Neutral Female: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

The hero and the villain are having a [[Sword Fight]] or similar one-on-one altercation.

 

Compare [[Faux Action Girl]]; both tropes are often caused by the writers' unwillingness to have a woman fighting [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl|(and thus being hit by)]] a man. Also compare to [[Designated Girl Fight]], when the woman ''is'' willing to mix it up, but will only ever do so against other females.

 

* Parodied in the first episode of [[Slayers]], when Lina is attacked by bandits and Gourry comes to her aid. Lina is preparing to just blast the bandits into oblivion, but then realizes that she's supposed to be all passive and girly in these situations.

* ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'': Mikuru Asahina fits this trope rather well. The irony is that this is because she's ordered to be neutral by her time-travelling superiors, mainly {{spoiler|her ''future self'',}} which means the poor girl quite literally {{spoiler|has [[Logic Bomb|herself to blame]] for her helplessness.}}

** Subverted with Dia's mom in an earlier arc. When there's a Zubat threatening to slit her throat, she manages to squirt some berry juice in its face before hitting it with her basket.

* Zigzagged in ''[[Rave Master]]''. Elie helps twice when Haru's in the middle of a fight, but one of those times was accidental, and she sat in the sidelines in all his other battles.

 

== Films -- Animation ==

* Subversion: In one memorable scene from ''[[Shrek]]'', an inexplicably French Robin Hood is about to throw down Shrek and "rescue" Princess Fiona. But it's Fiona who ends up clobbering Robin and his Merry Men with some [[Wire Fu]] and [[Bullet Time]] moves.

* In ''[[Bambi]]'', Faline just stands against a rock wall and watches Bambi and Ronno fight over her.

 

== Films -- Live Action ==

* Christine does this ''twice'' in the 2004 musical movie adaptation of ''[[Phantom of the Opera]]''. In the musical it's based on, both times there was little Christine could do during the scenes; not so in the film. First she just watches worriedly during Raoul and the Phantom's sword fight, and then when Raoul gets the upper hand and is about to stab him she tells him not to.

* Nicely Lampshaded and subverted in the [[Alfred Hitchcock]] film ''The Lady Vanishes''. The male lead fights a henchman for a bit with the woman just watching, until he shouts "What are you, a referee? Get in here!" Then they both easily subdue the man.

 

== Literature ==

* Brought up in [[Tales of Kolmar]], as Lanen thinks that if this were a tale she'd be expected to do this. A number of the fights around her are dragons versus demons or demon summoners and she just stays out of the way, not even wanting to be on the sidelines, but there's a memorable instant in ''Song In The Silence'' where a demon summoner who is immune to dragonfire turns out to not be immune to human fists.

 

* The typical gun moll in the Adam West ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'', who typically stands around during the fights like a complete ninny. Even Catwoman does it to a lesser extent.

* Played straight in the ''[[Firefly]]'' pilot, where River has been captured by Dobson and Simon comes to save her. Once he intervenes, she stumbles out of the way and hides behind a stack of crates while they face off. Justified in that River just woke up from cryogenic storage a few hours previously, has been unconscious for most of the episode, and is completely confused, disoriented, and still recovering from three years of [[Mind Rape|having her brain cut up]]. It doesn't help that she's a [[Waif Prophet|psychic]] who [[Power Incontinence|can't filter her perceptions]] and is surrounded by people who are scared or outright hostile.

* In the ''[[Supernatural]]'' episode ''Like A Virgin'' the brothers possess an ancient sword, the only thing they have capable of killing the dragons that have kidnapped a group of virgins. During the fight, the sword falls into through the grate under which the virgins are trapped, but not restrained in any other way. At which point every one of them fails the absolute minimum requirement of having agency in their own survival by not handing Dean the damn sword when he can't reach it. Instead Sam, who has longer arms, grabs it instead.

* Used and perhaps deconstructed in C-Drama ''The Holy Pearl'': heroine Yao lacks kung fu skills but still gets chewed out for not realizing she can contribute to the fight via [[Magic Music]]. When [[Plucky Girl|Yu Die]], who also lacks combat or magical skills, also tries to intervene in another fight, she explicitly makes things worse for the combatants and ends up fatally injured.

 

== Video Games ==

* Nicely averted at the end of ''[[Outlaws (1997 video game)]]''. When the [[Not Quite Dead]] [[Big Bad]] comes into the room and puns a gun to the main character's head (echoing the way he killed the main character's father), [[Damsel in Distress|his daughter]] shoots him.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'', Rosa just sort of shouts at Kain when he shows up to steal Fabul's crystal and nearly kills Cecil. [[Final Fantasy IV: The After Years|Seventeen years later]], she does nothing to stop {{spoiler|Kain's dark side}} from kidnapping her, and in the battle between Edward and {{spoiler|Dark Kain}} she sits on the sidelines, untargetable, doing nothing to help, not even healing Edward.

 

== Web Comics ==

* Averted in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' when Jean [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20090530.html saves Bob from a bigfoot.] She had resented being [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20090221.html reduced to a damsel in distress] earlier in the story.

** She also resents it when he [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20100629.html tries to leave her behind where it's safe] in the subsequent storyline.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Sword Fight]]

[[Category:Always Female]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Double Standard]]