Fake Memories: Difference between revisions

 

{{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?

 

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.

* Chibiusa does this with disconcerting frequency to Usagi's family in the second season of ''[[Sailor Moon]]''. Somewhat justified as she doesn't alter their memories ''too'' badly and doesn't alter their personalities either: she only makes them believe she's the family niece, rather than Usagi's [[Kid From the Future]].

** At some point she's also ''at the receiving end'' of it, and it's '''much''' uglier. {{spoiler|She's captured [[Heroic BSOD|while at a very low emotional point]], and then Wiseman uses this to make her believe her parents hated her. The [[Mind Rape]] leaves her liable to his manipulations and, after being forcibly infused with Dark Energy, she becomes [[Dark Magical Girl|Black Lady]].}}

** Gemini Of The Meteor has {{spoiler|Suou who finds out she is not exactly who she thought and was given [[Fake Memories]] of a childhood she never had.}}

* In ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'', [[Fake Memories]] are used in concert with [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]] to keep the [[Tyke Bomb|Phantom Pain]] pilots in line. Also implicitly used on {{spoiler|Neo, who is actually Mu with [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]].}}.

* This is done to John in an early episode of ''[[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.

* ''[[Starsky and Hutch (TV series)|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}}.

** At least one of his memories is for sure fake: in Sonic Adventure 2's Last Story, {{spoiler|his [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] was set off by Gerald changing his memory of the promise he made to [[Dead Little Sister|Maria]].}}

* The ''[[Crusader: No Remorse|Crusader]]'' games do not reveal anything about the [[Super Soldier|protagonist's]] past--but one thing that is known is that if he ''was'' genetically engineered, he was never told it, and finds the suggestion surprising.

* In ''[[Starcraft]]'', many marines and other low-ranking Terran infantry have their memories altered (usually to remove criminal character traits such as serial killing, cannibalism, etc) using technology; this is called neural resocialization. The technology acts as a [[Restraining Bolt]]. Ghosts underwent a similar treatment, but the newest generation of Ghosts just undergo [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]] instead (since that's harder to fix). The main character of one of the novels has been resocialized, and several supporting characters in the book have undergone the same treatment.

* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei II]]'' has {{spoiler|Hiroko, who was implanted with fake memories of being a [[Knight Templar|Temple Knight]] in order to conceal the fact that she was forcefully used in an experiment as the surrogate mother of [[The Messiah]]}}.