Shrek

" “ You know, it may be hard to believe what with my obvious charm and good looks, but people used to think that I was a monster. And for a long time, I believed them. But after awhile, you learn to ignore the names that people call you and you just trust who you are. ” ― Shrek • Shrek the Third"

Shrek is the main protagonist in the Shrek franchise and is a big, green-skinned, smelly, and anti-social ogre with a Scottish accent. While he may enjoy scaring those who hunt him, he's rather peaceful compared to how the tall tales describe ogres like him, preferring to be left alone in his swamp. However, over the course of the first film, Shrek learns to let down his guard, open up, and even learn to love, gaining a best friend in Donkey, and a true love in Fiona. From that point forward, Shrek would continue to grow as a person, learning to love himself for who he is in the second film, and learning to love what he has in the fourth one.

Why He's an All-Star

 * 1) Mike Myers' vocal performance as him is undeniably iconic, with the Scottish accent being a great touch that wasn't originally planned.
 * 2) *Of all of Myers' deliveries as Shrek, none are quite as iconic as "What are you doing in my swamp?!".
 * 3) Compared to other movie characters, Shrek truly is one of a kind, especially during his time, before more characters tried to replicate his success. He manages to be both irreverent and gross, cynical and sarcastic, but also down-to-earth and endearing.
 * 4) While on a surface level, his films seem to parody and lampoon fairy tales, like an onion, Shrek has layers. Shrek's story is all about learning to love, accepting oneself, and that everyone, even ogres, deserve to live happily ever after.
 * 5) Thanks to Donkey and Fiona's companionship, Shrek gradually evolves from a grouchy loner to a more sociable family man.
 * 6) Despite how he can be, Shrek is extremely loyal to those he cares about such as his friends and family.
 * 7) Shrek isn't exactly the leanest ogre around, especially compared to the ogres in the fourth movie, but he can hold his own. In the first movie, Shrek managed to outrun the much larger Dragon while carrying both Fiona and Donkey in his arms. The factory escape scene in the second movie steps it up with an impressive one-handed cartwheel, performed whilst holding Donkey under his arm and dodging a rain of fire from crossbows.
 * 8) The way Shrek's character develops over the course of the franchise was very well handled.
 * 9) *Shrek's character development is really shown in the fourth film; when arguing with the alternate Fiona, he insists that true love will solve everything and it does exist, a big contrast to how he dismissed the notion in the first film and Fiona insisted on the power of true love. In the end, he has fully accepted everything he has and became a better person because of it, realizing how much Fiona meant to him ("It was you who rescued me...").

Bad Qualities

 * 1) While not the fault of the character himself, Shrek's overly memetic presence on the internet degrades him to a "jolly green joke", making it a bit hard for some people to take his movies, and sometimes DreamWorks as a whole, seriously.
 * 2) His gross and irreverent humor is not for everyone.
 * 3) He was sadly flanderized in Shrek The Third, where he's less of a badass and becomes much softer, and didn't do much to fight back against Charming. Thankfully, he recovers in the fourth movie.
 * 4) He wasn’t that likable in the beginning of Shrek Forever After. After becoming tired over his new life filled with family, he storms out of his children's birthday party out of frustration and he and Fiona get into an argument about how different Shrek's life was before and after they met, and he harshly tells her about the former, which wasn't very nice of him.