Red Sonja ending explained: From bloodshed to compassion: Sonja’s final trial

M. J. Bassett's Red Sonja (2025), which debuted on August 13, 2025, is the highly anticipated return of the legendary warrior heroine who first appeared in Marvel Comics and was then made popular on screen in 1985. The film combines sword-and-sorcery action with themes of survival, treachery, and destiny.

Red Sonja features Matilda Lutz as Red Sonja, Robert Sheehan as the merciless Emperor Draygan, and Wallis Day as the troubled Anisia. The plot centers on Sonja, the last member of her tribe, who is taken prisoner and made to compete in a gladiatorial battle before emerging as a symbol of defiance against oppression.

She travels alongside Osin and the Dumnati warriors, laying the groundwork for the final uprising against Draygan's dominance. Red Sonja's ending combines epic battle and personal tragedy, as Dragan falls, Anisia meets her fate, and Sonja embraces compassion, carrying forward her journey toward new adventures.

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Blood, betrayal, and mercy: The ending of Red Sonja (2025)

A visual from the film's trailer (Image via YouTube/Samuel Goldwyn Films)

The conclusion of Red Sonja takes place amid the chaos of a last-ditch effort. Sonja and the Dumnati warriors put up a brave fight, but they are unable to overcome Emperor Draygan's overwhelming force until Osin and his troops arrive.

His intervention turns the tide, giving new hope to a seemingly doomed fight. The battlefield soon turns into a storm of clashing steel, blood, and undying loyalty. Draygan turns to the missing half of an old book, the source of his passion, as his authority collapses. He desperately flips through its pages, thinking it has the ultimate power, only to find the harsh irony: it has teachings of restoration rather than weapons of destruction.

That realization contains the gruesome reality of his demise: he always had the power to create, but only chose to destroy. Cornered and unraveling, Draygan seeks refuge in his most loyal warrior, Anisia. He reveals a terrible secret out of desperation: the voices that haunted her were lies he sowed through potions, which he claimed to have helped her.

The betrayal destroys her faith, and Anisia strikes him down in a vengeful and empowering movement, but Draygan, infuriated, fatally wounds her in revenge. Their simultaneous fate serves as a chilling reminder of how abuse and dishonesty eventually consume both master and servant.

A visual from the film's trailer (Image via YouTube/Samuel Goldwyn Films)

Sonja arrives too late to save Anisia and finds Draygan broken and powerless. She realizes he is the boy she once abandoned. As Draygan says the gods have forsaken him, Sonja reminds him that he was given wisdom but chose to use it for destruction; his fate was a consequence, not a punishment.

In his final moments, he asks her to hold him, and she agrees. To honor who he once was, not the tyrant he became, Sonja carries his body to the Hercanians for a solemn funeral that ends his story with dignity.

The film concludes with Sonja returning to the open road. She rides forward with just her horse at her side, driven by purpose rather than revenge. It feels more like a beginning than a conclusion when Osin asks her to go on a new adventure with him. Sonja continues to write her story as a warrior, a nomad, and a legend, just as she has always been.

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Red Sonja was released in the United States on August 13, 2025. Stay tuned for more updates.