History Main / AmnesiacsAreInnocent

* {{Justified}} in ''VideoGame/LufiaAndTheFortressOfDoom''. [[spoiler:Lufia's new bout of amnesia at the end of the story comes as a result of her being split completely from Erim, the Sinistral of Death.]]

If there was a StartOfDarkness, the amnesia need only roll back to before then to produce this.

* Inverted on ''Series/GeneralHospital''. Jason Quartermaine losing his memory through a car accident at the end of 1995 also leads to him losing his innocent NiceGuy personality and going from the Quartermaines' golden boy to their BlackSheep. Interestingly, he never recovers his original memories and his transformation into mobster Jason Morgan has been permanent into the 2020s.

** In ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'', the AxeCrazy [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Super Sonic]] temporarily loses his memories after [[EnemyWithout being separated from Sonic himself]]. He finds himself haunted by his past as his repressed destructive impulses gradually begin to return to him, though he initially interprets them as being recurring nightmares of a demonic entity destroying the world. [[spoiler:Sadly, his newfound pacifism doesn't last, and he ends up merging back with Sonic]].

* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
** The Ultimate version of Charles Xavier mindwipes Magneto at one point, and he becomes a rather genial old man fond of a game of chess in the park. [[StatusQuoIsGod It doesn't stick.]]
** After Necrosha, Emma Frost captures Sebastian Shaw and sentences him to remember nothing but the faces of his victims. He's kept at Utopia as a man with secondhand knowledge of who he was that has managed to form relationships with some of the new mutants that arrive.

* ''ComicBook/MadMan'': The titular character is a pretty innocent and childlike person due to being an amnesiac corpse.

* It really looked like it would be used to get ComicBook/IronMan off the hook for his actions in ''ComicBook/CivilWar''. Tony ends up having to restore his brain from a backup which he made before the registration crisis. But to his credit, he refuses to use this as an excuse -- he may not remember the decisions he made, but he wasn't a different person when he made them.

* Lucy From ''Manga/ElfenLied'': pre-amnesia, she was basically something between AxCrazy {{Yandere}} and WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds. Post-amnesia, she's TheIngenue and an InnocentFanserviceGirl who has to be taught how to take off her clothes. When she eventually gets her memories back, things get nastier.

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode "Passing Through Gethsemane" deals with this topic when a kind, pious monk is revealed to be [[spoiler:a serial killer whose personality was erased and a kinder one with new memories was put in place. This is a regular punishment for capital crimes, set up in an earlier episode. The families of his victims did not believe he was innocent and came for revenge.]]
** In an ironic twist, the man who triggered the monk's memory freely admitted to it, and was also given a memory wash, becoming another monk in the same order, in effect, his replacement.

* In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "Tabula Rasa", the main characters all get LaserGuidedAmnesia due to a spell cast by Willow. This trope comes into play with [[TokenEvilTeammate Spike]]--as a vampire, he [[OurSoulsAreDifferent has no soul]] and thus literally no sense of innate morality, and only avoids killing people because he has a RestrainingBolt and emotional attachments to Buffy and Dawn. Without his memories you would assume that his amoral instincts would take over, but no, even when he discovers that he's a vampire he assumes that he's a good one.

* ''Series/DarkMatter'': After the crew of the ''Raza'' discover the things they're done before their memories were wiped clean, they are all thoroughly disgusted with themselves. Except Three, who really doesn't have a problem with the idea that he was a "badass" mercenary in his original life and [[CharacterDevelopment starts out]] as arguably the TokenEvilTeammate. But is still not as nasty as he was before the mindwipe. And Five, of course; a MysteriousWaif who has no such record. When [[spoiler:Four]] later regains his memories, he notes that she's the one who's changed the least from her original self.

* In ''Fanfic/ResonanceDays'', this trope is debated between Charlotte and Kyoko. Witches arrive in the afterlife with no memories of their previous lives, while Magical Girls have full recollection of how they died and their lives before that. Kyoko is determined to find a way to get her friend Sayaka's memories back. Charlotte, however, points out that becoming a witch in the first place requires crossing the DespairEventHorizon, so it might be better for them if they don't remember whatever trauma they suffered to get to that point. The fic doesn't present either side as being in the right, but it's worth noting that magical girls tend to suffer a good deal of AfterlifeAngst that witches don't have to deal with.

