History Main / PoisonIsEvil

It's not hard to see why poison is considered evil by many. The notion of normally life-giving food or water becoming something that can hurt or kill people, for example, terrifies us, and the use of it is quite sensibly banned in many cultures. Many rulers have fallen to poison, and just as many take precautions against it, such as food tasters. We often use the word "poison" figuratively to describe something destructive or corruptive, such as "poisoning someone's mind" or "poisoning the well" in a debate. Latin ("veneficus"), Hebrew ("kashaph", "qesem") and Navajo ("’ánt’įįhnii") all derive their words for [[BlackMagic witch(craft)]] from roots that have to do with poison or poisoners.

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* In ''[[{{Gor}} Raiders of Gor]]'' one of the five claimants to being the ruler of the city-state of Port Kar is a skilled poisoner and is looked down upon. (He's also a bit fey, which doesn't help.) After being exiled from the city, in ''Hunters of Gor'' he secretly supplies poisoned swords to enemy fighters, and they poison Tarl, paralyzing him. In ''Maurauders of Gor'' the leader of those enemy fighters approaches Tarl to give him an antidote; when the king of their city-state had learned of the treachery he [[EvenEvilHasStandards forced the other man to create an antidote]], then poisoned him to test it. On Gor generally, poison is dismissed as a woman's weapon.

** Also done in the first book in ''{{The Mark of the Lion}}'' series, where young noblewoman Julia poisons her violently abusive suitor to be rid of him. It's tempting to count this as an inversion since he was such a vicious brute, but considering Julia goes on to condemn the heroine Hadassah to be fed to lions in the Colosseum, it's still a pretty straight example (at least until both women get better in the second book).

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* {{Inverted}} in ''Series/{{Merlin}}'' in which it is heroic Merlin who uses poison to try and kill Morgana, thus breaking a near-fatal spell over Camelot that she was inadvertently causing. Played straight later, when Morgana uses poison to kill a witness to her FaceHeelTurn.

*** Any non-assassin {{NPC}} would assume anyone with {{poisoned weapons}} were assassins and attack them, call for the city watch or both. Meanwhile assassins won't like when people break their "monopoly."

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** In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'', [[{{Complete Monster}} Izuka]] urges the party to capture a nearby prison camp by dumping poisons in the camp's water supply. The protagonists disprove, claiming they will lose the support of the citizenry for it, but makes no sense from a strategic stand point (the mission is to liberate the prisoners to gain a manpower boost, which is impossible when they are dead.).
* Averted and played straight in ''{{Pokemon}}'': Team Rocket uses mainly poison-types, but there's also a Poison-type Gym Leader in ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' (the only one in the entire series in fact, not counting his daughter from ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'') and nothing stops you from using Poison types, [[TierInducedScrappy aside from their general crappiness in battle]].

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* Played with in ''9 to 5'', when Violet fantasizes about killing [[BadBoss Mr. Hart]]. She imagines herself as a Disney/SnowWhite-style FriendToAllLivingThings, yet bumps him off by poisoning his coffee, to the general rejoicing of animated WoodlandCreatures and desk-chained employees. An animated vaporous skull-and-crossbones appears above the coffee cup when she pours in the toxin.

* Inverted in AgathaChristie's ''Halloween Party.'' When HerculePoirot asks the gentle, kind Miranda how she would kill someone, she replies that she would use poison--specifically a sleeping draught--because she wouldn't want to cause anyone any pain.

Historically, this trope is most traditional in Western Europe and its descendants -- others rarely cared unless there was a breach of SacredHospitality or fair duel. In tropical regions hunting with poisons was widespread; at least China didn't see poisons as something too unusual, as well as Steppe peoples[[hottip:*:Authors of [[GenghisKhan Temujin]]'s biography saw the only dramatic point in how his loyal follower did SuckOutThePoison]]; Russians shrugged[[hottip:*:even the author of a thinly veiled anti-Horde pamphlet only once offhandedly mentioned poisoned arrows, without any judgement]]. Americans [[UnfortunateImplications risk to run into]] TheSavageIndian with it, but the choice of setting usually averts this.

** In 2nd Edition all of the references above were removed except for the Dagger of Venom.
** In 3rd Edition, using poison is still generally evil. However, a later supplement introduces "ravages," which have exactly the same effect as poisons, except that they aren't evil (they work by reacting to the evil in a creature, rather than the way many poisons tend to work). Like previous editions, Poison Use as an ability is almost always exclusive to evil classes. The main exceptions are a: Avengers, which is like the Assassin class in every way except the flavor is "spy willing and able to kill for king and country/Mother Russia/whoever" instead of "murderer for hire" (and a typo for spells known that no DM will allow in play), which must be non-Chaotic 2: {{Eberron}}'s Warforged, who don't get the ability directly, but are immune to poison, duplicating any effect of the ability. Drow can obtain poison use from alignment free classes, but Drow are almost all AlwaysChaoticEvil (except the throng of [[Webcomic/OrderOfTheStick Chaotic Good rebels struggling to throw off the reputation of their Evil brethren]], who still get the perks).
*** A non-lethal knockout venom exists that is the exception: It has no worse side effects than "unconscious for 2d4 hours", and the books specifically mention that even paladins could use that one with little moral quandary, provided the intention is to knock someone out ''rather'' than kill them (like capturing a criminal for courts). Of course, in a fine bit of {{irony}}, it's called Drow poison and is relatively unknown on the surface: The Drow use it for live captures of slaves.

