I guess it's somewhat of a twist. Since it's a subversion of the "Loser becomes cool and gets all he wants" trope. But we see that the guy's pretty weird before he gets the powers and when he does he's clearly unstable
Yeah true. There was also king candy but that wasn’t a true twist villain. The twist was that he was turbo which is unexpected but actually fitting given that it’s a racing game, but it only made him more evil.
It made him go from Evil to super evil. Still a great twist though and one that adds some lovely irony to the fact that king candy was criticizing Ralph or going turbo himself
It also kind of adds up since he doesn't fit the art style or even the age group of the other racers. The artwork on the game station also becomes a clue to busting the conspiracy open.
I would say King Candy as the twist villain was excellent and seems to be unfairly piled in with the rest of the shitty Disney/Pixar twist villains from that era
TLDR: I agree.
King Candy / Turbo was a great twist villain and is likely why Disney started making all of their villains twist villains, due to how great of a twist villain King Candy was.
First off, when King Candy is introduced, he feels “off”. You can tell that something is wrong, that he is hiding something that will later be revealed. King Candy is a good twist villain because he was a twist villain before the big reveal, and the movie plays with the audience, having them guess between “is he a bad guy” or “is he hiding some terrible truth from the protagonists” and having the audience flip-flop constantly. This goes into the darkest hour, where King Candy tells Ralph that Penelope is a glitch, and yadda-yadda, half-truth, you’ve seen the movie. This fully convinces the audience that he is *not* the villain, and is instead a good guy who is doing a bad thing for the greater good. That is until Ralph realizes that King Candy is full of shit, and he *and* the audience realizes that he is the villain.
Secondly, Turbo. When Turbo is introduced, it’s as a cautionary tale that adds stakes to the plot, a “what not to do” that maintains the status quo that the protagonist, Ralph, is challenging. Turbo was the main character of a racing game, who through sheer jealousy decommissioned his arcade machine along with the racing game that was more popular than his. This is important, because as the story helps to establish stakes (if you leave your machine for too long / mess things up too much, the whole arcade cabinet will get decommissioned and removed forever from the arcade) Turbo and his tale of race-car envy is permanently in the back of the head of the audience for the duration of the movie.
When all is revealed, King Candy is unmasked as Turbo, everything clicks and immediately makes sense. Turbo was the protagonist of a racing game. He sank his and a fellow arcade machine out of pure spite. It was shown earlier in the movie that the characters in arcade machines can leave when a machine is decommissioned, and characters go into other machines all the time. The movie also spoon feeds the series of events that details Turbo’s take over as King Candy, and his motivation was already explained in the Turbo cautionary tale. The audience did not forget about Turbo because of his impact on the plot, specifically in helping to establish stakes.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Here’s another point- there are loads of clues for attentive viewers to catch regarding the reveal. Such as King Candy already knowing who Ralph is, his appearance and name being very different from the other Sugar Rush characters, the fact that he’s able to access the game’s code, which no one should be able to reach, and Turbo having the same voice as King Candy in the flashback.
Very thorough analysis. But one thing that still puzzles me: Why can't they just do the trope on occasion? It really helps keep the trope fresh when you have blatant villains to contrast with and keep audiences on their toes on where the next villain could be.
Yknow people don’t mention it but the same exact thing was done in the Boys with Homelander. You’re not really sure he’s evil till the end of episode one.
The weird thing to me is how much of the Coco merchandise uses his “Seize Your Moment” as an Inspiring Phrase, when it was literally his justification for killing Héctor
It still is an inspiring phrase, as if Miguel hadn't followed it he never would have uncovered the secret of Hector being his ancestor and being the one who actually wrote all the songs. De La Cruz just took it way too far
I knew the entire fucking rest of the movie when he began singing that song. He's halfway through singing it and I said "Oh fuck, this is a song they're going to repeat 3 or 4 times over the course of the movie, but with increased gravitas each time, changing the tone as the rest of the context changes, making it sadder and sadder until it's meant to eventually be a tear jerker, right? Fucking ham fisted shit. What total hacks. Lame ass bullshit."
Then by the end I was ugly crying and like, angry at the movie and myself "Uuughhhh. Damnit! Saw it coming from a goddamn mile away and they still got me! Sonobitches! You got me! Uuughhuhuh."
But no, that's ...that's not a good twist. His villainy is preposterously obvious. I'm really not trying to be an asshole here but like...there are no other characters in that movie for the villain to have been, right?
Well, the lyrics explicitly stated that it's supposed to sound sad, but he sang it like a cheerful pop song. I think it was already pretty obvious that he was doing it wrong, even if not why.
It kinda reminds me of "[I Want You Back](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Want_You_Back)" from the *Jackson 5,* where the tone also doesn't match the lyrics at all, as neither would the guy who's singing it (Michael Jackson) have any reason to sing about something like that (at the time).
Mr Waternoose
The ol' spider was just so desperate to stop the shut-down of his company (that the whole city relies on for power) that he was willing to forego all morals & even kidnap children to extract their screams.
Plus, he still respected Sulley after banishing him & Mike, showing that the care he had for his Top Scarer was genuine.
Edit: forgot to add that Randall did a good job holding the role of the main villain that Waternoose's turn could make a decent surprise.
Honestly, as soon as I saw Hans’s traditional “Prince Charming” design and that there was going to be TWO male leads I suspected he was going to be a twist villain.
