Faux Action Girl - Television Tropes & Idioms

"Frailty, thy name is woman."

—Hamlet

A supposedly modern heroine who, under closer scrutiny, doesn't live up to her reputation. An Action Girl with very low standards you would never hold a male hero to: a Faux Action Girl. She's established from the very beginning as a powerful, capable hero... and never does anything heroic. She has a well-grounded reputation as a strong fighter in her field... and always fails in the line of battle. Her talents and skills are well known to fellow characters but rarely if ever seen by the viewers.

Her status only exists as an established reputation and depends heavily on Genre Blindness; she never acts like the modern heroine she's supposed to be. Sometimes, the only way she qualifies as anything more than the 'damsel in distress' is if you Take Our Word For It. If the writers are feeling merciful, however, the Faux Action Girl can be relied on to actually defeat her share of Mooks - or, in rarer cases, an enemy chick, should the hero be chivalrous, most likely on a Day In The Limelight episode. Nevertheless, the plot will demand otherwise.

The key is the disproportionate hype, whether she's overrated or underperfoming.

If she's a superhero, she'll be the one in danger far more often than her male contemporaries, even though, logically, given her powers, she shouldn't be. If she's a tomboy, she'll be overshadowed by The Libby and the like and instructed in a repetitive Family Unfriendly Aesop to learn to cope with the stereotypical-but-correct status quo. If she claims she doesn't need the hero, she will get kidnapped and he will save her.

If she's the protagonist, her most common purpose is getting into What An Idiot moments to deliver An Aesop. If she's a supporting character, despite her tough and powerful reputation, it's still always up to a male hero to save her. Ironically, villainesses are never in danger of bearing this label; whatever the threat they pose, they tend to live up to their reputation.

The Worf Effect used too many times on a legitimate Action Girl may turn her into a Faux Action Girl.

Please note that a Faux Action Girl is someone who has a reputation as a fighter. If she is just a girl captured then she's a Distressed Damsel. Also, the trope in itself has gone into massive Flanderization thanks to Double Standard: it seems that now even a legitimate Action Girl can't lose a single fight without people screaming "HOW DARE SHE!". Even worse you can't have a legitimate backseat female character who's supposed to be an ActionGirl who is less competent, skilled, whatever than a main male character.

Usually a form of Informed Ability: Most of these girls have big reputations and great past exploits but never quite match up. More or less the Distaff Counterpart to Miles Gloriosus and Fake Ultimate Hero.

Also contrast with Chickification, in which the producers take an Action Girl and don't even make the pretense of making her a Faux Action Girl, instead going straight for turning her into The Chick. See also Standard Female Grab Area, because heaven forbid that an Action Girl could take someone's hand off their wrist.

Like the Standard Female Grab Area and Staff Chick, this trope is often caused by writers who want females in their action show, but are unwilling (or not allowed) to show a woman being hit by a man. In many cases, the Faux Action Girl will suddenly develop into an actual Action Girl when faced with a female opponent (because a Cat Fight is just fine), only to return to Faux status as soon as that fight is over.

Examples:

