History Main / DamselOutOfDistress

* In ''WesternAnimation/Cinderella'', even after she's locked in her room by Lady Tremaine, Cinderella ordered the birds to fetch Bruno, who is the only one who can stop Lucifer and save everyone, so they can work together to free herself from her room.
** In the third film, Cinderella gets into physical action in order to save Prince Charming, Anastasia, and everyone in the kingdom from Lady Tremaine's magic crimes.

*** [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in ''Film/TheLastJedi''. Rey gets herself captured and tortured by [[spoiler: Snoke]], but, at the end of the day, it's her own fault for [[LeeroyJenkins throwing herself into a situation that she didn't fully understand.]] And she puts up an [[{{Determinator}} impressive fight]] that earns her some VillainRespect, but pretty quickly learns that she is in VERY deep over her head. She does get rescued by a male character, specifically [[spoiler: Kylo Ren, but as soon as Snoke is out of the picture, Rey works with Kylo to fight their way out, until she refuses to join him, and escapes the rest of the way on her own]].

* From Tolkien's ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', Lúthien Tinúviel, an Elven princess who falls in love with the mortal Beren. When her father finds out, he sends Beren on an impossible quest and imprisons her. Time for her lover to rescue her? Not quite! She escapes by her own means (twice), then rescues Beren, who has also been imprisoned in the meantime... by none other than [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Sauron]], who Lúthien defeats almost single-handedly. Then she helps Beren fulfill his quest (and does most of the work, really, confronting the legendarium's equivalent of Satan by herself). It's interesting to note that Lúthien was an homage to Tolkien's wife, Edith Tolkien, while Beren was basically an AuthorAvatar.

%%* Hitomi Kanzaki from ''Manga/TheVisionOfEscaflowne''.

* [[Characters/MarvelComicsMaryJaneWatson Mary Jane Watson]] from ''Franchise/SpiderMan''. She's not kidnapped very often (even if [[Film/SpiderManTrilogy some adaptations]] might make you think otherwise), but when she does, she never stays put. There are even more than a few examples where she saves herself [[BadassInDistress with no help from Spidey whatsoever]]. Or even better, ''[[RescueReversal she ends up saving him instead]]''.

* "Advertising/VictoryByComputer": ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} becomes trapped in a complex which nullifies her powers. but she manages to relay her location to ComicBook/{{Superman}}. When Superman arrives, though, Supergirl is waiting him outside after having found an unguarded excape tunnel.

** ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} and ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} seldom need to be rescued. In ''World's Finest #169: ComicBook/TheSupergirlBatgirlPlot'' they've been kidnapped by Characters/{{Catwoman|SelinaKyle}} and Black Flame (a Silver Age Supergirl enemy). By the time Characters/{{Superman|TheCharacter}} and Characters/{{Batman|TheCharacter}} arrive at the cave where they're being held, both girls have already escaped. In fact, they save ''them'' from a DeathTrap.

* ''ComicBook/XMen The Hidden Years'': Zigzagged after Angel's girlfriend Candy is captured by the villains. She feigns unconsciousness before resourcefully overpowering several {{Mook}}s… only for it to be revealed that [[SubvertedTrope this was all an illusion brought on by her captor]] Mastermind to keep her from trying to escape for real. Then, during the final battle of that arc, Angel tries to place her outside of the zone of combat, only for Candy to use a rope ladder like a trapeze to catch a villain off guard and knock him out with a kick.

* ''Webcomic/NaruHinaChronicles'': In Chapter 75, [[spoiler:Sakura gets stabbed by Karin, who then leaves her in some place where she'll be bleeding to death. In the next chapter, Karin tells Naruto and Sasuke to let Evil Sasuke go if they want to be able to save Sakura. However, the latter is able to heal her injury thanks to the Souzou Saisei. And before Evil Sasuke and Karin could leave, they're interrupted by the sudden arrival of Sakura, who proceeds to beat the crap out of Karin.]]

* ''Film/TheAvengers2012'' has Natasha Romanov (ComicBook/BlackWidow) seemingly captured by three gun-wielding goons. Seconds later, one of the goons receives a phone call from Agent Phil Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D., saying to give the phone to Natasha. As she talks, she says, "Hang on." She then proceeds to knock out all three of her kidnappers - while still tied up. Then, to crown it off, she reveals that she was only gathering intel from them.

* In ''Film/ScoobyDoo'', Daphne has a moment where she's being held and fights her way out by beating up the one guard that's supposed to keep her distressed.

