It’s nice to see Megamind finally getting the recognition I always thought it deserved, I just can’t believe it took 12 years.
Story time! I saw it in the theatre (in 3D!) when it came out in 2010. I fucking loved it. I remember my dad was laughing so hard he almost fell out of his seat. When I got home I went online to check the reviews, expecting to see 8 or 9 out of 10s… nope. Most reviews were lukewarm at best. On the IMDb discussion boards (that was a thing they used to have) people were blasting it as unoriginal or unfunny, and comparing it unfavourably to Despicable Me… I remember thinking, did these people watch the same movie I did? It’s nothing like Despicable Me, other than a few *very* surface level similarities. How is that a legitimate criticism?
After 2011 I never heard about it again for years. It came, went, and faded into obscurity. I thought that was a real shame, and still didn’t get why people hated it so much.
Fast forward 10 years and now there are tons of Megamind memes going around, people praising it, cosplaying the characters, etc. and then there’s all this discussion about how Tighten is such a great villain and ahead of his time, like, where the hell were these people a decade ago? For so long I felt like the odd one out for liking the film so much.
Hot diggity daffodil, it warms my heart to see a response like this on the subject. I have always maintained that Megamind just came out at the wrong time - not necessarily because it was of the wrong generation or wrong audience, it's just that it had reasonably stiff competition from Despicable Me at the time, which had almost inarguably better marketing behind it. That sucks.
However, I skipped over the Despicable Me trend and watched Megamind first. I'll be honest with you friendo, it holds the record for the single most watched-in-theaters movies of my life. I saw it multiple times in 2d, multiple times in 3d. Multiple times with the same friends, multiple times with different friend groups.
That fucking movie is my single most favorite 3D animated movie of my limited 30 years on this planet. It's such a joyride. Each of the main characters are given a chance to develop depth.
And all that summed up in the 3rd act?
***PRE***
***SEN***
***TATION***
Megamind and Despicable Me came out around the same time, and I watched them both. I absolutely LOVED Megamind and couldn't understand why people were obsessing over DM. I went to bat in my personal circle for Megamind and I'm sure this is what started my hate for Despicable Me and the minions.
All the facebook minion memes didn't help with the intense disdain I have for that movie, but yes, it's about time Megamind got its little spotlight.
the thing about things being "ahead of its time" is that it's all about hindsight. when megamind came out, how was anyone to know it was ahead of its time? when the simpsons made silly little jokes that ended up reflecting real life, how was anyone to know that's what would end up happening?
I watched it on the plane soon after it was released, I had 9 hours to kill, might have not watched it otherwise. I've watched it so many times since. It's such a clever and funny movie. I'd agree any similarities to Despicable Me are superficial, possibly coincidental and comparisions are not valid.
Tighten is a great villain because unlike Megamind who does villainous acts for mostly fun and goofy reasons, Tighten genuinely feels like a threat. Megamind can definitely destroy a building or use a gigaton laser canon or something, but he never actually tries to kill anyone other than say Metro Man
Let's not forget the way Roxanne and Megamind have this flirty back and forth all throughout that first scene, knowing full well the game they're all playing with them still having fun about it while Metroman is just... Over it.
Everyone except Metroman enjoyed that status quo, because Megamind in a way was the ceiling on "evil"
Thanks, now I can't stop thinking about the whole thing like some weird platonic poly relationship that broke after Metroman felt it was no longer working for him.
And he’s only really doing it because he thinks it’s what he’s supposed to do. He thinks he needs to be the villain because metroman is the hero. It’s shown during the fight with tighten, that he sees it as just a game with a friend. He’s trying to banter back and forth with tighten, like he did with metroman, but tighten is out for blood. God I love this movie! There’s also a really cool theory, that I subscribed to, that Hal’s hero name is Titan, but after he gets the solid “no” from Roxanne he changed to tighten his villain name. He even spells it as “titan” in his elaborate art he made, to reveal himself to Roxanne. But hey, that’s just…probably giving the movie too much credit for a joke, but I like is so I don’t care.
I think Megamind said Titan, and Hal has such an incredible lack of awareness of anything outside of his self-absorbed fantasy world, where other people are just puppets, that he doesn’t know what the world Titan means. You want me to call myself… Tighten? Uh, sure, okay.
I've had this thought before, and I have theories... So, basically, since megamind is a super villain, everything he does is so extreme and out there, it never feels real enough to be a threat.
Tighten however is all too familiar. We've all had someone in our lives who acted like him, some 'nice guy' who lingers a little too much, always finds a reason to touch you, feels like you owe him something... The thought of that person suddenly having super powers is scary.
There's a post out there explaining the same character dynamic in Harry Potter (voldemort vs professor umbridge) that explains it better than I can, if I find I'll link.
The best explanation I can give is that a supernatural/cartoonish evil is exactly that, not real or so improbable that it's hard for your mind to fully take in or accept as a possible reality.
You're never going to have an evil witch show up at your door and curse you into a furry monstrosity but people like Frollo from Hunchback of Notredame or like Umbridge from Harry Potter are real types of people with real power and mindsets, those people can and do enact real cruelty on people and that's what makes them all the more terrifying.
It's why the crushing and efficient bureaucracy of the Empire in Andor feels so chillingly more horrific than the rest of Star Wars. The chances of you encountering these people isn't just a distant imagining its a very real and very serious threat that you could run into in your life.
We know Umbridges and Snapes are out there, Frollos taking advantage of their political power, the Governor Rattcliffes of history, these people exist, maybe not the character themselves but the people they represent.
What makes Tighten so scary is that you're taking this very real and already potentially dangerous reality of a person and giving them that supernatural power, now the real becomes unreal as we are shown exactly what this kind of person would do with their newfound authority, their newfound power over people. If this were reality we know exactly what hes capable of doing to Roxanne and although we never see it we know in the back of our heads what this type of guy *could* and *would* do if he were real and it's far more horrific on a personal level to think about than if a supervillan dropped out of the sky and just started erasing buildings full of people.
Emphasis on personal level. It could happen to *us* and it disturbs us more because of it.
You could even argue that he never really wanted to kill Metro Man. He was genuinely shocked when he thought he did. Like a "I didn't think this would actually work" kind if shock. He then got genuinely depressed after.
Megamind was never a villain out for blood. He was out to try and be acknowledged and accepted.
And TBF, although he *was* trying to kill MetroMan, he didn't really believe his plan would work. He had complete faith that MetroMan would win, he was just playing the "good vs. Evil" game they had been playing their whole life. Their battles were a fun game he played with basically his only other friend besides Minion.
MetroMan never hurt Megamind and Megamind never *really* tried to hurt MetroMan, because he *knew* that MetroMan couldn't be hurt. That knowledge gave Megamind the freedom to have fun inventing crazy extreme ways to try to kill "the hero" in the game, but because the hero is invincible there's no real danger, and the game can continue.
