Line #128 Main/QuestForIdentity


1	[[quoteright:299:[[ComicBook/TwoThousandAD https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_dead_man.png]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:299:A dead person.]]
3
4	->''"This story of the loss and regaining of identity is, I think, the framework of all literature."''
5	-->-- '''Northrop Frye''', ''The Educated Imagination''
6
7	An AmnesiacHero wakes up stranded in the middle of nowhere, with no recollection of who they are. The plot involves, at least in part, their efforts to (re)discover the identity they cannot remember. AmnesiacDissonance may make this unwise.
8
9	The hero may suffer TraumaInducedAmnesia and their journey to find themselves includes confronting their emotional baggage.
10
11	These stories tend to involve: IdentityBreakdown, if the search or the identity they've found, becomes too mentally taxing to bear; IAmWho, if the identity they remember is special or TheChosenOne; AmnesiacCostumeIdentity if they incorrectly assume the clothes they're wearing belong to them or are related to their true identity; TomatoInTheMirror if their identity happens to be a fake of some sort or the bad guy that everyone has been looking for; and TheKillerInMe, if they find out they're a killer, which may or may not make them a VillainProtagonist, depending on who they kill.
12
13	This is a subtrope of OntologicalMystery. See also LossOfIdentity and IdentityAmnesia. The AmnesiacLover may want to do this to remember why they loved whom they've forgotten.
14	----
15	!!Examples:
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17	[[foldercontrol]]
18
19	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
20	* ''Anime/AngelBeats'' begins with Otonashi waking up without any memories. He joins the SSS not because of any particular commitment to Yuri's mission, but in the hope that his memory will eventually return.
21	* In ''Manga/CeresCelestialLegend'', Tooya's main motivation for working with the Mikages is to find out who he is.
22	* ''Anime/{{Dangaioh}}'': The four ESP'ers ([[GirlNextDoor Mia]], [[TheBigGirl Pai]], [[TheBabyOfThebunch Lambda]] and [[TheOneGuy Roll]]) all suddenly find themselves in service to Dr. Tarsan without knowing who they are/were, or how they got there. Mia vaguely recalls that she's a normal girl from Earth, so they decide to fight their way there to live in peace. [[spoiler: As the story advances, the other three begin to remember their pasts. [[DarkAndTroubledPast And they're not pretty]].]]
23	* ''Anime/EdenOfTheEast'' starts our amnesiac protagonist off in front of the White House with nothing more than a handgun and a cellphone (albeit one with eight billion yen on it) to go by. "Nothing," in this case, includes [[NakedOnArrival clothes]].
24	* ''Anime/ErgoProxy'': Starting with episode four, the series takes an [[OntologicalMystery Ontological]] turn, changing from a story about a Goth girl detective trying to figure out the connection between the monsters and the corrupt Bureaucracy, to a story about what was apparently a minor character but not really trying to remember his past.
25	* Halfway through the first season of ''Anime/{{K}}'', [[spoiler:Shiro]] realizes that all of his memories are false, and he has no idea who he really is. The first thing he remembers is [[spoiler: being kicked out of an airship and crash landing in the school's gym.]] From then on, he not only has to [[spoiler: clear his name]], he also has to figure out who he truly is. [[spoiler: Of course, the two goals end up being connected...]]
26	* ''Anime/{{Kaiba}}'': One day a young man wakes up in an empty room, with no idea of who or where he is. His only clues are a strange marking on his stomach, a hole in his chest, and a locket containing a blurry picture of a girl. Kaiba travels from planet to planet, seeking for who he is and who the girl in the locket is.
27	* In ''Anime/KemonoFriends'', the main character is hoping to remember what kind of animal she is. [[spoiler: She's the last human...probably.]]
28	* In ''Anime/{{Noir}}'', the subplot of who the hell Yuumura Kirika ''is'' drives the action for the beginning of the series. A subversion, since near the end Kirika doesn't really seem to want to find out about her past, and would rather just make tea for her [[PseudoRomanticFriendship 'partner'.]]
