As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance:
- Taunting prisoners drains the Smarts of your Evil Genius... Because Evil Gloating is peak Bond Villain Stupidity.
- Why is Maximilian, the one returning evil genius from the first game, now the Jack of All Stats instead of the more science/industry-focused of the bunch? Because, as the one returning evil genius from the first game, he's the one who's already done all this before and knows what to do!
- He was also The Generic Guy in the first game, though not intentionally. He was supposed to be the Science genius, like Zalika is in the second, but wound up being the Jack of All Stats because his special ability didn't work due to a bug. This is also likely why he canonically lost the first time; because his ability didn't work (and even if it did could be totally negated by a guide or FAQ) almost nobody played him.
- It’s also mentioned in his biography for this game that his inventions usually go awry despite him considering himself a “maverick inventor”. He’s not focused on science (and his ability didn’t work in the first game) because he’s not actually good at it. He admits as much during his campaign in a private moment with a minion, acknowledging that none of his scientific efforts ever worked properly and he had much more success as a businessman (then kills the minion since he considers this a shameful secret).
- Maximilian's color motif is yellow, as opposed to the other evil geniuses whose colors reflect the minion type and strategy they specialize in. While the obvious answer is Maximilian's Money Fetish, it could also represent the basic minion, the worker, whose color is also yellow. Maximilian also starts out with more minions and has the means to reach the minion cap even faster.
- Jubei and Maximilian don't recognize each other despite Jubei being Max's starter henchman in the previous game. This is surprisingly easy to explain - Jubei was the most popular and useful henchman in the previous game, even mentioning he's been employed by a lot of Evil Geniuses, so he wouldn't remember. Maximilian is portrayed as kind of an idiot in the second game, so he doesn't remember Jubei either.
- Maximilian didn't win the first game, so it's possible that him hiring Jubei as his starter henchmen isn't technically canon.
- Why was several minion types needed to send an invitation to Agent X at the game's launch, when most Super Agents only needed just one? Because an entire team of people is needed to cover your tracks after talking to him. Agent X is the ultimate investigator, so even something as simple as sending an invitation runs the risk of leaving a trail for him to follow.
- The whole point of sending an invitation is to give them a trail to follow. That said, Agent X is the least conflict-oriented Super Agent so it takes a more elaborate setup to convince him to come, otherwise he would (often rightly) suspect you want him to come to your base on purpose in order to divert his attention from something else.
- At the end of the game once the Evil Genius has taken over the world, every single Genius proceeds to kill the player signaling that the player is no longer useful to them... except Maximilian. Maximilian is shown to have A Lighter Shade of Black to him, as while he is no slouch in the cruelty department, he repeatedly shows kindness to his loyal minions throughout the campaign, if even just due to pragmatism. In other words, due to your loyal and useful service, Maximilian decides that You Will Be Spared.
- Zalika's instance seems like Fridge Logic at first since she seems like a Well-Intentioned Extremist genuinely wishing to create a Utopia only she can bring about, so it feels odd that she'd go and kill one of her "users"... except that the player still has their free will, and as such remains a danger to her rule. The player's already shown that they're singlehandedly capable of conquering the world, so she can't risk them running around anymore.
- On one hand, Ivan is not particularly cruel to his minions, being closer to Maximilian than to Emma or Zalika in this regard. On the other hand, Ivan has the tendency to cause unintended collateral damage and friendly fire, which results in minions getting killed. Therefore, the part of his ending cutscene where he fires his rocket fist toward the screen is open to interpretation. Is he just making a cool transition into the holding-the-globe scene? Is he killing you? Or did he try to make a cool gesture, and ended up accidentally blowing you up?
- It's easy to interpret the person who is frozen by Polar (or who she talks to) in her ending as the player character. Perhaps she might decide You Will Be Spared but is instead freezing you cryogenically so you can survive the ice age. Who knows if you're still aware... Fridge Horror as well.
- Doubling as Fridge Horror, but how does the Genius even kill Symmetry with a non-lethal trap? The Slippery Floor trap has a large tank of lubricant under the floor, which you can see when you install it, with the slippery part flipping over to reset itself. The minion manning the trap has a remote control that lets them activate and reset it whenever they like. The Genius simply has the minion reset it before Symmetry can get up, which dumps her in the lubricant tank while the floor closes above her. Unable to escape, she eventually drowns. Once she does, her corpse is fished out of the tank for disposal. That's ice-cold. It's also doubly ironic: the woman who thought everything about balance gets put in a trap specifically designed to make people lose their balance, and the Rogue who prided herself on her ability to get into anywhere dies when she can't get out.