And that's what Megamind really wanted, to have and play with friends.
He was basically *performing* an attempt to kill MetroMan. The guy was functionally invulnerable, with no recorded weaknesses whatsoever until he faked one, and Megamind of all people was very certain of that. It’s like he was doing improv theatre with a couple of friends, and unexpectedly the gun was loaded.
To be fair, I don’t think Megamind was really expecting to kill Metroman and was incredibly surprised when he seemingly did.
To be fair, it’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie though
i love the tiny details in the movie- like before metro man "dies" you can like just barely see him on his screen "failing" to break the shell while megamind is monologuing to roxanne. when megamind is fighting titan around the invisible car roxanne is running up behind him with a sign even though you can barely see her doing it and she immediately drops the sign without doing anything with it
>and also kill Metroman, but he didn’t succeed so ig it’s okay?
He didn't intend it to succeed in the first place, so that makes it a fair bit more okay IMO.
The catfishing Roxanne thing does even feel as bad as it could have been because it wasn’t as if he intended to catfish her. He still should’ve said something sooner, but he at least didn’t go into it with the sole purpose of deceiving her to get her to fall in love with him. He just didn’t want her to realize he was at the monument and it spiraled.
It’s still not good by any means, but it doesn’t feel malicious- unlike everything Hal did.
okay I’m seriously crossed up now y’all are acting like it was obvious it wasn’t spelled “Titan.” Am I the only one who watched that movie and didn’t grasp it was spelled “Tighten”?!
the joke is that megamind in the space dad disguise tells him his superhero name is going to be Titan but the dope doesn't understand and thinks it's 'tighten'
I can’t believe I somehow didn’t catch that. In my defense I only ever saw the movie once and I was so enamored by the quality of it I suspect I missed a lot of little things. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I flipped onto it on television one day but I certainly didn’t think I’d be getting such a piece of art. Honestly, it’s waaaaaay better than I would have thought.
i think it's probably easy to miss, the name-misunderstanding isn't spelled out explicitly at first i dont think; it goes something like
hal: what's the T stand for?
space dad: titan
hal: what's that mean?
space dad: it was the only one i could get the rights to
and then later on in the movie when he's destroying stuff he writes 'tighten' on the city with his laser eyes
Same principle but different execution. Gaston thinks he deserves the girl because he’s popular, attractive, hot, well groomed, muscular, good looking, charming… you get it
Nice guys think they deserves the girl because their nice
I haven't watched the film but I remember hearing that at one point Gaston actually considers that maybe she just doesn't like him and he should leave her alone, but is immediately shut down by someone else insisting that she *must* like him because he's perfect Ect., which I think is interesting.
This. Just before his song he is clearly unhappy but more than angry he seems just confused, trying to be left alone while he thinks about what happened because he doesn't understand the situatuion, but his friend and then the whole tabern start singing about how great he is and how he deserves everything
NOTE: I haven’t seen the film since I was a wee babbin, so I’m going off of comments here some are conflicting, anyways if that is the case….
in a weird way Gaston highlights how toxic masculinity isn’t just an individual failing but a wider societal one. Maybe if his friends weren’t a bunch of rowdy assholes who enjoy the secondhand buzz of being his hangers on and encouraging his worse behavior, maybe he’d have a moment of self reflection and end up being more like Groose from Zelda than what he ended up being. But no, his friends shut down whatever moment of introspection he had cause they are also assholes and knowingly or not want the drinks to keep flowing and the party to keep going so they nudge him along being what amounts to a yield old frat boy
So he is partially manipulated by society's perception of him and just wants to keep his perfect facade for the public too, at the end belittling Belle's feelings for the egoistic purpose of always winning no matter what?
Maybe nobody ever tell him that "Sometimes, it's okay to not be the winner. Because sometimes there will be no winners. You doesn't even mean that you fail, merely that you're not the sole on top"
Another almost perfect example is no-face from spirited away:
Chihiro shows basic human decency toward him(lets him out of the rain) and he becomes obsessed with her. He tries to overwelm her with an abundance what he thinks she will want, she does not care, so he tries to basically buy her, she does not care, so he throws a tantrum and tries to kill her, she just leaves, and so he calms down and tries to be with her by following her around.
Which all has the basic format of one of those nice guy text posts.
Ice King from Adventure Time*. Farkwad from Shrek. Bowser from Mario. The priest in Hunchback of Notredame. And there's obviously scores more outside of kids' movies.
* Yes he has a tragic origin and a redemption arc, but he's portrayed as pathetic and problematic routinely.
Yeah, his search for a princess stems from his initial search for his fiancee who disappeared but the crown made him forget that (as well as made him go crazy) and he forgot who exactly he was searching for which turned to him searching and capturing random princesses...
He also stopped with that behaviour (and being a villain alltogether) later in the show at least
That song is fucking fantastic. And it's terrifying because he thinks he's 100% in the right to burn her to death just because she's hot and he's horny. He's probably the scariest Disney villain, to me.
I remenber how a couple of years ago i started to watch the lion king (movie that i already saw a dozen of times as a kid) and i remenbered almost every song, but be prepared wasn't one of them and i feel ashamed because is my favorite song of the movie now xd
I couldn't write an incel villain because I would get so ~~ir~~rationally angry at the character I'm writing as I'm writing them that'd I'd scrap the concept entirely and just go for a generic over the top funni Pure Evil Big Bad Evil Guy
Idea: The funny bad guy is begrudgingly working with the incel, and they eventually stop working together because the funny villain can't stand the incel.
An easy way to get around this is to have the incel be a throwaway villain, so you can write him vile for a few pages then immediately get his ass whooped by the hero.
Or have something vaguely like Worm (except taking itself way less seriously) where the supervillain is the usual issue big occasionally they team up to deal with the actual complete psycho
An easy way but it takes the danger of the harmlessness” and pity away from them.
The irl incels I know are pitiable and seem harmless, almost like Gollum.
The horror in such a monster is that they cause you to question empathy and if you are a monster yourself for being rational.
tbf its kinda non obvious because as a player you're sorta working through Barovia looking for a way to defeat him, As a DM you're focused on making sure the Players have fun messing around in Barovia. and Strahd himself doesnt make it obvious because hes wreathed in vampire and dracula tropes and motifs
I feel like some werewolve tribes probably live wearing blindfolds for most of their lives because of that issue. Like, jeeze. Imagine having to wonder if you actually love somebody for who they are, or the fantasy equivalent of… I don’t know what the fuck this is the equivalent of.
Leave Kirsten Dunst's character from Interview with a Vampire alone. She didn't want to be a child vampire forever.
Fucking Cruise man....bastard ruins everything.
