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| 6 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 13 | [[quoteright:320:[[Myth/ClassicalMythology https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/PandorasBox.jpeg]]]] |
| 14 | [[caption-width-right:320:"I [[StealthPun hope]] it's not too late to return this."]] |
| 15 | |
| 16 | ->''"Ancient folk saying: 'You can catch the devil, but you can't hold him long.'"'' |
| 17 | -->-- '''Creator/RodSerling''', ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'', "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S2E5TheHowlingMan The Howling Man]]" |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Long ago, [[{{Precursors}} An Ancient People]] faced a terrible evil. Using various methods, they [[CapturedSuperEntity bound the evil]] into a [[TailorMadePrison prison]] from which they thought it could never escape. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | It did. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Sealed Evil in a Can, as the title suggests, is a way to suddenly introduce a villain, especially one that is legendary and powerful. It also explains why the villain [[OrcusOnHisThrone hasn't done anything up to that point]]: It escaped very, ''very'' recently. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | A sealed evil is often introduced as a GreaterScopeVillain: the direct BigBad's plan will be to unseal the can of some ancient GodOfEvil, hoping they'll get some of that great power as a reward. Of course, EvilIsNotAToy; if they succeed, it usually turns out that the Sealed Evil does not care for them (or may have even been manipulating them into freeing them) and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness disposes of them]], making the Sealed Evil the ''true'' FinalBoss. Sealed Evil[[TradeSnark ™]] almost ''never'' [[UngratefulBastard rewards those who release it]]. It may even act like the malevolent flavor of a JackassGenie, twisting their releasers' wishes back on them. (Of course, occasionally the BigBad actually ''[[HijackingCthulhu succeeds]]'' in controlling the sealed evil.) |
| 26 | |
| 27 | The hero occasionally [[NiceJobBreakingItHero breaks the seal themselves]] due to [[AccidentalIncantation ignorance]], lack of information, or [[FalseInnocenceTrick active manipulation by the villain]]. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | Or perhaps it was awoken by unsuspecting miners or archaeologists who DugTooDeep and found something better left buried and undisturbed -- often ignoring [[DontTouchItYouIdiot every single warning they found before releasing it]]. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | Oddly enough, no matter what the cause of the seal being broken, [[ThousandYearReign it seems to always happen 1,000 years after the evil was first sealed]]. Yet nobody ever seems to know that the evil is about to reemerge in that time frame. (To be fair, 1,000 years is ''plenty'' of time for people to forget about something, especially if more immediate concerns arise in the meantime.) |
| 32 | |
| 33 | Either way, if a Sealed Evil is introduced into a story, expect it to escape at some point. This brings up the primary question "Why did they just seal it, as opposed to '''kill''' it?" The answer tends to vary; but usually it's a variant of ThePunishment (for both the sealed and everyone else), ThouShaltNotKill (heroes can take pity and/or show mercy towards the oddest things), and/or AsLongAsThereIsEvil. Maybe it ''[[{{Immortality}} couldn't]]'' be killed for good (or more commonly, the conditions weren't right to deal the final blow), so sealing it was the next best thing. Another common excuse is the BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil; if they'd killed the ancient evil, [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil then a bigger, badder evil would've taken its place]], thus sealing it away neutralizes the threat [[BetterTheDevilYouKnow but also keeps it in the world]] and maintains the balance. And a good excuse that is often used is that the evil was way too strong, so even the most powerful heroes of the past couldn't kill it, but the sealing spell worked just fine. Or maybe it ''was'' killed and the method of breaking the seal was [[BackFromTheDead resurrecting it]]. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | Expect the mere release of the SEIAC to cause a WorldWreckingWave, WalkingWasteland, and sundry other disasters. That said, being cooped up for centuries is likely to have weakened the SEIAC, meaning that it needs some time to recover its lost strength. This could mean that the hero(es) has a chance to seal it back up, or even destroy it once and for all. |
| 36 | |
| 37 | Since this trope can be traced back to Greek mythology, it's OlderThanFeudalism. Note that, minus your standard speculative fiction elements, it's functionally identical to a [[GreatEscape plot where a horrible criminal escapes from or is released from prison]]. Not to be confused with ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin -- although your Evil-in-a-Can may be clearly labeled as such. [[CassandraTruth But no one will ever read or believe the label]]. |
| 38 | |
| 39 | This is an ''extremely'' common plot and backstory in video games, especially RolePlayingGames, because it's such a simple backstory: the BigBad, put away by some ancient hero, has escaped, and you (the player) must put them back in/kill them for good. Or, as mentioned above, the current BigBad wishes to release the GreaterScopeVillain to use its power, and the hero must stop them. With the second plotline, [[YouCantThwartStageOne you can expect the heroes to fail to stop the unsealing]], and the sealed evil to be the FinalBoss instead of the direct BigBad, and for the sealed evil to promptly bring about the DarkestHour, [[TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin only to be defeated anyway]]. Presumably, if the sealed evil was never going to be released, [[LawOfConservationOfDetail it never would have been mentioned in the first place]]. |
| 40 | |
| 41 | If the seal isn't all that tight, then it's a LeakingCanOfEvil. |
| 42 | |
| 43 | The precise nature of the Can can vary considerably, although a few forms crop up more often than not. In some cases, the evil is imprisoned inside a physical object, sometimes a surprisingly small one such as a lamp or a box; other times, its prison may be any sort of mundane but very thoroughly-sealed cavern, chamber or prison cell. It may also take the form of a MonsterInTheIce, in which case it's fairly common for the entity to have become this accidentally. In more extreme cases, the evil is trapped within a pocket dimension or was expelled from the universe altogether. |
| 44 | |
| 45 | May be caused by SupernaturalSealing. Depending on the nature of the seal, the evil may or may not be able to perceive or interact with the immediate surroundings of the prison, or have anything to really ''do''. In the case that it cannot and does not, the FridgeHorror (AndIMustScream) is usually never addressed or acknowledged, mainly to [[UnintentionallySympathetic keep people from feeling sorry for the villain]], even though the DrivenToMadness aspect could easily make for a villain who's even worse when unpackaged than they were when they were first sealed in. |
| 46 | |
| 47 | In some cases, the sealed Evil comes to the conclusion that BeingEvilSucks, and decide to undergo a HeelFaceTurn, becoming EvilRedeemedInACan. |
| 48 | |
| 49 | Compare PutOnAPrisonBus, when a character (usually a villain) gets arrested instead of being magically sealed away, and SealedEvilInAnotherWorld, where the "can" is a different world entirely. Contrast with TrappedInTheHost, where an entity (usually but not always evil, or at least predatory) gets stuck in a body or object they had possessed. Not to be confused with MonstrousSeal. That trope refers to ''animal'' seals. |
| 50 | |
| 51 | '''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease''' |
| 52 | ---- |
| 53 | !!Examples: |
| 54 | [[index]] |
| 55 | * SealedEvilInACan/AnimeAndManga |
| 56 | * SealedEvilInACan/ComicBooks |
| 57 | * SealedEvilInACan/{{Literature}} |
| 58 | * SealedEvilInACan/LiveActionTV |
| 59 | * SealedEvilInACan/VideoGames |
| 60 | * SealedEvilInACan/WesternAnimation |
| 61 | [[/index]] |
| 62 | |
| 63 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 64 | |
| 65 | [[folder:Asian Animation]] |
| 66 | * In the ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'' story arc ''Great War in the Bizarre World'', the bees inhabiting the Bizarre World were able to seal the evil Darton inside a giant egg, and consider the egg to be sacred for that reason. While Wolffy tries to cook the egg, he accidentally removes the seal on it, releasing Darton who proceeds to get Wolffy's help in an evil scheme. |
| 67 | [[/folder]] |
| 68 | |
| 69 | [[folder:Card Games]] |
| 70 | * ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': |
| 71 | ** [[https://scryfall.com/card/uma/241/dark-depths Dark Depths]], after certain conditions are met -- i.e., the costly "unsealing" process of removing ten ice counters from it -- creates a [[http://www.wizards.com/magic/images/mtgcom/arcana1000/1119_maritlagetoken.jpg large and damn near unkillable monster]]. |
| 72 | ** For a much older example, consider the [[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=1098 Bottle of Suleiman,]] which upon being sacrificed has a 50/50 chance of either releasing a fairly powerful djinn that joins your forces or else simply blowing up in your face. |
| 73 | ** And then there's the [[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=74492 Tomb of Urami]], who nets you a big demon at the price of sacrificing all of your lands. |
| 74 | ** Yawgmoth, the guy who makes planeswalkers look like muggles and Dominaria's version of the Devil, was sealed in a whole other plane back when he was a mortal. He wanted back in and spent thousands of years in a battle of wits with AntiHero Urza with his freedom as the stakes. |
| 75 | ** In the ''Zendikar'' expansion, a group of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s called the Eldrazi were got sealed away by [[DarkIsNotEvil Sorin Markov]] and two other guys, turning all of Zendikar into a prison for them. The final set in the ''Zendikar'' block, ''Rise of the Eldrazi'', sees them loosed on the Multiverse. |
| 76 | ** A plot-relevant example can be found in the ''Innistrad'' expansion: The Helvault was created [[spoiler:by the vampire planeswalker Sorin Markov]] to seal away demons that Avacyn couldn't outright defeat. The plot of the expansion is set in motion when, [[{{Irony}} by twist of fate]], [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Avacyn herself becomes sealed inside the Helvault]]. |
| 77 | ** The demon Withengar, also from the ''Innistrad'' expansion, was sealed inside [[http://magiccards.info/dka/en/147a.html Elbrus, the Binding Blade.]] If the Blade tastes blood, [[http://magiccards.info/dka/en/147b.html Withengar is freed.]] |
| 78 | ** Certain cards allow players to set up Sealed Evil in a Can situations. Cards like [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=oblivion+ring&v=card&s=cname Oblivion Ring]] and [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=journey+to+nowhere&v=card&s=cname Journey to Nowhere]] let a player seal an opponent's creature in a can but any card that can remove the enchantment frees them. [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=summoner%27s+egg&v=card&s=cname Summoner's Egg]] goes the other direction, letting a player seal a creature from their hand and bringing it to the battlefield for free if the Egg gets destroyed. |
| 79 | * ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh!'': |
| 80 | ** The game has several monsters like this, the most memorable being Exodia (who is split up into five pieces and allows you to ''[[InstantWinCondition win the game]]'' should you have all five in your hand; in the anime, it did take a huge ritual to unseal it) and all versions of the three God Cards (Egyptian, Sacred Beasts, and "Wicked Gods", all of which need three sacrifices to bring out and have devastating power, and two of which have fusions of themselves that are even ''more'' powerful). In the anime, they are so powerful that most of them are sealed up themselves, and it's considered madness for anyone to try and duel with them in their deck. |
| 81 | ** The "[[Metaplot/YuGiOhHiddenArsenal Hidden Arsenal]]" storyline has the three dragons of the Ice Barrier, sealed away long ago by a powerful sage. Unfortunately, the people of the Ice Barrier get so desperate in a war they decided to unleash them. When they got to the last, Trishula, it wound up getting them all killed. The three dragons were re-sealed, but eventually got infected by the Evilswarm and let out again. |
| 82 | [[/folder]] |
| 83 | |
| 84 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 85 | * One ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' strip has Dilbert open up the box of his new phone, saying [[TemptingFate it was only $50 after rebate]]... only to unleash the three-headed demon Rebaterus, who forces him to go through a series of extremely annoying tasks to complete the rebate. |
| 86 | * In "The Garden" segment of ''ComicBook/GarfieldHis9Lives'', Garfield (who is a kitten here) and Cloey (his owner in this life) are given a magical garden by Uncle Tod when he joins the circus, under the condition that they never open the crystal box on the checkered toadstool. The trope is subverted here because, out of loyalty to Uncle Tod, they decide ''not'' to open it. |
| 87 | * In ''ComicStrip/HsuAndChan'', the Tanaka brothers fight off a demon invasion by sealing them in various trinkets and keepsakes. |
| 88 | * ''ComicStrip/{{Wormy}}'': The title dragon owned a collection of magical orbs containing vicious demons, which a human wizard attempted to steal. This being a humor comic, Wormy used the orbs as snooker balls. |
| 89 | [[/folder]] |
| 90 | |
| 91 | [[folder:Fairy Tales]] |
| 92 | * "Literature/TheDeathOfKoscheiTheDeathless": Marya succeeded in trapping the immortal and evil sorcerer Koschei in her palace's dungeons, fettered by twelve chains. Ten years later, her husband Ivan wanders into the dungeon and accidentally releases Koschei, who proceeds to kidnap Marya. |
| 93 | * Creator/AlexanderAfanasyev's "Literature/LittleMasterMisery": Ivan manages to imprison the embodiment of misery in a pit, covering the hole with a heavy boulder. Later, his brother foolishly releases Misery, but manages to trick him into shrink down and jump into a wheel's hub, thereupon plugging the hole and throwing the wheel into a river. The narrator concludes the tale by pointing out that, given the state of world, some greedy fool surely found the wheel, pulled the wedges out and set Misery free. |
| 94 | * In "Literature/TheNinePeahensAndTheGoldenApples", the empress had gotten a dragon locked up in a cask bound with iron hoops and hidden away in a cellar under her palace. Then her husband goes into the cellar and accidentally releases the dragon. |
| 95 | [[/folder]] |
| 96 | |
| 97 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 98 | [[AC:''Manga/AhMyGoddess'']] |
| 99 | * ''Fanfic/AhArchfall'': Jago's alter ego Papa Jupiter is one of these [[spoiler:to the point of him taking over and killing Lind and their son being the one thing he fears the most.]] Unfortunately, he is also Jago's OneWingedAngel and so he doesn't stay quite as sealed as Jago would like. It is also implied that Gandamak was one of these [[spoiler:before he was released by a traitor]] and it is also implied that the mysterious Titans are or were examples of this. |
| 100 | |
| 101 | [[AC:''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'']] |
| 102 | * In ''Fanfic/RetroChill'', Retro and Bob end up stuck in a box after [[Fanfic/TroubleIsland his last bout]], and they are accidentally freed by Rupert Chill and Earl. |
| 103 | |
| 104 | [[AC:Crossover]] |
| 105 | * ''Fanfic/TheBridgeMLP'' (''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' & ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}''): |
