Memory Gambit: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', {{spoiler|Shiori's Artifact certainly has some degree of [[Memory Gambit]] in it, while it's certainly possible that Asuna suffers from one which Ala Rubla installed}}.

* Law enforcement in ''[[Kaiba]]'' is [[Genre Savvy]] enough to realize this trope ''can'' be used, though it never actually is. An officer is suspicious of Vanilla because he's stopped [[Tanks for The Memories|backing up his memories]], noting that people have a tendency of doing this after they've experienced a life event that may cause them to seriously consider committing crimes.

* In ''Mirai Nikki'', something similar is done, but with the future instead of the past. {{spoiler|Yukiteru and Yuno are trying to break into a vault, but don't know the code to unlock it, and there isn't much time left. Yukiteru goes to apprehend someone who knows the code. He looks ahead an hour or so in his diary to find what the code is within seconds and without ever leaving the vault}}.

* In [[Bleach]], {{spoiler|Ginjo}} does this so he can manipulate Ichigo into doing his bidding without any risk of letting Ichigo know his true motives, and making leading Ichigo into a trap incredibly easy.

 

== Comic Books ==

* Recently in the X-men, a diary of future events was hidden, and the location then wiped from the memory of the person who hid it so that enemy telepaths would be unable to pry its location from an unsuspecting mind. Of course, a needlessly elaborate double-blind keyword system was established to restore the memories when required.

* In the first ''The Sentry'' miniseries from [[Marvel Comics]], the titular hero has suffered amnesia for years, AND nobody remembers he existed either. He sets out to find out who did this. It turned out it was {{spoiler|himself, since, for some reason, knowledge of his existence allowed a dark force known as The Void to exist. He ends up erasing his memories away again at the end}}.

** This was then retconned in the character's later appearances, to the point of becoming a [[Continuity Snarl]].

* In the Lucifer series, it seems that when Fenris has nothing else to destroy he must turn on himself. {{spoiler|So he fed his memories and potency to a number of other gods, and comes back to collect them after Creation starts falling apart.}}

 

 

* [[Artemis Fowl]] trades his memories about the Fairies' existence for their help in ''The Eternity Code'', but leaves himself plenty of triggers to bring them back. All but one of them are dummies, however, which he actually ''intends'' for Faeries to discover, because [[I Know You Know I Know|he knows they know]] he'd try to leave himself triggers. So after they find over a dozen of dummies, they are lulled to believe that that is it, and Artemis happily regains his memories in the next book, ''The Opal Deception'', using the only real trigger.

** Well, it was the only one he ''intended'' to work, but any of them would have been fine.

* In ''[[Dune|Children of Dune]]'', Ghanima Atreides hypnotizes herself to believe that her brother had been successfully assassinated.

* Zaphod Beeblebrox of ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' purposely fiddled with his own brain in order to keep {{spoiler|his involvement in a conspiracy to find and possibly replace the Ruler of the Universe}} from being telepathically uncovered. He never actually regains full awareness of his prior self, and is trying to get as far away as possible from his past plans; he keeps fulfilling them anyway due to subconscious commands and blind chance (which, thanks to the improbability drive on his ship, isn't really blind at all).

* In [[Forgotten Realms]] novel ''Extinction'' one funny creature thought constantly reading the mind of {{spoiler|[[Magnificent Bastard|Gromph Baenre]], the Archmage of Menzoberranzan}}, menacing him with a weapon and its own powers and keeping him ''slowed'' is enough to keep him under control, but it was dead wrong--and then just dead. He knew many critters and mages can read thoughts, so he keeps one more dirty trick up his sleeve just for this case, and even himself doesn't know which trick and which sleeve. High-status drow as well as high-level wizards tend to be both [[Properly Paranoid]] and [[Crazy Prepared]].

* Used in E.E. Smith's ''[[Lensman|Gray Lensman]]''. Kimball Kinnison has his friend Worsel impose false memories when Kinnison infiltrates Boskone headquarters Jarnevon toward the end of the story. It becomes crucial to remove a thought screen to let Worsel restore Kinnison to himself (Neuro Vault).

