- “And last, but certainly not least, bachelorette number three is a fiery redhead from a dragon guarded castle surrounded by hot boiling lava! But don't let that cool you off. She's a loaded pistol who likes piña coladas and getting caught in the rain. Yours for the rescuing, Princess Fiona!”
- ―Magic Mirror introducing Fiona.
Princess Fiona is the tritagonist of DreamWorks Animation's Shrek franchise. She appears as a princess plagued by a curse that transforms her into an ogress each and every sunset. Locked in a dragon-guarded castle for several years until she is "rescued" by an irreverent ogre named Shrek, whom she mistakes for a knight, Fiona is at first eager to have her spell broken via true love's kiss by Lord Farquaad so that they remain human, but later she comes to love Shrek and becomes a real ogre.
Development
Shrek is loosely based on William Steig's children's book Shrek! (1990), but its main characters significantly deviate from their inspirations. According to animation historian Maureen Furniss, changing Shrek's love interest from an ugly princess to a beautiful one is the film's most significant deviations. In Steig's story, a witch foretellsthat Shrek will marry an unnamed princess, who she only describes as uglier than Shrek himself, inspiring the ogre to pursue her.Described in the book as "the most stunningly ugly princess on the surface of the planet", Steig's princess bears little resemblance to Fiona, but the couple immediately marries with little conflict. In an effort to expand the plot and make its characters more marketable, the film's writers decided to adapt Shrek!'s princess into a beautiful maiden only cursed to become ugly during evenings, which she is forced to conceal from other characters. These changes to the character make the vain Lord Farquaad's interest in Fiona more believable, since he is only marrying a princess to become King of Duloc. According to author Margot Mifflin, Fiona is also written as more of a damsel in distress than Steig's princess.
Feeling that keeping Fiona's curse entirely secret until the end was unsuitable for a feature-length film, screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio suggested a shapeshifting princess. At first, the concept was rejected by their peers for six months because they found it overcomplicated for a fairy tale, but the writing partners argued that similar plot points had been used in Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989) and Beauty and the Beast (1991). Instead, Elliot and Rossio began referring to Fiona as an "enchanted" princess. Some writers expressed concern that turning Fiona into an ogre full-time once she professes her love for Shrek implies "that ugly people belong with ugly people", but Rossio explained that her final transformation actually suggests that Shrek already loves Fiona regardless of how she looks. Fiona remaining in her "ugly, bewitched state" retains some of the book's original themes about staying true to oneself, according to journalist Julia Eccleshare, although The Daily Telegraph remarked that Fiona is far from repulsive.
Background
Fiona at the Dragon's Keep.
Fiona was born in the kingdom of Far Far Away as the only daughter and child of King Harold and Queen Lillian as heir to the throne. As a little girl, a curse was cast on Fiona by a witch which goes as follows; "By night one way, by day another. This shall be the norm, until you find true love's first kiss, and then take love's true form." Fiona's curse causes her to take the form of an ogress between sunset and sunrise, and can only be broken by the kiss of her true love.
Fiona's parents did their best to hide her curse from the world, keeping her home at night so that no one would discover her ogre form. But eventually they sought the help of Fairy Godmother, who had them lock Fiona away in a dragon-guarded castle to await her true love to rescue her. They had also agreed that Prince Charming would be the one to eventually rescue Fiona (Harold's way of repaying a favor to the Fairy Godmother). And so Fiona, who was still only a girl, was imprisoned. Unfortunately, all knights that came into the castle and tried to rescue Fiona were killed and slaughtered by Dragon, while Fiona spend her days training herself to learn martial arts to defend herself and someday escape the tower herself, but she choose to wait for her true love to come and break her spell.
Personality
Princess Fiona is initially portrayed as the archetypal princess from fairy tales, speaking formally in matters of courtship and presenting high expectations of how she is to be rescued, who is to rescue her, and so forth. She seems to give off an air of prissiness and even snobbery to a degree (however, this is shown to be purely out of her concern for breaking her curse, of which she is ashamed). Later, Princess Fiona's true self emerges, as she is really a very down-to-earth and independent woman who is a match or even better than Shrek when it comes to farting, belching, and other bad habits. Unlike princesses of fairy tales, she is a loyal friend and an expert in karate. She also has very bad manners (just like Shrek) since she is an ogre. However, she is much more well-mannered when in front of her parents.