| 106 | ** The BigBad [[spoiler: Bagan]] was sealed within Attu island for more than 70,000 years, until an archaeologist accidentally broke the seal enough for him to wake up and began manipulating events remotely, eventually culminating in seizing control of Dimension Tide and using it to transport himself (and the kaiju) to Equestria. |
| 107 | ** The [[LegacyCharacter original]] Gabara was sealed in a chamber beneath Aokigahara, but was able to astral project to torment people. |
| 108 | ** [[spoiler: Grogar]], the Nexus of Dark Magic and a being on par with the BigBad, was imprisoned by [[spoiler: [[BigGood Harmony]]]] in his own realm [[spoiler: of Tambelon]], the entrance to which is beneath the Crystal Empire. Chrysalis and Sombra are planning to release him. |
| 109 | * ''Fanfic/TheChaoticMasters'': |
| 110 | ** The Chaotic Masters were all sealed away centuries ago, the Monkey King as a puppet, the Collector in a mirror, and BJ being burned to ashes and sealed in an urn (though it's noted he escaped from this at some point only to be sealed again, with his new location currently unknown). The plot is kicked off when Monkey King is inadvertently freed and goes looking for the others, while Collector starts trying to manipulate people into freeing him. |
| 111 | ** [[spoiler:Tirek the Devourer]] apparently spent some time sealed in a mountain after being drained of his magic, until Vanessa Barone freed him in the process of looking for magic artifacts to steal. |
| 112 | ** The Magic Mirror reveals to Sonata that the other Brides of Chaos disappeared because they were sealed somewhere where TimeStandsStill. |
| 113 | ** [[spoiler:Madam Mim]] was sealed in a cauldron, and is released after it's damaged during [[MeleeATrois the fighting]] at [[AuctionOfEvil Roulette's auction of magical artifacts]]. |
| 114 | * ''Fanfic/CodePrime'': In Chapter 29 of ''R2: Revolution'', [[spoiler: Cera lures Megatron into the Sword of Akasha, then uses a pair of Groundbridges to trap him in a Shadowzone, before then having the last Thought Elevator destroyed in order to cut the Sword off from Earth, thus making it impossible to reach Megatron]]. The author's notes for the chapter compare it to being locked in an air-tight vault and then tossing it into the ocean. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, [[CardboardPrison it doesn't last long]], as the end of the next chapter reveals that Shockwave and Soundwave used an artificial Thought Elevator to reach the Sword, before freeing him from the Shadowzone.]] |
| 115 | * ''Fanfic/DungeonKeeperAmi'': |
| 116 | ** The world's adamantine deposits are the can sealing away the evil of a deceased Dark God. The dwarfs [[spoiler:try to use a similar idea to get rid of particularly dangerous Keepers by tricking them into [[SupernaturalSealing a warded]] airtight adamantine chamber and locking them in]]. |
| 117 | ** Horned Reapers are also buried away by Keepers, because a Keeper getting rid of them in any other way is bound for retribution from the Dark Gods. |
| 118 | * ''Fanfic/TheGhostChildAndTheGhostbusters'' concludes with [[spoiler:Morbius, a necromancer who absorbs power from other ghosts, trapped in a Fenton Thermos after being defeated by the Fentons and the Ghostbusters. Since Morbius's nature means that putting him back in the Ghost Zone or in the Ghostbusters' containment unit would risk him starting his campaign all over again, Clockwork volunteers to take custody of the thermos himself, as he can slow down time so that it will remain locked]]. |
| 119 | * ''Fanfic/GodOfWarChainsOfTheHeart'': This happens to Sinmara courtesy of Sora, with Niflheim as the can. When he cuts off the realm's connection to the World Tree, it leaves her unable to leave her dimension at all. As such, much of her time is spent looking for ways to escape so she can go on a vengeful warpath against those she blames for Surtr's death. |
| 120 | * ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheBoilingIsles'': Chapters 19 and 20 see the Owl House gang treasure hunting in a recently discovered temple on Monster Island, with Darius and Eberwolf also showing up to explore the place for Belos. Aside from the hostile terrain surrounding it, the temple is also at the bottom of a valley with an AntiMagic field that cancels out all flight-based magic (making it extremely difficult to enter), and the temple itself is a MobileMaze. All of this turns out to be to lock away and keep hidden from accidental discovery [[spoiler: an army of Dementors]]. After barely escaping this, the group not only re-locks the doors behind them but Darius also causes a cliff to collapse atop the temple, further hiding it. |
| 121 | * ''Fanfic/JusticeLeagueOfEquestria'' (''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' & Creator/DCComics): |
| 122 | ** ''Mare of Steel'': At the end of the story, [[spoiler:ComicBook/{{Brainiac}}]] is [[TakenForGranite petrified]] by the Elements of Harmony, and Rainbow Dash/Supermare puts him in storage in the Fortress of Solitude for safe keeping. |
| 123 | ** ''The Princess of Themyscira'': [[GodOfEvil Ares]]'s master plan is to unleash the army of demons created by the Olympians' war with the Titans and then locked away in Tartarus, in order to start a ForeverWar. [[spoiler:While he briefly succeeds in releasing them, Twilight (empowered by the [[ComicBook/DoctorFate Helmut of Nabu]]) sends them back, and Ares himself ends up sealed with them.]] |
| 124 | * The ''Fanfic/JWITCHSeries'' (''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' & ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}''): |
| 125 | ** "A Jolly J-WITCH Xmas" has [[TheKrampus Krampus]], who was long ago sealed in an Arctic tomb by Saint Nicholas and his elf allies, who built their monastery over him to maintain the seal. [[CoDragons Wong and Cedric]] attack the monastery to free him and unleash him on the Guardians [[spoiler: but he's ultimately defeated and re-sealed]]. |
| 126 | ** At the end of Season 1, [[spoiler: as per canon, Shendu is transformed back into a statue]], with the added security measure here of then being locked away beneath the Infinite City's prison. |
| 127 | * ''Fanfic/ThereWasOnceAnAvengerFromKrypton'' (MassiveMultiplayerCrossover): At the climax of ''Changing of the Guard'', this is how [[TheJuggernaut Vilgax]] is defeated, with Ben trapping him in Diamondhead's unbreakable crystal, with the plan being to let him out to [[SummonBiggerFish toss him at Thanos]] when the Mad Titan eventually comes for Earth. |
| 128 | * ''Fanfic/ATriangleInTheStars'': (''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' & ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''): Both shows' canons have these instances, so it only figures that this story would have at least two: |
| 129 | ** Bill Cipher. He starts off as this -- the statue he became in Gravity Falls' finale. Steven comes across it, which kicks off the plot. [[spoiler: It's ultimately {{Subverted}}, since Bill finds that he's lost some powers. But over the course of the story, he steadily regains them...]] |
| 130 | ** [[spoiler: Gabriel is another one. He had gotten thrown into the Void, though he [[{{Inverted}} wasn't evil then.]]]] |
| 131 | * ''Fanfic/TheWeaverOption'': |
| 132 | ** The Vault of Infinity in the Peril arc is eventually revealed to be a Necron Tesseract Vault containing a fragment of Iash'uddra. The fragment breaks free and fights Taylor until Trazyn seals it in a new Vault. |
| 133 | ** During the razing of [[spoiler:Commorragh]], Objective I assigned to Taylor's forces is to capture a Great Crusade-era stasis chamber and release it on [[spoiler:Sicarus]]. The chamber releases the last surviving members of the [[spoiler:Skaven]] race, starting a planetary war and religious schism. |
| 134 | ** Objective D2 of the razing was to ensure the Oblivion Gate remained sealed. The author explained the Gate is a webway portal leading to a pocket dimension containing something so horrific the term "eldritch abomination" was insufficient. The Aeldari at their prime couldn't destroy it, only seal the Gate, and even the Drukhari weren't demented enough to open it. |
| 135 | |
| 136 | [[AC:''Series/DoctorWho'']] |
| 137 | |
| 138 | * The fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9827920/1/The-Door-of-the-Demon The Door of the Demon]]'' has a door on the Green Moon behind which a demon is imprisoned. The Eleventh Doctor barely stops a criminal breaking them out. |
| 139 | * From the same writer, ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10170307/1/The-Purple-Star The Purple Star]]'' reveals the door led to a Universe which serves as this for {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. |
| 140 | |
| 141 | [[AC:''Franchise/DragonBall'']] |
| 142 | * This is how ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' interprets the villain Bojack. In his movie it was said that he was released from his imprisonment by King Kai's death; in ''Abridged'' he's literally trapped within King Kai's planet (and will occasionally remark on the goings-on) and its immense gravity is said to be a side-effect of his high fighting power. |
| 143 | |
| 144 | [[AC:''Series/GameOfThrones'' / ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'']] |
| 145 | * In ''Fanfic/RobbReturns'', it's eventually revealed that there's a secret chamber beneath the Hightower which contains an ancient gate, which House Hightower have been defending for their entire history. On the other side of that gate is ''[[EldritchAbomination something]]'', which is constantly banging on it in an attempt to get free. After an encounter with it when it almost gets through, Willas Tyrell becomes convinced that it's [[spoiler: the Drowned God of the Ironborn]], which is later confirmed by research Sam Tarly does at the Citadel. |
| 146 | |
| 147 | [[AC:''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'']] |
| 148 | * ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': It's confirmed in this story that Ghidorah was very much a LeakingCanOfEvil during the time it was frozen and under Monarch observation in Antarctica. During the Yonaguni battle, Godzilla buries one of the Many's {{Mind Hive}}s alive and seals all its ways out. |
| 149 | |
| 150 | [[AC:''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'']] |
| 151 | * ''Fanfic/GazDreamsOfGenie'': At the end, [[spoiler:Gaz becomes this after [[BecomingTheGenie being transformed into a genie and trapped inside a lamp]]. She's absolutely furious at her imprisonment, and vows to exact brutal vengeance on Azie and on her family the moment she's freed or, failing that, to make the life of whoever she's freed by a living hell, and has the power to follow up on these threats. However, she cannot exit the lamp on her own and is sealed deep inside a SecretGovernmentWarehouse, and likely will remain there for a very long time.]] |
| 152 | |
| 153 | [[AC:''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'']] |
| 154 | * In the backstory of ''Fanfic/AgesOfShadow'', Jade is sealed in the Shadow Realm by her family after her FaceHeelTurn, after more mundane ways of locking her up failed. Her entire plot during the Third Age (Chapters 3-6) is to gather the power to escape this imprisonment. [[spoiler: Ultimately, Trace fixes the flaw in the seal that let her communicate with other worlds, locking her away for good.]] |
| 155 | * ''Fanfic/JackieChanAdventuresOlympianJourney'': Thousands of years ago, most of the Greek gods (except [[TokenGoodTeammate Hestia and Prometheus]], who helped in the sealing) were sealed in a magical amphora by the rebelling humanity. In the modern day, the urn is broken during a fight between Jackie and a VillainTeamUp of several of his old foes, releasing the gods. Though by this point, only [[BigBad Eris]] is still extant, the others having been reduced to semi-sentient essences that seek out and merge with hosts. |
| 156 | * ''Fanfic/QueenOfAllOni'': Since [[PointOfDivergence Daolon Wong's spell turned Jade evil instead of releasing Tarakudo]], the latter is still trapped in the shadow realm, observing and mildly influencing events while building up his strength to escape. |
| 157 | ** Drago was once sealed inside a sword by Lo Pei, until some point in the future when he was released and enslaved by [[EvilSorcerer Monsieur Verde]]. |
| 158 | ** There's also the various evils sealed in the [[EldritchLocation Vault of Endless Night]] under Mexico City and watched over by [[AncientKeeper Nameless]]. We see a large number of BigCreepyCrawlies, DemonicSpiders, and zombies, but it's implied that there are even ''worse'' things sealed away deeper down. |
| 159 | ** The Shadow Man, the JCA verse analogue to [[WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog Dr. Facilier]], upon his defeat was reduced to a LivingShadow and sealed within a container. [[spoiler: [[EvilSorcerer Verde]] releases him in order to absorb his power, but he ends up resealed by the J-Team.]] |
| 160 | ** The story eventually elaborates on The Grand Design: a massive spell that guarantees sealed evils will ''stay'' sealed indefinitely, and that so many evils being released one after another in the series is the direct result of that Design finally beginning to ''fail'', [[spoiler: because TheChosenOne, who is supposed to keep it going, died prematurely, and the new one, Jade, is now unable]]. |
| 161 | --->'''[[spoiler:Karasu]]:''' Then things start to happen, Chan. Things like a petrified demon not only waking up, but doing so in the hands of a man foolish enough to make a deal to a with it, and possessing the resources to release it. |
| 162 | * ''Fanfic/ShadowsAwakening'': |
| 163 | ** [[EnemyWithin The Queen]] is trapped in Jade's mind, with [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower the Tiger Talisman's]] power taking the form of two tigers that keep her from making any direct moves to control Jade's body. [[spoiler: Eventually, her [[TheCorruption corruption]] reaches the point that the talisman [[EnemyWithout separates them]], freeing her from Jade. However, after she's defeated in the FinalBattle, she's reabsorbed by Jade and trapped again.]] |
| 164 | ** During the FinalBattle, [[spoiler: [[TheDragon Kyosuke]] ends up sucked inside the Urn of Wei Cheing by Uncle and Tohru.]] |
| 165 | |
| 166 | [[AC:''Franchise/MyLittlePony'']] |
| 167 | ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has had several examples of this in the show; unsurprisingly, it shows up quite frequently in its fanfiction as well. |
| 168 | |
| 169 | * ''Fanfic/ADiplomaticVisit'': |
| 170 | ** Chapter 8 of the sequel ''Diplomat at Large'' reveals that millennia ago, the merlions migrated into the area of the western oceans ruled by the monstrous octopus Squirk, and defeated and imprisoned him in a cage of wrought sea-silver and oceanic crystal, enchanted to keep his words from getting out. He's still there to this day, throwing tantrums inside his prison. |
| 171 | ** [[spoiler: Grogar, the ancient ram sorcerer, imprisoned long ago. Twilight checks up on his prison in chapter 11, and finds that it's still shut tight, adding a few extra spells of her own to be safe.]] |
| 172 | ** The final arc of the fourth story, ''The Diplomat's Life'', features [[spoiler: Rabia, AKA the Pony of Shadows, who was imprisoned in Limbo when Starswirl and his fellow Pillars sacrificed themselves to lock him away.]] |
| 173 | * In ''Fanfic/TheEquestrianWindMage'' continuity, [[GodOfEvil Majora]] has been imprisoned in the Dark World for countless years. The entire plot is driven by his minions working to free him. |
| 174 | * ''Fanfic/AFutureOfFriendshipAHistoryOfHate'': By the time the story starts, [[BigBad Ruinate]] has been trapped in the VoidBetweenTheWorlds for eons. Naturally, he breaks out within the first chapter. |
| 175 | * ''Fanfic/TheGreatAlicornHunt'' has minor ArcVillain Malfunziona, a lesser cousin of Discord's who is basically a giant [[GripingAboutGremlins gremlin]]. His driving desire to break any complex technology he finds is why Equestria was stuck in MedievalStasis for so long, until Bold Lion (an {{expy}} of Leonardo Da Vinci) locked him away in a secret compartment of a statue. He finally breaks his way free while Applejack's group is visiting a convention the statue is on display at [[spoiler: and is resealed when Apple Bloom figures out how to design a prison that [[TailorMadePrison turns his own powers against him]] -- he's locked inside a clockwork container that stays sealed because it's ''already'' broken, and any attempts to break it open will actually ''fix'' it, something Malfunziona's powers and nature won't allow him to do.]] |
