So, how is Karrin Murphy from The Dresden Files an example? She's pretty much a straight up Badass Action Girl, not a Badass Damsel, because she doesn't exactly fulfill the "Damsel" parts. A better example would be Molly Carpenter, who is significantly less Badass than Murphy, can't take care of herself as effectively, and occasionally does need saving by Harry, but still can pack one hell of a punch.
.....
Okay so what differentiated this from...
And what would be a Badass Damsel where she becomes ANNOYING instead of awesome (due to 'too many times being kidnapped'?)
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The difference is that this is a Damsel in Distress that doesn't stay distressed. And no, she is not a Faux Action Girl, because she is actually a full-on Action Girl that just so happens to be kidnapped a lot.
If the Damsel became annoying instead of awesome because of the reasons you stated, then she would probably turn into a Damsel Scrappy
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Okay, so a Badass Damsel can't exactly feel scared or worried for her own life, you mean? That generally can happen. Distress isn't essentially bad or a unusable narrative choice, just overused.
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Okay, sure, a Badass Damsel can feel scared or worried for her life, but the key here is that she's basically a subversion of Damsel in Distress. In fact, if you read between the lines, she need not even be an Action Girl; she could rescue herself without using force, for instance by being extremely clever.
Would anyone object to removing Barbara Gordon from this list? As a full-fledged superhero in her own right (as Batgirl and later Oracle, and now Batgirl again?), she doesn't qualify no matter how often she is kidnapped. As I understand this trope, it is when someone you would assume to be a victim instead rescues herself or gives it a damn good try.
At the part with Ranma getting kidnapped, I'm frankly quite surprised that no one points out that the kidnapper is more likely to get a foot in the face than he (or she, it is Ranma after all) will manage to accomplish the kidnapping.
Okay, I'm starting to get bothered by some possible Unfortunate Implications in the trope page.
- The implication that to be this trope, a non-fighting woman has to make up to others for not being an Action Girl. Being kidnapped and possibly subjected to torture/rape/coercion/etc. is already bad enough, there's no need to mock or devalue someone else's trauma via having them "make up" and "compensate" for what happened. Would you guys tell that to a real life person who went through it, i.e?
- As mentioned above, the implication of how to qualify here, it looks like a damsel isn't allowed to feel scared or worried for her own life. The moment she does? Damsel Scrappy! Chickification! Another passive-aggressive way to say "emotions that aren't related to anger, cool, action and aggression are BAD and women who have them are WORSE"!
I suppose that this trope was created less as a way to demean non-fighting women and more to try giving an opposite of Damsel Scrappy, however by some examples and specially via the page description, it currently doesn't give me the impression. Despite trying to b an opposite of a bashing-related trope, it's getting close to be *another* kind of bashing, mroe passive-aggressive but still insidious ("you better not be/act weak even if you're at her weakest and in the hands of others, or you'll be Just Like Those Damsels In Distress!")
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It seems less to me that this trope is about a female character 'compensating' for being kidnapped and more about a female character that appears to be a stereotypical damsel at first but turns out to be a subversion- ie. an asskicking girly-girl.
Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Needs Help
, started by Arha on Jun 23rd 2013 at 5:42:24 PM
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