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A Look At Dawn Bellwether
6 years ago
DANGER: SPOILERS AHEAD! TURN AWAY IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN "ZOOTOPIA" YET!
So... Assistant Mayor Dawn Bellwether. I think we all know about "Zootopia" and the impact it's had, so I'm just gonna cut to the chase. There seems to be three camps when talking about this character in particular. On one side, there're those who draw chibi art playing up her adorableness, going "Night howler? What night howler?". On the opposite, there's the artworks that fill her in the role of various pop-culture villains, like Palpatine, or Hannibal Lector, or that guy from "Se7en", try to give her a trying-to-look-intimidating-but-is-just-so-darn-cute face, or place her in some prison/dominatrix/"bad-girl" pin-up, while sometimes vamping her up Jessica-Rabbit style. In the middle, there are those media critics who either say she "works" for the moral on racism, what with being a somewhat-Trump stand-in (or at least, according to Moore and Howard) who uses fear to their political advantage, or find her just the latest in a slew of lame twist villains pumped out by Disney.
I'm not gonna lie, I used to be in the very last boat when I first saw "Zootopia". I mean, for the majority of the film, we knew her as a dorky, marginalized, bubbly companion to Judy. That's cute and all, but you expect me to go "aw hell yeah, that lil' sheep is the next Frollo"? No, really. There are people who compare her to effing Frollo. Look it up. Now I get they're both racist, but... Let's just look at the Judge's resume, shall we?
Frollo
Murdered an innocent woman.
Attempted to drown said woman's infant immediately after.
Hunts gypsies for no apparent reason other than for the evulz.
Leaves his own adopted son to be humiliated by the whole town.
Craves one gypsy in particular who's roughly three decades younger than him, and even sniffs her hair at one point.
Burns down the house of an innocent family.
Blackmails aforementioned gypsy at her stake for god-knows-what.
Arson against a church.
Ultimately tries to smite the same gypsy.
And to top it all off, he excuses every last one of these with "God made me do it."
Or, let's look at some of Disney's other twist villains.
King Candy/Turbo
Got two whole games unplugged, all for not being the big boy anymore.
Demoted Vanellope to glitch for the sake of taking over Sugar Rush.
Tried to violently sabotage Vanellope's victory, once again, for his own ego.
Lotso' Huggin Bear
Manipulated Big Baby.
Kept possibly hundreds of toys in an age-inappropriate torture-center for a classroom at Daycare for God-knows-how-long, with the dumpster as their only salvation.
And even left Woody and the gang to die in the incinerator after faking a redemption.
Ernesto De La Cruz
Poisoned his own friend for his gain, and kept it under the sheets for years, even after death.
Ultimately tried to kill an effing little boy after the jig went up.
Charles Muntz
Set arson to Carl's house.
Tried to dip a little boy off his blimp.
And, my favorite, Commander Rourke, from "Atlantis".
Punched an old man, fatally wounding him, and pulled an effing pistol before him.
Stole an entire civilization's only life source, knowing full well that'd let them die, all 'cause "We've got to have... Money!"
And ultimately tried to off Milo himself during the climax.
All we get from Bellwether is turning predators nuts, and getting someone else to finish Judy off.
Hell, even Prince Hans at the very least tried to kill Elsa himself, he didn't just get someone else to do it, while just sitting back enjoying the show. And as little as Mr. Waternoose did himself, or as well-intentioned his motives might have been, he tired to kidnap, and possibly kill effing children.
You're probably gonna be going "She's the closest Disney's ever gotten to a dictator!" Oh, sure. She's a real scummy dictator. Like that one scene where she... Talks about fear working. "She's a real wolf in sheep's clothing!" Like Disney's never done that before... (And no, making it a literal sheep or political metaphor doesn't change anything.) "She never cared for Judy! She was just using her!" I dunno, what about the bit where she offers her the position as the ZPD's mascot? (And I'm not talking about her whole "we're-not-so-different" talk after her reveal.) I mean, her plan for prey domination was already going into effect, Lionheart's now in prison, she doesn't seem to need Judy anymore, and she even seems genuinely saddened when she resigns. This isn't like other twist villains, where their nice sides generally extend to just faux-congratulating the heroes, this is a genuine pet-the-dog moment.
