Lord Farquaad

Villainous Benchmark

Full Name

Maximus Farquaad

Alias

Lord Farquaad

Lord Maximus Farquaad
Farquaad
Liege
Dwarf

Origin

Shrek

Allies

Thelonious (formerly)

His Knights

Powers / Skills

Political power

Leadership
Intelligence
Manipulation
Deception
Swordsmanship

Goals

Become the official king of DuLoc by any means necessary, including marrying Fiona.

Kill Shrek and Princess Fiona.
Cleanse his "perfect world" of all fairytale creatures (all failed).

MEH or Worst Act

Torturing and waterboarding Gingy while fully aware of his sapience.

Threatening to relentlessly torture Shrek and lock Princess Fiona in the tower again.

Kill Count

3 (attempted)

1 (possibly revived)

Crimes

Usurpation
Treason
Attempted murder
Vandalism
Coercion
Hate crimes
Corruption
Kidnapping
Unlawful imprisonment
Mass property damage
Torture
Terrorism
Abuse of power
Animal cruelty
Death threats
Attempted regicide
Endangerment
Mass unlawful banishment
Attempted unlawful brutal execution
Child abuse
Attempted mutilation

Type of Villain

Xenophobic Tyrant

“	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 2003 short film The Ghost of Lord Farquaad, as well as the posthumous overarching antagonist of its sequels Shrek 2 and Shrek Forever After.

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 FairGodmother, Prince Charming, and Rumpelstiltskin from taking over the kingdom of Far Far Away, leading to the plots of the three sequels.

Why Doesn't He Stand Out?[]

While he sent the knights on a dangerous quest while knowing they would likely die and not caring about their fates, the men in question desired to go on the adventure anyway despite being aware of the risks and tried to fight Shrek to gain the opportunity. This lowers how heinous the act is, with his other actions amounting to "kill the hero" villainy and generic torture, preventing him from meeting the baseline.
While he can't be compared to Rumpelstiltskin, Bloodwolf, Fairy Godmother, or Big Jack Horner due to them having far stronger resources, he still fails the heinous standard to Humpty Alexander Dumpty, who has next to no resources and nearly got all of San Ricardo destroyed and its villagers killed by kidnapping the golden goose and luring the Great Terror to the town with the intent to wipe it out.
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.

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.