History Main / AmnesiacDissonance

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' episode "[[Recap/LiloAndStitchTheSeriesS1E12Amnesio Amnesio]]", the [[MonsterOfTheWeek experiment of the week]] erases peoples' memories. Lilo, Stitch, and Gantu all get zapped and try to reassemble their pasts together; they don't come up with much that's conclusive about Lilo or Stitch, but reckon Gantu must have been a cop. So they become very good friends and don't worry all that much about their memories until Lilo learns that there's a way to reverse the effect, and learns the codeword. Gantu, meanwhile, has learned that he was not a very nice guy. He's quite vehement that he doesn't want to go back to being a jerk--until Lilo says the codeword, ''ʻohana'' ([[LuckyTranslation What are the odds Jumba would pick the Hawaiian Earth word for "family"?]]), anyway. He then remembers the one bit of context his amnesiac self didn't, viz. he loves being a jerk.

* Becomes a [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] and DefiedTrope in ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniaReBirth1''. Neptune is fully aware that she could only form her band of TrueCompanions due to her amnesia, and while she "knows" who she truly is, having her memories restored would mean recalling ''milennia'' of murderous resentment towards her now closest friends. [[spoiler: For this reason, she refuses to have her memory restored, much preferring the life and memories she's already made.]]

* Played with strangely in ''[[Videogame/TraumaCenter Trauma Team]]''. CR-S01 is a surgeon committed to saving lives who was seemingly a bioterrorist behind an attack on Cumberland College prior to his amnesia. However, despite the fact that he can't remember how he did it or why, he's ''fully aware of this fact'' -- it's actually his knowledge of what he might have done before, absent any of the memories that drove him to it, that motivates his HeelFaceTurn. [[spoiler:Then finally outright subverted when it turns out he was never responsible for the attack in the first place, and he was never a villain]].

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', the team wakes up in the Biyalian desert with their memories of the past six months erased. This turns Superboy into a mindless berserker (he's not even six months old), Kid Flash and Artemis start flirting with each other and even hold hands right before their memories are restored, and Artemis believes she is there because her father wants her to kill Kid Flash.

* ''LightNovel/HybridXHeartMagiasAcademyAtaraxia'': Ragrus started out as an extremely cruel and sadistic villainess, and hated her opponent Silvia's guts until Silvia knocks her out. Ragrus wakes up with amnesia and becomes really sweet, innocent, and one of Silvia's biggest fans. Then ''everyone's'' memories are tampered with and makes Silvia and Ragrus think they are best friends. Once everyone gets their memories back, though Ragrus regains her strength and harshness, she remains friends with Silvia and clearly values their time together, [[{{Tsundere}} even if she won't admit it out loud]].

* A good description of Bellatrix Lestrange's situation in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12898077/1/As-We-Chase-the-Sun As We Chase the Sun]]'', after she has spent fourteen years as a wolf in her animagus state before she is found by Sirius and taken to Grimmauld Place. While she recognises Sirius, Narcissa and Andromeda as family, her lack of human identity prevents her from initially recalling why she should dislike Hermione Granger solely because she's a "mudblood", to the extent that she tears down Walburga Black's portrait when the portrait in question is yelling at Hermione despite having previously given into old instincts and attacked Hermione once she was identified as such.

* ''VideoGame/{{Onmyoji}}'': This is [[AmnesiacHero Seimei]]'s biggest fear, and for good reasons — he keeps being blamed for horrible shit he doesn't remember ever doing, and since he's amnesiac, that means that he ''could'' have done all of those things without remembering having done them! And no, nobody believes that AmnesiacsAreInnocent. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, part of his fear has been confirmed in that he has committed one single '''''soul-splitting''''' crime in his past — namely, forcibly removing all [[EnemyWithin evil motives]] from his head. This had resulted in the BigBad coming into existence, but if Seimei just left things as-is, he would have actually become a bad person.]]

* Inverted and averted in ''Manga/DeathNote'': Protagonist Light gives up his memories of being the mass-murderer "Kira", then his mind wiped self tries to [[ClearMyName clear his name]] by joining a task force devoted to capturing Kira. Although he still keeps his intelligence and ''says'' that his thought patterns are similar to Kira's, his personality changes to that of a decent person rather than the self-righteous, prideful WellIntentionedExtremist[=/=]KnightTemplar he was before that would be willing to use the Death Note. Even if he doesn't sympathize with Kira because he wants to clear his name, the personality change was the series' only notable headache. [[spoiler:But when he gets his memories back, there's no dissonance - just a PsychoticSmirk. Everything that happened went "Exactly as planned."]]

