More Than Mind Control



"''"A woman came up to me and said, 'I'd like to poison your mind, With wrong ideas that appeal to you, Though I am not unkind.'"''"

- They Might Be Giants, "Whistling in the Dark".

Deal with the Devil meets Break Them by Talking.

Mind control is an effective weapon, but your garden-variety brainwashing or hypnosis is too mundane for some viewers, too predictable for some plots, too weak for some heroes, and too unambitious for some villains.

To that end, mind control in some cases requires a lot of foreplay, independent of magic influence, on the part of the villain. You can't force someone to reject The Power of Friendship until you pick away at their jealousy and convince them they want to turn on their friends. You can't erase someone's memories until you talk them through the most painful and convince them they want to forget everything. You can't make someone join you without convincing them their current life is worthless and they don't want to continue with it. It's essentially mind control, yes, but it's More Than Mind Control.

Magic forces may be at work, but it's really the trickery, lies, and despair that are thrown in that successfully break the victim's spirit. Instead of the villain forcing a victim to do something against their will, the villain changes the victim's will.

So, if you have to talk someone into mind control, what's the point of using magic or high tech at all? Creating illusions can help make your case. Isolation is key, so magically cutting them off from support is effective. Maybe science or sorcery is just needed to accelerate the effects. In extreme cases, outright Mind Rape is utilized. This type of brainwashing, called Stockholm Syndrome in the real world, supposedly requires a minimum of 72 hours, but with a sci-fi or sorcery catalyst, it can be achieved in less than 72 seconds.

Also, it can overlap directly with actual mind control. In many instances, More Than Mind Control is simply a method of making the process of the takeover easier, because by removing their resistance to your ideas, you remove the struggle in taking control of their thoughts. By having them submit to you, they essentially hand their free will over to you, making your spell or device much more effective on them. It also makes it harder for them to revert, because they now have an active resistance towards their own original beliefs.

More Than Mind Control requires charisma, finesse and a lot of patience, but villains usually don't mind because they find it so much more satisfying. They also get a great deal of amusement out of telling the victim's friends, "I didn't force him to do anything he didn't want to do." It's also more resistant to the powers of friendship and love. Plus, it's just a lot cooler to watch. Villains don't even necessarily need special powers to do it, if they can goad the hero into doing something they'll regret by pushing the right buttons.

Sometimes, the villain will try this on the whole team at once; they're usually saved by the Badass Normal, The Chick / The Heart or The Messiah, who will point out the ways that the villain is distorting the truth. Usually accompanied by a Shut UP, Hannibal speech to the culprit.

This is a favorite technique of Manipulative Bastards and Anime villains. Victims may or may not exhibit Mind Control Eyes. It also frequently comes with a creepy voice change, probably as a Shout-Out to Darth Vader of Star Wars.

It's common in the West, too. Indeed, it's been around much longer than television. This form of mind manipulation was, for example, a standard talent of personifications of despair in Renaissance British literature like The Faerie Queene and Pilgrims Progress.

Occasionally, the victim's friends will have a standard counterspell, anti-psionic technique, or other fantastic means of quickly canceling vanilla mind control common to the setting. Expect them to try it on the More Than Mind Controlled character, only to react in dismay as they realize: "He's acting of his own free will!"

This is an example of Truth in Television, because real-life hypnosis requires that the person subconsciously want to do whatever they're doing. And even more so in that there does not appear to be any true mind control that works in real life, only more and more extreme versions of More Than Mind Control that can in extreme cases appear like straight brainwashing to third parties. The general term for this is coercive persuasion, and it is used by most cults, including Scientology. Svengali mentors will use this.

Compare The Heartless, Face Heel Turn. Overlaps with Jedi Mind Trick and Brainwashing for the Greater Good. Contrast Fighting From the Inside, though it can happen after More Than Mind Control if it's rushed or botched. May overlap with Living Doll Collector and Glamour. It usually takes hard core Deprogramming to remove, unless the controller asks the wrong thing.