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Anime

Meg from Bakuretsu Tenshi is supposedly highly skilled at combat, even though she's usually the dame in distress. Of course, since her partner Jo is a big badass Action Girl, Meg has nothing to worry about.
- In one episode, though, she suddenly manages to open a can of magical kung-fu on the entire enemy syndicate; however, she can't remember a thing about what happened.
Asuka from Yu-Gi-Oh GX: She's called the Queen of Obelisk Blue. Everyone knows she's one of the top duelists in the school. She's strong enough to be among the five chosen students to fight the Big Bad in Season 1. Look at her on-screen dueling credentials: one loss to the protagonist, two wins by sheer luck of the draw/coin toss (though the Magic Poker Equation means that is skill), one loss and one win to an obsessive admirer. Asuka doesn't duel half as often as she's found lying unconscious trapped in a coffin/outer space/room full of water as a trap for the protagonist, or shown passively standing by, lamenting, "I hope you know what you're doing, Jay". Apparently the writers have noticed; she becomes a Distressed Damsel in the third season.
- It's worse in the manga, where she has no displayed wins (losing to Judai, Reggie and David), despite winning enough times to qualify for the academy tournament, but is said to be as as good as Manjoume.
- Similarly, after her first two appearances, Rei has come to fit the bill of a Faux Action Girl: Season 1 had her sneaking into Duel Academy as a new student to see her idol Ryo, while in Season 2 she not only confronted Ryo, but nearly whupped Manjyome for a chance to legally enter the school (which, despite her losing, she somehow managed to strongarm out of the faculty). In Season 3, however, she's stuck with Asuka in the Distressed Damsel role.
  - To be fair, nearly everyone except Judai spent at least half that season as a Distressed Damsel, and it got worse by the Monster World arc. Rei was just lucky she went Out Of Focus when she did, she missed the worst of the helplessness.
- In the original series, we have Mai Kujaku, who was supposedly a top duelist of her time, but couldn't hold a candle to the main cast. In a particularly egregious example, she loses to Yugi in the Duelist Kingdom semi-finals after being intimidated by his skill into missing a game-winning move. In an even MORE egregious example from Battle City, she showboats away a quarter-final match against Malik, eschewing an obvious game-winning move in order to attempt to beat him with his own Winged Dragon of Ra, leading to her Mind Rape at Malik's hand, which subsequently causes her Freak Out.
  - As Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series sarcastically put it while replaying her 0 for 3 onscreen win record: "Yeah, that Mai Valentine is a great duelist, alright." When the series gets to her only on-screen victory (against one off character Jean Claude-Magnum in a filler episode), Téa says "I can't believe we found a duelist worse than Mai!"
  - I'd say she fits is more of a Jobber then a Faux action girl. she is at least shown to be skilled at dueling, its just that her job is to always lose.
And of all series, Inverted in Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds with the Half Identical Twins Rua and Ruka. The male sibling constantly gets into fights he never manages to win while the female one, who does her very best to downplay her skill with dueling and Psychic Powers, tends to handily overcome her opponents.
- Debatable. Ruka has over the course of 78 episodes gotten to duel three times; the first ends in a draw, in the second she took over for her brother, using his deck to win, and in the third she loses while dueling alongside her brother, with the Riding Duel format sealing away most of the potential of her deck. While we have been amply informed of Ruka's superior skills, we have yet to be properly shown this the way characters like Yusei and Crow have their skills shown off.
Unfortunately NOT Inverted is the Faux Action Girl status of Aki Izayoi, also from Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds, who starts out as absolutely badass and somehow even scary. In spite of this, she's declawed via being turned into a chippy fangirl for the main character and becoming less and less important to the plot in the course of the show.
Sakura Haruno from Naruto is constantly described as being prodigiously talented and does all kinds of fighting in the opening credits, but actually helps out in less than a half dozen fights in the first part of the show (and loses each one save against Ino, in which the result was a draw). Her affection for Sasuke seems to contribute to this, as she frequently stands around watching him play the Ineffectual Loner. Following the timeskip and the strengthening of both her character and abilities, her infatuation for Sasuke levels off and she is finally able to get off the sidelines.
- Sakura was not described as prodigiously talented and her skills during the opening credits are filler. While the skills she does have are aptly demonstrated [such as her book smarts or her precise chakra control] her fighting abilities are subpar because they are supposed to be. That Sakura is/was not a strong fighter is a fact widely acknowledged by many characters, including herself. Since she doesn't have [much of] a "reputation as a fighter" to begin with, she clearly does not fit this trope.
  - Sakura's realization of her weakness and decision to work harder is the biggest theme of her development and happens gradually throughout part one, but her love for Sasuke seems to be a major force driving her growth. Though, granted, she does learn to stop fangirling.
- Tsunade is another good example. She is described as incredibly powerful, but never gets to show some impressive fighting against opponents on Hokage-level. She had something of a shining moment of competence when first introduced, by saving Jiraiya and pounding Orochimaru into the ground. Theeen you remember that Orochimaru was all but helpless to fight back, and that kinda gets deflated.
