To avoid Demonic Possession, remember to regularly de-worm your parents!
When we're introduced to a character, we're usually under the impression that they are what they are, that they're acting of their own accord. This is a given in the real world, where there doesn't exist any creatures that could just take control of our own bodies at any moment. So, this should also be true for fiction, right?
You'd be wrong. Very, very wrong.
This trope is when the audience is initially introduced to a character who's not in control of themself with no reason to believe that they're not themself, or at least the signs that they're under someone else's control aren't apparent until you read the story a second time. With no obvious sign that your character is possessed, even your characters may be fooled, either because they're under the same impression that everyone's acting of their own accord as described above, don't think that their ally could even be possessed because they aren't aware that's possible in their setting, or they simply just aren't Genre Savvy enough. Whatever the first impressions are, however, there will always eventually be some sort of reveal that exposes the character as being Possessed All Along. Once the characters realize this, expect fighting the possessor or an "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight to come in real soon. However, even if freeing the possessed person from their possessor is successful, Cartesian Karma might still risk coming into play if the other characters end up holding the possessed person accountable for what they did while possessed.
Note: This trope doesn't have to start at the beginning of the narrative necessarily. If a character gets possessed at a later point in the story, and the audience and/or characters don't know this until a later reveal, that's still an example of this trope.
If this occurs even once within a work, you might see theories or Wild Mass Guessing to pop up and suspect that other characters might be under someone else's control.
Opposites to this trope include Not Brainwashed, in which a character seems to be brainwashed but actually isn't, and Pretend to Be Brainwashed, when a character actively fakes being mind-controlled. Related to Impersonation-Exclusive Character, when it turns out a character was being impersonated and we never actually met them throughout the story. Overlap with Dead All Along and Dead Person Impersonation can occur in the case that the possessed character is deceased as well. Compare The Man Behind the Man, for when a bigger antagonist is revealed to be behind the actions of the starting villain of the story, and Hyde Plays Jekyll where the evil-natured personality side of a character has taken over unbeknownst to the audience. Also see Demonic Possession or Grand Theft Me, for other tropes about possession in fiction.
As this is a Reveal Trope, unmarked spoilers ahead!
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School: The Despair Arc reveals that the students of Class 77-B were all literally brainwashed to become Ultimate Despair after being forced to watch Chiaki Nanami get tortured to death, rather than being subjected to More than Mind Control as the A.I. Junko implied. It's also revealed that Class 77-B's homeroom teacher, Chisa Yukizome, was brainwashed as well after being lobotomized.
- Digimon Adventure 02: Yukio Oikawa, who was seemingly the Big Bad of the series, turns out to have been possessed by one of the villains of the previous series, Myotismon.
- EDENS ZERO: After Demon King Ziggy comes Back from the Dead as the Big Bad, he claims to have been Evil All Along and that the good, noble robot his friends knew was a result of Identity Amnesia. During the Lendard arc, however, the "good" Ziggy is revealed to be his true self while the "evil" Ziggy is a persona crafted by his controller and the true Big Bad, the Sapient Ship Edens One.
- Jujutsu Kaisen: When Kenjaku uses Idle Transformation to awaken many sorcerers' dormant cursed techniques and resurrect long-dead sorcerers to kickstart the Culling Games, it initially seems that Tsumiki Fushiguro, Megumi's step-sister, awoke from her coma as a participant of the deadly competition. However, the heroes later learn that she's possessed by an ancient sorcerer named Yorozu who impersonated her since her resurrection.
- In My Hero Academia, after the Paranormal Liberation War, All For One's consciousness turns out to be inside of his Quirk which was just transferred into Tomura Shigaraki's body. All For One reveals himself to still have an active consciousness after carrying his Quirk Vestige across into Tomura's body, allowing him to possess Tomura. With Tomura's body, the first act he does is use it to break his original body out of Tartarus.
- Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: In "Homecoming", it turns out the apparent plot twist of Stocking being a demon at the end of the first season was actually the result of Corset getting into her mind and brainwashing her into thinking she was a demon. She gets her mind restored with a fight against Panty at the end of the episode.
