Tighten

"Come out here, you little freak! I want to see what that big brain looks like on the pavement!"

- Tighten fighting Megamind "Oh, I wouldn't say 'free'. More like...... UNDER new management!!"

- Tighten revealing his true nature to the citizens

Hal Stewart, later going by the name 'Tighten', is the hidden sole antagonist in the DreamWorks 2010 movie Megamind.

He is voiced by Jonah Hill.

Biography
He was introduced as simply being Roxanne Ritchi's nerdy cameraman, Hal. He clearly has a crush on her, but his attempts at flirting with Roxanne only makes her very uncomfortable. While Roxanne is snooping around the headquarters of the film's protagonist, the supervillain Megamind, Hal accidentally gets hit by Megamind's serum, which gives him the powers of the seemingly deceased superhero Metro Man. Megamind, who was planning on creating a new superhero to face after feeling isolated of his victory against Metro Man, tracks Hal to his apartment building and manipulates him by taking on the guise of his 'Spacedad'. Megamind attempts to train Hal into a hero, but unknown to Megamind, Hal is not as noble or just as Metro Man. However, Megamind believes that Hal is ready, and gives him a red-and-white suit and the name 'Titan', which Hal misinterprets as 'Tighten'.

The first thing 'Tighten' does is kidnap Roxanne under the pretense of 'rescuing' her, dropping her several times only to catch her again. Hal then reveals his identity to Roxanne, but gets rejected for his recklessness, causing him to fly away in anger. Roxanne then continues on dating Bernard (who is actually Megamind in disguise), much to Hal's disappointment and anger.

Believing that being a hero means to get the girl for himself rather than fighting for the greater good, Hal decides he's better being a villain and goes on an unseen crime spree. After leaving Megamind waiting for several hours, Tighten meets the villain in his home and offers a partnership, with him as the muscular brawn and Megamind as the 'brain with glasses'. Horrified that his 'hero' turned out to be a selfish person, Megamind refuses and instead goads him into a fight by revealing his identity and manipulations as 'Space-Dad' and 'Bernard'.

As planned, Tighten battles Megamind, but with much more rage and anger then Metro Man ever did. Megamind is quickly defeated and awaits to go to jail again, but Tighten refuses to turn him over to the police, and instead tries to kill him, forcing Megamind to flee in terror. Megamind intends to recapture Tighten by trapping him on a copper failsafe sphere, after learning that copper is Metro Man's weakness. However, this fails, forcing Megamind to escape and leaving to find out that Metro Man is actually alive, having faked his death to retire being a superhero and focus on a career in music, as he felt tired battling Megamind and that he never made a choice of what he wants to be in life. The townspeople initially congratulate Tighten for freeing them from Megamind, but Tighten responds that he's actually taking over as the new villain by saying 'I wouldn't say 'free', more like...under new management', and starts off by flicking the Mayor off violently with his finger, much to everyone's shock.

Without hesitation, Tighten terrorizes Metro City by burning the name 'Tightenville' into the ground in colossal letters, causing more damage to the city than Megamind has ever done. Feeling remorseful for letting this happen, Megamind turns himself back to prison, and Roxanne, having no more leads, attempts to take action by appealing to Tighten's conscience. Unfortunately, Tighten denies that he has any good in him, and acts purely out of spite from being rejected by her. Tighten then kidnaps Roxanne and straps her to the radio tower where she rejected him, threatening her life if Megamind doesn't arrive to fight him.

Seeing this on TV, Megamind decides to take responsibility for his actions and arrives in usual flamboyant style. He enacts a plan into freeing Roxanne and trying to stop Tighten. Tighten apparently crushes him with the radio tower, but he turns out to be Megamind's right-hand man, Minion, in disguise. Tighten nearly kills Roxanne by shoving a bus, but Metro Man suddenly appears, splitting the bus into two, saving Roxanne. Tighten is frightened into fleeing by Metro Man's orders, but realizes that it's the real Megamind in disguise after the hero tells him to leave 'metrosity'.

Tighten fights Megamind again and nearly kills him, but ultimately fails. Upon remembering where he left his defuser gun the night Roxanne dumped him after his Bernard disguise faltered away, Megamind takes the weapon, but Tighten throws him up into the sky before turning his rage towards Roxanne, hoping to finish her off. However, Megamind appears in front of Tighten after temporarily dehydrating himself to land himself into the water fountain where Roxanne is standing. After re-hydrating instantly, Megamind uses the defuser gun to remove all of the unearned powers from Tighten, rendering him powerless for good. Having reveled in his real victory, Megamind saves Minion by throwing him into the water fountain, since he knows that fish need water to survive. In the end after Hal's defeat, Megamind gets his Brain-Bots to repair all the damage he and Hal has done to Metro City, and he is praised as the new hero by everyone (including a disguised Metro Man). As for Hal, he is imprisoned in Megamind's old cell, serving a life sentence as punishment for his crimes against Metro City.

