History Main / RecruitmentByRescue

* In SecretOfMana, both of your allies are recruited this way. The princess joins you after you save her from being cooked alive in a goblin's giant pot, and the other member joins you after you save her from getting the snot beaten out of her by someone she had just swindled.

* In the movie adaptation of ''TheShadow'', the main character's first action after his enforced HeelFaceTurn is saving a guy from CementShoes and offering him a job.

* Kirby64TheCrystalShards used this as well. The other characters weren't "party members" as such, but they'd start helping you through levels after you'd gotten them free of the [[EldritchAbomination Dark Matter's]] influence.

* John Cooper's crew in {{Desperados}} is gathered in this manner. Sam's on the run from an angry landowner, Doc is about to be hanged, Kate fell afoul of some poker players who believe she cheated, and Sanchez needs to be broken out of prison. Only Mia joins the group without being done a favor first, and she's got the excuse of having nowhere else to go.

* In ''AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'' and ''AssassinsCreedRevelations'', Ezio recruits new Assassins from the oppressed populace in this fashion. When you encounter an NPC who's being harassed by guards, you can fight off the guards and the grateful NPC will gladly join the fight against tyranny.

* Starting with the big [[DonkeyKong DK]] alone, you had to rescue the other apes one by one from K. Rool's cages in DonkeyKong64.

** DragonAge has about half the party members recruited this way. Of the group, one needs to be gotten out of prison, another has to be unfrozen, a third is missing his wife, and a fourth is stuck in a tower full of possessed mages and won't leave until it's been reclaimed. There's also a poisoned war dog who needs an antidote.
*** Three of the party members for the expansion pack ''Awakening'' are also rescued. Oghren (the same one with the missing wife, above) is encountered while fighting too many darkspawn to handle alone, Anders the apostate mage is rescued first from darkspawn and then from templars (it's his seventh escape from the Circle of Magi, and it's implied that they're likely to execute him this time), Nathaniel is busted out of prison (where he was sent for trying to assassinate your PlayerCharacter), and Sigrun of the Legion of the Dead is rescued from a FateWorseThanDeath at the hands of the darkspawn (or disgrace and execution as a deserter by her comrades). ''DragonAgeII'' only uses this trope with Aveline, who is rescued from darkspawn in the prologue; the other party members get into (abundant) trouble only after you recruit them or in BackStory.

* Starting with FinalFantasyIII, this was the standard way to gather party members. Almost [[FinalFantasyIV every]] [[FinalFantasyV game]] [[FinalFantasyVI since]] [[FinalFantasyVII then]] [[FinalFantasyVIII has]] [[FinalFantasyIX had]] [[FinalFantasyX some]] [[FinalFantasyXII party]] [[FinalFantasyXIII members]] [[FinalFantasyTactics recruited]] [[FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance in]] [[FinalFantasy this way.]]

* In StarcraftII, Ariel Hanson joins for a few missions after the colony she is on is rescued, as does Gabriel Tosh after his first mission, and even [[spoiler:Valerian Mengsk and Horace Warfield]] join your team when you get far enough.

* This is one way to recruit pokemon in PokemonMysteryDungeon.
* In ''PuzzleQuestChallengeOfTheWarlords'', you get half of your party members this way: You rescue Seraphne from an ArrangedMarriage, Flicker from minotaur slavers and Patch from assassins. Winter joins you after you help clear his territory of Lord Bane's minions. In the ''Plague Lords'' expansion (or the [[IOSGames iPhone version]], you rescue Galnoth from the Dark Elves. You also first meet Darkhunter when you help him fight off an orc, though he won't join you until after you help him with his current manhunt.

* PanelPon / TetrisAttack: All 8 of your friends starts off BrainwashedAndCrazy. After defeating them one by one, the party of 9 goes to confront the four actual bad guys, and become playable.

* Most of the potential followers in ''{{Skyrim}}'' will follow you after you have completed a sidequest for them (although not all sidequests involve getting them out of a tight spot).

So what's a hero to do? Fighting the EvilOverlord alone is usually not an option (only [[IneffectualLoner losers]] do that), and neither is seeking out other, less preoccupied allies. That leaves TheHero with the job of rescuing his allies from their difficulties before he can recruit them. Written well, this is a great way to pull off a DebutQueue, introducing the cast while establishing the Hero's [[MagneticHero magnet]] credentials. Written badly, you might [[FridgeLogic find yourself wondering]] why the OneManParty hero spends so much time and energy trying to get the help of people who cannot or will not [[ItsUpToYou help themselves]].

