Fridge Brilliance / Megamind

In General

• The film shows what happens when a hero has protected a town for decades:
  • Megamind has suffered heavy Villain Decay, having become little more than entertainment for people. Nobody runs from him at all, the most they do is stay indoors and keep their heads down. Compare this to Tighten, who set off a mass evacuation.
  • Roxanne has been kidnapped so many times she doesn’t fear Megamind at all, she talks about washing the bag over her head and mentions the frequent kidnapping as a minor inconvenience.
  • Metro Man reveals himself to be worn out and tired of protecting people, especially considering the above. With his heroism having become a charade (or always having been a charade), he’s fine with discontinuing it.
  • There are no extra superheroes/supervillains around. Metro Man took care of all the villains so they quit (except for Megamind), and he did such a good job of it that there was no need for more heroes to appear.
  • When Metro Man is gone, the town is utterly unprepared and defenseless, with the police officers scared and surrendering as soon as possible.
• The Masquerade trope, a common trope in hero/comic media, doesn’t come into play until after Metro Man’s assumed death.
  • Megamind takes up false identities as the Warden, Bernard, Space Dad, and later on Metro Man himself. The first gets him out of prison, the second is blown on Roxanne’s date, the third revealed to provoke Tighten and the last is uncovered by Roxanne herself to enable Megamind to finally be himself.
  • Minion becomes the Warden to test Megamind’s change of heart, and later on he himself becomes his master in the final battle.
  • Metro Man, by his own admission, quit on the spot, and decided to take up a new identity as a normal person.
  • Tighten rushes through this trope, by nearly killing Roxanne and then revealing himself to her in the span of a few minutes, effectively ruining it.
• The seeds for "Music Man" were sown pretty early on in the film. In the backstory montage, while young Megamind dehydrates/rehydrates Minion, young Metro Man is playing a ukulele in the background. When the museum is opened, he behaves very much like a rock star at a concert entertaining his fans. It seems that his whole life, he's wanted to be in the music business, but the superhero powers and the games with Megamind just got in the way.
  • This same scene also foreshadows the fact that Minion isn't dead at the end; he tricks Megamind by floating upside down after being dehydrated, only to pull a 'gotcha!' when Young Megamind nervously taps his tank.
• All three superhumans change their names when they are no longer satisfied with their current identities:
  • Hal renames himself Tighten after getting rejected by Roxanne, and stays that way for the rest of the film, even losing his temper when she tries to reach him as Hal.
  • Metro Man renames himself Music Man after faking his death. He says it keeps his logo – while it’s a joke, note that his civilian identity isn’t mentioned anywhere in the film, even though he grew up in a wealthy home. His keeping the MM acronym is the only title he has had in his life and is carrying forward for his new identity.
  • Megamind briefly renames himself Bernard, which ends badly when it gets exposed, but he manages to redeem himself and improve his own name/identity’s reputation.
• Heroism combines both the duty to do good with one’s above-ordinary talents, and the desire to do good where one can. The three superhumans in the film suffer from an imbalance of duty and desire:
  • Metro Man was all duty and no desire: he served as a dedicated hero his whole life, but eventually saw himself as chained to his job. He realized his obligation had denied him his dream to be a musician, and so he got out to live his own life.
  • Tighten/Hal was all desire and no duty: he admits to taking the hero job just to get close to Roxanne, and when she rejected him he took up villainy in a heartbeat. Megamind called him out on how he set him up to be a hero but he just threw it away.
  • Megamind had neither duty nor desire to be a hero, due to him being raised as a villain. He didn’t mind losing because bad guys are supposed to lose and he stayed loyal to his role as the villain, only straying away because of his Bernard romance. It wasn’t till Roxanne was in danger and appealed to him to save Metro City that he found a reason to be a hero, and a proper obligation to do good.
• Virtually the entire movie is a flashback, ostensibly experienced by Megamind as he's plummeting to his death. An actual fall from such a height would've taken seconds; the flashback takes roughly an hour and a half. Sounds like artistic license, until you consider that Megamind's name is intended to be taken literally: the amount of recollection he fits into those several seconds isn't figurative, it's how fast that giant brain of his works in a pinch!
• Relating to the above, Megamind is also stated to be falling to this death. Even in near-death experiences, most people claim that their lives flash before their eyes. From that point, we literally see Megamind's first few significant memories: his home planet being blown up, his arrival at the prison, his childhood, and his attempts at Metro Man, and finally the events portrayed in the film.
• It’s not till Metro Man is gone that Roxanne and Megamind start to be their true selves: Roxanne employs her investigative reporter skills, and Megamind sets out to become a hero.
  • Metro Man himself uses his absence to directly inspire Megamind to be a hero; inspiration to do good being a basic superhero trait.
