History Main / DistressBall

Compare DamselScrappy and ATragedyOfImpulsiveness. DeliberatelyDistressedDamsel and WorfHadTheFlu are more {{justified|Trope}} versions.

* Given to all of Equestria in ''Fanfic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'', when Nightmare Moon and her allies enslave the place without much resistance and take Luna and Celestia hostage. Naturally, the [[DesignatedHero Unicornicopians]] have to come to the rescue.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Despite the fact that alicorns are essentially [[PhysicalGod Physical Gods]] in this universe, they are almost always swiftly taken out of the battle in order for the Mane 6 to swoop in and save the day. This is especially infamous in the case of Princess Celestia, who, despite supposedly being the most powerful alicorn, as well as the ruler of all Equestria, is usually the first to go down. Such as in "A Canterlot Wedding", where she is defeated and subdued by Chrysalis, and "Princess Twilight Sparkle", where she and Princess Luna (who is also handed the Distress Ball) [[MakesSenseInContext get abducted by the Everfree Forest]] and end up as DamselsInDistress for most of the two-parter.
** In "To Where And Back Again", [[spoiler:Chrysalis and the changelings somehow manage to capture and replace all 5 alicorns, as well as the Mane 6 and Shining Armour, leaving it up to [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits Starlight, Trixie, Discord and Thorax]] to save the day.]]

* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': [[Characters/MonsterVerseMadisonRussell Madison]] uses the ORCA, a device which can communicate with {{Kaiju}} but which specifically drives Ghidorah to hunt down and murder whatever's producing it, to lure Ghidorah to an evacuated city... and then she just stays put at the stadium with a pair of binoculars, ''waiting'' for any sign of the three-headed, AxCrazy dragon barreling towards her (the dragon who, again, becomes even ''more'' determined to kill you than he normally is when he hears the ORCA). [[spoiler:Thankfully, Godzilla also arrives, in time to fight Ghidorah before he can kill Madison]].

* In ''[[WebVideo/StampysLovelyWorld Stampy's Lovely World]]'', [[spoiler:Stampy is handed this in Episode 541, "I Lost", when he decides to try to spy on [[BigBad [=HitTheTarget=]]] in his helicopter and ends up getting shot down with an AntiAir cannon and gets captured. However, if this trope were averted, he would have still returned home to a missing Barnaby and would have to launch a rescue mission for him, and a confrontation with [=HitTheTarget=] would eventually occur [[InSpiteOfANail regardless]].]]

* Asuna Yuuki from ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' during the Fairy Dance arc (episodes 15-25 in the anime, volumes 3 and 4 in the LightNovel). Although her dis-empowerment is more or less justified in-universe and at least tries to escape on her own (and manages to go pretty far), there are moments where her ActionGirl attitude is completely gone.

* ''Literature/TheRedVixenAdventures'': Lady Sallivera and her bodyguard Alinadar pass the ball among themselves a couple times in ''Shadow of the Red Vixen'' and ''Shadow of Her Sins''.

* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': [[Characters/MonsterVerseFamilies Madison]] uses the ORCA, a device which can communicate with {{Kaiju}} but which specifically drives Ghidorah to hunt down and murder whatever's producing it, to lure Ghidorah to an evacuated city... and then she just stays put at the stadium with a pair of binoculars, ''waiting'' for any sign of the three-headed, AxCrazy dragon barreling towards her (the dragon who, again, becomes even ''more'' determined to kill you than he normally is when he hears the ORCA). [[spoiler:Thankfully, Godzilla also arrives, in time to fight Ghidorah before he can kill Madison]].

** CastSpeciation sometimes leads to a character picking up the ball. For instance, Barbara didn't have the easiest ride of it early on, but since Susan was the DistressedDamsel, she didn't get captured or enslaved more than any of the other characters and she generally [[DamselOutOfDistress wormed her way out of it herself when she did]]. The one time she did get caught and need to be rescued by the Doctor was when the story partnered her up with Susan ("The Reign of Terror"). As soon as Susan leaves and gets a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute in the form of a PluckyGirl who was better as a comical character than a damsel, Barbara gets a [[{{Chickification}} whole string of serials where she gets captured specifically for Ian or the Doctor to rescue her]].

