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(Princess Peach) Mario! Oh Help!
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Welcome to our multi-part video series exploring the roles and representations of women in video games
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This project will examine the tropes, plot devices and patterns most commonly associated with women in gaming
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from a systemic, big picture perspective.
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This series will include critical analysis of many beloved games and characters
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but remember, it is both possible, and even necessary
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to simultaneously enjoy media, while also being critical of its more problematic and pernicious aspects.
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So, without further ado, lets jump right into The Damsel In Distress.
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Let's start with the story of a game that no-one ever got to play
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Back in 1999, game developer 'Rare' was hard at work on a new original title for the Nintendo 64 called Dinosaur Planet.
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The game was to star a 16 year old hero named Krystal as one of two playable protagonists.
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She was tasked with travelling through time, fighting prehistoric monsters with her magical staff
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and saving the world. She was strong, she was capable and she was heroic.
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*"And who might you be, animal girl?"*
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*"My name is Krystal"*
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Pretty cool right?
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Well, it would have been except the game never got released.
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As development on the project neared completion, legendary game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto
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joked about how he thought it should be the third installment in his Star Fox franchise instead.
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Over the next two years, he and Nintendo did just that.
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They rewrote and redesigned the game and released it as Star Fox Adventures for the Game Cube in 2002.
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In this revamped version, the would-be protagonist Krystal, has been transformed into a Damsel-in-Distress
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and spends the vast majority of the game trapped inside a crystal prison
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waiting to be rescued by the new hero, Fox McCloud.
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The in-game actions sequences that were originally built for Krystal
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were converted to feature Fox instead.
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Krystal is given a skimpier, more sexualized outfit.
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"Wow! She's beautiful!!"
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*cheesy saxophone music plays*
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"What am I doing?"
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And, yes. That is cheesy saxophone music to make sure it crystal clear that she is now an object of desire
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even while in suspended animation.
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To add insult to injury,
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Fox is now using her magical staff to fight his way through the game to save her.
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The tale of how Krystal went from protagonist of her own epic adventure
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to the passive victim in someone else's game
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illustrates how the Damsel-in-Distress trope disempowers female characters
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and robs them of the chance to be heroes in their own right.
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The term 'damsel in distress' is a translation of the French 'demoiselle en détresse'.
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'Demoiselle' simply means 'young lady'
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while 'détresse' means, roughly, anxiety or despair caused by a sense of abandonment
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helplessness or danger.
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As a trope, the Damsel in Distress is a plot device
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in which a female character is placed in a perilous situation
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from which she cannot escape on her own, and must be rescued by a male character,
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usually providing the core incentive or motivation
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for the protagonist's quest
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In video games, this is most often accomplished via kidnapping
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but it can also take the form of petrification or demon possession, for example.
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Traditionally, the woman in distress is a family member or a love interest of the hero,
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princesses, wives, girlfriends and sisters are all commonly used to fill the role.
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Of course the Damsel in Distress predates the invention of video games by several thousand years.
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The trope can be traced back to Ancient Greek mythology with the tale of Perseus.
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According to the myth, Andromeda is about to be devoured by a sea monster
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after being chained naked to a rock as human sacrifice.
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Perseus slays the beast, rescues the princess and then claims her as his wife.
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In the middle ages, the Damsel in Distress was a common feature
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in many medieval songs, legends and fairy tales.
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The saving of a defenseless woman was often portrayed as the raison d'être
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or reason for existence in romance tales and poems of the era.
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involving a knight-errant, the wandering knight
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adventuring to prove his chivalry, prowess and virtue.
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At the turn of the twentieth century, victimized young women became the cliche of choice
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for the nascent American film industry
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as it provided an easy and sensational plot device for the silver screen.
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A famous early example is the 1913 Keystone Cops' short, *"Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life'*
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which features the now iconic scene,
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of a woman being tied to the railway tracks by an evil mustache twirling villain.
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Around the same time, the motif of a giant monkey, carrying away a screaming woman
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began to gain widespread popularity in media of all kinds
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notably Tarzan's love interest, Jane,
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is captured by a broodish primate
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in Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1912 pulp adventure
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*Tarzan and the Apes*
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In 1930, Walt Disney used this meme in an early Mickey Mouse cartoon
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called *The Gorilla Mystery*.
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The imagery was even exploited by the US military in this recruitment poster for World War I
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But it was in 1933 that two things happened,
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which 50 years later, would set the stage for the Damsel in Distress trope
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to become a foundational element in video games as a media.
