familiar place

Here's my zoomed out editing timeline (pure insanity btw):

I know the movie is still very fresh in everyone's minds (especially because it literally just came out) BUT I think people's critiques of Pawbert as the twist villain, his villain arc and his lack of redemption falls flat when y'all forget what Zootopia as a whole is a metaphor for.

The first film is an obvious metaphor for bigotry—specifically racism. This is made clear with the predators being stereotyped and profiled as violent and "savage" and so many more examples. This theme continues and is expanded on into the second film with an explicit reference to colonization, gentrification and forced displacement. The Lynxleys are a family that obtained their main source of wealth/fame through the premeditated theft of the climate wall idea from Gary's ancestor (including framing her for murder and preying on the unjustified fear of reptiles other animals had). They directly profited from the theft of that idea, and Pawbert's ancestor knew exactly what would happen to reptiles when he framed one for murder. Doing so resulted in reptiles being exiled for centuries, forced to leave their homes to become property of the Lynxley family (at least the land was since the homes were still buried under snow).

The fact that generations later, the Lynxleys continued to expand and take over habitats (read: land) from other animals for their own benefit is textbook gentrification. They continued to ride off of the fame and success of having "invented" the climate wall into the present day. So with that out of the way...

Pawbert is introduced to both us and Judy as an outcast from his family, who clearly doesn't like him. Later, it's revealed that Pawbert is the mysterious animal that has been aiding Gary in his heist of the book, as well as helping him find his ancestor's home, which would lead them to the original patent page. Here, Pawbert is telling Judy and the audience (who now knows the truth of the Lynxley family), "I am not my family. I am not my ancestors" (something similar to what Judy says to him later after he poisons her). Pawbert appears to be a traitor to the Lynxleys, and by extension, a class traitor, because he makes the effort to help Gary (a member of the oppressed class) bring out the truth. If the world (our world) was perfect, this is the ideal position for someone with wealth and power that was gained through something as sinister as forced displacement and exploitation to take.

Doodle page of my friends 🫶🏾

2024:

2023: