Line #35 Main/AmnesiaDanger


1	->'''Leonard Shelby:''' ''[thinking while running]'' OK, so what am I doing?\
2	''[sees Dodd also running]''\
3	'''Leonard:''' Oh, I'm chasing this guy.\
4	''[Dodd shoots at Leonard]''\
5	'''Leonard:''' No... he's chasing me.
6	-->-- ''Film/{{Memento}}''
7
8	The main character or characters has amnesia in a situation which would be trivially easy to handle if they could remember how to deal with the situation, but is extremely dangerous because they can't.
9
10	For this trope to work; the character or object at hand must be completely oblivious to their capability to solve the current-tense conflict, or be so about the knowledge how to; followed with the ''base fact'' that said character once had the knowledge / ability to solve the issue.
11
12	Often a sign of writers desperate for plot ideas -- not always, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools because there have been some good stories on these lines]], but usually. It's especially common in sci-fi and fantasy shows, because they have plenty of AppliedPhlebotinum lying around to explain the fact that [[LaserGuidedAmnesia the amnesia's so precise.]] It is also a [[PlotDevice Plot Device]] used in order to build up the melodrama for an explosive epilogue. Compare DramaPreservingHandicap, contrast ForgotAboutHisPowers.
13
14	[[noreallife]]
15	----
16	!!Examples
17	[[foldercontrol]]
18
19	[[folder:Advertising]]
20	* A mid-80's Cocoa Puffs ad campaign guest-starred Franchise/{{Popeye}} with the cereal's mascot Sonny the Cuckoo Bird. Popeye is trying to help Sonny escape the kids who constantly amuse themselves by tempting him to cave in to his Cocoa Puffs addiction. Popeye's ship runs aground and he gets hit on the head, forgetting all about spinach! Kids were asked to write in to remind Popeye of his secret weapon. Naturally, the sailor eventually remembers, but even spinach isn't strong enough to fight the addictive power of Cocoa Puffs!
21	[[/folder]]
22
23	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
24	* In the ''Manga/CaseClosed'' non-canon movie, ''Captured in Her Eyes'', Ran witnesses someone nearly killing a police officer friend of hers and, as a result, undergoes a severe case of TraumaInducedAmnesia. This puts her in danger in two ways, when the killer decides to off her because [[HeKnowsTooMuch she knows too much]]. The first is that while she saw the identity of the killer, her amnesia means she can't recognize him [[spoiler:even though she repeatedly sees him when he treats her as her doctor]]. The second is that she completely forgets her knowledge of fighting, so she's more or less defenseless when the killer makes several attempts on her life. [[spoiler:When she ''does'' get her memories back, she gives the killer an ''epic'' beatdown to make up for it.]]
25	* ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' has an example where a character thinks this is the case, but it actually isn't. Terra of the Left notes that Touma isn't using the full potential of Imagine Breaker, and correctly deduces that he has amnesia. However, the little that is shown of Touma before the amnesia indicates that he still didn't fully understand his power.
26	* Happened to Lelouch in Episode 1 of ''Anime/CodeGeass R2''. He could have dealt with Britannia's attack with the help of La Resistance if he hadn't had his memories wiped, but instead of kicking Britannia's ass he spent the latter half of the episode uselessly running around. He more than makes up for it when he gets his memories back by [[spoiler:[[ItsGoingDown toppling a TOWER on top of his enemies]] while [[ManipulativeBastard still managing to convince them that the amnesia hadn't been fixed.]]]]
27	* ''Anime/CuteyHoney'': In the first episode of ''New Cutey Honey'', she spends a long while running from the {{Mook}}s of the [[spoiler:apparent]] BigBad until she gets her memories back and remembers she can kick their sorry butts easily.
28	* The Stand Jail House Lock in ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'' takes advantage of this to an extreme degree. The Stand attenuates the victim's short-term memory to the point that they cannot retain more than three facts at any time. If the villain for instance shoots four bullets at Jolyne, at the point she notices the fourth one ''she'll forget they fired the first one''. [[spoiler:This backfires when Jolyne sees the reflection of the bullets in a puddle - turning the four bullets into ''one memory'' and allowing her to escape.]]
