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Memory Gambit (view source)

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{{trope}}
[[File:Schlockmemories-sm_8496.png|link=Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|right]]
 
A scheme involving allowing your own memories to be [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|erased]] or [[Fake Memories|altered]] in order to fool others or even yourself, with a trigger set up to [[Easy Amnesia|restore them]]. This can be used to trick the enemy into believing you're on their side, because [[Manchurian Agent|even YOU think you are]]. Also an effective technique against overconfident mind-readers. If a [[Magnificent Bastard]] or [[The Chessmaster|Chessmaster]] has the power to manipulate memories, he will almost certainly attempt one of these. This can very easily turn into a [[Xanatos Roulette]], especially if the trigger is set to restore the memories at exactly the right moment (see [[Neuro Vault]]).
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Compare [[Faking Amnesia]], when a character only pretends to lose their memories in order to throw off others.
 
See also [[Kansas City Shuffle]]. May be paired with a [[Psychic Block Defense]]. [[Transferable Memory]] may be used to this end. Can be used by a [[Chessmaster]] to ensure that a [[Amnesiac Liar|lie told before the Memory Gambit is more convincing]]. May lead to a [[Tomato in Thethe Mirror]].
 
{{examples}}
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== Anime & Manga ==
* In ''[[Devilman]]'', it turns out that {{spoiler|Ryo Asuka}} is in fact the avatar of {{spoiler|Satan}}, who had his memories suppressed and turned into a human in order to infiltrate mankind and learn their weaknesses. This goes to plan, except that {{spoiler|Ryo/Satan}} falls in love with {{spoiler|Akira/Devilman}}, who until then were allies against the demons.
* Light Yagami in ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' exploits the rule that anyone who relinquishes the ownership of a Death Note also loses all memory of owning it unless the person later touches the same Death Note to allay suspicion, even counting on his amnesiac self to genuinely join the side of good in tracking down the new owner of the Death Note as part of a massive [[Xanatos Roulette]]. This leads to [[Memetic Mutation|the popular phrase]] "Just as planned," '''eight episodes''' after putting his plan in motion.
* The [[Magnificent Bastard]] Lelouch Lamperouge in ''[[Code Geass]]'' uses his mind-controlling power on himself to forget his real plan in order to {{spoiler|save his kidnapped sister Nunnally from the [[Psychic Powers|mind-reading]] Mao}}. He goes as far as allowing himself and the audience to think {{spoiler|his sister is dead}} (mainly to satisfy his [[Chewing the Scenery|scenery-chewing]] impulses) before his forgotten plan springs into action.
* In ''[[Naruto]]'', it turns out that {{spoiler|[[The Dragon]] Kabuto was originally a servant of the late Akatsuki member Sasori, and had a memory block placed on him in order to spy on his former partner Orochimaru}}. Subverted in that it was found out earlier, and the block was removed, and {{spoiler|Kabuto decided to switch loyalties to Orochimaru}}.
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== Fan Fiction ==
* {{spoiler|Haruhi}} pulls this off on themselves in ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero (Fanfic)|Kyon Big Damn Hero]]''. {{spoiler|She also altered her thought processes slightly, changed how her powers work and still left room to give herself [[Mind Over Matter|some power to play freely]].}}
* In ''[[Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality (Fanfic)|Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality]]'' obliviation is commonly and effectively used against [[Truth Serums|Veritaserum]].
* Little-Pip uses one against the Goddess in [[Fallout Equestria]]
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* ''[[Paycheck]]'' is an example of the [[Note to Self:]] variant: the protagonist knew his memory would be wiped at the end of his current job, and built a plan to lead himself to the needed information after the wipe.
** With the added help (in the story it's based on at least) of a machine that can see the future and even pluck small objects back into the past.
* ''[[Men in Black (Filmfilm)|Men in Black]] II:'' Kay can't remember where he stashed away the [[MacGuffin]], and reasons that he must have neuralized himself to avoid disclosing its location, after placing clues that would lead him (and only him) to it.
** Kay had to restore his memories twice in the film. In the original ''[[Men in Black (Filmfilm)|Men in Black]]'', Kay is neuralized at the end of the film so he could resign. He was dragged back into the organization by Jay and had his memory restored within the first half of the film. But because his memory of where he had hidden the [[MacGuffin]] had been neuralized away long before the final neuralizing at the end of MIB I, they weren't there to be recovered by the deneuralizer.
* An unwilling example is Leonard Shelby in the film ''[[Memento (Film)|Memento]]'', who suffers from anterograde amnesia after a burglar attack, preventing him from forming new memories after the attack. Through conditioning and a system of messages, he guides himself along a path of revenge to kill the man he believes killed his wife in the attack. He also occasionally manipulates himself in other ways, such as hiring a prostitute to help relive the night of his wife's murder.
** Note that in the last scene {{spoiler|he deliberately sets himself up to kill Teddy}}.
* Warning: Just knowing this movie's name in this context is a spoiler. It's the entire plot of the movie {{spoiler|''Cypher''}} from the maker of ''[[Cube]]''
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* In ''[[Push]]'', the only way to evade Watchers is to get your memory wiped, since they track you by your intentions. Kira evaded them this way in the beginning. In the climax Nick plans another one by writing on letters, giving them to the secondary characters, and tells them not to open the letters until a certain time. He them gets his memories of those letters erased, so that way nobody really knows what they're doing. It was pretty impressive until the [[No Ending|credits roll just as it starts getting good,]] and the entire gambit was to get a [[Super Serum]] that Nick flat out says he has no idea what to do with.
** There are rumours that a live-action TV show is in the works.
* The Arnold Schwarzenegger film ''[[The Sixth6th Day]]'' has an interesting variation on this. The villains have the ability to scan the memory of a living or recently-deceased person, and thereby see what that person has seen. In order to get around this problem, {{spoiler|Schwarzenegger's character and Schwarzenegger's character's clone (also played by Schwarzenegger, naturally) concoct a plot together in which real-Arnold carefully ''avoids'' falling into the field of vision of clone-Arnold. That way, clone-Arnold can run into the evil laboratory as a distraction, disarming the security cameras along the way, but when he falls into the clutches of the villains, their scan of his recent memory does not reveal that real-Arnold is waiting just outside, planning to enter unseen thanks to the disabled security cameras.}} The villains eventually ''do'' figure out what is going on, but it buys the hero enough time to accomplish his main objectives. It's all a little tough to follow in writing, but it is fairly cleverly done in the film.
 
