SBG 148: Damsel

Lez Hang Out is proud to be sponsored by Olivia, the travel company for lesbians and all LGBTQ+ women! Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more! Right now, we’re retiring our lower tiers– so all new patrons who join at $5/month or higher (or upgrade!) by July 1st will be entered into a raffle to guest star on a bonus Patreon episode. You can also support the show by grabbing some merch at bit.ly/lezmerch or picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp. Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that would probably be down to f*ck a dragon.  This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out and talk about why the 2024 Netflix dark fantasy film Damsel Should’ve Been Gay. Damsel stars Millie Bobby Brown and is perhaps the only movie that dares to ask the question, what if the princess’ love interest is a dragon? It’s like if Fiona got thrown into that tower in Shrek and then fell in love with Dragon instead of the ogre that rescued her. Shrek 2 would’ve gone A LOT differently.  If you haven’t seen Damsel (and even if you have), you do not want to miss Leigh’s recap where it takes us approximately 12 minutes to get 4 seconds into the story because (in our defense) the movie starts with what is essentially a thirst-trap of Millie Bobby Brown’s character Elodie chopping wood in the frozen tundra with the most jacked arms you’ve ever seen. She may not be wearing a flannel, but that is a whole lez. And you’d be surprised how important it is to the plot that Elodie be freaking jacked. Honestly the level of suspension of disbelief we would have to employ to watch this movie without that wood-chopping scene is nearly insurmountable. Elodie survives not only a 125 foot drop into the dragon pit, but then gets set on fire like 1000 times, hauls her body up solid rock walls with nothing but a knife, and is able to eventually reach freedom (for all of 5 minutes before having to go back to the pit to rescue her sister). But she really does make it out, a feat that was impossible for the previous princesses that had been tossed to the dragon (because only a lesbian could survived any of this!)  The best thing about this movie is that it doesn’t do that obnoxious redemption arc for the prince where the obviously lesbian-coded princess gets stuck with him in the end. Instead, Elodie rides off into the sunset on the back of the dragon, enemies-to-lovers style, and we straight up watch that milk-toast man get burned alive. We know one thing for sure, Damsel Should’ve Been Gay. Don’t forget to give us your Q & Gay answers on Instagram and follow along on TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. You can find your favorite smol and tol hosts at @lshfoster and @elliebrigida. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices