Heel Face Brainwashing: Difference between revisions

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Someone is [[Brainwashed]] or [[Mind Control|Mind Controlled]] into a [[Heel Face Turn]]. Yes, that's right, a Heel '''Face''' Turn.
 
This is most notable when it's [[Protagonist -Centered Morality|considered inherently different, or better]], than when the heels do the Brainwashing. Then it sends the classic "[[Utopia Justifies the Means|the ends justify the means]]" [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]].
 
In-universe, the [[Godzilla Threshold]] can justify almost anything, but on a meta level, when this happens, it means that either the morality is [[Black and Grey Morality]] (or [[Grey and Gray Morality]]), or there is ''serious'' [[Values Dissonance]] going on, or maybe just thoughtless [[Moral Dissonance]]. Occasionally, the heroes ask first, and the villain figures that he's stronger than whatever they will do, and accepts, only for it to work.
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It should be noted that if any kind of brainwashing is successful in turning a person from one side to the opposing side, the brainwashee will automatically consider the change (by virtue of the brainwashing itself) to be a [[Heel Face Turn]], no matter what the real case is.
{{examples|Examples:}}
 
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'', {{spoiler|Light did this to himself in a [[Memory Gambit]], although he merely intended to "prove" his innocence by helping to catch the "real" Kira. He planned to provide himself with a way to reverse his [[Laser -Guided Amnesia]] after he had earned the good guys' trust}}
* In ''[[Code Geass]] R2'', Lelouch Geasses a ''lot'' of people into {{spoiler|accepting him as Emperor}}. Since by this point in the story the [[Black and Gray Morality]] has turned into a soupy mess, whether this is a [[Heel Face Turn]], a [[Face Heel Turn]], a [[Mook Face Turn]], or [[Heel Face Index|what]] is up for a lot of interpretation. Before that point, the most he'd done was [[Mind Control]] people into doing specific tasks for him, not actually compel them to switch sides against their will.
** Less morally ambiguously, this happens to {{spoiler|Viletta Nu}} who develops [[Laser -Guided Amnesia]] and is taken in by a nice guy (who happens to be a rebel) who does his best to take care of her.
* In ''[[Dragonball]] Z'' this happens... sort of... when Goku has Buu resurrected as a good person, though technically he's not actually being controlled. He's simply been reincarnated with all of the power retained, but all the evil cleansed from his soul between lives.
* If I recall correctly, [[Sailor Moon|Neo Queen Serenity]] wanted to cleanse the evil out of her subjects. Those who didn't like the idea of being [[Mind Rape|Mind]] <s>Raped</s> [[Unusual Euphemism|Gently Massaged]] left the Moon and became the Black Moon Clan.
** Made a bit clearer in the books, where it's less this, and more the fact that she sent away a guy who was a serial killer, and said villain happened to have kids somehow.
* {{spoiler|Anri}} in ''[[Durarara]]'' can do this {{spoiler|using the demon-blade Saika}}, as part of the character being [[Bad Powers, Good People]]. For instance, in one scene a mind-controlled thug is told to go home and lead a good life.
* ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' has the superweapon Nirvana, which can deal these out en masse (as well as [[Brainwashed and Crazy|making good guys evil]]). While it's used by the villlains (and a bunch of people spontaneously changing their alignment is recognized as a bad thing), one of the villains is hit by accident, and no one sees the brainwashing as wrong. It helps that it was an accident, the heroes weren't actually involved, and the villain was revealed to be a [[Fallen Hero]] anyway.
* The titular protagonist of ''[[Kajika]]'' has the ability to literally punch the evil out of people, which he does to a few villains who offend him. A couple of secondary characters who get caught up in the events see him do this, and he politely asks if they want him to help them get rid of their evil, too, but they nervously turn down the offer.
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* In Volume 5 of ''[[Empowered (Comic Book)|Empowered]]'', {{spoiler|we find out that Mind**** <s>did</s> habitually does this... to herself.}}
* In an issue of Swedish children's comic [[Bamse]], notorious villain Krösus Sork is given a drink that makes him temporarily kind and generous.