- Later Happy Science anime movies feature human antagonists that not only are atheists or non-religious, but also have dark powers. As these films progress, it's revealed their powers come from demons, who secretly manipulate them into going with their plans to crush the Ryuho Okawa stand-in and condemn the entire world to Hell in the process.
- The Mystical Laws: Emperor Tathagata Killer is a tyrant who seeks to unite the world under his rule and destroy all religion. However, the film hints that his actions aren't entirely his own, such as Leika Chan/Princess Theta remarking that his sorrowful stare was gone, speaking with an invisible being in his throne room, and being able to summon demons despite being an atheist. Eventually, the demon reveals itself after Tathagata accidentally electrocuted himself to near death and forces her to activate the Ultimate Destruction Weapon. It's even implied that the Godom Empire was a ploy by said demon to destroy the world.
- The Rebirth of Buddha: Tousaku Arai, leader of the Sounen Group, is set up as a dangerous man who claims to be the reincarnation of Buddha, complete with Psychic Powers that allow him to hypnotize large groups of people into hallucinating things. He seems in control of his actions until the protagonist, Sayako Amanokawa, exposes him as a fraud through nationwide TV, causing the Sounen Group's disbandment. From there on, the demon he made a deal with possesses him while he's in hiding from the police. When Arai ends up knocked out at his confrontation with Taiyou Sorano at the Tokyo Dome, the demon leaves his body and fights Sorano himself.
Audio Play
- Torchwood (Big Finish): In "Changes Everything", Gwen's voice sounds slightly off, but nothing to suggest anything more than The Other Darrin, and her behaviour is otherwise normal. It's not until the next episode, "Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy", that something is shown to be amiss when Gwen's mother remarks on how odd Gwen has been acting lately, with "Gwen" shooting her as the real Gwen begs her to do nothing more than smile. In reality, Gwen had been possessed by an entity called Ng at an unknown point before "Changes Everything".
Comic Books
- "The Ghoul of Death": Peter Arrant is in prison awaiting execution for a streak of horrifically violent crimes. Because of this conviction, Hastings accepts him as his volunteer test subject for an experimental brain surgery meant to turn him into a good person. However, it isn't Arrant's own inclinations that make him violent. He's possessed by a ghoul and during the brain surgery, the ghoul gets cast out and possesses another, Hastings's fiancée Celia. When Arrant awakens free from evil and full of remorse, Hastings concludes that his experiment was a success. Arrant's insistence that he was possessed is waved away as fantastical until Arrant is executed and his crime spree picks back up. The ghoul is caught in the act and gunned down and when the body takes on the form of Celia once more, Hastings understands that Arrant spoke the truth.
- Rat Queens: Dee's brother Senoa is revealed, shortly before being killed off, to have been possessed for all his on-page time by the demon Hazirel.
- Shazam! (2018): C.C. Batson, Billy's father, shows up very early on and appears to be making an effort to reconnect with his son. Near the end of the series, he uses a magic spell to defeat Black Adam, something that he wouldn't be able to do under normal circumstances. This causes Billy to realize that C.C. was being controlled by Mr. Mind all along and only approached him to further the parasite's schemes.
- Superior Spider-Man (2013): Exploited in-universe. Otto Octavius a.k.a. Doctor Octopus has swapped bodies with Spider-Man at the start of the series. The rest of the Avengers soon realize there is something seriously wrong with their friend, but are unable to pinpoint the cause. One arc has the Villain Protagonist claim the Venom symbiote for himself, but lose control of the creature and go on a rampage across New York. After being freed from the alien, he tries to convince the Avengers that the Venom symbiote had been possessing him all along, which is what caused his personality to suddenly change. None of the heroes buy this, yet they only find out what really happened to Spider-Man at the very end of the series.
Fan Works
- Super RWBY Sisters: At the beginning of "JINXY and the Forgotten Land", Xena and Yagami attempt to use their ESP powers to try and find their boyfriend, Umber, who went missing, only for Fecto to block their attempt. It appears that's all that happened until Umber is revealed to be Not Brainwashed, at which point Fecto, out of rage he'd been tricked, reveals he's been controlling them since they first tried to contact Umber and pits them against the heroes.