| 176 | * ''Fanfic/HowDoYouShootAGunWithHooves'' has Tydal [[spoiler:who turns out to be NotEvilJustMisunderstood]]. |
| 177 | %%* ''Fanfic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'': Titan, at least till he breaks out from his dimensional prison. |
| 178 | * ''Fanfic/NineDaysDown'': Tartarus serves as a prison and sealing place for ancient villains, demons, and entire species of monsters. While dangerous creatures remain around in Equestria, these are for the most part simply wild animals, more moderate bandits, or willing to leave alone if let alone. Everything else -- the horrors and predators that delighted in preying on people and sowing destruction, that would not cooperate with civilization, leave others alone or change their ways -- were eventually banished or forced to retreat into Tartarus, with only one another for company and kept under watch by the living consciousness of Tatarus itself, which delights in playing out endless horror stories and gloats over its prisoners like a dragon on its hoard. |
| 179 | * ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'': In addition to [[BigBad Discord]] (who is imprisoned as in canon at the beginning of ''Reharmonized Ponies''), the series has several others. One is [[{{Satan}} Morning Star]], Celestia's [[FallenAngel Fallen Alicorn]] brother, who was imprisoned for trying to take over the universe after deciding he was better than [[TopGod the Elders]] and being as evil as Discord if not worse. He was released by Havoc to fight in the Alicorn/Draconequi War, where he was either killed (though considering Evil still exists, he wasn't killed as thoroughly as it's possible to kill a God) or imprisoned in Hell (Havoc's domain) after the war as part of the peace treaty between the two according to WordOfGod. Another recurring one is Grogar, a G1 ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' villain and (in this series) {{ComicBook/Darkseid}} {{Expy}} who is sealed away in another dimension. It's stated he returns every five hundred years unless stopped and has to be resealed. In his case it may be justified because, in [[BadFuture Dark World]], he's been shown to be powerful enough to go toe to toe with [[RealityWarper Discord]] and have a chance of winning. Discord shows a great deal of anger that Grogar doesn't seem all that mad about this, in direct contrast to Discord himself, who can't ''stand'' his can. |
| 180 | ** There's also [[spoiler: the [[HumanoidAbomination Shadow of Chernobull]], an entity created by Pandora and then locked in her Box, until a [[DirtyCommunist Hooviet]] experiment accidentally freed it, leading it to feeding on the Hooviets' existence and desires for a SuperSoldier, becoming General-Admiral Makarov (BigBad of Shining Armor's side-story).]] |
| 181 | ** Clover's story in the ''7 Dreams/Nightmares'' collection reveals the existence of a group of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s who fled into the POV reality when their own ended and tried to absorb all things into their HiveMind in order to torment them for eternity. This offended both sets of [[TopGod the Elders]] (for different reasons), leading to them and their respective children [[EnemyMine working together]] to defeat these beings and seal them beyond the Gates of Tartarus. Notably, unlike most sealed evils, being sealed is having a negative effect on them; according to Rota Fortuna, unless they get loose and begin absorbing beings again, they'll devolve into little more than shadows of themselves (Luna states that this fate has actually already befallen many of them). |
| 182 | ** At the end of the Wedding Arc, [[spoiler: this is the final punishment that Cadence -- now Queen of the Changelings after [[ChallengingTheChief defeating Chrysalis]] -- delivers on Kabuto, Chrysalis' MadScientist, for his [[TheSociopath many, many crimes]]. Since Cadence is a believer in ThouShallNotKill, she doesn't execute him, instead [[AndIMustScream sealing him beneath the surface of the sun, completely aware, for a time equivalent to the sum total of all the years of life he's stolen from his victims]]. He'll be there for ''several generations'', at least.]] |
| 183 | * ''Fanfic/ThePowerOfTheEquinox'' begins with Twilight Sparkle, trapped by Queen Chrysalis in the crystal caverns beneath Canterlot, striking a pitch-black crystal in her desperation and anger. Inside the cracked crystal awakens a malevolent being known as [[TheHeartless the Entity]]. It [[DemonicPossession enters Twilight's body]], transforming her into [[SuperPoweredEvilSide Dimmed Star]]. |
| 184 | * ''Fanfic/ThePowersOfHarmony'' has [[spoiler: Nightmare Moon's corrupted army, which was sealed in Tartarus. Keeping them sealed, and then preventing [[BigBad Cetus]] from releasing them, is a driving part of the plot.]] |
| 185 | ** Discord is also mentioned several times. [[spoiler: Turns out, [[SealedGoodInACan Harmony]] is trying to arrange his release simultaneously to her own, in order to purify them both and restore their [[BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil balance]].]] |
| 186 | * ''Fanfic/RainbowDoubleDashsLunaverse:'' Corona starts off the series sealed inside the sun (she gets out, naturally). Discord, meanwhile, is not only in statue form, but Luna had the statue buried under a massive amount of cement (though she's well aware that if and when Discord gets out, that won't do ''squat'', it's just to stop other people letting him out early). And then there's Tirek, who's been sealed away inside Tartarus for several thousand years ([[spoiler:and who ''doesn't'' want to get out.]]). |
| 187 | * In ''Fanfic/TheTwoSidesOfDaringDo'', it's revealed [[BigBad Ahuizotl]] was this. He was sealed in a temple for a long period until an archaeological expedition released him. [[spoiler:The story ends with him being temporarily sealed away when a temple collapses on his head and buries him alive, though it's established it won't keep him out of things forever.]] |
| 188 | * ''Fanfic/TheWritingOnTheWall'' has the eponymous writing warn anyone who comes to the structure of the dangers entombed beneath. [[WrongGenreSavvy But warnings like that are always just to scare away tomb robbers, right?]] [[spoiler: It turns out it's a repository for nuclear waste, which is still radioactive enough to poison anypony exposed to it.]] |
| 189 | |
| 190 | [[AC:''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'']] |
| 191 | * In ''[[Fanfic/ANewChanceSeries A New Chance For Adventure]]'' the attack on the Oldale Ruins by Team Magma releases an evil spirit [[spoiler: that was responsible for the imprisonment of the Father Latios in the Soul Dew. And judging from Skailyn's anger, was responsible for a lot more evil in the ancient past.]] |
| 192 | |
| 193 | [[AC:''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'']] |
| 194 | * Double Subverted in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6263444/1/Transition Transition]]'' after [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003 Jinx and Raven]] teleport back to earth unconcious the police put her into a CryoPrison due to her increased power levels, what they don't know is: A) [[SealedGoodInACan Jinx isn't a villain any more]] and B) Her powers are now semi autonomous like Ravens, meaning putting her in cryosleep doesn't turn them off, it lets them do anything they want to get Jinx free [[TheUnfettered without her mind holding them back]] with things like [[LeakingCanOfEvil "concern for collateral damage" or "ability to tell friend from foe"]]. |
| 195 | |
| 196 | [[AC:''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'']] |
| 197 | * ''Fanfic/DemonOfWind'': This gets discussed in the story between characters as to why so many great evils are locked away instead of outrightly destroyed. It is also played with in the case of Rai who, though being locked away for being part of the bad guys, was at worst a PunchClockVillain, albiet an alarmingly effective one. |
| 198 | |
| 199 | [[AC:Unsorted]] |
| 200 | * In ''[[https://fanfiction.net/s/11501748/1/Funeral-of-A-Madman Funeral Of a Madman]]'' Half a millennia ago, a warmonger general committed outrageous war crimes during his reign to which led his execution, the souls of his army, sealed away by dark prophet; hoping to ensure the people of Europe and China mainly, that he never returns. |
| 201 | * In ''Fanfic/TheGodsAwaken'', [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Nyarlathotep]] is trapped in a glass prison after the people of the Boiling Isles were able to overpower him. However, he had spent the few thousand years exploiting a weakness in the glass to escape. |
| 202 | * [[spoiler: Herobrine]] is this in ''[[http://kleinerkiller.deviantart.com/gallery/41037509 Yognapped]]''. Eons ago, [[PhysicalGod Notch]] sealed him away beneath the bedrock, where he waited until [[spoiler: Peva]] set him free. He then goes on a rampage to destroy [[spoiler: his brother's]] land. [[spoiler: It's revealed just before his defeat that he isn't really evil, and that Notch is a manipulative {{Jerkass}}]]. |
| 203 | * In ''Fanfic/FuckTheJesusBeam'', [=BaROCK=] Dominatus Caesar Inferno Vespucci Giovanni Goku Super Sexy Awesome Absolute GOD O.B.A.M.A., officially known as the greatest evil the world has ever known, is a Kenyan terrorist who was president for 14,657 consecutive terms and started 95 world wars who has been sealed away for 100 million years. Niamy releases him to deal with the Bombignats and Fetii, only for him to take control of them. |
| 204 | * The ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/ImperfectMetamorphosis'' has both [[spoiler:Rin Satsuki]] and [[spoiler:the Shadow Youkai]], who were sealed in the different ways and for different reasons, although while they're both thought of as evil only one of them actually is. The characters involved in the sealings also spend a lot of time justifying them, which ultimately boils down to the two being too damn tough to kill and requiring a different method. |
| 205 | * [[spoiler: Daemon]] from the ''Fanfic/TamersForeverSeries'', Subverted in that he breaks ''himself'' out. |
| 206 | * ''Fanfic/TimeLordsAndTerror'': The plot is [[TheHeavy driven]] by [[WickedWitch Hydia]]'s attempts to unleash [[EldritchAbomination the S'muz]], in her misguided belief that it will aid her in her plans. [[spoiler: She manages to free it, but after it kills her, the Mane Six proceed to use the Elements of Harmony to destroy it.]] |
| 207 | ** In the sequel ''Fanfic/MinesOfDragonMountain'', it turns out that the reason the Grundels are attacking the Diamond Dogs is because they fear that their [[DugTooDeep mining operations will unleash]] [[spoiler: [[GodOfEvil Tirac]]]] from his imprisonment in the mountain. [[spoiler: Tirac himself, meanwhile, is undergoing his own GambitRoulette to release himself.]] |
| 208 | * ''Fanfic/{{Eugenesis}}'' has Unicron still [[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel sealed inside the Matrix]], which proves to have been a bad decision all round. Not only does it weaken Rodimus just to hold the Matrix, it means he can't even use it for fear of letting Unicron loose. As the follow-up stories show, Unicron's mere presence proves corruptive, subverting the mind of an Autobot who came too close to an invalid Rodimus, and turning the Matrix Flame [[PaintItBlack black]]. |
| 209 | * In ''[[Fanfic/PokemonMysteryDungeonReflectingBalance Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Reflecting Balance]]'', it is eventually revealed that the main villain was sealed into a magical stone chest by his twin sister, and broke free from his imprisonment shortly before the story began. |
| 210 | * The plot of ''Fanfic/HopeForTheHeartless'' -- which takes place immediately after the events of ''WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron'' -- starts with the [[VillainProtagonist Horned King]] being contacted by [[CosmicEntities the Fates]] while his soul endures [[AndIMustScream agony]] inside [[ArtifactOfDoom the Black Cauldron]]. They [[ResurrectedForAJob bring him back]] to Prydain to [[RedemptionQuest fulfill]] a [[ImpossibleTask hard assignment]] under the period of eighteen months. If he doesn't fulfill it, his soul will be ''permanently'' trapped inside the Cauldron. |
| 211 | ** The Cauldron also contains the spirit of the Horned King's former [[EvilMentor master]], [[BigBad Arawn]], the [[AscendedExtra Death Lord of Annuvin]]. He was defeated [[AncientEvil centuries ago]] and sealed inside the Cauldron while he sought it. Now he wants to ensure that his former apprentice shall return to the Cauldron and at his mercy. He's also a case of LeakingCanOfEvil: he can [[{{Telepathy}} communicate telepathically to others]] and [[DreamWeaver influence their dreams]]. It's also hinted that he's not the only one trapped inside the Cauldron. |
| 212 | * In the ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' universe, Yggdrasil was created as the Can to end all Cans, serving simultaneously as a power-source to allow someone to fight [[EldritchAbomination Surtur]] [[spoiler: a.k.a. the First Dark Phoenix]] on something approximating the same level (enough to stall him, at least), as a cosmic scale prison to keep Muspelheim locked away, and a complex locking mechanism to keep Surtur trapped in Musphelheim once he's lured there and siphon off his power. [[TailorMadePrison Needless to say,]] [[TheAlliance the Alliance of Realms]] were ''very'' thorough when they put it together. |
| 213 | ** Earth itself is also suggested to be the lock on any number of cosmic prisons, including Chthon's. |
| 214 | [[/folder]] |
| 215 | |
| 216 | [[folder:Film -- Animation]] |
| 217 | * ''WesternAnimation/The3LittlePigsTheMovie'' has a very literal example by the end of the film, as [[spoiler:Big Boss and Rublad]] end up [[ItMakesSenseInContext stuffed into their own respective cans]], ''alive'', and refuse to let their fight end, and continue attacking each other while stuffed into said cans. |
| 218 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'': Jafar becomes one after he wishes to become a genie, and he gets trapped in a dark lamp. He gets freed in ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar'' by Abis Mal, and goes back to Agrabah to get his revenge on the heroes. |
| 219 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron'', Arawn is speculated to be the evil force within the Cauldron. Though the ancients (or gods) didn't do a very good job of imprisoning him away permanently, [[LeakingCanOfEvil and as such, its powers can be unleashed]]. And even worse, it can be used to [[SealedArmyInACan raise an army of the living dead]]. |
| 220 | * Mandrake near the end of ''WesternAnimation/Epic2013''. And in a tree, technically. |
| 221 | * The villain Hexxus in ''WesternAnimation/FernGullyTheLastRainforest'', who for ages was sealed into a tree, and was released when the tree was cut down. |
| 222 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'': Zeus imprisoned the Titans beneath the ocean with lightning bolts, but when the planets align, Hades is able to release them. [[spoiler: Hercules uses the Tornado Titan to suck the other Titans in, then throws them all into space where they explode.]] |
| 223 | * In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueVsTeenTitans'', Trigon was trapped inside a crystal by Raven, and spends the entirety of his debut film trying to convince her to unleash him on Earth. Though he succeeds after his minions threaten to kill her friends, Raven soon gains the resolve to seal him back during the film's climax. |
| 224 | * ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda1'': After his initial defeat, Tai Lung is placed in a massive prison staffed with many countermeasures to keep him from escaping. But in the end, all it takes for him to break out is a single feather which he uses to pick the lock on his restraints, and then he magnificently uses the countermeasures against the guards to escape the prison. |
| 225 | * The Nightmare King in ''Anime/LittleNemoAdventuresInSlumberland''. |
