Obey... Obey...
This is the device that the villain (usually) will use to keep the hero, townspeople, or Mr/Mrs. Random Supporting Character in thrall. It has been used countless times in stories across many different types of media.
Plot Device,
MacGuffin, and even a key part of a
Very Special Episode.
While these devices tend to fall into two general categories, either broadcasting "hypno-waves" at any luckless viewer for a one-time treatment, or are somehow attached to the victim's body (usually the head), they ultimately know no shape and can come in nearly any specific form:
That sword you just picked up?
Hope you like being a slave to the evil overlord.
That mask that looks so good on you?
Hope you can control the demonic power inside.
That shampoo you're using?
Dr. D's BrainWashing Shampoo and Cranium Rinse.
See
Mind Control,
Mind Control Eyes and
More Than Mind Control for the effects of these devices. May be the result of televising a person with the power of
Hypnotic Eyes.
Subtropes include:
Subliminal Seduction and
Hypno Ray.
See also:
Power Perversion Potential for the inevitable result in some viewers.
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Examples
Anime & Manga
- Shugo Chara mainly has X-Eggs and now they've took it a step further. Now they have Question Eggs which turn people into DARK Chara Naris.
- Sailor Moon has had this in spades.
- Artist Girl — Pencil
- Prince Endymion — Queen Beryl
- Chibi Moon (Rini) — Wiseman
- Shampoo of Ranma ½ uses hypnotic pressure points, mind-control mushrooms, and memory-erasing shampoo at various points to further her sinister plots. The plots usually don't work, the items/techniques work flawlessly. Not only that, in the final story arc she is imprisoned in a mind-control egg and emerges the slave of the bad guys.
- The Consideration Console in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. Implanted in Lutecia by Jail Scaglietti so that someone like Quattro could override her thoughts should the need arise.
Card Games
- Magic: The Gathering's Mindslaver
, in the sense that you have entire control over what your opponent would do for their turn. Indeed there's a popular deck that wins by being able to use mindslaver on every turn to prevent your opponent from being able to do anything.
Comics
- Spellbinder from The Batman comics.
- The Mad Hatter also from the Batman comics.
- The Ringmaster, with his hypno-spiral top hat, has battled nearly every hero in the Marvel universe at one point or another. (And lost.)
- Julian's friend, Detective Henrique, and other officers in the Meridiana police force are brainwashed by José's new mind-control device, ordered to patrol the city streets for Cybersix.
- The Marvel Universe has the Serpent Crown, a mind control device used to channel the power of Set, an Elder God. Many superheroes have fought villains attempting to conquer the world in the thrall of Set.
- An unusual version shows up at the start of the Deadpool/Great Lakes Avengers Summer Fun crossover. It just makes its targets drunk.
Films
- The gigantic hypnotic spinning wheel from The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies.
- A similar wheel appears briefly in the spy-spoof Our Man Flint.
- While a flashing hand-held version was used by the villain in The Hypnotic Eye. (Actually, he was the real villain's semi-willing stooge.
- The golden mask in the hilarious B-movie Puma Man.
- Ceti Eels are a living version of this from Star Trek II.
- Let's also not forget the
flashy thing Neuraliser from Men In Bl— *flash* Forget what?
- The first Naked Gun film had this as the main weapon of the villains.
- Stryker kept mutants in his thrall by administrating some sort of evil liquid to the next in the second X-Men movie.
- In the mostly forgettable (if you're lucky) Wild Wild West movie, Artemus Gordon uses one to gain information about the Big Bad's plans.
Gamebooks
- In Book 3 of the Lone Wolf series, The Cavern of Kalte, evil sorcerer Vonotar the Traitor uses gold bracelets to control the Ice Barbarians. Putting one on your wrist is a very bad idea.
Literature
- The wiggly thing from the evil horses on The Fate of the Fallen.
- In the later Honor Harrington novels, a rogue planet of eugenicists called Mesa develops a nano-virus that is capable of compelling behaviour out of its victims. It is used several times to stage assasinations and get rid of key enemies and is noteable in the series for being initially dismissed as impossible because they've had mind control tech for centuries but every military has its people protected against it.
- Trombophone Music in The City of Dreaming Books. While we see a taste of it early in the novel, exactly how powerful it is doesn't become apparent until the very end.
- The 3D Hypno-Ring from Captain Underpants.
