The d'awwws are strong in this one.

Whoa.

I mean, I thought the drive-thru bit from "Rehab" was a gut-puncher, but... Damn...

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Although I can kinda tell how this story will end, I'm still dying to see it unfold, and i think that's what separates a good writer from a great writer.

Even if Disney did somehow get inspired to do a whole "Bellwether Origin Story" or "Bellwether Redemption Arc", I don't think they could ever top yours if they tried.

Though I do wanna apologize for implying that Dawn's past was "not that big a deal".

I was merely speaking in the context of the original film, and the whole "deliciously evil alter-ego" they were going for with her, and I had no idea her impact in your AU would go this far.

Wew, I've got a lot of your comments to catch up on. Anywho...yeah, I don't know. Is it confirmed that Dawn's whole behavior was an act? The impression I got from the film that the Dawn we met was basically the 'default' Dawn. She was generally quiet and meek, and that much of it wasn't an act...or at least before the night howler plans rolled into motion. I imagined years of getting flack or being ignored from predators had her bottling this hatred deep down that eventually sewed the seeds for the night howler plan in her mind. The whole apparent personality turn came about when Judy forced her hoof, and was close to exposing her plan, which started as trying to convince Judy to join her, and ending in her completely snapping and trying to off Judt and Nick.

But I think some of the wikis and stuff basically say "Oh she's actually the cold, calculating villian, and her meek, put upon demeanor is just a front." Which I kind of have a hard time believing.

Even so, I think I did a fairly good job explaining how she got to that point, and keeping from downplaying her crime as much as possible. And I guess you'd agree, seeing as how much you like my stories and how many comments you've left. Which seriously, I'm super greatful, I'm sorry I haven't even looked at them all yet.

-WT

Yeah, even with the knowledge that she was the villain, I can't really see her nice side as "just an act". I mean, I've met plenty of people like her who were pretty legit, and that makes her reveal at the end more crushing.

Yet everywhere I go, TVTropes, the Zoot wiki, the Villains wiki, even one or two written interviews with Howard and Moore seem to be leaning to her being a sociopath who was faking it. (TVTropes even went so far as to apply the "Would Hurt A Child" trope to her, since the victims of the Night Howler scandal could have easily been children, or something? Yeah, sorry, not buying that. If we don't see her directly hurting a child in the movie, or even ordering or brushing off or coldly witnessing the hurt of a child, then by definition, it didn't really happen. Show, don't tell.)

I wouldn't have a problem with any of that if they just made it clear from the start that she was faking it, or just using LionHeart's treatment as an excuse (BTW, as someone who's half-woman, I'm gonna have a field-day writing about that in my analysis), or if they revealed her as the villain earlier on, like some of the other, more-well-thought-out twist villains.

I dunno, whenever I look up "Bellwether fanart", at least half of the results leans to her nice side while the other half likes to cosplay her as various movie/TV psychopaths. It's complicated, but I guess that's what you get when you write a villain like that.

I mean, the merch around her plays up her good side, while various film-critiques just see her as the power-hungry villain, but who knows?

Like I said, everyone likes to point to the "savage Nick" scene as proof of her "true nature", what with her seemingly enjoying it and smugly announcing her plan. Sorry, I'm gonna need more then just that one scene to let it sink in.

Granted its a kids movie too, but aside from her attempt on Judy the whole body count for the night howler scheme is zero. Which allowed me to play with the notion that there was a plan, and a method up until she was almost exposed, and then she kinda broke...And if I had nothing to go on but that scene, I'd be more inclined to see her as a pure one note villain, but they did do at least enough groundwork to show that Dawn had been enduring abuse for awhile. I mean, her office is a boiler room. You can't tell me that was all her idea to build up the facade of a 'pressed upon, unappreciated little office worker'. I also had someone tell me that Lionheart was being harder on Bellwether because the night howler cover-up was stressing him, but it seems like that was just always their relationship. Again, not excusing Dawn's actions, but more I guess defending that her whole personality was not an act...