29	* In the ''Anime/YuGiOh'' second series, it's revealed that Yugi's dark side is the reincarnation of a Pharaoh who's lost his memories. The Pharaoh then enters the Battle City Finals to gain the three Egyptian God cards he needs to enter the Millennium World where he can find his identity.
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Comic Books]]
33	* In the ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' story ''The Dead Man'', a young boy finds the burned body of a stranger in the wilderness and takes him back to his village. He can't even remember his name, but he turns out to be [[TheGunslinger damn good with a gun]] and is being pursued by evil spirits from beyond. After healing sufficiently, the man goes on a journey to find out who he is. [[spoiler:He's Judge Dredd.]]
34	* In ''ComicBook/AstroCity'', Beautie has no memories of a time before she flew over a meadow. Periodically she tries to fix this - having difficulty because her LaserGuidedAmnesia keeps erasing what she learned.
35	* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'' introduces [[EvilCounterpart Surge the Tenrec]], who (alongside her sidekick Kitsunami the Fennc) had been turned into a cyborg by Dr. Starline as part of Operation: Remaster, with no memory of her past. Noticing that certain details weren't adding up, she tried to look up her own background during a lull between missions, only to find that Starline did not consider the past details of his subjects relevant. Surge reasons that whether she volunteered or was kidnapped to become a cyborg, the world simply didn't care about her fate, so she vows to destroy the world to avenge her LossOfIdentity.
36	* ''ComicBook/WhoIsDonnaTroy'' is the end of ComicBook/WonderGirl's quest for identity. Franchise/WonderWoman rescued her from a building on fire when she was a baby and took her to the Amazon Island, and Donna grew up without knowing who her real parents were, what her birth name was, or anything previous to the fire.
37	* ''ComicBook/{{XIII}}'' starts with the main character washing up on a shore with a bullet wound to the head. When he wakes up he has [[EasyAmnesia no idea who he is]] and no clue, except for "XIII" tattooed on his chest.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Fan Works]]
41	* ''Fanfic/AlwaysVisible'': In some ways, Jordan Thurlow and Delia herself are asking these questions.
42	* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''FanFic/TheChangelingOfTheGuard'', this forms the crux of Idol Hooves's journey [[TheExile post-exile]], though it takes him a long time to realize it for himself.
43	* In the WWE fanfic, ''Miss Molly's Wild Ride'', Molly Holly gets amnesia after getting trampled by fans during a match that went into the crowd. The only thing she remembers is the face of the last person she saw before she lost consciousness, Jeff Hardy.
44	* ''Fanfic/LittleHandsBigAttitude'': Shadow has complete amnesia after Rouge breaks him out of his cryostasis chamber, so he embarks on a quest (following the guidance of a mysterious voice and whatever little fragmented memories he has) to figure out his past and who he wants to be.
45	* In ''Fanfic/NeitherABirdNorAPlaneItsDeku'', Izuku goes looking for his spaceship after All Might inspires him to become a Hero in hopes of coming to terms with himself. This ends up overtaking Izuku's better judgment, as he inadvertently places the Pro Hero Firestorm in harm's way when he refused to evacuate what was most likely the lair of a Villain, causing Firestorm to get stabbed in the leg.
46	* Basically applies in the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''/''Series/{{Angel}}'' fic "[[http://www.chosenfics.com/sunlightshadow/jill/thenightremembers1.html The Night Remembers]]"; after Buffy is brought back to life following her death fighting Glory, she is resurrected with no conscious memory of her past, only starting to regain her old memories after Angel returns to her life.
47	* ''Webcomic/PMDTheRogueTeam'' has Erin, a human that wakes up in the pokemon world [[ForcedTransformation transformed]] into a fennekin with no memory of her past. With her mind a clean slate, she believes this couldn't have happened in a normal way. Erin's major goal is recovering her memories.
48	[[/folder]]
49
50	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
51	* ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'': [[spoiler:After Steve's IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight in the climax helped him to somewhat overcome his brainwashing, the Winter Soldier embarked on a quest to learn about his old self, ComicBook/BuckyBarnes.]]
