I’d also like to add on to the nature vs nurture thing with Metroman and Hal, in contrast to Megamind.
We’ll start with Metroman. He’s meant to be the superman type; except superman gets to be Clark Kent sometimes. Metroman is just Metroman, his whole life is on display, and the fate of a whole city is on his shoulders. He’s had this expectation since birth because he was favoured over Megamind for being conventionally attractive and having noble powers.
He was definitely a smarmy kid, bullying Megamind. He seemed pretty entitled and rude from how he was portrayed as a child. As an adult, he has all the hero morals, being self-righteous and wanting to save the day. It’s what he’s been raised to do, what everyone expected of him. He’s vapid, performative and clearly the brute force type. Except he really isn’t.
We learn from Metroman that he had a personal crisis about choosing his own life. He felt nurtured into this role even when it wasn’t what he truly wanted. Metroman has a similar dilemma to Megamind of the monotony of the world, except Metroman is able to recognise that the way he was nurtured is not the way he really wants to live his life. He also creates a plan that outsmarts Megamind, and goes into hiding. He demonstrates an intelligence that wasn’t clear at the beginning of the movie because we only saw Metroman for what we thought a hero was, not a real person.
Side note, but Megamind and Metroman’s relationship is so interesting. Metroman as an adult is bored by their hero/villain dynamic, while Megamind depends on it for personal meaning. When the dynamic ends, Megamind falls into a depression and begins to wonder if he even sincerely wanted Metroman dead, because the chase is what he really wants. Megamind can’t be a villain if he has no equal, as he says, and if he can’t be a villain, he has nothing. Metroman finally explores his own passions, feeling liberated when he’s no longer a hero.
They have a comfortable familiarity when they meet afterwards. You have to remember that they are two aliens who’ve known each other their whole lives. Megamind doesn’t like strangers, but he’s fine with grabbing Metroman’s face, and Metroman holds his shoulders. This shows they never had a personal vendetta, and like I said in the previous post, neither of them are really a villain or a hero internally, it’s just what people told them to do.
Metroman imparts the most important message of the story to Megamind directly. He tells Megamind to find his true calling, the way he has. But Megamind still has a strong grip on being a villain, and he takes this as rejection. Megamind believes he’s a villain, so Metroman is basically saying, ‘You can’t save anyone.’ By the end of the movie, Megamind’s story comes full circle at his statue reveal. Metroman is there, silently cheering him on as they’ve both finally liberated their true selves.
However, not everyone’s true self is good.
Hal comes off as a kinda creepy dude at the beginning. He tries to invite Roxanne to his house, saying he’s having a party. This becomes a lot worse when we see how small his apartment is, and realise it was a lie, and you wonder what he was really trying to accomplish. He also asked when she was clearly emotional and upset, showing how he doesn’t really care about her emotions beyond the surface level.
Hal has a poster of Roxanne in his room, he’s insanely jealous of any man she speaks to, and says really uncomfortable things to her constantly. He has no issue lying to her or pushing her boundaries, such as begging her to come to his ‘party,’ or saying he loved her. He’s the classic nice guy, thinking because he’s so ‘polite,’ she owes him love and affection.
He thinks Roxanne is in love with Metroman because he’s a superhero. This just demonstrates how little he understands her. If he knew her, he would know that she’s not wooed by strength, it’s what’s inside that Roxanne loves. She even talks mostly about Metroman’s heart in her speech. Hal’s interests are all artificial. He watches her while she’s in her apartment, which is even more creepy and invasive.
He gets more entitled as a superhero because he thinks he’s the ideal man, and anybody who disagrees is ungrateful. His intentions are always self-serving - he doesn’t save Roxanne randomly, he instigates it and scares her in order to seem good. He steals flowers for her when again, that’s not what impresses her. When she ruins his fantasy, he throws a temper tantrum and robs banks. He then tries to team up with Megamind.
Megamind is internally good, which is demonstrated in contrast to Hal in regard to Roxanne. Megamind woos her with quality time, he listens to what she says and changes his ways, although it is under the guise of Bernard. And when he is caught, he doesn’t blame her for his mistakes or feel ownership towards her, instead he’s dejected but understanding. He acknowledges she’s the smartest person he knows, while Hal perceives Roxanne as shallow. Their reunion comes with a new understanding of one another, and they fight for the same goal like when he was Bernard.
When Hal is rejected, he literally destroys a city. He throws tantrums when he doesn’t get his way, and he’s fully prepared to kill Roxanne in the water fountain. By the end, Hal is punished by the narrative for his behaviour, losing his powers and going to prison.
Both Metroman and Hal are made as characters to represent different aspects of the nature vs nurture debate, but also to contrast Megamind. They present the two routes Megamind can go: either he can embrace his true nature, or he can double down on how he was nurtured. Megamind chose the Metroman route and achieves the happiness and recognition he wanted, except he realised he only needed it from the people who matter.
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