2013-03-11, 04:03 AM
nikki Wrote:That's what I've been fighting against repeatedly when people pull other examples. Just because you have some examples of something doesn't invalidate it from falling under the literary device. Just because a character is strong at the beginning of the story doesn't mean she can't be turned into a damsel at another point of time; just because we know Zelda's going to be kidnapped in advance to further progress toward the Tri-Force doesn't mean she hasn't been damseled. And it's those small bits of story that keep people from seeing this. Those other aspects are parts of other literary devices; it doesn't mean that one literary device works by itself all the time. It works with others to create a story, whether or not it's adequately written.
True, but it's still not good to ignore examples from the same series that completely turn this trope over. I have my own subjective criteria for whether DiD is applicable or not which usually involves the character being made suddenly helpless for no good reason because over application of this trope would mean that you'd be seeing DiD at almost every situation and there's no point in discussing something that's as common as seeing clouds up in the sky.
From her examples, I'd count the early Double Dragon games and some of the Zelda games where Zelda exists to be pretty much nothing except the Princess in Distress along with the Star Fox since their only goal there is to provide motivation to the hero's story. Examples such as Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess should not count because Zelda's story there is intertwined with Link's story, they both serve to further progress the other's story and we pretty much establish that neither can succeed without the other.
Or as one might put it: I get captured once or twice and suddenly everyone's talking about me as if I'm a helpless damsel instead of a competent character in my own right that just happened to get captured because I was in the way of my story's goal and the other available character was effectively invincible at that time. Well excuse me, Anita!