All Spoilers from Part One, including the Wham Episode, are Spoilers Off. Read with caution.
Fiona meets the girl of her dreams...and then she wakes up.
YU+ME: dream is a two-part surrealist webcomic by Ro Salarian that ran from 2004–2010.
Things aren't going well for Fiona Thompson. She has a dead mom, a father who is always on business, a Wicked Stepmother, no friends at the Catholic high school she attends, and none of the nuns believe that she's being picked on by Alpha Bitches Sarah and Cass. She begins to not pay any attention to anything around her, instead living in her own head in vivid, lucid dreams. Just a typical Teen Drama. But then pretty girl Lia Riolo moves in next door, meets her while she's at yet another detention, and real life becomes more interesting with her around. Fiona gains another friend in Jake, a green haired boy she saves from a bunch of bullies who attack him for being gay. Fiona is drawn to him, intrigued by this thing known as "gay", and begins to look at Lia in a whole new light. Fiona starts to become more confident in herself and her sexuality, even going so far as to attend the prom with Lia as her date.
And then the first half ends with a Wham Episode and The Reveal that the entire first half was All Just a Dream and all of the people from before are part of that dream — including her friends and her love, Lia. Fiona is snatched away from her just before she wakes up from a coma. At this point, the comic does a Genre Shift, changing what appeared to be a Slice of Life Coming-Out Story into a surrealist dive into Fiona's mind where the reader follows Fiona's return to Dreamland while dealing with the very real psychological effects learning it was a dream had on her, exploring the realities of the dream space she's "lived" in and the true nature of her relationships with everyone from before, including Lia.
Part One starts here
and Part Two here online. The entire webcomic is also available as an omnibus in both physical and digital form, containing several pages not published online.
Due to the nature of the end of part one reveal, all the spoilers from Part One including the Wham Episode are Spoilers Off.
YU+ME: dream contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Of the Wicked Stepmother variety — or so Fiona thinks. Her step mom wasn't evil. She may have been frustrated but deep down, she loved Fiona, and
Word of God says she was the first to run into the room crying the first time Fiona regained consciousness. - Abhorrent Admirer: James. Fiona doesn't want to date him because she's a lesbian, but James doesn't realize that, and he becomes ruder and vengeful once he's rejected.
- Accidental Murder: How Sadako died. A man, possibly Ellie's father, tried to get Sadako away from her when she became to close. but she was tripped by accident and crashed backwards into a window, embedding glass in her right eye and stomach, killing her.
- Age-Appropriate Angst: Young Fiona was traumatized by her mother's suicide which also aimed to kill her, and as such grew up isolated from others. She didn't befriend people until she met Jake, Dominic, and Lia in her dreams because once she rediscovered the truth behind her mother, she attempted to commit suicide too, but instead fell into a coma, where she's been building the dream up.
- All Just a Dream: This is The Reveal and Wham Episode of the series, halfway through. Fiona learns that everything up to that point — school, her classmates, Lia, even several aspects of her home life — has been nothing more than Fiona's coma dream, and everyone in it are part of the dream world — which Sadako banishes her from before she wakes up. It's also done for true impact; instead of the usual dream revelation being at the end and nothing in the real world having changed, the end of the dream and Part One is when the second "real" story begins changing what appeared to be a Coming-Out Story into a surrealist dive into Fiona's mind where the reader now follows Fiona back into dreams while dealing with the very real psychological effects learning this had on her. Fiona gets back to the Dream World Sadako has banned her from to pursue the only happiness she knew, even while being aware that what she will find will be different from the fantasy dream she lived. The comic was conceived after its author experienced this trope for real: they met a girl and fell in love, only to wake up after what felt like months of being with her. Interestingly, the dreams people are real, and what we think is the dream world is actually another dimension called Nod, which means it's not just a dream.
- Alpha Bitch: Sarah and Cass, the popular girls who constantly tease and pick on Fiona, especially Sarah since she constantly blames things on Fiona.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Any human that's been separated from their conscience, which happens automatically the moment you enter the Dream World for the first time, turning the newcomer into a Literal Split Personality. People can retain their original personality by maintaining physical proximity to their conscience, but since everyone in Nod has Reality Warper powers, accidents can happen. And almost every person on Earth goes to Nod for in their dreams.
