Millie Bobby Brown returns to fight a dragon in Netflix’s new fantasy film: who are the real enemies? What does the dragon really want? Does Elodie get away with it in the end?
The Lady and the Dragon has just landed on Netflix, and takes viewers on a journey to the shores of Aurea. But be careful: we are warned from the start, this is not a fairy tale. Because here, there is no young girl requiring a brave knight to deliver her from the clutches of the beast, but a well-dressed princess who refuses to turn into a perfectly cooked steak.
Elodie is the daughter of a penniless lord, ruler of an impoverished fief whose inhabitants risk not surviving the winter, due to lack of wood to heat themselves. So, when a royal family is interested in the young lady for a wedding, the father sees no other choice but to accept. And at the beginning, everything goes well… until the ceremony, during which Elodie understands, a little late, what is really expected of her.
Does the young girl survive at the end of The Lady and the Dragon? Who are the real enemies? We explain the new film to you on Netflix.
Warning: this article will spoil the entire film The Lady and the Dragon on Netflix.
Three weddings and three funerals in The Maiden and the Dragon
If the marriage between Elodie and Prince Henry seems idyllic at first, we quickly understand that something is wrong. In reality, the princess is only one of the three sacrifices reserved for the dragon.
Because the royal family is struck by a curse: the dragon who resides in the mountain above the castle demands from its members the sacrifice of three children of their blood, in each generation. But the noble leaders found a solution. Rather than sacrificing their own, they bring in innocent – and naive – pretenders to the crown, from several neighboring fiefdoms and countries.
The sacrificed person is manipulated from start to finish: Elodie is very quickly seduced by an ideal Prince Henry, and refuses to see disturbing yet obvious details. When Queen Isabella is obnoxious to Lady Bayford and the latter tries to warn her daughter-in-law, nothing helps. When Elodie sees that another young lady has disappeared the same evening that she saw torches at the mountain, she does not make the connection.
Until the end, she will let herself be done, like a lamb heading obediently towards the butcher’s knife. It is during the last ceremony that she discovers the pot of roses: the incision in her hand and that of the prince is used to exchange their blood, making her a royal ascendant of the family… before being tossed in a huge precipice in the heart of the mountain.
Recognizing her royal blood, the dragon takes her for a member of the family, and does everything to eliminate her, while taking obvious pleasure in his criminal maneuvers. Later, by escaping the mountain, Elodie will save a third young lady, the third from the generational sacrifice orchestrated by the royal family. The heroine was therefore only the second.
Who is the dragon and what are its real intentions?
Except that the enemy of The Lady and the Dragon has more or less his reasons for imposing these sacrifices: the ancestor of Prince Henry, a greedy and belligerent king, massacred the three babies of the dragon, which turns out to be a wrist strap. A crime all the more serious as the animal was the last of its species.
The king killed three little dragons, so the dragon demands three children of royal lineage in each generation. Unaware that the ruler had found a way to deceive her by mixing her blood with innocent victims, the creature proceeded to massacre countless people who were not concerned with the story. But his meeting with Elodie will ultimately change the situation.
How does Elodie escape from the dragon’s lair?
Elodie only barely survives her first stay in Dragon Mountain. But each time, the young girl finds a solution to her problems.
Her dress is a handicap for fleeing into the galleries, but her corset contains the knife which will serve as an ice ax to avoid a dizzying fall. The dragon’s fire burns her, but the luminous worms heal her and serve as her lamp. She manages to reach a safe cave, in which she finds a map drawn by a previous resident of the cave, and she finds the long-awaited outcome.
But when the dragon watches her flee into the crystal tunnel, and encourages her to “fly away” , we quickly understand why: Elodie did not find the exit, but a simple access leading to a cliff. To escape, he will need the intervention of his father and the ropes used by the rescuers.
His last stroke of genius is to launch his horse into a gallop alone once outside, to hide under a rock and let the dragon char his mount. Unfortunately, the creature realizes that it has been cheated and loses patience.
Queen Isabelle then offers her Elodie’s young sister, Floria. The heroine no longer has a choice: she must return to save her younger sister.
The dragon is not fireproof in The Maiden and the Dragon
Elodie first tries a trick to get her sister out of the cave, but the little one is injured and the dragon quickly understands the distraction. Unable to flee, the princess decides to confront the beast.
While fighting as best she can, Elodie tries to explain the situation to him, and make him understand that she is not of the same blood as those who massacred the baby dragons. But nothing helps, the dragoness is too angry. The young girl therefore takes advantage of a particularity of the cave to turn the animal’s fire against him. Fortunately for Elodie, the dragon is sensitive to its own flames and finds itself immobilized in agony.
The heroine takes advantage of the creature’s sudden tranquility to set things straight and explain to him the shenanigans of the royal family. Then she treats the beast using the blue critters. When Elodie returns to take revenge, it will be in the company of the dragon.
At the end of The Maiden and the Dragon, the creature no longer has any reason to attack the kingdom of Aurea, having charred the castle and its residents. Elodie and her mother-in-law will therefore reign jointly over their people, benefiting from the resources recovered after the events – but also thanks to the dowry from the false marriage. As for the dragon, she accompanies them on their journey towards home.
The Lady and the Dragon has been available on Netflix since March 8, 2024.
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