Bellwether

"Do you think when she goes to sleep, she counts herself?"

- Nick Wilde, to Judy Hopps about Bellwether Assistant Mayor Bellwether is the main antagonist of the 2016 Disney animated feature film Zootopia.

Background
Bellwether was the assistant mayor to the mighty Mayor Lionheart, whose impatience and intolerance towards even the slightest amount of incompetence, often resulted in the former's humiliation. Like Judy Hopps, Bellwether had apparently endured a life of neglect, implied to have repeatedly been at the hands of predator mammals. Over time, she would develop a disdain towards them, and their treatment towards prey mammals, setting a goal to someday make Zootopia a place where prey reign supreme, and predators are labeled as nothing more than worthless, bloodthirsty savages. To do so, she allied herself with rams who shared her sentiments, and used flowers known as Night Howlers to create a chemical drug capable of turning civilized mammals savage. Once predators were deemed too dangerous for society, Lionheart, as the plan would go, would be removed from office out of fear, while Bellwether would be promoted, thus granting her control over the city, and the satisfaction of establishing prey as the dominant species.

Official Bio

 * Assistant Mayor Bellwether is a sweet sheep with a little voice and a lot of wool, who constantly finds herself under foot of the larger-than-life Mayor Lionheart.

Personality
"We're on the same team, Judy! Underestimated, unappreciated. Aren't you sick of it? Predators—they may be strong and loud, but prey outnumber predators ten to one. Think about it; 90% of the population, united against a common enemy. We'll be unstoppable."

- Bellwether explaining her true motives

Bellwether epitomizes a wolf in sheep's clothing: on the surface, she appears to be a sweet and finicky, albeit overworked sheep doing all she can to help the city, though inside hides a ruthless and embittered mind. Years of discrimination and lack of consideration from her predator coworkers engineered an utterly vengeful, scheming and diabolical personality that was devoted against all predators, hidden behind her seemingly meek disposition.

Bellwether's perception on predator mammals is that they are an irredeemable breed who believe themselves superior over the prey mammals and therefore free to abuse them despite the fact Zootopia' prey population outnumbers the predators; as an example of a small, vulnerable prey mammal, Bellwether's anxiety and paranoia is heightened due to this pressure. Her opinion also strengthened from Lionheart's neglectful treatment towards her despite all the work she did for him. Feeling disrespected from all the times Lionheart ignored her led to Bellwether's belief that she should run the city among her conclusion that equality was but an illusion from this treatment.

Empowered by her zealous mentality, Bellwether has no scruples against harming innocent or even benevolent predator citizens to further her goals. She also participated in sabotaging acts that would have promoted equality because of her prejudiced views; she turned Lionheart's Mammal Inclusion Initiative against him as to further the divide between predators and prey as well as revenge against him, even though it was meant to give prey higher opportunities in Zootopia. Bellwether is aware that her methods are underhanded and harmful, but regards her actions as justifiable for the sake of mammalian privilege among the oppressed prey.

Though Bellwether appears harried, and by extension bumbling, most of the time she is presented, she is secretly a master organizer and quite cunning. Thanks to her occupation and access to city resources, she was able to create the predator panic without any attention drawn to herself, as well as orchestrating Judy's entire investigation on the mammal cases behind the scenes and lead her to where the mammals were. She was also successful in placing Lionheart under suspicion. Thanks to her harmless appearance and demeanor, Bellwether was less likely to be suspected for her crimes. However, she is vulnerable to her own confidence, which became her own downfall; when she believed she had the upper hand, Bellwether admitted her entire plot to Judy and Nick out of pride, unaware that her confession had been recorded by the duo.

Despite her transgressions against predators, Bellwether does hold sympathy for and is strongly supportive of the prey citizens. Her plan to have prey run Zootopia was, in her own ideology, righteous by granting prey respect in society so that they would never have to suffer at the hands of predators. Yet this perception appears to be distorted in Bellwether's judgement: similar to how she sees the predators as universally savage, Bellwether considers the prey population as its own dominant collective and less recognition for them as individuals, and apparently has nothing against hurting prey who do not agree with her. Bellwether also considered Judy an acquaintance to some degree, even though she had used Judy as part of her plan. She was willing to give Judy one last chance to join her, but was quick to try killing both her and Nick when they defied her.

Role in the film
Bellwether is first seen during Judy's induction into the Zootopia Police Department, where she stands alongside Lionheart, and is tasked with badging Hopps. Bellwether shows great pride in Zootopia's first rabbit officer, proclaiming that it is a momentous day for "little guys", referring to prey. Before her words can run further, Lionheart rudely removed Bellwether from Judy, and subsequently blocked her from the flashing cameras of the press.