| 226 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicRoundabout2005'', the eponymous Roundabout turns out to be the Can for Zebadee's EvilTwin brother Zeebad, a powerful [[AnIcePerson ice wizard]] who wanted to freeze the Sun and bring about EndlessWinter. |
| 227 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', this is downplayed in that Mei's family perceive each of their red panda spirits to be a Sealed Inconvenience In A Can. |
| 228 | [[/folder]] |
| 229 | |
| 230 | [[folder:Film -- Live-Action]] |
| 231 | * ''Film/AloneInTheDark2005'' has this, though watching the movie it can be hard to tell exactly what it is. The movie talks about a dark world that mirrors our light world, but at other times, it suggests that the Abcane tribe that discovered it ''are'' the evil in the can. |
| 232 | * In ''Film/AngryVideoGameNerdTheMovie'', Death Mwauthzyx, the creator of God and Satan, is buried under Mount Fuji until Dark Onward accidentally blows up the mountain, releasing him. |
| 233 | * ''Film/Baghead2023'': When the Baghead first came into being, the brotherhood managed to entomb her beneath Berlin where she remain safely contained for centuries. Then their descendants partially break the tomb to try to exploit her powers: they put a magical binding in place that keeps her from leaving the basement and under the nominal control of whomever owns the building. |
| 234 | * ''Film/TheBeastFromTwentyThousandFathoms'': The title monster, while more predatory and aggressive than actually evil, is certainly an example of this. The rhedosaurus was frozen in Arctic ice since the early Cretaceous, and is thawed out by nuclear testing. Somehow, it is still alive. |
| 235 | * ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'': The titular ghostly con artist is trapped in the afterlife. He can be temporarily brought back to the real world (and returned) by saying his name three times, but can only be truly free if he marries a human female. |
| 236 | * ''Franchise/TheBlob'': |
| 237 | ** [[Film/TheBlob1958 The original 1958 movie]] has the heroes create a sealed evil in a can out of the title menace by freezing the monster and transporting it to the North Pole. And now we have global warming... |
| 238 | ** The sequel ''Film/BewareTheBlob'': a oil worker brings home a frozen chunk of the Blob, sealed in a thermos. But not sealed too tightly or else [[TooDumbToLive we wouldn't have a movie]]. |
| 239 | ** [[Film/TheBlob1988 The 1988 remake]] ends with [[spoiler:the apocalyptic town preacher who was scarred by the bigger Blob and apparently driven quite insane in the interim revealing that he has kept a small part of the Blob in a glass container, and will unleash it when God will tell him it's time.]] |
| 240 | * In ''Film/TheBrassTeapot'', Dr. Ling knows he can't destroy the Teapot, so he intends to seal it in such a way that no one can ever find it again. [[spoiler:At the end of the movie, he casts the Teapot into the bottom of the ocean.]] |
| 241 | * Josiah starts directly causing trouble in ''Film/ChildrenOfTheCornIVTheGathering'' when his physical body is mistakenly released from an old well by a thirsty drunk. |
| 242 | * ''Film/DeadtimeStoriesVolume1'': In "Wet", a beachcomber finds a jade box containing a mermaid's hand. On learning there are other boxes contining the rest of the mermaid, he seeks to find the rest of them, despite being told that mermaids are buried like that to prevent them coming back. He some learns why to his regret. |
| 243 | * ''Film/DemolitionMan'': Phoenix was thawed out of cryo-prison to take out people who don't like Cocteau. But he has his own agenda and plans to release every other criminal in the prison to create his own army. |
| 244 | * In ''Film/TheDemoniacs'', the Devil (or perhaps just ''a'' devil; the script is unclear) has been trapped in the ruins of an ancient cathedral for a century; guarded by a priest and a clown (MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext). He can only be released if a virtuous woman agrees to have sex with him in exchange for the power to gain revenge. The two women raped by the SalvagePirates agree to do so. However, despite multiple warnings that freeing him will unleash his dark power upon the land, the Devil doesn't actually do anything evil once released. |
| 245 | * ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'': |
| 246 | ** In [[Film/Ghostbusters1984 the first movie]], the Ghostbusters seal all of their captured ghosts in a large containment unit that can only stay locked with the help of a power grid. [[spoiler: And it then gets unlocked.]] |
| 247 | ** The BigBad of [[Film/GhostbustersII the sequel]] is a 16th-century despot whose spirit inhabits his portrait. |
| 248 | * ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'': |
| 249 | ** ''Film/GodzillaRaidsAgain'' ends with [[Characters/GodzillaTheGodzillas Showa Godzilla]] trapped in an iceberg, where he remains until he breaks out in ''Film/KingKongVsGodzilla'' and terrorizes the world once more. |
| 250 | ** In an elemental inversion of Showa Godzilla's fate, Heisei Godzilla is last seen toppling into a volcano at the end of ''Film/TheReturnOfGodzilla'', with the sequel ''Film/GodzillaVsBiollante'' confirming that Godzilla is still alive but is trapped down there until he breaks free. |
| 251 | ** ''Film/RebirthOfMothra'': Desghidorah was originally defeated by Mothra in ancient times and locked away in a mystical chamber. In the present day, Desghidorah's ancient tomb is accidentally rediscovered, and Belvera sets it loose on the world once more. |
| 252 | ** ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': [[Characters/MonsterVerseKingGhidorah Ghidorah]] has been [[MonsterInTheIce frozen in the ice]] in Antarctica since the end of his last battle against Godzilla in ancient times. In the present day, [[EcoTerrorist eco-terrorists]] detonate explosives along the glacier holding Ghidorah and then use the ORCA's signal to complete the Living Extinction Event's awakening, unaware that Ghidorah cannot be controlled by the ORCA and that Ghidorah's goals involve inflicting an extinction event instead of renewing the Earth. |
| 253 | * In ''Film/Goosebumps2015'', every monster Creator/RLStine ever wrote actually exists, locked away within their book's manuscript. Then someone unlocks one of the books... |
| 254 | * In ''Film/GreenLantern2011'', Abin Sur defeated Parallax and sealed it away because he couldn't destroy it. It later breaks out and kills Abin Sur, but not before he's able to pass on his ring and powers to Hal Jordan, who now has to find a way to defeat Parallax again. |
| 255 | * In ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch'', Billy traps the Electric Gremlin in the Clamp Corp. phone system, where the villain suffers the torture of being on-hold. |
| 256 | * ''Film/{{Hellbound}}'': Prosatanos is sealed inside his own tomb by Richard the Lionheart during the Crusades. He's set free six hundred years later by two tomb raiders. |
| 257 | * ''Film/Hellboy2004'' features several such sealed-away monstrosities. One demon was sealed in a consecrated urn, and [[EldritchAbomination Lovecraftian chaos gods]] known as the Ogdru Jahad lie imprisoned and waiting in the Void beyond the stars. |
| 258 | * In ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'', the Cenobites will not come after you unless you solve the puzzle of the Lament Configuration. |
| 259 | * In ''Film/HighlanderIIITheSorcerer'', the villain Kane and the other two evil immortals are trapped in a cave for centuries, only being released in the present to attack Connor once again. |
| 260 | * Another candidate for Most JustForFun/{{Egregious}} Example of All Time is ''Film/{{Hobgoblins}}'', in which a group of mischievous, killer, evil, mind-controlling, rapidly-nodding hobgoblin puppets are "sealed" inside a large, vault door, behind a barred gate, neither of which are, you know... locked. Worse yet, the man who's spent thirty years "guarding" these "sealed" horrors is a demolitions expert and always was. [[spoiler:He ends up blowing them up.]] [[FridgeLogic Too bad that didn't occur to him, you know... sometime during the last thirty years?]] |
| 261 | * ''Film/JasonX'' features Jason being [[HumanPopsicle frozen for 445 years]] as the government couldn't find a way to execute him given his immortal nature. |
| 262 | * In ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'', the eponymous board game is buried underground for decades until it is unearthed by a construction team and found by Alan. "What if someone digs it up?" "May God have mercy on his soul." |
| 263 | * In ''Film/KarateAMuerteEnTorremolinos'', Jocántaro destroyed a civilization, then was sealed underwater by five teenage virgins -- that's why the HumanSacrifice of five teenage non-virgins can bring it back. |
| 264 | * ''Film/TheKeep'': An ancient monster has been trapped in a castle for centuries, until some Nazis awaken it. |
| 265 | * Played with and subverted in ''Film/KungFuHustle''. The Beast is locked up in an insane asylum -- but only because he was bored from the lack of worthy opponents to duel and so checked himself in. When Sing is snuck in by the Axe Gang to break out the Beast for recruitment and picks his cell door open, the audience sees the Beast as a bald old man with a pair of spectacles in a wifebeater and boxers sitting on the john reading a newspaper. Which makes the Beast Sealed Evil '''On''' the Can. |
| 266 | * ''Film/TheLastLovecraftRelicOfCthulhu'' has the titular Cthulhu himself sealed (by choice) somewhere under the sea. The last remaining Lovecraft must guard the relic of Cthulhu to prevent it's awakening. |
| 267 | * ''Film/LivingHell'' has sublevel 4, vault 12, on a military base, which the protagonist doesn't want disturbed. The military had completely missed the hidden door in the vault till the protagonist waltzed in and told them there was something there... and we all know what to do with hidden doors, right? So, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero nice job there, hero]]. |
| 268 | * ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'': |
| 269 | ** In ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'', the villain Dormammu is trapped in the Dark Dimension so that he cannot harm the main universe. |
| 270 | ** In ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', [[BigBad Hela]] was sealed away by Odin thousands of years ago, but with his death she is freed. |
| 271 | * In ''Series/TheMightyBoosh Live'', the Hitcher and his minions are introduced into the show when a box is opened. The Hitcher was apparently sealed in the box for 200 years, for crimes against humanity. Including, but limited to raping a dolphin and driving contaminated swans to fights. |
| 272 | * ''Film/MirrorMirror1990'': Mary Weatherford sealed the demon inside the mirror by sacrificing her sister Elizabeth and then covering the mirror with a black cloth. Emelin and Mrs. Perlili unknowingly free the demon to start acting on the mortal world again when they find the mirror inside a sealed closet 40 years later and pull the cloth off. |
| 273 | * In ''Film/MotherOfTears'', Mater Lachrymarum's powers are restored by the unearthing of a lost talisman, making it more a case of "Sealed Evil Artifact in a Can". Lachrymarum herself was apparently in some sort of self-imposed hibernation prior to this. |
| 274 | * ''Film/TheMummyTrilogy'' |
| 275 | ** In ''Film/TheMummy1999'', it is the very act of Sealing Imhotep in a Can that ''bestows'' the apocalyptic abilities that he displays in the movie. Moral: [[ThePunishment Never Punish Your Enemy in a Way That Will Grant Him More Power]]. |
| 276 | ** ''Film/TheMummyReturns'' opens up another can of evil in the form of Wrestling/TheRock's CGI-animated appearance as The Scorpion King -- which in turn opened the door for one of those prequels mentioned in the main text. |
| 277 | ** Averted in ''Film/TheMummyTombOfTheDragonEmperor'', when the already incredibly powerful Chinese Emperor didn't gain anything from the curse that transformed him into a crumbling clay figure. In fact, if it wasn't even the curse that revived him, but some miracle water. As a side effect, though, he has the [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway ability to throw his face at people]]. [[CombatPragmatist He used it]]. |
| 278 | * ''Film/{{Nightbooks}}'': [[spoiler:The original witch is stuck in a coffin in the GingerbreadHouse. She awakens after Alex's last story.]] |
| 279 | * ''Film/OnceUponATime2017'': Qing Cang was sealed in the Bell of the East Emperor after the last time he attacked the Heavens. Then Su Jin comes along and sets him free. |
| 280 | * ''Franchise/PowerRangers'': |
| 281 | ** In ''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie'', the shapeshifting Ivan Ooze had been trapped underground for 6,000 years until his containment chamber was accidentally unearthed by a construction crew and later opened by Lord Zedd. |
| 282 | ** In ''Film/TurboAPowerRangersMovie'', Maligore is freed from a volcano on an island that is sealed in another dimension. |
| 283 | * Sorceress Irendri in ''Film/OnceUponAWarrior'', a powerful AncientEvil defeated hundreds of years ago, where she then retreats into a jade locket after being sentenced to be [[BurnTheWitch burned at the stake]]. Hundreds of years later, the locket ends up being dropped into a fire, allowing Irendri to escape and terrorize the free world once more. |
| 284 | * ''Film/PrinceOfDarkness'' has a literal sealed evil in a can -- TheAntichrist, in fact, sealed in liquid form inside a giant glass and metal container in the basement of a church. In one of the sillier examples of this trope, the canister is designed in such a way that it can only be opened from the inside and the sole reason the son of Satan doesn't try to escape before the events of the film is that ''he was asleep''. |
| 285 | * ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' has the jars inside the structure, which can cause mutation or destruction to anything and everything that comes in contact with it. Later on, the expedition team discovers that the Engineer ship has a cargo hold full of these jars, along with a dormant Engineer who put himself in hypersleep, and intends to use the craft to destroy Earth via releasing the jars. |
| 286 | * ''Franchise/{{Quatermass}} and the Pit'' has an ancient alien evil buried under London for millions of years, finally unearthed by building works. |
| 287 | * ''Film/QueenOfTheDamned'': Akasha's bloodthirsty rule over humanity was stopped when she and her husband [[TakenForGranite turned into statues]] and slept for centuries. Lestat briefly awakens her shortly after being turned and again draws her attention when he starts to live in the limelight as a rock star. |
| 288 | * ''Film/RareExportsAChristmasTale'': In prehistoric times the Sami-folk of Lapland, tired of the tyranny of [[BadSanta Santa Claus]], lured him on weak ice, and he sank to the bottom of the lake, which subsequently froze through. He was cut out and covered with tons of sawdust to keep him from melting, and then layers upon layers of dirt and stones over the centuries, until the Korvatunturi mountain on the border of modern Finland and Russia was formed. And this Christmas an obsessed American millionaire decides to dig him out. He is not happy. |
| 289 | * In ''Film/TheReturnOfTheLivingDead'' and [[Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDeadPartII its first sequel]], a brain-eating zombie and corpse-animating 245-Trioxin gas are accidentally released from a sealed metal canister. |
| 290 | * In ''Film/TheRuins'', as well as in the book, the protagonists are attacked by [[spoiler:a sentient, carnivorous, and parasitic vine living on an ancient pyramid (or in a mine shaft, in the book). The vine is kept on the pyramid by a ring of deforested and salted land carved out of the jungle around it, and is effectively sealed up by a very stringent quarantine set up by the villagers living nearby]]. In the end, [[spoiler:one woman manages to escape, but it is hinted that the vine is living inside of her]], and in one alternate ending, [[spoiler:it is directly shown that she has taken the vine with her back to civilization, unsealing the evil and letting it go free.]] |
