Damsel’s ending makes the Netflix fantasy actually worth watching

The past couple decades or so have seen fairy-tale subversion after fairy-tale subversion where a princess doesn’t want fancy dresses and a handsome prince, and instead decides to pick up a sword or split-kick her attackers. In fact, it’s such a common play in media these days that “Pretty Princess Powerhouse” has become a trope of its own.

And Netflix’s Damsel, starring Millie Bobby Brown as a young woman who fights off the dragon that the royal family tries to sacrifice her to, initially seems like it fits that mold.

But director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo smartly subverts those expectations into something more. It isn’t just a story of a headstrong young woman who doesn’t want an archery contest to determine who marries her, so she shoots for her own hand. Or one where a captured princess in a high tower picks up a sword and starts stabbing everyone who’s wronged her. With some stronger core relationships woven in and a plot that slowly puts a spin on the usual conventions, Damsel turns into so much more than a typical fable shake-up, evolving the fairy-tale twist to the next level.

[Ed. note: This piece contains end spoilers for Damsel.]

Photo: John Wilson/Netflix

Even from the get-go, the tone is a little different. The young lady, Elodie, is the eldest daughter of a lord from a harsh, barren land, and she’s pretty level-headed about her upcoming betrothal. She dutifully accepts it as the best option for her own land, since the royal family’s dowry will save her people. So she enters marriage with an open mind, even though the audience can pick up on something sinister going on.

When she does get dropped into the dragon’s lair, the action kicks off. But it isn’t about her fighting the dragon. She’s just trying to survive. It’s also telling that her family doesn’t abandon her. Her father (Ray Winstone), who initially sold her off, comes back to save her, realizing he did wrong. Elodie and her sister have the sweetest, tenderest relationship in the movie. And her stepmother (played by Angela Bassett), who could very easily fall into evil-stepmother tropes, especially as she and Elodie clash a bit on how to present themselves to the royal family, genuinely cares about her well-being. There’s actually a nice, tight family story threaded throughout the tense action sequences, and Elodie’s relationship with her family, including the duty she feels to protect them, fuels all her motives.

Image: Netflix

Elodie fights for survival, but as she navigates the caverns and avoids the dragon, she soon learns that not only has the royal family lured generations of young women to this fate, they’ve also been lying about why. It isn’t to keep the kingdom safe, but to keep the dragon at bay, because of a time years ago when the royals killed the dragon’s daughters. The dragon demanded the royal family’s daughters in return, so they sneakily got around that by having their sons marry women that none of them care about.

So in the end, while Elodie does claw her way out of the cavern and then return with a sword in hand to finish what she started, she realizes that the true villain isn’t the dragon; it’s the cycle they’ve both been trapped in, perpetrated by the royal family as they smugly sit in their palace. And she throws down her sword.

Photo: Netflix

Sure, the metaphor about breaking the cycles of violence is about as subtle as a fire-breathing dragon, but it’s also a nice little twist on how these fairy-tale subversions usually go. Elodie doesn’t slay the dragon in a fit of triumphant rage in order to stick it to a lame-ass prince. Instead, she and the dragon team up to take down the whole system. And it rules.

The individualistic girl-power flip on princess narratives was once groundbreaking, as young women in fairy tales took charge of their own destinies instead of waiting around for princes, whether hidden in towers or waiting in deep slumber. But that twist has now become an obligation, one that means every Disney princess now has some superfluous hobby in the inevitable live-action remake.

Going back to the past, where the heroines were passive and one-note, isn’t an option, but there are only so many spunky, headstrong princess stories to tell before the formula becomes stale. That’s where Damsel excels, turning Elodie’s journey from one of self-reliance and independence into one about the strength of reaching out to others. After all, in order to truly dismantle the ruling class, you need more than just a gung-ho attitude and a sword. It comes down to the bonds Elodie has with her family, and the unlikely partnership she forges with the dragon. Finally, the determined princess levels up, and she makes a difference in the greater world of her own story.

Damsel is streaming on Netflix now.