Films — Animation
- Incredibles 2: The Screenslaver (well, the one we're initially introduced to) seems to be willingly working as a villain at first glance, but after his defeat at the hands of Elastigirl, he turns out to have been a brainwashed pizza delivery guy, with Evelyn Deavor being the person that specifically brainwashed him with a special pair of goggles.
- Mune: Guardian of the Moon: The villainous Necross sends out Evil Corruptors, snakelike spirits that can possess people. It seems for most of the movie that Necross controls the Evil Corruptors, but it turns out in the end that Necross had another Evil Corruptor inhabiting his body the whole time. Once the Corruptor is destroyed, he returns to his original, good form before dying peacefully.
Films — Live-Action
- Pacific Rim: Uprising: Dr. Newton Geiszler returns from the first film, and while his obsession with the Kaiju seems to have gotten more intense, he still seems to be as dedicated to stopping them as ever. Then halfway through, it's revealed that his attempts to Drift with Kaiju brains caused him to get possessed by the Kaiju Precursors at some point between the two films, and he's thus technically the Big Bad.
- Played for Laughs in Pitch Perfect 3. As the Bellas are having their talk regarding their future plans, Lily suddenly pipes in by saying someone's goal is "cool beans". Everyone's excited but startled to hear her speak, as she's known for her disturbing Non-Sequiturs told through whispers. She responds to their shock with a cheerful "Satan has finally left my body! Hi, I'm Ester." The rest of the Bellas return to being confused and disturbed at the claim that their friend was under Satanic possession the whole time, but the moment quickly passes.
- Scooby-Doo (2002): While the gang suspected them of being brainwashed cult members at the very least, most of the Spooky Island workers and mysteriously-changed guests the gang meet are revealed to have been possessed by demons from the Daemon Ritus. Mary Jane is revealed to be also possessed after getting found again.
- Ultraman Tiga and Ultraman Dyna: Warriors of the Star of Light: Dr. Rui Kisaragi, the human scientist behind the Prometheus project, appears to be an agent of the sinister Monera aliens, manipulating Prometheus' Wave-Motion Gun into attacking Ultraman Dyna in the film's Darkest Hour. However, she was later revealed to be possessed by the Moneran Queen and manipulated into becoming one of their pawns, and she would later assist Ultraman Dyna and Super GUTS to battle the Moneran threat besides returning in the show proper as a regular supporting character.
Literature
- Animorphs: This happens less than you'd expect, considering that it's about Puppeteer Parasites secretly taking over the Earth. In fact, more often it's the inversion, with the kids assuming someone is a controller who turns out to be Not Brainwashed. In general, the kids know the signs to look out for, and are too careful to trust anyone who hasn't been fully vetted. Marco lets his father believe that his step-mom was a controller the entire time to make him move on faster (especially since his biological mom is alive after all), even though he strongly suspects that's not the case.
- Harry Potter:
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Professor Quirrell seems like just a nervous wreck for most of the novel, even heroic for resisting Snape. The climax reveals he was actually working with Voldemort, who had been living off the back of his head for the whole time Harry knew him. According to Word of God, Quirrell did not do this willingly — in an attempt to track down and kill what remained of Voldemort, Voldemort overpowered and possessed him completely, turning him into a temporary horcrux.
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: A variation. When Harry and Hermione visit elderly Bathilda Bagshot on Christmas Eve to get information, she invites them into her house and brings them upstairs. She appears to struggle with certain things like lighting candles, but Harry assumes it's because of her age. Once upstairs, it's revealed she is actually an Inferius, her dead body being animated by Voldemort's snake/horcrux Nagini using dark magic — any words Harry heard from "Bathilda" were Parseltongue.
- The Novelization of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom adds a revelation, of which there is no indication in the film, that Mola Ram himself was a victim of Kali's brainwashing the whole time, much like Indy at one point, which he snaps out after Indy causes the Sankara stones to activate and grabbing one in desperation before he's burnt. Unfortunately, he only managed to enjoy a brainwash-free life for all of five seconds before plummeting into a river of crocodiles.
- Rivers of London: In the first novel that the series is named after (also called Midnight Riot in the US), it's revealed that Lesley May was possessed by the Big Bad of the novel, Mr. Punch, not long after we're introduced to her, and has been manipulating the heroes to prevent them from interfering with his plans.
