39,327
edits
Fake Memories: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
m (Mass update links) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 6:
{{quote|'''Official''': Doctor, am I right in thinking you can create experiences, implant them into a subject, who will then believe that they really happened?<br />
'''Dr. Havant''': Of course. In fact, creating an illusion of reality is quite simple. |''[[Blake's Seven
Sometimes when [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]] won't cut it, the villains, heroes, or [[The Men in Black]] need to radically alter a subject's very ''memories'' to ensure their [[Evil Plan]], [[Epiphany Therapy]] or [[Masquerade|cover-up]] (respectively) works flawlessly.
Line 12:
In these cases they implant [[Fake Memories]], using things like [[Psychic Powers]], [[Brainwashed|brainwashing]], [[Neural Implanting|computers]], or the week's [[Applied Phlebotinum]] to replace true memories with more convenient false ones.
Of course, [[Pygmalion Snapback|this never works as planned.]] Like an itch they can't scratch, the character with tampered memories will notice things aren't as they should be and scratch at the false memories like a scab, questioning their [[Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story|"Past"]] and [[Broken Masquerade|searching for the truth.]] Or go crazy trying. Occasionally, a hero will leave a [[Note to Self:]] or instructions for friends to help. The irony being that the false memories tend to lead the character right back to the people who erased them with enough of an advantage to take them out.
A darker, more sinister version of this trope is when the character in question realizes his memories don't add up, but doesn't know ''[[Schrodinger's Butterfly|which]]'' set of memories is true. Often self-inflicted, these memories are slowly revealed through [[Or Was It a Dream?|dream sequences]], and the experience tends to come with [[An Aesop]] about the frailty of human mind and the subjectivity of memory.
Line 66:
** Kira is a very powerful Pusher do and once causes one of the guys guarding her to kill his partner by convincing him his partner killed his little brother in a rather gruesome way. The kicker? He never had a brother.
* In ''[[Blade Runner]]'', the new experimental replicants have literal [[Fake Memories]] to give them a semblance of a childhood and more humanity than older models. When they find out, [[Tomato in The Mirror]] occurs.
* In ''[[Total Recall]]'', the main character has visions of a life on Mars that contradicts his memories of a quiet blue-collar life on Earth. He starts to regain his earlier memories with the help of a [[Note to Self:]], but it turns out ''those'' were fake memories, too, all part of an [[Gambit Roulette|elaborate]] [[Manchurian Agent]] plot. But then, you never really know whether it was [[All Just a Dream]] anyway.
** And in the book it was based on, people could ''buy'' as entertainment, fake memories of being an action hero working for the government. Problems arose when those memories turned out to be real for the protagonist... Or were they?
* ''[[Dark City]]'' had an entire city of people whose memories were removed, remixed, and reinserted thousands of times. One police detective figures it out and commits suicide to escape.
Line 84:
* Everybody in the City of Elua (but Imriel) in ''[[Kushiel's Legacy (Literature)|Kushiels Legacy]]'', after a great magical working has been done.
* In ''The Traveler in Black'', [[John Brunner]] uses this in one city; an evil magician takes a seat on the city Ruling Council, the better to cause the citizens to make a choice that will increase Chaos in the area. His plan includes implanting [[Fake Memories]] that he has always been a member of the Council himself in the rest of the Council members.
* As a side effect of making the subject [[Ret
* A rare version occurs in ''[[Harry Potter]] [[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince|and the Half-Blood Prince]]'', where Horace Slughorn does this to ''himself'' in order to erase the guilt of having {{spoiler|given the young Voldemort information on horcruxes}}. Fortunately, he does a sloppy job of it, which allows Harry to {{spoiler|procure the memory from him with some help from a luck potion}}.
** A more traditional example was featured in the same book where it's revealed via Pensieve flashback that {{spoiler|Voldemort framed his uncle Morfin for the murder of the Riddles by committing the murders with his wand and magically implanting the memories of the murder in Morfin's mind so that ''he'' believed he had killed them. When the authorities arrived, Morfin confessed to murder on the spot, proved it by giving details only the murderer would know and showed them his wand as proof. He was then sent to Azkaban and Dumbledore only managed to find the real memory through a very powerful Legimency spell which he used on Morfin near the end of the latter's life. The same with the house elf Hokey, made to think she accidentally put a rare poison in her mistress Hepzibah Smith's tea.}}
Line 100:
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'':
