“ | 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 Princess Fiona to Lord Farquaad |
Princess Fiona is the princess of Far Far Away, and the daughter of Queen Lillian and King Harold. She is Shrek's wife and the mother of triplets Fergus, Farkle, and Felicia.
Appearances
Early Life
Fiona was born in the kingdom of Far Far Away as the only child of King Harold and Queen Lillian. 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 ogre 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 in the highest room of the tallest tower of the Dragon's Keep to await for her true love to free her and break her curse. Over the years, many knights attempted to rescue her from her tower only to be slain by her dragon guardian.
Shrek
Lord Farquaad is told by the Magic Mirror that in order to be king of Duloc, he must first marry a princess. He chooses Fiona, and holds a tournament in which the winner will have the "privilege" to rescue her from the Dragon's Keep for him. Shrek becomes the tournament's unexpected champion after besting all of Farquaad's knights, and agrees to rescue Fiona in exchange for the removal of the fairytale creatures from his swamp. Fiona first meets Shrek when he crashes into the roof of her tower after being thrown by Dragon. Wearing pieces of armor taken from dead knights in the Dragon's Keep, Shrek is mistaken by Fiona to be her "Prince Charming". She pretends to sleep, but instead of getting her true love's kiss, Shrek shakes her awake and unceremoniously drags out of her tower. He is all but the knight-in-shining-armor that Fiona expected; he won't recite her poetry, she gives him her handkerchief as a token of her gratitude just for him to wipe his face with it, and he hasn't even slain the dragon. Shrek goes back to retrieve Donkey from Dragon, and in the ensuing chase the three of them narrowly escape from the castle. Fiona is grateful to her rescuer despite his un-knightly behavior. Wishing to see his face so she can kiss him, Fiona orders Shrek to remove his helmet.
Fiona is angered to learn that her rescuer is not a knight, but an ogre, and that the man who wants to marry her wouldn't come to rescue her himself. At first she refuses to go back to Farquaad, so Shrek grabs her and carries her over his shoulder. On their travel back, Fiona demands that they stop to make camp before nightfall and shelters herself away. She overhears Shrek confide in Donkey that he chooses to be alone because everyone judges him just for being an ogre. She wakes up early to head into the nearby forest and ends up singing with a blue bird until she accidentally causes it to explode after singing a very high note. Fiona is in a noticeably better mood today, and makes breakfast with the bird's eggs for Shrek and Donkey in order to makeup for their bad first impressions of each other. Shrek tells her that she wasn't what he expected from a princess, and Fiona tells he shouldn't judge people before getting to know him, referring to something he had said last night. The group runs into Monsieur Hood when he and his Merrymen kidnap Fiona, under the impression that they are rescuing the princess from a monster. After Hood threatens to kill Shrek, Fiona reveals her martial arts skills and single-handedly defeats them all.
An amazed Shrek asks Fiona where she learned to fight, but before she can answer points to an arrow sticking in his butt. After much resistance on Shrek's part Fiona manages to remove the arrow, and the group continues on their journey. Having developed feelings for Shrek, Fiona is less eager to be returned to Farquaad. With Duloc in sight, the two convince Donkey that he looks sick as an excuse to spend more time together. They make camp nearby a windmill, and with the campfire set up they share weedrat kabab for dinner. Fiona laments that she is going to have to be dining in Duloc soon, and Shrek suggests that she visit him in his swamp sometime. They hold each other's hand and lean in to kiss each other but are interrupted by Donkey pointing out the sun is about to set. Fiona is visibly worried, saying that she's just afraid of the dark, and quickly slips away into the windmill for the night.