Anime & Manga

 * Magical Project S: This the case for Misao Amano; initially her other personality was believed to be caused by brainwashing. It was later revealed that while she had no memories of what she had done, her evil side was just her repressed personality.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh!: In Season 4, Dartz's promises of power and ability to prey on people's weaknesses got them to join his Cult, and the power of the Orichalcos kept them there. In a nod to the Gambit Roulette, Dartz is revealed to be the instigator of the tragedies of all his main henchmen that forced them to join the cult.
 * Marik Ishtar also uses Jonouchi's desire to defeat Yugi in order to more effectively brainwash him into doing his best to defeat Yugi.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Saiou brainwashed his own followers, like Manjyome and Misawa, in a similar fashion. The only notable difference was a white color motif instead of green, and instead of manufacturing their future tragedies, he simply foresees them.
 * Godwin tries this on Jack during the Season 1 Grand Finale of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, but Jack beats him by playing the Love Redeems card, referring to how Carly helped him conquer the arrogant Jerkass side Godwin was trying to appeal to.
 * Sailor Moon: Wiseman to Chibi-Usa/Rini on one occasion (combined with Mind Rape), Zirconia to the Senshi via talking reflections in another. And Queen Nehellenia's mirror to her.
 * Digimon Adventure: Yamato [Matt], when Jureimon [Cherrymon] persuades him to turn on Taichi [Tai].
 * Digimon Adventure 02, in the origin story of Ken. How much of his behavior as the Kaiser was a result of the spore's influence, how much was due to the trauma of his past and how much was just him going control freak on a world that he didn't think was real, is still up for debate.
 * Nene's relationship with Dark Knightmon in Digimon Xros Wars has shades of this. Dark Knightmon is pretty...well...dark. He certainly doesn't seem to have Nene's best interests at heart, which is apparent to anyone watching.
 * Mikage in Revolutionary Girl Utena does this to friends and relatives of the main characters in order to get them to fight for him, and since even the supporting cast in Utena has complex psychological issues, it works. Notably, we see Mikage reject Wakaba's Unlucky Childhood Friend, the "Onion Prince", because he didn't have the kind of emotional problems he was looking for. Then it turns out that.
 * Orochimaru of Naruto gets a large portion of his followers through this method and  also operates with this principle.
 * Sasuke is more or less the poster-boy for the victim of this brainwashing. Itachi did it to him as a child; Orochimaru as a pre-teen; and  as a teen. He has essentially spent his entire life being manipulated by others and yet seems certain he is in control of his own destiny.
 * Which was sort of Lampshaded by, of all people, who said that Sasuke was still pure, and that any influence could sway him. Not sure how true that was at that point, but he definitely Got Worse.
 * As does Hao of Shaman King.
 * In Dragonball Z, Babidi controls his minions by finding the evil in the person's heart. He did this to Vegeta, who actually refused his orders and wished to fight Goku, as he's the only one allowed to defeat him, in his mind. He later revealed he was using Babidi as he felt he needed to be reminded how good evil feels in order to gain more power.
 * Sae from Peach Girl is a master of this technique.
 * Suehirogari's manga TAG uses this trope. In TAG, a heroine is forced via overly powerful hypnosis to go streaking (or, more specifically, a game of tag where "it" can't wear clothes), then blackmailed with photographs of the event. By the end of the story, the heroine and her friends (who have all been conscripted into the game of tag over the story at some point or another) are willingly going along with all the perverted games around them.
 * Used expertly by Nakago of Fushigi Yuugi to turn Yui against her best friend Miaka. This is greatly facilitated by.
 * Additionally, when Tasuki is possessed by Tenkou in the second OVA,
 * Johan Liebert is fond of this, using it on many people that he meets, to the point that one of them has a very Ho Yay -ish obsession with him.
 * You know Sideways is good at this stuff when he's manipulating other people into employing it for him.
 * from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle is revealed about two-thirds of the way through the story to have been willingly manipulated for most of his life by both and . This involved cunningly preying on his insecurities and regrets in moments of extreme emotional distress, aided by some magical suppression of memories that might cause him to question his situation.
 * Koko from Zatch Bell is a major subversion. She was thought by Sherry to be Brainwashed and Crazy by Zofis (thanks to Zofis saying this upfront during their first meeting, which he didn't expect Sherry to survive). And she was, despite pretending that her condition was different from Zofis' other mind slaves upon meeting Sherry again. Zofis forced poor Koko to explain, that he had created a dark personality for her, by manipulating the darkness and negative feelings the poor girl already had thanks to living in deep poverty and (allegedly) envying Sherry's wealth, and he did so specifically to force Sherry into Heroic BSOD so that her partner Brago, whom Zofis rightfully feared, will be depowered. In truth, Koko was under straight Mind Control the entire time. Probably the only decision Zofis allowed Koko to make on her own was picking clothes for herself, and she used this tiny bit of freedom to include a visual clue for Sherry about her true condition in her outfit.
 * In Inuyasha, Sango's brother Kohaku becomes the victim of this. Perhaps partly subverted, because he's actually put under regular mind-control/memory-wipe first, and only later, when he begins to show signs of resistance, does Naraku employ manipulation to keep him under control. Made especially ironic by Naraku insisting that Kohaku doesn't want to remember almost killing his sister, Sango, when one of the main things Naraku is using him for is the death of Sango, and is the whole reason he'd attacked her in the first place.
 * This is used to some extent in Noein by the titular villain.
 * A light version of this is present in Zeta Gundam.
 * In Berserk, this is usually the way that Ubik convinces people to become Apostles and place the Brand of Sacrifice upon others.
 * Griffith is also very good at this, using his charisma to make people totally loyal to him. Indeed, the one time he is truly defied, only occurred because Guts wanted Griffith to see him as an equal rather than a subordinate; even when rebelling against Griffith, Guts was still acting out of a desire to be liked and respected by him.
 * In Bleach,, with very tragic results.
 * Also present in Nemu Kurotsuchi's willingness to endure Mayuri's abuse because of her love and admiration for him. Though as an Artificial Human, she could have just been programmed to think that way.
 * In one of the Bleach games Nemu actually says that the only people in Soul Society she thinks are normal are Mayuri and Zaraki Kenpachi.
 * In the Zanpakuto Unknown Tales arc, Muramasa's power.
 * Tsukishima, a recent addition to the villain cast of Bleach, It gets particularly bad in that he's done this to everyone  knows, leaving him the only one aware of the truth.
 * Genkaku from Deadman Wonderland does this to Nagi with the help of drugs. He manages to make Nagi.
 * Lelouch from Code Geass does this quite a bit. Due to the limits on his Mind Control Geass, he prefers to manipulate people without it whenever possible, at least until they outlive their usefulness.
 * Let's not forget his half-brother Schneizel, who uses similar tricks on and later on
 * And, shockingly,  pulls this on Lelouch, using his insecurities to tie them together, after Lelouch had already done the same to him. It doesn't work perfectly - Lelouch becomes more attached to   than anything else - but once he does this, it's not until   that Lelouch shows any particular dislike for Rolo.
 * There's also Mao. His treatment of Shirley has all the trappings of More Than Mind Control (side order of Mind Rape attached, but same deal)... except that it doesn't work all the way. He's apparently done it a lot, though, and in a light novel, he even tells C.C. something to the effect of "I didn't make them do anything they weren't going to do already."
 * Not only is from Loveless extremely manipulative on his own, but  It's probably easier to list the people he HASN'T done this to, but notable examples of  victims are
 * Soul Eater's Medusa does this with Crona. We see Medusa break and drive Crona to madness so s/he will kill and collect souls to become a Kishin. And, in the manga...  We have yet to see how this all plays out, though.
 * Goldie from Gunsmith Cats uses this to gain control of whoever she wants. She knows her mind-controlling drugs can only go so far; they'll have to keep her 'pets' constantly drugged or they'll instantly start fighting to return to their old life. In one case she kidnaps a young girl called Mary-Anne and brainwashes her into believing that Now that she's been forced out of her old life by that act, she will willingly accept her brainwashing than face the reality of what she did. Anyone who tries to deprogram her will realize that saving her means  So she serves Goldie without any regret, to the point that when Goldie  Yes, Goldie is an evil sadistic bitch, why do you ask?
 * Ironically she ends up mellowing down somewhat in the final issues, and masters More Than Mind Control to the point where the line between it and normal persuasion becomes practically transparent. The manga ends with her in more or less steady and consensual relationship with Misty Brown. The fan reactions are...conflicted.
 * Apparently, what made a killer in Tantei Gakuen Q. Dealt, nonetheless.
 * Also applied on several culprits, courtesy of . Basically,
 * Neon Genesis Evangelion: Manga Gendo uses Shinji's insecurities and loneliness to try to convince him he's every bit as evil, desperate and vengeful as he is.
 * In Pokémon Special Bruno was straight brainwashed, but Lorelei was manipulated by Agatha into turning her dislike of what humans had done to Pokemon into a full-out desire to kill them all.
 * Happens frequently in Pet Shop of Horrors. Since the pets of the shop appear human to D's customers, there's often some initial resistance to the idea of 'slavery' inherent in buying or selling humans, especially children. D will usually give them a little speech -- combined with some maybe-magical, maybe-hallucinogenic incense -- appealing to their inner conflict. By the end of the pitch, they're usually quite happy to walk out of the store with a human on a leash.

