Laser-Guided Amnesia: Difference between revisions

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* In the 13th century ''[[The Saga of the Volsungs|Volsunga Saga]]'', the evil queen Grimhild serves an oblivion potion to the hero Sigurd that makes him forget his fiancé Brynhild, but nothing else.

* In Confessions of a D-list Supervillian Mechani-Cal used a device to help the world forget their addiction to the Defeated mind-control bugs. Later it is used on his new girlfriend and Superhero Aphrodite by her EX to forget her feelings for Mechani-Cal.

* [[A Certain Magical Index]]:

** Prior to the beginning of the series, the titular Index has her memory erased on a regular basis. This is because she has perfect memory, and her brain would be overloaded by memories otherwise. {{spoiler|This is actually a lie, as the memory wipes are to keep her under control.}}

** Touma stops the above example from needing to happen. However, he gets hit in the head by a spell meant to kill him. While he negates the spell with his [[Anti-Magic|right hand]], it still does enough damage that he loses all his memories instead.

** Misaki, the strongest telepath, is capable of doing this with a great deal of precision. In [[A Certain Scientific Railgun|the spinoff]], she removes all memories of a particular character (but not of anything else) from her friends' minds. {{spoiler|It is eventually revealed that she accidentally did this to Touma, prior to the incident involving Index. He was badly injured and she used her power as a substitute for anesthetic, but his abnormally low blood pressure caused this to have the side effect of retrograde and anterograde amnesia, specific to Misaki.}}

== Live-Action TV ==

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': "Tabula Rasa". After a memory spell goes wild, everyone gets amnesia and promptly forgets that they believe in vampires, including [[Mentor Archetype|monster guru Giles]]. Moreover Spike, a 19th-century vampire, starts acting like a 21st-century human.

** They not only forget that, they forget even their names and ~~identifies~~

** They not only forget that, they forget even their names and identities.

** Subverted in the episode "The Pack". Xander, under the influence of a hyena spirit, alienates his friends, devours a pig alive, and tries, ineffectually, to rape Buffy. Afterward, he claims selective amnesia, convincing his friends that he won't have any lasting trauma. When they've gone, however, Giles points out that none of his possession lore mentioned ''anything'' about amnesia. Turns out Xander's been fibbing.

** For a show whose protagonist has a [[Secret Identity]] and which involves a [[Masquerade]], ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' uses this trope admirably rarely. This may be because maintaining the pretense of normalcy through shaky excuses and the [[Weirdness Censor|willful delusion of Sunnydale residents]] is funnier.