It's not hard to see why poison is considered evil by many. The notion of normally life-giving food or water becoming something that can hurt or kill people, for example, terrifies us, and the use of it is quite sensibly banned in many cultures. Many rulers have fallen to poison, and just as many take precautions against it, such as food tasters. We often use the word "poison" figuratively to describe something destructive or corruptive, such as "poisoning someone's mind" or "poisoning the well" in a debate.

** Also done in the first book in ''The Mark of the Lion'' series, where young noblewoman Julia poisons her violently abusive suitor to be rid of him. It's tempting to count this as an inversion since he was such a vicious brute, but considering Julia goes on to condemn the heroine Hadassah to be fed to lions in the Colosseum, it's still a pretty straight example (at least until both women get better in the second book).

* In ''ASongOfIceAndFire'', poison is commonly seen as a coward's weapon.

** In ''[[FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'', [[{{Complete Monster}} Izuka]] urges the party to capture a nearby prison camp by dumping poisons in the camp's water supply. The protagonists disprove, claiming they will lose the support of the citizenry for it, but makes no sense from a strategic stand point (the mission is to liberate the prisoners to gain a manpower boost, which is impossible when they are dead.).

* Played with in ''9 to 5'', when Violet fantasizes about killing [[BadBoss Mr. Hart]]. She imagines herself as a SnowWhite-style FriendToAllLivingThings, yet bumps him off by poisoning his coffee, to the general rejoicing of animated WoodlandCreatures and desk-chained employees. An animated vaporous skull-and-crossbones appears above the coffee cup when she pours in the toxin.

* ''EyesOfTheDragon'' has sorceror Flagg utilize an excruciating poison (one that he's even wary about) on the king to put his younger EnfantTerrible son on the throne, framing the king's elder son for the crime. Why? Because he can.

* Played straight in ''{{Naruto}}''. One would think that use of poison would be common among the ninja heroes, but so far it's mostly been only the villains (Sasori and Kabuto) who use poison.

* In ''FinalFantasyVI'', Kefka's use of poison at Doma (Read: "mass murder of an entire city"), even in war, is the point that the Empire's soldiers and citizens consider him to have crossed the MoralEventHorizon.

* Averted and played straight in ''{{Pokemon}}'': Team Rocket uses mainly poison-types, but there's also a Poison-type Gym Leader in ''VideoGame/PokemonRedandBlue'' (the only one in the entire series in fact, not counting his daughter from ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'') and nothing stops you from using Poison types, [[TierInducedScrappy aside from their general crappiness in battle]].

* In ''FireEmblem'', only enemies can use Poison weapons, unless you somehow manage to swipe one off them (and in some games they end reverting to normal weapons if you do that). Subverted in ''Radiant Dawn'', after defeating a lategame boss with a poisoning magic tome you get it and can use it to poison enemies.
** In ''Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn'', [[{{Complete Monster}} Izuka]] urges the party to capture a nearby prison camp by dumping poisons in the camp's water supply. The protagonists disprove, claiming they will lose the support of the citizenry for it, but makes no sense from a strategic stand point (the mission is to liberate the prisoners to gain a manpower boost, which is impossible when they are dead.).
* Averted and played straight in ''{{Pokemon}}'': Team Rocket uses mainly poison-types, but there's also a Poison-type Gym leader (the only one in the entire series in fact, not counting his daughter from ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'') and nothing stops you from using Poison types, [[TierInducedScrappy aside from their general crappiness in battle]]. Also, as of Generation V, ther are actually no Poison-type Legendary Pokemon, not counting Arceus holding the Poison plate.
** In addition, in the first game the only ghost types were also poison types and they were definatly somewhat evil (possessing channelers in the Lavender Tower).

* [[AssassinsCreed The Assassins]] held this belief early on, until Altair lifted the ban; hence the reason why [[AssassinsCreed2 Ezio]] uses a poison blade in his repertoire.

* Played with in ''9 to 5'', when Violet fantasizes about killing [[BadBoss Mr. Hart]]. She imagines herself as a SnowWhite-style FriendToAllLivingThings, yet bumps him off by poisoning his coffee, to the general rejoicing of animated WoodlandCreatures and desk-chained employees.

* Though ''KillBill'' has assassins as major characters, Elle Driver, the most evil and treacherous of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, is the only one in the saga to make extensive use of poison. She tries to poison the Bride while she's in her four-year coma, only to be warned off by Bill, who considers the act to "lower" them, and later uses poison in her killing of [[spoiler:Budd and Pai Mei]].

* * In {{Noir}}, Shaoli delivers deadly poison with a mere scratch of her fingernails. She's treated as objectively villainous, [[spoiler:and her request to [[EvenEvilHasStandards join Soldats is turned down]]...by Kuroe's blade.]]

* Averted and played straight in ''{{Pokemon}}'': Team Rocket uses mainly poison-types, but there's also a Poison-type Gym leader (the only one in the entire series in fact, not counting his daughter from ''PokemonGoldAndSilver'') and nothing stops you from using Poison types, [[TierInducedScrappy aside from their general crappiness in battle]]. Also, as of Generation V, ther are actually no Poison-type Legendary Pokemon, not counting Arceus holding the Poison plate.

* Inverted in ''AxeCop'', where it's the good guy who poisons everyone. He seems to have a poison for ''every'' villain he comes across with some bizarre method to get it into them.

* Just like the ones in ''DungeonsAndDragons'', ''{{Egoboo}}'' paladins cannot use poison.