Damsel In Distress / Webcomics

• The Order of the Stick: Discussed in this strip: Haley is in trouble and Elan wants to rush off to rescue her. However, Durkon stops him, explaining that she is able to take care of herself. And that he is not. If he try to rescue her, he will just get himself killed, and that would make her very sad once she gets back on her own. Elan is forced to leave Haley to her fate. And yes, she does save herself. And Belkar. And Roy's corpse, so it can be resurrected later.
• CHEVALIER (hosted here) : Princess Faere in this fantasy adventure is a great example.
• Turned on its head in 8-Bit Theater, by the character of Princess Sara. Sara, through countless kidnapping attempts at the hands of countless villains, has apparently gained enough knowledge and experience to become a competent villain in her own right. She even tries to help Garland, her latest kidnapper, in his battle against the Light Warriors. Sadly, Garland isn't nearly as good at the whole "being a villain" thing as she is. "... but if something's worth doing, then it worth doing right."
• Gleefully mocked (if not outright subverted) in Adventurers!, where (lead character) Karn's mother (a White Mage) scolds neophyte White Mage, Lumi, for (among other things) "not being taught how to be kidnapped properly."
  • And in another strip, where Karashi is kidnapped, and has already freed herself and made it back to camp by the time Drecker finds the note left by the kidnapper and announces that they have to rescue her.
• Possibly the ultimate aversion in Super Stupor, a supervillain tries to kidnap a superhero's wife, and she brings him to tears, then maims him with a garbage disposal. The hero visits him in hospital, and the villain says he fears for the hero's own safety.
• El Goonish Shive "Painted Black" arc. Grace becomes one when she's captured while infiltrating Damien's base. She doesn't stay that way for long, and actually ends up being the one to defeat Damien after he gets her really, really mad.
  • The Princess Peach example is also discussed in this strip.
    Sarah: You'd think the princess would be able to protect herself. She lays down the law in those fighting games.
    Grace: Oh, it's all foreplay to her. She's kind of evil that way.
• In Monster of the Week Scully is perpetually Damsel in Distress, the fact that she doesn't particularly like, up to the point where "Time for: Scully in Peril!" became a Running Gag.
• Girl Genius has Zola, who was a professional Damsel in Distress. She recently tried to trade up to something better, but failed, badly.
  • Except she was just acting stupid, and gets the better of the Big Bad with a subverted Grand Theft Me
• Ronin Galaxy: This arguably happens twice to Taylor in the first chapter. First when she wants to escape her initial situation, and again after she believes she's out of dodge. Luckily Cecil and Giancarlo manage to track her down and save her (again.)
  • This happens yet again to Taylor, and Rin in the second chapter. The latter gender-swapping the role.
  • And again in the third chapter with Leona.
• The Cyantian Chronicles: Chatin and Cilke during Campus Safari, though they're not the type to be held long.
• Nerf NOW!!:
  • Parodied in the short story starting here. For fantasy princesses it should be a Family Business, you see.
  • And another turn: Peach dreams of being the heroine of her own game. Zelda dreams of being the heroine of her own game. Bayonetta, who is the heroine of her game, wants to be the one who gets rescued instead. And have a good dress.
  • Morgan plays this role in the 'Seven Day War' story arc starting on Day 3. She's rather annoyed by it, likely because she's forced to wear a skimpy outfit. The point, of course, is so her wife Jane is the one to rescue her.
• Bob and George: Less so than Distressed Dude, since there are fewer female characters. At one point, Protoman deduces Roll is in trouble because she's the only female around. Though others have appeared since.
• The Pocalypse: Rosa, after she is captured by Andrius even though she has already been transformed into a Zompire. Also in the scene 26 of chapter 2 called Damsel in Distress, the heroes save a girl from vampires. She is not actually in distress.
• Wooden Rose: Starts with Nessa taking a spill from her horse in the middle of a wintery woods, and twisting her ankle.
• The Phoenix Requiem: When Jonas abducts Anya to make her go riding, he declares he could persuade the authorities that he was rescuing a damsel in distress.