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First, Paramount Pictures introduced their animated series, *Popeye the Sailor* to cinema audiences.
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The formula for most shorts would involved Popeye rescuing a kidnapped Olive Oyl.
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Second, in March of that year, RKO pictures releases its groundbreaking hit film *King Kong*
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in which a giant ape abducts a young woman
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and is eventually killed while trying to keep possession of her.
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Fast forward to 1981, when a Japanese company named Nintendo
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entrusted a young designer named Shigeru Miyamoto
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with the task of creating a new arcade game for the American market.
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Originally, the project was conceived of as a game starring Popeye the sailor
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but when Nintendo wasn't able to secure the rights
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Miyamoto created his own characters to fill the void, heavily influenced by the movie *King Kong*.
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The game's hero 'Jump Man' was tasked with rescuing a damsel named 'The Lady',
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after she is carried off by a giant ape.
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In later versions, she is renamed 'Pauline'.
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Although Donkey Kong is perhaps the most famous early arcade game to feature the Damsel in Distress
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it wasn't the first time Miyamoto employed the trope.
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Two years earlier, he had a hand in designing a 1979 arcade game called Sheriff.
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In it, a vague female shaped collection of pixels
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referred to as 'The Beauty', must be rescued from a pack of bandits.
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The hero is then rewarded with a 'smooch of victory' for his bravery in the end.
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A few years later, Miyamoto recycled his Donkey Kong character designs
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Pauline became the template for a new damsel named Princess Toadstool
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and 'Jump Man' became a certain very famous plumber.
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Princess Peach is in many ways the quintessential stock character version of the Damsel in Distress.
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The ill-fated princess appears in fourteen of the core Super Mario Bros platformer games
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and she is kidnapped in thirteen of them.
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The North American release of Super Mario Bros 2 in 1988
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remains the only game in the core series in which Peach is not kidnapped
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and also the only game in which she is a playable character,
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though it should be noted it wasn't originally created to be Mario game at all.
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The game was originally released in Japan under a completely different title
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called *Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panikku*
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which, roughly translates to *Dream Factory: Heart Pounding Panic*
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*Japanese voice over*
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Nintendo of American thought that the original Japanese release of Super Mario Bros 2 was too difficult
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and too similar to the first game
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and so they re-skinned and redesigned *Doki Doki Panic*
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to star Mario and Luigi instead.
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However, the Japanese game already had four playable characters.
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So the designers opted to include Toad and the Princess to fill the two remaining slots
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building directly on top of the pre-existing character models.
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So really, if we're honest, Peach is kinda accidentally playable in this one.
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Still, she had the awesome ability to float for short distances
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which came in really handy, especially in the ice levels.
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Sadly, Peach has never been a playable character again in the main franchise.
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Even with newer games that feature four player options,
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like the new Super Mario Bros Wii and WiiU
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the Princess is still excluded from the action.
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She's been replaced with another Toad instead
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as to allow Nintendo to force her back into the Damsel role, again and again.
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Peach does of course appear in many spin offs,
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such as the Mario Party, Mario Sports and Mario Kart series
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as well as the Super Smash Bros Nintendo universe cross-over fighting games
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however all of these spin offs fall well outside of the core Super Mario series of platformers.
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She is the star of only one adventure, and we'll get to that a little later.
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One way to think about Damsel characters is via what is called the subject/ object dichotomy.
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In the simplest terms, subjects act, and objects are acted upon.
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The subject is the protagonist; the one who the story is centered on
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and the one doing most of the action.
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In video games this is almost always the main playable character
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and the one from whose perspective most of the story is seen.
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So the Damsel Trope typically makes men the subject of narratives
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while relegating women to the role of object.
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This is a form of objectification, because as objects damsel'ed women are being acted upon,
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most often becoming, or reduced to a prize to be won, a treasure to be found, or a goal to be achieved.
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The brief into sequence accompanying many classic arcade games
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tends to reinforce the framing of women as a possession that has been stolen from the protagonist.
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The hero's fight to retrieve his stolen 'property' then provides lazy justification for the actual gameplay.
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At its heart, the Damsel Trope is not really about women at all.
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She simply becomes the central object in a competition between men,
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at least in its traditional incarnations.
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I've heard it said that, in the game of patriarchy, women are not the opposing team,
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they are the ball.
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So for example, we can think of the Super Mario franchise as a grand game being played
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between Mario and Bowser and Princess Peach's role is essentially that of the ball.
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The two men are tossing her back and forth
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over the course of the main series,
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each trying to keep and take possession of the 'Damsel Ball'.
