History Main / PoisonousCaptive

* A Silurian warrior woman in S5 of ''DoctorWho'' . She managed to convince one of the people guarding her to act on her worst impulses.

* In ''TheThreeMusketeers'' FemmeFatal Milady de Winter pulls this by seducing her jailer when captured in England, twisting the guy so much that he becomes an assassin, attacking The Duke of Buckingham (also a HistoricalInJoke, as this event really happened).

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

* In ''Film/TheAvengers'' movie, [[spoiler: Loki]] gets captured quite early on. It doesn't end well.

* How could you guys forget about [[TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]]? He's certainly the TropeCodifier if not the TropeMaker.

* In TheAvengers movie [[spoiler: Loki]] gets captured quite early on. It doesn't end well.

* TheJoker on the ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "MadLove", who was able to talk his psychiatrist Harlene Quinzel into becoming HarleyQuinn while still in Arkham. And it was implied early in the episode that he drove the ones before her insane.

* Batman also does this in WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague, when captured by Lex Luthor's villainous team. [[spoiler: He bribes Ultra Humanite to save the Justice League from Luthor's plan and take down the team from the inside, frames the perfectly innocent Cheetah as his accomplice, drives a wedge between team members and generally makes a nuisance of himself, all while restrained.]]

* Batman also does this in WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague, when captured by Lex Luthor's villainous team. [[spoiler: He bribes Ultra Humanite to save the Justice League from Luthor's plan and take down the team from the inside, frames the perfectly innocent Cheetah as his accomplice, drives a wedge between team members and generally makes a nuisance of himself, all while restrained.]]

* Batman also does this in Justice League, when captured by Lex Luthor's villainous team. [[spoiler: He bribes Ultra Humanite to save the Justice League from Luthor's plan and take down the team from the inside, frames the perfectly innocent Cheetah as his accomplice, drives a wedge between team members and generally makes a nuisance of himself, all while restrained.]]

* Spike tended to be this when held by the Scoobies in season four of ''{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}''.
* In ''{{Angel}}'' season 4 Angelus did this to the crew of Angel Investigations.
* Ben from ''{{Lost}}'' makes his first appearance as the captive "Henry Gale", and spends his entire time in captivity playing mind games with the survivors and attempting to turn them against one another.

* Simeon on ''StargateUniverse''.

* Batman also does this in Justice League, when captured by Lex Luthor's villainous team. [[Spoiler: He bribes Ultra Humanite to save the Justice League from Luthor's plan and take down the team from the inside, frames the perfectly innocent Cheetah as his accomplice, drives a wedge between team members and generally makes a nuisance of himself, all while restrained.]]

** Batman himself has also done this to teams that the Joker has been on (though the Joker saw it coming).

* The entire premise of Arkham Asylum.

* This was [[BigBad Faden]]'s entire schtick in ''{{Exiern}}''. He was captured a couple of strips in, spent almost the entire time in captivity and still proved to be an effective villain the entire time.

May be a result of ISurrenderSuckers. Compare PityTheKidnapper, a comedic version (which usually involves villains as captors rather than heroes), and SealedEvilInACan. The inverted, heroic version often falls under TalkingYourWayOut.

* TheJoker on the ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "MadLove", who was able to talk his psychiatrist Harlene Quinzel into becoming HarleyQuinn while still in Arkham. And it was implied early in the episode that he drove the ones before her insane.

Particularly dangerous cases may pose the threat of a hero's untimely corruption, if they start listening to the villain's [[WisdomFromTheGutter cynical-but-persuasive advice]], buying into his [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans justifications]] [[IDidWhatIHadToDo for]] [[AboveGoodAndEvil evil]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist deeds]], or being tempted by offers made in exchange for freedom.

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