History Main / PygmalionSnapBack

[[folder: Anime/Manga ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* In Season Six of ''[[Series.BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' Willow casts a spell that makes Tara forget an argument they had about her cavalier attitude towards magic. After Tara finds out, she barely lasts a night of going 'cold turkey' before trying again, causing Tara to break up with her.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* In ''TheDresdenFiles'', this is shown to be the eventual result of any kind of tampering with someone's mind. Eventually, the true personality reasserts itself, leading to at best a backlash [[spoiler: like Luccio's reaction to having being mind-warped into loving Harry]] or a far worse reaction as the psyche shreds itself trying to turn back to normal [[spoiler: as is implied to happen to Molly's first boyfriend after she mind-raped him out of using drugs]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Spoofed in ''GothamGirls''. After Poison Ivy uses pollen that "changes the victim's moral outlook", Batgirl becomes a criminal that joins Ivy and Harley Quinn on a crime spree. Harley, however, quickly feels overworked, and she decides that Batgirl was nicer before the personality shift. Of course, after Harley gives Batgirl the antidote, Batgirl returns to her normal law-abiding criminal-chasing self and immediately captures Harley and Ivy.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'': Joker [[spoiler:captures Tim Drake a.k.a. Robin and]] [[BrainwashedAndCrazy gives him a personality makeover in his own image]]. "J.J." ends up snapping back just enough [[spoiler:to kill the Joker, but is still horribly insane and needs years of therapy to recover.]]

* In Season Six of ''Series/Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' Willow repeatedly casts spells causing her girlfriend Tara to forget that they had argued.

** In another episode, Dee Dee tries to loosen up Dexter, and once converted, ''he'' starts destroying his own lab, violently and maniacally. He also proceeds to wreck Dee Dee's own things. Needless to say, Dee Dee takes destruction of her property way worse than Dexter takes destruction of his.

Human nature is a strange, fickle thing. One man's virtues are another's "[[SevenDeadlySins deadly sins]]". It should come as no surprise that The {{Schemer}} or another morally domineering character would take it upon themselves to "improve" the lot of their fellow man by giving them a PygmalionPlot makeover.

[[AC:Anime/Manga]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

* In Season Six of ''Series/Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' Willow repeatedly casts spells causing her girlfriend Tara to forget that they had argued.


[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]

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* Altruism example! In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E20GreenIsntYourColor Green Isn't Your Color]]", Fluttershy agrees to model some of Rarity's dresses for the photographer Photo Finish, who eds up takes a shine to ''Fluttershy'' and doesn't care a slap about the dresses. Rarity spends the entire episode encouraging Fluttershy to go be a rich and famous model because she feels guilty about envying Fluttershy's success and wants to be a supportive friend. Fluttershy, for her part, hates the attention, and they're both bitter that with Photo Finish eating up Fluttershy's time, they can't hang out anymore. Twilight Sparkle spends the entire episode being confidant to them both, but [[CannotSpitItOut sworn to secrecy]] for the sake of one another's feelings, and [[KeepingSecretsSucks nearly loses her marbles not saying the two sentences that would fix the problem.]]

* ''BatmanBeyond: Return of the Joker'': Joker [[spoiler:captures Tim Drake a.k.a. Robin and]] [[BrainwashedAndCrazy gives him a personality makeover in his own image]]. "J.J." ends up snapping back just enough [[spoiler:to kill the Joker, but is still horribly insane and needs years of therapy to recover.]]

Human nature is a strange, fickle thing. One man's virtues are another's "[[SevenDeadlySins deadly sins]]". It should come as no surprise that The {{Schemer}} or another morally domineering character would take it upon themselves to "improve" the lot of their fellow man by giving them a PygmalionPlot makeover.

[[AC:Literature]]

* In ''DextersLaboratory'', Dexter once attempted this on Dee Dee, as he was tired of her destroying his lab, via a brain transplant. She turned out to be far more competent than him at science.

