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argentum_ls) wrote2021-05-12 01:15 pm
argentum_ls) wrote2021-05-12 01:15 pm
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Meta: Discussion about the Memory Wiper (Henry Danger)
Originally posted as part of the Fandom Battle on ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fffc.
Fandom: Henry Danger
Word Count: 1815
Title: Discussion about the Memory Wiper
Of all the things one could take issue without about with the world created for Henry Danger, one deserves special attention: The god damn memory wiper.
The reason for the in-universe existence of the device is obvious: to prevent the problem of having to deal with people finding out Captain Man's (and, later, Kid Danger's) secret identity. It's definitely useful. And it shows planning, though it's not established if that's "planning ahead" or "planning in hindsight." Keeping a secret identity is fraught, especially when one is as sloppy about it as Captain Man is. A device with the capability to clean up an information mess is necessary, and having one has undoubtedly saved a lot of problems—but only from Captain Man's perspective. The number of problems this device has created are horrifying to contemplate.
As a kids' show, the consequences of the memory wiper aren't acknowledged or addressed except in the most cursory way. Its effects are played off entirely as a joke. The effects are even explained as a joke. We're informed that the memory wiper is total, that it erases all of the applicant's memories. Captain Man states that an affected person will "be able to eat and breathe … and that's about it." Presumably, this means that the person's total memory is erased, leaving only autonomous functions in tact, and they have to start from scratch. When Captain Man later questions whether it's necessary to erase someone's entire memory, Schwoz explains that the device has—and has always had—a simple switch on it that would allow only those memories of Captain Man himself to be erased, but he never told anyone about it because seeing people stumble around not knowing who they are or who their loved ones are "is so funny!" And Captain Man agrees!
It may be funny to watch them in the 30 seconds or so right after the blast, but then Captain Man and Schwoz go back to living their lives, and the victim has to go on with … not knowing what his is. We further know that Captain Man is completely cavalier about his irresponsibility with these victims, as every time we see the device used, the victims are subsequently dumped in the street. There are no arrangements made for the victims' care, no efforts to provide them with even so much as a cheat sheet about their identity, nothing. Captain Man erases their memories, then functionally forgets about the person. This, of course, is the horrifying part. How many people in Swellview have had their memories annihilated? How many people have had their relationships and ties to family and friends severed? How many people spend the rest of their lives suffering under the weight of amnesia because one time they saw or heard Ray Manchester slip up about who he is, or were too vocal about a pattern they noticed?
Possibly, the effects of the erasing aren't as permanent or total as Captain Man likes to believe. After one victim wakes up from his erasing, he recalls a reference he made prior to it. Granted, this is all played as another joke, and we're clearly supposed to laugh along with the idea that the victim has this piece of information. But, it's something. Dr. Minyak and Nurse Cohort both have their memories erased after they learn about Charlotte's connection to the Man Cave. With a complete writing handwave, we later learn that they "got their memories back"—though no indication is given of how, or whether they still remember the specific detail of who Charlotte is. What is obvious is that all their other memories seem to be intact. In "Broken Armed and Dangerous," Schwoz makes a casual, off-handed comment about Henry's parents having had their minds erased at some point. As we saw no indication of this on the screen, the implication is that either a) it didn't work at all, b) they're so stupid/vapid that no one noticed, including them, or c) somehow the effects were corrected before anyone—specifically Henry—noticed.
We also learn that it is possible to undo a memory erasure. After Captain Man has his memories wiped, Henry is able to go "reboot" and restore them. While the process for Henry to do this appears to be complicated and unique, we do have to keep in mind that Schwoz is the one who devised it, and we know he often makes things more Rube Goldberg-ian than necessary. (It is a great way to get plots for the episodes; and this one is in my Top 10 of favorite episodes because of how the recovery unfolds). Perhaps there's someone in Swellview who goes around properly fixing the memory-wiped victims in ways that are far less interesting—such as The Rabbis at the Temple Beth Israel. They have undoubtedly had to clean up more of Captain Man's messes than just the one teleporting accident. To imagine that they have the technology, training, and understanding in place to fix memory-wiped victims isn't a stretch.
