0:00:00.242,0:00:02.171
"Mario!"

0:00:03.049,0:00:04.810
"Ah! Help!"

0:00:25.151,0:00:30.082
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

0:00:36.447,0:00:39.410
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, that it's both possible, and even necessary

0:00:46.463,0:00:52.672
to simultaneously enjoy media, while also being critical of its more problematic or pernicious aspects.

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So, without further ado, let's 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

0:01:01.259,0:01:08.665
Back in 1999, game developer 'Rare' was hard at work on a new original title for the Nintendo 64 called Dinosaur Planet.

0:01:08.665,0:01:14.193
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.

0:01:24.408,0:01:27.109
"And who might you be, animal girl?"

0:01:27.109,0:01:28.860
"My name is Krystal"

0:01:40.214,0:01:41.820
Pretty cool right?

0:01:41.820,0:01:44.904
Well, it would have been except the game never got released.

0:01:44.920,0:01:49.720
As development on the project neared completion, legendary game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto

0:01:49.720,0:01:54.766
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.

0:01:57.451,0:02:03.462
They rewrote and redesigned the game and released it as Star Fox Adventures for the Game Cube in 2002.

0:02:03.462,0:02:08.961
In this revamped version, the would-be protagonist Krystal, has been transformed into a Damsel in Distress

0:02:08.961,0:02:12.502
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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"What am I doing?"

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And, yes. That is cheesy saxophone music playing to make sure it's crystal clear

0:02:43.516,0:02:47.824
that she is now an object of desire, even while in suspended animation.

0:02:47.824,0:02:56.003
To add insult to injury, 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 rite.

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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, 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 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 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 adventuring to prove his chivalry, prowess and virtue.

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At the turn of the twentieth century, victimized young women became the cliché of choice

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for the nascent American film industry 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 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 is captured by a broodish primate

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in Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1912 pulp adventure 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, which 50 years later,

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would set the stage for the Damsel in Distress trope 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 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's renamed 'Pauline'.

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Although Donkey Kong is perhaps the most famous early arcade game to feature the Damsel in Distress

0:06:56.619,0:06:59.455
it wasn't the first time Miyamoto employed the trope.

0:06:59.455,0:07:04.957
Two years earlier, he had a hand in designing a 1979 arcade game called Sheriff.

0:07:04.957,0:07:07.803
In it, a vague female shaped collection of pixels

0:07:07.803,0:07:12.218
referred to as 'The Beauty', must be rescued from a pack of bandits.

0:07:12.218,0:07:17.848
The hero is then rewarded with a 'smooch of victory' for his bravery in the end.

0:07:17.848,0:07:21.228
A few years later, Miyamoto recycled his Donkey Kong character designs

0:07:21.228,0:07:25.312
Pauline became the template for a new damsel named Princess Toadstool

0:07:25.312,0:07:28.961
and 'Jump Man' became a certain very famous plumber.

0:07:39.541,0:07:45.126
Princess Peach is in many ways the quintessential stock character version of the Damsel in Distress.

0:07:45.126,0:07:50.506
The ill-fated princess appears in fourteen of the core Super Mario Bros platformer games

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and she's kidnapped in thirteen of them.

0:08:01.648,0:08:05.028
The North American release of Super Mario Bros 2 in 1988

0:08:05.028,0:08:09.689
remains the only game in the core series in which Peach is not kidnapped

0:08:09.689,0:08:12.495
and also the only game in which she 's a playable character,

0:08:12.495,0:08:16.372
though it should be noted it wasn't originally created to be Mario game at all.

0:08:16.372,0:08:20.119
The game was originally released in Japan under a completely different title

0:08:20.119,0:08:22.499
called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic

0:08:22.499,0:08:27.200
which roughly translates to Dream Factory: Heart Pounding Panic

0:08:38.468,0:08:45.926
Nintendo of American thought that the original Japanese release of Super Mario Bros 2 was too difficult and too similar to the first game

0:08:45.936,0:08:51.226
so they re-skinned and redesigned *Doki Doki Panic* to star Mario and Luigi instead.