Live-Action TV
- Jessica Jones (2015): There are a number of times in the first season that a character will secretly be under the influence of Kilgrave's Compelling Voice.
- In the very first episode, Jessica rescues Hope Shlotmann from Kilgrave and reunites her with her parents, only to reveal at the end that she was still under Kilgrave's control and had been instructed to murder her parents once she was alone with them.
- It turns out that Jessica's junkie neighbour Malcolm has actually been spying on her under Kilgrave's orders, and in fact he used to be a social worker before Kilgrave forced him into drug use to make him Beneath Notice.
- Near the end of the season, Kilgrave makes Luke Cage attempt to kill himself in an explosion, seemingly unaware that Luke is Nigh-Invulnerable. Jessica still waits out the time for Kilgrave's powers to wear off just in case, and ends up sleeping with him. It's only after Kilgrave repeats something Luke said to her that she realises that Kilgrave's powers are getting stronger and all of that was under his command — right as Luke attacks her.
- This is Soichi Isurugi's character arc throughout the entirety of Kamen Rider Build. An astronaut who uncovered a mysterious Martian artifact only known as the Pandora Box, viewers would initially led to believe he was the villainous Blood Stalk, a high executive member of the illegal military organization Faust. However, later in the show, it would be revealed that Soichi was possessed by an alien named Evolto ever since finding the Pandora Box, and had been in control of his body for the majority of it, as well as being responsible for much of the show's events.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Isamu's Character Arc during the Workplace Competition. Throughout the arc, Horobi taunts Isamu that he's actually a Metsubojinrai asset. He's telling the truth: Yua eventually learns that Naki's consciousness had been implanted into Fuwa's chip from the moment he joined A.I.M.S. — they'd been taking over his body since the very first round and using him to disperse the Raid Risers to the various Raiders in secret.
- Stranger Things: While Vecna is a cruel sociopath who uses his powers to commit a plethora of atrocities such as giving his victims horrifically brutal deaths, the stage play "Stranger Things: The First Shadow" reveals that when he was first sent to the Upside Down, the Mind Flayer possessed him, gave him access to all sorts of evil abilities, and made his mind focus on nihilism and misanthropy, fully turning him into the monster he is today.
- Supernatural uses this trope quite a bit, given that demons that possess human bodies are major antagonists in the series. Additionally, other entities, including ghosts and angels can also possess human bodies and there are occasional reveals that characters have been possessed all along by them.
- In the first season, Sam meets an attractive young woman named Meg who turns out to be possessed by a demon. In the third season, he meets an attractive young demon slayer named Ruby, who also reveals herself to be a demon a few episodes later.
- Dean deduces in the final episode of the first season that his father, John, has been possessed by the yellow-eyed-demon for the last few hours, as "John" has been just a bit too warm with Dean.
- In the fifth season, Sam learns his college friend, Brady, was possessed for multiple years during his time at Stanford, and still is four years later. He was also the demon who murdered Sam's girlfriend, Jessica. He even specifically introduced Sam and Jessica so that they would fall in love, so "Brady" could then murder her to hurt Sam. Needless to say, Sam does not take this information well.
- Tin Man (2007): We have our Dystopian Oz setup. Dorothy (or "DG" as she's called here) is the lost princess of Oz, descendant of the original Dorothy. And the Wicked Witch is Dorothy's long lost sister, Azkedellia. Well...kinda. Turns out that when they were children, DG heard what she thought was a cry for help from a sealed cave, and went to investigate. Said cave was actually Sealed Evil in a Can and the prison for the original Wicked Witch. DG was able to flee, but her sister wasn't so lucky, ending up possessed by the Witch and turned into the evil sorceress that put all of Oz to the boot.
- Yonderland: It's eventually revealed that the main villain of the third season, Cuddly Dick, was not behind his own actions, but was actually being controlled by his sentient wig.
Music
- Juno Songs makes it clear that Magolor was being controlled by the Master Crown. While Magolor acts Drunk on the Dark Side in the Another Dimension and Under My Control covers, in C-R-O-W-N-E-D, he realizes that he messed up badly putting on the Master Crown, and wishes to be slain. Magolor later gets his revenge on the Master Crown in Mistletein, Tree Crown Without A Ruler, for what it did to him.
