Thought Experiment: Superhero with Mind Control?

This one is just an idea I had. Mind control is generally given to the villains for a few reasons, such as it being a story-breaker power, forcing people to do things against their will is usually immoral, and it creates the drama of forcing "good guys" to fight.

Now, I'm wondering if one could make a superheroic character who uses mind control as their primary, possibly sole power (they might otherwise be a badass normal). How would you go about writing such a character or getting around the issues mentioned above?

Isn"t Professor Xavier an example of just such a character?

The power could have limitations or drawbacks, of course, like the ones that Lelouch/Zero from Code Geass has- it only works once per person, requires visible eye contact (so it won't work on someone wearing sunglasses or a dark-visor helmet), and once someone's under control, the victim will obey the first imperative statement they hear the controller say until completed or physically unable to continue, even if the statement isn't directed at them. (Which caused terrible things to happen in that show, if I recall.)

The mind control could also be more subtle in nature, only able to make suggestions to the victim and subject to the victim's interpretation- say if the controller tells the victim to shoot people, the victim might be able to fulfill the letter of that order by just shooting people in the limbs or something without killing them, or they might be able to get away with missing entirely.

You could even make mind control involve a mind-meld of sorts, where the controller has to be inside the victim's mind, in a way, perhaps the two feeling what the other feels, which has way more applications than mere mind control and tons of terrible potential side effects for the controller once they pull out.

And for the case of the mind-control person otherwise being a squishy human, they'll go down with a bullet or sucker punch or tranq dart like anyone else- send enough guys after them in staggered waves so that somebody has a chance of taking them out while their attention's elsewhere, and that's it. The ability could also require levels of focus that are difficult to maintain in the chaos of open combat without extensive practice and discipline that takes so much of their attention they can't watch for threats, such that using them in a combat situation with bullets flying and explosions would require them to have extensive protective support. It might be safer and more effective, then, to relegate them to being support staff for a superhero team, an interrogator or spy who gathers intel for the team and helps them make more effective assaults on bad-guy organizations.

I'm not familiar with Xavier outside of Marvel fanfiction, but I believe his primary limitation is his moral code.

Edited by CrystalGlacia on Oct 11th 2020 at 12:25:38 PM

The simplest way would be for:

1. Their abilities require a high degree of concentration to make use of. That way frequently controlling people for trivial reasons would be so mentally taxing they wouldn't do it.

2. They gained their abilities as an adult or at least after they have had time to develop a strong moral code.

But these are just guidelines, and sometimes writing is all about not taking the simplest path. In theory someone who has an "always on" form of mind control since childhood like the Purple Man (most known for his role in Jessica Jones) could still end up being heroic. It's just that more of their story would have to be dedicated to explaining how someone who can so easily compel anyone to do anything that he could do it by accident could of developed a moral compass.

Edited by Falrinn on Oct 4th 2020 at 2:46:04 AM

@Falrinn The question I'm trying to ask is less "Why" such a character would be good and more "How" you have a good guy use mind control as their main power without having them look like too much of an Unscrupulous Hero.

I'm thinking if you gave them a Thou Shalt Not Kill principle that might help, since even if they use the most obvious application of mind control (having your enemies fight each other) at least they aren't forcing people to kill per se. So, "Can't make their Thralls kill or allow their Thralls to die" can work for both the purposes of their morality and as a weakness.

A limit on how many thralls they can have at a time, as with it having a concentration limit (IE, if they get smacked, they lose control) also makes sense.

"Do not control anyone who is not themselves coercing someone else", or "Do not control anyone unless innocent life is at stake", or something like that.

Or alternatively/additionally, "do not make someone do things they wouldn't do by themselves". No taking away free will, just nudging the other guy into doing something he's already considering doing but is uncertain about.

Overheard a guy being uncertain about proposing to his girlfriend? Nudge him into going ahead with the proposing.

Witnessed a kid being harassed by bullies and being too afraid to stand up to them? Nudge him into notifying the proper adult authority figure and nudge said authority figure into taking it seriously rather than dismissing it.

A little psychic encouragement here and there can easily help other people's everyday lives.

in the draft of my superhero story, two of the characters (they have the same power because they're identical twins), have some subtype of mind control, most closely comparable(?) to Jedi Mind Trick or Charm Person. They are not superheroes but they're generally normal, mentally healthy people who are just trying to live.

Namely, they can "convince"/influence people (only one target at a time, only verbally, they must argue their point or keep insisting, and the target is capable of snapping out of it, so they have to be careful or the target might notice the influence) into doing things^note  so far: getting an inspector to give them have liquor license for their pub, convincing people to ignore the fact that they do not officially exist, convincing their creator to let them live in a room with a window (so that they could escape), talking aggressors into going away, asking a police officer to let them go, and unsuccesfully trying to convince a villain that he's wrong. They do not need eye contact, but one character (who knew about their powers and could just have been paranoid) descriped the older twin's eyes as "enticing".

They're not Wonder Twin Powers, though. They do not need to act together, and acting together has no real advantage as the target would only be distracted by the other twin.

Edited by Nukeli on Oct 21st 2020 at 9:51:28 PM