History Main / AmnesiacProtagonistCatalyst

* ''Literature/ShutterIsland'' and [[Film/ShutterIsland its film adaptation]] is about a police officer, Teddy, investigating the disappearance of a psychotic patient called Andrew Laeddis. Twist is, [[spoiler:he ''is'' Andrew Laeddis. But this is a downplayed case since everyone else was aware of it and was just playing along to try and cure him]].

->''An elderly man was sitting alone on a dark path. He wasn't certain of which direction to go, and he'd forgotten both where he was traveling to and who he was. He'd sat down for a moment to rest his weary legs, and suddenly looked up to see an elderly woman before him. She grinned toothlessly and with a cackle, spoke: "Now your third wish. What will it be?"''\\
''"Third wish?" The man was baffled. "How can it be a third wish if I haven't had a first and second wish?"''\\
''"You've had two wishes already," the hag said, "but your second wish was for me to return everything to the way it was before you had made your first wish. That's why you remember nothing; because everything is the way it was before you made any wishes." She cackled at the poor berk. "So it is that you have one wish left."''\\
''"All right," said the man, '"I don't believe this, but there's no harm in wishing. I wish to know who I am."''\\
''"Funny," said the old woman as she granted his wish and disappeared forever.'' "That was your first wish."

However, a significant fraction of the story later, it is revealed that the cause of the problem is...[[TomatoInTheMirror you?!]]

[[AC:Anime and Manga]]

* The setting of ''Manga/YuGiOhArcV'' consists of four separate dimensions, each respectively using one of the four summoning methods (Standard, Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz) with the Fusion dimension leading violent attacks on the others. It turns out [[spoiler: the four dimensions used to be one until a duelist named Zarc was driven crazy by a violence-craving audience and turned himself into a deity, almost destroying the world before another duelist named Ray defeated him with special cards, splitting both of them into four reincarnations (one of Zarc's being [[TheHero Yuya]] and one of Ray's being Yuzu) of themselves across the dimensions and wiping the memories of everyone else in the process]].

[[AC:Comic Books]]

[[AC:Film - Live-Action]]

* Both ''Film/ShutterIsland'' and the [[Literature/ShutterIsland book]] is about a police officer, Teddy, investigating the disappearance of a psychotic patient called Andrew Laeddis. Twist is, [[spoiler:he ''is'' Andrew Laeddis. But this is a downplayed case since everyone else was aware of it and was just playing along to try and cure him]].

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* One episode of ''Series/FatherBrown'', "[[spoiler:The Smallest of Things]]", has the unknowing killer be the one who invites Father Brown to come and investigate the death of their mother, insisting that it couldn't ''possibly'' be an accident.

[[AC:Podcast]]
* One of the major turning points of of ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneBalance'' is when we learn Taako, Magnus, and Merle all have ''huge'' gaps in their memories--[[TheGrimReaper Kravitz]] has record of them each dying multiple times, there's just static where ''years''' worth of memories should be, and Magnus discovers [[spoiler:he's a Red Robe]], but none of them have any idea what the explanation for this is. [[spoiler:It's eventually reveled that the three of them, along with Davenport, Lucretia, Barry, and Taako's sister Lup--whom he'd ''also'' completely forgotten the existence of--are all originally from another dimension, and spent a full century being chased by [[EldritchAbomination the Hunger]], staying in each dimension for one year before it caught up to them again. After they settled on the dimension where the main story takes place, Lucretia wound up wiping her friends' memories for what she saw as the greater good, as part of a plan to defeat the Hunger for good. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Except her actions and the events of the campaign have directly led to it finding them again after ten years of successfully hiding]]. MassOhCrap ensues.]]

[[AC:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Clue}}'': Mr. Boddy is killed by one of the six PlayerCharacters. And the technical killer doesn't know if they did it or not (unless they've got their own card in their hand, or seen it in someone else's).

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'': In the short bonus game "Justine", the {{player character}} is kidnapped and placed in Justine's torture rooms where she must try and save Justine's past victims. [[spoiler:Turns out the player character is Justine herself, but with amnesia; she gave herself that in order to test herself and if she was capable of good.]]
* ''VideoGame/AmnesiaAMachineForPigs'': Oswald wakes up after being in a coma and finds himself horrifically stalked by monsters while he tries to find his missing sons. [[spoiler:He created the manpigs and killed his children in order to spare them all from the horrors of the twentieth century, thinking that annihilation was a better solution.]]
%% * ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuest'': Technically applies to the whole series because the first game, ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheShiftedSpires'', uses it, where Catie's actions before her amnesia resulted in her amnesia and falling asleep, and the whole state of the world when she wakes up, but the villain is not her, and he's responsible for his own actions.
%% Does this instance actually count

* "Videogame/Persona4Arena" zigzags this a bit. As it turns out, the mysterious red-eyed, silver-haired amnesiac girl that appears in every story [[spoiler: is responsible for the P-1 Grand Prix...or rather, [[EnemyWithout her Shadow self]] is. Also, she's actually a robot too. So, it's a mix of this trope and RoboticReveal]].

