History Main / StockholmSyndrome

* Despite how it looks to some, ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' is an aversion. Belle agrees to stay with Beast to save her father, but she doesn't obey his orders, later decides her promise isn't worth how dangerous he is and tries to leave, and even after Beast saves her she isn't putting up with his behavior. It's only ''after'' he starts being nice and considerate, but like a person instead of her captor, that she warms up to him. Yet even then, she still misses her father, and leaves when Beast finally lets her. Interestingly, Creator/EmmaWatson heard about the accusations around the time she was being scouted for the role of Belle for the LiveActionAdaptation, and by her own admission she looked into them thoroughly before signing on. Creator/LindsayEllis discusses it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syYCO0QVkZo here]].

* Given Westley's story to Buttercup in ''Film/ThePrincessBride'', his relationship with the Dread Pirate Roberts (or rather, the man he assumed was him) was both this and LimaSyndrome. Roberts spared Westley, keeping him around (often reminding him of his threat to kill him, but never making good on it) and in the meantime, Westley was able to learn swordplay, fighting, and anything else the pirate crew would teach him. Eventually, Roberts, who had clearly taken a liking to him, revealed the secret behind [[LegacyCharacter his title]] to him, and later [[PassingTheTorch Passed the Torch]] to Westley.

The reverse situation, LimaSyndrome, is considerably rarer but definitely exists. In any story featuring TheSvengali, expect at least one of the two to make a showing.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': Lampshaded by Daniel Molly in the sixth episode when he compares Louis de Pointe du Lac (the abused) still being in love with Lestat de Lioncourt (the abuser) after barely surviving a [[DomesticAbuse horrific physical assault]] to "Classic Stockholm [Syndrome]."

** The Christof Loy has the syndrome affect not just Konstanze, but her fiery maid Blonde (who usually is too busy playing pranks on her captor Osmin to consider developing any tender feelings towards him). Konstanze shares a passionate kiss with Selim and barely restrains herself from continuing it. Blonde [[ValuesResonance lectures Osmin on feminism]], as usual, but her expressions and body language show that she is clearly attracted to him (for instance, she sits on his lap herself and giggles happily when he caresses her), and rather than making fun of him as she usually does, she grows angry and sad that he can’t understand women value their freedom.

** Conversely to the previous, early colonists in North America told accounts of white women who were kidnapped by Native Americans during raids on settlements who chose to [[GoingNative stay with the natives]] and even resisted attempts to rescue them. One of the most famous accounts is that of Eunice Williams, the daughter of a minister who was taken captive by the Mohawk along with her family in 1704 and given to a Mohawk family who had lost their own child and [[ReplacementGoldfish raised her as their daughter]]. While her family was released after a few years, the tribe and Eunice each refused to part with the other, as she had already assimilated into the tribe and they had come to love her as one of their own. She eventually eventually agreed to reestablish contact with her family, but resisted all their efforts to get her to leave the Mohawk and rejoin her family. In some sense, one could say that the reverse happened with UsefulNotes/{{Pocahontas}}, who was whisked off to England but did all right for herself there.

* Despite discussing the trope and claiming the contrary, Doc develops such a fierce loyalty to his captor [[spoiler:Wash]] in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue: Reconstruction'' that he ends up saving his life in the final battle. Then again, he is a pacifist who joined the army as a conscientious objector, so he might just have done it for moral reasons. you make the call.

** In "Pranksta Rap," Chief Wiggum ''thinks'' this has happened to Bart when he tries to defend his best friend's dad Kirk Van Houten, who's believed to have kidnapped him. In fact, Bart [[FakedKidnapping faked his own kidnapping to get out of being punished for sneaking out]] and never intended to be traced to Kirk's apartment, where his supposed captor didn't even realize he was hiding.

** In "Pranksta Rap," Chief Wiggum ''thinks'' this has happened to Bart when he tries to defend his best friend's dad Kirk Van Houten, who's believed to have kidnapped him. In fact, Bart [[FakeKidnapping faked his own kidnapping to get out of being punished for sneaking out]] and never intended to be traced to Kirk's apartment, where his supposed captor didn't even realize he was hiding.

** This event, itself typical of tribal warfare, was pervasive during the UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfTheAztecEmpire, where UsefulNotes/HernanCortez himself would gain an instrumental advisor, translator and concubine in Marina or Malinalli, an indigenous princess handed to him as a slave by a defeated Mayan tribe. The most striking instance, though, happened at the end of the conquest, when Cortés, while rebuilding the defeated Aztec power in his image, allowed them to get back all the female hostages the Spaniards had taken during the capture of Tenochtitlan. As a gesture of peace, it was neat; the problem came when it turned out most of the Aztec women had already hooked up with Spanish soldiers, many of them being now Christian, married, pregnant or some combination of it, so they refused to leave when their families came for them. At the end, out of a likely number of a couple of hundreds, only ''three'' women accepted to return. This would hardly be the last time it happened during the Spanish conquest of the continent.

