History Main / IdentityAbsorption

** Rogue has this as her mutant power.

* The various fusion methods in ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. There's the Namekian fusion, in which one of the participants remains as the dominant personality but gains the other guy's memories, and the fusion dance and Potara earrings, both of which create a new entity that has all the memories of both participants, and a blend of their personality traits. There's also Super Buu's absorption, which also grants him traits of his victims (for example, after absorbing [[TheSmartGuy Piccolo]], he becomes far more intelligent).
* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'': Alucard keeps the memories of all those he devours. [[spoiler:Because, when consuming their blood, he also takes their souls. For the same reason, Seras absorbs Pip Bernadotte upon his death. That she does so with Pip's consent seems to result in the two sharing a different bond to Alucard's with his victims.]]

Of course, taking others' personalities and memories can lead to problems -- Occasionally, Bob has a LossOfIdentity due to remembering things or behaving the same way that [[ActionGirl Alice]], [[GirlyGirl Carol]], [[DepravedHomosexual Dave]], [[TheEveryman Eva]], [[FoolForLove Fred]], [[GentleGiant Gina]], [[TheHeart Harold]], [[InsufferableGenius Irene]], [[CourtJester Johnny]], [[KnightTemplar Kim]], [[LazyBum Leon]], [[MadBomber Melissa]], [[NotGoodWithPeople Nick]], [[OnlySaneMan Ophe]][[NonIndicativeName lia]], [[PerkyGoth Pat]], [[TheQuietOne Quinn]], [[RaisedByWolves Ronald]], [[StepfordSmiler Stella]], [[TooDumbToLive Travis]], [[TheUnfettered Ursula]], [[VampireRefugee Viktor]], [[WideEyedIdealist Winona]], [[UnwittingPawn Xavier]], [[YesMan Yolanda]], and/or [[ZombieInfectee Zack]] did, in addition to his own identity.

* This is done by complete accident in ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom''. [[spoiler:When Sirius Dieke became deathly ill as a child, his mother coerced a mage into performing a dark magic ritual to transfer his consciousness into the body of his illegitimate half-brother Raphael Walt (with Raphael's mother being used as a HumanSacrifice in the ritual). Since Sirius was basically already dead at this point, Raphael simply gained all of his thoughts and memories but functionally remained himself, masquerading as Sirius for years to avoid being killed.]]

* In the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fic "[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6985795/1/Xerosis Xerosis]]", Death sends Harry back in time with instructions to kill as many muggles and vampires as he can and to help him with that, Death gives him the ability to perform a kind of Dementor's Kiss that absorbs the memories, abilities and sometimes powers of the victims, killing them in the process.

** In the second season, we find out that [[spoiler:the protagonist 'Audrey Parker']] actually has all the memories and the personality of [[spoiler:the real FBI agent Audrey Parker]] up to the point that they act almost identically and use the exact same phrases when placed in similar situations. She does not remember who she was before this happened. We later find out that the same thing happened about 30 years ago with [[spoiler: Lucy Ripley]] and might happen every time the Troubles come back.

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]
* ''Literature/{{Baccano}}'':
** When an immortal is devoured by another, the surviving immortal gains all the other's memories.
** The novels later give us [[spoiler:a number of homunculi that can assimilate anyone who drinks their "water" into an ever-growing hive-mind]]. Two homunculi "twins" actually have different stances on the practice too. [[spoiler:Sham couldn't care less about each vessel, only caring about his own survival. Hilton, on the other hand, is fiercely possessive of her first vessel, Leeza. Considering that she was young enough to be raised as Leeza and considers Leeza's father (and her creator) Huey her father, maybe it makes sense. It's also implied that reverse-Identity Absorbtion is possible with them.]]
* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'''s Alucard keeps the memories of all those he devours. [[spoiler:Because, when consuming their blood, he also takes their souls. For the same reason, Seras absorbs Pip Bernadotte upon his death. That she does so with Pip's consent seems to result in the two sharing a different bond to Alucard's with his victims.]]

* This is done by complete accident in ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom''. [[spoiler:When Sirius Dieke became deathly ill as a child, his mother coerced a mage into performing a dark magic ritual to transfer his consciousness into the body of his illegitimate half-brother Raphael Walt (with Raphael's mother being used as a HumanSacrifice in the ritual). Since Sirius was basically already dead at this point, Raphael simply gained all of his thoughts and memories but functionally remained himself, masquerading as Sirius for years to avoid being killed.]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]
* ''Comicbook/XMen'''s ComicBook/{{Rogue}} has this as her mutant power.

* The ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'' villain Parasite has this. Usually it's a temporary awareness of their memories, but on one occasion he absorbed a scientist and found himself SharingABody with them as "Doc Parasite".
* In Creator/GrantMorrison's ''Comicbook/DoomPatrol'' comic book, there is a supervillain called Fog whose power is pretty much this. He can swallow people alive, but ''all'' of the people he's eaten still exist as different personalities inside him, and they're constantly arguing with him and with each other.

