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| - Deal with the Devil meets Break Them by Talking. Mind control is an effective weapon, but your garden-variety brainwashing or hypnosis is too mundane for some viewers, too predictable for some plots, too weak for some heroes, and too unambitious for some villains. Magic forces may be at work, but it's really the trickery, lies, and despair that are thrown in that successfully break the victim's spirit. Instead of the villain forcing a victim to do something against their will, the villain changes the victim's will. Examples of More Than Mind Control include:
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| abstract
| - Deal with the Devil meets Break Them by Talking. Mind control is an effective weapon, but your garden-variety brainwashing or hypnosis is too mundane for some viewers, too predictable for some plots, too weak for some heroes, and too unambitious for some villains. To that end, mind control in some cases requires a lot of foreplay, independent of magic influence, on the part of the villain. You can't force someone to reject The Power of Friendship until you pick away at their jealousy and convince them they want to turn on their friends. You can't erase someone's memories until you talk them through the most painful and convince them they want to forget everything. You can't make someone join you without convincing them their current life is worthless and they don't want to continue with it. It's essentially mind control, yes, but it's More Than Mind Control. Magic forces may be at work, but it's really the trickery, lies, and despair that are thrown in that successfully break the victim's spirit. Instead of the villain forcing a victim to do something against their will, the villain changes the victim's will. So, if you have to talk someone into mind control, what's the point of using magic or high tech at all? Creating illusions can help make your case. Isolation is key, so magically cutting them off from support is effective. Maybe science or sorcery is just needed to accelerate the effects. In extreme cases, outright Mind Rape is utilized. This type of brainwashing, called Stockholm Syndrome in the real world, supposedly requires a minimum of 72 hours, but with a sci-fi or sorcery catalyst, it can be achieved in less than 72 seconds. Also, it can overlap directly with actual mind control. In many instances, More Than Mind Control is simply a method of making the process of the takeover easier, because by removing their resistance to your ideas, you remove the struggle in taking control of their thoughts. By having them submit to you, they essentially hand their free will over to you, making your spell or device much more effective on them. It also makes it harder for them to revert, because they now have an active resistance towards their own original beliefs. More Than Mind Control requires charisma, finesse and a lot of patience, but villains usually don't mind because they find it so much more satisfying. They also get a great deal of amusement out of telling the victim's friends, "I didn't force him to do anything he didn't want to do." It's also more resistant to the powers of friendship and love. Plus, it's just a lot cooler to watch. Villains don't even necessarily need special powers to do it, if they can goad the hero into doing something they'll regret by pushing the right buttons. Sometimes, the villain will try this on the whole team at once; they're usually saved by the Badass Normal, The Chick / The Heart or The Messiah, who will point out the ways that the villain is distorting the truth. Usually accompanied by a Shut UP, Hannibal speech to the culprit. This is a favorite technique of Manipulative Bastards and Anime villains. Victims may or may not exhibit Mind Control Eyes. It also frequently comes with a creepy voice change, probably as a Shout-Out to Darth Vader of Star Wars. It's common in the West, too. Indeed, it's been around much longer than television. This form of mind manipulation was, for example, a standard talent of personifications of despair in Renaissance British literature like The Faerie Queene and Pilgrims Progress. Occasionally, the victim's friends will have a standard counterspell, anti-psionic technique, or other fantastic means of quickly canceling vanilla mind control common to the setting. Expect them to try it on the More Than Mind Controlled character, only to react in dismay as they realize: "He's acting of his own free will!" This is an example of Truth in Television, because real-life hypnosis requires that the person subconsciously want to do whatever they're doing. And even more so in that there does not appear to be any true mind control that works in real life, only more and more extreme versions of More Than Mind Control that can in extreme cases appear like straight brainwashing to third parties. The general term for this is coercive persuasion, and it is used by most cults, including Scientology. Svengali mentors will use this. Compare The Heartless, Face Heel Turn. Overlaps with Jedi Mind Trick and Brainwashing for the Greater Good. Contrast Fighting From the Inside, though it can happen after More Than Mind Control if it's rushed or botched. May overlap with Living Doll Collector and Glamour. It usually takes hard core Deprogramming to remove, unless the controller asks the wrong thing. Examples of More Than Mind Control include:
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