Line #78 Main/MemoryWipeExploitation


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6	->'''Richter:''' Excuse me, Doctor. Is [Quaid] gonna remember any of this?\
7	'''Doctor:''' Not a thing.\
8	'''Richter:''' Oh really? ''[punches Quaid in the face]''
9	-->-- ''Film/TotalRecall1990''
10
11	Someone has something they've always wanted to say or do to another person and thanks to a mind wipe or amnesia they finally have the opportunity.
12	They usually do this either because they want to get something off their chest or they're just curious what would happen.
13	Occasionally the amnesia ends up not working, leading to much awkwardness.
14	Another version of the trope is when a character tricks the amnesiac/mindwiped person into believing a lie about what happened before they lost their memories.
15
16	Compare TrialBalloonQuestion.
17
18	See also CriminalAmnesiac when the amnesiac character gets manipulated into being the villain and AmnesiacVillainJoinsTheHeroes for when a villain loses their memory and thinks they were a hero. Not to be confused with MemoryGambit.
19
20	----
21	!!Examples:
22
23	[[foldercontrol]]
24
25	[[folder:Comic Books]]
26	* ''ComicBook/BartSimpson'': One issue had Lisa get amnesia after being hit on the head with a stray Wii remote, and Bart promptly took the opportunity to convince her that she was a bad kid like him.
27	* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' story arc "ComicBook/TheSuperSteedOfSteel": When some bank-robbers find an amnesiac Comet the Super-Horse, they claim they are his friends and he must help them escape from some "bad men" who are chasing them.
28	* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: When the ComicBook/SteveTrevor of Earth-One (seemingly) died a second time Hippolyta sought out a version of him from the multiverse who had suffered brain damage due to injury and brought him over and implanted false memories and patched him up to appear to be the local Steve so that her daughter would not mourn him.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
32	* ''ComicStrip/{{Foxtrot}}'': During one arc where his mother is whacked out of her gourd on cough medication, Jason repeatedly goes up to her to say she forgot to give him her allowance for the week.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Fan Works]]
36	* ''Fanfic/{{Amalgamate}}'' makes this one of the mastermind's favorite tactics. They erase, manipulate and {{gaslight\|ing}} the survivors so much that Kokichi eventually realizes he can't even recall what his favorite color is anymore.
37	* ''Fanfic/DungeonKeeperAmi'': In [[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/dungeon-keeper-ami-sailor-moon-dungeon-keeper-story-only-thread.30066/post-6355829 "A Small Deception"]], a memory wipe is exploited to keep experiences fresh. [[spoiler:They were actually just unconscious]]:
38	-->"What did I do to you?" Ami asked, smiling evilly. Getting the smile right had taken quite a bit of time in front of the mirror, not to mention a lot of teasing from Cathy and Jered until she managed to combine the frown and the curvature of the lips correctly. "Can't you remember?"\
39	Both he and Isolda shook their heads.\
40	Ami's smile widened. "Good. I could tell you, but that would make me wiping your memories a waste of time. I'd hate for my methods to get out and ruin the surprise. Besides, this way, every time can be as horrible as the first!"
41	* In the ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'' series, the Psyche Master erases Empath's memory with a MindRape as an infant so that he would make Empath believe that he was a Psyche. However, [[AmnesiaMissedASpot the memory wipe wasn't complete]], as Empath still had a memory of being left behind by [[spoiler:his biological father]] Papa Smurf in Psychelia only to soon have his memory erased.
42	* ''VideoGame/FlawedCrystals'': During a confrontation with Jasper, Steven accidentally wipes her memories. At the moment when it happens, he's sorely lacking allies, as all of the Crystal Gems have been corrupted. As he, Connie and Jasper gradually make progress on their quest to restore the others, however, the question of what exactly to ''do'' about Jasper's condition looms large.
43	* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', the {{Magitek}} supercomputer HEX is developing more and more sentience and more and more of a SnarkKnight sense of humour. In ''Fanfic/TheManyWorldsInterpretation'', HEX is part of an exoplanetary survey team sent to make contact with intelligences on Roundworld, based at a place of learning called [[Series/TheBigBangTheory Caltech]]. When it becomes necessary to explain to the local representatives why they have been visited from another planet, HEX opts to explain in full ''why'' people like Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter are vital to the survival of the human race. His strategy is to explain in absolutely full detail, leaving nothing out, and then to wipe Leonard's memory of all the detail.[[note]]leaving only a gut imperative that they Caltech gang ''must'' devote themselves to the problem of creating viable space colony ships to get humanity off a dooomed planet[[/note]]. Leonard Hofstadter, as HEX anticipates, absolutely ''insists'' on a BrainBleach at the end. This is after hearing that Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah-Fowler will work out the sex thing and in fact go in to have a large family. HEX has told him so. In possibly un-necessary detail.
