History Main / AmnesiacDissonance

* Averted in ''KamenRiderKiva''. Wataru and Shizuka befriend a large, cheerful man who DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength, nicknaming him "Dai-chan" ("Mr. Big", essentially). When he recovers his memories, it turns out that [[spoiler:he's Rook, TheBrute of the Checkmate Four, who spends most of his time engaging in random acts of murder for fun]]. Recovering his memories causes him to pretty much go back to the monster he was before, except for a rather weird deathbed conversion-type thing where, in his final appearances, he decides to do good deed in the hopes of getting into Heaven.
** Another aversion is in ''KamenRiderDecade'' in which Tsukasa is revealed to be [[spoiler: Leader of Dai-Shocker]], he takes it in stride once his memories return to him when speaking to Tsukikage.
** Played straight though in ''KamenRiderDouble''. After it's been revealed what family Phillip is a member of, [[HeroicBSOD he doesn't take it well]].

This tends to be more the good character remembering an evil past because AmnesiacsAreInnocent, but it's only a tendency. May overlap with TheKillerInMe.

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* ''Regarding Henry'', where Creator/HarrisonFord plays an AmoralAttorney, who gets shot and loses his memory. He's appalled at what a jerk he discovers he was.

* The title character in ''TheIronGiant'' loses his memory shortly after crashing on Earth (probably when he got electrocuted by the power station while trying to eat it), and is unaware that he is actually a WeaponOfMassDestruction until his built in self-defense protocols start getting activated. When he believes Hogarth is dead, the next army attack seems to undo the dent in his head and his full military programming comes back online (though he still reacts based on self-defense, targeting the greatest threat which is actively attacking him). When [[spoiler: Hogarth isn't dead]], he helps the Giant remember their time together and that he has a choice in his own actions.

** Though it must be said that (possibly because the writers realized how much they'd pissed off the fandom), when Rhinox dies at the beginning of season 2, it's implied that he regrets his actions and is allowed to peacefully move on because his heroism in WesternAnimation/BeastWars still outweighed his more recent actions.
** Also from Transformers, the character Flip Sides from both G1 and ''TransformersAnimated'', is a decepticon who has a double-life as an Autobot--in G1 she's a teacher, in Animated she's a pop star. The catch is, while she's an autobot, ''she does not know or realize that she is a decepticon spy''. Talk about conflicting moralities.
* In an episode of the ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' TV series, Jasmine lost her memory due to a magic rose and [[MeaningfulName Abis Mal]] convinced her that she was evil. This backfired when Jasmine became a DarkActionGirl and decided the idiotic Abis Mal was beneath her.
* In the ''GeneratorRex'' episode "Rabble", Rex is hit hard with this as he meets up with three old friends of his - who he doesn't remember at all - who are stuck working for a crime boss named Quarry. It turns out that in a former life, [[spoiler: Rex ''sold out'' his friends to Quarry in the first place]], and Quarry uses this fact to turn Rex's old friends against him.

AmnesiacDissonance occurs when a good or evil person suddenly remembers their past of the opposite [[CharacterAlignment alignment.]] This becomes the epitome of Man versus Himself (or Herself) as the values and memories of their past self collide with their current self. This can result in a complete FaceHeelTurn or HeelFaceTurn, or give a shade of grey to the character that they didn't possess before. {{Reincarnation}} can be substituted as a type of spiritual amnesia.

* The ''fear'' of AmnesiacDissonance drives the suspense in ''Unknown'' (2006). Several kidnappers and their captives wake up in a vacant warehouse, having succumbed to an accidental gas leak that has caused temporary amnesia. They find clues that some of them are criminals, but don't know which of their own number are the bad guys, and need to figure it out before the rest of the kidnapping gang comes to collect their prisoner.

* In RobertLudlum's ''[[Literature/TheBourneSeries The Bourne Identity]]'', the amnesiac David Webb comes to believe that he is professional contract killer Jason Bourne, which was in fact only a cover assigned to him by the CIA before the incident that caused his amnesia. When the BigBad comes to realize that something of this nature is occurring, he begins setting Webb/Bourne up to reinforce this belief.

* This happens with [[spoiler:Garcian Smith]] at the end of the chapter Smile in ''{{Killer7}}''.

