History Main / CriminalAmnesiac

* Ultimately subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' when a well-meaning alien, convinced that her Gargoyle companions are agents of an enemy species he has been fighting, erases Elisa's memory and tells her that the Gargoyles are her enemies. Elisa is of course uncertain whom to trust, but ultimately refuses to cooperate with the alien considering that the Gargoyles evidently have not done anything to deserve being treated like that ("that" being that he was going to execute them in a rather ''messy'' fashion). At that, the alien stands down and restores her memory since any beings who can inspire that kind of personal loyalty under such circumstances are likely not his enemies either and the memory wipe would have removed any brainwashing the Gargoyles had done to Elisa if they really had been working for the Space-Spawn.

Used mostly by the kind of show that would use EasyAmnesia in the first place. By necessity this pretty much requires an IdiotHero to make any kind of sense- one hopes that most people would at least ''try'' to figure out who they are before quickly agreeing to a plan that involves killing or seriously maiming a large number of people. This can be averted if the bad guy did a more thorough job of brainwashing than just saying "clearly I am your friend" and the amnesiac just [[TakeOurWordForIt took his word for it]].

* Ultimately subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' when a well-meaning alien, convinced that her Gargoyle companions are of an enemy species he has been fighting, erases Elisa's memory and tells her that the Gargoyles are her enemies. Elisa is of course hostile, but ultimately refuses to cooperate with the alien considering that the Gargoyles evidently have not done anything to deserve being treated like that ("that" being that he was going to execute them in a rather ''messy'' fashion). At that, the alien stands down and restores her memory since any beings who can inspire that kind of personal decision under such circumstances are likely not his enemies either.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'' had Princess Jasmine getting amnesia, and HarmlessVillain Abis Mal convinces her that she's in fact his evil daughter, a desert bandit. She upgrades to a [[EvilCostumeSwitch eyebrow-raising black costume]] ([[WhipItGood complete with whip]]) and helps Abis take over the country, but then betrays him and decides to promote herself to main villain after realizing he's an imbecile (until Aladdin is able to help her remember her true past).

** [[spoiler:Six is told of his original mission offscreen during "Episode 8" and fulfills it at the end of the first season, but changes his mind at the beginning of Season 2 after seeing how corrupt the Galactic Authority can be and helps the others escape prison]], becoming a wanted outlaw for real.

* PlayedWith on ''Series/DarkMatter'' with One and Six. The six main crew members are all amnesiacs [[YouAreNumberSix using numbers as names]] who learn from their wanted files [[FirstEpisodeTwist at the end of the pilot episode]] that their original selves were ruthless criminals (except Five, the MysteriousWaif, who has no profile). In truth, [[spoiler:One and Six are not really Jace Corso and Griffin Jones, respectively; One is a philanthropist CEO named Derrick Moss who impersonated Corso through [[SurgicalImpersonation plastic surgery]] to get close to the murderer of his wife (Marcus Boone/Three, or so [[FrameUp Moss believed]]) and Six is an undercover cop named Kal Varrick tasked with bringing them all in whose criminal identity is fake]]. But now without their original memories to go on, they believe they really are part of the ''Raza'' crew like the others. However, both of them remain among the more moral members of the cast and are a big part of why the crew as a whole, while still participating in illegal activity and mercenary work to make their living, shies away from the more brutal sort of jobs they used to take on pre-mindwipe (like wiping out entire planetary populations so that the [[MegaCorp corporate overlords]] could take over their land).

* PlayedWith on ''Series/DarkMatter'' with One and Six. The six main crew members are all amnesiacs [[YouAreNumberSix using numbers as names]] who learn from their wanted files [[FirstEpisodeTwist at the end of the pilot episode]] that their original selves were ruthless criminals (except Five, the MysteriousWaif, who has no profile). In truth, [[spoiler:One and Six are not really Jace Corso and Griffin Jones, respectively; One is a philanthropist CEO named Derrick Moss who impersonated Corso through [[SurgicalImpersonation plastic surgery]] to get close to the murderer of his wife (Marcus Boone/Three, or so [[FrameUp Moss believed]]) and Six is an undercover cop named Kal Varrick tasked with bringing them all in whose criminal identity is fake]]. But now without their original memories to go on, they believe they are really part of the ''Raza'' crew like the others. However, both of them remain among the more moral members of the cast and are a big part of why the crew as a whole, while still participating in illegal activity and mercenary work to make their living, shies away from the more brutal sort of jobs they used to take on pre-mindwipe (like wiping out entire planetary populations so that the [[MegaCorp corporate overlords]] could take over their land).

