defining words (Megamind/MI crossover AU fic)

[gs]

Title: not used to defining words with someone who isn't even one year old

Summary: Randall's never had something so small depend on him so utterly (never mind that the little thing's an alien--he can pass for a monster). Crossover AU with "Megamind" [pre-canon for both films].

Beginning Notes: Infant!Megamind/BabyMind...can't really be referred to as 'BabyMind'--I don't think...well, maybe he could....anyway, he's also mostly 'Indigo' in this context. Also, thanks to grandiose_me for this thought: "Baby Megamind is so cute that I'm surprised there are no 'Megamind's ship crashes into my/someone better's backyard instead of the prison/ fics like you see swimming around the HP fandom." And I thought Randall needed someone to love him unconditionally (and it'd be interesting if the reformed 'baddie' in "Megamind" helped reform the 'villain' in "Monsters, Inc.").

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Megamind or Monsters Inc.

Fic at the link below:

greedyslayer.livejournal.com/161721.html

[pitbulllady]

Sounds like an interesting crossover, and I see I'm not the only one who is intrigued by the trend in the "reformed baddie-turn-hero" animated movies. I did not get to see Megamind, but I have read the reviews and most have been very positive, and most of the reviewers actually did call attention to the positive message that was sent by having the hero be a former villain. Hopefully Pixar will take a hint. I can recall one of the arguements on Pixar Planet against Randall undergoing a similar reformation/redemption being that audiences, especially children, would be "bored" with such a plot. Clearly, the box office take of both Megamind and Despicable Me do not support that little theory, lol!

pitbulllady

[gs]

Yeah, I like having these more slightly complicated redemption stories in the mainstream now with Despicable Me and Megamind, and even in the animated Avatar: The Last Airbender with Zuko.

It sorta makes me think that if Monsters, Inc. had been made at this point, things would've been different with regards to Randall.

You should really see Megamind sometime--it's amazing. Way better than I thought it would be.

[mentalguru]

Have left a comment there!

And I echo is sentiment PBL, despite having yet to see it myself, apparently it's a real hit with many people. I think inception (which I saw recently) said it best- in that movie they had to choose between either making the relationship with the father bad or good in order to make sure the company doesn't become a monopoly in terms of energy later and have too much power (and dissolve the company instead) They decide to use the father's relationship:




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cobb: 'I will split up my father's empire'. Now this is obviously an idea that Robert Fischer will choose to reject - which is why we need to plant it deep in his subconscious. Subconscious is fueled by emotion, right? Not reason. We need a find a way to translate this into an emotional concept.
Arthur: How do you translate a business strategy into an emotion?
Cobb: Well, that's what we're here to figure out, right? Now Fischer's relationship with his father is stressed, to say the least...
Eames: Well, can we run with that? Suggest splitting up the empire as a "screw-you" to the old man?
Cobb: No, cause I think positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time. We all crave reconciliation - we're catharsis. We need Robert Fischer to have a positive emotional reaction to all this.

[pitbulllady]

I finally read the fic, and I absolutely LOVED it, not only because Randall is so much in-character, but because it also shows that "what-if" side to him that we have discussed here. We have often gone over how it's unlikely that Randall had a family in the movie, and by the time of the movie's events, he probably had no one at all left that he was close to, emotionally. If you really take the time to try to sort that out, to try to imagine just what that would BE like, to have absolutely NOBODY who cares if you live or die, how would that affect your actions? It's hard for me to even imagine it, actually. As someone who has been in a situation similar to Randall's, that of being ordered by my boss to do something illegal and unethical, I can state that my relationship with my family was what gave me the courage to say "no", NOT so much because I knew of what would happen to me if I agreed and got caught(minimum 10 years in Federal prison without parole), but because of how that would affect the people I cared about, and who cared about ME. What if those people had not existed, though? I'm totally convinced that this was the case with Randall, that he had no one, not one soul that he thought might be hurt if he got caught, no one who'd miss him at all if Waternoose decided to toss him into the Himalayas(a fate which almost certainly awaited him anyway). If Randall had someone who cared about/for him, and vice versa, that would have upped the ante, as they say, and given him something to think about besides the results of his failure or success for HIM. BUT, as you pointed out in one of your comments, we have to ask, could he REALLY have said "no" to Waternoose at any point, and NOT put his life in danger as a result? Once Waternoose had revealed his plans to Randall, Randall was in a no-win situation. If he said "no", he already would have known too much, and therefore would have been deemed a threat to Waternoose's future in the company, so he would have been dealt with promptly and most unpleasantly. By agreeing to the plan, he'd become privy to even more information that meant Waternoose would have needed to keep an even tighter measure of control over him and put in place a backup plan in the event that Randall ratted him out, or slipped up and told the wrong monster about the Scream Extractor, or decided to high-tail it out of there while he still had a chance, and of course, a plan for disposing of Randall after he'd completed his end of the deal. Either way you look at it, Randall was screwed. Part of his disposable nature(to Waternoose) would surely have come from the fact that no one was dependent on him, and no one would come looking for him when he was gone. IF he'd had a kid, or a family, he probably wouldn't have been on Waternoose's radar in the first place.