- This also brings up into situation where other nonlethal traps can be made lethal. Obviously the bubble cannon can be used to drown (or suffocate) someone, knockout gas can asphyxiate someone, the laser disco can make someone dance to death (Which makes you show just how tired Agent X was as this is how you defeat him)
- J.A.W.S. is the seventh FOJ encompassing the ocean. Honestly it seems like it would be kind of a boring life to live under J.A.W.S considering they live in the ocean. Not only is there the idea of manmade islands, but their territory would also include plenty of islands and archipelagos like Hawai'i, Tahiti, Tuvalu, Tonga, Mauritius, Seychelles, the Andamans, Bermuda, Cape Verde, the Canary Islands, South Georgia, and even the Falklands. The only oceans in which J.A.W.S. doesn't have any base in? The arctic and Southern oceans.
- Mid-way through her campaign, Polar will enlist the help one of three other Evil Geniuses. Curiously, Maximillian is not presented as option, so you are forced to choose from Emma, Ivan, or Zalika. Of course, given Polar's experiences with the last set of billionaires she tried to sell her idea to, she probably isn't about to trust yet another one.
- At this point, Polar doesn't need funding and is looking for expertise. All three choices are still Geniuses when they're not selected as the player character, but they're all specialists in their chosen field. Maximillian doesn't offer Polar anything she doesn't know already (general Evil management) and he's not actually good at anything beyond general Genius matters.
- Everyone has a "Canonical" first henchman sans Polar. Emma's is Janet Bombe - because she is a fan of Evil Geniuses like Emma and is well-equipped for deception (being she can wipe the evidence of enemy agents). Ivan's is Jubei - someone he personally knows, a legendary martial artist who shares his love for fighting. Zalika's is Iris's body - she created Iris after all. That leaves Eli Barracuda Jr. Of course Maximilian would recruit him - because he not only would have known him through his father, but Eli is a versatile henchman with class, something Maximilian would value.
- There are tasks throughout the globe that have the Evil Genius immediately recruit a certain type of minion for a price in no time at all. The minion type corresponds with the Super Agent fielded by that region's Force of Justice; H.A.M.M.E.R yields muscle minions, S.M.A.S.H yields science minions, and A.N.V.I.L yields deception minions, reflecting the strategies of Atomic Olga, Blue Saint, and Symmetry, respectively. S.A.B.R.E yields all three types as Wrecking Bola brings in both saboteurs and rogues when summoned, and P.A.T.R.I.O.T yields worker minions for intel given that Agent X works as an investigator. Additionally, this also represents which minion type these enemy agents turn into when brainwashed.
Fridge Horror:
- The Agencies have been reorganized and consolidated from the first game. While simpler and more intuitive, this has some worrisome implications for people who remember those agencies' original incarnations... While P.A.T.R.I.O.T. (North America) and S.M.A.S.H. (Independent countries) still control large chunks of their core territories, the others have changed in troubling ways.
- H.A.M.M.E.R. (The Soviet Union) now controls the whole of Europe, having taken it from S.A.B.R.E, and also took Japan from P.A.T.R.I.O.T.
- A.N.V.I.L. (China and its sphere of influence) now controls India and Australia, also taken from S.A.B.R.E., and the Middle East, taken from S.M.A.S.H.
- S.A.B.R.E. (Western Europe) now controls Africa, having taken it from S.M.A.S.H.
- Why is it that upon winning the game, every Genius (with the exception of Maximilian and possibly Polar) kills you at the end despite your assistance? it’s simple. They’ve already won and taken over the world. You Have Out Lived Your Usefulness. See Also Fridge Brilliance.
- Character dialogue confirms that there are plenty of other Evil Geniuses besides the player character. Who knows how many other insane masterminds are hard at work trying to take over the world? Even if the Forces of Justice manage to stop the player, odds are another villain will rise to take their place.
- Emma's story explores the ramifications of this universal issue, centering on how The World Is Always Doomed. When she was Spymaster for S.A.B.R.E. and later H.A.M.M.E.R., it didn't matter how much Emma and her forces struggled, there was always a new Evil Genius working towards their own schemes or threatening the world. The fact that there's an endless stream of criminal masterminds in this setting is part of why she had her Face–Heel Turn and became an Evil Genius herself.