Later Donkey goes in to check on Fiona, and after failing to hide from him she reveals that at night she takes on the form of an ogre. She explains that when she was a child a witch cast a spell on her, causing her to transform into an ogre when the sun goes down, and that the curse can only be broken by true love's first kiss. Fiona is convinced that Farquaad is this true love, but Donkey suggests that maybe she should be with Shrek instead. Shrek goes up to the windmill so that he can talk to Fiona and give her a flower, but ends up hearing part of her conversation with Donkey. Shrek overhears Fiona asking, "who could ever love a beast so hideous and ugly?" (the beast being herself), but believes Fiona is referring to him. In the morning Fiona goes out to show Shrek her ogre form but transforms back as the sun rises. Shrek, hurt by what he thought he had heard Fiona say, repeats back what he had heard last night. Fiona is heartbroken as she thinks that Shrek won't be with her because of her ugliness. Farquaad and and an escort of his guards soon arrive, as Shrek had gone out in the night to summon them.
Angry and hurt, Shrek hands Fiona over to Farquaad in exchange for the deed to his swamp. Fiona accepts Farquaad's marriage proposal as she is upset by Shrek's cold behavior, although she doesn't seem to be all too thrilled by her groom. Hoping to lift her curse before sunset, she convinces Farquaad to hold the wedding that same day. As she prepares for the wedding, Fiona is hesitant about marrying Farquaad and devastated by how Shrek treated her. Just as she and Farquaad are about to kiss at the wedding, Shrek interrupts the ceremony. He tells Fiona that Farquaad is just marrying her so that he can be king of Duloc and that the one that really loves her is himself. Sunset comes and Fiona reveals her ogre form, setting Farquaad into a fit of rage. He orders his guards to seize them both and threatens to lock Fiona back in her tower for the rest of her days. However at Shrek's command, Fiona's dragon guardian bursts through the windows and eats Farquaad. After this, Shrek professes his love to Fiona, and she professes her love to him, and they share a kiss. The curse is lifted when Fiona is kissed by Shrek, but she is shocked that "true love's form" has still left her as an ogre. While she had expected to become her human self, Shrek assures her that she is still beautiful and the two get married in Shrek's swamp.
Shrek 2
The newly wed Fiona and Shrek enjoy their honeymoon together, but arrive in Shrek's swamp to find a group of royal messengers outside their home. They deliver a message from Fiona's parents inviting them to come to Far Far Away to attend a royal ball in honor of their wedding and so that her father can bless the marriage. Fiona convinces Shrek to go, though Shrek believes that it will go poorly as her parents won't accept an ogre as their son-in-law.
They travel with Donkey by onion carriage to Far Far Away. Fiona is happy to see the city again and tries to reassure Shrek that the meeting will go well. When Shrek and Fiona step out of the carriage, the gathered crowd including Harold and Lillian are shocked to see the two ogres. Fiona and her parents are still happy to see each other, but as Shrek predicted, they aren't thrilled to see that their daughter has married an ogre. The family dinner in the palace ends in Harold and Shrek exchanging insults, with Fiona storming out to the bedroom she stayed in as a child. She goes through her old toys, reminded of her childhood dream to marry a handsome prince.
Fiona goes out to the balcony and ends up meeting "her" Fairy Godmother, who is also surprised to see Fiona as an ogre and married to Shrek. Godmother tries to convince her that she needs a prince and to live the life of a typical princess to be happy, but Fiona politely disagrees with her. Godmother has ulterior motives to see Fiona married with a prince, as she made a deal with Harold that her son Prince Charming would be the one to rescue Fiona and thereby become the king of Far Far Away. Shrek comes to pack his bags and go home and ends up arguing with Fiona, Fiona telling him that he isn't even trying to get along with her parents. Even though he did try, and her father started the fight. She shuts the door on Shrek in tears after telling him that she has made lots of sacrifices to be with him while he isn't willing to make any for her.
