Dragon Queen
| Dragon Queen | |
| Dragon Quest III Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake | |
| Sprite(s) | 
|
| Japanese name | 竜の女王 |
| Romaji | Ryu no Juou |
| Race | Dragon |
| Family | Dragonlord (son) Dragonlord's great-grandson (descendant) |
| Voice actor | Megumi Terase (Japanese, CD Theater) Yoko Takahashi (Live Spectacle Tour) Keiko Han (Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake) |
The Dragon Queen is a character who first appeared in Dragon Quest III.
She plays a small but crucial role in the game's story, and her status as one of the first friendly monsters in the entire series has given her a lasting impression among fans.
Appearances[edit]
Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation[edit]
The Dragon Queen is a bipedal dragon with green scales and blue wings, and she wears a golden amulet around her neck. She is the monarch of an isolated land far east of the village of Khoryv, nestled in a ring of tall mountains. The Queen's court consists of Faeries, Dwarves, and talking animals, all of whom greatly revere her. Unlike the Queen of Faeries, the Dragon Queen seemingly holds no ill prejudice against humanity. The Queen is soft-spoken but well informed, declaring herself to be a servant of the almighty Goddess. The Queen is seemingly aware of the existence of Zoma through her act of giving the Hero the Sphere of Light, though she only mentions Baramos' title of archfiend when stating that the sphere belongs to the Hero through divine right.
Unfortunately, the Queen's life is nearing its end when the player encounters her and the court is stricken with grief. Her final act is to lay a single egg before fading away, which the player can then examine to feel the faint warmth of new life stirring within.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake[edit]
The Dragon Queen has been resigned to be a quadrupedal dragon with lavender scales, silver horns, and yellow eyes. She is much larger than any human, towering over the party even when she is at rest.
Speaking with the Queen is now a mandatory part of the game, as only the Sphere of Light can pierce the impenetrable miasma that Zoma left to prevent passage into the Great Pit of Giaga when he briefly entered the world. The player is shown a brief cutscene of the cloudy mists surrounding the Queen's castle clearing on the morning after the slaying of Baramos.
The Queen is tended to by an entourage of priests, with the leader of the group being totally devoted to her and despairing as she approaches the end of her life. He is consoled by his three subordinates, with one priest pointing out that the dragon most holy has watched over the realm through a continuous cycle of rebirth while another states that the Queen's offspring will guide her followers just as she did. These two statements imply that the soul of the Queen is possibly reincarnated through her bloodline and will reemerge into the material world as the child of her own descendant at some point in the future, where as the older versions of the game have no mention of such a rebirth cycle.
The Queen's dialogue has been greatly expanded in this remake, addressing the Hero as the child of Ortega. She names Zoma directly now and gives the world's savior clear instructions on how to enter the Underworld. Her life force begins to fade as she speaks, but the Queen continues on and warns the Hero to not underestimate Zoma's strength while bequeathing the Sphere of Light. Having fulfilled her duty, the Queen lays her egg and calmly passes away. The head priest is devastated at her passing and blames his inability to ease her burden; he says the strain of watching over two worlds torn asunder is what brought the Queen to her limits and that if the world were as it ought to be then her life would not have not have extinguished. What the priest means by this is not elaborated within the game, though his monologue during the ending alludes to the profound influence he will have on the future.
When Rubiss is friend from Her petrification in Her tower in the Underworld She will note that the hero possesses the Sphere of of Light, musing that She and the realm She created are in the Dragon Queen's debt. How the two know of one another and what this connection implies along with the Dragon Queen's priest sating that she watched over two worlds is left to the player's imagination.
Dragon Quest of the Stars[edit]
The Queen serves the same role she did in the original game, but her appearance has been radically altered to that of a human woman wearing an ornate headdress and gown. A set of equipment based on her new likeness is available to the player as well, along with several weapons bearing her name.
Dragon Quest Live Spectacle Tour[edit]
The Queen is played by actress Yoko Takahashi, and by necessity is once again depicted as a human woman.
Theories[edit]
Since the release of Dragon Quest III in 1988, there has been much speculation to the nature of the Queen and her place in the Erdrick trilogy.
Relation to the Dragonlord[edit]
The act of the Queen laying her egg before her passing has stuck out to many players as possible foreshadowing to the events of the first game, with many concluding that the egg contains the Dragonlord. This speculation is based on the following points:
- ROM capacity for the original NES version meant that every last bit of data had to be used efficiently, with literally no room left to spare for unnecessary events. The staff of Chunsoft would have been fully aware of this during the game's development, as would Yuji Horii, and therefor it can be presumed within reason that the scene is meant to allude to something greater than just a mother continuing her family line before her passing.
- The Emblem of Roto manga fully embraces the notion that the Queen is indeed the Dragonlord's mother, stating that the child would succumb to darkness without the guidance of his mother during his formative years.
- The Enix-published gamebook based on Dragon Quest II was released after the development of III and corroborates the connection by having the Dragonlord's great-great-grandson openly mention the Queen, regarding her fondly as "Hihibaa-san" (ひいひいばあさん).
Relation to Yggdragon[edit]
During the ending of Dragon Quest XI, the Hero speaks to Yggdragon in a lengthy cutscene. During the conversation, the dragon explains the balance of light and darkness and alludes to the possibility of even herself succumbing to evil--this dialogue, along with the ambiguous connections between the game and the Erdrick trilogy, has lead to several plays believing that Yggdragon is the ancestor of the Queen of Dragons.
- This belief is further supported in the Japanese script of III, which states that the Queen is the daughter of an unnamed dragon god. This line is present in the original NES version and was not altered for the SFC remake, though some fans took it as implying that the Queen is related to Xenlon.
- The connection is further alluded to in the HD remake of III, where the Queen and Yggdragon bare a resemblance to one another as well as share the same voice actress in Japanese. The additional dialogue alluding to the Dragon Queen having a rebirth cycle has led to some fans concluding that she is the reincarnation of Yggdragon.
Gallery[edit]
A Carddass card depicting the Queen giving the Hero the Sphere of Light
The Dragon Queen giving the hero the Sphere of Light
HD sprites
The Queen's humanoid form as she appears in Stars.
The Queen's claws and club in Stars.
The Queen's axe and whip in Stars.
The Queen's gown.
The Queen portrayed by Yoko Takahashi.
Costume concept art.
