WT: Long answer...I dunno, I have a lot to say here and I have to organize my thoughts.
In terms of writing, no, there's no way I'm adapting 2 lore either retroactively or in an AU. I'm far too deep in my carefully crafted little corner of Zootopia to now try to make room for every retcon the official series makes...especially when Z+ already played fast and loose with that lore. Granted, part of that is the fact that Zootopia took nearly a decade to produce a sequel.
From my standpoint as a writer, I feel like Zootopia itself needs some semblance of an outer animal kingdom. Look at something like Beastars, where nearly all life is sapient. Are predators only supposed to eat bugs? Is there nothing in the forests and wilds, no ecosystem save for plants and 'some' fish? What purpose does pest control via night Howler serve farming communities if that's the case? Is it just for bugs? If not, it seems like a war crime waiting to happen. It's nice to have some established... 'limitations' in world crafting, especially if it's something you didn't touch on at all early on and might have to work into the story by hook or by crook. The more you have to retcon large swaths of your world's foundations, the less invested people become. If anything can be changed at any point to facilitate a specific story, what's the point of getting engaged with the world at all? Having controls makes a world feel more real, more grounded, and thus easier to stay invested in.
Reptiles weren't even hinted at in Zootopia, not even a stray background lizard. Now I'm meant to believe they have reptiles right in the Canal District? Where were the seals in Tundra Town? None of them came out of the water at all? And why add any of them now? There were probably a million stories you could tell in the already-established setting as is, even restricting the characters to just Nick and Judy. But the first sequel and we're already adding an entirely different swath in the animal kingdom? Tell a story about hybrids, a story with a pred villian, some other crazy vast conspiracy for Nick and Judy to solve. At the very least if you want reptiles in, have Nick and Judy be forced to venture far out from Zoot to a nearly reptile-exclusive city to better excuse the lack of them in the first film.
But I'm nitpicking a 'children's film' here, so it's all invalid I'm sure. Cause kids are dumb, and don't deserve quality world-building or storytelling...even though Zoot's target audience is now adults or near adults because the sequel took so long to produce. While there were shortcomings in the first film, clearly, a lot of love went into the world-crafting. My art book shows that off in spades. Z+ didn't show the same level of care...and while one of the two guys who are essentially the fathers of the series is back in Z2, I don't see that world crafting improving all that much. Wreck-It Ralph 2 was like the Disney Emoji movie, and that had Byron on both too.
That's not even mentioning the steep decline in the quality of Disney films across the board since 2016. A dark cloud has descended on that studio, one that traded in skill and talent to fill quotas. One that prioritized emphasizing 'the message' over good storytelling. And the company hasn't backed away from that sentiment, it's only doubled down more aggressively each time, all the way up to the shareholders. So I don't expect a solid sequel to somehow crawl its way out from under being 'crafted for a modern audience'.
Lastly, and this is just a me thing, having been in the furry community this long, but Gary is going to (already has) caused a surge in awful fetish material. Between bondage and hypnosis, I'm gonna be blacklisting a lot of new content. That's what happens when you model a snake character after Sir Hiss or Kaa. I imagine it was purely meant as an homage, but man I'm not looking forward to the fallout. My poor eyes will never recover.
I do wonder how mammals and animals that have no comparable method of mobility compared to their four-limbed counterparts would even have evolved to a level of sapience when they can't operate most anything made for four limbers...let alone the lack of thumbs. The best I've seen that handled is Mr. Snake in the bad guys. Still, that was another reason I kept seals, manatees, and dolphins out of the 'technical mammals' pool. Just how 'accessible' can you make a city with that much of a difference not just in sizes, but levels of dexterity without bankrupting it? It's why I made Derrick Colton a 'handicapped' horse in the Vulpes fic. It was largely to explain away a horse photographer who is present at Judy's press conference that has solid traditional horse hooves for hands. As well as other aberrant mammals that may crop up.
Lastly, while I've slowed in terms of getting out my fics, (I intended to complete everything and move on before the sequel dropped.) The Val fic, and the Bellwether Legacy are meant to be the last fics in my series. (Aside from one-off revisits, and the scrapped Finnzelle story.) I didn't want to stay locked into Zootopia fic writing forever. I'd really like to make some of my own stuff. Original work I can maybe do more with than being limited by the restrictions writing a fanwork entails.
At the end of the day, Dawn Bellwether is the lynchpin to my little slice of Zootopia, and I don't own the rights to her. Never will, unless a series of wildly absurd events drop the rights to Zoot in my lap. I can recycle many of the characters around her you've grown to love, and perhaps even a pale reflection of Dawn herself with the right story to go along with her. But...I guess I don't want 'Wrote a killer villain redemption fanfic once' to be the total sum of my work.
God...that was a rant. I did warn about the 'long-version' didn't I? I'm sorry...just a lot to cover. I....overthink things way too much. Still, you go on and try to enjoy Z2. Maybe it'll be great...I've just always been a glass-half-empty kinda guy. Me, I'm probably not gonna see it. Even if Dawn gets a cameo. Lord knows they'll probably go for a 'silence of the lambs' restraints joke if she shows up.
-WT
