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If there's one thing we know, it's how beloved the Shrek films are, and a recent debate on TikTok has seen fans leap to the defence of their favourite green ogre.
It all started when TikTok creator @amberakilla posted a video where she declared Shrek is "a cautionary tale" as it is "an example of how a woman cannot turn an ogre into a man, but he can make an ogre out of you."
The creator elaborated, "...because she [Fiona] started as a princess, she had generational wealth, she could've had a pet dragon and because she was stuck up there [in the tower], no hobbies, no friends, the first person she meets is this moody a** subborn ogre who basically negs her."
@amberakilla edit: Shrek is a Dreamworks Animation distributed by Universal Pictures, created to PARODY Disney fairytales.
According to the TikToker, Fiona "takes this as a sign" to get Shrek to like him and she falls in love with him, questioning whether their relationship was built on a "trauma bond". She adds that Shrek manages to get a princess to "settle for him" who she describes as an "anti-social outcast" that is unemployed and lives in a swamp.
She continues to say that Fiona "alienates herself from her family" to live in Shrek's swamp, gets "baby trapped", and since she's also an ogre now, she would be "severely limited in her potential dating pool" if she ever decided to leave him.
As for Shrek, the creator didn't mince her words, describing how he's "not willing to change" and that he could be a prince but "doesn't want the responsibility," nor does he want to "level up in order to provide" for his family.
Since posting the video, it has gone viral with over 8 million views, 1.6 million likes, and plenty of comments from people who agreed with this judgment.
"She changed herself to be with him, then in EVERY SINGLE MOVIE HE'S trying to get away from her," one person wrote.
A second person said, "This reminds me of the quote 'A man can only bring you to his level.'"
"No because it is this deep," a third person posted.
"Shrek had literally not a single redeemable quality," a fourth person reacted.
However, there were many fans of the film series who were quick to defend Shrek, accusing the creator of misinterpreting the plot and characters.
One person wrote, "This is genuinely a terrible interpretation of Shrek, and I fear we are in a media literacy crisis."
"All this tells me is that 1.5m people didn’t watch Shrek cause Fiona was turning into an Ogre BEFORE she met Shrek," a second person said.
A third person added, "So clearly none of y’all watched Shrek."
"Tell me you’ve never actually watched Shrek without telling me you’ve never actually watched Shrek," a fourth person commented.
Following this original video, it spurred more viral videos from people who made it clear they strongly disagreed with the original TikToker's perspective.
"Yeah, that makes sense if you didn't watch the f***ing movie!" TikToker @agirlthatexistsyes exclaimed in her video that has 2 million views. "The point of the move is that Fiona is a bada** b**** who can whoop a** every chance she gets... but she chooses to stay in that tower voluntarily to conform to the damsel in distress fate her father pushed on her."
She added that Fiona choosing to be an ogre is her "accepting the parts of herself that she was taught to hate to fit the patriarchal mould of what a princess should be."
The creator also references the fact that in Shrek 2, Shrek is willing to stay human with Fiona if that is what she wanted, but she chooses for them to turn back into ogres.
"It is crazy to see my boy Shrek getting slandered," TikToker @corinxv said in his response video that has 1.4 million views, as he runs through the plot of the first film, noting how Shrek and Fiona didn't get along at first, but as they travel together, they realise they have a lot in common.
By the end of the first move, we see Fiona turn into an ogre when the curse is broken, which the creator points out is not because of Shrek's wishes but rather because "at her heart that is who [Fiona] always was."
@corinxv Shrek slander is insane😐 ##shrek##shrek2##shrek5##dreamworks
TikToker @bardboytroy said in order for the original TikToker to make the claim that Shrek is a "cautionary tale" then "you have to remove all context in your summary of the film and rely on everyone else having not seen it in a long time."
@bardboytroy “Shrek is a cautionary tale” (probably part 1, because there is so much more I could say about this). Anyone who watches the film can easily see how that video was complete nonsense. #greenscreen #shrek #media #analysis #controversial
He goes on to note how Fiona was already an ogre before she met Shrek, and says the "whole point" of the film is that "being an ogre is okay," in a video that has 1.9 million views.
Elsewhere from Indy100, 'Work wife' Valentine's Day cards spark outrage on social media, and Is Louis Theroux actually making a documentary with HSTikkyTokky?
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