• It's extremely foggy on the day that Space-Dad takes Titan out for flying lessons. It's easy to miss because they're flying above it. This is, of course, so that nobody gets a preview of the new hero before he's ready.
• Shortly after Megamind creates the infuser gun, he begins a monologue about how now all he has left to do is find someone with sufficiently heroic qualities. Then his (stolen) cellphone goes off.
  • In light of this monologue and who it describes (someone of noble heart and mind, who puts the welfare of others before their own), consider also who's calling him — no one said the perfect candidate had to be a man. Trouble is, Megamind's only known Roxanne as a victim his whole life. He completely overlooks her as a candidate - which is fortunate, because then she would have fought him with her new powers and sent him to jail.
    • At that point in the movie, Megamind is working to restore the status quo, because Victory Is Boring. Yes, Roxanne fits the superhero mentality perfectly—but if he makes Roxanne the hero, he has to stop kidnapping her to lure the hero into his traps! He's trying to make things the way they were before, so she's already designated the damsel in distress in his mind.
    • It is worth noting, however, that when Roxanne and "Bernard" stumble into Megamind's hero workshop, there is a dress form with clear female features wrapped in a sparkly orange fabric with a red undershirt, two of the colors that Megamind eventually works into the Titan costume.
    • What's more, considering what happened to Metro Man? Megamind killed him without really meaning to. Word of God says Megamind was attracted to Roxanne before the events of the movie, as mostly evident by their banter in the beginning, which comes across as very flirtatious on his end. Of course Megamind wouldn't want to risk anything happening to the girl he has a crush on.
• Social connection plays a role in how each of the main characters developed.
  • Metro Man was extremely popular in school and always had a ton of emotional support his entire life. Hence why he became a genuinely good guy.
  • Megamind apparently grew up in a prison and didn't have too many friends, which could explain why he became a villain. Despite this, he always had Minion at his side. Minion did go along with Megamind's villainy but managed to keep him grounded. Having one loyal friend probably kept Megamind from going off the deep end.
  • We don't know much about Hal's social life, but it is implied to be non-existent. He doesn't seem to have any friends or family to speak of. This implies that he's had a deeply lonely life, which is why he became a maniac who would terrorize an entire city.
• While having dinner with Roxanne, Megamind-as-Bernard asks her if she would still like him if he was bald. Roxanne responds with the "actions are more important than looks" moral. The film shows Roxanne is correct:
  • The real Bernard is a prickly git who doesn't attract anyone. But when Megamind takes on Bernard's appearance, starts sharing some interests with Roxanne, and starts becoming genuinely kind and sensitive, Roxanne falls for him. Bernard became attractive because his attitude changed for the better. Roxanne only rejects him in the end because she found out Megamind was really Bernard and was upset that he had lied to her about his identity.
  • Meanwhile, Hal failed to attract Roxanne, powers or no powers, because his personality gets worse over time. The normal Hal isn't that ugly, his repulsive attitude is what puts off a lot of people. Hal is initially celebrated by the residents of Metro City when he drives off Megamind before blowing all that goodwill in a fit of malicious insanity. The fact that Hal only interacts with Roxanne at work rather than sharing any interests or seeking to improve himself outside of it just shows how inexperienced he is with dating or how much self-awareness he lacks. While finding relationships in the workplace is hardly uncommon, it's not what Roxanne is there for and she was just trying to keep a professional relationship with Hal.
• When fighting Titan, Megamind plays Guns N' Roses's "Welcome to The Jungle". Why did Megamind choose this song? Because it is connected to his plan. He lures Titan into a the mouth of a giant head made out of robots which proceeds to devour the superpowered villain. Welcome to the Jungle was released on the album Appetite for Destruction.
• Minon's flub with the boombox isn't just funny - the unexpected and then rapid switching between AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" and Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You" is foreshadowing the plot of the whole movie.
• Megamind, Metro Man, and Minion all have names starting with the same letter, which makes the various changing of roles and the Kansas City Shuffle at the end work: Whether it's Minion-as-Megamind, Megamind-as-Metro Man, or Metro Man-changing-careers-and-becoming-Music Man, nobody has to change their initials. And it means Megamind already has an appropriate initial when he is literally Taking Up the Mantle by putting on Metro Man's old cape.
• During the scene where Roxanne and Megamind both visit Metro Man's museum, notice a small detail. Megamind enters from one side of the museum (Evil), Roxanne enters from the opposite side (Good). While she leaves with "Bernard", notice that they exit from where Roxanne came. This is a subtle way of foreshadowing that by the end of the story, Megamind comes to reform and join her "side".
• The three superhumans have traits that resemble their colors:
  • Metro Man is white: a color that represents purity and goodness, but also represents detachment from people. It can represent secrecy too, as no one really knew what Metro Man was like until later on.
  • Hal/Titan is red: a color symbolic of rage and destruction.