** In "Superstar", everyone gets fake memories of Jonathan being Sunnydale's own resident [[Marty Stu]].
Line 110:
** And yet another (it appears that Stargate loves this trope): SG-1 was given "memory stamps" to believe they're part of a tiny colony working day and night to keep their civilization going during a massive ice age. Truth is, {{spoiler|the ice age is on the wane, but a privileged class is keeping the workers at it for the extra energy. SG-1 found out and had to be hidden away. Teal'c jinxes the attempt because he forgets he needs to meditate and his symbiote makes him ill.}}
** And one more: Mitchell is implanted with fake memories to frame him for a crime. Turns out that {{spoiler|the real murderer erased his own memories of the crime, then grieves over the victim's death and helps SG-1 track down the real killer.}}
* In the two-part ''[[
** Use of the Chameleon Arch is also noted in the episode {{spoiler|"Utopia", with the Master having Arched himself to escape the Time War.}}
* The ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]'' episode "Adam" is another instance of false memories being used to infiltrate the team. It's particularly dark when Adam make Ianto think he murdered and raped several women; he cracks underneath the guilt, horrified he would do anything so terrible. {{spoiler|Thankfully, in the end, the team wipes all their memories of the day.}}
Line 122:
* In the "Workforce" episode of ''[[Star Trek Voyager]],'' the crew is brainwashed to believe that they belong on the planet they are being forced to work on.
** In "Course: Oblivion" the ''entire crew'' discovers their memories are fake. {{spoiler|They're actually not the ''Voyager'' crew at all, but Silver Blood duplicates who ''think'' they're the originals.}}
* ''[[
* The point of the [[Dollhouse]]. Its a company which takes operatives called 'Dolls' who they can program to be whomever they want; prositute, spy, medical officer, the list goes on. Each time the Doll has a full set of memories, at least until its wiped an a new set is downloaded. Except, what happens if a Doll begins to keep his or her memories?
* In mid '90s TV series ''[[Nowhere Man]]'' a man comes out of the bathroom to rejoin his birthday party. No one knows who he is. It's a conspiracy. He travels around much like the Fugitive, even visiting his mother at one point. She doesn't know who he is. All the while he is being pursued by some secretive organisation who clearly must have manipulated everyone. In the end we learn he isn't who he thought he was. Everything up until he left the bathroom were implanted memories.
Line 130:
* This is done to John in an early episode of ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]''. A group of Delvians make him think he is married and his wife is with him on the planet, complete with fake memories of her being involved in all of his adventures. The point is to distract him and fracture his mind so they can get to Zhaan. Interestingly, he doesn't discover the truth on his own and is only released from the delusions when one of the bad guys has a change of heart.
* In one episode of ''[[Legend of the Seeker]]'', this was used by a murderer to make someone else believe they had committed the crime. Especially tricky because not only would the person with the fake memories admit to the crime under Confession, but once the heroes had figured out that fake memories were involved, the killer ''planted the memories of planting the previous false memories'' in yet another innocent person.
* Integral to ''[[Blake's Seven
* ''[[Starsky and Hutch (TV)|Starsky and Hutch]]'': The evil conspiracy in "The Set-Up" manufactures untraceable assassins by [[Brainwashed and Crazy|brainwashing]] random people and giving them memories that make them want to kill the target.
* Season 2 of ''[[Haven]]'' appears to indicate that {{spoiler|Audrey's memories are fake and that she's really Lucy, when the real Audrey Parker shows up}}.
Line 171:
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* The main cast of ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'' had their memories altered, voluntarily since the alternative was being killed for [[He Knows Too Much|knowing too much]] about {{spoiler|the UNS's super-soldier and immortality projects}}. Because they ''didn't'' want to stumble back into the same situation again, Tagon made a point of asking their brainwashers to do as good a job as humanly possible, and the only one who left himself a [[Note to Self:]] did it so he could act on a grudge and reminded himself to keep it a secret.
** Of course, now that they've discovered the fake memories, the Toughs are in the process of undoing this memory wipe...There will likely be quite a bit of fallout from this in future weeks.
* This is one of the [[Epileptic Trees|many, many, MANY theories]] regarding Oasis in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''. Like almost anything else concerning Oasis, it's highly uncertain.
Line 177:
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Almost everyone in ''[[Erikas New Perfume|Erika's New Perfume]]'', but Sarah is the biggest example by far due to the [[Plot
* All of the supersoldiers in the e-novel [http://neldak.blogspot.com/ E.H.U.D.: Prelude to Apocalypse] have these, as well as liberal amounts of [[Easy Amnesia|easy amnesia]] when they stumble too close to the true memories.
* Numerous [[Gender Bender]] stories involving Magic Transformations have the world reality-shift around the main character, so that everyone sees things as if they had progressed naturally from the beginning in the new reality.
Line 223:
[[Category:Memory Tropes]]
[[Category:Fake Memories]]
| |||