History Main / DamselInDistress

* In "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/goosegirl/index.html The Goose-Girl]]", the [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses princess]] is under the power of the servant who took her place and turned her into a goose-girl until the king figures out a way to get her tell her story without breaking her promise not to. (GenderFlip version in the ChildBallad "The Lord of the Lorn and The False Steward", Child #271)

* LazyTown for example has Stephanie being kidnapped by the "evil dude" sometimes.

* LazyTown for example has Stephanie being kidnapped by the evil dude sometimes.

* In JamesThurber's ''Literature/The13Clocks'', the Princess Saralinda is kept in her EvilUncle's castle. [[spoiler:In fact, she is [[ChangelingFantasy not his niece]], and he intends to force her to marry him once he is free of a curse.]]

* Averted with Yuno Gasai and of ''MiraiNikki'', since she's quite the {{Yandere}} ActionGirlfriend and so far she's only been whacked counted times with the DistressBall. After she gets hit with it, she's very likely to pull a ShesBack and recover soon.

* Averted with Yuno Gasai and of ''MiraiNikki'', since she's quite the {{Yandere}} ActionGirlfriend and so far she's only been whacked counted times with the DistressBall. After she gets hit with it, she's very likely to pull a SHesBack and recover soon.

* ClassicDisneyShorts, WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes, Popeye, and other vintage theatrical cartoons used this trope to ''death''.

** In the early days of ''{{Spider-Man}}'', Betty Brant and Gwen Stacy would serve this role. Then it was notoriously subverted in the 1973 ''[[{{Spider-Man}} Amazing Spider-Man]]'' story ''TheNightGwenStacyDied'', in which archvillain the Green Goblin kidnaps Spidey's girlfriend, Spidey goes to rescue her... and she dies, turning from Gwen Stacy into [[TheGwenStacy * The* Gwen Stacy]].
** Also subverted, in a different way, by Mary Jane Watson after her marriage to Peter. Whenever she's confronted by obsessive stalkers, she (almost) always manages to escape on her own, without any help from her super-powered husband. Even more subverted by the fact that, more often than not, ''Mary Jane'' is the one who bails out Spider-Man whenever one of his opponents has the upper hand in a fight.
*** Even before their marriage, when Mary Jane was witness to a Spidey fight going poorly, she'd often brazenly distract or sabotage the bad guy, relying on her charm and wit to save her from the dangerous consequences.
*** Even ''Aunt flippin' May'' has taken out bad guys. When (fairly) recently the Chameleon had assembled a group of Spider-Bad guys to go after Peter Parker (This is just before Civil War, natch) the Chameleon himself disguised himself as Peter to go and kidnap Aunt May. Aunt May opens the door, and lets her nephew in, and gives him some tea and biscuits while she has to finish her knitting [[spoiler: before revealing that she drugged the fucking tea cause she'd recognize her beloved nephew anywhere and Chameleon obviously was an impostor, holding up "OWNED" written across the sweater she just made in a]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome knitted moment of awesome]].

* Brutally deconstructed in RevolutionaryGirlUtena. Many shows have DID girls who go through Hell and back, but remain sweet and nice and without many psychological marks because many writers won't know what to do. ''Utena'', however, points out that in RL, people of both genders stuck in these roles will more or less ''stop'' being "pure" and "sweet" and start acting more passive-aggressive and manipulative, if they're forced into situations where they can't seize direct power. This is ''very'' obvious in the cases of Shiori Takatsuki (looks sweet and gentle and demure, but is very malicious and has horrible self-esteem since her "best friend" Juri is a beautiful and strong LadyOfWar), Kozue Kaoru (repeatedly gets herself in trouble and flirts/sleeps with other guys to catch the attention of her twin older brother and "prince", Miki), and ''specially'' [[spoiler: Anthy Himemiya (once performed a huge sacrifice, paid the price by both suffering immense physical pain and becoming a passive figure as the Rose Bride, ultimately became a mix of BrokenBird and [[TheDragon puppet]] to her ManipulativeBastard brother Akio a.k.a. Dios aka End of the World) and Utena Tenjou (she's ''not'' one since the beginning, but her insecurities and naiveté more than once play quite a part into shoving her close to the "role")]] This is not to say that BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil, or that it's stupid to be remain nice after a tragedy. It's just pointing out a general trend: if weakness is imposed on people, it ''will'' bring consequences.