* In the [[X Men]] [[Spin -Off]] ''[[Exiles (Comic Book)|Exiles]]'', the reality-altering, body-swapping villain Proteus {{spoiler|takes over [[Shapeshifting|Morph's]] body, which doesn't degrade like other bodies Proteus inhabits do. The team manage to use some [[Applied Phlebotinum]] (from the world of the [[Squadron Supreme]] mentioned above, in fact) in order to brainwash Proteus into [[Becoming the Mask|thinking he IS Morph]]. However, the ramifications of this action are explored in future issues.}} It does help that Proteus WAS planning on making the entire universe his plaything.
* When [[Martian Manhunter|J'onn J'onzz]] undoes a mental block that makes him afraid of fire and unconsciously sends himself into a [[Face Heel Turn]], one of his first "evil" acts is to use his mental powers to perform this on various criminals. Inmates in high class prisons begin watching Sesame Street, the patients in Arkham are suddenly overcome with grief over their crimes and have to be restrained from committing suicide, KKK members begin lynching ''themselves,'' and [[Lex Luthor]] (at the time president) is put into a coma.
* The entire Indigo Lantern Corps. Their rings specifically seek out people who lack compassion for others such as Black Hand and ''force'' them to feel it. The rings also use their ability to manipulate other emotions on the emotion spectrum to control the feelings of the Indigo Lanterns (the Indigo entity itself, however, averts this and seeks out hosts who are already compassionate).
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** He turns up in one of the later Boba Fett books, and guess what? {{spoiler|He stills sells deathsticks. And weapons.}}
* At the end of ''[[The Neverending Story (Film)|The Neverending Story]] II'', Bastian uses his final magic wish to ask that the nearly omnipotent [[Big Bad]] gain "a heart". She's so struck with grief at what she's done that she proceeds to fix all the evils carried out in the rest of the film.
** This troper got the impression that Xayide's new heart caused her to have a lethal [[My God, What Have I Done?]] moment, and the undoing of everything she'd done to Fantasia was a case of [[No Ontological Inertia]].
* ''Stargate: [[The Ark of Truth]]''. The Ark is a brainwashing device that's the only way to stop the [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Ori worshippers]] from taking over the galaxy. The moral objections are raised, but in the end ignored.
** The Ancients ''did'' refrain from using it because of moral objections, and decided to flee instead; given the trouble caused by the continued existence of the Ori, this was a seriously [[Neglectful Precursors|neglectful]] act. When it is eventually used, it's a fairly simple case of self-defense.
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** This operation can be seen as a cure for sociopathy, which contemporary research suggests is more like a cognitive and emotional disability than a character trait. The moral implications of this type of "brainwashing" are probably less negative than most other examples given here.
*** Slippery Jim refers to it as a "surgically implanted conscience".
** Pumping the [[Family -Unfriendly Aesop|Family Unfriendliness]] up a notch is a double subversion of [[Beauty Equals Goodness]]: What originally caused Jim to stay his hand upon meeting Angelina was her striking beauty. However, {{spoiler|a locket he found strongly implies that her good looks are ALSO entirely the result of surgery. He smashes the locket right in front of her}}.
* In ''[[The Riftwar Cycle]]'', the dark and light elves are the same people, separated by culture and morality. The dark elves live in the frozen north, the light elves in Elvandar, a magical forest created by their Spellweavers. It's possible for a dark elf to hear the "Call of Elvandar" and over a span of years, culminating in a single, sudden switch, convert to the other side. The conversion involves a full-scale [[Loss of Identity]], complete with taking on a different name. Their previous self is explicitly said to be considered dead by all involved. Due to the [[Protagonist -Centered Morality]], however, this more questionable side of the light elves is never explored.
* ''[[A Clockwork Orange (Literature)|A Clockwork Orange]]'' is a possible [[Ur Example]] and also an [[Unbuilt Trope]] - [[Villain Protagonist]] Alex is conditioned to have strongly adverse reactions to the mere thought of sex or violence, and it pretty clearly ruins his life.
** Unusual in that Alex seems to remain the same [[Complete Monster]] he was before the treatment: his brainwashing just prevents him from acting on it. In effect, it's more of a [[Restraining Bolt]].
** Which was the [[An Aesop|entire point of the story]]: if you ''force'' someone to be good against their will, then they aren't really a good person.
