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Perhaps my favorite fictional work ever is Moebius's Gardens of Aedena, volumes 1-4. Volume 5, though, i felt ruined the story a little bit. The problem was, in #2, when Atana and Stel parted, they weren't lovers, only friends. Indeed, in #3, Atana says that she wants to find Stel and that she won't be so lonely, "even if..." -- she certainly isn't openly admitting love for him, even if she loves him "underneath". Yet, in Sra, #5, Stel remembers him and Atana saying "I love you!" to each other, which clearly never happened, and at the end Atana says to him over a viewscreen, "Yes, Stel... You finally found me again, my love! Come quickly... I'm waiting for you impatiently." This is totally out of character. Also, shortly after Stel questions her reality, she says, "I exist... For I'm the heart of your dream... And making the dream real is the work of Master Burg and the fairies of Aedena...". That implies that Stel is more real than Atana! I can accept the idea that everything is a dream, but it would be very sad if Stel is real and Atana is only real because he dreamed her, and because in addition Burg did something to make his dream come true. Let me be more precise -- the idea that someone didn't use to exist and now does isn't sad (everyone seems to be in that condition), but the idea that Atana never actually experienced the parts where Stel and Atan were friends but not lovers would be sad, because that's how they fell in love.
