Lucia fought the weakened form of Argosax after Dante had already beaten it, and Lady offed her father when he was badly injured, unable to move and completely defenceless. Trish is the only one who actually made a difference by giving Dante her powers when he was about to be killed by Mundus. Deus Ex Machina or not, she still saved the day.

Onscreen, she effortlessly takes out eight or so mooks in a few seconds, without even using her lightning power because she was pretending to be human and had to hold back her superhuman abilities. That should be enough to show that she could take out a lot of demons, even if we don't see it.

And in the anime, we are shown Trish (and Lady) taking on Sid's whole army of invading demons and killing a bunch of them, and when Dante comes back the demons are all gone, so it's undeniable that the two women defeated countless demons: even if we only see part of the ongoing battle, we clearly see the beginning and the aftermath. At the very least, that means that Trish took out half an army of demons and wasn't even injured. Also, in the anime, Trish defeats Lady despite the fact that Trish was holding back (because she knew that Lady was on Dante's side and she didn't want to seriously harm her) whereas Lady was fighting to kill.

I'm just perplexed by the double standard. You consider Lady and Lucia to be Action Girls, even though both of them were rescued by Dante once, never rescued him in turn, were only able to kill the Big Bad after Dante had severely beaten him, and Lady was defeated by Trish. Meanwhile Trish, who was rescued once but then saved the day against the Big Bad, defeated Lady while holding back, and easily and quickly defeated a bunch of mooks while holding back, is the Faux Action Girl because some of her accomplishments (which are obviously well within her abilities, judging by her onscreen mook fight in DMC 4 and by the onscreen scenes of the battle against Sid's army in the anime finale) happen offscreen?

Also, lesser demons. Nero can take them out. Lady can take them out. Dante even more so, and if Trish is supposedly on his level, why is she not handling tougher things than Scarecrows?

Trish isn't on Dante's level, and nobody ever said she is. When she attacked him, he defeated her easily, and she was extremely impressed with his power. There is no doubt that Dante is much more powerful than her.

But the point is, Dante is much more powerful than anybody. He wouldn't even take the Savior seriously as a threat, and just stepped aside to let Nero handle him. In the whole series, the only ones who come close to Dante's power are Vergil and Mundus, and Dante still defeated them. Being weaker than Dante does not make a character a Faux Action Girl.

Lastly, Dante didn't request that she save the townspeople

He did. Before he goes on to fight the Saviour, she and Trish meet again.

Dante: That's one sword... Trish: And one to go. Need some company? Dante: I think you'd better help the others. Try to get them as far away from here as possible. Trish: Got it.

..... No. Lucia fought Arius-Argosax, and Dante locked himself in Hell to face Argosax the Chaos. The two were in different planes fighting different entities at almost the same time. Dante did not weaken Arius beforehand. In fact, all Arius did was get stronger.

Trish went in and "made the difference" at the point where Mundus was already weakened, crumbling, falling apart and still laughing at Dante, so she still did not actually fight Mundus. She got the last shot in. Dante did most of the work.

Really. When they fought in the church, Lady remarked that Trish 'really hates to lose', and throughout the fight, for some reason Trish can't hold her own against Lady in a straight-fistfight even while holding back and had to depend on her lightning powers to make Lady keep her distance. (Although honestly, if she didn't want to fight Lady because she knew they were on the same side, she should have, uh, said something beforehand rather than just casually taking it, but that's a whole nother story.)

I consider Lady and Lucia to be Action Girls because they fight within the scope of their abilities and their "status". Lady is a human, Lucia is supposedly a 'defective' copy of the Secretary Clones, but not only does Lady fight demons without suffering a hit (similar to how Trish does in the fourth game), she even tried to hold her own against Dante with a leg injury that should have crippled her, and Lucia faced off against Arius after he had taken power from Argosax, with no prior "weakening" beforehand.