** And when Alex does become a [[Retired Monster]] (depending on what version of the story you're reading) in the end, it's not because of the conditioning but because he just doesn't find wanton violence fun anymore. Which was the reason the rest of his droogs eventually gave up the life and something that was already starting to happen with Alex even before the brainwashing.
* In Craig Shaw Gardner's ''Cineverse Cycle'', Captain Crusader (known by various names in the Cineverse's many B-movie worlds) has a habit of spouting vaguely relevant [[An Aesop|Aesops]] when encountered. It's eventually discovered by the main cast that hearing these has profound psychological effects on anybody native to the Cineverse, sometimes including the power to instantly convert mooks and minor villains. As all villains in the Cineverse are the [[Card -Carrying Villain|card-carrying]] variety, who get their mooks from Central Casting, the [[Heel Face Mind Screw]] is here played as straight as possible.
* In an instance where the title itself is a spoiler, Alfred Bester's ''[[The Demolished Man (Literature)|The Demolished Man]]'' refers to a future America's use of a punishment along these lines. It involves utterly breaking someone mentally and then rebuilding them into a model citizen. {{spoiler|this ends up happening to the [[Villain Protagonist]]}} It's commented that the old punishment of execution is barbaric and pointless when a person could contribute to society if the bad was drained from them.
* This is pretty much the effect of a Confessor's power in the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series. Said power being to make whoever is Touched [[The Power of Love|love the Confessor]] so much that they'll do ''anything'' for her. So someone could be fanatically devoted to gutting the Confessor one second, then fanatically devoted to saving her the next. This is typically only used in self defense.
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* In the ''[[Foundation]]'' novels, the Mule is a terrifying, unpredicted mutant who has the power to conquer worlds by brainwashing their leaders into liking him. He effortlessly topples the First Foundation with nothing but this ability. The Second Foundation eventually beats him by, uh, brainwashing him. Into being a nice guy. Really, though, the Foundation is never exactly portrayed as morally good. Its survival is simply considered necessary.
* In a supreme irony, a [[Knight Templar]] who engages in this behavior in ''[[Charles Stross|Glasshouse]]'' is forced to reprogram herself so she believes it's wrong to change people like this. Decide for yourself whether that's hypocrisy or [[Karma]].
* In ''[[Villains By Necessity]]'', this is the force driving the plot. The [[Anti -Villain]] / [[Anti -Hero]] main character doesn't want to have his free will stripped away by a do-good [[Knight Templar]] priest who has nearly driven all evil from the world using a magic brainwashing staff. However, this is in a [[Dungeons and Dragons]] type setting where the [[Balance Between Good and Evil]] is imperative, and the world will end when the last evil is wiped away. (The last evil is implied to be within the main party.)
** Considering that the world ending would be evil (and appears to be viewed as evil [[In Universe]]), it appears that the last evil would never be wiped away. Consequently, problem solved.
* In a noncanon ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'' side story, Percy battles the Titan Iapetus near Lethe, the River of Forgetfulness. Percy dunks himself and Iapetus in the river. Percy, a son of Poseidon, stayed dry, and Iapetus is soaked so he forgets everything. He gets renamed Bob and even helps cure some nasty wounds.
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* Played with in the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Rebel Force]]'' series. A brainwashed Imperial assassin, X-7, has been trying to kill Luke Skywalker, but his continuing failures and time away from his master shake the brainwashing - not much, but enough that he's bothered by stray emotions and fragments of memory with no context to them. He goes rouge in order to search for his obliterated past - the Rebels, aware of this, decide to set things up to convince him that he's the long-lost brother of one of them, in the hopes of turning him against the Empire. It's much milder than what was done to him in the first place, but still harsh. {{spoiler|And has very mixed results.}} The brother in question comes to believe that X-7 used to be his brother, then doubts it again {{spoiler|- and the books themselves never quite confirm or deny it.}}
** In the next book Luke Skywalker pulls off a much kinder example {{spoiler|on a base full of people who'd undergone similar brainwashing. He uses a desperate wide-scale [[Jedi Mind Trick]] to ''undo'' the Imperial brainwashing, leaving it a base full of people who were confused and didn't know who or where they were - he couldn't restore the memories that had been lost - but didn't think and act as appendages of the [[Big Bad]] anymore.}}
* In ''[[Nineteen Eighty -Four]]'' at the end, Winston Smith "loves Big Brother." The reader sees it as a [[Downer Ending]] where [[The Bad Guy Wins]], but Smith himself views the change as [[Heel Face Brainwashing]].