- Always Save the Girl: Fiona's decision to attempt to go back into the Dream Land to find Lia after she's snatched away from the dream.
- Animesque:
- For the most part of the early chapters. By the end, Megan has all but completely removed any anime or manga influences, except the real-world portions of Sadako's story.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Fiona states Lia is not worth pursuing anymore because she is a murderer, 900 years old and had other lovers who were men..
- Art Shift: The first part of the comic was generally Animesque and Deliberately Monochrome, but after The Reveal, the art shifts became much more frequent:
- The first true signs of Art Shift were when Fiona wakes up, changing the style to a Photo Comic for her real-world portions (with the author portraying Fiona).
- After Fiona begins dreaming again, the art styles constantly change, including a Disney-esque artstyle, an artstyle with a lack of borders, and even claymation.
- Lia's backstory has an art style that harkens to back to the 40s and 50s.
- Sadako's real-world backstory is evocative of manga, being fully Animesque and black and white, at a time when the comic had shifted to full color.
- Ascended Extra:
- Subverted with Lia - at first she gets revealed as nothing more than an extra in Fiona's long dream. but later confesses that she does love Fiona and has a large part in part Two. Don is also one of these, going from merely Fiona's friend to the one telling her entire dream story and later becoming the king of Nod.
- Clandy. Originally, she was just someone that Megan drew in the background and that was it. Clandy was not planned to have a role, much less a role as big as she has had — as Sadako's conscience she was forcibly separated from.
- Awkwardly Gay Dream:
- Fiona has one in Part 1: Issue 3, causing her to fear that she might be gay, as well as worrying how Lia will feel about the dream.
- Ellie not so much has them as she has Sadako inflict them on her against her will.
- Baku: Bakus are described as "giant elephant-ram-boar-bear thing with purple hair" that lives in the dream world, and one attempts to eat the main character's party.
- Bears Are Bad News: Sadako's castle has bear guards, who are in charge of throwing people in jail cells and making them get out for whatever reason.
- Big Bad: Sadako, who turns out to be the queen of dreams. Originally, it seemed that she was not happy at Lia for ruining her endeavor. The end of Part 2: Issue 11 revealed that Sadako was planning on using Lia as a trap to lure Fiona into the Dream Land for quite some time.
- Bilingual Bonus:
- "Yume" is Japanese for "dream" — which makes sense since most of the comic takes place in dreams.
- The name young Sadako calls her conscience (AKA Clandestine) is "Himitsu", Japanese for secret. Clandestine also means "kept secret".
- The Blank: Slighty subverted with No Face. At first, it appears he has no facial features at all, only to reveal that he has a mouth — with a set of razor sharp teeth in it.
- Bloody Handprint: Used as a Gory Discretion Shot. The reader is made to expect that a group are all dead, then someone goes to find out the truth and all we see is the handprint.
- Bury Your Gays: Several gay characters are killed or commit suicide, including Fiona, the main character. She gets better, though.
- Cast Full of Gay:
- A lot of characters in the comic aren't straight, with the main protagonists Fiona and Lia being lesbians.
- Sarah is implied to be not straight as well, since she kisses Fiona towards the end of act 1. In act 2, the actor that played "Sarah" in Fiona's dream, Lucy, had an early script even said that "Sarah" harbored a secret crush on Fiona in the script. Cass also appears to be involved or have a crush on Sarah, and have a total flip out towards Fiona after she catches them kissing.
- Jake, Don and Richard — Fiona's stepfather — are all gay as well.
- Sadako is also bi, since she had crushes on two girls back when she was alive.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Clandestine Jones nearly always has a strange way of acting, such as looking at a dangerous creature in awe or thinking that a journal was literally "planted" from a plant. This is later revealed to be because she used to be Sadako's conscience, but Sadako banished her for, basically, not letting her have her "fun" with Ellie, and Clandy has gone crazy because of their separation.
- Coming-Out Story: The first half of the comic is this, combined with a Slice of Life comic about a angsty teen girl who discovers that she is a lesbian when she gains feelings for Lia. It's then revealed that the first half was All Just a Dream.