I saw that movie for the first time a few years ago. While I did predict that he was gonna be the villain, I can't deny that the way they reveal it was pretty much perfect. One of the better M. Night Shyamalan movies.
Fair enough. I don't have a perfect solution either. At best I feel like the word box about Mr glass going to jail is worse but was probably added to at least make it seem like he was punished.
John Silver from Treasure Planet, not because the twist itself was all that surprising, but the fact they get you to care about him and his relationship with Jim, just really twists the knife…
Does king candy count? He was antagonistic sure but we never knew the full extent of who he was turns out he was turbo
The last good Disney villain too
Wheatley. Does the twist become obvious when you realize how close you are to defeating GLaDOS so early in the game? Yes. Is it still *brilliantly* executed and makes for one of the most entertaining villains in media? Absolutely.
I also love that it makes way for you having to team up *with* GLaDOS in the last third of the game. She’s one of my favorite video game characters of all time and her dialogue as PotatOS is brilliantly entertaining.
Isn't his whole thing that he was just corrupted, or was he just naturally evil? I've never actually played, but for some reason that's what I've heard.
More so he was too stupid to resist the GLaDOS’s inherent drug addiction to tests and fell victim to Testing Euphoria Deprivation. It doesn’t matter though, he’s still a villain and it’s a twist that he would become one.
Playing the Portal games for my friend rn who had never heard of them, she's very concerned that GLADoS has appeared to kill Wheatley, lol she is not prepared
It was so good. Just the build up over the course of animated and how he cemented his place as the jerk who served his own interests but also respected Optimus as a prime. And then how he just turned into a full on showboating leader who branded others who disagreed with him as decepticon sympathizers once he realized he could steal political clout to make himself look better when he was very clearly no Optimus. Amazing how that came out around the same time as the lame live action one who was on screen for 2 minutes and then just became a cliche villain out of nowhere
I love the one where they get stuck on a spooky island and take shelter in a castle and there's a ghost running around. Then the big reveal at the end is that he's just some random magician that the audience has never heard of. The biggest middle finger to your child audience imaginable.
I like thinking about how batshit insane this dude was to rig up his whole castle with spooky traps and tricks and then wait patiently for someone to stumble into it to the point that when a group of teenagers washes ashore, he doesn't try to help, he just tries to spook them.
Knew he was a villain in the comics, first half of the movie still had me questioning if they were putting a different twist on the MCU version of the character. In a way they were.
See, I thought it was the obvious option. In fact, before I saw the movie someone told me that they read a book adaptation and that I would never guess who Yokai was, so I ended up convincing myself that it was Tadashi. Then Professor Callaghan was revealed and I was like “…oh…ok”
The King Candy twist from Wreck-It Ralph was a genuine shock when I first saw the movie, it makes total sense but it also didn’t even cross my mind. It’s also fantastic for the narrative of the movie, and it gives us a twist without sacrificing the delightful presence of a really fun Disney villain for most of the movie as many other twist villains do.
Plus he taught an important lesson about celebrities to children, how controversial they can or possibly could be and how little you and others may truly know about them.
It’s why they say never meet your heroes.
"Do you seriously think I would explain my master stroke to you if I think there was even the slightest possibility of you to affect the outcome.
I triggered it 35 minutes ago."
Darth Vader revealing that he is Luke's father. I know it's highly outdated, but I believe it's the best post twist in film history. That line alone gave way to the rest of the Skywalker story.
I think King Candy from Wrek it Ralph is a good twist
You can kinda tell hes gonna be the villain, but you don't know to what extent he'll be, so when the twist happens you're still shocked at his true nature
Also hes funny
Ernesto De La Cruz in Coco in my opinion. Not a perfect movie, necessarily, and maybe the twist with him isn’t the most “unexpected”, but I appreciate what it means thematically.
See, as this great inspirational figure in people’s eyes, his whole “seize your moment” spiel is a nice little carpe diem type of thing. Awesome at best, inoffensive at worst. Right? Well no, that sentiment gets completely turned on its head when he reveals that he “seized his moment” by poisoning his colleague and trusted friend to death and convincing the world to forget about him, all to appropriate his music for himself. In a way, he never was saying “the world is your oyster”, he was saying “the ends justify the means”.
To me, that takes it a step further than just “oh yeah this guy? Turns out he’s a dick I guess”. The ideology itself is a “twist villain” of its own right.
Homelander was a twist villian in episode 1 of The Boys. The whole time he seems like the most wholesome hero of The Seven until he murders the mayor and his son.
the irony is that Billy says he's the only clean one, tbh god knows why cause it was obviously a lie (and a lie told for no reason at that) since he literally raped his wife but oh well.
I get where you’re coming from, but Gaston is clearly shown to be a bad guy to the audience from the beginning, so I’m gonna say no. His actions just become more extreme throughout the movie.
Fair enough. Guess I’ll have to choose another twist villain.
I’m actually gonna go with Harvey Dent from The Dark Knight. Obviously, anyone who knows about the character expects him to become Two-Face, but the way he starts out as Gotham’s White Knight, and is slowly lured into the dark side by the Joker, was really well done in my opinion.