 
 
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* In the final episode of volume 4 of ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'', {{spoiler|Matt Parkman brainwashes Sylar, turning him into Nathan Petrelli... post-[[Face Heel Turn|Face-He]][[Heel Face Turn|el-Face]] [[Heel Face Revolving Door|Reversion]], that is.}}
** And before that in volume 3, Ma Petrelli [[Mind Screw|Mind Screws]] Sylar into trying to be a hero by tricking him into believing she's his real mother.
** And in the last three episodes of volume 5, {{spoiler|Matt traps Sylar inside a hallucination of [[Your Worst Nightmare|an empty world]]. Sylar spends [[Year Inside, Hour Outside|two years]] alone in there until [[Idiot Hero|Peter]] goes in after him (because apparently, he's [[The Only One]] who can save Peter's [[Shipping|friend]] Emma). It takes them another [[Year Inside, Hour Outside|three years]] to find a way out, by which time Sylar has been thoroughly [[Heel Face Mind Screw|Heel Face Mind Screwed]].}}
* Mr. Smith from the ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' got this after being revealed to be the [[Big Bad]] of Series 1. Of course, the Earth would've gotten destroyed if Mr. Smith didn't get brainwashed.
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' used this as an alternative to the death penalty. Heavily inspired by ''The Demolished Man'' above, from which it got its idea of telepathic police.
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* In ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', they capture a Wraith, wipe his memory, turn him into a human, and try to convince him he's one of them. It fails in the end, so of course they [[Too Dumb to Live|promptly try it again on a larger scale]]?
** Though at least the plan there was that the Wraiths-turned-human would promptly be killed by other Wraith (who would thus leave the existing humans alone for a while).
** Refreshingly, this particular case is treated as a monumentally stupid decision on the part of the Atlantis expedition, and recurring villain Micheal (the original test subject) repeatedly [[What the Hell, Hero?|calls them out]] on the immorality of the action.
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' gives us one episode where a recently widowed Daniel Jackson falls in love with the the brilliant young medical researcher and provisional leader of a [[Mind Wipe]]d and partly depopulated world as they investigate the cause of its people's current state. As it turns out? She's actually {{spoiler|Linnea, a seemingly kindly old woman who the heroes broke out from an alien jail with before learning she's a galactically infamous genocidal [[Mad Scientist]] in a previous episode. The whole situation is the result of an experiment she was conducting recently which de-aged and Mind Wiped the entire population}}. The kicker? After she [[Shmuck Bait|inevitably ends up succumbing to curiosity about her past]] and uses the memory-restoring plague cure she and Jackson were working on, they manage to get her to re-Mind Wipe herself before she [[Amnesiac Dissonance|succumbs to her rapidly returning memories]]. What do they do with this [[Sealed Evil in A Can|Sealed Evil In A Person]]? They send her BACK to the one planet in the galaxy where huge numbers of people now secretly knows who she is, to help produce and administer the very plague medicine that could turn her into a homicidal maniac at any moment.
** Actually, if I remember correctly, only the two people with her know who she really is, and they tell her she had a bad reaction to the cure, so she won't try it again.
* ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'' has Durka, who established himself as a villain by torturing Rygel and turns up in a later episode having been brainwashed by aliens into a friendly, helpful person incapable of violence. {{spoiler|Rygel didn't believe he was really reformed, so he tried to kill Durka, which [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|ironically ended up breaking the mental conditioning and turning him evil again]].}}
* ''[[Star Trek Voyager]]'' had an episode where the EMH accidentally corrected an anatomical defect in the brain of a serial killer on death row, giving the inmate the ability to feel guilt. However, this was more like a cure for sociopathy rather than straight-out brainwashing, and thus not really in the same negative sense as most other examples on this page.
** There is also an entire planet of telepaths where violent thought is punished by having said thoughts removed. The problem is that the person they want to do it to is B'Ellana Torres, a [[Half -Human Hybrid|half-Klingon]] whose violent thoughts make up a large chunk of her personality.
