Brainwashed: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"My sole purpose in life is to bring pleasure to my companions!"''|'''Derek Flint''', ''[[Our Man Flint]]''}}

The most fun, ''delayed'' variety of brainwashing is the innocuous [[Manchurian Agent]]. If they are attacking people, it's a case of [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]. And look out for that one character in a million who's [[Not Brainwashed]]. Or in truly horrific settings, keep an eye on the ones [[Conditioned to Accept Horror]]. Compare with "[[Body Snatcher|Body Snatching]]". Occasionally done via [[TV Never Lies|television]]. May require [[Deprogram|deprograming]] to cure (see also [[Meat Puppet]]).

 

 

Often the brainwashing victim will come to his/her senses and resist, necessitating the villain pour on the mind control mojo. Sometimes they will perform the hated task, but weep openly as they do so. This is [[Truth in Television|not far off]], as hypnosis cannot force someone to do something they instrinsically believe wrong. Occasionally even when the character does overcome it they [[Brainwash Residue|don't clean off all symptoms]], and all [[Cartesian Karma|isn't instantly right with the world]] because of it. Can be the cause of a [[Face Monster Turn]].

* ''[[Code Geass]],'' also known as Mind Control: The Animated Series.

** Of course it is. It's the main character's power and (kinda) the premise of the whole show.

* In ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] StrikerS'', {{spoiler|[[Hollywood Cyborg|Ginga Nakajima]] is brainwashed by Jail Scaglietti. Subaru eventually snaps her out of it by hitting her with a [[Wave Motion Gun]] at point blank.}}

** In the Virtual World Arc, Noah brainwashes Mokuba into believing that Noah is his only brother and that he hates Seto.

* In ''Pokemon3'', Ash's mother is brainwashed by Entei into believing that she is the mother of Molly. {{spoiler|She breaks out of the spell, however, when she sees Ash on TV.}}

** One episode had Team Rocket's more competent rivals, Butch and Cassidy, use a Drowzee hooked up to a machine to brainwash all the Pokémon on Mandarin Island into disobeying their masters and obeying only them, with some examples being Ash's Pikachu and Misty's Togepi. Only Officer Jenny's Gastly, whose nature as a ghost-type negates the power of any psychic-type Pokémon, is immune. Ash later managed to trick Pikachu into '''destorying the machine.'''

== Fan Fic ==

* {{spoiler|Kaminic}} in ''[[Fuck the Jesus Beam (Fanfic)|Fuck the Jesus Beam]]''.

** At different times, John and Paul get zapped by the mind-controlling pink sword Brox's Kiss (which is also used to collect a bunch of male warriors in a loony effort to build up an army to invade Ketafa). John doesn't get released until the wielder loses the sword, but Paul {{spoiler|somehow shakes off the effects after a short time, though he pretends to remain mind-controlled so he can screw up the baddies' plans.}}

** In [[Real Life]], George's last album was titled this.

** [[Mass Hypnosis|Nearly]] ''[[Mass Hypnosis|everyone]]'' [[Mass Hypnosis|even lightly associated with Calvin]] in "The Alien Huntress".

** Calvin himself in "The Five Calvins".

* ''Volunteers'' has John Candy's character get brainwashed in the middle.

** It happened to him in ''Going Berserk'' as well.

* As indicated by the page quote, one of the crimes that the Galaxy organization commits in the spy-spoof ''[[Our Man Flint]]'' is turning women into brainwashed "Pleasure Units".

* ''[[The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra]]'' (2004). The evil Skeleton, and [[Human Aliens]] Kro-Bar and Lattis, both try to mind-control housewife Betty at the same time.

'''Kro-Bar:''' Bring the meteor to Kro-Bar and Lattis.<br />

'''Betty:''' I must make a skeleton meteor using a crowbar covered in lettuce... }}

* Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School: Done by the villainess, Repulsa The Witch of The Web, who uses mind-control web headphones to control the female monsters into doing her bidding until she makes them evil permanently at midnight.

* In ''[[Sleeper]]'', Woody Allen's character is captured by the [[Big Brother]] government and reprogrammed into an obedient citizen - we see an electronic mind-control experiment where he's made to behave like a contestant in the Miss America pageant.

 

* In the ''[[The Silence of the Lambs|Hannibal]]'' novel, Lecter {{spoiler|brainwashes Clarice Starling with drugs and hypnosis to turn her into a surrogate of his dead sister Misha. While that doesn't quite happen, it does aid Clarice in getting rid of her father issues and inhibitions about Hannibal, whom she seduces.}} This wasn't carried over to the movie adaptation.

* ''Into The Thinking Kingdoms'', part of the ''Journey of the Catechist'' series has a kingdom with thought-reading birds, allowing people to find people thinking wrong, and brainwash them. It is implied that they have done this successfully to most of the kingdom, although it all comes crashing down when they try it on the main characters.

* ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' has Compulsion.

** And [[Cold-Blooded Torture|Semirhage]]. Compulsion can be unwoven, though in extreme cases there may be nothing left of the original person. Semirhage's work, done with conventional methods, is all but impossible to undo.

