History Main / DefeatedAndTrophified

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'': Aria T'Loak, the current ruler of Omega, won the power struggle against her krogan predecessor ("Patriarch"), but, rather than killing him, she made him her "advisor" and keeps him around as a symbol of what happens when someone tries anything against her. [[PlayerCharacter Shepard]] can convince Patriarch to stand up for himself or to [[DyingMomentOfAwesome seek out a final, glorious death against his enemies]].

** Forms the basis of the entire plot: the player character must prove their worthiness to enter Valhalla by killing the Forsaken (monsters that refused Odin's authority) and taking their heads to hang up on a StandingStoneCircle. Putting one up also grants you a specific power (decreased stamina use, resistance to damage, etc.).
** Every enemy in the game drops some kind of trophy (usually their heads) which can then be mounted on walls. Some (like fish) even keep talking, raising the question of whether they are in fact dead.

* One of the most-known real stories from the Byzantine Empire was the absolutely brutal fate of the emperor Nikiphoros Phokas after his defeat at the hands of the Bulgarians. [[SkullCups They made his skull into a wine grail]]. Keep in mind that the Bulgarians might've done that to [[WorthyOpponent honor rather than]] [[ValuesDissonance humiliate him]].

[[folder:Films — Animation]]

* Lydia in ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'' betrays and petrifies the Muses, keeping them as trophies.

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

* ''[[Literature/TheExpanse Persepolis Rising]]'' ends with [[spoiler:the protagonist James Holden]] captured by Laconian invaders and deported to the High Consul's palace, where they were alternately paraded around as a "special guest" and tortured for daring to oppose humanity's new "benevolent" dictator.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E1TheWomanWhoFellToEarth The Woman Who Fell to Earth]]", the villain is a Stenza warlord who is undergoing a ritual of leadership that involves HuntingTheMostDangerousGame. The quarry of the hunt is a randomly designated human who must be captured alive without assistance, returned to the Stenza homeworld, and [[AndIMustScream preserved in a state between life and death as a trophy]].

* ''WesternAnimation/EgoTrip'' After the Dexters defeat Mandark, they put his [[BrainInAJar brain on display in a jar]].

* The White Witch in ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'' turns people and other beings to stone and keeps them around as statues.

* UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire had an institution focused around this: A general who was given a Triumph for a successful conquest would usually include high-status prisoners from the enemy side (their royalty or generals) as part of the Triumph. After being paraded through the streets of Rome for the citizens to gawk/laugh at, the prisoners would be brought to the Temple Hill where the Romans would either pardon them as a show of public magnanimity (reserved for the politically useful and the underage, like Cleopatra's sister Arsinoë), or ritualistically strangled as a HumanSacrifice (practically everyone else).

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** Owing to their strong hunter mentality, the Hirogen in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' will take the relics of those they defeated, which were often skulls and other bones.
** ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': In the second season Q interfered in history, which led to a new timeline in which Earth led a brutal Confederation that subjugated numerous races. General Picard is one of the foremost military leaders, who has a hobby of [[Recap/StarTrekPicardS2E02Penance collecting the skulls]] of vanquished enemies at his mansion in La Barre.

* While real-life slavery comes about in a number of ways (debt, violation of the law, being born to parents who are also slaves, being sold into slavery by one's own family, etc.), in many societies the newly enslaved were usually prisoners of war, one group doing battle against another and then capturing the enemy (and their families and friends and other non-combatants from conquered territories) and keeping them as personal servants, pleasure thralls and in other unfortunate circumstances. Usually, they are branded or given an accessory like handcuffs or a collar to mark them as property.

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'': Tabuu and his minions literally turn the defeated cast into trophies incapable of fighting back.

If this enslavement is mystical in origin, then the only means of liberating oneself of such a deal without serious cosmic repercussions is when the master is dead or [[AsLongAsThereIsOneMan finally defeated]].