0:08:51.236,0:08:54.907
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

0:09:04.411,0:09:07.801
building directly on top of the pre-existing character models.

0:09:07.801,0:09:12.798
So really, if we're honest, Peach is kinda accidentally playable in this one.

0:09:12.798,0:09:15.566
Still, she had the awesome ability to float for short distances

0:09:15.566,0:09:19.744
which came in really handy, especially in the ice levels.

0:09:19.744,0:09:23.599
Sadly, Peach has never been a playable character again in the main franchise.

0:09:23.599,0:09:29.249
Even with newer games that feature four player options like the new Super Mario Bros Wii and WiiU

0:09:29.249,0:09:32.063
the Princess is still excluded from the action.

0:09:32.063,0:09:34.746
She's been replaced with another Toad instead

0:09:34.746,0:09:39.698
as to allow Nintendo to force her back into the Damsel role again and again.

0:09:39.698,0:09:42.158
Peach does of course appear in many spin offs

0:09:42.158,0:09:45.371
such as the Mario Party, Mario Sports and Mario Kart series

0:09:45.371,0:09:50.240
as well as the Super Smash Bros Nintendo universe cross-over fighting games.

0:09:50.240,0:09:55.662
However all of these spin offs fall well outside of the core Super Mario series of platformers.

0:09:55.662,0:10:00.157
She is the star of only one adventure, and we'll get to that a little later.

0:10:00.727,0:10:05.077
One way to think about Damsel'd characters is via what's called the subject/object dichotomy.

0:10:05.077,0:10:09.493
In the simplest terms subjects act and objects are acted upon.

0:10:09.493,0:10:13.580
The subject is the protagonist; the one who the story is centered on

0:10:13.580,0:10:15.349
and the one doing most of the action.

0:10:15.349,0:10:18.822
In video games this is almost always the main playable character

0:10:18.822,0:10:21.909
and the one from whose perspective most of the story is seen.

0:10:21.909,0:10:25.035
So the Damsel trope typically makes men the subject of narratives

0:10:25.035,0:10:27.581
while relegating women to the role of object.

0:10:27.581,0:10:32.502
This is a form of objectification because as objects Damsel'd women are being acted upon,

0:10:32.502,0:10:39.723
most often becoming or reduced to a prize to be won, a treasure to be found or a goal to be achieved.

0:10:39.723,0:10:43.018
The brief into sequence accompanying many classic arcade games

0:10:43.018,0:10:47.874
tends to reinforce the framing of women as a possession that's been stolen from the protagonist.

0:11:07.738,0:11:14.293
The hero's fight to retrieve his stolen 'property' then provides lazy justification for the actual gameplay.

0:11:14.293,0:11:17.588
At its heart, the Damsel trope is not really about women at all.

0:11:17.588,0:11:21.342
She simply becomes the central object in a competition between men,

0:11:21.342,0:11:23.677
at least in its traditional incarnations.

0:11:23.677,0:11:28.182
I've heard it said that, in the game of patriarchy, women are not the opposing team,

0:11:28.182,0:11:29.767
they are the ball.

0:11:29.767,0:11:33.833
So for example, we can think of the Super Mario franchise as a grand game being played

0:11:33.833,0:11:38.108
between Mario and Bowser and Princess Peach's role is essentially that of the ball.

0:11:42.200,0:11:45.467
The two men are tossing her back and forth over the course of the main series,

0:11:45.475,0:11:48.709
each trying to keep and take possession of the 'Damsel Ball'.

0:11:55.126,0:11:58.135
Even though Nintendo certainly didn't invent the Damsel in Distress,

0:11:58.135,0:12:03.425
the popularity of their 'save the princess' formula, essentially set the standard for the industry.

