History Main / BeatItByCompulsion

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* The ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' supplement "Tome Of Magic" introduced the Binder PrestigeClass. Binders make pacts with unique spirits called Vestiges to bind them to their body and use their abilities. Each Vestige has it's own "Influence" based on their personality and history which forces the Binder to act a certain way or take certain actions, such as killing or not killing certain types. For example, the Vestige Otiax gets agitated whenever it sees a closed door, and if it finds a key it has to find the lock the key opens. Some of the influences can be ignored, but you'll take a penalty to your stats until you release the Vestige.

* [[LeftHanging Had it ever been continued past chapter three,]]''Webcomic/HannaIsNotABoysName'' would've featured this tactic with the SuperOCD VampireHunter, Abner. According to the author's sketches, he would somehow be defeated by the [[TrashOfTheTitans masterfully disgusting]] [[BackAlleyDoctor Doc Worth]]; using Worth's repulsiveness to drive the mysophobic (that's 'fear of germs') hunter away.

* In the first ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' book, [[VillainProtagonist Artemis]] uses the fairies' inability to enter a human dwelling without permission, compulsion to obey a human while in their dwelling, and inability to come back later to try get revenge to extract a lot of gold from them. [[spoiler: They get around this by LoopholeAbuse and sending in a non-magical troll.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/Disenchantment'', the citizens of Dankmire are compelled to bow when someone bows to them. Elfo and Luci use this to their advantage to escape a crowd of pursuers after Bean offends them with a drunken tirade.

* In ''Disenchantment'', the citizens of Dankmire are compelled to bow when someone bows to them. Elfo and Luci use this to their advantage to escape a crowd of pursuers after Bean offends them with a drunken tirade.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Disenchantment'', the citizens of Dankmire are compelled to bow when someone bows to them. Elfo and Luci use this to their advantage to escape a crowd of pursuers after Bean offends them with a drunken tirade.

** In the new [=WoD=], [[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost changelings]] who grow powerful enough suffer from "frailities", similar to the old stories about TheFairFolk. One may be unable to drink anything but alcohol, while another may have to dance when she hears a clock chime.

* Inverted in ''{{ComicBook/Preacher}}'': Jesse gets rid of Hoover (an ordinary human working for Starr) to count sand with the Voice of God, forcing the poor guy to go and count several billion grains of sand. Several story arcs later, we find him still on the beach (having since learned to dig the sand into a dam so fish would get caught in it at high tide) and finishing counting. Understandably unstabilized by the experience, he goes to find Jesse to kill him... only for Jesse to not remember him at all. After some exposition, Jesse removes his mental state by telling him to forget about it (with the Voice of God). This in turn causes Tulip to remark on a guy with the initials J.C. is going around healing the (mentally) ill, where has she heard that before...

* Played with a fair bit in Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', where methods to defeat vampires included mixing up their sock drawer (they would then have to pair and sort the socks), and forcing other obsessive-compulsive type behaviour. Another example would be the werewolves in The Fifth Elephant. Saying the word 'bath' actually gets them to wince, and throwing something has them automatically run over and grab it in a doggy-esque manner.

-->''"It's a compulsive thing. I was like, '''half done''' counting it and some moron running through shoved me!"''
--->'''Charby''', ''Webcomic/CharbyTheVampirate''

* ''Webcomic/CharbyTheVampirate'': Vampires in this setting have a compulsion to count that can be very inconvenient for them, as seen [[http://www.charbythevampirate.com/archive/644 here]] in the old archives.

** He also [[SlaveToRouting follows a strict schedule without fail]], so any weird action that he would do on a particular day would be a sure sign of something suspicious. Case in point: he went to the bank two days in a row, allowing the SPK member tailing him to find the real Death Note that was used to kill people.

** He also follows a strict schedule without fail, so any weird action that he would do on a particular day would be a sure sign of something suspicious, Case in point, he went to the bank two days in a row, allowing the SPK member tailing him to find the real death note that was used to kill people.

* In ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' the titular hero is goaded into revealing his hiding spot when the BigBad begins tapping out 'shave and a haircut' a gag that no toon can resist. This apparently isn't hyperbole as Roger fails to physically restrain himself and leaps through the wall and answers with 'Two Bits!'