* In ''Film/{{Contagion}}'', Dr. Orantes is eventually kidnapped by one of her colleagues who takes her to his village so that they will be among the first to get the virus vaccine. The vaccine is developed three months later, after which we see Orantes happily working as a schoolteacher for the village children and willingly cooperates with the kidnappers in the exchange for the vaccine. Later on in the airport, she is informed that the vaccine given was actually a placebo. The last we see of her is her running away from the airport, presumably to warn the villagers.

** In ''Literature/TheTruceAtBakura'', Dev Sibwarra was a Force-sensitive human slave of the ScaryDogmaticAliens known as the Ssi-ruuk, having been captured by them at the age of ten and [[GoingNative groomed into becoming a fanatic adherent to their way of life]]. He helped them with their UnwillingRoboticisation [[TheQuisling of other humans]], and [[NightmareFetishist considered it to be the highest honor a person could receive while desiring to be made into a battle droid himself]]. Naturally he does hold some hostility towards them, but he keeps it repressed in the farthest reaches of his psyche [[spoiler:until [[BigGood Luke]] brings about his eventual HeelFaceTurn]].

* Jacen Solo in ''Literature/NewJediOrder''. The rogue Jedi Vergere was one of his torturers while he was held by the Yuzhaan Vong, but she also showed him kindness and engaged in long philosophical debates on Jedi dogma with him, resulting in Jacen starting to identify with her and question everything Luke taught him. It's the first step on his road to the DarkSide.

* ''[[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Rebel Force: Uprising]]'' features Luke Skywalker captured by Soresh, who has developed a method for destroying someone's memories and reprogramming them to become his loyal emotionless assassins, via injected serums and loads of ColdBloodedTorture. Naturally, he starts using them on Luke, who is there for two weeks. He has Luke tortured at all times that Soresh is not in the cell with him, so that when Soresh visits the pain stops; sometimes Soresh gives Luke water or a piece of fruit, too, deliberately trying to invoke this trope. It works initially, but Soresh failed to account for the Force.

* In the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' novel ''Literature/TheTruceAtBakura'', Dev Sibwarra was a Force-sensitive human slave of the ScaryDogmaticAliens known as the Ssi-ruuk, having been captured by them at the age of ten and [[GoingNative groomed into becoming a fanatic adherent to their way of life]]. He helped them with their UnwillingRoboticisation [[TheQuisling of other humans]], and [[NightmareFetishist considered it to be the highest honor a person could receive while desiring to be made into a battle droid himself]]. Naturally he does hold some hostility towards them, but he keeps it repressed in the farthest reaches of his psyche [[spoiler:until [[BigGood Luke]] brings about his eventual HeelFaceTurn]].

* [[spoiler:Ohgi and Viletta]] in ''Anime/CodeGeass''. This one is a [[PlayingWithATrope highly unusual example]]: [[spoiler:Viletta is normally an ambitious, cut-throat, Japan-hating Purist, but getting shot by Shirley caused her to develop EasyAmnesia. Ohgi found her and, not knowing who she was (other than Britannian), took care of her and treated her kindly. As a result, "Chigusa" (as she started calling herself) fell in love with him. When Viletta regains her memory, she shoots Ohgi in the gut, saying that the idea of being an Eleven's lover makes her want to vomit]]. In the second season, [[spoiler:she's seen visibly struggling with the conflict between her old attitude and her feelings for Ohgi as an individual. They end up getting together, but not before committing a few acts which set the BrokenBase fandom up in arms.]]

** Averted with Vegeta, Raditz and Nappa and Freeza, their boss/overlord and killer of the rest of their species. While Radtiz survived by chance (he was off world) Vegeta (and by extension Nappa) were specifically saved from the destruction of the Planet Vegeta by Freeza who saw potential in Vegeta. While the truth about his world's destruction was kept from Vegeta he still saw Freeza as a BadBoss who got in the way of his own goals and [[TheStarScream planned to kill him]]
* Saito Hiraga from ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'' has the worst case of Stockholm Syndrome ever. The poor boy is unwillingly transported to another world, and once there, is bound in a master/familiar contract. He is then treated worse than a dog, forced to sleep on hay, regularly beaten for the slightest bit of pervertedness, and just generally treated like dirt. This is all done by his master Louise, who he comes to love. In his defense, he does get treated better as time passes by, but still... oh, and there are also the hints that the familiar contract may involve subtle brainwashing too.