Comic Books

 * In the comic book series Sleepwalker, the monstrous, Ax Crazy villain Psyko has the power to drive everyone around him insane. Being a resident of the mental plane, Sleepwalker was resistant to this power, but it affected him enough for Psyko to nearly manipulate Sleepwalker into murdering one of his former enemies, which would have permanently driven him insane.
 * The current Guardians of the Galaxy were all asked to join. But they later found out
 * In a clear reference to The Faerie Queene an entity calling itself a Mind Destroyer, representative of Guilt, tried this on Sir Ystin in Seven Soldiers.
 * Havok, after being brainwashed by the Dark Beast, notes that it's not so easy to break free...because "first you have to want to."
 * Also in X-Men, Mastermind does this to what he believes to be Jean Grey. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to him, Jean and the Phoenix are NOT the same.
 * Strongly implied to be the fate of Black Hand after Blackest Night; the last page has him pleading for help because the Indigo Tribe are slowly destroying his personality as punishment for helping Nekron.
 * This eventually turns out to be what's happened to the entire Indigo Tribe. For the most part, the members of the Tribe were complete sociopaths who only realized what they were doing after getting a giant Care Bear Stare from the Avatar of Compassion. Most of them are perfectly fine with having a conscience shoved roughly within them.
 * Zemo provides a good example of this the comic The Thunderbolts. To Techno's question "why not just control everyone with the bio-modem? we could do it..." he answers: "Yes, but where is the satisfaction in rulling a planet of automatons, hmm? Better to break their spirits than enslave their minds. Better if they know they have been conquered."
 * One of the nastiest monster villains of the Marvel universe is the Shadow King, a telepath nearly as powerful and skilled as Charles Xavier. He can do lots of nasty things, and does most of them at one time or another, but one of his nastiest tricks is to get into your head telepathically and rearrange things. Not change, just rearrange, amplifying some impulses and desires, suppressing conscience and learned morality. It's still all you, but now what was a suppressed or passing impulse is eagerly indulged, that pesky moral code your parents and church and society taught you disregarded. What makes it so terrible is that even after somebody restores the original balance, you have to live with the fact that whatever murder, rape, incest, torture, adultery, betrayal, etc that you did, it was you. Not the you that you normally are, but it all was always there in you and it's still there now, even if it's back in the cage.
 * Loki subtly influenced Osborn's mind all throughout Dark Reign. Osborn's mental state was never too stable, but Loki made him believe the Goblin personality was talking to him, and made him doubt his own mind. He even created another Avengers team to compete with Norman's and manipulated him to storm Asgard. By then, Norman has had enough and by the end of Siege he experienced a complete mental breakdown.

Fan Works

 * In Radiance, Chelsea is able to mess with people's relationships to others, including completely destroying them, but she can't create new relationships from nowhere. When Elspeth comes along and gets duly mindraped, she is able to help Chelsea by conversing with some of the Volturi's prisoners and creating the seed of a relationship, which Chelsea can then exploit.
 * This is ultimately what Malefor's control over Zonoya in The Legend of Spyro: Zonoya's Revenge amounts to. Unlike Cynder, who was brainwashed, Zonoya was controlled psychologically by her feelings for him.
 * In Inner Demons, this is how Queen!Twilight Sparkle recruits her lieutenants. While she can and does use a brainwashing spell for most of her minions, for her willing followers she plays The Corrupter, giving them exactly what they want in exchange for their loyalties. For Trixie, she gave her the position of being her student (which is all Trixie ever wanted), and for  she was able to make them see things her way by