Compare with BattleTrophy, CreepySouvenir, and DeadGuyOnDisplay, which requires the trophy to be dead. See also DealWithTheDevil, HumanPet, LivingDollCollector, LivingMuseumExhibit, and PeopleZoo. Not to be confused with LostHimInACardGame, TrophyChild, or TrophyWife. Can result in WhyDontYouJustShootHim

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Inverted by Lukas the Trickster, who does this to people who defeat ''him''. One of his hearts was replaced by a stasis bomb, meaning that on dying, everyone in base contact with Lukas is trapped for eternity with only his mocking laughter for company. This has since been nerfed, since the first version of this ability allowed him to remove Titans with ease.

* ''VideoGame/ConanExiles'': Taking thralls works like this. You beat an NPC down with a truncheon, tie them up and drag them home, break them on your WheelOfPain, then set the doing various tasks for you. There are fighter thralls to help you in combat, bearer thralls to carry your loot, cook and blacksmith and armorer and alchemist and other thralls to help you efficiently craft high-end gear, but the trope is played straightest with Entertainer thralls, who dance for you to remove corruption and improve natural healing.

* ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'': Whenever he wins a fight, Rugal Bernstein keeps the people he sees as a WorthyOpponent in liquid metal and then put them as statues in his personal ship.

* One of the most-known real stories from the Byzantine empire was the absolutely brutal fate of the emperor Nikiphoros Phokas after his defeat in the hands of the Bulgarians. [[SkullCups They made his skull into a wine grail]]. Keep in mind that the Bulgarians might've done that to [[WorthyOpponent honor rather than]] [[ValuesDissonance humiliate him]].

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Inverted by Lukas the Trickster, who does this do people who defeat ''him''. One of his hearts was replaced by a stasis bomb, meaning that on dying, everyone in base contact with Lukas is trapped for eternity with only his mocking laughter for company. This has since been nerfed, since the first version of this ability allowed him to remove Titans with ease.

* In ''Literature/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'', the psychic shock of losing a summoning battle renders people essentially lobotomized for a 24-hour period; they are [[spoiler: usually]] mindless and highly suggestible. Usually, this means death or imprisonment for the defeated, but sadistic victors such as Azalea or the White Queen enslave them as {{Human Pet}}s.

* ''Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'': After wiping out humanity AM keeps five alive for centuries in order to keep tormenting them. [[spoiler: When they manage to kill each other he turns the survivor into a featureless blob with no means of harming himself,]] hence the title.

* ''Series/{{Gotham}}'': After Edward Nygma and Oswald Cobbleplot become enemies in season 3, the latter finally emerges victorious over the former after a GambitPileup and has him frozen alive by Mr. Freeze. Just to humiliate Nygma further, Cobblepot then has him displayed in his club as a trophy and as a warning to any other challengers to his position. [[spoiler: At least until Nygma is unfrozen and starts plotting revenge, although by that point Cobbleplot considers him NotWorthKilling anymore after Nygma has lost his intelligence, making him merely a shadow of his former self.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': The [[PeopleZoo Human Zoo]] was a private menagerie built by Pink Diamond as a means to contain a private collection of abducted humans to act as living trophies for her conquest of Earth. All modern human specimens there are descendants of said abducted humans. [[spoiler: It is later revealed that Pink Diamond wasn't actually the one who built the Zoo, but rather Blue Diamond, who misunderstood Pink's desire to preserve Earth's life.]]

* In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', after winning a battle against a son of Elf-lord Feanor, Morgoth captured him and kept him chained by onlyone wrist to the outer wall of Thangorodrim, both for his torment and as a souvenir of victory.

* In ''Literature/TheKingkillerChronicle'', the Maer's punishes bandits by putting them in a cage above the city's main gate until they starve to death. The skeleton of the previous criminal is still there, serving as a reminder of the Maer's authority.

Even worse is when the loser [[AndIMustScream gets a light of the whole situation but can't do a thing about it as they are trapped as a still-conscious trophy]].