And yeah, she does technically try to have Judy killed, but I always just saw it as "Oh, she knows too much so she gonna die", rather than "I'm so gonna enjoy seeing someone get ripped to shreds..." Wouldn't it be scarier if she tried to kill Judy herself, and then turn Nick savage? And they turn out to be faking the ordeal anyway, and her next option is to just frame Judy, which was derailed by her own recorded speech, so it's even less of a scare factor. (BTW, given that the crisis apparently went on for three months, wouldn't have Zootopia's doctors or scientists figured out the source of the savage transformations sooner, and traced it back to Bellwether before Judy could?) I mean granted this is a kids movie we're talking, so of course they're not gonna go all "Mortal Kombat" in the climax, and I get the need to put more focus on the protagonists, and the plot is a mystery after all, but the point still stands. I feel like her hate-ability comes more from how much we've come to love Zootopia and how much it would suck to see it ripped apart, and the "savage Nick" scene is only tense because of the bond he grew with Judy. There are millions of other villains who have at least one fat body count even without the protagonist's presence, while Bellwether's is, as far as we know, nonexistent. (And to those who wanna say "well those savage attacks could have easily killed someone", one, if we don't see anyone actually die in the movie, and not just get injured, or even get any mention of any full-on deaths, then, by definition, it didn't really happen. Show, don't tell. And two, once again, that's from the night howler, not Bellwether herself.) I dunno, I'm very picky when it comes to letting one villain's hate-ability or charisma sink in.
But with all that said, I just shrugged and went "Oh well, the villain sucks, but the movie's still good. Don't let her ruin it." And I just passed her off as nothing but a hokey Bond villain.
That is, until I met this guy: www.deviantart.com/wastedtimee…
While I was drawn to him for the way he draws vixens, it was his Bellwether art that sealed the deal. I loved how he drew her more film-accurate, and I admittedly squeeed inside at her being paired with a wolf of all species. I didn't care how much it made sense, it was all adorable, and I'd been meaning to read the soft AU fanfic series that inspired said pictures, but work and school kept getting in the way.
Finally, just around the peak of 2019, I decided to read "The Rehabilitation Of Dawn Bellwether", and, by God, what a way to kick it off.
I was instantly drawn to the more sympathetic portrayal of Dawn, while still acknowledging her more iffy actions, the way it played off the events of the original film, the romance she forms with the aforementioned wolf OC, who actually felt like a real person, and not just a Gary-Stu, it's faithful portrayal of Nick and Judy, the raised stakes in the conflict, and I even got a bit teary-eyed at quite a few moments. Then I read the semi-sequel "A Lamb Among Wolves", which doubled-down on the likable OCs and especially the feels.
I plan to go into more detail about these fics in particular, and what makes them enjoyable in their own right in the future, but for now, let's compare it's portrayal of Bellwether.