44	* In the ''Webcomic/NiceKaachanAU'' series of fan comics by [=CharlotteSketches=], the normally belligerent and arrogant Bakugo gets his memories temporarily wiped by a villain's Quirk, leaving him naive, sweet, and goofy. His classmates pounce upon the opportunity to be able to make friends with him, even though Midoriya is understandably concerned about Bakugo's rage when he gets his memories back. [[spoiler:Bakugo himself is horrified at the "real" him once Mineta shows footage of him from the Sports Festival and feels used and hurt by his classmates' manipulation of his condition.]]
45	* ''Fanfic/ToTheNightSky'': Emerson forcibly erased Roy and Edward's memories as part of a plan to make them more suggestible and willing to follow his orders. When this didn't work as effectively as he'd hoped, he turned to medical torture.
46	* ''Fanfic/WhatIfSonicLostHisMemory'': Eggman naturally takes advantage of Sonic's memory loss by convincing him that he's actually an android he built to be the "ultimate battle life-form". He also intends to restore his memories ''after'' he's gotten the hedgehog to do all his dirty work for him, just for the sake of seeing him [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone hit by the horror of what he'd done]] before [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness disposing of him]].
47	* ''Fanfic/{{X-Manson}}'': Psychics in Xavier's cult use their powers to hollow out the minds of their victims in order to effectively use them as puppets, in a process called "coring". Betsy Braddock was one of the victims of this process.
48	[[/folder]]
49
50	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
51	* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerbTheMovieAcrossThe2ndDimension'': Carl and Major Monogram are prepping to wipe the group's memories, with their permission, so Perry won't be forced to move away. Isabella takes the opportunity to pull Phineas in for a kiss, then tells Carl to fire before Phineas can interject.
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
55	* ''Film/GroundhogDay'': Phil seduces Nancy by asking her questions about where she went to school, her teachers, etc. then on the next iteration of the GroundhogDayLoop pretending to be an old classmate of hers. He attempts to do something similar with Rita, learning her likes and interests on one iteration and pretending to have similar interests on the next. However, this never works with Rita.
56	* At the end of ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'', after Alan and Sarah finish the titular board game and everything returns to normal (read: the timeline shifts back to when they first started the game), Sarah kisses Alan, saying that she wants to do it before they forget everything that happened when they played the game.
57	* Happens several times in ''Film/{{Memento}}''. Leonard has no short-term memory, so he can only hold onto events for a few minutes at a time, then he has no idea that they happened. The landlord tricks Leonard into playing rent multiple times, Natalie [[LampshadeHanging tells him to his face]] that she's doing it, leaving him desperately (and unsuccessfully) searching for a pen to write that down before it fades.
58	* In ''Film/MenInBlackII'', after Agent J saves the subway passengers from being eaten by a giant worm and the train stops at the next station, he neuralyzes them and starts chewing them out for ignoring his warnings and only evacuating to the next train car once the worm had started eating the train. He then reneuralyzes them once he realizes that he's carried on for far too long and tells them a story requesting that they enjoy using new space-efficient, energy-saving cars.
59	* ''Film/{{Overboard\|1987}}'': After RichBitch Joana falls off her yacht and gets amnesia, single father Dean convinces her that she is the stay-at-home mother of his kids.
60	* The ''Film/{{Overboard\|2018}}'' remake had a GenderFlip version, where a Mexican [[IdleRich billionaire playboy]] rips off a carpet cleaner in Oregon, and after he falls off his yacht off the Oregon coast and loses his memory, the carpet cleaner takes him home and turns him into a HouseHusband that is also a day laborer.
61	* At the beginning of ''Film/{{Paycheck}}'' the protagonist has a brief affair with an executive while working on a project. They both know that his memories will be wiped once the project is complete, so it can be treated as an inherently short-term thing.
62	* This is used in ''Film/PurpleStorm'' where the Hong Kong Police Force's Anti-Terrorist Force is trying to interrogate Todd Nguyen, a [[FarEastAsianTerrorists Cambodian terrorist of Chinese heritage]] after the ATF realizes that he's got amnesia. Despite objections from psychologist Shirley Kwan due to moral and ethical reasons, ATF officer Ma Li takes advantage of Todd's memory loss by telling him that's been too deep with the terrorists from Cambodia as a long-term operation from the HKPF. This works in the long run since the amnesiac Todd is able to stop the terrorist plot to use a WMD weapon named Ricin-X.