Alright, then, she isn't on Dante's level (I guess her toting around the Sparda at the end of the first game should have been a hint), but saying that Dante is much more powerful than her loops right back around to her somehow managing to make a difference against Mundus when Dante couldn't. How is that possible? Being weaker than Dante doesn't make her a Faux Action Girl, of course. I never said that. But she still suffers from not being able to save herself despite the Informed Ability of her lightning speed and motorcycle-chucking strength. That lacks an explanation.

Fair enough about Lucia.

Yes, but still, Dante would have died if Trish hadn't rescued him, so she did make a difference.

Trish defeated Lady once, when she shot her hair instead of her body, and again later, when she started using her lightning powers and was getting ready to shock a knocked down Lady. How is that failing to hold her own?

Trish did want to fight Lady, she just didn't want to actually kill or seriously hurt her. Dante explains that Trish craved a good fight, and since Lady was a better fighter than the demon Trish was after, Trish decided to fight with Lady instead, and so purposefully pretended to be an evil demon so Lady would fight her.

When Dante fought Lady, I believe he went very easy on her on purpose. And anyway, if a human can stand up and fight after she got stabbed through the thigh with a large knife, that's a Deus Ex Machina too, because there is no way something like that makes sense.

Btw, I really like Lady and definitely consider her a real Action Girl. I'm just saying that she and Trish have similar merits and similar flaws, so I don't think only one of them can be considered a real Action Girl.

Trish could make a difference because Dante was exhausted and injured after a long and hard fight, whereas she was in good shape and had the advantage of surprise.

She stupidly got in a Damsel In Distress situation once in the first game of the series. That was definitely a Wallbanger, but I don't think it's fair to dismiss all of her merits and call her a Faux Action girl just because of that.

I think it was the part where she needed to use her lightning powers but should have had enough strength without it to be able to defend herself. She did effortlessly toss a motorcycle once. Not that I'm saying she should have tossed anything, of course, but if she has that strength already, and they were already at the point where even Lady commented that they were 'fighting like humans' (as in, punches and kicks), why would she have had to resort to the long-ranged powers?

Honestly, I found the entire premise of the episode to be so dumb I actually forgot there was an explanation for the whole fight. I find her about to shock down a knocked over Lady to be... kind of counterproductive to not wanting to seriously hurt her. What was she going to do, just make her hair stand on end? Lightning isn't harmless.

Actually that's just Fridge Logic combined with Made Of Iron, but I'm not going to contest that. I actually hated that part since Executive Meddling made it inconsistent with Mission 13. (a guest panel with Reuben Langdon had him present a deleted scene where Lady actually defended herself against both Dante and Vergil before the plot twist was revealed, removed because "she shouldn't be that strong". Words can't describe the argh.)

... I hate almost all of the female characters, especially Lady. But that'd be for a slightly different reason than Trish, which is neither here nor there.

I have a problem with more of the way Trish is being written than anything. There is still every other trope displayed around her—

• She caught Dante off guard in the beginning but didn't make a dent even with that and existed only to acknowledge his incredible power otherwise, and then she failed trying to get him again even with the help of Nightmare. Never mind that it was already shown in the beginning cutscene (and all that talk about "incredible power") that she was weaker than he was and wouldn't have had much of an effect since Dante had just beaten Nelo Angelo, Griffon, and Phantom in reverse order and she would have needed to be stronger than all of them since the beginning for Mundus to logically even consider her as one of the last lines of defense. Also, she needed to catch him off guard then too.
• The Informed Ability was already mentioned.
• She got subdued by Mundus and used as a hostage and her plight was played for drama which overlaps with the Informed Ability (she couldn't save herself from a pillar that would hit her in 4 seconds after she'd seen it, but saving Dante in 2-3 seconds is alright? arghflabble).
  • As a subpoint, her dying suddenly absolved her of how much of a horrible partner she was throughout the rest of the game. Lightning aside, she didn't even pretend to help Dante around in the castle. I do not approve. And then
• The plot forgot that she was weaker than Dante (and Mundus as well) just to have her save the day because even the cracking statue god was laughing at Dante being too weak to finish him, also forgetting how the Agony Beam killed her in just one hit. (Also also forgetting about Mundus having the power to create more of her, as many as he likes, but that's another story.)
• Just when she started showing a sign of Character Development in the anime by leaving Dante to become a freelancing demon hunter presumably because she didn't want to wait around for calls, and preferred to bring the fight to the demons' doorstep (not to mention the whole "she looks like a woman than Dante said she'd never live up to" part of her character), she proved to be so ineffectual that she came back for DMC 4 and works under Dante again. Why isn't she making a name for herself? Why can't she?
• Her sudden proficiency in combat with short knives for one moment in DMC4 was barely explained either, not to mention the plot that didn't need to be started that she was responsible for.

