Trope Talk: Mind Control

It's insidious! It's omnipresent! It's the number one way to justify two of your heroes kicking the crap out of each other! It's… apparently mostly a thing in superhero media, judging by the examples in this video. Either that or I just watch too much superhero stuff.

Got a favorite mind-control plotline? Drop in the comments! Debate their validity! Fight fight fight!

Thanks to patron Devin Hoffarth for requesting this topic!

EXAMPLES USED (in order of first appearance): Supergirl (s1e16), Inuyasha (e132), Batman: Bad Blood, Justice League (s3e9), one of the super mario comics, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Justice League (s2e21-22), Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, Transformers Prime (s1e14), Trollhunters (s2e10), Yugioh (e78), Inuyasha (e60-61), Teen Titans (s1e10), X-Men: Evolution (s2e12), Justice League (s1e10-11), Batman Beyond (s1e10), Adventure Time (s5e14), Legion of Superheroes (e25-26), Batman: Arkham Knight, Voltron: Legendary Defender (s6e5), Order of the Stick (page 1009), Inuyasha: The Final Act (e21), X-Men: Evolution (s1e11), Trollhunters (s3e1), Young Justice (s2e18), The
Spectacular Spider-Man (s1e12), Teen Titans (s1e6), Superman: The Animated Series (s3e12-13), Captain America: Civil War, Spectacular Spider-Man (s1e13), Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, DBZ (e229), Trollhunters (s3e7-8), Avatar: The Last Airbender (s2e37), Inuyasha (e24), X-Men: The Last Stand

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[LawkzBro]

i think it's worth mentioning the "i resisted the mind control but i'll pretend to be mind controlled" which is my favorite

[assaultspoon]

"You have to stop being evil!"
*"I... I cant!"*
"But we're friends!"
*"Oh. Well, that changes everything."*

[coffeewolf]

I like this trope but I really want to see one specific example of this just once in my life or after life.
“Oh no! Our leader has been mind controlled!”
The lance: Don’t worry, I have a full proof plan to see if they remember us.
*Walks up to the leader*
The lance: Hey buddy! Remember me?
*tries to murder them harder than everyone else*
The lance: Well the good news is that they definitely remember me.

[isitnotwrittenthat]

So there is another mind control trope: the "back seat driver" a passenger as you would, that sits in the back of their mind and makes suggestions, possibly posing as the conscience or subconscious, with generally little true control, relying on manipulation and psychology, examples include borrowing in disc world as a high control version

[InkyDustMan]

"They usually can't fight it off completely...unless they're Batman-"
This is one of my favorite quotes because of how true it is-
This guy shrugs off hypnosis, fear toxin, hallucinogens, mind control, body and mind alterring diseases and more just by the virtue of being who he is-

[cking]

“Haha, I have deleted your friend’s personality and took over his body!”
“I know you’re in there!”
“No, he really isn’t- oh no, he came back somehow, crazy.”

[cookiesnqueen]

Here's an idea:
A villain possesses someone in the hero group and just starts acting like a jerk with the intent of causing chaos and disorder in their group dynamic, as one does. But then after experiencing firsthand the kind of familial love and unconditional support and forgiveness the group has for each other, realises how alone they really are and how much they want to be a part of that for real; and with the turmoil of emotions and confusion such a revelation would bring, release the victim and/or reveal themselves and gtfo back to their evil lair to mull over what just happened, leading into the oh so coveted Villain Angst™ and potentially the reformed villain trope.

[wizwitch]

My favorite example of mind control being used purely to mess with character dynamics: When making the Phineas and Ferb Star Wars special, Dan and Swampy wanted to have a light saber duel between the titular characters because of how awesome it'd be, but they couldn't come up with a way for them to realistically have a fight
So for the subplot, Doof wants to be a powerful Sith, and he builds a machine to achieve this goal. However, Ferb gets hit with this, which turns him evil, and when Phineas refuses to join him, a whole fight happens
I love to describe it as "they realized the brothers get along too well, so they blasted one with evil"

[icerius-]

Character: is mind-controlled
The power of friendship: exists
Mind control: *_Understandable, have a nice day._*

[toasterstrooder]

"I'm so hopped up on evil and angst! Nothing short of a _dramatic love confession_ will snap me out of it!"

"Well good because slow burn was getting _really_ old"

I love how sarcastically the drawings in this series demonstrate things.

[stevemanart]

10:50 irl there is a legal precedent that my apply here. If you are impressed to perform a crime under pain of death, you are not culpable for that crime, and the person who did force you to commit that crime is guilty of both the crime in question and forcing you to commit a crime.

[trimmien]

Don’t forget the “pretends to be mind controlled so they can get closer to the villain when in reality they’re still the good versions of themselves”

[KellyPattonBKNY]

I’ve seen an fight where the end went like this: “You’re not a supervillain, you’re a stupid brother! You’re MY... stupid brother” “Hahaha!!! You think that’ll work!? That’s so overdo-“ *SLAP* and then the brother snaps out of it.

[jajajasputin]

This is my favourite trope. An absolute guilty pleasure

[lundylow]

I absolutely love that you don't demonize tropes/equate them to cliches. YouTube's crawling with Everything Wrong With, and I'm glad to see that even tropes that at face value are poorly used and misrepresented, not only do you talk about how it could be used in a compelling way, but also how, even when used in a shallow way, you understand why the creator may choose to use it. You're awesome.

[spamus]

You did miss one variant: where the victim is willingly mind controlled. A character who has been subjected to mind control in the past finds themselves in a dire situation that they can't get out of themselves, so they willingly submit to whatever being or consciousness is controlling them because they know that being will be able to get them or their friends out. Usually a desperation move, though it could be part of the elaborate game plan leading up to the climax.

One thing that can be done with this is when the being controlling them is not aware of the perceptions of the controlled character while they aren't being controlled, and so the good guys hatch a plan to trick said being into becoming a pawn in the aforementioned game plan.

[LynMusic]

I appreciate the "no need to have a civil war over it."

[sukikurai]

One thing she didn’t mention is the
“I’m good! I’m back”👍
“Are you? Or is that the evil guy trying to trick us?”🤔

[pretzelbomb]

My favorite type of mind control is the one where you just amplify what’s already there. You don’t even have to have it be full control, just turn a character’s emotions up to 11 and watch as every small slight, every little grudge, every jealousy and desire, comes to the forefront.

[teagannam]

The I Know You're In There Somewhere Fight™