0:12:03.425,0:12:07.072
The trope quickly became the go-to motivational hook for developers

0:12:07.072,0:12:11.906
as it provided an easy way to tap into adolescent male power fantasies

0:12:11.906,0:12:15.107
in order to sell more games to young straight boys and men.

0:12:15.107,0:12:16.770
"Help Me!"

0:12:16.770,0:12:18.138
"Help Me!"

0:12:18.138,0:12:19.140
"Help Me!"

0:12:19.140,0:12:20.324
"Help Me!"

0:12:20.324,0:12:21.408
"Save Me!"

0:12:21.408,0:12:22.574
"Help!"

0:12:22.574,0:12:25.075
"Please help me Blade!"

0:12:25.075,0:12:27.624
Throughout the 80's and 90's the trope became so prevalent,

0:12:27.624,0:12:30.409
that it would be nearly impossible to mention them all.

0:12:30.409,0:12:33.236
There were literally hundreds of examples showing up in platformers

0:12:33.236,0:12:35.250
side scrolling beat-em-ups,

0:12:35.250,0:12:36.834
first person shooters

0:12:36.834,0:12:38.910
and role playing games alike.

0:12:45.926,0:12:49.428
Let's take a quick moment to clear up some common misconceptions about this trope.

0:12:49.428,0:12:53.857
As a plot device the Damsel in Distress is often grouped with other separate tropes,

0:12:53.857,0:12:58.063
including 'The Designated Victim', 'The Heroic Rescue' and 'The Smooch of Victory'.

0:12:58.063,0:13:01.578
However, it's important to remember that these associated conventions

0:13:01.578,0:13:05.112
are not necessarily a part of the Damsel in Distress trope itself.

0:13:05.112,0:13:09.740
So the woman in question may or may not play the victim role for the entire game or series

0:13:09.740,0:13:14.076
while our brave hero may or may not be successful in his rescue attempts.

0:13:16.415,0:13:19.551
All that is really required to fulfill the Damsel in Distress trope

0:13:19.551,0:13:23.005
is for a female character to be reduced to a state of helplessness

0:13:23.005,0:13:28.571
from which she requires rescuing by a typically male hero for the benefit of his story arc.

0:13:29.344,0:13:32.347
This brings us to the other famous Nintendo princess.

0:13:32.347,0:13:36.769
In 1986, Shigeru Miyamoto doubled down on his Damsel in Distress formula

0:13:36.769,0:13:39.780
with the NES release of The Legend of Zelda.

0:13:39.780,0:13:45.055
This was the first in what would become one of the most beloved action adventure game franchises of all time.

0:13:45.290,0:13:46.110
"Zelda!"

0:13:46.110,0:13:48.313
"The Legend of Zelda continues."

0:13:48.313,0:13:49.101
"Zelda!"

0:13:49.101,0:13:52.549
"Find the crystals, rescue the princess."

0:13:52.549,0:13:53.887
"Zelda!" *"Zelda!"

0:13:53.887,0:13:55.888
"Zelda II: The Adventure of Link"

0:13:55.888,0:13:58.955
"Nintendo! Now you're playing with power."

0:13:58.955,0:14:02.324
Over the course of more than a dozen games, spanning a quarter century,

0:14:02.324,0:14:07.681
all of the incarnations of Princess Zelda have been kidnapped, cursed, possessed, turned to stone

0:14:07.681,0:14:10.138
or otherwise disempowered at some point.

0:14:31.865,0:14:37.293
Zelda has never been the star in her own adventure nor been a true playable character in the core series.

0:14:37.293,0:14:40.163
However, it must be said that not all Damsels are created equal

0:14:40.163,0:14:46.164
and Zelda is occasionally given a more active or integral role to play than her counter part in the Mushroom Kingdom.

