I think the fact that Minion's suit had an override button (and how casually Megamind pressed it when they were fighting for the keys) really goes to show just how messed up their relationship was in the first half of the movie (and/or just how severe Megamind's trust issues were.)
FAN THEORY THURSDAY – Minion’s Suit
Thank you once again to Ice-the-Irkenfor this week’s topic! It certainly has brought some interesting questions to mind! You’re awesome!
Now, for that one person who’s been living under a rock all this time and still hasn’t watched the greatest animated film ever made: SPOILER WARNING!
Megamind and Minion are a team, but Megamind is most definitely in charge. That’s no surprise to any fan of the movie. The question remains, however, exactly what sort of relationship did the two have before they turned to heroism? Was working for Megamindlike being employed by a best friend or was he more like the boss from hell? Believe it or not, there’s quite a lot of discussion on that subject, and a surprising amount of it centers around Minion’s suit. Let’s take a look.
There is a lot that can be said about the fishy henchman’s mechanical "body." Megamind built the first model during his school days, when he was presumably about six or seven years old. From there they became significantly more advanced, and by the time the movie takes place, the current version is nothing short of impressive.
Some point toward this very fact as evidence that Megamind legitimately cared for Minion even when he was a supervillain. After all, Minion’s suit is more than a robotic construction; in fact, it’s a fully integrated neuroprosthetic, which is an incredible feat of engineering by anyone’s standards. Furthermore, unlike many other things the blue man has built—such as several of the doom devices shown in the prequel comic The Reign of Megamind—Minion’s suit seems to have no major issues, indicating that Megamind may have put significantly more time and effort into getting it right. It could well say something about the two aliens’ relationship that one of Megamind’s all-time greatest inventions was created not for an evil plot but for his henchman’s use.
Of course, there’s also the aspect of practicality to consider. As mentioned before in the blog article What is Life on Earth Like for Megamind, it’s quite possible that Megamind’s parents sent an alien fish to be his guardian because they expected the pair to spend far more time in the water. (Another post, Megamind’s Anatomy, goes into the possible reasons why.) So while the majority of fans point toward Minion’s suit as proof of Megamind’s affection for him, others say that it’s possible it was, at least in part, a mere matter of enabling his henchfish to better serve him.
Then there’s the possibility that aspects of Minion’s robotic body hints at something even darker. As Ice-the-Irken mentioned in this week’s suggestion, the simple fact that the suit has an override button, along with Megamind’s rather casual use of it, may indicate that the then-villain wanted to have a certain amount of control over his henchman. This could be mere callousness or it could be, as Ice-the-Irken suggested due to trust issues. (For more on that aspect of Megamind’s mental state, feel free to read Who Is the Real Megamind Part 2.) Playing devil's advocate for the sake of presenting both sides of the argument, I’ll also mention that there could be another legitimate reason for the override button. It could be intended to protect Megamind, Minion, and any potential bystanders in the event that the suit malfunctioned.
That’s not the only potentially problematic thing about the fishy henchman’s robotic body, however. In the scene in the mayor’s office, while Megamind is dealing with his feelings of purposelessness, Minion mentions he is going to “power down” for a while, then squeezes himself into a small fish house before descending into the depths of the suit. Why are his accommodations so tight? Did Megamind simply not care about his employee’s comfort? Maybe, maybe not. While that is one possible explanation, there are a myriad of engineering reasons why the henchman’s living quarters might have to be small.
According to IMDb, Megamind is five feet and five inches tall, (about 165 centimeters.) Minion stands head-and-shoulders over the blue man, meaning he has to be at least six feet tall, perhaps a little over. It could be that, in order to maintain the correct ratios to ensure Minion’s suit was stable, Megamind would have had to make the device far larger in order to accommodate more living space. That could have been a problem as it would have resulted in a suit that was over seven feet tall and half as wide. That could have made everything from furniture to standard doorways far harder for the henchman to navigate. Building a wider suit with more living space while keeping the same height, however, might well have resulted in the robotic body becoming top heavy and ungainly.
Of course, it’s also possible that Megamind might not have thought much about it not out of callousness but out of simple absent-mindedness. As discussed in Who is the Real Megamind Part 1, Megamind is likely an ENFP on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. One aspect of this personality is that, while they tend to feel deeply and are especially dedicated and loving to romantic partners, they can be a little inadvertently inconsiderate of others, even those they care profoundly about. This means that Megamind might not always display the highest levels of empathy, but it’s not out of cruelty. He simply doesn’t always think. And Minion, being the sweet and giving fish he appears to be, might not mention it.
As you can easily see, discussions about Minion’s suit and what it says about he and Megamind’s relationship can be very complex. The fan theories abound and sometimes contradict. For myself, taking into consideration the blue man’s pet names for his henchman along with his clear distress when he thinks Minion might be injured, I choose to believe that their friendship is overall a good one. Not without its bumps, of course, but still fairly solid.
Others, of course, are welcome to disagree. What do you think? Share your thoughts on the subject! Until then, I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s Fan Theory Thursday! Thanks again to Ice-the-Irken for suggesting our topic! I’ll see you all next time!
