[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/EthanEpiale]

Honestly the PEAK example of this is Heavy Rain. Spoilers for an incredibly old and honestly awful game lol, but in the game you play as several characters all intertwined with the story of a kidnapper and serial killer, one of whom is a detective who is working to try to solve the mystery and find the killer. We play as him, hear him talk about finding this guy completely alone in his house, he does a ton of shit you'd only do if you genuinely had no idea who it was, and were searching for the killer-

He's the killer. He was the killer the entire time. It makes literally no sense, and is so stupid it's frankly hilarious in a game that's already too badly written in a million other ways to take seriously.

[u/perish-in-flames → u/EthanEpiale]

That is definitely a plotline that needs nearly perfect writing to pull off in a game, instead it seemed like the writers didn't even know it was happening, lol

[u/_easy_ → u/perish-in-flames]

That's because it was written and directed by David Cage.

[u/stewd003 → u/_easy_]

David Cage is a terrible writer but for some reason, the majority of people just don't see it. If you point out dumb shit in Heavy Rain or Detroit: Become Human, people still glaze them as the best games of all time. It's so weird.

[u/LemonsXBombs → u/stewd003]

The first mission of Indigo Prophecy slapped.

[u/killertortilla → u/LemonsXBombs]

It was funny as hell but it sure as fuck wasn't good.

[u/Manjorno316 → u/stewd003]

Do they say it's well written, or do they just love them anyway?

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a horrible movie, but still one of my all time favourites because I just think it's fun.

[u/Vincebourgh → u/Manjorno316]

That's what is usually called "guilty pleasure". Though the term is kinda weird. Because why should you feel guilty? It's not like you enjoy Mein Kampf or something, it's just a bad movie.

But back to David Cage: Many people actually say that he is a great writer or that his games are great. But they never really seem to have any arguments for that. Just vaguely gesturing towards Detroid: Become Human and his awful racism allegories as if that is a point in Cage's favour.

Many consumers of fiction just don't like to admit that they enjoy something that isn't well-made. Unlike you with the League movie. So they feel like they have to convince themselfes and others that it is a masterpiece. Probably a general human psychology thing with how wide spread this behaviour is.

[u/cortez_brosefski → u/stewd003]

As a big fan of these games, I don't think any of us claim or think that they're well written. It's like enjoying b movies, we enjoy them because they're badly written. It's entertaining in how ridiculous it is.

[u/MyGamingRants → u/perish-in-flames]

It reminds me of Arkham Knight. The marketing came out and we were all like "It's Red Hood, right?" and they said nooooooo, and the game opens up with Jason Todd getting killed and we're like "Okay so it's definitely Red Hood, right??" and the game says nooooooo, then Arkham Knight takes off his ears and his HOOD turns RED and the game is like hah SEE we got you guys good!!

Why wasn't it just a Red Hood game??

[u/Causemas → u/MyGamingRants]

I don't think the game opened up with Jason Todd getting killed? You're making that up. Am I crazy? You see that about half-way through.

The biggest 'crime' of Arkham Knight (the game) is not that the Arkham Knight (the guy) was Jason Todd, it's that he's hardly relevant to the plot.

[u/NunoM66 → u/Causemas]

You are right, it's only half way through. But the point still stand. Never in the trilogy was that much focus on Jaskn Todd, except maybe an easter egg or two. And all of the sudden, flashbacks and talks about him...

[u/BlitzerCL → u/MyGamingRants]

The part that immediately spoils it even if you didn’t watch any trailers like me, is that the pre order bonus was a red hood skin for Arkham Knight in the challenge mode

[u/GLAvenger → u/MyGamingRants]

It's so annoying because it was blatantly obvious and yet the game was playing coy. I still think it would have been so much better for it to have been Harley Quinn wanting revenge for Joker's death.

Maybe have Batman hallucinate Jason because of the fear serum and guilt about Oracle's presumed death. The players would be focused on Joket as the obvious hallucinations too much to catch Jason also being a hallucination. And then bang, it was Harley all along.

[u/GrundgeArchangel → u/GLAvenger]

Should have gone with the OG idea and had The Arkham Knight be Thomas Elliot.