This series reminded me why I ever liked this character in the first place. While Nick was cool, Judy was a very compelling protagonist, and Finnick was basically Zootopia's Boba Fett, I thought Bellwether was the cutest. Even after hearing some vague spoilers about a sheep being the villain, seeing the film for the first time, I looked at her and thought "Nah, can't be..." I loved her bubbly, dorky demeanor, even seeing a bit of myself in her, and I felt bad that her boss treated her like crap, calling her "Smellwether" and giving her a boiler room for an office. "Rehab" pretty much follows that side of her, though at the same time, it still reminds us that, hey, she did some pretty bad stuff. Her transition to "the dark side" is played organically. She was pushed around in her childhood and adulthood by not just predators but everyone bigger than her, much like Judy. Except that also includes her own father, which, as cliched as it may be, just... Ouch. Working with Lionheart was only the final straw before going through with the Night Howler plot, which this time, her henchram, Doug, was responsible for. (BTW, thank you WT! He was the consistently cold speciesist sociopath in the movie, and he was the one doing most of the villain's work!) She legit wanted a friendship with Judy, but her insecurity at her resignation from the ZPD sent her into a revenge-seeking downward spiral, which, combined with her newfound sense of power, ultimately lead to the "savage Nick" bit, only to come back to her senses after getting apprehended. After getting paroled after 4 or 5 years, she instantly tries to start over, only to get kicked out of every store, and to log in to Furbook to find a slew of death threats and hateful slurs. She eventually does get a job at a local fast-food joint, where she meets fellow employee and wolf Vernon Hunter. While initially skeptical to working with him, she warms up as he gives her a genuine benefit of the doubt, helping her to rekindle her bank account and so on, and their friendship blossoms into something more as the story progresses. However, while grateful for Vernon's generosity, she struggles with deciding whether to stay with him, or if her reputation is too much for his image, and the plot just escalates from there.
Even taking Bellwether out of the equation, it's a great story of redemption, forgiveness, and overcoming bias. While Judy goes through a somewhat-similar internal prejudice battle in the movie, Bellwether's obviously carries a lot more weight, and, for me, at least, as bad as her actions were, they weren't really enough to overshadow her change. There's even an especially powerful scene where Dawn is confronted at her new job by none other than Judy and Nick. She lets her chew her out for betraying her and Zootopia as a whole, trying to have her killed and all, then comes out with a mature, legitimate apology, then Judy says: "I don't believe you." Just... Wow. I mean, I think we all have a moment where we've screwed up, realized it too late, and try everything in our power to make it up to those we've offended, even if this case in particular is more extreme. But sometimes, there'll be those who just won't accept it. This is further hammered when Bellwether's suspected of a more intense repeat of townwide night-howler rampage, and, despite having nothing to with them in particular, turns herself in, showing that, no matter how much we try to move on, we shouldn't brush our own mistakes aside.
Where was Dawn in the movie again? Oh, yeah, "we'll be unstoppable, Judy".
I know this all sounds like one of those "Draco In Leather Pants" things, but I don't care. I never once thought that her behavior in the first two thirds were "just a lie", or "part of her plan", like everyone likes to say, and her big reveal was jarring to say the least. Also, I don't care if her trouble with Lionheart may seem petty to you, as someone who's seen reports of male celebrities mistreating female co-workers/fans, this is iffier to watch than I remember (and no, the fact that a certain someone just happened to be one of the film's executive producers doesn't exactly help). You'd think they'd do something more with that then just "oh, she's some power-hungry bitch".
Now, maybe this was never Disney's intention. Maybe they did just mean for her to be some wicked witch in sheep's clothing that we're supposed to root against, no matter what we see of her. Well, let's just say that, as noble as the whole "villain was the one you least suspect" trope is (or was) in making kids smarter, more cautious, etcetera, at the same time, you should still be extra careful when writing such a character. Depending on how much you show or don't show, you never know how much your audience themselves could fall for their ruse, and that twist in the last ten minutes of your one-hundred-and-eight-minute film can come off as troublesome. Throughout my time in the furry fandom, I've met quite a handful of "Zootopia" fans who legitimately care about Bellwether, and want her to pull a sincere reformation. To be honest, I feel like the idea of any super-nice guy hiding a dirty secret just feeds into our worst paranoia, which seems especially weird for a film saying "we can't let fear divide us". I guess with Bellwether in particular, they should have just stuck with either keeping her all evil or keeping her a cute sidekick.
I dunno, if she was bad from the start (or at least revealed earlier on than the last ten minutes), her actions went far beyond just using night howler, they just cut out her interactions with Lionheart entirely (again, give Hans some credit, at least they didn't show him getting pushed around by his family or something), and there was more time dedicated to her being a douchey leader to all her peers, and not just predators, there'd be no fan-redemption arc, I wouldn't have latched onto her, and this whole thing would just be begging for more screentime from someone like Gazelle, Finnick, or Gideon or something. But, here we are.