63	* In ''Film/TheToothFairy'', Derek repeatedly uses amnesia dust on his girlfriend so he can insult her and her kids and get away with it. A man watches as this is going on, wishing he had some of that stuff.
64	* ''Film/TotalRecall1990'': Quaid has spent the entire film with (possibly) false memories, and in constant conflict with Richter. When he's finally caught, he's about to have his previous memories restored, and Richter takes the opportunity to take out his frustration on Quaid.
65	[[/folder]]
66
67	[[folder:Literature]]
68	* In ''Literature/ArtemisFowl: The Eternity Code'', Artemis and his associates agree to be mind-wiped of all fairy-related memories. Right before the mind wipe begins, Holly tells Juliet if she wants any of Juliet's memories of her to survive, it should be Holly telling her that she isn't cut out to become a bodyguard. Juliet promises to try to cling to that thought, and one of the first things she does after the mind wipe is drop out of bodyguard academy and sign up with an all-female wrestling troupe.
69	* In ''Literature/TheShipWho Won'', the mages and magesses of Ozran control the underclasses who farm and labor for them by feeding them heavily drugged meals that have serious deleterious effects on their minds and memories, making it difficult for them to remember thing that happened earlier in the day, let alone make plans. One character who missed a few meals due to illness noticed the change in his thinking and switched to scrounging raw food - and grew stronger and heartier for it as well as being better able to think and remember.
70	[[/folder]]
71
72	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
73	* ''Series/ThirtyRock'':
74	** A social worker comes to inspect Liz's workplace to ensure she is fit to raise a child. It goes disastrously wrong, and the woman deems Liz unfit to adopt before receiving a concussion. She forgets the entire day, which Liz uses as a second chance and gives her the perfect tour of the studio... only for the woman to be so banged up she forgets ''that'' as well.
75	** In another episode, Liz's brother (who suffers from short-term memory loss due to an accident and who thinks he's still a teenager in the 1980s) meets Liz's co-workers; Cerie tells him that she'll meet him "later" in the hot tub, knowing he'll have had another memory lapse by then.
76	* This is taken to a policy level as part of the twist in the ''Series/BlackMirror'' episode "[[Recap/BlackMirrorWhiteBear White Bear]]". Every day, Victoria Skillane wakes up with no memories and is chased through the streets by maniacal mask-wearers who will only commit horrific acts of violence and seemingly "ordinary" civilians filming on their cell phones who will never attempt to stop them, no matter what happens. It's eventually revealed that [[spoiler:this is Victoria's punishment for assisting in the abduction, torture, and murder of a little girl and that every night her memory is wiped after she is forced to remember. This is specifically so that the "amusement park" visitors can engage in the exact same torture, knowing that Victoria has no idea why any of this is happening and is experiencing the same terror as her victim]].
77	* A more benign version shows up in ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' when Pimento's memory resets every five minutes or so. Jake has been forbidden by his wife Amy to tell anyone they're trying for a baby, but he's excited and is going crazy not telling anyone, so he tells Pimento, since he won't remember anyway. Except this backfires when he ''does'' remember ''just'' long enough to blurt it out in front of Jake's best friend Charles -- who is ''pissed'' Pimento was told before him.
78	* ''Series/Charmed1998'':
79	** In a first season episode "[[Recap/CharmedS1E8TheTruthIsOutThereAndItHurts The Truth Is Out There And It Hurts]]", the three sisters have cast a spell on themselves where anyone whom they question will answer truthfully. Prue takes advantage of this to be honest with her FriendOnTheForce boyfriend Andy -- she tells him the truth about her family's powers and their fight against evil and asks him if she could still have a relationship with him under those circumstances. He answers "No", and then immediately forgets the conversation when the spells wears off. [[WhatTheHellHero He calls her out in]] [[Recap/CharmedS1E20ThePowerOfTwo a later episode]] for making a final decision based on how he reacted with only a few minutes to process it.
80	** In a fifth season episode "[[Recap/CharmedS5E21NecromancingTheStone Necromancing The Stone]]", Paige casts the same spell on her boyfriend at the time to find out how he would react to dating a witch. He was fine with that part, but then revealed that he has a wife and two children. Paige then had to figure out how to keep him contained for the next twenty-four hours so he wouldn't out her as a witch.
81	* In ''Series/TheFlash2014'' season one episode "Out of Time," Barry reveals his secret identity to Iris and they share their first kiss. Afterward, to save Central City from a tsunami, Barry runs back and forth across the coastline to create a barrier, but he runs so fast that he travels back in time to the day before, erasing Iris' memory of the event.