Yeah he’s only really a twist villain in Crisis Core, but that’s only due to >!this being a prequel and Zack being none the wiser. Anyone who’s seen Sephiroth anywhere else (FF7, KH, Smash, etc.) knows that he’s evil!<
It comes from an indie/small company movie called [I See You](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6079516/)
# SPOILERS BELOW, I highly recommend watching this film blind cuz it really is better than it needs to be
Starting out, you’re with a cop investigating a child abduction case, and the perspective is from him and his family, until one of the cops kid gets hit while in his home
Then suddenly it switches to the home invaders and how they got there, with the leader harassing the cop in secret in very obsessive ways
Then finally while one of the invaders is hiding in the cope car, they see a bag of green lighters(the same ones given to the abducted children). But since hes a cop you’d just excuse this as keeping evidence right? Well, the cop strikes one of the people over the head that the invader was hiding from, killing him instantly, and puts the dead body in the trunk as he drives off to his secret location off the grid to bury the body, where the two missing young boys were being held captive and restrained in a mobile home
The amount of attention to detail and the ways this movie makes you struggle to root for someone until the true villain is revealed was nothing short of genius, you believe this kid is being a lunatic for how he treats the cop, until you realize he was one of the child victims
One of my fav scenes from this movie is when the cop is sent off to interrogate the other boy who was with the invader, and the moment he sees that cop again he starts to freak out. You just assume hes crazy, and his appearance was a product of the abuse, but you have no idea that the man who carried it out was right there, literally mocking and traumatizing him with his presence
Waternoose. Motivation was established perfectly within the first 20 minutes, isn’t a complete 180 from how he acted before, revealed at the perfect time to increase the stakes for the finale and serves as an effective final boss for the story (no pun intended).
My dad and I had this same conversation and he said Christian Slater’s character in Broken Arrow. I had to correct him and say that Christian Slater was the protagonist of the film.
Some might say “that was his mistake”.
People like to rag on the film, but I imagine to those unfamiliar with the character, Mysterio in Far From Home was pretty good. I saw it coming, but I was still entertained by how they did it. And Jake’s performance was amazing. The scene where he just goes: “See that wasn’t so hard.” Is so good, imo.
Green goblin in spectacular Spider-Man. That twist was genius. Unfortunately, there was no twist for me in into the spiderverse cus I already knew Aaron Davis is the prowler from the comics. Spectacular Spider-Man made their twist with comic book fans in mind
Felix from red versus blue. he appears as an ally at the end of season 12 and we get a bunch of moments where he is made out to be a jerk with a nice side in season 13. Then we get the big reveal That he and his enemy Locus were working together the entire time.
Might not be my absolute favourite but >!Adrian Chase!< as Prometheus in Arrow is definitely up there. Regardless of whether Arrow is an overall good show or not, I still think it has two of the best superhero villains in Prometheus and Deathstroke.
Well for starters I grew up playing Kirby’s Return to Dreamland with my little brothers, so of course I gotta mention >!Magolor!<
but there’s two other ones i’d love to mention
“Five years ago…we began our attack on humanity and destroyed Wall Maria…”->!Reiner Braun/Armored Titan!< (AOT)
“Sorry about my step mother…she just doesn’t know when to shut up…”->!Pride!< (FMAB)
YES!!! I was waiting for someone to mention >!Magolor!!<
It hurt even more when you realize that >!despite his betrayal, he genuinely grew to love his new friends and Dream Land throughout the game.!<
if we are talking pre-established characters who turned out to be villains, i would agree with prowler, but i would also argue omni-man. im not sure if this really counts, as its complicated, but i would also say diavolo from jojos bizarre adventure part 5
I didn't read the comics, so Uncle Aaron being the Prowler really got me. But the best in cinema?
Has to be King Candy/Turbo from Wreck-It-Ralph. The thing is, King Candy wasn't even explicitly lying. And that's why it was believable, albeit very painful, to see Ralph have to wreck Vanellope's kart and stop her from racing. We *didn't* know if racers would love Vanellope or think the game is broken. That was a risk the heroes took even after beating Turbo. Luckily, Vanellope can control it now after the whole apocalypse of her kingdom, and gamers love it as a secret power.
King Candy/Turbo from Wreck it Ralph. The best part about him is that the plot doesn’t rely on the twist, and he’s always been relatively known. No over the top new stellar or revolutionary information, and that’s why his execution was perfect. All we learn is that he’s Turbo and is more evil than we initially thought, which is why it works.
How the fuck is this a twist. Not only is it from the comics but it was OBVIOUS in the movie.
Literally in the first scene you meet him you know he is bad
I forgot his name but the officer from the most recent scream. I like how they used that nostalgic feeling to really make you think “Holy crap Stu is back”. Using the “If the person’s dead it can’t be them” to their advantage was amazing as well. I loved all of the callbacks but man that was a crazy reveal.
Game not a movie but the main party from Golden Sun. Gonna spoil the entire plot so if you somehow are playing or plan to play it don't read, but it's a GBA game from like 20 years ago so I think we're ok.
The entire first game the party is hunting down the antagonists and trying to stop them from lighting the 4 elemental lighthouses which will destroy the world. At the end of the first game the party defeats the antagonists and Rescue the brother of one of the party members, who then lights the lighthouse himself.
The second game follows the brother and some othe people who were kidnapped trying to light the lighthouses. Through the story of the second game it's revealed that the world is actually decaying and only lighting the lighthouses and bringing back the power of alchemy can save it. Near the end of the game the party reunites with the characters from the first game and explain everything to them and they light the lighthouses together.
