FAN THEORY THURSDAY – Megamind’s Psychology
Special thanks to Sombertide-0for suggesting and discussing part of this week’s topic! If you have a fan theory you’d like to see explored, feel free to message me on Tumblr or look me up on the Megamind’s Evil Lair Discord!
And now, although Metroman threatens to fake his death AGAIN each time I say it: SPOILER WARNING!
Megamind has been through a lot. Anyone familiar with the film can clearly see that fact. However, that raises the question of exactly how his past may have affected his mental and emotional state. Thankfully, the fandom hasn’t let us down, and there are plenty of theories concerning the subject!
If you’ve read previous posts such as How Smart is Megamind, you already know that we’ve established our favorite animated alien truly is a super-genius. What is his psychology like beyond that, however? We’ve already partially touched on the subject in Who Is the Real Megamind Part One, in which we explored the Blue Defender’s personality on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, but today we’re going to dive deeper, focusing on the nurture side of mental development. Grab your tissues because the old Megamind Pain Train has just pulled back into the station.
Before we get started, however, although this probably goes without saying, we’re dealing with childhood trauma and emotional damage here. Please consider this your trigger warning.
Was Megamind Select Mute?
This concept began when I was discussing an interesting aspect of Megamind’s childhood character with Sombertide-0on the Megamind Discord. (Thank you again for this suggestion!) He brought up something that I had never really considered before: Megamind may have refused to speak as a child.
“What if Megamind was mute, or like just didn't want to talk?”
At first, I wasn’t entirely convinced, but as we talked it over, I quickly began to see that the idea had significant merits. Not only that, it’s supported by evidence from both the film and what we know about psychology. Let’s begin by considering the first.
Near the beginning of the movie, we see the blue alien as a child, both in the jail where he was raised and in his classroom at the suspicious Li’l Gifted School. (That’s a whole other supposition in itself, covered in Six Dark Megamind Fan Theories.) If you look closely, you’ll notice that, regardless of his environment, we never see the extraterrestrial child open his mouth even once. Even while being bullied, the blue boy never once vocalizes any defense or complaint. Sombertide-0 pointed out that this could quite possibly be a psychological condition developed due to trauma. In short, Megamind could have been select mute during his youth.
“He's just silent the entire time, not comfortable talking out loud,” my fellow fan explained.
Real life studies backs this up. According to Psychology Today, selective mutism can develop when “a child experiences a trigger response” which leaves them unable to speak except to certain people and/or in certain highly familiar and comfortable surroundings. Selectively mute children almost never speak aloud in social situations, and display anxious behaviors. It’s not something the child does on purpose, nor is it, as many adults may believe, a form of shyness. The condition often manifests between ages three and six, and can last into adolescence.
That in itself sounds enough like Megamind. He appears to be entering first grade when we see him in school, which would make him five or six years of age: right in the life-stage when selective mutism is likely to develop. He seems nervous yet eager to be liked, however he never speaks a word. There is also further credible evidence that the creators may have made young Megamind select mute on purpose, and it has to do with triggers for the condition. Again, let’s look at the article on Psychology Today.
The neurological basis for selective mutism is thought to be a cascade of events in an area of the brain known as the amygdala, which receives danger signals from the environment. The anxiety from a situation perceived as dangerous to the child’s well-being causes a communication shutdown.
If seeing your entire planet destroyed then being left to essentially fend for yourself in a high-security prison filled with hardened inmates doesn’t count as “danger signals,” I have no idea what would. Furthermore, according to Lumen Learning, selective mutism can, sometimes, go hand in hand with separation anxiety. When a young child loses or fears losing an attachment figure—an adult caretaker on whom the child depends—due to illness, death, divorce, etc., that child can sometimes become select mute. This is vital because not only did Megamind lose his parents at a young age, but in the movie we also see him alone in his own cell when he is around six years old. The combination of being separated not only from his biological mother and father but then from the prison inmates who cared for him as an infant may have resulted in his inability to verbally express himself.
So why does Megamind have no trouble speaking later on? After all, he not only talks aloud as an adult, but has no trouble engaging in public televised evil monologues. The answer may lay in supervillainy itself.
It turns out that this may not be terribly unusual. (I’m referring to the triumph over selective mutism, not the supervillainy.) While some selectively mute children may require psychiatric counseling and speech therapy to overcome the condition, others do manage to conquer it on their own. However, that is most likely to occur when the child has a catalyst of some kind, something positive (or perceived as positive) which acts both as a driving force to work toward social verbal expression as well as source providing some feeling of power over their own lives.
Is it possible that, by acting out and embracing what he thought of as his destiny, Megamind found such a catalyst? We know from the movie scene in which he explains his plan to create a new nemesis that the blue man viewed supervillainy as his “purpose.” Did he cling to it so hard for so long because he subconsciously believed that being the “bad guy” and invoking fear in those around him granted him some sort of control, thus allowing him to become socially vocal? We may never know, but it’s a possibility.
Was Megamind’s Emotional Growth Stunted?
