The role of women and girls in video games has been deconstructed, recontextualized, and analyzed from front to back. From the strong fighters like Chun Li in Street Fighter to the helpful assist characters like Rachel from Ninja Gaiden. But what of the female characters who are in need of rescue? The ones who serve as the final destination, the trophy to be won at the end of our hero’s journey. How has the damsel in distress evolved over the years, and where does this trope go in this time of a push for strong representation in all forms of gaming?
What Is A Damsel In Distress?
Before we talk about damsels in gaming, let us break down the damsel trope and see where this specific type of character came from. The damsel in distress, or persecuted maiden, is a classic trope and character archetype that originates from the “knight-errant” in medieval fairy tales and songs. These knights regarded protecting young women as a part of their code of chivalry, which includes honor and nobility. The first recorded instance of the term, “damsel in distress”, in the English language seems to be in Richard Ame’s 1692 poem ” Sylvia’s Complaint of Her Sexes Unhappiness”. Now that we have an understanding of the trope in its basic definition, let’s see where the trope lives and breathes in gaming.
Princess Peach
One of the most well known and infamous examples of a damsel in distress in the gaming world is Princess Toadstool. Otherwise known as Peach from the Super Mario Bros series. Peach began her life as a trophy of sorts, an endgame goal for Mario to chase after and eventually reach at the end of his journey. This role has consistently been part of her story and though Nintendo has tried to veer away from that at points (like her own game: Super Princess Peach), if you were to ask any fan of the Super Mario games, they would tell you that Peach is Mario’s love interest whom he has to rescue from the evil Bowser.
That is not to say that the trope can not be turned on its head. The easiest way to do this is by having the male love interest be the one in need of saving. Male damsels, or distressed dudes if you want to get fancy, take the trope and act as a subversion of it. Mario himself has fallen foul to the occasional kidnapping plot. In the aforementioned Super Princess Peach, Mario is taken hostage by Bowser and it is up to Peach to save her beau. Mario’s own brother Luigi is also no stranger to being held against his will, like he was in both Super Princess Peach and in Super Mario 3D Land, although that was Mario saving him and not Peach nor his own love interest Daisy.
The Empowered Damsel
Kairi in The Final World
The opposite of a damsel in distress would be the empowered damsel. The lady who is not waiting around to be rescued and who has more than enough tools at her disposal to escape her dire situation. A prime example is Fiona Belli in Haunting Ground. Though she is timid in nature and rarely faces her captors head-on, she more than gets out of trouble on her own accord. Through strategic hiding and impressive puzzle-solving, Fiona has the ability to escape the frightening mansion she finds herself in and even gains a new furry friend along the way.
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If we wanted to see a situation where a damsel falls short of breaking the mold, look no further than Kairi from Kingdom Hearts. She is comatose for most of the first game, but in Kingdom Hearts II Kairi makes it a goal to protect her friends and not be the damsel anymore. However, in Kingdom Hearts III, we see that Kairi spends most of the game training to be a keyblade wielder. In the final battle, she chokes and needs Sora to be a human shield for her. Not only that, but Kairi is then captured and killed by Master Xehanort and though Sora does save her by the end of the game, he loses his mortal form in the process. There is still time to give Kairi the true hero’s journey she deserves, but at present, it is a bit lacking.
What Comes Next?
So is being a damsel a bad thing? Not really, it is a trope for a reason. There are people who do fantasize about being rescued in one form or another. It is a great feeling to have someone care for you so much that they will go to the ends of the earth for you. There is no shame in that. The negative comes in when that’s the bulk of what a character is restricted to. Both Peach and Kairi are characters that have played with being more but have been typecasted in the same role. Regardless of the steps that have been taken to remove them from their starting position, Peach will always be the Princess waiting in another castle and Kairi could very well continue to be the ultimate prize, always slightly out of Sora’s grasp.
If anything, these stories and these characters tell us that the damsel trope is not going anywhere, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. There are steps forward and even some examples of flipping the trope on its head to great results. If that is something that you dislike or do not enjoy there are many examples of self-sufficient and capable women in gaming that are more than capable of protecting themselves. Like Fiona as mentioned before, or Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII. The great thing about video games is that there is almost something for everyone and some people like the damsels.
