History Main / SaveThePrincess

In the Disney Channel Original Movie Princess Protection Program, the inciting incident is Princess Rosalinda needing to be rescued after a military dictator takes over her country and entering the Princess equivalent of the Witness Protection Program.

YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle can also be a part of these games. Occasionally, the damsel [[DecoyDamsel might not be genuinely innocent]]. Once in a rare while, the villain will decide to HypnotizeThePrincess and [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe marry her]].

In the Disney Channel Original Movie, the inciting incident is Princess Rosalinda needing to be rescued after a military dictator takes over her country and entering the Princess equivalent of the Witness Protection Program.

* While the main plot of ''VideoGame/BugFables'' doesn't even have any princesses, a [[ShowWithinAShow stage play]] the three protagonists can act in involves the princess of a desert kingdom (played by Vi's friend [[MeaningfulName Chubee]]) getting kidnapped by an EvilPrince. The trio play the knights tasked with saving her, though at the end [[DamselOutOfDistress the princess is the one who deals the final blow against the villain]].

Named because it's often a princess. As such, a subtrope of GratuitousPrincess.

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'', the game starts off with one. [[PrincessClassic Princess]][[WhiteMagicianGirl Aideen]] of Jungby gets nabbed by Verdanite brigands in a surprise invasion, and rescuing her is the initial objective. Only after saving her in Chapter 1 does the plot thicken and actually go on it's proper course. Starting in Chapter 10, one has to find Princess Julia... [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle in classic style she's in another castle every time previous castle is conquered...]] this lasts until the final part of the final chapter, where she's ThatOneBoss hanging out in the group's way. (Note that she's ThatOneBoss who can't be killed (or the game will become practically {{Unwinnable}}- she's needed for the FinalBoss [[SNKBoss fight]].)

Sometime after the arcade era, it became a DeadHorseTrope. While video games still feature the occasional princess in peril, rescuing them is only part of the overall plot; either that, or it's covered by the GrandfatherClause. In his book ''Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life'', Chris Kohler credits this progress to some [[GamerChick Girl Gamers]] who wrote to Creator/{{Nintendo}} in TheEighties to say they were tired of saving princesses; Nintendo eventually announced they'd stop using it as a final goal except in the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' series. The trope's inversion, PrincessProtagonist, where the princess is the main character, has grown in popularity as a way to keep making games about princesses while avoiding these criticisms.

* Gender-swapped in ''Series/TheDragonPrince''. Partly inverted as the rescue from a "dungeon" takes place early on, and the rest of the series is aimed towards ensuring the Prince's survival.

* The web adventure platform game ''VideoGame/{{Phoenotopia}}'' has an inversion where [[DistressedDude the prince is kidnapped]] and Gale the heroine must save him. [[FriendtoAllChildren The children that Gale is friends with]] think this means that [[RescueRomance then have to fall in love.]]

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyThe4HeroesOfLight'' begins with the king telling Brandt, the first PlayerCharacter, to save his younger daughter Aire from a witch. When she ''is'' rescued (with no small amount of complaining), however, the rest of the kingdom is put under a curse that kicks ff the plot.

* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' has this as the overall goal of the ''Artorias Of the Abyss'' DLC, which is to back to the past and rescue Princess Dusk of Oolacile from the clutches of [[BigBad Manus, Father of the Abyss]], while at the same type stopping the spread of the Abyss. In a rather surprising detachment to the much more cryptic, bleak and ambiguous main quest of the game, it goes out of its way to tell you, through [[BigGood Elizabeth]], to tell you that what you've done somethinig not only awesome, but completely positive.

* A literal example in ''{{Anime/One Piece}}'' during their BigDamnHeroes, when Luffy and Pell emerge from the sky to save princess Vivi after Crocodile drops her.
* In a SaveTheWorld climax of ''Anime/MahouSenseiNegima'' main objective was to free Asuna (revealed at this point as a princess of a fallen magical kingdom). Anya even lampshades that for Negi rescuing her is most important, and saving the world is just a bonus. Through zigzaged in that there seems to be more familial than romantic feelings between them (and he is even related to her).

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* [[Website/{{Questden}} TGChan]] Presents: [[https://questden.org/kusaba/tg/res/10458.html Princess, I've Come For You!]] A compilation of what happens when the rescuing knight MEETS the princess. Warning, NSFW (a little).
* WebVideo/ThomasSanders {{subvert|edTrope}}s this in two of his Website/{{Vine}}s. In one, the villain admits that he loves Thomas and not the princess and is carried away by Thomas. In another, another princess knocks Thomas aside and saves the princess, then carries her away while Thomas and the villain watch in appreciation.
* The main quest of Creator/ProZD's King Dragon Canon revolves around rescuing someone called Prince Horace from the villainous King Dragon. The prince is never seen and nothing is known about him outside of his abduction.
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* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestI'' essentially has only two objectives: Save the Princess, and kill the Dragonlord. Unlike most Save the Princess games, however, you actually rescue the princess from a dragon (usually the first one you kill) in the Marsh Cave long before you beat the BigBad.

-->-- '''''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation''''',? on ''VideoGame/ShadowsOfTheDamned''

->''There's something terribly retro about all this, besides the fact that you're saving your kidnapped girlfriend, which as game stories go is only slightly newer than "you have to shoot the thing."''
-->-- '''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation''', on ''VideoGame/ShadowsOfTheDamned''

* Subverted in ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth''. Turns out the real mission is [[spoiler:to ''kill'' the princess at her own bequest.]]

* In the ''[[MarsAndVenusGenderContrast Mars and Venus]]'' self-help books, a story is told about a knight who saves a princess from a dragon and feels validated for doing so. Then he goes off on an adventure, and she gets attacked by yet another dragon. Only this time, she tells him that the sword won't work and that he'll have to use a noose to slay the dragon. He feels discouraged at the celebratory feast, because he didn't slay the dragon on his own, his own way. Then the princess gets attacked by another dragon, and this time, she tells him that he'll have to poison the dragon, which he does...and that causes him to feel even more discouraged. Later, the knight hears more screams...only they're not coming from ''his'' princess, but from ''another'' princess. He goes to rescue her, feels validated because she didn't tell him what to do and he did it by himself, his own way, and ditched the first princess to live HappilyEverAfter with this new princess. What the reader was ''supposed'' to take from this is that it's best not to tell a man how to solve his problems...and that [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop a woman being too outspoken can cause men to reject her or cheat because they feel rejected/discouraged/etc.]] However, this [[{{Glurge}} little parable]] does bring up some FridgeLogic: Namely, if that first princess knows how to slay the dragon, why doesn't ''she'' slay the dragon herself?! (Also, why does she keep getting attacked by one dragon after another in the first place?)

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'', Starting in Chapter 10, one has to find Princess Julia... in classic style she's in another castle every time previous castle is conquered... this lasts until the final part of the final chapter, where she's ThatOneBoss hanging out in the group's way. (Note that she's ThatOneBoss who can't be killed (or the game will become practically {{Unwinnable}}- she's needed for the FinalBoss fight.)