Fiona has special talents as well. For example, besides her karate skills, she can sing so high that birds explode. Fiona is much more patient, and kinder to Donkey than Shrek is at times. She is shown to be a very loving wife and mother. However, in Shrek Forever After, her alternate self is aggressive, single-minded, and driven at times. This is understandable, given the situation she is in.
This "new" Fiona is shown to have arrived at this point after being disillusioned because Shrek never came to rescue her. Bitter and angry, she is shown to still be passionate and fiery but not as gentle and sweet as she was in the other movies; however, these traits have not completely faded.
Fiona is extremely insightful, and she also has the skill of rallying other people, shown in Shrek 3 when her speech rallies the princesses to break out of the dungeons.
Physical Appearance
In her human form. Fiona is a young woman of average height and slim figure. She has long, red hair parted in the middle with a single rope braid ponytail secured by a hair tie. She is fair of skin with freckles, light blue eyes and appears to wear pink lipstick. As an ogre, Fiona has green skin the ogre ears, being taller in stature and with a more plump figure. Fiona keeps her hairstyle the same as her human form, except in Shrek Forever After wear she has her hair down.
Throughout the first film, she wore her trademark green dress with yellow accents and her simple gold tiara with a single red ruby. She also wears a white wedding gown in the climax. In the second film, she wears a light lavender dress during her honeymoon, a dark green dress in the middle of the film and a white gown for the wedding ball. In the third film, she wore a gaudy pink gown with a powdered wig and Elizabethan collar, her dark green dress for a brief scene, her trademark blue dress for most of the film, and a light orange gown at the end. In the fourth film, she wears a darker emerald dress akin to her outfit in the original, although without the yellow accents and a heart shaped belt buckle with an emerald. In the fifth film, she wears a more causal dress, with see-through sleeves and a green fabric belt.
Powers and abilities
- Combat Proficiency: Fiona is a master in both armed and unarmed combat, capable of defeating entire groups of armed men and easily keep up with Shrek in a sparring session.
- Matrix Slow Mo's: Whenever she's in a fight, Fiona can freeze time in a Matrix-style, and is fully aware of these events. However, people who are aware of these slow mo's can bypass them.
- Enhanced Speed and Agility: Fiona is able to jump around opponents and dodge enemy attacks at surprising speed, and can preform complex moves in battle. She can also do these things while pregnant during Shrek The Third.
- Superhuman Strength: Much like her husband Shrek, Fiona's physical strength far exceeds that of a normal human's. She can lift trees three times her own size, threw a mermaid a great distance into the ocean, can send men flying, and even held and spun a ball so heavy three ogres were needed to throw it.
- Enhanced Durability: Thanks to her ogre physiology, Fiona is considerable more durable than a normal human. While sparring with Shrek, she took a punch to the face from the larger, stronger ogre, and continued fighting without serious damage.
- Singing: Fiona's high note is so loud, it causes birds to inflate and explode, while it is strong enough to send people flying.
- Leadership: During Shrek The Third Fiona leads the princesses out of the jail and knows how to order the princesses using their skills in order for them to sneak past the guards easily. During Shrek Forever After Fiona also leads a group of Ogres to attack Rumpelstiltskin while inspiring devotion in her soldiers.
Appearances
Shrek
Princess Fiona in Shrek.
When the ruler of Duloc, Lord Farquaad banished fairy tale creatures from their homes in order to beautify his kingdom learns from the Magic Mirror that he cannot be a king unless he is married to a princess, and is introduced to three princesses from the kingdoms in Far Far Away, first it was Cinderella, then it was Princess Fiona who was kept in a tower at the Dragon's Keep for unknown reasons, probably because it was what happened to many princesses in their own fairy tales. Finding number three being too perfect and the one he picks, Farquaad decides to make Fiona his queen so that Duloc could have their own king and addresses his knights during the tournament to rescue Fiona from the tower, unless they will die in the hands of the dragon. But when an ogre named Shrek along with his friend, Donkey interfered and defeated all the knights that were ordered by Farquaad to kill them both, the evil tyrant found his skills useful and strikes a deal with Shrek about getting his swamp back when he banished all the fairy tale creatures there, unless he rescues Fiona for him, which he agrees to.