It's worth noting that the memory wipe did appear to permanently affect Captain Man. In the immediate aftermath of having his memory restored, his already established vainness is amplified. And in later episodes, he is shown to be vainer, flakier, and both less intelligent and less appreciative of intelligence in others than before. Interestingly, Henry's dad also became flakier and dumber as the show went on, though there isn't one clear point of change where one might be able to say, "this is when the memory-wipe happened." Whether the same happened to Dr. Minyak and Nurse Cohort is difficult to assess since they appear so rarely, and they're doomed to have their plans fail anyway. Likewise, we never re-visit the other victims, so there's no way to know if the personality changes are because of the memory wipe or because of character Flanderization.
In Danger Force, we learn that the memory wiper was destroyed along with the Man Cave at the end of Henry Danger. It's curious that this is specifically explained. Perhaps the show writers realized that the tool was too convenient. Maybe the rating change from G to Y7 meant that that technology was too dark for the younger audience. Short of the writers providing an explanation, there's no way to know why the memory wiper was wiped out, especially because the base reason for it to exist is still very much in effect: Our characters have secret identities that they can't/won't reveal to the public. As the members of Danger Force are somehow even sloppier about keeping their secret than Ray and Henry were throughout Henry Danger, the memory wiper would come in really handy. Or it would result in everyone in Swellview needing to learn to keep backup records of their memories updated at all times. The Rabbis don't need that nightmare to fix.
Captain Man and Kid Danger are both guilty of behaving in ways that one would better expect from the villains they fight, and the use of the memory wiper may be one of the most egregious. Erasing the entirety of someone's memories isn't funny, and really shouldn't have been played as if it were. The need to clean up spilled secrets could easily have been met without a total annihilation approach. Imagine if that switch on the memory wipe device was always in "selective" mode. Kid Danger never handled the device, and he was thirteen when he first learned of it. Perhaps Captain Man only told him that it would result in total erasure to impress on him how serious secret reveals were. Captain Man's own total memory wipe could've been the consequence of that switch getting flipped to "total" mode during the scuffle. That is, it was both unintended and unexpected, which might have added a new layer of urgency to the story.
(On a side note: Dan Schneider, the creator of the show, has a track record of writing his characters sometimes behaving in ways that are flat out cruel while they also claiming to be against cruelty. The main characters of iCarly, for example, spoke often about being against bullying, yet acted in ways where the only bullying came from them. Assuming this hypocrisy isn't intentional as some kind of meta commentary—and it's hard to believe it would be, since the intended adolescent audience of the show wouldn't be likely to pick up on it—, it does open questions about what kinds of perspective blindspots Schneider had. On Henry Danger, the memory wiper was introduced and primarily used under Schneider's watch. Only after his firing did we learn about the switch for selective erasure, and the announcement of the device's permanent destruction happened on the spin-off show that he had no fingers in writing or producing at all. That could all be a coincidental progression, or it could be a case of the new writers and producers trying to clean up some of the uglier elements that crept into their superhero show for kids. It's hard to believe that Schwoz could build the whole new Man's Nest and yet be unable to build a new memory wiper, if he wanted to).
Without the inclination to wipe the memories of people who did nothing except learn a secret, some "jokes" would've needed to be rethought or eliminated; however, our heroes would come out the better for it. True, one of the conceits of the show is that Captain Man and Kid Danger are both more interested in the puffery of being superheroes than in the practicality, yet that doesn't mean they need to descend to actions that are objectively bad. On the other hand, selective erasing may make our heroes more inclined to sloppiness because they believed it could have been cleaned up easier. Or it may have made them more aware of the consequences of any kind of memory wipe. Alas, that's not the direction the show took, and it's far too late to change things on Henry Danger now.
Going forward into Danger Force and, if there are any, other spin-offs, it might be interesting to revisit the device and explore how else it could be used without an all-or-nothing approach to erasure. Or to see how our characters react to it when total memory erasure is performed by the villains, instead of on them. Maybe they need to experience what it's like as the victim, in a situation where it can't be (relatively) easily fixed before they're allowed to use a memory wipe device again. Because if there's anything we know about our characters, it's that they will reveal their secret. When they do, somehow the giving of that knowledge will need to be undone. And it would be a stronger positive message to see our heroes deal with the problem without ruining the lives of those they're supposed to be in charge of protecting.
fffc.Fandom: Henry Danger
Word Count: 1815
Title: Discussion about the Memory Wiper
Of all the things one could take issue without about with the world created for Henry Danger, one deserves special attention: The god damn memory wiper.
