History Main / SealedEvilInASixPack

* The infamous Kangaxx in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII''.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant No, it doesn't necessarily mean the villain inside has six-pack muscles.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Ghostbusters}}'': In the fourth issue of the "Happy Horror Days" arc, the Ghostbusters used multiple traps to contain [[spoiler:the Bogeyman]]. The entity couldn't be permanently contained like a normal ghost because Egon was worried that their presence would contaminate other the specimens in storage and potentially allow for a breach. The traps were put in large individual crates that were then filled with cement and sent to a watery grave "until [the Ghostbusters could] find a better solution."

* ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'': [[spoiler:The colossi are golems that house the soul of Dormin, the dark voice and suspected GodOfEvil. Your job is to open up the can.]]

* In ''Anime/RoninWarriors'', when the BigBad Talpa was defeated in ancient times, his armor, the seat of most of his power, was converted into a set of 10 armors, so that if the BigBad returned, he'd have a hard time getting them back together. Unfortunately, even without the armors, he was still absurdly powerful.
* The Kishin Asura in ''Manga/SoulEater'' probably counts; he was sealed in a bag made of his own skin and his blood was drained and taken elsewhere to weaken him. [[spoiler: Injecting the bag with black blood unseals him.]]
* The Demon King Shabranigdo in ''Anime/{{Slayers}}'', prior to the series, was split into seven pieces and sealed into human souls by his draconic counterpart Cephied. Aside from preventing an apocalypse in the short term, the intent was to degrade their power gradually over multiple reincarnations. Thanks to Lina and company, there's at least one less piece of him these days[[note]]Rezo's fragment is the only shard seen in the anime, albeit multiple times. Another shows up in the novels[[/note]].

* In ''Anime/UmiMonogatari'', Sedna has half of her in the sea and half on land.

* The title character in ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' was dissected and placed in a series of vials. He came back in a more ethereal form.

* ''Manhwa/ChroniclesOfTheCursedSword'': A two-pack: [[spoiler:Rey Yan]] and [[spoiler:Jaryoon]], who each contain half of [[spoiler: the god Ban-Go, who created the world, and will destroy it when released]]
* The four Forbidden Boxes in ''LightNovel/KyoKaraMaoh'' are actually this, in addition to being powerful weapons in their own right.
* ''Manhwa/CavalierOfTheAbyss'': Cadalbolg has the power to exponentiate his magic by binding with ''[[TheAntichrist ONE]] [[HumansAreSpecial human]]''. They have to seal him away in multiple pieces so that he can't use this ability. [[TheVirus Unfortunately, that just gives him more opportunities to possess demons regularly]].

* In ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'', there's a rather complicated version of this with [[spoiler:[[AnthropomorphicPersonification Ruin and Preservation]]]].

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', the Elder Evil Pandorym is a [[KillTheGod deicidal]] EldritchAbomination whose mind and body were separated and trapped, respectively, in a CrystalPrison and an isolated PocketDimension. Said mind is vast enough that even the fragments that escape from its LeakingCanOfEvil have Epic-level PsychicPowers, while the body is a mass of non-reality that annihilates anything it touches, so even allowing the mind to escape is assumed to be the BadEnding.

* ''VideoGame/GrandiaII'' gave us Valmar, the BigBad demon that was defeated in ancient times, and the pieces of it's body spread around the world and sealed away. Interestingly, each of the pieces has a mind of its own - none lay claim to being the original. The Church of Granas sends Elena on a quest to gather the pieces so they may be destroyed, though [[spoiler: it turns out that Pope Zera, who has discovered that GodIsDead and [[NietzscheWannabe believes that life has no meaning without him,]] actually wants to become the new Valmar himself so he can [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroy the world]]. Zera chose Elena for this task despite her inexperience because she's one of the people with a piece of Valmar sealed in her]].

* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'': The protagonists spend the game collecting several shards of the Cobalt Star. Only when they collect and put the pieces together do they realize that the star [[spoiler:actually contained the leader of the invading aliens who was trapped inside by Princess Peach, and that by putting the star together, they release her.]]
* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest'': After the first game, Dracula was defeated and his body was divided into five parts, which Simon Belmont must put together, to resurrect Dracula and kill him again in order to break his curse.

* In ''VideoGame/ZackAndWikiQuestForBarbarosTreasure'', Barbaros was split into many pieces of treasure; he is restored if every piece is gathered together. He was a [[PhysicalGod near deity-level]] pirate captain; each treasure held one of his ComboPlatterPowers.