 
== Literature ==
* A minor but still valid example in '[[Harry Potter]] and the Order of the Phoenix' is Snape bottling key memories in the pensieve to keep Harry from seeing them during Occlumency lessons, though this backfires. And though Dumbledore claims to use the pensieve to organize his thoughts and free up space in his head, he may have been misdirecting, with hiding dangerous memories being a greater motivation.
* [[Artemis Fowl (Literature)|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.
*** During the pre-mindwipe interrogation, Artemis nervously thought to himself that 'his lifelines to the past were being cut one by one' as the faeries uncover each of Artemis' fake leads. This implies that Artemis wasn't putting all his eggs in one basket with the 'real' trigger (which, considering the character that held that trigger, may make sense.)
* In ''[[Dune|Children of Dune]]'', Ghanima Atreides hypnotizes herself to believe that her brother had been successfully assassinated.
* Zaphod Beeblebrox of ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe 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).
{{quote| "It's not what you've done they're worried about," said Roosta, "it's what you're going to do."<br />
"Well don't I get a say in that?"<br />
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* In the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] [[Virgin New Adventures]] novel ''Set Piece'', the Doctor wipes his mind of his plan to stop the [[Big Bad]], so that the [[Big Bad]] can't work it out. Unfortunately, he also has to wipe his mind of the trigger to restore his memory.
{{quote| '''Ace''': You've finally done it. You've even bamboozled yourself.}}
* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''Forgotten Causes'', [[Meaningful Name|Marshall Lamech]] finds he's done this to himself in order to judge a situation without prior prejudices. He then spends the rest of the story bumbling from one frying pan to another, and cussing himself out for being too clever by half.
* In ''[[The Inheritance Cycle|Inheritance]]'', all who visit the Vault of Souls have their memories wiped to protect what's in it. There is a spell in place to restore all of the memories when (and if) {{spoiler|Galbatorix is defeated}}.
* Inverted in ''[[X Wing Series|Solo Command]]''. [[I Have Many Names|Kirney Slane]] is about to [[Reverse Mole|infiltrate a hated enemy, pretending to work for them]]. She brings along her astromech droid Tonin, but she knows the droid's memory will be scanned when she arrives at her destination. To get around this, she makes a side trip to an abandoned hideout, backs up the memory and personality of Tonin in an isolated memory core, then wipes the droid's primary memory. At the first opportunity, she activates Tonin's backup memory with a [[Trigger Phrase]]. She immediately apologizes for the treatment; Tonin doesn't seem to mind too much.
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* 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.
* In the ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' episode "Back To Reality" parodies this when it is revealed that Rimmer was actually a hand-picked special agent for the Space Corps who had his memory erased and was programmed to behave like a complete twonk so [[Obfuscating Stupidity|no one would suspect]] he was on a mission to destroy Red Dwarf in order to guide Lister to his destiny as the creator of the second universe, but had never noticed the trigger. Except that {{spoiler|this was all part of a group hallucination}}.
** 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.
* The first half of season 3 of ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'' centers around the show's main character, Sydney Bristow, having lost two years' worth of memory (the season 2 cliffhanger had her wake up in Hong Kong two years after the events shown prior to that, with no memory to what had happened in the intervening time). Turns out she {{spoiler|had her own memory erased after engaging in some super-complicated undercover operation to make sure the bad guys don't find out where she hid some important artifact. Too bad the bad guys find the artifact anyway, and eventually she is informed about the events of those two years, just so she knows what the bad guys are actually up to.}}