29	* In ''Anime/{{K}}'' Shiro turning out to not know who he is drives a lot of the plot (as much as whether or not he is a murderer) and lo and behold, [[spoiler:the fact he's the Silver King automatically not only makes him innocent of the murder, but powerful enough to drive back any enemies by being the First and most powerful King.]]
30	* Kaito in ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' could have saved both Lucia and Michal a lot of heartache and jealousy if he just remembered who he was and which one was his girlfriend.
31	* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'':
32	** Inverted with Yue in the "Magical World" arc: Her amnesia results in her being admitted to a prestigious school of magic and later to a group of magical knights, completely shielding her from anyone attempting to claim the huge bounty on her despite said knights serving as law enforcement personnel.
33	** Asuna Kagurazaka may turn out to be a straight, if unusually long-term, case: Her missing memories have so far been shown to include her own magical-combat abilities and her time being escorted by the Ala Rubra, and probably include more knowledge of Negi's father than anyone else has yet shared with him, all of which would be helpful to have as she, Negi, and the gang are on a quest to find Negi's father.
34	%% ZCE * Stop and think for a second about how much less story there would have been in ''Manga/RaveMaster'' if Elie had never lost her memories.
35	* Happens to ''Anime/TekkamanBlade'' as his memories start to get damaged as a result of the Blaster transformation. He knows his powers, but forgets how to use them properly. Specifically that his Transformation Crystal was broken and incorperated into his robot Pegas instead, and Pegas lacks the intelligence to realize the problem, simply asking him over and over why he isn't transforming. Eventually Aki shows up and manually triggers Pegas's function and he he's retaught how to use it afterwards.
36	* It happened to [[TheHero Duke Fleed]] in one of the manga versions of ''Anime/UFORoboGrendizer'' -one of the ''Anime/MazingerZ'' sequels-. In the first episode of the Gosaku Ota manga, Duke does not remember anything about his past since [[TheProfessor Dr. Umon]] had wiped his memory's out so he could live peacefully without remembering anything about his destroyed home and slaughtered family. When [[AlienInvasion the Vegans began their attacks]] the shock brought his memories back and he remembered he could, you know, put a stop to that.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Comic Books]]
40	* ''ComicBook/BlackPanther'': In one story arc Photon, once leader of ComicBook/TheAvengers, had kind of forgotten who she was and how to use her powers. This was unfortunate as the city she was in was having a [[ZombieApocalypse vampire apocalypse]], a situation her light based powers were ideal for dealing with. What's worse is that most of the other heroes don't really know her or what she's capable of and therefore aren't trying to get her to remember. Matter of fact, by the end of the story she still doesn't have her memories back (despite being a little better with her powers). [[ContinuityOverlap Somewhere]] down the line she eventually does lose her amnesia though.
41	* Rose Forrest/The Thorn in Creator/DCComics' ''Rose And Thorn'' had the same deal. In current continuity, Rhosyn Forrest ''knows'' about Thorn, but doesn't trust her, and certainly can't do the things she does.
42	* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' storyline "ComicBook/TheSuperSteedOfSteel", Comet the Super-Horse feeds on some water-lilies, unaware that they are a rare variety of lotus which causes amnesia when eaten, and forgets his real identity. Shortly later, Comet falls off a cliff and nearly crashes on the ground because he forgot he can fly.
43	* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': In one issue, Bruce forgot that he was Batman. ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} and Robin had to team up to protect him and get him to remember.
44	* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': In the Creator/DonRosa comic "Forget It!", Magica de Spell puts a curse on Scrooge and Donald Duck, which has the following effect: whenever they hear their names spoken in conjunction with another thing, they immediately forget the thing in question ever existed. Thus, they can't even open a door, because she makes them forget what doors are. And this is just the beginning...
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Fan Works]]
48	* In the ''Anime/YuGiOh'' fanfic, ''[[FanFic/ThePrincessAndTheDragon The Princess and the Dragon]]'', Mai is under a spell that makes her forget Jou and Ishtar [[note]] Yami Marik [[/note]], as well as Jean Claude's true identity. Her ignorance puts her in grave peril.
49	* Zigzagged in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Foxfire\|RaharMoonfire}}''. Since Li's amnesia made him less angry and more friendlier, he has more friends and allies. On the other hand, Li nearly suffocates to death when Katara encases his head in ice blocking his airways. Katara did it to buy herself time, knowing that Zuko would melt it. However Li couldn't. More subtly, lacking Zuko's memories and experiences through trauma makes Li much more vulnerable emotionally as he's re-experiencing past trauma and living through new trauma for the first time without any of his coping mechanisms.
