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In short, a weaponized [[Idiot Ball]].
One of the most effective ways to deal with an enemy is to rob them of their greatest
This trope can take many forms. It can be temporary or permanent. It can be achieved through magic, surgery, or weaponised [[Phlebotinum-Induced Stupidity]]. It can have any number of degrees of severity, ranging from simply taking the edge off the victim's reasoning to full-on infantilisation or even reducing them to a drooling vegetable. Finally, depending on the work's tone, it can either be [[Played for Laughs]] or be a potent source of [[Nightmare Fuel]].
A
Contrast [[Idiot Ball]], [[Plot Induced Stupidity]], and [[Took a Level In Dumbass]], where it's the ''writer'' dumbing down their characters. Compare [[Phlebotinum-Induced Stupidity]], which is often unintentional and possibly either self-inflicted or the result of some environmental effect, as well as [[Brought Down to Normal]] or [[De-Power]], an event with a similar purpose used to strip away someone's physical or supernatural abilities.
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam
* During the fight with Pana of Giga's Six Cyber Knights in [[Bobobo-Bo
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* ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' once included a device called the 'Stupid Gun' designed to do this. [[Hilarity Ensues|Predictably, it fell into precisely the wrong hands]].
* One of the main subplots of ''Identity Crisis'' revealed that certain members of the Justice League frequently used Zatanna to mind wipe villains if they ever found out things like their secret identities (or in the main story's case, to prevent Dr. Light from trying to rape the Elongated Man's wife again).
* One [[Super Mario Bros
* In ''[[Fall of the Hulks]]'', the Intelligencia does it on two different levels: with a "neural anesthetizer" of their invention, they dumb down and imprison the smartest of their enemies - [[Fantastic Four|Reed Richards]], [[The Avengers|Hank Pym]], [[Black Panther|T'Challa]], [[Incredible Hulk|BruceBanner]] and {{spoiler|[[Doctor Doom]]}} - effectively lobotomizing opposition.
== Film ==
* A medical lobotomy is used for this purpose in ''[[One Flew Over the
* Likewise, the impending use of a lobotomy to achieve this end hangs over Baby Doll's head throughout most of ''[[Sucker Punch]]''. The original purpose is to make it impossible for her to give testimony about her stepfather's crimes, though, rather than to make her stop causing trouble in the institution.
* In ''
{{quote|
* When [[Megamind]] visits the monument to Metro Man, he reminisces about old times and brings up an "Illiteracy Ray", a rather specific variant on this trope.
* In ''[[Super Mario Bros. (
== Literature ==
* [[The Messiah|John Coffey]] does this to Percy Wetmore in ''[[The Green Mile]]'', not through evil intentions but to remove the threat to his friends, resulting in the guard ending up in an insane asylum. It says a lot that Coffey only does this to people he considers to be pure evil.
* Used in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' {{spoiler|by Lara Raith on [[Abusive Parents|her father]], turning him into little more than a weak-willed puppet for her to control [[The Man Behind the Man|from behind the throne]]}}. To be fair, though, the victim in that case ''[[Kick the Son of
** Also, whilst all cases so far of it doing this are accidental, [[Mind Control|mind magic]] has considerable potential to be used in this way. This is because (a) mind mages tend to [[The Dark Side|rapidly devolve into insane, amoral monsters]] with little regard for the people they control, and (b) mind magic inflicts ''permanent brain damage'' on its victims. Even when {{spoiler|Molly}} first uses it with the best of intentions, the fact that she has baggage with the person she uses it on leads to deeply ingrained paranoid delusions that could end up being permanent.
* In ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', several characters have realized that warping the World of Dreams to make their opponents stupid can be a disturbingly effective attack. When {{spoiler|Mesaana}} attempted to use this against {{spoiler|Egwene}}, her defense was so strong that it broke {{spoiler|the Forsaken's}} mind, reducing her to an infantile mental state.
* Used as a main plot point of an entire arc in ''[[Perry Rhodan]]'', when extragalactic invaders did this to the ''entire Milky Way Galaxy''. Some rare few people were immune (including most of the protagonists), but civilization basically broke down right then and there because those few were usually too busy trying to keep all the morons in check and from accidentally killing themselves and each other to keep things running on the necessary scale, let alone go after the actual threat; the need to figure out what was going on and find a countermeasure drove much of the early plot. (The scale of the event was later [[Justified Trope|justified]] in that the so-called 'Cosmic Swarms' were revealed to have been created by [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] with the intent to help spread ''intelligence'' on a cosmic scale. This particular one had simply been hijacked by ambitious underlings who decided to [[Reverse the Polarity]]...)
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons
** Basic D&D Immortals could perform Ability Score attacks against an opponent's Intelligence.
** The Yellow Musk Creeper reduces the Intelligence of its victims.
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*** Ego Whip could cause idiocy when used against a defenseless psionic.
