Warning: contains spoilers from the previous installment**

If you remember from Shrek the Third, after King Harold dies and Shrek is uninterested in becoming king, he goes out to find Fiona’s cousin, Artie. Shrek and Artie do not get along for a while, especially since Puss made it scary for Artie to learn what it’s like to rule a kingdom.

However, Artie discovers that Shrek was trying to protect him from Prince Charming, who was going to kill him. He even realizes that Shrek and the others need help. And then he decides to become the monarch of Far Far Away.

After some time, Shrek and Fiona become parents to three triplets: Fergus, Farkle, and Felicia. The fourth installment, Shrek Forever After, picks up a year from the end of the third movie—well, after the title sequence.

During the early part of the film, Shrek and Fiona have a big party at the Far Far Away castle for their babies’ 1^st birthday. Shrek is not enjoying it due to his status of being popular. He longs to be a feared ogre again.

Even worse, a bunch of disappointments occur during the event. And Shrek does a big roar—not only because the guests chant for it, but also because of how angry he gets.

But one detail I noticed in the fourth film is what this post is about: Artie does not attend the birthday bash. He doesn’t even make an appearance in this film.

I found that odd because he is Fiona’s cousin and king of Far Far Away. So, it’s kind of irresponsible for him to miss his cousin’s kids’ birthday… unless he had a valid reason to.

Maybe he was sick. Even though the Shrek movies aren’t always historically accurate, it’s likely that if someone got ill, they would need to either quarantine or rest and stay away from crowds. And until strong medicine and vaccines became introduced, people often died from diseases, including ones that could easily be treated today.

If that was the case, though, someone would have told Shrek and Fiona last minute. After all, nobody plans to get ill.

Artie might have also had to travel for an important unavoidable reason. Being a monarch or ruler means lots of responsibilities, including undesirable ones. It is possible that Artie had to leave Far Far Away for some essential purpose—and it happened to be during the time of Shrek and Fiona’s children’s party. That could be something that somebody would have told them in advance.

Aside from Artie’s absence, no one mentioned his name. Queen Lillian attends the event, but even she doesn’t acknowledge Artie.

I also realize that Artie could have just easily been a background person, even without anybody saying his name. But for some reason, the creators chose to exclude him. He wouldn’t have needed to have any lines, though.

As of now, there is no canon answer or explanation to why Artie did not go to Shrek and Fiona’s triplets’ birthday bash. I don’t know if there ever will be.

I do know that the third and fourth films did not perform as well as the first two did. The third one got lots of criticism and negative reviews. A lot of people even disliked Artie.

Maybe his unpopularity led to him being excluded from the fourth installment, even just as an extra with no dialogue.

What do you think of this mystery? Let me know in the comments if you wish.