Film

 * Palpatine's manipulation of Anakin/Vader in the Star Wars movies. However, it doesn't last. And when it's broken by Luke...
 * The Borg Queen almost does this to Data in First Contact. He confirms in the end that she had him considering it... for less than a second, but "to an android, it is an eternity."
 * The Matrix. Agent Smith's monologue while trying to take control of Morpheus' mind.
 * The eponymous Pushers of Push work this way. They implant whatever memories they like into the victim's mind, and then make simple commands that seem reasonable with those new memories. For example, in the beginning Kira is held captive by Mac and Holden. Kira implants memories to make Mac believe that Holden killed his brother, and is so furious, he shoots Holden in the head, giving Kira a chance to escape. Mac never had a brother. Mac's boss, who is also a Pusher, makes Mac commit suicide by making Mac believe he unloaded the gun, and it'll be perfectly safe.
 * The villain in Se7en likes this mode of operation.
 * Saw is made of this trope. In the earlier movies, Jigsaw pulls this again and again, from the simple and obvious of making people commit heinous acts to save themselves to . He also Mileage may vary when it comes to the later movies, as it seems to get less cerebral, and more Gorn for no real reason but Fan Service. Fan Dumb Canon Discontinuity can begin with Saw II, and end really nowhere.
 * In the original version of Fright Night, this is how the vampire Jerry Dandridge converts his victims. He can simply kill anyone, but he needs their acquiescence to convert them into vampires. Note particularly the scene in the alley where he seduces Evil Ed.

Literature

 * Used in The Silver Chair, one of The Chronicles of Narnia, by the Lady of the Green Kirtle (The Vamp), on the four main characters. They're saved by The Eeyore, who notes that, even if what she's saying is true and Narnia really is just a happy fantasy world, he prefers it to the awful truth, at which point the other characters realize that if this dreary underground really was the only world they'd ever known, their imaginations would be stunted and they'd never have been able to invent Narnia. The smell of burning marshwiggle didn't hurt either.
 * Hannibal. Ooohboy.
 * Middle-Earth:
 * This was one of Saruman's major skills in Lord of the Rings (book version only). Doesn't work so well with diverse groups, especially when he starts to lose his cool - though he does talk Treebeard into letting him go.
 * This was also how Sauron brought down Numenor in the "Akallabêth", and Melkor suborned Fëanor in the The Silmarillion.
 * It's also how the One Ring is able to corrupt people (combined with a dose of Jumping Off the Slippery Slope).
 * In fact, this is pretty much the preferred technique of Tolkien villains. Tolkien believed that this was one of the strongest weapons that real life villainy wields.
 * In The Amtrak Wars: Death Bringer the protagonists, posing as spirits and using fake 'magic' illusions, fool the sister of the Shogun of the Iron Masters into thinking her brother framed and executed the man she loved.
 * Molly Carpenter's issue in The Dresden Files. A wizard with a talent for mental magic and illusion, she first came to the attention of Harry Dresden and The White Council because she tried to make her best friend and her boyfriend (who was also the father of the best friend's unborn child) stop using heroin. Problem: this involved invading their minds and then forcing them to feel fear every time they thought of using. In Dresdenverse terms, meant that she was taking their free will away from them...making it, despite her good intentions, Black Magic. Which, ironically, is highly, HIGHLY addictive.
 * Also attempted by Lasciel who tries to make Harry do a Deal with the Devil.
 * In Diana Wynne Jones's Aunt Maria, the titular Maria talks ideas into people's head. She TALKS them into submission, magically.
 * Lots of her villains do this, especially the female ones. Notably 'Laurel,'  from Fire and Hemlock, who also has more literal versions available to her. The power of embarrassment is particularly accentuated here.
 * Also Reigner One in Hexwood, with the conditioning he puts on his Servants, though in their case it starts in childhood. He never made Mordion into an actual bad person, really, but he did make him unable to seriously think actively rebellious thoughts. There was some brain work there, but that mostly seems to have been to short out his magic.
 * Notably, although non-supernatural means were used to induce this, a really weird magic Vision Quest is used to undo it. This is a large part of what is going on during the novel, though the reader doesn't know that.
 * In Peter F. Hamilton's Void Trilogy, the noble houses of Makkathran use their telepathic abilities to subtly change the thoughts of others. Primarily used by on both
 * In The Vampire Files, Jack's mind-control power works better and lasts longer if he words his orders so that they seem to mesh with a subject's own motives and desires.
 * In Everworld, Senna uses her powers to control David. Even after Athena forces her to stop, however, April notes that David is still in love with (or at least obsessed with) her, and Senna is more than nasty enough to use this to her advantage. Ultimately.
 * She also uses mind control to make Christopher drink some wine with her blood in it, even though he knows witch blood may well kill him. Senna notes that she can't force him to do something he doesn't want to do, but given that he's a borderline alcoholic and, like David, retains a certain level of attraction/obsession with her...
 * in Nineteen Eighty-Four uses torture to make people believe that they love Big Brother, though it may have been subverted depending on what the ending paragraph was trying to portray.
 * This is what nightrise do to Scott in The Power of Five, essentially.
 * Mentioned in passing in Breaking Dawn. Chelsea, a member of the Volturi, has a special ability where she can mess with people's emotional attatchments, both keeping the rest of the Volturi loyal to Aro and using it to help them win more easily against enemies by dividing them.
 * The Horcrux locket in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows did this, to Ron in particular. When wearing it, it basically turns people depressed and messes with their heads a bit, eventually causing Ron to . Just before, the locket tries to do this again to Ron via Hannibal Lecture.

