| “ | That champion shall have the honor, no no, the privilege, to go forth and rescue the lovely Princess Fiona from the fiery keep of the dragon. If, for any reason, the winner is unsuccessful, the first runner-up will take his place… and so on and so forth. Some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make. Let the tournament begin. | „ |
| ~ Lord Farquaad addressing his tournament participants. |
| “ | Knights, new plan - the one who kills the ogre will be named champion. Have at him! | „ |
| ~ Lord Farquaad ordering the knights to kill Shrek. |
Lord Maximus Farquaad, better simply known as Lord Farquaad, is the main antagonist of DreamWorks' 5th full-length animated feature film Shrek, the first installment of the Shrek franchise, and the titular main antagonist of 2003 short film The Ghost of Lord Farquaad.
He was the oppressive ruler of a lordship called DuLoc and he spent the first part capturing fairytale creatures, so that he could find the magic mirror. Once he did, he asked if DuLoc, the place where he ruled, was the perfect kingdom, but as he was not a king due to not being descended from royalty, DuLoc was not a kingdom, so he tried to marry Princess Fiona to become king. He is very opprobrious, despicable and abhorrent, and loathes creatures of any kind and sought to relocate the fairytale creatures to Shrek's swamp. He makes a deal with Shrek by promising to remove the fairy tale creatures from his swamp if Shrek could bring Fiona to him, as he wanted to marry her out of lust. He is also the reason Shrek met Donkey and Fiona.
He was voiced by John Lithgow.
His Evil Ranking[]
His Villainous Deeds[]
- He kicked the fairy tale creatures out of Duloc for "poisoning his perfect world", thus forcing them to take refuge in Shrek's Swamp.
- He tortured Gingy by ripping his legs off and having him dunked in milk by Thelonious (resembling waterboarding) in order to force him into revealing the locations of the remaining fairy tale creatures that he has been unable to capture and exile, before throwing him in the trash just for advising the magic mirror to avoid telling him anything. He also did all this despite knowing Gingy was sapient and showed no remorse for it.
- He sent a few of his soldiers on a quest to fight Dragon to save Fiona despite knowing some of them would die, and when Shrek came along to demand his swamp back, he changed the rules of the tournament and decided the first one to kill Shrek would go on the quest.
- He didn't care when Shrek beat his soldiers, and instead made Shrek go on the deadly quest.
- It's also shown that he killed Mama Bear and turned her into a rug.
- He told Fiona not to "waste good manners" on Shrek, saying that he doesn't have feelings just to emotionally spite him, even though Shrek was the one who rescued Fiona for him.
- While he may seem to be in love with Fiona at first, calling her a "perfect fit" for him, he doesn't genuinely love her and only wants to marry her to become King of Duloc. He is also possibly perverted towards her, being shown by him getting "excited" while watching her picture while in bed.
- When he learned that Fiona was cursed to become an ogre at sundown after Shrek crashed their wedding, he had his guards seize Shrek and Fiona, planning for Shrek to be drawn and quartered and Fiona to be locked up in the tower for the rest of her life so he'll still be king by technicality, only failing due to Dragon's intervention.
- As a ghost, he ordered Thelonious to kidnap Fiona when she, Shrek and Donkey were on their way to their honeymoon, planning to kill her by sending her over the waterfall to become King of the Underworld.
- He used his powers to make a statue of Dragon come to life and ordered it to eat Shrek and Donkey.
- He took sadistic pleasure in seeing Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey all go over the waterfall.
- His act of making Shrek rescue Fiona is what prevented the Fairy Godmother, Prince Charming, and Rumpelstiltskin from taking over the kingdom of Far Far Away, leading to the plots of the three sequels.
- While Rumpelstiltskin, Bloodwolf, Fairy Godmother, and Big Jack Horner all do worse than him, they have far stronger resources.
Why Doesn't He Stand Out?[]
- While he passes the baseline by sending the knights on a dangerous quest despite acknowledging that they would likely die (without caring if they survive or not) and knowingly torturing a sapient gingerbread man in a painful way, he still fails the high heinous standard to Humpty Alexander Dumpty, who, with next to no resources, nearly got all of San Ricardo destroyed and its villagers killed by kidnapping the golden goose to lure its bloodthirsty mother, the Great Terror, into the town.
- He has many comedic moments and is not taken seriously, such as there being a running gag about him being short, him yelling at Gingy while torturing him and him getting "excited" while looking at Princess Fiona through the magic mirror. Even his defeat was played for laughs with him being eaten by Dragon and screaming like a coward about it.
- He has some sense of honor, as he kept his promise to have the Fairy Tale creatures relocated for Shrek. On top of that, he even gave him the deed to his swamp to prevent any future squatters though it could have been only out of pragmatism as he decided to kill him after rejecting Fiona.
Trivia[]
- Farquaad was originally intended to return in Shrek Forever After in Rumpelstiltskin's alternative timeline, as he was never killed by Dragon in that timeline as Shrek was never born. However, he was scrapped for unknown reasons. Had he originally been kept, it is unknown if it would've affected his VB status.
External Links[]
- Lord Farquaad on the Villains Wiki
- Lord Farquaad on the DreamWorks Wiki
- Lord Farquaad on the Shrek Wiki
- Lord Farquaad on the Universal Studios Wiki
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 Villainous Benchmarks
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Animated Features Live-Action Features Animated Television Shorts Video Games Fanon See Also | ||
 Villainous Benchmarks
Lord Farquaad | Fairy Godmother | Prince Charming | Jack and Jill |
 Villainous Benchmarks
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Animated Features Live-Action Features Animated Television Live-Action Television Short Features Fanon See Also | ||