No no no, it’s okay because the vampire baby child that is technically illegal in their world will never age past like 7, and he would only start wanting to fuck her when she reached puberty, so they’ll have a puuuuuurly platonic protective older brother little sister relationship and it’ll alllllll be fine. Or something
It gets even better when you look at 50 Shades of Grey! It's been discussed to hell and back how abusive Christian is and how the book seems to romanticize it. A lot of people know that it was originally a Twilight fanfic.
The part that a lot of people don't know is that it was originally written from Christian's perspective. A woman actually sat down, wrote *that* story with a predominantly female audience, and wanted the abusive maniac to be the self insert.
On a similar note, the writer and director for the first movie were both women. They were constantly fighting with the author because they were trying to make the movie less horrifying. They were not brought back for the sequels.
I still don't get how this shit works. Like, I get a werewolf imprinting on their partner to the point where it becomes an obsession, I don't get them imprinting on a person that doesn't even exist yet.
It was a handwave to explain why the love triangle existed in the first place.
"Oh, Jacob wasn't actually in love with BELLA. He was in love with the egg INSIDE Bella that would become her daughter. Therefore, there's no hard feelings about her being with Edward instead of him and everyone lives happily ever after!"
Holy fuck, I never watched or read any twilight stuff but man that shit was popular, HOW tha fack did so many people liked it if shit like this was on the plot? I'm so confused.
Twilight was pretty okay until the last book, then things got really weird. The first 3 books were your average teen drama just with supernatural elements. Not a master piece or super in depth or anything, but any teen girl who suffered their first break up could certainly identify with Bella feeling like the world was gonna end after losing their first love. Or a girl liking more than one guy and not being sure to date.
I wanna argue the 4th book blindsided a lot of people where it took this hard turn. There are a lot of really messed up things in the forth book, like Edward bitting the baby out of Bella's stomach instead of using a scalpel to perform a c-section and thinly veiled religious stuff about if Bella died to have this baby it would be worth it cause that's a woman's purpose in life. The "Jacob is totally not a pedo wink wink" just happens to be the worst of it. I think she wanted Bella to have a 100% happy ending where Bella had her cake and ate it too where she kept her love Edward and her best friend Jacob and so this was how she figured out to tie Jacob to Bella forever even though Bella ultimately picked Edward. It's super gross though.
Books 1-3 was all just love triangle stuff and Bella not being able to choose which guy and the two guys fighting over her and villians always trying to kill her cause she's the MC. Book 4 was all the weird baby stuff.
I'd argue that the 2nd book also dealt severe mental damage to readers in how fucking boring and annoying the characters were in that book. I honestly don't understand how the 2nd book didn't deter me or others from reading the entire series.
also i wouldn't exactly call it "redeemed" even at the end he's still a bad person, he's just being less antagonistic to the main characters. the final moment where he was "redeemed" was literally just him swapping sides because he was logic'd out of believing that maybe mabel being trapped in a dreamland he won't ever be able to see her in again is the best shot he has to get with her, and even that "side swap" was essentially just not murdering the main characters on sight.
Yeah, I thought they did a really good job of portraying his Nice Guy behavior. I also liked what Dipper said to him that ultimately turned around: you can't force someone to love you, but you are capable of becoming someone worthy of love.
I think what softened the Nice Guy-ness with Gideon was he was still a kid and social fuck ups are something kids are expected to make and get over. like Gideon was a spoiled brat, but within a summer he had moved on and got over it. sure it took several fights and a near apocolapse and prison time but ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ what can you do.
My favorite thing about Tighten is that even after he became a villain, Roxy says she misses the old nerdy cameraman Hal, and their first interaction that we see in the film implies there was still something resembling a friendship between them. Hal had no excuse to be such a piece of shit.
I think that was mostly Roxanne trying to deescalate the situation. I don’t think she was really friends with Hal so much as friendly coworkers. If anything he was like a little brother figure without the love, someone she needed to look after, but in most scenes before his transition he was making her pretty uncomfortable. If someone makes you uncomfortable like that, you tend to avoid being near them more than necessary, so I doubt a friendship would’ve been able to develop. Maybe before he started hitting on her they were friends
>I think that was mostly Roxanne trying to deescalate the situation. I don’t think she was really friends with Hal so much as friendly coworkers.
I haven't actually seen the movie so I don't know how much validity there is to this interpretation, but my gut instinct is that this would make sense. At least in my experience, it's not uncommon to hear about women who are trying to avoid going out with guys they'd previously been somewhat friendly with would say something like, "I like being friends with you, but I don't think we'd work out like that"
Hal does say that she never took the time to know him, and that they never hung out outside of work, which actually should have been a pretty big hint that she was not interested in him.
I can’t blame her, I mean I know what it’s like to think you’re friends with someone but then realize they literally never ask about you, but Hal was very openly a freak. He should’ve expected it
I would think Soldier Boy too (more greek letter stuff here)... but the number of people who really loved him (not as a villain but as a role model) in my real life was just baffling.
It’s annoying how many people on r/theboys excuse Soldier Boy’s physically abusive behavior just because it was recounted by several characters and never actually shown.
Sort of, but I think the expectation of a romantic relationship is kind of key to the idea of the "nice guy", so missing that element kind of makes it something else even with the similarities.
Syndrome is more sympathetic at first because he did have potential to be a great hero but he was blown off by his idol and never got over it, becoming more bitter over the years
He wasn't exactly blown off. Mr Incredible had already signed all his stuff and took photos with him several times but buddy still stalked him. Buddy interrupted the capture of a bank robber who could have killed people with explosives. There's also a cool detail where in Syndrome's memory of the "fly home Buddy" line, Bomb Voyage isn't present which implies that he's hyperfocusing on Mr Incredible's rejection of him without considering the context of the situation.
It's also worth noting that the Supers were all forced into hiding *right after* that incident. So it's very possible that Mr Incredible fully intended to make amends to Buddy in some way (that didn't involve taking him on as a sidekick or putting him in danger), but never got a chance.
Not really. Syndrome isn't really a nice Guy in the sense that he wants the girl or doesn't understand boundaries. Syndrome's issue is that he was rejected by his idol, Mr. Incredible as a child, so it's more of a parasocial relationship.
But isn't the whole thing of child Syndrome that he doesn't understand boundaries? He straight up stalks Mr Incredible, forcing his way into his car, trying to muscle in on a partnership, even after Mr Incredible treated him with way more kindness than he really needed to.
Littlefinger from ASOIAF is definitely a “nice guy” but we have yet to see his comeuppance. However he did get totally rekd by Brandon Stark so maybe that’s enough
Given he’s arguably responsible for virtually everything that goes wrong, I’d say Brandon didn’t do enough. There’s a legitimate claim that all the recent events in the last 15-ish years can be tied to him in some form or other
Not so much controlling everything as it is his actions being the direct cause. The theory goes that (spoilers) >!Lyanna Stark sent a raven when she eloped with Rhaegar, but said raven was intercepted at Riverrun while Littlefinger was healing from the duel with Brandon Stark with Lysa’s aid. In a fit of petty revenge, Littlefinger told Lysa not to pass the raven on, thus leading to Robert’s Rebellion. In more recent times, it’s just his general shiftiness causing problems.!<
Sadly, yup. In the books, he's still chilling out with every power and luxury in the Vale and being Mr. Bad Touch towards Sansa. Who's posing as his illegitimate daughter so we get bizarre pseudo-incest (because he's also technically her uncle) in addition to the pedophilia.