Live-Action TV
"Lucifer: This is your choice...You people misunderstand me. You call me "Satan" and "devil", but... Do you know my crime? I loved God too much. And for that, he betrayed me — punished me. Just as he's punished you. After all, how could God stand idly by while that man broke into your home and butchered your family in their beds? There are only two rational answers, Nick — either he's sadistic, or he simply doesn't care. You're angry. You have every right to be angry. I am angry, too. That's why I want to find him — hold him accountable for his actions. Just because he created us doesn't mean he can toy with us, like playthings. Nick: If I help you...can you bring back my family? Lucifer: I'm sorry. I can't. But I can give you the next best thing. God did this to you, Nick. And I can give you justice. Peace."
 * Babylon 5: was the victim of this in Season 4. PsiCop Alfred Bester used telepathic brainwashing and post-hypnotic suggestions, but he also played on his victim's deep-seated prejudices and paranoia -- manipulating him to do what Bester wanted of his own "free" will. In fact, the change in this character is so gradual and believable that Bester's involvement almost seems unnecessary. (The other characters, as distressed as they are, never suspect an outside influence on their friend.)
 * A flashback reveals exactly what Bester had in mind too. A subordinate suggested a complete mind wipe and a new personality be inserted. Bester refused, saying that had all the right personality characteristics already in place: natural suspicion, paranoia, distrust of authority figures, etc. Bester decided that these qualities simply needed to be turned Up to Eleven for the plan to work (and it did).
 * Bester also Lampshades this in, saying that having turn against the protagonists was an unexpected bonus, he only wanted to turn  into an unaware mole that could infiltrate the anti-telepath conspiracy.
 * This method is also unsuccessfully applied to, and the interrogator even Lampshades it by saying that "We don't want cooperation. We want conversion. We want repentance," to make the public confession speech more believable to the general public and more demoralizing to the co-conspirators, not to mention telepath-proof.
 * The First Evil from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
 * Mayor Wilkins deserves a mention here too. Faith's Face Heel Turn is voluntary, but the Mayor cements it by playing on her cynicism, self-loathing, jealousy of Buffy, and yearning for a caring parental figure. Of course, as time goes on it becomes clear that he really does care about her, making this even more complex.
 * The A-Squad Rangers from Power Rangers SPD, who wanted to be on "the winning team".
 * Jannu, the Lady of War of the bad guys in Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger..
 * In Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Dahak, the show's god-slaying Sealed Evil in a Can, spends an unknown, but very large, amount of time trying to convince Iolaus to willingly join forces with him against the Jerkass Gods after Iolaus's spirit accidentally became trapped in the can too. Iolaus eventually agrees, and becomes Dahak's new body on Earth - at which point, of course, Iolaus's soul is instantly relegated to a dark, dungeon-like corner somewhere within Dahak's mind.
 * In the Sword of Truth adaptation Legend of the Seeker, Darken Rahl does this to the hero's sister after she gets amnesia, basically rewriting her memory from scratch with him as the compassionate hero and her brother as a Complete Monster. Eventually she recovers from her amnesia enough that she sees through the manipulation, but the bad guy almost wins in that episode because this trope is used so effectively, and it makes for one of the better episodes.
 * In the book, Rahl did it to children in order to gain perfectly loyal followers who can literally take him to Hell and back (after he kills them).
 * On Lost, this is Ben's preferred method of manipulation. Ironically,
 * In Stargate SG-1, in the episode "Reckoning Part One", Replicator Sam appears to Daniel as Oma Desala to make the process of mining his subconscious easier for her. She convinces him, using the disguise, that he has the information he wants in his subconscious, and he unwittingly opens it for her.
 * Burn Notice lives off this trope, Michel and his friends end up on both sides of it, convincing people to act against their own interests and make it seem reasonable and get convinced to act against their own interests.
 * This is the modus operandi of the demons in the Spanish series Angel o Demonio.
 * Doctor Who. The Master as played by John Simms and his 'wife' Lucy Saxon. Although her role is a Call Back to his Weak-Willed pawns of The Seventies, rather than just look into her eyes and say "I am the Master and you will obey me!" this incarnation uses a combination of Evil Is Sexy, Break the Cutie (showing Lucy the end of the universe), and Pet the Dog ("He was so kind to my father.")
 * The villain of the Law and Order: Criminal Intent episode "Con-Text" is a manipulative self-help guru who uses this method to make an Unwitting Pawn kill for him. In fact, he does it so well that when the pawn gets caught, he not only takes sole responsibility for the murders, but he's actually offended when the cops bring up the possibility that someone else got him to do them.
 * Lucifer in Supernatural has used this to successfully gain control of Nick and attempted (but ultimately failed) to recruit Castiel.

"(to Castiel) "Castiel. I don't understand why you're fighting me, of all the angels...I rebelled, I was cast out. You rebelled, you were cast out. Almost all of heaven wants to see me dead, and if they succeed, guess what? You're their new public enemy number one. We're on the same side, like it or not, so why not just serve your own best interests? Which in this case just happen to be mine?""


 * This is basically what Ruby did to Sam with the help of demon blood.

