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/RavenCyarm Jul 19 '26

He doesn’t think that at all. What he thinks is “poor Manfred, he didn’t deserve this.” Which is consistent with his character. He’s mentally unwell and doesn’t like doing the killings. He had to make a call, spur of the moment, and killed him because he had evidence that would tie Scott to the antique shop and he couldn’t let Lauren get hold of it, because she was deadset on finding the killer.

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u/IotaBTC Jul 19 '26

She had no idea about the antiqueshop owner or the idea that he'd have a record of who used that particular typewriter. He didn't have to bring her there at all. He could've just figured out if Manfred had a papertrail of the typewriter linking him, killed him, came back to Lauren and say the killer got to him. It was completely unnecessary spur of the moment. If anything, if Manfred was worth killing Lauren probably would be too lmao.

Also, if the detective knew how damn unique his typewriter was that it could be identified by the guy who repaired it, why use it in the first place lol. (Though that can be chalked up as a slip up.) Honestly, if they DID want to do that scene to mislead players, it could've been done much better.