* In VideoGame/StarCraft, The Sons Of Korhal start out as the heros rebelling against the evil Confederacy. They first enter the story after they rescue the forces under control of the player as well as Jim Raynor from a zerg horde. The rest of the compaign becomes about helping the Sons Of Korhal defeat the Confederacy. Next the Sons Of Korhal rescues Edmond Duke, a Confederacy officer from the zerg, who aids the Sons Of Korhal with valuable intelligence on the Confederacy.
* In StarcraftII, Ariel Hanson joins for a few missions after the colony she is on is rescued.

* In a late episode of ''TheAdventuresOfBriscoCountyJr'' Brisco & Bowler recruit two of their MagnificentSevenSamurai plotmates in this fashion: they promise Pete Hutter he'll be given a full presidential pardon for all crimes oustanding (he's in prison sharing a cell with a ScaryBlackMan who forces him to press his pants), and they pick up Whip Morgan as he's in the middle of being lynched by a sheriff for dating (or more) the sheriff's daughter.

* The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. Dorothy rescues the Scarecrow from hanging in a field, oils the Tin Woodsman to rescue him from rust, and talks the Cowardly Lion out of his insecurities. All of them join her on her journey to the Emerald City.

* In one of the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' novels featuring the iconic characters, [[TheBigGuy Regdar]] and [[GoodShepherd Jozan]] end up recruiting [[LovableRogue Lidda]] when Jozan decides to save her from being hung by a lynch mob. Then later it's inverted when [[BlackMagicianGirl Naull]] decides to join them after happening to be in the right place at the right time to save ''them'' from being killed by giant spiders.

* In ''Film/{{Eraser}}'', Kruger saves people from the mob by faking their deaths and then setting them up in the WitnessProtection program, telling them that they'll owe him a favor later. During the film, he pulls in those favors, gathering a team.
* This is how Leia is recruited in the first StarWars movie. She went from DamselInDistress to BadassDamsel as soon as they got her out of the cell and continued to be an active member of the Rebel Alliance and Luke's team of friends.
** Technically also how Anakin was recruited in the prequel triology, a whole ac was devoted to Obiwan and Qui-Gon saving him from Watto's ownership, including a long side quest about how Anakin was the equivalent of a racecar driver, even though he was a slave.

* Pretty much everyone you recruit into your group in {{Persona4}} has to be rescued from the TV world and their Shadow taken down so that they can gain a Persona to join you in the hunt for the killer who's been throwing people into the TV world.

* {{Batman}} recruited what was essentially his own JusticeLeague in ''TheDarkStrikesAgain'' by rescuing PlasticMan, TheAtom and other heroes from government prisons.

** Technically also how Anakin was recruited in the prequel triology, a whole ac was devoted to Obiwan and QuiGon saving him from Watto's ownership, including a long side quest about how Anakin was the equivalent of a racecar driver, even though he was a slave.

** {{Fallout2}} had a healthy number of recruits gathered in this way. Vic needed to be saved from raiders, Sulik needed to have his debts paid off, and Goris had to be broken out of an Enclave prison.

See also SealedCastInAMultipack, which has an ambiguous relationship to this trope, and AvengersAssemble, its supertrope. Contrast DefeatMeansFriendship and DefeatMeansPlayable, which are roughly the opposite of this trope (although there are [[{{ptitleb2n8x0k6}} some occasions]] where they overlap).

!!'''Examples''':

'''VideoGames'''

--Editors, take heed: there's a lot of these, so try to keep them alphabetical.

'''Other Media'''

'''Anime'''

'''Film'''

'''LiveAction'''

'''Literature'''

* In one of the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' novels featuring the iconic characters, [[TheBigGuy Regdar]] and [[GoodShepherd Jozan]] end up recruiting [[LovableRogue Lidda]] when Jozan decides to save her from being hung by a lynch mob. Then later it's inverted when [[BlackMagicianGirl Naull]] decides to join them after happening to be in the right place at the right time to save ''them'' from being killed by giant spiders.