Heel Face Brainwashing: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

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]].

* 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).

* In ''[[Thieves and Kings]]'', {{spoiler|Soracia uses this to herself to complete her own Heel Face Turn: She enters the dream of a dragon who dreams of her as a good person which enables her to actually cut off all ties that bind to her dark master.}}

* Discussed at the end of ''Mandrago'', an obvious parody of ''[[Mandrake the Magician]]'' by the Italian Jacovitti. The protagonist, who has acquired limitless magic powers, decides to make the world a perfect place and brainwashes ''every single inhabitant of Earth'' into being unable to do evil. When Mandrago overdoes it, loses his powers and the world [[No Ontological Inertia|snaps back to normal]], the narrator points out that mankind lost world peace, but regained free will.

* Done in ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]'' to {{spoiler|Asakura Ryouko}}. It was considered a better option than {{spoiler|killing her or waiting for her to come back and try to kill Kyon yet again.}}

** Technically, she wasn't brainwashed. Haruhi thought that brainwashing was not cool.

 

 

* In [[Robin Hobb|The Farseer Trilogy]], this is done to Regal (the morality is admittedly grey anyway.) Frustratingly enough, he is then killed by a rodent in the same (last) chapter, so the reader never gets to actually see good!Regal in action.

* [[Doc Savage]]'s Crime School, which bears [[Values Dissonance|an uncomfortably close resemblance to lobotomization for modern readers]].

** Given a [[Shout-Out]] in the [[Whateley Universe]] story 'Razzle Dazzle', in which the narrating supervillain (who probably [[Unreliable Narrator|isn't entirely honest overall]], mind) reminisces about how he basically shut down the setting's Doc Savage [[Expy]] hard by blowing the whistle on the massively debilitating ''long-term'' consequences of his version of the process...

* 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.

** Annabeth, also in ''[[The Heroes of Olympus]]'', tells Jason that Percy told her about the power of the River Lethe to erease memories, even from Titans, which is what happened to Iapetus. Its Canon alright

* In the third book in the ''[[Sea of Trolls]]'' series, we meet a dwarf (not the [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|fantasy kind]], but a "[[Unfortunate Implications|little person]]"). He seems decent at first, but we later learn that he's a shady, treacherous [[Jerkass]] working for the evil king. After his memory is erased, he becomes a perfectly decent guy.

** He's certainly a gray character at best, but Barty Crouch Sr. breaking his son out of Azkaban and then using the Imperius curse to control him could qualify, since his purpose was mainly to keep him from revealing himself and killing people/trying to resurrect Voldemort.

* ''[[Artemis Fowl]]''.

* 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.}}

 

 

* The entire first season of ''[[Viper]]''.

* In the final episode of volume 4 of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|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.}}

* 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.

* Angel, from ''[[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?

** ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'''s Season 4 gives us {{spoiler|Spike's chip}} which is very much like ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]'' in that it doesn't change the personality, just makes it impossible to hurt humans. {{spoiler|And then later in series, he actually does get his soul back. This does not necessarily make him a nice guy, though.}}

* At the end of ''[[Dollhouse]]'', the good guys {{spoiler|brainwash the [[Big Bad]]}}, which is revealed to be {{spoiler|Boyd(!!!)}}, into {{spoiler|blowing himself up with his own company.}} {{spoiler|They meant to just shoot him, it's just that the only gun they had was a mind-wiper, and, well, they were going to blow up the building anyway, so they might as well use him to do it...}}

** 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.}}

** 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]]'', priests can do this to enemy troops.