Hypno Trinket

At least they'll be too busy to try to take over the world every night.

"I will refuse all gifts from the Evil Overlord. They probably contain mind-control devices that would make me giddily happy to marry him. It's demeaning enough to be head-over-heels for the Hero, let alone a creep like the EO."

— #30 on The Universal Genre Savvy Guide, "The True Love List"

The power to Hypnotize being imbued in a wearable item, by either magic or Applied Phlebotinum. It doesn't matter the form. It's usually just a piece of jewelry, but it can be anything from a hat to a wedding dress.

Heck, it doesn't always have to be mind control in the typical sense. It can also be a conduit for a spirit to possess the wearer. This can even cause the victim to look like the spirit did in life. Many of these things tend to be Soul Jars of the Sealed Evil in a Can, and are purposely made desirable for this effect.

Note this is direct mind control, not simply corrupting people with the object's dark influence. Also, this apply to items worn by the victim, not by the hypnotist.

A frequent way to Hypnotize the Captive.

And of course, like most mind control tropes, Rule 34 and Fetish can apply, especially with Author Appeal.

A Sub-Trope of Mind-Control Device.

Compare Artifact of Doom, Artifact of Attraction (rather than hypnotize causes Gold Fever), Instant Allegiance Artifact, Clothes Make the Maniac, The Hat Makes the Man, Hypno Ray, Love Potion, Mirror Morality Machine, and Mind-Control Device.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• A villain in a Filler arc of One Piece was able to create these thanks to the Pet-Pet Fruit. He created collars that attached to people and animals, forcing them to obey his orders... provided they could hear him.
• Hige's collar and the collars of at least 22 other wolves in Wolf's Rain is a mind-control device of Lady Jagara's.
• In an Inuyasha filler episode, a Chinese boar yokai collects fiancées this way.
• Dragon Ball Z: Broly in Movie 8 was given a mind-control crown by his dad (and going by the flashback, it was without his consent), initially to control Broly so as to not have him have outbursts, but shortly thereafter, he ended up used by Paragus to blow up planets — presumably more than before, given the fact that the amount was high enough to get even King Kai to notice.
• Arguably, the Red String of Fate that Shampoo uses on Ranma in the Ranma ½ TV series. And then Shampoo just has to brag about it all the time, therefore Akane gets enough time to brew a plan to get it cut...
• Digimon Adventure 02 has the Dark Rings (and later, upgraded Dark Spirals.)
• Used in Orphen Revenge, when Majik gets Brainwashed and Crazy by Esperanza due to a hat that she puts on him. Orphen "fixes" him by both blasting and talking to him, then lowering Majik's defense enough to blast the hat away.
• Record of Lodoss War has Karla the Grey Witch's circlet that allows her to possess its wearer.
• The Adventures of Peter Pan has a bracelet. Sinistra originally had it meant for Luna to have her become evil, but it accidentally ends up on Wendy. While not magically destructive, her hateful behavior almost causes the Lost Boys to fall apart, Peter to abandon the group and Luna to volunteer to become evil in exchange for freeing Wendy.

Comic Books

• Disney did this with a Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers comic, where Gadget and a bunch of other creatures were enslaved with magical necklaces by Fat Cat.
• In Batman comics, the Mad Hatter started using his trademark mind-control hats in the early eighties. He would later be contacted to create a new variant of the Justifier helmets used by Darkseid's troops in Final Crisis.
• The Ringmaster, who leads the Circus of Crime and began as an antagonist for The Incredible Hulk, also has a mind-control device in his top hat.

Fan Works

• Small silver tags were used in The Man with No Name to gain control over an army's worth of Reavers as well as a few humans.

Films — Animation

• In Incredibles 2, goggles are used by the Screenslaver (or more accurately, Evelyn Deavor) to hypnotize a pizza guy into acting as a fake Screenslaver, and then subsequently hypnotizing various supers into performing actions that would cause superheroing to permanently stay illegal.
• In The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Plankton's evil plan once he succeeds in stealing the Krabby Patty formula is to give out free Chum Bucket helmets to everyone that buys one, which can drop down over the wearer's face when activated and mind control them, allowing him to enslave the entire population of Bikini Bottom and turn the city into an Egopolis.
• The Little Mermaid (1989): Inverted. When Ursula directly intervenes in the goal by disguising herself as Romantic False Lead Vanessa, it's clear that a Hypno Trinket is involved. Said Hypno Trinket (a necklace with a big shell that has Ariel's voice inside), however, is worn by Vanessa — and she uses it to place Prince Eric under mind control. When Ariel's animal friends attack her, they shatter the shell, which both frees Eric and returns Ariel's voice to her.

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, one that can end in Psychic-Assisted Suicide.