  - She did, however, use her monstrous Super Strength to nail Manda to the ground with Gamabunta's giant ass sword. Definitely a CMoA.
  - As Hokage, she's typically expected to stay in the village to govern it and protect it against invaders, and as a medical ninja, she's expected to heal her allies rather than fight, so her lack of action is due to occupational limitations (although nearly all the noteworthy characters who are medical ninja are female).
  - This might be due to the fact that females seem to have [in general] better chakra control then males.
- Ino is said to be one of the best kunoichi from her class, but her Mind Transfer Jutsu backfires when the Sound Ninja attack Kin to hurt her, ties with Part I Sakura, and in Part II, only manages to locate Hidan and Kakuzu and does nothing in the battle (even admitting she's not good at simple fights). Admittedly, Choji didn't fare any better and the battle was pretty much fought single-handedly by Shikamaru.
- Basically, pretty much any female in this series is either a Faux Action Girl or just simply outclassed by her male peers. It's little wonder Kishimoto catches flak for how he writes female characters.
- Kurenai's track record is more understandable, as while she loses to Itachi, her absence from battle in Part II is mainly due to her pregnancy.
  - Now the timing of the pregnancy just needs to be explained. They have no birth control in Konoha?
  - Why would they. They clearly have no child labor/endangerment laws.
- But we all know one thing! She'll never, NEVER, be an Action Mom
Amy from Zoids Fuzors. Excerpt from a review (emphasis ours): "I have a hard time recalling any battles that all of March Stormï's zoids (except R.D.ï's white liger) didnï't prove to be mere cannon fodder. [A] prime example of this is the episode involving Amyï's old flame. In a story where she was supposed to shine, Amy still got her Zoid trashed."
- Amy's Zoid, the Koenig Wolf, had built up a reputation in the fanbase as being an unstoppable killing machine, despite having no actual canon media appearances. The Zoid then being effortlessly trashed week after week may have been a Take That to a Misaimed Fandom
Leena from Zoids: New Century Zero. Her main purpose seems to be using up the team's money to buy ammo for her D-Bison (and later her Gunsniper) and then using it irresponsibly and ineffectively in battle.
Kaoru Kamiya in Rurouni Kenshin is a national level champ at kendo, but she gets severely beaten in the first chapter and is then kidnapped several times. The only time she ever beats a non-mook villain is when she teams up with another girl to fight...a crossdresser.
- The writers Hand Wave it with the idea that all the major characters are underworld fighters who are so absurdly powerful that regular civilians Cant Catch Up. However, Kaoru's 10-year-old male student Yahiko is encouraged to fight underworld assassins on his own after less than a year of swordsmanship training, so we know that's no excuse. It's especially egregious in RK's setting, where the prescence of an Instant Expert doesn't make much sense in a time period where the strongest characters honed their fighting skills through years of hellish war.
Lunamaria Hawke from Gundam Seed Destiny is supposed to be an Ace Pilot; she also can't hit a space shuttle on a easily calculable trajectory containing the opposing force's leader whilst piloting a still-state-of-the-art machine. She spends most of the time pining over either Athrun or Shinn, and her only use in the show is that she looks hot and her uniform includes a miniskirt.
- The series actually sets up early on that she is horrible at aiming. Setting aside the question of how 'easily calculable' the changes she'd need to make are, that people treat her continued ranged ineptness in the shuttle scene to be surprising is somewhat bizarre.
- In Super Robot Wars Scramble Commander 2, she has a terrible Ranged score despite using a ranged-combat mecha... but oddly, her Melee score is higher than even Kira or Heero's. Maybe she's just using the wrong mecha?
- Her Faux Action Girl-ness is taken to a level of Running Gag, whereas in Super Robot Wars Z, she requires a whooping 30 SP just to have her hit accurately, while others have it with at most 20 SP.
- Again in Super Robot Wars K where she doesn't learn said skill until level 50, which is also the last skill she will learn and most likely will never learn due to the slow leveling in the game
Deedlit in Record Of Lodoss War. Her claim to fame? Getting injured in a fight against a mere mook (enough to need Etoh's healing), a few defensive spells here and there, and being held hostage for the whole final third to set up an incredibly elaborate Rescue Romance. Oh, and being clingy to Parn, natch.
- The producers did fix this in Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. There, Deedlit nearly single-handedly defeats Shooting Star, the baddest of dragons in Lodoss, among other great feats of shamanistic magic. Instant Action Girl!
Elie, from the Rave Master manga, suffers sometimes from this. In her introduction, she's shown to be highly capable with her tonfa-like cannons, and almost blows up a whole stadium full of mooks by herself while the hero is occupied with a single, not-that-strong miniboss. However, in most of the subsequent fights, she's for the most part ignominiously reduced to being kidnap-bait, source of local drama and sexual tension, or other such roles, while it's up to her male companions Musica and Haru to save her. This is especially aggravated afterwards, when they learn that she has the ability to manipulate Aetherion, a magical force strong enough to vaporize people or literally turn whole nations into featureless plains with a single discharge. Of course, up to where this editor has been able to read, she's still not used it. Yes, it can be understandable she doesn't want to risk it getting out of control. But you'd think she'd at least make some move to try to learn to control it, then!
