History Main / BeatItByCompulsion

* In Britain and Germany, you could often trick a changeling into [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld revealing their true age]] by doing something really strange, usually boiling water in eggshells. Then they'd say something like 'I'm as old as the Eastern Woods, but I've never seen anyone boil water in eggshells before!' Some stories claimed that they'd give up the trick and be defeated just from saying something like that, others used it merely as confirmation before they tortured the changeling to get the true child back.

* In ''Manga/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.

* With a RoguesGallery rife with mental instability, many are the times Franchise/{{Batman}} has won the day simply by playing on his foe's idiosyncrasies. ComicBook/TwoFace is probably one of the most consistent examples, with his need to consult his trademark coin: in theory, the results of the toss are equally as likely to turn up in the hero's favor. ([[TheoryofNarrativeCausality In practice...]])
** In ''Comicbook/ArkhamAsylumASeriousHouseOnSeriousEarth'': The doctors, attempting to "cure" Two-Face, try to show him that life has more than two outcomes by replacing his coin with dice and eventually a deck of cards. This reduced Dent to a complete wreck, unable to even go to the bathroom. In the end of the comic, Batman returns the coin and Two-Face immediately flips it to decide whether to kill Batman. He looks at the coin and lets him go...[[spoiler:despite the coin coming up scratched, meaning he ''chose'' to let him go. Or not, since WordOfGod claims he did it as an AprilFoolsPlot.]]

-->"You don't understand... I ''really'' didn't want to leave you any clues. I really planned never to go back to Arkham Asylum. But I left you a clue anyway. So I... I have to go back there. Because I might need help. I... I might actually be crazy."

* Inverted in ''{{ComicBook/Preacher}}'': Jesse gets rid of Hoover (an ordinary human working for Starr) to count sand with the [[CompellingVoice Voice of God]], forcing the poor guy to go and count a few million 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...

* In ''Film/DraculaIIAscension'' they also try the rice trick, and it works in that the vampire is compelled to count every last rice seed they throw at him... which, thanks to his super-human reflexes, takes him less than a second, doing so as the rice falls through the air. These same reflexes allow him to untangle hundreds of knotted ropes -- a fishing net -- fast enough that he seems only to run his fingers through it, dropping a neatly coiled series of ropes at his feet.

* 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 Mechanicles, 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.

[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grains_counting.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:That's one way to deal with vampires.]]

* In ''Manga/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.
** He manages to ignore such obsessions (specifically not freaking out about the line in his [[MarkedChange hair]]) when he needs to deal with Mosquito. But that arguably is a case of one compulsion being overridden by another - his need to create order between life and death.

* In ''Manga/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.

* Canonically ComicBook/{{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 ''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!'
* The evil leprechaun in the first ''Film/{{Leprechaun}}'' had a compulsion to shine shoes. The characters are able to escape him a few times by throwing shoes in his path.
* Memorably subverted in the otherwise [[InNameOnly forgettable]] ''Dracula 3000''. They've got the counter-intuitively named Orlock chained up, covered with knotted string and surrounded by spilled rice. When he gets released he reveals that he'd already undone the knots and counted all of the rice, so there's nothing to stop him from murderizing them all.
** In ''Dracula II: Ascension'' they also try the rice trick, and it works in that the vampire is compelled to count every last rice seed they throw at him... which, thanks to his super-human reflexes, takes him less than a second, doing so as the rice falls through the air. These same reflexes allow him to untangle hundreds of knotted ropes -- a fishing net -- fast enough that he seems only to run his fingers through it, dropping a neatly coiled series of ropes at his feet.

* 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.[[note]]Creator/TerryPratchett's reasoning for this behavior is that werewolves, like dogs, are caught halfway between wolf and man. [[InsaneTrollLogic Therefore]], they would have the same mannerisms.[[/note]]

* In ''Literature/TheSanguineChronicles'' almost all of the traditional vampire weaknesses are due to OCD, though the symptoms vary from vampire to vampire. Marko has a compulsion to count.
* In Literature/TheLaundrySeries novel ''The Nightmare Stacks'', the [[OurElvesAreDifferent alfar]] use salt traps to contain and control vampires. However Laundry [[FunWithAcronyms PHANG]] agent Alex, being a mathematical genius, has already worked out an algorithm that helps him count the grains much faster than they expect.

* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "[[Recap/SupernaturalS06E09ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve 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.
-->'''Sam:''' Why didn't I do this before?
* On ''Series/SesameStreet'', the Count gleefully follows this trope to a T, counting everything he sees, including himself. This is both a reference to real folklore (see below) and a clever pun on 'count'.

* In the ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'' splatbook for were-cats, each tribe of cats had three or four unbreakable compulsions. As most of these compulsions were significant tactical disadvantages to the were-cats, they strongly discouraged their members from revealing these secrets to ANYONE. For example, one tribe of cats had to follow a line of salt. The effectiveness of this tactic when the cat in question was on large natural salt-deposits was not explored.

* The furry RPG ''TableTopGame/{{Ironclaw}}'' has things known as flaws, physical or personality-based quirks that hamper one's abilities elsewhere. While external (physical) flaws don't fit into this category, internal (personality-based) flaws do, and ''are'' expected to be followed. Considering that said flaws are usually LawfulStupidChaoticStupid stuff, depending on how strongly you have that flaw, it can be very easy for opponents to exploit them to their advantage and overwhelm you.

* 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 its 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.

* ''Webcomic/TheKingfisher'' features vampire "progenitors" with mental frailties along these lines. Theodore is a younger vampire who learns the secret weaknesses of the progenitors and uses them for revenge. His first victim, Inka, was compelled to count beans while he attacked her.
* [[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 an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'', Desiree the Wishing Ghost is compelled to grant any wish she hears. Sam takes advantage of this to undo her mischief so that Danny can defeat her. In her first appearance, Danny ends up wishing her back into her bottle, lampshading that if he were smarter, he would have just done that in the beginning.

* ''Series/SesameStreet'' Count, the Count gleefully follows this trope to a T, counting everything he sees including himself.

** In ''Dracula II: Ascension'' they also try the rice trick, and it works in that the vampire is compelled to count every last rice seed they throw at him... which, thanks to his super-human reflexes, takes him about a second.

** The Riddler 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.

* It's theorized that many tales of supernatural beings having compulsive tendencies began by way of explaining these behaviors in people. Centuries before various conditions were recognized and named, individuals who would today be understood to have autism or OCD would instead be said to be touched by the faeries, or to have been entirely replaced by one as a child. The key here being, rather than fiction creating beings and ascribing compulsions to them over time, it's possible that some began with the compulsions and the wider fantasy narratives about them developed afterward.

* Inverted in ''{{ComicBook/Preacher}}'': Jesse gets rid of Hoover (an ordinary human working for Starr) to count sand with the [[CompellingVoice 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...

!!Examples:

[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/beat_it_by_compulsion_resize.png]]]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vamprice.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:That's one way to deal with vampires.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:That's one way to deal with vampires. [[note]][[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer No.]] [[RealityIsUnrealistic Seriously.]] [[/note]]]]

* 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 Brendan Frasier's character scares off [[ThePunishment Imhotep]] with a cat.

[[caption-width-right:350:One way to deal with vampires.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vamprice.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja One way to deal with vampires.]]]]

** In another vampire flick (probably ''Dracula 2000'') they also try the rice trick, and it works in that the vampire is compelled to count every last rice seed they throw at him... which, thanks to his super-human reflexes, takes him about a second.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Webcomic/DrMcNinja One way to deal with vampires.]]]]

* In Literature/TheLaundrySeries novel ''The Nightmare Stacks'', the [[OurElvesAreDifferent alfar]] use salt traps to contain and control vampires. However Laundry [[FunWithAnacronyms PHANG]] agent Alex, being a mathematical genius, has already worked out an algorithm that helps him count the grains much faster than they expect.

* In Literature/TheLaundrySeries novel ''The Nightmare Stacks'', the [[OurElvesAreDifferent alfar]] use salt traps to contain and control vampires. However Laundry [[FunWith Anacronyms PHANG]] agent Alex, being a mathematical genius, has already worked out an algorithm that helps him count the grains much faster than they expect.

-->''"Curses! The old "leave a pile of beans on the porch so the vampire has to count until the break of dawn" trick!"''
--->-- '''Charby''', ''Webcomic/CharbyTheVampirate''