Neutral Female/Playing With

Basic Trope: While the villain and hero fight, the damsel in distress does not attempt to aid the hero in any way.

Straight: The Big Bad and Bob fight while Princess Carol just stands and watches helplessly.
Exaggerated: Princess Carol just stands around the entire series, with the only notable moments involving her being her kidnapping by the Big Bad and her rescue by Bob.
Justified: Princess Carol has a good reason not to join the fight -- she is injured, immobilized, has no fighting skills, or is simply frozen with panic and indecision.
- A conflict of interest: Bob is her lover, but the Big Bad is her brother.
Inverted: Bob shows up to fight The Big Bad, gets disabled, and Princess Carol ends up fighting instead.
Subverted: Princess Carol seems to be doing nothing, but in actuality, she's chanting a spell to harm the Big Bad. Or she is the Big Bad.
Double Subverted: ...but the spell backfires and makes Bob's situation even worse.
Parodied: The Big Bad and Bob fight while Princess Carol casually texts on her cell phone.
Deconstructed: Carol has been raised to believe that it isn't proper for a princess or a lady to fight or stand up for herself. This is all thanks to the Evil Chancellor's machinations; while Carol has potential, it's gone neglected, meaning she can't help anyone... least of all herself. Bob is seriously wounded thanks to her inaction.
Reconstructed: Bob needs to defeat the Big Bad himself, so Princess Carol deliberately abstains from the fight to spare his honor.
- Alternatively, after watching Bob get the snuff beaten out of him Carol decides that Bob is more important than being proper and joins the fight.
Zig Zagged: Alice and Bob take turns fighting the Big Bad. The Big Bad and the Dragon (well, Distaff Counterpart) are doing the same thing. There are other characters watching, of both genders; one gets gender-switched for a moment of comedy.
Averted: Princess Carol is already fighting when Bob arrives.
Enforced: The actress playing Carol got an injury recently, and can't do any fight scenes.
Lampshaded: "Hey, Princess! Little help here?" "You're doing fine, Bob! Hey, you with the mask, Pass the Popcorn."
Invoked: The Big Bad has magic to render Carol helpless; Bob tells her to stay out of the fight or she'll be taken hostage.
Defied: Princess Carol refuses to stand on the sideline and directly participates in the fight alongside Bob.
Discussed: "You know princesses. They just sort of stand there."
Conversed: "Isn't she going to do anything?"

This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.