Podcasts
- The Magnus Archives: Elias Bouchard, head of the Magnus Institute, is revealed late in the fourth season to be possessed by Jonah Magnus, the founder of the Institute; Jonah has been body hopping between Institute heads by replacing their eyes with his own since his original body's death, with all of Elias's predecessors having also been possessed by Jonah.
Video Games
- Bayonetta:
- Jeanne spends most of the first game as the title character's enemy until the third act, where it's revealed that she's been under Father Balder's control for some time. She proceeds to break free from this control and rescue Bayonetta during the final stage in truly awesome fashion, setting up the final showdown with Jubileus.
- The second game reveals that Balder, the Big Bad of the first game, was himself under the control of this game's Big Bad, Loptr.
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Gebel, the apparent Big Bad at the start of the game, is revealed to have been possessed by the demon Gremory and is little more than her pawn, if the player meets the criteria for the Golden Ending.
- In Book of Mario 64, a Translation Train Wreck ROM hack of Paper Mario 64 that serves as a prequel to Book of Mario: Thousands of Doors, Mario ends up becoming possessed by the Stellarvinden so that he can live again after he dies early on in the story from falling out of Peach's castle. This isn't initially spelled out to the audience, though. However, little hints pop out throughout the game's story that Mario's Not Himself, with the most obvious evidence of this being this Wham Line in the ending narration of Section 7:
- Narration: Want to save a Persian and the Star of Rodin? Or do you want to be free forever?
- Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex: Crunch Bandicoot, the game's antagonist, is revealed in the end to have been a Nice Guy who was only brainwashed by Cortex to become villainous. He befriends Crash and Coco upon being freed.
- Dawn of War II: If Jonah is the traitor, he's been possessed by a daemon (possibly since before the beginning of the game) and Fighting from the Inside all along.
- Deltarune has a twist on this where Kris is being possessed by you, the player, through their SOUL. It's implied throughout the first chapter where several characters comment on how they aren't acting like how they usually do, and then revealed more in the ending where they tear out the SOUL and throw it in a cage, and you can still control it while it's in there. The second chapter makes it even more clear that you are controlling Kris rather than playing as them, especially if you choose to make Noelle freeze every enemy you encounter with her and respond to her with specific dialogue options, all against Kris's will.
- Dragalia Lost: Phares is a member of the Alberian Royal Family who ends up joining Morsayati in his conquest while also having more ulterior motives as he has Beren absorb the Other and begins manipulating various other events. It is eventually revealed that Phares is possessed by the Progenitor who is using Phares to regain his own body, having possessed him due to the royal's desperation to find a cure for his wyrmscale.
- Dragon Quest:
- Dragon Quest VIII: The plot revolves around the heroes tracking down Dhoulmagus, who stole a magic scepter and placed a curse on Trodain, which also includes turning King Trode into a troll-like creature and Princess Medea into a horse. It's not until sometime after the party defeats him that it's revealed that Dhoulmagus was possessed by the being within the scepter, Rhapthorne.
- Dragon Quest XI: For much of the first segment of the game, the Hero and his allies are hounded by King Carnelian’s forces. This comes to a head at the end of the first arc when it’s revealed that King Carnelian is possessed by the Big Bad, Mordegon, and has been for well over a decade.
- Fire Emblem Fates: King Garon, the ruthless Nohrian king, has been dead long before the start of the game. As shown halfway through the Conquest route, his body is merely the vessel of one of Anankos' monsters.
- Final Fantasy:
- For most of Final Fantasy IV, Golbez is the Big Bad, until you confront him in the Giant of Bab-il and learn he's been mind-controlled by Zemus all along.
- In one of the many twists in Final Fantasy VIII, the audience eventually discovers that the evil, world-conquering Sorceress Edea that the heroes have been fighting is actually a kind, motherly sorceress being possessed by the evil, world-destroying, time-travelling Sorceress Ultimecia.
