DVD fic commentary request from @elf-kid2

Overlord

The kid’s wearing a leather jacket with the collar popped up, leaning against the wall like he thinks he’s James Dean or something.

Those pictures are of James Dean leaning against a wall, and James Dean wearing a leather jacket with a popped collar. (his collar is actually popped in the first picture, too, and in a good number of his photographs, generally!)

James Dean is a symbol not just of bad boy sex appeal, but of dangerous, reckless behavior and dying young. When this story starts, Megamind is a teenager, fresh from a near brush with suicide. 

(his eyes are fucking disconcerting—it took her this long to notice them, because the obvious weirdness of his skin and his head distracted her, but his eyes give Scar the shivers. They’re too goddamn green, for one thing, like something that belongs in a beaker labeled ‘poison’. And they seem to shine slightly, like he’s burning from the inside-out—like there’s a chemical fire raging beneath his skin.)

(the expression in them is the worst part, though—it’s the expression of someone who knows he’s burning because he’s the one that damn well struck the match.)

The metaphorical image of Megamind setting himself on fire deliberately and burning from the inside is, of course, a pretty accurate assessment of the situation. Megamind admits in Code: Safeword that the possibility of dying young was one of the attractions of supervillainy for him when he first started.

When she says “like he thinks he’s James Dean or something” Scar assumes Megamind is posing deliberately, here, that he’s trying to look like James Dean–that the implied sexuality of it is intentional. But he’s not actually posing at the moment, and the sexuality is unintended–which is a theme throughout the story.

She also assumes at first that he’s a sex worker, which is important because she can tell right away that he’s one of them. He’s not a sex worker, no, but he’s very much on their side–not just on the side of the criminals, of Psycho Delic and people like that–but on the side of the powerless and abused.

That’s part of the charm of Megamind for all of them in this; he tells them to call him Overlord, but he never acts like he’s better than them.

Even when he saves them, when he throws Psycho through the window for them, he doesn’t make them feel that it’s a rescue, or that they’re helpless. He doesn’t wait for them to thank him, but instantly puts them back on equal footing with him by asking them if they’re ready to discuss their business together.

There’s a repeated description of Megamind smiling like a switchblade–switchblades are, of course, the most ‘bad boy’ knives, actually illegal in Michigan at the time in which the story is set. And the blade of a switchblade pops out suddenly, evoking the way Megamind is suddenly revealed as dangerous in the scene in Psycho’s office.

Later, of course, Scar, becoming Madame LaRoux, ‘thinks of switchblades, and smiles’ at Lou Nowicki, the city’s most notorious and dangerous gangster–this is meant to demonstrate that Megamind hasn’t merely rescued Scar and all the others; he’s given them the ability to defend themselves, to keep themselves safe. 

She picks up his switchblade smile like it’s a real knife, and uses it like a weapon. And Megamind notices, she sees him noticing, and she sees him smile wider when she does it.

Metro Man calls them “the helpless people of Metro City”; Megamind makes sure they never have to feel helpless again. It’s really no wonder they all fall a little in love with him.

For most of the story, Megamind is genuinely oblivious to everyone’s indications of attraction, but by the time Missy makes a pass at him, he’s learned enough to realize that’s what she’s doing. (Although I’m sure she has to be extremely blatant about it, still, to get him to realize.) 

He honestly assumes that she’s not really attracted to him, though, because he doesn’t see how he can be attractive to anyone. And because he is their Overlord, he thinks she feels obligated or pressured to make the offer, and hastens to reassure her that she never needs to feel that way about anyone in authority.

I had a lot of fun writing the bit with Megamind and the baby! Because, of course, the best part of Megamind isn’t the James Dean bad boy sexiness, it’s that he’s so damn sweet underneath everything. He tells the child it’s adorable in the same way he talks so affectionately to his brainbots, and he’s so very excited that he understands the child playing peek-a-boo with him. 

“Ooh, yes!” the Overlord says, covers his own face with his gloved hands, then peeks out at the boy. “This game! I know this game! Ahahaha! Yes!”

He’s so overjoyed that he gets the game and that the child wants to play with him.

(none of the other kids really liked me)

It’s been so long since anyone wanted to play with him.

And that’s a big part of Roxanne’s immediate appeal for Megamind–it’s not just, as he tells her in C:S, that she was nice to him and asked him if he was all right–it’s that she plays with him.

Roxanne Ritchi arches her eyebrows and arches her neck, tilting her head back to look him in the eyes as she makes a smart-ass remark and then she smirks at him and—

It’s like a light turns on inside of him; it occurs to Scar that she’s never actually seen him look happy before.

(he’s looking at that girl in the chair like he is more overjoyed by the simple fact of her existence than he’s ever been by anything else in his entire life.)

Roxanne might not be playing along, but she’s very definitely playing.

Roxanne doesn’t need Megamind to show her how to smile like a switchblade; she’s sharp enough already, and she’s so much fun.

The next bi-weekly ladies-of-the-underworld meeting is a sober affair, in spite of all the alcohol they’re drinking.

“—fuck,” says Madame LaRoux, finally raising her glass in an ineloquent toast.

“Fuck,” they all echo, raising their own glasses.

Fucking Roxanne Ritchi.

I really love the idea of the entire Underworld knowing that Megamind and Roxanne are going to get together years before either Megamind or Roxanne ever even consider the idea.