* In "The Spy", one of the weaker episodes of ''[[Mission Impossible (TV series)|Mission Impossible]]'', Jim Phelps has himself hypnotised to forget his actions immediately after he's done them until a specific cue is given, allowing himself to be captured by the enemy without risk of divulging the I.M. Force's plan.
* An episode of ''[[Buck Rogers]]'' had Buck put on trial for causing [[World War III]]. In fact, he had allowed himself to be brainwashed in order to infiltrate a conspiracy in an unsuccessful attempt to ''prevent'' World War III.
* A variant occurs in an episode of ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]'' titled "Clues". The crew discover that their memories have been altered and that Data, whose memories are intact, has been lying to them. {{spoiler|They eventually discover that they ''consented'' to the memory erasure, because the inhabitants of a newly explored planet don't want anyone to know of their existence. They weren't supposed to have figured it out, but they do anyway; at the end of the episode, they decide to try again, and it works.}}
* An episode of ''[[Legend of the Seeker]]'' had a spy of the [[Big Bad]] kill a bunch of rebels and use a magical orb to plant false memories of the murders into the minds of others, including the hero. This was mostly done to fool the suspects into falsely admitting their guilt during Confession. One even ends up being executed for a murder.
* Helen Magnus of ''[[Sanctuary]]'' pulls one off. Even when it's revealed the solution seems very [[Applied Phlebotinum|Applied Phlebotinumish]].
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** {{spoiler|The MGS Database reveals it WAS Liquid in 2, But Ocelot got the arm removed so he could continue acting like Liquid so he could enact his plan without risk of Liquid taking over again.}}
** The player even has to pull this in order to fight an enemy in the first game.
* ''[[Psi -Ops: theThe Mindgate Conspiracy (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)|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.}}
* The entire population of Lostime in ''[[Chocobos Dungeon]]'' has their memories sealed {{spoiler|to prevent the [[Big Bad]] from returning}}.
* This is the plot of ''[[Flashback (Video Game)|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.}}
* ''[[Wing Commander (Videovideo Gamegame)|Wing Commander]] III'' revealed that {{spoiler|Hobbes' defection to the Confederation}} was a [[Memory Gambit]]. (The hologram explaining that was removed from the PC version, but remained in a console version and the novelization.)
* 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!"
* {{spoiler|Nene}} pulls a rather complex one in ''[[Blue Dragon Plus]]''. He creates a [[Morality Pet]] for himself, with memories of him dating years back, then gives himself memories of her, then erases his memories of fabricating her or the memories, all to ingratiate himself with the heroes. He also set things so that the memories would return at a certain location, effectively turning himself into a [[Manchurian Agent]].
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* 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.
* An entire episode of the ''[[Legion of Super -Heroes (TV series)|Legion of Super Heroes]]'' uses this, with people pretending to be people when they don't know they're that person.
* 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 (Animation)|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).
** This was more of an aversion though. There really was no gambit in the sense of risks and the memory was based on probability rather than remembering the past. The memory pretty much came in more as a trope breaker to the usual gambit. In fact, Finn did not need to know about the bulleted list and by making that list, increased the risk of the gambit failing. It was more for the audience to get a sense of how smart Finn had become. (The things shown by the glasses were galaxy breaking with the space zooming in Finn's head where as the smart Finn was not so smart until this.) One simple way to look at this without actually seeing the episode is to imagine the amnesiac being the one that set up the memory gambit thus making this less of a gambit and more of "I need to become Batman to save the day" but then Batman figures out that he needs to quit being Batman and go back to being Bruce Wayne to save the day thanks specifically to the gambit - be it memory related, Xanatos, Uriah...thus truly averting both the memory part and the gambit part.
 
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