... I guess if I'm not able to fault her for being a Faux Action Girl, I can use those other tropes, And Thats Terrible. .... Man I'm beginning to hate the writing. Capcom should be ashamed of themselves.

No, I think. Action-oriented males who is shown failing to be capable in battle is not very common, It's because action males are naturally defined as strong and useful gender. A guy with Action Girlfriend (like Ron Stoppable) is quite close. He likes to boast around or tries to get his butt in a trouble mainly that he thinks he can handle a situation for his girl. He may get his action sometimes, though not that often. Then again, not every of them are action guys to begin with.

Anyone want to debate removing the Ginny entry?

Removed it already. Seeing how people seem to grasp at all kinds of straws to make her look bad, I'll take any reverts with a grain of salt. *sigh*

Okay, I have removed this:

• 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 impressive things, but the reader only ever hears about it second hand.

Again. Ginny does not fit this trope. First, no one ever claimed she was super awesome in a duel. The only claim that was made about her was that she was good with the Bat bogey Hex and she did okay in the DA.

Second, even if Ginny hexed people off screen, she still hexed people. Unless you want to believe everyone in the book was lying to make Ginny look good, second hand accounts still count. When Ron, Neville and Ginny escaped in Oot P, the tale of how they did so was second hand. Does that mane they didn't escape after all, because Ginny is still a "faux action girl?"

Third, we have seen Ginny fighting, and she holds her own. We saw her place a "well aimed" jinx on Death Eaters in DH. In HBP, she was fighting Carrow when Harry interfered, yes, but she was DODGING his curses quite easily. There was no indication she was in danger of being hit- it's not like he was standing over her unconscious body and Harry dived to the rescue. In DH, she was also conscious and still fighting and keeping herself alive against Bellatrix. A curse almost hit her. WOW. How often does that happen in a duel? Are Luna and Hermione faux action girls too because they were "saved" along with her? No one would claim that. And yes, she broke her ankle in Oot P. Let's not forget that everyone except for Harry and Neville (sort of, he still broke his nose) was hurt badly in that fight.

In other words, this is just another way for Ginny haters to bash her. She does no worse than anyone else in HP, she just gets less screentime. As no one protested the first time this trope was deleted, please DON'T put it back in again.

I think you're generalizing. Whoever put it there doesn't necessarily have to be a 'Ginny Hater'. Are you 'Ginny Lover's' because you removed it?

While the text (besides Book 6) never tries to convince us that she's all that and a bag of chips, that infamous JKR interview could have influenced their decision. She said things like Ginny and Harry were equals, that she had seven child of seventh child powers, and that we'd see her powers in book 7. We never saw any of those things in Book 7, which actually fits this trope. It's a fairly common problem in JKR's writing style. I can understand why whoever it was put it up there without attaching Ron the Death Eater type motives.

I'm not trying to start a fight or even suggesting it be put back in just don't have such a bad attitude about it.

Um, okay. Sorry I had a bad attitude. Just because the example has been such a back and forth thing with the people who re-adding it never giving a reason, I figured I would have to write an essay to "defend Ginny's honor". I think the only really hostile thing I said was implying some people on this site might hate Ginny- and there's pretty solid evidence we've got quite a few Harmonians waging war against Ginny and Ron, so I didn't think that was an off-base assumption to make.