- Death Seeker: Sadako. Having spent so much time in Nod, she just wants to move on into the next life. Justified because Nod won't let her die without a suitable replacement.
- Deliberately Monochrome:
- The entire first half is a black and white comic.
- The real world parts of part two are both this and a Photo Comic, with Fiona's scenes being shown with a sepia overlay.
- Double Standard: Rape, Female on Female: Also subverted. Sadako believes she is justified in what she does to Ellie, but the consequences for both Ellie and Sadako are fairly unforgiving.
- The Dragon: No-Face, the blank-faced man who tormented Fiona's dreams, serves as Sadako's right-hand man. He is sent by her to bring the dreamer with the strongest heart to kill her.
- Drama Bomb:
- Many of these are in Part 1: Issues 1 - 8, but Part 1: Issue 9 definitely takes the cake on this, including Fiona's gay godfather Richard arriving and telling her about her upbringing, including her mother's suicide due to her father cheating with her stepmother and attempting to take Fiona with her; Fiona admitting to being a lesbian to her stepmother, which gets her grounded (though Richard takes her to the prom anyway); and James getting together with Sadako.
- The ending of part one reveals that everything up to this point was All Just a Dream as the Wham Episode. Lampshaded when the drama bomb is represented as a literal bomb falling on the side.
- These continue in part 2 after a while. Lia's history, including the fact that she's bisexual, as well as the evil deeds when she committed as "Mara" when Sadako locked up her conscience are a prime example.
- Dream Land: Where the entirely of Part 1 takes place. Fiona returns there in Part 2 to look for Lia. It's actually an alternate dimension called Nod that used to be tenuously connected to the space of human dreams, until Sadako merged the two together.
- Dream Within a Dream: Fiona's dreams in Part 1 were this since she was in a dream the whole time. She later has more dreams when dreaming again in Part 2, though this time she's aware that she's in the dream world.
- Driven to Suicide:
- Fiona's mom was the first case of this. After her life fell apart, she wrote a suicide note and drove with Fiona into an oncoming car, attempting to take her daughter's life with her own. Fiona survived, but her mother didn't.
- Fiona attempted suicide herself after finding her mother's suicide note; wanting to finish what her mom started, she drove her car into a tree. Fiona didn't die, but she entered a coma, and Part 1 took place in her coma dream.
- After having enough of Sadako raping her in the dream world, Ellie finally committed suicide to get away from the pain.
- Implied with the King of Nod; we don't see anything happen to him, but it's inferred that he's been king for so long that he is tired of life and wants someone to kill him so he can pass on.
- Sadako fell on the same trajectory as the King of Nod. Since she's lived in Nod for such a long time, she just wants to die so she can find peace.
- Lia didn't want to live without her love George, who was killed in the war. When she meets him in her dreams — not knowing he's (actually Sadako in disguise — Lia thinks that she's meeting him in the afterlife and wants to stay with George, so she bricks up the wall to reality and dies. This can also be classified as an indirect murder due to Lia being unaware of "George"'s identity in Nod.
- In the end, Fiona and Lia, hoping to reunite in the real world, jump through a portal which kills their dream versions but allows their souls to be reborn in reality. Unlike the other cases, this one has a much happier tone.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: No Face. His neck is snapped in the background of a panel by Lia, under her "Mara" persona. Even the author themself comments on how anticlimactic that death was, but it was done to avoid What Happened to the Mouse?.
- Dying Dream: Fiona questions whether everything is a dying dream to her during part 2. Clandy asks her if it would make a difference or make it any less real.
- Easy Road to Hell: Sister Mary routinely informs the students of the many things that will send them to hell. These include jumping on the bed, wearing striped socks to school, and running red lights.
- Everyone Is a Tomato: This is part of The Reveal that the first half is All Just a Dream. Nearly everyone that Fiona has been interacting with for the majority of Part One is just an actor in her dreams — including the girl she loves, Lia — and she's going to leave them when she wakes up from her coma.