  • Megamind is blue: this is the color of water. It's actually emphasized in him having a fish sidekick and using aqua-styled equipment (squid bots, dehydration equipment. It's a neutral color, which symbolizes Megamind switching between villainous and heroic roles. Also, the sea sticks to regular movements (tides/waves) but once roused it's unstoppable, which fits Megamind in the film.
• At different points in the movie, both Megamind and Metro Man refer to good and bad as yin and yang. Apart from the more well-known idea that two seemingly opposite or contradictory forces actually need each other to exist in harmony, there is a second layer of brilliance. In contrast to the 'light good, dark bad' mentality common to western movie goers, Yin, the black of the symbol, represents positive qualities while Yang, the white symbol, represents the negative. In other words, Dark Is Not Evil and Light Is Not Good.
  • They don't. Their qualities are neutral, both aspects can be used for good for ill. Which still works for the movie.
• At major moments in the film, whenever someone's seen in a reflection, it's as something terrible is happening:
  • Megamind changes himself to Bernard. Minion had broken up with him, but it also has to do with him being confused and conflicted over being a supervillain and being close to Roxanne.
  • Titan/Hal sees Roxanne having dinner with Bernard.
  • Megamind and Roxanne see Titan destroying the city. This moment for Megamind symbolizes that as villainous has he has acted, he never sought to devastate his home town.
  • Metro Man sees his suit in the glass case during Titan's rampage, with his had reflected on it. This symbolizes him fearing he'll get trapped into the hero's job once more.
• The difference between Hal and Megamind is illustrated by their reaction to Roxanne's rejection of them.
  • Megamind tries to beg for forgiveness but accepts Roxanne is mad at him and leaves her be. If someone is mad at you, giving that space is the most sincere sign of remorse. Megamind actually acknowledges Roxanne's feelings with empathy.
  • Hal, meanwhile, shows no real remorse or contrition over his creepy advances toward Roxanne. He straight up tosses Roxanne into the air like a ragdoll and still has no self-awareness about how dangerous that is, showing how stupid and heartless he really is. The gentlest letdown from her sends him into a rage.
• A lot of the story is a Silver Age throwback - the ridiculous hero-centric villain Megamind, Metro Man faking his death for a new life, referring to Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, the deliberate good bye to the Silver Age character. Then we have Nineties Hero Titan, becoming Nineties Villain Titan - gifted with unbelievable powers from a vague cosmic entity seems very Miracleman, particularly when it all turns out to be an illusion. And then a Noughties-style character reconstruction, complimented by an Anti-Hero Heel–Face Turn.
• Why doesn't the disguise watch cover the eyes? Because you need to see through that "hole" in the disguise! (Well, it's at least a semi-plausible theory.)
  • This is supported by some discussion on why full, personal invisibility is implausible - if the eyes can't reflect light, then they can't detect light either, so anyone who got turned invisible would also be blinded. Someone found that out the hard way when trying to steal a diamond...

The Main Cast

Megamind

• The dark clouds Megamind produces when he makes his grand entrances are intimidating, but they serve a practical purpose, too: without them to block the sunlight, nobody would be able to see Megamind's projections or laser light shows.
• Megamind's sense of style and taste in music would seem an odd fit... until you consider when he landed in that prison. If you say Megamind is in his late 20s and the film is set in 2010, that makes him an 80s baby. Being raised by cons in an 80s prison, any radios would likely have been tuned to hard rock stations (AC/DC, Guns 'n' Roses, George Thorogood & the Destroyers.) Plus, since we see that his cell had a TV in it, he was likely exposed to MTV and VH1, and very likely would have gotten his sense of presentation from the likes of Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne and Michael Jackson. Now, the Minnie Ripperton still doesn't fit... until you remember that Minion was controlling the boom box. That was likely his taste in music peeking through, which means when Megamind plays it after Titan bails out of their debut battle, he was wishing Minion was still around.
  • The commentary reveals that, in the creators' minds, the lovey-dovey music choices are Megamind's and come from his "I totally don't have a crush on Roxanne Ritchi" mixtape.
• Megamind doesn't mind going to jail; it's not just because it's made of cardboard, but because he grew up there. Jail is the closest thing to a home he has! (And the Warden is the closest thing he has to a father; yes, it's as sad as it sounds)
  • And towards the end, he even tells Roxanne, "I'm going home," then walks straight into the jail and turns himself in.
• A lot of people think that Megamind got off easy in the end for all his crimes after he has a Heel–Face Turn, but to him, prison was just like a second home and he could break out whenever he felt like it, making jailing him a waste of time and resources. So in reality, him being a hero not only gives the city a new protector, but it also saves the police the trouble of sending him to jail (which did nothing to change him because he felt like it was his place) and saves money for repairing any damage his breakout would cause.
  • Even better? Megamind saving the city from Titan and then repairing all the damage with his bots? The ultimate in community service.
