Sealed Evil in a Can: Difference between revisions

[[File:PandorasBox.jpg|link=Classical Mythology|frame|"I [[Stealth Pun|hope]] it's not too late to return this."]]

 

 

Long ago, [[Precursors|An Ancient People]] faced a terrible evil. Using various methods, they [[Captured Super Entity|bound the evil]] into a [[Tailor-Made Prison|prison]] from which they thought it could never escape.

It did.

 

 

Sometimes, the [[Big Bad]]'s plan is to unseal the can of some ancient [[God of Evil]]; hoping they'll get some of that great power as a reward. If they succeed, it almost always turns out that the Sealed Evil was manipulating them into freeing them, making the Sealed Evil the ''true'' [[Big Bad]]. Sealed Evil™ almost ''never'' rewards those who release it. It may act like the malevolent flavor of a [[Literal Genie]], twisting their releasers' wishes back on them, or it may simply decide that [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]. Remember: [[Evil Is Not a Toy]].

 

 

Expect the mere release of the SEIAC to cause a [[World-Wrecking Wave]], [[Walking Wasteland]], and sundry other disasters. That said, being cooped up for centuries is likely to have weakened the SEIAC, meaning it needs some time to recover its lost strength.

Since this trope can be traced back to Greek mythology, it's [[Older Than Feudalism]]. Notice that it is exactly the same, without the mystical magical mumbo-jumbo, as any plot where a horrible criminal escapes from or is released from prison.

 

 

* Ryoko, from ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]!'', was sealed away as a traditional demon in the [[OVA]]s; however, after calming down by dueling Tenchi for an episode, she joined the cast as a protagonist and suitor for Tenchi's hand. Washuu was in a similar situation in the TV series.

** {{spoiler|Caribou, sealed evil in a barrel.}} Poor mermaids.

* The Panthalassa and the real Michel in ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]''.

** Toriyama acknowledges his reliance on the Sealed Evil In A Can formula in the ''Neko Majin Z'' parody comic, in which the titular "hero" keeps a powerful demon sealed in a small rock balanced on top of a boulder by the side of a road. If anyone picks up the rock, the demon is released, requiring Neko Majin to step in and re-seal the demon... for a fee.

** In the 13th movie, ''Wrath of the Dragon'', the monster Hirudegarn is split in two and sealed inside Tapion and Minosha. Hoi breaks him free and rejoins the two halves... {{spoiler|You guessed it, Hirudegarn stomps on Hoi and kills him. And Hirudegarn is eventually killed by Goku (who at that point used a technique that could have defeated him right from the start).}}

* The Decepticon army that Crosswise was jailer of in ''[[Transformers]]: Cybertron'', until [[The Starscream|Starscream]] freed them.

* ''[[The Slayers]]'' has Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo, which was broken into seven pieces and sealed in humans (and gets out every now and then), Zanafar, and for good measure Shabranigdo's lieutenant Chaos Dragon Gaav.

** Even worse, the guy who wasted his life was just a diversion while someone else got the keys to unseal {{spoiler|Zeref, who reveals later that he was ''never even sealed''.}}

* In "[[Utawarerumono]]", Hakuoro finally has his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] and has the [[Big Bad]] Sealed In A Can. {{spoiler|Since he has to merge with his [[Evil Twin]] to do so, it counts as both Sealed Evil in a Can and [[Sealed Good in a Can]].}}

* The ghosts of ''[[Ghost Stories]]'', until the construction sites destroy the places where they had been imprisoned. Satsuki then has to spend the rest of the series re-sealing them.

 

* In ''[[The DCU]]'', the [[Phantom Zone]] is essentially an other-dimensional prison that holds numerous Kryptonian criminals. As such, there many stories where the prisoners escape and the heroes have to fight to throw them back into the Zone.

* In ''[[Hsu and Chan]]'', the Tanaka brothers fight off a demon invasion by sealing them in various trinkets and keepsakes.

* In ''[[Lucifer (comics)|Lucifer]]'', the seraph Meleos long ago created the Basanos, a living, extremely powerful living tarot deck as both a complement to Destiny's book (which contains nearly everything that will ever happen) and a means of recording and preserving humanity's thoughts. The latter function, however, corrupted the Basanos and turned them into beings of pure evil, so Meleos has since locked them in a box. However, {{spoiler|when Lucifer demands the use of the Basanos for divination, Meleos resolves to destroy them and opens the box, whereupon the cards overpower him and escape.}}

* In ''[[The Astounding Wolf Man]]'' {{spoiler|Gorgg}} is an ancient and evil golem that was imprisoned under Stonehenge. As soon as he is released by {{spoiler|The Face}} he goes to kill the blood relatives of those who imprisoned him.

* Ragamuffin, from ''[[Lenore the Cute Little Dead Girl]]'', [[Complete Monster|the eternal vampire scourge who eats people alive]], is [[Sealed Evil in a Teddy Bear|trapped in a rag doll]] for the most part of the comics.

* ''[[Green Lantern]]: Rebirth'' revealed that the long-established "[[Kryptonite Factor|yellow impurity]]" in the Central Power Battery was actually ''Parallax'', the "yellow fear entity," an [[Anthropomorphic Personification|insectile manifestation]] of that emotion, released when Hal "Greatest GL of them All" Jordan entered the Central Battery years before.

* Parodied in a 1983 nine-page story in ''[[Love and Rockets]]'' by Jamie Hernandez called ''Maggie vs Maniakk''. Maggie plays with a "Mayamese mini transporter" and accidentally frees Maniakk, a costumed super evil trapped in limbo/the ninth dimension by Ultimax, a superhero now down on his luck.

* In "The Garden" segment of ''[[Garfield (Comic Strip)|Garfield]]: His 9 Lives'', 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.

