Stockholm Syndrome: Difference between revisions

For more about this syndrome in Real Life, see [[Stockholm Syndrome/Analysis|Analysis]].

 

 

 

 

 

If left untreated in Comedy, may result in [[Pity the Kidnapper|the captor shivering in the corner, mumbling "Take it away! Take it away!"]].

 

{{examples}}

* In canon ''[[Bleach]]'' Orihime is taken captive by Aizen, but Ulquiorra is given the assignment to take care of her. It is a very popular view in fanon that she has Stockholm Syndrome for Ulquiorra, and in some cases, even Aizen.

* In a more cynical view of ''[[Vandread]]'' this could be the explanation why the male cast becomes so protective of their female captors.

* A possible explanation for Sakura putting up with Dokuro-chan in ''[[Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan]]''

* Berwald/Sweden and Tino/Finland's relationship of ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' may qualify for this trope, as Finland wasn't exactly the most willing partner at first (read: was downright terrified of Sweden), and despite [[Character Development|warming up to Sweden]] and acknowledging he's not a bad guy, he still [[She Is Not My Girlfriend|denies that they're married]]. Amusingly, Stockholm is the capital of Sweden... and in a subversion, Sweden is actually portrayed as a [[Gentle Giant]]-type nation-tan in the strips, instead of your typical captor.

** Russia/Lithuania is often portrayed as this in fanfic, with Lithuania growing fond of Russia after years of being forced to stay with him (and most likely physically and/or mentally abused in the process). Also happens in Russia/Latvia, Russia/Prussia aka [[East Germany]] and more than one AU Russia/America or Russia/Canada fanwork. Estonia and Russia's sisters seems to be mostly free due to his lack of screentime and the girls's familiar bonds to Russia, but it can be seen from time to time.

** There are a number of England/Japan fics that are all about pirate!England abducting/kidnapping an unwilling Japan at swordpoint as his "possession" or "treasure", being pretty much a [[Manipulative Bastard|domineering]], [[If I Can't Have You|possessive]] [[Bastard Boyfriend|bastard]] to Japan's [[Wimpification|wimpified]] self (as quoted from one such fic: "Listen to me Kiku...you may struggle, you may rebel, you may try and fight back, but know this: I ''always'' get what I want in the end. And what I want, is you. I will break you down if I have to, love, so consider yourself warned."), and Japan of course falling in love with him nonetheless. There's even a pretty famous England/Japan [[Fan Vid|MAD]] titled "Beautiful Dreamer" that's a visual version of this kind of fic, with more than one commenter pointing out its [[Unfortunate Implications]].

* [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' when Takane gets this about ''involuntary [[Clothing Damage]]'', to the point where she gets eventually stops getting offended when the main character causes it to happen, and actually gets offended when he beats her ''without'' stripping her.

 

* [[Carl Barks|Scrooge McDuck's]] and Glittering Goldie's relationship has elements of this in the Disney comics.

* [[Batman|Harley Quinn]], claims this to the doctors at Arkam in defense of her actions, but her miniseries shows her going crazy and falling in love with [[The Joker]] long before ever meeting him.

* In ''[[Incorruptible]],'' Max Damage abducts a girl and puts her in Jailbait's costume to lay a false trail for enemies who might be tracking her. Before too much longer she was calling herself "the new Jailbait."

 

* ''[[Beauty and The Beast]]'', seems to be [[Broken Base|argued about considerably]]. Some claim that it was an example of this trope considering how abusive The Beast was (kidnapping her, throwing her in a dungeon, cutting her off from her family, starving her, screaming at her to intimidate her into submission, etc). Others say it was averted at least in the Disney version, because the rather headstrong Belle [[Character Development|makes The Beast change]] and teaches him that he can't expect to be loved if he doesn't change his abusive ways.

** The thing is that the Disney version as arguably a better example of [[Lima Syndrome]] (which is the ''exact opposite''), as the Beast learns to sympathize with his prisoner before she ever comes to care for him. In fact she doesn't give a damn about him until he learns to treat her better.