With rumors of a possible sequel or two in development, I should be excited. But after reading "Rehab", and really thinking about what Bellwether could have been, compared to how she ended up in the film, I, and some vocal Zoot fans, are just concerned about what that could mean for the future. I mean, for all the likeliness that they'd just create a new, more threatening foe for Nick and Judy to face, the possibility that Bellwether would be brought back and have even more of her mammality stripped away for the sake of making her more evil seems like the easy way out. Now, if they decided to just not bring her back at all, that'd be fine. I'd rather have her past unanswered then given something like "she had millions of mammals exterminated worldwide before moving on to Zootopia". At the very least, we have fanfiction to give her a shot. And, don't get me wrong, the original "Zootopia" is still a pretty great film. It's well-animated, it's funny, it's adventurous, it's deep, it's cute, it's a furries's dream come true, and I'd kill to see more of that in whatever follow-up we get. But, at the same time, I don't see why they have to lump Bellwether in the same pile as the far-more-heinous members of Disney's rouges gallery. Keep in mind, I still don't endorse any of her actions (I love wolves and foxes, and I'm sick to death of them being portrayed as nothing but blood-hungry killers), and I'm not one of those guys who thinks every single villain can and should redeemed, regardless of their actions. I mean, just like real life, some guys just don't change. I mean, while some of the other twist villains I mentioned have at least one of Bellwether's downsides, either their own malicious deeds outweigh her's, or they're revealed earlier on to tip us off to their genuine lack of redeem-ability. And there's no way around the Jafars, or the Frollos, or the Ursulas. They're deliciously scummy maniacs to the core. But I don't want Bellwether to be one of those people. I want her to change for the better. If Judy, Nick, Gideon and so forth can change, why can't she? Isn't the idea of Zootopia that "anyone can be anything"? Hell, "My Little Pony" and "Steven Universe" redeem literal commie and Nazi metaphors, and even Disney themselves have given Maleficent of all characters the Draco-In-Leather-Pants treatment. Why should Bellwether be any different?
#SaveBellwether
So... Assistant Mayor Dawn Bellwether. I think we all know about "Zootopia" and the impact it's had, so I'm just gonna cut to the chase. There seems to be three camps when talking about this character in particular. On one side, there're those who draw chibi art playing up her adorableness, going "Night howler? What night howler?". On the opposite, there's the artworks that fill her in the role of various pop-culture villains, like Palpatine, or Hannibal Lector, or that guy from "Se7en", try to give her a trying-to-look-intimidating-but-is-just-so-darn-cute face, or place her in some prison/dominatrix/"bad-girl" pin-up, while sometimes vamping her up Jessica-Rabbit style. In the middle, there are those media critics who either say she "works" for the moral on racism, what with being a somewhat-Trump stand-in (or at least, according to Moore and Howard) who uses fear to their political advantage, or find her just the latest in a slew of lame twist villains pumped out by Disney.
I'm not gonna lie, I used to be in the very last boat when I first saw "Zootopia". I mean, for the majority of the film, we knew her as a dorky, marginalized, bubbly companion to Judy. That's cute and all, but you expect me to go "aw hell yeah, that lil' sheep is the next Frollo"? No, really. There are people who compare her to effing Frollo. Look it up. Now I get they're both racist, but... Let's just look at the Judge's resume, shall we?
Frollo
Murdered an innocent woman.
Attempted to drown said woman's infant immediately after.
Hunts gypsies for no apparent reason other than for the evulz.
Leaves his own adopted son to be humiliated by the whole town.
Craves one gypsy in particular who's roughly three decades younger than him, and even sniffs her hair at one point.
Burns down the house of an innocent family.
Blackmails aforementioned gypsy at her stake for god-knows-what.
Arson against a church.
Ultimately tries to smite the same gypsy.
And to top it all off, he excuses every last one of these with "God made me do it."
Or, let's look at some of Disney's other twist villains.
King Candy/Turbo
Got two whole games unplugged, all for not being the big boy anymore.