* The Warlock Graveyard in ''[[I Hunt Monsters]]'' is this, housing many powerful monsters in it and kept in check by an obelisk that needs to be recharged every century of so. It the protagonist's disbelief and reluctance that ends up freeing the monsters and he forced to track them down and re-seal them.

* Caged Demonwolf (Molestor of Worlds!) from ''[[Empowered]]'' is an [[Eldritch Abomination]] that Emp trapped into an alien-made power-draining bondage gear. [[It Makes Sense in Context]].

* Zom, from ''[[Doctor Strange]]'' - a surprisingly obscure hyperdemon who was this trope almost literally, having been sealed in a special amphora in another dimension. ''Horrifically'' powerful. He was initially imprisoned by a coalition of cosmic beings, including Eternity and frickin' Dormammu, and when he was let out, he frightened Umar (Dormammu's even scarier sister) so much she ran home and said she'd never come out again. Considering how bad-ass he is, the "can", or amphora, must truly be the can of the gods.

** Then came ''[[World War Hulk]]'', when a [[Godzilla Threshold|desperate Strange]] let Zom back ''out'' of the bottle—and quickly discovered that [[Evil Is Not a Toy]].

* The Source Wall in [[The DCU]] is a huge cosmic barrier between the Source (the source of power behind existence itself) and the rest of creation. The Wall is decorated with the bodies and visages of all of the would be conquerors who have sought to claim the power of the Source for themselves, imprisoning them for all eternity. The Wall is one of the more effective Cans in fiction and only three people have ever escaped it. One of them, Yuga Khan (the father of [[Darkseid]]), managed to summon just enough power to free himself from the Wall...only to get himself imprisoned in it again in another bid to obtain the Source, this time for good. The second one was Darkseid himself, and he needed the help of the one who imprisoned him in the first place ([[Superman]]) to do it. The third was Superman, who was trapped by Darkseid and required the help of every variation of Supergirl from the last twenty years to break free.

* In the conclusion of ''[[The Thanos Imperative]]'' event, {{spoiler|the now immortal Thanos is trapped in the Cancer Verse. Star-Lord and Nova trapped him there along with themselves to keep him from destroying their own universe in his rage at being forever denied the embrace of his beloved Death.}}

* [[Marvel Comics|Tiamut the Dreaming Celestial]] was exiled to Earth by his Celestial brethren for committing a crime against "life itself". {{spoiler|Later revealed to be a case of [[Sealed Good in a Can]]. Tiamut objected when the others tried to cull the Deviants of Earth, and was punished for it. The Deviants understandably worship Tiamut as their savior.}}

* The Sohrem of ''[[Nightschool]]''.

 

* In ''[[Fuck the Jesus Beam]]'', 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.

* Daemon from the ''[[Tamers Forever Series]]'', who breaks ''himself'' out.

* The ''[[Touhou]]'' fanfiction ''[[Imperfect Metamorphosis]]'' 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.

 

* Jafar in Disney's ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' and (of course) ''The Return of Jafar''.

* The villain Hexxus in ''[[Fern Gully]]'', who for ages was sealed into a tree, and was released when the tree was cut down.

* ''[[Superman (film)|Superman]]'' and ''Superman II'' both feature the Phantom Zone, but make it out to be a one-time prison for a specific set of three villains.

* In the movie ''[[The Ruins]]'', 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 of [[The Movie]], {{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.}}

* John Carpenter's ''[[Prince of Darkness]]'' literally had Sealed Evil in a Can -- [[Satan]], in fact, sealed in a giant glass and metal container in the basement of a church. Of course, he manages to escape.

** And then there's ''[[The Thing (film)|The Thing]]'', sealed in a block of ice until some ill-advised Norwegians dig it out.

** 2001's sequel, ''The Mummy Returns'', opens up another can of evil in the form of [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock's]] CGI-animated appearance as The Scorpion King—which in turn opened the door for one of those prequels mentioned in the main text.

** Averted in the third ''Mummy'' movie, 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 [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|ability to throw his face at people]]. [[Combat Pragmatist|He used it]].

* Maxim Horvath in ''[[The Sorcerer's Apprentice]]''.

 

* A ridiculous number of these show up as non-Darklord threats to harass poor ''[[Lone Wolf]]''. In a slight subversion, one of these sealed evils, {{spoiler|namely Darklord Vashna, the most powerful Darklord of them all, who even tried to play [[The Starscream]] to [[Big Bad]] Naar in the [[Backstory]],}} is already dead. Not sealed alive in a prison somewhere, but ''dead''. The goal of two of the books in the series {{spoiler|(''The Chasm of Doom'' and ''The Legacy of Vashna'')}} is to prevent him from [[Back from the Dead|coming back]].

** Lord Zahda in ''Castle Death'' is another interesting example: he's definitely a powerful evil who had been sealed away, but not so much in a can as in a castle on an island which he ruled over, where he had subjects of his own. So a much larger, more comfortable can, at least.

** Agarash the Damned, Naar's most powerful champion of evil, was sealed in another dimension by the Elder Magi millenia ago. In the ''Grey Star'' books he is the [[Bigger Bad]] goading the [[Big Bad]] Shasarak into freeing him. Grey Star of course has to prevent this.

