History Main / AllUpToYou

* ''WesternAnimation/DragonTales'': In the climax of "Knot a Problem", Ord's rope being used to lift Winnie out of the hole starts to come lose; Emmy tries to tie it, but cannot do it herself. Max is uncertain as he's still convinced he can't tie a knot, but Emmy begs him to at least try since she can't tie the knot alone on the risk of Winnie falling. With that, Max realizes he can tie knots all along and successfully secures the rope, and they save Winnie.

-->'''Lucy:''' Charlie Brown, you've got to do something about that dog.\\
'''Linus:''' It's up to you, Charlie Brown.\\
'''Charlie:''' Why me?\\
'''[[SpeakInUnison Peanuts gang]]:''' Because [[TitleDrop HE'S YOUR DOG, CHARLIE BROWN!]]
-->-- ''''[[Franchise/{{Peanuts}} He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown]]''

->'''[[Film/{{Casablanca}} Rick Blaine]]:''' Fingal, it's up to you.\\
'''Aram Fingal:''' It's okay, buddy. I can handle it.\\
'''Crow T. Robot:''' And just what is the "it" which is to him "up" and which he can perhaps "handle"?
-->-- ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', "[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S08E22OverdrawnAtTheMemoryBank Overdrawn at the Memory Bank]]"

** The worst offender of this trope in the show is the episode with Felix, where Kim, due to the CompressedVice of the episode, spends the entire episode giving Felix special treatment because he sits in a wheelchair. But when the mission is on, Kim spends the entire fight needing rescue while Felix somehow shows that he'd be more competent at saving the world with his wheelchair than Kim. That's actually pretty justified considering... well, have you SEEN [[SuperWheelchair THIS THING]]?! It's like [[Franchise/SpiderMan Dr. Octopus]] [[JustForFun/RecycledINSPACE ON WHEELS!]]

* A variant can be seen in the "Classic Trilogy" titles for ''Franchise/SpryoTheDragon''; in contrast to the alternate interpretations of Spryo from ''Franchise/TheLegendOfSpyro'' and ''WesternAnimation/SkylandersAcademy', the "Classic" Spryo is in no way TheChosenOne -- instead, circumstances conspire that he's just the only one available to do the job in each game, despite the fact that, as a teenage dragon, he is far smaller and weaker than anybody the dragons would send if they had any other choice:

--->'''[[WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged Krillin]]:''' Holy crap! So ''this'' is what it feels like to be important!

* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'': In the Dark Masters arc of season 01, ''Anime/DigimonAdventure''. Everyone but 8-year-old Takeru and Hikari (or T.K. and Kari as they're known in the U.S.) along with Angemon are captured and turned into keychains. The last older kid standing, Sora, makes T.K. promise to protect Kari, and gives him the keychain of his brother, Yamato (Matt), in hopes of giving the little boy the strength he needed to fight [[BigBad Piedmon.]] (Naturally, it ''does'') To be fair, this is ''Digimon'', specially ''the digital world'', where a person's beliefs can directly effect how great or weak a power they can manifest in that world. So having a symbolic link to his brother helped to give T.K. the emotional fortitude he needed to get Angemon to digivolve. And take on the villain.

* ''Anime/{{Charlotte}}'': Subverted in episode 11. Due to extensive Black Mail, Yuu is tasked with stopping the rogue ability user group by himself with Shunsuke's group nearby to assist if needed. Unfortunately one of their members attacks him to prevent him from using his abilities properly. Though he nominally stops them after unconsciously triggering the "collapse" ability, Kumagami, one of the hostages, is killed shielding Nao from the falling debris. Shunsuke's group was also unfortunately unable to assist as Yuu used that ability rather quickly due to being stabbed by the girl attacking him, and they were wondering why he hadn't used the time-leap ability yet.
* ''Anime/KanColle'': When the last Abyssal carrier shows up in episode 12, Fubuki is certain that's the last one they have to defeat. Sure enough, it's the same one she ran into back in episode 7, as the carrier is still missing an eye, and Nagato orders her to take it out, with Kongou as her only escort. This is made a little more jarring by the fact that just moments before, she ordered another group of girls to take out the previous carrier, and now she doesn't just order them to fire a few salvos at the third carrier.

* The basic plot of both the {{Edutainment}} game ''VideoGame/MarioIsMissing'' and the more serious ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' games is that of [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] being captured, and having to be saved by Luigi.
* Subverted in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', in which a captured Solid Snake attempts to get Otacon to spring him from captivity. What he gets is...a pack of ketchup and some food, and Otacon adamantly refuses to take out the guard despite Snake's request. Played straight in that he brought you the pack of ketchup so Snake can fake death.
* Princess Peach, the historic DamselInDistress of the ''Super Mario'' games, steps up in ''VideoGame/SuperPrincessPeach'' when Mario and Luigi are kidnapped.
* This actually can be averted in the multiplayer of ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'', especially the first chapter. When searching for the 4 reagents, if a player other than you finds a reagent and turns it in, Aribeth will tell you that someone else has already discovered it. In other words, it's quite possible to sit your lazy ass back and allow the other players to find the cure while you watch...and you'll still possibly advance.
* This happens in ''VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves'' for a while thanks to [[spoiler: Neyla pulling a FaceHeelTurn (though it’s soon revealed she has a habit of betraying ''everybody'') and landing Sly and Murray in jail, forcing Bentley to strike out on his own for a while]].

* Children's cartoons (such as ''{{WesternAnimation/Superfriends}}'') often use this device to show that kids can be heroes too.

* ''Fanfic/TheShroudedPath'': Midway through''The Shrouded Path'', Terra is put into an enchanted sleep while Aqua has already been captured by the {{Big Bad}}, leaving Ven without his two best friends as he returns to ''VideoGame/SilentHill''.

* ''LightNovel/MagikaSwordsmanAndSummoner'': In Volume 14, Kazuki Hayashizaki has to face off against Lucifer alone to win Ragnarok and stop his plans for good.

-->-- ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', ''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S08E22OverdrawnAtTheMemoryBank Overdrawn at the Memory Bank]]''

* ''Fanfic/TheShroudedPath'': In ''The Shrouded Path'', Terra's Wayfinder was modified to be able to track his friends' whereabouts. [[spoiler:When Terra falls under a sleeping spell and Ven is left on his own, he uses Terra's Wayfinder to track Aqua.]]

* The basic plot of both the {{Edutainment}} game ''VideoGame/MarioIsMissing'' and the more serious game ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' is that of [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] being captured, and having to be saved by Luigi.