Back to the fic, though; I love how Randall wants what EVERY good parent wants for their kid-for their kid to have it better than them, to BE better than them, and how they are torn between not wanting their kids to know of their past mistakes, and being compelled to share those mistakes at some point out of fear of their kid repeating them. Mentalguru wrote a hypothetical piece as a sort of "companion" for her "Connections" fic, in which Randall agonizes over his young daughter(his and a now-adult Mary's)finding out eventually of his awful mistakes and how he'd come to live in the Human World, in which Sulley sort of comes to his rescue with a bedtime story for the little girl. That would indeed be an interesting and emotional plot as he has to wrestle with the unpleasant thought of his kid, who looks up to him as perfection in the flesh, finding out that he'd done some awful things. Even in your fic, he's clearly uncomfortable with "Indigo" finding out that he SCARES children for a living, and this fic takes place before he apparently got involved in the Scream Extractor plot. But, as I said previously, IF Randall had had a kid, someone who loved him unconditionally and depended on him utterly and completely, I don't think that he'd have been of such a state of mind that Waternoose would have chosen him.


pitbulllady

[gs]

Thanks! I'm so glad you thought I kept Randall in-character while in the very AU scenario of making him a parent (not to mention a parent to an adoptive alien infant).

Yeah, I was sort of implying that Randall's not even comfortable telling Indigo/BabyMind what he does for a living...yet. Randall does have to tell him sometime. But even if Randall finds himself reconsidering the whole ethics of the scaring industry, Indigo/BabyMind/KidMind wouldn't start thinking about it hard that way--like, he'd be more in line with the Monster World in general apparently thinking of Scaring as a worthy profession and Indigo WILL practically worship the ground Randall walks on, so he'll pretty much think that whatever he does is awesome. Like, Indigo's POV on it would connect with his own movie (I'm not you even want "spoilers" on emotional states in that film)....

And yeah, this fic takes place before the Scream Extractor plot, and I've been looking forward to how Indigo/KidMind and Minion's presence changes that when it does happen, with Randall STILL on board. I just find that narratively the SE plot is great at getting a lot of action going, and I'm intrigued about how this would change things if not completely stop it entirely from happening. Now my reasons to still have Randall involved: even if emotionally Randall is not ideal, I don't know if Waternoose had any other candidates on hand that would've been as practically capable as Randall to actually build the Scream Extractor. I was thinking to make things kinda worse would be Waternoose outright blackmailing Randall to build the Scream Extractor for him, if he finds out that Indigo and Minion are not monsters and uses that information to force Randall's cooperation, unless he wants Waternoose to release that information publicly and call for those two to be dragged to labs for experimentation...who knows, maybe their screams could be a new useful form of energy, and given the Energy Crisis and the fact that there are only two examples of this new possible source, experimentation may be a bit more extreme, for "the greater good" of course.... Just Waternoose ruthlessly threatening to take Randall's dependents hostage and otherwise harm them unless Randall complies, if Waternoose really decides that he's the best mon for the job.

[pitbulllady]

Dec 23, 2010 0:17:45 GMT -5 gs said:

Thanks! I'm so glad you thought I kept Randall in-character while in the very AU scenario of making him a parent (not to mention a parent to an adoptive alien infant).

Yeah, I was sort of implying that Randall's not even comfortable telling Indigo/BabyMind what he does for a living...yet. Randall does have to tell him sometime. But even if Randall finds himself reconsidering the whole ethics of the scaring industry, Indigo/BabyMind/KidMind wouldn't start thinking about it hard that way--like, he'd be more in line with the Monster World in general apparently thinking of Scaring as a worthy profession and Indigo WILL practically worship the ground Randall walks on, so he'll pretty much think that whatever he does is awesome. Like, Indigo's POV on it would connect with his own movie (I'm not you even want "spoilers" on emotional states in that film)....

And yeah, this fic takes place before the Scream Extractor plot, and I've been looking forward to how Indigo/KidMind and Minion's presence changes that when it does happen, with Randall STILL on board. I just find that narratively the SE plot is great at getting a lot of action going, and I'm intrigued about how this would change things if not completely stop it entirely from happening. Now my reasons to still have Randall involved: even if emotionally Randall is not ideal, I don't know if Waternoose had any other candidates on hand that would've been as practically capable as Randall to actually build the Scream Extractor. I was thinking to make things kinda worse would be Waternoose outright blackmailing Randall to build the Scream Extractor for him, if he finds out that Indigo and Minion are not monsters and uses that information to force Randall's cooperation, unless he wants Waternoose to release that information publicly and call for those two to be dragged to labs for experimentation...who knows, maybe their screams could be a new useful form of energy, and given the Energy Crisis and the fact that there are only two examples of this new possible source, experimentation may be a bit more extreme, for "the greater good" of course.... Just Waternoose ruthlessly threatening to take Randall's dependents hostage and otherwise harm them unless Randall complies, if Waternoose really decides that he's the best mon for the job.