* Stephanie Brown, star of the current ''{{Batgirl}}'' series, is [[TheCommissionerGordon growing a relationship]] with Detective Nicholas Gage. [[DistressedDude She comes to his rescue]] relatively often, as befits a superhero, and [[LampshadeHanging points out]] that he is a damsel in distress in their relationship.

[[RealWomenNeverWearDresses Don't expect people to cut her some slack, even if she logically would not have the power or abilities necessary to help]]. In more recent works the damsel is [[BadassDamsel more likely to rebel one way or another]], which can either help or [[ItGotWorse make things worse]]. The screaming associated with this trope has largely been replaced with [[IFeelAngry getting angry and telling her captors to put her down]], but she will still scream when they throw her off a building.

** In the Arrancar and Hueco Mundo arcs, [[GenkiGirl Orihime]] [[StepfordSmiler Inoue]] heavily '''[[DeconstructedTrope deconstructs]]''' the trope. She went with [[spoiler:Sosuke Aizen]] ''willingly'' to protect her friends [[spoiler: right after they got their asses kicked by the Arrancar ([[SadisticChoice had she not gone, they would've been killed and Karakura would've been destroyed right on the spot]])]]... The story arc is absolutely NOT shy about showing the tremendous emotional and physical strain it brings on her [[spoiler: to the extreme of causing her an ''epic'' HeroicBSOD that almost made her cross the DespairEventHorizon]]; sure, [[spoiler: Ichigo and Ishida manage to reach for her]], but ItGotWorse immediately afterwards, and before ''that'' [[BreakTheCutie she was throughly abused]] by Loly, Menoly, Nnoitora and Ulquiorra, among others. [[spoiler: It takes Orihime almost a ''year'' to fully get over the horrible effects of her imprisonment.]]

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] and averted in ''{{Shrek}}'', especially in a scene where Robin Hood and his Merry Men try to "rescue" Fiona from the ogre they believe has kidnapped her, only to have her rebuff him and beat up all his men in a combination of styles from ''XenaWarriorPrincess'' and ''Film/TheMatrix''.

* Subverted in ''TitanAE'', when Akima is jettisoned into space, captured, and held to be sold into slavery. The rest of the crew undergoes a makeshift rescue operation, only to find out that she successfully knocked out all of her captors and is patiently waiting to be picked up.

* [[spoiler: Ginny Weasley]] in ''HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', although no one realizes it until near the end. [[spoiler:And she did attempt to save herself by throwing the diary away first, stealing it back only because she was afraid of being outed]].

* [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV Rosa]] spends alot of time in the first half of the game incapacitated due to some reason or other (illness, kidnapping, etc.) She gets better in the second half though, even refusing to StayInTheKitchen when told to by Cecil toward the end ([[WhatAnIdiot a very dumb decision on Cecil's part.]])

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in ''Wizards and Warriors''. Each stage (except the last) ends with rescuing a DistressedDamsel, conveniently labelled as "the distressed damsel". (In the last stage, you appear to have rescued a princess, which I guess means that the other stages are variations of the "[[SuperMarioBros Princess is in another castle]]" trope.)

* Princess Mari in ''VideoGame/TheKingOfDragons'' exists to fulfil this role. Though she actually [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething lead the offensive]] of her kingdom against the hordes of monsters, she just makes things [[ItGetsWorse go worse]].

* At the end of ''TotalOverdose'', Ram has to save a DistressedDamsel in a sequence involving many [[DeadHorseTrope tropes so dead they don't even have entries]]. The Damsel is tied to the front of a runaway locomotive by the Villain, and Ram must run along boxcars, jumping into and out of boxcars, fighting mooks, and dodging explosives. The subversions could be that the Villain wears a White Hat with an antique emblem of the US Cavalry on it, and that instead of a horse, Ram gets a motorcycle to ultimately ride to the rescue on.

* ''SamuraiChamploo'': Given the number of times that Fuu ends up getting kidnapped, I don't think she can regret her investment in saving the two male leads to be her bodyguards.

* Subverted and likely deconstructed in ''Anime/{{Monster}}'': Realizing that Johan has plans to meet up with (and presumably do [[MindRape horrible, unspeakable things to]]) his estranged twin sister, Nina, Tenma rushes off to rescue her. The thing is, in the rush, the good doctor seems to have not accounted for two things -- 1) Being mostly a NonActionGuy, he is woefully unprepared for things like a crazed lackey stabbing him in the face with garden shears and 2) Nina is pretty damn awesome in the art of Aikido, which she immediately demonstrates by saving ''him''. Looks like she didn't need your help after all, Tenma. [[spoiler:Too bad the same couldn't be said for her ''parents''...]]

