Princess Fiona

Fiona waits in a dragon-guarded tower for her prince, and an ogre shows up instead. She's thrown at first, but on the trip back she has fun with Shrek and takes on Robin Hood's gang by herself. She also sings at a bird until it pops, then fries its eggs for breakfast.

Her secret is a curse: princess by day, ogre by night. Only true love's kiss reveals her true form. When Shrek kisses her at her wedding to Farquaad, Fiona stays an ogre for good, and she's happy about it.

Fiona takes her husband to meet her parents and watches the family fall apart. The Fairy Godmother wanted her married to Prince Charming and tries to use a love potion.

Fiona doesn't fall for it: when Charming goes in for a kiss, she headbutts him. When Shrek offers to stay human for her, she says she wants the ogre she married.

Pregnant, with Shrek far away, Fiona watches Prince Charming seize the kingdom. Locked up with her mother and the princesses Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, she plans the escape.

Rapunzel betrays them and sides with Charming. Queen Lillian clears the way by headbutting through a stone wall, and the princesses drop the damsel act and go on the attack. Later, Fiona gives birth to triplets.

Years later, Fiona is living the routine of a mom of triplets in the swamp, surrounded by friends and visitors. At the kids' birthday party, Shrek loses his temper in front of everyone, and the two of them fight.

Fiona reminds him he has everything an ogre could want. The line sticks with Shrek.

In the world created by Rumpelstiltskin's contract, nobody ever rescued Fiona. She escaped the tower on her own and became the warrior leading the ogre resistance.

This Shrek is a stranger to her, and he has to earn her trust from scratch. At first she treats him like any other ogre; then she laughs with him and fights beside him against Rumpelstiltskin's witches. When Fiona kisses him at the end of the day, reality snaps back.

Cameron Diaz voices Fiona in all four movies. The character isn't in William Steig's book, where Shrek marries an unnamed ugly princess.