Fiona seeing her rescuer not being a real knight, but an ogre.
When Shrek and Donkey made it to the Dragon's Keep and crossed paths with Dragon who was guarding the princess, Shrek made it to her location where she pretends to be asleep and hoping Shrek could somehow kiss her, only for the ogre who disguised himself as a knight to hide his true form to wake her up and drag her down the stairs where she would tell him to do what the other knights that tried to save her did, like slaying the dragon after learning that Shrek didn't do it. And when Fiona gifted Shrek her favor that is a simple of their love, Shrek only used to rub his face and returned to her in a dirty way. When Shrek saves Donkey from Donkey and all three of them escaped from being burned alive, Fiona was in a gratitude with Shrek and hoping that he would remove his helmet and share true love's kiss with her. Shrek stated that he was not the princesses' type and removed his helmet, revealing that he was nothing but an ogre to the princess. Fiona was shocked and knew this was not right about being rescued by some stranger, like an ogre and his pet, which disappoints Donkey when she first thought of him being Shrek's noble steed, and would rather wait for Farquaad, only to be carried by Shrek back to Duloc.
Silhouette Fiona hears Shrek talking about his anti-social to Donkey.
While walking in the forest, and still carried by Shrek until he finally puts her down, Fiona realized it was getting dark sooner, and she would want to find somewhere to camp, but Shrek ignores her words about there being bandits in the woods, since he is scary than anything they'd ever find in the woods, until Fiona pushed about finding somewhere to camp for the night at once, so Shrek found her a cave that she should sleep in, and Fiona a wooden part of a tree as a door. While her rescuers made a campfire and begin to talk loudly, Fiona mysteriously checked on them and heard Shrek reveal to Donkey that the whole world is against him, because he is an ogre that everyone fears and would do nothing but run away out of fear without trying to get to know him and judge him for his appearance, which is the reason why Shrek was better off living in his swamp alone. Realizing how she somehow judged Shrek when she saw him for the first time, Fiona decided to make it up to him by doing something good for him tomorrow, like in another gratitude of rescuing her, despite Shrek did not save her out of love, but a deal with someone else who's marrying Fiona.
Fiona uses her karate skills to defeat Monsieur Hood and his merry men.
Next morning, while Shrek and Donkey were still asleep, Fiona steps out of the cave and decided to exploring and dancing in the forest, where she would soon encounter a blue bird and sing to him. When the blue bird sings back, Fiona continues, until her singing was so loud that the blue bird blew up, leaving nothing but the burning eggs and unhatched eggs that Fiona later cooked for Shrek as an a forgiveness that happened yesterday, and she finally accepts to ogre as her rescuer. When the trio walked together in the forest, Fiona was caught by the swinging Monsieur Hood who thought of "rescuing" her from Shrek when he thought she was kidnapped by him, and attempts to keep Fiona for himself out of love. He later along with his Merry Men attempting to kill Shrek while singing. But Fiona knocks Monsieur Hood out and used her karate skills to defeat all the thieves in the forest. Shrek was really amazed of what he just saw and asked Fiona where she learned it from. But when Fiona was about to tell Shrek how she got her own skills, an arrow from one of the merry men was found in Shrek's butt and she blamed it on herself for what would've happened to Shrek and tries to pull it out carefully, which ends up in a success despite it was a little painful. Shrek was cured, and all three of them passed by the forest, heading to Duloc.
Fiona becomes attracted to Shrek during the sunset.
On their way to the kingdom, Fiona and Shrek were getting along pretty well, and made balloons for each other from a frog that was done by Shrek and a snake that was done by Fiona in a returning. When they were approaching the castle of Duloc, they decided to make another stop for the night, with Fiona finding some woods for the campfire while Shrek hunts for some foods and started cooking weedrats for Fiona, and she found it very delicious. When Fiona said she will be dining differently tomorrow and could not eat what ogres do, Shrek said she could visit him to his swamp and he will cook kinds of stuff for her, like swamp toad soup and fish eye tartare, which she agrees to. But when the two become very close, they were about to share a brief kiss, until Donkey interrupts and tells them about the sunset, which shocks Fiona and she decided to get into the mill and get some sleep. Not really knowing what was wrong with Fiona, because she never told anyone, Donkey believed she was afraid of the dark, which Fiona agrees with and heads inside to go to sleep before wishing them both a good night. When Donkey begins to believe they both have feelings for each other, and asks Shrek he doesn't just spill it, Shrek said it could never work, because Fiona is a princess and he is an ogre.
