Villainous Reveals (with Spoilers)

[Basil]

If you haven't seen Zootopia, Atlantis, Tarzan, Big Hero 6, or Wreck-It Ralph, you'd better skip this topic, as it contains spoilers.

There are certain films in which the villain is not known until the Big Reveal. I'd like to know who among you knew the identity of these villains before hand and whether you found them obvious or not.

The creative team of Tarzan considered Clayton a not-TOO-obvious reveal, but I thought he was a pretty evident villain from the start. But Rourke is a different story. He seemed like part of the team, yet I saw a spoiler on the video game box before watching the film, so I can't really tell how he appeared to viewers. Can anybody recall when they suspected him of treachery, if at all?

I'm pretty sure I didn't trust King Candy's big sob story, though I don't remember if I knew he was Turbo.

Now Big Hero 6 and Zootopia are in a different class; these movies tried actively to keep the identity of the villains a secret while letting viewers know there was a secret to uncover. I can't help but actively try, in those cases, to deduce the villain's identity while watching.

BH6 tried too hard to incriminate Krei, making it evident (to me) that he was innocent. On the other hand, I automatically suspect anybody who conveniently dies in such a way that no one sees the body. I knew Tadashi couldn't be the baddie, but Callaghan set up a host of red flags in my mind. I was sure he was guilty all along.

Bellweather was a complete surprise to me. I knew there had to be more to the tale than just the Mayor's guilt; he was caught far too early in the film. So who was the villain behind the villain? I cast my mind back to every character we had seen so far. My money was on Yax, even though the henchmen were all rams and Bellweather is a sheep. Duh! Still, I didn't get it until she appeared at the museum. Oh, yeah, that was the tip-off, far too late.

So, satisfy my curiosity. Did any of you have her pegged early on? How about the others? I'm especially curious about Rourke, since my experience was spoiled ahead of time in his case.

[Deleted]

I'll admit, when Atlantis came out, I was only 7 years old, so the whole point of storylining and the big reveal and other little nuances that movie makers use to keep audiences captivated were totally lost on me. Rourke was a complete surprise to me, only because I thought the king was the bad guy at first. (Again, I was seven and I automatically thought, "He's the only grumpy person so far, he must be bad." I was somewhat suspicious when I saw the Darth Vader -esque henchmen characters break open the box of rifles but then, when the rest of the team had guns and were pointing them at Milo, it really shocked me. 

I think in a way, I followed Milo's take on the story a little too closely, because it wasn't until those moments in the film that I realized what was happening. Milo was a character that I highly identified with (yes, I was still a small, under appreciated nerd even at the tender age of 7) and so, watching the film, I was more focused on Milo as a character and watching the events in his life play out, rather than focus on the whole, "this is a movie, ergo, there is an antagonist, ergo, who should I be looking out for" type spiel.

King Candy actually broke my heart in Wreck It Ralph. His whole heart to heart talk about being a hero and convincing Ralph to smash Vanellope's cart, really spoke to me, and I actually really loved that little talk. Then watching Ralph smash the cart, honestly believing he was doing the right thing, it really just touched me, because Candy had a good point- sometimes the heroes do have to do terrible things to do what is right. His whole bit about Vanellope being a glitch and causing the game to be shut down because of it made absolute sense to me, so I actually liked him as a character. I will admit though, I wasn't too surprised when he turned out to be the villain, because they do have the code scene where he retrieves the medal to give to Ralph and we see Vanellope's icon floating off in the distance, so I did have my suspicions.

Zootopia's Smell-wether (sorry, couldn't resist) unfortunately didn't come too much as a surprise to me. I completely ignored all of the hype surrounding Zootopia, and when it came to theatres, I literally only went because, heck, it's a Disney movie, I might as well. I now completely regret not having been more excited about it before seeing it, because it is one of my new favorites. But, back to watching it in the theatres for the first time, when Smell-wether was revealled as the villain, my first thought was more of a disappointed "Really?! Again?" because I was disappointed that Disney had followed in the steps of Frozen and chosen someone to be the "underdog villain."  Hans played the whole "Woe is me, I"ll never be king because, like 12 older brothers," and Smell-wether felt like a carbon copy to me because "Woe is me, I'm just a poor under appreciated secretary who'll never be mayor and always gets over looked because, like, predators!"  Also, the name kind of ruined it for me, because (sorry, English major with religious background) a bellwether is the lead sheep of a herd, usually characterized with a bell or other noise maker, to help lead the rest of the herd along. So, yeah, I didn't really appreciate Smell-wether as a villain, simply because, at least to me, it was too obvious to see it coming.

So there you have my take, think on it as you may.

Also, little addendum here, my top three villain reveals, as far as the "didn't see it coming" factor:

1.) Warp Darkmatter as Agent Z (I know, I know, suspicious death, should've seen it coming, but, still.)

2.) Hans of the Southern Isles (go find your own place in *muffled speech as Sage puts her hand over Lyle's mouth to shut him up for proprieties sake*)

3.) Prospector Pete from Toy Story 2 (I know a lot of people might think Lotso from TS3 was the the bigger reveal, but again, TS2 came out first, so his reveal didn't feel as surprising to me as Pete's did.)

[Basil]

I meant to include Hans, of course, probably the most famous of all villain reveals. But I was rushed.

There was just something about him, something that just subliminally felt wrong (besides the fact that Kristoff was so obviously Anna's intended) that I kept expecting him to reveal his evil side. And yet, he continued to be the most perfect man at every turn. When Anna left him in charge, I was so sure he'd become the dictator of Arendelle. But no.

So when Hans spilled the beans, I wasn't really surprised.

I honestly can't remember my reaction to Pete the Prospector. I think I was surprised when he stopped Woody from leaving. But Lots gave me evil vibes from his first line. He had a soothing, oily way of speaking that screamed. "Run away!"