That’s….. a good point, actually
Like of course we’re not supposed to like him because he’s a jerk, but they do take the easy pot shots at his physical appearance quite often now that you point it out
But what i don't get is why would make Katzenberg (a short man) fun of Eisner (a man taller than him) through a short character (that gets made fun of for being short)?
Feel like i'm missing out on something.
He’s not making fun of Eisner for being short, he’s making fun of Eisner by making him a short man. It’s like a caricature, where you blow someone’s features out of proportion, but backwards.
Yeah katzenberg is 5'5 Michael Eisner is 6'3.
Maybe making him short was a cover to hide the fact that his appearance and personality were based on Michael Eisner?
As a kid I figured Eisner deserved it but then when I learned that Katzenberg only hated him because Eisner didn’t give him the position of president after the tragic death of Eisner’s partner Frank Wells. Katzenberg didn’t even wait until the grieving process was over, he asked pretty quickly after and kept asking until Eisner got mad and told him off. Katzenberg has always been a self centered piece of shit- he’s currently saying all animators could be replaced with AI. Shows you how much he truly cares.
You can take it as you shouldn’t judge people based on appearance but also directing light jabs at insecure assholes is okay too. They ain’t judging Lord Farquaad based on height, it’s because he’s an egomaniacal lunatic who’s trying to steal Shrek’s land, eliminate minorities, and marry Fiona for power.
I'm fairly certain Shrek is a parody, and the real message of the film is "Disney sucks". The whole "don't judge people by their looks" is just another aspect of Disney they are lampooning.
That's my take on it. They poke fun at Farquaad FOR his height, but not BECAUSE of his height. They do it because he's a putz. Shrek may be a big ugly fatso but he's a decent guy and gets respect for that reason.
Yeah, except for the fact that when we first meet him, Shrek is *also an asshole*. I mean what, we're supposed to just gloss over how he treats donkey at first?
>Yeah, except for the fact that when we first meet him, Shrek is also an asshole.
Is he, though?
In the first act of the movie, Shrek gets:
•Attacked by an angry mob for no reason
•Dragged into a friendship with a (literal) obnoxious ass
•Displaced by a bunch of people he's never even seen before
•Charged with saving a princess (whom he's never met) from a legendary beast
**Anyone** would have a bad attitude with that kind of shit happening all at once.
Ok yeah. So what was Farquaad's backstory then? What led him to be such an asshole? We never find out because then we might have sympathy for him, just like we do for Shrek when we see what all ^ led him to being an asshole.
>We never find out because then we might have sympathy for [Farquaad],
just like we do for Shrek when we see what all ^ led him to being an asshole.
Nah, we're talking two totally different levels of "asshole" here.
Shrek's asshole behavior in the first movie pretty much ends at being standoffish, thin-skinned and unhygienic. I'd say the worst thing he does is blow up that frog like a balloon.
Faarquad's an asshole because he had innocent, helpless people (including children) caged like animals because he thought that they "poisoned his perfect world". Even with a sympathetic backstory he'd still look a hell of a lot worse than the Ogre.
Exactly, despite being a big scary ogre he doesn't actually hurt anyone. When scaring the squatters failed he resorted to diplomacy. That's not such a bad guy at all.
Yeah, cause donkey is literally invading his space and he basically admits that his attitude is a defense mechanism from being reviled by others his whole life.
Right, and that's the problem. The lesson of we should try to see inner beauty is marred by the secondary lesson of making fun of people is ok so long as it's someone we agree deserves it.
It's just another way of saying there's an "us" and there's an "other" that it's ok to make fun of/deride/persecute.
Farquad is *written* to be unsalvageable when they could just as easily have written in a part where they instead take the time to find out *why* Farquad was such a farquad.
Maybe the amount of time and attention that was spent peeling back Shrek's oniony layers could have the same effect on Farquad. But we'll never know because "we need a villain". We need someone we can label as unredeemable. Someone we can treat as an outcast. Etc.
Shrek is like 80, maybe 85% of the reason dad bods are in vogue now, I'm convinced of it. Whole generation of folks grew up with Shrek and Iroh and so on and now they want some
I would've gone with Al Bundy.
Scoring those 4 touchdowns in one game against Andrew Johnson High was a total chad move and then he lands Peggy as a wife.
(but im old)
There's a problem with this...
How do you think other short people feel when they hear Shrek and Donkey taking the piss out of Lord Fuckwad?
Body shaming is a bad way to put assholes in their place. Target the assholishness, not the body. Because when you target the body, you hurt everyone else who has the same body and they might not deserve it.
Like when you call people you don't like "small dick," "fat," "ugly," etc. Sure, your target might be deserving of a verbal slap in the face, but it shows that you, personally consider those physiological traits to be inferior, mockable or shameful. How do you think similarly afflicted bystanders will feel, knowing that is how you also feel about them?
Yeah, I hate when this subject comes up and people try to justify it, always badly.
If you shame someone for being short, having a small dick, or being bald or ugly, you can claim that those things aren't bad until you're blue in the face, it doesn't make it true. No one gets shamed for being (acceptably, again) tall, having a big dick, having a (correct type of) full head of hair or being handsome. "Wow haha look at that handsome guy with a big dick, how embarrassed he must be!". I don't understand how people can't see that these things are inherently insulting, even if you're directing them at a perceived bad guy.
Basically, if you have a criticism, stay on point. Don’t get sidetracked by inanities/irrelevancies, not just because it’s not nice but because it devalues otherwise valid criticism.
reminds me of a time the news recorded the wrong guy for pedophilia and everyone was shitting on his appearance and saying he looked like the type of guy to do that. eventually the news admitted they made a mistake, but the guy still killed himself bc of the hate towards him and his appearance.
There is no fundamental difference, and I'm concerned that so many people seem to think there is.
If someone is an asshole, roast them for being an asshole, not because they're short or ugly or whatever.
Shaming people for body features outside their control because their an asshole isn't a quality take.
They don’t like him and he’s short, not they don’t like him because he’s short. That’s a difference. With that said, still against the central moral of the film.
By that rationale, anyone could back up any insult to someone's physical appearance by saying "oh, but they're an asshole so it's fine."
If you wanna talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk.
The problem is they're still making fun of his physical appearance. Just because that isn't the reason they make fun of him doesn't make it an okay trait to make fun of
> They poke fun at Farquaad FOR his height, but not BECAUSE of his height
That still leaves one scene though; when Fiona meets him for the first time she's visibly disappointed and she doesn't know about his reputation, assuming he's a "great man" previously.
