Dragon (Shrek)

Lore & Background

Dragon resembles most classical interpretations of European dragons, with keeled, ruby-colored scales, leathery bat-like wings, long crested ears, bony spikes along her jawline, a row of dorsal spines, vertical slit pupils, and a long, spade-tipped, prehensile tail. She does not speak but employs physically expressive body language. Like her mate Donkey, she is never given a proper name in the film, though Donkey at one point says 'I'm coming, Elizabeth!'—which may reference the television series Sanford and Son. Her personality is tender-hearted, despite having so few visitors that she incinerates any apparent knights sight-unseen; she regularly puts on lipstick in hopes of finding a romantic partner.

Reader's Guide

Dragon's significance lies in her subversion of traditional dragon tropes. Initially appearing as a villain, she is revealed to be female and seeking love, a twist that critics noted as a feminist departure from the typical male knight slaying a dragon to rescue a princess. Her romance with Donkey, an interspecies relationship, visually realizes the film's moral that appearances are not important, while also distracting from the intermarriage of human and ogre. Dragon's femininity was a major departure from typical fairy tale gender roles, where dragons are usually masculine or gender-neutral. In Shrek, the patriarchal dragon-slaying trope is reversed, with Dragon intervening to bring about the happy ending. She has become a pop-culture icon, with Petrana Radulovic of Polygon calling the plot twist 'revolutionary' and noting she 'definitely should've been featured in more movies.'

Did You Know?

• Dragon's fire was originally animated as realistic flame but was replaced with a stream of roiling bubbles coated with a skin of flame.
• In a parallel universe in Shrek Forever After, Dragon never met Donkey and was captured by Rumpelstiltskin, becoming a villain.
• Dragon and Donkey have six offspring called 'dronkeys'—dragon-donkey hybrids.
• In the stage musical adaptation, Dragon was portrayed as a puppet controlled by John Tartaglia.