50	* The premise of the ''Anime/CodeGeass'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6918217/1/Absolute-Zero Absolute Zero]]'' is that C.C.'s efforts to get Lelouch back to normal at the start of R2 fail, letting him use his Geass but without any of his memories of being Lelouch vi Britannia or Zero. But due to circumstances, he become Zero again to fight against Britannia, using the tactical skills he still possessed for chess and sneaking out of Ashford Academy to win victory for the Black Knights.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Films — Animated]]
54	* The Pixar film ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' has Dory, a fish with short-term memory loss. This is also one of the most realistic depictions of amnesia in fiction.
55	** When she does finally find Nemo, she doesn't immediately realize it since she forgot that she was helping his dad look for him.
56	* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseTheMovie'': The villain, Spinel, is poofed with the "rejuvenator" she used on the Crystal Gems, a device that [[IdentityAmnesia resets a Gem to their default state and wipes their memories]]. While she's no longer a direct threat, this means Spinel no longer knows how to turn off the enormous injector that's pumping a powerful bio-weapon into the Earth's crust and [[RaceAgainstTheClock will wipe out all life on Earth in about forty-one hours]], meaning Steven has to help her get her memories back as well as those of the Crystal Gems (especially Pearl, who is the only one that recognizes Spinel).
57	[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
60	* Inverted in ''Film/ThirtySixHours1965''. If the main character only knew that he did ''not'' have amnesia, but was rather being subjected to an elaborate deception, his course of action would be clear: he must keep secret from the Nazis who have captured him the time and location of the D-Day landings. Unfortunately he thinks the people all around him are doctors and that six years have passed that he can't remember.
61	* In the Dana Carvey film ''Film/CleanSlate'', the protagonist is a detective suffering from amnesia who's supposed to testify in court but can't remember the details of the case he was working on.
62	* Subverted in ''Film/TheLongKissGoodnight'' when a hit man shows up at Sam's house and she handily kicks his ass, without knowing quite how she's doing it.
63	* ''Film/{{Memento}}'': At one point, the amnesiac Leonard (who cannot hold onto any new memories for more than 20 minutes) assumes he's chasing a man until said man starts shooting at him, at which point he realizes that the man is chasing ''him.'' He escapes, but upon having reached the hotel room of the man, he hides in the bathroom and prepares to ambush his quarry with a wine bottle. However, he forgets why he is there as well and assumes he was about to take a shower, leaving him unprepared for when the enemy does arrive.
64	* ''Film/MenInBlackII'': The MIB need the memory-wiped Kay to come out of retirement to deal with the crisis at hand. And when he remembers being in MIB, it turns out he wiped his memory of the critical event, so they're still in trouble.
65	* In the film ''Film/{{Mirage\|1990}}'', the main character is unaware he has amnesia at all. His mind, to cover the amnesia, has filled in the blanks. This becomes a problem when hired killers pursue him, also unaware he has amnesia and can't give him the information they want.
66	* ''Film/StarTrekInsurrection'''s plot is kick-started after Data is damaged in a way where he retained no conscious memory, and was driven only by "moral subroutines."
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Literature]]
70	* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' Megamorphs #1: The Andalite's Gift, Rachel endures [[TapOnTheHead head trauma]] and loses her memory. As a result, she spends most of the book lost in the woods since she can't remember who she is, nor that she can morph to help find her way out.
71	* In the fourth ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' book, [[spoiler: Opal Koboi has escaped and is getting her revenge several people, including Holly Short and the title character. Unfortunately for Artemis, he had been [[WistfulAmnesia mindwiped]] and remembers absolutely nothing about Fairies, which leads to Holly having to take charge when the two have to escape a group of trolls.]]
72	* In Cornell Woolrich's "The Black Curtain" a man is struck on the head and gets off the ground unaware that he's had amnesia for the last two years. People start chasing him but he has no idea why, or where he has been.
73	* The main premise of ''Literature/AWindNamedAmnesia'' where [[spoiler:aliens cause]] a world-wide memory loss affects everything from animals and humans to computers with only ''one'' cyborg not being affected, causing {{the end of the world\|AsWeKnowIt}}.
