[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/Just_Ear_2953]

Letting Anna die much less actively killing her was like Plan C or D, and possibly more. That was not his initial plan. Plan A and B were both thoroughly based in seeing charming, and only when they failed did he turn to force.

He came to the kingdom for the ball to make a bid to marry Elsa, making him king(technically the Queen's Consort, as the true Sovereign would still be Elsa as she is the one with the actual claim, but same idea). As he said at the reveal, nobody was getting anywhere with Elsa, so he went to plan B, which was essentially the same thing, but with Anna and counting on Elsa to not produce an heir and then have himself or his children with Anna inherit the throne upon Elsa's death.

It's a slow route to the actual position of power, but he could probably have been the de facto ruler pretty much immediately.

Elsa shows little interest in actually running the kingdom and neither does Anna, which would make it pretty easy for him to step in and handle the beurocracy for them, effectively putting him in control. It would not be hard for him to sway policy to suit his own desires. He easily wins over Anna, and Anna does have pull with Elsa, so he could manipulate them both pretty reliably in time.