Tabletop RPG

 * In Dungeons and Dragons, most mind-control spells falter or fail outright when the target is ordered to do something they wouldn't normally do--but there is a specialized spell called Programmed Amnesia which can bypass this rule by changing what the target considers normal behavior. The spell is not inherently evil, but see below.
 * One spell, named Suggestion, fits this trope to a tee - the more reasonable and/or in line with the target's inclination the Suggestion is, the harder it is to resist, even to the point where phrasing it differently can affect things ("Go jump in that vat of acid!" vs. "How about a nice bath?", for example).
 * The Book of Vile Darkness Sourcebook includes a spell called Morality Undone, which flips a character's alignment to its opposite. While they won't immediately turn on their allies, as the book notes, any number of things they wouldn't normally do are now perfectly fine to suggest via other magic...
 * It also contains a quicker, less expensive, and very, very evil version of Programmed Amnesia that's actually called Mind Rape.
 * The forces of Chaos in Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40000 are highly subtle and insidious, able to convince people to join them by, amongst others, making the victim think that he is benefiting the fight for "good" by doing so. This particular case is usually seen where trying to use a Chaos artifact or other power of Chaos against Chaos is seen. Even hardass Knight Templar-ish Inquisitors are not immune.
 * Of all the Chaos Gods, Slaanesh is made out to be the most seductive. Giving in to Slaanesh is giving in by small degrees, small little compromises that eventually lead one to taking joy and pleasure in getting hacked to bits.
 * The first part largely works under Tzeenchian rules (being the master of scheming to the point that he doesn't see the future, he sees ALL POSSIBLE futures and works things to the one that benefit him the most.) Slaanesh is right on as well. Even Papa Nurgle is surprisingly duplicitous: he won't 'cure' the plagues he gives you, he'll just make sure you're happy about it. Khorne on the other hand... Well his followers shout out "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD, SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!!" as they're killing everyone in sight, including each other. Not so subtle.
 * This is the classic twofer tactic of Dominate and Majesty in Vampire: The Requiem. When a vampire has Dominate, he or she has straight mind control, with limited emotional manipulation. Whereas Majesty allows very powerful emotional control with some compulsion as well. Pairing both makes most humans (and quite a few vampires) ridiculously easy to control. Add in the addictive vampire blood vitae and its natural ability to make the drinker obey and love the vampire and... well, let's just say more than a few Empty Shells and mad Renfields have resulted.
 * Vampire: The Masquerade has the Dominate discipline and the blood-bonding properties of vampire vitae, but not the Majesty discipline.
 * In Scion there is an Epic Manipulation knack called "God's Honest". The scion gives a statement along with some gesture of sincerity: cross my fingers hope to die/pinkie swear/I give my word. If their legend rating is higher than or equal to the target's then they will believe the speaker without question. Only solid, incontrovertible proof can sway them to believing it is a lie, and even then it has to be a good speaker. On top of that, if the scion uses "God's Honest" to enforce a truth (and the book is vague on truth, so might be the truth as the character sees it) then almost nothing will convince the target that that truth is a lie.
 * There's another knack called "Inspirational Figure" which forces people to stop and pay attention to a speaker as long as he/she is saying something intentionally inspirational. Some GMs allow you to use these knacks together.
 * Actually, a large number of the social knacks, and a few of the Wits knacks, fit to this trope.
 * This is implied in In Nomine to be how possession by the demonic Shedim works. The victim is still present in their own head and unaware of the visitor, eventually coming to believe that the selfish and evil impulses sent by the demon are entirely their own idea. And since each suggestion has to be worse than the last, most of the demonic Band will work slow, easing a person down the road step by step.

Theatre

 * Little Shop of Horrors. Like Faust, he sells his soul, but gradually. Best evidenced in the song "Feed Me" with an elaborate hard sell. This is an improvement over the original b-movie, which just used flat-out mind control.
 * Othello. Iago uses lies and deception to convince Othello that Desdemona is an unfaithful harlot, and drive him to kill her. There are no magic spells, no potions, just a malevolent trickster (or perhaps a jealous admirer) who is very good at spinning reality, playing the part of a concerned friend.

Video Games
"Kain: "
 * Riku from Kingdom Hearts embraces the trope wholeheartedly. Supplemented with plenty of scenes detailing his friend Sora's apparent betrayal. Also an example of Not What It Looks Like.
 * He also continues this in Kingdom Hearts II by fully embracing the dark control in order to put Sora's mind back together. So not only does he stay under the mind control, but ends up reversing it and using it for his and Sora's benefit. Without the other occupant of his mind knowing that. Nice job man.
 * Organization XIII does this to Sora in Chain of Memories with the help of illusions and Fake Memories.
 * Zig-zagged in Birth by Sleep. Maleficent hits Terra with a spell, and when he comes to his senses someone has released Princess Aurora's heart from her body. He blames Maleficent, who claims that she only brought to the surface a part of himself he'd been trying to hide. Then it turns out that Terra was right the first time - she was working with Xehanort, who unlocked Aurora's heart while Terra was out of it as part of his overall plan to make Terra insecure and isolated. Terra never learns this himself, unfortunately.
 * With as many Mind Control plots as Castlevania has had, they eventually had to try this to freshen it up a bit. in Circle of the Moon and  in Harmony of Dissonance are clear-cut cases, and there are others with room for debate.
 * Inuart in Drakengard falls under this. He's tied to a post and mind-raped with his own innermost thoughts until he finally gives in to the Big Bad's control. He even gains cool glowy Mind Control Eyes.
 * Played straight and then subverted in Final Fantasy IV Kain was under mind control but only because of he wanted Rosa to love him instead of Cecil, then later when Golbez tries it again Kain claims that he no longer holds power over him... After which he steals the crystal and takes off.
 * The second scene makes much more sense in the re-translated DS version.
 * Also in the DS version, using the pause menu to read Kain's thoughts in the final dungeon shows that tries this one last time on him as the party descends, trying to make him hate Rosa this time for loving Cecil.. He fights it off easily.


