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Another subset of the [[Idiot Ball]], this is a moment where the genre blinders flick on and a character does something stupid just so [[Always Female|she]]'ll [[Distressed Damsel|get in trouble and need to be rescued]]. This usually happens to [[The Chick]] and other [[Love Interests]], but the [[Sidekick]], the [[Tagalong Kid]], [[The Load|other non-combatants]], or sometimes even an especially stubborn [[The Lancer|Lancer]] are also susceptible.
Such acts may include wandering into a dark alley at night while alone, [[Going for
This is especially grating if the one given the ball is a female character otherwise shown to be [[Action Girl|competent and talented]], or [[Badass]]. If it happens once too often, it may lead to [[Chickification]]. Of course, there are also chances that after they dropped the ball, they come back to the routine of ass-kicking. If the Distress Ball pickup did not happen near the end of the story, she will most likely drop it, and it doesn't necessarily mean she will take part in a bigger plot in the future; she still tags along but proves that once the ball is dropped, she can still kick ass instead of being forced into the sidelines, cheering. Unless Chickification is already on full throttle, or they are [[Faux Action Girl|Faux Action People]]. On the other hand, tossing the distress ball back and forth between both sides of a [[Battle Couple]] allows for all the cuteness of a [[Rescue Romance]] without the weakness.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'': Sora Takenouchi got hit upside the head with one of these during the Christmas episodes, by panicking when debris started falling around her and having to be pulled away by Matt; the other characters (including Sora's [[Bond Creatures|Bond Creature]]) ''ran away.'' "[[Chickification]]," fans screamed. Sora did recover and joined Miyako/Yolei in the World Tour arc, leading the Russian Digidestined. Unfortunately, that mission didn't go too well either; the girls nearly froze to death and had to be rescued there as well.
* ''[[Flame of Recca]]'' Mikagami Tokiya picked this up, ''twice'', despite his status as "the most cruel" of Hokage and one of the more efficient and intelligent fighters. First, in Sealed Lands arc. After completely ousting Mokuren and Mikoto in a 2-on-1 fight, without chance of recovery, he's pitted against Aoi, who completely overwhelm him stats-wise, even if he has recovered. The result is very obvious, he completely lost it and was later crucifixed and used as a hostage. And then in SODOM arc, he's was forced to pick up another ball ''for comic relief'', where he fails to notice a drugged teacup and then was in turn... strapped into a mechanism, whereas people with ''less intelligence'' like [[The Big Guy|Domon]] slips out of it (in his defense though, his perverted tendencies saved him), and after being pulled out of it, Mikagami was rained with taunts like "So much being [[The Smart Guy|the genius]]!"<br /><br />It's later shown in the PlayStation 2 game ''Final Burning'' that instead of getting suspicious and try to drink with the teacup, Mikagami ''can'' opt to say "Sorry, I'm not thirsty" and just avoid all those embarrassment. But apparently, in the manga, he was holding the Distress Ball, so obviously (and gratingly), he did not pick that option.
* ''[[
* Faye in ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'''s Episode 5.
* Carrot Glace in ''[[Sorcerer Hunters]]'' is shown to be more than capable in a fight, but several times he's become a [[Distressed Dude]] and needed the rest of the team to bail him out. Though to be fair, this usually happens due to his [[Idiot Hero]] status.
* Akane Tendo in ''[[Ranma One Half]]''. The girl was first shown beating up fifty-odd armed attackers on a daily basis and was called Champion of her Martial-Arts School. Yet on more than one occasion, she gets kidnapped by opponents, far, ''far'' [[Overshadowed
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]''
** [[Morality Pet|Mokuba]] gets kidnapped roughly once-an-arc, and briefly [[Grand Theft Me|possessed]] in an Anime-only arc. Granted, unlike most of the examples, he's just a pre-teen with some improbable skills. One wonders why [[The Rival|Seto Kaiba]] doesn't hire some competent body guards, or better yet chain his brother to him by now!
** In the original ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' manga, Anzu attempts to lure Dark Yugi into the open by riding a Ferris Wheel ''with bombs underneath each of the cars''. [[Too Dumb to Live]], indeed.
* ''[[Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran]]''
** Meow fromhas recurring drops in both fighting skill and common sense just to give Ran an excuse to rescue her.
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** Asuna also falls into this sometimes, although it's less of "picking up the distress ball" and more "got hit on the head with the distress ball".
** During the Wilhelm arc, about a third of the class gets hit with the ball.
* [[Butt Monkey]] Matsuda from ''[[
* Jinpei in episode 8 of ''[[
* ''[[World Destruction]]'': [[The Messiah|Ky]][[The Heart|rie]] from the anime picks this up every other episode. Despite the fact that he is a [[Knife Nut|capable fighter]] in the game and he has the [[Person of Mass Destruction|power to destroy the world]], Kyrie never arms himself with anything and must rely on his friends [[Lady of War|Morte]] and [[Everything's Worse
* ''[[Fairy Tail]]'': Erza Scarlet, usually the most competent of the main cast, is quite happy to paint a target over herself whenever Jellal in any way becomes involved with the current action.