Live Action TV
- Star Trek Voyager. Homaged in the Captain Proton holodeck program in "Thirty Days". The Twin Mistresses of Evil (played by the famous Delaney twins) have Buster Kincaid (played by Harry Kim) chained up so they can use the terrible Brain Probe, which they promise will turn him into their grovelling slave. Harry does not seem particularly adverse to the idea.
- Several different varieties turned up during the original run of Doctor Who; sometimes it was even the Doctor himself using them.
- If Karl Rove gives you a cookie, don't eat it.
- One of these is used in Red Dwarf. It only controls the body, giving a rather interesting discussion between victim and targets.
- _Nobody_ is mentioning the Star Trek ep "Dagger of the Mind"?????
Tabletop Games
Video Games
- Majora's Mask, from the titular Legend of Zelda game.
- Heroic version: Little King Story for the Wii from the makers of Harvest Moon features a little boy finding a magical crown that commands the obedience of all around him.
- Command & Conquer features mind control with Yuri in Red alert 2 and the "Yuri's Revenge" expansion pack. Units change side (and color) and start fighting against you.
- The Tiberium Wars games feature the Scrin Mastermind, an alien with the ability to take over units and buildings in a similar manner to Yuri.
- Terra, one of the characters of Final Fantasy VI, wears a slave crown and thus is mind controlled.
- Arthas' sword Frostmourne in Warcraft III is a tool of mind control.
- In World of Warcraft, players with engineering trade skill can learn how to craft a mind control device that allows them to temporarily control a player or a creature (it's highly unreliable and won't work on high level targets, though).
- The old video game Paradroid had you playing as one of these. You controlled the "Influence Device", used to hijack rogue droids on a ship suffering from a Robot Rebellion.
- You, the Brain In A Jar in Cortex Command, use this to control units. Good thing too, since so far, the AI is pretty darned dumb.
Web Comics
- Mutant Ninja Turtles Gaiden put this to immediate use at the start of the series, giving us a chance to watch the turtles try to kill each other, bringing their emotional hot spots to the forefront, and allowing the viewers to realize that with this much blood and agony, the webcomic certainly isn't going to be as kid-friendly as the cartoon.
- The "slaver wasps" from Girl Genius.
Western Animation
- A staple prop in many sillier cartoons. Expect the word "hypno" to appear somewhere in the device's name.
- For most of Aladdin, this is the only function of Jafar's snake staff.
- Kim Possible offers quite a few examples:
- Compliance Chips ("Total mind control!");
- Mood-controlling "Moodulator";
- "Hypno-Ray" inside a disco ball;
- Love-creating Cupid Ray;
- "Dr. D's Brainwashing Shampoo and Cranium Rinse."
- Spellbinder's eye thing from Batman Beyond. The spiral theme to his costume is probably supposed to heighten the effect.
- Mad Mod's hypno-screens from Teen Titans.
- Deadeye from Chop Sockey Chooks. By the way, if anyone knows the correct spelling of Sockey, let me know.
- The Hypno-Ray from several episodes of Jimmy Neutron.
- Ed Edd N Eddy used one of those spinning things to brainwash everyone in the cul-de-sac in the episode "Look Into My Eds". Then the Kanker Sisters got their hands on it...
- The Mad Hatter from Batman the Animated Series controls minds without spirals, using cards marked 10/6 which he sticks on people's heads.
- And that's just his stock device; he has been known to use other things when appropriate.
- Freakshow from Danny Phantom had a mystical staff that could be used to mind-control ghosts... or half-ghosts in the case of Danny.
- In WordGirl, this is recurring villain Mr. Big's whole gimmick.
- Sublimino's pocketwatch in Ben10.
- Chowder is partly controlled by a lollipop with a swirly pattern.
- Once Chowder gets tired of it, he gets controlled by a cinammon swirl, then pizza.
- In Code Lyoko, XANA manages to sneak an enhanced piece of jewelry to Aelita, who's usually immune to the mind control through his specters, by disguising it as a Valentine's gift from Jérémie.
- Many devices in the Transformers multiverse are able to temporarily "overwrite" the personality and faction programming of one side with that of the other.
- The Headmasters are an entire race of these. Sort of.
- Futurama: All glory to the Hypotoad.
- "Must! Do! Wonderful! Things! For my! Best! Friend! Stimpy!"
Real Life