• When "Bernard" points to a door in Megamind's lair and says "This way looks exciting," and Roxanne replies "No, it says exit." "Bernard" comes up with the lame excuse "...which is the abbreviation for exciting right?" He's not making it up. He really thinks "exit" is short for "exciting," which would also explain why a door marked "exit" has an alligator dance party behind it.
  • And he wants Roxanne to see it because it's new and unexpected, when earlier she insulted him by being unsurprised by all his traps.
  • Megamind thinking "exit" is an abbreviation for "exciting" is not because he's socially inept, but because he grew up in a prison. Think about it: the most exciting thing for any prisoner is to step out the Exit Door.
• Megamind's strangely purplish ears are easily explained by the high concentration of his blood vessels through that area. His blood is red. This same color appears on his cheeks, too, in the exact same place that a rosy blush would appear on a regular person.
• It seems weird that Megamind was treated like a delinquent almost from childhood when he ended up on Earth. But then you remember his appearance is unusually alien, compared to Metroman who looks pretty human. It is possible the government, fearing Megamind could be a potential harbinger of Alien Invasion, deliberately treated him like a prisoner out of paranoia. As a counterpoint to Roxanne saying she doesn't care about looks, it seems Megamind was judged for his appearance over any of his actual behavior from the time he landed on Earth, which wouldn't help his self-image problems one bit.
• When Megamind points out to Roxanne that ice cubes are what happens when water gets cold, he may not be trying to be deliberately sarcastic or snide, or even be oblivious. The issue is that he's so intelligent in relation to most people that her pointing out how to make ice sounds just as simple a statement to him as the full explanation of how he made a Metro Man infusion gun. Megamind liked her at that point so he was just being polite about it and explaining something to her.
• The Bad to the Bone motif, representing Megamind's evil persona, spells out the letter M on the music sheet.
• In the beginning of the movie, Megamind's ultimatum is that Metro Man either leave Metrocity forever or never see Roxanne Ritchi ever again. During the climax, Megamind (whilst disguised as Metro Man) tells Titan to stay out of Metrocity for good. If anything, this demonstrates Megamind had the makings of a hero all along, he just needed a proper way to channel his potential.
• Megamind uses presentation as a weapon in the film, using Minion as a diversion while he impersonates Metro Man to frighten Titan off. That doesn't work for too long since Titan can see through it, so he falls back on his more natural ability of using his intellect to secure an advantage against Titan’s strength.
• In an ironic twist, while Titan became a by-product of Megamind's flawed teachings, Megamind himself becomes a new hero thanks to Roxanne's influence. She unintentionally taught Megamind that being a hero isn't about stunts, but about about doing good deeds for good people because it makes them happy, and not to expect anything in return. He also learned to utilize his abilities for good (cleaning the city for instance).
• A possibly unintentional example, given Production Lead Time. Megamind relies on his intellect and technology since he doesn't have actual powers, and he's shown to have a fondness for Hard Rock, particularly that of Black Sabbath and AC/DC. Though this is initially used to make him a villainous foil to Metro Man, with the latter's more wholesome image and his preference for Elvis Presley, it can also bring to mind a certain tech-based superhero with the same taste in music.
• Megamind not knowing Metro Man lives in their old schoolhouse emphasizes that he never really intended to kill him. If he wanted Metro Man gone for good, he would have probably tried to find his home and blow it up while he was asleep. Instead, he pulls off all sorts of glamorous, and escapable, schemes because he wants him to leave rather than die. He didn't even lock the door for the observatory, for crying out loud.
• The inmates who raised Megamind all seemed to have his best interests at heart, and were rather kind and supportive. Given how Megamind's first exposure to criminals were these guys, no wonder his view of villainy is rather harmless in practice.
• Anti-Villain Protagonist Megamind has an army of menacing little brain-bots with the personalities of puppies. As per Rule of Funny, right? But think about it: what's one of the best qualities that dogs and puppies are known for? Unconditional love. His instilling them with such a personality trait is yet another reflection of how starved he is for affection.
  • He also asks the Warden if the gift he's been sent is a puppy.

Metro Man

• Metro Man's name is one example about how he's been groomed from childhood into being nothing but a superhero:
  • Metro Man name refers to how he's the protector of Metro City, but it seems like the name was tailored to suit him.
  • Metro Man doesn't seem to have any other alias. He has no secret identity, no job, no social life, and nothing outside of being a superhero. Being a superhero is all he's had, and it tears at him that he has nothing else to his name - it's no wonder he took to Music Man so fast.
• Metro Man is slicked-up and stylish, a tribute to the term "metrosexual man." When he later appears he is more rugged and natural, showing he has given up his posturing for a more normal lifestyle.
• Metro Man’s sanctuary isn’t his parents’ home, but his schoolhouse. His parents were seen to be stoic and indifferent to his presence, so school would be his first socialization.
