Welcome to the Fantasy Zone
This Zone is dedicated to the lesser known elements of anime hosted by the cast of Victory Script.
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Damsels haven't really been a thing for some time, the most prominent one still being used today albeit less and less is Princess Peach, but when you really break it down, the damsel in distress trope really doesn't have as many entrants as you think.
Starting with the obvious example is Princess Peach.
By extension, all but Rosalina of the Mario franchises leading ladies have been in that role at some point, it only happened once with Pauline and Daisy both being kidnapped by other enemies.
With Pauline it's Donkey Kong the first and current, (It's complicated) in her defence it's very much a King Kong scenario, Daisy had to deal with Tatanga an alien invader with more than enough tech and army to take over Daisy's Kingdom of Sarasaland.
Going back to Peach, she's been shown at many points in her career as early as her 1986 ova appearance that she'll always try and escape herself, sometimes rescuing Mario instead, Bowser has an army, access to magic, very dangerous fortresses and is the strongest amongst a wider range of Nintendo villains, Peach just has an army of Toadstool people who are practically all pacifists, to spell it all out, her kidnapper is much better prepared than most.
Zelda is another one but there are more than enough moments in her canon where she directly or indirectly helps Link as well as shown to be pulling the strings in Link's quest, very rare that any Zelda is a damsel.
Despite her design and a role as many different princesses, Barbie has never been a damsel once as far as I can tell, an interesting fact is that Barbie is never depicted as married, this is because Mattel wanted those who bought the doll to decide themselves what Barbie should be. You actually have to kill a Disney Princess to make her a damsel as done with Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella is excused as hers is more abusive parent/guardian.
On to some examples of damsels who really shouldn't be damsels.
My favourite punching bag Fuko of Flame of Recca has been brought up more than enough times, she's gullible, has a bad habit of wandering off and getting trapped and wastes her powers leaving her even more helpless and she's supposed to be a fighter, Yanagi who does get kidnapped in the second half as she's only a healer amongst some really powerful people does a better job of being strong as she willingly allowed herself to be the offering in the tournament, has risked herself plenty of times to heal others and resisted Mori Koran for as long as she could before being sealed as a healing battery, she was even the catalyst for his defeat.
Bleach has both Rukia and Orihime, Rukia is excused as she had most her powers drained and was being sentenced to death, less damsel more prisoner.
Orihime has no excuse as her powers are often said to be more potent than most yet she proved useless with them on many occasions, she also barely does anything about her own kidnapping just accepting that Ichigo will rescue her.
A brief mention of Flute from Violinist of Hameln who often declares herself the most pathetic heroine in anime; Flute is practically She-Hulk compared to how useless Isanami is from Brave 10, Isanami will need her own entry to explain, if you thought I was too harsh about Fuko and Orihime, you ain't seen nothing yet.
On the surface of it, those who are often called out for being useless damsels are actually more than capable women who are up against opponents with better preparation and overwhelming strength.
Those who would slot into that role subvert it.
Those who shouldn't be a damsel in the first place are the characters that really should be criticised for this trope.
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