why not?

It’s a period piece romance. That’s cool, that’s all well and good, except that on the sidelines there’s an undead warlock who’s trying so hard to kill the protagonist, but all in ways that the protagonist either doesn’t notice or doesn’t accept as supernatural

And it isn’t a twist! The audience knows about the warlock! The warlock has a villain song! The warlock is one of the principal characters! But the protagonist spends 95% of the movie completely unaware of the warlock, and just spends the entirety of the movie doing period piece romance things while being repeatedly inconvenienced by the warlock until the climax, when the protagonist has to very suddenly

Acknowledge the existence of the warlock

Acknowledge the existence of the supernatural

See some real-ass goddamn magic

Kill the warlock

I have never seen a movie with a plot structure like this before, and I don’t think I’ll see one like it ever again. It’s like an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that turns Lady Catherine into a vampire who’s just repeatedly trying to drink Lizzy’s blood, but Lizzy doesn’t even notice until the climax whereupon she stuffs Lady Catherine’s mouth with garlic and cuts off her head (an adaptation I would kill to see, by the way). There are two completely different genres playing out at the same time, and one of them is trying to kill the other

That said, that one dang scene, is kind of an immortal one in my mind, because it’s one that has a lot more depth than it seems to.

The part that people often miss is that right after that pithy one-liner of how the difference between a villain and a supervillain is presentation… that whole conversation gets context.

Because Titan makes an immediate lunge for Megamind.

And immediately gets crunched by the giant head, and stuck in that situation because Megamind just drops out of the bottom, to a waiting vehicle, and maneuvers around him to focus on the actual issue: rescuing the hostage while Titan’s occupied.

That whole setup isn’t just, “watch me out-drama you”, it’s showing off an actual tactical asset.

Because Megamind as a character is someone who was always, always motivated by getting attention. The reason why Roxanne is never afraid of being his hostage isn’t because of her unshakable faith in a rescuing hero as much as it is that she knows, ultimately, what Megamind is doing is overwhelmingly a show. His atrocities are symbolic in nature. When he actually needs to take somebody out he dehydrates them into a cube for a while. And it’s not just Roxanne that calls him on this, either- Metro Man’s entire retirement scheme hinged on the idea that Megamind really didn’t need someone keeping him at bay from innocent civilians, because, as we’ve seen, innocent civilians really don’t have much to fear from him. Ultimately he is still, actually, just a kind of needy person desperately looking for validation and approval, neither of which can be provided by dead people.

But that’s not to say he can’t actually fight. Like any actual proper magician, he knows how to hold attention and an element of danger is how that works. He’s actually brilliant, and plenty capable of raising genuine hell.

However- he’s been doing this stageshow thing for ages. He’s mastered this. Titan may have him outgunned practically in every respect- but the guy has no conceivable head for subtlety.

So the real kicker to that whole setup, is this isn’t just Megamind being Megamind for the sake of drama- this is Megamind knowing exactly how easy Titan is to bait, dangling the largest trap he could possibly conceive in front of the guy, and doing it in an unapologetically glorious manner as any true performer would.

I feel like they’re both in the same boat. Raised to think they were “bad” and “wrong” and “evil” for things they had no control over (Megamind growing up in a prison and being treated like he belonged there, Heinz’s parents being uniformly terrible all around), then once they were adults they decided you know what, I’m gonna be evil!!! Taking the label they’d been given and embracing it.

To quote another post, “People by and large live up to or down to the labels we are given.”

Neither of them felt like they had any option but to become Evil, but hoo boy were they going to put their heart and their natural talent for showmanship into performing evil. Because it’s all about the presentation.

And it worked. People saw them as evil, gave them the attention they so desperately craved, and even though it was all negative at least they’d earned the hatred this time.

I’m not sure there’s a name for this as a character archetype, alas, but it’s something that’s pretty relatable to a lot of peeps (as seen in that first link), and the fact that both Megamind and Heinz were redeemed at the end is important, it’s a sign that you are more than the labels people assign to you, that you can be better than that.

You're right but ouch... :'(

i reckon you need to stretch those little antisocial arms out and make some (more?) friends

Cut fabric, sew it together. You just made clothing.

Put some beads on some twine. You just made jewelry.

You can see your productivity.

Chores are the opposite. Yes, your kitchen is clean now. But you'll cook again that evening or the next day and you'll have to start over. Yes, you vacuumed. But two days later it's dusty again. Laundry done, until next week.

Chores never end.