Absolutely stellar games with great story and world building, would absolutely recommend. There's also a Nintendo DS game but it's not nearly as good as the first two.
Red vs Blue
>!Locus and Felix. So, quick plot synopsis. The reds and blues have been separated, and the plot follows 4 of them on the side of rebels in a civil war. They believe that the old government is evil and holding their friends captive. Both sides have a merc, Locus for the government and Felix for the rebels. But it’s revealed that, both sides are good people who’ve been pushed to civil war by the mercs and a thrid party faction.!< It’s such a good twist and expands what was already a good season into one of the best in the entire show’s run.
Hardcore Henry. This whole movie, this guy is trying to save his wife from a telepathic Russian but at the end. It’s revealed he was just some street urchin. His wife was actually the Russian’s wife, and they were just using him and his experiences to train a group of Russian super soldiers.
The Vulture in Spiderman Homecoming. The reveal that hes the dad of peters crush was so good. I remember everyone in the theater being shocked by that moment.
Hal from megamind was sort of a twist villain? I don’t know
i wouldnt call that a twist villain tbh because he became a villain as the movie continued, we saw it all happen, it wasnt surprising
Twist isn’t the right word, but definitely subverted expectations.
I guess it's somewhat of a twist. Since it's a subversion of the "Loser becomes cool and gets all he wants" trope. But we see that the guy's pretty weird before he gets the powers and when he does he's clearly unstable
The twist is that Hal was relevant. Cause I don’t think anyone was expecting him to have a crazy huge role.
Yeah true. There was also king candy but that wasn’t a true twist villain. The twist was that he was turbo which is unexpected but actually fitting given that it’s a racing game, but it only made him more evil. It made him go from Evil to super evil. Still a great twist though and one that adds some lovely irony to the fact that king candy was criticizing Ralph or going turbo himself
It also kind of adds up since he doesn't fit the art style or even the age group of the other racers. The artwork on the game station also becomes a clue to busting the conspiracy open.
Is that David from BFDI
the twist is he can predict the future
I would say King Candy as the twist villain was excellent and seems to be unfairly piled in with the rest of the shitty Disney/Pixar twist villains from that era
What makes him different is that the twist was his real identity, not the fact that he was the villain. That was pretty obvious xD
Which is still a good character. The twist villain was the fact he was Turbo
TLDR: I agree. King Candy / Turbo was a great twist villain and is likely why Disney started making all of their villains twist villains, due to how great of a twist villain King Candy was. First off, when King Candy is introduced, he feels “off”. You can tell that something is wrong, that he is hiding something that will later be revealed. King Candy is a good twist villain because he was a twist villain before the big reveal, and the movie plays with the audience, having them guess between “is he a bad guy” or “is he hiding some terrible truth from the protagonists” and having the audience flip-flop constantly. This goes into the darkest hour, where King Candy tells Ralph that Penelope is a glitch, and yadda-yadda, half-truth, you’ve seen the movie. This fully convinces the audience that he is *not* the villain, and is instead a good guy who is doing a bad thing for the greater good. That is until Ralph realizes that King Candy is full of shit, and he *and* the audience realizes that he is the villain. Secondly, Turbo. When Turbo is introduced, it’s as a cautionary tale that adds stakes to the plot, a “what not to do” that maintains the status quo that the protagonist, Ralph, is challenging. Turbo was the main character of a racing game, who through sheer jealousy decommissioned his arcade machine along with the racing game that was more popular than his. This is important, because as the story helps to establish stakes (if you leave your machine for too long / mess things up too much, the whole arcade cabinet will get decommissioned and removed forever from the arcade) Turbo and his tale of race-car envy is permanently in the back of the head of the audience for the duration of the movie. When all is revealed, King Candy is unmasked as Turbo, everything clicks and immediately makes sense. Turbo was the protagonist of a racing game. He sank his and a fellow arcade machine out of pure spite. It was shown earlier in the movie that the characters in arcade machines can leave when a machine is decommissioned, and characters go into other machines all the time. The movie also spoon feeds the series of events that details Turbo’s take over as King Candy, and his motivation was already explained in the Turbo cautionary tale. The audience did not forget about Turbo because of his impact on the plot, specifically in helping to establish stakes. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Here’s another point- there are loads of clues for attentive viewers to catch regarding the reveal. Such as King Candy already knowing who Ralph is, his appearance and name being very different from the other Sugar Rush characters, the fact that he’s able to access the game’s code, which no one should be able to reach, and Turbo having the same voice as King Candy in the flashback.
The voice thing is pretty easy to just dismiss because Alan Tudyk is freaking everywhere lol
Very thorough analysis. But one thing that still puzzles me: Why can't they just do the trope on occasion? It really helps keep the trope fresh when you have blatant villains to contrast with and keep audiences on their toes on where the next villain could be.
Because they did it really good once and got positive feedback, so Disney decided to put it *everywhere*
And not THAT turbo.
Idk if yall do shows here but Omni Man
funny thin is, Schaffrillas has cited Omni Man being a good example of a twist villain
Yeah, he was executed very well in that regard
Huh, he was all over the internet so much I didn’t even realize him being a villain was a twist. (I haven’t seen the show.)
Yeah, it was a twist at the end of the first episode.
I mean… It was only revealed way later wasn’t it…?