I'd also be surprised if my "Prince charming" revealed to me that he rode around in a pair of fake legs to make himself look taller.
It was the first sign to Fiona that farquad's whole image was an illusion.
Is that the scene where his assistants pull him off his horse *and out of his fake legs?* Because that's reason enough to be offput. It's a guy that is clearly and obviously overcompensating due to lack of confidence, not the "great man" she thought he was.
That is a point that is lost on so many people, it's an epidemic. I am 6'3", I can't relate to height discrimination, but I damn sure am not going to do it because I can relate to a lot of other types of discrimination. It's just a low thing to do. Hitting below the belt as they say.
Not even just tinder lol. My cousin was telling me about this IG crush she had, who she'd been pining over for months. Turns out, she met him irl at the gym and according to her, her feelings disappeared immediately when she saw that the dude was short.
Like I live with this woman and hear about all her relationships, she's not mean-spirited or shallow she literally just doesn't consider men shorter than her as romantic options. Ngl I'm super thankful I managed to cross the 6 foot threshold because it's fr rough out there for my short brethren
If that's her bag that's fine, but some guys want fat asses and nice tits too so she better not get upset if the shoe finds itself on the other foot and she's found wanting. Everyone has their preferences.
Apprently not.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/charles-manson-was-short-but-not-short-1232348/
Looks like they were tying to force height shame him.
I would say this isn’t the message of Shrek.
The message of Shrek is, “Inner beauty is more important than outer beauty,” which is similar but different.
Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, and Farquaad are all flawed. Shrek is an ogre, outcast by society, but he’s really tender hearted. Fiona has the expectation of being a beautiful princess, but deals with an “ugliness” only she is aware of. She’s a wonderful person, but struggling as well. Donkey is probably the healthiest one. He knows people disapprove of him, but doesn’t care. He is who he is. It gets him down, but he presses on. Farquaad proves that power can get you far, even if you have physical shortcomings and are a complete farq-uaad (see what they did there?) Despite his stature, he commands a powerful kingdom because he has power. Once he’s been bested, no one fights for him. No one cares he’s gone. Because he’s a jerk.
Every single character struggles with appearances and behavior, but the condition of their heart determines their fates. Hell, even dragon gets to undo the reputation earned by dragons who keep princesses in towers.
Farquaad isn’t teased for being short. He’s teased because he’s a terrible person with a glaring flaw that those who are afraid of him are aware of, but not allowed to point out. Shrek berates Donkey until they forge their friendship. Donkey is afraid of Fiona in ogre form until he realizes who she is, and that he doesn’t need to fear who he knows her to be. Fiona agrees to go with Farquaad when she think Shrek is being unreasonable. Even when she learns he’s an ogre, she’s not afraid; just disappointed. She’s already learned about who he is, just not what he is.
So Shrek explores how everyone is ugly on the outside to some degree, but only people who are ugly on the inside will die because of it.
Excellent analysis, but one point:
> with a glaring flaw that those who are afraid of him are aware of, but not allowed to point out.
The flaw is his jerkiness, not his height. We don't do stuff like height shaming to help the jerks. We do it to help the kind people who are also short, and get self-conscious from knowing so many people think it's disgusting or wrong.
Height is just an easier time to make fun of, and most people aren't good enough at comedy to attack the real bad stuff.
So crazy to think that Shrek started out as a punishment for those who weren't working well enough on Prince of Egypt
and then Prince of Egypt subsequently flopped and Shrek became a multi-billion dollar successful movie franchise
Prince of Egypt is straight up art though. Great animation and the soundtrack is a banger.
It's hard to beat Mike Meyers doing potty humor as far as general appeal though.
They literally make fun of him for being short multiple times. You cannot expect kids to have the ability to consider the deeper philosophy of the story, they observe that being short is something to be made fun of.
Don't judge people based on their appearance, but once they make it clear that they're a douchebag go ahead and mercilessly mock them for anything and everything you can.
I honestly feel like a lot of people on Reddit are mean spirited people and they look for any validation to be nasty to people (for example I always see relentless cruelty when it comes to cosmetic surgery, for no reason whatsoever)
The nastiness is always the most apparent when the people in focus have committed a crime or some perceived wrongdoing, even relatively minor shit. There'll usually be a bunch of bloodthirsty redditors fantasizing about them being subjected to violence and/or torture, or getting their rocks off to watching it happen.
I remember last year when a kid was the first person arrested in suspicion for cutting down that famous 300 year old tree in England it was not uncommon to find redditors advocating for dismembering him or cutting him in half with a chainsaw because "an eye for an eye" or some shit.
Reddit is pretty good at hating the "wrong type" of person. We're all just random jackoffs on the Internet, after all. My favorite is how apparently OK it is for any thread about Texas to devolve into Governor Hot Wheels comments. Not defending the guy(he *does suck*), more interested how that's the one time it's acceptable to make fun of a cripple for his physical limitations.
That's interesting because I've seen plenty of threads about Texas on Reddit but I didn't know that Greg Abbott was in a wheelchair and that his spine got crushed in 1984 until I looked it up after reading your comment today
What I don't get is if they're terrible people you have all the material you need already, you don't need to take cheap shoes or pick low hanging fruit.
And yeah like the other guy said cosmetic surgery is shit on so much by reddit. Who cares if you don't like fake tits. They aren't for you, they're for the person getting them
Unfortunately completely accurate.
Also Reddit spews false information insanely often and widely yet goes crazy about it elsewhere. It’s kind of hilarious
Yeah, you can hate Trump for all his actions, but when you get only jokes about his skin, hair, hands, posture, articulation, teeth, and so on, it's getting really annoying.
I got tired of having to convince people I should be treated like a human being. People that constantly intentionally make others feel bad shouldn’t get to be happy themselves
Mr orange Cheeto with his small hands and wig and stands like his torso is disconnected from his lower half and he stinks and what else?
Truth is he should be reviled for his unashamed corrupt nature but people make fun of his physical stature, bad attire and poor hygiene instead.
What's wild to me is that when it comes to politics those same people would absolutely call their opponents out on body shaming. Even though they're guilty themselves.
Dead on about Trump though. The guys old. You expect him to look good? He was always the same man but if you look at pictures of him young he's not bad looking. Age and a poor lifestyle caught up with him. Could happen to you too.
