Evil as performance art

revenblue:

Specifically in regards to Heinz Doofenshmirtz.

I touched on something recently in a different meta that I wanna expand on, and that’s this:

[Heinz is] trying to be the best nemesis for Perry, too. Hence the carefully-planned schemes (that I’m convinced are designed to fail) and the traps and the monologues and the musical numbers…

Namely the part about “designed to fail”.

Everyone Knows that Heinz Doofenshmirtz is “incompetent”, always loses, etc. Even the finale song points it out:

“I’m six foot two and I fight a little platypus, you’d think I’d be victorious just every now and then”

Except I feel like there’s more to it than that.

To start with, the episode Oh, There You Are Perry. This is the one where Perry is reassigned to another evil scientist. Partway through, Heinz shows up, and “just happens” to “help” in such a way as to sabotage the other evil scientist. “Fixing” Perry’s cage to have a release button, “helpfully” installing a self-destruct button, leaving rocket shoes right in Perry’s path… it seems a bit too coincidental for incompetence to be all it is.

And if that was deliberate, who’s to say his other “failures” at evil aren’t the same way?

Who’s to say he’s not performing incompetence?

Heinz is a performer at heart. I mean, the musical numbers make it pretty obvious. He also canonically practices his monologues in advance.

Plus, in Road to Danville, he was genuinely more upset at the idea of missing the play he’d been cast in than anything to do with scheming. He begged Perry for assistance specifically for the play (right before his other flaws went ahead and sabotaged him).

And then there’s how performance interacts with Evil. To quote a (particularly memorable) scene from Megamind:

“Oh, you’re a villain alright. Just not a super one.”
“Yeah? What’s the difference?”
*dramatic entrance accompanied by a lightshow and Welcome To The Jungle* “PRESENTATION!”

Evil, in a lot of media, is shown as overdramatic and all about looking Evil. (See: “Evil Is Hammy” on TV Tropes.) What better place for a natural performer?

And Evil, in most media, is always defeated. It’s part of the routine. And it’s definitely a routine. He spells it out in The Inator Method, even.

Basically: Scheme, build inator, trap Perry, monologue, backstory, Perry escapes, fight, get thwarted, “curse you, Perry the Platypus”.

He fails because it’s part of the script. The villain always loses, and he sees himself as a villain (for various reasons, most of which are heartbreaking), therefore he includes loopholes and self-destruct buttons in everything he does so that he can be thwarted like he’s Supposed To.

As for why he turned to Evil in the first place, the show explicitly points it out:

“No, Dad. You’re basically a nice guy who’s pretending to be evil. And, you know, it seems like it’s all out of obligation to your backstories, not something that truly comes from your heart.”

He’s playing a part. Pretending, like Vanessa said. It’s all performative, as a coping mechanism for his many backstories.

And the role he’s chosen isn’t “future leader of the world Tri-State Area”; it’s “evil scientist”, it’s “nemesis”, it’s “villain of a story where the heroes win”.