| 291 | * The Film/SyfyChannelOriginalMovie ''Scarecrow'' has the title creature, who was BuriedAlive underneath a farm until accidentally being released. Justified, as the creature is ''literally'' impossible to kill and will simply regenerate from anything done to it, including being shredded to bits, so sealing it away is the only way to stop it. [[spoiler:At the end, the main character traps it in a boat and sinks it, imprisoning it at the bottom of a river.]] |
| 292 | * ''Film/SeventhSon2015'' features an evil witch queen who was sealed in a pit until a Blood Moon re-empowered her and allowed her to escape. |
| 293 | * Played with in ''Film/TheShadow''. A museum receives a silver sarcophagus from a mysterious source, with an inscription on it saying it's the coffin of Genghis Khan. When the security guard is left alone with it the coffin starts to shake around and eventually opens up to reveal a man in the dress of a Mongol warrior, who telepathically forces the security guard to shoot himself. However, it turns out it's not actually Genghis Khan, but a modern-day descendant named Shiwan. |
| 294 | * Maxim Horvath in ''Film/TheSorcerersApprentice''. Twice. First, Balthazar traps him in the Grimhold. He escapes. Later, they were both sealed in a Chinese vase. They both escape ten years later. And the other Morganites; Sun Lok, Abigail, and Morgana Le Fay herself. |
| 295 | * ''Franchise/StarTrek'': |
| 296 | ** Khan Noonien Singh and his cryogenically frozen followers in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', when they're abandoned on Ceti Alpha V (which the crew of the ''Reliant'' mistake for Ceti Alpha VI after a natural disaster alters its orbit and destroys its environment). |
| 297 | ** [[spoiler:"God"]] in ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier''. He claimed to have been imprisoned [[spoiler:on the planet in the center of the galaxy]] and wanted to [[spoiler:"join" with the ''Enterprise'']] so he could escape. |
| 298 | ** In ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'', the ''Enterprise'' crew find B4 dissassembled and put him back together. It turns out he's part of an elaborate evil scheme by Shinzon. |
| 299 | ** ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'': [[spoiler:Khan; a former EvilOverlord accused of war crimes, and his crew of [[{{Transhuman}} Augments]] were cryogenically frozen for centuries in a derelict ship... until Starfleet Intelligence found him. He ends the film this way, too]]. |
| 300 | * ''Film/TheStoneTape'': The scientists investigating the LivingMemory of a ScreamingWoman imprinted into the stonework of a HauntedCastle accidentally 'erase' the scream. They give up their research, thinking they've blown their chance, and refuse to listen to the sole member of the team who insists the scream was 'recorded' on top of a more ancient evil, which is now free. |
| 301 | * ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'' and ''Film/SupermanII'' both feature the Phantom Zone, but make it out to be a one-time prison for a specific set of three villains. |
| 302 | * ''Film/TheThiefOfBagdad1940'' provides a classic example, lifted from the old ''Literature/ArabianNights'' tale, "The Fisherman and the Bottle"; Abu the thief, stranded on an island by Jaffar, finds an old glass bottle and uncorks it, releasing a huge genie, who had vowed long ago to kill whoever released him from the bottle. Abu tricks the genie back into the bottle, prompting the genie to offer the prerequisite three wishes. He turns out to be a bit of a LiteralGenie. |
| 303 | * ''Film/TheThing1982'', sealed in a block of ice until some ill-advised Norwegians dig it out. |
| 304 | * ''Film/TimeBandits'': "Don't touch it -- it's ''concentrated evil!''" Also, Evil himself is unable to leave his fortress. |
| 305 | * ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries'': |
| 306 | ** In ''Film/Transformers2007'', [[spoiler:Megatron]] is kept on ice inside the Hoover Dam, and is pretty angry upon thawing out. |
| 307 | ** [[AllThereInTheManual Prequel comics]] for ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'' reveal Shockwave to be this; he was found by the USSR decades ago and had been sealed under UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} for years. When he gets out, he's ''ticked off''. Then there's [[spoiler:Sentinel Prime]], who's [[spoiler:been locked in stasis on board the Ark, which crashed on the moon]]. |
| 308 | * ''Film/VanHelsing'' has {{Dracula}} sealed inside his own part of the world, but circumventing it by developing wings, which he passed on to his other kin. |
| 309 | * ''Film/{{Wishmaster}}'' is this trope. A powerful djinn sealed inside a fire opal since medieval times is awakened by [[NiceJobBreakingItHero the heroine who accidentally broke it]]. The monster will wreak havoc on earth as soon as the girl ask her proverbial 3 wishes. But she wont, 'cause that would be wrong. And so on. |
| 310 | * ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' opens with the Egyptian slaves of the title character rebelling and making the pyramid where he was doing a [[BodySurf body transfer]] cave into itself. He remains dormant and buried in its futuristic casket for millennia, until 1983, where [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Moira MacTaggert unknowingly activates the machinery by exposing it to sunlight and awakens Apocalypse.]] |
| 311 | * In ''Film/YamatoTakeru'', BigBad PhysicalGod Tsukuyomi is imprisoned in an elaborate ice prison in space by Izanagi after he is defeated by Susano-on in the backstory. Over the course of the movie itself said prison is rapidly approaching the Earth until it crashes into the Moon, releasing its prisoner. [[spoiler:At the end of the movie he is sealed in a new can, Yamato Takeru's magical necklace, which is thrown into space as Susano-o explains Tsukuyomi will bring happiness instead of sorrow the next time he returns (because that's just how gods are, apparently)]]. |
| 312 | * In ''Film/YouMightBeTheKiller'', Sam's rambling story about Camp Clear Vista's history involves an evil spirit being imprisoned by a tree by a medicine man, the tree being cut down and carved into a mask by a woodcutter, and the mask being buried in the woodcutter's grave. None of the other counselors take it seriously. |
| 313 | * In ''Film/ZoltanHoundOfDracula'', Russian soldiers accidentally unleash the servant of Dracula, as well as his dog, during excavations of a tomb in Romania. |
| 314 | [[/folder]] |
| 315 | |
| 316 | [[folder:Manhua]] |
| 317 | * ''Manhua/FightingPrettyFoxgirl'': Prince Feng and his servants trap Huxian and Mei when they find out she's a demon fox. |
| 318 | [[/folder]] |
| 319 | |
| 320 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 321 | * ''Music/BalSagoth'': Every song starts with "[[OhCrap Oh shit]], we just woke up Cthulhu." This is all the more impressive considering that (actually) awakening an elder god would crush the mind of anyone near it, then plunge the Earth into a neverending night. |
| 322 | * ''Music/BloodsuckingZombiesFromOuterSpace'': "Buried in Barrels" tells the story of several unkillable supersoldiers biding their time to get loose and have their revenge. |
| 323 | * After creating the human race, Music/{{GWAR}} was frozen in ice and locked away in a temple in Antarctica where they remained until 1984, when eccentric billionaire, Sleazy P. Martini, found the temple after fleeing the United States and unintentionally freed them and, seeing a big money opportunity, brought them back with him and turned them into a heavy metal band. |
| 324 | * ''Music/ClamaviDeProfundis'': In "Boic Bravesoul", [[DugTooDeep the dwarves' mining breaches a cave where an ancient demon was contained]]. At the end, Boic can't destroy the demon and so instead seals it underground again. |
| 325 | * ''Music/OzzyOsbourne'': "Bark at the Moon" is about a beast that once terrorized a town, but was eventually buried in a nameless grave. And then he ends up returning to cause some more destruction. |
| 326 | %%* ''Music/WithinTemptation'': In "Gatekeeper" sort of [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meets]] TakingYouWithMe. |
| 327 | [[/folder]] |
| 328 | |
| 329 | [[folder:Myths & Religion]] |
| 330 | * In ''Literature/TheBible'': |
| 331 | ** The woman in the basket with the lead cover in one of Zechariah's visions in the Literature/BookOfZechariah, who is mentioned as being the personification of Wickedness. |
| 332 | ** Specifically in the ''[[Literature/BookOfRevelation Revelation]]'' (''[[InsistentTerminology not]]'' Revelations) of John, {{Satan}} is going to be confined to the bottomless pit for 1,000 years, after which he'll be released to wreak havoc upon the world one last time. Then {{God}} [[CurbStompBattle will smoke Satan's entire army]] at the FinalBattle, and then [[HumiliationConga he will be thrown into the Lake of Fire to stay]]. |
| 333 | * Myth/ClassicalMythology |
| 334 | ** This trope [[OlderThanFeudalism harkens back]] to the Myth/GreekMythology of PandorasBox. The container itself is an unusual case, as it was created and given to her for no other reason than Zeus felt like being a dick. After seeing all the atrocities emanating from the box, Pandora quickly shut it, leaving only one thing inside -- Hope. As aforementioned, all according to [[MagnificentBastard Zeus']] plan. |
| 335 | ** The Titans were locked inside Tartarus, a dank, gloomy prison "as far beneath Hades as heaven is high above the Earth", where they were guarded by their siblings the Hecatonchires. |
| 336 | ** Typhon was trapped beneath Mount Etna by Zeus. |
| 337 | * According to UsefulNotes/{{Islam}}, Dhu'l-Qarnayn, or "He of the Two Horns" (a lesser prophet who appeared long before Muhammad) encountered a race of monsters (split into two tribes, the ''Yahjuj'' and ''Mahjuj'', or Gog and Magog of Biblical fame) that were harassing the people, so he built a giant wall to keep them enclosed. They won't be able to escape until Allah says so, which will be during the lead-up to ''Yawm al-Qiyāmah'' ([[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the Day of Judgment]]). |
| 338 | * Myth/NorseMythology |
| 339 | ** Unbreakable magic chains kept Fenrir (a gigantic wolf so massive that it must crouch down to avoid scraping against the dome of the sky) bound, until he eventually breaks them. Ironically, it is implied that binding him is what made him so pissed off at the gods in the first place. Well, that's the trouble with prophecies... and he is a child of Loki, God of betrayal, mischief, and "evil". |
| 340 | ** That kind of thing happens a lot in Norse mythology. The gods were so afraid that Loki and his monstrous children might turn against them that they imprisoned them all in various unpleasant ways... [[NiceJobBreakingItHero thus ensuring their pissed off-ness and guaranteeing Ragnarök when they eventually get out]]. |
| 341 | *** Please note that the gods didn't ''just'' imprison Loki because they were scared (Who do you think they are, Greeks?). Loki and his children had been around long before this, some were even benevolent (read Sleipnir). The reason given in ''Lokasenna'' is that he was being a particularly big dick, and it's possible that the punishment was also for manipulating Hodr into killing Balder. |
| 342 | ** Ragnarök could be best be described as every Can in Myth/NorseMythology opening at once. ''Everything'' broke free. Jormungandr, Fenrir, Loki, the forces of Hel, Garm, etc. |
| 343 | * Myth/SlavicMythology: Koschei the Deathless was captured by Marya Morevna. She tried killing him, but he had a SoulJar, so she locked him up instead... until he was accidentally freed by Ivan Tsarevitch, who then had to find a way to kill him. |
| 344 | * According to Scientology's OT III, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu Xenu is apparently still locked up in a mountain somewhere.]] |
| 345 | * The legends of genies often fall under this trope. Not all genies are good, ya see, and the good ones will interpret wishes [[LiteralGenie literally]]. Moreover, the UrExample for many of the bad jinn/wicked ifrit stories is the tale that Solomon/Sulayman used his ring to seal (yes, seal, with molten lead and a magic seal ring) a number of bad jinn into brazen urns (which is a fancy name for brass cans) and cast them into the ocean, only to have them later dredged up as in stories like "The Fisherman and the Genie." And the genie is now full of even ''more'' anger at humanity, for sealing it up, and is ready for vengeance. Since this has an evil spirit sealed in an actual can, this makes this trope OlderThanFeudalism. |
| 346 | [[/folder]] |
| 347 | |
| 348 | [[folder:Podcasts]] |
| 349 | * In the backstory to the ''Podcast/CoolKidsTable'' game ''Small Magic'', The Oni were sealed away in a deep slumber after they went to war with the Tenshi. |
| 350 | * [[EldritchAbomination The Nameless God]] in ''Podcast/DarkDice'' was sealed away behind multiple guardians, time-dialating archways, wards, and gates sealed with blood. Freeing it is the goal of the cultists that kidnapped the children of Ilmater's Hope. |
| 351 | * ''Podcast/{{Malevolent}}'' starts with a mysterious Entity being freed from a mysterious tome, attaching itself to Arkham P.I. Arthur Lester and serving as his eyes. At the end of season 1, it's revealed that [[spoiler:The Entity, now going by John Doe, is actually a severed piece of the King in Yellow, which was bound to the tome as the result of an ImperfectRitual]]. |
| 352 | * ''Podcast/OldGodsOfAppalachia'': The titular Old Gods, otherwise known as the Old Things or Those Who Sleep Beneath, are an EldritchAbomination (or possibly a group of them existing in a HiveMind; it's currently unclear which is more accurate) older than the Earth that was/were banished here eons ago and buried underneath the Appalachian Mountains. Most of the horrors of the series are caused by their minions, collectively called the Inner Dark, acting on their behalf and trying to free them. |
| 353 | * ''Podcast/TrialsAndTrebuchets'': [[SnakesAreSinister The Progenitor]], a godlike being who is responsible for the destruction of the ancient Sheoran civilization, is trapped within the Sunken Hatch, which can only be opened by placing the [[ArtifactOfDoom Orbs of Progress, Power, Might, and Reverence]] into their respective slots in the hatch. |
| 354 | [[/folder]] |
| 355 | |
| 356 | [[folder:Puppet Shows]] |
| 357 | * ''Series/FraggleRock'': In the episode "Wembley and the Mean Genie," Wembley lets a JackassGenie out of a bottle. The Genie refuses to grant any wishes, and instead breaks things, insults people, and tries to turn Wembley against his friends. At the end, he hypnotizes everyone but Wembley. When Wembley finally stands up for himself and demands his wishes (which apparently the Genie can't twist), he gets them and uses them to free his friends. |
| 358 | [[/folder]] |
| 359 | |
| 360 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 361 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'': In the adventure ''The Blood and Dr. [=McQuark=]'', Azor (an agent of some {{Eldritch Abomination}}s) was imprisoned by the Council of Nine but escapes during the course of the adventure. |
| 362 | * ''TabletopGame/ChuubosMarvelousWishGrantingEngine'': The Titov family, [[DysfunctionJunction messed up though it may be]], exists to keep ''something'' chained beneath its shrine. [[spoiler:It may or may not be [[TabletopGame/{{Nobilis}} Iolithae Septimian]], a HumanoidAbomination RealityWarper.]] |
| 363 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'': A group of Native Americans sealed off "The Hunting Grounds" (affecting [[TheMagicGoesAway all magic, good or ill]], but ill vastly outnumbered good). Centuries later, another group unsealed it, looking for revenge on the white man for killing off their tribes. |
| 364 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': |
| 365 | ** In 4th Edition, the ''entire plane'' of Baator is like this, being created by a divine curse to imprison the MagnificentBastard Asmodeus and the [[TheLegionsOfHell devils]]. Unfortunately, said can is rather ''flimsy'', and, while it does a good job of holding Asmodeus, any infernalist worth his salt can create a temporary portal to it, allowing the devils to stream through and wreak havoc and [[DealWithTheDevil contracts]]. The seal, for the record, wasn't made to save mortals from Asmodeus and his devils -- but to save the other gods from him. Hence why mortals are free to poke holes at the seal and let devils come and do Faustian pacts. If you are dumb enough to do it, you deserve what's coming to you. |
