History YMMV / Damsel

* EsotericHappyEnding: Elodie has defeated the kingdom that is sacrificing women to a dragon. However, it seems her own kingdom, especially with their king [[spoiler:dead]], will still be suffering from an apocalyptically harsh winter and famine. Elodie's wedding and [[spoiler:sacrifice]] was a bargain struck to avert such disaster, only for the king to attempt to back out at the last minute. [[spoiler:Aurea is also in total chaos, with the extermination of its entire ruling royal family. Real world history teaches us that is not a recipe for stability.]]

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: When the teasers were released, people seemed to be rather annoyed at the fact that it ''yet another'' FracturedFairyTale movie [[DamselOutOfDistress subverting the]] DamselInDistress trope, which has been done to death in the past decade, which never banished when the film proper released, as it didn't really do anything new with the trope that other films have already done and, in many people's eyes, much better.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The Dragon is clearly intended to be seen as a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds with the sacrifices [[spoiler:being payment for the unprovoked murder of her children.]] The problem being she's a sadistic SerialKiller who's been taking her rage out on fully innocent girls for ''centuries'' without a flicker of remorse and only minds that she [[spoiler:didn't kill the 'right' girls]]. She gleefully tortures and butchers utterly helpless people [[spoiler:including Elodie's father and the members of his party (though most certainly under the assumption that they were Aureans, possibly even thinking Bayford was the Aurean monarch). The closest she gets to comeuppance is losing one of her eyes to Elodie.]] It's even debatable if this is really comeuppance, as the dragon seems to have both eyes when she burns the royal family, implying that Elodie healing her undid all the damage she did in their fight.

* BrokenAesop: If you have been unjustly wronged, it doesn't make it ok to take out your anger on innocent people who had no involvement in causing your suffering, unless they are descended from the perpetrator [[SinsOfTheFather then that makes it ok]].

* BrokenAesop: If you have been unjustly wronged, it doesn't make it ok to take out your vengeance on innocent people who had no involvement in causing your suffering, unless they are descended from the perpetrator [[SinsOfTheFather then that makes it ok]].

* BrokenAesop: If you have been unjustly wronged, it doesn't make it ok to take out your vengeance on innocent people who had no involvement in causing your suffering, unless they are descended from the perpetrator [[SinsOfThyFather then that makes it ok]].

EsotericHappyEnding: Elodie has defeated the kingdom that is sacrificing women to a dragon. However, it seems her own kingdom, especially with their king [[spoiler:dead]], will still be suffering from an apocalyptically harsh winter and famine. Elodie's wedding and [[spoiler:sacrifice]] was a bargain struck to avert such disaster, only for the king to attempt to back out at the last minute. [[spoiler:Aurea is also in total chaos, with the extermination of its entire ruling royal family. Real world history teaches us that is not a recipe for stability.]]

EsotericHappyEnding: Elodie has defeated the kingdom that is sacrificing women to a dragon. However, it seems her own kingdom, especially with their king [[spoiler:dead]], will still be suffering from an apocalyptically harsh winter and famine. Elodie's wedding and [[spoiler:sacrifice]] was a bargain struck to avert such disaster, only for the king to attempt to back out at the last minute.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The Dragon is clearly intended to be seen as a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds with the sacrifices [[spoiler:being payment for the unprovoked murder of her children.]] The problem being she's a sadistic SerialKiller who's been taking her rage out on fully innocent girls for ''centuries'' without a flicker of remorse and only minds that she [[spoiler:didn't kill the 'right' girls]]. She gleefully tortures and butchers utterly helpless people [[spoiler:including Elodie's father and the members of his party (though most certainly under the assumption that they were Aureans, possibly even thinking Bayford was the Aurean monarch). The closest she gets to comeuppance is losing one of her eyes to Elodie.]]

* SoOkayItsAverage: A common consensus is that the film has some nice-looking sets, costumes and special effects, and the first half is an enjoyable and suspenseful dark fantasy[=/=] survival horror with a seemingly perfect fairytale kingdom hiding a dark secret and Elodie trying to escape from the dragon's lair. However, the larger plot received criticism for being underdeveloped or nonsensical in places (particularly by the movie's second half), certain plot twists resulting in muddled messages and some characters lacking depth and/or screentime. Overall, it's thought the film's writing wasn't polished or clever enough to truly make the most of its premise, but if you don't think about the story details too much it makes for a decent fantasy flick.

* AccidentalAesop: [[spoiler:The dragon eventually comes to feel remorse for killing the princesses -- but only after Elodie reveals that most of them were unrelated to the Aurean royal bloodline, implying that the dragon would have been completely justified in murdering young women for centuries if they had actually been descendants of the man who ordered the killing of her babies]]. This essentially changes the story's moral from "killing innocent people is wrong" to "killing innocent people is wrong, as long as they're not distantly related to the source of your pain is fine. Killing the distant decendances of the people who caused you pain is wholly justified, though."
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The reason why Elodie in the last act kept trying to reason with the dragon: was it because she sympathized with her or was it out of pragmatism? Elodie already reasoned that escaping from the dragon was useless and even if she did the Aurean royal family could easily throw her and her sister back into the cave to pacify it, so by revealing the truth, Elodie could gain a powerful ally to point out their mutual enemy: the Aurean royal family, as well as keeping further innocent woman from being sacrificed, The fact she had the clear opportunity to slay the dragon, which would have not only dealt with a real threat but may have made the royal family grateful to her, her choosing to instead spare/heal the dragon seems to confirm the sympathy interpretation.

* TearJerker: Elodie discovering the names of all the women who died before her etched into the cave wall.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The Dragon is clearly intended to be seen as a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds with the sacrifices [[spoiler:being payment for the unprovoked murder of her children.]] The problem being she's a sadistic SerialKiller who's been taking her rage out on fully innocent girls for ''centuries'' without a flicker of remorse and only minds that she [[spoiler:didn't kill the 'right' girls. She gleefully tortures and butchers utterly helpless people including Elodie's father and the members of his party (though most certainly under the assumption that they were Aureans, possibly even thinking Bayford was the Aurean monarch). The closest she gets to comeuppance is losing one of her eyes to Elodie.]]

* AccidentalAesop: [[spoiler:The dragon eventually comes to feel remorse for killing the princesses -- but only after Elodie reveals that most of them were unrelated to the Aurean royal bloodline, implying that the dragon would have been completely justified in murdering young women for centuries if they had actually been descendants of the man who ordered the killing of her babies]]. This essentially changes the story's moral from "killing innocent people is wrong" to "killing innocent people wholly unconnected to the source of your pain is fine if they're distantly related to the perpetrators."