© 2018 by the University of Texas Press 29 NUMBER 81 SPRING 2018 THE VELVET LIGHT TRAP YOUR DAUGHTER IS IN ANOTHER CASTLE Essential Paternal Masculinity in Video Games BY SHANNON LAWLOR ABSTRACT In recent years, there has been a notable increase in video games that put players in the role of a father figure who must protect and/or rescue his child. This article focuses on instances of this where the child in question is female and looks at how she is being used as motivation/reward incentive for the father figure. Considering video games’ historic use of damsel-in-distress characters, the shift to adolescent girls who fulfill the role of daughter rather than love interest is significant. This trend elucidates a very specific type of masculinity, which the author designates “essential paternal masculinity.” DOI: 10.7560/VLT8104 A S REPRESENTATIONS OF FATHERHOOD AND GIRLHOOD DEVELOP RELATIONALLY IN A MODERN cultural climate, a signifcant cross section of these representations occurs in narratives concerning the rescue and/or protection of a young girl by an adult male. Reminiscent of the damsel in distress, this iteration of said trope replaces the damsel fgure with a prepubescent girl and the romantic relationship between damsel and hero with a paternal one. By examining the contextual factors surrounding the increased use of this trope and these narratives in the early twenty-frst century, such as postrecessionary socioeconomics and gender politics, as well as considering how these narratives play out in video games in particular, it becomes apparent why this change occurs and what it means for representations of gender. A very particular mode of masculinity emerges in these rescue/protection narratives, which I will refer to as “essential paternal masculinity,” or EPM for short. EPM relies on reenactments of female child rescue in order to assert itself as not only powerful and privileged, as many itera- tions of masculinity are, but also morally correct and vital to survival. A biological relation to the prepubescent girls is not a necessity to portrayals of EPM and indeed is often absent. Tese paternal fgures become essential in both a literal and an ideological sense, as many of these narra- tives take place in postapocalyptic settings that emphasize the importance of survival. Te father fgure must ensure not only that these young girls physically survive but also that the core ideals associated with EPM live on through the girls. In order to solidify the key components of EPM, it is necessary to depict the girls as vulnerable and pure, a depiction that in turn helps create an idealized version of girlhood. To understand EPM, it is important to consider the relationship between representational norms and societal factors during this time period. Te majority of these narratives arise just after a signifcant recession (2007–9) and in a post-9/11 climate, the implications of which are