* The BigBad in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII''. His soul is sealed inside the [[spoiler: Sceptre of Trodain]], and requires the death of seven people to break. His body [[spoiler: is sealed in the statue of the Goddess in Neos.]]
* A variant in ''[[VideoGame/DevilSurvivor Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor]]'': Bel, the ruler of the demons, was sundered by God, but not technically "sealed" as such. Instead, the individual demons he was broken up into - all easily recognized by the syllable "Bel" in their names - have been fighting each other for supremacy, consuming each other in the process in the hopes of reconstituting the original Bel's power and ascending to the Throne of Bel. [[spoiler: The Shomonkai exists to help Belberith, who they worship as "His Majesty," complete this goal so that he can destroy God and spare the world from His ordeal, not realizing that [[EvilIsNotAToy Belberith plans to slaughter humankind once he's done.]]]] The protagonist himself ends up a contender for the Throne of Bel when he defeats [[Myth/NorseMythology Beldr]] and inadvertently absorbs his powers [[spoiler: - but then, it only makes sense, as he turns out to be the reincarnation of A'''bel''']].
** [[spoiler: Slightly more complicated. Other sources claim that 'Abel' exists within humanity. By defeating Beldur...the protagonist awakened that power.]]
* In ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'', Zoltan Kulle was killed and his head, body, and blood sealed in different location to ensure he never returned. [[spoiler:Thanks to Adria, Leah and the Nephalem, he did, but only for long enough to complete his masterpiece, the Black Soulstone, before being rekilled]].
-->'''Lyndon:''' People say ''I'm'' bad, but no one's ever had to imprison me and dismantle ''my'' body parts. A little context would be nice.
* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII'', Taira Masakado, the protector of Tokyo, was torn apart by the Yamato gods, and each part (arms, legs, head and torso) hidden away. Once you reassemble him, it turns out his soul was taken away as well (although for safekeeping rather than anything else). There is also [[spoiler:Satan, YHVH's greatest weapon]] who was split into two entities until his destructive power was needed.

* ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'' [[spoiler:The colossi are golems that house the soul of Dormin, the dark voice and suspected GodOfEvil. Your job is to open up the can.]]
* At some point in the backstory of ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'', one of history's many Links attempted to finish off Ganondorf by sealing fractions of his soul across points in the series' timeline. Seemed to be working until Cia the Time Witch interfered.

* ''WebAnimation/{{Dreamscape}}'': The Overlord of Evil's SealedEvilInACan had to be upgraded to this by Drake and Keedran in 'Over and Under', due to it becoming a LeakingCanOfEvil.

* Shabranigdo and his seven parts in ''Anime/{{Slayers}}''.

* In ''Literature/TheBlackCompany'', some legends claim that Kina is sealed in this way.

* Imhotep in ''Film/{{The Mummy|1999}}''. He rises as soon as the spell on the sarcophagus is broken, but in order to recover beyond a walking mummy needs to absorb the flesh from whoever opened the box that goes with his sarcophagus.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWho2019CSResolution "Resolution"]], a [[spoiler:Dalek recon scout]] which landed on Earth in the 9th century is, after being defeated [[spoiler:and removed from its casing]], cut up into three pieces, each of which were entrusted to a custodian, scattered around the world, and buried, with the hereditary custodians watching over the pieces for 1200 years. The problems start when the third custodian is killed by bandits long before the end of his journey, and his piece of the creature is dug up by archaeologists in the present day...

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* In the Literature/WhateleyUniverse story Silent Nacht, this is cited as the reason for stories involving chasing the pieces of the Macguffin. Apparently the trope is based on the practice of splitting up powerful artifacts into component parts, since that much power in one place is a huge trouble magnet.
* ''WebAnimation/{{Dreamscape}}'': The Overlord of Evil's SealedEvilInACan had to be upgraded to this by Drake and Keedran in 'Over and Under', due to it becoming a LeakingCanOfEvil.
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* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': When ancient Chinese immortals sealed the Demon Sorcerer Shendu into a statue, they were able to suppress Shendu's own powers but not those he had stolen from other beings. Instead they were forced to split off 12 of these powers, taken from the animals of the EasternZodiac, turning them into talismans which grant their power to the holder. Placing all 12 talismans into slots in Shendu's statue restores him to life... but despite appearances, his new body is really just a transformed version of the statue, and he can be defeated by removing the Rat Talisman he's using to animate it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'', the Demon Sorcerer Shendu was defeated the first time by wizards taking pieces of his powers, including the power to move, and placing them in 12 stones, each decorated with the image of one of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. This is where the Talismans came from. Holding one gives you that power.

[[IThoughtItMeant No, it doesn't necessarily mean the villain inside has six-pack muscles.]]

* In ''VideoGame/ZackAndWikiQuestForBarbarosTreasure'', Barbaros was split into many pieces of treasure; he is restored if every piece is gathered together. He was a [[AGodAmI near deity-level]] pirate captain; each treasure held one of his ComboPlatterPowers.

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', the Sage of Six Paths sealed the body of the Ten-Tailed Beast in the Moon, and divided its power into nine tailed beasts that were subsequently sealed individually.
** Similar to the Millennium Puzzle below, Hidan was dismembered via explosives and then buried in a single grave. He can't pull himself together and though somebody ''could'' theoretically put him back together, they'd need to find the completely unmarked and obscure location which is on protected ground of the Nara clan.

* ''TabletopGame/Pathfinder'' has Kazavon, the ancient blue dragon warlord and champion of the god Zon-Kuthon. While he was killed centuries ago by a band of adventurers, the evil power granted to him by Zon-Kuthon was so strong that they couldn't completely destroy his body. The heroes divided up Kazavon's remaining pieces (his horns, fangs, claws, wings, ribs, skull, and tailbones) with the intention of keeping them separated as far from each other as possible to ensure that he would never be resurrected; while the pieces have been kept apart so far, they still remain (now in the form of various powerful artifacts), and one sect of Zon-Kuthon's worshipers are devoted to gathering the "Relics of Kazavon" in order to revive the dragon.

* In the WhateleyUniverse story Silent Nacht, this is cited as the reason for stories involving chasing the pieces of the Macguffin. Apparently the trope is based on the practice of splitting up powerful artifacts into component parts, since that much power in one place is a huge trouble magnet.

* ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' has an evil example and a good example. The good example deliberately invoked this trope on both ends as part of a HeroicSacrifice, breaking herself into several fragments so she could guard all of the evil fragments.