* Generally played straight in ''RanmaOneHalf'' with Akane Tendō. Two plotlines in the 38-volume manga (and two of {{the movie}}s) involve her BoundAndGagged and in need of rescue. A good number of the other girls fall prey to this throughout the series, and the entire female cast winds up like this in the second tie in movie.
** Interestingly, Ranma (both in male and female forms) ends up like this even more often than Akane, who more than once has to help him out. [[DoubleStandard And no one remembers this as well as in Akane's case.]]
** Actually, subverted. It happens, to both characters, a lot more than just twice, but in all cases, they invariably make their kidnappers regret it, if they don't just free themselves outright. Akane Tendō only remains kidnapped usually because there's some obstacle that prevents her just going home (with Pantyhose Tarō, for example, she needs to cross a deep river to escape, but is [[SuperDrowningSkills incapable of swimming]]), she ends up [[LimaSyndrome emotionally bonding with her captor]] when they have a PetTheDog moment with her (with Prince Tōma, for example, she is touched by his description [[MissingMom of how he too lost his mother at an early age]]), or Ranma inadverdently pisses her off and she refuses to let herself be saved out of spite/wounded pride. Or sometimes some combination of the three.

** A Gardevoir actually serves as the damsel (fitting enough) in the episode where Hunter J makes her first appearance.
* Subverted in ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam''. [[RebelliousPrincess Maria]] [[WrongGenreSavvy Louise]] ''really'' wants to play the Damsel part so her KnightInShiningArmor George De Sand comes to her rescue, so she gets Domon to [[BatmanGambit help her plan her own kidnapping so he can fight George]], who refused to duel with Domon per HonorBeforeReason motifs. It backfires ''spectacularly'', though: [[spoiler:not only does the ''far'' more GenreSavvy George deduce their plan ''right from the start'', but he also delivers a WhatTheHellHero speech to Maria as he and Domon fight. Maria and Rain Mikamura barely escape with their lives from the battlefield and, as punishment, Maria gets [[PutOnABus sent back to Neo France]] until the Neo Hong Kong arc.]]

* Nia generally fits this role in the third and final arc of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', while also somewhat subverted with being BrainwashedAndCrazy. [[spoiler:Once she snaps out of this with the help of Simon however, she fits this trope to a T.]]

** Subverted with [[spoiler: Tsubaki Kasugano aka the 6th]], who [[spoiler: ''[[DecoyDamsel pretends]]'' [[DecoyDamsel to be one]] so she can gain Yukiteru's trust via TheDulcineaEffect and keep him away from Yuno.]]
* Nao from the ''LiarGame'' starts off as one of these, extremely naive and crying whenever someone who she put her trust in (even if she shouldn't) deceived her and always relying constantly on Akiyama to help her. But she [[TookALevelInBadAss matured]] and now, she's quite a force to be reckoned with, able to sweetly use her honest character to trick others, even deceiving [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bastards]] Yokoya and Akiyama on separate occasions without either of them realizing it until afterwards.
* [[RebelliousPrincess Relena]] [[PluckyGirl Peacecraft]] from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' is ''falsely'' accused [[DieForOurShip by her]] [[RonTheDeathEater detractors]] of being one. Since she's an ActualPacifist she never fought her way out guns blazing, but she wasn't a DamselScrappy either, actually trying to [[TalkingYourWayOut talk down her captors]] in the three instances where she's in enemy hands throughout the anime[[note]]by Romefeller late in the TV show, White Fang near the end, and Mariemaia's in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWingEndlessWaltz''[[/note]], even showing her GuileHero chops by turning the first instance into a '''massive''' payoff. She once even dissuaded Heero from killing or harming her ''with words alone.''

** Nearly every character, male of female, had a turn as this. Amusingly Team Rocket themselves might actually be one of the most recurring examples.

** Mario ''himself'' is the damsel in ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' and ''Super Princess Peach'' (and the non-canon ''Mario is Missing'')

** Rather funnily, ''[[{{Badass}} Han Solo]]'', of all people, plays this role in ''Return of the Jedi''. He is rescued from a dragon... [[SubvertedTrope by a princess]]. And he ''is'' helpless and weak when she rescues him, seeing as he's blind at the time. This doesn't prevent him from (accidentally) knocking Boba Fett into the Sarlacc Pit - and then, in a double subversion, rescuing best friend Lando Calrissian after Lando had come to rescue ''him''!