** ''[[Cracked.com]]'' accuses ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'' of this in [http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_528_23-romantic-movies-revised-honesty/ 23 Romantic Movies Revised for Honesty] and [http://www.cracked.com/article_19285_5-romantic-movie-gestures-that-were-actually-dick-moves.html 5 Romantic Movie Gestures That Were Actually Dick Moves].

 

* Just about every single Joker/OC fanfic in ''[[The Dark Knight]]'' section involves the Joker kidnapping some random woman and that woman ends up falling in love with him.

* The ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' [[Dark Fic]] ''[[Unmade]]'' results in two-way Stockholm Syndrome from a [[Locked in a Freezer]] scenario.

* In the penultimate chapter of ''[[The Legend of Zelda/Fanfic Recs|Group of Weirdoes: Ocarina of Time]]'', Gate reveals that he's started to bond with Ganondorf. Of course, Gate's a [[Cloudcuckoolander]], so that might not be true.

* It's not ''romantic'' affection, but Scootaloo comes out of the "good" ending of ''[[Pattycakes]]'' viewing Fluttershy as a kind of mentor and [[Parental Substitute]]. Given that Fluttershy had hit her on the head and forced her to run a gauntlet of tests dotted with the risk of arbitrary [[Mind Rape]], either it's Stockholm syndrome, or Scoots had a ''really'' crappy home life. (I mean, say what you will about your parents - no matter how bad they were, at least they never tried to totally destroy your mind.)

 

* Ori in ''[[We Are the Strange]]'', according to the prologue.

* Not an intentional example on the part of the filmmakers but Lightning McQueen in [[Cars]]. Lost, confused, not allowed to speak to a lawyer or try to call anyone, locked up and forced into heavy labor until he ends up screaming for help from a passing pair of minivans before his view of Radiator Falls and its inhabitants does an abrupt 180.

* Elektra King in ''[[The World Is Not Enough]]'', maybe. Bond is doubting this by the end {{spoiler|and as it turns out, it's a reversal - Elektra actually seduced her captor, and he's still working for her.}}

** And in ''[[Never Say Never Again]]'', Bond undergoes a hostage situation at the beginning. He {{spoiler|liberates the woman bound to a bed, but doesn't remember Stockholm Syndrome, and she kills him. Fortunately it was just a [[Unwinnable Training Simulation|training scenario]]}}.

** Interestingly, the psychiatrist, the author of a book on the subject, refers to it as Helsinki Syndrome, suggesting that he either [[Did Not Do the Research]] or is ripping off Stockholm Syndrome. Amusingly, the male newsreader tries to clarify to the viewers that he's referring to "Helsinki, Sweden," and is quickly corrected - Helsinki is in Finland.

* ''[[3:10 to Yuma|Three Ten to Yuma]]'' plays with this trope. The captive is stage coach robber Ben Wade, who is never really a prisoner in the movie. He demonstrates the capability to escape any time he wishes, but sticks around because of an interest in Dan Evans which developed before he was even taken 'captive'. Wade is a badass cynic who grows increasingly fascinated with Evan's [[Determinator]] idealism which is uniquely motivated by his own cynical perspective. In the end he {{spoiler|helps Evans deliver him to the train, despite having an entire town gunning for him. Of course, he had already escaped Yuma prison several times.}}

* Captain Hook in ''[[Hook]]'' deliberately tries to induce Stockholm Syndrome in Peter (Pan) Banning's children, in part by posing as the good, caring, attentive father that Peter wasn't. It works on his son Jack, but not his daughter Maggie, and even Jack gets set straight when he realizes his father ''does'' loves him and that Hook is a murdering asshole.

* Played extremely darkly in ''The Poughkeepsie Tapes'' with the character of Cheryl Dempsey. [[Nightmare Fuel]] indeed.

* In ''[[Dog Day Afternoon]]'', the bank employees clearly sympathize with the robbers/kidnappers by the end.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and [[Averted Trope|subverted]] in ''[[Tucker and Dale Versus Evil]]''. Naomi believes that Allison is falling in love with her hillbilly captors due to Stockholm Syndrome, and Allison ''is'' slowly falling for Dale. The twist is that Tucker and Dale aren't her captors—they rescued her when she almost drowned. And Allison is interested in Dale because he's a [[Nice Guy]].

* The woman John Wayne was trying to rescue in ''[[The Searchers]]''.