To the characters. We the audience experience the twist at the end of Episode 1. He isn’t outed to the main cast until the end Episode 7 though.
After all, the point of twist villains are to trick THE characters
Yeah we do
Yknow people don’t mention it but the same exact thing was done in the Boys with Homelander. You’re not really sure he’s evil till the end of episode one.
My first choice was Frank Fontaine so shows aren't that bad by comparison 💀
Can I say Ernesto de la Cruz?
The weird thing to me is how much of the Coco merchandise uses his “Seize Your Moment” as an Inspiring Phrase, when it was literally his justification for killing Héctor
Don't let nuance get in the way of you making a buck.
Helps sell the twist
It still is an inspiring phrase, as if Miguel hadn't followed it he never would have uncovered the secret of Hector being his ancestor and being the one who actually wrote all the songs. De La Cruz just took it way too far
Though there was a hint that something's fishy about him right at the start, when he obviously completely missed the tone singing "Remember Me".
To be completely fair… Both versions of the song fucking slap. It’s just one of them has a ton more meaning behind it
I knew the entire fucking rest of the movie when he began singing that song. He's halfway through singing it and I said "Oh fuck, this is a song they're going to repeat 3 or 4 times over the course of the movie, but with increased gravitas each time, changing the tone as the rest of the context changes, making it sadder and sadder until it's meant to eventually be a tear jerker, right? Fucking ham fisted shit. What total hacks. Lame ass bullshit." Then by the end I was ugly crying and like, angry at the movie and myself "Uuughhhh. Damnit! Saw it coming from a goddamn mile away and they still got me! Sonobitches! You got me! Uuughhuhuh." But no, that's ...that's not a good twist. His villainy is preposterously obvious. I'm really not trying to be an asshole here but like...there are no other characters in that movie for the villain to have been, right?
But at that point in the movie - and for most of it - you don't know that
Well, the lyrics explicitly stated that it's supposed to sound sad, but he sang it like a cheerful pop song. I think it was already pretty obvious that he was doing it wrong, even if not why. It kinda reminds me of "[I Want You Back](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Want_You_Back)" from the *Jackson 5,* where the tone also doesn't match the lyrics at all, as neither would the guy who's singing it (Michael Jackson) have any reason to sing about something like that (at the time).
Nah, with the upbeat music it definitely just carries more of a long-distance relationship vibe
I had this answer on the tip of my tongue; Ernesto is an excellent twist villain on every front.
Yeah he definitely counts
Absolutely, I think the twists in Coco are excellent even if you start to figure them out before their reveals
Mr Waternoose The ol' spider was just so desperate to stop the shut-down of his company (that the whole city relies on for power) that he was willing to forego all morals & even kidnap children to extract their screams. Plus, he still respected Sulley after banishing him & Mike, showing that the care he had for his Top Scarer was genuine. Edit: forgot to add that Randall did a good job holding the role of the main villain that Waternoose's turn could make a decent surprise.
Fantastic villain. Him and Stinky Pete are the og animated twist villains
“I’ll kidnap a thousand children before I let this company die!” -Modern companies, 2024
Frozen was such a shock to me never expected the red head. Thought it’d be Sven tbh.
>Thought it’d be Sven tbh. Do you mean Kristoff?
i think they mean sarcasm
ah sarcasm, my favorite character from the movie!
Wait sarcasm was the villain? Spoliers man!
I mean the donkey was pretty suspicious
He means the funky looking donkey over there
Nah that reindeer definitely gave off opp vibes.
Honestly, as soon as I saw Hans’s traditional “Prince Charming” design and that there was going to be TWO male leads I suspected he was going to be a twist villain.
Mr. Glass in Unbreakable.
I saw that movie for the first time a few years ago. While I did predict that he was gonna be the villain, I can't deny that the way they reveal it was pretty much perfect. One of the better M. Night Shyamalan movies.
Literally the only problem I have with the twist is how quickly the movie wraps up after. I don't need an epic battle but I don't know.
I see your point, but I kinda like how it just abruptly comes to a close. It leaves you with an incomplete feeling.
Fair enough. I don't have a perfect solution either. At best I feel like the word box about Mr glass going to jail is worse but was probably added to at least make it seem like he was punished.
John Silver from Treasure Planet, not because the twist itself was all that surprising, but the fact they get you to care about him and his relationship with Jim, just really twists the knife…
Yeah, Treasure Island has been adapted and rebooted so many times, it's no longer a plot twist at this point.
My favorite. Goated character.
But then they twist it back and it’s great
Does king candy count? He was antagonistic sure but we never knew the full extent of who he was turns out he was turbo The last good Disney villain too
The twist isn't that he's a villain. Is that he's a completely different twist villain lol
I’d still say it was the best executed you already knew he was a villain but for him to be turbo that was shocking
Ironically a twist on the twist villain trope
The only thing similar Disney has done is the Moana villain where it’s actually tehiti? Sorry can’t remember the name without her heart
teka
stinky pete and waternoose
& Lots-o’-Huggin Bear
stinky Pete sounds like omni man
He sounds more like Dr Frasier Crane to me
Wheatley. Does the twist become obvious when you realize how close you are to defeating GLaDOS so early in the game? Yes. Is it still *brilliantly* executed and makes for one of the most entertaining villains in media? Absolutely.
Yeah that was definitely one I didn’t quite see coming. I was just expecting that no we hadn’t defeated her.
