The Dragon In ‘Damsel’ Explained: Did The Creature Kill Queen Isabelle?

Damsel, directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, gives a disclaimer at the very beginning that what we are about to watch is not a fairy tale where the prince charming comes to save the helpless princess. Here, our protagonist was a fierce young woman who refused to surrender to her circumstances and made sure that she fought with all her heart and turned the odds in her favor. Apart from the princess, there was a beast that sought vengeance and wreaked havoc on the entire island of Aurea since time immemorial. The princess at first thought that it was merely a folktale, but then she realized how wrong she was when she had to look into the eyes of that deadly creature that breathed fire. So, let’s find out why the dragon wanted revenge, what had happened to it in the past, and if Elodie was able to save herself from it. 

Spoiler Alert

What did the king of Aurea do with the dragon? 

Back in the day, when Prince Henry’s forefathers arrived on the island of Aurea, they realized that there was a predator lurking in the shadows, and they would have to kill it in order to live there. So they followed the dragon, and they found out that it had given birth to three offspring. The king and his men killed the poor babies, and that enraged the dragon. At that moment, the king not only decided his own fate but also of the generations to follow. At that juncture in Damsel, he had no clue what the consequences of his actions could be. The dragon knew that its entire species would perish after that, and his existence would be removed from the face of the earth. The dragon wanted to destroy the king and make him repent for his actions. He wanted to burn him alive in its fire, but just when she was about to kill the king, something snapped inside her, and she decided that she wouldn’t go ahead with his plan. The dragon knew that by only taking the king’s life, her soul wouldn’t be satiated, and so she thought of a way by which she could wreak havoc on the family for generations to come. 

What deal did the dragon make with the king? 

The dragon was about to kill the king but the latter pleaded and cried to spare his life. The king said that he was ready to do anything in exchange for mercy. A fire was burning in the dragon’s eyes; her blood was boiling, and she was resisting her impulse because she wanted to take revenge in the most brutal manner. So she told the king that if, from every generation, he was ready to sacrifice three daughters, then his life would be spared. The king readily agreed, not knowing what he had signed for. Or maybe he was selfish enough to just think about his own life. But the king’s successors were even more shrewd, and we saw how Queen Isabelle had found a way to give the dragon what she wanted and to also save their own girls while throwing poor souls like Elodie in the pit of fire. Elodie had no clue what she had signed up for when she decided to get married to Henry. Probably, Henry didn’t want Elodie to die, but he was too timid to speak against his mother. Queen Isabelle knew that the dragon could smell royal blood, and so just before throwing the girls in the pit, she made sure that she slit the victim’s hand and mixed their blood with either Henry’s or her own blood. Queen Isabelle was an extremely unsympathetic person, and she had no qualms about what she did. The dragon, on the other hand, had no clue that it was not the girls of the royal lineage that were being thrown down the pit. The beast smelled blood and, after that, killed the poor girls, as she believed that she was taking revenge for the death of her babies. 

How did Princess Elodie save herself? 

Elodie was thrown down the cave, but somehow, she managed to survive until her father came looking for her. Elodie saw her father get killed in front of her own eyes. The dragon knew no mercy, and she killed the old man because she wanted Elodie to come out of hiding. Elodie managed to escape the first time, using the rope with which her father and other soldiers had come down. But as soon as Elodie thought that she had escaped danger, she realized that her sister had been thrown into a pit by Queen Isabelle. Elodie once again went back to the dragon cave, and she realized that she had no option but to face her fears head-on. Elodie tried telling the dragon that she had been duped by the queen, but the dragon didn’t believe a word she said. At the end of Damsel, Elodie, like a true warrior, stood in front of what seemed no less than a personification of death, and she put her sword inside the flying predator. The dragon writhed in pain, and she would have succumbed to her injuries had Elodie not put those magical larvae on her body. The larvae had healing powers, and as soon as they were put on the dragon’s body, her wounds started healing. That’s when the dragon also realized that she had been living a lie and that the queen was mercilessly killing all the young girls who had nothing to do with what had happened back in the day. 

Will the dragon stay with Princess Elodie? 

In Damsel, once the dragon came to know the truth, she flew out of her cave and wreaked havoc on the entire kingdom of Aurea. Queen Isabelle was burned alive, and Elodie stood there looking at her eye to eye and seeing her writhe in pain. In the end, Elodie decided to go back to her kingdom, and we saw that the dragon accompanied her. The dragon is most probably going to be with Elodie now, and in the years to come, she will become her biggest strength. To have a beast like that changed the power dynamics, and now the neighboring states that had exploited Elodie’s kingdom for years wouldn’t dare to do so. The presence of the dragon will definitely bring good fortune, and under the leadership of Elodie, who was ably supported by her stepmother and little sister, the kingdom will thrive.