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[Vector]

No, Damsel in Distress as you're defining it is not a unisex trope.  You may see both male and female characters in that position, but it is very strongly slanted in a particular direction.

[Neonivek]

No, Damsel in Distress as you're defining it is not a unisex trope.

My definition of the Damsel in Distress is a person who is captured or endangered and needs to be rescued/saved.

I don't see gender being added to it.

It has LONG since stopped applying to only women.

[Vector]

Yeah, what I'm trying to say is that ...

Huh.  No, I'm suddenly remembering all those throwaway sidequests where you save dudes.

Let me put it this way: the more plot relevance it has, the more likely it will be to be a woman.  Less plot relevance in the saving story -> NPC could go either way.

[Neonivek]

Right

But just because I define Damsel as a unisex trope it doesn't mean that it isn't constantly thrust upon women.

I've watched WAAAAAY too many shows, movies, and videogames where the action hero female character just goes "Whelp, I cannot stop the villain. Why don't you the male protagonist stop him" (That is basically Chun-Li's roles in the Street fighter series. While she is considered the female lead, the amount she does without some guy doing it for her is rather small)

[UltraValican]

Just watched the newest video. What the hell is she on about @http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=toa_vH6xGqs#t=1091s?
How do you equate ending a woman's suffering or "fighting what used to be a person" to domestic abuse? The heroes aren't fucking smacking down women because they're drunk or she didn't cook a roast. They aren't trying to tear the woman down psychologically or manipulate them, and 9/10 they only fight the now corrupted damsel as a last resort/because they have to. Is a fucking non sequiter.

domestic violence of women who have lost their senses not only appears justified but as an altruistic act done for the woman's own good.

Ignoring the fact that self defense/saving the world/ ending someone who is clearly suffering isn't abuse(Unless I need to fucking relearn what abuse is).
How the fuck is putting yourself through the pain of killing your love one to save yourself/the world not altruistic? They aren't killing their loved because they fucking feel like it, they're killing they're loved ones because they are in visible pain/ they don't have a choice in the matter.

[Neonivek]

How do you equate ending a woman's suffering or "fighting what used to be a person" to domestic abuse?

No... you are right, she just kind of entered crazy town at that point.

Ignoring the fact that self defense/saving the world/ ending someone who is clearly suffering isn't abuse

Hmm now where have I seen it before... Hmmm

I know! The scenes where someone is starting to panic in a dangerous situation so someone smacks them back to their senses.

[Vector]

Yeah.  It's usually a woman.

There's a big long line of psychological opinion, stemming from Freud, that woman are inherently unstable and emotionally labile.  It's called "hysteria" because it's, you know, from the uterus (see words like "hysterectomy," etc.).  It's a problematic portrayal to show women as being chronic freak-outers who have to be killed or smacked out of it.

[Loud Whispers]

Where you have to save yourself after you have been kidnapped (after being trapped) by only using very stereotypically princess things like

Cooking

No

cleaning

No

singing

No

Good sir, I do think you do not princess at all. Get yo Disney outta here.

... I'm not... DJ is.

Wow, that was needlessly complicated >_>

He he, yeah I know, I was just seeing how far I could go with that tangent. Considered confusing you for critically acclaimed DJ Bosnia for a moment... A brief moment, but it was there.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was going to say this, actually.  There is a semi-counterpart to the damsel in distress in woman-oriented media--the Grieving Knight, who just needs someone to love him and help him be less broken.  People often read Vegeta (DBZ), Garrus (ME; heck, it was even lampshaded), Vincent Valentine and Cloud Strife (FFVII), Lancelot (in all the Arthur stories post-French grafting), pretty much the entire cast of Naruto, Snake (Metal Gear), Sherlock Holmes (pretty much every representation), Claude Frollo (Hunchback of Notre Dame; again, all representations) and ... a whole bunch of other stuff that way.  Just look at which characters tend to get the most fanfiction written about them.  Almost all the time, it will be such a character.

