Basic Trope: Character becomes a Damsel in Distress because they did something stupid that could have been avoided.
- Straight: Alice got overconfident and tried to take on Dastardly Dirk and a couple of his flunkies. They swiftly defeated her and took her prisoner.
- Exaggerated: Alice was captured after foolishly trying to take on Dirk and his entire gang all at once.
- Downplayed: Alice only took on Dirk; and while she put up a decent fight, Dirk got the better of her, knocked her out cold, and had her tied to a chair by the time she regained consciousness.
- Justified:
- Alice is supremely overconfident in her abilities and/or thinks she's got something to prove.
- Dirk and his gang are WAY more dangerous opponents than what Alice is used to dealing with. In fact, she's damn lucky they didn't just kill her on the spot.
- Usually Alice is competent enough to take on Dirk and his gang; this time she simply wasn't thinking straight after finding her boyfriend Stuffed into the Fridge, and was knocked out by one of Dirk's Mooks while she was focused on delivering Extreme Mêlée Revenge on their leader.
- Inverted:
- Alice escaped from captivity because Dirk and/or his goons made the rookie mistake of not tying her up tight enough.
- Alice was able to defeat and capture Dirk because he erroneously assumed he could be beaten by a girl.
- Subverted: Alice sees Dirk and his gang across the street. She whips out her cellphone and calls Bob for back up.
- Double Subverted: ...But then she gets impatient and tries to take on Dirk and his goons without Bob. It ends as you'd expect.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: No character becomes a Damsel in Distress.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "W-what did I just did!? I am the damsel now!"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Alice develops an inferiority complex because she keeps getting captured after failing to help people, and has to be rescued each time.
- Played For Drama: Alice is in the army, and her Chronic Hero Syndrome results in her breaking a thought-out plan, resulting in her capture and many unplanned casualties.
Grab the Distress Ball and wait for your rescue.
