I wonder if anyone ever considered that the dragon guarding the princess was really a metaphor for the princess’s strength, power, fire, all the things the prince could not handle and that his killing the dragon was destroying the part of her that was truly magical just so he could possess her, he could own her, he could have her and her crown. Maybe if the dragon defeated the prince for a change, her true happiness in genuinely being herself could be found.
~Nikita Gill (Rethinking The Fairytale)