History Main / Brainwashed

%% * ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}'' episode "Brainwashed".
%% * ''Series{Merlin2008'': At least two episodes come to mind where Arthur was brainwashed, and there's also at least one episode where %% Uther is brainwashed, and one where Merlin is brainwashed, too.

* The ''Series/{{UFO}}'' episodes "The Psychobombs", "Kill Straker!", "E.S.P.", "The Cat With Ten Lives", "Destruction", "Mindbender" and "The Man Who Came Back" all have humans who have been put under mental control by the aliens for their nefarious purposes.

** [[MonsterClown Freakshow]] does this to Danny in ''Control Freaks'' to make him a part of his ghostly group who steals goods for him. Naturally he's freed by the ThePowerOfFriendship through a CatchAFallingStar moment.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-288 SCP-288 ("The "Stepford Marriage" Rings")]]. A person wearing one of these rings is brainwashed into acting like a perfect wife or husband.

* Happens to ComicBook/BuckyBarnes in the Winter Soldier arc in ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica''.

* ''Franchise/XMen'': A favoured technique of ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}} is to capture heroes and transform them into his Horsemen, then send them out to do violence in his name. Notable victims include [[ComicBook/XMen Archangel, Colossus]], ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk the Hulk]] and ComicBook/{{Psylocke}}, all of whom eventually escaped his control, one way or another.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* During ''ComicBook/PlanetHulk'', ComicBook/SilverSurfer is weakened by a wormhole, brainwashed, and has a Restraining Bolt placed on him in order to have him fight in gladiatorial battles.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':

* ''ComicBook/CodeNameGravedigger'': In ''Men of War'' #8, Gravedigger is captured by a Nazi posing as his liaison Major Birch and brainwashed into attempting to assassinate UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill.
* ''ComicBook/GodLovesManKills'': Professor X is subject to brainwashing by Stryker's scientist into unwittingly attacking other mutants with his psychic powers.

* Much like ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'', Crime College in ''Franchise/DocSavage'' and Psychosurgery in ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat'' are the common ways of dealing with criminals in their setting. A variation might be Execution in the ''Literature/LordDarcy'' stories, which punishes practitioners of BlackMagic by permanently stripping them of their [[SuperpowerfulGenetics Ability]].

[[quoteright:260:[[JustForFun/TropeTan https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fe90bdbf041402d12e9d624b68aa6cc6.png]] ]]

** ''[[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 Volume 2]]'', ''[[ComicBook/WonderWoman2006 Volume 3]]'' & ''[[ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth Volume 5]]'' : Circe's [[BalefulPolymorph Bestiamorphs]] were once men whom she transformed and brainwashed into her loyal servants with no recollection of who they once were. Diana's Lasso of Truth can undo the brainwashing but she can't do anything about their current physical state.

* ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker'': Everyone subject to Confession turns into a completely devoted slave of the Confessor. This is only broken with the Confessor's death or [[DePower losing their magic]] (in the books, it's ''permanent'', and Confessed people die of despair if they witness the Confessor dying).

[[caption-width-right:260:I... will... let... [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife TV Tropes... ruin... my... life...]]]]

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', the higher-ups in Heaven consider this the standard methodology for dealing with insubordinate angels.
** Castiel in particular is a repeated victim of this. [[spoiler: It never holds up in the face of Cas's "[[HoYay profound bond]]" with Dean]].
* ''Series/StargateSG1'', the Goa'uld are shown on several occasions to have the ability to brainwash people if they choose to. Being the [[BodySnatcher Goa'uld]], they have no moral qualms about doing so.

** Teal'c himself is brainwashed into once again believing the Goa'uld are gods, as he makes multiple attempts to betray the SG1 team (they don't fall for it). It takes being brought close to death to snap him out of it.
** Technically, the way the heroes defeat the Ori's followers in "Ark of Truth" is brainwashing, even if they are being made to believe the truth.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', "Thank God It's Friday... Again", among several others. Including the episode "[[ShoutOut A Clockwork Nebari]]", where the induced nausea isn't on the characters, but on the audience, as it involves ''[[EyeScream pulling the eyeball a foot out of its socket and placing a microchip on the exposed optic nerve]]''. Never mind that Eyeballs Do Not Work That Way, ''[[{{Squick}} gah]]''.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', "This Side of Paradise".
* ''Series/DarkAngel'' Manticore loved to do this by pumping drugs into X-5's then blasting them in the eye with a laser for hours on end. Leaving them not even knowing what they revealed while drugged.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', "Workforce"
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'', the Jasmine arc.
* ''Series/BigWolfOnCampus'' episode "Manchurian Werewolf".

--> "I am the Master, and ''you will obey me''."

* The vampires in ''Series/TrueBlood'' have an ability to "glamour" people into doing things they would not ordinarily do.
* The enemies attempt this on Sydney in ''Series/{{Alias}}'', but it only fails because [[spoiler:her own father had spent her childhood hardening her against this very possibility. Screwed up family indeed.]]
* In an ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' there was a North Korean assassin named Kai who had in her childhood been to an institution remarkably like The Academy in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' and was seeking revenge.
* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', [[spoiler:Psi-cop Bester]] turns [[spoiler:Garibaldi]] into a secret agent so secret even [[spoiler:''he'']] doesn't know it.
* ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}''. A major use of the technology, developed over the course of the series, is to allow long-distance brainwashing -- either of selected targets, or of ''anyone who can hear the signal''. By the end, this has escalated to the point where the majority of the surviving population of the planet is brainwashed to kill anyone who isn't brainwashed. It's also something that can be hidden in even the most mundane of imprints -- for instance, the kind-hearted, gentle, Mellie can be transformed into a ruthless killer with a simple code phrase.

%% * ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}''. At least two episodes come to mind where Arthur was brainwashed, and there's also at least one episode where %% Uther is brainwashed, and one where Merlin is brainwashed, too.

** Speaking of Decade, Yusuke is subject to it ''three full times.'' The most straightforward example is Decade's trip to [[spoiler: Diend's reality]], where Yusuke is captured by Fourteen's minions and [[spoiler: injected with a mind-parasite that turns him into one of the world's "kind citizens]]." Natsumi almost gets the same treatment, but Decade destroys Fourteen and liberates everybody. Yusuke also finds himself mentally hijacked twice during the movies (Once by Priestess Bishum and the other by Kiva-La) to fight against Decade.

* ''Series/{{UFO}}'' episodes "The Psychobombs", "Kill Straker!", "E.S.P", "The Cat With Ten Lives", "Destruction", "Mindbender" and "The Man Who Came Back" all have humans who have been put under mental control by the aliens for their nefarious purposes.

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': After she's captured, Shaw gets implanted with a neural implant by Samaritan to brainwash her, as she's a formidable asset. However, it works imperfectly-even with its influence Shaw fights it, such that after over ''6,000'' simulations they still can't get her to follow orders completely.
* ''{{Series/Hanna}}'': All the Utrax girls have been indoctrinated, drugged and trained from birth to be assassins in a secret CIA program. It's not surprising that of them all, only a select few rebel against it.
* ''Series/TheOutpost'': In Season 3 [[spoiler:Yavalla]]'s kinj is capable of reproducing, with her infecting people using it. Each one infected becomes mind controlled to her kinj and will obey her commands.
* ''{{Series/Probe}}'''s "[[Recap/ProbeQuitIt Quit-It]]": The neighborhood is acting oddly, something Karen assumes is due to them being replaced, but is actually a form of SubliminalSeduction.
* ''{{Series/WonderWoman}}'': in the episode 'The Pied Piper' pop musician Hamlin Rule uses his music and other hypnotizing techniques to transform his fans and Wonder Woman into obedient slave groupies in order to rob his own box office.
* ''Series/InFromTheCold'': The series opens with showing three people in Madrid influenced somehow to attack or harass others, apparently at random. Another is later shown as well, who kills others in her wedding party. While this is triggered, it shows as their eyes flashing a metallic blue gray. Jenny later pretends she's one to get away with killing a man while in a bathhouse. By now the cops are skeptical of this however, since after the events many people have also claimed this and see through her claims. Toward the end of the first season, Becca's brainwashed as well and sent to carry out an attack too. Jenny learns how to stop it however.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'' has this trope, and started at the '''very begining of the game!''' But Donkey Kong was able to [[NoSell resist the brainwashing effects]].

* Brother Blood of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' has this as his MO. Only [[GeniusBruiser Cyborg]] was able to consistently resist his powers.

* Happened to ''WesternAnimation/MegaMan'' in the episode "Mega-Pinocchio." Wily cons Mega Man into thinking he is human by installing a mind-control chip on him. This is also the fate of the original Robot Masters who were reprogrammed by Wily in the first episode.

** It was revealed that the CIA's belief that something like this was possible was because of the show trial in the late 1940s of a Hungarian Catholic bishop who "confessed" to all sorts of things which were clearly absurd but who otherwise seemed rational, followed by the Korean War situation mentioned previously. Years later, during the 1956 Hungarian uprising, the man revealed that the "brainwashing" he'd experienced consisted of men with blackjacks who'd smack him around and threats of death unless he did what they wanted.

* ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatiansTheSeries'': [[spoiler: The townspeople (and, for much of the episode, the Dearlys and the puppies) in "De Vil-age Elder" due to a curse placed on the town by the witch that makes them all delieriously happy and unwilling to leave]].

* In an HGame titled ''Minerva's Adventure'' (a ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' clone of sorts) exists a "brainwashed" StatusAilment. [[spoiler: It is put on Minerva if she loses, or surrenders, to a {{Random Encounter|s}} of heretic cult members. While the player can still control her as before, under this effect she will refuse to wear clothes, refuse to fight and when interacting with other people, she will either get appalled reactions (if women) or flat-out rape them (if men). Since this is an ActionAdventure, this would make the game impossible to win, but a visit to the local {{Physical God}}dess can remove the status.]]

* ''Literature/BazilBroketail'': Thrembode controls Princess Besita of Marneri with a spell that makes her his willing slave while he takes her to Tummuz Orgmeen. Once there, the Doom starts to work its evil influence on her too, brainwashing Besita slowly. It's interrupted when she's rescued by Lessis and co, but later she still requires treatment to break this.

* ''{{Series/WonderWoman}}'': in the episode 'The Pied Piper' pop musician Hamlin Rule uses his music and other hypnotizing techniques to transform his groupies and Wonder Woman into his slaves to rob his own box office.

* ''{{Series/Hanna}}'': All the Utrax girls have been indoctrinated, drugged and trained from birth to be assassins in a secret CIA program. It's not surprising that of them all, only Clara rebels against it.

* ''Website/DeviantArt'' is a breeding ground for this trope.
* Obviously, every story on [[http://www.mcstories.com The Erotic Mind Control Story Archive]] (NSFW) uses this trope.

[[caption-width-right:260:I... will... let... [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife TV Tropes... ruin... my... life...]]]]

** Speaking of Decade, Yusuke is subject to it ''three full times.'' The most straightforward example however is Decade's trip to [[spoiler: Diend's reality]], where Yusuke is captured by Fourteen's minions and [[spoiler: injected with a mind-parasite that turns him into one of the world's "kind citizens]]." Natsumi almost gets the same treatment, but Decade destroys Fourteen and liberates everybody.