| 366 | ** The Shadowfell in 5th Edition can also become one of these. As the Shadowfell is a reflection of the darker aspects of the material planes it connects to, acts of terrible evil can cause dark powers to surge and grow in the Shadowfell. This can end up creating areas known as "dread domains", which are their own planes of existence of tremendous evil energy which grant power to the mortal who created it. Dangerous creatures from the Shadowfell will often seize the evil person who created the dread domain and trap them there to feed on their powers, and good deities can banish these same dark lords to the dread domain to imprison them. It is usually very difficult to escape from these places, as frequently the only way to get free from a dread domain is to find redemption. |
| 367 | ** ''D&D'' 3.5e: |
| 368 | *** One example is the homebrewed [[http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=188148 Harrowed]] class. Anyone with this class is this for their own unique destructive being that they call "the monster within", which is constantly raging to get free from its host. Ironically, if the beast were to be released it would be promptly obliterated by about seven different gods at once; this won't ever happen though because plenty of greater deities have been left scratching their heads after failing to remove the beasts. This class cannot even use any of their abilities without provoking the beast and needing to make a will save or let it gain control for a few rounds of combat. If you think that the Harrowed are justified in wanting to die, they aren't. They are stuck in a constant cycle of reincarnation after they die and they always come back as another Harrowed with exactly the same homicidal beast sealed inside them. They are such a tight can that not even death or the gods can crack them open. |
| 369 | *** Layer 73 of the Abyss, the Wells of Darkness, is essentially a giant holding pen for these. It holds previous lords of the Abyss who their replacements couldn't or wouldn't kill, evil gods who turned the rest of their pantheons against them, and the odd EldritchAbomination. Visitors to the layer tend to either be worshipers of the imprisoned beings paying them homage... or entities working to ''keep'' them locked up. |
| 370 | ** ''TabletopGame/ScarredLands'': |
| 371 | *** In the BackStory the current gods sealed the evil gods that ruled before them, each in a different way befitting them and tailored so that their powers couldn't get them out. For instance, Thulkas, the Iron Lord, was so strong that he couldn't be moved, so he was ''hammered into an arrow and shot into the sun''. |
| 372 | *** The Scarred Lands also has the Slarecians, psionic beings who challenged both the gods and the titans. The twist is that they sealed ''themselves'' into the can so they wouldn't be destroyed. |
| 373 | ** ''B3: Palace of the Silver Princess'': In the published version, a huge ruby called My Lady's Heart turns out to be a Canopener for an evil Immortal, Arik. Even the ''leakage'' of Arik's power which the gem emits is enough to petrify a royal court, trap its best defenders in a dimensional prison, and attract monsters and fanatical dark priests from hundreds of miles around. |
| 374 | ** An important part of TabletopGame/{{Eberron}} is that there are multiple Sealed Evils in various Cans, with sealants as strong as the plot demands of them. There are three big ones, as well as a number of more localized ones: |
| 375 | *** The Overlords of the Age of Demons, aka the Rakshasa Rajahs, are the closest thing to actual {{Physical God}}s confirmed to exist in the setting. They were big-time AbusivePrecursors and were eventually defeated after a war with the dragons and locked in prisons in [[BeneathTheEarth Khyber]], where they are kept in (mostly) suspended animation. Releasing them would be a ''massive'' undertaking requiring very fine manipulation of specific prophesied events (different for each Overlord) to pop their can, as attested by the fact that they've had minions working on the problem for millennia and only managed to spring ''one'' (and that one was re-sealed in a year). Per WordOfGod, it's set up like this so that you ''can'' make an Overlord being unleashed the climax of your story or otherwise a major point, or you can just say that nothing particularly major is prophesied for the next 200 years or so and deal with some of the ''other'' problems facing the setting. |
| 376 | *** The quori, malevolent nightmare spirits, are trapped in their [[DreamLand own dimension]] because it's been knocked off its metaphysical axis, preventing travel to and from other planes[[note]]Initially, this was a case of Sealed ''Good'' in a Can, but then the Age turned -- essentially resetting the entire plane and its inhabitants -- replacing the relatively benevolent quori who got sealed with the current crop of borderline-Eldritch Abominations[[/note]]. The quori mostly get around this by projecting themselves into mortal dreams and [[DemonicPossession possessing people]], since while their bodies can't leave Dal Quor, their ''minds'' can... |
| 377 | *** The Daelkyr were {{Humanoid Abomination}}s and the generals of an army of creatures from the Realm of Madness that invaded the mortal world several millennia ago (before the modern nations, but well after the dragon-demon war went down). They lost and got sealed with most of their minions in Khyber, though unlike the Overlords they're still awake and can move around, so long as they don't come to the surface or try to go home, both of which they're prevented from doing by special druidic seals. They do still have a disturbing amount of leeway for Sealed Evils, though. |
| 378 | *** The setting's CreationMyth has the progenitor dragons (Siberys, Eberron and Khyber) create the planes of existence and the sun, then, when Khyber turned on the others and murdered Siberys, Eberron trapped Khyber within her coils and became the world, starting a cycle of great evil being bound through desperate sacrifice that was mirrored in all of the above examples. |
| 379 | ** ''TabletopGame/{{Ptolus}}'' is set on the world of Praemal, which exists as a giant can in which to seal evil. The city of Ptolus itself is built on top of a can or ten and has a giant, impossibly high spire in it where a cleric once, long ago, tried to seal all the evils of the world in a can. Then he became evil, and eventually his fortress atop the spire was itself sealed with the remains of his work (and his remains) within it. It's a pretty can-heavy setting. |
| 380 | ** ''TabletopGame/NentirVale'': Torog, god of torture and imprisonment, is another notable (and, given his portfolio, ironic) example. The kicker? The earth is his can. He's trapped in the Underdark, actively crawling around down there, and occasionally reaches up from below the earth to pull whole cities down into his can with him. |
| 381 | ** ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'': Zuggtmoy (in the Temple of Elemental Evil), Iuz and Fraz-Urb-Iuu (in Castle Greyhawk) and Tharizdun (in his Forgotten Temple). |
| 382 | ** ''TabletopGame/Midnight2003'': There is the evil god Izrador, who was sealed (along with some other beings) in the world of Aryth. The bad part? Your characters live on Aryth and they're also sealed there. Not only is the evil in the can but you're in the can with it. CrapsackWorld indeed. |
| 383 | ** ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'': One of the oldest cans would be the Sharn Wall, erected by the creatures which gave it its name so as to keep the [[EldritchAbomination phaerimms]] sealed away from Faerûn. Weakened severely over the millennia, it is later brought down by the return of the Shadovar, who then must [[EnemyMine team up with]] the Sharn and the peoples of Toril to drive the phaerimm back. Other examples include: the djinn Calim and the efreet Memnon, [[SealedEvilInADuel locked in eternal struggle forever]], their battle creating the Calimshan Desert; Sarya Dlardrageth and the rest of her fallen house of demon-interbred Elves, trapped in the Nameless Dungeon beneath Hellgate Keep, who are [[NiceJobBreakingItHero inadvertently freed]] when the Mistmaster and his Harper allies destroy Ascalhorn's mythal with the Gatekeeper's crystal; Iyachtu Xvim, son (and receptacle) of Bane, imprisoned beneath Zhentil Keep until he breaks free in the wake of Fzoul Chembryl's reading of ''The True Life of Cyric''; an illithid and a rakshasa that became [[AndIMustScream trapped in stasis]] beneath Beorunna's Well after seeking revenge on Runlatha for [[NiceJobBreakingItHero their previous imprisonment and torture]] and who are even now (by using an image of the rakshasa to [[GodGuise pretend to be the totem spirit of the Red Tiger Clan]]) trying to obtain the cooperation of the Uthgardt barbarians in securing their freedom; and the three nycaloths [[NiceJobBreakingItHero accidentally freed]] from their dimensional pocket by the flight of "a [[AlwaysChaoticEvil red dragon]] [[PropheticFallacy that never held malice or greed in its heart]] over the coronal's throne" -- which leads directly to the Weeping War and the fall of Myth Drannor. |
| 384 | ** The artifact known as the Acorn of Wo Mai holds an evil demigod called the Copper Tyrant of Tros that will try to trick anyone possessing the Acorn into letting it loose. |
| 385 | ** Most of the [[EldritchAbomination titular monsters]] in the 3.5e sourcebook ''Elder Evils'' qualify, with the exceptions being [[OmnicidalManiac Atropus]] and [[BodyHorror Ragnorra]], both of which are completely free to roam the universe, killing or corrupting (respectively) everything they encounter. Father Llymic is a Far Realm entity that's sealed in a glacier, the Hulks of Zoretha are slumbering alien superweapons, the Leviathan is the chaos left over from creating the world given physical form and put to sleep at the bottom of the ocean, Pandorym is a phenomenally powerful entity whose mind and body have been separated and sealed far away from civilization and each other, Sertrous is a dead obyrith whose spirit is trapped in his skull, Kyuss is a would-be god who is sealed in an obelisk on an isolated island, and Zargon is the previous ruler of Baator, who was imprisoned by Asmodeus in a giant rock under a desert. |
| 386 | ** ''TabletopGame/DarkSun'' setting. After the Champions of Rajaat realize that Rajaat's Cleansing Wars are actually attempted genocide, they seal him in a prison dimension. |
| 387 | ** ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' magazine #46 adventure "The Temple of Poseidon''. The Cthulhuoid Dark King Ythog-Nthlei (AKA Zoth Ommog) was sealed into a sarcophagus hundreds of years before the adventure begins. Unless the {{PC}}s can stop it, he will be released during the adventure. |
| 388 | ** The Amber Temple in [[TabletopGame/CurseOfStrahd Barovia]] in the Ravenloft setting is an entire temple dedicated to this concept. Evil gods upon evil gods (implied to be the Dark Powers themselves in the 5th edition update) sealed in giant blocks of amber. Of course, a temple filled with dark gods sounds like a perfect idea that'll never go wrong, doesn't it? |
| 389 | ** Tharizdun (mentioned above under Greyhawk) has gradually evolved to be a GreaterScopeVillain for the entire D&D multiverse, so it's a good thing the Gods did a damn good job in sealing him. They placed him in his own personal prison universe, and he still hasn't gotten out (keep in mind, this happened before the world as we know it existed). |
| 390 | * ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': |
| 391 | ** One of the prophecies for [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Armageddon]] is "An ancient evil breaks its bonds." One of the possibilities for fulfilling this is Magog, Demon Prince of Cruelty, who was sealed in an ancient Egyptian tomb exactly one day after falling from Heaven. |
| 392 | ** The Archangel David keeps an immense amber gemstone -- the very first amber, in fact, based on which the common mineral was designed -- in his realm in Heaven. The amber appears to hold an insect within it, but the creature is in fact a terrible mistake from the early days of creation that David imprisoned in the gem. |
| 393 | ** There is a rumor among angels that Uriel's recall to the Upper Heavens is a lie, and that what actually happened was that the Seraphim Council judged him dangerously insane and chained him beneath Gabriel's Volcano, trapping him with Gabriel's power and an endless dream woven by Blandine. Supposedly, the Archangel of Purity is trapped there still, dreaming of escape and vengeance. Supposedly... |
| 394 | * ''TabletopGame/IronKingdoms'': The Skorne have Ancestral Guardians, which are statues empowered by the souls of fallen Skorne warriors. |
| 395 | * ''TabletopGame/TheMadnessDossier'': In 535 AD, a successful revolution sealed the monstrous Anunnakku, the true rulers of humanity, in the ultimate special container; non-existence. Unfortunately, that containment is breaking down. Individual Anunnakku (or small groups) may appear as "Irruptors" when and where reality glitches badly enough. |
| 396 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Neuroshima}}'': There are a number of items scattered around the world which adventurers refer to as Pandora's boxes. Each is a large metal canister that contains something nasty (from a biological weapon to a very compact assassin droid). Everyone knows what they are but humans being humans, every once in a while someone opens one, either because of the SchmuckBait involved or in some desperate gambit against his enemies. |
| 397 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': A common trope in ''Pathfinder''; Golarion has ''many'' hidden cans of evil, some of which are now breaking open due to the recent death of humanity's patron deity. |
| 398 | ** The most notable can is Golarion itself, which holds Rovagug, the "Rough Beast" and god of destruction. He resembles a giant arthropod and seeks nothing more than to undo the works of the other gods and destroy creation itself. Faced with this foe, [[EnemyMine good and evil deities]] alike joined forces to destroy him, and many lost their lives. In the end it was [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Sarenrae]] and [[{{Satan}} Asmodeus]] who managed to take him down, with Sarenrae battling him for long enough that Asmodeus was able to seal him within Golarion with a special key. Rovagug is still there within the world, where his struggles are blamed for volcanoes and earthquakes. The Pit of Gormuz (a twenty-mile-wide chasm) is a weak spot in his prison, and while Rovagug himself can't get out, he ''can'' periodically release some new Spawn on the world to continue his work (the most famous of which is the [[{{kaiju}} Tarrasque]]). There's a reason why the natives of Golarion's neighboring planets refer to it as the Cage. |
| 399 | ** Numerous other examples dot the world. |
| 400 | *** Runelords, ancient tyrannical [[SorcerousOverlord wizard-kings and -queens]], sealed themselves away to escape an ancient catastrophe, and several adventures deal with their cans being breached from without or within and releasing them into the world. |
| 401 | *** The elves trapped the plant-corrupting demon Treerazer in the portion of their nation he had already claimed. |
| 402 | *** The Whispering Tyrant, the world's most infamous [[OurLichesAreDifferent lich]], lay imprisoned within his former fortress and guarded by an entire nation of paladins. Then he managed to escape his prison, wiped out the paladins in less than a week and promptly restarted his plans for world conquest. |
| 403 | *** An island where an ancient {{Magocracy}} trapped its enemies and mistakes behind an impenetrable magical wall has been repurposed by a gold dragon and his allies into serving as a prison for [[OurDemonsAreDifferent fiends]], {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, evil wizards and other terrors, who are all unceremoniously shoved inside and left to sort themselves out. |
