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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40259
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

One defend-able use of the "It was all a dream" trope involved sleepwalking.

I forget the medium where I encountered it, but I remember a story in which the point of view character wakes in an outdoor setting to find that his camp was covered in fog. He gets up and steps away from the campfire to answer a call to nature but soon finds himself in an abandoned graveyard. This leads to an open mausoleum containing an open coffin, and ultimately a sleeping vampire. In short order, he has created a stake from a convenient piece of wood, placed it above the vampire's heart and is about to pound it home.

This is when he wakes up and finds himself kneeling over one of his sleeping teammates, holding a pointed piece of firewood in place, along with a big rock to serve as a hammer. This is also when the teammate wakes up...

In this case, the much maligned trope is used to destroy one of the supporting character's trust for the lead character. The scene damages the unity of the entire team, which becomes a valuable plot device for the rest of the story. I remember that it was a very short application of the trope but I also remember that even in its' brevity, it came at a price. From that point forward, the entire story took on the feel of a vampire story (which really didn't fit). Also, decades later, all I can remember of the story was its creative use of the dreaming trope. That's a sad fate for what was probably a pretty good piece of writing.

Original score: 1