Literature

• In Illusion by Paula Volsky, the king's brother uses hypnotic jewelry to make ladies in the court fall for him when they first spurn his advances.
• The Rings of Power in The Lord of the Rings aside from the One Ring. The whole reason Sauron taught the Elves how to craft them was so he could enslave their bearers with the One Ring. His initial attempt failed though because the Elves immediately took off their Three Rings of Power when they sensed Sauron's influence and refused to use them again. He then tried to corrupt other races with the Rings of Power. He had more success with the Seven and the Nine because he had a hand in their creation (unlike the case with the Three). Even then, the Dwarves' hardy mental states made them too difficult to outright control — all the Rings could do was make them even greedier. Sauron would hit pay dirt with the Nine when he gave them to Men. These Men gained great power and long life, but eventually turned into Sauron's Ringwraiths, falling completely under Sauron's will.
• In Throne of Glass, King Havilliard gives out black rings that render those who wear them under his control. Dorian gets a neck brace version at the end of Heir of Fire.

Live-Action TV

• One episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? features an old riding jacket, which causes a girl to be possessed by the spirit of her dead aunt.
• Similarly, in The Avengers (1960s) episode "Return of the Cybernauts", Beresford gives Mrs. Peel a bracelet, which is actually a mind-control device.
• They have appeared several times in Doctor Who over the years.
  • Wearing anything made of gold allows the Animus to control you in "The Web Planet".
  • The Shadow uses tiny mind-control trinkets to control Princess Astra and even K9 in "The Armageddon Factor". They are a No-Sell on the Doctor, though.
  • Kassia finds that the Melkur's gifts have a price in "The Keeper of Traken".
  • Please wear your Cybus Industries technology with pride. You will not be permitted to regret it! ("Rise of the Cybermen")
• Merlin (2008):
  • Uther is hypnotized with a magic amulet powered by troll blood.
  • Also, Gwen and the magic bracelet in "Lancelot Du Lac".
• In the Gilligan's Island episode "Ring Around Gilligan", mad scientist Dr. Boris Balinkoff invents a ring that, when worn, turns the wearer into a mind-controlled robot slave. He plans to use the ring to mind control all seven castaways to rob Fort Knox.
• In the Odd Squad episode "Oscar Strikes Back", President Obbs uses the pins that every Scientist has received upon entry to Lab-Con to mind-control all of them. The only Scientists that aren't mind-controlled are Oscar, who drops his pin at the opening ceremony before he has a chance to put it on, and Oona, who is in the garage. Likewise, Ms. O is also unaffected up until the climax, where she and Oscar both have pins placed on them and are hypnotized by Obbs.
• In The Monkees episode "Monstrous Monkee Mash", the vampiress Lorelei mind-controls her victims with a magic necklace, which she bestows with a kiss. (This prompts the repeated exchange: "What a kiss! I've never felt this way before!" "You fool, it is not my kiss, but the magic necklace!" "What a necklace! I've never felt this way before!" The villainess herself got tired of it...)
• In Smallville, Winslow Schott has a diadem that emits a frequency to the brain stem. He got Courtney Whitmore to commit crimes for him and Lois try to kill Clark (who had his powers at the time).
• The Twilight Zone (1959): In the episode "Dead Man's Shoes", a homeless man finds the body of a gangster's victim, puts on his shoes, and is possessed by the victim. The Twilight Zone (1985) did a Gender Flip, "Dead Woman's Shoes", in which the trinket is a pair of shoes belonging to the murdered wife of a rich corporate type.

Pinball

• In Foo Fighters (2023), the Overlord uses specialized helmets to mind control people, turning them into the "Reformatted." Much later, he also uses headphones to brainwash four of the band's members during the Wizard Mode.

Tabletop Games

• In Warhammer, Azhag the Slaughterer has a crown that tries to control him. However, as Azhag is an orc this isn't going that easily, and he suffers from Stupidity (a chance to skip each turn) by the power struggle within.