*** Psionic Blast could cause a Feeblemind effect on a non-psionic creature.
* ''[[Magic:
** And more generally, this is the general idea behind the alternate win condition of "milling." When you have no more cards in your deck, you lose. This path to victory is represented by such wonderful spells as [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Mind Funeral]].
* ''[[Champions]]''. The Drain power (and in older editions, Destruction and Transfer) can be used to lower another character's Intelligence, either temporarily or for a considerable time.
* In ''[[Mutant UA]]'', this exists as a psionic power known as "Parasit" (would be "Parasite" in English). The character increases one of his own attributes by stealing it from someone else, and Intelligence can be the chosen attribute.
* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]]'' 1st edition had the 1st level Battle Magic spell [[Exactly What It Says
* In ''[[Black Crusade]]'', this trope is one of the possible effects for a Daemon Weapon. The weapon is described as having some incorporeal parts, and the attacks go right through a target. Then they become too stupid to breathe.
* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy]]'' has a special rule called 'Stupidity' which causes you to have to take an LD test or just wander forward. Several armies have magic weapons (such as the Wood Elf 'Dragontooth Arrows') or abilities that cause a wounded model to be subject to the special rule, playing this trope literally. On the other hand, since it's on a model-by-model basis, and most models only have 1 wound, it's usually a wasted effort, but hey.
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls III
* ''[[Nethack]]'''s Mind Flayers have an attack that reduces intelligence.
* In ''[[Shin Megami Tensei
* 4X game [[Ascendancy]] includes the Intellect Scrambler, which temporarily erases the memories of the crew of the affected ship. The in-game description claims that it can "turn an experienced crew into a bunch of bumbling rookies".
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Zak McKracken and
== Web Comics ==
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* ''[[Eerie Cuties]]'' had an epidemic of bimbofication thanks to a powerful artefact falling into the hands of a ''very'' perverted possessed doll.
* Likewise, a poorly timed "wish" in ''[[The Wotch]]'' made all non-blonde girl bimbos.
* ''[[8-Bit Theater
** Fighter himself can be said to be a
* In a ''[[Narbonic]]'' non-canon [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic/series.php?view=archive&chapter=10098 sunday strip] (actually a dream of one of the readers, that the author decided to illustrate) an enemy hits Dave with an Intelligence Extractor Ray to incapacitate him. Instead, dumb!Dave {{spoiler|reveals "a ''[[Forrest Gump]]''-like ability to observe things and turn up at the right place at the right time"}} and saves the day.
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== Western Animation ==
* [[Jimmy Neutron]] uses this on himself as the entire basis of one episode, when he decides to be less of a genius.
** In the third ''[[Fairly Oddparents]]'' [[Crossover]] the enemy gets the edge by robbing Jimmy of his genius intelligence (and Timmy of his fairies). He wasn't as stupid as in the above example, but aside from his lack of scientific know-how he also acted much [[The Ditz|ditzier]] than usual, forgetting common words and such.
* In ''[[Futurama]]'', an invading alien race of brains can sap intelligence away by their presence, which makes it easier to assimilate knowledge and destroy planets. It doesn't work on Fry, however, because he has an unusual brain quirk (which, implicitly, explains his [[Idiot Hero|general lack of intelligence]]).
* In one ''[[Kim Possible]]'' episode, Drakken uses "Silly Hats" to avenge himself on the members of the Cerebellum Ultra-Smart Super Genius Thinking Society for [[Revenge SVP|not letting him join]].
* Appears twice in ''[[The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]''. In ''Grounder the Genius'', Hacker creates a "Stupid Chip" as a decoy for the one with the Super Genius Program he stole from Robotnik. When Robotnik thinks he's recovered the Genius Chip, he ends up using the Stupid Chip on himself, with predictable results. Another episode had Robotnik inventing a Stupid Ray, which became the episode's [[MacGuffin]]: a crazed general thinks he can use it to make an army of brainwashed soldiers, and [[Honest John's Dealership|sleazy salesman Wes Weasley]] figures it will make it easier to sell people his worthless junk.
* In the ''[[Invader Zim]]'' episode "[[Nano ZIM]]", Zim attempts to use this on Dib by shrinking to microscopic size and destroying his intellect from within. "I'll just go to your brain and delete the knowlege of where you hid the master disk! And, as an added bonus, I might as well make your entire brain... [[Buffy-Speak|nn-not smart... no more]]."
** In "Plague of Babies" Zim does this ''successfully''
* ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'' had Goof Gas in one arc. "One poof, you're a goof!" as Boris puts it.
** [[The Ditz|Doesn't work on Bullwinkle, though.]]
{{quote|
* In the ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]'' cartoon series, Jumbaa reveals that one of his earlier experiments had quills that contained a venom which reduces anybody's intelligence to 1% of it's original functionality.
* [[
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Mind Manipulation]]▼
[[Category:Contrived Stupidity Tropes]]
[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]
[[Category:Stupidity
▲[[Category:Mind Manipulation Tropes]]
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