Farquaad

**Farquaad**is the main antagonist from the 2001 animated feature *Shrek*. Like most characters, he does not appear in William Steig's picture book of the same name.

## Personality

Farquaad is the villainous impatient, menacing, ruthless, greedy, cruel, offensive, evil, (literally), mean, furious, barbaric, loathsome, scandalous, materialistic, short-tempered, egotistical, and iron-fisted ruler of DuLoc. He is an extremely selfish, arrogant, conceited, oppressive, and power-hungry dictator who doesn't care about anyone but himself. However, despite his villainy, Farquaad didn't see himself as a monster and when this was brought up to him by Gingy, he instantly dismissed it and even went as far to call him and the rest of fairytale creatures which makes him completely xenophobic, contemptuous, and individualistic. Farquaad also suffered from a Napoleon Complex and felt the need to overcompensate for his comical stature by being domineering and controlling. Other examples of this is the towering height of castle DuLoc and in his grave when Farquaad was taller than the dragon that killed him.

Farquaad is a heartless perfectionist who saw that everything had to be done his way and the only way for DuLoc to become perfect was to exile all fairy tale creatures. Farquaad's one and only dream was to become the official ruler of DuLoc. However, to do this he needed a princess so the only reason he decided to wed Fiona was out of pure lust for power and not any love in his heart. Farquaad is also very sadistic and manipulative, as evidenced while he was torturing Gingy by severing his legs and taunting him further by repeating the line "Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man.".

Although in the first film where he was disgusted by Fiona's ogress appearance, he may have actually developed real feelings for her he may have developed genuine feeling for her after his death he wanted her to become his undead queen so he could rule the underworld. He was also work-shy as evidenced by him not wanting to rescue the princess himself so he arranged a tournament of Knights to battle for the honor. To be fair, he is incredibly short in stature, so he was likely unable to do so. Farquaad was quite offensive and had an intimidating streak which shows as he calls both Fiona and Shrek hideous at the sight of their appearance and described them both as "it". Farquaad's overall attraction towards the princess may have been solely lust and even if they did wed there was no guarantee that he would treat her right.

## in the Shrek Films

### Shrek

Lord Farquaad is the comically short-in-stature, ruthless ruler of Duloc. Several times in the film it is commented that in his capital city Duloc's towering height, Farquaad may be compensating for something. His birthday is April 15.

In pursuit of perfection, Farquaad attempts to rid his kingdom of Fairy Tale creatures, offering a bounty for their capture and then exiling imprisoned creatures to Shrek's swamp. However, because Farquaad is not of royal stock, he cannot become a king until he marries a princess. He decides that Princess Fiona will be the perfect wife and queen, but she first must be rescued from her tower which is guarded by a fire-breathing dragon.

Too lazy or perhaps unable to perform the rescue himself, Farquaad holds a tournament to discover the knight who will rescue Princess Fiona. Shrek and Donkey arrive at Duloc during the tourney and become involved, but Farquaad wants them (mainly Shrek) killed in the contest. They defeat the knights, so Farquaad decides to send Shrek on the quest. Farquaad agrees to move the Fairy Tale creatures out of Shrek's swamp if he rescues Fiona, although it's safe to assume he was gonna put them somewhere worse than the swamp.

A couple of days later, Shrek brings Farquaad to Fiona and Farquaad acts like an ungrateful jerk and rudely hands him the deed to his swamp and doesn't even thank Shrek or Donkey for bringing her to him. He introduces himself to Fiona and tells her not to waste good manners on Shrek because he thinks "it" doesn't have feelings. Fiona, since she's angry at Shrek for not letting her explain anything, accepts Farquaad's proposal and they leave to be married at sunset.

When Shrek reconciles with Donkeys, he disrupts the marriage ceremony, delaying a kiss between Farquaad and Fiona until after sunset. Fiona makes the transition from human to ogress form, upon which Farquaad rejects his new bride, banishing her back to the tower and claiming the title of King. He also sentences Shrek to death at that time. Before Farquaad finishes his claim of becoming the new King, the dragon who had guarded Fiona, and who developed a crush on Donkey while Fiona was being rescued from her castle, crashes through the window in response to a beckoning whistle from Shrek. She then devours Farquaad. Moments later the dragon burps and Farquaad's crown comes out. Farquaad was clearly hated in Duloc; when he is eaten, the citizens and guards laugh and cheer.

Farquaad also appears in the short musical film *Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party!*, which takes place just before Shrek and Fiona leave on their honeymoon. He is shown singing Stayin' Alive inside Dragon's stomach.

Despite being alive in *Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party*, Farquaad is implied to be killed and enters as a ghost in the *Shrek 4-D* ride at Universal Studios. He also appears as a ghost in the 30 min Shrek Special on Nick in which he attempts to murderer Shrek and Donkey, and kidnap and kill Fiona so that she can be his ghost queen. Princess Fiona is rescued when Lord Farquaad is presumably destroyed by the Dragon again.