| “ | You listen to me, Greg Heffley. I'm running for student council president of the PTA. If you get in my way, then I will beat you up just like I did in kindergarten and fourth grade. | „ |
| ~ Patty threatening Greg. |
Patty Farrell is the secondary antagonist of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid franchise.
She has a minor role in the books, but plays a larger role in the films, where she is openly hostile towards Greg, even blackmailing or assaulting him in front of everyone, but doesn't get in trouble for it.
In the live-action films, she is portrayed by Laine MacNeil.
Why isn't she heroic nor villainous?
- She isn't a villain as most of her actions just amount to petty bullying and rivalry.
- While she does commit some "crimes" (e.g. blackmail) they are not presented in a way to make Patty look like a criminal/villain but rather a bully.
- In the books, Patty isn't portrayed as an antagonist towards Greg but rather a teacher's pet.
Biography
In the books, Patty can easily be described as a teacher's pet and egotist, such as when she told the teacher to cover up the U.S. map in geography, which ruins it for Greg as he fails the test because of it. In the film, she retains her role as a teacher's pet, but is hostile towards Greg, thus becoming his archenemy, such as when she purposefully joined Greg's "boys only" wrestling class just to beat him up and humiliate him in front of the whole school, otherwise threatening to sue if she doesn't get what she wants, making her a control freak and sadistic.
During the Wizard of Oz play, she mentions the fact Greg was suspended from the school safety patrol in an attempt to have him be kicked out, but it doesn't work and Greg is given the role of a tree instead, due to being the most antagonistic towards Dorothy.
When Greg tries to stall during the play, she becomes furious and demands him to sing, threatening to beat him up in front of the audience if he didn't. Greg tries throwing an apple at Patty, but she catches it and throws it back before tackling him in the ground and beating him up along with the other trees. This causes Greg's popularity ranking to go down even further, with Rodrick recording the whole thing.
During the film's climax, she overhears Greg and Rowley arguing at recess and tells the latter to beat Greg up, saying it's easy. She and the other students force the two to fight, but are interrupted by Pete Hosey and goons, making her and everyone else run away. After Pete and his friends forced Rowley to eat the cheese, they come back outside, and to save Rowley's reputation, Greg gives out a whole speech saying how stupid both the school and the Cheese Touch is and claims he was the one who ate the cheese. However, Patty ruins it by calling out the fact Greg now has the Cheese Touch and runs away with the other kids.
In Rodrick Rules, when Greg tries sitting next to Holly Hills in class, Patty stops her and they begin fighting over the seat until Mr. Draybick walks in, and he orders Greg to sit in a desk at the front of the class for being related to Rodrick Heffley. Later on, Patty accuses Greg of passing her notes, and Mr. Draybick reads it out loud to embarrass him and orders him to sit next to him at his desk. When Greg accidentally turns in Rodrick's old poem and reads it out loud, the class begins laughing and Patty calls him a loser.
In Dog Days, she is seen playing alongside Holly Hills in tennis, dismaying Greg. During their matches, she plays unfairly towards him and Rowley, and wins over them easily as they had no experience, such as throwing the ball at them when they weren't ready and hitting Greg, yet still gained points for it. She also seemingly tries to ruin his relationship with Holly, as when he made a love gesture she called him: "weirdo".
Personality
In the books, Patty is shown to enjoy being a teacher's pet, with Greg's dislike of Patty being one-sided. In the live-action movies however, she exhibits thug-like behavior and bullies Greg, often enjoying seeing him miserable. She is also a snitch just like her book counterpart, such as when she told Greg to Mr. Draybick as she believed he was passing her notes. Despite this, she acts nicer towards Rowley despite the latter being friends with Greg.
Abilities
In the film, Patty has some abilities that are not shown/not present in the book.
- Strength - Is able to beat Greg up easily, though this is probably due to him being a weakling.
- Enhanced reflexes - In the film, she is able to catch an apple that Greg threw at her easily, and throws it back and proceeds to beat him up.
- She is also able to go to extreme measures, such as getting her mom to sue the school if she does not get what she wants, and is also somehow able to join Greg's wrestling class, with Title IX being applied for some reason.
Trivia
- It is unknown on why Patty has not been suspended or even expelled from school yet, despite her beating up Greg in front of the whole school.
- Given estimates made based off of illustrations of her, Patty Farrell is most likely between 4' 7" (139.7 cm) and 4' 9" (144.78 cm) tall. However, this is entirely conjecture, as her height has never been stated conclusively within the series.
- She hasn't been seen or mentioned in any of the books since The Last Straw and it's unknown if she'll make another appearance. Rumors also declared that she'll appear in The Getaway, but she also didn't. The same thing happened in The Deep End.
- In the book she wears glasses while in the films she doesn’t. It is high likely that her parents have already gave her contact lens. Also, she has pigtails in the books, but she has braids in the movies such as the first film, Rodrick Rules, and Dog Days.
- She appears more rude and mean-spirited in the films, especially to Greg. This is because, in kindergarten, Greg said “Patty, Patty is a fatty! Has a face just like a ratty!”, and she had hated him ever since. In the books, Greg’s dislike of her is one-sided.
- In the films, she serves as the secondary antagonist in the first film and Rodrick Rules and a minor antagonist in Dog Days. Her middle initial is J. as seen in Dog Days.
- Additionally, in the second film, it's implied she's terrified of weird people. At the Rocket Rollers Roller Rink, when they were people pairing up, Fregley walked up to her in interest, to which she backed away in fright.
- In animated scenes of the 2010 live-action film, Patty appears in her original book style. However, the 2011 film introduces a new design for her that is more accurate to Laine MacNeil's portrayal of her (braids instead of pigtails, bangs, and no glasses).
- In the second adaptation of Rodrick Rules, her last name is spelt "Ferrel". This is likely a name error.
External Links
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Heffley Family Fanon See Also | ||
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Animated Features Pixar Animation Studios Other Short Films Live-Action Features See Also | ||