Tear Jerker / Shrek 2

• Shrek's Despair Event Horizon. He's left skulling shots of milk in the Poison Apple, and lamenting why he even saved Fiona in the first place, alongside Donkey and Puss. It's the lowest we've seen Shrek get, and it is depressing.
  Shrek: Look, guys. It's for the best. Mom and Dad approve and Fiona gets the man she's always dreamed of. Everybody wins.
  Donkey: Except for you. I don't get it, Shrek, you love Fiona.
  Shrek: Aye, and that's why I have to let her go.
• The scene where Shrek sees Fiona with Charming. He's desperately crying out to her, trying to get her attention, all in vain. His sorrow is so heartbreaking.
  • What follows next is just as bad: the Fairy Godmother convincing him that he and Fiona can never be and he's only ruining her life by preventing her from being with "the man of her dreams". When Shrek says this line, he looks on the verge of tears.
  Shrek: But, I love her...
  Fairy Godmother: If you really love her, you'll let her go.
  • What makes this worse is that the Godmother acknowledges what Shrek and Fiona had together - experiences and sacrifices - was worth something, but their social differences will always keep them apart. In her own words: "It’s time you stopped living in a fairytale, Shrek. She’s a princess, and you’re an ogre - that's something no amount of potion is ever going to change." It's the same issue that Shrek believed in the first film, and all he's seen and experienced hasn't made that problem go away.
• The scene at the ball after Charming kisses Fiona. Shrek knows about the potion and believes she took it so he has to deal with all that he went through in the climax being for nothing and him finally losing the love of his life forever.
  • Just think, if Harold hadn't already felt bad about the situation and had that pang of conscience at the last second, he really would have lost her.
• At the climax, where Shrek and his allies all raid the castle. Mostly, it's just full of the crowner moments for nearly every character but it's the giant Gingerbread Man, Mongo, that gets the tear ducts flowing during this scene. His "be good" line was especially tearjerker-worthy...
  • Both Gingerbread Man and Shrek were shaken by Mongo's demise. Shrek, while it could be because he tried stopping Gingy from jumping, was already friendly with Mongo and was obviously saddened but more focused on the advantage he had getting through the drawbridge. Gingy, on the other hand, was bawling his eyes out over seeing something he helped create die in front of him, had it not been for Pinocchio grabbing onto him at the last moment, he was willing to die along with him, even begging to get back to Mongo.
• Shrek when he reads Fiona's childhood diary. Shrek is already unable to sleep because he's worried about his relationship with Fiona if he is not good enough for her. His fears are seemingly confirmed when he finds her diary, speaking repeatedly of her dream to be "Mrs. Fiona Charming".
  • Later, while she was looking for Shrek (who was tricked by Harold into meeting him in the forest), noticed her diary was outside her drawer. She likely guessed correctly that Shrek found it and must have felt guilty making Shrek think she prefers a human prince.
• It is subtly implied that the Fairy Godmother was once a sincere granter of wishes and happiness, but many years of popularity and power along with the commercialization and mass production of her "product" have changed her into a remorseless manipulator.
• Prince Charming's life can be seen as this. It's true he was a selfish mama's boy but he was just so used to it he didn't expect or try to look beyond it. Fairy Godmother didn't care about him becoming king for his own gain, she only wanted to fulfil the fairy tale legend she's been following/setting up as her trade. Norman Bates couldn't be better domesticated.
  • A good example of this is after Fiona headbutts Charming and knocks him unconscious. Does she go to see if her son is alright? Nope! She goes to yell at Harold for not giving Fiona the love potion.
• The Fairy Godmother's lore is that shed tears can summon her (as brought up in the movie as well with her cards) and she grants a wish true to your hearts' desire. When the wand hits the Fairy Godmother with a magic/wish reversal spell, it dispels her into a shower of tears...just what was she?!
• Fiona goes to see her parents with Shrek, hoping they will get along. But her parents have a lot of animosity due to the fact that she has become an ogre and married an ogre.
  • Not to mention, Fiona and Shrek's argument after the dinner disaster.
    Fiona: You're unbelievable! You're behaving like a...
    Shrek: Go on! Say it!
    Fiona: Like an ogre!
    Shrek: Well, here's a news flash for you! Whether your parents like it or not... I AM AN OGRE!! (roars at a yapping puppy who then bows in submission, hiding its' face in its' ears in fear.) And guess what, Princess? That's not about to change!
    Fiona: (heartbroken by his words, she walks out of the room) I've made changes for you, Shrek. Think about that.
    [Slams the door. Shrek hears her crying from behind the door, regretting what he said.]
• Fiona eventually decides to give up and return to the swamp, devastated that her parents never even gave Shrek a chance. She faints due to the effects of the potion Shrek drank but before that, she was going to cut her parents out of her life (probably Harold more than Lilian, given that she seems to have actually accepted Fiona's choice) and go back home with Shrek.
  • The way she decides to return is heartbreaking too, she sounds so defeated. You can really feel for her. All she wants is a happy family and she was so hopeful at the beginning of the film, despite Shrek's prediction that her parents would be hostile. She was mad at Shrek for not getting along with her father but she clearly knew that it wasn't all his fault. She deeply loves both her parents and Shrek but she realizes her love is not shared, simply for the fact that Shrek is an ogre and that she is an ogre herself, something that doesn't bother her in the slightest but her father's prejudice is too much for her.
  • It's gutwrenching to hear Lillian cry out "Fiona, please!"
    • Considering the score that plays during this scene is called "Not meant to be". It perfectly captures Fiona's feelings of how her dream of a happy family will never come to pass and she decides to take the side of the man she loves.
  • When her parents put her to bed, Harold stays by her longer than Lillian. He was too busy trying to fulfill his promise to the Fairy Godmother that he didn't consider the feelings of his daughter. Especially considering how he thinks Shrek is dead because he put a hit on him. He clearly is extremely remorseful. The next day, when Charming is pretending to be Shrek, he isn't at all satisfied with fulfilling his promise to the Fairy Godmother and is upset when he sees Fiona isn't at all warming up to Charming. This is what prompts Harold's Heel–Face Turn.
• After Fiona's met Charming posing as Shrek, she has to deal with her beloved husband being a completely different man without understanding how or why or whether she can change him back. From Fiona's position, the man she loved has gone forever and she's married to a stranger. It's why she decides not to go to evening ball with him.

