History Main / DistressBall

* ''VisualNovel/BeatBladesHaruka'' plays this completely straight for the purpose of having [[AloofDarkHairedGirl Subaru]] fall for the main character and completing his BattleHarem. Right after joining the main cast, she is discontent about Takamaru being her master and she runs off to solo complete a mission at the very first occasion. The rest of the team is there when this happens and could just immediately follow her so they can fight together, but instead they have to look for her throughout the city. [[RescueRomance After being rescued]] [[{{Tsundere}} her attitude towards protagonist does a 180 degree turn]]. She also insists that he punishes her for insubordination, but obviously Takamaru refuses.

* [[UpToEleven Given to all of Equestria in]] ''Fanfic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'', when Nightmare Moon and her allies enslave the place without much resistance and take Luna and Celestia hostage. Naturally, the [[DesignatedHero Unicornicopians]] have to come to the rescue.

** Taken UpToEleven in "To Where And Back Again", [[spoiler: where Chrysalis and the changelings somehow manage to capture and replace all 5 alicorns, as well as the Mane 6 and Shining Armour, leaving it up to [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits Starlight, Trixie, Discord and Thorax]] to save the day.]]

* [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]: Despite the fact that alicorns are essentially [[PhysicalGod Physical Gods]] in this universe, they are almost always swiftly taken out of the battle in order for the Mane 6 to swoop in and save the day. This is especially infamous in the case of Princess Celestia, who, despite supposedly being the most powerful alicorn, as well as the ruler of all Equestria, is usually the first to go down. Such as in "A Canterlot Wedding", where she is defeated and subdued by Chrysalis, and "Princess Twilight Sparkle", where she and Princess Luna (who is also handed the Distress Ball) [[MakesSenseInContext get abducted by the Everfree Forest]] and end up as DamselsInDistress for most of the two-parter.

* ''Anime/SandsOfDestruction'': Kyrie picks this up every other episode. Despite the fact that he is a [[KnifeNut capable fighter]] in the game and he has the [[PersonofMassDestruction power to destroy the world]], Kyrie never arms himself with anything and must rely on his friends [[LadyofWar Morte]] and [[BearsAreBadNews Toppi]] to bail him out. He manages to subvert this slightly in the manga as the only reason he picked it up was because he froze in place. And despite the fact that he can fight in the video game, he still gets himself captured.

* In ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'', when Samus encounters Ridley, she becomes terrified and is unable to fight back. Ridley easily grabs her, leaving one of her allies to begin the offensive in her stead. There are arguments over whether or not she had the distress ball at the time, since she had traumatic childhood memories regarding Ridley, but has also faced and defeated him numerous times in the past without an emotional breakdown. As you can imagine, this is one of the reasons that much of the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' fandom ''hates'' ''Other M''.

* In ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'', when Samus encounters Ridley, she becomes terrified and is unable to fight back. Ridley easily grabs her, leaving one of her allies to begin the offensive in her stead. There are arguments over whether or not she had the distress ball at the time, since she had traumatic childhood memories regarding Ridley, but has also faced and defeated him numerous times in the past without an emotional breakdown. As you can imagine, this is one of the many reasons that much of the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' fandom ''hates'' ''Other M''.

* In ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'', when Samus encounters Ridley, she becomes terrified and is unable to fight back. Ridley easily grabs her, leaving one of her allies to begin the offensive in her stead. There are arguments over whether or not she had the distress ball at the time, since she had traumatic childhood memories regarding Ridley, but has also faced and defeated him numerous times in the past without an emotional breakdown.

* Inspector Chan from ''Sha Po Lang'', after losing three of his four men to the rather psycho assassin played by Wu Jing and his badass kung fu, decides to go after the guy's boss, Wong Po, all by his lonesome. He storms the guy's HQ and does a fair job of blowing away Wong's mooks, but when he finally confronts Wong, being as this is a kung fu movie and not a gun fu movie, he promptly gets owned by Wu Jing and captured by Wong, which means that Donnie Yen has to save his ass in the final showdown.

* ''Anime/KazemakaseTsukikageRan'': Meow has recurring drops in both fighting skill and common sense just to give Ran an excuse to rescue her.

* ''Manga/HaouAiren'': Kurumi ''and'' Huo Long in Volume 8.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'':

* ''Anime/MazingerZ'': Sayaka suffered from this several times in the original series, generally tied up. It also was played straight in ''Anime/{{Mazinkaiser}}''. HilarityEnsues. And much {{Fanservice}}.

* ''Anime/YuGiOh''

* In the ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'' fanfic ''Fanfic/GenderswappedNations'', Francisca and Ariana are handed the ball when they are both kidnapped by the BigBad out of nowhere just so that a few new characters could be introduced into the plot, and also so the author could write a chapter where Mattie and Allison have to embark on a journey to save them. Either way, there was no logical reason why the BigBad would benefit from kidnapping them again.

* Princess Sally of ''WesternAnimation/SonicSatAM'' despite being TheSmartGuy of the team, often got captured rather handily.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': The ruthless and usually quite astute [[ShesTheKing Emperor Sangtee]] ends up escorting a prisoner without her guard, which ends up with her held captive and forced to sign a treaty to end the war which pardons the rebels and abolishes chattel slavery in the Empire. There are rather heavy handed signs that this was intentional--her handling of the Lasso of Truth while contemplating the situation, her awareness that the Empire's policies are garnering public unrest, and having her "captor" at gun point but lowering the weapon--but it's not made explicit that she exploited this trope to make the nobility accept what she's done.