  • And Megamind, the smartest person he knows, would never think of coming to a place for knowledge, so it's a perfect hiding place.
• Metro Man is at best average at music. But that's the appeal to him. For the Instant Expert, he wants something he isn't great at and can try to improve on.
• When Metro Man plays his guitar, Roxanne snaps that he’s horrible while Megamind states he has potential. Read over this: he got more support on learning from his rival than his girlfriend. Megamind was the only person in his life who could push him to be better, because everyone else thought he was perfect. Perfection, an already completed goal, just leaves someone with nothing to strive to.
  • It's an additional reason for a schoolhouse being his his base: it serves as a place of curiosity for new knowledge and learning and understanding.
• In his speech to the adoring crowd, Metro Man solemnly tells them, "At the end of each day, I often ask myself: who would I be without you?" On first viewing it seems like just another faux-humble bit of patter from a Smug Super, but then it turns out he really means it. Minutes later, his identity crises comes to a head and he decides to fake his own death so he can find out just what he is without them.
• At the opening for the museum; Metro Man juggles babies, walks on water, openly (if subtly) insults his audience ("... the helpless people of Metro City." "And I love you, Random Citizen!") — things that, if his audience wasn't being so fawning, they'd be genuinely and reasonably upset by. He's not just being smug; he's getting so frustrated with being the perfect hero loved by all that he's trying to provoke a rise out of his audience and shake them out of their complacency so that for once he has something different in his life.
  • But the paradox is that the citizens let him juggle the babies because they know he'd never hurt one. And the citizens of Metro City know that they are really helpless in comparison to Metro Man.
• When Roxanne asks for an amazing explanation for Metro Man’s survival, he pauses… because he doesn’t have an amazing explanation. He just had a crisis and quit. And while revealing a secret ability could be seen/hyped as awesome, he wants to be normal, the reverse of awesome. And that means giving out the truth as it is, with imperfections and all.
  • Alternately, the pause would mean him steeling himself to reveal his secret and doing it normally, without bombast or stagework.
• Was Metro Man not beloved and appreciated? Of course he was. But according to Roxanne, the one person he was closest to, people are judged by their actions. If he’s only loved because he can do amazing stuff, then he might be rejected/ignored if he did negative/unremarkable stuff, which is not .
  • When he is discovered by Roxanne, she throws a tantrum at his quitting, which validates the view he came to above. It also proves that they were not a compatible pair, otherwise she would have understood his feelings.
• Metro Man never revealed his super speed or his musician dreams to Roxanne. Hiding the speed is understandable as a secret weapon to use in emergencies, but hiding the musician dream from her means he could not be sure if she would respect it. If he could not trust her with his heart’s dream, then the two really were never that close.
• Metro Man is so fast that time stops for him when he decides to use his Super-Speed but when he sees Roxanne and Megamind in his hideout he tries to sneak out like a normal person and gets caught in the process. Why did he not use his powers? Because he was trying to be a normal person. After faking his death, he most likely refrained from using his powers to get a semblance of normalcy for his life. Him using his Nigh-Invulnerability to No-Sell Roxanne attacking him with various objects is probably the first time in a while he used his powers as unlike his other powers like his Heat Vision or Super-Strength, he can't physically refrain from using his Super-Toughness.
• When explaining his decision to fake his death, Metro Man says "Ever since I can remember, I've always had to be what the city wants me to be". It explains the strain and wear he must have been under, but it also implies, if taken literally, that he has a human-level memory, and remembers nothing about bashing Megamind's ship into the prison as a baby, and has only fuzzy memories of early childhood.
• In the opening flashback, when young Megamind is being carted off to prison again for setting off the blue bomb, he clearly looks excited. Then young Metro Man picks up the School House and flies it away - putting the prison outside of its catchment area, probably. The moment before this cuts away, you can see young Megamind's heart break looking at it. He clearly thought he was going to get to 'play' with Metro Man again. A headline of this cuts directly to a headline of their first fight, somewhere in their twenties. This sets up a couple of things: (a) Megamind had no formal education past a certain point, explaining certain speech and object-recognition quirks and (b) When Megamind goes too far, Metro Man runs away with, later to, the School House.
• At first, you kind of wonder if Megamind had a chance at behaving in school, given that he was, you know, raised in a prison. But then you remember that Megamind has an apparently throwaway line about getting to go to school due to 'good behavior'. He actually was trying to improve himself before getting sent back to prison.
• Letting an alien newborn be raised in a prison is sort of ridiculous ... in the real world. In a comic-book universe however, if we take the characters to be in their mid-twenties now, then the ship crashed in the mid-eighties - somewhere in the Bronze Age, even more probably, the Dark Age of Comic books. A comic book universe going through a Dark Age would easily lock up a baby in a prison - that was Bane's origin in the early nineties, after all. Metro Man's early characterization also fits - superhuman jerk fawned over from birth? Dark Age. Small mercy that Megamind seems to have either been educated by Silver Age villains in his prison or had a Modern Age Reconstruction by the time he began his career, turning him into an ineffectual villain.