  Fiona: (to her father) There's just one problem: that's not my husband. I mean, look at him. (gestures to Charming waving at the adoring crowd)

  • Harold despairs because he has not only been lying to his daughter the whole time, but he's also been pushing her into a life he planned for her, finally realizing that isn't what she wants. When he decides to not go through with the plan, you can tell by the look on his face he knows what's coming. Turns out, he's completely right to be afraid.
• When Puss begs for Shrek and Donkey to spare his life after he attacks Shrek, he reveals he was paid by the king to kill Shrek. Shrek is devastated to hear this. Harold manipulated Shrek into thinking he wanted them to have a good father-son relationship, saying how much it would mean to Fiona, using Shrek's insecurities against him. But it was all a plot to kill Shrek. Even his usual Deadpan Snarker response seems like more of a front given the shock and disappointment on his expression:
  Shrek: Well, so much for dad's royal blessing...
• Harold, when his frog origins are exposed, apologizes to everyone for his actions - to Shrek for his previous racist animosity towards him, to Fiona for inadvertently ruining her romance, and most of all to Lillian for lying to her her whole life.
• The scene before Shrek consumes the "Happily Ever After" potion, thinking it'll fix all his problems and Fiona would be happy with him. Shrek's wiling to throw it all away despite the chance the potion might kill him (which is why Puss offered to be the animal to test it on before Donkey stole that from him): Shrek's identity as an ogre and everything that made Shrek the way he is. Not many people would do something like that just because they loved someone and that was a huge sacrifice on Shrek's part. There'd be a snowball's chance in Hell before Shrek gave up being an ogre before Fiona came into his life. Donkey tries to talk him out of it, knowing what Shrek was going to do and why.
  Donkey: Shrek! You drink that, there's no goin' back.
  Shrek: I know.
  Donkey: But... no more wallowin' in the mud?
  Shrek: I know.
  Donkey: No more itchy butt crack?
  Shrek: I know.
  Donkey: But you love bein' an ogre!
  Shrek: I KNOW! ...But I love Fiona more. {chug}
  • But, much to his disappointment, it seems like his prayer was unanswered as the potion didn't work its magic on him because Shrek honestly thought he and Fiona were really never meant to be... But, that was at the time he drank it.
• On the night of the ball, Fiona and her father are talking about the New Shrek. Fiona express disgust in him. The way she sums up her feelings in the One-Liner cause Harold to have a Heel–Face Turn and decide not to give her the tea with the potion because Fiona is speaking from her heart, not because of a love potion.
  Fiona: But it's the old one I fell in love with, Dad. I'd give anything to have him back.