How To Ruin a Twist Villain - Zootopia

Disney's twist villains can be great—but did they fumble with Bellwether in Zootopia? This video breaks down what went wrong, how it could’ve been better, and what writers can learn from it. 🔍🐑

#zootopia #VillainAnalysis

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[lindawilliams]

I saw her change from cheering for Judy to trying to kill her as a way to make Judy a martyr for her agenda and that’s why she wanted Judy to be the face of the ZPD. She was always driven by power and if she assisted Judy with solving the missing carnivore cases, made her the face of the ZPD, and then publicized her death at the hands of a carnivore she trusted; Bellwether would have a name and face that she could use to justify and strengthen her agenda, and the perfect scapegoat in Nick.

[nod]

bell was a check mark not a character, this is why twist villains started to go down in quality. the twist villains were starting to be use as a gimmick and not as a characters they were.

[renthegigglefox]

They do drop a blink-and-you-miss-it hint during Judy's first day, when she meets Nick. The ram that shouts at Nick for crossing the street in front of him, the entire reason Judy notices Nick, is Bellwether's henchman, Doug. You see him again later in the lab scene, as the one refining the nighthowler serum. Fun fact: the three rams are a reference to Breaking Bad, with the names Doug, Jesse, and Woolter, with the nighthowler lab being a reference to the chem lab in the show.

[delta]

So I think Bellwether was willing to let Judy die because Judy dying, at the hand of a predator everyone had seen her with, it would show not even the hardest working of "little guys" were safe.

[davidvalencia]

A quick fix writters could have made is having Bellweather either murmur or seem spiteful whenever she is mistreated. Could have been obvious but at the same time, you would have seen it as justified.

[mrhalfsaid]

To be fair, the line "o-ho, no! *HE WILL."* Is a really hard line.

[ijbsee]

Honestly I think a cooler concept is that she was literally a wolf in sheep's clothes. Basically she would be a wolf that was small for her species and could have been alpha but was too small to lead her clan. So to get power she would weasel her way into it by getting rid of larger predators to have less competition.

[Ming_]

Zootopia was the one movie where having a more symbolic villain would’ve worked. You can’t just take a minor character and give her an evil laugh and say “SEE! She was behind everything!!! Bet you didn’t see that one coming!!!”. Prejudice isn’t something you can just give a face and defeat in one fell swoop. It’s a disease that always finds a way to survive no matter how much he attempt to stop it.

[oskarbergkvist]

8:30 Racism is prejudice based on RACE not power class, hints the name. There is no such thing as "reverse" racism, just racism.

[OpticalSorcerer]

This is one of the few times when I think a twist villain was warranted since this was a mystery film. But I'd have loved to see more of Bellweather's past to explain her motivation beyond underappreciation. Rare time when the heroes are more interesting than the villain.

[jacobackles]

If I remember right, several bits of the story where retcon for being too dark. And that the movie itself was supposed to be a little different than the movie we got. Which is how it ended up trying to touch on a lot of different subjects but failing on most of them. From the manufactured crack cocaine epidemic, to the themes of racism that were poorly implemented.

[combatking]

I saw Bellwether as the villain a mile away - when she logged Judy into the computer system, I thought, "She's being a little too helpful. She's up to something."

[TrueMohax]

Bellwether was trying to make Hopps become a representation of the prey, so she could turn the rabbit into a false martyr.

[madycartoonlover]

Bellwheater should have been used better and seen more on screen. In my opinion I feel like Bellwether and Judy should’ve have been friends ever since Judy defended the group of sheep and Bellwether could have been one of them. Both of them would have supported each other and stood together as “little guys” But would soon go to different paths. Growing up, Bellwether would be considered a middle child of her two other siblings (which I’m just gonna say are the other two sheep with her at the fair.) and would never get attention from their parents while the oldest and youngest got more attention. What would make it worse for her is she got bullied constantly for being small and eventually wanted to study to become something bigger, an assistant mayor. Bellwether would be excited to do this job, only to realize the mayor is a predator and treated just as badly as all the other predators in her childhood. The only one that helped her was Judy, and appreciated her for that but secretly hated her for trying to work with predators at the police force, but would try to support her so she wouldn’t lose her only friend she ever had. Eventually Bellwether would start a plan to work against the predators in secret while Judy worked along with them. Bellwether could’ve also used this opportunity as assistant mayor to take over the city and use her friend to defend and help with her takeover. Throughout the story as Judy went through the case Bellwether could’ve used this as an advantage to her plan. Since Bellwether is assistant mayor and mayor later in the movie she could use cameras all over the city and can research possible suspects and certain areas to throw Judy off guard. Later in the movie, Nick could’ve suspected Bellwether of what she’s doing and told Judy about it, and Judy would soon have to chose to believe a prey or predator. In the end Judy would believe Bellwether and Nick got upset and left. Judy would then feel guilty and try to find Nick and Judy would soon find out Bellwether was the bad guy all along and had no choice but to fight her friend. Bellwether soon finds out about Judy knowing her plan and would soon betray Judy and try to kill her and Nick before they told the police anything. Bellwether hesitated to do this at first but after seeing Judy was going to believe and work with the predators no matter what happened, she decided to not look back. After she gets arrested, Judy tried to talk to her again but Bellwether ignored her entirely and forever hates Judy for befriending predators despite all she’s gone through and Judy has seen. And that’s I would do to make her story better in my opinion. (If anyone sees this comment, comment down what you think would be better.)❤

[AnonYmous-mczx]

Bellwether being a terrible twist villain is extra frustrating because she's such a well written villain. All they had to do was give her a little bit of extra screen time with her doing a bunch of mayoral assistant stuff. You can hide plenty of setup in a handful of interractions with established side characters. Have her interract with Nick alone, where her being "weirdly keen" on his thieves' cant gives the audience a clue.

[lukaskrikstaponis]

Man Don't confuse Lamb with sheep its a same animal. Lambs Are baby sheep. As a person who onw's farm this is a bit misleading. Please correct that. 3:30

[javonyounger]

Bellwether would have been more interesting if she had kept the same demeanor even as she explained how she was planning a race war and was going to kill Judy. Not only would it still feel like the same character, but the contrast could be unnerving.

[kousano_simp_]

A cool twist could've been that Bellwether and Lionheart were actually in cahoots. Imagine all her "us little ones" comments were a lie to get Judy to trust her more and Lionheart's mistreatment of her was all an act to stir up a divide? Imagine Bell was still actually the mastermind, but Lionheart was in on it WITH her. What would the motivation be though? Power? Greed? I can't remember enough of the movie to think of one. Still, imagine a wolf in sheep's clothing, and a loyal lion lackey/assistant/partner/?

[BuildingWolf_WolfDab]

if Judy lived there was a chance Dawn's plot would've been exposed, why would villains want to risk having loose ends?

[gregorius.dentang]

Yo i just search "Zootopia Villain" and this video show up at top and i just realized it was uploaded 15 minutes ago. What a coincidence lmao.