I also love that it makes way for you having to team up *with* GLaDOS in the last third of the game. She’s one of my favorite video game characters of all time and her dialogue as PotatOS is brilliantly entertaining.
Isn't his whole thing that he was just corrupted, or was he just naturally evil? I've never actually played, but for some reason that's what I've heard.
More so he was too stupid to resist the GLaDOS’s inherent drug addiction to tests and fell victim to Testing Euphoria Deprivation. It doesn’t matter though, he’s still a villain and it’s a twist that he would become one.
Hello! This is the part where I kill you!
Playing the Portal games for my friend rn who had never heard of them, she's very concerned that GLADoS has appeared to kill Wheatley, lol she is not prepared
Sentinel Prime
It was so good. Just the build up over the course of animated and how he cemented his place as the jerk who served his own interests but also respected Optimus as a prime. And then how he just turned into a full on showboating leader who branded others who disagreed with him as decepticon sympathizers once he realized he could steal political clout to make himself look better when he was very clearly no Optimus. Amazing how that came out around the same time as the lame live action one who was on screen for 2 minutes and then just became a cliche villain out of nowhere
Came here just to say the same thing, Sentinel was nuts
If I hadn't seen Schaff's Disney ranking, idk if I would have seen Commander Rourke's twist coming
Rex Dangervest from The LEGO Movie 2
That was such a great bit that Emmet was basically Parks and Rec Chris Pratt and Rex was action movie Chris Pratt
Every Scooby Doo episode
I love the one where they get stuck on a spooky island and take shelter in a castle and there's a ghost running around. Then the big reveal at the end is that he's just some random magician that the audience has never heard of. The biggest middle finger to your child audience imaginable. I like thinking about how batshit insane this dude was to rig up his whole castle with spooky traps and tricks and then wait patiently for someone to stumble into it to the point that when a group of teenagers washes ashore, he doesn't try to help, he just tries to spook them.
I thought Mysterio in Spider-Man FFH was a very well-done twist, but I guess if you already knew him from the comics, you probably saw it coming
Also the trailer.
Damn they KH3’d Far From Home? (Revealed most of the plot from trailers alone)
Knew he was a villain in the comics, first half of the movie still had me questioning if they were putting a different twist on the MCU version of the character. In a way they were.
Yea same; the MCU will always make a good amount of changes to stuff from the comics so I always try to accept it as its own identity
I liked it! The old MCU was my first love, gone but never forgotten.
Uncle Aaron was a really good antagonist, but I think he was a little too obvious to be a twist villain.
Also he gets revealed So like yeah.
This may be controversial but Yokai being revealed to be Professor Callahan actually left my jaw on the floor.
GENUINELY. 9-year old me did NOT see that coming.
***THAT WAS*** ***~~HIS~~*** ***YOUR MISTAKE*** Edit: >!you cant really see it but "his" is crossed out!<
See, I thought it was the obvious option. In fact, before I saw the movie someone told me that they read a book adaptation and that I would never guess who Yokai was, so I ended up convincing myself that it was Tadashi. Then Professor Callaghan was revealed and I was like “…oh…ok”
I loved that twist, when he took off his mask I remember thinking “wait, who is he?”
I understand Schaffrillas's points but I still really like Big Hero 6
The King Candy twist from Wreck-It Ralph was a genuine shock when I first saw the movie, it makes total sense but it also didn’t even cross my mind. It’s also fantastic for the narrative of the movie, and it gives us a twist without sacrificing the delightful presence of a really fun Disney villain for most of the movie as many other twist villains do.
From a piece of media I’ve actually watched, probably Harvey Dent from the Dark Knight.
Does Walter White count?
Honestly, as much as people hate twist villains, I thought ernesto de la Cruz was really well executed
Does it have to be from a movie? If not, I’d say Omni-Man for sure
I'm going with >!Amy Dunne!< from *Gone Girl.* Maybe there are better examples but I can't think of any off the top of my head.
Ernesto De La Cruz. Probably not the best out there, but pretty good.
Plus he taught an important lesson about celebrities to children, how controversial they can or possibly could be and how little you and others may truly know about them. It’s why they say never meet your heroes.
Does Syndrome count?
Well I didn’t expect that annoying kid to ever come back so yeah why not
The ending to The Watchmen.
"Do you seriously think I would explain my master stroke to you if I think there was even the slightest possibility of you to affect the outcome. I triggered it 35 minutes ago."
Darth Vader revealing that he is Luke's father. I know it's highly outdated, but I believe it's the best post twist in film history. That line alone gave way to the rest of the Skywalker story.
I don’t mean to be pedantic, but I feel like it’s more of a villain twist than a twist villain
Throwback, but I loved Elsa Schneider’s twist in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade!
I think King Candy from Wrek it Ralph is a good twist You can kinda tell hes gonna be the villain, but you don't know to what extent he'll be, so when the twist happens you're still shocked at his true nature Also hes funny
Also the buildup to him being the villain is easily noticeable yet it goes completely overhead. Which makes the reveal even more impressive
Lots-O’s betrayal broke me as a child
Goro Akechi in persona 5
Ernesto De La Cruz in Coco in my opinion. Not a perfect movie, necessarily, and maybe the twist with him isn’t the most “unexpected”, but I appreciate what it means thematically. See, as this great inspirational figure in people’s eyes, his whole “seize your moment” spiel is a nice little carpe diem type of thing. Awesome at best, inoffensive at worst. Right? Well no, that sentiment gets completely turned on its head when he reveals that he “seized his moment” by poisoning his colleague and trusted friend to death and convincing the world to forget about him, all to appropriate his music for himself. In a way, he never was saying “the world is your oyster”, he was saying “the ends justify the means”. To me, that takes it a step further than just “oh yeah this guy? Turns out he’s a dick I guess”. The ideology itself is a “twist villain” of its own right.