• When Metro Man went underground, he likely blocked out all incoming communication and cut himself off from what was happening in Metro City. He probably didn't even know that Titan existed until Megamind and Roxanne showed up and told him.He only turned on the TV after they came and called him out.
  • This in itself is Fridge Brilliance: this is the first time he's had to himself in years, where he didn't have to fly to the rescue and save everyone. Of course he cut off communications to the outside world; he's enjoying the freedom of just being able to sit around the house and do nothing for what's probably the first time in his adult life.
  • He also probably knew full well that when it was Megamind in charge, ultimately the city didn't really have anything that serious to worry about; he no doubt knows by now that Megamind is mostly bark without bite and seems pretty confident that Megamind is about to do a Heel–Face Turn in their last conversation, so he's probably assumed that once Megamind gets his rampage out of his system he'll eventually get bored and turn good.
  • Another good reason to sever all communications is to avoid a Chronic Hero Syndrome relapse. If he turned on the TV, he'd see the goings-on in the news and feel compelled to cancel his retirement.
  • But then, why have a TV at all? To play instructional videos on how to play an instrument, and possibly music videos for inspiration.
• For all we know, Metro Man was saving people during Titan's rampage. Using Super-Speed makes him undetectable, remember? MM could've been zipping around in the background, deflecting rubble from bystanders or moving them out of danger, without giving away the fact he was still alive. If the driver of that tossed gas truck suddenly finds himself lying in the road near the blazing wreck of his vehicle, with no memory of how he got out, he's going to assume he was "miraculously flung clear" and knocked out, not rescued by a dead superhero. Metro Man wouldn't want civilians to die so he could retire; he just didn't want the pressure of being the city's only recourse in times of trouble, anymore. Considering just how much damage Megamind and Titan do to the city, yet the happy reactions of the citizens at the end, this is pretty much the only logical explanation as to why there's no Inferred Holocaust.
  • It would also explain why Metro Man is still a fairly bad musician despite supposedly having been able to dedicate his life to practicing music now. He's still been busy being a hero!
• Roxanne and Megamind comment that Metro Man was really good at 'last minute escapes'. Given that neither of them seem to be aware of his Super-Speed at this time - Megamind doesn't train Titan to use it, Roxanne never brings it up - maybe that's how he'd been escaping the majority of Megamind's traps all these years.
• Since Megamind didn't know about the superspeed, chances are Metro Man never discovered it as a kid, when he would've flaunted it. Besides, he never really needed it, what with the other powers at his disposal. Advertising it by using it to escape when he had so many other options open to him just doesn't make any sense, especially when it's so useful to escape the everyday grind.
• When Metro Man is having his revelation-flashback, a beam of light illuminates him as he has the idea to fake his death. This seems just like a expository effect, contrary to the Megamind-made clouds above Metro Man at that time... until you remember that the Death Ray has just begun charging in orbit, possibly causing a glare to break through clouds. The 'lightbulb' effect for Metro Man's idea was literally produced by the Death Ray he'd use to fake his death.
• "Your weakness is copper?! You're kidding, right?" Actually yes, as it turns out, he was. Subtle Foreshadowing.
  • Of course Metro Man has no Kryptonite Factor. His planet now resides inside a black hole. He didn't bring any with him.
  • Though likely unintentional, part of the shock and disbelief in this statement could be a result of the fact that Megamind is a natural-born inventor, and copper is near-universally prevalent in electronics. A weakness to copper never coming up in their long history of rivalry would naturally beggar belief to Megamind.
• This troper always found it weird that "Metro Man," when he saved Roxanne from being crushed by a bus, entered with his fist pointed towards where the bus was, when his heat vision clearly cut it in two. Of course, since it's Megamind replace "heat vision" with "wrist-mounted laser" and it makes perfect sense why he'd be in that pose.
• Didn't anyone in Metro City think it was wise to examine Metro Man's body to make sure that was actually his body and not a living prop, which it was? But, think about it for a moment: Everyone in Metro City heard from Metro Man that copper was his "weakness" and saw Megamind's death ray hit Metro Man. Also, Metro Man is a Human Alien, so his DNA is extremely different from an average human being. Take these into account and you wouldn't blame anyone from thinking Metro Man is dead.
  • Fridge Logic: but wouldn't the alien DNA be a dead giveaway by itself?
• Anybody who handled/interred Metro Man's "body" would be able to tell that it's only a model, as the retired hero confessed to using from a nearby school. That's why he intentionally threw it with his cape attached to land in Megamind's fake observatory. Megamind has no idea what an actual skeleton is supposed to feel like or be made out of. And considering Megamind later uses dandruff from the cape Metro Man attached for his DNA/superpower injection gun, nobody had the nerve to demand the "corpse" for funerary rights.