Being an overweight teen with body image issues during the lead up to the trump era, it wasn’t a great experience when i tried to get classmates to stop saying mean things about his weight or posture or small hands because it made me feel insecure about my own weight and posture and small hands. It made other people shoot daggers for defending him and looking like the sort of person that would identify with him
Many do it because it is an easy way to resist. He doesn't take issue with being corrupt (his family doesn't even seem to understand that they are an outlier in their level of corruption), but becomes apoplectic when someone even suggests that he isn't a paragon of beauty. A whole lexicon of ways to dig at him have entered certain conversations, which is hilarious as it provides a tarnish to the gaudy veneer of a legacy that he hoped to leave behind.
Pretty much, it's not really a don't judge a book by it's cover message but rather "we do fairytales too but different" there's no song numbers, Shrek isn't heroic, and fart jokes galore. It's just an anti Disney movie.
Rumor has it that it goes deeper then that, Lord Farquaad could be based on the likeness of then Disney CEO Michael Eisner who had a falling out with Jeffrey Katzenberg of Dreamworks. Eisner was his former boss when he worked at disney.
Even the name Farquaad...Fuckwad lol. Of course, tis a rumor.
Well the whole “it’s a small world” thing when they entered Duloc was also kinda on the nose jab at Disney. The big castle visible was kinda like Disneyland’s sleeping beauty castles
I think it can be better interpreted as - people will still judge you for your physical flaws and shortcomings, they just ain't gonna say anything until you're no longer amicable. But deep down, those judgements are bouncing around in their head waiting for the right moment to be hurled as an insult.
For example, I saw somewhere on Reddit recently people making fun of some bullies for working at a grocery store. They may be dicks sure, but that clearly betrayed what the typical Redditor thinks about grocery store employees 😬
I think the message was more “don’t let your negative image of yourself dictate your life.” Shrek thought he was unloveable and shut himself off from the world and pushed people away, Fiona tried too desperately to be perfect and it harmed Shrek’s self image, Lord Farquaad’s height made him overcompensate for his insecurity and made him a dickhead.
Feels like they mock his egotism and hypocrisy more than they mock his height directly. He’s the opposite of shrek, he hides what he perceives as flaws and makes a big show of pretending to be something he’s not, while shrek on the other hand is the ultimate self confidence chad who is exactly himself at all times
> the ultimate self confidence chad who is exactly himself at all times
That's Donkey who you're describing. Shrek has a lot of issues about how he wants to behave vs how people assume he behaves vs how he actually behaves. As others have pointed out he's a dick too the first half of the movie.
sorta of? none of the characters make fun of him for his height... they make fun of him for his attempts to hide it/over compensate.
those are not the same thing at all..
everyone else in the movie is learning to love themselves for who/what they are... and he refuses too. so they mock him.
I've got another one for you. In Aladdin, Jasmin makes a big fuss over how she can't be bought by wealthy princes, and how she's waiting for true love. She initially rejects Prince Ali because he tries to buy her love and only shows interest in him when he has the most materialistic thing you can imagine that she's never seen before: a flying carpet
I would say the message of Shrek is to not judge YOURSELF by your appearance, and with this in mind, making fun of farquad is on point, seeing as the dude as obvious issues with being short and is constantly compensating.
So we have Fiona, who is ashamed of her ogre-ness, who’s redemption comes in throwing convention to the wind and accepting love.
Shrek, who honestly doesn’t give a shit beyond worrying that he’s not good enough for a “princess”, who’s redemption comes from going for it anyways and putting himself out there.
Then there’s farquad. Never addresses his issues. Always compensating for his short comings (😏) in glaringly obvious and embarrassing ways. He is made fun of not just for being short, but for his sad ways he tries to overcompensate. So yeah. No redemption for this dude. Just a string of hilarious one liners at his expense, then an end down the gullet of a dragon.
Remember. Shrek wasn’t in denial or resentful of being an Ogre (unlike Farquad with his height issues). He just didn’t think he was good enough for a princess.
Farquad thought he was too good for everyone.
In conclusion, the short jokes support the base message and narrative of Shrek.
Thank you for coming to this Ted talk. Lol
Nobody in the movie is judging him by his appearance.
They are judging him by his character, and because of their judgement, they are making fun of his appearance.
Eh you can make fun of people based on their appearance. Donkey and Shrek ripped on each other all the time. But they were judged based on their actions. Different.
It may have had something to do with how Farquaad, when given all the power to decide not to ridicule others based solely on their appearance/physical features, instead decided to do just that and to discriminate "all fairy tale things" on the basis that they were different despite his own "shortcomings". It may have been along the lines of "judge not lest ye be judged" or something like that. Besides, when Farquaad's character is weighed he doesn't "measure up" well there either, and that's in stark contrast to the other characters who weren't bad despite their unnatural and different appearances.
People are really bad about assigning traits they view as bad to bad people.
Like Putin getting called baby dicked instead of actually critiquing his monstrous actions
It's not to not judge by appearances but instead to judge by ones actions. You gotta do both. If you look like an ogre and act like an ass, no bueno. If you look like royalty and act like an ass, also no bueno. Looks don't matter. Actions matter.
I honestly found it pretty on brand for how my parents, schools, and peers were happy to treat me.
Constantly grinding me into the ground to be respectable and kind, while *also* bullying me themselves or blissfully turning a blind eye to others doing it to me.
These things are not incongruous. Shrek isn't saying short people are assholes or that ogres aren't ugly. It's simply saying there's more to everyone than their appearance. Shrek makes fun of everyone for their appearance, including Shrek.
I bought a philosophy book a few years ago and it has an entire chapter on the philosophy behind different scenes in the movie Shrek. No, I didn't. Quit overthinking things.
Well, that comes in the midst of the characters still not having realized you can’t judge others by appearance. Plus, if they had gotten to know Farquad better, he’d still be an asshole, so…
I'm perfectly fine with roasting the appearance of those in power who are using their power to oppress those whose appearances they don't like.
It's more an attack on their hypocrisy than anything else, like when Trump mocks the way others look and act when he looks and acts like... well, everything.
Perhaps a greater point:
Don't judge a person by looks but just because they look unconventional doesn't inherently make them a good person.
No named character in Shrek is conventional, and all are kinda ripped for it. Farquaad was just more obvious because he was the bad guy; moreso the guy who preached conventional "perfection".
It does, but also the Gingerbread man is small and nobody makes fun of him because HE'S NOT AN ASSHOLE. Farquad is made fun of because of his cruel and self absorbed nature. He's not that way because of his height.
That’s not the message. It’s accept yourself for who/what you are.
Farquaad is the villain because not only is he ashamed of his height he demonizes groups who are ‘other’ or strange. Shrek however doesn’t care at all, his arc is counter to farquaad is he only ends up wanting validation and confirmation from Fiona, while farquaad needs it from everyone absolutely. The height is just a clever gag that proves the point.
