History Main / DamselScrappy

** Alice Cullen just sums it up: [[LampshadeHanging "I have never seen anyone more prone to life-threatening idiocy."]]

* Parker from ''{{Frozen}''. She is the reason she, her boyfriend and his best friend are stuck on a skilift during a snowstorm and despite doing NOTHING to help and EVERY stupid thing she could, [[spoiler: she survives the ordeal and has the massive luck of finding a road where she could be rescued]].

* Parker from ''Frozen''. She is the reason she, her boyfriend and his best friend are stuck on a skilift during a snowstorm and despite doing NOTHING to help and EVERY stupid thing she could, [[spoiler: she survives the ordeal and has the massive luck of finding a road where she could be rescued]].

* Nicole from the ''DawnOfTheDead'' remake. And she survives until the end. [[OrIsIt Or does she?]]

*** Zola, in fact, what with [[spoiler: outsmarting the Other and repeatedly besting demonstrated BadAss characters in combat]] may be a VERY rare example of a character going from DamselScappy to MagnificentBastard.

** Tara was just as bad as Dawn. She was beaten down by her family who told her she was a demon, and needed to be rescued by ...everyone. Then Glory kidnapped her. Then finally Warren shot her while aiming for Buffy. Tara was like a recipe for plot padding, tear jerking, and hot lesbian reunion scenes.

** The latest SuperSentai, they fix this problem by having the Pink Ranger lead the rescue mission after all the rangers' powers are disabled and the male rangers are captured. While yellow does show quite a bit of television ability, the majority of the thing is pink wielding M16s akimbo.

** Alice Cullen just sums it up: "I have never seen anyone more prone to life-threatening idiocy."

** Additionally, out of the four main characters, who makes more sense as getting kidnapped, injured, or killed, the BadassColonel, the ActionGirl, the ProudWarriorRaceGuy, or the NonActionGuy?

* One of the reasons why Akane Tendo from [[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]] is considered by some to be a BaseBreaker is the fact that, sometimes, she comes off as one of these. It's not that she gets kidnapped a lot (in fact, Ranma Saotome himself is actually kidnapped more frequently then she is), but she does get into trouble frequently, often because of her own issues (temper tantrums, pride and blind distrust of Ranma/trust of her enemies, mainly), and usually ends up contributing nothing positive to the experience. The very earliest examples of this are the [[MartialArtsAndCrafts Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics and Martial Arts Figure Skating]] stories.

** [[strike:TheSeventies]] [[TheSixties The sixties-era]] book ''Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane'' seemed dedicated to making sure every single reader hated poor Lois. If you google around, you'll find scans of multiple letters columns where readers asked for Superman to spank Lois.

*** But not completely averted with regards to Gwen Stacey, the shrieking Penelope that Sam Raimi must've based his Mary Jane on. Though she was at least likeable to many of the fans, the repetitive rescue-me's got tiring enough to render her Scrappy.

*** She was arguably improving as far back as Day 3, when she was actually working for CTU and in the office for most of the day. Her relationship with Chase was kind of unneccessary, but no worse than the time spent on Tony and Michelle.

** Then in the final season, she managed to get out WITHOUT being kidnapped, and she sent Jack off to do his thing. The girl has deinitely gone a long way.
* Charlene {{Matlock}}, who almost every episiode gets herself into some sort of trouble by trying to investigate/snoop around alone and either Ben or Tyler need to come to her rescue.

** Mel was the only companion during her tenure, and thus had the duty of getting captured. This would be fine if she were useful or likable. And then she was followed by Ace. Who killed Daleks with homemade explosives (Stored in deoderant cans) and a super-charged baseball bat. Nobody loves Mel.

** well, it's hard to consider damsels in Spelunky to be Damsel Scrappies since [[ImprovisedWeapon they're actually useful]].

* Rosie in ''FossilFighters'' seems to exist soley to get kidnapped a lot, and to have various other [[ButtMonkey humorous problems]] befall her. It wouldn't seem quite so bad if she and the hero weren't getting StrangledByTheRedString. [[spoiler: You, however, can eventually choose to deny the red string and ToyShip yourself with ActionGirl alien Duna if you want.]]

* Denny Levens serves three basic purposes in [[CiemWebcomicSeries Candi's life]]: provide her with a new last name, give her someone to constantly protect/rescue, and give her more issues to {{Wangst}} about when her effort to do so fails in the long run. Given he used to be a bootlegger, and he's now in a war where his enemies [[OffWithHisHead want his wife's head for a trophy]], it'd make sense that he'd learn to wear a bulletproof vest or stock up on an assault rifle. Nope. He buys a whimpy pistol, [[PlotDrivenBreakdown that jams]]. And he immediately ends up being [[CurbStompBattle beaten half to death with a bookcase]].

* Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) in ''IndianaJones and the Temple of Doom.'' Done rather well to say the least. Well, at least Kate Capshaw got to marry Spielnerg...

** Typically, people who have played ''FinalFantasyVIII'' and actually read the dialogue (namely noticing that she gets sternly lectured about blindly walking into trouble) are a lot harsher on Rinoa than those people who have either '''a)''' Played the game, but didn't really pay attention to the dialogue that much, '''b)''' Played the game, hated it, and therefore didn't pay attention to the dialogue, '''c)''' Watched a LetsPlay where the person had done either '''A''' or '''B''' and were [[PlayedForLaughs making fun of her]], or '''d)''' had never played the game or had only played past the first part and made assumptions. Needless to say, it's party MisBlamed, part ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontWatch.

See also TooDumbToLive. Compare TheScrappy and TheLoad. Compare ThePresidentsDaughter. See also RecklessSidekick.

*** She also has the sense to at least ''try'' (if not succeed) in rescuing herself.

* [[TheLegendOfZelda Princess Zelda]] borders this in some games, although she still is able to send Link help and clues, thus being moderately useful. Later games have had her being far more active; [[TheWindWaker in]] [[TwilightPrincess some]] [[SpiritTracks games]], she actually [[TookALevelInBadass helps Link in the final battle]].