- Though Elie is stronger than your average human, it has never been suggested that she is near the level of Haru and the guys. Her magic is story breakingly powerful so of course the writer wouldn't make her use it on a regular basic, if at all.
Mai Shiranui in the Fatal Fury OAV's and movie. In the games she's always been Ms Fanservice *and* Andy Bogard's Clingy Jealous Girl, but still remains a proud Action Girl and gets the job well-done when needed. In the anime, however, she's all too often used as a hostage to lure Andy out to fight *and* as an even more blatant Ms Fanservice; apart of her friendship with Sulia and defeating Panni (another girl) on her own, poor Mai doesn't get to show even a bit of her strength.
- In the King Of Fighters games themselves, we have Chizuru Kagura. Shinto priestess, biker girl, businesswoman, one of the three members of the Shingi Troica along with Kyo and Iori... but she's seriously injured by Goenitz in the 96 game (though frankly speaking, she does beat the shit out of you, as a Fake Boss), and in the 2003 one she ends up Brainwashed And Crazy by the Big Bad. For worse, if you finish the game with the Chizuru/Kyo/Iori team, she's completely depowered after Ash Crimson steals her Yata mirror after the last fight, so in the XI game Shingo Yabuki has to replace her. To be fair, Iori Yagami also is depowered in the XI game, when Ash takes his Magatama away and leaves Kyo as the only one standing but still... Poor Chizuru.
Kagero from Ninja Scroll, introduced as a supposedly deadly ninja who then proceeds to be repeatedly kidnapped and molested.
- Kagero actually shows herself as being mostly competent in the movie: she holds off the Mushizo's swarm of bees, and even in the scene where she was being molested, if Jubei hadn't alerted Tessai, triggering his ability to turn his skin to stone, she might have successfully killed him with the needle she was hiding.
- On a related note, a similar anime, Curse of the Undead Yoma, has a shrinking violet ninja girl, Aya, whose claim to fame is the big reveal as to how she got her scar during the climactic end battle. It's a paradox. She vanishes at one point and reappears without it. She regains the scar from Maruo's horse tapdancing on her face while she tries to hold it in place with her garroting ninja wires. Not the brightest attack she could have mustered considering it's about 3 times the size of a normal horse.
The very Badass Natsuki Kuga from Mai-HiME tended to serve as the Butt Monkey whenever the tone of the show turned comedic. In its Elseworld spin-off, Mai-Otome, that trait was exaggerated into complete incompetence. Despite supposedly being both The Ace and The Aragorn, she never once managed to achieve anything without blundering and spent a good chunk of the series depowered.
- Lampshaded in the manga, where in Natsuki's first (and only) fight, there is a panel of her crying tears of joy that she finally gets to do something.
Practically every female protagonist in every Tentacle Rape Hentai ever. It'd be faster to say which ones didn't fit into this trope.
Pheles from Shakugan No Shana is a rare antagonist version of this trope. The way Wilhelmina talks about her before she shows up, you would think she was a Physical God. When she does show up, she descends from the heavens (surrounded by a tornado) to Ominous Latin Chanting, and the main character's expression is a very clear Oh Crap. Cue the heroes taking her down in about 5 minutes.
- And about an episode later, she subverts Defeat Means Friendship by revealing that she was actually a significantly less powerful doll created by the real Pheles, who is not at all interested in the talk the heroes have just been having with the doll. Of course, this would completely explain why she was taken down so easily by the heroes before. The real Pheles shows up in person very shortly, once again with Ominous Latin Chanting. Cue the Big Bad taking her down in about 5 minutes.
An in-universe example: Farnese, from Berserk. She leads the Holy Iron Chain Knights... but they never expect her to actually fight. The Knights are traditionally led by a maiden, so she is entirely there for looks and because she comes from a noble family.
- Plus the HICKs were just for show as well, which is why they get their asses kicked.
Lisa from Final Fantasy Unlimited. She's supposed to be a martial artist and a magic user, but most fights have her using a totally ineffective attack, then cowering with the children she's "protecting" until Kaze shows up and saves everyone with one summon.
Mamiya from Fist Of The North Star, who is supposed to be the leader of her village's defense force, spends more time getting captured or getting cornered by the bad guys, only to be saved by Kenshiro or Rei at the last minute. Reina, from the first Raoh Den movie is supposed to an elite general in Raoh's army, but all she does is get wounded fighting Souther's army... twice.
- Which further adds up to the fact that nobody is going anywhere in the Fist Of The North Star universe if they are not Badasses who masters Hokuto Shinken and Nanto Seiken.
Alas, poor Hanmyo from Outlaw Star. Despite being supposedly one of the top eight most fearsome pirates in the galaxy, she is pretty easily defeated, by the guy she likes, no less.
- She does manage to hand the protagonist's collective ass to them at the beginning of that episode, and actually manages to give them a pretty good run for their money the second time.
Princess Millerna in the movie version of VisionOfEscaflowne, where she has the demeanor of a Warrior Princess, wears Chainmail Bikini and carries a sword. Not even once does she participate in a single battle in any way, and she never even gets to draw her sword throughout the film.