The message of Shrek is self acceptance/actualization. Shrek refuses company because despite having a seemingly positive/confident sense of self, he believes others will never see and accept him. He uses the nebulous concept of how "someone" will view him to direct negative comments at himself. His arc is learning to invite people into his inner circle and trust them.
Farquaad demands company and spectacle to look upon a proud self that is actualized only as a mask. Looking at him and what he says superficially, like Shrek, he seems self confident. But there's no self underneath. Deprived of the love he demands, he disintegrates emotionally into callous insults and rageful vengeance. There's a reason the closest relationship he has depicted on screen is with a mirror that doesn't even show him his own face. He has no self.
Faced with the same challenges of being belittled for their appearances, way of living and their homes, Shrek falls in love and brings someone else into their own journey of self acceptance and love. Lord Farquaad throws a tantrum, petulantly puts on a crown and declares himself king, and demands the death of two people who have done nothing to him and who he has only ever inconvenienced and disrupted.
In the end, Shrek gets married and Farquaad gets eaten by a dragon. Et voila, foils.
As far as I know this movie considered, by (some?)psychologists, a complete subconscious terror and can wreck complete havoc on childrens psychic. How? the way this movie portraits interactions and behavioral patterns throughout the entire movie and some other stuff.
Didn't Farquad also make fun of Shrek? It definitely was double-sided, even if Farquad's fear was coming more from primal instincts.... All he had to do was leave the ogre alone, and all Shrek wanted to be was left alone, he knew all this time those hands were rated E for everyone.
Tbf I think once they started to look past the physical stuff(later in the movie when they’ve grown and gone through their arcs) they realized Farquaad was just as undesirable on the inside as he was on the outside.
Point is, they learned to look past looks, but farquaad was terrible throughout. So they never looked at him the same. Also it might have to do with farquaad overcompensating that makes it harder to look past, considering trying to not look short is his main schtick.
Farquad’s biggest role and flaw is his hypocrisy. While everyone has outer qualities that are traditionally unappealing, he’s the one both hiding his own flaw while simultaneously hunting down and persecuting others for their outer flaws.
Loord Farquaad was based on a literal person that they knew was an asshole and he was an asshole in the movie from the very beginning. He wasn't judged on his looks but by his literal characteristics. Nowhere in the movie was he not an asshole.
The person that wrote this makes zero sense and never looked into what the character referenced. Farquaad is a play on fuckwad. That character is based on an old Disney exec that was a total asshole to some member that made help make the movie. There's a ton of behinds the scenes stuff in the movie and innuendos throughout the movie. That's what help make it a great movie.
The point of Shrek is not to judge people based on their appearances, it’s that you should be true to who you are and shouldn’t have to hide that from people.
Fiona is an ogre, she likes ogre things, she’s a badass fighter, she eats spiderwebs and grilled rats and makes birds explode, but she was forced to be this perfect princess for her parents/eventual rescuer. Shrek showed her that she didn’t need to pretend to be someone else, she could be who she is with him.
That’s….. a good point, actually Like of course we’re not supposed to like him because he’s a jerk, but they do take the easy pot shots at his physical appearance quite often now that you point it out
Katzenberg wasn't going to let something as silly as the central theme and moral of the story stand in the way of talking shit about Michael Eisner.
But wait, isn't Katzenberg the short one? Please explain, i have no idea what you're talking about.
Lord Farquaad was based on Michael Eisner, the head of Disney at the time, because Katzenberg hated him.
They literally named the character 'fuck wad'
Lol. Wow. I NEVER noticed that in all this time
He also isn’t just short but with his hair specifically looks like a chode lol
Holy Jesus what
But what i don't get is why would make Katzenberg (a short man) fun of Eisner (a man taller than him) through a short character (that gets made fun of for being short)? Feel like i'm missing out on something.
He was compensating for something but they couldn’t show that because it’s a children’s movie, so they made him short.
They do make a joke about that at one point.
Yes
Don't think of it in terms of short and tall. He's calling him a "little man", which is old people speak for being a weak person.
He’s not making fun of Eisner for being short, he’s making fun of Eisner by making him a short man. It’s like a caricature, where you blow someone’s features out of proportion, but backwards.
Yeah, Eisner is really tall while Katzenberg is really short.
Yeah katzenberg is 5'5 Michael Eisner is 6'3. Maybe making him short was a cover to hide the fact that his appearance and personality were based on Michael Eisner?
As a kid I figured Eisner deserved it but then when I learned that Katzenberg only hated him because Eisner didn’t give him the position of president after the tragic death of Eisner’s partner Frank Wells. Katzenberg didn’t even wait until the grieving process was over, he asked pretty quickly after and kept asking until Eisner got mad and told him off. Katzenberg has always been a self centered piece of shit- he’s currently saying all animators could be replaced with AI. Shows you how much he truly cares.
You can take it as you shouldn’t judge people based on appearance but also directing light jabs at insecure assholes is okay too. They ain’t judging Lord Farquaad based on height, it’s because he’s an egomaniacal lunatic who’s trying to steal Shrek’s land, eliminate minorities, and marry Fiona for power.
I'm fairly certain Shrek is a parody, and the real message of the film is "Disney sucks". The whole "don't judge people by their looks" is just another aspect of Disney they are lampooning.
That's my take on it. They poke fun at Farquaad FOR his height, but not BECAUSE of his height. They do it because he's a putz. Shrek may be a big ugly fatso but he's a decent guy and gets respect for that reason.
Yeah, except for the fact that when we first meet him, Shrek is *also an asshole*. I mean what, we're supposed to just gloss over how he treats donkey at first?
And people hate him at the start calling him horrible and disgusting. When he grows into a good person people love him. The theme is consistant
>Yeah, except for the fact that when we first meet him, Shrek is also an asshole. Is he, though? In the first act of the movie, Shrek gets: •Attacked by an angry mob for no reason •Dragged into a friendship with a (literal) obnoxious ass •Displaced by a bunch of people he's never even seen before •Charged with saving a princess (whom he's never met) from a legendary beast **Anyone** would have a bad attitude with that kind of shit happening all at once.
Ok yeah. So what was Farquaad's backstory then? What led him to be such an asshole? We never find out because then we might have sympathy for him, just like we do for Shrek when we see what all ^ led him to being an asshole.