%%* Isabella in ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars: Days Of Ruin''.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'', Guardians are [[BackFromTheDead resurrected]] with little-to-no memory of their past life and are expected to keep it that way, most likely to [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this trope. In the event that a new Guardian's past life was a known criminal, the Tower expunges their record, effectively treating the Guardian's pre- and post-revival selves as separate individuals. This is how [[spoiler:Uldren Sov was allowed to join after being revived in ''[[VideoGame/Destiny2 The Black Armory]]'', even though he killed Cayde-6 in ''Forsaken'' (among other crimes) and was killed in turn by either the PlayerCharacter or Petra Venj in retribution.]]

** Terra of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' has no memories but her name and is a TechnicalPacifist and TheIngenue. She had previously been used as a living weapon by TheEmpire and initially must flee the town she doesn't remember attacking. Locke and Edgar make a point of telling people who resent her that she shouldn't be held responsible for acts she doesn't remember and was mind-controlled into committing.
** Similarly to Terra, Yotsuyu in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' loses her memory as the deadly and sadistic acting viceroy of Doma and takes up a childlike attitude as "Tsuyu", under the watchful eye of the aging samurai Gosetsu. A lot of hemming and hawing happen with the heroes as she ''was'' a dangerous person, made clear when she wanders into a village and they all react in horror. Even more so is that her brother Asahi coming to pick her back up to return her to Garlemald. [[spoiler:Sadly, Asahi uses Yotsuyu in a cruel attempt to dash the Populares faction's attempt to end the Garlean Empire's warmongering ways and try to regain Doma.]]

* In ''Manga/StoneOcean,'' Weather Report is an ally of the heroes with no memories of his past. [[spoiler:When he gets them back, it turns out that he is much more of a sociopathic Jerkass who crossed the DespairEventHorizon a long time ago.]]

* [[AmnesiacHero Abe no Seimei]] from ''VideoGame/{{Onmyoji}}'' definitely qualifies, even though he often fears that he might have [[AmnesiacDissonance done bad things in the past]]. [[spoiler: The only crime he committed then was to ''accidentally'' [[CreateYourOwnVillain create]] [[EvilCounterpart Kuro]] [[LiteralSplitPersonality Seimei]].]]

** In "Riddles", the Vulcan security officer Tuvok loses his memory, causing him to forget the [[SpeciesOfHats Vulcan practise of control of emotions]]. Apart from acting like a ManChild he also befriends Neelix, whom he usually treats with polite disdain.
** Downplayed in "Warhead" when a sentient missile loses its memory and temporarily forgets it's a WeaponOfMassDestruction. Once restored however it proceeds with its mission, but the crew are able to convince it not to after discovering it was launched by accident.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', Metallo suffers from amnesia after being caught in an explosion. He ends up befriending a pair of children, and even saves their lives. As soon as his memories return he immediately reverts to evil.

* Zigzagged in ''Theatre/JasperInDeadland''. Jasper and Agnes act more optimistic and carefree when they lose their memories, due to no longer remembering anything stressful or traumatic from their lives. However, it's not that they don't ''know'' about how awful the world can be, it's just that they don't ''care''. Losing their memories also makes them act noticeably more raunchy and profane.

A subtrope of RousseauWasRight, since the amnesiac is operating without the social conditioning of their life experience so far, and by extension opposed to VillainousLineage, since if wickedness were genetic, an amnesiac would be just as evil without their memories as with them. Because they are innocent and not actively good, it may also lead to CriminalAmnesiac, through being too trusting. They may also wreak all kinds of havoc through innocent unawareness. On a darker note, DeathOfPersonality may be employed to invoke this, and people who perform a MemoryGambit are also abusing this trope in order to further their plans.

* The narrator of ''Literature/Piranesi'' is cheerful, trusting, and earnest to be point of being childlike. [[spoiler: It is later revealed that Piranesi is actually a man named Matthew Rose Sorenson, who was trapped in the House by the Other. Matthew Rose Sorenson was a much angrier and more cynical man than the guileless Piranesi, who has a hard time understanding his past persona's behavior.]]

* Piranesi, the narrator of ''Literature/Piranesi'', is cheerful, trusting, and earnest to be point of being childlike. [[spoiler: It is later revealed that Piranesi is actually a man named Matthew Rose Sorenson, who was trapped in the House by the Other. Matthew Rose Sorenson was a much angrier and more cynical man than the guileless Piranesi, who has a hard time understanding his past persona's behavior.]]