* ''StarTrekVoyager''. Captain Janeway gets interested in holographic character Michael Sullivan in the "Fair Haven" program, and starts tweaking his program to make him more to her taste. Eventually she gets called on it by Voyager's doctor (also a hologram) and eventually shuts off her access to Michael's program so she won't be tempted to make more 'improvements'.
* The major moral conflict in ''StargateAtlantis'' and the "Michael" subplot. Basically, the human heroes of the show find a drug that turns a Wraith human, and causes it to lose its memories. However, the turned Wraith must keep taking it or the transformation is reversed. The Wraith they try it on (nicknamed Michael), is '''pissed''' when he finds out what they did to him, and becomes one of the most dangerous recurring villains in the series because of it. This is by far the biggest case of MoralDissonance in the show, with the fans, Michael, and even various members of the heroic cast screaming WhatTheHellHero at the ones who came up with it.

* The trope namer is the stage production ''{{Pygmalion}}'' by George Bernard Shaw, adapted into musical form with ''MyFairLady''. Containing the aformentioned pygmalion as represented by the incorrigible Henry Higgins (with his grand knowledge of accents, a novelty in turn-of-the-century England) who attempts to change the cockney Liza Dolittle into a well-bred, well-spoken English lady by correcting her common drawl. He succeeds but then discards his creation, much to Liza's great consternation, which is where the narrative tension arises in the second half of the play.

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* In ''BeastWars'', Megatron managed to switch Rhinox into an evil Predacon. Joke was on Megatron, as Rhinox was far more competent than your typical [[TheStarscream Starscream]] and nearly deposed him!

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Compare FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome, where the change ''is'' something Galatea wanted, but is still snapped back. Often done to the WeakWilled. A common after effect from using a MirrorMoralityMachine.

* Altruism example! In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Green Isn't Your Color," Fluttershy agrees to model some of Rarity's dresses for a photographer, but the photographer takes a shine to ''Fluttershy'' and doesn't care a slap about the dresses. Rarity spends the entire episode encouraging Fluttershy to go be a rich and famous model because she feels guilty about envying Fluttershy's success and wants to be a supportive friend. Fluttershy, for her part, hates the attention, and they're both bitter that with the photographer eating up Fluttershy's time, they can't hang out anymore. Twilight Sparkle spends the entire episode being confidant to them both, but [[CannotSpitItOut sworn to secrecy]] for the sake of one another's feelings, and [[KeepingSecretsSucks nearly loses her marbles not saying the two sentences that would fix the problem.]]

** In another episode, Dee Dee tries to loosen up Dexter, and once converted, ''he'' starts destroying his own lab, violently and maniacally.

* Altruism example! In the ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Green Isn't Your Color," Fluttershy agrees to model some of Rarity's dresses for a photographer, but the photographer takes a shine to ''Fluttershy'' and doesn't care a slap about the dresses. Rarity spends the entire episode encouraging Fluttershy to go be a rich and famous model because she feels guilty about envying Fluttershy's success and wants to be a supportive friend. Fluttershy, for her part, hates the attention, and they're both bitter that with the photographer eating up Fluttershy's time, they can't hang out anymore. Twilight Sparkle spends the entire episode being confidant to them both, but [[CannotSpitItOut sworn to secrecy]] for the sake of one another's feelings, and [[KeepingSecretsSucks nearly loses her marbles not saying the two sentences that would fix the problem.]]

* Altruism example! In the ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Green Isn't Your Color," Fluttershy agrees to model some of Rarity's dresses for a photographer, but the photographer takes a shine to ''Fluttershy'' and doesn't care a slap about the dresses. Rarity spends the entire episode encouraging Fluttershy to go be a rich and famous model because she feels guilty about envying Fluttershy's success and wants to be a supportive friend. Fluttershy, for her part, hates the attention, and they're both bitter that with the photographer eating up Fluttershy's time, they can't hang out anymore. Twilight Sparkle spends the entire episode being confidant to them both, but [[CannotSpitItOut sworn to secrecy]] for the sake of one another's feelings, and nearly loses her marbles not saying the two sentences that would fix the problem.