The reason for the in-universe existence of the device is obvious: to prevent the problem of having to deal with people finding out Captain Man's (and, later, Kid Danger's) secret identity. It's definitely useful. And it shows planning, though it's not established if that's "planning ahead" or "planning in hindsight." Keeping a secret identity is fraught, especially when one is as sloppy about it as Captain Man is. A device with the capability to clean up an information mess is necessary, and having one has undoubtedly saved a lot of problems—but only from Captain Man's perspective. The number of problems this device has created are horrifying to contemplate.
As a kids' show, the consequences of the memory wiper aren't acknowledged or addressed except in the most cursory way. Its effects are played off entirely as a joke. The effects are even explained as a joke. We're informed that the memory wiper is total, that it erases all of the applicant's memories. Captain Man states that an affected person will "be able to eat and breathe … and that's about it." Presumably, this means that the person's total memory is erased, leaving only autonomous functions in tact, and they have to start from scratch. When Captain Man later questions whether it's necessary to erase someone's entire memory, Schwoz explains that the device has—and has always had—a simple switch on it that would allow only those memories of Captain Man himself to be erased, but he never told anyone about it because seeing people stumble around not knowing who they are or who their loved ones are "is so funny!" And Captain Man agrees!
It may be funny to watch them in the 30 seconds or so right after the blast, but then Captain Man and Schwoz go back to living their lives, and the victim has to go on with … not knowing what his is. We further know that Captain Man is completely cavalier about his irresponsibility with these victims, as every time we see the device used, the victims are subsequently dumped in the street. There are no arrangements made for the victims' care, no efforts to provide them with even so much as a cheat sheet about their identity, nothing. Captain Man erases their memories, then functionally forgets about the person. This, of course, is the horrifying part. How many people in Swellview have had their memories annihilated? How many people have had their relationships and ties to family and friends severed? How many people spend the rest of their lives suffering under the weight of amnesia because one time they saw or heard Ray Manchester slip up about who he is, or were too vocal about a pattern they noticed?
Possibly, the effects of the erasing aren't as permanent or total as Captain Man likes to believe. After one victim wakes up from his erasing, he recalls a reference he made prior to it. Granted, this is all played as another joke, and we're clearly supposed to laugh along with the idea that the victim has this piece of information. But, it's something. Dr. Minyak and Nurse Cohort both have their memories erased after they learn about Charlotte's connection to the Man Cave. With a complete writing handwave, we later learn that they "got their memories back"—though no indication is given of how, or whether they still remember the specific detail of who Charlotte is. What is obvious is that all their other memories seem to be intact. In "Broken Armed and Dangerous," Schwoz makes a casual, off-handed comment about Henry's parents having had their minds erased at some point. As we saw no indication of this on the screen, the implication is that either a) it didn't work at all, b) they're so stupid/vapid that no one noticed, including them, or c) somehow the effects were corrected before anyone—specifically Henry—noticed.
We also learn that it is possible to undo a memory erasure. After Captain Man has his memories wiped, Henry is able to go "reboot" and restore them. While the process for Henry to do this appears to be complicated and unique, we do have to keep in mind that Schwoz is the one who devised it, and we know he often makes things more Rube Goldberg-ian than necessary. (It is a great way to get plots for the episodes; and this one is in my Top 10 of favorite episodes because of how the recovery unfolds). Perhaps there's someone in Swellview who goes around properly fixing the memory-wiped victims in ways that are far less interesting—such as The Rabbis at the Temple Beth Israel. They have undoubtedly had to clean up more of Captain Man's messes than just the one teleporting accident. To imagine that they have the technology, training, and understanding in place to fix memory-wiped victims isn't a stretch.