52	* The lead character of ''Film/CowboysAndAliens'' literally wakes up at the beginning of the film stranded in the middle of nowhere, with no recollection of who he is or how he got to his current location.
53	* ''Film/DarkCity1998'': A man wakes up in a bathtub with no memories —- he doesn't even recall that his name is John Murdoch until he checks his wallet. He finds a dead woman in the bedroom, and the phone is ringing. His burning need to know who he is is fundamental to the story.
54	* ''Film/TheDeadPit'''s FinalGirl arrives at the mental hospital setting amnesiac and a portion of the plot is donated to find out her identity and her connection to the BigBad.
55	* In-between the themes of race relations in TheNewTens, ''Film/DearWhitePeople'' is, at its core, a story of how we see ourselves based on our morals, our opinions, and how other people see ''us''.
56	* ''Film/{{Memento}}'': This trope is deliberately inverted; the protagonist has anterograde amnesia instead of LaserGuidedAmnesia. He knows who he is and where he's from, but he can never remember what happened mere minutes ago, always living in an eternal present.
57	* ''Film/MulhollandDrive'': A woman has amnesia after what seems to be a car accident. Recovering herself is not ontologically safe.
58	* ''Film/{{Paycheck}}'' has a variant: The protagonist knows who he is, but the entire last two years of his life are a total blank. He apparently agreed to have this done by his employer, and would probably have left well enough alone if not for the government wanting to interrogate him about what he was doing during that time.
59	* A non-action version is ''Film/RegardingHenry'', starring Creator/HarrisonFord. In it, the title character [[TisOnlyABulletInTheBrain survives a gunshot wound to the head]], and the resulting pinched artery affects his memory. Cue the rest of the movie depicting him coming to terms with [[LossOfIdentity not remembering anything]] about [[MissingTime his life]] before the [[TraumaInducedAmnesia shot]]. Note that it's a rare ontological mystery for the character ''only'', not the audience, hence the reason that it's played for drama rather than excitement.
60	* Much of the film ''Film/RoboCop1987'' revolves around Murphy trying to remember who he was in his past life and getting revenge on the criminals who killed him.
61	* Both adaptations of ''Literature/{{Solaris}}'' feature Hari/Rheya undergoing some sort of quest like this. It pretty much jumps from Hari spending most of the film completely amnesiac, to her feeling a bit angsty over identity issues, to trying to kill herself in about 20 minutes. The 1972 film is 3 hours long.
62	* ''Film/TrapForCinderella'': Micky starts believing that she's really Do and investigates, with the facts piling up showing this is the case. It turns out that she really is Micky.
63	* The plot of ''Film/{{Unknown 2006}}'', where a group of five men find themselves trapped in an AbandonedWarehouse with [[IdentityAmnesia no memory of who they are]]. The tricky thing is, they know that at least two of them are kidnap victims and the others are the kidnappers. The movie explores how they slowly regain their memory.
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:Gamebooks]]
67	* ''Literature/AllDayNightmare'' begins with you waking up in an abandoned house instead of your bedroom, and you have no idea who you are or how you got here. Thanks to SchrodingersGun, you are either an alien abductee who got your mind erased, a werewolf turning back to human, or a government secret agent who underwent memory erasure.
68	* A couple ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' books, notably ''Literature/CreatureOfHavoc'' and ''Literature/BlackVeinProphecy'', begins with you having zero memory of your past, and must find out the truth as the adventure progresses. In the former? You're not even ''human''.
69	[[/folder]]
70
71	[[folder:Literature]]
72	* Brandy from the ''Literature/AstralCafe'' series goes on various quests for her identity throughout the series, [[spoiler: however to date they have all been unsuccessful]].
73	* ''Bob Nine'' by Gregg Haugland is about a man who suffers recurring bouts of amnesia. As the title suggests, this is his ninth experience with this, and he discovers that his previous selves have established a system of leaving information for him about who he is and why this is happening. None the less, every incarnation of him ends up with a subtly different personality based on their experiences during the brief time they have before the next big memory erasure.