 * In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, Kain acts similarly to how he acts when under mind control in Final Fantasy IV, but explicitly denies (over and over again) that he's under any form of mind control at all... and he's really not.
 * For that matter,
 * Seifer from Final Fantasy VIII. His dream to become a Sorceress' Knight gets taken advantage of by an actual sorceress and he ends up becoming a rival to Squall.
 * In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, it is revealed that somewhere between Prime 2: Echoes and Corruption Dark Samus used Phazon to corrupt the Space Pirates. However, from reading their logs, the only effect this seems to have had on their behavior is that they're even more willing to experiment on Phazon and now consider Dark Samus as some kind of messianic figure.
 * A scan in Metroid Prime 2 reveals that Space Pirates are already trained to obey orders without question, making them perfect candidates for Ing possession, lending credence to the theory that Phazon corruption only changed who the Space Pirates took orders from.
 * from Mass Effect slowly does this to . And considering that
 * Not just, but are capable of indoctrination, even when inactive. It's one of the things that makes them so terrifying.
 * It's also stated that it's an absolutely horrible experience as the person can feel his/her free will slowly being destroyed during the process.
 * Towards the end of Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark, the Big Bad does this to  with short but well-prepared Hannibal Lectures, prompting a Face Heel Turn from each just before the final battle. You may persuade each one back by being more convincing than he, but depending on the circumstances and your abilities, it may be impossible. This is  we're talking about here, after all. Deekin is a notable exception, he doesn't require a roll or special skills to stay with you, just an assurance that you're his friend. Aww...
 * Morag does this to Aribeth in the original campaign by throwing all of her doubts and fears back at her in incessant nightmares until she finally falls under the lizardperson's full mental domination.
 * In Super Robot Wars Original Generation, Duminuss implements this to Lamia. Basically, other than very strong programming to keep her on check, she's implanted with information that her friends abandoned her out of glee after being shot down to near death by Wilhelm von Juergen and would've rot to death if she wasn't saved by Duminuss, and in short, they're treating her like a disposable doll. This combination reverts Lamia into thinking that she's a disposable tool for war, her old mindset.
 * In Assassin's Creed II DLC Bonfire of the Vanities, it's revealed that this is how the Apple of Eden works: It amplifies the individual reasons each victim has for agreeing with the Apple's wielder up to the point of zealotry.
 * Al Mualim outright states in the first game that The Apple is "temptation given form".
 * In Dragon Age Origins, a Desire Demon has brainwashed a Templar into believing he is living an idyllic family life, and she considers the arrangement to be mutually beneficial. You must choose to either let the Templar continue his wonderful delusion, or free him.
 * The sequel features a much more personal example of this trope at one point you go into the fade to save a mage boy
 * It may be standard procedure in Morrowind and Oblivion, where the only school of magic not governed by a magical attribute -- Illusion (which includes various forms of subtle and direct mind control) -- depends on your Personality.
 * Shin Megami Tensei. Lucifer. Let's just say this thing about the man - listen to him, but always fear him. No matter how much of your friend he likes to look like. Manipulative and deceitful in the extreme, he may always be looking out for humanity - but you gotta realize he's still very much a Fallen Angel, and he's still looking for converts for his army...
 * Sephiroth's control over Cloud in Final Fantasy VII works a little bit like this - it magically exploits Cloud's obsession with getting revenge in order to bring him close and make him deliver the Black Materia.
 * In Tales of Xillia,

Web Comics
"Wanda: I know exactly which carrots and sticks she will respond to. Ossomer: I... see. And which do you plan to use? Carrot or stick? Wanda: I don't yet know. But in her case, they are often interchangeable."
 * MAG-ISA - Lucia convinces Eman to join The Order using sex and philosophy
 * The Head Alien from Its Walky is a textbook case for this trope. Although he does "brainwash" his victims with forced repeated viewings of The Sound of Music, his favorite means for messing with their heads is by bringing up things they'd rather not think about, questioning the purity of their motives, and fighting them with their own inner demons.
 * Also, in one of the last storylines, Penelope brainwashes . and three Mauve Shirts are freed by a simple dart gun, with which they have trouble breaking 's skin. When  succeeds, however, he immediately kills her, and Penny explains that he was won over by the existential crisis of.
 * The Head Alien's penchant for doing this is subverted in this strip; when he comes against members of the team that he doesn't frequently interact with or taunt (as he tends to mess with Sal's mind in particular), he quickly learns that he doesn't know enough about them to screw with their heads, and what little he does know doesn't bother them in the slightest when he tries to throw it back in their faces. Frustrated, he curses himself for 'playing favourites'.
 * In Erfworld, Wanda Firebaugh -- the color-coded Evil Overlord's Croakamancer - uses a suggestion spell and torture (with definite lesbian BDSM overtones) to manipulate Jillian Zamussels, an enemy mercenary leader. It is, indeed, complex.
 * There are several references to Jillian's history of repeated captures and (apparent) escapes, implying that the events of the story are the culmination of an ongoing campaign of psychological manipulation.
 * Note also that in the summer text updates, there is a reference to Jillian observing the work of her new Turnamancer, a unit specializing in part in manipulating an enemy unit to serve a new side, but deciding in the end that she "Didn't play right."
 * Wanda thinks Jillian's reactions are not entirely her doing.

"Jillian: Wanda, I think you're completely capable of wiping out every unit in this battlespace. Which is hot. But any time you talk about croaking me, you're full of crap."
 * After a little while it definitely cuts the other way at least as much - they both have it bad and both know it.

