Princess Daphne is the daughter of the King Ethelred and an unnamed Queen. Her background belongs to the damsel in distress stock: A beautiful maiden coveted by many princes and knights, her heart belongs to the Kingdom's champion, Dirk the Daring.
Design History[]
Princess Daphne was originally created by Rick Dyer's Advanced Microcomputer Systems (AMS, later RDI Video Systems) team, then completely redesigned by Don Bluth. Bluth took his inspiration from photographs from the producer Gary Goldman's collection of old issues of Playboy magazine, ultimately putting Daphne "in a very-revealing one piece 'thong' bathing suit with a sheer veil that partially covered her".[1]
Dragon's Lair[]
In the first game, she is taken by the dragon Singe and imprisoned in a crystal orb. According to the manual of the 8-bit version, Singe commanded Ethelred to surrender his kingdom before sunset. Daphne appears in the final level of the game, giving Dirk directions to use the magic sword and slay the dragon.
TV series[]
In the TV series her character and role are far more developed. Despite her beauty, she is an adventurous character, often eager to abandon her royal pose and joins Dirk and Timothy in their adventures. Also, her attire is less revealing, wearing a proper princess dress.
Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp[]
At the start of the game, ten years have passed after her adventure with Singe. Daphne and Dirk are married and have over a dozen children. However she is again captured, this time by the evil wizard Mordroc, who wants to enslave her with the Death Ring. In the final stage of the arcade game, the Death Ring transforms her from a beautiful princess into The Banshee, an ugly gargantuan monster with a ravenous appetite, but Dirk saves her by removing it from her finger. Daphne is restored to her normal form in a coma-like state, but Dirk awakens her with a kiss. In other versions of the game, an alternative shorter ending sequence plays out in the final stage in which Daphne does not transform into The Banshee, but simply disappears until Dirk defeats Mordroc, after which Dirk discovers her asleep and awakens her with a kiss, exactly like the conclusion to the game's longer ending.
Dragon's Lair III: The Curse of Mordread[]
Mordread, Mordroc's evil witch sister, imprisons Dirk's homestead into an orb on her staff. Dirk however was not in the house, so he begins pursuing Mordread to restore his home, and Daphne inside it.
Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair[]
A reinterpretation of events from the original arcade game orchestrated by the evil wizard Mordroc. Despite being abducted, Daphne apparently has maintained the ability to communicate with Dirk through a magical amulet. The voice of Daphne provides hints and gameplay instructions to the player but may also complain if the player spends too much time collecting treasures. Dirk apparently rescues Daphne from Single's lair, but a nearby mirror soon reveals he has been tricked by Mordroc and must continue deeper into the castle to find the real Daphne. After defeating Mordroc, Daphne emerges and embraces Dirk for a kiss reminiscent of the their reunion at the end of Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp (original animation frames even appear to have been redrawn to fit with the recoded game). Unlike the ending of Time Warp, Mordroc is still alive, and uses his remaining magical energy to zap the backside of the unsuspecting Daphne, who reacts in surprise by biting Dirk's lip. No further dangers befall them, however, and the couple levitates into the sky as fireworks explode and the credits sequence rolls. The credits theme "He's My Guy" is performed by Julie Eisenhower, presumably sung from the perspective of Daphne.
Trivia[]
- In Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp Daphne's attire changes throughout the game without explanation.
- Throughout many of the game's darker stages, Daphne's translucent sheer appears darkly shaded but also reminiscent of its appearance in the original game. In other stages, Daphne's sheer appears a vibrant shade of light blue.
- In Stage 2 (Land Before Time), Daphne's crown appears inconsistently throughout the sequence. She loses one of her shoes while being tossed around by the pterocentaurs, but is wearing it again by the end of the scene. In the concluding sequence of Stage 7, she no longer wears the crown and loses both shoes when Dirk lifts her into the air for their triumphant embrace; her shoes are back when the couple board the Time Machine, absent as she and Dirk ride safely together, then finally reappear as they reach their home cottage.
- At the beginning of Stage 7 in Mordroc's lair, Daphne is adorned in a black macabre wedding gown which has large shoulder pads and a skirt that is longer and darker than her traditional sheer. After Mordroc slips her the Death Ring and Dirk cradles her in his arms, Daphne's transformation into the Banshee begins, she loses her crown and her gown's shoulder pads and skirt disappear.
- In her transformed state as The Banshee, Daphne receives another distinct outfit that fully accommodates her expanded size. The Banshee's black one-piece bathing suit lacks any straps for her shoulders or neckline and the sheer has disappeared. The Banshee wears black pointy heels with ribbons that cover her toes completely, distinct from Daphne's traditional open-toed high-heels.
- In Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair, Daphne is attired in her traditional black bathing suit but lacks the iconic sparkly sheer from earlier games.
- According to surviving storyboard drawings created for the Attract Mode of a cancelled Dragon's Lair IV project, Daphne might have taken a more active role in the game's action stages, possibly even riding a pegasus and fighting off enemies with a sword at some point in the storyline.[2]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ "The making of... Dragon's Lair". Retro Gamer 24.
- ↑ Worthpoint.com sourced: "DON BLUTH DRAGON'S LAIR IV CONCEPTUAL STORYBOARD DRAWINGS" | https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/don-bluth-dragons-lair-iv-conceptual-533887146