* Angel, from ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'', would seem to qualify for this: the most evil vampire in history, he was given a soul by Gypsies against his will, and spent the rest of his life atoning for the horrible deeds he'd done. Except when he went evil again, and then, you guessed it, [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] ([[Omnicidal Maniac]], even). The difference, of course, being that the Gypsies weren't the good guys - they did it as the worst ''punishment'' they could think of, after he killed one of them.
** Wait. Punishing "the most evil vampire in history" for murder means they aren't good guys?
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== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', it is eventually revealed that the [[Big Bad]] is actually {{spoiler|the player, who ends up on the good side after [[Laser -Guided Amnesia|losing his memories]]. [[ItsIt's Up to You]] whether [[The Power of Friendship]] prevails or not}}. This is a case where the questionable moral implications ''are'' pointed out, and it can be the motivation {{spoiler|if you decide to fall back to the Dark Side.}}
* Similar to the B5 example above, this is apparently the replacement for capital punishment in ''[[Xenosaga (Video Game)|Xenosaga]]''. Unfortunately, it doesn't always take & in at least one case wound up making the guy even crazier.
** Partially because the guy was a {{spoiler|[[What Measure Is a Non -Human?|Artificial]] [[Super Soldier|War Realian-type construct]] left loose in normal society and had no outlet for the soldier-instincts}}, and that his lawyer/wife was just using him.
* In ''[[Starcraft]]'', Terran criminals that commit particularly brutal crimes undergo "neural resocialization" where their memories are essentially frosted over, and afterwards are usually drafted into the military as now-loyal Marines with a combat life expectancy of under 90 seconds. In the novels one marine regains his memories while aboard a ship. Bad things happen.
** In another novel, a female marine turns out to have been a serial killer preying on men by seducing them, taking them home then slowly flaying them. Her resocialization programming had problems when she was under heavy stress and when she was caught by Zerglings, it gave out completely: she whipped out a knife and went [[Ax Crazy]] on them. Didn't save her from getting [[Half the Man He Used To Be|killed]] off-screen, though.
** To be fair, the marine in the first example didn't regain his memories on his own or by accident. This was done deliberately by a Protoss Preserver, a powerful psychic. [[Adventurer Archaeologist|Jake]] [[What the Hell, Hero?|calls her out on it]], as many of his friends and colleagues die because of this. On the other hand, this was the only way for Jake and Samara to escape and avoid Jake being vivisected by Mengsk's people.
* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', you have the option of doing this to {{spoiler|the Geth "heretics," i.e., those who have sided with the Reapers}}. And yes, the game treats this as the Paragon choice.
** Then again, since the alternative is ''genocide''...
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** A similar case within ''[[City of Heroes]]'' could be the case of Malaise, an insane supervillain who projected his thoughts onto others in the form of intense illusions. He was eventually subdued by the psychic superheroine Sister Psyche, who 'healed' his mind and had him serve as her sidekick while maintaining a [[Mind Link]] with him. Of particular, suspicious note however: when the [[Mind Link]] was broken, Malaise quickly reverted. {{spoiler|And, in any case, he has recently turned evil anyway, joining a conspiracy to depower/kill as many of the most powerful heroes as possible, with a personal interest in Sister Psyche.}}
* Happens to {{spoiler|Darkrai}} at the end of ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon|Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky]]'' due to him being {{spoiler|hit by Palkia's attack while escaping through a portal.}}
* [[Well -Intentioned Extremist|Zelenin]] from [[Strange Journey]] ''[[Invoked Trope|tries]]'' to save the [[Chaotic Evil]] [[Complete Monster|members of Jack's crew]] by transforming herself [[One -Winged Angel|into an angel]] whose song could make them all [[Lawful Good]]. [[Gone Horribly Right|It worked]]! Problem? {{spoiler|[[Deconstruction|The song is revealed to be a form]] of [[Mind Rape]], and the men were left as [[Empty Shell|Empty Shells]] only capable of mindlessly praising Zelenin and the Lord; this is also a [[Foreshadowing]] of the Law Faction's plans for [[World of Silence|the Schwarzwelt]]. The few men who retained a semblance of free will ended up more like [[Lawful Evil]] [[Knight Templar|Knight Templars]] - and it's possible Zelenin's act only led them to an even ''worse'' death.}}
** It becomes a point of contention with the crew at an earlier point {{spoiler|when it's revealed the MK Guns the ''Red Sprite'' carries are essentially brainwashing equipment. These are used as extremely effective weapons against [[Demonic Possession]], but that doesn't mean nobody imagines the implications of a gun designed to induce altered states of consciousness.}}
* In ''[[Age of Empires II (Video Game)|Age of Empires II]]'', priests can do this to enemy troops.