74	* In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', Bonesaw of the Slaughterhouse Nine creates a plague that inflicts prosopagnosia[[note]]inability to recognize faces[[/note]] on the people infected. Skitter, the protagonist, is attempting to find and kill the last surviving members of the Nine after she and the Protectorate have managed to eliminate or neutralize the others, before the plague hits and they all end up fighting one another. It's at that point that she runs into a handsome older white man and a prepubescent girl, whom she believes to be her teammates Grue and Tattletale. As the readers know but Skitter doesn't, the real Grue is black and both he and Tattletale are teenagers. The fake Grue is actually [[spoiler:Jack Slash]] and the fake Tattletale is [[spoiler:Bonesaw herself]].
75	* In the ''Literature/{{Relativity}}'' story "Sinkhole", Phanthro uses a device to make ''all'' of the main characters forget that he's a supervillain.
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
79	* An episode of ''Series/SevenDays1998'' had terrorists give a bomber wing an order to destroy an American base (supposedly overrun). Since Frank temporarily lost his memory when traveling back, the good guys didn't contact the bombers until they were [[IrrevocableOrder past the official point of no return]]. They had to put the commander's pregnant wife on the phone to convince him.
80	* ''Series/{{Angel}}''
81	** [[spoiler:The [[LossOfIdentity memory-wiped]] Connor is fighting Sahjhan and losing decisively until Wesley inadvertently returns his memories mid-fight. About 6 seconds later Sahjhan is decapitated.]]
82	** In "[[Recap/AngelS04E06SpinTheBottle Spin the Bottle]]", the heroes mentally regress back to their teenage selves. Most of them had little or no fighting experience at that age, and so the team find themselves unusually vulnerable - in addition to [[EntertaininglyWrong wrongly figuring out what was going on]].
83	%%* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E8TabulaRasa Tabula Rasa]]" - there are elements of this in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E6Halloween Halloween]]", too.
84	* ''Series/{{Charmed\|1998}}'':
85	** Prue becomes a teenager and loses her memories in "Be Careful What You Witch For", getting her in trouble with an evil dragon warlock.
86	** Piper loses her memories in "Valhalley of the Dolls", causing explosions galore.
87	** Leo loses his memories in "The Seven Year Witch", making it almost impossible to make his way home and return to Piper and his sons.
88	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
89	** In the two-parter [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature "Human Nature"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood "The Family of Blood"]], the Doctor turns himself human and puts his Time Lord memories into a watch in order to hide from the MonsterOfTheWeek. He intends for Martha to open the watch and give him his memories back if the aliens show up, but it gets stolen, leaving them all in danger.
90	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E3VictoryOfTheDaleks "Victory of the Daleks"]]: Amy ''should'' recognize the Daleks from the time they [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth invaded]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd her world]], but she doesn't, to the Doctor's considerable worry.
91	** This is the main threat of [[spoiler:the Silence: you can only remember them when you're actually looking at them. As soon as you've looked away for even a couple of seconds, you forget what you saw.]]
92	* Played with in ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' episode 4, "Gray Hour". The whole theme of the series revolves around certain characters who are given amnesia and new personalities almost twice an episode. Then halfway through this episode, [[spoiler:one of these Actives, Echo, loses her imprint as a master thief in the middle of a mission thanks to a remote wipe by the Big Bad.]] From there this trope is played straight. Interestingly, the Dollhouse's solution to the crisis is pretty ingenious. They give the same personality to a different Active and have her guide Echo by phone.
93	* Happens a lot on ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' with the character Walter Bishop, who can't remember science experiments he conducted before entering a mental hospital. Often, this information is vital to the case they are trying to solve.
94	** It's revealed that the cause of the amnesia is [[spoiler:Walter agreeing to let his friend William Bell remove certain parts of his brain]].
95	* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' - Things would have been a lot simpler if Bran could recall how and why he fell from the tower.
96	* In early episodes of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', the Niki/Jessica relationship somewhat similarly to Rose and Thorn from the Comics folder. Niki would wake up from a blackout and see a bunch of corpses strewn about, no idea how they got there.
97	* Inverted in ''Series/HoneyIShrunkTheKids'', after losing her memories of everything that happened after she was 16, Diane is able to easily win a court case that she couldn't identify with because she was a grown-up.