** In ''[[Fanfic/PonyPsychologySeries Ditzy Doo: Muffins]]'', Ditzy starts to recover her memories from before she came to Ponyville, and freaks out when she thinks she may have been a mob enforcer who killed a Canterlot guard and his wife. [[spoiler:She was actually a secret agent who was trying to take down a griffon mobster, and was too late to warn the guard that the mob was after him.]]
* In the ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'', [[BigBad Discord]] was once reborn as the child of a mortal pony named Shady. Bereft of his memories as a GodOfEvil, Discord grew up loving Shady like any good son, and best friends with Celestia and Luna (who likewise were reborn to [[spoiler:G1 Mimic]]). Then the memories of his past life returned. Discord resisted returning to his old evil self, but ultimately became a villain again when his evil persona consumed his good one.

* Ysuran in BaldursGateDarkAlliance II begins the game with a bad case of amnesia and a spellbook from which he learns the art of necromancy; probing into his past reveals that he's a former terrorist and ally of the Eldreth Veluuthra, a faction of elf supremacists, who was struck with amnesia when his mentor learned the truth about him and tried to stop him. Upon learning this, he [[ThatManIsDead swears off his former identity]] and decides to use his [[DarkIsNotEvil powers of darkness]] [[TheAtoner for the good of the realms]].

* In the 2007 series of ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[spoiler:episode "Utopia", The Master]] hides from [[spoiler:the Time War]] by transforming himself into a [[spoiler:human being]] and erasing his memory, becoming [[spoiler:the mild-mannered, philanthropic Professor Yana]]. His original memories are stored inside [[spoiler:a watch which, when he opens it decades later, restores his memories to him - and in an instant, he turns against everyone he'd been working with as Yana and hatches a plan to conquer the universe.]]
** This is similar to the anniversary special [[ExpandedUniverse audio drama]] ''Master'' where the Master is given 10 years of an amnesia-induced normal life if the Doctor agrees to kill him at the end of it. Things get complicated to where the Master has to decide whether to become evil again for the right reasons, or to stay who he is for the wrong reasons.
** Also happens in the audio drama ''The Holy Terror'': [[spoiler: when Eugene Tacitus remembers that he killed his own son and that the entire fictional world he lives in is designed to torture him for it, he is so overcome with guilt that, despite the Doctor's pleas, he makes the CreepyChild that represents his son stab him with the knife he was going to use to kill it]].

* Pretty much the plot of ''Chasm City'' by AlastairReynolds.

* Inverted several ways in ''FireEmblemAwakening'' with [[TeenGenius Morgan]], the son/daughter of the [[PlayerCharacter Avatar]] from the future. Whereas the other twelve children all come from a future where [[BigBad Grima]] plunged their world into chaos, Morgan - an amnesiac - is implied to be from another timeline, which itself is noted in all of his/her endings. The subversion comes from the fact [[spoiler:that both male ''and'' female Morgan exist in the Future of Dispair/Future Past DLC, which is nearly identical to the timeline the other twelve children are from, only [[UpToEleven even bleaker]]. Here, both are devoted servants/the implied children of Grima.]] There is no hint in-game, though, that either one is from [[spoiler:the Future Past timeline]].
** It gets even more complicated when one takes into account that Morgan can be the son/daughter of ''any'' character in the game, including the children characters themselves.

* In ''DiabloIII'', one of your partners is part of a zealous organization that does this to its recruits - former criminals who agree to having their memories wiped so that they may seek redemption. You meet him when you're dungeon crawling in a place where one of his companions is hiding, having just turned traitor. [[spoiler:Turns out the guy betrayed his organization after gaining the ability to regain his lost memories, and had been horrified to realize that he was just some Average Joe who signed up for a job. Your partner eventually does the same thing, ''finding'' the same thing. Subversion! ... Maybe. It's unclear whether the organization actually ''does'' take in former criminals that way.]]

* ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' subverts this. Several {{NPC}}s recognize Quote as "a soldier from the surface", or make references to squads of war robots that came to the island ten years ago and massacred the Mimigas. The obvious conclusion for the player (and several in-game characters) is that Quote was one of those killer robots--rather unsettling since Quote is currently trying to ''save'' the remaining Mimigas. But, if you complete the sidequest to save Curly Brace and restore her memories, then she remembers that Quote was comrade-in-arms ten years ago. And unlike all the other combat robots, they hadn't fought the Mimigas; their mission had been to destroy [[ArtifactOfDoom the Demon Crown]].