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Even though Nintendo certainly didn't invent the Damsel in Distress,
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the popularity of their 'save the princess' formula, essentially set the standard for the industry.
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The trope quickly became the go-to motivational hook for developers
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as it provided an easy way to tap into adolescent male power fantasies
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in order to sell more games to young straight boys and men.
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Throughout the 80s and 90s the trope became so prevalent,
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that it would be nearly impossible to mention them all.
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There were literally hundreds of examples showing up at platformers
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side scrolling beat-em-ups,
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first person shooters
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and role playing games alike.
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Let's take a quick moment to clear up some common misconceptions about this trope.
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As a plot device the Damsel in Distress is often grouped with other, separate tropes,
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including 'The Designated Victim', 'The Heroic Rescue' and 'The Smooch of Victory'.
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However, it is important to remember that these associated conventions
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are not necessarily a part of the Damsel in Distress trope itself.
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So the woman in question may or may not play the victim role for the entire game or series
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while our brave hero may or may not be successful in his rescue attempts.
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All that is really required to fulfil the Damsel in Distress trope
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is for a female character to be reduced to a state of helplessness
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from which she requires rescuing by a typically male hero
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for the benefit of his story arc.
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This brings us to the other famous Nintendo princess.
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In 1986, Shigeru Miyamoto doubled down on his Damsel in Distress formula
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with the NES release of *The Legend of Zelda*.
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This was the first in what would become one of the most beloved action adventure game franchises of all time.
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Over the course of more than a dozen games, spanning a quarter century,
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all of the incarnations of Princess Zelda have been kidnapped, cursed, possessed, turned to stone,
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or otherwise disempowered at some point.
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Zelda has never been the star in her own adventure, nor been a true playable character in the core series.
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However, it must be said that not all Damsels are created equal
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and Zelda is occasionally given a more active or integral role to play than her counter part in the Mushroom Kingdom.
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Unlike Peach, Zelda is not completely defined by her role as Ganondorf's perpetual kidnap victim
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and in a few later games, she even rides the line between Damsel and Sidekick.
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Remember, the Damsel in Distress as plot device is something that happens to a female character
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and not necessarily something a character is from start to finish.
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Once in a while, she might be given the opportunity to have a slightly more active role
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in facilitating the hero's quest, typically by opening doors, giving hints, power-ups
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and other helpful items.
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I call this variant on the theme, The Helpful Damsel.
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Indeed Zelda is at her best when she takes the form of Sheik in Ocarina of Time and Tetra in The Wind Waker.
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In Ocarina of Time, Zelda avoids capture for the first three quarters of the game.
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Disguised as Sheik, she is a helpful and active participant in the adventure
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and she is shown to be more than capable.
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However, as soon as she transforms back into her more stereotypically feminine form of Zelda
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she is captured within three minutes.
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Literally three minutes. I timed it.
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Her rescue then becomes central to the end of Link's quest.
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Similarly, in the Wind Waker, Tetra is a feisty and impressive young pirate captain
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but as soon as she is revealed to be, and transformed into, her more stereotypically feminine form of Princess Zelda
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she's told that she is no longer allowed to accompany Link on the adventure
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because it is suddenly too dangerous for her.
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She is ordered to wait in the castle,
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which she does until she is eventually kidnapped, while waiting obediently in the same spot.
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It is noteworthy that, in the very last stage of the boss battle,
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she does help Link fight Ganondorf, for a few brief minutes, which is a refreshing change.
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However the next time Tetra's incarnation appears, in 2007's The Phantom Hourglass
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she is kidnapped immediately during the intro.
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Later she is turned to stone and then kidnapped for a second time.
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It’s disappointing that even with her moments of heroism, Zelda is still damsel’ed
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she is removed from the action, pushed aside,
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and made helpless at least once in every game she appears in.
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This brings us to one of the core reasons why the trope is so problematic and pernicious for women’s representations.
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The damsel in distress is not just a synonym for “weak”,
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instead it works by ripping away the power from female characters, even helpful or seemingly capable ones.
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No matter what we are told about their magical abilities, skills or strengths
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they are still ultimately captured or otherwise incapacitated and then must wait for rescue.
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Distilled down to its essence, the plot device works by trading the disempowerment of female characters
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FOR the empowerment of male characters.
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Let’s compare the damsel to the archetypal Hero Myth,
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in which the typically male character may occasionally also be harmed,
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incapacitated or briefly imprisoned at some point during their journey.
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In these situations, the character relies on their intelligence, cunning, and skill to engineer their own escape
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— or, you know, just punching a hole in the prison wall works too.