 

* 19th century example: The 1842 German novella ''Die schwarze Spinne'' (''The Black Spider'') by Jeremias Gotthelf: heavily steeped in Christian-conservative symbolism, the story, based on folktales, contrasts pastoral life with satanic influences. The titular black spider (a metaphor for the Black Plague) is created when a ruthless [[Evil Aristocrat|knight baron]] forces the peasants of a remote valley in the Alps to work themselves nearly to death. The [[Satan|devil]] in the form of a wild huntsman offers the desperate peasants his help, in exchange for a yet unborn unchristened child. The only person who is willing to strike such a pact is a farmer's wife (and originally a foreigner, adding a touch of xenophobia). The devil kisses her cheek; from this kiss grows an evil tumor in the form of a black spider. Twice, when the devil comes to collect a newborn, the local priest baptizes the child in the nick of time, but as punishment, the monstrous spider, now adult, births thousands of tiny spiders that start killing livestock and people, and finally breaks free from the face of the farmer's wife (who dies) and kills the priest and baby. The spider is finally sealed away when a brave mother, to protect her own newborn, grabs it and, dying, imprisons it in a hole in a wooden beam of her house, into which she hammers a peg to seal away the spider forever. Generations later, when people have stopped believing in the tale and become "sinful", [[Alcohol-Induced Idiocy|a bragging servant pulls out the peg on a drunken bet and releases the devil spider]], until it can again be sealed away by a pious woman who remembers the old tales and sacrifices her life for her child.

* One of [[Montague Rhodes James|MR James]]’s favorite tropes was having an unpleasant being imprisoned in a tomb, grave, or ruin, inevitably later disturbed. Stories in this pattern include "Count Magnus" (the count's sarcophagus has three padlocks on it), "An Episode of Cathedral History", and "The Rose Garden".

* Jadis the White Witch in ''[[Chronicles of Narnia|The Magician's Nephew]]'' put herself into suspended animation after destroying her world, and left [[Schmuck Bait|a way for any visitors to wake her up]], so that they’d take her to a new world.

* ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' ends with the sealing of [[Evil Overlord]] [[Big Bad|Morgoth]] in the void beyond the boundaries of the world. He never escapes, though it is implied that Sauron was trying to find some way to release him during the Second Age.

** From ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', the [[Eldritch Abomination|Balrog of Moria]], which was unleashed when the Dwarves [[Dug Too Deep]].

** The [[Artifact of Doom|One Ring]] itself is Sealed Evil In A Can, as it has [[Soul Jar|Sauron's ill will forged within it]].

* [[Christopher Moore]] is a big fan of this trope, most notably in ''[[Practical Demonkeeping]]'' (Catch, the titular demon, is actually sealed away in a jar), ''[[Lamb: The Gospel According To Biff|Lamb]]'' {{spoiler|Baltazaar keeps Catch, the same demon from the earlier novel, in a magically-sealed room which he tells Biff to stay away from. (Schmuck Bait)}} and ''[[Bloodsucking Fiends|You Suck]]''.

* Colin Wilson's ''The Space Vampires'' has a space mission to find a derelict ship drifting in the solar system. The astronauts board it and retrieve what they believe to be several [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|human-like alien]] bodies. It turns out they're possessed by evil energy beings that live off the life energies of others. The very pulpy movie adaptation (called ''Lifeforce'') has a similar initial situation, though it diverges pretty massively after that (the aliens {{spoiler|turn their victims into zombies}}).

* F. Paul Wilson's ''[[The Keep]]'' has Radu Molasar, advance man for [[Cosmic Horror|The Otherness]], sealed in a castle in Romania until [[Those Wacky Nazis]] let him out.

* In ''[[Who Censored Roger Rabbit?]]'', it turns out that the titular murderer is {{spoiler|a genie imprisoned in a Persian teapot that can only be released by a bonafide toon, who is sick of taking orders from self-centered people and starts deliberately spoiling the toons' wishes, until finally he just flat-out starts murdering them.}}

* The ''[[Black Company]]'' starts out with the can already having been opened but not all of the way in a bit of evil on evil backstabbery. Their employer was sealed away by the White Rose but then released by a group of sorcerers called the Resurrectionists. As thanks the Lady, a powerful sorceress who was sealed in there, kills them and then prevents her husband from getting out so she can keep the power to herself. Needless to say, he is not pleased and it's implied the world is doomed if he ever does get out.

** Not to mention that {{spoiler|once the Lady loses her powers and essentially switches sides against her former lieutenant, the Dominator is ultimately defeated and sealed in a silver spike, at which point is instantly reduced to ostensible [[Artifact of Doom]] and consummate [[MacGuffin]] that spawns a titular sequel chronicling the mad scramble to be the first wizard to obtain and unlock its secrets. Since the attempt to put the evil in a can inside another can that just happened to be the offspring of a [[Physical God]] was foiled miserably by a band of local scum, the [[Physical God]] drops it off in a [[Swirly Energy Thingy]] with assurances that the threat is [[As Long as There Is Evil|vanquished forever]], just like the even older Sealed Evil in a Can he himself guards.}}

* In ''Deep Wizardry'', the second ''[[Young Wizards]]'' novel, the seal on the [[Satan|Lone Power's]] can is weakening and needs to be recharged. However, what is sealed is only ''one'' aspect out of many that the [[Big Bad|Lone Power]] possesses, so It can be safely sealed away in one place while simultaneously being an active menace somewhere else.

** Then in ''A Wizard's Holiday'', the protagonists have to, among other things, {{spoiler|open the seal and let the Lone Power out}}.

* In the ''[[Dragonlance]]'' novels, and ''D&D'' campaign setting, Takhisis was essentially a sealed evil in a can from the end of the Third Dragonwar, when Huma Dragonbane forced her to swear to leave Krynn and never return, and the Cataclysm, when she found a way to get around that oath. In an interesting variation on this trope, it was when Berem stole the emerald from the pillar of Takhisis' temple, killing his sister Jasla in the process, that Takhisis was partially resealed.

** She was actually able to get around her oath because of the Cataclysm — its precise wording was that she would never return "while the world was whole". With half the main continent blown up, the world was no longer whole so she was able to return. It's a bit of a stretch, but Takhisis ''is'' the [[God of Evil|Queen of Darkness]].

* [[Vernor Vinge]]'s ''[[Zones of Thought|A Fire Upon the Deep]]'' starts off with a cosmic menace called the Blight being woken by insufficiently paranoid humans.