* In the [[Uglies]] series, Tally decides to become a "pretty" so she can test Maddy and Az's cure. IIRC, she writes a note before she does it and has Maddy and Az mail it to her after she becomes a pretty.

* ''Pandora's Star'' has a character who wipes his memory in an attempt to get away with murder. It doesn't work.

* In the new ''[[Doctor Who]]'', The Master, known in the old series for his frequent use of the [[Paper-Thin Disguise]] (even when disguising himself wasn't necessary) {{spoiler|makes a grand departure from his past habits and proves to have been hiding in the form of a human, with his memories and Time Lord nature stored in a device that looks like a pocket watch. Far from having a plan to restore his memories at just the right moment, he is an old man when the characters, not knowing who he is, accidentally make him curious enough about the watch to open it}}. What's worse than your old foe returning? Your old foe returning and having gotten [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] since last time around.

** The Doctor himself pulled the same memory gambit earlier in season three in the "Family of Blood" storyline.

** And the episode where they woke up 2 days after Rimmer's birthday with no memory of them, they tracked down the black box which told them why...

* In ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' Mr Bennet forces the Haitian to wipe his memories of sending Claire away for her safety so that no matter what the company does to torture him he'll never be able to reveal her whereabouts.

* ''[[Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy|Psi Ops the Mindgate Conspiracy]]''. At the very beginning you're taken captive by a mini army headed by various types of psychics, and another prisoner reveals to you that you've gone through the same training, and then had your memory wiped so that you could sneak in.

* In ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team|Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red/Blue Rescue Team]]'', {{spoiler|the main character agreed to both become a Pokémon and have his memory erased so that he can find out if he is worthy to save the world.}}

* This is the plot of ''[[Flashback]]: The Quest for Identity''. Until it's resolved immediately after the first level to make way for the actual plot -- Conrad had a good reason to do it, after all.

* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic|Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic]]'' one mission features your party to be caught and your ship confiscated and searched. One escape plan (there are several options, one for each party member except Carth, Bastila and the main PC) features [[Do-Anything Robot|T3M4]] getting a backup chip, so after the regular memory wipe, it can restore its memory and rescue the party. In the sequel, it is suggested that {{spoiler|Revan might have been running one of these [[Guile Hero|all]] [[Magnificent Bastard|along]], with the Jedi Council unwittingly playing directly into the plan.}}

* The protagonist loses his memory often in ''[[Planescape: Torment]]''. Because he has to ''die'' in order to do so (and the present incarnation is immune to it), neither he or any of his previous lives appear to have done so intentionally. One character does tell this story, though:

** A man suddenly finds himself sitting on a bench with no idea where he is or how he got there - in fact, he has no memory at all. There is an old crone sitting next to him. She says, "Well?" The man looks confused, and the old woman explains, "I gave you three wishes. Your second wish was to undo your first wish, and you still have one more. What will it be?" The man says, "I wish I knew who I was!" The crone laughs and says, "That's funny! That was your ''first'' wish!"

* A recent episode has ''[[The Simpsons|Homer Simpson]]'' of all people pulling one off, in an intentionally [[Xanatos Roulette|impossibly convoluted plan]] {{spoiler|to make his own surprise party a surprise by taking a drink called a "Forget Me Shot". It involves such things as planning exactly what he would do, when and what he would remember, how he was going to interpret it, and that he was going to commit suicide from it (so he told them to get a Moon Bounce and move the boat under the exact place on the bridge he went off)}}.

** Which sounds like a homage to the Michael Douglas movie ''The Game'', which did not involve amnesia at all.

* In ''[[Code Monkeys]]'' Dave uses this in {{spoiler|The Drunken Office Party episode he uses the fact that Jerry doesn't remember the night before to get him to take the blame for several things that Dave actually did himself and gets Jerry to give him the ticket to Hawaii he won because Dave promised to help him fix everything also Jerry feels bad for breaking Dave's arm, something else he didn't really do.}}

* [[Adventure Time|Finn]] did it in "The Real You" using some magical glasses that make him smarter. He makes a bulleted list of what will happen for the rest of the episode, and the last few things happen after Princess Bubblegum takes off the glasses (which he also predicted).