- Executive Meddling: An in-universe example revealed in flashback wherein Conscience Management have concluded Fiona will react better to her conscience if she acts like an ethnic stereotype. Cue hilarious scenes where said conscience struggles to understand Ebonics and complains about her outfit.
- Eye Scream: The story behind Sadako's eye. It was punctured by a shard of glass in the real world when she was shoved through a window, with a spiral taking its place in the dream world.
- Fantastic Romance: Fiona first learning that Lia is part of the coma dream she's in, and later that Lia has been long dead in the real world.
- Framing Device: Part 2 of the story is being told by Don. At the end, it's revealed that it's after Fiona and Lia left Nod, he became its new king, complete with magic swirling dream eye.
- Freudian Excuse: Subverted. Sadako gets set up for this the second her story/issue starts, since we know that humans become evil when separated from their consciences. Then it turns out she shunned her conscience because the poor girl was trying to keep her from having "fun" (read: continue to commit random acts of manipulation, abuse, and jerkassery).
- Gayngst: The first part runs semi-literally off of gayngst, with Fiona fretting about her sexuality.
- Genre Shift: Between Part 1 and Part 2. Part 1 is a lesbian Slice of Life Teen Drama with a Coming-Out Story, whereas part 2 is a surrealist adventure through a Dream Land where Fiona's main goal is to find Lia again.
- Genius Loci: Nod, which won't let its current ruler be killed and replaced if the replacement isn't suitable.
- Gilded Cage: The place where Sadako imprisons Lia is a luxurious-looking jail cell with a fancy bed, tea, a box TV, and even a pool.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel:
- Downplayed with Fiona's Conscience; she appears as an angel who gives Fiona advice, but there is no devil counterpart for her.
- Lia also has an angel-like conscience, once again without a devil counterpart.
- Have a Gay Old Time: Fiona doesn't understand what Jake means when he says he's "gay" at first.
- Innocent Innuendo: When Lia asks "Do you want my cherry?" in one strip, Fiona does a Spit Take, thinking that she's talking about the other kind of cherry. However, it turns out she meant an actual cherry.
- I Never Got Any Letters: It's revealed that Fiona's godfather has been writing to her but her stepmother throws all his letters away. At first, it's implied that this is because he's gay, then it turns out that it's because her father and stepmother have been keeping hidden the fact that her mother committed suicide with young Fiona in the car, which her godfather tells her about.
- I Never Told You My Name: George inadvertently calls Lia by her full name Celia, which she never told him. This is how it's revealed he's not even George.
- It Has Been an Honor: Clandestine quite literally says this to Fiona, before dying along with Sadako.
- Jerkass: Sebastian, the guy who played Jake, is nothing like the character he plays, caring more about fame and fortune than anything else.
- Jive Turkey: Fiona's conscience speaks in ebonics in Part 1: Issue 1. By Issue 2, she still does so, but it's noticeably toned down. This is later explained that her conscious was being told to act that way by her boss. As a result, she drops this in Part 2.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Lia when she lost her conscience, especially compared to Sadako's relatively benign reaction to losing her conscience. Granted, Sadako wasn't exactly a paragon to begin with, but she never fell near as far as the mass murderer known as The Terrible Mara.
- Klingon Promotion: A new king or queen of Nod must kill the old one. However, Nod seems to have a will of its own, and if it doesn't want the killer to be the new ruler, then it simply won't let the old ruler die.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Sarah says "Oh, I thought you were trying to look like some comic book character," to Fiona when she finds out the origin of the white part of her bangs. They are quite literally in a comic.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler:
- When Part Two started, web banners made it clear that that Fiona and Lia are in love with each other and also implies that they both like girls, spoiling the whole Coming-Out Story part for new readers.
- Part Two starts off letting readers know that Part One was All Just a Dream.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Both Fiona and Lia; they're generally feminine and are in love with each other.
- Locked into Strangeness: Fiona has a pair of white stripes in the center front of her hair. It's from the head injury she got when her mother tried to kill them both in a car crash and succeeded with herself.
- Love Hurts: While Lia and Fiona don't have any easy time at first, this is nothing compared to when the major Drama Bomb hits and Fiona learns it's all a dream.