* ''Manga/HybridXHeartMagiasAcademyAtaraxia'': Ragrus started out as an extremely cruel and sadistic villainess, and hated her opponent Silvia's guts until Silvia knocks her out. Ragrus wakes up with amnesia and becomes really sweet, innocent, and one of Silvia's biggest fans. Then ''everyone's'' memories are tampered with and makes Silvia and Ragrus think they are best friends. Once everyone gets their memories back, though Ragrus regains her strength and harshness, she remains friends with Silvia and clearly values their time together, [[{{Tsundere}} even if she won't admit it out loud]].

* ''LightNovel/HybridXHeartMagiasAcademyAtaraxia'': Ragrus started out as an extremely cruel and sadistic villainess, and hated her opponent Silvia's guts until Silvia knocks her out. Ragrus wakes up with amnesia and becomes really sweet, innocent, and one of Silvia's biggest fans. Then ''everyone's'' memories are tampered with and makes Silvia and Ragrus think they are best friends. Once everyone gets their memories back, though Ragrus regains her strength and harshness, she remains friends with Silvia and clearly values their time together, [[{{Tsundere}} even if she won't admit it out loud]].

* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "Back to Reality", the crew wake up from the virtual reality game they were playing, and discover that their real personalities are very different from the people they thought they were. Dave Lister, who likes to think he's a good guy who will usually do the right thing, discovers that he's really a brutal fascist officer; Arnold Rimmer, who thinks he's better than Lister, discovers that he's really Lister's less successful brother; Kryten, who thinks he'd never harm a human being, discovers that he's capable of murder; and the Cat, who defines his whole existence by his sense of style and good taste, discovers that he's really an awkward, buck-toothed, fashion-deficient {{Nerd}}. Subverted when [[spoiler:it turns out this is all a hallucination created by the Despair Squid, and their "game" personalities are their real ones after all, with the hallucinations specifically intended to drive them to suicide.]]

* ''LightNovel/HybridXHeartMagicasAcademyAtaraxia'': Ragrus started out as an extremely cruel and sadistic villainess, and hated her opponent Silvia's guts until Silvia knocks her out. Ragrus wakes up with amnesia and becomes really sweet, innocent, and one of Silvia's biggest fans. Then ''everyone's'' memories are tampered with and makes Silvia and Ragrus think they are best friends. Once everyone gets their memories back, though Ragrus regains her strength and harshness, she remains friends with Silvia and clearly values their time together, [[{{Tsundere}} even if she won't admit it out loud]].

* Subverted in ''ComicBook/{{XIII}}''. [[spoiler:The eponymous amnesiac protagonist quickly learns he's Steve Rowland, the murderer of US president William Sheridan, and is appaled at this revelation. It latter turns out the real Rowland (member number XIII of a far-right conspiracy) had [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived his usefulness]], and the series' heroes was a look-alike of Rowland who became amnesiac while he was [[DeadPersonImpersonation impersonating the latter]] to infiltrate the conspiracy.]]

* In the third season episode of ''Series/{{Legacies}}'' titled "[[Recap/LegaciesS3E12IWasMadeToLoveYou I Was Made to Love You]]", Alaric and Josie attempt to use a tracking spell to locate [[SpellMyNameWithAThe The Necromancer]], which points them to a funeral home. Upon arriving there, they recognize the voice of the funeral director as that of The Necromancer, although he claims to have no idea who that person or they are, remembering waking up some time ago with no memory of who he was. He calls himself Ted because that was the nametag on the uniform he was wearing at the time. He's pretty mild-mannered and seems to genuinely want to help. On occasion, though, AmnesianResonance crops up, like when he accidentally reanimates a dead body and then, after it's blown up by a grenade, he bursts out laughing maniacally. The more magic he uses, the more he's able to do, and the more his old personality starts to seep through. [[spoiler:He decides he doesn't want to become that monster again and performs a HeroicSuicide in order to help Alaric save those he cares about.]]

** [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX Kuja]] in duodecim was ''this'' close to joining the good guys until Kefka ruined his plans and manipulated him into dying in a battle with Lightning. First thing when Kuja was revived in the next cycle, Kefka put it in his head that he loathed Zidane and wanted nothing more than to kill him

* In ''Series/{{Nikita}}'', Owen Elliot's efforts to find out who he was before Division recruited him and his memories were erased end when they are forcibly returned, and he discovers that the person he was, Sam Matthews, was a heroin-smuggling, comrade-betraying asshole--a stark contrast to the loyal, empathetic "puppy" he was as Owen (comparatively speaking, at least, given that Owen was a government assassin).