* In ''DigitalDevilSaga'', Serph learns [[spoiler: that as Serph Sheffield, he singlehandedly not only caused the suffering of countless children as well as mankind in a bid to talk to God and attempt to devour his power, but also manipulated Sara to thinking he is the [[KnightInShiningArmor Good Prince vying for her affection]] while Heat is seen as the Evil Prince, a notion she was forcibly disabused out of when Serph kills Heat in front of her.]]
** Side note: There was no amnesia involved, [[spoiler: as Serph and Serph Sheffield are not the same individual. The Serph you play as was originally the evolved form of an AI that Sera created her virtual play world (which later became the CrapsackWorld known as the Junkyard of the first game), and his personality was based on Sera's perceptions of Serph Sheffield. Incidentally, this is also the reason why Serph is a HeroicMime, his lack of personality reflects Sera's lack of understanding of who Serph Sheffield ''really'' was.]]

Contrast with PygmalionSnapBack, wherein a person (sometimes voluntarily; sometimes [[MindControl not]]) changes some aspect of their personality at the behest or [[WorseThanMindControl influence]] of another, and upon disillusionment the old personality trait is restored with a vengence.

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* ''Fanfic/GhostBoy'' centres around events after ''Disney/WreckItRalph'', with the BigBad of that movie [[spoiler:Turbo]] getting his memory wiped after resurrection, and living with the main cast. [[ForegoneConclusion You can guess what he ends up finding out.]] [[spoiler:But the trope itself gets notably averted: Turbo actively rejects his evil self, and ultimately ends up killing it for good when it scrounges up a separate body.]]

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** The game also plays with the trope in that [[spoiler: Virus!Mercer is not actually Human!Mercer, as Human!Mercer actually died and Virus!Mercer was created from his corpse. The reason he has no memory isn't [[TraumaInducedAmnesia truama]], its that they were never his memories to begin with.]]

* There is an instance or two where SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker, Comicbook/{{Batman}}'s enemy from TheDCU, loses his memories and becomes a regular family man. This self is always consumed by his madness returning.

* Neo Roanoke in ''Mobile Suit GundamSEEDDestiny'' comes down with a bad case of amnesiac dissonance once he's taken prisoner aboard the ''Archangel'' and meets Captain Murrue Ramius, who [[spoiler:was his lover back when he was the heroic AcePilot Mu La Flaga]]. Unfortunately, this and Neo's feelings about the unpleasant things he'd been doing prior to that point are given very little screen time.

* Alex Mercer of ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' hunts down and kills dozens of people and killing several thousand in the crossfire in a combination of a RoaringRampageOfRevenge and investigation of [[TheVirus the Infection's]] release and his own transformation, only to find out that [[spoiler:the real Mercer was not only one of the very scientists he'd been tracking and killing, but also solely responsible for both. Funnily enough, this means that he was ''less'' evil as a sociopathic [[AGodAmI human superweapon]]; the original Mercer only cared about himself, while Virus Mercer slowly starts to grow a conscience.]]

* Trace from ''TwoKinds''. Interesting in that the ''only'' person not aware of his past is Trace, nearly everyone else is well aware of who he is/was and ''openly terrified'' of him. It's gotten to the point that Trace has decided that he's better off '''''not''''' knowing who he was.

* An antiheroic version: in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'', Scrooge lost his memory and was lost on the streets without a penny to his name. Eventually he moved in and began a romance with an extremely working class single mother, and when she told him about Scrooge [=McDuck's=] employment practices reinvented himself as a socialist crusader against a man he saw as a CorruptCorporateExecutive. At the end of the episode he regained his memories and had no recollection of what happened, but the protest he unknowingly began forced him to improve worker rights.

* In ''DigitalDevilSaga'', Serph learns that as Serph Sheffield, he singlehandedly not only caused the suffering of countless children as well as mankind, but also manipulated Sara to thinking he is the [[KnightInShiningArmor Good Prince vying for her affection]] while Heat is seen as the Evil Prince.
** Side note: There was no amnesia involved, as Serph and Serph Sheffield are not the same individual. The Serph you play as was originally an AI that Sera created her virtual play world (which later became ''The Junkyard'' of the first game), and his personality was based on Sera's perceptions of Serph Sheffield. Incidenlty, this is also the reason why Serph is a HeroicMime, his lack of personality reflects Sera's lack of understanding of who the real Serph Sheffield really was.