Do we like them?

Do we like Princess Fiona?

A character from Shrek (2001)

Our score: 8 out of 10. Yes, we'd back her. She's brave, funny and good in a fight, and she won't be anyone's damsel. She can be stubborn and a bit vain, but she's kind where it counts.

Fiona is a princess shut away in a dragon-guarded tower, waiting for true love's kiss. She expects a handsome knight. Shrek, a grumpy ogre who wants his swamp back, turns up instead, sent by the tyrannical Lord Farquaad. The character comes from William Steig's 1990 picture book, where she was an ugly princess. The film changed her into a beautiful one with a secret.

Fiona is not the helpless princess of the fairy tales. She is trained in martial arts, talks back, and is more than a match for Shrek and Donkey. She is also lonely, and she has spent years hiding something she is ashamed of. That makes her prickly, proud and sometimes dishonest, but never cruel.

We score her 8. She is funny, brave and loyal, and her flaws come from fear, not malice. The story is about her learning to accept herself, and that's easy to cheer for.

Her secret is that a curse turns her into an ogre every night. She hides this from Shrek out of shame. In the end she chooses to be loved as she really is, and she stays an ogre.