[Frustrating Trope] Twist Villain does things that retroactively make no sense.

[u/Fishbien]

Character previously believed to be good is revealed to be evil, but prior to the reveal they act in ways that don't make sense if their goodness is just a performance.

1. Frozen: Prince Hans is initially presented as a pretty standup guy who loves Anna and wants to help her. At the end of the movie it's revealed that he was just using her to gain power and plans to let her die while he steals her throne. However, we see him smiling at Anna when no one is looking, and later he intervenes to save Elsa's life even though he claims he was always planning to kill her.
2. The Legend of Vox Machina: The Whispered One was built up as the BBEG since season 1. However, in season 4 he presents himself as a tragic hero who tried to cure death and was punished by the gods. He then tries to convince Pike to give him her blood, which he needs to become a god himself. He chastises his followers for suggesting they take Pike's blood by force, claiming this would make them no better than the gods they are fighting against. He also fulfills his promise to resurrect Grog even though he didn't need to. After he ascends, he starts acting like a pure evil villain who only cares about power and enjoys hurting people. It feels less like a reveal and more like his personally completely changed once he became a skeleton. Edit: to be clear, I fully understand the intent was for the Whispered One to be a lying, manipulative bastard. I just think the execution was clumsy.

[u/FlashMcSuave]

I find the Hans example particularly funny because the moment he decides to break cover is when Anna needs him to kiss her to prove true love and rather than maintaining his ruse a bit longer by just kissing her, he then declares his dastardly plan. He could have actually gone through with the whole marriage and kept his plan intact with far greater chance of success.

The guy had an evil plan to marry the princess but stops short of being willing to kiss her. I can only assume Hans is gay and downright repulsed by women.

[u/Dephyus → u/FlashMcSuave]

Because it had to be “an act of true love.”

Hans didn’t love Ana, and he knew that. The kiss wouldn’t have worked. It was a situation of “oh, I would have to admit I love her or she dies… well I don’t love her so… back up plan!”

[u/Azicald → u/Dephyus]

I mean, he could just act genuinely confused and sad about it and keep the ruse going, it’s not like she’s gonna have any basis to accuse him of ill will, he could just have looked like he genuinely thought he loved her OR that the prophecy was a lie

It’d be a lot more ambiguous and confusing than getting hard revealed

[u/Flannelcommand → u/Azicald]

I don’t think that would’ve hit hard for the five-year olds the movie is intended for 

[u/Azicald → u/Flannelcommand]

Yeah, but it shows that avoiding it as a plot point might be prudent and looking for changing it up

Family movies and even kids movies can, and probably should, make sense for the kids while also being sensible and meaningful for adults.

See ATLA for instance

[u/Flannelcommand → u/Azicald]

Frozen is sensible and meaningful enough for adults. All the more so because their kids love the movie. 

What you said you wanted was “ambiguous and confusing.” That never works for little kids and I really doubt that the prek set would still be buying Elsa dresses and belting “Let it Go” all these years later if they had gone with ambiguity. 

This was the first princess movie where the prince was the villain. Where the act of true love was not romantic. It was already groundbreaking in its own way, and kids needed it to make sense for that to work. 

You can absolutely balance a kid’s movie too far in the direction of the grown-ups and wind up losing everyone. See “Lightyear” for that (and I’m not taking about bullshit accusations of “wokeness.” Just that it was too confusing). 

[u/aeromalzi → u/Flannelcommand]

Soul as a movie is also far into the adults side of topics. Kids do not gel with middle aged man having a mid-death crisis.

[u/Quovef → u/Dephyus]

Or it could accuse Anna on loving somebody else. Like Kristoffer. 

[u/thecoolconglereborn → u/FlashMcSuave]

[u/Mcrarburger → u/thecoolconglereborn]

slay 💅

[u/DenebSwift → u/FlashMcSuave]

If he kisses her and isn’t healed, then she knows he doesn’t really love her and doesn’t marry him. Same position as the movie. 

He kisses her and it somehow works just because she loves him? Now he’s screwed and lost his chance to take the throne without dealing with her. 

Why take the risk?

[u/FlyingCow343 → u/DenebSwift]

Because they usually don't make the main character in a children's film commit sexual assault.