* In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'', Claire Redfield seems to pick this up whenever Albert Wesker is near. When she is in his presence, she loses the ability to fight and use firearms. She also ends up falling victim to the StandardFemaleGrabArea.

* Faye in ''[[Anime/CowboyBebop Cowboy Bebop's]]'' Episode 5 tries to find out who murdered Mao Yenrai on her own, but winds up captured by his murderer, Vicious, and his Red Dragon goons. Spike heads to the church to take Vicious on, but does take the time to save Faye when a Red Dragon mook tries a PutDownYourGunAndStepAway.

[[folder:Comics]]
* Buffy Summers from "ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer" season 9 comic. She is supposed to be this great Vampire Slayer, yet almost every time we see her, she is defeated, humiliated, kidnapped, or betrayed. She always needs rescue and she can't do anything right. First she got drugged and her body is stolen from her. In issue 2 she lost a fight with a single zompire and she must be rescued by Severin. In issue 4 she was lured into a trap by Severin and must be rescued by detective Dowling. Then, in issue 7, she got her arm torn off by a single zompire. Later, in issue 9, she is kidnapped, and in issue 10 must be saved by Spike, Andrew, and Spike's cockroaches. In issue 11, she fails to stop an assassination attempt; fortunately, this was just a drill. Then in issue 12, she is almost smothered to death by a tentacle monster and must be rescued by Kennedy. In the very next issue, she is defeated by Elder Koh who cut her face. In issue 16, she got owned three times in a row by single zompire. Finally, in issue 18, she had to fight Severin, a guy who almost killed her before. Severin is a human who draws powers from supernatural beings but can be hurt with a gun, and instead of using a gun on him, Buffy decides to fight him with her superpowers.
* This happened a lot to Allan Quatermain in the first volume of ''Comicbook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen''. Usually Mina, Nemo, or Griffin had to save him, in a bit of a [[GenderInvertedTrope gender inversion]].

* ComicBook/LoisLane, oh so very often. She's [[GoingForTheBigScoop followed her journalistic instincts]] into danger so frequently it's a miracle she ever survived before having the personal attentions of a PhysicalGod (aka ''{{Superman}}'').
* ''ComicBook/RicHochet'': Nadine Bourdon is constantly being captured [[LongRunners in the spawn of the 78 comics]], sometimes many times in the same story.

--->'''Second Doctor:''' Now Jamie, stay with me, don't wander off.
--->'''Jamie:''' Do I ever?
--->'''Second Doctor:''' It has been known.

Such acts may include wandering into a dark alley at night while alone, separating from the main group due to anger at one or more of the team members, GoingForTheBigScoop, losing a fight against opponents that are well above her skill level, trying to take on the BigBad one on one, deliberately taking on way too many enemies single-handedly, or not listening (or listening, for that matter) to TheHero suggesting she WaitHere. It also includes [[TooDumbToLive not having the sense]] to kick the villain [[GroinAttack in the nuts]] when he tries to [[StandardFemaleGrabArea grab her upper arm]]. It can also play a role in her actions (or lack of them) after being captured, such as [[CardboardPrison being detained in an area with little or no security]] and failing to take advantage of obvious opportunities to escape.

When a writer needs to have a character put in trouble so she (and it's almost always a [[DamselInDistress "she"]]) can be rescued, they will sometimes have characters act in ways that serve the needs of the plot rather than their own characterization or common sense, up to and including the character acting TooDumbToLive. This is generally considered sloppy or outright bad writing, although [[TropesAreTools there are exceptions]].

* Sonya Blade in ''Film/MortalKombat'' goes from ActionGirl to "oh he's too strong someone save me" the second [[BigBad Shang Tsung]] gets her arm behind her back. Never mind that she should be by far the ''toughest'' person in the group, being a professionally trained special agent compared to an actor and a disillusioned Shaolin Monk.

Such acts may include wandering into a dark alley at night while alone, separating from the main group due to anger at one or more of the team members, GoingForTheBigScoop, losing a fight against opponents that are well below her skill level, trying to take on the BigBad one on one, deliberately taking on way too many enemies single-handedly, or not listening (or listening, for that matter) to TheHero suggesting she WaitHere. It also includes [[TooDumbToLive not having the sense]] to kick the villain [[GroinAttack in the nuts]] when he tries to [[StandardFemaleGrabArea grab her upper arm]]. It can also play a role in her actions (or lack of them) after being captured, such as [[CardboardPrison being detained in an area with little or no security]] and failing to take advantage of obvious opportunities to escape.

* Lin Bei Fong in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' loses to the Lieutenant after attacking the electricity-wielding villain with her metal cables (when she also has access to master-level [[DishingOutDirt Earthbending]] and has done quite well [[GrievousHarmWithABody just throwing mooks at each other]]. This takes her out of the fight... [[spoiler: which allows the Airbending Kids a BigDamnHeroes CrowningMomentOfAwesome]].

** Sarah Jane is relatively independent and strong for a Classic companion but gets hit with this hard in "The Ark in Space", where she gets hypnotised, put into SuspendedAnimation, gets revived by the men, [[NeutralFemale spends most of the rest of the story wandering around passively while the boys handle the plot]], and then caps it off by having a claustrophobia freakout which the Doctor snaps her out of by calling her a 'stupid girl'. Since the whole show had undergone a {{Retool}}, Creator/ElisabethSladen was scared that this would be [[DamselScrappy the permanent new angle for Sarah's character]], and her misery at having to do it is visible in the performance ("maybe it's Sarah feeling upset," she justified on the DVD commentary).

** Actually, strike that, that only happened in the Tower of Heaven arc. In the Oracion Seis arc which happened afterward, she grew out of this phase, and ''even came to Jellal's rescue!''