In the morning she finds that Shrek is gone, and her diary is opened. She goes to Harold and Lillian to find out where Shrek has gone to, but neither seem to know where he is. Later at night, discouraged by how poorly they have gotten along, Fiona tells her parents that she is leaving to find Shrek and head back to the swamp with him. Before she can leave, she suddenly collapses to the floor unconscious. In the morning she is shocked to see that she has somehow changed back to her human form. Suddenly she hears Shrek calling for her and runs to his voice. Outside she finds Donkey who has taken the form of a stallion, and Fiona learns from him that he and Shrek drank a magical potion that transformed them to be "sexy". She heads back inside and meets a human Shrek, but she feels uneasy that he doesn't seem to sound or act like he once did. Both Harold and Lillian are put off by this new Shrek as well. Unbeknownst to them (except for Harold), this human Shrek is actually Prince Charming posing as Shrek.
Fairy Godmother had previously ordered King Harold to get rid of Shrek, and now wants him to give Fiona a love potion that will cause her to fall in love with the first person she kisses before midnight, which will be Prince Charming. Before the royal ball Harold comes into Fiona's room with two tea cups, one of which he has poured the love potion into. Fiona expresses to Harold that she can barely recognize her husband in this new "Shrek", and that she would give anything to have him back. Before Fiona can drink from one of the cups, Harold switches them.
Fiona nearly leaves the royal ball after being put off by "Shrek's" behavior, but dances with him after being pressured into it by Fairy Godmother in front of the crowd. Throughout the dance Fiona resists Prince Charming's attempts to kiss her, but eventually gives in. Just as they are about to kiss, the real Shrek interrupts the wedding and tells Charming to back away from Fiona. In the ensuing chaos, Prince Charming forcefully kisses Fiona, seemingly sealing the effect of the potion. However, Fiona headbutts Charming and knocks him out, and Harold reveals to Fairy Godmother that he chose not to give Fiona the potion. An angered Godmother shoots her wand on Shrek and Fiona only for Harold to jump in the way, taking the blow but also redirecting the spell back at her, turning her into bubbles.
Fiona runs to Harold's empty clothing, distraught that he is now dead. However, Harold hops out as a frog, revealing to them that he was originally a frog before making a deal with the Fairy Godmother. He apologies to Shrek and Fiona for trying to interfere with their relationship and offers their marriage his blessing. Shrek then reveals to Fiona that if they kiss before midnight, they can stay human, and that he is willing to do this for her. Fiona declines, assuring him that all she wants is to "live happily ever after with the ogre [she] married". As midnight comes, the transform back into their ogre forms and resume the party, thus ending the movie with a song and dance led by Donkey and Puss in Boots themselves.
Shrek the Third
Fiona has to act as the queen of Far Far Away while her father becomes very ill. After a long hard day, Fiona starts to suggest to Shrek that they begin a family. Shrek dismisses it at first, saying she’s his family. When her father passes away, Shrek sets out to find her cousin Arthur Pendragon, and as he’s leaving, she tells Shrek she’s pregnant (something that she has hinted since the beginning of the film). While she’s having a baby shower, Prince Charming stages an invasion so that he can proclaim himself king of Far Far Away. Fiona organizes the resistance with her friends Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Doris the Ugly Stepsister, but Rapunzel turns traitor to marry Prince Charming. Thanks to the fighting abilities of her mother, they get out of prison and manage to get away, and the different princesses 'cut loose' and become more independent, Artie ends up making a speech to convince the villains to go straight. In the end, she returns to the swamp and gives birth to ogre triplets with Shrek. This was the only film in the series so far where Fiona is not seen as a human.
