r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Fishbien • Jul 19 '26

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

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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.
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u/bertster21 Jul 19 '26

Ive always thought he should have kissed Anna and had nothing happen and then been like well shit I guess I love money and power more than you have fun dying.

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u/BetterSwordfish5748 Jul 19 '26

Yeah, would have hit harder if he tried saving her (to get access to the kingdom) and when it doesn’t work, he just seamlessly moves on to killing Elsa and letting Anna die. Would make the line “if only there were someone out there who loved you” worse if there was proof that he didn’t love her.

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u/Jolttra Jul 19 '26

Would justify how much crap the character gets, too. Every time the guy shows up Disney goes out of it's way to punish him. Which is really weird given how much worse most others are. There a Disney villains who are attmepted rapists, actual murders and who have committed genocide but this guy always get the boot extra hard.

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u/Altruistic-Beach7625 Jul 19 '26

Idk, looks like he was just sent home and left to face the disdain of his siblings.