* Daniel Keys Moran's ''The Last Dancer'' has a scientific team releasing an ancient human, whose physical conditioning and skills approach [[Badass Normal]] from the ''other side'' and who has a major attitude problem (compare ''World of Ptavvs'' above). He proceeds to spend the rest of the book mainly kicking the ''other'' [[Big Bad]]'s ass, making him not so much Evil, just Sealed Badass In A Can.

{{quote|This exchange contains almost all you need to know about human civilization. At least, those bits of it that are not under the sea, fenced off or still smoking.}}

* Peter F. Hamilton does this in at least two series: in ''[[The Night's Dawn Trilogy]]'' Series, a wandering alien accidentally opens a portal to the afterlife, and in ''Pandora's Star'' and ''Judas Unchained'', an alien menace is released by its hidden enemy (who has {{spoiler|arranged a long-term "[[Let's You and Him Fight]]" situation between the menace and humanity}}).

* Subverted in [[Matthew Tobin Anderson|M. T. Anderson]]'s book ''[[Thirsty]]'', in which a group of vampires are trying to free the Sealed Evil, the god of vampires, and one character pretends to be trying to kill the vampire god in order to protect humanity, but in reality is assisting the god in committing suicide.

** Also in the same volume, Tom Riddle's diary has the "memory" of the teenage Voldemort sealed inside, which Ginny unknowingly awakens through her liberal use of the diary.

* In James Alan Gardner's ''[[The League of Peoples Verse|Hunted]]'', the [[Humanoid Aliens|Mandasars]] have queens who are very smart, very large, very strong, can persuade other Mandasars to do just about anything by emitting the right pheromones, and are physiologically hardwired so that each queen believes that ''she'' is the most competent person around and ''should'' be in charge. Having more than about four of them on the planet tends to mean endless power struggles; having that few risks having them all die. The solution implemented is to have a bunch of queens in [[Human Popsicle|cryonic storage]]. While they aren't evil per se, waking them all up at once is still [[Civil War|really, really bad]].

* In William King's ''[[Warhammer 40,000]] [[Space Wolf]]'' novel ''Ragnor's Claw'', Botchulaz.

* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[Chronicles of Chaos]]'', children being held hostage by {{spoiler|Greek gods}} are nevertheless not sure that their own parents are entirely in the right; they find out, in due course, that they are hostage to prevent the forces of Chaos from moving against the universe and destroying it. {{spoiler|They set up themselves to live safely and free in the universe until the gods could stand against the forces, without going home and so triggering such a war.}}

* In Gerald Brom's ''[[The Plucker]]'', the titular monster is sealed within a voodoo spirit doll. [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|It's up to regular dolls to stop it when it is accidentally freed]].

* [[Cosmic Horror|Something Bad]] is waiting in [[Charles Stross]]'s ''[[The Laundry Series|The Jennifer Morgue]]''....

* In ''[[Mistborn]]'', Ruin, the [[Omnicidal Maniac|primal force of chaos and destruction]] was imprisoned by his "good" counterpart Preservation after they teamed up to create life. This is a bit more complicated than most examples because Preservation split Ruin apart to make his release more difficult. Ruin's mind was put in {{spoiler|the Well of Ascension}}, while the bulk of his power was bound into {{spoiler|the atium}}. The problem was, even an imprisoned Ruin still had some power, so he {{spoiler|altered the prophecies regarding a messianic figure called the Hero of Ages to say that the Hero should go to the Well of Ascension and release its power to the being trapped there. Following the prophecy, the heroine of the trilogy does this. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Oops]].}}

* In the [[Zombie Apocalypse]] novels ''The Rising'' and ''City of the Dead'', the [[Our Demons Are Different|obots]] were sealed by [[God]] in another dimension, known as the Void. An experiment [[Gone Horribly Wrong]] cracked it open, and [[Kill'Em All]] ensued.

 

* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' and ''[[Super Sentai]]'' repeatedly use this trope:

** Rita Repulsa from the first season of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' was originally trapped in a "space dumpster" on the moon for 10,000 years until astronauts accidentally released her. Her line from the intro sequence is rather iconic:

{{quote|Ahh! After 10,000 years I'm free! It's time to conquer Earth!}}

* ''[[Star Trek]]'' used this a few times.

** In the classic series episode "The Alternative Factor", if Lazarus and his insane counterpart from the antimatter dimension were ever to meet in the same universe, that universe would be destroyed. Both of them are sent into an [[Phantom Zone|intermediate dimension]] so that this can never happen, and where the two of them will be [[Sealed Evil in a Duel|locked in combat for all eternity]].

** Data's evil "brother" Lore. He's found disassembled in Dr. Soong's lab and the ''Enterprise'' crew make the mistake of putting him back together.

** Well, in [[Star Trek: The Animated Series|the animated version]] episode "Beyond the Farthest Star", Kirk tricked an ancient evil entity onto a black dwarf star, where it moans about how lonely it is as the credits roll.

** The Thirdspace aliens are effectively sealed until their gateway is opened.

** Also The Hand. (Who are probably the Thirdspace aliens anyway.)

* In the original and revived ''[[Dark Shadows (TV series)|Dark Shadows]]'', vampire Barnabas Collins made his series debut when he was released from the chained-up coffin in which his father, unable to go through with staking his own son, had sealed him.

* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' has used so many variants of this it's basically the only kind of [[Myth Arc]] they've ever had, but at least it always varies: Devil's Gate was opened with no warning and a ''bunch'' of stuff got out along with the actual new [[Big Bad]]; Lucifer was freed by [[Thanatos Gambit]]; the Leviathan were the real problem with opening Purgatory since Cas managed not to blow up the universe, but Death didn't have the decency to warn the characters about them...

* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' and the goblin, who was sealed in a box, then escaped to torment everyone in the castle, and then resealed after being trapped by Merlin and Gwen.