82	* In the GrandFinale of ''Series/FullHouse'', Michelle suffers TraumaInducedAmnesia. Her cousins Nicky and Alex manipulate her into thinking she let them keep a Rigby the Rhino doll before the accident. After regaining her memories, Michelle catches Nicky and Alex with the doll and makes them give it back to her.
83	* PlayedForDrama in an episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'', a famous football player, Lincoln Haver, is accused of killing his common-law husband is manipulated into confessing to the murder, which he does, leading to a conviction. It's later discovered Lincoln was diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephlity[[note]]a brain condition caused by contact sports that results in memory loss [[/note]] and had no memory of the night the victim died; the truth is revealed when [[spoiler:his agent Gary]] makes a comment contradicting his earlier statement that he had no idea Lincoln was gay, making it pretty clear he had something to hide.
84	* ''Series/RedDwarf'':
85	** In the episode "White Hole", the Dwarfers have to deal with the opposite of a black hole, a celestial phenomenon leaking time into the universe. Having dealt with the anomaly, they realise that the timeline they're in will shortly erase itself, leaving them with no memory of what happened. Kryten takes the opportunity to insult Rimmer.
86	--->'''Kryten:''' And as these events never happened, we'll have no memory of them. In which case, Mr. Rimmer, sir, I should like to take this opportunity to say that you are ''the'' most obnoxious, trumped-up, ''farty'' little smeghead that has ever been my misfortune to encounter!
87	** In "Fathers and Suns", we find out Lister's Father's Day tradition: as [[TimeyWimeyBall he's his own dad]], after opening his Father's Day card, he makes another card to be delivered to himself next year, first getting blackout drunk so he won't remember what he's got. Later, he [[InsaneTrollLogic decides to be a better father to himself]] and, with the help of the ship's computer and her behaviour-predicting software, he repeats the blackout routine, this time creating a video giving himself instructions, ''with added punishment for not obeying said instructions''. Unfortunately, the computer [[AIIsACrapshoot manipulates the situation]] to get Lister off the ship so she can destroy Red Dwarf.
88	* In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "Window of Opportunity" Jack and Teal'c are caught in a GroundhogDayLoop and eventually decide to take advantage of the lack of consequences. Ranging from using the stargate as a driving range to Jack violating the fraternization rules with Carter.
89	* {{Invoked\|Trope}} in ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' when Gwen gives her boyfriend a dose of an amnesia-inducing sedative right before she reveals to him that she's been having an affair with one of her colleagues at her new job. She tries to get him to forgive her as the sedative takes hold, but he passes out before she gets him to say it.
90	* One episode of ''Series/WeirdScience'' gives Gary a remote control that lets him fast forward, rewind, or pause time. Unfortunately the remote breaks and he and Wyatt get stuck in a loop. Wyatt figures it out and rushes to fix things, but before doing so the last time he takes a moment to kiss his French teacher.
91	[[/folder]]
92
93	[[folder:Video Games]]
94	* In ''VideoGame/GetEven2017'', a scientist named Robert "Red" Ramsey takes advantage of Cole Black's memory loss by ''helping'' him investigate the kidnapping of a girl named Grace. [[spoiler:Prior to his memory loss, he knows about the kidnapping and was involved in it before things changed.]]
95	* After defeating the Improbability Drive in ''VideoGame/ImprobableIsland'' and being [[TransformationRay permanently changed by the resulting explosion of Improbability]], the Watcher suggests that the best way to handle this would be to alter your memories so that you had always been that way. When you agree, she takes the opportunity to let down her facade as TheDreaded and [[spoiler:admit that you were always her favorite contestant, and kiss you]], admitting that she's only doing this because you won't remember it anyway.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Web Comics]]
99	* ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'': Bikke holds a meeting with the other Dark Warriors discussing the possibility mutineering against Garland as they are unhappy with his leadership. Garland is not only supportive of this, he even offers to cater them lunch. While they're eating, Drizz'l asks Garland why he is being so supportive of Bikke's efforts to overthrow him. Garland has two reasons: the first is that [[SkewedPriorities he wanted a chance to try out a new taco recipe he found]]. The second is that he views the plot as a non-issue: Bikke is [[TheDitz an idiot]], Vilbert is [[DramaQueen a poser]], and Drizz'l has been a broken shell of a dark elf ever since Fighter took his swords. When Drizz'l asks if Garland might be overconfident, Garland reveals his secret third reason:
100	-->'''Garland:''' All of the tacos contain amnesia peppers. In an hour, this meeting will have never actually happened.
