouts "I want to live in the sauce!" and tries to jump in. He is restrained by the chef who prepared the alternate-universe-showing sauce, who says "If you could live in the sauce, don't you think ''I'd'' live in the sauce?"

* A truly heartbreaking example occurs in ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire''. Blanche [=DuBois=] has constructed an elaborate fantasy world for herself, in which she's a young, pretty, wealthy Southern belle. It's all to deny the harsh realities of her life--her first husband killed himself [[spoiler: after Blanche saw him having an affair with another man and [[DrivenToSuicide unthinkingly revealed she knew the secret in the middle of a crowded dance hall, terrifying him]]]] when they were both extremely young, and as a result, she spends all of her days at home having sex with every young man who comes her way in a desperate bid to replace him. She flees to her sister Stella's home after losing the family estate and being driven out of town as a social pariah...only to encounter [[ManChild Stanley]] [[TheBrute Kowalski]], Stella's husband and a crude, simple man. Much of the show's conflict centers on Blanche's increasingly-panicked attempts to maintain her fantasy and Stanley, who represents the "real world," attacking her illusions. [[spoiler: After Stanley [[RapeAsDrama rapes her]], Blanche completely loses her mind and permanently retreats into her fantasy world, and Stella is forced to institutionalize her.]]

Compare LongingForFictionland when characters prefer to live by the rules and expectations of fictional stories rather than RealLife, without actually going to a false reality. See also PreferableImpersonator for a single fake personality than an entire reality.

* ''Literature/RedDwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'' ends with Lister, having discovered they're in Better Than Life, made an attempt to do something about it, and returned to his life in [[Film/ItsAWonderfulLife Bedford Falls]], reflecting that he couldn't leave his family on Christmas Eve. "But in Bedford Falls, it was always Christmas Eve". The sequel, describing Rimmer's more extreme fantasy world, notes that he's now is well aware it's not real "and quite frankly, he couldn't give two hoots".

->''"You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? ''[Takes a bite of steak]'' Ignorance is bliss."''

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Compare LongingForFictionland when characters prefer to live by the rules and expectations of fictional stories rather than RealLife, without actually going to a false reality. See also PreferTheImpostor for a single fake personality than an entire reality.

Compare LongingForFictionland when characters prefer to live by the rules and expectations of fictional stories rather than RealLife, without actually going to a false reality. See also PreferTheImposter for a single fake personality than an entire reality.

Compare LongingForFictionland when characters prefer to live by the rules and expectations of fictional stories rather than RealLife, without actually going to a false reality. Not to be confused with IRejectYourReality, which is stubbornness rather than a deliberate choice. Please refrain from adding [[Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease Real Life examples]].

There are many reasons for this. It may be because [[LotusEaterMachine life is good]] in the Matrix, and the character realizes they are truly happy there. Maybe they prefer the safety of delusions to bleak reality. Or it could be that to them the false reality seems more real than the alternative, if it's impossible to tell the difference between what is real and what isn't. Who's to say that something isn't true, if they choose to believe it is?