* [[GenderInvertedTrope Gender inverted]] in ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' a couple of times, generally involving John storming off the ship in his module for one reason or another and getting stranded. Parodied and [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the episode "John Quixote" when John finds [[ActionGirl Aeryn]] dressed as a [[DistressedDamsel princess on the top of a castle]] asking for help John then says "Now I know somebody is messing with us".

* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': [[Characters/MonsterVerseFamilies Madison]] uses the ORCA, a device which can communicate with {{Kaiju}} but which specifically drives Ghidorah to hunt down and murder whatever's producing it, to lure Ghidorah to an evacuated city... and then she just stays put at the stadium with a pair of binoculars, ''waiting'' for any sign of the the three-headed, AxCrazy dragon barreling towards her (the dragon who, again, becomes even ''more'' determined to kill you than he normally is when he hears the ORCA). [[spoiler:Thankfully, Godzilla also arrives, in time to fight Ghidorah before he can kill Madison]].

** This may have come from ''VideoGame/FireEmblem 6'', where MagicalGirl 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.

TheChick or other LoveInterest is the most common target of this trope, but {{Sidekick}}s, {{Tagalong Kid}}s, [[NonActionGuy other non-combatants]], and even very stubborn [[TheLancer Lancers]] are not immune.

* In ''[[WebVideo/StampysLovelyWorld Stampy's Lovely World]]'', [[spoiler:Stampy is handed this in Episode 541, ''I Lost'', when he decides to try to spy on [[BigBad [=HitTheTarget=]]] in his helicopter and ends up getting shot down with an AntiAir cannon and gets captured. However, if this trope were averted, he would have still returned home to a missing Barnaby and would have to launch a rescue mission for him, and a confrontation with [=HitTheTarget=] would eventually occur [[InSpiteOfANail regardless]].]]

* Anna in ''Film/AMillionWaysToDieInTheWest'' is established a crack shot early in the film. But when Clinch Leatherwood comes to town looking for her, she suddenly loses her ability to use firearms. For the entire final act of the movie, she never attempts to use a gun in self defense. She also doesn't take advantage of an obvious opportunity to take Clinch out of the picture for good after she knocks him out with a rock. Does she then kill him or tie him up and lead the Sheriff back to him to make an arrest? Nope, she just leaves him there to wake up and continue pursuing her later.
* Sonya Blade in ''Film/MortalKombatTheMovie'' goes from ActionGirl to "oh he's too strong someone save me" the second [[BigBad Shang Tsung]] gets her arm behind her back. Never mind that she should be by far the ''toughest'' person in the group, being a professionally trained special agent compared to an actor and a disillusioned Shaolin Monk.
* Inspector Chan from ''Film/ShaPoLang'', after losing three of his four men to the rather psycho assassin played by Wu Jing and his badass kung fu, decides to go after the guy's boss, Wong Po, all by his lonesome. He storms the guy's HQ and does a fair job of blowing away Wong's mooks, but when he finally confronts Wong, being as this is a kung fu movie and not a gun fu movie, he promptly gets owned by Wu Jing and captured by Wong, which means that Donnie Yen has to save his ass in the final showdown.

** And even Mario is not safe. He wandered off into a haunted mansion by himself in ''[[VideoGame/LuigisMansion Luigi's Mansion]]''. The result is... predictable.
*** Happened again in ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionDarkMoon'', where he somehow just captured by King Boo just before the story started. It's never really explained why Mario got captured, but it's possibly because he was the first guy sent in to deal with the problem by E Gadd and it all went wrong from there.

** ''Everyone'' picks up one in ''VideoGame/MarioParty DS''. Oh Hey! My Archenemy just invited us all to dinner! He's tried to take over the world, kidnap us, and kill us all in the past... But hey, free food!