Shrek Forever After
Shrek makes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin to become "Ogre for a Day" and unknowingly gives up the day of his own birth, taking him to an alternate reality where he could live out his wishes. However because Shrek was was never born in this new timeline, he never rescued Fiona from the tower, her parents signed the contract causing them to disappear, and Rumpel became king of Far Far Away. After Shrek escapes from the derelict castle, it is revealed that because Fiona was never rescued by anyone, she had to free herself from the tower and has become the leader of an ogre resistance targeted at overthrowing Rumpelstiltskin, in addition she keeps Puss, who has become overweight after he “let go of himself” as a personal pet. Her personality is very abrasive, and she refuses to believe in love, completely unlike her original self. Throughout the night of Shrek's day, Shrek initially believes that this new Fiona is the same Fiona from the original timeline he’s married to and attempts to woo her, but fails multiple times due to the fact that he never met her. Between this time, Rumpel hires a Pied Piper to capture and imprison all the ogres and gets Shrek to turn himself in where he signs another deal to free all the ogres, but Rumpel refuses to let Fiona go due to her curse which makes not “all ogre”. Rumpel then imprisons both Shrek and Fiona and attempts to kill them with a captured Dragon, whom Shrek and Fiona are able to defeat with the help of Donkey and Puss. Just around midnight, the rest of the ogres storm Rumpel’s castle and capture him, and Fiona declares victory at least. But just as they are preparing to eat him, dawn comes and Shrek begins to disappear in his former wife's arms, telling Fiona everything she’s given to him, including their family and their children, particularly Felicia, whom Fiona always wished she had a daughter with that name. She kisses him just before he fades from existence, and is heartbroken by Shrek's disappearance. But soon realizes that her curse was broken when she finds that she is still in her ogre form after the sun rose, finally giving her the belief that true love was real after all. However due to Shrek having fulfilled the hidden exit clause of Rumpelstiltskin’s deal, the alternate reality’s existence pulverizes taking everyone including this Fiona with it. This is the only film in which we see Fiona with her hair down.
Once Shrek returns to the original timeline, Fiona is shown at the birthday party with the children, as the one whom Shrek knew this whole time. Shrek hugs her, saying that he always believed that he was the one to rescue her from danger, but claims now it was her that saved him from danger.
Video Game Appearances
Fiona appears in all of the Shrek games.
She also appears in Shrek Super Slam as one of the 10 starters. Her Super Slam is that she sings very hard (so hard that birds can explode).
Fiona also appeared in Shrek Smash and Crash Racing. She is one of the four racers that are unlocked from the start. Fiona doesn't appear in her human form in this game at all. Her kart is the Onion Carriage that Shrek and herself used to travel to Far Far Away in Shrek 2. Fiona's special item is a pot.
Songs (in the musical)
(see lyrics to "Song:I Think I Got You Beat" from Shrek the Musical.)
Solos
- "This Is How A Dream Comes True"
- "Morning Person"
- "Morning Person (Reprise)"
Solos (in a duet)
- "I Think I Got You Beat" (Shrek)
Solos (in a group number)
- "I Know It's Today" (Young and Teenage Fiona)
- "Who I'd Be" (Shrek and Donkey)
- "This Is Our Story" (Shrek, Donkey, and Fairy Tale Creatures)
- "I'm a Believer" (Shrek, Donkey, and Fairy Tale Creatures)
Personality
Fiona initially behaves like an archetypal fairytale princess when she meets Shrek. She speaks formally in matters of courtship and has particular expectations of how she is to be rescued, who is to rescue her, and so forth. Later, Princess Fiona's true self emerges, revealing a down-to-earth and independent woman who is a match for Shrek when it comes to the bad habits he has. She enjoys burping and likes to get foot massages. She’s a loyal friend and wife, and unlike princesses of fairy tales, an old pro in hand-to-hand combat with knowledge of Japanese martial arts, leading a rebellion with the princesses while pregnant with Shrek's children. She also has very poor manners (just like Shrek), since she is an ogre. According to the Magic Mirror, she is a feisty woman who likes Pina coladas and getting caught in the rain. She's shown to be very nurturing and proves to be a great mother to her and Shrek's triplets.
In the alternative world, it is shown that she doesn't want to be a human and she wants to stay ogre. She is also more hard-headed in this universe, having been disillusioned due to not being rescued for many years.
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.