98	* In the first ''Series/KamenRiderDenO'' movie, the shock of [[MyFutureSelfAndMe meeting his past self]] causes Ryotaro to develop amnesia of everything relating to the Imagin and his being Den-O, which means that for much of the movie they don't have access to Den-O's powers. [[spoiler:This becomes a major plot point in the story arc dealing with the fallout from the movie, where this temporary severing of their contracts causes Urataros, Kintaros, and Ryutaros to fade away and apparently "die".]]
99	* The long Lois amnesia plot and the Superman amnesia story in ''Series/LoisAndClark'' (the latter of which was a remake of the Superman amnesia story in ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman'').
100	** Specifically, an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth, so the government asks Superman to destroy it. He ends up flying at it at high speed and slams into the rock. While the asteroid is destroyed, Supes is thrown to the ground and loses his memories from the impact. So when it turns out a large enough piece of the asteroid is still on a collision course, Superman is nowhere to be found, only an amnesiac Clark whom his parents try to convince is Superman (by hitting him with a baseball bat and throwing him off the roof). Unfortunately, Supes has [[RememberedICouldFly forgotten how to use his powers]] until the very end of the episode, when he flies up and gently pushes the piece of the asteroid away.
101	* Occurs in at least three ''Series/MacGyver1985'' episodes, where Mac loses his memory due to being drugged, shot in the head, etc.
102	* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': If only the Stranger remembered from the very beginning he is an Istar with magical powers. Unfortunately, him not remembering his identity, led to briefly believing he is evil and leaving with Sauron's followers who mistook him for Sauron. As such, the Harfoots get their camp destroyed by the followers and their killed murdered.
103	* Phelps loses his memory in the middle of a mission in ''Series/MissionImpossible'', when he's supposed to walk into a trap in order to snare the villain; to complicate things, the person who tries to help him assumes he's the person he had been pretending to be.
104	** Shannon loses her memory too in the second series episode "Church Bells in Bogota". To complicate things ''further'', the guy she was supposed to fool proposes to her...
105	* Used in an episode of ''Series/MyHero2000'' in which Thermoman, whose powers include erasing people's memories, inadvertently erases his own memory of being Thermoman. This, of course, coincides with the discovery of a giant meteor hurtling towards the Earth.
106	* Part of the central premise of ''Series/QuantumLeap'': Sam Beckett was an absurdly intelligent polymath who bordered on being a GodModeSue, but the effect that time travel is constantly having on his memory prevents him from figuring out a way to get back home.
107	* The ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIThanksForTheMemory Thanks for the Memory]]" uses basically the same plot, leading to mutual, mostly joking accusations of plagiarism. Only in that case the memory wipe was simply because [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain what took place was so embarrassing they all wanted to forget it ever happened]].
108	* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': In [[Recap/StargateAtlantisS04E06TabulaRasa "Tabula Rasa"]], no one can remember why they're doing what they're doing. In particular, Major Lorne and the soldiers can't remember why they're rounding up everyone and taking them to the cafeteria.
109	* Appears several times in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
110	** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E14Clues Clues]]", the crew of the Enterprise discovers evidence that their memories and records have been tampered with and backtracks... [[AmnesiaLoop only to discover that one of the things they've forgotten is that they had]] ''[[AmnesiaLoop agreed]]'' [[AmnesiaLoop to having their minds wiped in the first place]] to appease powerful aliens who don't want anyone to know they exist. They convince the aliens to wipe their memories again, this time making sure to eliminate the things that served as clues the first time.
111	** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E14Conundrum Conundrum]]", the entire crew of the Enterprise have their memories erased by aliens, in order to trick them into attacking the aliens' enemies.
112	** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E15ThineOwnSelf Thine Own Self]]", Data wanders into a village on a primitive planet, with no knowledge of who or what he is, bearing a case full of radioactive metal fragments; not knowing the danger, he sells the fragments to the local blacksmith.
113	* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E3TheParadiseSyndrome The Paradise Syndrome]]", the danger is that the amnesiac character (Kirk) has forgotten that there ''is'' a danger. Hilariously, the main thing he knows that (once remembered) saves the day was learned literally seconds before he lost his memory.