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** ?by making the one sentenced to wear the headset so [[Lawful Stupid]] they let the episode's [[Villain of the Week]] go so they can chase a litterbug.
* In the 90s animated version of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 (Animation)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', this once happens to Shredder. By accident. Except the trigger to turn the brainwashing on and off is the word "Shredder." So, of course, they go into a factory, which just happens to have a cheese shredder in it...
* In the original ''[[Transformers]]'' episode "The Core," Optimus and the Autobots suffer a ''major'' [[Out -of -Character Moment]] when they authorize Chip to use [[Mind Control]] Phlebotinum on the Constructicons. In fairness, another episode had revealed that the Constructicons were victims of a Decepticon [[Mirror Morality Machine]] and had originally been ''nice,'' but Chip's gizmo didn't reverse that, it appeared to be just enslaving them (although it really isn't clear; they don't get many lines during the brief time they're working for the 'Bots). Particularly glaring in light of the fact that the Constructicons' obvious camaraderie in this episode makes them seem downright [[Anti -Villain|sympathetic.]] [[Moral Dissonance|"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings" indeed!]]
** Also, about that episode that says the Constructicons were good once? Two other episodes give ''[[Multiple Choice Past|two other histories]]'' for the Constructicons, each backstory incompatible with the other two. [[They Just Didn't Care]] about continuity, so The Core being a followup to the earlier episode - which it didn't reference at all - would be ''entirely'' [[Out of Character]] for the writers. Odds are, The Core's writer had never even heard of the earlier story. In the episode itself, the decision was presented ''purely'' as Chip and the Autobots saying "Ooh, the Constructicons turn into a really strong [[Combining Mecha]]! What if it was ours?" and then going and whipping up some "dominator discs."
*** Interestingly Chip is disappointed that the Constructicons remain loyal to Megatron after escaping control, hoping they would learn something from their experience as an Autobot, laying some ambiguity as to whether the device was designed to enslave their mind or merely give them good will.
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* In ''[[X Men Evolution]]'', [[Big Bad|Magneto]] did this to his daughter, Wanda, AKA the Scarlet Witch. Subverted, though, in that she was still a bad guy, she just didn't try to destroy Magneto any more.
* ''[[Wizards]]'' - an assassin working for the villain is reprogrammed to fight for the good protagonists, later changing his name to "Peace" and proving instrumental in befalling the bad guy.
* In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', the [[Fan Nickname|mane six]] use the Elements Of Harmony on Nightmare Moon to turn her good. Justified somewhat, as it was turning her back into her original, sane, Princess Luna persona. When the Elements Of Harmony are used on Discord, who was not originally good, it had a [[Taken for Granite|different effect]]. Also, according to [[Word of God|Lauren Faust]], there was an external entity involved in Nightmare Moon. [[God Does Not Own This World|As she's not making the show anymore]], it's uncertain if that's canon.
** [[Brainwashed and Crazy|Inverted]] by Discord himself, as he flipped the qualities that let five of the Mane Six utilize the Elements of Harmony, rendering them both unable to use their elements and forcing them into a [[Face Heel Turn]] in the process. Of course, this allowed Twilight Sparkle to play this trope completely straight by forcing good memories of their friendships into her corrupted friends to break them of Discord's hold.
* In episode 11 of the cartoon version of ''[[Space Ace]]'', after Kimberly was turned into a baby, Dexter becomes brainwashed by Borf into grabbing Kimberly, so every time Ace turns back into Dexter, the brainwashing process is in effect. However, after turning back into her adult form, Kimberly uses the brainwashing machine to snap Dexter out of his brainwashing state, and destroies the machine using Dexter's gun.