Powers and Abilities
- Master Martial Artist: Fiona is highly trained and skilled in martial arts, making her a capable hand-to-hand combatant despite her size. She is able to defeat an entire group of Merrymen when they try to kill Shrek and knocked out Charming with a headbutt for kissing her (in the UK version of Shrek 2, she slaps him).
- Superhuman Strength (As An Ogre): In her ogre form, she gains the superhuman strength and durability possessed by ogres, complementing her already proficient martial arts skills. She is seen to be strong enough to hurl a mermaid far into the beach waters and fend off an angry mob armed chasing her armed with farming equipment. In the alternative world, she is strong enough to kick Shrek with enough force that he gets thrown away. However, Shrek is still shown to be stronger than her, when he is able to hold his own when he spars with her, using his raw strength to overcome his apparent lack of training and skill (although he showed impressive and surprising wrestling moves and skills during the fight in the arena of Duloc). Two guards of Lord Farquaad in the climax of the first Shrek movie, however, seem strong enough to hold her still from her arms with relative ease.
- Superhuman Durability: When she is training with Shrek, she is shown to be able to withstand large attacks. She can take several hits from weapons and bare hands and still show no signs of bruises or internal damage.
- Expert Weapon Combatant (Alternative World): In Shrek Forever After, as the leader of a group of ogre warriors, she is highly skillful in weapon-based combat, capable of hitting targets with axes with a blindfold on.
Quotes
Gallery
Trivia
- Fiona is likely based on the repulsive princess from the book Shrek!, both being conventionally unattractive princesses who end up marrying Shrek.
- As shown in Fiona's Prologue, an early draft of Shrek would have explained Fiona's curse at the beginning of the film.
- The audience actually sees Fiona's ogre form for the first time when she peeks out of her shelter when the trio make camp for the night on the cliffside. The darkness of the night and orange hue of the fire help to obscure the ogre-like appearance Fiona's face.
- Even in her ogress form, Fiona is still significantly smaller and shorter than Shrek.
- If Fiona sings too high, her voice can cause birds to explode. This happens with a bluebird in the forest in Shrek, a crow in Shrek 4D, and to Fifi at the end of Shrek Forever After. Shrek explains this phenomenon as a result of Fiona singing "so beautifully".
- Shrek lists some quirks and behaviors of Fiona while trying to convince her that he truly knows her in Shrek Forever After.
- Fiona always signs her name with a heart over the "I" in "Fiona". Everytime she sees a shooting star, she crosses her fingers, scrunches her nose, and makes a wish. She doesn't like her covers covering up her feet in bed. She always sleeps by candlelight out of fear of waking up back in her tower every night.
- Fiona has a lot of elements like other fairy tale princesses (Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty, and Sleeping Beauty)
- Fiona likes to sing with woodland creatures like Snow White; her and Shrek started to fall in love while in her human form like Beauty; Fiona was locked away in a tower guarded by a dragon like Sleeping Beauty; and Fiona had a Fairy Godmother and Prince Charming like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty (latter had 3 fairy godmothers).
- Near the end of the North American and some international prints of Shrek 2, she headbutts Charming to knock him out, but in the UK prints, she knocked him out with a different move.
- Her only solo appearance in any Shrek media was a commercial for HP Pavilion Entertainment Notebooks.
- Later media, notably the DreamWorksTV videos (New Shrek, Swamp Talk), shows her absent with only Shrek and Donkey appearing, prior to Shrek 5.
- The only other modern appearances she made were in Shrek's Adventure! London in 2015, the Motiongate Dubai ride Shrek's Merry Fairy Tale Journey in 2017 and in the current opening logo to DreamWorks Animation introduced in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish in 2022.
- She is at the center of the schemes of almost all the major villains in the main Shrek franchise.
- Lord Farquaad wants to marry her to be king; Fairy Godmother and Prince Charming want her to marry Charming so that he can rule Far Far Away; Rumpelstiltskin uses her in his contract to double cross Fiona's parents.