History Main / ChainedToARock

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragon'': In "[[Recap/AmericanDragonJakeLongS02E30BeingHuman Being Human]]", Chang does this to Jake after she kidnaps him so she can use him for her resurrection ritual for the Dark Dragon. [[CasualDangerDialogue Jake takes it pretty well, actually]].

* In ''VideoGame/DeadRising'', if you are late to Kent's appointment he knocks you unconscious, takes your clothes, and puts a collar on your neck, with the chain being attached to the mall's fountain. The resulting barehanded boss fight against Kent and the zombie horde is one of the hardest in the game.

* In ''VideoGame/DeadRising'', if you are late to Kent's appointment he knocks you unconscious, takes your clothes, and chains you to a mall fountain to be eaten by zombies. The resulting barehanded boss fight against Kent and the zombie horde is one of the hardest in the game.

* Walter Moers's ''Wilde Reise durch die Nacht'': Deconstructed. After her rescue, the maiden's first words to the gryphon who bore the hero to the rock are: "Hey, I thought the little bleeder was supposed to buy it! Who's going to reimburse me for my dead dragon now?"

* ''ComicBook/TheMercenary'': It happens in the tenth chapter. [[spoiler:The woman the titular character rescues is an Amazon from LadyLand where [[DoesNotLikeMen no one likes men]] and she was captured and tied to a rock by men from society that her sisters regularly attack. She's killed by one of them shortly after.]]

* Happens in the tenth chapter of ''ComicBook/TheMercenary'' by Vicente Segrelles. [[spoiler:The woman the titular character rescues is an Amazon from LadyLand where [[DoesNotLikeMen no one likes men]] and she was captured and tied to a rock by men from society that her sisters regularly attack. She's killed by one of them shortly after.]]

** In ''ComicBook/{{Bizarrogirl}}'', the eponymous anti-hero kidnaps a bunch of people -including ComicBook/JimmyOlsen, Gangbuster and Dr. Light- and chains them to the wall of her “lair” until they're found and freed by Supergirl.

** The featured illustration to this work is used for a vicious deconstruction in Walter Moers's ''Wilde Reise durch die Nacht''. After her rescue, the maiden's first words to the gryphon who bore the hero to the rock are: "Hey, I thought the little bleeder was supposed to buy it! Who's going to reimburse me for my dead dragon now?"

If a monster is involved, sometimes [[DragonsPreferPrincesses the princess]] is the first woman put up for slaughter; other times she is only the latest of a long line of sacrificial maidens. Why a hero never stepped up to save ''them'' is a question rarely asked. In this case, it is likely that the king has made a plea to slay the monster and rescue the princess, often offering [[EngagementChallenge her hand in marriage]] or the StandardHeroReward to any man who can do it.

A character (more often than not: young, female, [[BeautyEqualsGoodness attractive]], {{royal|Blood}}, and wearing a revealing outfit or sometimes nothing at all) is chained to a rock, wall, or hard surface. The reasons for this vary; maybe she has been kidnapped, maybe she's the ActionGirl who needs to be kept out of the bad guy's way, and maybe she will be [[HumanSacrifice eaten by a monster, alien, or whatever]]. Alternatively, the victim may be expected to succumb to a natural hazard such as incoming tide or the heat of the sun. The classic explanation is that she is being sacrificed to appease the monster or whoever sends it. This DamselInDistress will more often than not be saved by a handsome hero.

A character (more often than not: young, female, [[BeautyEqualsGoodness attractive]], {{royal|Blood}}, and wearing a revealing outfit or sometimes nothing at all) is chained to a rock, wall, or hard surface. The reasons for this vary; maybe she has been kidnapped, maybe she's the ActionGirl who needs to be kept out of the bad guy's way, and maybe she will be [[HumanSacrifice eaten by a monster/alien/whatever]]. The classic explanation is that she is being sacrificed to appease the monster or whoever sends it. This DamselInDistress will more often than not be saved by a handsome hero.

As a trope, this is OlderThanFeudalism, going back to Greek Mythology.

** Jo is tied to a rock when is prepared to be a sacrifice to Azal in the serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS8E5TheDaemons The Dæmons]]".
** In "The Sontaran Experiment", Styre has Sarah tied up to the rocks places a device on her forehead that subjects her to a series of terrifying hallucinations.
** In "The Power of Kroll", the cliffhanger to Part 1 has Romana tied her to a rock by the Swampies who are about to sacrifice her to Kroll, a giant squid creature that lives under the swamps, which they worship as a god.
** In "Timelash" Peri is brought into a cave and strapped down while Morlox gather to feed.