• In Endstone, Kyri defeats the bad guy to drop, unconscious, in the midst of a horde of dinosaurs. Jon reacts swiftly.
• In Thistil Mistil Kistil, the slave Hedda is threatened with Human Sacrifice and drugged to keep her compliant.
• In the Fake Action Prologue of Chapter 2 of The Specialists, Lady Liberty is taken hostage.
• Exiern has Peonie as the recipient of the frequent kidnapping card. Although it wasn't the first or the last time, it seems that Evil Sorcerer Faden was the nastiest as she complained "I was really scared this time". She hasn't managed to stop other people targeting her for an abduction yet though, and Tiff can generally tell what time it is by whether Peonie has been kidnapped yet or not.
• In Pacificators, Larima got kidnapped so often, her team are sick of it.
• In Dragon Mango, Mango thinks contemptuously of the idea of a princess in distress in this day and age. Meanwhile, a princess has vanished.
• In Cucumber Quest:
  • Princess Parfait, prisoner and harassed by Tomato.
  • The shipwrecked Cucumber stumbles on one. Also a princess.
  • Princess Piano is kidnapped even before anyone realizes that the Noisemaster is loose, and begs for help. Almond assures the queen that this is not cause of despair because saving princesses is kinda their job.
• In Faux Pas, when Penny recounts meeting the cutest boy, that he helped her hide from the fox adds to her parents' anxiety about the romantic possibility.
• FireSoup has the unnamed girl at Pig-Y Bank be threatened at gunpoint by a Totem Pole Trench burglar.
• White Dark Life has Cosmo get captured constantly by Dark Matt purely to spite the regular Matt (her guardian angel). Of course, given that these plans are actually just tricks to get the two to hate Dark Matt and extend his "lifeforce" and thus, not always thought that far out, Cosmo is usually more than capable of just walking out of trouble.
  • The trope gets played straighter in the roleplays, but only on occasion. Notable examples include "Dark Matt Bio" ^note Tulip, then Lindsay, "A rare moment indeed" ^note Daisy, then Peach (and later Felicia), then Cassandra, then Lindsay (sort of), "Fatty vs. Fairy" ^note Lindsay, "And that's why he shakes" ^note first Tulip, then Annie and Sonja, then Lara-Le, "Drunk Driving with Tora" ^note Tulip, "Boar Bio" ^note too many to count — the antagonists are a sexual slavery ring, that should say plenty "Professional Apologizer" ^note Lydia; this is the roleplay where it gets played straightest, due to the second half being an homage to Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, "Blindly Fooling Thyself" ^note Memori, "Inu & Uma Bio" ^note Dream, then (briefly) Lillian, then Miriam, "Flight Formation" ^note attempted on Ivy — key word being "attempted", and "Growing Pains in the Neck" ^note Leila.
• Zebra Girl:
  • Mabel, who is captured by Lord Incubus, who demands that Sandra releases him from his prison if she wants her back.
  • Crystal during the Heaven on Earth arc, when she is captured by vampires who threaten to kill her.
• Zigzagged in L's Empire. Daisy (who was kidnapped due to a case of mistaken identity) manages to break out of her cell and proceeds to wreak havoc in her captor's base until she's recaptured (though it took an entire squadron Zerg Rushing her to do so). Ultimately, someone else had to rescue her from a Death Trap, but she immediately used the weapon she gained in the process to go rescue another Damsel in Distress and take down the Big Bad.
• Yasha from Kuro Shouri is an example, though she's not terribly happy about it. She is the human container for a wanted demon - but without any fighting skill or powers of her own, Yasha is often attacked first, and sometimes even kidnapped.
• Kyun in Bastard has needed to be rescued several times. It's justified, however, by the fact that she's being targeted by a serial killer and later a second one and has no experience in that sort of situation.
• Princess Princess (2012): Sadie is introduced while locked in a tower, from which Amira rescues her. It crosses over with Deliberately Distressed Damsel as it's revealed she sabotaged many knights' attempts to rescue her.
• In Distillum Kavitha is kidnapped by mysterious thugs. The boys saving her is what sets the plot in motion. There are hints she was kidnapped on purpose to get Rob Welcomed to the Masquerade.

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