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Comic Books

Susan Richards of The Fantastic Four had been a Distressed Damsel in most of the early stories, until rewritten as a far more powerful and effective heroine by John Byrne; however, under later writers, she didn't always live up to this standard, and occasionally degenerated into full-on Faux Action Girl.
- To be fair one of the problems is that her powers are way more inconsistent than everyone else on the team: The Thing is always super strong, Mr. Fantastic can always stretch and The Human Torch can always Flame on!...how many times have you heard The Invisible Woman say something to the affect of"I can't keep this up for much longer"? If her powers actually worked she wouldn't be listed here.
Spoofed in Adam Warren's graphic novel Empowered. The eponymous heroine is considerably more insecure than most of the other examples here, halfway between a Faux Action Girl and a pure Distressed Damsel. However, at one point her boyfriend reassures her by saying he admires her guts in continuing to try and fight despite knowing that she'll probably end up getting her butt kicked and captured, as opposed to all the other heroes who have it relatively easy. It's also eventually revealed that when she does maintain her confidence, her powers actually work, such as when she effortlessly rescues said boyfriend early in the story. Also a bit of a deconstruction of this trope, as her poor track record is a major source of misery for her; her self-esteem's pretty much nonexistant and her reputation as a crime-fighter is the exact opposite of what this trope usually calls for: She routinely gets called things like "Useless Lass" and "Captain Kidnapped". In the most recent volume, she shows distinct signs of progress toward full Action Girl status.
Black Canary, of DC Comics, despite having spent years overwhelmingly regaining her Action Girl street cred in 'Birds of Prey' (and still retaining it in 'Justice League of America'), still instantly morphs to Faux Action Girl whenever she shows up in Green Arrow. The most nauseating example of her instant reversion to co-dependent sidekick whenever in Oliver Queen's presence is the incident where, after Ollie faked the death of her adopted child and arranged for her nigh-permanent separation from her mother without asking Dinah's permission first, she not only said she still loved him but then accepted his proposal of marriage.
- While it is true that Ollie faked said death and sequestered said child as part of an attempt to save her life from attack by a separatist faction of the League of Assassins, it's hardly like doing such a drastic measure was necessary, given the amount of firepower Dinah could potentially call down on Merlyn and his mooks. And the very least he could have done is ask Sin's mother what her wishes in the matter were, seeing as how Ollie was not the father, or possessing any reason to make it his business at all.
- There's also the part in Green Arrow #75 where Dinah Lance, one of the six best martial artists on Earth-DCU, capable of effortlessly smoking Oliver Queen in hand-to-hand combat, having recently in an issue of 'Birds of Prey' fought Deathstroke to a stalemate and gouging out his eye with the help of the Huntress, was reduced to literally sucking on Deathstroke's sword◊. For three pages. Without even trying to escape, let alone using her superpowers, which are more than capable of precisely breaking metal at point-blank range.
  - Even more annoyingly, Oliver Queen faced Deathstroke solo circa ten issues earlier, and handed him his ass not just by serious use of Prep Time, but also by stalemating him straight-up in a sword duel. And although his hand-to-hand skills are respectable, Dinah's are supposed to be about five orders of magnitude beyond respectable, given that you're supposed to have to start hauling out people like Batman and the Bronze Tiger to find a martial arts jury of her peers.
Jarael in the comic book prequel to Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic started out as a pretty Badass Action Girl in the first story arc of the series, to the point of saving protagonist Zayne Carrick from the villains in the climactic scene. Since then, while she's kept the fiery temper and violent disposition, she becomes incompetent dealing with anything other than Mooks, and continuously has to be rescued from Mandalorians, Corrupt Corporate Executives, rampaging HK assassin droids ...
- Zayne's ex girlfriend Shel is even worse; she shoots at Zayne while he's carrying a metal box, gaurenteeing the shot won't kill him, is easily distracted by the hissy fit between Raana Tey and Del Moomo, is overpowered by Zayne's cowardly partner, and to top it all off, she has the perfect chance to kill Zayne, but looses the will to do it the moment Zayne starts babbling emotionly about his friendship with her brother. The only time she doesn't fit this mold is when she stabs Raana Tey, and that was because a.) Raana was completely insane and didn't notice her, and b.) Raana was preoccupied in gloating about her part in the murder of Zayne's friends (including her brother) while preparting to kill Zayne. At least Jarael actualy was an action girl at some point.
  - At least Shel was just a civilian pressed into fighting.
  - And in Jarael's defense, she's mostly up against opponents anyone would have a hard time with- assassin droids are designed to kill people and are very good at it, especially if they catch you off guard, Mandalorians are some of the best soldiers in the galaxy and have captured even Badass Jedi like Alek, and the Corrupt Corporate Executive had the man who'd pretty much been a father too her hostage for her behavior (and vice-versa). She's just one Force-sensitive brawler, after all- frankly it would be weird if she was too successful in the situations she's put in.

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Film

Sonya Blade in the first Mortal Kombat movie sticks to the Bad Ass mold at first, and has little trouble mopping the floor with her nemesis Kano. Later, all Shang Tsung has to do is grab her by the hair and arm and wham, instant hostage!
Jinx from Die Another Day is supposed to be a top NSA agent, and in an early scene she does manage to complete an assassination, but thereafter she only manages to get strapped to a laser Death Trap and almost drown in an ice hotel. In the end, she's given a Designated Girl Fight with Miranda Frost by way of consolation prize.
Marion in Raiders of the Lost Ark is a rough and tumble taverness who can drink her Nepalese customers under the table. She spends most of the movie getting captured, however, with the occasional chance to knock someone out from behind. This is somewhat rectified in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, where she does most of the driving during the high-speed chase. When she does get kidnapped, she points out that Indy didn't do any better.
Maid Marian in the Kevin Costner Robin Hood. When we're introduced to her character, she wears plate armor and fights Robin Hood to a standstill. Thereafter, she degrades into a Screaming Wench who doesn't resist when the Sheriff of Nottingham abducts her and tries to forcibly marry her.
Anna Valarious of Van Helsing is another lovely example, whose laughable losing record is referenced in this blog post. Mentions the trope too (meta++)
Averted in The Incredibles with Helen aka Elastigirl. Set up in the opening scenes as a superhero who scoffs at the thought of domestic bliss, she then becomes a contented housewife instead. Thinking Mr. Incredible is having an affair, she breaks down in tears - until Edna Mode reminds her to go kick butt:
Helen (crying): "Now I'm losing him! What'll I do? What'll I do?!"
Edna: "What are you talking about?"
Helen: "Huh?"
Edna: "You are Elastigirl! My God!"
(Edna swats Helen repeatedly with a rolled-up newspaper)
Edna: "PULL-YOURSELF-TOGETHER! 'What will you do'? Is this a question?! You will show him you remember that he is Mr. Incredible, and you will remind him who you are! Well, you know where he is— Confront the problem! Go! Fight! WIN!...and call me when you get back, darling. I enjoy our visits."
As The Nostalgia Critic showed us in his A Kid in King Arthur's Court review, the film provides us with a very ridiculous example of this trope with Princess Katie. In the training sequense she is shown to be an excellent swordswoman, archer and horse rider, thus she should be "of course, able to take care of herself". Except, then she gets kidnapped by some mooks, in broad daylight. After an embarrassing scene in her cell where she is shown deathly afraid of a rat, she is rescued by Calvin and King Arthur. A fight begins. Now on the good guys' side we have Arthur (a very old man), Calvin (a nerd who fails at baseball and has only trained swordfighting for a couple of days) and Katie (who is young, fast and has trained swordfighting all her life). Arthur and Calvin fight and kill the mooks while Katie, who really should be "...able to take care of herself" gets kidnapped again. At the end of the day, she's clearly suffering from Dumbass in Distress Disorder.
- The same film also subverts the trope, however, with Katie's older sister Princess Sarah. The viewer spends the entire movie believing that tomboyish Katie is the tough one of the pair, only to have the Big Reveal show that Sarah is the secret identity of the Black Knight, who has been fighting the enemy all along.
In Night At The Museum 2: Battle Of The Smithsonean, Amelia Earhart continually insists she is able to take care of herself, but isn't seen doing anything remotely Badass except for flying a plane for about two seconds... then handing it to Larry. They chickified Amelia Earhart!
- She did deck a Mook with one punch, though.
Rhona Mitra's Sonja in Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans. Sonja is the leader of the elite vampire "death dealers," but unlike Kate Beckinsdale's Selene, she's almost completely helpless through the entire film. She's introduced while fleeing from werewolves, forcing her werewolf lover Lucian to save her. Later, he has to save her again from being overrun by werewolves. Later still, Viktor imprisons her and uses her as bait to catch Lucian. After Lucian busts her out, she actually defeats Viktor in combat, but then allows him to get the upper hand and put her in the classic knife-to-throat hostage pose, forcing Lucian to surrender to save her. After all that, she gets executed, while Lucian breaks free and successfully slaughters the castle.