-->'''Moe:''' There's just one thing I don't get, though. When my face was crushed, why'd it go back to my old face? I mean, shouldn't it have turned into some kind of third face that was different? Heh. Don't make no--''(end credits abruptly cut him off)''

* And, of course, the ''Trope Namer'' - the stage production Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, adapted into musical form with My Fair Lady. Containing the aformentioned pygmalion as represented by the incorrigible Henry Higgins (with his grand knowledge of accents, a novelty in turn-of-the-century England) who attempts to change the cockney Liza Dolittle into a well-bred, well-spoken English lady by correcting her common drawl. He succeeds but then discards his creation, much to Liza's great consternation, which is where the narrative tension arises in the second half of the play.

** Don't forget the episode where Dee Dee tries to loosen up Dexter, and once converted, starts destroying his OWN lab violently and maniacally.

* In GoofTroop, Pete once hypnotized Goofy to turn him into a ruthless car salesman like himself. The problem was that Goofy's cluelessness persisted, and caused Pete no end of trouble, including stealing a armored car to sell on the lot, and robbing the policeman who came to investigate. In the end, Pete hypnotizes Goofy back to his old self.

* DuckDodgers got this makeover thanks to one of Ignacius' inventions. The new Dodgers not only became hyper competent but even better than everyone else. Then he tried to pull a PygmalionPlot on the whole Earth, because it didn't live up to his expectations. It could easily have been permanent, as it took all the effort from I Q, Cadet, Marvin and the Queen to get him back to his old self.

* Lampshaded and spoofed in ''TheSimpsons'' episode "Pygmoelian": Moe has plastic surgery to become handsome and lands a role on a soap opera. Near the end of the episode the wall of a set falls on his face, and in the next scene we see he's [[StatusQuoIsGod back to normal]]. The last lines of the episode:

This is often exaggerated when the Pygmalion character has GreenRocks that can do the above quickly and easily without even a TrainingMontage. They'll discover the new [[EvilTwin photo negative personality]] is most definitely worse than the original, often either obviously evil, [[TeachHimAnger full of anger]], [[MarySue hyper competent]], a JonasQuinn to the Pygmalion, or all of the above. In the end, WeWantOurJerkBack. Depending on the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism tone]] of the episode or show, the story may or may not come with the {{Aesop}} of being thankful for what you have.

* Altruism example! In the episode "Green Isn't Your Color," [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Fluttershy]] agrees to model some of Rarity's dresses for a photographer, but the photographer takes a shine to ''Fluttershy'' and doesn't care a slap about the dresses. Rarity spends the entire episode encouraging Fluttershy to go be a rich and famous model because she wants to be a supportive friend. Fluttershy, for her part, hates the attention, and they're both bitter that with the photographer eating up Fluttershy's time, they can't hang out anymore. Twilight Sparkle spends the entire episode being confidant to them both, but [[CannotSpitItOut sworn to secrecy]] for the sake of one another's feelings, and nearly loses her marbles not saying the two sentences that would fix the problem.

* In ''TheDresdenFiles'', this is shown to be the eventual result of any kind of tampering with someone's mind. Eventually, the true personality reasserts itself, leading to at best a backlash [[spoiler: like Luccio's reaction to having being mind-warped into loving Harry]] or a far worse reaction as the psyche shreds itself trying to turn back to normal [[spoiler: as is implied to happy to Molly's first boyfriend after she mind-raped him out of using drugs]]

* ''BatmanBeyond: Return of the Joker'': Joker captures Tim Drake a.k.a. Robin and gives him a personality makeover in his own image. Robin (now [[MiniMe "J.J."]]) is a very apt pupil [[spoiler: and shoots Joker through the heart.]]