Following Judy's first day as an officer, Emmitt Otterton goes missing, forcing his distraught wife to seek help. Bellwether is present when it is Judy who volunteers to find Emmitt and sends Lionheart a knowing text to congratulate him on the growing success of the Mammal Inclusion Initiative, referring to Judy's newfound role as a detective to a major case. Bellwether then speaks to Judy, telling her that she always has an ally at City Hall, should she need any important favors.

Later on, Bellwether returns to City Hall, where she is seen struggling for Lionheart's attention, needing him to discuss various matters regarding the city. Lionheart, seeming more aggressive than usual, coldly asks Bellwether to take care of the matters herself, and to cancel his afternoon, as he needs to run out for confidential matters. Feeling defeated and exhausted, Bellwether sadly gathers the paperwork to begin her assignments, before receiving a surprise visit from Judy and her accomplice, Nick Wilde. Judy explains that she needs access to the city's traffic cameras, which Bellwether obliges to in her "office", which is really the boiler room. While doing so, Bellwether laments to Judy and Nick, expressing her excitement in doing something of importance, to which Judy replies with confusion, as she believes the title of "assistance mayor" to be rather major. Bellwether merely sees it as being a "glorified secretary", and notes her suspicion that Lionheart may have selected her for the sake of winning the sheep vote. Just then, Lionheart pages Bellwether, scolding her for failing to cancel his afternoon. Bellwether hurriedly rushes to finish this assignment, leaving Judy and Nick with her computer.

Using the traffic cameras, Judy and Nick are able to find an asylum with over a dozen predator mammals imprisoned, and all of which have mysteriously gone savage. The imprisonment was at the hands of Mayor Lionheart, who was desperately searching for the reasonings behind the mysterious outbreak, but to no avail; keeping it confidential to prevent citywide panic, and by extension, the loss of his position. Judy alerts Chief Bogo, and Lionheart is arrested and removed from office. Bellwether, as a result, becomes the official mayor of Zootopia.

Judy, meanwhile, is hailed a hero, and a press conference on the savage predators is held. Bellwether is present, and to her advantage, Judy accidentally calls out predators as naturally savage, with potential to revert to their original, bloodthirsty natures; disturbing the press and causing a citywide panic. Following these events, Bellwether summons Judy to her office and, alongside Chief Bogo, offers her to be the public face of the Zootopia Police Department, as prey mammals look to her as a hero for uncovering the truth about predators. Judy denies, feeling she's failed the city, having torn it apart instead of making it a better place, and officially resigns from her position as a police officer.

Some time afterwards, Judy discovers that unique flowers known as night howlers are the cause of the strange behavior infecting predators—not natural instinct—and rushes back to the city to reveal the truth. After she and Nick interrogate Duke Weaselton, they discover that a ram named Doug has been going around purchasing night howlers, and creating a drug that, when injected into predators, turn them savage. Judy and Nick infiltrate Doug's laboratory, and a battle ensues, with Doug being accompanied by a number of additional ram minions. Nick successfully retrieves the evidence to show Bogo, but before he and Judy can make it to him, Bellwether arrives.

She asks for the case containing the evidence, presenting herself as being proud of Judy's success, but when Judy questions how Bellwether knew of their whereabouts, the ploy is broken, and Bellwether sends her rams to capture the heroes. Judy is injured while trying to escape, and she and Nick are eventually thrown into a pit. Though Bellwether made an attempt to have Judy join her side, she instead results to turning Nick savage so that he would kill Judy, and the entire situation would look like another savage outbreak demonizing predators. However, Nick reveals that the darts of Bellwether's night howler gun has been replaced with blueberries, meaning he never turned savage. Angered at this failure, Bellwether, having framed Lionheart, declares to frame Nick and Judy, claiming that it's "her word against theirs". However, Judy responds by revealing that she has recorded Bellwether's confession with her carrot pen and plays the recorded monologue, just as Bogo and his force arrive.

Bellwether is arrested along with her accomplices, and is sent to prison. During the credits, she is last seen angrily watching a live stream of Gazelle's concert performance, while the prison inmates around her are enjoying the concert, much to her annoyance.

Trivia

 * Bellwether is the first female character to be a surprise villain for Disney Animation Studios.
 * For every scene that Bellwether is featured in, her uniform and glasses color are different.
 * The term "bellwether" refers to a sheep that leads a herd. This sheep will typically be marked through the use of a bell, hence the "bell" in bellwether.
 * When designing the look of Bellwether, artists looked to the lambs featured in Make Mine Music, Melody Time and Lambert the Sheepish Lion for inspiration.
 * Bellwether's connection to the night howler operation was foreshadowed earlier in the film; when Nick and Judy were using her computer, she left a post-it note with Doug's name and phone number stuck to her desk. Doug is the sniper that infected Mr. Otterton and Mr. Manchas.
 * Bellwether being a villain may be a nod to the idiom "wolf in sheep's clothing". Also, at the end of the movie, Officer Wolford, a wolf, is shown to have a sheep disguise, which may be reference to the same idiom.