This'll be my next candidate from this series.
What's the work?
Tangled: The Series, or Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure, is a series that takes place after the film. It follows Rapunzel and her friends as they go on new adventures and protect the kingdom they live in.
Who is he and what has he done?
Long ago, Tromus, Sugracha, and almost certainly Mother Gothel were pupils of Lord Demanitus. But, at some point, they were manipulated by Zhan Tiri into betraying him and freeing her from the Lost Realm. The three of them successfully summoned her, resulting in her causing vast amounts of destruction before eventually being imprisoned again. It’s unknown exactly what happened to Tromus immediately after Tiri’s imprisonment, but at some point, he ended up at the House of Yesterday’s Tomorrow.
During the events of the series, Rapunzel and a few of her allies were traveling during a storm, when suddenly, a tree fell down and blocked their path. The impact also tilted their wagon, resulting in it getting stuck in a patch of mud. Upon noticing the house, they decided to ask to stay there. Tromus, disguised as “Mr. Matthews,” gladly let them in. He showed them their guest bedrooms, but Cassandra could immediately sense that something was off about both the place and “Matthews” himself, so she voiced her suspicions to Rapunzel. But she convinced her to stay for a little while, reminding her that they’d seen weirder things. Meanwhile, Shorty stopped in front of a mirror and talked to his reflection like it was an actual person. Then, his reflection actually did seem to develop sentience. It gained glowing, red eyes and seemed to attack him.
A bit later, everyone went to have dinner. Rapunzel noticed that “Shorty” wasn’t acting like his usual self, so she went to talk to Eugene about it. Eugene wasn’t convinced that anything was wrong until “Shorty” had Lance look at himself in a mirror, resulting in him getting pulled into the mirror and a clone of him emerging. Eugene went to confront both of the clones, but “Shorty” effortlessly threw him across the room. Rapunzel managed to incapacitate them, but as the remaining protagonists were trying to figure out if there were any more duplicates, “Cassandra” revealed herself to be a duplicate as well and freed the others.
The others went to find a hiding spot, but when “Eugene” accurately called Pascal a chameleon, Rapunzel became suspicious. She soon realized he was a duplicate as well. The duplicates all tried to push her into the mirror, resulting in her own duplicate emerging and attacking her. She managed to trap her duplicate in the mirror while making the other clones think she was one of them. Unfortunately, her duplicate attacked the real protagonists, who were all stuck in the mirror with her. Luckily, Rapunzel placed the mirror on the floor and tricked the duplicates into standing on it, resulting in the real protagonists pulling them in and freeing themselves.
They all tried to leave, but Tromus tried to convince them to stay a little longer. They still tried to leave, but after seeing how bad the storm was, they decided to stay. None of them realized that the tree that fell in front of their wagon earlier had been intentionally cut down. When they woke up the next morning, they saw that the door had vanished. They looked for a way out and eventually ended up in a massive room full of toys. They all decided to enjoy themselves for a little while and started playing with the toys, but while they did that, Tromus secretly placed a magical spinning top in the room. When Cassandra spun the top around, it transformed her and Lance into little kids and Shorty into a baby. Rapunzel and Eugene spent a while trying to get them to settle down before Tromus returned and explained that the “top of time” was responsible for what happened. He told Rapunzel and Eugene that they had one hour to find the top and spin it in reverse, or else the others would never change back. The two of them spent a while trying to get the others to listen, and at one point, Tromus approached Rapunzel and suggested that she and Eugene stay in the house and watch over the others. Before she could respond, he disappeared.
Eventually, the others were finally turned back to normal. They continued to search for an exit as Tromus watched them, frustrated that both of his attempts to keep the protagonists trapped had failed. Now more determined than ever to keep Rapunzel imprisoned, he ensnared her physical body in vines and placed a spell on her that trapped her in a dream world. In this dream world, everything that happened from the first episode of the series until the moment they entered the house had never transpired, and Rapunzel was about to have her coronation. She kept her memories of everything that happened throughout the series, but the dream versions of the other characters tried to convince her that everything that happened in the real world was actually a dream. They almost succeeded until her subconscious created another version of her, who approached her and confirmed that everything she was seeing was fake. She told her that, in order to escape, she needed to touch one of the black rocks.
In the real world, the others went to search for Rapunzel. Zhan Tiri lured Cassandra into one room, while Eugene and Lance found both Rapunzel and Tromus. When they confronted him, he captured them and revealed his true identity. He explained that if his enchanted vines completely enveloped Rapunzel, she’d remain trapped in the dream world forever as her powers were transferred to Zhan Tiri. Once he realized that her subconscious was trying to get her to escape, he entered her dream while taking the form of Eugene, causing the dream Rapunzel to vanish. She appeared later and tried to convince the real Rapunzel to escape the dream world, but she refused, since she wanted to stay in what seemed like a peaceful reality, resulting in the dream Rapunzel dematerializing. But as she was about to put the crown on, she was reminded of what her subconscious told her and rejected the fantasy world she was trapped in. In response, “Eugene” revealed that he was Tromus in disguise and decided to trap her in a nightmare.