* [[John Christopher]]'s ''[[The Tripods]]'': A series taking place in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has been conquered and enslaved by the Masters, alien entities who use televised mass hypnosis on the human population when they began the turn the tide of battle on their invasion. To make sure the process was permanent, humans at the age of 14 are forced to wear Caps permanently affixed to the skull, removing the victim's creativity and curiosity while regarding the Masters as their saviors. Some "Cappings" can go wrong, however, when a mind is too weak or too strong and eventually collapses under the strain, creating Vagrants who wander from town to town spouting nonsense.

* Cassie, in the ''Flux & Anchor'' series by [[Jack Chalker]]. After having magically compelled herself to become the champion of Mother Church on World, her bond eventually falls apart and she is captured by the male-dominated society of New Eden, who use traditional brainwashing methods to turn her into a compliant female. Their task is made easier by the fact that {{spoiler|she's [[Despair Event Horizon|tired of being a responsible leader]] and is going through the low point of a [[Mood Swinger|manic-depressive swing]] that makes her want to turn authority over her life over to someone else. By the end of her brainwashing, she's willing to marry New Eden's leader and bind herself with a spell that makes her a sex-obsessed, physically exaggerated, [[Brainless Beauty|airheaded]] [[Made a Slave|Fluxgirl]].}}

* The 3-D [[Hypno Ray|Hypno Ring]] in the ''[[Captain Underpants]]'' books.

* In the [[Dungeons and Dragons]] 4th edition version of ''Draconomicon'', there's a sample mini-adventure in which a green dragon has pulled this on a handful of hapless Eladrin. Yes, even with their boosted Will defense.

* In ''[[Paranoia]]'', "brainscrubbing" is one of the routine ways of dealing with traitors, depending on severity (it's just above "adjust his meds" and just below "terminate him and activate his next backup clone").

* In ''Candor'' by Pam Bachorz, the [[Stepford Suburbia]] town of Candor brainwashes its citizens through subliminal messages hidden in the music playing throughout the city. If people try to leave, they often go crazy. Oscar, the son of the town's founder, starts a business where he helps teenagers escape before the brainwashing completely takes hold of them. He himself manages not to be brainwashed by listening to his own subliminal messages.

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', "Divide and Conquer" and "Beneath the Surface"

** Technically, the way they defeat the Ori's followers in "Ark of Truth" is brainwashing, even if they are being made to believe the truth.

*** And of course, [[Kick the Dog|they betray their brainwashed villain]].

**** [[Moral Event Horizon|Several times]].

*** [[What the Hell, Hero?|Which bites them in the ass]].

** The Wraith also have the power of suggestion, not showcased much.

* ''[[Dark Angel]]'' Manticore loved to do this by pumping drugs into X-5's then blasting them in the eye with a laser for hours on end. Leaving them not even knowing what they revealed while drugged.

* In ''[[V]]'', the Visitors have a brainwashing method called conversion, but humans are so resistant to it that it is only considered worth the bother for a few vital individuals.

{{quote| "I am the Master, and ''you will obey me''."}}

* In a series 2 episode of ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]'', "The Call of the Yeti," the main characters narrowly escape being brainwashed and raped by yeti.

* The vampires in ''[[True Blood]]'' have an ability to "glamour" people into doing things they would not ordinarily do.

* ''[[Dollhouse]]''. The whole reason it exists.

* Cally from ''[[Blake's Seven|Blakes Seven]]'' gets taken over by various alien entities so often that it sometimes seems to be her only role on the show.

* ''[[Earth: Final Conflict]]'' the CVI's motivational imperative.

== Tabletop Games ==

* In the [[Dungeons and Dragons]] 4th edition version of ''Draconomicon'', there's a sample mini-adventure in which a green dragon has pulled this on a handful of hapless Eladrin. Yes, even with their boosted Will defense.

* In ''[[Paranoia]]'', "brainscrubbing" is one of the routine ways of dealing with traitors, depending on severity (it's just above "adjust his meds" and just below "terminate him and activate his next backup clone").

 

 

== Video Games ==

* In the old Safari Software game, ''[[Traffic Department 2192]]'', the foul-mouthed, gung-ho [[Action Girl]] protagonist, Lt. Velasquez, is kidnapped by her hated foe, the Vulture Cult Army, and brainwashed into serving them. Not only does she perform outstandingly in the field, she's also a lot more disciplined than the [[Cowboy Cop|loose cannon]] she seemed to be when she was still with the good guys. Naturally, she eventually overcomes the brainwashing and returns to the TD... where her boss is less disturbed by her being brainwashed, and more worried by the fact that she's even-tempered, obedient, and disciplined...

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' features "Mind Control" as a standard Priest spell, allowing control of opposing characters and some monsters for a short period of time. [[Mind Control]] and [[More Than Mind Control]] scenarios also feature prominently in the canon.

** What makes it really frightening is that it's ''permanent''. It destroys a person's free will. Even if {{spoiler|the Reaper}} stops giving orders through the indoctrination, [[Fate Worse Than Death|the person affected will just be a mindless husk]], [[And I Must Scream|unable to do anything on their own]].

