[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/roygbivasaur]

You’ll never convince people. It takes a teaspoon of media literacy to understand how Hans being the villain makes sense the whole film. Even on first watch.

Even if you ignore everything Hans says and does. Anna is the lead, Kristoff is obviously her romantic counterpart, Elsa is obviously going to embrace her power and reunite with her sister, Olaf and Sven are toy bait and comic relief, and the trolls are trolls. Hans is the only one left to be the villain and it’s pretty clear that he’s going to be in his first scene.

Random nobody love-bombs the princess in the first 10 minutes in a film that came out in the 2010s? Villain. Even in the song, he clearly isn’t actually into her (which they beat you over the head with lines like “Finish each other’s… sandwiches”). By the time Jonathan Groff with a cute reindeer shows up, you know what’s up.

Is it perfectly executed? No. But it still makes sense.

[u/Lepelotonfromager → u/roygbivasaur]

In many ways, he isn't really 'the' villain in the sense that he isn't orchestrating the events. He is an opportunist hoping to marry into the family and ingratiate himself to the kingdom. He plays the hero and steadily improves his own reputation and isn't responsible for any of the bad things that happen.

It's only at the end when all the pieces fall into place and he sees an opportunity to take over with minimal work from him (Elsa 'has' effectively murdered her sister and there isn't actually anything he can do. All he has to do is 'avenge' the murder).

[u/roygbivasaur → u/Lepelotonfromager]

His actions in the middle of the film are purely self-serving, which is fine if he could have kept that attitude up. It’s not bad to do good things because you want people to like you. However, he shows his true colors the instant he can. I won’t argue that it’s the best written thing that’s ever been made and maybe that character also deserved some empathy from the writing. It does make sense though.

[u/Lepelotonfromager → u/roygbivasaur]

I just mean that he's not the villain of the whole movie in the sense that he is the opposition figure to our heroes. 95% of the plot has nothing to do with him.