114	* Subverted in the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "[[Recap/SupernaturalS07E17TheBornAgainIdentity The Born-Again Identity]]". Multiple demons are blocking Dean's path to Sam and it's unlikely he could take all of them on his own. Castiel is with him, but has had amnesia for months and [[IdentityAmnesia doesn't even know he's an angel]]. So Dean just ''[[MundaneSolution tells Cas he's an angel]]'', points him at the demons, and [[EasyAmnesia Castiel remembers who he is while smiting them]].
115	[[/folder]]
116
117	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
118	* In various editions, TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons has given both players and [=DM=]s a wide variety of options for using this trope against both enemies and players. The spell Modify Memory, for instance, allows the caster to erase or alter recollections of past events. While players can use this as a means of manipulating monsters and [=NPC=]s, particularly clever [=DM=]s can use both the normal and [[HerdHittingAttack mass]] versions of the spell to set up MindScrew-grade sessions where the players have to work out which events are real and which are fabricated, or why the formerly friendly townsfolk are suddenly breaking out the TorchesAndPitchforks.
119	[[/folder]]
120
121	[[folder:Video Games]]
122	* Considering the sheer amounts of experience the protagonist from ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' would have had were it not for his amnesia, the entire game could be considered an example of the trope, especially seeing that [[spoiler: you start in the room with the entrance to TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon.]]
123	* This is so common in InteractiveFiction in general as to be a DiscreditedTrope.
124	** The short IF story 9:05 is a particularly nice example.
125	* Used in ''VideoGame/BreakDown'', a game for Namco on the original Xbox, to great effect. It's also a subversion in that you're undergoing a cure for your amnesia by playing the game. The wacked out hallucinations, it turns out, are false memories. The part in the beginning where you're told that you promised to save someone then makes sense, as on the way back to an earlier point in the plot, you promise to save them. An earlier comment made by a scientist saying that she knew too much for someone who doesn't work there is explained when she doesn't know who you are and decides to help you save the Earth (by going back to an earlier part.) And the part where the penultimate boss asks "Motivation: Inconclusive. Derrick? Do you feel any different?" after he kidnaps the girl takes a new meaning (if it wasn't already the PUB's meaning)
126	* ''VideoGame/NetHack'': Amnesia (Mind flayer, or reading a scroll of amnesia) attacks can erase parts of the map, and, even worse, will unidentify some of the items you have formally identified (Wait, was the purple or the black potion the one of [[HealThyself extra healing]]? I'll try the black! [[YetAnotherStupidDeath fall asleep while under attack]]
127	* ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'', appropriately enough. You wake up in a castle, with nothing but a note telling you to kill a man named Alexander. Too bad you don't remember how or why, or what the [[spoiler:Shadow]] is or how to escape it.
128	[[/folder]]
129
130	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
131	* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':
132	** Used in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'' as an excuse to give [[HeKnowsAboutTimedHits a tutorial]] to players that never played the original game. In truth, Phoenix has all but solved the case when he gets clonked on the head and loses his memory.
133	** ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' uses this for a backstory mystery. [[spoiler:Were it not for Lamiroir's memory loss, she could have simply told Apollo and Trucy herself that she was their mother and that they were half-siblings.]]
134	** In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'', [[spoiler:the trauma of walking in on her mother's murder caused Athena to completely block it out. While she didn't see enough to figure out who the actual culprit was, it did mean that she began to suspect that she ''did'' commit the crime, as several others argued. Her memories of the event were able to turn up necessary details to figure out who committed the crime and why.]]
135	* ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'': Traditionally, all of the participants in the killing games are missing a good chunk of their memories and could have easily solved the plot if they could remember. [[spoiler: Justified, since the BigBad wiped their memories ''specifically'' so they'd be easier to manipulate]].
136	** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'': Kyoko Kirigiri doesn't remember what her talent is, [[spoiler: because she's the Ultimate Detective, a major StoryBreakerPower for a murder mystery]], and all of the cast have forgotten that [[spoiler: they went to Hope's Peak together, were good friends, and had locked themselves in the school ''intentionally'' to ride out an apocalypse in the outside world. If they'd known these things, nobody would ever have killed anyone else]].
137	** In ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'', this is [[spoiler: subverted, as the class regaining their memories is a ''bad thing''; the amnesia was a therapy technique to cure them of being BrainwashedAndCrazy, and when Mikan does remember, she turns from a NiceGirl to the third murderer.]]
138	** In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', the students start out missing memories and have some returned in stages later on by Flashback Lights. If they'd known everything from the beginning, [[spoiler: they'd have realized they were in a TrumanShowPlot, and all the "memories" the Flashback Lights gave them were fake.]]
139	* In ''Kagetsu Tohya'', the ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' sequel, Shiki has been made to forget about what his eyes can do [[spoiler:because if he can see death, he can see the world collapsing and Len will have to rewrite everything again]]. So he repeatedly comes upon circumstances that would be no big deal and then wonders why he thought he could deal with such a thing. Like being chained or locked out of a room. [[spoiler:Or knife fighting someone to the death.]]
140	[[/folder]]
141
142	[[folder:Webcomics]]
143	%%* ''Webcomic/BugMartini'' [[http://www.bugcomic.com/comics/amnesia/ subverts this trope]] (and all for the doctor's amusement).
144	%%* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': Florence gets into this. [[spoiler: Sam gets her out.]]
145	* In the ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' story arc "Oceans Unmoving" [[spoiler:Bun-Bun has few memories of his previous trip to Timeless Space, so he doesn't know that all he and his past self have to do is leap into the Oceans Unmoving in order to return to the real world]]. Made a delicious flavor of ironic by the fact that he gave ''himself'' amnesia.
146	[[/folder]]
147
148	[[folder:Web Original]]
149	* [[https://regimental-standard.com/2020/07/01/find-the-assassin/ This]] ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' news article is about an assassin who was disguised as a soldier, [[ManchurianAgent complete with false memories and trigger phrase]]. Unfortunately, the assassin was executed by a Commissar (a morale officer infamous for maintaining discipline by [[BoomHeadshot BLAM-ing]] cowards and rulebreakers) who didn't know their true identity. If they had their memories, they could have either killed the Commissar or simply pointed out that they were outside of their jurisdiction.
150	[[/folder]]
151
152	[[folder:Web Video]]
153	* In ''WebVideo/WormtoothNation'', main character Sam kicks off the very first episode this way. His partner Dimitri abandons him after he's been "nixed" by "wormtooth gas" since he's now useless to the cause.
154	* During the Polybius review by the WebVideo/AngryVideoGameNerd, The Nerd finds video footage of himself locking... well, himself inside of the warehouse he is in. It's very clear that he didn't do so under his own will, but worse yet, he locked himself in with a combination lock and doesn't know what word he chose. He even admits trying all the words he would commonly use, indicating that whatever he chose when he did this is something he doesn't know.
155	[[/folder]]
156
157	[[folder:Western Animation]]
158	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': Jimmy Neutron goes through something like this in one of the early episodes when he "drains his brain" [[IntelligenceEqualsIsolation to make himself less hated in class.]] He drains it to the point where he is nothing more than a drooling idiot, just in time for a giant meteor to be found hurling toward their town (which was inadvertently directed toward Earth by Jimmy in the first place).
159	* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' has Bruce Wayne forget all about being Batman. While it doesn't take much for Alfred to remind him who he is, he still doesn't remember any of his training.
160	** There was an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' where Bruce went undercover to investigate why homeless people were being kidnapped, and was himself kidnapped and ended up with amnesia. He was forced to work in a mine with all the other kidnap victims until he remembered who he was.
161	* Danny goes through a [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor unique form of memory loss]] in ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' that also resulted in [[BroughtDownToNormal power loss]]. Very bad timing when there's a ghost getting more and more powerful by the minute.
162	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hilda}}'': In chapter 3, due to getting hit by a rock, The Great Raven can't remember any of his powers, or even how to fly. This becomes a problem when he is accosted by cats and [[TheBully Trevor]].
163	* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': when she loses her memory, all she needs is someone to tell her she can kick ass and she does.
164	* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' does this in "Oblivio". The VillainOfTheWeek erases Ladybug and Cat Noir's memories, including how their powers work, which leaves them stuck in civilian form with no way to defeat the villain. However, Marinette's AwesomenessByAnalysis skill isn't a superpower, and she's able to [[MacGyvering MacGyver]] a way to escape without their powers.
165	* A BottleEpisode of ''WesternAnimation/Sealab2021'' has the crew trapped in a supply closet by a malfunctioning door. The only person who knows how to fix it suffers an amnesia-inducing blow to the head, then [[RunningGag keeps getting knocked out]].
166	[[/folder]]

Context Main / AmnesiaDanger