History Main / DeliberatelyDistressedDamsel

* Alicia Pris pulls this off in ''VideoGame/{{Solatorobo}}''. hiring the SkyPirates to kidnap her, all in the hopes that the [[NiceGuy good cop]] Waffle will come rescue her. Unfortunately for her, Red gets there before her intended man and HilarityEnsues.

* ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' reveals that this is a favorite tactic of Natasha Romanoff[=/=]ComicBook/BlackWidow. Her introductory scene opens with her tied to a chair and surrounded by thugs, who are ready to torture her at behest of a rogue Russian general...then a call from her fellow Agent Coulson confirms this is just another day of work for her and she breaks out and beats them all up the minute he needs her on a different mission.

* Darkness from ''LightNovel/KonoSuba'' keeps ''trying'' to be one of these, because she has [[TooKinkyToTorture a massive kink for being captured and subjected to all kinds of horrible fates where she can suffer nobly (and erotically) like a brave heroine should]], to the point where she actively refers to things like that as "play", but she comes on way too strong too fast and just turns the villains off. Babbling on about her elaborately-detailed fantasies right in front of them when they've only just met isn't exactly the best strategy, especially when it causes the people around them to start thinking horrible things about her would-be paramour.

* In ''Literature/{{Twilight}},'' Bella thinks that she can [[MindLinkMates psychically connect with her ex-boyfriend]] Edward if she gets an adrenaline rush, and purposefully puts herself in near-death situations to bring them on.

* A common interpretation for ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'''s Princess Peach is that she lets herself get kidnapped out of boredom, or to give the brothers something to do. As shown in [[VideoGame/SuperPrincessPeach her own game]], she's [[ActionGirl more than capable of holding her own if so inclined]].

* ''LightNovel/SpiceAndWolf'': Holo gets kidnapped, and though she is a goddess and could easily escape, she doesn't because she wanted to see her love interest, Kraft Lawrence, bust in like a badass, beat up the kidnappers, and sweep her off her feet. She gets upset when Lawrence, whom she forgot doesn't have any fighting skills, does the sensible thing by hiring expert mercenaries to rescue her.

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* ''[[FanFic/BurnTheWitchMiraculousLadybug BURN THE WITCH!]]'': Lila [[BelievingTheirOwnLies convinces herself]] that the only reason Hawkmoth is permitting Witch Hunter to go on such a rampage is because he's setting up a trap for Ladybug of this nature. After all, ''surely'', she's far too ''valuable'' to him as a partner-in-crime for him to just... let her be burned at the stake for ''real'', right?!

* [[spoiler: Jessica Ushiromiya]] in ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry''. [[spoiler: While she ''is'' an asthmatic IllGirl, she more than once pretends to be more ill than she truly is.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/GoodWiltHunting'', the first movie made for ''FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'', Nina, who created Eduardo as a little girl, is able to use Eduardo's PapaWolf Mentality towards her to her advantage by playing DeliberatelyDistressedDamsel when interrogating some stowaways on the bus, despite being a cop herself and him being the most cowardly member of the group trying to find Wilt.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* A very mild version of this is when a woman will drop her handkerchief in hopes that the man in question will pick it up and return it to her. Played with in ''Film/MonkeyBusiness'', where a woman drops a handkerchief in front of Zeppo, who pockets it and then drops one for her to pick up.
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* In ''VideoGame/{{TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland}}'', Governor Elaine Marley is kidnapped by her [[NotGoodWithRejection rejected suitor LeChuck]]. Guybrush manages to track [=LeChuck=]'s ship to Monkey Island, and nearly manages to free Elaine when the ship sails back to Melee Island where [=LeChuck=] hopes to force her to marry him. Guybrush manages to [[WeddingSmashers crash the wedding]] at the last second... only to discover that the bride isn't Elaine, but a pair of monkeys. It turns out Elaine freed ''herself'' and hatched a plan to destroy [=LeChuck=]. It is unclear exactly at what point she hatched her plan - possibly even before being kidnapped.

* In ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'', Suguha Kirigaya is a JerkJock and [[BigBrotherBully Little Sister Bully]] who enjoys thrashing and insulting her brother during kendo practice, but when she logs into ''Alfheim Online'' it's to [[TheRoleplayer roleplay]] as "Princess Leafa," someone victimized by other players in an IHaveYouNowMyPretty scenario. She's ''bad'' at it, since [[DamnYouMuscleMemory she can't help but brandish her sword even while trying to plead for her life]], but Leafa aspires to be a helpless damsel, hence why she allows Kirito to "rescue" her. Given that Yui's psychoanalysis of Leafa/Suguha pegs her as a TomboyWithAGirlyStreak who views her own femininity as a weakness, it's likely that Suguha's roleplaying as Princess Leafa is a way to safely explore that aspect of her personality, as a sort of inverted PowerFantasy.

