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| - In many, many works, when poison comes into play, it is the villain who primarily uses it, and indeed, use of poison by a character is seen as very suspect at best, and a strong sign that the character is evil at worst. Very few heroes (apart from antiheroic Combat Pragmatists) will use poison, considering it dishonest and dishonorable, and if they do use it, it's likely to be something aimed to knock people out such as tranquilizer darts rather than something deadly like arsenic or cyanide, which ties into Thou Shalt Not Kill. See also Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty and Poisoned Weapons.
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| abstract
| - In many, many works, when poison comes into play, it is the villain who primarily uses it, and indeed, use of poison by a character is seen as very suspect at best, and a strong sign that the character is evil at worst. Very few heroes (apart from antiheroic Combat Pragmatists) will use poison, considering it dishonest and dishonorable, and if they do use it, it's likely to be something aimed to knock people out such as tranquilizer darts rather than something deadly like arsenic or cyanide, which ties into Thou Shalt Not Kill. 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 witch(craft) from roots that have to do with poison or poisoners. The use of poison in combat, such as Poisoned Weapons, is widely seen as cheating and dirty fighting, primarily employed by cowardly villains or villainous Combat Pragmatists who care nothing about honor, only about results -- usually the poison-using villain's aim is to either murder someone, gain an unfair advantage, or render someone helpless who would otherwise have wiped the floor with them in a stand-up fight. Depending on the effects of the poison in question, things can get awfully dissonant when other non-poisonous abilities exist (blinding flashes or holy power that weakens The Undead, for example) that do pretty much the same thing as what the poison does and are used quite freely by heroes to bring down their opposition. Because of this, poison's limitation to villains can sometimes take on the status of Designated Evil. Historically, this trope is most traditional in Western Europe and its descendants -- others rarely cared unless there was a breach of Sacred Hospitality or fair duel. In tropical regions hunting with poisons was widespread; in Hindu tradition poisonous critters are just another fact of life, and cobras even revered sometimes. China didn't see poisons as something special, nor did Steppe peoples, Russians shrugged. Americans risk to run into The Savage Indian with it, but the choice of setting usually averts this. By the same token, this trope is ubiquitous in Medieval European Fantasy, but never applied in Hungry Jungle settings, for minimum of realism and Darker and Edgier tone. See also Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty and Poisoned Weapons. Note: This is not just a villain who uses poison; This is where the use of poison is seen as a villainous trait. Examples of Poison Is Evil include:
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