* The title character of ''[[
== Comics ==
* This happened a lot to Allan Quartermain in the first volume of ''[[League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]''. Usually Mina, Nemo, or Griffin had to save him, in a bit of a [[Gender Inverted Trope|gender inversion]].
* Lois Lane, oh so very often. She's [[Going for
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** In fairness Laurana, while ''far'' stronger and smarter than the [[Brainless Beauty]] she seemed to be during her first appearance, is still someone who just hasn't had that much experience of the wider world (even in ''Dragons of Spring Dawning'' she's only been away from elven society for a year or so). She hasn't completely lost her naïvity and faced with the possibility that Tanis is dying she isn't thinking too clearly. It was stupid yes, but a moment of in-character stupidity.
*** In the Annotated Dragonlance edition, the authors acknowledge that Laurana's character development at this point meant that it was stupid and out of character for her to do this. But they had to do it for the plot's sake, making it a perfect example of this trope.
* Happens in ''[[
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** "Voodoo Doll". Nancy goes off on her own to investigate the [[Big Bad]]. Yup, gets caught. Yup, is held captive (again, untied up) with two other women, similarly untied, in an open warehouse with tons of crates. The only door INTO the warehouse area is locked. On Nancy's side of the door. With the hinges on HER side, too. Her one attempt to escape involves her climbing UP crates to go through a window, and is promptly caught. It takes the Hardys breaking into the warehouse through said door before Nancy can escape. *sigh*
* Dawn from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' falls prey to this a lot. Hey let's go out with people I don't know, at night, in Sunnydale. That's not suicidal.
* Kate from ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]''. Technically she is a full-time [[Damsel Scrappy]], so perhaps doesn't fully belong here, and yet the writers' dependence on using her to kick-start plots by having her acting stupid (to the point where the character served no other purpose) and the fact that she [[Faux Action Girl|never manages to extract herself]] from any of the danger she wanders into means she deserves a mention.
** In her first episode she abandons the outlaws in order to try and rescue her brother on her own. Naturally, she's captured in under five seconds and [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|her brother is killed as he tries to rescue her]]. Two episodes later, a tax collector begins swaggering around Locksley; Kate decides that the best way to handle the situation is by [[Too Dumb to Live|loudly bad-mouthing him in front of everyone]]. He captures her and the outlaws have to drop everything to go and save her...''twice''. In the sixth episode she doesn't get out of the way of a dagger being thrown at her, and spends the rest of the episode being tended to by the other outlaws ([[The Load|this includes her getting spoon-fed]]). One episode later she's captured yet again (off-screen) because apparently she couldn't run away from the guards fast enough, and in the episode after ''this'' she is captured by a soldier (by not being stealthy enough) and is then almost raped in a bar tavern. In the second-to-last episode she storms into a peaceful sit-in protest, ranting and raving and hurling abuse at the soldiers for no apparent reason, and is about to be killed when another outlaw intervenes, effectively beginning a fight. In the grand finale, she's - you guessed it - captured yet ''again'', offscreen ''again'', and the outlaws have to save her ''again'' (although in context this capture was more justified than the others).
* The members of ''[[
* [[Gender Inverted Trope|Gender inverted]] in ''[[
** Parodied and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the episode "John Quixote" when John finds [[Action Girl|Aeryn]] dressed as a [[Distressed Damsel|princess on the top of a castle ]] asking for help John then says "Now I know somebody is messing with us".
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[
** That actually makes perfect sense. Shadows do not attack normal people, as they do not perceive them as a threat. They only attack people with Personas (the Shadow of the actual person being the only exception).
* [[Super Mario Bros.]]
** Happens to Princess Peach, a few times. A few others, things are just out of her control. A few other times, she's seduced by cake.
** And even Mario is not safe. He wandered off into a haunted mansion by himself in ''Luigi's Mansion''. The result is... predictable.
** Slightly averted in ''Super Princess Peach''; one of Bowser's Goombas slipped in with the Vibe Scepter and zapped everyone - itself included - into emotional insanity, plumbers included. Peach, Toadsworth, and another escort happened to be [[Late to
** ''Everyone'' picks up one in ''[[
** ''Mario Is Missing''. How can he not have anticipated the consequences of always using the front door?
** Bowser himself suffers from this a few times in ''[[Mario and Luigi Bowsers Inside Story
* In ''[[Metroid: Other M]]'', when Samus encounters Ridley, she becomes terrified and is unable to fight back. Ridley easily grabs her, leaving one of her allies to begin the offensive in her stead. There are arguments over whether or not she had the distress ball at the time, since she had traumatic childhood memories regarding Ridley, but has also faced and defeated him numerous times in the past without an emotional breakdown.
* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'': Bastila has a [[Distress Ball]] at the beginning but drops it pretty quickly after the swoop race.
* In ''[[Fire Emblem]] 8'', if you choose Ephraim's route, [[Genki Girl|Princess Tana]] of Frelia (a [[Fragile Speedster|Pegasus Knight]] who has just finished her training) will try to follow him to war [[Stay in
** This may have come from [[Fire Emblem]] 6, where [[Magical Girl]] Lilina is trapped in her own castle by her enemies and locked in a room. Just like in Tana's case, as soon as Roy rescues her Lilina joins the party.
** On the other hand, early before the route split, ''Ephraim'' and his knights, [[Those Two Guys|Kyle and Forde]], suddenly needs to be rescued after being betrayed by Orson... or so it seems when suddenly the trap turns into Eirika and company, now they need to be rescued... by Ephraim and company.
* Kazooie picks up the [[Distress Ball]] in the early stages of ''[[Banjo
* Adelle briefly leaves the clan in ''[[
* Rinoa Heartilly of ''[[
** Though there ''is'' one instance where she does drop it for a bit, and actually ''saves'' the hero.
* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'': The mastermind behind Morte's 'skullnapping' in was a being of such immense power that he could permanently kill the Nameless One, but still, with a pair of wererats? At this point in the game, Morte could solo rooms full of them.
* Right at the beginning of ''[[Beyond the Beyond]]'', Annie takes the [[Distress Ball]] and runs into a cave with it, after her father, a seasoned knight, refuses to let her go out adventuring. She promptly gets trapped and nearly eaten by a cave beast, and it becomes the duty of Finn, the hero, to go to the cave and save her.
* Yggdra in [[Yggdra Union]] fits this trope perfectly when she goes off after Gulcasa.
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'': Jaina and Sylvanas both try in vain to confront Arthas directly in the Halls of Reflection dungeon. Jaina probably fits more, trying to appeal to his last bit of humanity instead of revenge, but they both fail and have to be saved by the players... who then in turn are saved by their faction's airship.
* In ''[[Breath of Fire]]'', shortly after Ryu arrives at Winlan, the player gains control of Princess Nina as she decides to storm the lair of a powerful wizard to obtain a cure for her poisoned father (who the wizard was responsible for poisoning). Granted, she does (or rather, [[But Thou Must!|is forced to]]) take a pair of soldiers with her as bodyguards, but all the same, she is captured and needs to be rescued by Ryu afterwards.
* In ''[[
== Web Comics ==
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-03-08 this] ''[[
* Celia seems to have acquired one in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0573.html this strip] of ''[[The Order of the Stick
== Western Animation ==
* Starfire in ''[[Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo]]''. She actually forgets that ''she can fly'' and has to be snatched out of the air mid-drop by Robin, who has no super-powers. Ironically, one fan once remarked on a forum that if such a thing ever happened she would be called out on it, as it would be an obvious ploy to attract Robin's attention. Instead it was played painfully straight.
** Well her powers are emotion based and it wouldn't be the first time she lost them due to issues relating to Robin...
* In ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', episode 2, Prowl, [[The Lancer]] of the team, tells Optimus Prime that there's only one person he trusts. Himself. He promptly gets sucked into a nanite monster and almost killed were it not for his teammates. In fact, despite him being the best fighter of the team, Prowl catches the Distress Ball quite a few times in the series, usually after trying to do something alone. Maybe it's trying to send him a message?
* Daphne from ''[[Scooby Doo]]''. The girl's entire purpose was to be "Danger-Prone Daphne", as they called her. (Note that this chiefly references Daphne from the cartoon series. In [[The Movie]], she's [[Took a Level In Badass|more action geared]].)
* ''[[
** Contrary to popular belief, this concern Yumi much less despite her [[Designated Victim]] status. When she puts herself in danger, she knows what she's doing and has a damn good reason for it (like in episode "Hot Shower", to save her [[Annoying Younger Sibling|little brother]]).
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Iron Man: Armored Adventures]]'' has Pepper Potts hold this most of the time. Occasionally she'll pass it to Rhodey and be competent for an episode, but the next episode we're right back to her being too dense to do anything but sit dumbly in the middle of a room where two factions of the Chinese mafia are duking it out.
* Princess Sally of ''[[Sonic
* [[The Wasp]], the only female Avenger during the first season of ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
** One time, she got captured, and three of the male Avengers became kidnapped after her.
* Pearl friggin' Pureheart from the original [[Mighty Mouse]] cartoons. In the Bakshi retool, she's usually quite capable of handling things but still requires the hero's assistance in dire situations once in awhile.
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