  • Actually a lot of schools, including medical schools (where Metro Man got his), tend to use real skeletons. It may not have been fake at all.

Roxanne

• Roxanne says that she and Metro Man were never very close. Their relationship was more a “girl seeks the perfect man” trope, which explains why it didn’t go far: after all, if you want an ideal person, there’s not much to work on.
  • As seen with Bernard (Megamind), she spent more time with him, had outings with him, the two actually took time and effort to become comfortable and compatible with each other.
  • When Tighten, a copy of Metro Man, appeared to her, she rejected him. He made a mess of things, but her already seeing Bernard factors too: she doesn't need a super boyfriend now that she's happy with a normal one.
• Notice how the color of the dresses Roxanne wears change throughout the movie. The first one is red, the second purple, the final one blue. Red for when she's an enemy of Megamind, purple when she's — thanks to her interactions with 'Bernard' (and the effect she's having on him) — a bit more ambivalent towards him, and blue when he's finally managed to win her over.
• When Roxanne invades Megamind's lair and he sends in the brainbots, the bots attack him but don't even bother with Roxanne. He is wearing the Bernard disguise ("it's me, you fools!"), so that's understandable. But why not Roxanne? Because they already know her. If they think and behave like dogs, to them Roxanne is their master's friend, welcome guest and playmate: she never hurt him and he is always excited to see her.
• The camera always fixes on Roxanne when Megamind says he has to find a person with the best characteristics to be a superhero. She was supposed to be the recipient.
• Roxanne twice tries to talk Titan/Hal down from his rampage, insisting that there is still good in him. Why would an otherwise smart person think such a stunt would work? Because it had worked on Megamind during their Bernard romance. Also, she still believed Hal was in over his head.

Minion

• Minion is shown preparing a lot of Megamind's look and style - the Black Mamba cape, the Tesla coils in the lab, etc - and what is it that Minion-as-Megamind says separates a villain from a supervillain? "Presentation!"
  • Which emphasizes the importance of sidekicks, minions, and Alfred in the superhero setting. If the hero/villain is the band frontman, then the sidekicks and minions are the Roadies, tying together all of the nitty gritty details while their boss works out the big plan.
    • Metro Man's lack of a sidekick or an Alfred is also probably part of his burnout, since he has to do everything himself.
• When Roxanne tells "Megamind" that she knew he'd come back, "Megamind" replies that that made one of them. Knowing it's Minion saying that, it's even funnier. Also, "Megamind" said the plan mostly involved not dying, which recalls Minion giving a Flat "What" when Megamind said they were probably going to die.
  • There's also some fridge brilliance in that Minion's plan was literally just not dying. His only role was to get Roxanne (and himself) out of danger, and set the scene for Megamind to scare off Titan.

Hal/Tighten

• Hal and Roxanne's first scene together foreshadows their poor relationship: Hal more or less mocks Roxanne's glowing speech about Metro Man, only to feebly backtrack to save face. Hal has no appreciation for the things Roxanne likes, and his attempts to impress her reek of desperation.
• Despite his idiocy, Hal realizing that the "Metro Man" chasing after him was actually Megamind isn't that farfetched:
  • Having been a cameraman who filmed their fights, Hal probably knows the mannerisms of Metro Man and Megamind like the back of his hand, so it makes sense he could catch Megamind's slip of the tongue.
  • Megamind also showed Hal his impersonation technology in order to goad Hal into a fight. Hal, after hearing "Metro Man" say the wrong thing, would put two and two together.
• Hal being able to see through Megamind's deception ties into the idea that supposedly "dumb" people are often just lacking in drive or a reason to improve themselves. Hal may not be a good person, but he's as capable as any other person if he puts his mind to things. He lacks the will to change or achieve anything, but he does have experience in one field, camera work, and under the "right" motivation, wanting to go after Megamind, he actually uses that knowledge and experience to his benefit.
• This is more like "fridge stupidity" in Hal's case: why in the world does he think the tiny suit meant he had a son when, to his knowledge, he's never even dated a girl? When you think about it, this is the same guy who is convinced that a complete stranger is his "Space Dad" (and that he also has a "Space-Stepmom"). So of course he'd be convinced that out of blue, he has a "Space son".
• Hal's choice of "Tighten" as the spelling for his villain name (instead of Titan) makes more sense when one remembers that "tight pants" are a cliché bully technique prevalent in media from the 80's and 90's. Hal is a socially awkward nerd full of resentment and rage, he probably had to meet his fair share of bullies at school. His new powers turn him into an unstoppable juggernaut who doesn't have to answer to anyone and can do whatever he wants, which means he sees himself as the new "top dog" and becomes just as much of a bully as the ones he probably had to deal with.
