Lord Farquaad

**Lord Farquaad** (or simply known as Farquaad) is the main antagonist of the 2001 Dreamworks Animation film Shrek (which is based off the book of the same name). He is the mean ruler of DuLoc who wants to marry Fiona in order to be king until Shrek ruined his plans due to him loving her.

He is voiced by John Lithgow.

## Shrek

Farquaad is first seen torturing Gingy along with his henchmen named Thelonious until he tells him where the other fairy creatures (implying that the fairy creatures escape his custody) but however Ginger refuse and spit milk at Farquaad. Farquaad gets angry and almost removed Gingy's gumdrop buttons. During that, Farquaad and Gingy talk about the Muffin Man until the Captain of the Guards arrive telling Farquaad they brought the mirror.

When Farquaad plans to be a king, the mirror has the three princesses for him to choose until he chooses Fiona which caused himself to have a tournament despite the mirror trying to warn Farquaad about Fiona turning into an ogre at night.

At the tournament, Shrek and Donkey arrive to talk Farquaad about the swamp but however Farquaad finds Shrek disgusting and also changes his mind by having his knights kill Shrek but however, Shrek defeated all of the knights which impressed Farquaad. He then awards Shrek with a quest which is rescuing Fiona as well as also having his guards to kill Shrek and Donkey if the former doesn't do his quest but Shrek remarks that he is already on a quest which is kicking the fairy tale creatures out of his swamp. When Lord Farquaad hears this, he makes a deal with Shrek telling him if he rescues Fiona, he will kick the fairy tale creatures out of his swamp.

Farquaad is then seen again looking at a picture of Fiona on the mirror given he is planning to marry Fiona.

The next morning, Farquaad arrive along with his guards to get Fiona where he also pretends to be in love with her by proposes marriage to her right away, Fiona agrees and tells him to marry her before sunset. At the church, When Farquaad and Fiona are about to get married, Shrek shows up trying to tell Fiona that he loves her. Farquaad notice this and makes the town's people laugh at him. After that, Farquaad tries to make Fiona kiss him in order to be king but Fiona didn't due to the fact that she loved Shrek and instead reveal her secret.

Furious and disgusted over the change, Farquaad order his guards to get Shrek and Fiona out of his sight which is having Shrek drawn and quartered and Fiona back at the tower. As Farquaad gloats, Shrek whistles for Dragon, who bursts out of the window and ate/kill Farquaad.

## Personality

Farquaad is the ruthless, deceptive, ill-tempered, egotistical, and iron-fisted ruler of DuLoc who cares about no one but himself (not even including Fiona) and also shown to be very power-hungry and greedy. He is also sadistic due to him torturing Gingy as well as threatened to draw and quarter Shrek until he begs him for his death and very manipulative given that he pretends to be in love with Fiona in order to be king.

Farquaad is also shown to be xenophobe towards ogres and fairy tale creatures due to banishing the latter to Shrek's home while also calling Shrek hideous (in which Shrek thought he was referring it towards Donkey) as well convincing Fiona to not waste good manners on Shrek and he doesn't have feelings at all (which cause Shrek to become sadder and angrier) as well as also disgusted by Fiona's ogre appearance.

However, despite his villainy, Farquaad does not consider himself a monster as shown in the scene he was introduced.

## Trivia

* Farquaad is only main villain in the Shrek films not to come from a fairytale since the others do.
* Alan Rickman was originally going to voice Farquaad but turned down due to playing Severus Snap in the Harry Potter films series.
* His name is supposed to be a play-on of a swear word f\*\*wad.
* Originally, Farquaad was meant to return in Shrek Forever After, where he was going to appear in Rumpelstiltskin's alternate reality because he was never killed by the Dragon as Shrek never existed. John Lithgow even hinted his involvement. However, the idea was dropped during production. Interestingly, some Shrek Forever After DVD cases mention that the world Shrek was never born, Lord Farquaad was still alive, which could suggest that the decision to remove Farquaad from the film was late. Despite this, Farquaad does appear in the end credits.
* Farquaad may be based on the late French Dictator Napoleon Bonaparte due to his short stature yet ruling with an iron fist and crowning himself to king.
* In the musical, the reason why Lord Farquaad hated fairytale creatures is due to his father being one of the seven dwarves and kicking Farquaad out of the house when he was twenty-nine years old and still living in his basement.
* Lord Farquaad serves as a dark parallel to Shrek since both of them dislike fairy tale creatures (or anyone in Shrek's case) on their lands. However, when Donkey told Shrek that friends forgive each other, he apologized for disowning him & not letting him visit his land where Farquaad refuses to accept them. If Shrek never met Donkey, Fiona or the fairy tale creatures and accept company, he would've end up like Lord Farquaad.