# Zootopia question **URL:** \ **Category:** Support\ **Created:** [January 8, 2018, 9:51pm UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/zootopia-question/1419 "2018-01-08T21:51:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rosie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5daacb/32.png) [@Rosie](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/Rosie)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 9:51pm UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/zootopia-question/1419/1 "2018-01-08T21:51:29Z")
Can someone help me understand what is the initial inequity in Zootopia and how it started the injustice in the story. ---
**Author:** ![mlucas](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex010/user_avatar/discuss.dramatica.com/mlucas/32/275_2.png) [@mlucas](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/mlucas)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 10:56pm UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/zootopia-question/1419/2 "2018-01-08T22:56:15Z")
Before the story actually starts, Zootopia is in a “balanced inequity” where predators and prey live together and everything is mostly fine for now. But everyone has these unresolved prejudices just below the surface, which are ripe for being exploited. It’s been a while since I saw it … I don’t think the First Story Driver (the Action that throws everything out of balance) is actually shown in the film. I think it must be when Bellweather begins infecting predators with the evil toxic flower stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Rosie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5daacb/32.png) [@Rosie](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/Rosie)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 11:36pm UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/zootopia-question/1419/3 "2018-01-08T23:36:27Z")
Thank you!!! That helps a lot. I wasn’t sure if there could be initial drivers that occur not shown in the film or explicitly told in the story. I kept trying to figure it out from within the film, and understood Officer Hops going to Zootopia kicked off this story (if she never left her Bunny Burrow there wouldn’t have been this particular story) … but couldn’t see how that alone could be held accountable for the story’s imbalance, Thanks for the explanation and for your time. It helped. ---
**Author:** ![RailwayAdventurer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@RailwayAdventurer](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/RailwayAdventurer)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 5:56am UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/zootopia-question/1419/4 "2018-01-18T05:56:03Z")
> [@Why I'm weak on Story Limit](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/why-im-weak-on-story-limit/1435/9): > > If you identify what type of limit you have and the nature of the specific limitation as is regards your story, it’s relatively simple. Once a threshold is met with the Limit, a Driver naturally follows, otherwise you’re covering territory that you’ve already exhausted. The limit can be used as a trigger for a Story Driver. It need not be so causally connected, but the driver often happens in loose proximity to a limit indicator. Since Zootopia’s Story Limit is broken, then based on what Chris says above, it may be possible that the second Optionlock introduced through Bellwether’s scheming may have contributed to the unclarity in the Story Drivers. I wonder if, when he said that the Initial Story Driver was when Judy entered Zootopia, Chris was trying to take Bellwether into account or not, since the second Optionlock is outside of the scope of the story Zootopia initially sets out to deliver, with the Optionlock of the missing predators. I think that if the second Optionlock was kept within the other limit, like @jhull suggested, the Story Drivers would be clearer. What do you think? Edit: Jim also says that the Initial Story Driver is the disappearance of the predators, which seems to be very close to what @mlucas said. Sources: [Why I'm weak on Story Limit - #9 by chuntley - writing - Dramatica](http://discuss.dramatica.com/t/why-im-weak-on-story-limit/1435/9) [Zootopia - Analysis - Narrative First](https://narrativefirst.com/analysis/zootopia) ---
**Author:** ![Rachel\_Blot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex010/user_avatar/discuss.dramatica.com/rachel_blot/32/1482_2.png) [@Rachel\_Blot](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/Rachel_Blot)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 9:37am UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/zootopia-question/1419/5 "2018-01-18T09:37:10Z")
Regarding that, I was thinking : is Zootopia’s Story Limit really broken ? As you said the Optionlock concerns the missing predators but by the time they are returned to Zootopia, they aren’t themselves. They are savages (as mrs Otterton put it, it isn’t her husband that she’s seeing). So it suggests that although they aren’t missing physically anymore, they are still missing mentally. In that case the Optionlock and the story are brought to an end when mrs Otterton and her husband reunite for good, aka when the predators are cured from the effet of the Night Howlers. I believe it would fit with the overall theme of overcoming prejudice and learning how to live together, what do you think ? ---
**Author:** ![RailwayAdventurer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@RailwayAdventurer](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/RailwayAdventurer)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 7:32pm UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/zootopia-question/1419/6 "2018-01-18T19:32:52Z")
> [@Rachel\_Blot](#): > > is Zootopia’s Story Limit really broken ? Here’s what Jim says in his analysis: “Authors can set all kinds of diminishing options and dwindling clocks within the context of storytelling and not affect the overall meaning of a story. What they can’t do is set up a Story Limit, and then disregard it as if it never really mattered. This is what Zootopia does. … They set up the original Optionlock of the missing predators, but the moment they find Emmet Otterton and end their investigation the story is over. At least, that was the promise the authors made to the audience during the first Act.” > [@Rachel\_Blot](#): > > So it suggests that although they aren’t missing physically anymore, they are still missing mentally. Interesting. I’m not certain if “being missing mentally” would fall under the original or second Optionlock, but it I think it’s under the latter since Bellwether infecting the predators, and therefore the predators not being themselves, appears to fall under it. ---
**Author:** ![Greg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@Greg](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/Greg)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 9:39pm UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/zootopia-question/1419/7 "2018-01-18T21:39:51Z")
@Rachel_Blot I always saw it the way you did. Finding Mr. Otterton isn’t the same as returning Mr. Otterton to his wife. It’s not enough to just find him and send him home in his savage state. He has to be cured first. Would it make any difference, I wonder, to point out that the 48 hour Timelock seems to be about Judy’s MC story rather than the OS story. Judy’s story is about the activities of being a police officer and she has 48 hours to show that she can be a police officer. The OS is about prejudice against predators and that isn’t completed until they figure out how to bring them back from their savage state. ---
**Author:** ![RailwayAdventurer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@RailwayAdventurer](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/RailwayAdventurer)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2018, 1:17am UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/zootopia-question/1419/8 "2018-01-19T01:17:38Z")
Sorry, my mistake. I was referring to the second Optionlock that was introduced after the first Optionlock ended, which was surrounding Bellwether’s scheme, not the Timelock that Chief Bogo set. (Fixed in the other posts.) ---
**Author:** ![Greg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@Greg](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/Greg)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2018, 1:51am UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/zootopia-question/1419/9 "2018-01-19T01:51:16Z")
What do you mean by the second Optionlock? Are you looking at Optionlock 1 as finding the missing animals and Option lock 2 as uncovering Bellwether’s plot? ---
**Author:** ![RailwayAdventurer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@RailwayAdventurer](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/RailwayAdventurer)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2018, 2:37am UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/zootopia-question/1419/10 "2018-01-19T02:37:36Z")
> [@Gregolas](#): > > Are you looking at Optionlock 1 as finding the missing animals and Option lock 2 as uncovering Bellwether’s plot? Yes, although I’m not certain what the options for Optionlock 2 are, since they’re not mentioned in Jim’s article nor the User’s Group. ---
**Author:** ![Greg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@Greg](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/Greg)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2018, 2:51am UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/zootopia-question/1419/11 "2018-01-19T02:51:42Z")
Gotcha. I was thinking of them as separate options within the same Optionlock and it all deals with the Zootopians overcoming their fears and prejudices of the predators. As in Option 1, find the missing animals. When that fails to ease the city’s fears, go to Option 2, discover what’s making the predators go savage and restore the animals back to their non-savage states.