Damsel Scrappy: Difference between revisions

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* Lori from ''[[Freddy vs. Jason]]''. The one character that should have died in the first five minutes [[Final Girl|ends up surviving the damn movie]].

* Same with [[Mary Sue|Grace Andrews]] from the ''[[The Hitcher]]'' remake and [[God Mode Sue|Erin]] from the new ''[[The Texas Chainsaw Massacre]]''.

* ''[[Toy Story]]'' seems to set this up, but averts it - Bo Peep is always the damsel saved by Woody, but she's only that way because Andy casts her in that role. The rest of the time, she's quite the go-getter.

* ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'' seems to set this up, but averts it - Bo Peep is always the damsel saved by Woody, but she's only that way because Andy casts her in that role. The rest of the time, she's quite the go-getter.

* Dakota Fanning's character in the 2005 remake of ''[[War of the Worlds]]''.

* Nicole from the ''[[Dawn of the Dead 2004]]'' remake. And she survives until the end. [[Bolivian Army Ending|Or does she?]]

* Nicole from the ''[[Dawn of the Dead (2004 film)|Dawn of the Dead]]'' remake. And she survives until the end. [[Bolivian Army Ending|Or does she?]]

* Parker from ''[[Frozen (film)|Frozen]]''. She is the reason she, her boyfriend and his best friend are stuck on a skilift during a snowstorm and despite doing NOTHING to help and EVERY stupid thing she could, {{spoiler|she survives the ordeal and has the massive luck of finding a road where she could be rescued}}.

* ''[[Spider-Man (film)|Spider-Man]]'':

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== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==

* One of the most annoying was Sharmell Sullivan, 1991 Miss Black America and the wife (both [[Kayfabe|on-screen]] and [[Reality Subtext|off]]) of former [[WCW]] great [[Booker T]]. Beginning in 2005, Sharmell accompanied Booker to all his matches dressed "beauty queen" style in a fashionable gown and tiara, and sometimes petticoats as well. Her only purpose when she and Booker were faces seemed to be getting menaced by her husband's heel opponents (including [[Kurt Angle]], who notoriously [[Dude, Not Funny|threatened to rape her]]). While Sharmell was capable of giving some of the weaker villains a good slap across the face from time to time, for the most part she was reduced to shrieking "BOOK-ERRR!" until her husband could come in to save her. After the pair's [[Face Heel Turn]] (and especially after Booker became "King Booker"), Sharmell became more of a [[Faux Action Girl]] (with a bit of the [[Alpha Bitch]] thrown in). At the 2006 ''WrestleMania'' she even joined Booker in a handicap match against The Boogeyman - but the pair lost when Boogey grabbed Sharmell and shoved a handful of worms down her throat!

* Vickie Guerrero as well, with a side order of [[Miles Gloriosus]] to boot. As General Manager of ''Friday Night SmackDown'', Vickie would boss around all the fan favorites in her obnoxiously whiny voice and generally act like a bitch....until someone like [[The Undertaker]] would threaten her, and Vickie would turn into a cowardly [[Screaming Woman]] who was helpless until her love interest of the moment could come rushing to her rescue. She eventually did [[Took a Level In Badass|Take A Level In Badass]] and even wrestles occasionally, but at heart her character is still a man-hungry [[Mrs. Robinson]] [[Casanova Wannabe|Wannabe]] who pouts when she doesn't get her way and still screams all the time (particularly when her newest boyfriend, Dolph Ziggler, is losing a match).

* Vickie Guerrero as well, with a side order of [[Miles Gloriosus]] to boot. As General Manager of ''Friday Night SmackDown'', Vickie would boss around all the fan favorites in her obnoxiously whiny voice and generally act like a bitch....until someone like [[The Undertaker]] would threaten her, and Vickie would turn into a cowardly [[Screaming Woman]] who was helpless until her love interest of the moment could come rushing to her rescue. She eventually did [[Took a Level in Badass|Take A Level In Badass]] and even wrestles occasionally, but at heart her character is still a man-hungry [[Mrs. Robinson]] [[Casanova Wannabe|Wannabe]] who pouts when she doesn't get her way and still screams all the time (particularly when her newest boyfriend, Dolph Ziggler, is losing a match).