Fiona reveals her ogress form to Donkey.
One night, while Shrek was sitting alone at the flower field starting at the castle of Duloc, Donkey heads inside the mill to check on Fiona, and found it very spooky in there, until he got startled of seeing an ogress, believing she ate the princess and tries to call for Shrek, but she shuts him up, revealing she was the princess, much to Donkey's shock and confusion of seeing Fiona as an ogre, believing it were those rats she ate, but Fiona reveals to him that a witch cast a spell on Fiona when she was a little girl, making her normal on day, but as an ugly ogre at night, which is the reason why she was sent to the Dragon's Keep to wait for her true love to come and rescue her, including sharing true love's kiss with her, and the quote was "By night one way, by day another. This shall be the norm, until you find true love's first kiss, and then take love's true". Fiona didn't want this to continue forever, and in order to be human every day and night, she had to marry Farquaad tomorrow before she'd see her as an ogre, which makes her break down in tears. Donkey tried to cheer her up and stating that she wasn't that ugly and knew maybe she and Shrek are meant to be together, but Fiona was a human princess, and they are not meant to be this ugly, which is the reason why she cannot be with Shrek, and asks Donkey who could marry such an ugly beast like her. However, Shrek was outside preparing to share his feelings with Fiona, but heard everything she was saying to Donkey and thought she was talking about him, which leads him to storm away.
Fiona is approached by Lord Farquaad.
When Donkey agreed to keep Fiona's spell a secret, he'd hope she will tell Shrek the truth before heading out. When Fiona found the sunflower Shrek was about to give her, she plucks the petals of it, wondering she'd tell Shrek the truth or not. But when the last one was about telling Shrek the truth, Fiona decided to do so, only to find him missing and the sun was rising up, transforming her into a human again. When Shrek comes back in an angry mood, he confronts her about calling him an ugly beast that she could never be married to. Though she wasn't actually talking about him, Fiona was shocked that Shrek heard everything she said that night and was too heartbroken to explain things to Shrek, until Farquaad arrived, giving Shrek his swamp back and proposes to Fiona. Thought she was not impressed by his size and could not tell Shrek the truth for what he said to her, Fiona had no choice but top accept Farquaad's proposal and rather have them both married today before sunset. So she heads off to the castle with Farquaad and Shrek returns home to his swamp after walking out on both Fiona and Donkey. But while getting ready for her wedding, Fiona begun miss Shrek and didn't know if she was marrying the right person at all. The same way goes with Shrek who becomes miserable without Fiona, but soon learned from Donkey that she was not talking about him last night, and thought it was best if she'd go ask him. After the friends reconciled, Shrek and Donkey ride on Dragon to Duloc and stop the wedding.
Fiona prepares to wed Farquaad before Shrek enters the church.
On their wedding day, Fiona was ready to kiss Farquaad, until Shrek barged into the church and shouted that he objects. Fiona was upset of seeing Shrek again, and Farquaad begun to insult Shrek about showing up uninvited to a wedding. Shrek told Fiona that she can't marry Farquaad, because he was just marrying her so he could become the king, and was not really Fiona's true love. When Fiona begin to ask what Shrek knows about true love, Farquaad realized that the ogre has fallen in love with the princess, and had all the guest laugh about it and insists that Fiona kisses him right now. Realizing that was Shrek was right, and that she might be in love with him too, and wanted to show him something that she wanted to show him before and transforms herself into an ogre before sundown, shocking everyone, but Shrek who was greatly amazed by her look and said it explains a lot. But Farquaad now disgusted by Fiona's look, he angrily orders his knights to get them both out of his side. Fiona tried to reach out for Shrek to no avail when more knights stepped in and Farquaad threatens Fiona with sword to have locked back into the tower for the rest of her days. But Shrek whistles to Donkey and Dragon for a help, and Dragon breaks into the church and eats Farquaad alive, saving Fiona and Shrek from his tyranny.
With the curse broken, Fiona and Shrek become married.