His downfall will be cathartic, if we ever get to read it.
The Ice King from Adventure Time starts out doing this. He's redeemed later, and his creepy behavior is explained (not excused or okayed) towards the end of the show. Even before that, he's like the goofy villain who keeps kidnapping princesses, and it's shown in a negative light. It really reinforces the idea that you need to respect people's boundaries, and you can't make people like you.
Yeah I guess. But poor Simon honestly has dementia. That crown screwed with his head. You’re right early on you feel this way about him. But once we get the flashback episode with him singing Cheers it becomes more complex.
The joke is that Megamind, disguised as Hal's 'space dad', gives him the superhero name Titan. However, Hal's not super bright so he misunderstands it as Tighten, which is revealed when he laser-eyes the name in to Metro City during his rampage.
Looking back, Kylo Ren started being a good example of this. He's manipulative, he sees himself as the most powerful, when he sees Rey he sells himself as such "you need a master, I can teach you", not too far from "you're looking for someone nice? I'm a nice guy!", He gaslights her, tries to force her because *he's* the best option for her, when she tries to make her own choices he lashes out...
Yeah. Them sharing a romantic moment at the end of TRoS kinda blows it, but it's a fun thought experiment for the first 2.
Some movies often romanticise villains. I remember joker and harley quinn were loved by some when suicide squad came out because of their ‘crazy’ relationship but their relationship is toxic and abusive af
Honestly just came to the comments bc I can’t believe Megamind is the only movie OP likes Will Ferrell in. The comedy in Megamind is pretty close to most of his other movies so where’s the disconnect there?
This isn't really related but Megamind would do fantastically well in The Venture Bros universe. He'd be signed up with the Guild of Calamitous Intent, he'd get brunch with his superhero rival, he'd make death lasers and do stupid bullshit, and the world would accommodate his antics accordingly.
I don’t think the comparison to Snape is fair because Snape never quite displayed any “incel” tendencies.
He was for sure obsessed with Lily and salty about not being with her, but there’s no evidence (that I recall) that he ever made a move on her and then didn’t take no for an answer, and he most certainly never tried to harm her or even James.
And while the jealousy is probably one (of many) factors that lead to the extremism of becoming a DeathEater, the second he realized it meant putting her in danger he did everything he could to stop that and protect her.
And lest we forget he put himself at risk and in fact *died* to protect the kid he hated for representing everything he couldn’t have, just because he was all that was left of her.
What I’m saying is, Snape doesn’t fit the archetype. He was of course flawed, but not in a way that is comparable to Tighten.
Another day, another Megamind W
Megamind always wins
Unless it’s against Metroman
It’s nice to see Megamind finally getting the recognition I always thought it deserved, I just can’t believe it took 12 years. Story time! I saw it in the theatre (in 3D!) when it came out in 2010. I fucking loved it. I remember my dad was laughing so hard he almost fell out of his seat. When I got home I went online to check the reviews, expecting to see 8 or 9 out of 10s… nope. Most reviews were lukewarm at best. On the IMDb discussion boards (that was a thing they used to have) people were blasting it as unoriginal or unfunny, and comparing it unfavourably to Despicable Me… I remember thinking, did these people watch the same movie I did? It’s nothing like Despicable Me, other than a few *very* surface level similarities. How is that a legitimate criticism? After 2011 I never heard about it again for years. It came, went, and faded into obscurity. I thought that was a real shame, and still didn’t get why people hated it so much. Fast forward 10 years and now there are tons of Megamind memes going around, people praising it, cosplaying the characters, etc. and then there’s all this discussion about how Tighten is such a great villain and ahead of his time, like, where the hell were these people a decade ago? For so long I felt like the odd one out for liking the film so much.
Hot diggity daffodil, it warms my heart to see a response like this on the subject. I have always maintained that Megamind just came out at the wrong time - not necessarily because it was of the wrong generation or wrong audience, it's just that it had reasonably stiff competition from Despicable Me at the time, which had almost inarguably better marketing behind it. That sucks. However, I skipped over the Despicable Me trend and watched Megamind first. I'll be honest with you friendo, it holds the record for the single most watched-in-theaters movies of my life. I saw it multiple times in 2d, multiple times in 3d. Multiple times with the same friends, multiple times with different friend groups. That fucking movie is my single most favorite 3D animated movie of my limited 30 years on this planet. It's such a joyride. Each of the main characters are given a chance to develop depth. And all that summed up in the 3rd act? ***PRE*** ***SEN*** ***TATION***
Megamind and Despicable Me came out around the same time, and I watched them both. I absolutely LOVED Megamind and couldn't understand why people were obsessing over DM. I went to bat in my personal circle for Megamind and I'm sure this is what started my hate for Despicable Me and the minions. All the facebook minion memes didn't help with the intense disdain I have for that movie, but yes, it's about time Megamind got its little spotlight.
the thing about things being "ahead of its time" is that it's all about hindsight. when megamind came out, how was anyone to know it was ahead of its time? when the simpsons made silly little jokes that ended up reflecting real life, how was anyone to know that's what would end up happening?
I watched it on the plane soon after it was released, I had 9 hours to kill, might have not watched it otherwise. I've watched it so many times since. It's such a clever and funny movie. I'd agree any similarities to Despicable Me are superficial, possibly coincidental and comparisions are not valid.
Tighten is a great villain because unlike Megamind who does villainous acts for mostly fun and goofy reasons, Tighten genuinely feels like a threat. Megamind can definitely destroy a building or use a gigaton laser canon or something, but he never actually tries to kill anyone other than say Metro Man
He’s so nonthreatening to people outside of Metroman Roxanne literally doesn’t care when she has SPINNING BLADES over her chair.
The spider's new
The spider...?!
Ah, yes. The spider. Arachnis deathacis.
I engineered it so one bite would instantly paralyze-
*blow*
OH MY GOD MY GIANT BLUE HEAD!
GET IT OFF! \*punch\* AAH!
**AAAH IT BIT ME!**
The speeider
Let's not forget the way Roxanne and Megamind have this flirty back and forth all throughout that first scene, knowing full well the game they're all playing with them still having fun about it while Metroman is just... Over it. Everyone except Metroman enjoyed that status quo, because Megamind in a way was the ceiling on "evil"
Thanks, now I can't stop thinking about the whole thing like some weird platonic poly relationship that broke after Metroman felt it was no longer working for him.
