Tighten

"This town isn't big enough for two supervillains!"

- Tighten challenging Megamind.

Hal Stewart (later going by the name Tighten) is the main antagonist in DreamWorks' 21st full-length animated feature film, Megamind. He is the former nerdy and shy cameraman of Roxanne Ritchie who later became a vengeful, traitorous, and destructive supervillain as he was hit by the serum of Megamind.

He was 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 known as Megamind, Hal accidentally gets hit by Megamind's serum, which gave 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 'Space Dad'. 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 is 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 had a choice of what he wants to be in life. The towns people initially congratulate Tighten for freeing them from Megamind, but Tighten responds that he is 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. As such, citizens attempt to evacuate the city to avoid getting into Tighten's wrath. 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 'Metrocity'.

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 Brainbots 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.

Later, Tighten secretly leads an evil organization called The Doom Syndicate as they help him steal both Metro Man and Megamind's DNA to become Blue Tighten. Megamind defeats all the members of the Doom Syndicate and Blue Tighten.

Personality
As his former self Hal, he tends to be somewhat civil and sophisticated towards Roxanne, having a secret crush on her and would try to woo her, though she feels uncomfortable by his attempts. He also tends to be quite childish, as when he learns that he has 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 and diabolical 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 didn't have any good in himself, and blaming Megamind for making a fool out of him (though Megamind rightfully points out that Tighten is making a fool out of himself by squandering his powers for his own personal gain). Tighten also proved to be quite cowardly and overwrought, 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. He is also very unintelligent, such as when he misinterpreted the spelling of his ae, and was almost tricked by Megamind disguised as Metroman. He only then caught onto Megamind’s notorious mispronunciation of Metrocity, which Megamind used lused on accident.

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.

"(Megamind: Well done! I thought that battle went really, really well! I mean, I have a few notes...) Notes? (Megamind: But they can wait. You can take me to jail now.) 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.

"Oh, I wouldn't say 'free'. More like... under new management!"

- Tighten revealed his true nature to citizens of Metro City.

"Let me guess. After seeing how awesome I am, you've finally come to your senses? Guess what? I'm over you. (Roxanne Ritchi: I've come to stop you, Hal.) You? Oh, wow. What're you gonna do, report me to death? (Roxanne Ritchi: I was gonna to try reasoning with you.You and I, we worked together for a long time. I know you.) You don't know me. You never took the time to know me. This is the first time we've hung out socially, and it's when I'm about to destroy the city! (Roxanne Ritchi: I wanna talk to the real Hal. I wanna talk to the guy who loved being a camera man and eating dip and being a nerd and being not as scary as the Tighten Hal.) TOO LATE!"

- Tighten confronting Roxanne during her attempt to reason with him.

"(Megamind flips through channels in his prison cell. Suddenly, the screen switches to an video of Tighten) Megamind! You and I have some unfinished business. I'll be waiting at Metro Tower. Oh, and just so you don't get cold feet... (Hal turns the camera towards Roxanne tied to the top of Metro Tower) (Megamind: Roxanne!) C'mon, Roxie, call for your hero to come rescue you. (Roxanne Ritchi: Megamind, I don't even know if you're listening, but if you are, you can't give up. The Megamind I knew would never have run from a fight, even when he knew he had absolutely no chance of winning. It was your best quality. You need to be that guy right now! The city needs you! ... I need you!) (Megamind: Roxanne!) You have one hour. Don't keep me waiting! (camera cuts to static)"

- Tighten threatening Megamind to meet him at Metro Tower, or he will kill Roxanne.

"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 Ritchi: 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 has 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

"This is the LAST time you make a fool out of me! (Megamind: I made you a hero, you did the 'fool' thing all be yourself!) 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

 * His real name: Hal Stewart is an amalgamation of Green Lanterns: Hal Jordan and John Stewart
 * His "superhero" name is very often spelled as "Titan".
 * He is very similar to Syndrome from Pixar's 6th animated feature film, The Incredibles
 * Both are supervillains in the movies.
 * Both started out as regular civilians who nobody thought much of.
 * Both are rejected by loved ones (Roxanne Ritchi for Tighten and Mr Incredible for Syndrome).
 * They are both very childish and psychopathic.
 * They both have Orange spiky hair