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* Also, Rosa from ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'', who spends the whole first half of the game in distress, gets this reception from some, even though she makes up for it in the game's second half as the [[White Magician Girl]].

** Rosa potentially gets worse by the sequel, ''[[Final Fantasy IV: The After Years|the After Years]]'' as she now only exists as a [[Damsel in Distress]] to give character developments to "Ceodore! Cecil! Kain!" and spends one climax getting dragged around forcefully by {{spoiler|Dark Kain.}}

* Princess Elise from ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (video game)|Sonic the Hedgehog 2006]]''. Throughout the course of the game, she gets kidnapped by Dr. Eggman three times.

* Princess Elise from ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 video game)||Sonic the Hedgehog 2006]]''. Throughout the course of the game, she gets kidnapped by Dr. Eggman three times.

* Princess Shine starts out as one of these in ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Original Generation'', [[Rescued ~~From~~ the Scrappy Heap|but becomes less so]] [[Character Development|as we get to know her better]]. [[Little Miss Badass|Then we find out she has special powers that allow her to use a super-advanced]] [[Humongous Mecha]].

* Princess Shine starts out as one of these in ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Original Generation'', [[Rescued from the Scrappy Heap|but becomes less so]] [[Character Development|as we get to know her better]]. [[Little Miss Badass|Then we find out she has special powers that allow her to use a super-advanced]] [[Humongous Mecha]].

* The Damsels in ''[[Spelunky]]'' are pretty much based on Willie Scott and manage to work this trope into game mechanics.

* Rosie in ''[[Fossil Fighters]]'' seems to exist solely to get kidnapped a lot, and to have various other [[Butt Monkey|humorous problems]] befall her. It wouldn't seem quite so bad if she and the hero weren't getting [[Strangled by the Red String]]. {{spoiler|You, however, can eventually choose to deny the red string and [[Toy Ship]] yourself with [[Action Girl]] alien Duna if you want.}}

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* Ninian from ''[[Fire Emblem]]: The Blazing Sword'' often gets lumped into this category, even though she's only ever captured ''twice'' and the third time she goes with the [[Big Bad]] willingly to spare her friends' lives.

* Similarly, Kairi from ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' is considered this by people [[Never Live It Down|even though she only has two moments of real distress]], both of them in the second game (in the first, {{spoiler|the twist is that her heart was inside of Sora all along and not in danger}}). Yet the fandom still holds her in scorn for this and many [[Viewers are Morons|don't even understand the subversion from the first game]], thinking she was "in a coma" and thus in distress even then. Of course, alot of this hate all stems from certain [[Die for Our Ship|other feelings...]]

* Shandra Jerro in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' starts out like one of these (first barn, then house burned, then kidnapped by [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Githyanki]]), but subverts it ''hard'' when she joins the party and [[Took a Level In Badass|Takes A Level In Badass]]. (Almost literally: she's a Fighter.) {{spoiler|Her [[Dying Moment of Awesome]] is arguably an inversion of the trope: it's the ''party'' that has to be rescued by ''her''.}}

* Shandra Jerro in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' starts out like one of these (first barn, then house burned, then kidnapped by [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Githyanki]]), but subverts it ''hard'' when she joins the party and [[Took a Level in Badass|Takes A Level In Badass]]. (Almost literally: she's a Fighter.) {{spoiler|Her [[Dying Moment of Awesome]] is arguably an inversion of the trope: it's the ''party'' that has to be rescued by ''her''.}}

* Princess Peach in the ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' series still has this reputation, despite having taken many levels in badass since her initial appearance ''and'' [[Super Princess Peach|becoming the heroine of her own game]].

** Although, her role is kinda justified, if she doesn't get kidnapped, [[Rule of Fun|then we don't have a game to play]].