| 404 | *** The Bottle of the Bound, a nearly literal example, is a metal bottle containing an army of [[NumberOfTheBeast 666 fiends]] trapped there by an ancient emperor after a horribly botched summoning ritual, which can be summoned (albeit only one at a time) by anyone who wields the bottle and tracks down its three lost command words. Its most powerful prisoner is the daemonic demigod Zelishkar the Bitter Flame, but numerous other devils, daemons and demons of considerable power are held within it as well. |
| 405 | *** The Tarrasque itself was sealed in a cave after it destroyed the nation of Ninshabur in -632 AR, given that literally nothing can kill it the best any player characters unfortunate enough to fight it can hope for is re-sealing it. |
| 406 | ** Many published modules and adventure paths involve the player characters stopping some sealed evil from being unleashed -- "Realm of the Fellnight Queen", "Pact Stone Pyramid", and "From Shore to Sea" just to name a few. |
| 407 | ** The Adventure Path ''Reign of Fire'' has the BigBad and his [[SealedArmyInACan army]] in a scroll, which happens to be the anchor for a demi-plane that served as the vacation home for an ancient wizard. When the party opens the scroll(They can find out what it is, but won't know who's in it, so it's pretty inevitable), he and his army naturally escape and close it up with them in it. The party then has to deal with the remaining factions in the plane, such as the creatures forced to create it, or deserters from the Big Bad's army that decided to stay. |
| 408 | ** There is one extremely secretive organization, the Seal-Breakers, who have put considerable time and effort into tracking down all of Golarion's various cans and cracking them open one after the other in the name of breaking down the artificial order of the world and giving birth to a truer reality -- or of destroying the universe, they don't much care. They were partially responsible for freeing the Whispering Tyrant, and further plan to see Treerazer released from his own prison, invoke a variety of ancient slumbering entities, and ultimately split Golarion itself open to unleash Rovagug upon the universe. |
| 409 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'': |
| 410 | ** According to ''Mindwerks'', the [[PublicDomainArtifact Philosopher's Stone]] is actually a prison for an incredibly powerful EldritchAbomination. The Stone's owner unconsciously forms a mental bond with the Stone, and as he uses the Stone's fantastic powers, he becomes more and more corrupted by it. |
| 411 | ** The Host are powerful, evil demons who were sealed in a very tight can indeed -- it's almost impossible to find their dimensional prison except by blind luck, they need a summoner to willingly sacrifice themselves by allowing the demon to take over their body and soul (and most people willing to call upon such evil creatures would be nowhere near selfless enough to consider doing such a thing), and even once freed they categorically cannot cross between dimensions without another such summoning without being struck DeaderThanDead. |
| 412 | * ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'': The Chaos God Slaanesh, while lazing about from a feast of souls, got jumped by the newly ascended Elven gods and imprisoned between the realms of Ulgu and Hysh. The absence from his seat of power allowed the upstart Skaven god, the Horned Rat to usurp his place amongst the Ruinous Powers. |
| 413 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': |
| 414 | ** Daemon weapons contain bound daemons within them, giving them incredible power and just as incredible malevolence. However, the greatest threat isn't them escaping, but rather [[TheCorruption corrupting]] the weapon's wielder and [[MoreThanMindControl twisting them to its will]]. |
| 415 | ** More powerful daemons, who couldn't at the time be banished back to [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Warp]], are often sealed in the Materium in some way that prevents them from killing everything at the moment, perhaps in the hope that they can be banished later. [[CrapsackWorld This being WH40K]], not only does the sealing frequently make things worse, but most of the time those doing the sealing ''never tell anyone about it''. |
| 416 | ** Both literal and metaphorical in the case of the Necrons and their [[PhysicalGod C'tan masters]] (later retconned to have actually been shattered by the Necrons and chained), who sealed ''themselves'' deep beneath the surface of numerous worlds approximately '''sixty million years ago'''. The most powerful C'tan, the Void Dragon, is ''buried underneath Mars'' after the Emperor defeated him in a titanic fight. The new Necron superheavy unit, the Tesseract Vault, is essentially an attempt at weaponising this trope by taking a C'tan trapped in a high-tech device to keep it caged, and then having that device float around the battlefield dropping meteors on people. In an emergency, the Nemesors can [[GodzillaThreshold disable the seals]] and let the C'tan loose. |
| 417 | ** The GodEmperor is either a Sealed Evil, a {{Sealed Good|InACan}} or a {{Sealed Badass|InACan}}, depending on one's perspective. |
| 418 | ** During the Great Crusade, the Emperor sought to gain access to the Webway. In a top-secret chamber deep beneath his palace on Terra, he constructed a massive machine that allowed him to breach it. He had to put some heavy-duty psychic wards around the place to keep daemons from using the gate to enter Terra. Unfortunately, Magnus the Red broke those wards to tell him of Horus' betrayal. Since then, the Emperor has sat on the Golden Throne, using his psychic might (and the might of thousands of daily psyker sacrifices) to keep that gate closed. |
| 419 | * Creator/WhiteWolf: |
| 420 | ** ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': |
| 421 | *** In the prehistory of Creation, the defeated Primordials were stitched into the twisted body of their god-king Malfeas and confined to another realm... mainly because the Exalted looked upon the Primordials who ''had'' been killed, saw that they'd brought the Underworld into existence, and said, "Yeah, that ain't supposed to happen." |
| 422 | *** There are also the Neverborn, the aforementioned Primordials that ''had'' been killed. Being too big to die properly, they instead wrapped themselves up in giant sarcophagi spanning infinite distances as they resisted the pull of [[DeaderThanDead Oblivion]]. Then the Solars decided to pop a [[NiceJobBreakingItHero few blocks open to learn Necromancy]]... |
| 423 | *** From the perspective of the Bronze Faction, this was the case when the Solar Exaltations that they locked in the Jade Prison for ~2000 years, due to the Solars having grown increasingly tyrannical, corrupt and depraved, were broken free and scattered across the world to find new hosts. |
| 424 | ** ''TabletopGame/{{Scion}}'' uses the same logic in regards to the Titans. At the end of the Titanomachy, the gods bound them away in the Underworld because the Titans were incarnations of things such as Light, Fire, Darkness, Life, and Water, and their death would screw with reality big time. This was proven when Ymir was killed... causing the Great Flood, as the Ice Age ended right then and there. |
| 425 | ** ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'': The Uktena make a trade of this; one of their camps, the Bane Tenders, possesses secretive rites that allow them to seal away Banes too powerful to kill, so that they can't get out and wreak havoc on the world. |
| 426 | *** This is also the grand view of [[EldritchAbomination the Wyrm]], whose evil was not the cause of his sealing, but vice versa; the Weaver, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation herself a bit batshit at the time]], decided to trap the Wyrm within her webs, driving it mad and shifting its purpose from "a blessed end to all things" to "reality cancer, forever and ever." Some of its most devout cultists seek to undo the Weaver's webs so that the Wyrm can be set free. Unfortunately, since those webs make up a good chunk of reality... |
| 427 | *** A literal (but downplayed) example comes from the [[EvilInc Pentex Corporation]] of the Werewolf setting. One of their subsidiaries, a brewery, sometimes includes a minor bane (corrupted/evil nature spirit) in a can of beer, to be drunk by a member of the unsuspecting public. This might have the effect of turning the poor sap into a spirit/human hybrid (fomor), or just cause them to make life miserable for themselves and everyone around them just a little bit more. |
| 428 | [[/folder]] |
| 429 | |
| 430 | [[folder:Toys]] |
| 431 | * ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' has the Toa Seal, an impenetrable restrictive force made of [[{{Phlebotinum}} protodermis]] created by [[AllYourPowersCombined combining]] six Toa's ElementalPowers, but only if they're blasted at the target in unison. The only thing capable of undoing the seal is the same Toa projecting their powers into either the seal itself or a disconnected fragment of it. Different media depict Toa Seals differently: |
| 432 | ** When the Toa Mata trap Cahdok and Gahdok in a protodermis cage in the comics, the effect is a criss-crossing bond of glowing energy constricting them. In the online animations, the cage is more like a plane of glass filled with ''liquid'' protodermis that keeps Cahdok and Gahdok in stasis, but they can still move their eyes and blow bubbles. The Toa later undo the seal when they learn Cahdok and Gahdok are NotEvilJustMisunderstood. |
| 433 | ** In the animated films, [[BigBad Makuta Teridax]] is encased in crystalline protodermis by the Toa Metru. The crystal puts Makuta's body in absolute stasis, but his [[PsychicLink mind is free to call out]] to his servants Sidorak and Roodaka. Roodaka manages to chip off a fragment of crystal, and by coercing the Toa with a ploy to shoot their powers at her, the energies also hit the fragment and undo the seal, allowing Makuta to burst free. |
| 434 | [[/folder]] |
| 435 | |
| 436 | [[folder:Theme Parks]] |
| 437 | * ''Lost Island Theme Park'''s Volkanu is a malevolent fire demon trapped inside the park's volcano through the creation of the mystical Ora Tika idol channeling the power of the four elements. The theft of the idol by six thieves cursed into Stone Guardians allows Volkanu and his lava minions to begin emerging to destroy the island, setting the stage for the ''Volkanu: Quest for the Golden Idol'' dark ride. |
| 438 | [[/folder]] |
| 439 | |
| 440 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 441 | * ''WebAnimation/{{Dreamscape}}'': The Overlord of Evil is currently sealed in the Underworld...but that seal is weakening. In "The Mystery of Melinda", Drake and Keedran had to upgrade it to a SealedEvilInASixPack. Before that, he was sealed away in the [[WorldInTheSky Sky Dimension]], because the angel guards had to seal the entire dimension away after Curien and Ethan created an irreversible dark rift there. |
| 442 | ** Melinda is currently sealed in a BlankWhiteVoid dimension...but that seal is weakening. In addition, breaking seals like these is her specialty. Before that, she was locked away in her OminousFloatingCastle. Getting into a conflict with her sister, Betty, will break the seal, but Betty wasn't even aware of Melinda's existence. Even while sealed away, she was able to manipulate Melissa into becoming her apprentice. |
| 443 | * ''WebAnimation/HTFPlus'': [[spoiler:Rainbow Dash deletes the file of VIDEOGAME/LunaGame on the computer and thus defeating Evil Pinkie Pie]] in HTF+CC 2, but in HTF+FI/RF 1 [[spoiler:she is freed from the recycle bin by FI Creepybloom]]. |
| 444 | * ''WebAnimation/NoEvil'' has this in the form of the Black Tezcatlipoca, which is sealed away at the start of the series into Xochipilli, Ixtlilton, and Xochiquetzal, the seals taking the form of earmuffs, an eye mask, and a brooch, which contains the magical goo in exchange for robbing each of the three of their hearing, sight, and voice, respectively. The fourth member, Xipe Totec, gave up her [[BroughtDownToNormal immortality]] as part of this arrangement. This is acknowledged as a temporary fix, until they can find someone who can put an end to it for good. |
| 445 | ** Though, if you read the prequel comic carefully, it explains that they formed a contract with the Black Tezcatlipoca for it to seal the Red Tezcatlipoca in exchange for their senses and immortality, essentially dealing with the issue by turning it into the can sealing another potentially world-ending entity. [[spoiler: As seen when Charles unwittingly unleashes the Red, and it's all-consuming inferno, in episode 34.]] |
| 446 | * ''WebAnimation/PortByTheSea'': The opening text explains that the titan Tiamat, having turned evil and attempting to drown the world, was sealed inside the moon by his fellow titans. [[spoiler:And as we find out later in the pilot, the moon has been shattered…]] |
| 447 | [[/folder]] |
| 448 | |
| 449 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 450 | * In ''Webcomic/TheDwarfsTheSpiritAndTheSorceress'', a ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' {{Fan Webcomic|s}}, Zoso was this -- in a rock -- until the beginning, and is sealed again -- in a medallion -- at the end. |
| 451 | * ''Webcomic/BronzeSkinInc'': In the second chapter, Julia awakens the captain's ghost by touching the anchor he is sealed to. |
| 452 | * In ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfShanShan'', [[http://shanshan.upperrealms.com/view.php?pageid=025&chapterid=1 Julius is worried because the sealed evils have managed to touch the physical dimension.]] |
| 453 | * ''Webcomic/CharbyTheVampirate'' had a an old evil [[http://www.charbythevampirate.com/archive/568 sealed inside two of the main characters]], slightly subverted since it had originally been sealed by an amateurish effort to defeat it, only to [[http://www.charbythevampirate.com/comic/903 reseal it with a tighter lid]] later after it got loose. We didn't learn that evil came in cans until after the fact. |
| 454 | * ''Webcomic/CrowTime'': In "[[https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/crow-time/marble-wednesday/viewer?title_no=693372&episode_no=86 Marble]]", there's a Elder God stuck in a ''marble''. |
| 455 | * An extremely literal example in ''Webcomic/CthulhuSlippers'' with [[http://cthulhuslippers.com/comic/customer-services-double-update/ 'Can O' Shoggoth']] a product that is 100% fatal 100% of the time. |
| 456 | * In ''Webcomic/CucumberQuest'', [[http://cucumber.gigidigi.com/archive/page-191/ the Nightmare Knight.]] At that, [[http://cucumber.gigidigi.com/archive/page-192/ every 5000 years, someone manages to unseal it.]] [[http://cucumber.gigidigi.com/archive/page-193/ Cucumber finds this a bit depressing, but with Nautilus' help, he concludes that he can try to work out how to really end it.]] |
| 457 | * In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', the Other is a being of such extreme evil that it wants to enslave the world... and doesn't really care who dies in the process. It was eventually defeated, but nobody knows HOW... except maybe the parents and uncle of the protagonist. [[spoiler:It left a machine behind with a copy of itself, which it then imprinted on the protagonist (unsealing it), who is the daughter of the Other, or rather, taking into account certain implications and statements that lend themselves towards it having been an actually ancient evil, it simply possessed the protagonist's mother, and hundreds of other people through time, before finally taking possession of the protagonist, temporarily.]] |
| 458 | * The Axe of Prissan in ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'' acts as a prison for an immensely powerful demon lord, whose very existence threatened the mortal plane. The enchantments binding the prison will gradually break down if the axe is not used for good, or even faster if used for evil. As such, it has enchantments layered on it to ensure it will aid any paladin who encounters it and refresh the prison. Later on it is revealed that the Axe is [[spoiler:not a prison at all; it's a ''conduit'' "the Sacred" needs to cross from the hells into the mortal realm. The Axe was always intended to break; the legend of paladins needing to wield it was created to exploit this trope so there would be a paladin nearby when it broke to serve as the Sacred's first meal]]. It's also revealed at the same time there exist [[spoiler:three Prissans. The first is a hammer that [[SealedGoodInACan contains good]]; the second is the Axe; and the third contains "the Damned"]]. |