 

* Pretty much every Bal Sagoth song starts with "[[Oh Crap|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 never ending night.

* "Bark at the Moon" by [[Ozzy Osbourne]] 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.

* In "Gatekeeper" by [[Within Temptation]] sort of [[X Meets Y|meets]] [[Taking You with Me]].

 

*** A little more detail: after seeing all the atrocities emanating from the box, Pandora quickly shut it, leaving only one thing inside—Hope. As aforementioned, all according to [[Magnificent Bastard|Zeus']] plan.

** 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.

* According to 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'' ([[The End of the World as We Know It|the Day of Judgment]]).

 

** Of course, the seal 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. Of course, if you are dumb enough to do it, you deserve what's coming to you.

*** ''{{color|Red|You have grasped the entire concept wonderfully. Asmodeus will be pleased.}}''

** The Scarred Lands also has the Slarecians, psionic beings who challenged both the gods and the titans. The twist is is that they sealed ''themselves'' into the can so they wouldn't be destroyed.

** In the published version of ''B3: Palace of the Silver Princess'', 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 an entire royal court, trap its best defenders in a dimensional prison, and attract monsters and fanatical dark priests from hundreds of miles around.

** The massive Ptolus setting by Monte Cook 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. Of course, 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.

** Another notable example of sealed evil in a can in the [[Points of Light]] setting is Torog, god of torture and imprisonment. 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.

** Both literal and metaphorical in the case of the Necrons and their [[Physical God|C'tan masters]], who sealed ''themselves'' deep beneath the surface of numerous worlds approximately '''sixty million years ago'''.

** The [[God-Emperor]] is either a Sealed Evil, a [[Sealed Good in a Can|Sealed Good]] or a [[Sealed Badass in a Can|Sealed Badass]], depending on one's perspective.

* In the prehistory of ''[[Exalted]]'', 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, seen that they'd brought the Underworld into existence, and said, "Yeah, that ain't supposed to happen."

** 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 [[Deader Than Dead|Oblivion]]. Then the Solars decided to pop a [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|few blocks open to learn Necromancy]]...

* ''[[Scion]]'', by the same company, uses the same logic surrounding the Titans. At the end of the Titanomachy, the gods bound them away in the various Underworlds—this was 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.

* ''[[Champions]]'' 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.

* In ''[[Iron Kingdoms]]'' the Skorne have Ancestral Guardians, which are statues empowered by the souls of fallen Skorne warriors.

 

* ''[[Bionicle]]'': Makuta Teridax encased in a Toa Seal by the Toa Metru by their [[Elemental Powers]], but much later they unintentionally released him with the same powers when they attacked Roodaka holding a piece of the Toa Seal.

 

This is an ''extremely'' common plot and backstory in video games because it's such a simple backstory: the [[Big Bad]], put away by some ancient hero, has escaped. You (the player) must put him back in.

** The Chaos Rising expansion to ''[[Dawn Of War 2]]'' also features a plot to unseal a demon trapped inside a planet that was lost in the Warp.

* Every game in the main ''[[Tengai Makyou]]'' series.

** Ziria has the Daimon Cult trying to revive Masakado.

* In ''[[Rune Factory 2]]'', mysterious earthquakes start happening about a third of the way into the game. Eventually, the character's child finds these are being caused by a Sealed Evil in a Can which is about to escape and destroy the world.

* In many of the ''Zelda'' games, Ganon is a sealed evil. Link must either re-seal him or stop him from fully unsealing himself or his power. (The first time he is sealed away actually takes place at the end of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]''.)

** And there was also Bongo Bongo, the Evil Shadow Spirit from ''Ocarina of Time' that was sealed in the Bottom of the Well.

* In ''[[Evil Zone]]'', the inhabitants of an island dimension sealed away an incarnation of a cosmic destroyer, but couldn't finish the job themselves, so they had to hire out heroes to finish the [[Big Bad]] off.

* Orochi, from ''[[The King of Fighters]] '97''.

* The Dark One of SRMTHFG has nothing on the Profound Darkness in ''[[Phantasy Star IV]]''; the Precursors sealed it with an entire ''solar system''.

** In a continuation of this universe, a majority of raid bosses in World of Warcraft are sealed evils. The quests to kill them generally go something like ''Go beat up these mildly bad dudes who have this Big Ancient Evil imprisoned, so that you can kill him too.'' One wonders why the player doesn't just say ''But, they're doing a fine job keeping him imprisoned! What happens if I manage to kill them but the Big Ancient Evil kills me?'' A variation goes ''Go beat up these mildly bad dudes who are trying to unseal this Big Ancient Evil before they succeed, then kill the half-unsealed form of the Big Ancient Evil,'' which makes a little more sense.

** The fourth expansion to ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' (Cataclysm) involves the unleashing of Deathwing, the Earth Dragon who was slowly driven insane by the Old Gods and imprisoned in Deepholme, the elemental plane of earth. His emergence not only blows up parts of the world, but also opens up the elemental planes, which are full of Sealed Evil in a Can, including the elementals themselves (locked up because they were tearing the world apart with their wars)

** Maybe Illidan wasn't evil, but he did kill people with a handwave who tried to stop him from corrupting a lake with the Well's water.

* Coincidentally, ''[[Homeworld]]: Cataclysm'' also involves a similar scenario. Somewhere around a million years ago, the extragalactic exploration vessel ''[[Meaningful Name|Naggarok]]'' picked up a deadly technoorganic entity in hyperspace. Seeing no way to defeat it, the crew scuttled the engines, trapping the entity in deep space. However, they screwed up as the ship auto-launched az empty lifepod with a transmitter (and some Beast material) onboard. In the present, the Kiith Somtaaw mining ship ''Kuun-Lan'' finds the pod and opens it. Cue to a race with time to find both the ''Naggarok'' and the new Beast mothership and blow both to smithereens before the whole galaxy suffers a fate worse than death (ship crews aren't simply killed, they're broken down into biomass to function as a makeshift neural interface between ships and the Beast - and judging by the sound of it, it's not exactly painless).