Demoted Vanellope to glitch for the sake of taking over Sugar Rush.
Tried to violently sabotage Vanellope's victory, once again, for his own ego.
Lotso' Huggin Bear
Manipulated Big Baby.
Kept possibly hundreds of toys in an age-inappropriate torture-center for a classroom at Daycare for God-knows-how-long, with the dumpster as their only salvation.
And even left Woody and the gang to die in the incinerator after faking a redemption.
Ernesto De La Cruz
Poisoned his own friend for his gain, and kept it under the sheets for years, even after death.
Ultimately tried to kill an effing little boy after the jig went up.
Charles Muntz
Set arson to Carl's house.
Tried to dip a little boy off his blimp.
And, my favorite, Commander Rourke, from "Atlantis".
Punched an old man, fatally wounding him, and pulled an effing pistol before him.
Stole an entire civilization's only life source, knowing full well that'd let them die, all 'cause "We've got to have... Money!"
And ultimately tried to off Milo himself during the climax.
All we get from Bellwether is turning predators nuts, and getting someone else to finish Judy off.
Hell, even Prince Hans at the very least tried to kill Elsa himself, he didn't just get someone else to do it, while just sitting back enjoying the show. And as little as Mr. Waternoose did himself, or as well-intentioned his motives might have been, he tired to kidnap, and possibly kill effing children.
You're probably gonna be going "She's the closest Disney's ever gotten to a dictator!" Oh, sure. She's a real scummy dictator. Like that one scene where she... Talks about fear working. "She's a real wolf in sheep's clothing!" Like Disney's never done that before... (And no, making it a literal sheep or political metaphor doesn't change anything.) "She never cared for Judy! She was just using her!" I dunno, what about the bit where she offers her the position as the ZPD's mascot? (And I'm not talking about her whole "we're-not-so-different" talk after her reveal.) I mean, her plan for prey domination was already going into effect, Lionheart's now in prison, she doesn't seem to need Judy anymore, and she even seems genuinely saddened when she resigns. This isn't like other twist villains, where their nice sides generally extend to just faux-congratulating the heroes, this is a genuine pet-the-dog moment.
And yeah, she does technically try to have Judy killed, but I always just saw it as "Oh, she knows too much so she gonna die", rather than "I'm so gonna enjoy seeing someone get ripped to shreds..." Wouldn't it be scarier if she tried to kill Judy herself, and then turn Nick savage? And they turn out to be faking the ordeal anyway, and her next option is to just frame Judy, which was derailed by her own recorded speech, so it's even less of a scare factor. (BTW, given that the crisis apparently went on for three months, wouldn't have Zootopia's doctors or scientists figured out the source of the savage transformations sooner, and traced it back to Bellwether before Judy could?) I mean granted this is a kids movie we're talking, so of course they're not gonna go all "Mortal Kombat" in the climax, and I get the need to put more focus on the protagonists, and the plot is a mystery after all, but the point still stands. I feel like her hate-ability comes more from how much we've come to love Zootopia and how much it would suck to see it ripped apart, and the "savage Nick" scene is only tense because of the bond he grew with Judy. There are millions of other villains who have at least one fat body count even without the protagonist's presence, while Bellwether's is, as far as we know, nonexistent. (And to those who wanna say "well those savage attacks could have easily killed someone", one, if we don't see anyone actually die in the movie, and not just get injured, or even get any mention of any full-on deaths, then, by definition, it didn't really happen. Show, don't tell. And two, once again, that's from the night howler, not Bellwether herself.) I dunno, I'm very picky when it comes to letting one villain's hate-ability or charisma sink in.
But with all that said, I just shrugged and went "Oh well, the villain sucks, but the movie's still good. Don't let her ruin it." And I just passed her off as nothing but a hokey Bond villain.