101	* In ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'', Minmax's party is about to undertake a dungeon, only to realize that they've tried and failed 1,982,770 times already and the failed attempts have been wiped from their memories. Forgath makes a comment about how nothing they do will matter because they'll probably fail again and they'll forget this attempt like all the others... [[http://goblinscomic.com/02152011/ Minmax promptly kisses him, thinking it's funny.]]
102	* ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'': While watching over a conked-out Davan, [[https://somethingpositive.net/comic/advantage-pt-3/ Kim's fetish for completely passive partners takes over and she rapes him]], figuring he won't remember. When Davan finds out from Faye (who caught Kim in the act), he doesn't hold a grudge, and it even leads to a CallBack [[https://somethingpositive.net/comic/stress-reliever/ during a later]] SexyDiscretionShot:
103	-->'''Kim:''' Davan, you're doing something different than you did last time. What's it called?\
104	'''Davan:''' Consenting.\
105	'''Kim:''' Intriguing.
106	[[/folder]]
107
108	[[folder:Western Animation]]
109	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': "My Big Fat Spy Wedding" has Jimmy confront seemingly reformed criminal, Beautiful Gorgeous, after her groom, Jet Fusion, attacks Sheen when the latter says "I have the ring." Beautiful quickly overpowers Jimmy, confesses her EvilPlan, then uses Jimmy's own Hypno-beam to erase the last 30 minutes of his memory. If Carl and Sheen hadn't witnessed everything, Beautiful actually would have gotten away with her plan.
110	* Numbuh 86 takes a moment to admit that she has a small crush on Numbuh 4 in the ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' episode "Operation: E.N.D." just before having all of Sector V's memories wiped.
111	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': At the end of "Channel Chasers" Timmy's parents have discovered Vicky is evil and, after verbally chewing her out, fire her. After watching Vicky suffer for a bit, Timmy wishes the day's events never happened, because without Vicky, Timmy wouldn't be miserable enough to have fairy godparents.
112	* ''WesternAnimation/GlitchTechs'': In a PetTheDog moment at the end of the first episode, Phil (the perpetually grumpy manager of TheMenInBlack-esque organization) takes the time to assure Miko's parents that her crazy story about a monster coming out of the TV was actually true. Once they apologize for doubting her and express how proud they are, she tells him he can go ahead and erase their memories. He also gives them positive, condensed version which they are allowed to remember.
113	* In the ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode, "Society of the Blind Eye", the titular society's leader, Blind Ivan, reveals both his identity and the society's mission to the twins, Wendy and Soos as he is about to wipe their memories anyways.
114	** In the same episode, just before Blind Ivan tries to erase their memories, our heroes take the opportunity to get some grievances off their chests; namely how for the first half of the summer Soos thought Mable's name was Maple, Mabel only loves ''some'' of her stuffed animals, Dipper uses big words he doesn't understand to seem smarter then he actually is and how Wendy is more stressed out then she let's on.
115	* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness'': Po learns a technique called "Fluttering Finger Mindslip" that causes short-term memory loss. Po starts using it to get out of doing chores and being lectured but uses it so many times that it ends up causing [[EasyAmnesia full amnesia]] on the Furious Five.
116	* ''WesternAnimation/RealityTrip'': Danny's ghost powers are revealed to his family. Before he rewrites reality to make them forget, he takes the time to have a conversation with them where they assure him they're proud and don't hate him (despite formerly believing ghosts were evil).
117	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'', Principal Prickly ends up with the mind of a kid after being hypnotized, T.J. and the gang uses this as an opportunity to manipulate him into mischief, even making announcements about the lunch menu on the school PA system.
118	* The "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind" episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has Homer, hoping to forget the memories of an odd day that led to his family apparently hating him, ordering a drink called the "Forget-Me-Shot" and asking Lenny, Carl and Moe to make BrutallyHonest comments towards him that he won't remember. Lenny says that blue pants make him look fat, [[HoYay Carl admits that he finds his small hands attractive]] and Moe proudly proclaims that he's spat in every one of his drinks (including the drink he serves him to wipe his memory.)
119	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'', knowing that SPHINX was gonna wipe the last few moments of Hank and Dean's memories, [[{{Jerkass}} Dr. Venture]] with sadistic glee reveals to his sons that they're clones and the identity of their MissingMom [[TheUnreveal (Off-screen of course)]].
120	[[/folder]]

Context Main / MemoryWipeExploitation