History Main / ThePunishment

* The Latin American folk tale of La Llorona. She was a woman who drowned her two children for varying reasons (to get a husband, to spite her ex, because she didn't want them-always a petty and/or spiteful reason). After she died, for some reason God cursed her to wander eternally looking for her children instead of just sending her to Hell. She now wanders the riverbanks looking for her children, and drowns any children she finds to try and replace them. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice job breaking it, God.]]

* ''Literature/PercyJackson'': Monsters have ResurrectiveImmortality, which means any instance of a Greek god punishing a mortal by turning them into a monster is an example of this trope. They make people who are either innocent or assholes into immortal superhuman beings primed to bear a grudge against them but only have an outlet in targeting their mortal lovers and children. Justified as the gods being shortsighted jackasses is par for the course in Greek mythology, and it does bite then in the butt regularly.

* Salem of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' was cursed with immortality for (unsuccessfully) tricking one of the gods into bringing her dead lover back to life. It was ''supposed'' to be an IronicHell type punishment: Salem wouldn't respect the boundaries between life and death, so now she doesn't get to reunite with said dead lover in the afterlife. Of course, Salem was already a powerful magic user, had a reason to be mad at the gods, and managed to turn herself into a HumanoidAbomination with control over the Grimm (accidentally, while trying to off herself). So now humanity has an enemy that they literally can't kill, who controls legions of monsters, and who wants nothing more than to kill all of them out of sheer spite. Nice going there...

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' Princess Celestia and Princess Luna defeated King Sombra by "turning him to shadow and banishing him to the ice of the arctic north". Unfortunately when he came back he had [[LivingShadow effectively weaponized the curse and was more dangerous than ever]]. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Good job, your majesties!]] Admittedly, it is implied Sombra was already a very powerful SorcerousOverlord before this (he did keep the entire Crystal Empire in his thrall, and must somehow have been able to stave off the grasp of the frozen North '''without''' the usage of the Crystal Heart), so the shadow form, as formidable as it was, ''may'' have legitimately been a downgrade. In [[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW the comics]] continuity, on the other hand, Sombra's shadowy form is actually his ''true form''.

* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTensei: VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'', [[spoiler:Cain]]. For the sin of [[spoiler:being the first murderer]], God cursed him to be eternally reborn with a new body each time he dies, with all his previous memories intact. What does he do with this curse? Why, become an immortal [[TheChessmaster chessmaster]], of course, and spends eternity biding his time [[RageAgainstTheHeavens for the day he is able to take down God]]. [[spoiler:In a subversion, it is revealed that God's intention was not to punish Cain but to give him eternal life so that he he would eventually come around to reflect on his mistake and try to atone for it: The 'punishment' aspect is more due to Cain's eternal bitterness and inability to see that he has the hope of atonement than anything else.]]

-->-- '''Exposition for ''Film/{{The Mummy|1999}}'''''

* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGate 2'', Jon Irenicus is under a terrible curse for past crimes. While the curse does NOT grant him any special ability, it did not remove the powers he already had... and Irenicus is an insanely high-level wizard. His attempts at removing his curse result in many deaths and a lot of suffering for the PC (and his/her sister). Unusually, the people at the origin of the curse actually see their utter lack of foresight come back to bite them in the butt.

* The case with the famous Illidan Stormrage of ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII''. Leaving out the debate on whether or not his punishment was just, Malfurion Stormrage and Tyrande Whisperwind took a powerful sorcerer and sentenced him to spend the rest of his [[{{Immortality}} immortal]] life chained up beneath the earth. Then, ten thousand years later, they are so desperate for a way to fight back against TheLegionsOfHell that they release him, only to find out that ten millennia of isolation have driven Illidan more than a little mad, making him even more dangerous than he was when he was imprisoned.

* If you can beat ''[[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys Five Nights at]] [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3 Freddy's 3]]'', you learn that [[spoiler:the resident SerialKiller met his end when the ghosts of the children he murdered tricked him into the Springtrap suit ([[BearTrap which is called that]] ''[[CruelAndUnusualDeath for very]] [[BodyHorror good reasons]]''). The kids are trying to invoke KarmicDeath on the murderer by killing him the same way he hid their corpses in other animatronic suits, which they succeed at before moving onto the afterlife... except then the ''murderer'' begins to haunt ''his'' animatronic suit, giving birth to the unholy terror you've been contending with all throughout the third game.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Penance (different Penance) used to be Speedball, a FunPersonified character you've probably seen elsewhere on Wiki/TVTropes, until he caused a major accident resulting in multiple deaths, so he inflicts this upon himself. No one really got it. He's been restored to being Speedball, though the survivor's guilt that fueled his Penance persona is still there.

* OlderThanFeudalism: In Myth/GreekMythology, some versions of the Medusa myth say she was originally a beautiful nymph. Her monstrous form, complete with killing everybody who looked at her, was the result of a curse put on her by Athena, for the offense of sexually defiling her temple... by [[BlamingTheVictim being raped in it]].

* OlderThanFeudalism: In Myth/GreekMythology, some versions of the Medusa myth say she was originally a beautiful nymph. Her monstrous form, complete with killing everybody who looked at her, was the result of a curse put on her by Athena, for the offense of sexually defiling her temple.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' backstory: For over 100 years, the vampire Angelus was a heartless killing machine. When he finally chose the wrong victim, a young gypsy girl, her tribe took swift revenge: they cursed him with a soul that felt the torment and guilt of all his sins. That much was a good idea. To twist the knife a bit more, the curse was designed to end if the newly moral Angel felt a moment of pure happiness. That wasn't a bad idea either, as it meant that if having a soul ever became a good thing for him, he'd lose it. No, the bad idea was ''not telling Angel that!'' Unaware of the "escape clause", Angel had that happy moment, and Angelus was unleashed on the world again.

** Being NeglectfulPrecursors of the highest order, this wasn't even the first time the Guardians of Oa had tried The Punishment and seen it blow up in their faces. They once imprisoned Sinestro in the central power battery, forgetting they'd already stuck the [[EldritchAbomination living personification of fear]] inside there -- which Sinestro quickly awakened. The resulting clusterfuck ends up killing all but one of the Guardians, reducing the number of Green Lanterns in existence from 3,600 to 1, and technically [[ComicBook/ZeroHour destroys the universe]]. The lesson: the [[SealedEvilInACan Can you Seal Evil In]] and the CosmicKeystone that is the very heart of your power should be two different things.

* Some origins for ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'''s Shang Tsung have his soul-sucking be part of an Elder God curse, as a way of staving off rapid aging and premature death. [[NeglectfulPrecursors Considering the track record of the Elder Gods]], this probably wasn't a good idea...