A female character, typically the wife, sweetheart or occasionally the mother or daughter of the protagonist, who is present in the story just so that she can be either kidnapped by the bad guys, thus becoming a Distressed Damsel or find herself Stuffed into the Fridge giving the protagonist pretext revenge.
In a series, she can be frighteningly easily forgotten or replaced once her value as a plot device has expired, if she has been previously developed at all.
