- Honkai: Star Rail: Tingyun is a long-standing Amicassador (read: trade negotiator) for the Xianzhou Luofu, whom you meet upon first docking (as she's just come back from a mission). Later on, after you defeat the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus in the Alchemy Commission, they start begging their true patron (Destruction Lord Ravager Phantylia) for aid...and it's then and only then do you find out that Tingyun is Phantylia's current vessel.
- In INSIDE (2016), the protagonist was controlled by the Blob all along. This only becomes apparent in the secret ending, when he finds a secret research facility where he disables the machines keeping the Blob and its controlled creatures alive. Promptly, the boy falls to the floor immovably too.
- Kirby:
- Kirby and the Rainbow Curse: While Claycia, the game's initial antagonist, is known to have gone through a Face–Heel Turn before the start of the game, the reason why isn't revealed until after her defeat in Purple Fortress, where it turns out she had been possessed by the Dark Crafter through the shades over her eyes.
- Kirby's Return to Dream Land: Implied with Magolor. Magolor initially just seems to be Drunk on the Dark Side while wearing the Master Crown, but there are implications that Magolor had lost control of himself upon putting on the crown.
- In Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, in the False Ending, the game ends with a celebration on Ripple Star and an ominous final sequence, showing that the Fairy Queen has always been under Dark Matter's dark influence and will stay like this forever.
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land: The leader of the Beast Pack, Leongar, seems like the one responsible for everything that happened in the game... until halfway through his boss fight, where it's revealed that he's been under the control of Fecto Forgo the whole time.
- Kingdom Hearts: The second game establishes that the one responsible for everything bad that has happened so far is a man called Xehanort, a researcher who was consumed by the darkness and split into two halves: the Heartless Ansem, and the Nobody Xemnas. However, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep then reveals that the "Xehanort" from the past games is actually a young man called Terra, who has been possessed by the real Xehanort.
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: For most of the game, the player is led to believe that the titular mask is an Artifact of Doom that is amplifying the Skull Kid's magic at the cost of his sanity. At the end of the game, we find out that Majora is actually sentient, as it detaches from its puppet and becomes the final boss.
- Mass Effect:
- Mass Effect 1: For most of the game, it appears as if Saren is the leader of a dissident Geth faction and mainly acts for its own gain. It's only halfway through the game that you learn that he has become indoctrinated by the Reapers and was not in control of his actions anymore.
- Mass Effect 3: The Illusive Man. Just like Saren he has been a returning antagonist, but at an unknown moment in the story he became indoctrinated as well.
- Miitopia: The Dark Lord is initially introduced as just that, a Dark Lord. However, after the Dark Lord is defeated in Karkaton, it turns out that the Dark Lord was actually just an employee of an HP Banana factory who had been manipulated by the Dark Curse into becoming its Unwitting Pawn.
- MindJack: Much of the game involves mind-hacking and mind-slaving your way through uncovering a massive corpo-government conspiracy, and a late game twist reveals that your mind-hacking protagonist, renegade FIA agent Jim Corbijn, is actually himself being mind-hacked throughout much of the game by the ghost of supposed Big Bad Andrew Gardner, the late founder of NERKAS who sought to atone for his company's sins and lead Jim into destroying their biggest mistakes before it's too late.
- Monster Sanctuary: The leader of the Alchemist's Guild, Marduk, entered into a Deal with the Devil with a demon known as The Mad Lord, becoming his host within the human world. For most of the game, he appears to have free will, but after both he and the Mad Lord are defeated, he admits that he has no idea which of his actions were his own and which were the Mad Lord controlling him, and willingly submits to his arrest by the Keepers.
- Outerplane: Princess Stella nearly killed K and Tanya then subsequently proceeded to do a lot of other terrible things. The hard mode for the first season eventually reveals that she was a victim of Demonic Possession via the dispossessed Earthling known as "Domine".
- Downplayed in Puyo Puyo 7. Arle becomes possessed not long after her introduction, but the characters don't realize this, brushing her off as being insane. The identity of Arle's possessor, Ecolo, isn't revealed until after Arle is defeated in Act 5.
- Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon: Initially, it appears the Player Character's guardian and caretaker, Nuzleaf, is a case of Evil All Along, being one of the evil Pokémon responsible for petrifying other Pokémon alongside both Yveltal and the 3 Beeheyem that attacked the Player at the beginning. However, it turns out that all 5 Pokémon were actually being controlled by the true Big Bad, Dark Matter.