** Jo is tied to a rock when is prepared to be a sacrifice to Azal in the serial "[[/Recap/DoctorWhoS8E5TheDaemons The Dæmons]]".

%%* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
%%** Jo in the serial "The Daemons".
%%** "The Power of Kroll", with the Doctor and Romana I.
%%** Also in "Timelash" with Peri.
%%** And in "The Sontaran Experiment", with Sarah Jane.

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* ''Manga/SaintSeiya'': The myth of Princess Andromeda is the backstory of Bronze Saint Andromeda Shun. In the final test for acquiring the Bronze Cloth of Andromeda, the candidate is chained to the rock pillars at the bottom of a chasm; as the tide rises, they must hold back the water with the force of their [[BattleAura Cosmo]] alone, or [[KillItWithWater drown.]]

* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'': It happens to [[spoiler:Shiori disguised as Asuna]] in chapter 283 during her interrogation.

* ''ComicBook/XXXenophile'': Subverted in "Rescue 911 A.D.", where the reason why the damsel is chained up has nothing to do with being eaten by the dragon.

* Happens in the tenth chapter of ''The Mercenary'' by Vicente Segrelles. [[spoiler:The woman titular character rescues is an Amazon from LadyLand where [[DoesNotLikeMen no one likes men]] and she was captured and tied to a rock by men from society that her sisters regularly attack. She's killed by one of them shortly after.]]
* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': The Hulk had this done to him by Marvel's Zeus, like Prometheus, but instead of eagles, it's vultures, cause he's worth less.
* ''ComicBook/ConanTheBarbarian'': Grab any random comic book and flip through its pages. Good luck ''not'' finding a chained woman being menaced by a monster.
* ComicBook/{{Thorgal}} at the start of the first book is sentenced by viking king Gandalf-The-Mad to be chained to a rock in the sea and left to die from cold or starvation because Thorgal and Gandalf's daughter Aaricia are in love. The cruel king also forces Aaricia to watch her lover one last time. Fortunately, the hero is soon rescued by the sorceress Slive.
* In ''ComicBook/RedRobin'', Tim Drake wakes up chained in the catacombs beneath Paris after being attacked and knocked out by a metahuman in Russia who has kidnapped him for the "Daughter of Acheron". The "Daughter of Acheron" doesn't intend to actually eat him, instead planning on raping and murdering him, but he triggered a homing beacon right before he lost consciousness and his sister Cassandra Cain saves him.
* ''ComicBook/SensationComics'': In the ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' feature in issue 39 the Holliday Girls Roberta "Bobby" Strong and Glamora Treat are bound hand and foot to stone pillars to be killed and devoured by hungry tigers.

%%* More Like Chained to a wall in ''Gunner's Genocide''. After Cloud strife fells unconscious, Gunner sent him to the warehouse but due to him being stronger than Lucario and Greninja, instead of being tied to a chair, Gunner took the worse way by Chaining Cloud to a wall.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In ''Film/KingKong'', the natives tie a young maiden to stakes outside the village and leave her as an offering for Kong. Ann Darrow becomes the last 'bride of Kong' to be offered.

* According to Heather's documentary speech in ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject'' (before things start getting freaky) Coffin Rock became infamous for being used as the altar in the ritual murder of five locals: they were tied to the rock, facially disfigured, and finally disembowelled.
** In the documentary "Curse of the Blair Witch" it's revealed that an old woman by the name of Elly Kedward was executed by being tied to a tree and left to die of exposure. Unfortunately, this backfired badly on her accusers when she returned as the Blair Witch.

* The Russian protagonist in ''Film/TheBeastOfWar'' (1988) is tied to a rock [[AHouseDivided by his own comrades]] and booby-trapped for the Afghan rebels to find. When he's attacked by wild dogs and the grenade slips from under his head, some frantic wriggling is required to let the grenade roll out from under him, over the edge of the rock where it detonates (fortunately driving off the dogs). Convincing the Afghans [[HonorBeforeReason not to cut the throat]] of this served up infidel is another matter.
* ''Film/{{Cthulhu}}'' (2007). A female store clerk who tries to warn the protagonist is seen towards the end of the movie tied to a bitthead with barbed wire out in the ocean, as a sacrifice for the Deep Ones.
* ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'' features three examples. When Conan first encounters his future sidekick Subotai, he is chained to a rock to be eaten by wolves as punishment for various crimes. Later, Conan himself is tied to a tree to be eaten by vultures. Finally, the DamselInDistress gets this treatment by the heroes when they lay a trap for the BigBad's war party. In a variation, she eventually has to be saved from the 'rescuers'.
* In ''Film/{{The Maze Runner|2014}}'', after the [[spoiler:Griever invasion, Gally plans to tie Thomas and Teresa to posts in front of the opening to the maze and leave them as an offering for the Grievers]], in the hopes that [[spoiler:the Glade will return to normal]].
* ''Film/JohnCarter'' has the titular character chained at the center of a Romanesque coliseum, to fight for his life against the white apes.

