MovieChat Forums > Dragonslayer (1981) Discussion > SPOILERS: Did you suspect ...

SPOILERS: Did you suspect ...


When the lottery started up again, after it was revealed that the dragon was still alive, did you have any suspicion that there was even the slightest chance that Elspeth's name would be drawn?

Also, was anyone else annoyed by Valerian's demands that "justice be done," during the final lottery scene, after Elspeth's name is drawn? I'm assuming that this "justice," she called out for had to do with the fact that the princess' name had been excluded from the lottery by her father. If that's the case, she's one to talk. Isn't she the one who disguised herself as a man, so there was no chance that her name would be drawn? Isn't she the one who hid, like a coward, behind the clothes of a man while other innocent women faced horrible, gruesome deaths?

I like Valerian. But she's a raging, stinking hypocrite in this moment. Who is she to complain about the fact that Elspeth's name was left out of the lottery, when she (Valerian) did what she could to ensure that her name would be left out of the lottery as well? Elspeth, at least, had no idea that she wasn't included in the lottery. Valerian, on the other hand, knew perfectly well what was going on.

Of course, she may have been slightly motivated by the fact that she thought Galen was in love with Elspeth. Maybe she resented the princess for that? Here's hoping that wasn't the case.

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Valerian tells Galen early on that not just the princess, but also other daughters in rich families are also able to duck the lottery. She says her father is poor as are a lot of other young women's fathers. I don't think of her & her father as hypocrites so much as outsmarting an incredibly unfair system. I also take the other daughter's fathers being poor remark as suggesting she may not be the only poor girl pretending to be a boy -although this is never indicated in any other way in the film (that I can remember).

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Yeah, I can see both sides. In a way she's a hypocrite for pretending to be a guy all this time while other girls of less wealthy families are being sacrificed. But I also get her point here; Elspeth's name was called out, and fairly. To change it suddenly was horribly, blatantly, openly unfair.

Whores will have their trinkets.

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royals need to know they are not above the rest and I loved how she sarificed herself for the greater good. I do wish Galen got to her in time though.

but her death taught her father a lesson

Look like Tarzan talk like Jane! HAHA

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I think it was Valerian's father who hid her, and not really her idea, though she was complicit, but perhaps only to appease her father.

She actually did lead the expedition to find someone to get rid of Vermithrax.

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