History Main / GirlInTheTower

* ''Film/KaamelottPremierVolet'': tyrant Lancelot has Guinevere locked in a tower. A suitor really wants to free her and Arthur helps him by neutralizing the guards and crashing through the door... but the guy has a ComplexityAddiction and really insists on escalating the tower instead of simply taking the stairs. Arthur lets him proceed... and he doesn't go very far and ends up falling, landing with a *THUD*.

The standard place to imprison [[DamselInDistress damsels in distress]] and [[ManInTheIronMask overthrown princes]]: [[TheTower A tower]]. Preferably on top of the tallest tower, in the biggest castle, on the highest hill, in the most dangerous land in the whole wide world. After all, ItsAllUpstairsFromHere.

** Taken UpToEleven in ''VideoGame/KingsQuest2015'' ''Chapter 3'', which retells the end of ''King's Quest II'' where Graham finds Valanice in a tower. Only this time, there are ''two'' girls in the tower, and Graham becomes trapped there as well when it turns out that he rushed off to find his true love in the tower without thinking of how to actually rescue them. It turns out that [[spoiler:Hagatha, who was the original girl in this tower, ]] was invoking this trope by [[spoiler:capturing maidens and imprisoning them in the tower in an attempt to get someone to come rescue them all, since she thought she was too ugly for anyone to want to save her by herself. In the end, Graham ends up freeing them all and marries one of the two girls who reveals her name to be "Valanice", though the other girl ends up back in the tower by the events of ''Chapter 4''.]]

* [[BrattyHalfPint Alice]] of ''Manga/PandoraHearts'' was this to a tee. [[spoiler:When she was alive. [[MysteriousProtector Jack]]]] was her first friend after he discovered her in her lonely prison of a tower. [[spoiler:At least, the Will of the Abyss' first friend was Jack. As for the Alice we know, she has been known to get along well with Glen. The both of them. [[LukeIAmYourFather Without realizing that they are her father and uncle respectively.]]]]

* Clarisse in ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro''.

'''Shrek:''' [[GenreSavvy I read it in a book once]].

'''Shrek:''' I read it in a book once.

* [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/maidmaleen/ Maid Maleen]] is trapped in a tower by her cruel father after she rejects an ArrangedMarriage. Unlike many examples, she escapes and must learn to navigate the world seven years later and find her way back to her true love.

** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'': In the backstory, Mada -the Hero's mother- was locked up in a tower by the Loftians since her holy powers made her a prime target for the villains.

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* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'' has Rose, hidden away in a tower because HumansAreBastards.

* ''Literature/TheLastDragonChronicles'': Zanna Martindale as [[spoiler:Rosa]].

* [[Literature/{{Dragons}} The Last Dragon Chronicles]]: Zanna Martindale as [[spoiler:Rosa]].

* Exploited in a ComicBook/ConanTheBarbarian story: The princess in question is just a preserved corpse automated to wave once in a while, to lure potential challengers (who have to give up a deposit and sign an indemnity form first.

** The sort-of sequel ''Thracia 776'' reveasls that [[spoiler: Manfloy's heiress and granddaughter Sara]] was also locked away from the world. She is ''very'' unhappy about it.

* Parodied in VideoGame/SpyroYearOfTheDragon, where one sidequest begins with an NPC saying that his girlfriend, [[ShoutOut Rapunzel]], has been kidnapped and taken to a tower. The end of the sidequest has Rapunzel reveal the guy is just a stalker, and she went to the tower of her own accord to get away from him.

* For a few years, this was the fate of Marie-Thérèse, the daughter of Marie Antoinette and only surviving member of her immediate family. After she was separated from her little brother, parents and finally from her aunt, she spent a whole year in solitary confinement in the Temple Tower, not knowing what happened to her mother, aunt and brother. She barely spoke a few words during that year, to the point where she became unused to talking and had to start reading aloud in order to train her voice again.

[[quoteright:250:[[Disney/{{Tangled}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rapunzel_tower.jpg]]]]

* ''Disney/{{Cinderella}}'' is locked in her tower room in the final act of the Disney retelling.
* ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'', Creator/{{Disney}}'s take on "Literature/{{Rapunzel}}". Unlike in the fairy tale, this tower ''does'' have a secret entrance, though presumably Rapunzel doesn't know about it.
* The eponymous heroine from Disney's ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'' slumbers in an artistically tall tower.

* Quasimodo is a rare male example from ''Disney/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame''.

* In ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' #14 the princess of "Shamrock Land" gets trapped in a tower that's set to blow up by the evil Gentleman Killer and Diana has to rescue her.

* As the title implies, ''Literature/TheGirlInTheTower'' by Creator/MLLanzillotta. The main character spends years locked in a tower in the middle of a dark forest. That's only natural, considering that the book's a retelling of the fairytale ''Literature/Rapunzel''.

* Deirdre of ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War]]'' is a largely voluntary case. She's not physically locked up, but lives in a very secluded community in a forest and she's strictly forbidden from meeting men from the outside. [[spoiler:This is because she is a distant descendant of Loputus, and could potentially give birth to someone capable of resurrecting him.]]

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* "Literature/{{Rapunzel}}" is a famous case of this, although she nixed the bedsheet in favour of [[RapunzelHair nature's ladder]].

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* In "FanFic/MyBravePonyStarfleetNemesis," due to being ashamed that her wings did not develop fully, Celesto keeps Leilani locked away in a tower.
* For the first half of "{{FanFic/Zastruga}}," Jack Frost [[GenderInvertedTrope inverts]] this trope as a male example, though his "tower" stretches down into the ground rather than rising up over it.