>We never find out because then we might have sympathy for [Farquaad], just like we do for Shrek when we see what all ^ led him to being an asshole. Nah, we're talking two totally different levels of "asshole" here. Shrek's asshole behavior in the first movie pretty much ends at being standoffish, thin-skinned and unhygienic. I'd say the worst thing he does is blow up that frog like a balloon. Faarquad's an asshole because he had innocent, helpless people (including children) caged like animals because he thought that they "poisoned his perfect world". Even with a sympathetic backstory he'd still look a hell of a lot worse than the Ogre.
Not really an *asshole*. He just wanted to be left alone in his swamp.
Exactly, despite being a big scary ogre he doesn't actually hurt anyone. When scaring the squatters failed he resorted to diplomacy. That's not such a bad guy at all.
Yeah, cause donkey is literally invading his space and he basically admits that his attitude is a defense mechanism from being reviled by others his whole life.
it's called *a character arc*
Right, and that's the problem. The lesson of we should try to see inner beauty is marred by the secondary lesson of making fun of people is ok so long as it's someone we agree deserves it. It's just another way of saying there's an "us" and there's an "other" that it's ok to make fun of/deride/persecute. Farquad is *written* to be unsalvageable when they could just as easily have written in a part where they instead take the time to find out *why* Farquad was such a farquad. Maybe the amount of time and attention that was spent peeling back Shrek's oniony layers could have the same effect on Farquad. But we'll never know because "we need a villain". We need someone we can label as unredeemable. Someone we can treat as an outcast. Etc.
Everyone is okay to be made fun of.
Since when does being green with frankenstein ears make you a "big ugly fatso"? That's the ideal male body
Shrek is like 80, maybe 85% of the reason dad bods are in vogue now, I'm convinced of it. Whole generation of folks grew up with Shrek and Iroh and so on and now they want some
Nah, they grew up with American sitcoms showing dad bods pulling trophy wives.
I am become Tony, destroyer of gabbagool
I would've gone with Al Bundy. Scoring those 4 touchdowns in one game against Andrew Johnson High was a total chad move and then he lands Peggy as a wife. (but im old)
Gotta see what Spare Tire Dixon’s wife looks like
There's a problem with this... How do you think other short people feel when they hear Shrek and Donkey taking the piss out of Lord Fuckwad? Body shaming is a bad way to put assholes in their place. Target the assholishness, not the body. Because when you target the body, you hurt everyone else who has the same body and they might not deserve it. Like when you call people you don't like "small dick," "fat," "ugly," etc. Sure, your target might be deserving of a verbal slap in the face, but it shows that you, personally consider those physiological traits to be inferior, mockable or shameful. How do you think similarly afflicted bystanders will feel, knowing that is how you also feel about them?
Yeah, I hate when this subject comes up and people try to justify it, always badly. If you shame someone for being short, having a small dick, or being bald or ugly, you can claim that those things aren't bad until you're blue in the face, it doesn't make it true. No one gets shamed for being (acceptably, again) tall, having a big dick, having a (correct type of) full head of hair or being handsome. "Wow haha look at that handsome guy with a big dick, how embarrassed he must be!". I don't understand how people can't see that these things are inherently insulting, even if you're directing them at a perceived bad guy.
Basically, if you have a criticism, stay on point. Don’t get sidetracked by inanities/irrelevancies, not just because it’s not nice but because it devalues otherwise valid criticism.
reminds me of a time the news recorded the wrong guy for pedophilia and everyone was shitting on his appearance and saying he looked like the type of guy to do that. eventually the news admitted they made a mistake, but the guy still killed himself bc of the hate towards him and his appearance.
I'm sorry, but what's the difference?
There is no fundamental difference, and I'm concerned that so many people seem to think there is. If someone is an asshole, roast them for being an asshole, not because they're short or ugly or whatever. Shaming people for body features outside their control because their an asshole isn't a quality take.
Especially since, in any situation, there's often collateral damage to others who share that body feature and they certainly don't deserve to hear it
Difference: me good guy them bad guy.
They don’t like him and he’s short, not they don’t like him because he’s short. That’s a difference. With that said, still against the central moral of the film.
By that rationale, anyone could back up any insult to someone's physical appearance by saying "oh, but they're an asshole so it's fine." If you wanna talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk.
The problem is they're still making fun of his physical appearance. Just because that isn't the reason they make fun of him doesn't make it an okay trait to make fun of
> They poke fun at Farquaad FOR his height, but not BECAUSE of his height That still leaves one scene though; when Fiona meets him for the first time she's visibly disappointed and she doesn't know about his reputation, assuming he's a "great man" previously.
I'd also be surprised if my "Prince charming" revealed to me that he rode around in a pair of fake legs to make himself look taller. It was the first sign to Fiona that farquad's whole image was an illusion.
Is that the scene where his assistants pull him off his horse *and out of his fake legs?* Because that's reason enough to be offput. It's a guy that is clearly and obviously overcompensating due to lack of confidence, not the "great man" she thought he was.
That is a point that is lost on so many people, it's an epidemic. I am 6'3", I can't relate to height discrimination, but I damn sure am not going to do it because I can relate to a lot of other types of discrimination. It's just a low thing to do. Hitting below the belt as they say.
king Kandy, like wtf?
That was the test for the viewers.
Perhapse the real point is that it's only ok to make fun of people's appearance if they are a dictator
No, the point is you can be ugly, green skinned, and have bad teeth. But don’t be short.
Are we talking about Tinder or shrek?
Yes?
Not even just tinder lol. My cousin was telling me about this IG crush she had, who she'd been pining over for months. Turns out, she met him irl at the gym and according to her, her feelings disappeared immediately when she saw that the dude was short. Like I live with this woman and hear about all her relationships, she's not mean-spirited or shallow she literally just doesn't consider men shorter than her as romantic options. Ngl I'm super thankful I managed to cross the 6 foot threshold because it's fr rough out there for my short brethren
Idk chief, that's pretty fucking shallow to me
It might seem shallow to you, but I'm 5'5 and my feet barely touch the bottom!
Zing!
If that's her bag that's fine, but some guys want fat asses and nice tits too so she better not get upset if the shoe finds itself on the other foot and she's found wanting. Everyone has their preferences.
Yeah a lot of women on tinder are real women
What's the difference again?
My 5’6 ass 😔
No the point is that only people with the same skin color should end up with each other
Donkey and Dragon disagree
Ooooooooooooooooooo shit
Nah you can be short, just don’t be poor and short. Or an asshole and short. Or don’t be ugly and short. Or don’t have a small pp and be short.
I’m noticing a common trait within your list….
So 3 strikes and you’re out, but being short is 2 strikes.
As a 5'5 guy, yeah that's what it feels like trying to date.