That is, until I met this guy: www.deviantart.com/wastedtimee…
While I was drawn to him for the way he draws vixens, it was his Bellwether art that sealed the deal. I loved how he drew her more film-accurate, and I admittedly squeeed inside at her being paired with a wolf of all species. I didn't care how much it made sense, it was all adorable, and I'd been meaning to read the soft AU fanfic series that inspired said pictures, but work and school kept getting in the way.
Finally, just around the peak of 2019, I decided to read "The Rehabilitation Of Dawn Bellwether", and, by God, what a way to kick it off.
I was instantly drawn to the more sympathetic portrayal of Dawn, while still acknowledging her more iffy actions, the way it played off the events of the original film, the romance she forms with the aforementioned wolf OC, who actually felt like a real person, and not just a Gary-Stu, it's faithful portrayal of Nick and Judy, the raised stakes in the conflict, and I even got a bit teary-eyed at quite a few moments. Then I read the semi-sequel "A Lamb Among Wolves", which doubled-down on the likable OCs and especially the feels.
I plan to go into more detail about these fics in particular, and what makes them enjoyable in their own right in the future, but for now, let's compare it's portrayal of Bellwether.
This series reminded me why I ever liked this character in the first place. While Nick was cool, Judy was a very compelling protagonist, and Finnick was basically Zootopia's Boba Fett, I thought Bellwether was the cutest. Even after hearing some vague spoilers about a sheep being the villain, seeing the film for the first time, I looked at her and thought "Nah, can't be..." I loved her bubbly, dorky demeanor, even seeing a bit of myself in her, and I felt bad that her boss treated her like crap, calling her "Smellwether" and giving her a boiler room for an office. "Rehab" pretty much follows that side of her, though at the same time, it still reminds us that, hey, she did some pretty bad stuff. Her transition to "the dark side" is played organically. She was pushed around in her childhood and adulthood by not just predators but everyone bigger than her, much like Judy. Except that also includes her own father, which, as cliched as it may be, just... Ouch. Working with Lionheart was only the final straw before going through with the Night Howler plot, which this time, her henchram, Doug, was responsible for. (BTW, thank you WT! He was the consistently cold speciesist sociopath in the movie, and he was the one doing most of the villain's work!) She legit wanted a friendship with Judy, but her insecurity at her resignation from the ZPD sent her into a revenge-seeking downward spiral, which, combined with her newfound sense of power, ultimately lead to the "savage Nick" bit, only to come back to her senses after getting apprehended. After getting paroled after 4 or 5 years, she instantly tries to start over, only to get kicked out of every store, and to log in to Furbook to find a slew of death threats and hateful slurs. She eventually does get a job at a local fast-food joint, where she meets fellow employee and wolf Vernon Hunter. While initially skeptical to working with him, she warms up as he gives her a genuine benefit of the doubt, helping her to rekindle her bank account and so on, and their friendship blossoms into something more as the story progresses. However, while grateful for Vernon's generosity, she struggles with deciding whether to stay with him, or if her reputation is too much for his image, and the plot just escalates from there.
Even taking Bellwether out of the equation, it's a great story of redemption, forgiveness, and overcoming bias. While Judy goes through a somewhat-similar internal prejudice battle in the movie, Bellwether's obviously carries a lot more weight, and, for me, at least, as bad as her actions were, they weren't really enough to overshadow her change. There's even an especially powerful scene where Dawn is confronted at her new job by none other than Judy and Nick. She lets her chew her out for betraying her and Zootopia as a whole, trying to have her killed and all, then comes out with a mature, legitimate apology, then Judy says: "I don't believe you." Just... Wow. I mean, I think we all have a moment where we've screwed up, realized it too late, and try everything in our power to make it up to those we've offended, even if this case in particular is more extreme. But sometimes, there'll be those who just won't accept it. This is further hammered when Bellwether's suspected of a more intense repeat of townwide night-howler rampage, and, despite having nothing to with them in particular, turns herself in, showing that, no matter how much we try to move on, we shouldn't brush our own mistakes aside.
Where was Dawn in the movie again? Oh, yeah, "we'll be unstoppable, Judy".
