Why Did Lord Farquaad Hate Fairy Tale Creatures In Shrek?

The main villain in Shrek was Lord Farquaad (voiced by John Lithgow), who was trying to get rid of all the fairy tale creatures in Duloc, but the movie didn’t quite explore his reasons for this. In 2001, DreamWorks established itself as a worthy competitor to Pixar with the animated fantasy comedy Shrek, directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson. Loosely based on the 1990 children’s picture book of the same name by William Steig, Shrek took viewers to a world where different fairy tale characters, creatures, and humans co-exist, but it completely changed the idea of the traditional fairy tale.

Shrek follows the title ogre (voiced by Mike Myers), who, after his swamp is invaded by fairy tale characters, makes a deal with Lord Faquaad: Shrek will rescue Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) in exchange for getting his swamp back. Shrek is accompanied on this mission by Donkey (Eddie Murphy), with whom he forms a special friendship. What triggers the events of Shrek is Farquaad’s efforts to exile all fairy tale creatures and his plan to marry Princess Fiona, but why he hates fairy tale characters so much is one of the biggest questions left by the movie.

Lord Farquaad Was Obsessed With Having A “Perfect” World In Shrek

Lord Farquaad Had A Lot Of Insecurities In Shrek

Lord Farquaad was the tyrannical and ruthless ruler of Duloc, a city-state centered around a huge castle, with Shrek joking about how the castle’s large size was compensating for something given Farquaad’s short stature. The residents of Duloc lived under Farquaad’s strict dictatorship, which got worse when he decided to exile all fairy tale creatures living in Duloc. Farquaad offered rewards for these creatures and many of them were handed to his knights, such as Pinocchio, the Three Bears, Tinkerbell, and Donkey, though he managed to escape.

Farquaad was looking to make Duloc and its surrounding territory “perfect”, and as he said in Shrek, fairy tale creatures were “trash” to him and were “poisoning” his perfect world. Exactly why he thought of these characters like that is unknown, as well as if there was an event that triggered all that hate, but it might just be that, as he was a human with lots of insecurities, he projected these on the fairy tale creatures living in his territory. While some of those characters were imprisoned, others had very dark fates (such as Mamma Bear), but most were exiled to Shrek’s swamp.

As part of Farquaad’s pursuit of perfection, and after the Magic Mirror told him Duloc wasn’t perfect because it wasn’t a kingdom, he decided to marry a Princess and was given three options: Cinderella, Snow White, and Fiona. Rescuing and marrying Fiona was part of Farquaad’s plan to achieve perfection and turn Duloc into a perfect kingdom, but he didn’t succeed at either of those things.

Shrek The Musical Gave Farquaad A Stronger Reason To Hate Fairy Tale Creatures (But It Isn’t Canon)

Lord Farquaad’s Backstory Was Explored A Bit More In The Musical

The success of Shrek made way for a franchise with a total of four movies, two spinoff movies focused on Puss in Boots, various short films, a spinoff TV series, and more. Among Shrek’s extended media is a stage musical appropriately titled Shrek The Musical that opened in 2008. Shrek The Musical included Lord Farquaad, who had the same storyline as in the movie, with the bonus of some backstory. During the musical number “The Ballad of Farquaad”, Farquaad revealed he was the son of Grumpy (yes, Snow White’s Grumpy) and his mother was the princess from The Princess and the Pea.

Farquaad’s mother had to give up the crown to marry Grumpy, and as she was so sensitive that she had to sleep on 25 mattresses, one night she rolled over to her death. After that, Farquaad was abandoned by Grumpy in the woods, though Grumpy later revealed he kicked him out because he was 28 years old and living in his basement. This better explains why Farquaad hated fairy tale characters so much, but Shrek The Musical isn’t canon, instead being a retelling of the first movie.

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What Happened To Duloc After Farquaad’s Death In Shrek

Duloc Didn’t Get A Happy Ending After Shrek

In both Shrek and the musical, Farquaad was killed by Dragon (eaten in the movie, incinerated in the musical), something that the people of Duloc cheered on as they were tired of him. However, Duloc didn’t have a happy ending once Farquaad was gone, as shown in the Halloween special Scared Shrekless. In it, Shrek and company went to the run-down kingdom of Duloc and entered the abandoned castle to share scary stories. No residents were seen in Duloc and even the welcoming booth changed its tune to one that warned tourists to get out, showing that no other ruler was appointed.

Had Farquaad’s plans succeeded and Duloc had become a kingdom, it would probably have had a much better fate than the one it ultimately got, but it’s also likely that the people of Duloc and the fairy tale creatures would have looked for revenge against Farquaad for all those years of dictatorship and more.

Shrek

Based loosely on the children’s book of the same name by William Steig, Shrek tells the story of an ogre (Michael Myers) who sets with his new friend Donkey (Eddie Murphy) out to regain his swamp from fairytale characters. Tasked with rescuing Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) in return for the restoration of his solitude, Shrek discovers that he’s not the loner he always thought he was, and that looks aren’t always everything.

Director

Vicky Jenson , Andrew Adamson

Release Date

May 18, 2001

Runtime

90 minutes