0:14:46.164,0:14:51.927
Unlike Peach, Zelda is not completely defined by her role as Ganondorf's perpetual kidnap victim

0:14:51.927,0:14:56.438
and in a few later games, she even rides the line between Damsel and Sidekick.

0:14:56.438,0:15:00.826
Remember, the Damsel in Distress as plot device is something that happens <i>to</i> a female character

0:15:00.826,0:15:04.534
and not necessarily something a character <i>is</i> from start to finish.

0:15:04.534,0:15:08.527
Once in a while, she might be given the opportunity to have a slightly more active role

0:15:08.527,0:15:13.198
in facilitating the hero's quest, typically by opening doors, giving hints, power-ups

0:15:13.198,0:15:15.951
and other helpful items.

0:15:15.951,0:15:18.794
I call this variant on the theme, The Helpful Damsel.

0:15:18.794,0:15:24.918
Indeed Zelda is at her best when she takes the form of Sheik in Ocarina of Time and Tetra in The Wind Waker.

0:15:24.918,0:15:29.761
In Ocarina of Time, Zelda avoids capture for the first three quarters of the game.

0:15:29.761,0:15:33.677
Disguised as Sheik, she is a helpful and active participant in the adventure

0:15:33.677,0:15:36.103
and she is shown to be more than capable.

0:15:37.595,0:15:43.928
However, as soon as she transforms back into her more stereotypically feminine form of Princess Zelda

0:15:43.928,0:15:45.856
she's captured within three minutes.

0:15:45.856,0:15:49.333
Literally three minutes. I timed it.

0:15:52.287,0:15:55.740
Her rescue then becomes central to the end of Link's quest.

0:15:55.740,0:16:00.704
Similarly, in the Wind Waker, Tetra is a feisty and impressive young pirate captain

0:16:00.704,0:16:06.828
but as soon as she is revealed to be, and transformed into her more stereotypically feminine form of Princess Zelda

0:16:06.828,0:16:10.120
she's told that she's no longer allowed to accompany Link on the adventure

0:16:10.120,0:16:13.544
because it is suddenly too dangerous for her.

0:16:13.544,0:16:15.392
She's ordered to wait in the castle,

0:16:15.392,0:16:20.432
which she does until she is eventually kidnapped, while waiting obediently in the same spot.

0:16:22.462,0:16:25.426
It is noteworthy that, in the very last stage of the boss battle,

0:16:25.426,0:16:30.179
she does help Link fight Ganondorf for a few brief minutes, which is a refreshing change.

0:16:31.440,0:16:36.161
However the next time Tetra's incarnation appears in 2007's The Phantom Hourglass

0:16:36.161,0:16:38.404
she is kidnapped immediately during the intro.

0:16:38.404,0:16:42.248
Later she is turned to stone and then kidnapped for a second time.

0:16:42.248,0:16:46.500
It’s disappointing that even with her moments of heroism, Zelda is still damsel’ed

0:16:46.500,0:16:48.543
she is removed from the action, pushed aside,

0:16:48.543,0:16:51.698
and made helpless at least once in every game she appears in.

0:17:10.023,0:17:15.741
This brings us to one of the core reasons why the trope is so problematic and pernicious for women’s representations.

0:17:15.741,0:17:18.699
The damsel in distress is not just a synonym for “weak”,

0:17:18.699,0:17:24.913
instead it works by ripping away the power from female characters, even helpful or seemingly capable ones.

0:17:24.913,0:17:28.969
No matter what we are told about their magical abilities, skills or strengths

0:17:28.969,0:17:34.805
they're still ultimately captured or otherwise incapacitated and then must wait for rescue.

0:17:34.805,0:17:39.512
Distilled down to its essence, the plot device works by trading the disempowerment of female characters

0:17:39.512,0:17:42.316
for the empowerment of male characters.

0:17:50.564,0:17:53.521
Let’s compare the Damsel to the archetypal Hero Myth,

0:17:53.521,0:17:57.694
in which the typically male character may occasionally also be harmed,

0:17:57.694,0:18:02.496
incapacitated or briefly imprisoned at some point during their journey.

