History Main / DesignatedVictim

* Athena from ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' is always about to die and her warriors go on a mission to save her. This was repeated so many times that Athena started forbidding the participation of the protagonists in the fights yet they decide to save her her again.

*** Debatable. By publication date, David Weber did it first. and [[http://jiltanith.thefifthimperium.com/site/faqs/- according to Joe Buckley]], it wasn't about anything being public, it was just cathardic.

* ''TheSavageDragon'' had a balding, glasses-wearing, mustached man appearing in the background of every issue. And many times fufilling this trope, such as when mass brain-washing made him leap in front of a moving car. And then of course, Josh Eichorn (the same person?) who is insulted in the "credits" page for each SD book.
** No not the Same person the Man is Jon Day He also Shows up in Issues of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN,DEFENDERS Vol 2,FREAK FORCE,IMAGE UNITED,MIGHTY MAN,NEXT ISSUE PROJECT: SILVER STREAK COMICS,SAVAGE DRAGON: GOD WAR,SPIDER-MAN,SPIDER-WOMAN vol 3,SUPERMAN/SAVAGE DRAGON: CHICAGO, and THOR Josh Eichorn is Erik Larsen's Put upon assistant

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}''; Roxanne Ritchi is the go-to kidnap victim of choice for Megamind... who's kidnapped her so often and yet failed to accomplish anything by it that her standard response has become [[DeadpanSnarker dry sarcasm]] at how hackneyed his death traps are.

[[caption-width-right:248:[[http://pmo.bumpheli.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/peach_envy2.jpg Poor Daisy]]...always the backup, never the prize.]]

* Athena from ''Manga/Saint Seiya'' is always about to die and her warriors go on a mission to save her. This was repeated so many times that Athena started forbidding the participation of the protagonists in the fights yet they decide to save her her again.

When the writers enjoy picking on a character, [[TheChewToy it's funny]]. When the universe enjoys picking on a character, [[TheWoobie it's sad]]. When the BigBad or MonsterOfTheWeek insists on picking on the same character every episode, [[TakeAThirdOption it's both sad and funny]].

* While Percy gets the most accidents, James' tend to consist of some of the most elaborate and humiliating, usually to [[BreakTheHaughty bring down his ego]]. Should he get even the slightest bit full of himself, something terrible is bound to happen to him, and usually his lovely red paintwork. He's hit a tar wagon, been repainted ''as a bee'', stung by a real one, made to travel in just his pink undercoat and derailed into mud after colliding into Gordon. Additionally, while Percy at least gets to live most of his woes down, the other engines tend to [[NeverLiveItDown have a better memory of James']].

->Delfino Emergency Broadcast System Alert... Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom has apparently been kidnapped... '''AGAIN.'''
-->-- SuperMarioSunshine

->'''Naru:''' ''(on the topic of being scouted for a television show)'' So, the thing is, Usagi...\\
'''Usagi:''' What is it?\\
'''Naru:''' You know, it seems I always get involved in weird incidents. I'm worried this could be another one of those...
-->-- ''Manga/SailorMoon R'', episode 2

''Why me? Why always me?''

* ''ShingekiNoKyojin'': Eren "[[FanNickname Princess Peach]]" Yaeger gets kidnapped and injured with great frequency--[[spoiler: once in every major arc so far, in fact]]. Justified in that he's [[spoiler: a Titan Shifter with unique abilities]], making him desirable to many different factions.

* Princess Elise from SonicTheHedgehog2006 is also kidnapped several times throughout the game (also sometimes occuring ''immediately'' after she was rescued,) to the point that rescuing her is all that Sonic does, while Shadow and Silver get to do more important things.

* Princess Elise from SonicTheHedgehog2006 also manages to become a DesignatedVictim despite appearing in only one game, just through the sheer number of times she's kidnapped in said game (also sometimes occuring ''immediately'' after she was rescued.)

* Literature/{{Artemis Fowl}}. Holly Short complains in The Lost Colony about the fact that she was picked [[spoiler: as a decoy to fool Minerva Paradizo into losing No.1.]] Even in the Academy, she was always picked to play "the little blonde elf in distress during the bank holdup role-play",

-->-- SuperMarioSuneshine

* Yumi of ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko''; the first season's examples coining the phrase "Pick On Yumi Week". While it would be logical for XANA to repeatedly go after Aelita (to be fair, he does; that's why the others fight), or TheSmartGuy Jérémie (he does this too, to a lesser degree), or the team's best warrior Ulrich, for some reason Yumi instead is the one who gets: captured by a Guardian and replaced by a clone; shot at by a KillSat; attacked by a possessed suit of armor; her home ambushed by Krabes; chased by a busload of zombies; her DNA code stolen, leaving her trapped on Lyoko; [[NaughtyTentacles almost dragged underground by tree roots]]; falsely told that virtualization is slowly killing her; [[{{Homage}} attacked by a flock of birds]]...

** Maybe partially justified, as Yumi is the CoolBigSis figure of the team, the most mature of the group, Ulrich's crush (and nearly as good at fighting as him), the least enthousiastic about fighting XANA (she was reluctant to do it in the pilote, and was the most willing to shut down the computer in season 4 finale) and an isolated target due to her living with her parents whereas the others are all pensionnaries at Kadic. This not only makes a MUCH easier target than the others, but also mean something happening to her will easily zap the moral of most of her teammates. Considering XANA is [[MagnificentBastard extremely skilled at scheming]] [[ManipulativeBastard and manipulating people]], this would make sense.

** In it's [[WesternAnimation/SonicSatAM "SatAm"]] variant, Princess Sally tended to face this problem repeatedly as well. Antoine also got into trouble a lot, but it was usually due to [[TheKlutz his own bumbling]] rather than acting as favored hostage bait for the villain.

* Each girl on ''TotallySpies!'' is the designated victim of some type of EvilPlan: