Basic Trope: An Action Girl or other competent, active female character becomes a Ms. Fanservice Damsel in Distress with little or no justification beyond the needs of the plot.
- Straight: Alice and Bob are secret agents in Bob: The Movie. For much of the film, Alice is just as kickass as Bob, but two-thirds of the way in, a Mook manages to catch her arm and Alice is quickly subdued and subjected to a Shameful Strip. She spends the rest of the movie trapped in a cell, naked, in the Big Bad's lair, waiting for Bob to rescue her.
- Exaggerated: Alice, Warrior Queen of the Amazons, cuts a bloody swath through her people's enemies and is a One-Woman Army until she meets up with Bob the Barbarian. She immediately stops wearing armor, seems to forget how to use a sword, and her most commonly used line for the rest of the series is "Save me, Bob!"
- Downplayed: After being grabbed by the arm, Alice is noticeably less effective, but still has agency in combat.
- Justified:
- Not applicable; this trope cannot be justified by its very definition. (The lack of an In-Universe reason is key to this trope. If the Action Girl is changed to a Damsel in Distress as the result of sufficient physical and/or emotional trauma, that's just Character Development.)
- Pushing that a bit: Alice is in a High School AU fanfiction, and has no reason to be an Action Girl.
- Inverted:
- Xenafication.
- Alice is a Damsel in Distress, but partway through the story she takes several levels in badass and becomes the hero.
- Gender Inverted: Bob's male sidekick, Charles, goes from The Lancer to The Load after his capture.
- Subverted: Alice is just playing damsel in distress to stroke Bob's ego. If she's in any real danger, she'll drop the pose.
- Double Subverted: The Big Bad guessed Alice's game and put in extra security precautions to make sure she stays distressed.
- Parodied:
- Bob the macho Action Hero is turned into a woman, and immediately starts acting out the role of Damsel in Distress, even though several people (including the Big Bad) point out that this particular Applied Phlebotinum doesn't affect the victim's personality. The other characters begin to wonder if maybe Bob isn't a bit too into this distress thing.
- As part of the heroes' Batman Gambit, Alice is forced to play the role of the Damsel in Distress. Because she's such a kickass action girl, however, she does so dreadfully.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Whether Alice becomes a Damsel in Distress or retains her normal Action Girl prowess and escape capabilities depends on the needs of the plot, so varies from episode to episode.
- Alice is a Magical Girl Warrior who transforms into an Amazon, but the transformation has a Power Limiter, so she can go from a strong and trained assassin to a helpless waif who can't lift a finger to save herself, and everything in between.
- Averted:
- Alice does not become a Damsel in Distress.
- Alice does not become more of a Ms. Fanservice.
- There are no badasses.
- Enforced: “Bob's the title character, so he should be the focus of the climax. How about we have Alice get captured so Bob can rescue her?"
- Lampshaded: "So, this is the famous Warrior Queen Alice. How the mighty have fallen, eh?"
- Invoked:
- The Big Bad aims an enfeebling ray at Alice so that she can be captured more easily.
- Alice lets herself be captured, since she's wearing a tracking device.
- Exploited: Knowing that no one will recognize her due to her personality shift, Alice assumes a new identity after Bob saves her.
- Defied: Alice refuses to go down that easily, and if captured, escapes at the earliest opportunity.
- Discussed: "I hope Alice is all right. It's not like her to be so easily captured."
- Conversed: "We're about two-thirds of the way into the movie and...yep, there goes Alice's competence. It's all damsel in distress from this point on."
- Implied: Alice still uses her sword, but is noticeably less skilled.
- Deconstructed:
- Secret agent Alice is devastated by how easily she was overcome and kept captive. She's plagued by recurring nightmares, and her fitness for field missions is questioned.
- Alice is deliberately feigning weakness when necessary as part of a larger strategy to train and boost Bob's confidence and public profile. It's certainly a way to teach him how to cope with frustration, but it comes with unnecessary risks that outweigh the potential rewards.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice was complacent, and the experience of effortless capture humbles her. Bob rescues her and they fight their way out together, falling in love in the process. Alice becomes a Retired Badass who can still kick ass but prefers being a Housewife at Home Sweet Home.
- Bob gives Alice all due credit for making him a better fighter and she attracts a host of new aspiring heroes eager to learn from her.
- Played for Drama: Alice's team manages to rescue her and still complete the mission, but at a large cost, having to extend the mission's duration threefold and resulting in the death of secret agent Charles. Not only her teammates blame her for his death, Alice is a subject of ridicule across the team's base, and few look at her without making fun of how easily captured she was, or questioning her fitness for missions. Devastated, Alice too believes she's unfit for her role, and thinks that Eve would be a much better substitute for her. Her boss agrees with her. Alice is fired from her job.
- Played for Horror: The Big bad kidnaps and enslaves Alice then uses mind control to remodel her personality into his vision of the “ideal woman”. The transformation slowly progresses over the entire plot until Alice is unrecognisable as her former self.
- Adam, a trans man is forcibly subjected to mind control by a TERF who views him as a “traitor to womanhood” or by another transphobic antagonist. As above, the transformation is slow and gradual, with the same end results.
I Have You Now, My Pretty! It's back to Chickification for you!