"Infamous interview", huh? First of all- interview canon that was just JKR's opinion on the character and likely some stuff she didn't have space to add in doesn't count. And why does "equals" have to mean "equals in combat?" If I remember the context correctly JKR was saying they'd both been heavily affected by Voldemort and had to overcome it- which there is no denying, not anything about Ginny's mad magic skillz.

I saw nothing saying Ginny was a great combatant in book 6- I saw a lot about Harry thinking she was great. Clearly he was supposed to constantly criticize the person he had a crush on, that would have showed his true affection?

Please can somebody stop deleting this article? This is quickly turning into an Edit War. If you don't agree with the note, just edit it a 'YMMV' and leave it in. Remember this is not Wikipedia.

If you don't agree with the note, just edit it a 'YMMV' and leave it in.

No, because that would be Natter, and that isn't wanted.

Plus, this isn't a YMMV article, meaning examples here need to have have at least some basis in objectivity as opposed to personal opinion.

When I first read the Trope description, an image of Ginny popped up in my head, unbidden- and I ship Ron/Hermione, like the Weasley family and didn't really care who Harry ended up with. I know it's a sore spot for a lot of people who are tired of hearing complaints about her, but without getting too nasty about Ginny herself, she does display major symptoms of this trope.

Think about it- all the fighting she's done has some way of her getting out of it through things other than her own skills. The duel in HBP shouldn't be talked about because of the Felix Felicis, making everyone's skills skewed by luck. She never lives up to all of the amazing things everyone says about her being great in a duel, and the Bat Bogey Hex, which was enough to make Slughorn invite her into his club, is never used to any effect in combat. You can say lots of things about Ginny, but to say she lives up to being an Action Girl... not so much.

Then I guess it depends on how often she's in distress. I don't remember her doing a whole lot, but I don't know the series that well.

The problem with Faye is that she can't fight on foot, she's not that good with a gun, and she doesn't even seem to know hand to hand combat. She's not that bad with her aircraft but she's not Spike Spiegal. This wouldn't be a problem is she would figure that out but she doesn't learn and tries to be the female Spike. During the movie she has her target (a stupid hacker) playing a video game but she tries to be smooth, and ends up losing her target.

She also needs Spike to save her and just can't take care of herself. I suggest putting her back in.

It's been way to long since I watched Voltron or Go Lion, so I can't really comment either. I think a new page image is in order though.

Seriously, if someone can't show me a time when she actually said that, I'm changing the quote.

Been searching for it. Haven't found it. Just take it out, wouldn't be surprised if it was placed htere by a Sakura basher either making up shit or taking stuff outta context.

Sleepy Fans scanlation

"I'm supposed to be a ninja, but all I do is cry and rely on Naruto... I thought I'd shaken that off when I came here... but I couldn't do it... I can't do anything, I can't say anything. All I can do... is have faith in them!"

HisshouBuraiKen translation

"I'm supposed to be a ninja, but all I've ever done is lean on [Naruto] and cry... I was supposed to change that...I came here, I thought I was ready... But I can't do anything..I can't say anything... The only thing that remains for me... Is to believe in them!"

The page quote isn't exact, but it pretty much conveys the same thing. You could have at least tried looking for it before dismissing it as a Sakura hater putting up lies.

I'm changing the quote to the Sleepy Fans version.

Aaaaaaaand changed.

Oh, and for the record, the reason i wanted to change it was because it did in fact come across as character bashing, especially the parts in parentheses.

I'd say it's mostly because the Designated Girl Fight doesn't count as kicking ass. In most series that have the mentality that results in said trope in the first place. If a female character is said to be an amazing fighter and then the only time we're given any indication that this is the case is when she fights another girl, it undermines her reputation. Designated Girl Fight still has that "Pssh, don't worry, viewers, men are still stronger, it's not a real fight" vibe going through it.

Even if said Designated Girl Fight isn't fanservicey (and maybe even a Fan Disservice), and includes some rather gory and gruesome violence?

I deleted that, and it's worth noting that the very first thing she did after recovering from being tortured and comatose for weeks was find Eragon on a training field and challenge him to a duel. Then spend the whole thing effortlessly toying with him.