With Farquaad gone, Shrek finally confesses his feelings for Fiona and tells her that he loves her, and she said she loves him too, and they share a true love's kiss together, breaking Fiona's curse at last. Despite her curse finally be broken and she reminded in her ogre form, Fiona said she was supposed to be beautiful, but Shrek said she was beautiful. Fiona was touched by Shrek's words and decided to remain as an ogre so she can be with Shrek and they both get married in his swamp with all the fairy tale creatures that were banished from their homes by Farquaad attending. While leaving for their honeymoon in an onion carriage, Fiona throws the flowers in the air, and when Snow White and Cinderella were fighting for it, Dragon catches it and shows it to Donkey, he thought it was being embarrassed, but Fiona and Shrek were really happy for them making a great couple, Shrek accepts Donkey as his best friend and Fiona put differences aside with Dragon, no longer seeing her as a threat when she guarded him at the keep. So Fiona and Shrek left for their honeymoon while everyone attending the wedding stayed behind singing "I'm a Believer".
Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party
Fiona in Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party.
Before Fiona went on her honeymoon with Shrek at the end of the movie, he welcomes the viewers to the Karaoke Dance Party and starts singing to Fiona one of his personal favorite songs which is "Just the Way You Are".
After Shrek serenades Fiona, she erupts into "Like a Virgin" by Madonna, followed by Donkey who sings "Baby Got Back" with Dragon shaking her tail behind him. Next comes Thelonious who sings "Feelings", and then Monsieur Hood and his Merrymen join in with "Y-M-C-A", Gingy sings part of "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me".
Unexpectedly, Farquaad is revealed to be "Stayin' Alive" in the Dragon's stomach, while Wolf sings "Who Let the Dogs Out?" Donkey then urges everyone to "Dance to the Music" with Pinocchio on turntables insists that they need a drummer and Fiona plays a drum solo. Thelonious sings with Gingy, and Shrek also sings and plays on the organ. It ends with Shrek and Fiona singing "Happy Together" while the rest of the chorus continues singing "Dance to the Music."
The Ghost of Lord Farquaad
Fiona held hostage by Lord Farquaad's ghost.
While Shrek and Princess Fiona, assisted by Donkey, try to find the Honeymoon Hotel, where they plan to stay for their honeymoon, Thelonious appears and captures Fiona, with Shrek and Donkey giving chase. Upon Shrek and Donkey searching around the local graveyard, Lord Farquaad's ghost reanimates the stone statue of Dragon from his tomb to go after them and kill them. The real Dragon arrives to the rescue, leading to a chase ending with the stone dragon losing its wings against the walls of a hole and falling into the water below. Farquaad sends Fiona on a raft to fall over the waterfall (with Thelonious still on it, not realizing he was supposed to get off), intending to kill her so that they can rule the underworld together. Fiona manages to break the restraints and knees Thelonious in the groin, causing him to fall off the raft. Shrek and Donkey arrive shortly after to rescue her before the raft plunges over the waterfall, but in the end, all four of them fall over the waterfall. They are saved by Dragon, who then breathes fire at Farquaad, destroying him again. Dragon gives Shrek and Fiona a ride to the Honeymoon Hotel, and she and Donkey ride off to have a honeymoon of their own by making waffles. Shrek and Fiona's honeymoon is interrupted by the Fairy Tale creatures, but they go along with it. Everyone celebrates after Shrek says "Let The Honeymoon Begin!". He then pops the cork off champagne, sending one of the fairies flying with the cork.
Shrek 2
Far Far Away Idol
Shrek the Third
Shrek the Halls
Shrek Forever After
Scared Shrekless
Donkey's Caroling Christmas-tacular
Shrek's Yule Log
Thriller Night
Shrek 5
Other appearances
Video games
Gallery
Trivia
- Fiona is the second DreamWorks character related to the protagonist to change a decision concerning the protagonist. Rameses II (the first to do so) initially allowed Moses and the Hebrews to leave Egypt, but pursued them to the Red Sea trying to kill them; Fiona decided to tell Shrek about her curse before leaving with Farquaad, but didn't do so).
- There were over a hundred designs for Princess Fiona before a final decision was made.
- Based on information from the musical, Fiona is somewhere between the ages of 28-32.
External links
- Fiona on Shrek Wiki
- Fiona on the Heroes Wiki
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