* PlayedWith on ''Series/DarkMatter'' with One and Six. The six main crew members are all amnesiacs [[YouAreNumberSix using numbers as names]] who learn from their wanted files [[FirstEpisodeTwist at the end of the pilot episode]] that their original selves were ruthless criminals (except Five, the MysteriousWaif, who has no profile). In truth, [[spoiler:One and Six are not really Jace Corso and Griffin Jones, respectively; One is a philanthropist CEO named Derrick Moss who impersonated Corso through [[SurgicalImpersonation plastic surgery]] to get close to the murderer of his wife (Marcus Boone/Three, or so Moss believed) and Six is an undercover cop named Kal Varrick tasked with bringing them all in whose criminal identity is fake]]. But now without their original memories to go on, they believe they are really part of the ''Raza'' crew like the others. However, both of them remain among the more moral members of the cast and are a big part of why the crew as a whole, while still participating in illegal activity and mercenary work to make their living, shies away from the more brutal sort of jobs they used to take on pre-mindwipe (like wiping out entire planetary populations so that the [[MegaCorp corporate overlords]] could take over their land).

* PlayedWith on ''Series/DarkMatter'' with One and Six. The six main crew members are all amnesiacs [[YouAreNumberSix using numbers as names]] who learn from their wanted files [[FirstEpisodeTwist at the end of the pilot episode]] that their original selves were ruthless criminals (except Five, the MysteriousWaif, who has no profile). In truth, [[spoiler:One and Six are not really Jace Corso and Griffin Jones, respectively; One is a philanthropist CEO named Derrick Moss who impersonated Corso through [[SurgicalImpersonation plastic surgery]] to get close to the murderer of his wife and Six is an undercover cop named Kal Varrick whose criminal identity is fake]]. But now without their original memories to go on, they believe they are really part of the ''Raza'' crew like the others. However, both of them remain among the more moral members of the cast and are a big part of why the crew as a whole, while still participating in illegal activity and mercenary work to make their living, shies away from the more brutal sort of jobs they used to take on pre-mindwipe (like wiping out entire planetary populations so that the [[MegaCorp corporate overlords]] could take over their land).

* Subverted in the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode [[Recap/StargateSG1S3E11PastAndPresent "Past and Present"]], in which the amnesiac is discovered to be the evil MadScientist (known as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Destroyer of Worlds]]) responsible for infecting an entire planet with an amnesia virus. She cured herself of the amnesia, then tried to kill herself when her old, murderous personality conflicted with her new, peaceful one. Eventually, she is re-amnesiaed so she can live a peaceful life on the planet where these whacky adventures took place.

* Subverted in the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "Past and Present", in which the amnesiac is discovered to be the evil MadScientist (known as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Destroyer of Worlds]]) responsible for infecting an entire planet with an amnesia virus. She cured herself of the amnesia, then tried to kill herself when her old, murderous personality conflicted with her new, peaceful one. Eventually, she is re-amnesiaed so she can live a peaceful life on the planet where these whacky adventures took place.

** Subverted again in another episode of ''SG-1'' where a man who murdered his ex-wife used a device to erase his own memories of the murder and transfer them to SG-1's current leader, whom his ex-wife had spent the night with. However, since the murderer had been in love with the murder victim, he then helped solve the murder, and then had his memories erased again instead of being put in jail because his government considered his research too important.

** Subverted again in another episode of ''SG-1'' where a murderer used a device to erase his own memories of the murder and transfer them to SG-1's current leader. However, since the murderer had been in love with the murder victim, he then helped solve the murder, and then had his memories erased again.

* Some {{Space Pirate}}s did this to ''Comicbook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'''s Ultra Boy once. When it actually came down to fighting, he didn't like it. He tried fighting on the other side; that was much more natural to him.

* ''Animation/BoBoiBoy'': Adu Du utilises [=BoBoiBoy's=] weakness - the longer he uses his [[LiteralSplitPersonality Triple Split]], the more that [[EquivalentExchange his memory will worsen]] - by kidnapping the Lightning elemental to prevent the three from reuniting. After failing to get any info on his grandfather's recipe from him, Adu Du [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil tortures [=BoBoiBoy=] Lightning until he snaps]], causing the latter to unlock his more powerful form, [=Boboiboy=] Thunderstorm, out of rage. Due to his worsening memory, he easily believes Adu Du's claims that they were his actual friends, to the point where Adu Du could get him to fight the good guys. He regains his memory when Adu Du's RobotBuddy Probe [[NiceJobFixingItVillain exclaims BoBoiBoy's catchphrase]] "Terbaik!" ("Awesome!") as a general comment to [=BoBoiBoy=] Thunderstorm, who turns against them as a result.