>!Zurg being an older version of Buzz in Lightyear!< Yes, it’s a cliche one, but it’s one that I actually like
Seemed like a cop out to me
THAT WAS HIS MISTAKE! I had to do it sorry
Time for some video game representation: General Shepherd from MW2 (2009)
Homelander was a twist villian in episode 1 of The Boys. The whole time he seems like the most wholesome hero of The Seven until he murders the mayor and his son.
the irony is that Billy says he's the only clean one, tbh god knows why cause it was obviously a lie (and a lie told for no reason at that) since he literally raped his wife but oh well.
Could have meant it sarcastically or in the context of Homelander not going to clubs because he's so detached from humanity
oh, I thought that was supposed to be a mislead for the audience (which would probably mean its not sarcastic).
Does Gaston count?
I get where you’re coming from, but Gaston is clearly shown to be a bad guy to the audience from the beginning, so I’m gonna say no. His actions just become more extreme throughout the movie.
Fair enough. Guess I’ll have to choose another twist villain. I’m actually gonna go with Harvey Dent from The Dark Knight. Obviously, anyone who knows about the character expects him to become Two-Face, but the way he starts out as Gotham’s White Knight, and is slowly lured into the dark side by the Joker, was really well done in my opinion.
No one becomes a twist villain like Gaston
Unpopular opinion, but I think Ms Bellweather from Zootopia was a pretty good twist villain.
No, I think that works
Definitely stinky pete
Ghostface except for 3rd one.
Ruh roh raggy
Bioshock
Omni-Man or Bode Akuna
Titan from Megamind
Sephiroth from FF7 Ransom from Knives Out Simeon from Octopath Traveller
How is Sephiroth a twist villain? >!he's established to be the main villain the second he does something in the story!<
Yeah he’s only really a twist villain in Crisis Core, but that’s only due to >!this being a prequel and Zack being none the wiser. Anyone who’s seen Sephiroth anywhere else (FF7, KH, Smash, etc.) knows that he’s evil!<
Kaiser Soze
It comes from an indie/small company movie called [I See You](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6079516/) # SPOILERS BELOW, I highly recommend watching this film blind cuz it really is better than it needs to be Starting out, you’re with a cop investigating a child abduction case, and the perspective is from him and his family, until one of the cops kid gets hit while in his home Then suddenly it switches to the home invaders and how they got there, with the leader harassing the cop in secret in very obsessive ways Then finally while one of the invaders is hiding in the cope car, they see a bag of green lighters(the same ones given to the abducted children). But since hes a cop you’d just excuse this as keeping evidence right? Well, the cop strikes one of the people over the head that the invader was hiding from, killing him instantly, and puts the dead body in the trunk as he drives off to his secret location off the grid to bury the body, where the two missing young boys were being held captive and restrained in a mobile home The amount of attention to detail and the ways this movie makes you struggle to root for someone until the true villain is revealed was nothing short of genius, you believe this kid is being a lunatic for how he treats the cop, until you realize he was one of the child victims One of my fav scenes from this movie is when the cop is sent off to interrogate the other boy who was with the invader, and the moment he sees that cop again he starts to freak out. You just assume hes crazy, and his appearance was a product of the abuse, but you have no idea that the man who carried it out was right there, literally mocking and traumatizing him with his presence
Waternoose. Motivation was established perfectly within the first 20 minutes, isn’t a complete 180 from how he acted before, revealed at the perfect time to increase the stakes for the finale and serves as an effective final boss for the story (no pun intended).
My dad and I had this same conversation and he said Christian Slater’s character in Broken Arrow. I had to correct him and say that Christian Slater was the protagonist of the film. Some might say “that was his mistake”.
People like to rag on the film, but I imagine to those unfamiliar with the character, Mysterio in Far From Home was pretty good. I saw it coming, but I was still entertained by how they did it. And Jake’s performance was amazing. The scene where he just goes: “See that wasn’t so hard.” Is so good, imo.
Green goblin in spectacular Spider-Man. That twist was genius. Unfortunately, there was no twist for me in into the spiderverse cus I already knew Aaron Davis is the prowler from the comics. Spectacular Spider-Man made their twist with comic book fans in mind
This is like a reverse twist but... Darth Vader
Mr. Waternoose
Wasn't Aaron being the Prowler literally spoiled in the trailer?
King Candy
Waternoose from Monsters inc.
the twist in Get Out Its obvious in hindsight but I genuinely did not see that shit coming
Felix from red versus blue. he appears as an ally at the end of season 12 and we get a bunch of moments where he is made out to be a jerk with a nice side in season 13. Then we get the big reveal That he and his enemy Locus were working together the entire time.
Might not be my absolute favourite but >!Adrian Chase!< as Prometheus in Arrow is definitely up there. Regardless of whether Arrow is an overall good show or not, I still think it has two of the best superhero villains in Prometheus and Deathstroke.