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Literature

Elven ranger Shulana of Mark Acres' Land Between The Rivers Chronicles, who for no explained reason can only kick ass when boytoy thief Bagsby tells her it's okay to go all out, otherwise she'll get trounced by mooks left and right. Really, she's actually more useless than ROLW Deedlit as she HAS shown exceptional skill, it's just that for no reason that ever comes up, she must remain a Faux Action Girl until Bagsby gives the word to whoop ass. Traumatic accidental death maybe? Due to this weird and unexplained character dynamic, the rotund middle-aged farmer woman, Marta, winds up kicking about twice as much ass despite the fact she was never trained for such combat and doesn't know any magic. Welp, someone has to be the Damsel In Distress so it may as well be the pretty one.
Tallia, from Ian Irvine's first tale in The Three Worlds Cycle, is supposedly a master of armed and unarmed combat. Odd, then, that she so often is knocked out, overpowered, or otherwise comes up short. To be fair though, the other women in Mr. Irvine's books come across much better (but none of them are professional soldiers, either).
Alistair MacLean's (actually John Denis) Air Force One Is Down goes to great detail describing master thief (now secret agent) Sabrina and how good she is, then portrays her as a classic Damsel In Distress throughout the rest of the book. Most notably in a scene where Sabrina can't lie to the Big Bad because she can't keep her thoughts off her face (and she's supposed to be a former criminal???)
Alice from Twilight beat her combat veteran boyfriend Jasper in a practice fight in Eclipse. He beat Emmett and tied with Edward, indicating that Alice is the best fighter of the four. However, in a hostile situation Emmett and Jasper are the ones who step up, and Alice's fighting prowess was never even mentioned outside that scene.
- In her defence, she is mostly a defensive dodger, being able to see where other people will strike. She is also the one to show up with her deus ex machina in tow in the last book and avoid the battle. A battle not fought is a battle won. She would have been useless against the wolves, too.
Arya from Paolini's Eragon. She's supposed to be a powerful fighter and magician, but all she does in the book is hide the dragon egg in the beginning and... well, remains unconscious through much of the story, and is pretty much in the background when she does regain consciousness. What makes it weird - if not outright sexist - is that the author mentions, in his own words, that she is "of course, able to take care of herself."
- Actually a subversion: in the first book she easily defeats Eragon in a sword fight just after coming out of a coma, casually does magic that makes The Resistance's top wizards run away screaming, and slaughters dozens of enemy fighters.
  - She isn't able to do that becuase Arya herself is particularly awesome, but because the Elven Race is Just. That. Special. In Eragon.
- In the third book she defeats the Shade Varaug. Seeing her diminish Eragon's accolishment from the first book is actually quite satisfying.
Lampshaded by the definite action girl of the episodic morality story "What Is This Black Magic You Call Science?".
Unlike most heroines in this situation (where the dashing, rich, and studly hero saves her, has them fall in love over the span of five seconds, and they get married or something), Chryseis was not going to be rescued, and she knew this.
In Harry Potter:
- Ginny Weasley. All the characters praise her for her bravery and her strength, but she proves rather useless in battle. Despite having even a personal powerful spell (the Bat Bogey Hex), all she accomplished in the last 3 books was: breaking her ankle (book 5), being saved by her boyfriend (book 6), and finally joining Luna and Hermione in the duel with Bellatrix, only to be saved by her mom(book 7). Ginny is sometimes mentioned as doing impresssive things, but the reader only ever hears about it second hand.
- Fleur Delacour is supposed to be the very best student at Beauxbatons, but fails miserably throughout the tournament and shows no sign of achieving anything as an Order member in the last two books. Of course that may not be because she's a girl, as much as because she's French. In the films, however, every student visiting from Beauxbatons is female, highlighting her sex.
- Nymphadora Tonks who is a Metamorphmagus, an auror, part of The Clan, Cool Big Sis to Hermione and Ginny, but losing her only major fight in Phoenix results in Sirius' infamous death. In Prince, she loses the extra-special Metamorphmagus abilities because she spends most of her time moping because Lupin refuses to give their love a chance. Last book rolls around and the professional Dark Wizard catcher becomes pregnant during the second rise of the most famous Dark Wizard for a century. So then she has her baby and promptly dies in battle. Killed by the same person she lost to in Phoenix, according to Word Of God. She is also shown to be very clumsy too.
Jaheira in the Baldurs Gate novelisations, to a painful extent (not that there is anything about those that isn't painful). Gee, Mister Abdel Adrian, you think you caught a glimpse of her softer, more feminine side under her usual tough warrior exterior? Might I point out that this is the only kind of context in which the latter is ever brought up? If a fighter/druid can't deal with a spider getting inside her shirt any other way than by having you tear her topless (forced by the circumstances and by no means intentionally, as her husband just died a while ago, after all), then you can be pretty confident something is wrong.

