History Main / VictoryGuidedAmnesia

* ''CodenameKidsNextDoor'': Monty Uno (a.k.a. Numbuh Zero) defeated the villain of TheMovie by using a device created to erase the memories of decomissioned [=KND=] operatives.

* In ''Series/TheOuterLimits'' episode "Fun and Games", a random man and woman who have never met get abducted by aliens and forced to complete in GladiatorGames against two similarly abducted aliens, and the losers get their home planet destroyed. The human team bonds and eventually manages to win, saving Earth. Their captors reward them for their victory by returning them to Earth, but erase their memories of the whole experience, including of each other. The final scene shows the two perfect strangers passing each other with barely a glance.

* As quoted above, the Tenacious D song "Tribute" is a tribute to the "greatest song in the world" that Jack and K.G. performed to defend themselves from the Devil. However, after this event, the actual song fades from memory, but they know it wasn't anything like "Tribute" itself.

* The last book of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series ends with [[spoiler: Roland finally reaching the Tower after years of questing, only for it to show him a sort of presentation outlining his many failings as a person, then sending his soul back in time to the start of the first book.]] He has just enough time to be horrified before his memory is reset. A pretty poor way to treat a man who has literally saved countless realities from destruction. King himself didn't like the ending, and included a page telling the reader "stop now".

** It eventually turns out that [[spoiler: it is actually backwards - his regaining his memory it what causes The Void to return, as it is his EnemyWithout, and the whole amnesia thing was a MemoryGambit to keep The Void from being able to manifest.]]

* In DevonMonk's Literature/AllieBeckstrom novel ''Magic to the Bone'', Allie throws around a lot of magic at the climax. It has already been established that using magic can cause holes in her memory.

* MichaelCrichton's ''{{Sphere}}''. Doubles as a ShootTheShaggyDog.

* Humanity as a whole gets this in the finale of ''Manga/{{Dragonball}}''. The human race spent the arc being terrorized, then killed by Majin Buu. In the final battle, the whole of Earth contributes its power to Goku's Spirit Bomb to destroy Buu once and for all. When the dust clears, all that remains is Fat Buu, a part of Buu that had befriended Mr. Satan and turned good. Because of this protagonists use their next chance to wish on the Dragon Balls to make humanity forget about Buu, so that Fat Buu can leave peacefully on Earth.

* This happens to any [[TheMenInBlack Men in Black]] from ''Film/MenInBlack'' once they leave the service.

* Set up ahead of time in one episode of ''{{Dollhouse}}''. Echo and several other Actives are given their original functional memories (without any declarative ones) and allowed to do as they please so that they can fulfill the desires that are causing trouble in brainwiping them later. As soon as they finish whatever it is they set out to do, they black out, leaving them ready to be put back in the chair.

* Usagi does this in addition to a ResetButton at the end of the first season of ''Manga/SailorMoon''. This was the classic way to end a MagicalGirl series; that the show was popular enough to undo this was actually quite subversive at the time. But then, ''Sailor Moon'' both made and broke MagicalGirl tropes. Oh, and this doesn't happen in the manga, where the girls simply keep their memories.

* Happens in ''Manga/WeddingPeach'', which isn't surprising given how similar ''Wedding Peach'' is to ''Manga/SailorMoon''. The {{OVA}} series gives the girls their memories back, too; and, again, the manga ''doesn't'' do this.

* ''ToAruMajutsuNoIndex'' has a subverted example at the end of the series' very first arc. When Index goes BrainwashedAndCrazy on her friends, she casts the spell "Dragon Breath" that causes feathers to fall from the sky. Coming into physical contact with just a single one is instantly fatal. When Touma undoes her brainwashing with his [[AntiMagic Imagine Breaker]], he gets distracted by relief and one of the feathers graze his head. He survives due to PlotArmor but as a result of brain damage, all of his memories are destroyed ''permanently''. He's fully aware of what happened but he can't undo it so he keeps it a secret and pretends nothing's wrong to keep his TrueCompanions from worrying.
** He's so good at it in fact that neither of his [[UnwantedHarem primary]] {{Love Interest}}s figure it out until ''very'' late into the novels.

-->--'''Music/TenaciousD''', ''Tribute''

* ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}'': Julius Belmont [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu promptly became amnesiac]] after he defeated {{Dracula}} and sealed him up "for good" in 1999. It took a tour through Dracula's castle 35 years later for him to regain his senses.

* The 3rd movie of ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' (''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'') has this in an ominous sense; [[spoiler: Homura takes over the God position of Madoka and uses the Incubator system to resurrect all magical girls that were previously in Madoka's heaven. The new world, essentially, is one that every magical girl ''says'' they want. Sayaka and Madoka's memories are bound too; with Sayaka slowly getting WistfulAmnesia; but Madoka's eyes still flicker gold indicating the power is still there.]] Given there will be a second season, it will not likely stay this way for long.

** In the fourth season finale of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' revival, [[spoiler:companion Donna Noble gains the Doctor's memories and brain power and uses it to defeat the Daleks. Afterwards, the Doctor reveals that the mind of a Time Lord is too much for a human brain to handle, and to save Donna's life, he wipes her memory of everything she experienced since meeting him and warns her family that if she ever finds out about her adventures her mind will destroy itself.]]
** The classic series used this in "The Invasion of Time", where [[spoiler:an aftereffect of the super weapon he'd just built erased his memory of said weapon, as well as ThePlan he'd just executed (and screwed up)]].
** And at the end of ''The War Games'' too; [[spoiler:after calling down the DeusExMachina - the Time Lords - companions Jamie and Zoe have their memories of all their adventures (bar the first) with the Doctor wiped and are sent back home.]]

* A borderline (And very depressing) case of this combined with AFateWorseThanDeath at the end of ''ZetaGundam'' : After the defeat of BigBad Paptimus Scirocco, [[spoiler: the dying Scirocco, impaled on the nosecone of the Zeta Gundam's Waverider mode, uses his last bit of Newtype power to completely shatter Kamille's mind, making him not only forget everything that's happened up until then, but basically putting him in a greatly diminished state of mind that is somewhere between vegetable and a young child. He gets better by the end of [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ ZZ Gundam]] , though.]]

* The 3rd movie of ''[[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica]]'' (''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'') has this in an ominous sense; [[spoiler: Homura takes over the God position of Madoka and uses the Incubator system to resurrect all magical girls that were previously in Madoka's heaven. The new world, essentially, is one that every magical girl ''says'' they want. Sayaka and Madoka's memories are bound too; with Sayaka slowly getting WistfulAmnesia; but Madoka's eyes still flicker gold indicating the power is still there.]] Given there will be a second season, it will not likely stay this way for long.

If TimeTravel or [[RealityWarper Reality Warping]] is involved, victory may mean the past was rewritten so that the threat never existed, and neither did the struggles against it, even for the heroes.

* At the end of ''[[{{Peanuts}} It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown]]'', Charlie Brown doesn't remember that he worked up the nerve to kiss the Little Red-Haired Girl at the Homecoming dance and subsequently was the life of the party. (It's probably for the best that he also forgot [[NeverMyFault "losing" the football game]] beforehand - [[WallBangers/WesternAnimation the viewers would sure like to forget that one]].)