History DistressedDude / Literature

* In ''Literature/RoyalRescue'' Prince Gerald tries to opt out of the traditional quest to find a spouse where some royals wait in towers for other royals to come, fight off the tower's guardian, and rescue them. He wakes up one morning to find he was drugged and magically transported to one of the towers in the night. He ends up befriending his guardian and working with the guardian to escape together.

*** "Brave To Be A King": Finding where Denison is in time and extricating him.

** In ''Literature/StormOverWarlock'', Shann has to break Thorvald out of the dream the Wyverns hold him in. Later, he is captured by the Throgs. When he defies them by warning off the incoming ship, albeit cryptically, they take him to be tortured to death.
** In ''Literature/OrdealInOtherwhere'', the Wyverns attack Shann and imprison him in his own mind; Charis has to break him free. Later, he's captured by Company men, and retreats back there to escape questioning. Charis, posing as a DamselInDistress, manages to pull him back.

* In Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'':

* In the first ''Literature/KingdomKeepers'' book, there's a subplot about [[TheLancer Maybeck]] getting kidnapped and needing to be rescued.

* In ''Literature/ALegacyOfLight'': ''Literature/TheThingsWeCanChange'', after returning from battle badly wounded, Tutankhamun spends the majority of the book confined to bed.

%%* In Creator/RogerZelazny's ''Literature/LordOfLight'', the opening chapter depicts rescuing Sam's mind.
* In ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'': ''Return Of The King'', Samwise Gamgee risks his life to save his best friend Frodo Baggins from the Tower of Cirith Ungol, where the latter has been imprisoned, stripped naked, interrogated, and whipped by Orcs seeking to procure the One Ring for Sauron.
* In the climatic scene of Stieg Larsson's ''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'', first part of ''Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy'', the male protagonist Mikael Blomquist is captured by a mass murderer, locked in an underground torture room, chained, stripped naked, humiliated and explicitly threatened with rape, when his female partner, the ActionGirl Lisbeth Salander, comes in to save him, chase and destroy the villain.
* In Teresa Frohock's ''Literature/MiserereAnAutumnTale'', Lucian is a captive at the opening. Father Matthew has to give him a way to escape and rouse him from despondency to get him to take it.

* In Creator/GeorgeMacDonald's ''Literature/ThePrincessAndTheGoblin'', Irene uses a magic thread given her by her great-great-grandmother to rescue Curdie when the goblins have him trapped in the mines.
* Creator/LJagiLamplighter's ''Literature/RachelGriffin'': In ''The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin'', a vision of three male students valiantly facing off against the villain and dying inspires a BigDamnHeroes charge. They are, in fact, unaware of their distress until told. [[spoiler:Gaius]] has a disconcerted moment before he collects himself enough to thank the rescuers.

* In Creator/GeorgeEliot's essay "Literature/SillyNovelsByLadyNovelists", she complains of a work supposed to be instructive because "the hero is a Jewish captive".

* Lee in the ''Literature/SmokeAndShadows'' trilogy by Creator/TanyaHuff. In this case, he's Tony's Mary Jane. Lee gets ''very'' tired of being the damsel by book 3. Also in the fourth book of the ''Literature/BloodBooks'', Henry, the vampire is captured and held prisoner by mad scientists and it is up to Vicky and Mike to rescue him. In the fifth book it is Mike who is captured and bound, but since he is rescued by two vampires, I do not know if that would count.

* Wen Spencer's ''Literature/{{Tinker}}'': The first book opens with Windwolf being chased by [[spoiler:Foo dogs]], who have separated him from his guards. Tinker is able to fight off his pursuers, but not before he's severely injured, and stuck in Pittsburgh on Shutdown Day, the one day of the month when the city is returned to Earth. Thus, for the rest of the day Tinker's focus is on keeping him alive until Startup.
* In ''Literature/{{Transitions}}'' Tos'un Armgo, being a male from the violently misandrist drow society, is no stranger to being bound and manhandled. When Drizzt ties him to a tree to interrogate him, he doesn't even flinch when his arms are wrenched back, thinking on how he's already used to worse.

* ''Literature/{{Watersong}}'': Daniel spends the final battle in the last book trapped in a bathroom by [[{{Yandere}} Penn]], unable to help his friends. [[spoiler:It's not until ''after'' she and [[PsychoForHire Liv]] are defeated when he is freed]].

* In Creator/EDBaker's ''Literature/TheWideAwakePrincess'', Liam is enchanted by a kelpie, which gets him on its back and goes to drown him. Only Annie's AntiMagic saves him.

** In ''Literature/{{Catseye|1961}}'', Troy is captured by Zul and brought to the head of the spying ring to be persuaded to help.