74	* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber''. Corwin awakes in a mental hospital with zero knowledge of his identity. This is essential to the plot: a core of the first five books is a parallel journey of the reader and Corwin to discover who he is. Corwin's lack of memory is rich narrative fodder: old enemies are dangerously mistaken as friends, but some bitter enemies of old are met without prejudice, allowing for reconciliations, even friendships that would be impossible otherwise.
75	* Tzigone from ''Literature/CounselorsAndKings''. [[spoiler:She puts things together piecemeal throughout the trilogy, only learning the final bit - her real name - during the climax]].
76	* ''Dragons Can Only Rust'' and ''Dragon Reforged'' by Chrys Cymri are about a [[OurDragonsAreDifferent robot dragon]] on a quest to learn [[DoAndroidsDream whether or not he has a soul.]]
77	* ''Literature/FamilySkeletonMysteries'': The first book's mystery begins as this, with Sid trying to find out who he was when he was alive, and soon adds WhodunnitToMe to the mix.
78	* In ''Literature/FateStrangeFake'', Flat Escardos summons Jack the Ripper as his Berserker for the Snowfield Holy Grail War. However, unlike the ''Literature/FateApocrypha'' version, this Jack isn't a specific person, but rather, an embodiment of the legend of the first serial killer. This has advantages and drawbacks; since Berserker has no real identity, one of his Noble Phantasms enables him to assume ''any'' of the possible identities the true Jack might have been -- a doctor, a prostitute, a butcher, a rogue magus, a coordinated group of murderers, a ''demon'', a '''''group of demons'''''... Since they only have the barest hints of who they truly are, they plan on wishing on the Grail for the true knowledge of Jack the Ripper's identity.
79	* Subverted in ''Azure Bonds'' from ''Literature/TheFindersStoneTrilogy'', in which the heroine awakens in an [[YouAllMeetInAnInn inn]] with some, but not all, of her memories missing, only to discover over the course of the novel [[spoiler:that her memories are [[FakeMemories fake]], and that she is in fact a rogue magical construct that was only built a few weeks ago.]]
80	* The Redfern Barrett novel ''Forget Yourself'' is set in a land where no-one has any clear memories of the outside, and society must be rebuilt from scratch.
81	* In ''Literature/TheGirlFromTheMiraclesDistrict'', Robin's side of the plot is the mystery of who and what he is.
82	* In ''Literature/MirrorDance'', Miles Vorkosigan goes through several chapters not knowing who he is, [[spoiler:due to amnesia induced by him being killed, frozen, and then revived. His doctors have some idea who he is, but since he has a clone, and they believe the rumor that says he has ''two'' clones, they're not sure ''which'' he is.]]
83	* ''Literature/NightGem'' tackles this trope quite literally as the protagonist discovers an ancient classification system of archetypes and tries to find out how she fits into it.
84	* In ''Literature/TheSagaOfDarrenShan'', Darren's best friend Harkat is a strange, stitched together being who knows that he was a person who died and came back to life, but with no memory of who he was before he died. All along, he has known that in order to find out who he was, he has to stay by Darren's side. In book 10, they go through a strange portal into who-knows-where to finally discover Harkat's "impossibly familiar" true identity.
85	* In ''Literature/TheScavengerTrilogy'' by Creator/KJParker, Poldarn awakes facedown in the mud, surrounded by dead soldiers. He has no idea who he is. The remainder of the series has Poldarn striving to reclaim his lost past, [[spoiler:yet running from the nightmare his past is revealed to be.]]
86	* Played with in the ''Literature/VenusPrime'' series, where Sparta is aware that she used to be Linda Nagy, daughter of a pair of behavioral scientists, but can't remember anything about the three years prior to her waking up in a mental hospital.
87	[[/folder]]
88
89	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
90	* The plot of the ''Series/BanjunDrama'' episode "She's Suspicious" centers around a woman with IdentityAmnesia and her husband, both of whom are trying to figure out who she was in the past. With her ability to fight, shoot guns, and use knives, along with her nightmares that seem to be [[PastExperienceNightmare memories of the past]], the wife and husband both begin to suspect that she was a gangster or in some other violent profession.
