Good evening ✨

Check out days one, two, and three if you missed ’em.

Our whole world has been turned upside down, both in real life and in Shrekville.

Some people are ecstatic, some devastated, and still others completely exhausted and want to hear absolutely nothing about politics. It’s a prime breeding ground for another one of those classic political tropes: conspiracy theories. And the field of Shrekology is not immune.

Case in point: Lord Farquaad’s parents. Fans have long speculated that the original antagonist’s father was one of Snow White’s Seven Dwarfs, drawing particular attention to Grumpy, since Farquaad is tiny and they have similarly colored bejeweled belt buckles. So was his mother Snow White? Some fans shuddered at the thought, since Snow White was presented as a potential wife in the original Shrek. (Oedipus complex much?)

Rumors ran wild until Shrek The Musical (you just knowwww I’ve already written about THAT one) finally confirmed things — it was Grumpy and the title character of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Princess and the Pea. Check out this scene from the play for yourself, in which Farquaad takes a bubble bath.

Then there’s the theory that Farquaad is Prince Charming’s father. It’s all a bit much the deeper you dig into the swamp reeds.

Which leads us to the true theme of today’s newsletter: fatherhood.

As underwhelming as Shrek the Third can be at times, it does boast a fabulous nightmare sequence after Shrek finds out he’s going to be a father: he arrives home in his swamp, only to be greeted by more and more Shrek babies, until a tsunami of them comes cascading in from every window and door. Then for some reason he’s naked at graduation in front of an entire audience of them. Of course it goes on to feature a dream within a dream along with a creature worthy of the deepest, darkest Internet memes.

This fear of fatherhood gets explored a bit more throughout the film, but it turns out Shrek isn’t afraid that it will ruin his life; he’s afraid he won’t be a good father.

The book and aforementioned play go into Shrek’s backstory a bit, but in Shrek the Third he explains to Arthur that his dad bathed him in BBQ sauce and tried to eat him. Who’s to say Shrek won’t be the same?

Shrek and Artie are able to bond and open up to each other only after Merlin forces them to confront their fears by each gazing into the Fire of Truth. Artie sees a papa bird abandoning his nest, the chick attempting to fly on its own and failing. He later tells Shrek: “He dumped me at the school the first chance he got and I never saw him again.”

So they’ve both got daddy issues.

As with everything I’ve ever talked about in SHREK WEEKs gone by, it always comes down to community, and only when Shrek and Artie sit down and have a heart to heart do they realize how much they have in common, mend their own broken hearts, and accept their responsibilities for other people.

It’s been a privilege to watch Shrek’s journey thus far — opening up to others, navigating married life, embracing fatherhood. Each step he learns what it takes not only to be less of an ogre, but what it takes to be a real man: kind, honest, humble, vulnerable, and selfless. Something we unfortunately can’t say about all of our leaders.

So here’s to all the fathers in our lives, no longer in our lives, fathers that never were, and fathers to be. Even if you completely blew it, you still shaped every single one of us in some way, shape, or form.

See you tomorrow! 💚