- RuneScape: this happened with an entire race, the demonic Infernals; in the quest "Twilight of the Gods", it's revealed that the Infernals (or at least their leaders) were possessed by Dragonkin, a Draconic Humanoid Precursor race. Several of these Infernals were boss monsters in the Dungeoneering skill, released twelve years earlier.
- StarCraft: Brood War: The Dark Templars' matriarch Razsagal turns out to be under Kerrigan's mind control for most of the game, though it's not known how long that's been happening. Zeratul kills Razsagal to free her, which causes some issues later on when her daughter doesn't trust Zeratul's intentions.
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl: In The Subspace Emissary, Master Hand was presented as the leader of the Subspace Army, commanding the villains behind the scenes, and forcing heroes Mr. Game & Watch and the R.O.B. units to follow his orders. By the game's climax, it is revealed that Master Hand was being puppeteered by Tabuu the whole time, since Tabuu could not escape Subspace and needed a proxy who could act outside the realm.
- In Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Captain Titus and his squad answer a distress call sent out by Inquisitor Drogan, regarding an experimental weapon that he's desperate to keep out of the hands of mankind's enemies. However, it's eventually revealed that Drogan died shortly after sending his distress call, and the person the player interacts with for a good chunk of the game is actually a daemon possessing Drogan's corpse, sent by Nemeroth to steal the weapon and use it to open a warp rift.
- Weird and Unfortunate Things Are Happening: The Impersonation-Exclusive Character "Sadie Walters" is actually just her body hosting Phritotch, an Eldritch Abomination.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney:
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations: A complicated example occurs during the final case. Initially, it's believed that Maya has been trapped inside the Sacred Cavern ever since the murder occurred. However, during the final trial day, Phoenix realises that Maya has been channelling Iris' twin sister Dahlia Hawthorne that whole time, that she and Iris switched places during the earthquake the previous day, and that the "Iris" that's been with them ever since is actually Dahlia in Maya's body.
- A similar thing happens in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, combined with Dead All Along; it turns out that Dhurke Sahdmadhi was killed before the beginning of the fifth case, and that Maya, who had previously been kidnapped, had been channeling him the entire time up until the murder of Justice Minister Inga. After that, Dhurke was channeled by the Not Quite Dead Queen Amara, who spent the last several years disguised as Princess Rayfa's assistant who was missing for a while because of the aforementioned channeling.
- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: Zig-Zagged with K1-B0, the Ultimate Robot. K1-B0 initially seems to be self-serving, but during the final chapter, it turns out that he was being subtly manipulated by viewer surveys which he had just perceived as voices in his head telling him what to do.
- Yet Another Killing Game: On the path to The End, the protagonist deduces that Cece has been possessed by The Professor ever since she split off from the group to hunt the zombie during the time the protagonist was treating Ria's wounds.
Web Animation
- The 5 Gods (2021): It is revealed that Hades was under the control of Yin and Yang even before the war between the 5 Gods, and that the reason they suggested that Ares be locked up is because Yin and Yang didn’t want him causing trouble as the only one immune to their control.
- Animator vs. Animation: In the first episode of Animation vs. Minecraft, we are lead to believe Red turned evil to have the powers of Creative Mode. It later turns out it was Herobrine possessing him to gain power for himself.
- Sauria: The episode "Rise of the Decayed" follows a small group of Bluesong scouts and their commander, Ornithicera, as they're captured by the Fell. Ornithicera tells the other two scouts about what the Fell are and how they were corrupted by dark magic and the worship of dark gods, before revealing the mark of the Fell on his hand and that one of said dark gods has already infected his mind.
- Murder Drones: Tessa is initially introduced in Episode 3 as having arrived on Copper 9 for maintenance work, with not much real reason to believe she's under the control of someone else. however, during the ending of Episode 7, it turns out that Tessa wasn't herself the whole time when Cyn crawls out of her body, revealing that Tessa had been used as Cyn's meat puppet.