* Disney's ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'' had a Greek inventor character who compulsively revealed weaknesses to his inventions... tied to a compulsion to dictate notes to himself not to do that again.
** [[NeatFreak His obsession with cleanliness]]. Splash a bit of mud on his tunic and he'll be incapable of anything but whining until he scrubs it all out.

* In ancient Egypt cats were considered sacred animals, and to harm one meant bringing down a severe punishment on the offender, up to and including death. When the Romans invaded, rumor has it that one of their tactics was to have their front line carry cats out in front of them, gambling that this compulsion would prevent the opposing Egyptian army from striking through the cats to get at the Roman troops. As we all know from history, it apparently worked. This compulsion against harming the sacred animals shows up, of all places, in the first ''[[Film/TheMummy1999 Mummy]]'' movie, where Branden Frasier's character scares off [[ThePunishment Imhotep]] with a cat.

[[folder:Tabletop Role Playing Game]]

* Autistic people of all kinds may exhibit this behavior, helpful or not.

* In ''SoulEater'', Death the Kid has a crippling obsession with symmetry, resulting in him stopping mid-battle to chew out one of his [[EmpathicWeapon Weapons]] for being off center, going home in the middle of a mission to check whether the picture in his room was centered properly (it was), refusing to attack a symmetrical opponent and going berserk and obliterating an asymmetrical one.

* In ''OnePiece'', an entire species of birds (known as South Birds) compulsively face south and thus are used as compasses. At one point, the crew captures one and makes fun of it. The bird threatens to throw them off course and turns its head North...until it gets tired and turns back to south. It's also worth noting that there are North Birds as well, and will produce East or West birds through mating with South Birds.

** A currently-running story has Two-Face completely unable to control himself after a rival villain stole his coin. Dent's dialogue and internal monologue makes much of his frustration with his lack of control.

** Which is kind of ironic since Two-Face's coin ''is'' a two-headed trick coin: he simply scratched one of the sides.

* Canonically {{Thanos}} has been defeated because he has an uncontrollable compulsion to ultimately let himself lose. Seriously. He's not called the "Mad Titan" for nothing.

* In the second AustinPowers movie, Mustafa feels compelled to answer any question that he's asked three times in a row. Though he's an amazing RulesLawyer with regard to the questions.

* In ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "Bad Blood", Mulder diverts an attacking vampire by flinging a bag of sunflower seeds. The vampire is compelled to stop and pick them up. Mention is also made of the alleged vampiric compulsion to untie knots, such as tied shoelaces.

* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "Clap Your Hands If You Believe" the Winchesters distract a leprechaun (played by Robert Picardo) by spilling salt on the ground and forcing him to count them, giving them time to figure out how to banish him.

* ''[[StarControl Star Control 2]]'' has The Words: "Hold! What you are doing to us is wrong! Why do you do this thing?" [[spoiler:Use this [[DialogueTree dialogue option]] on the [[BigBad Ur-Quan]], and they will explain their history and [[MotiveRant the motives]] for their actions.]] However, they'll still attack you afterwards. The reason it works is [[spoiler:that phrase is a MeaningfulEcho from a race they tried to exterminate in their {{Backstory}}, which initiated the EnemyCivilWar between the two factions of the Ur-Quan, the Green Kzer-Kza, and the [[OmnicidalManiac Grey Kohr-Ah]].]]

* Bruce teaches Terry this in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Batman Beyond}}''.

** ComicBook/TheRiddler had a nervous breakdown when he realized that his OCD made it so that he couldn't stop leaving clues for the police and Batman to find.

* The Contractors of ''DarkerThanBlack'' have to fulfill a "remuneration", which is a compulsion to do something after using their powers-- and the compulsion is so powerful that they ''must'' do it (though it's never really explained what would happen to a Contractor who's unable to fulfill his or her remuneration). This can vary from folding the corners of every page in a book to drinking beer to [[{{Fingore}} breaking one's own fingers]]. The only exception is for someone whose mind is no longer in their original body; for example, Mao, who has the ability to possess animals and whose human body was killed, doesn't have a remuneration. [[spoiler:This is why Hei doesn't have to pay any price for his ability: it comes from his dead sister's SoulFragment.]]

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' they distract a leprechaun (played by Robert Picardo) by spilling salt on the ground and forcing him to count them, giving them time to figure out how to banish him.