* ''Literature/{{City of Bones|1995}}'' by Creator/MarthaWells: Khat can usually handle himself well as a CombatPragmatist, but when he's faced with groups of Trade Inspectors or Wardens, he needs [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections better-connected]] or [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers more magically powerful]] people in the supporting cast to save his neck.
* Creator/RobertEHoward's ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'':

** In "Literature/ShadowsInTheMoonlight", Olivia rescues Conan from {{pirate}}s.

%%* In Erin Bow's ''Sorrow's Knot'' there are two: Cricket and Orca.

* ''Literature/{{Tempest}}'':

* In Creator/WenSpencer's ''Endless Blue'', Paige finds Turk bound by spider web on the civ raft. He pleads with her to [[ICannotSelfTerminate kill him]] if she can't free him; she has to leave him for a time in hopes of getting what she's after, [[DespairEventHorizon plunging him in despair]], but returns to rescue him.

* In ''Literature/{{Ivanhoe}}," the title character, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, spends over half the novel recuperating in bed after being wounded in a tournament. Under the care of Rebecca of York, he steadily improves, but when the castle of Torquilstone is besieged, is still too weak to leave his bed, and must be literally carried to safety by The Black Knight/King Richard.

* ''Literature/ACourtOfThornsAndRoses'': The entire end third of A Court of Thorns and Roses has Tamlin needing Feyre to save him.

** In ''Literature/TheHourOfTheDragon'', Zenobia rescues Conan from the EvilSorcerer.

* In Creator/WenSpencer's ''Endless Blue'', Paige finds Turk bound by spider web on the civ raft. He pleads with her to [[ICanNotSelfTerminate kill him]] if she can't free him; she has to leave him for a time in hopes of getting what she's after, [[DespairEventHorizon plunging him in despair]], but returns to rescue him.

* ''Literature/LillyAndFinAMermaidsTale'': When Lilly and Fin reach their usual hang-out cave outside Mermaid City, they find the Snorkles' private submarine waiting for them there. The sight of it [[DeerInTheHeadlights shocks Fin still]], allowing the Snorkles and Detective Harkenear to capture him, whereupon he's placed in a glass jar for the Snorkles to take home and add to their collection.

* ''Literature/LillyAndFinAMermaidsTale'': When Lilly and Fin reach their usual hang-out cave outside Mermaid City, they find the Snorkles' private submarine waiting for them there. The sight of it [[DeerInHeadlights shocks Fin still]], allowing the Snorkles and Detective Harkenear to capture him, whereupon he's placed in a glass jar for the Snorkles to take home and add to their collection.

* ''Literature/LillyAndFinAMermaidsTale'': When Lilly and Fin reach their usual hang-out cave outside Mermaid City, they find the Snorkles' private submarine waiting for them there. The sight of it [[DeerInHeadlights shocks Fin still]], allowing the Snorkles and Detective Harkenear to capture him, whereupon he's placed in a glass jar for the Snorkles to take home and add to their collection.

** Han later gets injected with a mind control drug by Boba Fett to capture him, marching helplessly toward his ship until Lando intervenes. He stops Fett, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard with the same drug]] and frees Han.

* In Creator/RuthFrancesLong's ''Literature/TheTreacheryOfBeautifulThings'', Tom was captured by TheLostWoods. When it swallows his sister, too, she decides to rescue him. [[spoiler:Later, Jack needs her help, too.]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':
** In Creator/DanAbnett's ''Literature/BrothersOfTheSnake'', a Space Marine killed another and claimed that the dead one had been touched with Chaos. There being no evidence of this, he asks to be exposed to the sea serpents of their world: if they ate him, he would be proven innocent. However, evidence turns up of his innocence, first, and a squad of Marines come to save him, killing one of the great serpents.
*** Also, when a Marine vanishes on a town they are investigating for Chaos cults, they search for him, find him [[ColdBloodedTorture being]] [[HumanSacrifice sacrificed to the daemon]], and rescue him.
** In Creator/DanAbnett's ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' novel ''First & Only'', the Ghosts' {{Revenge}} raid on the Jantine Patricians is partly to see if they can find Rawne alive. They do, and he is being [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured]], so the raid quickly turns to a rescue. [[spoiler:Similarly, at the end of ''Only In Death'', Mkoll and Eszarah rescue Gaunt as soon as they find him alive.]]
* Daniel spends the final battle in the last ''Literature/{{Watersong}}'' book trapped in a bathroom by [[{{Yandere}} Penn]], unable to help his friends. [[spoiler:It's not until ''after'' she and [[PsychoForHire Liv]] are defeated when he is freed]].

** In ''Literature/TheBookOfAtrixWolfe'', Tanis is trapped in the LostWoods. Where a woman reveals [[spoiler:that the ominous Hunter is her consort, trapped in a dire spell]].