My feels. All my feels.

yeah i would give her all my respect for working so hard she deserves someone like him nicely done

Zootopia got plenty of mileage out of echoing lines. And if the inevitable sequel continues the tradition, I would hope it does so by opening with Nick talking about his transition from a life of crime to his redemption in law enforcement, and ends with Bellwether talking about her transition.

Another thing I hope they do is address the inaccuracy of referring to all species as "predator" or "prey." Which I would hope they do by pointing out that A) such terms are used deliberately to benefit mammals like Bellwether, and B) Bellwether actually meets (or at least met) the true definition of a predator.

Dawn: "Thanks for giving me a chance."
Vernon: "Eh, you know how it is. Preds like us need to stick together."

You make a salient point, and it would be interesting to see them point it how Predator and Prey are not catch all terms. But it fits in to concept of a long term society I suppose. Hard to get blanket terms to change since they are so easy to use and ingrained in the culture.

I imagine Nick will get a lot of play in the sequel in regards to his transition. As for Dawn, she'll probably get little more than a throw away reference by Nick and Judy. I'd be pleasantly surprised by anything else.

In the story I wrote I kind of alluded to dawn's past behavior being similar to what a prey my constitute as predatory, and it was sort of something she had to confront. It would be interesting to see that sort of thing explored in the sequel, but like I said i really doubt there will be much of Dawn at all.

Not sure who's going to say it yet, but I've got this exchange in the works:

Carnivore: "Have you ever seen me hunt and kill my own food, Mr. Bogo?"
Bogo: "What? No, what-"
Carnivore: "File a bogus lawsuit? Issue a loan I knew couldn't be paid back? Drive around in an unmarked white van asking little kids if they'd like to see a baby penguin?"
(pause)
Bogo: "No."
Carnivore: "Then I am not a predator. I am a carnivore. Which, ten thousand years ago, may have gone paw in paw with being a predator. But all it means today is that I need to have a protein shake every morning, with my TOFU WAFFLES!" (pause) "And you, Mr. Bogo, are not prey. Never have been, and I hope and pray to God you never will be. Language is a powerful tool, Mr. Bogo, and those are terms explicitly chosen and enforced by the very mammals like Dawn Bellwether who seek to divide us. To exploit you, and to justify all of the sick things they did to me. Please think about that the next time you open your mouth, okay?"

The truth is that defining everything as "predator" and "prey" as they did only makes sense in one context: The original T.A.M.E. collars plot, where one refers to the mammals that need to wear them and the other refers to the mammals that do not.

So I'm hoping we eventually see a Zootopia prequel about their civil rights era.

Pine Marten Luther King, anybody?

You know, it was probably pics like this that sealed my decision to read your stories...

(Shame there's no happy-cry emoji on FA's keyboard system.)

Were you inspired by Beastars anime show to have Dawn be friends with a wolf character? I didn't even discover Beastars until last December. Just curious.