Super Meat Boy's intro is surprisingly disturbing

In the very first minute I see a cosmic horror that the game likely never intended.

Premise

Super Meat Boy is a 2010 action platformer by Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, developed as a successor to their Meat Boy Flash game from Newgrounds. The player needs to reach the end of a side-view level while dodging obstacles like buzzsaws and missiles. It was highly praised for its difficulty and art design, and is considered one of the most famous icons of indie gaming.

The intro

When the game is opened, a cutscene plays before the title menu.

The intro cinematic for Super Meat Boy features a silent movie-like sequence and goes like this:

• "This is Meat Boy." (Meat Boy appears and waves to the audience)
• "This is Bandage Girl." (Bandage Girl appears)
• "She loves Meat Boy." (Bandage Girl looks at Meat Boy, smiles, and hugs him)
• "And Meat Boy loves her." (Meat Boy smiles and heart symbols pop up)
• "This is Dr. Fetus." (Dr. Fetus appears and gives a thumbs up to the camera)
• "Nobody loves Dr. Fetus." (Dr. Fetus lowers his hand for a bit, makes a surprised expression, and looks down)
• "And that's why Dr. Fetus hates you!" (Dr. Fetus looks angry and flips the bird to the camera)
• "But most of all... Dr. Fetus hates Meat Boy!" (Meat Boy in shock looks at Dr. Fetus, but handwaves at him. Dr. Fetus pounces at him)
• "So he beat Meat Boy up." (Bandage Girl looks worried, but slowly calms down)
• "And kidnapped Bandage Girl!" (Dr. Fetus runs off and grabs Bandage Girl on his path)
• "So what are you waiting for?" (Meat Boy is sitting on the ground beat up)
• "So go save her, hero!!!" (Meat Boy instantly recovers, hypes up, and becomes buffed up)

The implications

This is a very straightforward and theatrical way to introduce players to whatever minimal narrative the game has. The narrator introduces characters and their relationships through intertitle cards, and the characters act out those descriptions. The tone is meant to be postmodern, cartoonish, and comedic.

But let's rewind that for a bit. The way the characters adapt their descriptions only after they are mentioned makes me wonder about the narrator/author's ability to spawn new characters and install their roles over whatever base personalities they had before. Dr. Fetus's depressed look alarms me that he wouldn't be a villain if the narration hasn't said so, and Bandage Girl with Meat Boy wouldn't be affectionate towards each other if the narration hasn't said so.

This raises a lot of philosophical and ethical questions. This isn't just a diegetic narration, the characters appear to be self-aware to an extent and respond to the intertitles, and their dynamics are installed in real-time. The characters aren't just residents of their world, but are puppets used to tell a story. This raises a few possibilities:

1. The setting of Super Meat Boy has an omnipotent creator who can shape reality with their words. The characters are brought to life with some prior personalities, before they are written over.
2. The characters are acting out their roles and we don't see their relationship off-screen.

Because we were shown Dr. Fetus turn to villainy directly by author's hands, I can't help but to feel sympathetic to him despite him being the main antagonist. There's a lot to discuss about the horror of in-universe agency when the author is present, but this scene is never brought up. The game would probably gain even more attention if this aspect was given more focus. I would really love for more stories to explore a metafictional crisis where the characters are aware that their agency is at the mercy of a being outside of their universe.

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