* In ''[[Fallout 3]]'', your character could be considered this, seeing as he was frozen via cryogenics and could, according to the whims of the player, become a villain on the same level as the [[Anti Christ]]; on the other hand, the [[Sealed Good in a Can]] might apply should the player take the opposite path.

* Dracula's castle in the ''[[Castlevania]]'' series is eventually sealed this way after the Dark Lord's death. It's sealed inside the total solar eclipse of 1999. In the solar eclipse of 2035, it sucks in everyone present at the shrine where the sealing took place.

** Dracula, and Castlevania itself, were also sealed in the underworld throughout most of the series, both of them reappearing on Earth only once every hundred years. But Dracula found so many ways to circumvent that rule that it became more of a "sealed evil in a sieve".

* Doctor Robotnik/Eggman of the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series has unsealed so many evils from their cans in attempts to achieve world domination, that you wonder why he doesn't just go back to trying to take over the world in the old-fashioned way: i.e. by imprisoning all the animals in robots ([[Sealed Good in a Can]]?).

** He thankfully did, just replace "animals" with "[[Starfish Alien]]s called Wisps" and that's the plot of ''[[Sonic Colors]]''.

** Shadow made [[Sonic Adventure 2|his first appearance]] as this, though being canned and going evil didn't happen at the same time: {{spoiler|his creator screwed with his memories after he was placed in stasis, leading to his whole 'humanity needs to die' outlook.}}

** ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'' has [[Cosmic Horror|Dark Gaia]] who was sealed within the planet by his light counterpart {{spoiler|(read: CHIP)}} in a neverending cycle of planetary death and rebirth. Like any [[Cosmic Horror]] worth its salt, the mere act of Dark Gaia waking up spells [[The End of the World as We Know It]], which thankfully didn't happen this time around. {{spoiler|You can blame Eggman for opening the pl- er, can ahead of schedule for THAT.}}

** ''Dragon Fire'' has a twist of its own - there is a villain working behind the scenes and trying to unleash the Dragon of Doom, but by this point in the series, the hero (under extenuating circumstances) has become strong enough at this point to just ''kill'' the thing.

* ''[[King's Quest IV]]'' had Pandora's Box show up. Opening it killed Rosella. There was also that infamous lamp in ''[[King's Quest V]]''. The [[Fan Sequel]] ''[[The Silver Lining (video game)|The Silver Lining]]'' hints that Pandora's Box will play a part in its plot.

* Most ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games feature a Sealed Evil in a can.

** ''[[Final Fantasy III]]'' gives us the Cloud of Darkness, the living essence of the power of the Dark (as opposed to the Light of the heroes' world.) The game implies that Xande's machinations allowed it to take form, but it would have remained sealed away in the Dark World had it not been for him opening a portal leading straight into it. The {{spoiler|Dark Warriors imply that they fought the Cloud}} 1,000 years ago, when it was Light surrounding Darkness, and got it Canned within the Dark World. Xande was nothing but a can-opener.

* In ''[[Persona 3]]'', the "sealed evil" is {{spoiler|Nyx, a [[Cosmic Horror]] and [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of death}}—while the "can" just so happens to be {{spoiler|[[Body Horror|the main character]].}}

** In ''Persona 3: FES'', we find out that {{spoiler|said main character has become [[Barrier Maiden|the seal]].}} And it's in place not to seal Nyx from attacking Earth. It's for sealing ''Earth'' from {{spoiler|summoning Nyx itself}}.

* ''[[Kirby]] Squeak Squad'' plays with this one a little. What started as a hunt for stolen strawberry shortcake leads to Dedede getting smacked down on false suspicions, Kirby chasing all over the world to get his snack back from the titular menace {{spoiler|only for the chest allegedly supposed to hold the shortcake stolen away by [[The Rival|Meta Knight]], and when HE gets smacked down, the Squeaks grab the chest and let loose [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|Dark Nebula]]. For such a simple protagonist the plot for these can get quite complex, especially given Meta Knight grabbed the chest away just to prevent [[Big Bad|Dark Nebula]] from being released.}} The best part is that through all of this, you get the feeling that Kirby is still being motivated only to retrieve the cake.

** Possibly the only case in the Kirby series where opening the can isn't a case of [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]] takes place in the Meta Knightmare Ultra mode of ''Kirby Super Star Ultra'' where Meta Knight questions NOVA, a mechanical, wish granting comet, about an extremely powerful warrior who was safely sealed away because of how powerful he was. Immediately after this [[Badass|he orders NOVA to break the seal on this extremely powerful evil just so he can kick its ass.]]

* All games in the ''[[Ys]]'' series use this trope, e.g. Darm in I and II (who was disguised as the Black Pearl, also an [[Artifact of Doom]]), Galbalan in III, the Ancient City and Arrem in IV, the lost city of Kefin and its king, Jabir, in V, and the Ark of Napishtim in VI.

* In the [[Infocom]] text game ''Enchanter'', your job is to defeat the evil enchanter Krill ''without'' disturbing the Cosmic Horror that's sealed below his castle. The tie-in novel by Robin Bailey takes the tack that your character accidentally did release the thing, and now it's up to the book's protagonist to stop it.

* In ''[[Pathways into Darkness]]'', the ''Marathon'' games predecessor, a modern-day Special Forces team must prevent a W'rkcacnter from escaping from its can.

* Speaking of Bungie, the main plot of ''[[Myth]]: The Fallen Lords'' is this, and it's reanimating corpses and whatnot. After you all but lose the war, you manage to kill it.