It's worth noting that the memory wipe did appear to permanently affect Captain Man. In the immediate aftermath of having his memory restored, his already established vainness is amplified. And in later episodes, he is shown to be vainer, flakier, and both less intelligent and less appreciative of intelligence in others than before. Interestingly, Henry's dad also became flakier and dumber as the show went on, though there isn't one clear point of change where one might be able to say, "this is when the memory-wipe happened." Whether the same happened to Dr. Minyak and Nurse Cohort is difficult to assess since they appear so rarely, and they're doomed to have their plans fail anyway. Likewise, we never re-visit the other victims, so there's no way to know if the personality changes are because of the memory wipe or because of character Flanderization.
In Danger Force, we learn that the memory wiper was destroyed along with the Man Cave at the end of Henry Danger. It's curious that this is specifically explained. Perhaps the show writers realized that the tool was too convenient. Maybe the rating change from G to Y7 meant that that technology was too dark for the younger audience. Short of the writers providing an explanation, there's no way to know why the memory wiper was wiped out, especially because the base reason for it to exist is still very much in effect: Our characters have secret identities that they can't/won't reveal to the public. As the members of Danger Force are somehow even sloppier about keeping their secret than Ray and Henry were throughout Henry Danger, the memory wiper would come in really handy. Or it would result in everyone in Swellview needing to learn to keep backup records of their memories updated at all times. The Rabbis don't need that nightmare to fix.
Captain Man and Kid Danger are both guilty of behaving in ways that one would better expect from the villains they fight, and the use of the memory wiper may be one of the most egregious. Erasing the entirety of someone's memories isn't funny, and really shouldn't have been played as if it were. The need to clean up spilled secrets could easily have been met without a total annihilation approach. Imagine if that switch on the memory wipe device was always in "selective" mode. Kid Danger never handled the device, and he was thirteen when he first learned of it. Perhaps Captain Man only told him that it would result in total erasure to impress on him how serious secret reveals were. Captain Man's own total memory wipe could've been the consequence of that switch getting flipped to "total" mode during the scuffle. That is, it was both unintended and unexpected, which might have added a new layer of urgency to the story.
(On a side note: Dan Schneider, the creator of the show, has a track record of writing his characters sometimes behaving in ways that are flat out cruel while they also claiming to be against cruelty. The main characters of iCarly, for example, spoke often about being against bullying, yet acted in ways where the only bullying came from them. Assuming this hypocrisy isn't intentional as some kind of meta commentary—and it's hard to believe it would be, since the intended adolescent audience of the show wouldn't be likely to pick up on it—, it does open questions about what kinds of perspective blindspots Schneider had. On Henry Danger, the memory wiper was introduced and primarily used under Schneider's watch. Only after his firing did we learn about the switch for selective erasure, and the announcement of the device's permanent destruction happened on the spin-off show that he had no fingers in writing or producing at all. That could all be a coincidental progression, or it could be a case of the new writers and producers trying to clean up some of the uglier elements that crept into their superhero show for kids. It's hard to believe that Schwoz could build the whole new Man's Nest and yet be unable to build a new memory wiper, if he wanted to).
Without the inclination to wipe the memories of people who did nothing except learn a secret, some "jokes" would've needed to be rethought or eliminated; however, our heroes would come out the better for it. True, one of the conceits of the show is that Captain Man and Kid Danger are both more interested in the puffery of being superheroes than in the practicality, yet that doesn't mean they need to descend to actions that are objectively bad. On the other hand, selective erasing may make our heroes more inclined to sloppiness because they believed it could have been cleaned up easier. Or it may have made them more aware of the consequences of any kind of memory wipe. Alas, that's not the direction the show took, and it's far too late to change things on Henry Danger now.
Going forward into Danger Force and, if there are any, other spin-offs, it might be interesting to revisit the device and explore how else it could be used without an all-or-nothing approach to erasure. Or to see how our characters react to it when total memory erasure is performed by the villains, instead of on them. Maybe they need to experience what it's like as the victim, in a situation where it can't be (relatively) easily fixed before they're allowed to use a memory wipe device again. Because if there's anything we know about our characters, it's that they will reveal their secret. When they do, somehow the giving of that knowledge will need to be undone. And it would be a stronger positive message to see our heroes deal with the problem without ruining the lives of those they're supposed to be in charge of protecting.