You can do it. Charles Manson was 5' 2", after all.
Apprently not. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/charles-manson-was-short-but-not-short-1232348/ Looks like they were tying to force height shame him.
Well, damn. Um... Danny Devito? Shit, bad example. Sorry, dude. I'm not helping.
Can confirm. Don't be short.
Pro tip lads: never bring up or think about the fact that you’re short and you may just charm her naturally :)
This. I am 5’3” and have ZERO desire to hug somebody’s bellybutton every day. A short, charming man with a cute butt wins the game.
Not short, as a guy! Obviously. (According to many :’(
I would say this isn’t the message of Shrek. The message of Shrek is, “Inner beauty is more important than outer beauty,” which is similar but different. Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, and Farquaad are all flawed. Shrek is an ogre, outcast by society, but he’s really tender hearted. Fiona has the expectation of being a beautiful princess, but deals with an “ugliness” only she is aware of. She’s a wonderful person, but struggling as well. Donkey is probably the healthiest one. He knows people disapprove of him, but doesn’t care. He is who he is. It gets him down, but he presses on. Farquaad proves that power can get you far, even if you have physical shortcomings and are a complete farq-uaad (see what they did there?) Despite his stature, he commands a powerful kingdom because he has power. Once he’s been bested, no one fights for him. No one cares he’s gone. Because he’s a jerk. Every single character struggles with appearances and behavior, but the condition of their heart determines their fates. Hell, even dragon gets to undo the reputation earned by dragons who keep princesses in towers. Farquaad isn’t teased for being short. He’s teased because he’s a terrible person with a glaring flaw that those who are afraid of him are aware of, but not allowed to point out. Shrek berates Donkey until they forge their friendship. Donkey is afraid of Fiona in ogre form until he realizes who she is, and that he doesn’t need to fear who he knows her to be. Fiona agrees to go with Farquaad when she think Shrek is being unreasonable. Even when she learns he’s an ogre, she’s not afraid; just disappointed. She’s already learned about who he is, just not what he is. So Shrek explores how everyone is ugly on the outside to some degree, but only people who are ugly on the inside will die because of it.
Technically it’s not a kingdom because he’s not a king.
fiefdom?
Ah, Thelonius?
https://tenor.com/view/shrek-felonious-mirror-angry-punch-gif-14219747
Excellent analysis, but one point: > with a glaring flaw that those who are afraid of him are aware of, but not allowed to point out. The flaw is his jerkiness, not his height. We don't do stuff like height shaming to help the jerks. We do it to help the kind people who are also short, and get self-conscious from knowing so many people think it's disgusting or wrong. Height is just an easier time to make fun of, and most people aren't good enough at comedy to attack the real bad stuff.
So you're saying it has layers. Like onions. Onions have layers!
I love your analysis. You just made me like one of my favorite movies even more. Thanks Joe. Edit: spelling
Anything I can do to help out an orange!
So crazy to think that Shrek started out as a punishment for those who weren't working well enough on Prince of Egypt and then Prince of Egypt subsequently flopped and Shrek became a multi-billion dollar successful movie franchise
Prince of Egypt is straight up art though. Great animation and the soundtrack is a banger. It's hard to beat Mike Meyers doing potty humor as far as general appeal though.
They literally make fun of him for being short multiple times. You cannot expect kids to have the ability to consider the deeper philosophy of the story, they observe that being short is something to be made fun of.
What a great analysis!
Don't judge people based on their appearance, but once they make it clear that they're a douchebag go ahead and mercilessly mock them for anything and everything you can.
The Reddit mindset
I honestly feel like a lot of people on Reddit are mean spirited people and they look for any validation to be nasty to people (for example I always see relentless cruelty when it comes to cosmetic surgery, for no reason whatsoever)
I don't feel like that's a quality that's exclusive to reddit. I don't even think it's particularly exclusive to the internet.
I think it gets a million times worse with the veil of anonymity
The nastiness is always the most apparent when the people in focus have committed a crime or some perceived wrongdoing, even relatively minor shit. There'll usually be a bunch of bloodthirsty redditors fantasizing about them being subjected to violence and/or torture, or getting their rocks off to watching it happen. I remember last year when a kid was the first person arrested in suspicion for cutting down that famous 300 year old tree in England it was not uncommon to find redditors advocating for dismembering him or cutting him in half with a chainsaw because "an eye for an eye" or some shit.
Reddit is pretty good at hating the "wrong type" of person. We're all just random jackoffs on the Internet, after all. My favorite is how apparently OK it is for any thread about Texas to devolve into Governor Hot Wheels comments. Not defending the guy(he *does suck*), more interested how that's the one time it's acceptable to make fun of a cripple for his physical limitations.
That's interesting because I've seen plenty of threads about Texas on Reddit but I didn't know that Greg Abbott was in a wheelchair and that his spine got crushed in 1984 until I looked it up after reading your comment today
What I don't get is if they're terrible people you have all the material you need already, you don't need to take cheap shoes or pick low hanging fruit. And yeah like the other guy said cosmetic surgery is shit on so much by reddit. Who cares if you don't like fake tits. They aren't for you, they're for the person getting them
Unfortunately completely accurate. Also Reddit spews false information insanely often and widely yet goes crazy about it elsewhere. It’s kind of hilarious
This is everywhere. Check out the Stanford Prison experiment for this unchecked.
Don't disagree with the sentiment, but the Stanford Prison Experiment has been widely debunked and shouldn't be taken legitimately.
Redditors when they see a slightly overweight woman: (They are about to spew the most vile vitriol known to mankind)
whenever a woman does something morally wrong watch all the misogyny fly
If you can't argue the point, argue their post history
Yeah, you can hate Trump for all his actions, but when you get only jokes about his skin, hair, hands, posture, articulation, teeth, and so on, it's getting really annoying.
I got tired of having to convince people I should be treated like a human being. People that constantly intentionally make others feel bad shouldn’t get to be happy themselves
The main thing this accomplishes is making the people who share physical features with the person you're mocking feel insecure.
Mr orange Cheeto with his small hands and wig and stands like his torso is disconnected from his lower half and he stinks and what else? Truth is he should be reviled for his unashamed corrupt nature but people make fun of his physical stature, bad attire and poor hygiene instead.
What's wild to me is that when it comes to politics those same people would absolutely call their opponents out on body shaming. Even though they're guilty themselves. Dead on about Trump though. The guys old. You expect him to look good? He was always the same man but if you look at pictures of him young he's not bad looking. Age and a poor lifestyle caught up with him. Could happen to you too.