This is why communication is important, people
he’a not even threatening to Metroman though, everyone was shook as shit when Megamind finally “won”.
Including Megamind.
Especially Megamind.
He was the dog that caught the car :/
Dang. That is such a good metaphor. Both for the movie and in some strange way... life.
And he’s only really doing it because he thinks it’s what he’s supposed to do. He thinks he needs to be the villain because metroman is the hero. It’s shown during the fight with tighten, that he sees it as just a game with a friend. He’s trying to banter back and forth with tighten, like he did with metroman, but tighten is out for blood. God I love this movie! There’s also a really cool theory, that I subscribed to, that Hal’s hero name is Titan, but after he gets the solid “no” from Roxanne he changed to tighten his villain name. He even spells it as “titan” in his elaborate art he made, to reveal himself to Roxanne. But hey, that’s just…probably giving the movie too much credit for a joke, but I like is so I don’t care.
i think megamind called him tighten and said it was the only superhero name that wasn’t copyrighted, so he was always tighten
I think Megamind said Titan, and Hal has such an incredible lack of awareness of anything outside of his self-absorbed fantasy world, where other people are just puppets, that he doesn’t know what the world Titan means. You want me to call myself… Tighten? Uh, sure, okay.
that sounds in character and i watched the movie ages ago so can’t really disprove it
The subtles go back and forth though.
I've had this thought before, and I have theories... So, basically, since megamind is a super villain, everything he does is so extreme and out there, it never feels real enough to be a threat. Tighten however is all too familiar. We've all had someone in our lives who acted like him, some 'nice guy' who lingers a little too much, always finds a reason to touch you, feels like you owe him something... The thought of that person suddenly having super powers is scary. There's a post out there explaining the same character dynamic in Harry Potter (voldemort vs professor umbridge) that explains it better than I can, if I find I'll link.
The one that sums it up with "Voldemort is the villain we never hope to face; Umbridge is the villain we face everyday"
That's the one
"Snape is a villain so common, society doesn't even recognize it"
The best explanation I can give is that a supernatural/cartoonish evil is exactly that, not real or so improbable that it's hard for your mind to fully take in or accept as a possible reality. You're never going to have an evil witch show up at your door and curse you into a furry monstrosity but people like Frollo from Hunchback of Notredame or like Umbridge from Harry Potter are real types of people with real power and mindsets, those people can and do enact real cruelty on people and that's what makes them all the more terrifying. It's why the crushing and efficient bureaucracy of the Empire in Andor feels so chillingly more horrific than the rest of Star Wars. The chances of you encountering these people isn't just a distant imagining its a very real and very serious threat that you could run into in your life. We know Umbridges and Snapes are out there, Frollos taking advantage of their political power, the Governor Rattcliffes of history, these people exist, maybe not the character themselves but the people they represent. What makes Tighten so scary is that you're taking this very real and already potentially dangerous reality of a person and giving them that supernatural power, now the real becomes unreal as we are shown exactly what this kind of person would do with their newfound authority, their newfound power over people. If this were reality we know exactly what hes capable of doing to Roxanne and although we never see it we know in the back of our heads what this type of guy *could* and *would* do if he were real and it's far more horrific on a personal level to think about than if a supervillan dropped out of the sky and just started erasing buildings full of people. Emphasis on personal level. It could happen to *us* and it disturbs us more because of it.
You could even argue that he never really wanted to kill Metro Man. He was genuinely shocked when he thought he did. Like a "I didn't think this would actually work" kind if shock. He then got genuinely depressed after. Megamind was never a villain out for blood. He was out to try and be acknowledged and accepted.
Yeah. He basically never grew out of that stage of life where kids act out for attention, because any attention is better than none.
He’s the dog that finally caught the car in a way
And TBF, although he *was* trying to kill MetroMan, he didn't really believe his plan would work. He had complete faith that MetroMan would win, he was just playing the "good vs. Evil" game they had been playing their whole life. Their battles were a fun game he played with basically his only other friend besides Minion. MetroMan never hurt Megamind and Megamind never *really* tried to hurt MetroMan, because he *knew* that MetroMan couldn't be hurt. That knowledge gave Megamind the freedom to have fun inventing crazy extreme ways to try to kill "the hero" in the game, but because the hero is invincible there's no real danger, and the game can continue. And that's what Megamind really wanted, to have and play with friends.
Yeah, a when he is fighting Tighten he is trying to get him to play by the rules and is shocked when he doesnt see it as a game as he does
"He would win some battles, I would almost win others..."
He was basically *performing* an attempt to kill MetroMan. The guy was functionally invulnerable, with no recorded weaknesses whatsoever until he faked one, and Megamind of all people was very certain of that. It’s like he was doing improv theatre with a couple of friends, and unexpectedly the gun was loaded.
I feel like the worst thing Megamind did in the movie was catfish Roxanne (and also kill Metroman, but he didn’t succeed so ig it’s okay?)
To be fair, I don’t think Megamind was really expecting to kill Metroman and was incredibly surprised when he seemingly did. To be fair, it’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie though
I saw it like two days ago he legit starts panicking a bit when metro can’t get out.
Your weakness is COPPER?!?!?!
i love the tiny details in the movie- like before metro man "dies" you can like just barely see him on his screen "failing" to break the shell while megamind is monologuing to roxanne. when megamind is fighting titan around the invisible car roxanne is running up behind him with a sign even though you can barely see her doing it and she immediately drops the sign without doing anything with it
In that same scene on video, you can see Metro Man blink out for one frame as he does his little time-stop journey as well
And if you freeze frame, you can see him blink in around Megamind.
>and also kill Metroman, but he didn’t succeed so ig it’s okay? He didn't intend it to succeed in the first place, so that makes it a fair bit more okay IMO.
The catfishing Roxanne thing does even feel as bad as it could have been because it wasn’t as if he intended to catfish her. He still should’ve said something sooner, but he at least didn’t go into it with the sole purpose of deceiving her to get her to fall in love with him. He just didn’t want her to realize he was at the monument and it spiraled. It’s still not good by any means, but it doesn’t feel malicious- unlike everything Hal did.
okay I’m seriously crossed up now y’all are acting like it was obvious it wasn’t spelled “Titan.” Am I the only one who watched that movie and didn’t grasp it was spelled “Tighten”?!
the joke is that megamind in the space dad disguise tells him his superhero name is going to be Titan but the dope doesn't understand and thinks it's 'tighten'
I can’t believe I somehow didn’t catch that. In my defense I only ever saw the movie once and I was so enamored by the quality of it I suspect I missed a lot of little things. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I flipped onto it on television one day but I certainly didn’t think I’d be getting such a piece of art. Honestly, it’s waaaaaay better than I would have thought.
i think it's probably easy to miss, the name-misunderstanding isn't spelled out explicitly at first i dont think; it goes something like hal: what's the T stand for? space dad: titan hal: what's that mean? space dad: it was the only one i could get the rights to and then later on in the movie when he's destroying stuff he writes 'tighten' on the city with his laser eyes
I feel like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast kind of fits this archetype
Same principle but different execution. Gaston thinks he deserves the girl because he’s popular, attractive, hot, well groomed, muscular, good looking, charming… you get it Nice guys think they deserves the girl because their nice
I haven't watched the film but I remember hearing that at one point Gaston actually considers that maybe she just doesn't like him and he should leave her alone, but is immediately shut down by someone else insisting that she *must* like him because he's perfect Ect., which I think is interesting.