** There are a number of England/Japan fics that are all about pirate!England abducting/kidnapping an unwilling Japan at swordpoint as his "possession" or "treasure", being pretty much a [[ManipulativeBastard domineering]], [[IfICantHaveYou possessive]] [[FetishizedAbuser bastard]] to Japan's {{Ukefi|cation}}ied self (as quoted from one such fic: "Listen to me Kiku...you may struggle, you may rebel, you may try and fight back, but know this: I ''always'' get what I want in the end. And what I want, is you. I will break you down if I have to, love, so consider yourself warned."), and Japan of course falling in love with him nonetheless. There's even a pretty famous England/Japan [[FanVid MAD]] titled "Beautiful Dreamer" that's a visual version of this kind of fic, with more than one commenter pointing out its UnfortunateImplications.

** Early colonists in North America told accounts of white women who were kidnapped by Native Americans during raids on settlements who chose to [[GoingNative stay with the natives]] and even resisted attempts to rescue them. One of the most famous accounts is that of Eunice Williams, the daughter of a minister who was taken captive by the Mohawk along with her family in 1704 and given to a Mohawk family who had lost their own child and [[ReplacementGoldfish raised her as their daughter]]. While her family was released after a few years, the tribe and Eunice each refused to part with the other, as she had already assimilated into the tribe and they had come to love her as one of their own. She eventually eventually agreed to reestablish contact with her family, but resisted all their efforts to get her to leave the Mohawk and rejoin her family. In some sense, one could say that the reverse happened with Pocahontas, who was whisked off to England but did all right for herself there.

* DiscussedTrope in Spanish series ''Series/MoneyHeist'', after a hostage and one of the HeistTeam develop feelings for one another.

** The Christof Loy takes it UpToEleven by having the syndrome affect not just Konstanze, but her fiery maid Blonde (who usually is too busy playing pranks on her captor Osmin to consider developing any tender feelings towards him). Konstanze shares a passionate kiss with Selim and barely restrains herself from continuing it. Blonde [[ValuesResonance lectures Osmin on feminism]], as usual, but her expressions and body language show that she is clearly attracted to him (for instance, she sits on his lap herself and giggles happily when he caresses her), and rather than making fun of him as she usually does, she grows angry and sad that he can’t understand women value their freedom.

** Taken UpToEleven in Francesca Zambello’s San Francisco staging, where Freia clings to him in the final scene with a blissful smile and has to be physically torn away by her brothers when she gets returned to her family.

* [[Characters/BatmanHarleyQuinn Harley Quinn]], possibly. [[WordOfDante Many reviewers have compared her relationship to the Joker]] to Stockholm Syndrome, even though she wasn't technically kidnapped. How straight the Trope applies to her depends just how much of a willing recruit she was, which in turn, depends on the which version of the events - and continuity - is being followed.

** There are a number of England/Japan fics that are all about pirate!England abducting/kidnapping an unwilling Japan at swordpoint as his "possession" or "treasure", being pretty much a [[ManipulativeBastard domineering]], [[IfICantHaveYou possessive]] [[BastardBoyfriend bastard]] to Japan's {{Ukefi|cation}}ied self (as quoted from one such fic: "Listen to me Kiku...you may struggle, you may rebel, you may try and fight back, but know this: I ''always'' get what I want in the end. And what I want, is you. I will break you down if I have to, love, so consider yourself warned."), and Japan of course falling in love with him nonetheless. There's even a pretty famous England/Japan [[FanVid MAD]] titled "Beautiful Dreamer" that's a visual version of this kind of fic, with more than one commenter pointing out its UnfortunateImplications.
** This is a "foundation" for some Japan/Taiwan, Japan/China, Japan/Hong Kong, China/Taiwan, China/Hong Kong and Japan/Thailand DarkerAndEdgier fanwork, specially in the times of UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan or [[ImperialChina Imperial]]/RedChina. The aggressor/BastardBoyfriend controls, abuses (in many different ways, but preferably sexual), manipulates, etc. his "captive" of either gender, breaking them mentally and emotionally and making them their love/sex slaves. That is, when the "captive" isn't shown as being head-over-heels in love with the aggressor since the beginning -- ''specially'' common in Japan/Taiwan works, where she's openly crushing on ''UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan'', who is portrayed as a RelationshipSue KnightInShiningArmor for her. Japan/Korea works are most likely excepted since Japan is almost always shown as a monster to Korea ''right from the start'', and considering the Japanese occupation from Korea... huh.

*** Especially creepy in some Turkey/Greece works where it's clear that [[BastardBoyfriend Bastard-ized]]!Turkey's abuse of Greece was a BreakTheCutie experience for Greece, leaving him bitter and emotionally damaged... and the authors try to justify Greece continuing to stay with Turkey in spite of this by showing him to be cold or dickish toward everyone else and Turkey being the only one he shows his sweet side to... even though this is the ''exact opposite'' of the way Greece behaves in canon, and makes him come across as having been emotionally brainwashed into [[TookALevelInJerkass Taking A Level In Jerkass]] and believing the person responsible for all his emotional griefs and ruin to be the one he can be the happiest with.