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The point is, they're ultimately able to gain back their own freedom.
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In fact that process of overcoming the ordeal
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is an important step in the protagonist's transformation into an heroic figure.
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A damsel'ed women on the other hand, is shown as incapable of escaping the predicament on her own
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and then must wait for a savior to come and do it for her.
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In this way, the Damsel's ordeal is not her own,
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instead it is framed as a trial for the hero to overcome.
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Consequently the trope robs women in peril from the opportunity of being the architects of their own escape
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and therefore prevents them from becomig archetypal heroes themselves.
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Today, many old school Damsel games are being resurrected for modern platform services and mobile devices
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as publishers are in a rush to cash in on gaming nostalgia
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and capitalise on any recognisable characters from years gone by.
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For example, Sega's 1993 platformer, Sonic CD, featuring a Damsel'ed Amy Rose
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has been enhanced and made available for download on a wide variety of modern platforms.
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Jordan Mechner's famous Karateka and *Prince of Persia* games,
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originally released for the Apple II home computer in the 1980s,
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have both seen modern HD remakes.
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And the 1983 animated laser disk game, *Dragon's Lair*,
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with ditsy Princess Daphne, has been ported to just about every system imaginable.
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*Please save me! The cage is locked. With a key. The dragon keeps it around his neck.*
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*To slay the dragon use the magic sword*
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Remember Pauline? Damsel in the classic Donkey Kong arcade?
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Well she has also been revived. First in 1994's Donkey Kong for the Game Boy
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and later in the Mario versus Donkey Kong series for the Nintendo DS.
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Each game features a rehashing of the old excuse plot
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with Pauline being whisked away by the giant ape in the opening credits.
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The now iconic opening seconds of the 1987 beat-em-up arcade game *Double Dragon*
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has Marian being punched in the stomach, thrown over the shoulder of a thug, and carried away.
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In several versions, her panties are clearly shown to the player while she is being abducted.
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The game has been remade, released, and ported to dozens of systems over the past 25 years
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ensuring that Marian will be battered and Damsel'ed for each new generation to enjoy.
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Most recently Double Dragon Neon and 2012 reintroduced new gamers to this regressive crap, yet again
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this time in full HD.
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The pattern of presenting women as fundamentally weak, ineffective or ultimately incapable
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has larger ramifications, beyond the characters themselves
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and the specific games they inhabit.
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We have to remember that these games don't exist in a vacuum.
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They are an increasingly important and influential part of our larger social and cultural ecosystem.
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The reality is, this trope is being used in a real world context
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where backward, sexist attitudes are already rampant.
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It is a sad fact that a large percentage of the world's population, still clings to the deeply sexist belief
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that women, as a group, need to be sheltered, protected, and taken care of by men.
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The belief that women are somehow a naturally weaker gender
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is a deeply ingrained, socially constructed, myth which is of course completely false
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but the notion is reinforced and perpetuated when women are continuously portrayed
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as frail, fragile and vulnerable creatures.
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Just to be clear, I'm not saying that all games that use the Damsel in Distress as a plot device
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are automatically sexist, or have no value.
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But it is undeniable that popular culture is a powerful influence in our lives
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and the Damsel in Distress trope as a recurring trend, does help to normalise extremely toxic, patronising and paternalistic attitudes about women.
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Now I grew up on Nintendo. I've been a fan of the Mario and Zelda franchises for most of my life
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and they will always have a special place in my heart, as I'm sure is true for a great number of gamers out there.
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But it is still important to recognise and think critically about the more problematic aspects
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especially considering many of these franchises are as popular as ever
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and the characters have become world wide icons.
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The good news is that there is nothing stopping developers from evolving their gender representations
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and making more women heroes in their future games.
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It would be great to finally see Zelda, Sheik and Tetra as the protagonists of their own games.
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And not just mobile DS games, I'm talking full-on console adventures.
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OK, so we've established that the Damsel in Distress trope is one of the most widely used gendered cliches in the history video games
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and has been core to the popularisation and development of gaming as a medium.
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But what about modern games? Has anything changed in the past 10 years?
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Well stay tuned for Part Two, where I will be looking at more contemporary examples of the Damsel in Distress trope.
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We will look at all the dark and edgy twists and turns and see how the convention has been used and abused, right up until today.
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Then we will check out some games where developers have tried to 'flip the script' on the Damsel.
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I would like to extend a big thank you to all of my backers on Kickstarter
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who have continued to support me and helped make this video series a reality.