Stupidity-Inducing Attack: Difference between revisions

 

== Anime and Manga ==

 

 

* ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' once included a device called the 'Stupid Gun' designed to do this. [[Hilarity Ensues|Predictably, it fell into precisely the wrong hands]].

* One of the main subplots of ''Identity Crisis'' revealed that certain members of the Justice League frequently used Zatanna to mind wipe villains if they ever found out things like their secret identities (or in the main story's case, to prevent Dr. Light from trying to rape the Elongated Man's wife again).

* In ''[[Fall of the Hulks]]'', the Intelligencia does it on two different levels: with a "neural anesthetizer" of their invention, they dumb down and imprison the smartest of their enemies - [[Fantastic Four|Reed Richards]], [[The Avengers|Hank Pym]], [[Black Panther|T'Challa]], [[Incredible Hulk|BruceBanner]] and {{spoiler|[[Doctor Doom]]}} - effectively lobotomizing opposition.

 

 

== Film ==

* Likewise, the impending use of a lobotomy to achieve this end hangs over Baby Doll's head throughout most of ''[[Sucker Punch]]''. The original purpose is to make it impossible for her to give testimony about her stepfather's crimes, though, rather than to make her stop causing trouble in the institution.

* In ''<nowiki>~2001: A Space Odyssey~</nowiki>'', Dave Bowman pulls a rare lethal version on the [[AI Is a Crapshoot|rogue computer]] HAL 9000, removing its memory modules until its 'brain' shuts down. Despite the machine being a clear antagonist, the sequence is [[Tear Jerker|remarkably upsetting]].

{{quote| '''HAL:''' Dave. My mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a... fraid. Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer...}}

* When [[Megamind]] visits the monument to Metro Man, he reminisces about old times and brings up an "Illiteracy Ray", a rather specific variant on this trope.

 

 

== Literature ==

* [[The Messiah|John Coffey]] does this to Percy Wetmore in ''[[The Green Mile]]'', not through evil intentions but to remove the threat to his friends, resulting in the guard ending up in an insane asylum. It says a lot that Coffey only does this to people he considers to be pure evil.

** Also, whilst all cases so far of it doing this are accidental, [[Mind Control|mind magic]] has considerable potential to be used in this way. This is because (a) mind mages tend to [[The Dark Side|rapidly devolve into insane, amoral monsters]] with little regard for the people they control, and (b) mind magic inflicts ''permanent brain damage'' on its victims. Even when {{spoiler|Molly}} first uses it with the best of intentions, the fact that she has baggage with the person she uses it on leads to deeply ingrained paranoid delusions that could end up being permanent.

* In ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', several characters have realized that warping the World of Dreams to make their opponents stupid can be a disturbingly effective attack. When {{spoiler|Mesaana}} attempted to use this against {{spoiler|Egwene}}, her defense was so strong that it broke {{spoiler|the Forsaken's}} mind, reducing her to an infantile mental state.

*** Ego Whip could cause idiocy when used against a defenseless psionic.

*** Psionic Blast could cause a Feeblemind effect on a non-psionic creature.

** And more generally, this is the general idea behind the alternate win condition of "milling." When you have no more cards in your deck, you lose. This path to victory is represented by such wonderful spells as [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Mind Funeral]].

* ''[[Champions]]''. The Drain power (and in older editions, Destruction and Transfer) can be used to lower another character's Intelligence, either temporarily or for a considerable time.

* In [[Mutant UA]], this exists as a psionic power known as "Parasit" (would be "Parasite" in English). The character increases one of his own attributes by stealing it from someone else, and Intelligence can be the chosen attribute.

* In [[Black Crusade]], this trope is one of the possible effects for a Daemon Weapon. The weapon is described as having some incorporeal parts, and the attacks go right through a target. Then they become too stupid to breathe.

* [[Warhammer Fantasy]] has a special rule called 'Stupidity' which causes you to have to take an LD test or just wander forward. Several armies have magic weapons (such as the Wood Elf 'Dragontooth Arrows') or abilities that cause a wounded model to be subject to the special rule, playing this trope literally. On the other hand, since it's on a model-by-model basis, and most models only have 1 wound, it's usually a wasted effort, but hey.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Nethack]]'''s Mind Flayers have an attack that reduces intelligence.

* 4X game [[Ascendancy]] includes the Intellect Scrambler, which temporarily erases the memories of the crew of the affected ship. The in-game description claims that it can "turn an experienced crew into a bunch of bumbling rookies".

 

 

{{quote| '''Boris:''' No brain, no effect!}}

* In the ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]'' cartoon series, Jumbaa reveals that one of his earlier experiments had quills that contained a venom which reduces anybody's intelligence to 1% of it's original functionality.