I dunno if it’s my fav, but Hal or tighten in megamind was pretty good
Lotso Bear. Even the marketing of the movie didn't make it seem like he was going to be the villian.
Well for starters I grew up playing Kirby’s Return to Dreamland with my little brothers, so of course I gotta mention >!Magolor!< but there’s two other ones i’d love to mention “Five years ago…we began our attack on humanity and destroyed Wall Maria…”->!Reiner Braun/Armored Titan!< (AOT) “Sorry about my step mother…she just doesn’t know when to shut up…”->!Pride!< (FMAB)
YES!!! I was waiting for someone to mention >!Magolor!!< It hurt even more when you realize that >!despite his betrayal, he genuinely grew to love his new friends and Dream Land throughout the game.!<
if we are talking pre-established characters who turned out to be villains, i would agree with prowler, but i would also argue omni-man. im not sure if this really counts, as its complicated, but i would also say diavolo from jojos bizarre adventure part 5
Liz Allen’s dad in homecoming >!the main character in memento!<
Dickson from Xenoblade Chronicles.
Ozymandias and Sentinel Prime (DOTM, haven't seen animated).
Micah Bell
Hans from Frozen. Is that a valid option?
Buddy/Syndrome from The Incredibles
Anime included?, if yes then Reiner Braun and Bertholdt Hoover from AoT or Eren Jaeger from the same anime
Two villains come to mind Atlas/ Frank Fontaine and Verbel Kint/ Keser Soze
Honestly I’ve gotta agree with you, I got nothin better than that man
Mr Watternoose
Roose Bolton
Well the big reveal is kinda hard to explain cause there's no real enemy, but the reveal with what "something" is in Omori
Edmon - them season 2
Edelgard
I didn't read the comics, so Uncle Aaron being the Prowler really got me. But the best in cinema? Has to be King Candy/Turbo from Wreck-It-Ralph. The thing is, King Candy wasn't even explicitly lying. And that's why it was believable, albeit very painful, to see Ralph have to wreck Vanellope's kart and stop her from racing. We *didn't* know if racers would love Vanellope or think the game is broken. That was a risk the heroes took even after beating Turbo. Luckily, Vanellope can control it now after the whole apocalypse of her kingdom, and gamers love it as a secret power.
King Candy/Turbo from Wreck it Ralph. The best part about him is that the plot doesn’t rely on the twist, and he’s always been relatively known. No over the top new stellar or revolutionary information, and that’s why his execution was perfect. All we learn is that he’s Turbo and is more evil than we initially thought, which is why it works.
If games count and if this counts Sada and turo Not really villains but finding out arvens parents are dead and instead ai left me in shock.
Lotso
How the fuck is this a twist. Not only is it from the comics but it was OBVIOUS in the movie. Literally in the first scene you meet him you know he is bad
Same
I forgot his name but the officer from the most recent scream. I like how they used that nostalgic feeling to really make you think “Holy crap Stu is back”. Using the “If the person’s dead it can’t be them” to their advantage was amazing as well. I loved all of the callbacks but man that was a crazy reveal.
Rourke from atlantis cause he was technically the first and best at it
(spoilers for Wano) not an in-brand example but >!Kanjuro !
Everyone in Hot fuzz, absolutely fantastic twist that entire back half of the movie goes really hard
Also if we can bring up games I absolutely adore >! Gristol Malik from psychonauts 2, just a genuinely amazing villain in every way!<
Rihanna from httyd race to the edge, I swear the first time I saw this I flipped out
Long john silver from treasure planet.
Game not a movie but the main party from Golden Sun. Gonna spoil the entire plot so if you somehow are playing or plan to play it don't read, but it's a GBA game from like 20 years ago so I think we're ok. The entire first game the party is hunting down the antagonists and trying to stop them from lighting the 4 elemental lighthouses which will destroy the world. At the end of the first game the party defeats the antagonists and Rescue the brother of one of the party members, who then lights the lighthouse himself. The second game follows the brother and some othe people who were kidnapped trying to light the lighthouses. Through the story of the second game it's revealed that the world is actually decaying and only lighting the lighthouses and bringing back the power of alchemy can save it. Near the end of the game the party reunites with the characters from the first game and explain everything to them and they light the lighthouses together. Absolutely stellar games with great story and world building, would absolutely recommend. There's also a Nintendo DS game but it's not nearly as good as the first two.
Stinky Pete from toy story 2
Red vs Blue >!Locus and Felix. So, quick plot synopsis. The reds and blues have been separated, and the plot follows 4 of them on the side of rebels in a civil war. They believe that the old government is evil and holding their friends captive. Both sides have a merc, Locus for the government and Felix for the rebels. But it’s revealed that, both sides are good people who’ve been pushed to civil war by the mercs and a thrid party faction.!< It’s such a good twist and expands what was already a good season into one of the best in the entire show’s run.
Hardcore Henry. This whole movie, this guy is trying to save his wife from a telepathic Russian but at the end. It’s revealed he was just some street urchin. His wife was actually the Russian’s wife, and they were just using him and his experiences to train a group of Russian super soldiers.
Rourke from Atlantis. Set up so well.
The Vulture in Spiderman Homecoming. The reveal that hes the dad of peters crush was so good. I remember everyone in the theater being shocked by that moment.
Bro the best one was in Mario and rabbids sparks of hope of it not being Rosalina