* Played straight in ''Literature/TheWardstoneChronicles'', when as a young woman, the main character's mother is chained to a rock [[spoiler: The chain used was silver, which burnt her due to her being a lamia witch, and she was also harmed by sunlight for similar reasons.]] And they nailed her hand to the rock, although she pulled it free with no effort once rescued. rather than a monster, however, she was left to suffer for several days before her enemies would return to drain her of blood. Predictably, the person who rescued her became her husband. The silver chain was eventually given to her son, who used it as a weapon from the second book onwards.

* In "[[Literature/TalesOfTheFiveHundredKingdoms One Good Knight]]", by Creator/MercedesLackey, the Acadians chain their sacrifices to a stake despite an ample supply of rocks in Acadia. No rescuers come to save the virgins until the princess herself is chained there, but [[spoiler:the dragon was intelligent and noble and carried them all safely away instead of eating them.]]

* In one of the "Files" books, Literature/NancyDrew is knocked unconscious. When she comes to, she realizes that she's been tied to a piling, left to drown when the incoming tide inevitably rises over her head. This is especially sadistic on the bad guys' part, as if they wanted to kill her, they could have easily dumped her in the ocean while she was unconscious, but chose a method that borders on torture.
* The villagers do this to Amelia in ''Franchise/RedReaper'' novel ''Sword Sisters'' as part of their HumanSacrifice ritual. Thankfully, Aella is nearby to intervene.

* Played straight in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', of all shows.
** Buffy, Cordelia and another DamselInDistress are chained to a dungeon wall and about to be fed to a giant monster, then rescued by the rest of the gang in the nick of time. Also bizarrely, this turns out to be all leading up to one of a series of "drinking kills" {{a|nAesop}}esops.
** Done again in the season six episode, "Normal Again". Xander, Willow, and Dawn are tied up in a room with a demon, and the demon is let loose to kill them. The villain who did this to them? Buffy (under the influence of her hallucinations). She snaps out of it and kills the demon herself -- but not immediately. The demon would have killed them if Tara hadn't shown up.
* Possible Subversion. In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' DirectToDVD movie, ''Film/StargateContinuum'', the supposed final [[AffablyEvil Ba'al]] ([[SendInTheClones its a long story]]) is secured by alien chains to a sandstone-textured wall awaiting his execution. The possible subversion? The Monster is the symbiote, the removal of which will save Baal's innocent host-body from his millennia-long imprisonment.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', Ganon pulls this trope on Princess Zelda, by tying her to a statue of the Golden Goddesses and the Triforce.
* Not surprisingly, there's one of these in ''VideoGame/{{Shadowgate}}''. Even less surprisingly, [[EverythingTryingToKillYou she kills you if freed]]. So much for VideoGameCaringPotential . . .

* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', [[TheDragon Braig]] chains Master Xehanort to a pole in Radiant Garden and uses him to lure [[AntiHero Terra]] into a trap. [[spoiler: It's later revealed to have all been an act to further force Terra to rely on the Darkness, though it costs Braig one of his eyes as a result.]]
* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'': This is the punishment doled out to [[spoiler: Birna Bran]] for a scheme to ensure [[spoiler: her son Svandrige]] succeeded Bran as king of the [[HornyVikings viking-like]] isles of Skellige. She is left exposed to the ravages of a cold, stormy sea and the local [[OurSirensAreDifferent sirens]] to tear her apart. This scene is how she is depicted on her card in ''VideoGame/GwentTheWitcherCardGame''.
* In ''VideoGame/DarkDevotion'', the Virgin is a mysterious woman bound to a rock by strands of MeatMoss. Praying to the statues on either side of her will make the rock sprout fleshy arms any attack you; praying enough times will destroy the rock and release her, at which point the player can decide the Virgin's fate.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "I Second That Emotion", Leela gets chained to a post as bait for the dreaded mutant monster "El Chupanibre" as a "VirginSacrifice" (the mutants conducting the plan know she isn't actually a virgin, but don't seem to be picky about it). [[InvokedTrope To further invoke the trope]], the leader asks one of them to tear her shirt a little to expose a tad more cleavage.

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[[caption-width-right:350:''[[https://www.deviantart.com/genzoman/art/Andromeda-90139775 Andromeda]]'' by GENZOMAN]]