0:18:05.418,0:18:12.112
In these situations, the character relies on their intelligence, cunning, and skill to engineer their own escape

0:18:12.112,0:18:13.211
"That's better"

0:18:17.348,0:18:20.722
— or, you know, just punching a hole in the prison wall works too.

0:18:20.722,0:18:24.097
The point is, they're ultimately able to gain back their own freedom.

0:18:24.097,0:18:26.516
In fact that process of overcoming the ordeal

0:18:26.516,0:18:31.159
is an important step in the protagonist's transformation into an heroic figure.

0:18:31.159,0:18:35.692
A Damsel'd woman on the other hand, is shown as incapable of escaping the predicament on her own

0:18:35.692,0:18:39.118
and then must wait for a savior to come and do it for her.

0:18:39.118,0:18:41.782
In this way, the Damsel's ordeal is not her own,

0:18:41.782,0:18:45.915
instead it's framed as a trial for the hero to overcome.

0:18:45.915,0:18:51.083
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 <i>Karateka</i> and *Prince of Persia* games,

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originally released for the Apple II home computer in the 1980's,

0:19:26.663,0:19:29.373
have both seen modern HD remakes.

0:19:36.960,0:19:40.054
And the 1983 animated laser disk game, *Dragon's Lair*,

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with ditzy Princess Daphne has been ported to just about every system imaginable.

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"Please save me!"

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"The cage is locked. With a key."

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"The dragon keeps it around his neck."

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"To slay the dragon use the magic sword."

0:19:58.358,0:20:02.584
Remember Pauline? Damsel of the classic Donkey Kong arcade?

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Well she's also been revived.

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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 during the opening credits.

0:20:19.428,0:20:23.052
*"Mario! Please help me!"*

0:20:23.584,0:20:28.582
The now iconic opening seconds of the 1987 beat-em-up arcade game *Double Dragon*

0:20:28.582,0:20:33.276
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's being abducted.

0:20:38.187,0:20:43.361
The game has been remade, released, and ported to dozens of systems over the past 25 years

0:20:43.361,0:20:48.435
ensuring that Marian will be battered and Damsel'ed for each new generation to enjoy.

0:20:48.435,0:20:55.044
Most recently Double Dragon Neon in 2012 reintroduced new gamers to this regressive crap, yet again

0:20:55.044,0:20:56.708
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 and the specific games they inhabit.

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We have to remember that these games don't exist in a vacuum.

0:21:14.768,0:21:20.190
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

0:21:23.578,0:21:26.696
where backward, sexist attitudes are already rampant.

0:21:26.696,0:21:31.917
It is a sad fact that a large percentage of the world's population still clings to the deeply sexist belief

0:21:31.917,0:21:36.873
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

0:21:45.257,0:21:50.095
but the notion is reinforced and perpetuated when women are continuously portrayed

0:21:50.095,0:21:53.766
as frail, fragile and vulnerable creatures.

0:21:53.766,0:21:57.855
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 normalize extremely toxic, patronizing and paternalistic attitudes about women.

0:22:13.141,0:22:18.582
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'll 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's still important to recognize and think critically about the more problematic aspects

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especially considering many of these franchises are as popular as ever

0:22:31.748,0:22:34.750
and the characters have become world wide icons.

0:22:34.750,0:22:38.749
The good news is that there is nothing stopping developers from evolving their gender representations

0:22:38.749,0:22:41.980
and making more women heroes in their future games.

0:22:41.980,0:22:47.077
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.

0:22:52.336,0:22:58.286
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?

0:23:06.630,0:23:12.218
Well stay tuned for Part Two, where I'll be looking at more contemporary examples of the Damsel in Distress trope.

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We'll 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'll 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

0:23:27.158,0:23:31.636
who have continued to support me and helped make this video series a reality.