91	* In the ''Series/BlackMirror'' episode "[[Recap/BlackMirrorWhiteBear White Bear]]", the protagonist wakes up in a house surrounded by pills with no memory of who she is and a crazed maniac trying to kill her.
92	* The center of ''Series/{{Blindspot}}'': A woman is left in a duffel bag in Times Square with no memory of who she is or why her whole body is covered in mysterious tattoos. The tats help the FBI solve cases while the woman, with the temporary identity of Jane Doe, helps them in the hope of finding clues to her past.
93	* ''Series/ChoushinseiFlashman'': The five rangers were abducted by aliens when they were kids and return to earth as adults and try to find their missing families. [[spoiler:Ultimately the rangers are forced to return to space due to their bodies no longer being compatible with earth and by that time only one of the rangers managed to find their family.]]
94	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Eighth Doctor has amnesia when he wakes up in [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie the TV movie]]. In this case, the audience already knows everything about him, though.
95	* ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'': In one episode, Echo and three other Actives awaken in their sleep chambers with their functional but not declarative memories intact. In addition to the usual quest for identity, this also adds an OntologicalMystery into the plot, because the dollhouse would be a very unusual setting for a normal person to wake up in, what with the commercialized mind control and stuff. Naturally, they go hunting for who they are and the people who did this to them. [[spoiler: It's all a set-up by the Dollhouse to fix a glitch in the brainwiping process; they learn a little but none of them manage to have their memories restored, and as soon as they accomplish whatever minor goal they were after, they black out as they were preprogrammed to do and are wiped again.]]
96	* ''Series/JohnDoe'' with a twist. The titular character is a walking encyclopedia of the combined knowledge of the human race. The only thing he can't remember is who he is.
97	* ''Franchise/KamenRider'':
98	** ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'': Sento Kiriyu became Build to protect people from [[MonsterOfTheWeek Smash]] and to find his memories (and the person who took them).
99	** ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'': Tsukasa Kadoya sets out on the journey across the Another Rider worlds to find the one he belongs to and his identity.
100	* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': The Stranger is an amnesiac AmbiguouslyHuman who fell from the sky near the Harfoot camp. When he wakes up all he knows is that he must find a certain constellation, but other than that, he doesn't know from where he is, what he is and or to speak. He gets mistaken for an amnesiac Sauron by three worshipers from Rhun, and fighting them he learns he is a wizard. With the help of Nori Brandyfoot, he travels to Rhun in the search of said constellation, hoping to learn why was he sent to Middle-earth.
101	* One episode of ''Series/MacGyver1985'' involved Mac developing amnesia after getting shot and thrown out a window into the bay. While trying to figure things out, he can initially only remember a bunch of explosions from previous episodes. He therefore assumes he's a criminal. Then, the bad guy shows up and tells him that he works for military intelligence. This story falls apart because they give him a gun and try to have him kill his friend/boss Pete Thornton. Pete manages to make [=MacGyver=] realize that he DoesntLikeGuns.
102	* ''Series/NowhereMan'': The main character thought he was a photographer whose life had been taken away. Granted, he ''starts the series'' thinking he knows who he is and what he does ... "and in one instant, it was all taken away", if I remember the dialogue right.
103	* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'': This is a major feature of the very famous "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1963S2E5DemonWithAGlassHand Demon with a Glass Hand]]" episode.
104	* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'':
105	** In the episode "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S1E21Birthright Birthright]]", a politician gets into a car accident and lose his memory. He is immediately told who he is but starts to see strange things. He suspects and alien conspiracy only to find out that he himself is an alien and, in fact, the aliens are already growing a replacement for him.
106	** In the episode "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S5E8BlankSlate Blank Slate]]", a man is being chased by some people. He encounters a woman who agrees to help him. He can't remember who he is but has a strange case with him that periodically dispenses a shot of a blue liquid. With every shot, he regains some of his memories. In the end, he takes the last shot and remembers that those people chasing them are working for him. He is a MadScientist who created this method of erasing, storing, and restoring memories. The end of the episode shows him about to do this to the woman who helped him.