* In ''AlienAvengers'', George Went's character's wife does this. The pair make it seem like the wife is unconscious, and ask an implied gang member if he will help. He said that since it is George's wife after he's done with her, he can have a turn. She gets up from her feigned incapacitation and the two kill the guy. She fit this trope in that moment because she is really a homicidal alien with a strong sense of justice instead of a weakling.

* In ''Literature/TheLightFantastic'', Cohen the Barbarian, Rincewind, and Twoflower interrupt a druidic sacrifice, in the process rescuing the maiden who was about to be sacrificed. Said maiden is extremely indignant about the rescue, protesting that if it weren't for them rescuing her she would be "having tea with the Moon Goddess by now" and that they'd just caused [[VirginSacrifice "eight years of staying in on Sunday nights"]] to go "down the drain".
* In ''{{Literature/Everworld}},'' [[TokenEvilTeammate Senna]] knew that someone like [[GodOfEvil Loki]] was going to come for her eventually, so she purposefully manipulated people she knew to get sucked into Everworld with her. Particularly early on she tried to [[PlayingTheVictimCard play the innocent]] LivingMacGuffin, but [[SiblingYinYang April]], [[TheSmartGuy Jalil]] and [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Christopher]] could see through her. [[HeroicWannabe David]] had a harder time of it, though, for [[MoreThanMindControl various reasons]].

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

* A common interpretation for ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'''s Princess Peach is that she lets herself get kidnapped out of boredom, or to give the brothers something to do. As shown in [[VideoGame/SuperPrincessPeach her own game]], she's [[ActionGirl more than capable of holding her own if so inclined]].
* Alicia Pris pulls this off in ''VideoGame/{{Solatorobo}}''. hiring the SkyPirates to kidnap her, all in the hopes that the [[NiceGuy good cop]] Waffle will come rescue her. Unfortunately for her, Red gets there before her intended man and HilarityEnsues.

* Princess Garnet in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' tries to invoke this trope by begging Tantalus member Zidane to kidnap her in order to escape the country. Unbeknownst to her, Tantalus was there to kidnap her anyway.
* A mission in ''VideoGame/PokemonSuperMysteryDungeon'' involves a request from [[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers a Grovyle to rescue a Shiny Celebi]]. When you finally find that Celebi, she states she pretended to be in trouble in the dungeon so that she can cause RescueRomance with [[ChasteHero Grovyle]]... [[ComicallyMissingThePoint whose sole response is that she's strong enough to have no trouble in that dungeon]].

* [[spoiler: Akane aka June]] in ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors''. [[spoiler:In reality, she's the DeadlyGame's creator, and coldly manipulates everyone to ensure her survival.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Blindsprings}}'': The plot gets kicked off when a princess gets rescued from TheFairFolk by her UnluckyChildhoodFriend. Unfortunately, the princess was there to fulfill an as-yet unclear "[[DealWithTheDevil contract]]" with said Fair Folk that required, among other things, that she ''never leave the forest''. The Childhood Friend? [[UnwantedRescue Refuses to listen, physically drags her from the forest anyway, and permanently breaks her contract, effectively rendering literally centuries' worth of her work pointless]]. The result: [[NiceJobBreakingItHero an even more difficult contract for the Princess, the permanent breach of their friendship, and all kinds of scorn heaped on said Friend]]. [[SarcasmMode Nice one, fella.]]

* GenderInverted in the ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats 2011}} [=ThunderCats (2011)=]]]'' episode "The Duelist and the Drifter." {{Adventure Town|s}} resident and habitual DistressedDude the Drifter gets [[UnwillingSuspension snagged]] on high fences [[RuleOfThree three times]], each time enlisting protagonist Lion-O's help to get down. This would be innocuous but for the fact that the Drifter possesses NotQuiteFlight, and readily exploits these encounters to offer {{Adventure Rebuff}}s and unsolicited, [[AloofAlly passive-aggressive]] advice on Lion-O's own increasing problems while elaborately feigning disinterest.
* Spoofed in ''Animation/{{Pucca}}'', when Pucca's best friend Ching (a CuteBruiser) tries to stage several dangerous situations to attract the attention of her crush Abyo - and not even a single one works. [[spoiler: And then it's subverted: when Abyo ends up in trouble and Ching saves him, he's revealed to be an AmazonChaser.]]

* In ''Anime/MaiOtome'', Shizuru intentionally gives herself up to the invading Schwarz forces to buy Natsuki enough time to escape and get enough help to take back Garderobe.

* In the first episode of ''Manga/BusoRenkin'', Tokiko leaves herself wide open, leading Kazuki to think she is just an InnocentBystander. Nope. she's an Alchemist Warrior, and she was leading the MonsterOfTheWeek into a trap.

** Rukia Kuchiki in the ''Soul Society'' arc. [[spoiler:In this case, however, it's because she's ''[[DeathSeeker suicidal]]'', and wants to die to [[TheAtoner atone]] for killing her sub-captain and first love in self-defense after he was possessed by a Hollow. The fact circumstances have prevented her from regaining the power she lost in the first episode don't help.]]