'''Basic Trope''': A good being has been sealed away.
* '''Straight''': A benevolent and powerful spirit is sealed away in a mystic mask.
* '''Exaggerated''': A legion of 777 noble and powerful angels, any one of which could resolve the conflict alone, are all sealed away inside one outrageously complicated prison...All of them.
* '''Downplayed''': The spirit was just hanging around in a difficult-to-access cave. He's a good guy but far from being a powerful savior.
* '''Justified''':
** The BigBad was either not powerful enough to kill her, or otherwise doesn't have the power to do so, and so decided to do the next best thing: Seal it away and try to make sure that no one ever finds him/her.
** No longer needed but realizing that the BigBad would eventually return, the spirit seals him/herself away so he/she will still be around when the bad guy does return.
* '''Inverted''': SealedEvilInACan
* '''Subverted''':
** The good guy sealed away discovered long ago that it could get out any time, by the time the heroes come to save him, the spirit is already free.
** The RagnarokProofing didn't work, and by the time the new heroes find it, the good that was sealed away is now dead and/or useless.
** The sealed good turns out to be not so good after all.
* '''Double Subverted''':
** ...and then it turns out that the room the box was in is in itself a much stronger seal.
** The team's resident wizard [[CameBackStrong brings the good guy back to life with stronger powers]].
** Turns it it wasn't evil after all, [[GoodIsNotNice just scary and pragmatic in its methods]].
* '''Parodied''': A five-year-old accidentally frees a legendary hero trapped inside a gumball machine, who can barely stick his way out of it.
* '''Zig Zagged''': The [[IncorruptiblePurePureness utterly benevolent entity]] was sealed inside the magical can because, unbeknown to him/her, he/she is actually, ''matryoshka''-style, [[SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan the Person-Shaped Can]] [[SealedEvilInACan for some horrible evil]]. Specifically, something ''so'' abominable that ''[[NightmareFuel even the villain that sealed him/her in is scared of it]]''.
* '''Averted''': No benevolent entities are or were ever been sealed away.
* '''Enforced''':
** "These guys are too low powered to take on the BigBad. They'll need backup. Send them after it as a MacGuffin and let them do some LevelGrinding on the way."
** The heroes can't beat the God of Evil, let them have a God of Good on their side.
* '''Lampshaded''': "Dude, maybe Sir Goodnik got sealed away with the same spell. We find him, and maybe we can shove the [[SealedEvilInACan evil wizard]] back into the box?"
* '''Invoked''': Unable to take down a powerful adversary, the BigBad formulates a plan to seal him/her away so he can no longer bother his plans.
* '''Exploited''': Being GenreSavvy, our witty hero sets his quest to release as many sealed goods as he can to overwhelm the BigBad rather than setting off to fight him personally.
* '''Defied''':
** Just as the BigBad attempts to seal the good guy away, [[TheLancer a friend]] comes swooping in and pulls off a ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind.
** The BigBad makes sure that no one can free the Sealed Good in a Can.
** The spirit has taken precautions to become impossible to seal away by any means.
* '''Discussed''': " You'd think they'd cram me inside a bigger can, but no! I have a killing 800-year neck strain right now!"
* '''Conversed''': "This is the part when they release the Spirit of Life from the mask."
* '''Implied''': The BigBad mentions a powerful rival and how he/she is no longer a problem to him where he/she is now. We never see said enitity nor his prison.
* '''Deconstructed''': Anything evil enough to seal away this force of good would make sure it's not just a sort of peaceful eternal sleep. The force of good has been living in a nightmare world that would make Cthulhu wet himself in terror for the last thousand years, and has gone completely insane as a result. When the heroes do let it out, it [[ImAHumanitarian eats]] them and goes on a murderous rampage before realizing what it's done - and kills itself.
* '''Reconstructed''':
** Anything evil enough to seal away this force of good would make sure it's not just a sort of peaceful eternal sleep. The force of good has been living in a nightmare world that would make Cthulhu wet himself in terror for the last thousand years, and has been severely traumatized as a result. When the heroes let it out, it [[TalkativeLoon babbles incoherently]] and [[TheGlomp hugs them]] before breaking down in tears. With the help of the heroes, the entity slowly regains its sense of identity and purpose and helps in the fight against the bad guys.
** The sealed good was imprisoned in a horrible nightmare world but has been spending the centuries fighting for his life day in and day out. As a result, the SealedGoodInACan is now [[TookALevelInBadass ten times as powerful than he was when he was sealed away]] [[LevelGrinding from all that fighting]] and is now more than a match for the BigBad who put him in there.
----
Back to SealedGoodInACan
----
%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
%%
%%* '''Played For Laughs''': ???
%%* '''Played For Drama''': ???