Tropes vs Women in Video Gaming - Damsel in Distress

Well, this thread has turned into a gigantic feminism circlejerk. I'm out.

were you even in at some point?

also, something interesting that i didn't know here, from TVTropes "save the princess"

The defining Excuse Plot of the 8-bit era. [...] The trope derives from the ancient concept of "Princess and Dragon", where The Hero must save a woman from an invading monster. This is usually used as a metaphor for real-life conflict.

Pretty much a Dead Horse Trope these days; while video games still feature the occasional Damsel in Distress, rescuing them is only part of the overall plot; either that, or it's covered by the Grandfather Clause. In his book Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life, Chris Kohler credits this progress to some Girl Gamers who wrote to Nintendo in The Eighties to say they were tired of saving princesses; Nintendo eventually announced they'd stop using it as a final goal except in the Super Mario series.

This plot has become quite a popular target for subversion or deconstruction in indie games, and newer references to it in popular culture can be classed with Pac Man Fever. For a similarly overused plot, see Fake King.

Named because it's often a princess. You know why.