** It gets a little confusing, because at first she says "These are my people" - but then, when her stepbrother sneaks into the Comanche camp to rescue her, she is happy to see him and wants to leave immediately. Of course, that could be because the Wayne character now wants to kill her (believe her to have become [[Defiled Forever|"defiled" by Indians]]), and her stepbrother (who is one-eighth Indian himself) has sworn to protect her.

* In ''[[Contagion]]'', Dr. Orantes is eventually kidnapped by one of her colleagues who takes her to his village so that they will be among the first to get the virus vaccine. The vaccine is developed three months later, after which we see Orantes happily working as a schoolteacher for the village children and willingly cooperates with the kidnappers in the exchange for the vaccine. Later on in the airport, she is informed that the vaccine given was actually a placebo. The last we see of her is her running away from the airport, presumably to warn the villagers.

* A non-romantic example in ''[[The Magdalene Sisters]]''. Margaret finds the laundry's back gate left open and walks out, even stopping a man on the road for a lift. However she decides not to get back in and returns to the laundry. Viewers have debated over whether or not this is loyalty to the other women (she was taking care of the unstable Crispina) or fear of the outside world.

* As Indy tells Mutt in ''[[Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]'', he was "technically" (well actually, more than technically) kidnapped by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancho_Villa Pancho Villa's] men as a teenager before joining their revolutionary army. The incident was described in only slightly more detail in the pilot episode of ''[[The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles]]'', but was later told in complete detail in book form.

 

* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: It's suggested in Homer's ''[[Iliad]]'' that Helen of Troy, after being kidnapped by Paris in an act that triggered the Trojan War, got pretty comfortable in Troy after a while. It's never explicitly stated, but there is one scene in which a Greek soldier actually considers killing Helen, believing her to be one of the enemy now.

* The ending of ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''. {{spoiler|The last four words of the book show how thoroughly Winston has been brainwashed by Miniluv: [[It Was His Sled|"He loved Big Brother"]].}}

* In ''[[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]'' Professor Arronax gradually becomes more impressed with Nemo during his stay onboard the Nautilus. Ned Land is the only one who seems to remember that they are ''prisoners'', not guests. It's only when Nemo launches another attack on British vessels that Arronax remembers this too.

* {{spoiler|Theon}} from ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire|A Dance With Dragons]]'' and, to some degree, {{spoiler|Sansa}} in ''A Feast for Crows.''

* Princess Irulan in [[Dune]] shows this to Paul.

* Referenced in Dr. Franklin's Island by Ann Halam. The victims of the titular [[Mad Scientist]] try to stop this from happening to them, but end up still treating him "with this crazy kidnap-victim respect".

* Parodied in ''[[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer]]'': Tom [[Discussed Trope|discusses]] his plan to start a band of robbers and kidnap people for ransom:

{{quote|"...Only you don’t kill the women. You shut up the women, but you don’t kill them. They’re always beautiful and rich, and awfully scared...Well, the women get to loving you, and after they’ve been in the cave a week or two weeks they stop crying and after that you couldn’t get them to leave. If you drove them out they’d turn right around and come back. It’s so in all the books."}}

* In ''[[Things Fall Apart]]'', the young prisoner Ikemefuna is taken in by Okonkwo and eventually comes to see him as a father. Okonkwo succumbs to [[Lima Syndrome]] and comes to see Ikemefuna as another son. It all ends in tears when the village elders demand that Ikemefuna be killed. Okonkwo goes along with the executioners and personally cuts down Ikemefuna when he begs him for help because he is too afraid to show weakness. Even worse, Ikemefuna believed he was being sent back home and was looking forward to introducing Okonkwo to his family. Okonkwo drinks himself into a stupor afterwards.

 

* Lizzie Sutton on ''[[Lincoln Heights]]'' develops a friendship with one of her kidnappers (much to the horror of her family) after she is rescued. She hated her other kidnapper because he was "mean" to her.

* An episode of ''[[Numb3rs]]'' had a kidnapped heiress in a Patty-Hearst-like situation join up with the kidnappers' cause. Subverted in that it turned out she had been the mastermind all along and planned her own kidnapping.

'''Foreman''': We've been here long enough to have Stockholm Syndrome. }}

* In ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'': The McPoyles take the gang hostage and Sweet Dee worries about someone developing Stockholm Syndrome, then begins to show signs of it herself. The guys in the gang misunderstand the concept and begin complaining about fever-like symptoms.

** Another episode had a prison warden hiring a hitman to 'escape' with the warden's wife and kill her. The man decided not to go through with the killing and kept the wife around. After a few years, she barely even remembered her old life.

* ''[[CSI]]'' explored this trope with the character of Tammy Felton in the episodes "Face Lift" and "And Then There Were None".

* Horrifically depicted in an episode of ''[[Flashpoint (TV series)|Flashpoint]]'' when a teenage girl kidnapped eight years earlier ends up with Stockholm Syndrome to the point where she tries to keep the police from rescuing her and the abductor's latest victim.

* In the mini series ''[[Kill Point]]'', Chloe, one of the hostages in a bank robbery, develops feelings for the bank robbers' leader to the point that she wishes to go with him when he escapes.

* In the ''[[Highlander the Series]]'' episode "Revelations 6:8", Methos tells Cassandra that she had Stockholm Syndrome when she was his slave. She denies having loved him but he points out that she expected him to protect her.

* [[Played for Laughs|Played extremely for laughs]] when Fran and her mother are hostages in a bank robbery on ''[[The Nanny]]'', because once they get to know the bank robber, they consider him [[Harmless Villain|(correctly, to all appearances) to be too nice a guy to ever actually shoot any of his hostages.]]

* Combined with [[Lima Syndrome]] in an episode of ''[[New Tricks]]'': Hannah Taylor was kidnapped by a young man with a grudge against her mother, a then-alcoholic doctor who he blamed for his mother's death. After Paul talked with Hannah for a while, he came to his senses and decided to release her and go on the run, not even bothering to collect the ransom he'd asked for. But Hannah, who hated her mother as much as Paul did, chose to come with him. 13 years later they're [[Happily Married]] with a child.

 

* The band Muse has a song called "Stockholm Syndrome" on their third album, ''Absolution.''

* The band [[Yo La Tengo]] also has a song of the same name on their album ''I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One.''

* Michael Jackson's short film ''Ghosts'' has his character Maestro confronted by an angry mob when it's revealed that he's been secretly entertaining kids in his creepy mansion. He turns out to have magical powers, and he proceeds to terrify the crowd with them; when they try to flee, he traps them and declares they're his guests. He summons a crowd of ghouls to assist them, and what follows alternates between entertaining the crowd and terrifying it, particularly when he magically possesses the mob leader, a mayor. When all is said and done, the mayor is the ''only'' person who still wants Maestro gone from the town.

* "[[The Who|Black Widow's Eyes]]", from the album ''Endless Wire'', was written in response to the [[wikipedia:Beslan school hostage crisis|Beslan school massacre]]. It was inspired by one hostage's comments on [[What Beautiful Eyes!|the haunting beauty of one female terrorist's eyes]]. Said [[Word of God|Pete Townshend]] on the subject: "We sometimes fall in love when we do not want to, and when we do not expect to."

 

 

* When the name of your game is ''[[Slave Maker]]'', you can bet this is gonna happen, as nearly all the trainable slaves didn't come in willingly. To be fair, the game is more about having sexy fun than being at all realistic about the mental conditions of a person sold into slavery and you still have to work to make them see you as more than just a slave master.

* In the first ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' game, Otacon is attracted to Sniper Wolf. Snake directly tells him he's probably suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.

* In [[Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon]], Princess Nyna's entire family is slaughtered by Gust/Doluna, but a well known knight from Gust, Camus, protects her from the same fate. Her narration of the events that followed strongly resemble Stockholm Syndrome. She admits that she first hated him because he was part of the group that killed her family (although not directly responsible) and then during their small time together when she was his country's captive as a political prisoner, she develops very strong romantic feelings for him.

** [[Lima Syndrome|He reciprocates her feelings]] and did put his knighthood on the line to take her to an allied kingdom before she could be executed. This causes him to lose a lot of influence in his kingdom, but he stubbornly refused to abandon his king, even when Nyna begs him to side with the League.