107	* ''Series/ResshaSentaiToQger'': The rangers realize in the second episode that they have lost almost all of their memories. They remember being friends with each other when they were kids, but nothing else. They can't even remember their own surnames. They spend the show slowly regaining their lost memories and trying to find their missing hometown.
108	* Chester Tate from ''Series/{{Soap}}'' goes on one of these after he loses his memories in season two after his surgery for [[spoiler:his brain defect that had been causing him blackouts and amnesia]].
109	* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episodes "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E25Transfigurations Transfigurations]]" and "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E14Conundrum Conundrum]]".
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:Toys]]
113	* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'''s Takua. After already having had his memory and identity wiped ''twice'', Takua managed to land on his head and erased his identity ''again''. What followed was a long quest to try and piece together who he is, all the while learning of the Legend of Bionicle, and helping his people fight against darkness.
114	[[/folder]]
115
116	[[folder:Video Games]]
117	* Online game ''The Adventure of Dave'' gives Dave no recollection of his past. However, the boss uses this as key evidence for his chaotic good "HeelFaceTurn."
118	* ''VideoGame/AgarestSenki2'' has this as an overarching plotline where the first generation protagonist must find out who he really is before his amnesia.
119	* The adventure games ''VideoGame/DejaVu1985'' and ''Amnesia'' had the additional twist of the main character being wanted for murder.
120	* ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' has an aversion, in which the Warrior of Light doesn't know who he is or where he comes from. It does seem to bother him from time to time, but he's never shown actively doing anything to try and get his memories back. While it's revealed to the player in ''Dissidia 012'' that [[spoiler: he has no past due to being born a Manikin infused with memories]], he never learns this himself.
121	* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' starts with you as an unknown stranger, born in a certain day from unknown parents. There is no recollection of the past, but that's fine, because the Dunmer believe this is one of the traits of The Nerevarine.
122	* ''VideoGame/{{Flashback}}'', which has the trope name in its [[MarketBasedTitle American subtitle]], thus [[TropeNamers naming the trope]]. Ironically, the whole identity plot ends at the beginning of level 2.
123	* Rion, main character of ''VideoGame/{{Galerians}}'', begins the game StrappedToAnOperatingTable with no idea who he is. But since he has PsychicPowers, he has the means and the will to figure it out.
124	* ''[[VideoGame/{{Geneforge}} Geneforge 5]]'': The player character suffered the backlash of WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity and for several years had mental functionality like that of a rather clever sheepdog. The game starts with you returning to sentience with almost no memories. Throughout the game, you meet several people who seem to recognize you, and ultimately [[spoiler: you never find out and just decide to make a new life for yourself.]]
125	* ''VideoGame/GloryOfHeraclesIII'' revolves around an AmnesiacHero who learns he is immortal and sets off on a journey to discover their past, joining up with other amnesiac immortals along the way. [[spoiler:The Protagonist eventually finds out he was very, very much ''not'' a hero.]]
126	* ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'': Roxas was sick of being in the dark, realizing just how little he really knew of himself. So he ditched Organization XIII to find out who he was before becoming a Nobody, or even if he ''was'' someone before that. At least, that was the idea; [[TheChessmaster DiZ]] had other plans for him.
127	* Both ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' games twist this around in complicated ways.
128	** The first game twists it around in a [[WalkingSpoiler spoilerriffic]] way. Basically, [[spoiler:this sort of applies to one character, but they don't ''know'' it. As in, they don't know that there are vital things about their past they don't remember and that are part of what they're trying to find out, until TheReveal.]]
129	** More simple is ''[[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords Knights of the Old Republic II]]'': you wake up in an abandoned mining facility, and the first act is all about finding out how the hell you got there. So the first part revolves around finding out what happened, but it's because The Exile was unconscious, not because she forgot. The rest of the game actually averts this trope: The Exile knows and hints at who she is and it is the player who must figure it out.