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Live Action TV

Zev Bellringer, from Lexx. She's supposedly an ass-kicker (hence footage of her fightin' away in the opening credits), yet she never, ever, ever gets out of a scrape without help from Kai (the morose zombie she spends all her free time mooning over) or a convenient deus ex machina. But then, if you want intelligent, interesting, strong female characters, what on earth are you watching Lexx for?
- They made up for it in Season 4 with Vlad, though.
Yuri and her daughter Megumi in Kamen Rider Kiva are supposedly some of the best Fangire Hunters, but nearly all of them survive, only to be killed by the eponymous Kiva himself instead of them. Both mother and daughter have also been captured by the monsters they were supposed to defeat, so they're not really as great as they claim to be...
- They get their moment when they kill Rook in episode 31.
  - To be fair the whole organization seems to be rather incompetent the way they let fangires run around unchecked for 20 or so years,
Kaitlin from VR Troopers is made of this. She was occasionally used in a real Action Girl fashion, but unlike her female power ranger counterparts (who at least got the chance to save everyone as much as the rest of the team) she seemed to exist only to beat up Mooks and get in trouble. One episode involved her losing her self-confidence because of the Big Bad, and the clips that played to show she wasn't useless were a few examples of fighting Mooks with not even an attempt at showing her against the Monster Of The Week.
- That's mainly the problem of the Metal Hero source footage. Her counterpart in Spielban Diana never got to destroy the monster of the week because they could only be destroyed by the hero's laser sword attack. Instead Diana usually got to infiltrate the enemy lair and save whoever had been kidnapped (which happened every single episode in Metal Heroes) while Spielban fought the MOW. Metal Heroes had the titular heroes as the star with the female companion playing sidekick unlike Sentai/PR which was a team based show and gave everybody the chance to be the hero once in awhile. Heck Diana was the only early MH sidekick who could transform at all. Most of the time they stayed out of battle completely.
Emily Sullivan of Jericho fell under this for most of the first season. Fixed from the Season One finale onwards.
Kate, in the BBC series of Robin Hood. One of the other outlaws calls her "a good fighter." I guess that's why she's always getting captured.
- More grating is the fact that the character is a physically small Replacement Scrappy for two Action Girls whose actresses had the physique of fighters and were both trained gymnasts/dancers, and who looked like they knew what they were doing when they took on much larger opponents. In comparison, the producers apparently didn't schedule lessons for Kate's actress on how to even hold a weapon. In one memorable scene, Kate lifts up her sword one-handed, holding it at arm's length away from her body, whilst positioning it at the level of her ear. It looks as ridiculous as it sounds.
Rose, aka "Sarge" from Cleopatra 2525 completely failed to live up to her supposedly badarse nickname. Routinely kidnapped, cpatured and tied up, she was pretty much useless. Worst example was one episode where, in trying to save her younger sister, she herself was captured.
If you think there are no Dark Action Girl examples, you underestimate Gene Rodenberry's sexism. The romulan commander in the Star Trek TOS episode "The Enterprise Incident" is easily duped by Kirk and Spock, and, though explicitly stated to be a soldier, the most badass thing she does is slap Spock across the face in a fit of Woman Scorned fury.
Leela of Doctor Who perfectly embodies this trope. She grew up in a warrior tribe, supposedly constantly needing to fight just to survive, and she certainly talks a lot about the fighting she plans on doing any time the Monster Of The Week is revealed. Unfortunately, every time trouble shows up, she does little more than scream for The Doctor while getting captured or knocked out or otherwise defeated.
- That, and bumping off quite a few mooks. Her problems with the Monster of the Week are usually because they're Immune To Knives.