* ''VideoGame/TheWhiteChamber'' follows a young woman who awakens within a strange glowing coffin. She soon discovers that she is trapped on-board a space station, and that something has killed the rest of the crew. The only clues point towards ''something'' called the "white chamber", but to learn the truth the young woman must first survive whatever malevolent presence still pervades the ship. As you pick up more and more clues, you find out that [[spoiler:your name is Sarah, and ''you'', possibly influenced by the [[ArtifactOfDoom artefact]] they found, have killed the crew. Your current situation is because of the ship's technician Arthur Anderson, who after fusing with the artefact is forcing Sarah to relive the events of the game again and again until [[TheAtoner she redeems herself]] [[BeyondRedemption or has marked herself beyond saving]].]]
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfFinalFantasy'': You play as twin siblings Lann and Reynn who suffer from amnesia and hold the power in one of their arms to capture and wield Mirages, the monsters of Grymoire, a land populated by classic ''Final Fantasy'' characters and monsters from across the series, while being unconnected to any other series entry. Threatening this world is the ever-expanding Bahamutian Federation. [[spoiler:While its "leader" Brandelis is indeed [[BigBad the main antagonist]] that Lann and Reynn have to fight all the way to the end, it is the siblings themselves who [[NiceJobBreakingItHero unwittingly summoned him in the first place]] [[SmugSuper as a result of their hubris from their powers]].]]

[[AC:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'': Sigma finds himself trapped with eight other victims in an enclosed facility. In order to escape, they are forced to play the "Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition" by an [[ArtificialIntelligence A.I. program]] calling itself "Zero III", and orchestrated by his creator (dubbed Zero Sr. by the "contestants"). Turns out [[spoiler:the orchestrator is none other than Sigma himself. Kinda. There's '''a lot''' of TimeTravel shenanigans involved. [[WellIntentionedExtremist And an actually good reason for doing so]]. And he had the help of the [[VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors original Zero]]. That said, there was also a separate BigBad whose organization's genocidal agenda hinges on stopping Sigma's plan, and he was one of the players, too.]]

[[AC:Web Comics]]

-->'''Trace''' (''[[https://twokinds.keenspot.com/comic/658/ on hearing that it's illegal for slave traders to free slaves]]''): What? Why? What kind of evil person would make a law like th... it was me, wasn't it?

* "Videogame/Persona4Arena" zigzags this a bit. As it turns out, the mysterious red-eyed, silver-haired girl that appears in every story [[spoiler: is responsible for the P-1 Grand Prix...or rather, [[EnemyWithout her Shadow self]] is. Also, she's actually a robot too. So, it's a mix of this trope and RoboticReveal]].

* "Videogame/Persona4Arena" zigzags this a bit. As it turns out, the mysterious red-eyed, silver girl that appears in every story [[spoiler: is responsible for the P-1 Grand Prix...or rather, [[EnemyWithout her Shadow self]] is. Also, she's actually a robot too. So, it's a mix of this trope and RoboticReveal]].

* "Videogame/Persona4Arena" zigzags this a bit. As it turns out, the mysterious red-eyed, silver girl that appears in every story [[spoiler: is responsible for the P-1 Grand Prix...or rather, [[EnemyWithout her Shadow self]]. Also, she's actually a robot too. So, it's a mix of this trope and RoboticReveal]].

* Subverted in one issue of ''ComicBook/TomorrowStories'', which sees the detective Greyshirt chasing after an amnesiac man who believes that he’s the hammer-wielding serial killer at large after waking up in an alley next to a dead woman and a bloody hammer. [[spoiler:After Greyshirt finally catches the guy, he reveals that the amnesiac was innocent -- the blood was ''his'', the Hammer Killer slipped on wet pavement while attacking him and broke her skull open, but not before landing a blow that caused the poor guy to black out and lose his memory. Alas, by that time, the man has killed someone, convinced that he was already doomed to be executed for the eight previous murders anyway.]]

[[AC:Film - Live Action]]

* Both ''Film/ShutterIsland'' and the [[Literature/ShutterIsland book]] is about a police officer, Teddy, investigating the disappearance of a psychotic patient called Andrew Laeddis. Twist is, [[spoiler:he ''is'' Andrew Laeddis. But this is a downplayed case since everyone else was aware of it and was just playing along to try and cure him.]]


