Pawbert twist

I’ve seen people discussing how they didn’t like how Pawbert turned out to be a villain and he should’ve been redeemed or changed by the end but I actually enjoyed it.

It was really fun getting to see Disney successfully create a twist villain again, seeing a character turn out to be the villain without it seeming completely out of left field for a third arc finale like some of their other recent attempts.

Just comparing both of Zootopia’s villains you can see the clear difference between a good twist villain and bad one. Bellwether was a bad twist villain because throughout the entire movie there was no hints or anything that could point towards her being the villain, except for the sheep in the third act you as an audience member had no reason to believe she was the villain.

Pawbert on the other hand was very well set up, were told from the get go he’s related to the Lynxleys who are the bad guys and throughout the movie you can see how everything he is doing can be seen from both perspectives of him being either good or bad. First watch through its a surprise he’s the villain but on a rewatch you can see how everything he was doing was just all part of a plan to complete his goal, there’s nothing in the movie that makes it so him turning out to be the villain seems contradictory to what we’ve watched.

I’ve seen some complaints that say he was only doing it for his family to approve of him and while that was a motive it’s also shown that just like the rest of his family he enjoys the power, getting his family’s approval was just an additional bonus.