- Love Makes You Evil:
- It is hinted that Sadako impersonated Lia's dead lover and tricked her into staying forever in the Dream Land at least partly because she couldn't stand to see her so upset at his death.
- Sadako counts when she first became Queen of Dreams and started abusing her power to have Ellie "make things up" to her for causing her death by giving in to Sadako's sexual abuses. This eventually proves too much for Ellie and she commits suicide.
- Magnetic Girlfriend: Once everyone knows Fiona is a lesbian, they either kiss her or threaten her to stay away from "their girl". Justified since her life before was All Just a Dream, scripted by Sadako and catered to Fiona's perception of the world.
- Manipulative Bitch: Sadako. As ruler of Nod, she gets to manipulate her subjects the way she wants to, such as forcing Lucy to spy on the protagonists. She also made her crush Ellie give in to her abuse by guilting her with her death until Ellie was Driven to Suicide.
- Meaningful Name: Fiona's mom, who is already dead at the start of the comic, was named Angel.
- Mind Screw: We can see the writing on the wall in the ending of Part 1: Issue 9 when reality appears to break apart as a result of it all being a dream, but from Part 2: Issue 1 onward, Yu+Me is absolutely insane, including random Art Shifts, characters with crazy traits, and more. All of which is justified since it takes place in the dream world, but in a more fantastical setting compared to the normal settings from Part 1 — and Fiona is aware she's dreaming this time. Lampshaded in a (somewhat spoilery) intermission between Parts One and Two.
- Missing Mom: Fiona's mom Angel, who committed vehicular suicide with Fiona in the car intending to kill them both.
- The Mole: The first part has Sadako, who turns out to be the ruler of the Dream World and sends Fiona out of her dream. The second part has Lucy, who was made sympathetic by having been coerced into it and by trying to act as a Double Agent in favor of the protagonists.
- No Bisexuals: Averted. Don was confirmed as bisexual via a bonus strip in the back of the 2nd book and Lia was confirmed as bisexual in Part 2.
- Nothing Is Scarier: No Face has no face. And when he smiles...
- Overly Long Name:
- While we knew him as Jake, it is later revealed that his name is a lot longer than we thought in Sebastian Beauregard Constantine II.
- Briefly parodied after Lucy's name is revealed.spoiler:Lucy: "What were you expecting? Mariella Xylophone Lucia Sassifrass Van Gogh the Third?"
- Out-of-Clothes Experience: Fiona is suddenly naked when she first returns to the dream world. Her conscience tells her she doesn't have to be naked, so she imagines herself wearing clothes.
- Out of Focus: Part 2 sees this happen to Jake. This is because unlike the other characters, "Jake"'s actor, Sebastian, was only doing it as a job. Many of the other characters come back in new roles, but Jake/Sebastian only has a cameo in an interview.
- Photo Comic: The comic uses real life photographs only for a little bit to artistically separate Fiona's Dream Land and Real Life.
- The Power of Love: Fiona's decision to attempt to go back into the Dream Land to find Lia, especially considering Sadako had banned Fiona from the Dream Land. Subverted, as that was part of Sadako's plan all along.
- Psycho Lesbian: Sadako. However, unlike usual uses of this trope, it's obviously not to make lesbians look bad. Just this one in particular who has issues.
- Pun-Based Title:
- Yu + me Dream. "Yume" means dream and also stands for "you + me" as in a couple.
- One of the old taglines: "Fiona has found the girl of her dreams."
- Reality Warper: Dreamers, who can manipulate their environments since they're in a dream.
- Reincarnation Romance When Fiona and Lia decide to leave Nod, they realize that both of them are dead in the real world, so Don finds a loop hole that technically "kills" them in No but sends their souls back to Earth, where they can reincarnate and find each other. However, they don't meet up again in the real world until the last page.
- Retraux: Ro's affinity for the 40s and 50s is not limited to their other comic, I Was Kidnapped by Lesbian Pirates from Outer Space!!!. Lia's past is presented in black and white with a style evocative of those two decades which makes sense since she lived during World War II.