* A variation: In Michael Kurland's [[Franchise/SherlockHolmes Professor Moriarty]] novel ''The Empress of India'', there is a gang leader in London with a Chinese name (but he doesn't look Chinese). Turns out [[spoiler: he's Sherlock Holmes. See, he'd been posing as a Chinese gang leader as part of his investigation. After he got a bad knock on the head, he forgot his real identity but remembered his alter ego, and thought that's who he was. Eventually, another knock on the head restores his memory.]]

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'', [[Franchise/Castlevania Simon Belmont]] got amnesia and spent much of the episode trying to remember who he was, eventually deciding that he was Franchise/DonkeyKong Jr..

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'', Simon Belmont got amnesia and spent much of the episode trying to remember who he was, eventually deciding that he was Donkey Kong Jr..

* Simon Belmont in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster''.

* An episode of the ''WesternAnimation/DonkeyKongCountry'' cartoon had Donkey Kong getting amnesia. Both King K. Rool and Kaptain Skurvy convince him he's on their sides.

* In ''Film/TheAddamsFamily''. A loan shark Abigail Craven and her son Gordon, along with crooked lawyer Tully Alford, concoct a scheme to rob the Addamses by having Gordon pose as [[spoiler:Gomez's long-lost brother Fester]]. Turns out, Gordon really is [[spoiler:Fester]], having lost his memory twenty-five years ago, spending thar time helping Craven with her cons.

* ''[[ComicBook/SpiderMan The Amazing Spider-Man]]'' has ComicBook/DoctorOctopus attempting this with Spidey during the original Creator/StanLee run (Octavius's attempt to use a stolen invention that was intended to 'nullify' nuclear warheads to shut down Spider-Man's web-shooters resulted in the device's energy mixing with Spider-Man's radioactive blood to erase his memory). Quite possibly the TropeCodifier.

* Happens in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Make a Wish". This is helped thanks to some video of Jameson bad-mouthing him as usual.

* ''Animation/BoBoiBoy'': Adu Du utilises [=BoBoiBoy's=] weakness - the longer he uses his [[LiteralSplitPersonality Triple Split]], the more that [[EquivalentExchange his memory will worsen]] - by kidnapping the Lightning elemental to prevent the three from reuniting. After failing to get any info on his grandfather's recipe from him, Adu Du [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil tortures [=BoBoiBoy=] Lightning until he snaps]], causing the latter to unlock his more powerful form, [=Boboiboy=] Thunderstorm, out of rage. Due to his worsening memory, he easily believes Adu Du's claims that they were his actual friends, to the point where Adu Du could get him to fight the good guys. He regains his memory when Adu Du's RobotBuddy Probe [[NiceJobFixingItVillain exclaims BoBoiBoy's catchphrase]] "Terbaik!" ("Awesome!") as a general comment to [=BoBoiBoy=] Thunderstorm, who then turns against them.

* Animation/BoBoiBoy: Adu Du utilises [=BoBoiBoy's=] weakness - the longer he uses his [[LiteralSplitPersonality Triple Split]], the more that [[EquivalentExchange his memory will worsen]] - by kidnapping the Lightning elemental to prevent the three from reuniting. After failing to get any info on his grandfather's recipe from him, Adu Du [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil tortures [=BoBoiBoy=] Lightning until he snaps]], causing the latter to unlock his more powerful form, [=Boboiboy=] Thunderstorm, out of rage. Due to his worsening memory, he easily believes Adu Du's claims that they were his actual friends, to the point where Adu Du could get him to fight the good guys. He regains his memory when Adu Du's RobotBuddy Probe [[NiceJobFixingItVillain exclaims BoBoiBoy's catchphrase]] "Terbaik!" ("Awesome!") as a general comment to [=BoBoiBoy=] Thunderstorm, who then turns against them.

* Animation/BoBoiBoy: Adu Du utilises [=BoBoiBoy's=] weakness - the longer he uses his [[LiteralSplitPersonality Triple Split]], the more that [[EquivalentExchange his memory will worsen]] - by kidnapping the Lightning elemental to prevent the three from reuniting. After failing to get any info on his grandfather's recipe from him, Adu Du [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil tortures [=BoBoiBoy=] Lightning until he snaps]], causing the latter to unlock his more powerful form, [=Boboiboy=] Thunderstorm, out of rage. Due to his worsening memory, he easily believes Adu Du's claims that they were his actual friends, to the point where Adu Du could get him to fight the good guys.