Identity Amnesia: Difference between revisions

* [[Forgot the Call]] - The character in question goes from a heroic life to a mundane one.

* [[Napoleon Delusion]] - The new "character" is a famous historical figure (insanity is a bigger factor here).

* [[Amnesiacs Are Innocent]] -- the new character is child-like and innocent.

{{examples}}

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Patlabor has one of them with Ota who didn't remember anything after a big party and woke up with an terrible hangover not knowing who he is. Worse, {{spoiler|looking at the mayhem around him and his unconscious team-mate, he believes himself to be a murderer and runs away from every person who could have explained the jokes his friend played on him (in an attempt to make him avoid [[Violence Is the Only Option|unnecessary violence]])}}. Final Spoiler : {{spoiler|as you can expect, after a really deep introspection, he will completely forget any lesson he could have learned during his amnesia when he wakes up at the hospital.}}

* A blow to the head during a [[Training From Hell|weird training method]] involving [[Smashing Watermelons|watermelons]] changed [[Ranma ½|Kuno]] from an ineffectual, harmless buffoon with weird (but funny) romantic notions, to a nigh-unbeatable stalker who might have succeeded in [[Attempted Rape|forcing himself on]] female Ranma if she hadn't knocked him back to his senses first.

* Happened in ''[[Justice League International]]''. One punch from [[Batman]] took down Guy Gardner. When he awoke, he was no longer an abrasive chauvinist. He was instead Sensitive Guy, who cared what women think, and was generally respectful and agreeable in every way that the true Guy wasn't. Random head bops (his powers protected him from -real- damage) switches him around for the [[Rule of Funny]]. Years later, in his own book, this was [[Retcon|retconned]] as tied in to his earliest appearances, where he'd been neither Chauvinist Guy nor Sensitive Guy before entering a coma. His [[Evil Counterpart]], Dementor, had apparently been taking advantage of these states of unconsciousness to alter Guy's personality for his own amusement.

** As for the Ring protection, it should be considered that Gardner took off the Ring to fight hand-to-hand, without using weapons. So, when Batman took him down, he was as vulnerable as any random burglar.

* For a long while, [[X-Men (Comic Book)|Magneto]] seemed to have fallen into this trope, when he was discovered as a mysteriously de-aged amnesiac calling himself Joseph. The X-Men took him in and began trying to help acclimate him to his new life, while worrying about what would happen if he regained his memories and his former personality returned. All of this ended up being averted when he turned out to be [[Retcon|a clone]].

** The ''[[Ultimate X-Men]]'' Magneto was deliberately given this by Professor X, turned into a mild-mannered social worker until Charles could figure out how to permanently de-evil his main personality. He never got the chance.

* In the [[Laurel and Hardy]] film ''A Chump at Oxford'', while our heroes are visiting Oxford University Stan gets hit on the head and becomes a snob with an English accent, much to Ollie's disgust. Not surprisingly he later gets hit on the head again and returns to his old self.

** The [[Fridge Logic]] kicks in when you realize Stan was a student there to begin with, and that the "snob" persona is his REAL old self, whereas his regular foolish self is a product of amnesia. And Ollie knowingly keeps him in this state, with no recollection of his friends, family and old life, simply because Stan is easier to deal with that way. (Of course, [[Negative Continuity]] is in effect.)

* In ''[[Primal Fear (film)|Primal Fear]]'', Richard Gere plays a lawyer investigating Edward Norton and the Father at his church, Norton has killed someone in response to the Father at his church taping Norton being forced to rape some girl he knew. At Norton's criminal hearing, Gere calls out Norton's psychotic side with belittling taunts, to prove that Norton had no memory of the attack.

** Subverted because {{spoiler|Norton's character didn't have amnesia/split personality at all}}.

* Happens with Claire in ''[[Lost]]''.

* This was used in a skit on ''[[In Living Color]],'' with one of the [[Camp Gay]] "Men on Film" taking a blow to the head, and becoming outrageously heterosexual.

* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The Next Doctor", {{spoiler|the man thought to be a future reincarnation of the Doctor actually turns out to be an example of this. His wife was killed and his son was abducted by the Cybermen, and his mind blocked out memory of them, at the same time being fed information on the Doctor by a piece of technology holding all information on said Time Lord. He ended up adopting the identity of the Doctor to kill the pain, until the true Doctor explained exactly what had happened to him.}}

* At the start of the ''Werewolf'' episode of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'', Mike hits his head and thinks he's James Lipton from ''Inside the Actor's Studio'', and tries to interview Crow (whom he has mistaken for Ray Liotta). Crow and Tom eventually hit him with a "clown hammer" to get him back to normal.

* In the [[Hustle]] episode "A Bollywood Dream", [[The Mark]], a sweatshop owner and all around jerk, has an accident, loses his memory temporarily, and realizes he doesn't like the person he used to be. {{spoiler|When he decides to give all his money to charity and go follow his childhood dreams of being an actor, the team has no choice but to call the con off.}}

* ''[[Ghost Whisperer]]'': "Step-ins", ghosts who take over newly dead bodies for a second chance at life, usually go insane because A) the ghosts lose everything except for whatever they were obsessing with when they died (generally a loved one) as soon as they wake up and B) all the information they have (if any) is for someone else's life. Interestingly the two step-ins we meet weren't fixed by a smack to the head; one could only get help after he talked to the title ghost whisperer who only learned about all this an episode earlier, the other {{spoiler|had to have a near-death experience}}.

 

 

* The Nameless One in ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' has gone through this literally ''thousands'' of times, such is the nature of his existence -- he never ages, and every time he dies (which is surprisingly often), he comes back to life with no memories of his prior existences and with a completely new and random personality. However, the Paranoid Incarnation managed to seek out an expert who was able to diagnose his condition and develop a temporary remedy for it. Unfortunately for the Paranoid Incarnation, the remedy would only kick in three deaths later, long after the Paranoid Incarnation had himself "died"... so the Paranoid Incarnation [[Murder Is the Best Solution|reacted the way he always does]], and in your current incarnation there's no one left in the planes who knows anything about how your head works.

* In ''[[Escape from Monkey Island]]'', you have to bonk Herman Toothrot of on the head not once, but ''three'' times to unravel his convoluted amnesia. Not only that, but you have to track down the specific items he was hit by in the first place if you want to cure him.

** [[Fridge Logic|Whereas you get hit in the head with a club and are just fine.]]

** [[Hand Wave|Link is too]] [[Badass]] [[Hand Wave|for amnesia.]]

* In the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Cow Days", Cartman hits his head after being thrown from a bull, and believes himself to be a Vietnamese prostitute.

* One episode of ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' featured a trio of sirens hypnotizing Jack into thinking he was a waiter named Brent Worthington and spoke with a [[Keanu Reeves]] accent.

* Related to the above: An episode of ''[[DuckTales]]'' involved Uncle Scrooge coming down with [[Identity Amnesia]] after tripping over a skateboard and believing himself to be an unemployed blue-collar worker (even going so far as to lose his [[Just a Stupid Accent|accent]]); he goes on to get a low-paying job at his own factory and begins a crusade to improve working conditions.

* In an episode of ''[[A Pup Named Scooby Doo]]'', Shaggy loses his memory and believes that he's a fictional superhero, Commander Cool.

[[Category:Split Personality Tropes]]

[[Category:Identity Amnesia]]