Personality
As his former self Hal, he tends to be somewhat civil towards Roxanne, having got a secret crush on her and would try to woo her, though she feels uncomfortable by his attempts. He also tends to be childish, as when he learns that he's inherited much of Metro Man's powers, Hal happily flies out and creates a car pile-up, gloating that he's gonna be a hero.

After being equipped with Metro Man's powers, Hal (going by the name Tighten) became more determined to use his powers to win Roxanne's heart, but his recklessness caused Roxanne to reject him, much to Hal's distress and leaving him down into a dark path, where he starts using his powers for nefarious purposes. After learning that Megamind was the one who gave him the powers and was dating Roxanne at that time, Tighten became hell-bent on destroying Megamind for 'stealing his girlfriend' and later causes havoc on Metro City with his powers, much to his own pleasure and to everyone's dismay (including Megamind).

As such, Tighten is more evil than Megamind ever was. While Megamind acted as a villain to get attention and balance out of his former rival Metro Man, Tighten acted purely out of spite, caused so much destruction for his own amusement, and has shown no signs of sympathy or remorse on it. He also has proven to be in denial; retorting to Roxanne that he had any good in himself, and blaming Megamind for making a fool out of him (though Megamind rightfully points out that the Tighten is making a fool out of himself by squandering his powers for his own personal gain). Tighten also proved to be cowardly, as when Metro Man (who is actually Megamind in disguise) arrives to confront him for his rampage, Tighten panics and tries to flee away, though he later learns the truth.

Quotes
"No freakin' way! I'm gonna be a hero! I'M GONNA BE A HERO!!!"

- Hal after hearing that he's been 'blessed' with superpowers

"Being a hero is for losers! It's work, work, work, 24/7, and for what!? I only took the gig to get the girl, and it turns out Roxanne doesn't want anything to do with me!"

- Tighten revealing his true reason why he took the superhero gig

"This one's for stealing my girlfriend! This one's for Space-Dad making a fool outta me! And Megamind, this one's for Space-StepMom! You LIED TO HER!"

- Tighten defeating Megamind in their first battle

"Oh no no no no. I was thinking more like the morgue. You're DEAD!! (Megamind: Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! This isn't how you play the game!) Game over!!"

- Tighten revealing his new intent to kill Megamind rather than sending him to jail

"You don't know me. You never took the time to know me. This is the first time we hung out socially, and it's why I'm about to destroy the city!"

- Tighten confronting Roxanne during her attempt to reason with him

"Hey, Metro losers! This is Metro Tower! They say it's supposed to be a symbol of our city's strength, but for me, it's a reminder of the day this woman ferociously ripped out my heart! And I HATE REMINDERS!!"

- Tighten before preparing to level Metro Tower (with Roxanne tied on top of it)

"(Roxanne: Please don't do this! I know there's still good in you, Hal!) You're so naive, Roxie. You see the good in everybody, even when it's not there. You're living a fantasy! There is no Easter Bunny, there is no Tooth Fairy, and there is no Queen of England. This is real world, and you need to WAKE UP!!"

- Tighten denying to Roxanne that he had any good in himself

"Pretty sneaky, sis. But there's only one person I know who calls this town 'Metrocity'....... YOU! Bet you think it's really funny, huh?! Let's all laugh at the really cool guy, huh?! You're not gonna be laughing for long!"

- Tighten attempting to finish off Megamind after being duped by him (under his Metro Man disguise) into leaving Metro City

"You're so pathetic. No matter what side you're on, you're always the loser!"

- Tighten taunting Megamind

"Say 'bye-bye', Roxie!"

- Tighten attempting to finish Roxanne right before he is stripped of his powers by Megamind

"I'm bad! I'm bad! That's right! YEAH!"

- Hal dancing to Michael Jackson's Bad in Megamind's old prison cell after being given a life sentence as punishment for his crimes

Trivia

 * Tighten can be compared to Jimmy Olsen from JLA: The Nail, who himself occupies a role similar to that of Jimmy Olsen in mainstream continuity prior to becoming a supervillain. Both were wannabe heroes who following disillusionment with the idea turned into sadistic and psychotic supervillains with a Superman-esque power-set.
 * His name: Hal Stewart is an amalgamation of Green Lanterns: Hal Jordan and John Stewart
 * His name is very often spelled as "Titan."
 * He is similar to Dave from Total Drama, they tried to flirt with their love interests but makes them uncomfortable, they used to be good but then turned evil after they realize that they're in love with someone else and they tried to achieve their goals, but failed.
 * TIghten is also is almost exactly similar to Syndrome; both have somewhat sympathetic reasons for their actions, both are something of a loser, and both eventually end up being against the heroes they used to worship. They'll also do anything to spite whoever has wronged them. The big difference is that Syndrome is legitimately super-intelligent, while Hal/Tighten was just an utter dolt who got lucky.