** They also smashed his stone form into rubble [[Deader Than Dead|just to be sure]].

* In ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]'', the Marker seals the infection that turns corpses into horrific alien monsters ({{spoiler|it was actually a manmade knockoff of the real marker}}). Anyways, the Marker-Worshipping <s> Scientologists</s> ''[[Does This Remind You of Anything?|Unitologists]]'' discover the Marker in the midst of mining Aegis VII and move it off its pedestal. Bad things occur.

* {{spoiler|Maverick Zero}} of ''[[Mega Man X]]'', with [[The Virus]] originally coming from him. {{spoiler|He spends the rest of his life/lives [[The Atoner|atoning for it]].}}

** The "can" in question is in itself a Sealed Evil, {{spoiler|although, ''becoming a hero'', this was obviously subverted}}.

* seems to be the case with the {{spoiler|Kingdom of Sorrow}} in ''[[Klonoa]]'' 2: Lunatea's Veil. {{spoiler|As it turns out, it was sealed away because no one wanted to remember sorrow, and the King of Sorrow tried to undo the seal so everyone could remember sorrow.}}

* The ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' series. Every. Single. Installment. ...except the fourth. That one just needed to be awakened rather than unsealed.

* In ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'', the parasitic Las Plagas were sealed away for eight generations before the start of the game.

* ''[[Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura]]'' has the void, an alternate dimension where the Elven Council banished 5 Evil beings: A demon with insatiable hunger, the murderer who killed Arcanum's last dragon, a genocidal barbarian king, and two corrupt wizards. {{spoiler|The player character has to undergo banishment so they can destroy the [[Big Bad]], <s>Arronax</s> Kerghan, before he can regain his freedom.}}

* ''[[Return to Krondor]]'' presents the Dark God as this. The Dark God does not get released, but the ending makes it clear that the person trying to unseal it has not given up.

* Daglathor in ''[[Warriors of Might and Magic]]'' is sealed inside a dungeon in the heart of a mountain. And the mechanism to avoid his eventual escape is found... [[Fridge Logic|inside his prison.]]

* The demon in ''[[Phantasmagoria]]''.

* A significant portion of the plot of ''[[Brave Fencer Musashi]]'' revolves around this. The first major quest in the game involves Musashi being sent to collect Lumina, the legendary greatsword used to defeat the Wizard of Darkness; a significant portion of the rest of the game revolves around Musashi questing to recover the elemental Scrolls in order to power Lumina up enough to take out the Thirstquencher Empire. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, it turns out the voice which set Musashi on this quest in the first place, a voice originating from Lumina itself, was actually the Wizard of Darkness himself, not destroyed but sealed within the sword. Guess what the only things holding him back are? If you guessed "the five Scrolls and the Crest Guardians they're connected to," you win the kewpie doll.}}

* ''[[Lightning Legend Daigo no Daibouken]]'' has Dragless, a legendary and all-powerful Demon King who rampaged through the Kingdom of Japone 450 years before the story's proper, destroying everything on his way. He ultimately was defeated and sealed away in the deepest ends of Mt. Ohsore by the young hero Taikei Raioh, but by the start of the game he has finally freed himself, and it's now up to the descendant of Taikei, Daigo, to defeat him for good.

* Played with in ''[[Dragon Age]]''. {{spoiler|The Darkspawn seek out the seven ancient dragon gods buried within the earth, and when they find and awaken one it becomes the Archdemon and leads them in a massive invasion of the surface world - but the sealed gods were not necessarily evil until tainted by the darkspawn, making them more like [[Sealed Badass in a Can]] [[Gone Horribly Wrong]].}}

** ''[[Shining the Holy Ark]]'' is all about how a group of low powered Vandals want to release one of the most powerful Vandals ever; so he can recreate the 1000 Year Kingdom.

 

** Also subverted with The Creature in the Darkness, who [[Big Bad|Xykon]] and [[The Dragon|Redcloak]] think ''should'' be evil and scary (and accordingly, they keep it locked in a box), but for the most part is just hungry and clueless, verging at times on [[Too Dumb to Live]].

* ''[[Charby the Vampirate]]'' had a big old [https://web.archive.org/web/20110402003452/http://www.drunkduck.com/Charby_the_Vampirate/index.php?p=34610 can of evil], slightly subverted since it had originally been sealed by an amaturish effort to defeat it, only to [https://web.archive.org/web/20110402011617/http://www.drunkduck.com/Charby_the_Vampirate/index.php?p=31150 reseal it with a tighter lid] later after it got loose. Of course we didn't learn that evil came in cans until after the fact.

* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'', space villain Fructose Riboflavin gets turned into [[Pure Energy]] and stuffed into a ''battery''. He doesn't stay there for long, though.

* Inverted in ''[[The Way of the Metagamer]]'': the evil is sealed within the Book, and does not escape... but the heroes are forced to follow it into the Book.

* The Axe of Prissan in ''[[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.

* In ''[[Shan Shan|The Adventures of Shan Shan]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20131023032113/http://shanshan.upperrealms.com/view.php?pageid=025&chapterid=1 Julius is worried because the sealed evils have managed to touch the physical dimension.]

 

* Many, many things contained by the ''[[SCP Foundation]]''. One, [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-076 SCP-076-2], had the particularity of coming with his own (leaky) can, SCP-076-1, and the SCP (after many [[Pyrrhic Victory|Pyrrhic Victories]] keeping it ''in'' the can) eventually decided to try and work with him; predictably, it didn't end well.

** [http://scp-wiki.net/scp-231 SCP-231-7] ''is'' the can for... whatever [[The End of the World as We Know It|End of the World as We Know It]] entity it is that she carries. And the Foundation has to do some horrible stuff to keep it in there. Trust us, [[You Do NOT Want to Know]].

* ''[[Phantasia]]'' has more than one of these, of varying degrees of world-destroying power.

 

* Trigon in season four of ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', where his daughter Raven becomes his portal into the world, allowing him to turn every creature in the biosphere [[Taken for Granite|into stone]] and cover the planet in lava.