 

* Zip and Netta from ''[[DDG]]'' seem to be engaged in a two way Stockholm Syndrome at the moment. Whether Netta really does care about Zip or just sees [[Gender Bender|"her"]] as anything more than a ratings earner is up for debate, but Zip is definitely developing an attachment to her employer/owner.

* In ''[[Casey and Andy]]'', land pirates kidnap the King of Sweden, who [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|is usually]] [[The Thing That Would Not Leave|residing on the title characters' couch]]. At first Casey and Andy enjoy finally having their couch for themselves. But then the king reappears and helps the land pirates to steal the couch.

{{quote|'''Andy:''' Looks like the King of Sweden has joined his captors.

* ''[[Basic Instructions]]'' explains ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'' in the page image above from [http://basicinstructions.net/basic-instructions/2010/1/20/how-to-watch-a-movie-you-are-told-you-will-love-rerun.html this comic].

* {{spoiler|Trina}} in ''[[Collar 6]]''.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In an episode of ''[[Family Guy]]'', Meg developed Stockholm Syndrome, much to her [[Pity the Kidnapper|kidnappers' horror]].

** That, or she was trying to indulge in a [[Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?|ravishment fantasy]].

* [[Played for Laughs]] in the French cartoon ''[[Zig and Sharko]]'', which revolves around [[Villain Protagonist|Zig]] repeatedly kidnapping a mermaid called Marina. Marina's surprising lack of distress when this happens is eventually explained when it is revealed that she has a crush on Zig.

 

* The [[Trope Namer]] is a [[wikipedia:Norrmalmstorg robbery|bank robbery/hostage incident]] that occurred in Stockholm in 1973. The hostages, among other things, berated the police for endangering them by trying to stop the robbers by force, raised money for the robbers' defense lawyers, and even wrote the robbers letter while they were in jail.

* A historical example: Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland, financed much of his campaign against England by taking English knights hostage and ransoming them back. He treated them so well that many would lose the will to fight against him when they were released.

* [[The American Revolution]]. [[George Washington]] ordered that all prisoners of war were to be treated humanely. As a result many Hessian prisoners taken by the American rebels were surprised at how well they were treated and did not try to escape. Some defected to the American cause, and after the war ended, and they were released, many chose to remain in America and become citizens.

* A less famous example where a man managed to convince several people that he was an MI6 agent on the run for his life, asking them to repeatedly give him money (culminating in about several million dollars) and asking a woman to run away with him under the premise that they were going to elope. That guy then threatened her when she was asked by real federal agents to bring him down. He got caught anyway.

* [[wikipedia:Mary McElroy (kidnapping victim)|Mary McElroy]], a rather extreme case of this trope. She openly pleaded for her kidnappers not to be executed and became increasingly mentally unstable after her release from captivity. Going as far as [[Driven to Suicide|taking her own life]] a few years later, leaving behind a note saying: [[Tear Jerker|"My four kidnappers are probably the four people on earth who don't consider me an utter fool. You have your death penalty now - so - please - give them a chance. Mary."]]

** Which is especially odd because unlike some other cases where this happens to this degree of severity, McElroy was only kidnapped for about a day, and during the trial had some difficult even recognizing who her kidnappers were. Her note also makes no sense, of her four kidnappers only 3 had been found and tried, and none of them were given the death penalty, and in fact one had been released by the time of her suicide.

* Conscription. The recruits are taken to boot camp and isolated from the rest of the world from one to three months - no telephones, radio, newspapers or internet allowed. They are [[Drill Sergeant Nasty|continuously harassed, mocked, denigrated and bullied]] by their drill instructors. Most of the boys break and develop a genuine love on army and their fatherland and become obedient soldiers. Some endure and develop an everlasting hatred on their country, government - and society.

* People in abusive situations will often end up attached to their abusers, or else they might end up believing that they deserve the abuse and that their assailants' abuse is just a way of showing love and concern. It's especially horrifying if the abuser is the victim's parent, because as well as inspiring Stockhom syndrome in the victim, the abuser is also more likely to have a good reputation that increases the chances of a Type B [[Abuse Mistake]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Hollywood Psych]]

[[Category:Index Syndrome]]

[[Category:A Tortured Index]]

[[Category:Index]]