The “damsel in distress” trope has been common in fiction for centuries. Most audiences are familiar with the idea of a brave hero going to rescue a helpless woman from the villain. However, what’s a bit less common is the damsel saving herself and even outshining the prototypical heroes.
While not as uncommon as it once was, TV, with its need for longer character arcs and bigger casts, tends to use this trope more often than other forms of media. In shows like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, these “damsels” are the last people that need saving.
The following article contains spoilers for the characters discussed.
10 Lilly Bell — ‘Hell on Wheels’ (2011-2016)
When Hell on Wheels started, Lily Bell (Dominique McElligott) was already a strong character. She was working with her husband Robert (Robert Moloney) to map a route through the Rockies. As the series progressed, though, she consistently proved that she could take care of herself. From staying beside her husband in hostile territory to tending to his illness to escaping capture and suturing her arrow wounds, she proved to be one of the strongest characters on the show.
She eventually becomes an integral part of the construction of the Union-Pacific Railroad, and although her fate in her final few episodes is disappointing, she still stands as a great example of a woman who didn’t need saving.
9 Claire Bennet — ‘Heroes’ (2006-2010)
“Save the Cheerleader, Save the World” was the tagline for the first season of Heroes, NBC’s mid-2000s drama about ordinary people dealing with newly discovered superpowers. The cheerleader, Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere), had the ability of cellular regeneration, a healing factor. The villain, Sylar (Zachary Quinto), a superpower-stealing serial killer, wanted her ability to survive another ability he’d stolen, the ability to cause nuclear explosions.
The entire first season revolves around stopping him. This meant most of the cast spent the season trying to keep her safe. In subsequent seasons though, Claire became a hero in her own right. From hunting Sylar herself to protecting people with powers from the government, she grew into a force to be reckoned with.
8 Lee Harris — ‘American Horror Story: Roanoke’ (2016)
The horror of American Horror Story: Roanoke should not be taken lightly. While the first half offers a reenactment of an “actual” haunting, the second half reveals just how real the haunting was, offering some of the most frightening sequences in the show up to that point. Lee (Angela Bassett), a former cop and mother, was caught in the center of the nightmare. Accused of the murder of her ex-husband and going to great lengths to protect her daughter, she slowly became the hero of the season.
As the last surviving character after a frightening possession, she sacrifices herself to give her daughter a chance at life and to care for the spirit of another child, Priscilla. Her journey through the season from victim to hero is one of the most harrowing in the show’s run and offers a narrative throughline for the entire season.
7 Sansa Stark — ‘Game of Thrones’ (2011-2019)
Throughout Game of Thrones, Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) is unfortunately defined by the men she is attached to. From King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) to Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon), she was always more of a trophy for terrible men. Even Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) was always in the background, pulling strings and leading her down paths he wanted her to go.
But over time, Sansa took back her power. She became Queen in the North and finally punished Littlefinger for his treachery and years of manipulation. There is a multitude of extraordinary women in the world of Game of Thrones, but Sansa stands out due to her sheer endurance of near slavery when she was always meant to be a queen.
6 Sara Lance — The Arrowverse (2012-)
When Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), The Green Arrow, crashed on a deserted island, his girlfriend’s sister, Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), was on the boat with him. Presumed dead by Oliver, when she came back (twice) as a capable, lethal warrior, it changed the complexion of Arrow forever. She was Oliver’s equal in terms of fighting prowess and had become a capable hero in her own right.
Soon though, she became the lead on another show, Legends of Tomorrow, where she proved herself a capable leader. Uniting a group of misfit heroes and former villains, she proved she deserved to stand next to the other iconic heroes of the Arrowverse.
5 Starlight — ‘The Boys’ (2019-)
“Never meet your heroes.” Unfortunately, small-town girl Annie January (Erin Moriarty) learned this the hard way. After being recruited by The Seven, the premier superhero team in the world of The Boys, she quickly saw that all the patriotism, heroism, and altruism was just a lie. Her teammates were violent, misogynistic narcissists who mostly put on an act for the cameras.
She was in over her head and experienced a lot of trouble (and trauma) after joining. As the show continued, she became an agent for the titular Boys, a ragtag group dedicated to stopping “Supes” who misused their powers. From gaining leverage on Homelander (Anthony Starr), the violent leader of The Seven, to fighting Stormfront (Aya Cash), a superpowered immortal Nazi, she’s become the heart of the show and almost the only proof in this universe that power doesn’t necessarily lead to corruption.
4 Octavia Blake — ‘The 100’ (2014-2020)
Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) spent most of her childhood “under the floor” on a space station. She was the second child in a society where that was forbidden and labeled a criminal. When she was sent to Earth to see if it was habitable again, she was the most inexperienced at life among her peers. As the seasons went on, she grew into someone completely different.
A more than capable warrior and leader, she found a home among The Grounders they encountered on Earth. The number of fights she won against men twice her size is too many to count. She saved her people over and over again and kept her people together no matter what it took. By the end of The 100, she was unrecognizable and had become one of the fiercest characters on the show.
3 Daenerys Targaryen — ‘Game of Thrones’ (2011-2019)
Sold as a wife to Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) at the beginning of the series, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) started Game of Thrones as a child under the control of people and forces larger than her. But as the show continued, she grew into the queen she was destined to be. After her dragons hatched and she had her independence again, she went on a quest to liberate Essos.
While her actions at the end of the series may have been troubling, her fierceness during The Long Night and her liberation of Slaver’s Bay prove that she was a woman with power, as capable (or more so) than every other character in Westeros.
2 Carol Peletier — ‘The Walking Dead’ (2010-2022)
From abused wife to absolute badass, Carol’s (Melissa McBride) story is one of survival. She becomes one of the most lethal (and valuable) members of the group in The Walking Dead and is considered a fan favorite for her growth and her jaw-dropping action sequences. From saving the group from cannibals at Terminus to fighting off The Wolves’ invasion of Alexandria, she’s proven herself more capable than nearly every character on the show.
While she nearly lost her humanity at a point, her connections to characters like Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Ezekiel (Khary Payton) prove that she still has her heart, even if the apocalypse has hardened her into someone almost unrecognizable.
1 Arya Stark — ‘Game of Thrones’ (2011-2019)
“A girl is no one.” Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) began Game of Thrones as a child, with dreams of being a knight and riding into battle like her father. Over the course of eight seasons, though, she grew into something much more dangerous. The Faceless Men were a group of quasi-magical assassins, and she endured some of the most grueling training imaginable to become one of them. Her story, from a defenseless little girl to a lethal, nearly invisible assassin, is one of the most drastic transformations in fiction.
She spent the early seasons being saved over and over again until she grew into a woman that didn’t need saving. Game of Thrones had a large ensemble cast, but by the end of the show, it could be argued that it was Arya’s story all along.