* In a oneshot one-off WhatIf story regarding ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerbTheMovieAcrossThe2ndDimension'', The titular {{Cyborg}} of ''[[https://www.deviantart.com/kicsterash/art/ATSD-Alternate-Ending-Boyborg-476072830 ATSD Alternate Ending: Boyborg]]'' is a rare boy in the tower, trapped in Cell 104 by Doofenshmirtz-2.

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* ''Series/{{Best Friends Whenever}}'': Daisy was a 15th century princess who was locked up in a tower until she was accidentally broken out by a time rift and is now living in the present day.

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--> In the wood was a bower where stood an an old tower
--> And he threw her deep inside

--> It's only been an hour since he locked her in the tower
--> The time has come, he must be undone by the morning

--> I feared not in the Ivory Tower, Imprisonment you'll find
--> Lies within your heart your soul, your spirit and your mind

[[folder: Religion and Mythology]]

* In the Greek myth of Perseus, the title character's birth is set in motion when King Acrisius hears a prophecy that if his daughter Danae has a son, the child will kill him. He locks the princess in a tower of brass, but [[GenreBlind seems to have forgotten that gods can shapeshift]]. Soon enough, Danae has given birth to the titular hero.
* Like Danae above, Ethniu from Celtic mythology was also locked away in an attempt to thwart a prophecy about her potential son killing her dad, the evil giant Balor. However, she is found by Cían and gives birth to triplets. When Balor finds out, he has two of the children killed, but the boy who escapes grows up to be [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugh Lugh]], one of the most important gods in the Celtic pantheon.
* Brunhild, one of the {{Valkyries}} from Norse mythology, combined this trope with a proto-version of Literature/SleepingBeauty. The goddess vowed she would only marry a fearless man, and so she set up a number of obstacles for any interested suitor to overcome. On a mountain in place of a tower and surrounded by a wall of fire, Brunhild sleeps in her armor until Sigurd arrives and wakes her.

* Princess Philomela of Athens was first raped by her brother-in-law, King Thereus of Thracia, then had her tongue cut out ''and'' was thrown into a tower in the middle of the nearby forest so she wouldn't spill the beans. She then sewed [[TextileWorkIsFeminine a tapestry]] that represented her BreakTheCutie process, then had a caretaker sneak it to her older sister Procne aka Thereus's wife, who then bailed her out. [[KnightTemplarBigBrother I]][[OffingTheOffspring t]] [[ImAHumanitarian went]] FromBadToWorse [[BalefulPolymorph very]] [[DownerEnding quickly.]]

* In some versions of the legend, [[Myth/KingArthur Queen Guinevere]] hides in the Tower of London after her affair with Lancelot is discovered.
* The Lady of Shalott (who may also be Elaine of Astolat), from the Arthurian mythos, spends most of her life in a tower on an island. She can't even look directly at the outside world because of a curse, and spends her time watching Camelot in a mirror and weaving what she sees. Until she sees handsome Sir Lancelot, falls in love with him, and decides to venture into the outside world... She dies in a boat on the river, almost immediately.

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** Rosella was also locked in a tower in Lolotte's castle in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIVThePerilsOfRosella''. Good thing [[GoodAllAlong Edgar]] was [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy more fond]] of her than he was of Lolotte.

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* ''Webcomic/KaitenMutenmaru'': King Ocean locked his daughter, Umimi Sheela, away in the strongest tower of her home since her infancy [[spoiler:to protect her from the likes of Sick, who tried to kidnap her for her strong potential.]]

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* Jenny from the pilot of ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'' is a variant of sorts. Jenny is kept in her room on the top floor, until the world needs saving. When Tuck claims to have seen a monster up there, Brad climbs up to see what it is.

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* Also happened to the so-called 'Princes in the Tower', the sons of Edward IV of England: 12 year old Edward V, and his little brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, who were placed in the Tower of London by Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Lord Protector, who promptly usurped the throne and became Richard III. They were, nominally at least, under his protection, and occupied this position. Shortly after, however, the boys vanished, and despite the claims of pretenders Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, were widely accepted to be dead. 120 years of Tudor propaganda, including a [[Theatre/RichardIII play or two]], ensured that Richard III was remembered as their murderer - or at the very least, the man who ordered their deaths. Which, to be fair, he probably was: he was the one with the most to gain and because they vanished without a trace from the most secure fortress in the country, one staffed by Richard's trusted men, and they were supposedly under Richard's protection (meaning that he was at least critically negligent).

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* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': In Volume 3, [[BigGood Ozpin]] asks [[TheAce Pyrrha]] in Volume 3 what her favourite fairy tale is. Pyrrha starts listing off the names of childhood stories but Ozpin suddenly interrupts her when she mentions The Girl in the Tower to talk about a different fairy tale. It's not until Volume 6 that the detail of this fairy story is revealed. It's about a girl who was locked in a tower by her cruel father until she was eventually rescued by a legendary hero, with whom she fell deeply in love. Unfortunately for the entire world, the true story behind the sanitised fairy tale is one of tragedy and catastrophe. [[spoiler:The tale is based on how [[BigBad Salem]] and Ozpin's first incarnation, Ozma, met. What it excludes is how Salem's [[RageAgainstTheHeavens inability to accept Ozma's death]] from a fatal sickness set off a [[LoveMakesYouEvil chain of events]] that led to her becoming an [[CompleteImmortality unkillable villain]] and Oz being [[ResurrectiveImmortality returned from death]] by the gods to save humanity. The former lovers have been trapped for thousands of years in a SecretWar for the fate of humanity, [[ForeverWar each unable to destroy the other]]. ]]

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