In Star Wars, Luke is the Jedi master prophesied to save the universe, but until the enemy murdered his family, he was a just a boy working on his uncle's farm; Apocalypto's Jaguar Paw was living an idyllic life as a hunter until slave runners decimated his entire village, after which he outruns and kills the entire group of battle hardened warriors. The hero must "respond to mortal threats directed at their weaknesses" (O'Brien 11), altruism most popular. Villains gaining an advantage over the hero by exploiting their concern for something other than themselves is a familiar trope, established since ancient times. Early literature often used the damsel in distress as a metaphor of the hero's altruism, borrowing from that, early American films used a "helpless woman" character, played by attractive women, for the same purpose. In fact, some films made from book adaptations, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1920), introduce a "damsel" even if the text that had none. In modern films the "damsel" is not always a woman and may be, for instance, a male buddy, or a child or dog, or even something abstract such as love or redemption.
In Star Wars, Luke is the Jedi master prophesied to save the universe, but until the enemy murdered his family, he was a just a boy working on his uncle's farm; Apocalypto's Jaguar Paw was living an idyllic life as a hunter until slave runners decimated his entire village, after which he outruns and kills the entire group of battle hardened warriors. The hero must "respond to mortal threats directed at their weaknesses" (O'Brien 11), altruism most popular. Villains gaining an advantage over the hero by exploiting their concern for something other than themselves is a familiar trope, established since ancient times. Early literature often used the damsel in distress as a metaphor of the hero's altruism, borrowing from that, early American films used a "helpless woman" character, played by attractive women, for the same purpose. In fact, some films made from book adaptations, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1920), introduce a "damsel" even if the text that had none. In modern films the "damsel" is not always a woman and may be, for instance, a male buddy, or a child or dog, or even something abstract such as love or redemption.