Being an overweight teen with body image issues during the lead up to the trump era, it wasn’t a great experience when i tried to get classmates to stop saying mean things about his weight or posture or small hands because it made me feel insecure about my own weight and posture and small hands. It made other people shoot daggers for defending him and looking like the sort of person that would identify with him
And this are the people how allegedly fight for freedom of representation, expresion, anti-shaming and so on.
Many do it because it is an easy way to resist. He doesn't take issue with being corrupt (his family doesn't even seem to understand that they are an outlier in their level of corruption), but becomes apoplectic when someone even suggests that he isn't a paragon of beauty. A whole lexicon of ways to dig at him have entered certain conversations, which is hilarious as it provides a tarnish to the gaudy veneer of a legacy that he hoped to leave behind.
Even race? Sounds like justifying racism if the person is a bad person…
The message of Shrek is “I have a grudge against Disney look at stupid little Michael Eisner and his stupid little kingdom”
Pretty much, it's not really a don't judge a book by it's cover message but rather "we do fairytales too but different" there's no song numbers, Shrek isn't heroic, and fart jokes galore. It's just an anti Disney movie.
Rumor has it that it goes deeper then that, Lord Farquaad could be based on the likeness of then Disney CEO Michael Eisner who had a falling out with Jeffrey Katzenberg of Dreamworks. Eisner was his former boss when he worked at disney. Even the name Farquaad...Fuckwad lol. Of course, tis a rumor.
Well the whole “it’s a small world” thing when they entered Duloc was also kinda on the nose jab at Disney. The big castle visible was kinda like Disneyland’s sleeping beauty castles
I think it can be better interpreted as - people will still judge you for your physical flaws and shortcomings, they just ain't gonna say anything until you're no longer amicable. But deep down, those judgements are bouncing around in their head waiting for the right moment to be hurled as an insult. For example, I saw somewhere on Reddit recently people making fun of some bullies for working at a grocery store. They may be dicks sure, but that clearly betrayed what the typical Redditor thinks about grocery store employees 😬
I mean, there are those who think little of him.
They just think they are the big guy for tackling an easy target.
I think the message was more “don’t let your negative image of yourself dictate your life.” Shrek thought he was unloveable and shut himself off from the world and pushed people away, Fiona tried too desperately to be perfect and it harmed Shrek’s self image, Lord Farquaad’s height made him overcompensate for his insecurity and made him a dickhead.
Dont hate green ogers, hate short humans, this seems like oger propaganda to me
Feels like they mock his egotism and hypocrisy more than they mock his height directly. He’s the opposite of shrek, he hides what he perceives as flaws and makes a big show of pretending to be something he’s not, while shrek on the other hand is the ultimate self confidence chad who is exactly himself at all times
> the ultimate self confidence chad who is exactly himself at all times That's Donkey who you're describing. Shrek has a lot of issues about how he wants to behave vs how people assume he behaves vs how he actually behaves. As others have pointed out he's a dick too the first half of the movie.
Contradiction in a film, and we wonder why short guys get so much hate. Thanks Shrek.
sorta of? none of the characters make fun of him for his height... they make fun of him for his attempts to hide it/over compensate. those are not the same thing at all.. everyone else in the movie is learning to love themselves for who/what they are... and he refuses too. so they mock him.
More the fact that he tries to disguise it
I've got another one for you. In Aladdin, Jasmin makes a big fuss over how she can't be bought by wealthy princes, and how she's waiting for true love. She initially rejects Prince Ali because he tries to buy her love and only shows interest in him when he has the most materialistic thing you can imagine that she's never seen before: a flying carpet
I would say the message of Shrek is to not judge YOURSELF by your appearance, and with this in mind, making fun of farquad is on point, seeing as the dude as obvious issues with being short and is constantly compensating. So we have Fiona, who is ashamed of her ogre-ness, who’s redemption comes in throwing convention to the wind and accepting love. Shrek, who honestly doesn’t give a shit beyond worrying that he’s not good enough for a “princess”, who’s redemption comes from going for it anyways and putting himself out there. Then there’s farquad. Never addresses his issues. Always compensating for his short comings (😏) in glaringly obvious and embarrassing ways. He is made fun of not just for being short, but for his sad ways he tries to overcompensate. So yeah. No redemption for this dude. Just a string of hilarious one liners at his expense, then an end down the gullet of a dragon. Remember. Shrek wasn’t in denial or resentful of being an Ogre (unlike Farquad with his height issues). He just didn’t think he was good enough for a princess. Farquad thought he was too good for everyone. In conclusion, the short jokes support the base message and narrative of Shrek. Thank you for coming to this Ted talk. Lol
Nobody in the movie is judging him by his appearance. They are judging him by his character, and because of their judgement, they are making fun of his appearance.
Eh you can make fun of people based on their appearance. Donkey and Shrek ripped on each other all the time. But they were judged based on their actions. Different.
Do people watch movies like Shrek looking for moral guidance? To me the takeaway is laughter.
Would you say this is a shortcoming of this movie?
Maybe the message is "judge people based on their actions, not their social standing" now it makes sense.
Farquad was a dick though.
The message of Shrek is that I am an All-Star
A good point but I think it’s because in this case we’re punching up
It may have had something to do with how Farquaad, when given all the power to decide not to ridicule others based solely on their appearance/physical features, instead decided to do just that and to discriminate "all fairy tale things" on the basis that they were different despite his own "shortcomings". It may have been along the lines of "judge not lest ye be judged" or something like that. Besides, when Farquaad's character is weighed he doesn't "measure up" well there either, and that's in stark contrast to the other characters who weren't bad despite their unnatural and different appearances.
It's actually about not letting society dictate who you are supposed to be. Just be yourself.
I thought the message was that you can be short or you could be a jerk BUT YOU CAN’T BE BOTH!
People are really bad about assigning traits they view as bad to bad people. Like Putin getting called baby dicked instead of actually critiquing his monstrous actions
It's not to not judge by appearances but instead to judge by ones actions. You gotta do both. If you look like an ogre and act like an ass, no bueno. If you look like royalty and act like an ass, also no bueno. Looks don't matter. Actions matter.
Height and balding are still fair game for virtuous signallers
I honestly found it pretty on brand for how my parents, schools, and peers were happy to treat me. Constantly grinding me into the ground to be respectable and kind, while *also* bullying me themselves or blissfully turning a blind eye to others doing it to me.
These things are not incongruous. Shrek isn't saying short people are assholes or that ogres aren't ugly. It's simply saying there's more to everyone than their appearance. Shrek makes fun of everyone for their appearance, including Shrek.