Video Games

• King Drool's mind control egg helmets in Bonk's Adventure, which he used to brainwash the bosses in the game, as well as Princess Za into battling the player. Bonk has to break these helmets to free the bosses from Drool's control.
• In Warhammer Online and related media, Grumlok has an enchanted amulet that makes him unwittingly carry out the Witch King's plans. Although later Greenskin quests suggest that he's not entirely mind-controlled...
• Final Fantasy:
  • Terra, one of the characters of Final Fantasy VI, wears a slave crown and thus is mind controlled. Cut dialogue that remained in the Data Texts for the game also had Terra shouting "No! Stay Away!" during the procedure from Kefka, implying that she was not a willing participant.
  • This gets a Continuity Nod in Dissidia Final Fantasy during the boss fight against her in Onion Knight's storyline. If you check her equipment before the fight, you can see that she is wearing a Hypnocrown to explain why she is acting against her will.
• Similar to the Final Fantasy VI example above, in Super Paper Mario, Dimentio implants a floro sprout that he got from the Floro King into Luigi's head when he knocked him unconscious, activating it when betraying Count Bleck so Luigi, or rather, Mr. L, could merge with the Chaos Heart and thus allow him to gain control of it.
• The title item from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. The evil creature that lives in the mask takes control of any person who puts it on.
• There are a couple in Baldur's Gate II, ranging from cursed items to vitally important devices that used for an interesting subset of Mind Control — mind flayer control. Handy.
• This goes back as far as Commander Keen. In the "Invasion of the Vorticons" trilogy, "The Grand Intellect" enslaves the entire Vorticon race with mind control belts, and it's up to Keen to thwart their invasion and discover who the Grand Intellect really is.
• Tiny Toon Adventures games:
  • The Sega Genesis game, Buster's Hidden Treasure has Mad Scientist Dr. Gene Splicer use spiky mind control helmets on Plucky Duck, Hamton Pig, Dizzy Devil, and Calamity Coyote. They are all fought as boss fights, though in order to win, Buster must hit the one controlling them (Splicer) rather than his Brainwashed and Crazy friend — recall that the mind control helmets are spiky.
  • In the Super Nintendo game, Buster Busts Loose, Splicer uses a mind control helmet on Melvin the Monster, much like he did in the episode, "Hare Raising Night". To save Melvin from Splicer's mind-control, Buster must destroy Splicer's machine by kicking the screwbolts Melvin tosses at him towards it.
• In the Gun'drak zone of World of Warcraft, the Scourge commander Drakuru attempts to give the Player Character one of these, a necklace that will control their mind and turn them into a shambling undead to boot. Seeing as his enemies are adventurers, he does this by giving it to a minion, in hopes that you'll kill it, loot the item, and put it on (as adventurers are wont to do). Fortunately for you, you're working for the Knights of the Ebon Blade, former Scourge agents who know all the tricks of the trade. They stop you from putting the stupid thing on, and help you modify it to disguise you as an undead while retaining your free will. You then use the item to trick Drakuru into thinking you're a minion and destroy his operation from within.
• In the Borderlands 2 DLC Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, during the fight with Greedtooth, Tina notes that there's a "Weird-Ass Magic Globe" floating around the battlefield which might be the reason he's hostile. If you blow it up, Greedtooth stops fighting you. Then he remembers that you killed the Dwarven King earlier. Afterwards, he gets back to killing you.
• In Incredible Dracula 2: The Last Call owners of the latest cell phone are turned into mindless zombies by the manufacturer.
• The Big Bad of Hero of the Kingdom III uses a magic ruby to hypnotize the princess, who comes to believe that the ruby loves her. She then obeys its request to take it to the Big Bad's hiding place in the Forbidden Valley.
• Daitoku Igor in EXTRAPOWER becomes a pawn of Dark Force after having a mind-control antenna installed in his brain. It's too delicately embedded in his brain to operate. So they just rip it out.

Web Original

• SCP Foundation, SCP-1510 ("The Tarnished Legionnaire"). A Roman legionnaire was affected by a curse that caused his body to rot away and his mind/soul to be stored in his helmet. Whenever a man between 28 and 35 years old puts on the helmet, the legionnaire's personality possesses them.

Western Animation

• An episode of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog has Robotnik put a mind-controlling watch on Tails, called a "compliance chip". Robotnik's fatal mistake is putting Scratch and Grounder in command of him.
• In Adventure Time, Ice King uses an engagement ring to hypnotize a princess into marrying him.
• 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.
• Clone High: In the episode "The Crown: Joancoming: It's a Cleo Cleo Cleo Cleo World," the Homecoming crown grants the power to enslave anyone to its wearer.
• In Code Lyoko, XANA once 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.
• Codename: Kids Next Door:
  • An episode has the "Yes-Dear 6000" (better known as the Boyfriend Helmet) a mind-control helmet that is mass-marketed towards girls as a way of controlling their boyfriends. More frighteningly, the effect becomes permanent as the helmet fuses with the victim. Lizzie puts one on Numbuh One, who is forced to take her on a fancy date, until eventually the insane prices make him angry enough to break free.
  • Brought back in a later episode; this time, it was modified to be a Girlfriend Helmet by the evil 4th grade student president to be used on Lizzie.
• In Danny Phantom, Johnny 13 uses his girlfriend's clothing to first influence the mind of, and then transfer his girlfriend's soul into, the body of Jazz when she wears them.
• A literal "love bracelet" was used in an episode of Dinosaucers. Subverted to comic effect when the bracelet ends up on the wrong person. Twice.
• In The Herculoids episode "Ruler of the Reptons," the Reptons put a crown on Tarra to mind-control her into being their queen.
• Jade Armor: A number of Shard-infused objects have the power to make others obey the one using them in different ways.
• Kim Possible has Dr. Drakken controlling Shego and Kim with computer chips attached to their forehead.
• In The Legend of Zelda (1989), Ganon puts a necklace on Zelda to force her to marry him.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, "The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 1": The helmets worn by the soldiers of the Crystal Empire on the battlefield. It is strongly implied (by the Sickly Green Glow that lights up through the eye slits, when we see King Sombra equip one on a pony) that they are mind-controlling the otherwise peaceful Crystal Ponies.
• In the Tiny Toon Adventures episode, "Hare Raising Night", Dr. Gene Splicer uses a mind control helmet on Melvin the Monster to help him turn the show's four main protagonists into a single species. Babs uses Melvin's crush on her to override the helmet and later help Melvin turn against Splicer.
• In Wild Kratts, Zack Varmitech specializes in creating devices that can control animals - anything from parrotfish to rhinoceroses.

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