- The Reveal:
- The massive reveal at the end of Part 1: Sadako is the Big Bad and everything so far has been All Just a Dream that Fiona created in a coma induced by a suicide attempt after she learned her mother succeeded at doing the same and tried to kill her too.
- There are some more reveals in Part 2, such as Sadako and Lia being long-dead in the real world and being trapped in Nod; Lucy being forced to spy on Fiona and her group by Sadako; Clandestine being Sadako's former conscience, Himitsu; and much of the plot being a plan for Sadako to commit suicide.
- Sadist Teacher: Nuns. Sister Mary often gives out punishments to Fiona, but most of the time, it was either based on her beliefs or Fiona was framed by Sarah.
- Sassy Black Woman: Fiona's conscience, who is basically a Palette Swap of her with an afro. It's later revealed she was made to act like this.
- Secret Relationship: Fiona and Lia, mostly because of Lia not wanting Sadako to know — but also because they go to a Catholic high school.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The end of part one turns the first half comic into this as it renders many of the actions and events beforehand moot due to it being All Just a Dream.
- Slice of Life: The first half of the comic is this, combined with a Coming-Out Story. It's then revealed that this was All Just a Dream.
- Soft Glass: Completely averted. Sadako died being shoved through a glass window.
- So Happy Together: Fiona goes to prom and is very happy because she gets to be with Lia — until it's revealed to be All Just a Dream, and the two are forcibly separated. It's subverted when Fiona and Lia get together again in the dream world, ultimately meeting up with each other as reincarnations in real life and presumably starting another relationship.
- Teen Drama: Given the sheer number of drama bombs at the end of Part 1 — and that the story's main characters are teens (or at least play teens in dreams) — it's rather obvious that Part 1 is this. Lampshaded by Don on when he says that Fiona and Lia have drama-filled lives.
- Thanatos Gambit: The entire plot is a plan for Sadako who wants to commit suicide.
- Tomato Surprise: Part One is All Just a Dream, and all of the characters except Fiona know it until The Reveal.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Fiona doesn't remember certain things about her past until her godfather Richard starts telling her how her mother died. Somewhat justified, due to the fact that she's actually in a coma during the entirety of Part 1, due to her finding the suicide note left by her mother and deciding to finish the job by ramming herself into a tree.
- Unsound Effect: "Anger" and "Flee", among others.
- Was It All a Lie?: Fiona wonders something along the lines of this after it's revealed that Lia — and everyone else — was just a character in her dream. Thankfully, Lia gets to tell Fiona that while she is not real, her feelings for Fiona are.
- Wham Episode:
- Part 1: Issue 9. Everything changes when it's revealed that everything up to this point was in Fiona's dream, and she was in a coma in the real world. It also marks the Genre Shift for the second part.
- Also, Part 2: Issue 11, with several reveals, such as Lia was once a real-world person. In her sleep, she befriended Sadako and in the real world, she fell in love with a man named George. George died, Lia told Sadako, and then Sadako impersonated George and lived with Lia like that for decades. Lia found out, shit hit the fan, her conscience got kidnapped, and Lia became a sociopathic monster named Mara the Terrible.
- Wham Line: As part of The Reveal that everything is All Just a Dream.Fiona: What did [Lia] say?Don: She said you're waking up, Fiona.
- Wicked Stepmother: Fiona has one, whom we realize is rather wicked once we learn that her affair with her now-husband is what caused Fiona's real mother to be Driven to Suicide. She's actually not that bad; Fiona just perceives her as "wicked" because she learned of her mother's true reason for dying before she ended up in her coma dream.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Sarah puts gum in her hair and, trying get Fiona in trouble, claims that Fiona put it there.
- Yandere: Sadako to a T. She looks innocent enough, but the girl has some issues. Even after she gets killed in the real world, she still stalks Ellie in dreams and guilts her into giving in to her abuses every night as punishment, causing the latter to be Driven to Suicide.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: Fiona spent six months in her dream world and only twelve days in her coma.
- You're Just Jealous: How Sadako responds to her conscience objecting to her actions, claiming that she's just jealous that someone loves her.
- Yuri Fan: Mr. Bun saying he wants to watch Fiona and Lia's romance, at least in one of Fiona's dreams.