I have actually toyed with that notion myself, that Randall MIGHT have had a child somewhere, and a gf/ex-wife from whom he was separated at the time of the movie, and Waternoose could very well have used them as leverage to gain and ensure his cooperation to the utmost. We know from one of the "banished concepts" on the DVD that originally the writers DID create a girl for Randall, and she is actually seen in one of the rough-animated bits, nagging him about how he "never spends time with her anymore" and how she is "bored", as he rides her around on a sort of golf cart in the factory. I strongly got the impression there that she was giving him some sort of ultimatum: shape up or get lost! His involvement with his work, either his legitimate work or the Scream Extractor, was apparently taking up too much of his time and she was getting sick of it, possibly suspecting him of having an affair on the side. If they had a kid, she might have been harassing Randall about paying more child support or alimony, which would have given him more money troubles to think about. The prospect of never having to Scare again, with having this nice, cushy office and a fat paycheck to keep her and her lawyers off his back at the very least, would have been very, very tempting to a 25-year-old trying to make a name for himself. She might also have been using the kid to get more money from Randall, threatening to take away his joint custody or visitation rights if he didn't ante up. Once Waternoose found out about this ex and the kid, HE could have at first used that incentive of making a lot more money to bait Randall, and when Randall started showing any signs of hesitancy or wanting out later, used threats against them to keep him fully ensnared. One of the things that has always intrigued me was Randall's reactions to seeing Boo in costume, seeing her basically dressed like HIM, with a purple scaly-patterned outfit, big "eyes" and sharp "teeth", not knowing of course, just how randomly that costume had come about. Was it because he thought Sullivan and Wazowski were using the costume to poke fun at him, to make others think he was involved, or was it something deeper? Did Boo remind him of a real monster child, somewhere, either himself as a kid, or HIS kid? It would make a lot of sense, actually-young father struggling to make ends meet, to maintain a role in his child's life and make a better future for his kid than what he'd had growing up, now finding himself having to do some very risky and illegal things in order to protect his child and even his ex-gf/wife, whether or not she still cared about him. I strongly got the impression that Randall had much more to lose than his freedom or reward if Sullivan and Wazowski got to the authorities with their information about him and the machine, to account for his cornered-rat desperation. Would it not be ironic if Randall and Sulley were basically motivated by the same thing, a strong parental urge to protect a child?

pitbulllady

[gs]

Interesting. It would be neat irony if Sulley and Randall were both motivated by strong parental, protective urges (and I kinda want to make that more explicit when writing more MI/Megamind fic).

It is curious how Boo's costume resembles Randall, and it is an interesting idea that maybe it reminds Randall of a kid he actually has somewhere. But given the fact that apparently Randall was meant to round off the duo of Sulley and Mike as a trio in earlier concepts, I wonder if Boo's costume was a reference to that, since I think Boo essentially made them a trio canonically.

I had agreed before with Randall as 25, fairly young...but I was thinking for my crossover fic to mess with the popularly perceived or even canon ages a bit (I'm not sure if the ages are canon) and make Randall older. I was just considering his VA's real age but also wondering if maybe Monsters' ages work differently from humans, given that I'm pretty sure they can live longer (like, I think Waternoose is way up there, like over a century old?) So, a monster may be older than a human (have more time), but still at a different, even younger maturity level.

[pitbulllady]

Dec 23, 2010 15:24:14 GMT -5 gs said:

Interesting. It would be neat irony if Sulley and Randall were both motivated by strong parental, protective urges (and I kinda want to make that more explicit when writing more MI/Megamind fic).

It is curious how Boo's costume resembles Randall, and it is an interesting idea that maybe it reminds Randall of a kid he actually has somewhere. But given the fact that apparently Randall was meant to round off the duo of Sulley and Mike as a trio in earlier concepts, I wonder if Boo's costume was a reference to that, since I think Boo essentially made them a trio canonically.

I had agreed before with Randall as 25, fairly young...but I was thinking for my crossover fic to mess with the popularly perceived or even canon ages a bit (I'm not sure if the ages are canon) and make Randall older. I was just considering his VA's real age but also wondering if maybe Monsters' ages work differently from humans, given that I'm pretty sure they can live longer (like, I think Waternoose is way up there, like over a century old?) So, a monster may be older than a human (have more time), but still at a different, even younger maturity level.

Actually, Randall's age of 25 IS canon, as established in one of the Disney books, I think the "Monsters Inc., 2003 Annual". It was actually in a paragraph about the holder of the All-Time Scream Record, one "Fangs" McDonald, in which it was stated that the All-Time Scream Record was set back in 1963, 13 years before Randall Boggs was born. That would put Randall being a '76 model, lol. Since the dates on the newspapers in the movie indicated it was 2001, that would have made Randall more or less 25 at that time, old enough to have accumulated some nagging debt and old enough to be coming to the realization that the only reason he was working was to keep paying bills, while young enough to still see that elusive "American Dream" dangled tantalizingly in front of him.

pitbulllady