130	* This is [[ProtagonistWithoutAPast Grey's]] entire reason for going through the events of ''VideoGame/MegaManZX Advent'', all in the name of trying to find the truth of his existence from the BigBad, Master Albert. [[SubvertedTrope However]], after fighting Maverick Mechaniloids, Pseudoroids, five other Mega Men, and both [[CoDragons Prometheus and Pandora]], he starts to [[CharacterDevelopment mature]] and decides that it doesn't matter anymore, and when he finally learns that he's actually [[spoiler:Master Albert's [[FlawedPrototype failed]] [[TomatoInTheMirror backup body]] and Model A is a recording of Albert's powers and memories]], he essentially tells Albert [[ShutUpHannibal he doesn't give a damn about that]] and he'll make his own destiny. The fact that one of the Mega Men he fought beforehand was [[ScrewDestiny Ai]][[PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo le]] certainly helped him get over it better, and at the end of the game he goes off on another quest for identity, this time WalkingTheEarth to find his own place alongside Model A.
131	* The player character of ''{{VideoGame/Moonrise}}'' is an AmnesiacHero, waking as a werewolf with no memory of their past, their name, or even the fact they're human. The first choices of the game are limited to what a dog could do in the situation. Once their humanity is remembered, the player can choose to reclaim their human life.
132	* Many players on MU* s create characters of this sort, often because they save the player the trouble of having to do the real work of assembling a character, leading some MU* s to forbid characters of this sort out right.
133	** Those that haven't forbidden it have put it on the "Overdone" list, which generally includes concepts that a player will have to be ''very'' convincing - and probably have to hand in essay-length bios - to justify them getting such a character. To quote (or at least paraphrase; it's been a while) a review of one such (incredibly terrible) app:
134	--> "Your character's past might be mysterious, but you and the staff should still damn well know what that "mysterious past" is."
135	* ''VideoGame/TheNeverhood''. The protagonist's back story is revealed through the PlotCoupons scattered throughout the game. [[spoiler:Namely that ''he doesn't have one'': he was literally made in the room he woke up in.]]
136	* This is the motive of Castti for her journey from ''VideoGame/OctopathTravelerII''. She starts her adventure being found drifting on the sea, with most of her memories lost, and she has to remember who she is, as well as why she was sent adrift.
137	* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'': The protagonist can't stay dead, but keeps coming back to life with no memories of anything, even his name. He's called [[OnlyKnownByHisNickname The Nameless One]] throughout the story, during which he seeks out his lost identity and the reasons for his immortality.
138	* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' involves the player character, Alex Mercer, attempting to remember who he is and who caused the Manhattan ZombieApocalypse. He does this by [[ImAHumanitarian eating people]]. [[spoiler:And y'know who caused the outbreak? ''Alex Mercer'', and the character we're playing isn't the real Alex, he's TheVirus and thought it was him.]]
139	* ''VideoGame/{{Rengoku}}'': In the second game an ADAM keeps getting memories of Captain Gram and decides to uncover them. Killing bosses makes him remember [[spoiler:they were his comrades, and Beatrice who is in love with him has designed the tower to help him remember]].
140	* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilGunSurvivor'', for the most part, revolves around the unnamed protagonist, barely surviving a helicopter crash, developing amnesia and must find out who he is while exploring the zombie-infested Sheena Island. A clue obtained halfway into the game have him realizing he's Vincent Goldman, the Umbrella Director responsible for the zombie outbreak in the island, but much later [[spoiler: upon reuniting with the Klein siblings, did he realize he's actually Ark Thompson, a private investigator trying to bring down Vincent instead]].
141	* ''VideoGame/SecondSight'' with a twist. John Vattic is actually [[spoiler:not trying to remember the past but is foreseeing a possible future where the BigBad has captured and brain-wiped him. The past is actually the present]].
142	* In the original video game adaption of ''{{VideoGame/Shadowrun}}'', the hero is shot and 'killed' by men working for his disgruntled boss, [[TheDreaded Drake]]. He's saved by a shaman and reawakens in the morgue, sans memory.
143	* Shadow The Hedgehog has been doing this since ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''. In his first appearance, he had part of his memory, but by ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'', he had lost all of his memory, taking him on a quest for his identity that would come to a head in ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog''.
