Damseled Princes

I’m a sucker for gender-flipped stories and the way they shed light on common tropes. A manic pixie dream boy doesn’t teach an uptight female protagonist to enjoy life – he’s just an unemployed drummer boyfriend. It’s a trope that doesn’t hold up. But give a handsome prince the damsel treatment and suddenly a tale as old as time becomes sparkly and new with strong female protagonists and emotionally intelligent love interests. I will always show up for handsome heroes made helpless and the strong smart heroines who save them – like the ones in these K-dramas.

Damseled Princes are not just pretty boys – it’s not about presentation. This is a story where the male lead just isn’t a fighter. Or he might be, but he’s not as tough or skilled as the heroine. The main thing is that it goes beyond “the princess saves herself” to “the princess rescues the prince.”

A potential pitfall is that too much helplessness turns a loves interest into a pet. So for full enjoyment of a story, a damsel of any gender has to bring other strengths like emotional intelligence, moral fiber, clear headedness. Of course, even flipped across a gender dividing line, the classic contrast of physical/emotional strength can be problematic. Some of the best stories let the leads take turns rescuing each other.

Rookie Historian – One of the first K-dramas I saw and the first time I saw this trope on screen, Rookie Historian follows the brilliant Goo Hae-ryung who breaks the Joseon bureaucracy glass ceiling with a castle job. She needs all of her knowledge, intelligence and worldliness to save Prince Dowon. He has spent his entire life cloistered in the palace, writing romance novels while excluded from court politics and ignorant of world events. He’s as sweet and naive as she is determined and idealistic; the resulting balance is utterly charming.

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Chicago Typewriter – In a past life, they both fought in the resistance against Japanese occupation. She was a sniper and he was her commanding officer. In this life, he’s a novelist and she’s – well, she’s had a lot of jobs, but none of them was sniper. But it’s karma from their past life that she needs to save him, and someone is making death threats.

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Hyde Jekyll Me – In Hyde Jekyll Me, Hyun Bin’s character is the one who’s damaged – literally broken in two by childhood trauma – and now the tension between his two personalities threatens to destroy his mind. Meanwhile someone is out to kill him physically. One of his personalities has a savior complex and can do some pretty athletic stuff. But mostly he’s a bossy businessman while the acrobat heroine, Jang Ha-na, gets most of the cool action scenes.

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The Legends – I’m including Chinese examples because C-dramas share many tropes with K-dramas and this is one of my favorite shows. It is also one of the best examples of a hero and a heroine taking turns rescuing each other. In this xian xia story, the son of the demon king is persecuted even though he has no magic power and doesn’t know kung fu. Zhaoyao rescues him from execution. The most powerful cultivator in Jianghu, she can take out a dozen soldiers while eating a snack. Years later she dies in battle, his demonic power is unlocked, and she gets resurrected without any powers. Then he gets to look out for her for a while. But regardless of power level, she is always a badass and he is always her soft boy.

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The Untamed – With its reliance on traditional gender roles, Damseled Princes is a pretty heteronormative trope. But it doesn’t have to be if one of the characters is Brought Down to Normal or if it involves a role reversal in the relationship. In the first arc of the webtoon The Croaking, Scra needs a lot of rescuing because he’s missing some feathers. Chinese xian xia stories, with their frequent reliance on resurrection sans powers, makes it easy to turn a strapping young lord into a swooning damsel. Take the C-drama based on danmei novel The Untamed. For some 30 episodes the bold and reckless Wei Wuxian’s flirtations test the willpower of prim and proper Lan Wangji. So when Wuxian returns from the dead 16 years later with no cultivation energy, Wangji is determined to protect him from everything that comes their way.

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I wish I had more examples of this delightful trope. Can anyone recommend some?