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* [[That Guy With The Glasses|The Nostalgia Critic]] summed this trope up in his "[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/30723-top-11-dumbasses-in-distress Top 11 Dumbasses in Distress]" video: that the [[Damsel in Distress]] and/or [[Dude in Distress]] is an old trope [[Tropes Are Not Bad|that isn't inherently bad at all]], unless it's a character the audience is annoyed with rather than cares about.

** As a bonus, he considers [[Scooby Doo|Scrappy]] as a Damsel Scrappy in this list, seeing as he's really always outmatched and in danger but is too hard-headed to ever realize it.

* ''Young Allies'', according to ''[[Superdickery]].com'' -- "[http://www.superdickery.com/young-allies/ Near as I can figure, the premise <nowiki>[...]</nowiki> is that group of kids <nowiki>[...]</nowiki> keep getting captured by the Axis forces, and keep needing to be rescued by Bucky and Toro.]", and the covers confirm this impression. Also, [[Captain America (comics)|Bucky]].

* ''Young Allies'', according to ''[[Superdickery.com]].com'' -- "[http://www.superdickery.com/young-allies/ Near as I can figure, the premise <nowiki>[...]</nowiki> is that group of kids <nowiki>[...]</nowiki> keep getting captured by the Axis forces, and keep needing to be rescued by Bucky and Toro.]", and the covers confirm this impression. Also, [[Captain America (comics)|Bucky]].

{{quote|[http://www.superdickery.com/buckys-true-purpose-revealed/ I'm starting to think] that Bucky must have a tracer planted on him that allows Captain America to track down these hidden enclaves of enemy combatants. That's the only possible use I can think of for a sidekick who's only contribution to the war is to get captured every month...}}

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* Daphne Blake from ''[[Scooby Doo]]'':

** She is known to often fall into traps, be kidnapped by the villain, or anger the villain in some way. Her nickname in the original ''[[Scooby Doo]], Where Are You?'' series was "Danger-prone Daphne".

** The first live action film played with the concept and had Daphne [[Xenafication|pick up martial arts skills]] [[Rescued ~~From~~ the Scrappy Heap|and become generally more useful]] after the gang broke up as a direct result of being called out for being the [[Damsel in Distress]]. In virtually all ''Scooby Doo'' series and films since then, Daphne has been portrayed as a [[MacGyvering|MacGyver]] with her makeup kit and accessories. Her martial-arts skills from the live action film carry over to the animated film ''Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword'', where she arguably has a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] when she fights in the arena.

** The first live action film played with the concept and had Daphne [[Xenafication|pick up martial arts skills]] [[Rescued from the Scrappy Heap|and become generally more useful]] after the gang broke up as a direct result of being called out for being the [[Damsel in Distress]]. In virtually all ''Scooby Doo'' series and films since then, Daphne has been portrayed as a [[MacGyvering|MacGyver]] with her makeup kit and accessories. Her martial-arts skills from the live action film carry over to the animated film ''Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword'', where she arguably has a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] when she fights in the arena.

** In an interview, the staff of that movie said that changing Daphne ''was'' necessary for the sake of proper method acting. The goal established from the start was for live actors to do the best interpretations they could of the cartoon characters, but they ran into a roadblock with Daphne because in the cartoon she essentially had no personality. The natural choice was for [[Sarah Michelle Gellar]] to channel her [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|greatest known role]].

** Daphne [[Took a Level In Badass|became more competent well before the live action movie]]. In the 1980s Scooby Doo series when the group was reduced to just her, Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy, she became the leader of the group. That also was true in the ''13 Ghosts Of Scooby Doo'' series, where she was the [[Team Mom]]. Unfortunately, she quickly lost accumulated good will with the horrendous character design and jumpsuit she had in that series.

** Daphne [[Took a Level in Badass|became more competent well before the live action movie]]. In the 1980s Scooby Doo series when the group was reduced to just her, Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy, she became the leader of the group. That also was true in the ''13 Ghosts Of Scooby Doo'' series, where she was the [[Team Mom]]. Unfortunately, she quickly lost accumulated good will with the horrendous character design and jumpsuit she had in that series.

* ''[[Static Shock]]'':

** Daisy.

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[[Category:Unexpected Reactions to This Index]]

[[Category:Sidekick]]

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