Generally expected to give TheHero a SmoochOfVictory when he rescues her. [[ILetGwenStacyDie Unless]] [[WhatKeptYou he doesn't.]]

*** [[spoiler: And [[{{Squick}} god help the poor girl]] if you [[WhatKeptYou don't go to her rescue right away]]]].

[[quoteright:240:[[VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/peach_in_distress.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:240:[[SaveThePrincess Just another Wednesday for]] [[SuperMarioBros Princess Peach]].]]

* In the recent ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' parody episode of ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', Isabella calls herself a "certified Damsel in Distress" (handing the boys her business card).

* In the DoctorWho episode ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E4TheKrotons The Krotons]]'', Vara -- and later Zoe, when she too is chosen for a "companion".

* In ''Manga/Otoyomegatari'', Mr. Smith's refusal to marry Talas out of pity meets bewilderment: Saving her is what a man ''does'', right?

* In ''{{Bleach}}'', Rukia Kuchiki gets to be the Distressed Damsel in the Soul Society arc, despite the fact that she was a bit of an ActionGirl in previous episodes. In a sort-of subversion, though, [[spoiler:she agreed to go because she knew she'd be executed for giving her powers to a human... and Rukia actually ''[[SuicideByCop wanted to die]]'' in the first place]].

* Played with and subverted in ''CodeGeass R2'' when [[{{Tsundere}} Kallen]] is captured and becomes a hostage for 1/3 of the season with Lelouch swearing to rescue her. She is then put in a plexi-glass cage and given [[GoGoEnslavement a frilly, cleavage heavy dress]]. This is a subversion since Kallen is by far the show's number one ActionGirl, Lelouch's personal bodyguard and one of the deadliest pilots in the CG universe, thus [[CrowningMomentOfAwesomeMechaAnime she re-affirms all three facts within moments of being rescued.]]

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': Pikachu often gets [[AmbiguousGender itself]][[hottip:*:It's canonically male, as seen when a female Pokémon affects it with Attract, if this troper remembers correctly.]] caught in Team Rocket's traps. However, it often gets itself out, so this is an aversion.

* [[RebelliousPrincess Relena]] [[PluckyGirl Peacecraft]] from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' is ''falsely'' accused [[DieForOurShip by her]] [[RonTheDeathEater detractors]] of being one. Since she's an ActualPacifist she never fought her way out guns blazing, but she wasn't a DamselScrappy either, actually trying to [[TalkingYourWayOut talk down her captors]] in the three instances where she's in enemy hands throughout the anime[[hottip:*:by Romefeller late in the TV show, White Fang near the end, and Mariemaia's in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWingEndlessWaltz'']], even showing her GuileHero chops by turning the first instance into a '''massive''' payoff. She once even dissuaded Heero from killing or harming her ''with words alone.''

* Naru Osaka of ''SailorMoon'' needs to be saved from a Monster of the Week attack fairly regularly, to the point where it gets frequently lampshaded in FanFiction.

* In ''ToyStory'', Andy purposely has Bo Peep play this role, so Woody could save her. [[SickeninglySweethearts Not that she minds]]...

* In ''PowerRangersInSpace'', just try to count how many times ''the Rangers themselves'' get tied up, to either figure a way out in time for the big fight, or be rescued by the one Ranger who wasn't there at the time.

* Pauline (aka "Lady") in the original ''DonkeyKong''.

* Played with in an entertaining fashion in the NeverwinterNights mod ADanceWithRogues. The Princess in the story is the player character and spends a lot more time rescuing people than not, and the character who most fits this archetype is Anden, a male character. Pia actually comments on this when you tell her the tale of rescuing Anden for the first time.
* Aerith Gainsborough from ''FinalFantasyVII'', when she is kidnapped and taken to Hojo's laboratory to be experimented on. Saving her makes up most of the BestLevelEver, so hooray!