* The ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' games uses this exceptionally liberally; If a particular protagonist is one of their original creations, the odds are fairly high that they've been brainwashed at least once, in at least one of the many different timelines. One [[Big Bad]] of a faction even makes it part of their standard operating procedure. Okay. More than one...(One faction's plot is to Brainwash/Clone the ENTIRE CAST!)

** {{spoiler|It is reveled that the people of Tazmily village are the last of the human race who after the previous world was destroyed by a people created Armageddon fled to the Nowhere Islands for a new start. To do so they abandoned most technology and willing brainwashed themselves to stop another Armageddon from happening again (with the exception of Leder who uses his bell to keep the memories suppressed and to explain the story if the need arises).}}

* This becomes one of the Overlord's powers in [[Overlord]], in which using it on civilians will cause them to flock to the Overlord and either attack the nearest enemy when in battle or just help create resources if in a town.

* At one point, the player has to keep this from happening in ''[[The Art of Theft]]''.

* Temporarily happens to anything hit by the Ordos Deviator in ''[[Dune II]]''.

* [[Newshounds]] has {{spoiler|[http://newshounds.keenspot.com/d/20110128.html Wolfram so brainwashed that he doesn't even recognize his own wife].}}

* Apparently the main method of recruitment for the Joy group of ''[[A Path to Greater Good]]''.

 

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** A [[My Little Panzer|brainwashing toy]] called the Boyfriend Helmet appears twice. [[Double Standard|Oddly]], when Lizzie uses it on Nigel, he just tells her, "Don't ever use one of those things on me again, Lizzie!" and continues to date her for six seasons, but when [[Student Council President|Jimmy]] (who apparently [[Affectionate Parody|thinks he's Darth Vader]]) later uses it on Lizzie, he's thrown in KND prison. [[Double Standard|Fair?]]

*** Quite, as Jimmy was trying to make the entire school attend an assembly to watch him be crowned King of something (haven't watched the episode in forever) and make Lizzie his queen, even making his female assistant contact her uncle, The Common Cold, to give Nigel a case of the illness so he'd be out of commission while Jimmy executed his plan. All Lizzie wanted was a more available boyfriend (since she had felt left out when Nigel went on more and more missions). (To anyone who cares, Jimmy's female assistant was crushing on him something major, something he doesn't realize until he's hauled off to whatever form of prison the KND used and she confesses.)

* Not quite the same, but many devices in the ''[[Transformers]]'' multiverse are able to temporarily "overwrite" the personality and faction programming of one side with that of the other.

** The behavior of the [[Stepford Smiler|Joo Dee]] was somewhat indicative.

* [[Kim Possible]] falls victim to it at least three times and it's used at least a few more.

{{quote| "Didn't you ever see ''The Manchurian Candidate''? Even the remake with [[Denzel Washington|Denzel]]?"}}

* ''[[Space Ghost]]'' episode "The Sandman". Jan and Jace are subjected to the title [[Villain]]'s mind control device.

* ''[[Totally Spies]]'' LOVES this trope, especially for Sam as a running gag in the series. In fact, this was done not only to them, but their families and friends as well (Tim Scam brainwashing their mothers to kill them, a disgruntled child mind controlling all the children in the world including one of the girl's younger siblings, Jerry's being turned evil by his evil brother, the previous trio of female spies, the list goes on).

* ''[[Martin Mystery]]'' is also rather fond of using monsters or alien invaders brainwashing innocent human victims or some of the cast to be their slaves. Unsurprising as it is produced by the same TV production company as Totally Spies.

* ''[[Bratz]]'': The snobby antagonist Burdine uses a hypnosis tool called the Hypnozapper she brought over the internet to force Sasha and Jade into sabotaging the Bratz on the night they're set to receive the "Teen Choice Award." Meanwhile the Tweevil twins try to hypnotize Cameron and Dylan so they will fall in love with them.

* ''[[Jonny Quest]]'' TOS episode "Pirates from Below". Hadji hypnotizes a guard by tricking him into watching a flashing ruby and using the usual hypnotist's patter.

** Turns out Darkseid got hold of him and gave him to Granny Goodness, whose specialty is brainwashing, so that he thinks he's Darkseid's son, Kal-El of Apokolips, happily conquering star systems for his father. Darkseid likes the irony, the military advantage, and apparently having a son he can be proud of. (Kalibak is not happy.)

*** Oddly, given the setting, Granny's brainwashing didn't make him [[Card-Carrying Villain|actively evil]], it just made him believe in Darkseid and his empire and not think too hard. Darkseid even assigned four of his elite troops to be Kal's 'buddies,' who he's 'known all his life' and jokes around with. They actually hate him. They fake it pretty well. And he's polite, and reacts to his regular sessions in Granny's chair like a very good boy being sent to the dentist. He's still basically the same guy. [[Uncanny Valley|This makes it creepier.]]

** Darkseid gets addicted to irony and [[Too Dumb to Live|sends him to conquer Earth]]. Lois breaks him out with the [[Power of Love]] before he and his army do too much real damage, but his reputation is wrecked and there are still repercussions years later on [[Justice League]].