Have you ever watched, played, or read something that introduces hypnosis/Mind control and you grow excited to see how it will be used, only for it to either not be used with any real significance, or the character you wanted to see hypnotized never did? I am sure we have all experienced that at least once in our lives. So this is dedicated to those moments, Cheers!

To start this off, I was always disappointed in Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School, Sibella was not the character we saw get hypnotized by the headphones.

Also the fact that Jafar never actually tried to brainwash Jasmine in Aladdin to this day makes me upset lol

I always felt that Indoctrination was underused in Mass Effect. They make this big deal about how the Reapers are these hellish, demonic beasts from beyond the stars capable of brainwashing, but they never REALLY do it in the way it's originally explained. In the first game they basically make it seem like just being near a Reaper makes you a mind controlled thrall, but in reality they normally "Indoctrinate" people by making deals to "upgrade" them and using those upgrades to control them (spoiler; happens to two of the main antagonists). I guess my main complaint is that, for something they put a ton of emphasis on, it feels like it only comes up when it services the plot instead of it being an actual, overall threatening power that the Reapers have.

The old Scooby-Doo episode with the Ghost Clown I personally felt was a little too... simple. I dunno. The scene with Daphne is one of the major things that got me into hypnosis and it still feels a little weak to me.

Literally every piece of Spider-Man media with Mysterio. He's probably my favorite Spider-Man villain because I usually love magician archetype characters. But he's an illusionist and hypnotist and he almost never uses Hypnosis. And if he does, it's not done well. I remember one Spider-Man game had him as the main villain and he was hypnotizing the other villains to work for him, but the "hypnosis" was more like a rage inducer. It basically just made people flip shit and attack anything they saw.

Finally; Sly Cooper. There are TWO hypnotist characters. And they do sweet fuck all with the hypnosis. The Contessa in Sly 2 tries and fails to hypnotize Carmelita, and the Elephant lady from Sly 4 (I forgot her name) is introduced as being a hypnotist and it kind of ends up going nowhere.

I know what you mean. The nostalgia itself is more prevalent in my mind than the scene itself, since it was one of the first scenes where I got to witness hypnosis used on a character I liked. To go back and watch the episode nowadays though, the hypnosis ends just as quickly as it begins.

Any Marvel story involving the Infinity Gauntlet. Sure, the Mind Gem gets put to good use individually every once in a while, but any time the whole set comes together, it's like it's only there to fill the last slot. (Same for the Soul Gem, but it's a little less clear what that one actually does.)

At full power, you could use the thing to instantly brainwash anyone you wanted from anywhere in the universe! You could put a whole planet under in seconds! But nobody ever thinks to do anything like that, because they were all too busy smashing planets together and turning people into dust. Such a waste.

Totally Spies The Movie. The evil mastermind's big plan is to literally use mind control to make people live on his space station so he can blow up the planet. He literally has the three spies in his hands and in his infinite wisdom decides NOT to use his mind control to stop the three spies that could possibly stop his plans in his tracks for.... really no other reason other than the movie couldn't have that otherwise the villain would actually have a good chance at winning :P

To this day I still imagine a scenario where he actually DID subject Sam Alex and Clover to his mind control and sported that quote unquote "Fabulous" look.

THANK YOU!!
even worse when they did brainwash people you never got a good look at the process.
they just when into a enclosed room and POOF that's it.

I feel like Totally Spies in general is just "missed fetish opportunities: the show". I didn't watch a lot of the series, but the few episodes here and there that I did see I remember young me having that sort of "fetish awakening" type feeling and then it not coming to fruition because the show would set something up and then just... not follow through.

Of all the times random characters from Ghost In The Shell SAC would get hacked, the fact that the Major was never one of them is a missed opportunity. The closest thing we came to that was in an episode where she wound up in the mind of film Director's brain and was almost suckered into staying in it, right down to tearing up.

The #1 biggest missed hypno opportunity is Hypno Baron from Shantae never doing anything hypnotic.

Yeeeeeeesssssss

But its in his name.

I agree completely with this one

Also another one is the first season of Agent Carter, which has a hypnotist whose abilities are so great he can keep a guy from even knowing his leg is getting cut off. Yet despite his entire gimmick, he never actually tries to hypnotize Agent Carter. It also doesnt help I personally think Hayley Atwell as Peggy is one of the most attractive MCU characters on roster. Such a missed opportunity

I'm still really salty that we got a good scene in Age of Ultron, and then the Mind Stone's power isn't used anymore.

Personally speaking, most instances of MC in mainstream media pretty much count as missed opportunities for me, because a) it only happens to the guys (possibly because of some concerns linked with the rapey nature of the concept, but idk that's just my suspicion), or b) it does happen to some ladies, but it's offscreen (or, perhaps more annoyingly, it's shot in a way that makes it almost impossible to see what happens).

I remember specifically a (pretty garbage) movie called Shadows of the Dead, which might remain top of my personal list for missed MC opportunities.
I'll paste what I wrote about it in another forum:

"1) Despite most characters ending up possessed, and the possession looking fairly hot in my book, there's only one (!) onscreen possession.

2) Despite there being two female characters possessed (including the first victim), we don't see it happen to them directly. The first girl is done while it cuts to her cell phone having fallen on the ground as we hear her (and see part of her body) convulse, and the second just has blood spit in the face, and we don't see her go under.

3) Despite the creature attempting to possess the main heroine at the end, complete with visible black tar going in her face and her eyes turning black, she of course has to be saved by that dickwad of a male lead - oh how I wish they could film alternate endings more often.

4) There's a hot female cop and she never gets possessed (but that's more of a pet peeve, and not really a valid complaint, even by our standards)."

There's also an episode of the comedy series Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Suburbs") that has the main character being strapped into a chair for a brainwashing session. His hot girlfriend/agent partner gets strapped in too, but is rescued before it happens to her.

I generally agree with TheMadPrince. Almost all depictions of MC/hypnosis/possession in mainstream media of any kind is underused or undersold, and is often just a cop-out plot device, rather than a full plot point or story arc. It's usually used lazily, even if well done, and basically never used to its full potential for more than an episode (if it even makes it past the 3 minute mark in screen time).
To clarify, when I say used lazily, even if well done... I mean that it can be a good depiction of MC/hypno, but still not be utilized in a way that actually makes it matter.

I don't go out of my way to find those episodes, excerpts, or scenes, because of all these points. It's all too short to matter, and basically feels pointless to seek it out. If I see/experience it by chance; great! Otherwise... meh, our shared interest/fetish is just a trope, and will likely never make it past that in media. It's just too misunderstood, niche, and weird for most people.

I know what you mean. If a show or book or any form of media actually sat down and plotted out a legitimate villain with mind control/hypnosis/brainwashing to its fullest potential, that could make for a truly terrifying and overpowered antagonist to overcome. But they dont. In many cases, I feel the hypno episode of a show is almost obligatory and so is done for the sake of having an episode with hypnosis in it.