How do you feel about it?  Genuine question.  See, I think it doesn't bother people because there's other things to their characterization than "I need help," which is why the Damsel in Distress thing is such a problem.  They don't have to be reduced to plot coupons, but they are.

Don't see why there should be any negativity felt towards making such characters, those kinds of people exist in real life. Well, most aren't Knights. Although now that you mention it, there's an entire BDSM subculture revolving around subservient 'Knights' in the modern western world.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Just watched the newest video. What the hell is she on about @http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=toa_vH6xGqs#t=1091s?
How do you equate ending a woman's suffering or "fighting what used to be a person" to domestic abuse? The heroes aren't fucking smacking down women because their drunk or she didn't cook a roast. They aren't trying to tear the woman down psychologically or manipulate them, and 9/10 they only fight the now corrupted damsel as a last resort/because they have to. Is a fucking non sequiter.

domestic violence of women who have lost their senses not only appears justified but as an altruistic act done for the woman's own good.

Ignoring the fact that self defense/saving the world/ ending someone who is clearly suffering isn't abuse(Unless I need to fucking relearn what abuse is).
How the fuck is putting yourself through the pain of killing your love one to save yourself/the world not altruistic? They aren't killing their loved because they fucking feel like it, they're killing they're loved ones because they are in visible pain/ they don't have a choice in the matter.

Chill, we've covered it.

Anyone seen 28 weeks later?

Spoiler: SPOILAS (click to show/hide)

That bit when he has to leave his family behind... That is horror. And if we were to apply this simplistic outlook on characters, he was actually empowering his wife and his kids by not objectifying them by trying to rescue them.

So I think it'd be better if we talked about the points brought up by Bay12 until the newest vid, because honestly Vector should be the one making the series if anything.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yeah.  It's usually a woman.

There's a big long line of psychological opinion, stemming from Freud, that woman are inherently unstable and emotionally labile.  It's called "hysteria" because it's, you know, from the uterus (see words like "hysterectomy," etc.).  It's a problematic portrayal to show women as being chronic freak-outers who have to be killed or smacked out of it.

Yeah and Freud was a penis.
...
I'll be here all week.

[Neonivek]

I do think you do not princess at all.

Princess Peach is always cooking... And Queen Celestia (Err Princess Celestia) of MLP is constantly... doing absolutely nothing (she is extremely lazy)

[Loud Whispers]

I do think you do not princess at all.

Princess Peach is always cooking... And Queen Celestia (Err Princess Celestia) of MLP is constantly... doing absolutely nothing (she is extremely lazy)

1. Peach is a pretender to the throne.
2. Benevolent Celestia rules with strings behind the curtains. How can the people rebel when you have done 'nothing?'

[Neonivek]

Why is it EXTREMELY common for Princess Rulers to just be master manipulators who pull the strings from behind the scenes?

Even Princess Peach is often revealed to be secretly a really great ruler (or heck capable of saving herself if she wanted to). Princess Zelda does nothing BUT manipulate people from behind the scenes.

[UltraValican]

Why is it EXTREMELY common for Princess Rulers to just be master manipulators who pull the strings from behind the scenes?

Even Princess Peach is often revealed to be secretly a really great ruler (or heck capable of saving herself if she wanted to). Princess Zelda does nothing BUT manipulate people from behind the scenes.

I'm pretty sure that's how royalty in media are portrayed in general. Not just princesses. When you can't afford to start a sword fight like a murder hobo, you have to trick murder hobos into doing your shit for you.

[Vector]

Not princes, and often not kings.  Emperors, though... yes.

[Loud Whispers]

Why is it EXTREMELY common for Princess Rulers to just be master manipulators who pull the strings from behind the scenes?

Based Elizabeth I kept an extensive spy network through Sir Francis Walsingham to keep up with the thousands of Catholics who wanted her dead.
Considering how the British then later British'd all over the world map, that might explain a fair bit.

[kaijyuu]

Also Iron Ladies (or men, for that matter) don't make good fictional rulers unless you're going for the evil type.