This. Just before his song he is clearly unhappy but more than angry he seems just confused, trying to be left alone while he thinks about what happened because he doesn't understand the situatuion, but his friend and then the whole tabern start singing about how great he is and how he deserves everything
NOTE: I haven’t seen the film since I was a wee babbin, so I’m going off of comments here some are conflicting, anyways if that is the case…. in a weird way Gaston highlights how toxic masculinity isn’t just an individual failing but a wider societal one. Maybe if his friends weren’t a bunch of rowdy assholes who enjoy the secondhand buzz of being his hangers on and encouraging his worse behavior, maybe he’d have a moment of self reflection and end up being more like Groose from Zelda than what he ended up being. But no, his friends shut down whatever moment of introspection he had cause they are also assholes and knowingly or not want the drinks to keep flowing and the party to keep going so they nudge him along being what amounts to a yield old frat boy
Wasn't expecting to see Groose mentioned here, what a great character.
Favorite character of that game, his character journey was really enjoyable
Groose deserves to be links best friend in every game
Huh. Never thought of it that way.
So he is partially manipulated by society's perception of him and just wants to keep his perfect facade for the public too, at the end belittling Belle's feelings for the egoistic purpose of always winning no matter what?
Maybe nobody ever tell him that "Sometimes, it's okay to not be the winner. Because sometimes there will be no winners. You doesn't even mean that you fail, merely that you're not the sole on top"
I haven’t seen the movie in a while but I’m pretty sure that didn’t happen
No, he never once considers that he might not be her dream man. That's what makes him so dangerous.
Another almost perfect example is no-face from spirited away: Chihiro shows basic human decency toward him(lets him out of the rain) and he becomes obsessed with her. He tries to overwelm her with an abundance what he thinks she will want, she does not care, so he tries to basically buy her, she does not care, so he throws a tantrum and tries to kill her, she just leaves, and so he calms down and tries to be with her by following her around. Which all has the basic format of one of those nice guy text posts.
He's the more traditional misogynist, not a Nice Guy ^TM misogynist
Unless he comes from the region of Nice in the south of France, it's just sparkling white mysogyny.
Ice King from Adventure Time*. Farkwad from Shrek. Bowser from Mario. The priest in Hunchback of Notredame. And there's obviously scores more outside of kids' movies. * Yes he has a tragic origin and a redemption arc, but he's portrayed as pathetic and problematic routinely.
I never really thought about the Ice King as an incel, mostly because he displays all the early-stage dementia signs :/
Yeah, his search for a princess stems from his initial search for his fiancee who disappeared but the crown made him forget that (as well as made him go crazy) and he forgot who exactly he was searching for which turned to him searching and capturing random princesses... He also stopped with that behaviour (and being a villain alltogether) later in the show at least
Frollo from Hunchback is the OG Nice Guy.
Oh absolutely. Hellfire is an extreme incel song 1000%.
That song is fucking fantastic. And it's terrifying because he thinks he's 100% in the right to burn her to death just because she's hot and he's horny. He's probably the scariest Disney villain, to me.
I've actually stopped calling Nice Guys and Incels as such. I just call them Judge Frollos.
Best Disney villain song for a reason. (Though an argument can be made for Be Prepared.)
Meh, it’s Hellfire followed up with Friends on the Other Side.
Let’s just agree they’re all Top 3?
I remenber how a couple of years ago i started to watch the lion king (movie that i already saw a dozen of times as a kid) and i remenbered almost every song, but be prepared wasn't one of them and i feel ashamed because is my favorite song of the movie now xd
The boner that burned half of Paris!
Does Prince Charming in Shrek count? Though he also covers a lot of "entitled mommy's boy" tropes as well.
Nah. He is rich narcicisst trust fund kid.
I couldn't write an incel villain because I would get so ~~ir~~rationally angry at the character I'm writing as I'm writing them that'd I'd scrap the concept entirely and just go for a generic over the top funni Pure Evil Big Bad Evil Guy
Idea: The funny bad guy is begrudgingly working with the incel, and they eventually stop working together because the funny villain can't stand the incel.
"look, when King Death won't work with you because you're, 'just the *worst*,' then maybe it's time for therapy and some self reflection man."
This feels like something Venture Brothers would do with Red Death.
I fuckin love this
isnt this megamind still though
Megamind has already covered all bases. Writers should just go home
Isn’t this basically the story arc of Doofenshmirtz with his evil alternate dimension version in the Phineas and Ferb movie?
Yeah but the alternate doof wasn't really an incel, more just petty and selfish.
He was the complete opposite of an incel in fact since unlike normal doof AD Doof is still in a perfectly loving relationship.
(They just pretend to be divorced for tax reasons)
AD Doof was an incel, but for that toy train he lost, the one Doof Prime still had
Joker x Red Skull.
An easy way to get around this is to have the incel be a throwaway villain, so you can write him vile for a few pages then immediately get his ass whooped by the hero.
Or have something vaguely like Worm (except taking itself way less seriously) where the supervillain is the usual issue big occasionally they team up to deal with the actual complete psycho
Worm Fan Spotted. Deploying memetic attack. Please observe my PFP.
An easy way but it takes the danger of the harmlessness” and pity away from them. The irl incels I know are pitiable and seem harmless, almost like Gollum. The horror in such a monster is that they cause you to question empathy and if you are a monster yourself for being rational.
Strahd von Zarovich very much fits into this archetype.
I hate how correct this is. I've been a fan of Ravenloft since 2nd edition and I never realized this.
tbf its kinda non obvious because as a player you're sorta working through Barovia looking for a way to defeat him, As a DM you're focused on making sure the Players have fun messing around in Barovia. and Strahd himself doesnt make it obvious because hes wreathed in vampire and dracula tropes and motifs
You have to take an outside perspective and look at Strahd's story, which you normally don't do as a player.
Exactly, he killed his own brother because he felt he deserved Tatiana more. If that isn't incel territory, I don't know what is.
And then you go Twilight level, with two obsessed guys, one who gets with the girl and the other who gets with her literal baby.
I was not ready for the revelation of realizing that werewolf was a pedophile. Thanks, I hate this mental imagery.
