History Main / SealedInSideAPersonShapedCan

* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'', [[spoiler:Zanza]] is sealed inside of [[spoiler:Shulk]]. It's the reason [[spoiler:Shulk can use the Monado and see the future]].

* One young adult ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' novel involved an evil wizard using this as an attempt to access the power and knowledge of a particularly evil ancient sorceress. Sadly for him, it turns out that EvilIsNotAToy.

* In G.S. Denning's AffectionateParody of SherlockHolmes, ''Warlock Holmes: A Study in Brimstone'', Holmes has trapped the soul of Professor Moriarty within his own body. As a detective, Holmes is a bumbling fool, but Moriarty takes over his voice from time to time in order to contribute his own observations about the cases. [[spoiler: Unfortunately for Holmes and Watson, Moriarty pulls a GrandTheftMe at novel's end.]]

* ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'' both plays this trope straight and inverts it. [[SealedBadassInACan Inner Moka]] remains sealed by the rosary she wears, but [[spoiler:she's the original, and Outer Moka is an [[ArtificialHuman artificial personality]], so she's effectively sealed inside her own body.]]

A Subtrope of SealedEvilInACan, SealedGoodInACan, and SealedBadassInACan. Contrast GrandTheftMe and DemonicPossession. Compare LivingMacGuffin, ApocalypseMaiden, BarrierMaiden, and TreasureChestCavity, as well as CagedInsideAMonster, where someone is trapped within something else's body in a directly physical, rather than extradimensional or spiritual, sense. See also RestrainingBolt. Evil beings sealed this way are almost always a LeakingCanOfEvil.

* In ''Literature/WingsOfFire'', doing this to his enemies is the specialty of [[spoiler:Chameleon]]. He transforms [[spoiler:Hailstorm and Tourmaline.]] into other dragons with a false identity and memories.

A Subtrope of SealedEvilInACan, SealedGoodInACan, and SealedBadassInACan. Contrast GrandTheftMe. Compare LivingMacGuffin, ApocalypseMaiden, BarrierMaiden, and TreasureChestCavity, as well as CagedInsideAMonster, where a someone is trapped within something else's body in a directly physical, rather than extradimensional or spiritual, sense. See also RestrainingBolt. Evil beings sealed this way are almost always a LeakingCanOfEvil.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has [[DemonicPossession Daemonhosts]], [[TheHeartless daemons]] that hijack a person's body to manifest in our reality, which can also be done ''deliberately'', binding a daemon into a prepared body to bind it and [[KidWithTheLeash use it's power for themselves]]. This is of course [[EvilIsNotAToy horrifically dangerous]], as when it escapes the daemon will ''not'' be happy with whoever bound it. In ''Literature/{{Eisenhorn}}'' killing the host without simultaneously banishing the daemon simply allowed it to transfer to another host, and while official [[StateSec Inquisition]] policy is that the person is killed when their body is taken over, one daemon claims they still remain (not that daemons can be trusted).

** In ''Manga/SailorMoon'' proper, Sailor Galaxia sealed Chaos inside herself to protect the universe from it, but ended up turning evil from its influence instead.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' lore, it is customary for the [[BigBad Prime Evils]] to spend time inside human hosts -- either as a safety measure, or chained there against their will. When the [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Wanderer]] was tricked into using Diablo's soulstone on himself, he became the unwitting host of the Lord of Terror, and at some unknown point in time lost his will for good. In the distant past, a monk by the name of Tal Rasha decided to [[HeroicSacrifice bind himself to Baal]] to imprison the Lord of Destruction forever and ever. [[DoomedMoralVictor It didn't go so well]].

* ''ComicBook/Sleepwalker'' is a psychic alien from [[DreamLand the Mindscape]], a dimension that connects the minds of everything living in the physical world, who protects the minds of humans from demons and nightmares. When his demon ArchEnemy traps him in the mind of OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Rick Sheridan, Sleepwalker is able to manifest in the physical world while Rick sleeps or is unconscious. He becomes a superhero protecting the humans' physical bodies and lives the way he protected their minds in the Mindscape.

* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'': Draig, the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Welsh/Red Dragon]] is sealed inside the protagonist, Issei. Or rather Draig, and his counterpart Albion the Vanishing Dragon, were both sealed inside [[SealedBadassInACan 'cans']] called Sacred Gears, which pass on to a new host when the previous host dies. A case of Sealed Can in a Person Shaped Can. Draig and Albion are neither [[SealedGoodInACan Good]] or [[SealedEvilInACan Evil]], but their constant fighting with each other caused 3 separate warring factions to team up in order to seal them.

* In ''Videogame/MidnightSun'' the main character Faratrass is used as seal to contain the Demon King and is taught magic to contain him. The {{Trauma Conga Line}} she goes through during the story ends up putting an emotion strain on her to the point where the seal begins to weaken.

A Subtrope of SealedEvilInACan, SealedGoodInACan, and SealedBadassInACan. Contrast GrandTheftMe. Compare LivingMacGuffin, BarrierMaiden, and TreasureChestCavity, as well as CagedInsideAMonster, where a someone is trapped within something else's body in a directly physical, rather than extradimensional or spiritual, sense. See also RestrainingBolt. Evil beings sealed this way are almost always a LeakingCanOfEvil.

A Subtrope of SealedEvilInACan, SealedGoodInACan, and SealedBadassInACan. Contrast GrandTheftMe. Compare LivingMacGuffin and TreasureChestCavity, as well as CagedInsideAMonster, where a someone is trapped within something else's body in a directly physical, rather than extradimensional or spiritual, sense. See also RestrainingBolt. Evil beings sealed this way are almost always a LeakingCanOfEvil.

* The main premise of ''{{Manga/Bastard}}'': a boy named Rushe Renren nontains within him the spirit of one of the most powerful sorcerers of all time, the infamous Exploder Wizard... Dark Schneider!

* Ancient Egyptian sorcerers in the ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'' irreversibly bound Nephthys, Goddess of Chaos and wife of the Jackal-God Set, in the body of a twelve-year-old girl and sealed her into a Pharaoh's tomb, to be imprisoned for all time. Little did they suspect that the goddess would find such treatment to only be a temporary inconvenience.

** After ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'' [[spoiler:Samuel Vimes]] forced the Summoning Dark (basically the Dwarven AnthropomorphicPersonification of Revenge, [[EldritchAbomination sans anthropomorphism]]) to obey him rather than the other way around.

* ''Manga/FairyTail'''

* In ''Manga/BungouStrayDogs'', Nakahara Chuuya's body is basically the human container and controller of [[{{Headscratchers}} whatever Chuuya really is.]]

* ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'': The FinalBoss of the game, hidden away in the Black Egg Temple, is [[spoiler: the Hollow Knight, who like the PlayerCharacter was a "Vessel" created by the Pale King to contain the plague that destroyed Hollownest. In "The Hollow Knight" ending, the PC slays the Hollow Knight and takes his place as the one containing the infection.]]