* Rinoa Heartilly from ''FinalFantasyVIII'' was this, with [[DesignatedVictim disturbing regularity.]] She's probably the second most DistressedDamsel out of the entire FinalFantasy franchise next to the example below, which is actually saying a lot (though it doesn't speak highly of her [[DamselScrappy character]]). To her credit though, she does get much better once she [[spoiler: becomes a sorceress, though she still gets taken captive by Seifer later to be held hostage by Adel, but he ''was'' holding her a weapon-point.]]
* [[FinalFantasyIV Rosa]] spends alot of time in the first half of the game incapacitated due to some reason or other (illness, kidnapping, etc.) She gets better in the second half though, even refusing to StayInTheKitchen when told to by Cecil toward the end ([[WhatAnIdiot a very dumb decision on Cecil's part.]])
* Averted in ''FinalFantasyX'' with Yuna. Who, while kidnapped three times, managed to escape on her own the first time and actually made a plan to defeat one of the BigBad's the third time (which the heroes, while pulling off an impressive BigDamnHeroes, messed up) she still escaped on her own. And the second time, she was actually being "kidnapped" by [[spoiler: Rikku]], so there wasn't any real danger, though the other characters think there is at the time.

* ''{{Castlevania}}'' descended into this trope slowly. Early installments forwent hostages altogether (only the arcade rehash ''Haunted Castle'' added Simon's wife Serena, as if fighting {{Dracula}} weren't motivation enough), and when they began coming, there was uncommon gender balance. The series' first canonical damsel was actually a [[DistressedDude a guy in distress]], Christopher's son Soleiyu in ''Belmont's Revenge''; Richter in ''Symphony of the Night'' and Morris Baldwin in ''Circle of the Moon'' further balance out the captured maidens in ''Rondo of Blood'' (one of whom isn't such a damsel at that). After ''Circle'', however, this trope began to do its worst, e.g. Lydie in ''Harmony of Dissonance'', Mina [[spoiler: and later Yoko]] in ''Aria of Sorrow'', Sara in ''Lament of Innocence''...

* ''{{Earthbound}}'' has Paula in this role a total of three times - kidnapped by [[{{Cult}} the Happy Happyists]], kidnapped by [[ZombieApocalypse zombies]], kidnapped by [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Monotoli]]. The second time was [[AllMenArePerverts Ness's fault]], though.

** [[spoiler:Yeoman Kelly Chambers]] gets this treatment late in ''MassEffect2'', complete with [[spoiler:getting dragged away by monsters, screaming her head off. The non-specialist crew of the Normandy meets the same fate at the same time.]]

* In ''NeverwinterNights2'', after you rescue Neeshka from the Fort Locke guards, she says "Does that make me a damsel in distress? I hope not, I ''hate'' those women!"

* Deconstructed in GuiltyGear, where Dizzy is more powerful than her guardians, Testament, Johnny and Ky. The "rescuing" is more like [[PowerIncontinence calming her down when her power goes out of control.]] Dizzy herself is a NaiveEverygirl who [[ActualPacifist hates violence with passion]], so the experience of unintentionally attempting to kill people [[BreakTheCutie is traumatizing.]] If you listen to her in-game quotes, it seems that [[BlessedWithSuck her enormous powers inflicts physical pain to her]]. And the few times she snaps? [[BewareTheNiceOnes She SNAPS]] (like the AlternateUniverse from the CD dramas [[spoiler: in which she succeeds her mother Justice and destroys the world]], or the Midnight Carnival ending in which [[spoiler: she horribly kills I-No [[TheDogBitesBack when she abuses her a bit too much.]].]] In short, Dizzy needs no rescue from others... ''but from herself.''

* The entire episode of "Beauty Marked" in ''DannyPhantom'' was made in order to ''subvert'' this as much as possible. While Danny and Tucker are under the mindset that the kidnapped Sam needs rescuing, she managed to figure a way out just fine. It is their meddling that gets her captured again/still.
* The Distressed Damsel is pretty common in ''KimPossible''. Every main character (and some of the villains) have been in this situation. Kim. Ron. The Cheerleaders. Bonnie. Kim's Dad. Kim's Grandmother. The Tweebs. Ron's Dad. Shego. Drakken. Shego's little brothers. It's a requirement of this show that you get captured at least once.

* Subverted in the movie ''[[BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Batman & Mr. Freeze - Subzero]]''. Yes, PluckyGirl Barbara a.k.a. Batgirl gets kidnapped, but [[ActionGirl she's so competent]] that she kicks the asses of her captors (Mr. Freeze being one of them) [[ActionSurvivor multiple times]], and would have escaped on her own just fine if it wasn't for the fact that she was in the middle of the friggin' ocean. In fact, she is probably more useful in the movie than even Batman and Robin.

* In the recent ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' parody episode of ''PhineasAndFerb'', Isabella calls herself a "certified Damsel in Distress" (handing the boys her business card).