144	* A large part of ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' revolves around the quest for identity of Mario's ExpositionFairy, Tippi, who can't remember who she is.
145	* ''VideoGame/TheTalosPrinciple'' allows the player character, a robot dropped off in the middle of a mysterious island, to optionally go on a quest to find out its identity and purpose as it solves the various puzzles the world presents, or alternatively ignore this burning question and do as the AI calling itself Elohim tells it to.
146	* ''VideoGame/TheWhiteChamber''. The main character awakens in a strange coffin in a small room, with no idea who she is and how she got there. She's on an abandoned space station -- abandoned because [[spoiler: ''[[AmnesiacDissonance she murdered everyone else on board]]''.]]
147	* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher''. There's even a quest called "Identity". Some thought it not yet witchy enough. Others found it somewhat witchier than they expected.
148	[[/folder]]
149
150	[[folder:Webcomics]]
151	* This is ultimately why Red XIII {{Face Heel Turn}}ed in ''Webcomic/AnsemRetort''; to find out more about himself, his race (of which he's the LastOfHisKind), and how the fuck humans managed to get superior over them anyway.
152	* In ''Webcomic/{{APOC}}'', having no prior knowledge of the first twelve years of her life, this is the only thing Clara cares about. For now.
153	* The inhabitants of ''Webcomic/TheEnds'' are reborn [[IdentityAmnesia without memories]] in an endless cycle. The protagonist, Jason, has managed to recover a portion of his identity and is now questing for the remainder.
154	* Subverted in ''Webcomic/HannaIsNotABoysName'' -- the narrator, a zombie, woke up ten years ago with [[IdentityAmnesia no memory of his past life]] [[NoNameGiven or even his name.]] Instead of going on a quest for identity, however, he spent those years wandering and contemplating life and has joined Hanna in his supernatural investigations for something to do rather than finding out why he's come back to life. He has shown relatively little interest in his past identity and has even stated in [[AllThereInTheManual the artist's Q&A]] that if he remembered the identities and address of his family, he probably wouldn't go see them - it would be too cruel to them.
155	* ''Webcomic/ImTheGrimReaper'': Played for horror, as [[spoiler:god]] has allowed Earth to become a CrapsackWorld for the sole purpose of ''finding out who they used to be''.
156	* Iris Brockman in ''Webcomic/TalesOfGnosisCollege'' averts this trope. In spite of a bizarre sequence of events involving total physical discontinuity with her past self, she has no doubts as to who she is.
157	[[/folder]]
158
159	[[folder:Web Original]]
160	* Both the main characters of ''Roleplay/RubyQuest''. As well as just about everyone else, apparently.
161	* ''Literature/StoneBurners'', starts off like this. The protagonist ends up adopting "Olivia" as a name while she figures out who she is, or was.
162	[[/folder]]
163
164	[[folder:Web Animation]]
165	* In ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'', after discovering [[spoiler:that he's actually an amnesiac AI, dying, and being resurrected via an AI based on his memories]], Church spends Season 8 trying to figure out who and what he is.
166	[[/folder]]
167
168	[[folder:Western Animation]]
169	* ''WesternAnimation/ActionMan1995'': The Action Man has no memories of his past life. The now-notorious DVD ''Action Man:Past Performance'' indicates this.
170	* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': For much of the first season, King is convinced that he is the literal "King of Demons" who lost his powers. Season 2's ''Echoes of the Past'' reveals that King [[spoiler: was not the King of Demons at all, and all his memories were just delusions that Eda indulged in a misguided attempt at making him happy.]] King's story arc for the rest of the show focuses on his quest to find out about his origins, culminating in the reveal that he is the son of none other than [[spoiler: the Titan himself]].
171	* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'': Bloom, having lost her memory upon being sent to Earth as a baby and grew up as an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent, spends the early seasons of the show learning her true family heritage; that she's the last remining survivor of the planet Domino, her biological parents are King Oritel and Queen Marion, she's the bearer of an ancient powerful magic called the Dragon's Flame, and especially to track down the location of where her birth parents are.
172	[[/folder]]

Context Main / QuestForIdentity