Flames began to encircle her as a version of Cassandra approached her and furiously blamed her for severely burning her hand before trying to slice her with her sword. She blocked the attack, causing the flames and the fake Cassandra to disappear, but Tromus just teleported her outside and sent a group of people to attack her. The other Rapunzel appeared and helped her fight them off, but right after that, an enormous, monstrous version of Pascal emerged from the water and devoured the dream Rapunzel. He then chased after the real Rapunzel and eventually swallowed her, which teleported her to the tower that she was trapped in for most of her life. There, she was chained to the wall as Tromus, in the form of Gothel, approached and taunted her. Luckily, she managed to take control of the dream world, since it was ultimately in her mind. After causing the chains to disappear, Tromus angrily summoned a fireball and seemingly prepared to throw it at Rapunzel, but she effortlessly turned it into a giant cupcake. Then, she summoned some of the black rocks and touched one of them, freeing her from the dream world.
Right after she woke up, the entire house began to fall apart and turn to sand. Tromus began to disintegrate along with it, but not before vowing that their battle against Zhan Tiri was far from over.
What makes him close to being Pure Evil?
He displayed almost no mitigating qualities at all. Nothing indicates he was supernaturally corrupted by Zhan Tiri. All of his supposed friendliness was just part of his disguise. He had several comedic moments when he was pretending to be a welcoming host, but once he was revealed to be a villain, he was taken seriously. There was a moment that involved Rapunzel turning the fireball he summoned into a giant cupcake, which then splattered all over him. But I don’t think that was detractive, since it was very brief. And it was mostly played for satisfaction, since the entire scene was meant to demonstrate how Rapunzel was now able to control the dream she was stuck in.
But is he bad enough? The heinous standard isn’t extremely high, but it’s not that low, either. There are a few villains who stand out. Now, even though he does have powerful magic, he still can’t be fairly compared to Zhan Tiri. However, he does have to compete with both Sugracha and Gothel, who also helped release Zhan Tiri. Sugracha then brainwashed several people and tried to release Tiri again. Gothel abandoned Cassandra when she was a young child. After kidnapping Rapunzel, she isolated her and abused her both emotionally and psychologically for most of her life.
He also has to compete with Andrew, who tried to destroy Corona and its inhabitants while forcing the king and queen to watch. There’s also “Mother” and “Father,” who turned many people into non-sapient birds, essentially killing them, even if it was undone later.
A couple of the redeemed antagonists also pass the baseline. Varian threatened to encase Queen Arianna in amber, which was portrayed as a fate worse than death. Cassandra brainwashed several people, tried to crush Eugene to death, and endangered Corona’s inhabitants as she took over the kingdom.
Still, I think he stands out enough. He's one of the only three villains who knowingly helped Zhan Tiri escape from her prison. In the flashback, Zhan Tiri was shown destroying everything in her path upon being released while Demanitus described her as a being who was “bent on destruction.” And other episodes made it clear that, while she was free and active, Zhan Tiri nearly destroyed Corona at one point. At another point, she used the Great Tree to kill many people. Since Tromus helped free her, he was partially responsible for the destruction she caused.
In addition to summoning Tiri, he had other crimes, such as attempting to keep the protagonists trapped in some kind of realm on the other side of a mirror. But the other crime that really made him stand out was trapping Rapunzel in a nightmarish reality. Now, he wasn’t the only villain to torment someone in a dream. Zhan Tiri tormented Varian after he fell asleep in a later episode. But honestly, I think the way Tromus tormented Rapunzel was even worse than what Zhan Tiri did. Tiri mostly just frightened Varian with a few unsettling visuals while manipulating him into convincing Rapunzel to use one of the incantations against Cassandra. Tromus, meanwhile, made it personal. He first conjured up a version of Cassandra who blamed her for her injury before attempting to kill her. And having a version of her best friend attack her wasn’t the only thing he did. He later took the form of the person who isolated and psychologically abused her for most of her life and proceeded to use her likeness to cruelly taunt her, all while she was chained to the wall. And then there’s the fact that he intended to keep her trapped forever. I feel like all of this allows him to stand out from Sugracha and Gothel, who share his crime of releasing Zhan Tiri.
What prevents him from being Pure Evil?
Like Sugracha, he seems to be loyal to Zhan Tiri. When he promised to keep Rapunzel trapped, his tone and expressions seemed to indicate that he genuinely respected Zhan Tiri. Plus, he was determined to transfer the Sundrop’s power to Zhan Tiri and never tried to take it for himself. I think the idea of him being genuinely loyal to her is reinforced when we compare his and Sugracha’s goals to Gothel’s. The former two have been gladly serving Tiri for at least centuries and made it their main goal to release her. Gothel, meanwhile, never even mentioned Tiri in the present and had an entirely different goal from the others. I think this implies that two of Tiri’s disciples were fully devoted to her, while the third had no loyalty to her and was perfectly willing to abandon her so that she could take the Sundrop’s power for herself.
I’m unsure about this one, but he also might slightly fail the heinous standard, since it’s not made entirely clear how much of a role he played in releasing Zhan Tiri in the past. And his plan in the present was to deliver the Sundrop’s power to Zhan Tiri, but he never explicitly stated that he intended for Tiri to kill everyone, even though he probably would have zero issues with that. Still, he knowingly attempted to transfer the energy of an immensely powerful object to a malevolent entity. He was also most likely aware of her desire to obliterate Corona, even though he never mentioned it. So, even if his plan does rely on fridge horror, it’s still relevant to the plot, and it’s implied that Tromus’s plan would have disastrous consequences.
Really, I can see arguments for him barely passing or barely failing the standard. But whether he passes or not, I think he’s at least bad enough to be NPE.
Conclusion
I think he might count, but it's your decision.