  • This is reinforced by one of the first things he does with his powers is to give himself a wedgie and comment that it doesn't hurt.
  • When Megamind (disguised as Space Dad) tells Hal that his new name is "Titan", he also hands him a small outfit and explains that it stretches. Hal may have thought his hero name referred to him wearing tights.
• During his attack on Megamind, one of the things that Hal calls Megamind out for is "stealing his girlfriend". This "accusation" is one more example of Hal's obsessive nature toward Roxanne: if Hal cared for Roxanne as a human being, he would be upset at Megamind, a criminal supervillain, for going near his co-worker and threatening her. In his fight, he treats Roxanne as a toy to be fought over and is mad at Megamind for stealing his toy.
• The "Space Dad" mentor is to contribute at least some of the young hero's moral framework and sense of justice. Megamind, being raised as a villain, while he has some level of Genre Savvy on heroes and villains, simply trained Hal on using his new powers, with the surface elements he remembers of his battles with Metro Man... and so, we get a powerful, vengeful Hal whose heroism is surface-level and can't think beyond violence, and maybe something about getting the girl after rescuing her.
• The whole Titan/Tighten name issue makes more sense when you remember that Hal is a bit of an idiot. When Roxanne successfully figures out Megamind's plan, we see it's spelt "Titan", which was (probably) Megamind's intent of how it should be spelt, but when Titan/Tighten is rampaging through the city, he himself spells it "Tighten", probably not knowing about its homophone, seeing as he was only told it verbally. Thus to most citizens it's Titan, but to Hal himself, it's Tighten.
  • Which leads to another piece of fridge logic: When we think of him, we think "Titan", as in, a being of god-like power, and thus, no one questions it when Hal insists on calling himself that. However, he, himself, doesn't know that. He thinks that his new name is Tighten, which is far less impressive. Even so, he is so desperate to be anyone other than nerdy Hal Stewart that he still blindly clings to the name that set him apart, no matter what it is.
  • Further, it makes a lot of sense thematically if you consider that Hal was supposed to be a hero, but that plan went sideways. Just as Tighten is a perversion of what Titan was supposed to be, the same goes for his name.
  • Another note on the name: Tighten himself says, after defeating Megamind, that the city is 'under new management', and we see him actively causing destruction, even saying he plans to destroy the entire city, and not even for any real reason. Megamind was debatably pretty bad, but Tighten is worse, meaning his reign is 'tighter' than Megamind's was.
  • Also, Titan is also a reference to the pre-Olympian pantheon of gods. Megamind, a man inclined to grandiosity and presentation, would think of it as a fitting name for a superpowered being. Hal, being the uneducated moron he is, wouldn't get the reference.
• If you look closely, when Hal is knocked out on his bed courtesy of the Forget-Me-Stick, there is a book titled: "Best Comic Book Villains Ever".
• Some people may think that Hal was originally a Dogged Nice Guy who was only pushed over the edge after he’s rejected by Roxanne, but throughout the first and second act he’s arguably equally as insensitive, whiny, and cruel as he is when he becomes Titan. He’s very pushy towards asking Roxanne to come over to his apartment and won’t take no for an answer, blames his van when he breaks a finger punching it out of frustration, and treats Roxanne like a Hysterical Woman when she’s trying to talk to Megamind/Bernard because he’s jealous she’s talking to another guy. In other words, Hal was always a terrible entitled person, and getting superpowers simply gave him a means of getting what he’s always wanted.
  • Hal’s claim that Roxanne didn’t even try to get to know him rings somewhat hollow when you realize that he never really tried to get to know her either or tried to accommodate to make her feel comfortable around him. This is sharply contrasted by Megamind fixing up an old park she loved and actually engaging in regular conversation without creepy ulterior motives.
  • It's perfectly summed up when he appears to her in his Titan persona for the first time; he boasts that he knows everything about her... then immediately says he wasn't sure what flowers she'd like the most, perfectly proving how little he actually understands her.
  • Another instance of Hal's lack of genuine care for Roxanne is as follows. In tie-in properties (the simplified book, the comics, etc…) Roxanne is explicitly attracted to intelligent people. In the movie proper, Hal's description of Megamind/Bernard as 'some intellectual dweeb' points to disrespect and hostility towards intelligence. Hal is so incompatible with Roxanne, he actively scorns her preferences.
• How come Hal was immediately corrupted by power, while Metro Man was good from the beginning? Simple: Metro Man was rewarded for being good when he was young. He was given gold star stickers for good behaviour in school, which evidently stuck with him all his life considering his various adult costumes have gold stars embedded into the design. Hal, on the other hand, was already a bit creepy and selfish, so when he got powers he had no motivation to actually use them for good. He just saw it as his chance to get what he always wanted.