History Main / PuppeteerParasite

* ''VideoGame/{{Limbo}}'': Glowworms, which shoot down from the ceiling and burrow into your head as you run underneath and force you to run continuously in one direction until you hit a source of light which turns them around. They're unavoidable and merely have to be dealt with until you can get to another creature which rips them off your head.

Very popular in films during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar era, as it made such a handy [[ScaryDogmaticAliens parallel for communism]]. One of the [[GenreSavvy most self-aware]] film examples is ''Film/TheFaculty''.

Compare with LivingDollCollector. Contrast TheyLookLikeUsNow, where the {{Masquerade}} is limited to posing as human without being able to replace/control specific individuals. Compare & contrast MarionetteMaster, someone who uses actual puppets, and PeoplePuppets for less "autonomous" human puppetry.

* The Children of Old Leech in ''Literature/TheCroning'' are a form of intergalactic parasite that have been infiltrating humankind for centuries, using human bodies to disguise their true forms. While their motives remain somewhat mysterious, they're clearly not here to make friends, and characters unlucky enough to discover their existence usually wish they hadn't. They can also be found in many of Barron's short stories, including "The Men from Porlock" and "The Broadsword".

* ''ComicBook/{{Annihilators}}'' has a heroic example in Groot, who takes control of some of the Star-Thief's killer clown henchmen by germinating cuttings of himself in their wooden heads.
* ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'': Though they pretend to be [[ZombieApocalypse people brought back from the dead]], Black Lanterns are actually closer to this. The black rings essentially animate and control corpses to provoke emotions from their victims [[EmotionEater in order to feed]]. The actual person is not brought back, which is proven when ComicBook/{{Deadman}} continues to exist as a ghost after his corpse becomes a Black Lantern.
* One of the worlds of ''ComicBook/BlackScience'' is dominated by the zirites, a gaseous lifeform that infects flesh-and-blood hosts. There is no evidence that the hosts' minds survive.

* ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' has a variant in the Sequids. One or more Sequids attach to a host, which then comes under the control of the Sequid hive mind; however, the Sequids themselves have nothing other than the basic instinct to attach themselves to other creatures unless they have a host to boost their intelligence and unite the hive mind.

* ''ComicBook/LockeAndKey'' has creatures colloquially referred to as demons, from another dimension full of them, that need to possess humans to exist as anything other than lumps of metal that can be forged into enchanted objects, often keys. Notably, they explicitly possess the souls of their victims, and it persists even after death as they prevent them from joining in on a heavenly afterlife.

* In the ''ComicBook/SheHulk'' graphic novel (this was before she turned to surreal meta-comedy) the Cockroach Horde gets around by infesting human bodies.

** Introduced in the "Planet of the Symbiotes" crossover and further expanded upon in the "Planet Venom" arc of ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', the symbiotes -- or Klyntar -- are split into two groups: the heroic Agents of the Cosmos, who bond to worthy hosts and protect the innocent; and an evil empire of planet-conquering parasites known as [[TheSwarm the Hive]] that completely dominate their host's will and ultimately burn their bodies out before eating them and finding a new host.
** A villain called the Thousand worked out that the radioactive spider that bit Peter Parker was the source of Spidey's powers, and ''ate it''. He became a [[TheWormThatWalks conscious infestation of spiders]] that could take over other people's bodies, eventually devouring them from within.

* In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW'', this is how Titan Masters work. Unlike the G1 Headmasters, which worked either as two partners or (in the Japanese Headmaster cartoons) robots that piloted larger, non-sentient bodies, Titan Masters take over the body of a larger Cybertronian who's head they've replaced.
* In ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'', the Watchers never show up themselves and speak by controlling someone. When their agent Rick Jones was in outer space, they did this to him to talk with him... which could seem as if he was discussing with himself, if the reader was not aware of the context.
* In ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow'', Brainiac, his body destroyed, is forced to use Lex Luthor for this in order to work his will. Eventually, Luthor [[spoiler:begs for death to be free of his control]].

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nematomorpha Horsehair Worms]] infect grasshoppers and praying mantises while young, then influence their host to go to the water when they are ready to [[ChestBurster rip through its chest]] and begin their free-living existence. [[https://youtu.be/D7r1S6-op8E This is a cricket, but same difference]].
* ''Leucochloridium'' is a genus of fluke that infects snails, then extends its eggsack into the antenna of the host, then causes the snail to position itself so that its antenna where a bird can easily see it. The bird then eats the infested antenna (swollen to look like a worm) and becomes infected. [[https://youtu.be/EWB_COSUXMw See it here!]]

* The handlingers of ''Literature/PerdidoStreetStation'', who are given host bodies of convicted criminals by the government of New Crobuzon in return for doing their dirty work.

* The nanoswarms in ''Literature/{{Prey}}'' eventually turn out to be able to do this
* In ''Literature/ProfessorMmaasLecture'', this happens to a [[spoiler:a human whose nervous system is being directly stimulated and controlled by an army of termites to turn him into a mindless WeaponOfMassDestruction against the [[AntWar invading army of ants]]]].

%%* ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'' has at about a half dozen types of these. Some are monsters, at least two are available as Player Characters.%%ZCEs

* The Strangers in ''Film/DarkCity'' are squid-like aliens driving around human corpses. "You've seen what we are. We use your dead as vessels."