- Something About: Part way through "Something About the Subspace Emissary", we learn that the reality-warping powers and obsession with speedrunning Mario has exhibited in most of his appearances up to this point are a result of his possession by a literal Speed Demon.
Webcomics
- Dark Carnival Inverted. On the train car we see the other characters act afraid of the demonic Ringmaster's host, presented that they're afraid of the ringmaster herself but then we see her eye👁 Image
which is notably not glowing red like when she's possessed. - Paranatural: The second half of chapter five has the kids and Mr. Spender trying to figure out which of the teachers the Puppeteer Parasite Hijack jumped into. After each teacher turns up nothing, they throw around other theories like it being the principal or that he never left his first host Jeff. Ultimately however, they all come to the realization that he was actually possessing Mr. Spender all along. This ends up giving Isabel a crisis of faith when she realises that the heart-to-heart she had with him was fake.
Web Videos
- Dimension 20: During Fantasy High: Junior Year, this happened several times. Of particular note was the return of Baron from the Baronies, the strange horror creature conjured from Riz's lie about having a romance partner from Sophomore Year, during the Haunted House encounter; twice curing the encounter, first with Fabian, then with Adaine, Baron took control of the player with Brennan secretly instructing Lou and Siobhan to act normally and reveal their possession at an opportune moment.
- Pokemon Amber: While Professor Gingko is first introduced as the seeming Big Good that the player character and their rival have been hired as research assistants for, it is later revealed that she's apparently Evil All Along and working on a plot to exterminate all the revived prehistoric Pokémon living in the Paleon Region...only for it to then be subsequently revealed even later that she's actually being controlled by Spectkret, a destructive native Paleon legendary Pokémon who previously caused the extinction of the Paleon Region's wildlife in ancient prehistory before entering a state of hibernation and is now attempting to bring about a second extinction event after having been unwittingly woken back up by Professor Gingko and her former friend turned Team Arc leader Professor Cycad.
- Shorts Wars: Clone Riggy/Preston's body had been cracking as the ARG went on, and during Season 2, he had been expressing knowledge of things he shouldn't have known about, such as repairing the cloning machine, or how to use Riggy's hair to make a serum to keep his ever destabilising body together. Preston also muses that the name “Dave” sounds familiar to him for some reason. Not to mention, after getting hit particularly hard in “Riggy vs Clone Riggy Rematch”, the cracks glow white, and Preston doesn't seem to recognise the graph paper battlefield… when he has been there before. It turns out that the reason for all of this was that Preston was Sharing a Body with the uploaded and suddenly transferred soul of Dr Francis Dave, the Mad Scientist who originally created the cloning machine, and the Greater Scope Predecessor Villain (well, not quite Predecessor any more) of the series, which had been influencing Preston whether he knew it or not. When the serum runs out in the finale, F.D breaks through completely and takes over Preston's body.
Western Animation
- Adventure Time: In "The Lich", Finn and Jake start stealing the princesses' gems at Billy's request, as they are told said artifacts will let them defeat the villainous Lich for good. At the end of the episode, it's revealed Billy was dead all along, and his body was being worn by the Lich as a means to manipulate the heroes into getting him the tools he needed to extinguish all life.
- Gravity Falls: During the ending for Dipper and Mabel vs. The Future, a seemingly normal Blendin Blandin appears to Mabel while she's feeling distressed by the realization that summer will be ending soon and she'll have to go back home. Blandin claims that he'll be able to make summer last for as long as Mabel wants, but it'll require the Dimensional Rift. Mabel believes Blandin's statement and hands the Dimensional Rift over to Blandin, only for Blandin to promptly destroy it. Upon this happening, Blandin takes off this Opaque Lenses, revealing him to actually have been possessed by Bill Cipher, and now with the Dimensional Rift destroyed, Weirdmageddon can begin.
- Downplayed with Pink Pearl in Steven Universe. While it's apparent from her introduction in Legs From Here to Homeworld that something is off about her and she is under White Diamond's servitude, what's exactly going on is not clarified until Change Your Mind, where it's revealed that White Diamond has the power to Mind Control other Gems, with Pink Pearl being one of those controlled gems. When Pink Pearl is freed near the end of the episode, it's evident that she had been possessed for quite a long time.