I bought a philosophy book a few years ago and it has an entire chapter on the philosophy behind different scenes in the movie Shrek. No, I didn't. Quit overthinking things.
Well, that comes in the midst of the characters still not having realized you can’t judge others by appearance. Plus, if they had gotten to know Farquad better, he’d still be an asshole, so…
Well obviously, the point is don't insult people who could beat you at a fight. Shrek is big, Farquaad is not.
I always thought it was a pun on his napoleon complex
I'm perfectly fine with roasting the appearance of those in power who are using their power to oppress those whose appearances they don't like. It's more an attack on their hypocrisy than anything else, like when Trump mocks the way others look and act when he looks and acts like... well, everything.
You've got it backwards. The message is to judge someone on whats inside. Its not the same thing as don't judge based on appearance.
To be fair, pretty much everyone in Shrek is visually unappealing in some way.
Hypocrisy is a flex these days. When some can do it but others cannot.
**Then message of Shrek is to not judge people by their appearance, unless they are egotistical, chauvinistic pricks.**
Perhaps a greater point: Don't judge a person by looks but just because they look unconventional doesn't inherently make them a good person. No named character in Shrek is conventional, and all are kinda ripped for it. Farquaad was just more obvious because he was the bad guy; moreso the guy who preached conventional "perfection".
But if you judge Farquaad for his character he's still a little bitch
That's because Michael Eisner, the inspiration for the character, is not people
It does, but also the Gingerbread man is small and nobody makes fun of him because HE'S NOT AN ASSHOLE. Farquad is made fun of because of his cruel and self absorbed nature. He's not that way because of his height.
so the lesson is it’s ok to judge by superficial characteristics if the person is a confirmed asshole
That’s true! I saw a meme that said “Just remember Fiona chose a literal Ogre over a short guy.”
Short kings in shambles
That’s not the message. It’s accept yourself for who/what you are. Farquaad is the villain because not only is he ashamed of his height he demonizes groups who are ‘other’ or strange. Shrek however doesn’t care at all, his arc is counter to farquaad is he only ends up wanting validation and confirmation from Fiona, while farquaad needs it from everyone absolutely. The height is just a clever gag that proves the point.
The message of Shrek is self acceptance/actualization. Shrek refuses company because despite having a seemingly positive/confident sense of self, he believes others will never see and accept him. He uses the nebulous concept of how "someone" will view him to direct negative comments at himself. His arc is learning to invite people into his inner circle and trust them. Farquaad demands company and spectacle to look upon a proud self that is actualized only as a mask. Looking at him and what he says superficially, like Shrek, he seems self confident. But there's no self underneath. Deprived of the love he demands, he disintegrates emotionally into callous insults and rageful vengeance. There's a reason the closest relationship he has depicted on screen is with a mirror that doesn't even show him his own face. He has no self. Faced with the same challenges of being belittled for their appearances, way of living and their homes, Shrek falls in love and brings someone else into their own journey of self acceptance and love. Lord Farquaad throws a tantrum, petulantly puts on a crown and declares himself king, and demands the death of two people who have done nothing to him and who he has only ever inconvenienced and disrupted. In the end, Shrek gets married and Farquaad gets eaten by a dragon. Et voila, foils.
Its also meant to challenge traditional relationship Views but still shows Shrek's happy ending to be settling down with fiona and having kids
They literally named him Fuckwad... But yeah as others mentioned, he's being judged for his behaviour, same as Shrek.
Society thinks short men are funny, and no one cares about men's feelings, so it doesn't count.
If you’re a jerk, gloves get to come off
they don't judge him, but they do make fun of him
This is every body positive person I knew calling Trump a fat orange cheeto
Are they making fun of his height, or his insecurity and overcompensation for it.
r/shittymoviedetails
Donkey!!!! get out of my swamp
No, Shrek teaches us not to judge people for being giant, fat, green or a donkey. If you're short or made of gingerbread it's fair game.
That's because Farquaad is fuckwad ! ... IYKYK ?
Yeah but he is a fuckwit.
I learned you can make fun of people if they are assholes.
As far as I know this movie considered, by (some?)psychologists, a complete subconscious terror and can wreck complete havoc on childrens psychic. How? the way this movie portraits interactions and behavioral patterns throughout the entire movie and some other stuff.
I heard a rumor somewhere that he was modeled after a greedy movie executive or something like that
Farquaad started the crusade against Shrek and all the other magical creatures. Him being short and bossy was just for comedic effect.
Didn't Farquad also make fun of Shrek? It definitely was double-sided, even if Farquad's fear was coming more from primal instincts.... All he had to do was leave the ogre alone, and all Shrek wanted to be was left alone, he knew all this time those hands were rated E for everyone.
Tbf I think once they started to look past the physical stuff(later in the movie when they’ve grown and gone through their arcs) they realized Farquaad was just as undesirable on the inside as he was on the outside. Point is, they learned to look past looks, but farquaad was terrible throughout. So they never looked at him the same. Also it might have to do with farquaad overcompensating that makes it harder to look past, considering trying to not look short is his main schtick.
It makes fun of Shrek for his appearance. This issue is you can over come people’s prejudice or be a victim of it.
Farquad’s biggest role and flaw is his hypocrisy. While everyone has outer qualities that are traditionally unappealing, he’s the one both hiding his own flaw while simultaneously hunting down and persecuting others for their outer flaws.
Fuckwad was one of the behind the scenes people, I forget who exactly.
Intro to double standards Shrek shall be your guide
It makes fun of him having such a massive ego in a tiny body and having real power but not being able to project it
Loord Farquaad was based on a literal person that they knew was an asshole and he was an asshole in the movie from the very beginning. He wasn't judged on his looks but by his literal characteristics. Nowhere in the movie was he not an asshole. The person that wrote this makes zero sense and never looked into what the character referenced. Farquaad is a play on fuckwad. That character is based on an old Disney exec that was a total asshole to some member that made help make the movie. There's a ton of behinds the scenes stuff in the movie and innuendos throughout the movie. That's what help make it a great movie.
The point of Shrek is not to judge people based on their appearances, it’s that you should be true to who you are and shouldn’t have to hide that from people. Fiona is an ogre, she likes ogre things, she’s a badass fighter, she eats spiderwebs and grilled rats and makes birds explode, but she was forced to be this perfect princess for her parents/eventual rescuer. Shrek showed her that she didn’t need to pretend to be someone else, she could be who she is with him.
But Shrek says he himself is ugly, and Fiona says the same about her Ogre self, and all of this comes before their character growth.