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder: Literature]]
* ''Literature/WildCards'' had early Ace Brain Trust, who worked with the Exotics for Democracy by entering hostile situations and duplicating the minds of political and scientific geniuses. The first time her powers manifested, she nearly went mad, and needed the help of Doctor Tachyon to create mental constructs to filter out each personality -- [[spoiler: constructs which finally collapsed when she was subjected to questioning by HUAC, resulting in her being committed to an asylum.]]
* The ''Literature/{{Commonweal}}'' has the Entelech, who have a necro-parasitic life cycle, who have to fall in love with, and then eat, a sorcerer, consuming their minds over hundreds of years

[[folder: Live Action TV]]

* The ''Series/{{Highlander}}'' franchise has immortals killing each other for memories, personality traits, and power.
** Although there doesn't usually seem to be any personality issues, except for rare mentions of a 'Dark/Light Quickening', when an otherwise good immortal absorbs one too many evils, or vice versa. Other than being a plot point for a single two-part episode, the possibility is never mentioned again.
* In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' Data downloads his daughter's memories into himself after she breaks down.
** The Borg do something like this, in particular with Picard in "Best of Both Worlds", but the victim is generally subsumed by the sheer number of existing drones and the willpower of the Borg Queen herself.
* Olivia absorbed John Scott's memories in the 1st season of ''Series/{{Fringe}}''.
** In season four, a serial killer absorbs the happy memories of his victims which destroys their brains after a while. [[spoiler: He ended up absorbing his final victim's morality as well, leading to a "MyGodWhatHaveIDone" moment, followed by suicide.]]
* In ''Series/KamenRiderKabuto,'' the Worms take on the memories as well as the forms of their victims before killing them. (Not that killing them ''triggers'' this, but it is their MO.) More than one has said things to the effect that the person they mimicked would live on in them so killing the original was no loss. We even get two instances of Worms forgetting they're not the person they imitate, prompting an "are all Worms evil or can some gain humanity over time?" debate. [[spoiler: Not that Worms are inherently bad - some have been around since before the meteor that brought the bad guys, and don't go around killing people.]]
* In the second season of ''Series/{{Haven}}'' we find out that [[spoiler: the protagonist 'Audrey Parker' ]] actually has all the memories and the personality of [[spoiler: the real FBI agent Audrey Parker]] up to the point that they act almost identically and use the exact same phrases when placed in similar situations. She does not remember who she was before this happened. We later find out that the same thing happened about 30 years ago with [[spoiler: Lucy Ripley]] and might happen every time the Troubles come back.
** The first season had a shapeshifter who could absorb a person's memories and assume his/her appearance while also retaining its original memories. This process normally kills the victim.
* In an episode of ''Series/{{The Adventures of Superboy}}'' Lana Lang encounters an alien being who is from a race of beings who have no identities of their own, so they survive by taking the identities of others, becoming perfect duplicates of them. The alien starts the process of becoming Lana, a process which would end with Lana's death if completed.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* A write up of the coming RP supplement for [[Literature/DivineBloodNovels Divine Blood]] for the [[http://fav.me/d5k8ty7 Kitsune]] has them able to do this. The soul and mind of the individual live on in the body and the kitsune can take a form similar to their original appearance only with foxy adds. Following a gestalt, the kitsune has to spend some time before doing it again as their body, minds and souls settle down to a healthy level. Kitsune who absorb unwilling minds and/or don't wait after each gestalt eventually become insane and incapable of reproduction among other things.

* A dark spell mastered by the evil wizard, Fistandantilus, in the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' series, allowed him to absorb the youth and vitality of another - thus granting himself quasi-immortality. When Raistlin tricks him and turns the spell back at him, seeking to thus absorb his knowledge and power, the result seems to be something of a FusionDance, and when the smoke clears... it's somewhat unclear who actually WON. Raistlin is personally certain that he is, in fact, Raistlin, but when he later runs into the All-Seeing Historian Astinus, he refers to him as Fistandantilus, claiming to have carefully recorded the battle AND the outcome. Assuming he is right, Fistandantilus actually did manage to absorb Raistlin's spirit, but was overpowered by his mental strength and unbreakable personality, ultimately becoming subsumed...
* Alex Mercer in ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' does this, and can [[ShapeShifter perfectly mimic people he's absorbed]], right down to their voice. He even does it so well that [[spoiler: he doesn't realize that he's ''not actually Alex Mercer''. He's TheVirus itself, and Mercer was just the first identity he consumed.]]
* At the start of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', [[LiteralSplitPersonality the self-aware Nobody]] [[spoiler: Roxas]] has to return to being part of TheHero [[spoiler: Sora]] and clearly feels that this will happen to him. He is seen again a couple of times, when some particularly powerful psychic influence causes him to re-emerge briefly, but [[spoiler: Roxas]] was basically correct to consider the merge to be his own death. Outside of those moments, the only trace of him that remained showed itself when [[spoiler: Sora]] [[ImCryingButIDontKnowWhy found himself crying when he said goodbye]] to [[spoiler: Roxas']] friends, who he thought he'd only just met.

* ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' has the [=AIs=] personalities that do this, though technically they were a whole personality to begin with. They form together, absorbed into the Epsilon fragment's mind.

[[/folder]]

* In ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'', when an immortal is devoured by another, the surviving immortal gains all the other's memories.
** The novels later give us [[spoiler: a number of homunculi that can assimilate anyone who drinks their "water" into an ever-growing hive-mind.]]
*** Two homunculi "twins" actually have different stances on the practice too. [[spoiler: Sham couldn't care less about each vessel, only caring about his own survival. Hilton, on the other hand, is fiercely possessive of her first vessel, Leeza. Considering that she was young enough to be raised as Leeza and considers Leeza's father (and her creator) Huey her father, maybe it makes sense. It's also implied that reverse-Identity Absorbtion is possible with them.]]