* ''WesternAnimation/WildKratts'': Chris is a RareMaleExample. [[DistressedDude He gets captured by villains and gets into other kinds of danger often]] but he is perfectly capable of saving himself or at least making significant progress until the team finds him.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'': After spending much of Act 3 being kidnapped or knocked out, usually to motivate [[TomboyishName Vi]], Caitlyn [[spoiler:is kidnapped by Jinx and tied to a wheelchair, so Jinx can get Vi to kill her. Caitlyn gets out of her restraints shortly after and points Jinx's gatling gun at her.]]

* Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' has Princess Jasmine distracting Jafar while Aladdin went for the lamp.

* ''WesternAnimation/FireAndIce'': [[MsFanservice Princess Teegra]]. Don't let the thong bikini fool you... With her getting captured isn't a matter of waiting for the hero, but a matter of seeing what [[ThePlan clever scheme]] she concocts to escape ''this time''.
* Angel from ''WesternAnimation/RockAndRule''. She is so effectively resistant to Mok's will that she escapes his clutches, has to be forcibly recaptured and dragged back, and finally shackled on stage ''and'' hooked up to Mok's keyboard to make her sing at all.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TitanAE'', Akima gets captured by slavers and threatened by the other prisoners. She beats up all the prisoners by the time the rest of the team comes to get her.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'', Maria doesn't take kindly to being taken captive by bandit king Chakal. She ends up breaking free of his clutches and joining the fight alongside her childhood friends Manolo and Joaquin.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'', when the Beast truly frightens Belle in the West Wing and seems to be an actual threat to her safety, she runs from the castle. When cornered by a pack of wolves, Belle tries to outride them on Phillipe, smashes several against a tree, and, when knocked off her horse, starts beating them back with a stick. And near the end of the movie, when Gaston tries to have her father committed unless she marries him, she uses the magic mirror to prove her father's sanity. Even after she's locked in the basement as a result, she still can be seen trying to poke a window open with a stick.

* The music video for "Judgement Day" by Music/{{Lovebites}} begins with a woman running away from a strange shadow that is menacing her. She falls over before spotting a sword planted in the ground conveniently near where she fell, at which point she stands up, grabs the sword and uses it to dispatch the shadow.

* In the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' fanfic series, ''FanFic/InstinctivelyFamily,'' Lea took the time to teach Kairi some [[PlayingWithFire self-defense]] to avoid being kidnapped as easily. This prevents Xemnas from grabbing her like he did [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII in canon'' and almost gets Lea in trouble when he accidentally startles her in the second fic.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanAndMisterFreezeSubZero''. Barbara Gordon talks back to Mr. Freeze when he kidnaps her, attacks him with the same chains she's shackled with, tries to reason with him once she learns about his ill wife Nora (so she'll be able to help him save her ''without losing her organs'' [[spoiler: and later it turns out her blood is enough]]), saves his KidSidekick, tries to save ''him'' too...

* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': The teenaged [[Characters/MonsterVerseFamilies Madison Russell]] who's been kidnapped by the human BigBadWannabe alongside her mother ([[spoiler:actually Madison's mother [[EvilAllAlong was in cahoots with him the whole time]]]]) naturally appears to be a damsel. However, after Madison [[spoiler:has her HeelRealization and decries her mother as [[YouMonster a monster]]]], it becomes apparent that loyalty to her mother and not knowing what she could do to help save the world were the only things holding Madison back. In the lead-up to the FinalBattle, Madison sneaks around the human bad guys, steals the ORCA, escapes the bad guys' hidden base and heads out on foot (implicitly helped by her mother's survivalist training), [[spoiler:using the ORCA to draw King Ghidorah to Boston at great personal risk to herself]].

* In ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', Zelda assists Link in the battle with Ganon, firing the Silver Arrow to kill him. In some later games, Zelda fires Light Arrows to help Link in the same manner. When Zelda deals the final blow in the comic, she does so by aiming at a glowing wound Link carves across Ganon's chest to paralyze him.

* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'''s Eve Genoard. A sweet and polite young lady living in America, [[spoiler:who escapes her kidnappers and doesn't hesitate to grab someone else's gun to avenge her father. She may not know about the family business, but she has the same iron will]].
* Sonohara Anri of ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' seems very distressed all the time, what with perverts hitting on her, ganguro girls bullying her, and the Slasher coming after her. Then [[spoiler:she stops a knife with her arm, [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech tells Niekawa Haruna that her knife is nothing but a child]], pulls out the real Saika, and takes over the army of Slashers]].

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'''s Fairy Dance arc Asuna doesn't ''quite'' manage to rescue herself, but does make a spirited effort that contributes to Kirito eventually getting to her.

* Calynn, and possibly Aurora in ''LightNovel/GatheringTheEnchanted''. Sure, they look and act like damsels but they both nearly kill someone in both of their first appearances.