[[AC:Live Action TV]]

* ''Series/{{Marcella}}'' pulls a BaitAndSwitch with this trope. Marcella has blackouts that make her sporadically very violent. She fears that she may have killed her soon-to-be-ex husband Jason's mistress, Grace, during one of these blackouts and goes to great lengths to cover up her involvement. [[spoiler:Grace was actually murdered by a serial killer and it was nothing to do with Marcella.]] However, in Season 2, Marcella comes to worry that her son is a psychopath who [[spoiler:may have murdered his younger sister, causing her amnesia. She eventually learns that she killed her baby daughter, albeit accidentally, and that was what caused her amnesiac blackouts.]]

* ''VideoGame/AmnesiaAMachineForPigs'': Oswald wakes up after being in a coma and finds himself horrifically stalked by monsters while he tries to find his missing sons. [[spoiler:He created the manpigs and killed his children in order to spare them all from the horrors of the twentieth century, thinking that annihilation was a better solution]].

-->'''Trace''' (''[[https://twokinds.keenspot.com/comic/658/ on hearing that it's illegal for slave traders to free slaves]]''): "What? Why? What kind of evil person would make a law like th... it was me, wasn't it?"

[[WMG:Examples]]

-->--'''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'''

* Subverted in one issue of ''ComicBook/TomorrowStories'', which sees the detective Greyshirt chasing after an amnesiac man who believes that he killed eight people because he suddenly woke up in an alley next to a dead woman and a bloody hammer. [[spoiler:After Greyshirt finally catches the guy, he reveals that the amnesiac was innocent -- the blood was ''his'', the Hammer Killer slipped on wet pavement while attacking him and broke her skull open, but not before landing a blow that caused the poor guy to black out and lose his memory. Alas, by that time, the man has killed someone, convinced that he was already doomed to be executed for the eight previous murders anyway.]]

* Subverted in one issue of ''ComicBook/TomorrowStories'', which sees the detective Greyshirt chasing after an amnesiac man who believes that he killed eight people because he suddenly woke up in an alley next to a dead woman. [[spoiler:After Greyshirt finally catches the guy, he reveals that the amnesiac was innocent; the dead woman was the killer, but suffered a fatal slip while trying to attack the man. Alas, by that time, the man has killed someone, convinced that he was already doomed to be executed for the eight previous murders anyway.]]

->''An elderly man was sitting alone on a dark path He wasn't certain of which direction to go, and he'd forgotten both where he was traveling to and who he was. He'd sat down for a moment to rest his weary legs, and suddenly looked up to see an elderly woman before him. She grinned toothlessly and with a cackle, spoke: "Now your third wish. What will it be?"''\\

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' has its lead character Fei, an AmnesiacHero with no memory of his past other than he was brought to Lahan village three years before the game begins. As the story progresses, he learns [[spoiler:he's the latest {{Reincarnation}} of the same person who has existed for the past 10,000 years. Two such reincarnations, [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Id]] and [[DarthVaderClone Grahf]], are still somehow alive ([[JigsawPuzzlePlot It's complicated]]) and]] are responsible for many of his and the party's grievances throughout the game.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfFinalFantasy'': You play as twin siblings Lann and Reynn who suffer from amnesia and hold the power in one of their arms to capture and wield Mirages, the monsters of Grymoire, a land populated by classic ''Final Fantasy'' characters and monsters from across the series, while being unconnected to any other series entry. Threatening this world is the ever-expanding Bahamutian Federation. [[spoiler:While its "leader" Brandelis is indeed [[BigBad the main antagonist]] that the Lann and Reynn have to fight all the way to the end, it is the siblings themselves who [[NiceJobBreakingItHero unwittingly summoned him in the first place]] [[SmugSuper as a result of their hubris from their powers]].]]

* The setting of ''Manga/YuGiOhARCV'' consists of four separate dimensions, each respectively using one of the four summoning methods (Standard, Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz) with the Fusion dimension leading violent attacks on the others. It turns out [[spoiler: the four dimensions used to be one until a duelist named Zarc was driven crazy by a violence-craving audience and turned himself into a deity, almost destroying the world before another duelist named Ray defeated him with special cards, splitting both of them into four reincarnations (one of Zarc's being [[TheHero Yuya]] and one of Ray's being Yuzu) of themselves across the dimensions and wiping the memories of everyone else in the process]].

* ''Videogame/PlanescapeTorment'' has a pretty famous example with the Nameless One, who's past incarnations are the reason for the conflict (specifically, the first one committed some unspecified MoralEvenHorizon, so he made a deal to get his mortality separated from him so he wouldn't go to the Planescape hell, and now every time he dies he gets new memories or something, and the Practical Incarnation is the one who hurt many of the characters in his quest to get his mortality back).