Poisonous Captive: Difference between revisions

Captured doesn't necessarily mean cowed. A '''Poisonous Captive''' is a villain held prisoner by the heroes who continues to undermine their objectives through their toxic influence. They have a tendency to spark disagreements between allies (up to and including the spread of a [[Hate Plague]]), to shake the good guys' confidence in themselves [[Hannibal Lecture|just by talking]], or just to make them feel uneasy by virtue of being closer around than they were as a free agent. Despite the heroes' best efforts, it's usually difficult to keep the villain in the dark about everything that's going on or prevent them from divining weak spots, so the longer they're held the more of a danger they pose, especially should they escape -- meaningescape—meaning it's all but inevitable that they will.

Particularly dangerous cases may pose the threat of a hero's untimely [[The Corrupter|corruption]], if they start listening to the villain's [[Wisdom Fromfrom the Gutter|cynical-but-persuasive advice]], buying into their [[Utopia Justifies the Means|justifications]] [[I Did What I Had to Do|for]] [[Above Good and Evil|evil]] [[Well -Intentioned Extremist|deeds]], or being tempted by offers made in exchange for freedom.

May be a result of [[I Surrender, Suckers]]. Compare [[Pity the Kidnapper]], a comedic version (which usually involves villains as captors rather than heroes), [[Might Asas Well Not Be in Prison At All]], and [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]]. The inverted, heroic version often falls under [[Talking Your Way Out]].

{{examples|Examples:}}

* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Mangamanga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' has Envy, when he was trapped in a flask. He was able to play on May Chang's fear for her clan and talk her into going back instead of taking him to Xing, which allowed him to get free and obtain a second Philosopher's Stone.

* In ''[[The Avengers (Filmfilm)|The Avengers]]'' movie, {{spoiler|Loki}} gets captured quite early on. Despite the team's best preventive efforts, it ends spectacularly poorly.

* In ''[[The Three Musketeers (Literaturenovel)|The Three Musketeers]]'' [[Femme FatalFatale]] Milady de Winter pulls this by seducing her jailer when captured in England, twisting the guy so much that he becomes an assassin, attacking The Duke of Buckingham (also a [[Historical in In-Joke]], as this event really happened).

* Spike tended to be this when held by the Scoobies in season four of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''.

* In ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'' season 4 Angelus did this to the crew of Angel Investigations.

* Ben from ''[[Lost (TV)|Lost]]'' makes his first appearance as the captive "Henry Gale", and spends his entire time in captivity playing mind games with the survivors and attempting to turn them against one another.

* Simeon on ''[[Stargate Universe (TV)|Stargate Universe]]''.

* A Silurian warrior woman in series 5 of ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' . She managed to convince one of the people guarding her to act on her worst impulses.

* [[Serial Killer|Sylar]] to [[The Professor|Mohinder]] in the ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' episode "Parasite."

* [[The Joker]] on the ''[[Batman: theThe Animated Series]]'' episode "[[Mad Love]]", who was able to talk his psychiatrist Harlene Quinzel into becoming [[Harley Quinn]] while still in Arkham. And it was implied early in the episode that he compromised the ones before her in a similar fashion.

* Batman also does this in ''[[Justice League (Animationanimation)|Justice League]]'', when captured by Lex Luthor's villainous team. {{spoiler|He bribes Ultra Humanite to save the Justice League from Luthor's plan and take down the team from the inside, frames the perfectly innocent Cheetah as his accomplice, drives a wedge between team members and generally makes a nuisance of himself, all while restrained. And then, as the kicker, reveals in the climax that he could have escaped at any time but stuck around 'to keep an eye on' the Injustice Gang.}}

[[Category:TropeKidnapping and Abduction Tropes]]