"Alt Text: To be fair, Doc always WANTED to blow up helicopters. The bike just gave him the means."
 * In this Order of the Stick strip, Nale uses this technique on Elan to trick him into attacking Haley, combining the Suggestion spell with some quite cunning twisting of recent events.
 * Inverted/played straight in Sluggy Freelance in that even otherwise seemingly irresistible vampire mind control powers can't make women think Sam is hot, or even pretty cool.
 * Zebra Girl's slow degeneration into a appears to be the consequence of a magical spell which did not so much alter the way she thinks as block her ability to resist the lingering mental effects of her long-completed physical transformation.
 * MSF High's Legion might fit into this trope, at least in Mahou Galaxy and during the Legion War, when they were the bad guys. Being converted into a Legion causes people to be put into a situation where they want to help their sisters because of the 'love' that binds them. Mostly unchanged personality, and the feelings seem to be genuine. But it still seems like this trope, at least for unwilling victims.
 * The Adventures of Dr. McNinja. Doc discovers that Sparklelord has been manipulating his mind towards becoming a Knight Templar. The Alt Text makes this very clear--assuming that Chris Hastings isn't being facetious:
 * The Adventures of Dr. McNinja. Doc discovers that Sparklelord has been manipulating his mind towards becoming a Knight Templar. The Alt Text makes this very clear--assuming that Chris Hastings isn't being facetious:

"Mindfang's journalog:I have masked the line 8etween my puppeteering and her volition exquisitely, and her uncertainty over her own control fuels her fear."
 * In Homestuck, Doc Scratch (omniscient cue ball man) seems to induce Vriska (huge bitch bluh bluh) to do violent and self-destructive things by telling her she can't resist the urge to do them.
 * Vriska's Famous Ancestor Marquise Mindfang has her own version, where she does just enough mind control so the subject doesn't know where Mindfang's influence ends and their own impulses begin:


 * In Penny and Aggie, one of the antagonists,, successfully performs this on , quite effectively - while restrained and seconds away from being murdered. It goes like this: starting with about here,

Web Original

 * In the Whateley Universe, this is the favorite approach of Don Sebastiano. He's a powerful telepath, but he only uses the telepathy to sense what he can use against his target. He turned Peppercorn from a belligerent good guy to a belligerent sidekick. He turned Bogus from a friendly shapeshifter into a friendless mental wreck who depends on Don Sebastiano like a crutch and does whatever he asks, no matter how despicable. Sebastiano got his comeuppance, but it looks like he's back on the road to Big Bad-dom.
 * A member of the new villain group, CORE, does this as well. Without the psychic powers.
 * The magical wards woven through Addergoole stop the new students freaking out at the weirdness or questioning too much what's happening. But it's peer pressure and something resembling Stockholm Syndrome (if you squint) that makes most of them buy into Ellemenhai Society.
 * One of Alice's abilities in A-GENTS. She would work on manipulating a person's emotions over time to make them fanatically loyal to her. Even though she's dead, all of the former slaves that are still alive still have extensive emotional responses even at the mention of her name.
 * Bennett the Sage realizes that maybe he is the devil when he off-handedly tells The Nostalgia Critic to do life-ruining things and the Critic does them instantly.

Western Animation
"Hawkgirl: So what do we do? Green Lantern: All we can do is say we're sorry, and move on."
 * Gorilla Grodd uses this in an episode of Justice League, using his psychic powers to exacerbate the heroes' latent distrust and jealousy to split them up. When The Flash takes this as an excuse to say none of them meant any of it, Martian Manhunter corrects him - they meant every word, even if they wouldn't normally have said it out loud.


 * This happens to Elyon Brown in WITCH, though the villains find the process more annoying than anything.
 * This is how Adora became Hordak's "daughter" and Tyke Bomb in She Ra Princess of Power. Not only did Hordak train her, every time she tried to question him, Shadow Weaver used her magic on her to strengthen her Fake Memories..
 * In Beauty and The Beast The Enchanted Christmas, Forte uses glowing music notes and the Beast's own insecurities and anger to turn against Belle when she leaves to get a Christmas Tree. Later, he almost succeeds in convincing the Beast to smash the magical rose, but the sight of Belle's Christmas present snaps him out of it.
 * In Huntik once a seeker is linked to a titan-summoning amulet there is a constant connection called 'the bond' between the two, which the seeker uses to command the titan. The titan itself is under no obligation to actually follow these instructions but the constant telepathic contact slowly imprints the seeker's personality and allegiance over its own until the titan is completely devoted to the seeker and his/her cause. The longer a titan is bonded to one seeker, the longer it would take for the titan to become loyal to a new seeker, though this can be reduced for seekers with similar personalities.
 * This is Slade's chief weapon on Teen Titans, using a combination of blackmail, Hannibal Lecturing, and emotional manipulation to convince his "apprentices" they have no choice but to serve him- he fails with Robin, but is more successful, with Terra.
 * In his first appearance Brother Blood does this too, using emotional manipulation and personal charisma to bind his students' loyalties, bringing his Psychic Powers into play to convince them he really can offer what they want. Later episodes, though, flanderized him into a cruel Jerkass who nobody would ever want to work for unless they were completely brainwashed.
 * Discord is a subversion. It seems like he does this to most of the mane cast in My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, but we can tell they're being hypnotized . It becomes apparent when he tries do it to that he doesn't actually need to do this and can do regular brainwashing just fine. Turning their emotional strengths against them first is just more fun.
 * Played straight in the second episode with
 * Also played straight in Lesson Zero when Big Mac
 * In the 2009 DVD movie Wonder Woman, Ares does this to Persephone, albeit offsceen, to get her to turn against the Amazons. Though later when she fights Hippolyta, Persephone reveals

Real Life

 * "In the best cons, the sucker cons himself." To expand, you use their suspension of disbelief (whether denial or ambition) to get them to buy into your Big Lie.
 * Any actual "mind control". Nazis, cults, propaganda, advertising, talking heads on the news: If anyone gets you to do anything, it's by convincing you that you want to do it, or have to do it.
 * Abusers do this.
 * So, would you say that your relationship with TV Tropes is entirely under your own control?
 * In the 1950s, an unethical hypnotherapist induced a patient of his to rob a bank in part by convincing him that the take would be used to fight communism.