I know this all sounds like one of those "Draco In Leather Pants" things, but I don't care. I never once thought that her behavior in the first two thirds were "just a lie", or "part of her plan", like everyone likes to say, and her big reveal was jarring to say the least. Also, I don't care if her trouble with Lionheart may seem petty to you, as someone who's seen reports of male celebrities mistreating female co-workers/fans, this is iffier to watch than I remember (and no, the fact that a certain someone just happened to be one of the film's executive producers doesn't exactly help). You'd think they'd do something more with that then just "oh, she's some power-hungry bitch".
Now, maybe this was never Disney's intention. Maybe they did just mean for her to be some wicked witch in sheep's clothing that we're supposed to root against, no matter what we see of her. Well, let's just say that, as noble as the whole "villain was the one you least suspect" trope is (or was) in making kids smarter, more cautious, etcetera, at the same time, you should still be extra careful when writing such a character. Depending on how much you show or don't show, you never know how much your audience themselves could fall for their ruse, and that twist in the last ten minutes of your one-hundred-and-eight-minute film can come off as troublesome. Throughout my time in the furry fandom, I've met quite a handful of "Zootopia" fans who legitimately care about Bellwether, and want her to pull a sincere reformation. To be honest, I feel like the idea of any super-nice guy hiding a dirty secret just feeds into our worst paranoia, which seems especially weird for a film saying "we can't let fear divide us". I guess with Bellwether in particular, they should have just stuck with either keeping her all evil or keeping her a cute sidekick.
I dunno, if she was bad from the start (or at least revealed earlier on than the last ten minutes), her actions went far beyond just using night howler, they just cut out her interactions with Lionheart entirely (again, give Hans some credit, at least they didn't show him getting pushed around by his family or something), and there was more time dedicated to her being a douchey leader to all her peers, and not just predators, there'd be no fan-redemption arc, I wouldn't have latched onto her, and this whole thing would just be begging for more screentime from someone like Gazelle, Finnick, or Gideon or something. But, here we are.
With rumors of a possible sequel or two in development, I should be excited. But after reading "Rehab", and really thinking about what Bellwether could have been, compared to how she ended up in the film, I, and some vocal Zoot fans, are just concerned about what that could mean for the future. I mean, for all the likeliness that they'd just create a new, more threatening foe for Nick and Judy to face, the possibility that Bellwether would be brought back and have even more of her mammality stripped away for the sake of making her more evil seems like the easy way out. Now, if they decided to just not bring her back at all, that'd be fine. I'd rather have her past unanswered then given something like "she had millions of mammals exterminated worldwide before moving on to Zootopia". At the very least, we have fanfiction to give her a shot. And, don't get me wrong, the original "Zootopia" is still a pretty great film. It's well-animated, it's funny, it's adventurous, it's deep, it's cute, it's a furries's dream come true, and I'd kill to see more of that in whatever follow-up we get. But, at the same time, I don't see why they have to lump Bellwether in the same pile as the far-more-heinous members of Disney's rouges gallery. Keep in mind, I still don't endorse any of her actions (I love wolves and foxes, and I'm sick to death of them being portrayed as nothing but blood-hungry killers), and I'm not one of those guys who thinks every single villain can and should redeemed, regardless of their actions. I mean, just like real life, some guys just don't change. I mean, while some of the other twist villains I mentioned have at least one of Bellwether's downsides, either their own malicious deeds outweigh her's, or they're revealed earlier on to tip us off to their genuine lack of redeem-ability. And there's no way around the Jafars, or the Frollos, or the Ursulas. They're deliciously scummy maniacs to the core. But I don't want Bellwether to be one of those people. I want her to change for the better. If Judy, Nick, Gideon and so forth can change, why can't she? Isn't the idea of Zootopia that "anyone can be anything"? Hell, "My Little Pony" and "Steven Universe" redeem literal commie and Nazi metaphors, and even Disney themselves have given Maleficent of all characters the Draco-In-Leather-Pants treatment. Why should Bellwether be any different?
#SaveBellwether
