I’m constantly torn between the ‘be kind to everyone’ and the ‘fuck everyone you owe them nothing’ mentalities
Do no harm but take no shit
DO NO HARM BUT TAKE NO SHIT
🌻🌻
Know what? I can get behind this.
Im already super behind thi
Do you count King Candy / Turbo as a twist? King Candy was obviously villainous from the get go. I didn't see it coming and my response was the same as Ralph and Feilx.
Here’s the thing people might not understand. I can hate a trope, but I can still like it when it’s done well. King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph is one of those examples.
One of the reasons why it works is because we’re given several hints throughout the film that something is off with King Candy. Sure he acts all friendly and happy, but he still feels a bit off. This comes across in the scene where he accuses Ralph of going Turbo, he suddenly becomes very angry and defensive of his game. Not to mention a later scene where he goes into the game’s code he suddenly becomes very devilish, talking about how the code is the lifeblood of the game, treating it like a treasure he keeps to himself, hinting that there’s something he’s hiding but we’re not sure what.
Then we get to the scene to where King Candy explains to Ralph why Vanellope can’t win a race.
His reasoning and the way he explains it actually does make sense and it provides a good explanation as to why he treats Vanellope so badly. He’s seen less as a jerk who won’t let a kid race and more like someone who doesn’t want to tell this kid a horrible truth. Still, there’s something mysterious about him we can’t quite pin down.
When the reveal finally happens and it’s we figure out he was lying before, suddenly everything about him shown before makes sense. Why he was so hostile towards Ralph at the beginning, why he doesn’t want Vanellope to win a race, his overall suspicious behavior. This is why King Candy works as a twist villain, because him being evil makes sense with the story as well as his character.
The trouble is, Disney Animation saw how people were wowed by this twist and were immediately like, “Okay, lets put twist villains in all of our movies!” the issue is they didn’t realize what made the King Candy/Turbo twist work.
Now while I love Frozen and Zootopia, the weakest element of these films are the twist villains. The issue is when these villains are revealed they come right the heck out of no where. When Hans and Ms. Bellwether first show up there’s nothing off about them. They just seem like overall nice people. Nothing that gives off a hint of suspicion or that something might be up. Then all of a sudden it turns out they were evil this whole time… Like, wha? Huh?
Now to be fair Frozen does offer some subtle hints during the first act that Hans might be up to something, but these hints are so minor you have to watch the film under a microscope in order to see them. With Zootopia, Mayor Lionheart does treat Bellwether in a way so bad it would make sense someone would turn on him, but Bellwether shows no hints of her being mad at him or wanting to take him out herself during most of the film. Honestly her personality during the rest of the film and the climax feels like two completely different characters (same with Hans).
Now you might be thinking “But Joey, if these reveals were done in a way where you didn’t expect the character to be the bad guy then they’re still good twists right?”
Well sure it’s unexpected, but at the same time Anna being a werewolf would be unexpected, but that doesn’t mean it’s automatically good storytelling.
A good twist should not only be unexpected, but it should also make sense within context with the rest of the story. The reveal of a character being evil should feel like this has always been a part of a character and less like the character’s personality suddenly did a 180.
Most Disney and Pixar films feel like they’re adding in twist villains not for the sake of the story but just for the sake of having a twist villain. You can’t just make a character automatically evil, the twist has to make sense in the context of the story.
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