| 459 | * The plot of ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' ends (and also begins, due to [[StableTimeLoop Stable Time Loops]]) this way. [[spoiler: As revealed in the finale of Homosuck, when the Alpha kids face off against Caliborn, Dirk attempts to destroy his soul, but instead traps it inside of the puppet Lil' Cal. This seals him away from the time being, but [[NiceJobBreakingItHero ironically]], this enables Cal to be the host for Lord English, the BigBad of the series.]] |
| 460 | * In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'', space villain Fructose Riboflavin gets turned into PureEnergy and stuffed into a ''battery''. He doesn't stay there for long, though. More recently, there's the ancient Japanese treasure monster. |
| 461 | %%* Mr Goh has rather a... [[http://www.wanderingpandacomics.com/mrgoh/comic.php?comic=37 literal...]] approach to this trope |
| 462 | * ''WebComic/KillSixBillionDemons'': |
| 463 | ** [[PredecessorVillain The Red-Eyed King]] was the largest and most powerful demon lord ever to exist, and the Gods sealed him away because he was so foul they had no way to permanently kill him. He was eventually freed by GodOfEvil Aesma (she fell in love with him), who later beat him into submission and re-sealed him [[WomanScorned after he spurned her]]. At the current time of the comic (which takes place over thirty Kalpa[[note]]approximately 120 billion years[[/note]] later), The Red-Eyed King is little but a myth and presumably ceased to be relevant long ago. |
| 464 | ** Himself, the King of Devils, is sealed in a TailorMadePrison inside a deep pit beneath Throne by his own people. Being a reality-defying EldritchAbomination means no-one wants him around, though exactly why the devils are the ones guarding his prison is unknown. |
| 465 | ** During ''Breaker of Infinities'' [[spoiler:Jagganoth is subjected to this courtesy of Solomon David, [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique who expends all his power]] [[TakingYouWithMe in an attempt to remove Jagganoth from Creation]]. He is sealed away for the duration of the TimeSkip, but is slowly undoing his binding from the inside.]] |
| 466 | * ''Webcomic/MysteryBabylon'' has the Pit, into which every demon on Earth save one was imprisoned 1,000 years ago. The final remaining demon, Mystery Babylon, is prophesied to one day break the seal on the Pit and release the others, thereby causing the Apocalypse. |
| 467 | * On sale in the [[http://nekothekitty.smackjeeves.com/comics/1361561/909-steamy/ Gift Shop of Death]] in ''Neko the Kitty''. |
| 468 | * ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' features The Snarl, a monster formed from tangles in the fabric of reality, and sealed within the world itself. |
| 469 | * Umbria/Zaedalkaah from ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure'', who was [[NiceJobBreakingItHero blindly released by the heroine.]] |
| 470 | * In ''Webcomic/JennyAndTheMultiverse'', [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Lord Grallyx]] was "sealed inside the skin of the Sun" by the 'Disciples of Light' in an AlternateUniverse until he was accidentally summoned to Mystepolia by Laura's machine. |
| 471 | * ''Webcomic/LovelyLovecraft'': The shoggoth imprisoned at Miskatonic University. |
| 472 | * In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', it looks like [[spoiler: Oisri]] is a massive prison for the [[spoiler: dark matter entities like the ones which destroyed the galaxy in the alternate timeline.]] Petey thinks [[FromBadToWorse it's something far worse]]. |
| 473 | --> '''Petey''': To my analysis, [[spoiler:Oisri]] is not a vessel for imprisoning [[spoiler: a dark-matter creature.]] It was [[spoiler: [[WhamLine a machine for creating one]]]]. |
| 474 | * ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'': Inside Baylord Yama's floating fortress, the cage, it's said that a gigantic beast is imprisoned that he fought and defeated. [[spoiler: It turns out the prisoner is really his older brother Baylord Doom, who's also being used as the real source of the power of the canine people in the Cage.]] In a further twist, when the Sealed Evil is released by rebellious canine people, [[spoiler: he ultimately turns out less like an overwhelming threat and more like a potential puppet for the ManBehindTheMan.]] |
| 475 | * Inverted in ''Webcomic/TheWayOfTheMetagamer'': the evil is sealed within the Book, and does not escape... but the heroes are forced to follow it into the Book. |
| 476 | * Subverted in ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater''. Red Mage places the fire demon Kary in a Bag of Holding and freezes it with a powerful Ice spell, with the idea that she will remain sealed until they are powerful enough to defeat her. White Mage simply smashes the frozen bag [[spoiler: in revenge for the death of Black Belt]]. |
| 477 | * In ''Webcomic/FlakyPastry'', Nitrine discovers that Moirganae (the evil vampire created by Morgana) has been trapped in the belt-buckle of her PoweredArmor for all the time since their fight. Moirganae promises to fight Nitrine's enemies and suck their blood whenever she gets summoned -- until she becomes powerful enough to free herself, that is. Then she'll kill Nitrine. |
| 478 | * ''Webcomic/AngelMoxie'': All the villains start out like this but Tristan unleashes Vashi and she releases the rest of them. It's later revealed that [[spoiler:One Minion escaped being sealed by the heroes predecessors and was working on freeing Vashi all along]]. |
| 479 | * Blackburn, a dangerous pirate/witch in ''Webcomic/JackieRose''. Most of the season one is trying prevent her from escaping. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, the villain of the first season, Desanto, finds out that ''his'' blood will be able to break the seal.]] |
| 480 | * ''Webcomic/{{Paranatural}}'': More than a few. |
| 481 | ** The spirit in Max's bat is a grudge, an insane spirit pumped up on pain and rage. It's unclear what it was originally like, but at this point it is nothing but a mad animal that lashes out at everything in reach. While it is still recovering in the bat, it can't do anything, but Max still gets access to its magnet powers. |
| 482 | ** [[spoiler:Max is also unknowingly possessed by a piece of a "broken god," an entity that terrifies Doorman and seems to be part of the vague "evil" of Mayview. It's still recovering, but it's implied that something very bad will happen if it manages to escape its prison. And since Max doesn't even know he is a prison, the spirit is learning quite a few dangerous secrets through him]]. |
| 483 | ** [[spoiler:Spender is possessed by an incredibly powerful shadow spirit, only contained by the constant efforts of the light spirit in his glasses. It is implied to be the "biggest spirit" that Spender defeated years ago]]. |
| 484 | ** Mayview itself is contained in a massive bubble that keeps spirits, spectrals, and their powers from crossing the barrier in either direction. Spender dodges the question when Max asks why it exists, but it likely has something to do with the "evil" he mentions sleeping in the town, and the power that people are constantly seeking. |
| 485 | ** Francisco Guerra has a number of powerful spirits contained in Tools. At least one is an angry god who wishes to usher in the apocalypse and destroy all humankind. [[MundaneUtility Guerra uses it as target practice]]. |
| 486 | [[/folder]] |
| 487 | |
| 488 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 489 | * Many, many things contained by the ''Website/SCPFoundation''. |
| 490 | ** [[http://scp-wiki.net/scp-076 SCP-076-2 ("Able")]] has the particularity of coming with his own (leaky) can, [=SCP-076-1=], and the SCP Foundation (after many [[PyrrhicVictory Pyrrhic Victories]] keeping it ''in'' the can) eventually decided to try and work with him; predictably, it didn't end well. |
| 491 | ** [[http://scp-wiki.net/scp-231 SCP-231-7 ("Special Personnel Requirements")]] ''is'' the can for...whatever EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt entity it is that she carries. And the Foundation has to do some horrible stuff to keep it in there. Trust us, YouDoNOTWantToKnow. |
| 492 | ** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-557 SCP-557 ("Ancient Containment Site").]] Around 2,400 B.C. a tomb was built to be a prison for supernatural beings. Sometime later the "bastard son of Apep" (SCP-557-1) was captured with the help of the gods and secured in the tomb by being chained to a block of granite. Around 300 A.D. the last Keeper (guard) of the tomb died. In 1988 a geological survey team stumbled across the site and somehow released SCP-557-1 from confinement. |
| 493 | ** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1739 SCP-1739 ("Obsolete Laptop").]] SCP-1739 contains an EldritchAbomination by creating an AlternateUniverse. The Abomination is distracted by being allowed to destroy the AlternateUniverse, keeping it from destroying the universe it's in. |
| 494 | ** [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2317 SCP-2317 ("A Door to Another World").]] On the other side of the door is a desert, and buried in a hidden chamber beneath that desert is a 200 kilometer-tall humanoid being who is restrained by seven chains, six of which have already broken, with it being believed that the entity will escape into our world when the seventh breaks as well. The Foundation is carrying out a regular ritual to maintain the last chain until they can figure out how to repair the others. [[spoiler: Except that's a lie designed to avoid panic -- the ritual does nothing, no one in the Foundation has any idea how to repair the chains, and they estimate that the last will break in 30 to 100 years, with no way to stop it.]] |
| 495 | ** Subverted with [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3758 SCP-3758 ("The Last Dodo")]], about an entity named Hualiet which will only be freed when all but one dodo is extinct. The dodo they interview talks about him like one of these, but only because their culture treats ideas like "maybe stop torturing people" and "let's learn how to make buildings" as heretical. Unfortunately his banishment to the "poison light fields" has resulted in Hualiet becoming enormous and lethally radioactive, so the Foundation is secretly maintaining a dodo population to keep him banished. |
| 496 | --> '''Foundation Ethics Committee:''' Given the choice between letting an ancient martyr's eternal damnation continue, or setting loose a walking Chernobyl, I'm afraid we can only afford to go with the former. |
| 497 | * BEN of ''WebVideo/BenDrowned'' is within a Majora's Mask Nintendo 64 cartridge, though how he originally got inside is relatively unknown. |
| 498 | ** [[spoiler:As revealed in [[WhamEpisode THE FATHER.wmv]], BEN might not even be [[GreaterScopeVillain the]] [[EldrichAbomination worst]] [[HorrifyingTheHorror thing]] contained within that cartridge...]] |
| 499 | * ''Website/{{Neopets}}'' now has its very own Sealed Evil in a Can, as of the end of the Return of Dr. Sloth plot event that happened from January 29 to March 15, 2008. [[http://www.neopets.com/space/ros/comic.phtml?chapter=1 The comic is here]] and spoilers are here: [[spoiler:Dr. Frank Sloth is the sealed evil. The can is the Space Faerie's token. Roll your mouse over the very last panel of the last chapter, and you'll see the token, which was not destroyed in the explosion of the ship, floating through space. When it gets most of the way across the panel, a pair of red eyes glow from within...]] |
| 500 | * ''WebOriginal/{{Phantasia}}'' has more than one of these, of varying degrees of world-destroying power. |
| 501 | * The BigBad of the second year in ''Literature/TheQuestportChronicles'' starts out as Sealed Evil in a Mirror. |
| 502 | * [[http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Fourth_Wall This Uncyclopedia article]] lapses into this trope in the last two sections, in a hilariously [[BreakingTheFourthWall meta]] way. |
| 503 | * In the ''Franchise/{{Noob}}'' in-game backstory, the Empire once created a very dangerous artificial being known as Tabris. The Sources of life and death, the setting's {{Physical God}}s, weren't happy with this and made the Empire destroy them in exchange of allocating a little of their magic power to fuel most of the newly-created technology that relied on a very limited resource at the time. After this, that limited resource was used only for the essential and/or top-secret stuff, in case the Sources changed their mind. That top-secret stuff included a place in which Tabris was held prisoner after being officially destroyed. A few thousand years later, an attack on Centralis, the Empire's capital, put a strain on all its energy sources and Tabris' prison was one of the places that ended up without power. |
| 504 | * The Celle Neues Rathaus in ''WebVideo/BedtimeStoriesYoutubeChannel'' has the entire basement section. Flooded by the SS just days before the Western Allies entered the area, the US forces stationed there decided to send three divers into said flooded basement. [[HumanoidAbomination What the lone surviving diver found down there]] was pretty unsettling to say the least. Thus, when the British took over the area, they immediately sealed the access points to the basement with concrete, which was a good move. |
| 505 | ** In a later episode, there's the titular "Entity of Tsarichina", an AncientEvil being capable of communicating with aliens and supernatural beings in order to help it get released. [[DugTooDeep Upon being unearthed]] by a Bulgarian Army expedition, it goes on a rampage, killing any and all humans that it comes across. Thankfully, a team of Army Engineers blows the cave it was found in, burying it once more. |
| 506 | * ''Roleplay/FireEmblemOnForums'' has a few examples, generally as the BigBad or FinalBoss of any given roleplay: |
| 507 | ** ''[[Roleplay/FireEmblemOnForumsChainsOfHorai Chains of Horai]]'': The God of Curses, a "[[EldritchAbomination foreign god]]" that the Gods of the Land sealed away at the cost of a HeroicSacrifice by one of their ranks. |
| 508 | ** ''Final Hour'': Chaos, sealed away in the dimension on the other side of the Waygates. |
| 509 | ** ''Gates of Rundum'': The eponymous Rundum (or one of them, anyway), a demon-god who the players must beat down to seal. |
| 510 | * ''Literature/TheCrawlspace'': The [[spoiler:MonstrousHumanoid creature]] apparently lives in the crawlspace, the entrance of which is a small, locked door in the master bathroom. Of course, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero the girls just had to open it, didn’t they?]] |
| 511 | * ''WebVideo/OverlordDVD'': |
| 512 | ** Harvey Cthulhu is an EldritchAbomination who Doomcock has sealed within a container. Harvey frequently tries to get Doomcock or the viewers to press the button that will release him and allow him to destroy the world. |
| 513 | ** The Skull of Calderón was once an EvilSorcerer who was beheaded by Doomcock, his still-living skull now stuck in a bubble of entropy. |
| 514 | ** Omnivac is de facto sealed by the fact that Doomcock ''refuses'' to give Omnivac any kind of internet connection, lest he take over the world first! |
| 515 | * In ''Literature/TheCountOfYears'', after [[DemiurgeArchetype Ecaîas]] introduces needless suffering to the world, thereby creating evil, [[GodIsGood Iáinos]] imprisons him in the center of the planet Almea, never to be released until he fully repents of his sins. That doesn’t mean that other evil powers don’t try to free him, which would possibly end the world, though Iáinos ensures they always fail. |
| 516 | ** Interestingly, according to the in-universe commentary, some Almeans hold that Ecaîas isn’t ''that'' evil (at least compared to his successors) and may have been released already. |
| 517 | [[/folder]] |
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