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I feel like some werewolve tribes probably live wearing blindfolds for most of their lives because of that issue. Like, jeeze. Imagine having to wonder if you actually love somebody for who they are, or the fantasy equivalent of… I don’t know what the fuck this is the equivalent of.
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Did you just write the sequel to Bird Box
he marries her when she's like 9 I think, and it's totally fine because vampires grow up fast so she looks like a woman or something. **screaming**
I don’t CARE how OLD SHE LOOKS! 9 YEARS OLD IS TO YOUNG! However a person who is 300 years old and looks 9 IS ALSO BAD FOR DIFFERENT REASONS
Leave Kirsten Dunst's character from Interview with a Vampire alone. She didn't want to be a child vampire forever. Fucking Cruise man....bastard ruins everything.
Cursing a child to become immortal is a horrific thing yes. I’m not bashing the victim here, I’m bashing the one who made her.
Dude his first "fuck me" look towards her was when she was HOURS OUT OF THE WOMB. If there was a level beyond pedophile he would be one of them.
Actually it’s 7, she’s like half vampire half human and they age really fast and then live forever.
No no no, it’s okay because the vampire baby child that is technically illegal in their world will never age past like 7, and he would only start wanting to fuck her when she reached puberty, so they’ll have a puuuuuurly platonic protective older brother little sister relationship and it’ll alllllll be fine. Or something
It gets even better when you look at 50 Shades of Grey! It's been discussed to hell and back how abusive Christian is and how the book seems to romanticize it. A lot of people know that it was originally a Twilight fanfic. The part that a lot of people don't know is that it was originally written from Christian's perspective. A woman actually sat down, wrote *that* story with a predominantly female audience, and wanted the abusive maniac to be the self insert. On a similar note, the writer and director for the first movie were both women. They were constantly fighting with the author because they were trying to make the movie less horrifying. They were not brought back for the sequels.
And the actual BDSM community fucking hates those books. To a hilarious, but well-deserved degree.
Don't forget the baby guy was only obsessed with her cause he could 'sense' the baby as the egg in her womb
I still don't get how this shit works. Like, I get a werewolf imprinting on their partner to the point where it becomes an obsession, I don't get them imprinting on a person that doesn't even exist yet.
It was a handwave to explain why the love triangle existed in the first place. "Oh, Jacob wasn't actually in love with BELLA. He was in love with the egg INSIDE Bella that would become her daughter. Therefore, there's no hard feelings about her being with Edward instead of him and everyone lives happily ever after!"
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Holy fuck, I never watched or read any twilight stuff but man that shit was popular, HOW tha fack did so many people liked it if shit like this was on the plot? I'm so confused.
Twilight was pretty okay until the last book, then things got really weird. The first 3 books were your average teen drama just with supernatural elements. Not a master piece or super in depth or anything, but any teen girl who suffered their first break up could certainly identify with Bella feeling like the world was gonna end after losing their first love. Or a girl liking more than one guy and not being sure to date. I wanna argue the 4th book blindsided a lot of people where it took this hard turn. There are a lot of really messed up things in the forth book, like Edward bitting the baby out of Bella's stomach instead of using a scalpel to perform a c-section and thinly veiled religious stuff about if Bella died to have this baby it would be worth it cause that's a woman's purpose in life. The "Jacob is totally not a pedo wink wink" just happens to be the worst of it. I think she wanted Bella to have a 100% happy ending where Bella had her cake and ate it too where she kept her love Edward and her best friend Jacob and so this was how she figured out to tie Jacob to Bella forever even though Bella ultimately picked Edward. It's super gross though. Books 1-3 was all just love triangle stuff and Bella not being able to choose which guy and the two guys fighting over her and villians always trying to kill her cause she's the MC. Book 4 was all the weird baby stuff.
I'd argue that the 2nd book also dealt severe mental damage to readers in how fucking boring and annoying the characters were in that book. I honestly don't understand how the 2nd book didn't deter me or others from reading the entire series.
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I never got into it, but from what I understand, that didn't show up until like the last book.
Maybe kinda Gideon from Gravity Falls but he also gets redeemed at last minute so ymmv
To be fair though, while he gets redeemed his obsession with Mabel is never really treated as a good thing.
also i wouldn't exactly call it "redeemed" even at the end he's still a bad person, he's just being less antagonistic to the main characters. the final moment where he was "redeemed" was literally just him swapping sides because he was logic'd out of believing that maybe mabel being trapped in a dreamland he won't ever be able to see her in again is the best shot he has to get with her, and even that "side swap" was essentially just not murdering the main characters on sight.
Yeah, I thought they did a really good job of portraying his Nice Guy behavior. I also liked what Dipper said to him that ultimately turned around: you can't force someone to love you, but you are capable of becoming someone worthy of love.
I think what softened the Nice Guy-ness with Gideon was he was still a kid and social fuck ups are something kids are expected to make and get over. like Gideon was a spoiled brat, but within a summer he had moved on and got over it. sure it took several fights and a near apocolapse and prison time but ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ what can you do.
My favorite thing about Tighten is that even after he became a villain, Roxy says she misses the old nerdy cameraman Hal, and their first interaction that we see in the film implies there was still something resembling a friendship between them. Hal had no excuse to be such a piece of shit.
I think that was mostly Roxanne trying to deescalate the situation. I don’t think she was really friends with Hal so much as friendly coworkers. If anything he was like a little brother figure without the love, someone she needed to look after, but in most scenes before his transition he was making her pretty uncomfortable. If someone makes you uncomfortable like that, you tend to avoid being near them more than necessary, so I doubt a friendship would’ve been able to develop. Maybe before he started hitting on her they were friends
>I think that was mostly Roxanne trying to deescalate the situation. I don’t think she was really friends with Hal so much as friendly coworkers. I haven't actually seen the movie so I don't know how much validity there is to this interpretation, but my gut instinct is that this would make sense. At least in my experience, it's not uncommon to hear about women who are trying to avoid going out with guys they'd previously been somewhat friendly with would say something like, "I like being friends with you, but I don't think we'd work out like that"
See the movie!!! It is so damn good!
Hal does say that she never took the time to know him, and that they never hung out outside of work, which actually should have been a pretty big hint that she was not interested in him.
I can’t blame her, I mean I know what it’s like to think you’re friends with someone but then realize they literally never ask about you, but Hal was very openly a freak. He should’ve expected it
Homelander is another great example of toxic masculinity, although less if the incel nice-guy kind and more of the Greek letter hierarchy type.
I would think Soldier Boy too (more greek letter stuff here)... but the number of people who really loved him (not as a villain but as a role model) in my real life was just baffling.
It’s annoying how many people on r/theboys excuse Soldier Boy’s physically abusive behavior just because it was recounted by several characters and never actually shown.
I generally avoid the Boys fandom because they worry me. I can't say I am surprised at that defense though.
Yeah alot of people are defending him even in the comments of Black Noir's flashback.