** Also, the dragon Malchior in an earlier episode qualifies, sealed in one of Raven's spellbooks.

* Most seasons of ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]'' involved the cast attempting to reseal escaped Sealed Evil In A Can once using a jar-like object. In the series, this is [[Justified Trope|justified]] by the fact that destroying evil will only allow a different (and probably stronger) evil to take its place. Better then to keep around the evil threat you already ''know'' how to deal with, than risk leaving the way open for something far worse to come up that you may not know how to deal with in time.

** In other words, the devil you know is better than the one you don't.

** This is based on the story of a real (not evil) horned lizard that was sealed in the cornerstone of a courthouse (long before they were on any endangered species list). 31 years later the stone was opened and the horned lizard was alive and lived on for almost a year afterward.

* ''[[Monster Allergy]]'' has this when it comes to trapping monsters.

* ''[[Swat Kats]]'': In the first episode, the Pastmaster is Sealed Evil in a Treasure Chest. We don't learn he exists until ''after'' he gets unsealed.

** There's also the Mad Kat The Insane Jester, who was sealed in a jack in the box.

* ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'' played with this trope on occasion, notably in the episode "Knock, Knock". They even played with Chthulu in one episode.

** The [[Sequel Series]] ''[[Extreme Ghostbusters]]'' also used this trope a few times.

* The position of [[Evil Overlord|Phobos]] and several of his most powerful minions for most of the second season of ''[[WITCH (animation)|WITCH]]'' {{spoiler|until he gets released by the heroines}}. [[Big Bad|Nerissa]] was also once a Sealed Evil In A Can, but she escaped several decades before the series begins.

* ''[[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]]'' had Natron the First in the aptly named episode "Ancient Evil". After he is defeated and returned to his tomb, Mira melts the door to it. Hopefully this will keep him sealed.

* Some villains from ''[[The Smurfs (animation)|The Smurfs]]'', such as [[Religion of Evil| the Druids]], [[Mad Artist| Maestro]], [[Jerkass Genie| Genie Meanie]], and the [[Bad Samaritan| Swapping Well]]. Given his age and experience, Papa Smurf had battled and sealed some of them in the first place.

** The villain of the first two episodes of season two, Discord—the evil [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Spirit Of Disharmony]] who ruled Equestria as a land of chaos and suffering—was [[Taken for Granite|trapped in a stone prison]] over 1000 years ago by Princesses Celestia and Luna using the Elements Of Harmony. After they lost their link to the Elements Of Harmony, the seal keeping him imprisoned began to break, and finally a little bit of chaos happening right next to it ([[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|thanks to the Cutie Mark Crusaders getting in a fight]]) gave him the strength to escape and begin his reign of chaos and disharmony anew. {{spoiler|In the end, the Mane Cast put him back.}}

** "It's About Time" reveals that there're a bunch of these things sealed away in Tartarus that are guarded by Cerberus.

* In ''[[The Godzilla Power Hour]],'' the Cyclops was so invulnerable that even the [[Sufficiently Advanced]] aliens who discovered it couldn't destroy it, so they trapped it on an island behind an impenetrable force field. The sucker's so tough, even Godzilla doesn't successfully destroy it at the end, so the crew just ends up trapping it back behind its force field.

* In ''[[Adventure Time]]'', Marceline's father, the Lord Of Evil, is sealed in the Nightosphere. Finn [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|frees him, not knowing how evil he was]]. In the end, Finn manages to seal hime back into the Nightosphere. Even worse is [[Omnicidal Maniac|the]] [[Complete Monster|Lich]], the [[Ultimate Evil]] who was imprisoned inside amber within a great tree by the legendary hero Billy. He finally broke free during the season 2 finale.

* The Red Sentients in ''[[Hot Wheels Battle Force 5]]''. They were sealed away in five seperate Battle Zones by [[The Starscream|Zemerick]] when he betrayed them. At the end of season 2, [[Big Bad|Krytus]] is freed by a traitor named Praxion (whom he promptly [[Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves|drops off a cliff]]) and proceeds to release the rest of his team from their own prisons. The rest of the Red Sentients were all frozen by Sage before they could join Krytus in his multiversal conquest. {{spoiler|These are ultimately a subversion, as it turns out they're just as tired of the war as the Blue Sentients are when they're released and gladly make peace instead. They then ''reseal'' Krytus in a block of ice on a distant world as punishment.}}

* The snakes in ''[[Ninjago]]''.

 

* Prisons.

* Napoleon on Elba; one theory is that they actually wanted to keep Napoleon close just in case they needed to [[Sealed Badass in a Can|call on his talents]] in the event of [[Evil Versus Evil|another potential world-conquerer starting trouble]]. He just didn't like being the pet general in a box and decided to retake France.

* Smallpox—live samples are kept in a couple places around the world.

* The sarcophagus that currently entombs the exploded nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl power plant was built hastily and nobody intended it to be a long-term solution, so it quickly deteriorated and is presently in terrible shape. Yet it's still the only thing that separates the reactor structure, with all of its highly radioactive dust and materials, from the outside world.

** They are building a bigger and better can around it [[Real Soon Now]].

* Some say that [[wikipedia:Shi Huangdi|Shi Huangdi's tomb]] is this.

** To be more specific, the Emperor had a scale model of (his) China built within his tomb. In place of water, historians wrote that the builders manufactured gallons upon gallons of mercury to be poured into the riverbeds and ocean, so that Shi Huangdi's sarcophagus, which was built as a dragonboat made out of copper, could sail around in for all eternity. That one can not enter the tomb without succumbing to deadly mercury vapors strongly supports the historians' accounts.

* Any chronic health disorder that can be temporarily held at bay by medical treatment.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:This Index Means Trouble]]

[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]

[[Category:Villains]]