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Video Games

Fire Emblem 8 (The Sacred Stones) used this for tragedy: Ismaire from Jehanna, the Queen of White Dunes and Joshua's mother. She actually ends up kidnapped and killed by Tiger Eye Caellach and Lyon when she refuses to hand him the Stone of Jehanna, finally dying in Joshua's arms . In her defense, Ismaire didn't get a chance to become an Action Mom since she was a widow queen just *too* busy with handling the kingdom, AND her captors were among the most powerful enemies of the whole game (Caellach is (bleeep)ing hard to kill). .
- And then when you beat the game, of course, at a certain point you can obtain her for use in the Creature Campaign as a swordmaster, and not a half bad one at that. All hail her Wind Sword.
Lampshaded in the Dreamcast version of Record Of Lodoss War. The hero finds Deedlit captured by some wimpy goblins and just had to ask, "How can a High Elf be captured by mere goblins"?
- And a lovely contrast to Pirotess' buzzing about Marmo WITHOUT being captured. Yes, it's her homeland, but storywise Cardice's return is driving the lesser beings completely bugfuck bonkers aggro, so she undoubtedly has been doing her fair share of goblin weedwhacking too.
Sasha, Ratchet's Love Interest from the third Ratchet And Clank, was hyped by the creators as "a female Han Solo". Her supposed enjoyment of video games is never seen in the series, apart from giving Ratchet a console so he could play Vid Comics, and she ends up being the Damsel In Distress by the end of the game, despite having command of a very powerful starship.
A rare Faux Dark Action Girl example is the Soldier of Fortune series, which makes a deliberate point of having enemy female soldiers be weaker than enemy male soldiers. In Soldier of Fortune 2, the female Prometheus soldiers are coded to have worse accuracy and a crappier weapon than their identical-in-rank male counterparts. In Soldier of Fortune: Payback, the female boss character (who's apparently the Big Bad's personal bodyguard) is probably the easiest boss in the entire game.
- Also, Madeline Taylor from Soldier of Fortune 2. She's introduced in the finale of the first game as a worthy replacement for Hawk, but in the second game we don't see her in combat and, what worse, she gets killed halfway through the game.
- Deviant 1 from the same game.
Speaking of Fire Emblem, Petrine is some of Faux Dark Action Girl in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. She doesn't really do much fighting (besides a good duel against Greil, but we learn he crippled himself after accidentally killing his wife several years back), and is a mere pushover when you do do battle with her. (The stage itself is a doozy, being narrow and with hidden pits that stun your characters.) On the other hand, the game makes a point that she's all bark and no bite, especially when she cowers in front of her superiors. There are plenty of real Action Girls that don't have this problem in the plot.
- And we can't forget, from Radiant Dawn, Failcaiah, a borderline God Mode Sue in the cutscenes, but a Squishy Wizard through and through in-game.
Meryl Silverburgh from Metal Gear Solid started out as a Faux Action Girl, though one who was aware of her her limitations and strove to overcome them.
Rachel in the X Box Ninja Gaiden is a supposedly skilled fiend hunter who kills an Elite Mook fairly easily, but then gets knocked aside by a (relatively) easy boss, and later gets kidnapped by Doku for most of the rest of the game.
- Momiji in Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. The manual suggests that she is a strong ninja, and the player controls her for the first level, which seems to indicate that she might play a role in the action as a secondary player character. Unfortunately, at the end of the level, she loses to the first boss and gets kidnapped, where she is held for the rest of the game. An unlockable diary suggests that she's going on a training journey- and will not likely be able to redeem herself in future games. Omitsu is a skilled archer, but Sanji is the one who saves Sakura (not that Sakura or that Sanji) from Black Spider ninjas with his bow.
  - Rachel and Momiji are both playable characters in the Sigma versions of their games, propelling them to Action Girl status.
Mei Ying in Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb is supposedly an intelligent and tough sidekick, but proves herself to be borderline-useless during fights and even manages to get incapacitated and possessed by the Big Bad during the final battle. Understandably, said battle becomes a less-than-desirable situation for Indy.
Jayne Magdalene in the Bionic Commando remake. In the prequel comic, she's shown as pretty competent. In the game, all she does is getting clocked, first clotheslined (literally, with his bionic arm cable) by Spencer and then stomped on by the Big Bad.
Miranda Keyes in the Halo series. She is rarely seen in combat, more often ending up a Distressed Damsel, and becomes Truth's Sacrificial Lion in the third game.
- She's a commanding officer, not a marine; the fact that she's rarely seen in combat is presumably because it makes more sense for the Seven-Foot guy in green armor to do the fighting while she plans things.
  - Also one of the seven-foot Super Solders is a women, but yeah Keyes is a Non Action Girl
Elehayym Van Houten in Xenogears definitely qualifies, holding the Distress Ball on multiple occasions despite being an elite soldier. To be fair, this is not because of her skills—her Humongous Mecha piloting, Ether spells, and acrobatic special attacks make her a solid addiotion to the in-game party, but in any scripted event, she has a damnable habit of hesitating due to fear, confusion, or simple reluctance to fight, often until it's too late for her to do anything herself.
Princess Peach from Super Mario Bros. She can easily take on Mario, or even Bowser, yet she always gets into trouble.
- Even worse in Super Smash Brothers Brawl where that universes version of her acts similar to her, but shows her power.
A rare example of a faux Dark Action Girl: Medusa from Castlevania. Yes, she doesn't really have any characterization and is just a recurring boss, but the fact remains that despite being a legendary monster who slaughtered hundreds of adventurers, she is almost always the easiest boss in every game she appears in.