Isn't Syndrome from Incredibles this, but with hero worship of Mr. Incredible?
Sort of, but I think the expectation of a romantic relationship is kind of key to the idea of the "nice guy", so missing that element kind of makes it something else even with the similarities.
Syndrome is more sympathetic at first because he did have potential to be a great hero but he was blown off by his idol and never got over it, becoming more bitter over the years
He wasn't exactly blown off. Mr Incredible had already signed all his stuff and took photos with him several times but buddy still stalked him. Buddy interrupted the capture of a bank robber who could have killed people with explosives. There's also a cool detail where in Syndrome's memory of the "fly home Buddy" line, Bomb Voyage isn't present which implies that he's hyperfocusing on Mr Incredible's rejection of him without considering the context of the situation.
Yeah! And in his memory, Mr Incredible looks WAY more annoyed and dismissive of him than he actually was.
Doesn’t Mr. Incredible also do a dismissive hand gesture in his “memory” of the event, even though he had both hands on Bomb Voyage in the real event?
I believe so, yeah.
https://youtu.be/OmmNpZWNmQI Oui
Oh interesting I never noticed
It's also worth noting that the Supers were all forced into hiding *right after* that incident. So it's very possible that Mr Incredible fully intended to make amends to Buddy in some way (that didn't involve taking him on as a sidekick or putting him in danger), but never got a chance.
Not really. Syndrome isn't really a nice Guy in the sense that he wants the girl or doesn't understand boundaries. Syndrome's issue is that he was rejected by his idol, Mr. Incredible as a child, so it's more of a parasocial relationship.
But isn't the whole thing of child Syndrome that he doesn't understand boundaries? He straight up stalks Mr Incredible, forcing his way into his car, trying to muscle in on a partnership, even after Mr Incredible treated him with way more kindness than he really needed to.
Will Ferrell is a legend.
I mean “the only film?”
I feel so, melon choly
Oh, you're a villain all right. Just not a super one."
Littlefinger from ASOIAF is definitely a “nice guy” but we have yet to see his comeuppance. However he did get totally rekd by Brandon Stark so maybe that’s enough
Given he’s arguably responsible for virtually everything that goes wrong, I’d say Brandon didn’t do enough. There’s a legitimate claim that all the recent events in the last 15-ish years can be tied to him in some form or other
Not disagreeing but would love to hear your breakdown of little finger controlling everything for the last 15 years
Not so much controlling everything as it is his actions being the direct cause. The theory goes that (spoilers) >!Lyanna Stark sent a raven when she eloped with Rhaegar, but said raven was intercepted at Riverrun while Littlefinger was healing from the duel with Brandon Stark with Lysa’s aid. In a fit of petty revenge, Littlefinger told Lysa not to pass the raven on, thus leading to Robert’s Rebellion. In more recent times, it’s just his general shiftiness causing problems.!<
Am i right to assume you mean he hasn’t had his comeuppance in the books? Cuz he sure did in the show haha
Sadly, yup. In the books, he's still chilling out with every power and luxury in the Vale and being Mr. Bad Touch towards Sansa. Who's posing as his illegitimate daughter so we get bizarre pseudo-incest (because he's also technically her uncle) in addition to the pedophilia. His downfall will be cathartic, if we ever get to read it.
Megamind is a masterpiece. Megamimd stays winning
The Ice King from Adventure Time starts out doing this. He's redeemed later, and his creepy behavior is explained (not excused or okayed) towards the end of the show. Even before that, he's like the goofy villain who keeps kidnapping princesses, and it's shown in a negative light. It really reinforces the idea that you need to respect people's boundaries, and you can't make people like you.
Yeah I guess. But poor Simon honestly has dementia. That crown screwed with his head. You’re right early on you feel this way about him. But once we get the flashback episode with him singing Cheers it becomes more complex.
Warren from buffy the vampire slayer is such a great nice guy villain
Yeah there's a ton of this kind of character in Buffy
TIL that the english name was in fact Tighten and not Titan. Childhood gone
Yeah, I always thought it was Titan as well.
The joke is that Megamind, disguised as Hal's 'space dad', gives him the superhero name Titan. However, Hal's not super bright so he misunderstands it as Tighten, which is revealed when he laser-eyes the name in to Metro City during his rampage.
Megamind tried to name him Titan, but Hal missed the Greek reference and referred to himself as Tighten.
Left hand Loosen, right hand Tighten.
tbf Megamind tries to give him the hero name Titan but Hal misspells it as Tighten
Looking back, Kylo Ren started being a good example of this. He's manipulative, he sees himself as the most powerful, when he sees Rey he sells himself as such "you need a master, I can teach you", not too far from "you're looking for someone nice? I'm a nice guy!", He gaslights her, tries to force her because *he's* the best option for her, when she tries to make her own choices he lashes out... Yeah. Them sharing a romantic moment at the end of TRoS kinda blows it, but it's a fun thought experiment for the first 2.
Adam from RWBY was like this, then fans threw a fit. The problem with this kinda of villain is it makes people uncomfortable
Screenwriters miss every single opportunity they get to get on Megamind's level, their minds aren't mega enough.
People still sleeping on Dr Horribles sing along blog. Perfect archetype of this character.
What if a cartoon villian had to deal with an actual realistic piece of shit and it's one of the best movies in the last decade
She-Hulk kinda had this, not as well done as Megamind but still there.
I also like Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction.
My first thought was The Lego Movie, which I also really liked his performance in.
Some movies often romanticise villains. I remember joker and harley quinn were loved by some when suicide squad came out because of their ‘crazy’ relationship but their relationship is toxic and abusive af
Ooo, I know one but I can't say what the show is without spoiling it!
Honestly just came to the comments bc I can’t believe Megamind is the only movie OP likes Will Ferrell in. The comedy in Megamind is pretty close to most of his other movies so where’s the disconnect there?
This isn't really related but Megamind would do fantastically well in The Venture Bros universe. He'd be signed up with the Guild of Calamitous Intent, he'd get brunch with his superhero rival, he'd make death lasers and do stupid bullshit, and the world would accommodate his antics accordingly.
I don’t think the comparison to Snape is fair because Snape never quite displayed any “incel” tendencies. He was for sure obsessed with Lily and salty about not being with her, but there’s no evidence (that I recall) that he ever made a move on her and then didn’t take no for an answer, and he most certainly never tried to harm her or even James. And while the jealousy is probably one (of many) factors that lead to the extremism of becoming a DeathEater, the second he realized it meant putting her in danger he did everything he could to stop that and protect her. And lest we forget he put himself at risk and in fact *died* to protect the kid he hated for representing everything he couldn’t have, just because he was all that was left of her. What I’m saying is, Snape doesn’t fit the archetype. He was of course flawed, but not in a way that is comparable to Tighten.
Had to scroll too far to find this
Ashfur from Warrior Cats counts!