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Mindwarping is an alien power used for evil on WB sci-fi series Roswell.

About[]

This is a power unique to Tess Harding. With it, the user can manipulate a person's mind for various effects. The most prime use of it is creating illusions that can either be so realistic that the person thinks it's actually happening or to the point of just seeming like daydreams or fantasies.

Illusions[]

This can be used to hide someone or something from being perceived or to make them see something that isn’t real. This becomes more difficult to maintain depending on the number of people.


Mind Control[]

This ability is able to achieve limited mind control. She used this power to force Max Evans to kiss her for the first time, before he knew her true identity, knowing Liz Parker would see them. She forced Alex Whitman to decode the Book of Destiny and forced Kyle Valenti to help her dispose of Alex's body. Max was in a very dark place after Alex’ death and at odds with Liz over her suspicions about it. Tess was able to use that plus whatever amount of affection he had for her to manipulate him into sleeping with her. Tess has proven to be highly skilled at this ability, having controlled Alex for 2 months.

Memory Manipulation[]

Suppression

She can also suppress, but not erase memories. During a discussion Kyle referred to this as "brainwashing". Tess also seemed to be able to suppress or amplify both memories and emotions. Like when made Max feel more affection for her than he actually did or when she suppressed (but not erased) Kyle's memory of her killing Alex or him carrying the body.

Replacement

As demonstrated with Alex, Kyle and Amy DeLuca, once Tess suppressed their memories, a new altered memory took its place. It remains unknown exactly how these new memories were created. Most like only the critical information was removed, like with her normal illusions to minimize the risk of inconsistencies. But the more traumatic the memory, the harder it is to suppress.

Killing[]

It should greatly be noted that repeated use of Mindwarping on one person, without giving their brain time to recover from the damage, can be lethal to the victim. This is how she killed Alex. It takes a lot of time for the power to cause this much damage to the brain as it took months of Mindwarping to Alex's brain for it to become so stressed and damaged that it killed him. It is unknown how he died from it but it was possibly to the same effect as a brain tumor or the like.

Advanced[]

When tortured by Skins, Tess' powers evolved to the point where she could bring her illusions to life resulting in a high powered blast of fire, rushing forward killing the Skins. After the destruction she admitted she only tried to create an illusion of fire but it became real. She showed skill in this power; she was able to send the fire rushing past The Pod Squad without harming any of them but killing the Skins.[1]

It’s possible she used her power to make terrifying illusions come to life to slaughter all the researchers when they got close to her son after she crashed. It’s also likely that this power created that massive fireball that destroyed the base, killing herself in the process.

Notes and references[]

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