** Subverted with Post-Crisis ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}. Kara suffered from amnesia when her rocket landed on Earth in ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton2004'', and ''[[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 for a while]]'' she wondered whether she was a good girl or an evil girl pretending to be good. Eventually she remembered everything [[spoiler:and it turned out that she was really a good girl]].

This tends to be more the good character remembering an evil past because AmnesiacsAreInnocent, but it's only a tendency. May overlap with TheKillerInMe and AlternateIdentityAmnesia. Can stem from AmnesiacResonance: a character who, for instance, realizes his own familiarity with guns and wonders why he used them.

* Happened to [[BigBad Divatox]] in the most infamous episode of ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo'', the one where the Rangers [[NeverLiveItDown get baked into a giant pizza]]. When she loses her memory, she also loses all piratical aspects of her nature, and becomes a mildly surly (but good-natured) employee at a pizza place.

* The Franchise/MarvelUniverse character ComicBook/TheFalcon went through something like this in a DorkAge storyline where it was [[RetCon 'revealed']] that he was actually a [[ScaryBlackMan former street hustler named 'Snap']] who had been brainwashed by the ComicBook/RedSkull to be the perfect new partner for Comicbook/CaptainAmerica, supposedly so that the Skull could then activate a post-hypnotic suggestion later to make him betray Cap. This was later {{Ret Con}}ned so that "Snap" was the fake memory.

* Webcomic/BobAndGeorge: [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/010615 Claimed]] and [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/010617 subverted]].

* [[http://chainsawsuit.com/2011/05/20/amnesiac-detective/ Parodied]] in ''Webcomic/{{chainsawsuit}}''.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', Lil Evil drank from Lethe and [[http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2011-09-24 fears this.]] Before that, he was a LoonyFan of the Devil so pathetic ''no one'' wanted him un-mindwiped. Immediately after, he met Tangerine and sort of got a life. He's in for [[http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2011-12-09 some]] [[http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2011-12-24 unpleasant]] [[http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2012-03-01 discoveries]]. [[http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2012-10-31 Though for Halloween, later, he dresses up as an angel.]]

* In the anime film ''Anime/{{Colorful}}'' [[spoiler:"I", a forsaken spirit that possesses a boy called Makoto, is more vocal and forward then Makoto ever was much to the surprise of his classmates, prompting "I" to wonder what kind of person Makoto was. "I" as it turns out ''is'' Makoto.]]

* Happened to [[BigBad Divatox]] in the most infamous episode of ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo'', the one where the rangers [[NeverLiveItDown get baked into a giant pizza]]. When she loses her memory, she also loses all piratical aspects of her nature, and becomes a mildly surly (but good natured) employee at a pizza place.
* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "Back To Reality", the crew wake up from the virtual reality game they were playing, and discover that their real personalities are very different from the people they thought they were. Dave Lister, who likes to think he's a good guy who will usually do the right thing, discovers that he's really a brutal fascist officer; Arnold Rimmer, who thinks he's better than Lister, discovers that he's really Lister's less successful brother; Kryten, who thinks he'd never harm a human being, discovers that he's capable of murder; and the Cat, who defines his whole existence by his sense of style and good taste, discovers that he's really an awkward, buck-toothed, fashion-deficient {{Nerd}}. Subverted when [[spoiler:it turns out this is all a hallucination created by the Despair Squid, and their "game" personalities are their real ones after all, with the hallucinations specifically intended to drive them to suicide.]]

* On ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'', Echo gradually comes to realize that Caroline, the original personality in her body, wasn't such a good person, and is no longer sure if she wants her old memories back. This may have been a response to the audience finding Caroline, who was a member of an AnimalWrongsGroup, to be a rather unsympathetic heroine.

* Played with in ''VideoGame/{{Primordia}}''. Due to repeated [[spoiler:self-induced]] memory wipes Horatio doesn't remember his original identity, his only clues being a broken-down warship, an unexplained, preprogrammed hatred towards Metropol, and a desire to fly. Fairly early in the game, various characters start addressing him as "Horus", which, according to Memorious's information kiosk, was an Urbanian weapon sent against Metropol and shot down by Goliath on the way. However, if you [[spoiler:decrypt Horatio's files]] near the end of the game, it turns out that [[spoiler:Horus -- the warship -- actually won against Goliath, but refused to kill the last humans in Metropol, and willingly crashed in the desert after uploading a chunk of its AI into its robotic servitor, who took on the name "Horatio"]]. It is left entirely up to the player whether the unlocked destructive powers should be embraced, ignored, or used selectively.