In the DVD commentary, Brent Simons, one of the writers, describes Megamind as having a “childlike mentality.” He goes on to compare the blue man’s actions to that of a preteen boy experiencing the pangs of love for the first time. “[There’s a] girl you like, so naturally you pull her hair. You kidnap her and bring her to you.” Is this true? Is Megamind, at the beginning of the film, at least, behaving with a level of emotionally maturity—or rather lack thereof—befitting a twelve-year-old boy?
According to one fan theory put forward on The Analytical Couch Potato, the answer is yes. This article points out that Megamind does, indeed, already seem to be in love with Roxanne Ritchi and “spends more time during the kidnapping trying to impress Roxie with threatening weapons and torture machines than he does actually trying to kill Metroman.” (Many other fans agree with this assessment, and offer some compelling ideas about why this might be. You can learn more by reading Why Kidnap Roxanne.)
Once again, as with the selective mutism theory, both the film itself as well as psychiatric knowledge seem to back this up. The then-villain seems to treat his fights with Metroman more like a game, again showing a lack of maturity. (Although, to be fair, the DVD commentary makes it clear that he usually goes out of his way to ensure bystanders aren’t injured, so it’s clear he isn’t entirely sophomoric.) As previously alluded to in Are There More Hidden Details in Megamind, we don’t see the first foreshadowing of the blue man’s heel turn both from Bad Guy to hero and from immature to mature until he confronts Hal in his apartment. During that scene, a TV behind Megamind displays a video game screen with the words “Game Over.” A few minutes later, the idea is reinforced as Titan utters the same phrase just before attempting to murder Megamind. This may be the DreamWorks’ team’s clever hint that the alien super-genius is going to eventually stop playing around and begin taking his role in Metro City seriously.
In fact, by comparing his fight with Metroman to his second battle with Hal/Titan, major differences become apparent. When facing the latter for the final time, Megamind offers no “witty back and forth banter” or overblown monologues. He is approaching the confrontation with a new grave and earnest dedication. While he may still possess the humorous, energetically playful personality we all love, the blue man has obviously matured a great deal in a short time.
Why might this be? The aforementioned article on the Analytical Couch Potato goes on to suggest that what we may be seeing here is the psychology behind Attachment Theory. This is where the separation anxiety we discussed in the last section may come into play again. Because he had no real parent figure, Megamind was emotionally neglected as a child—not surprising given his being raised in a prison—and thus he never experienced positive affirmation during his youth. (Indeed, Roxanne herself hints at this when she informs the jubilant crowd at the end of the movie: “he’s not used to positive feedback.”) That lack of positive reinforcement can cause a child’s emotional growth to stagnate.
This is not unusual, as the article points out, drawing information from psychologist John Bowlby’s work. In fact, Megamind’s motivations throughout the movie—from his choice to embrace what he felt was his proper social place as a supervillain to his ceaseless efforts to impress Roxanne—can be viewed as a constant quest to obtain some sort of recognition from those around him, and his lack of maturity can be directly linked to that.
“Those without regular stimulation and attention from caregivers suffer from delays in intellectual development,” the article explains. “Megamind’s mentality is very much still [that] of a child’s, seeking constant affirmation from his peers and loved ones in a way that he was not exposed to growing up.”
Again and again, we see this emotional immaturity come into play during the film, and if you look closely, you can see the blue man slowly overcome it as the narrative progresses. He not only kidnaps Roxanne because he’s unsure of how else to get her attention—although, as mentioned before, an alternate fan theory suggests that this may be partially due to an alien courting instinct—but he also behaves in a rather childish way while bantering with Metroman, creates some frankly absurd deathtraps such as the Boot Wheel of Death, completely disregards the inevitable negative consequences of hiding his identity from someone he’s dating, and argues with Minion in a manner that, frankly, sounds like a couple of teenage brothers having a fight.
Later on, however, he chooses to seek help in saving the city rather than fleeing Titan, recognizing both a problem that needs addressing as well as his own limitations. He turns himself into prison, displaying a willingness to atone for what he’s done. He apologizes for past wrongs, from criminal acts to his treatment of Minion, and begs that he and he alone, not Metro City, be made to answer for those crimes. Finally, of course, he shoulders the responsibility of Defender, coming to Roxanne’s rescue with the aid of his trusty sidekick and officially stepping into the role of hero afterward. Despite the fact that Megamind is estimated to be in his mid- to late-thirties at the time of the narrative, this movie can be viewed as a sort of Coming of Age story.
There are other fan theories connected to this subject, of course—it’s been suggested that Megamind may have an anxiety disorder, could be high-functioning autistic, and is likely going through a midlife crisis during the film—but I will leave it there for this week. (Depending on the response to this post, I may write a follow-up article addressing some of those other ideas concerning the blue man’s psychology.) At any rate, the mere fact that the team at DreamWorks, from the writers to the animators, created a character so real and complex he can be psycho-analyzed speaks volumes about the amount of dedication that was put into this film. We should all take a moment to appreciate that, as it’s something that makes the protagonist not only more interesting but also more relatable to all of us imperfect viewers out there. Until next time, I hope you enjoyed this Fan Theory Thursday!
