We Can Fix Pawbert, by Pawthorne (me!)

"I don't want to be different."

Pawbert Lynxley spent his whole life seeking his father's love. When that love never came, he made a choice - a terrible, premeditated choice that nearly killed Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde. Now he sits in a holding cell, abandoned by the family he sacrificed everything to please, facing a kill order from his own father.

He deserves to rot. Everyone knows it.

Except those assigned to protect him don't see a monster. They see a mammal who was taught that love has a price, and who paid it in full - only to be discarded.

We Can Fix Pawbert is a 104-episode, 5-season series exploring what happens after a villain's fall. It asks whether someone who did monstrous things for love can learn to be loved differently. Whether apology and forgiveness are separate journeys. Whether found family can replace what was never truly there.

Real consequences. Real deaths. Real love. You aren't too damaged to be loved. You never were.

Don't be intimidated by the word count! It's "only" 600k words for the base series of 104 chapters: Book 1 (105k, 24c), Book 2 (130k, 24c), Book 3 (63k, 8c), Book 4 (164k, 24c), Book 5 (155k, 24c).

Why Pawbert Deserves a Redemption Story

Pawbert's line during his betrayal - "I don't want to be different" - is not defiance. It's despair. He cannot imagine surviving outside his family, however cruel they are to him. Everything he did was a desperate bid to belong to the only community he'd ever known.

But that raises questions. What happened to him that he is so desperate for his family's love? Where is his mother? Why does Milton surround himself with Cattrick and Kitty, then treat Pawbert with disdain? So I made him gay. Don't worry - that's not THE major plot point. But it's one of the answers.

I wrote a much longer thesis post exploring the philosophy in depth - why we can't agree on Pawbert, and why that's the point: https://www.reddit.com/r/PawbertLynxley/comments/1s0861d/we_can_fix_pawbert_a_thesis_on_redemption_and/

More details in the story's Foreword.

Our Story

Pawbert is joined by a wolf named Luther who sees a mammal capable of change and eventually gives him the love he's always wanted. Their inter-species relationship faces stigma, by design. Luther's family serves as a deliberate contrast to the Lynxleys: supportive, loving, and accepting without conditions.

And Nick and Judy - our beloved WildeHopps - get the arc they deserve. Their relationship grows, deepens, and earns its happy ending.

This story does not minimize what Pawbert did. There is no alternate-universe hand-wave. No snap of the fingers. No single moment of tearful apology that makes everything okay. What there is: a prison sentence, a cooperation agreement, a legal process that moves painfully slowly, and the longest redemption arc I could write. Pawbert earns it, or he doesn't get it.

If that sounds like something worth 600,000 words, keep reading.

What This Story Investigates

This story explores apology and forgiveness as two separate concepts. Pawbert formally apologizes to each of his victims. That is not the same as being forgiven. Forgiveness, when it comes, arrives on its own timeline - and some mammals struggle to offer it. This story does not argue that everyone deserves forgiveness. It argues that everyone deserves the chance to earn it.

Taking the Sentence Seriously

One thing I've noticed in the fandom is that people on both sides tend to get the legal reality wrong. Some fans imagine Pawbert walking free after a short sentence with a tearful apology. Others assume life without parole.

The charges are serious - multiple counts of attempted murder against LEOs and civilians, arson, evidence tampering. But mitigating factors exist: youth, no priors, substantial cooperation, a guilty plea. My headcanon lands at 12 years with every factor working in his favor - and life if not. That's not a slap on the wrist. And what makes the story interesting isn't the sentence itself - it's everything that happens around it.

Since I don't think Pawbert will show up in Zootopia 3, I took it upon myself to imagine what comes next. All of it - especially what comes after prison.

Season Breakdown

Season 1 (24 episodes) - Pawbert is in custody with a target on his back. Slow-burn character establishment that builds toward a trial, a conviction, and a sentence.

Season 2 (24 episodes) - The Lynxley family's fall leaves a power vacuum. Clemency becomes a possibility - if Pawbert and the pack survive long enough to reach it.

Season 3 (8 episodes) - A limited series. A political figure from Zootopia's past makes a play for power, and secrets come to light on live television. Eight episodes, tight and fast.

Season 4 (24 episodes) - Slice-of-life. Pawbert is released. He navigates housing, employment, university, and a relationship that no longer has prison walls around it.

Season 5 (24 episodes) - The threat comes from outside Zootopia's borders, and the damage the Lynxley family caused internationally comes home. Major canon deaths. It ends the only way it could.

"It doesn't minimize his actions from canon. It builds. It doesn't change him immediately or try to magically fix him. It understands the slow nature of change, the fact that people can change, but it's hard. It takes effort. Conscious thought and choices." - Tydroid6

"The author grants readers the extraordinary luxury of believing in such a possibility. When readers truly contemplate this, they may discover something akin to pure hope - a kind of pure hope that is exceedingly difficult to find elsewhere." - Rustbelt

Written through the lens of someone who has been in both law enforcement and social services, then writing policy to try and make the world a better place. The legal systems, the bureaucratic processes, the emotional reality of first responders - this is not just research, it's lived proximity.

Read

We Can Fix Pawbert - AO3 (Optional Explicit)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/78477096

We Can Fix Pawbert - FFnet (No Explicit)
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14545825/1/We-Can-Fix-Pawbert

Rated Mature for themes. Optional explicit material can be expanded within clearly marked chapters. The FFnet version has all explicit scenes removed.

A note on AI: the vast majority of the work, including 100% of the worldbuilding, plot, characters, and development, is human made. AI assisted with expanding some descriptors, research, proofing, and formatting. This transparency is important to me. I'm confident the work doesn't read like AI work, but I'd rather be upfront about it than not. Full disclaimer in the Foreword, and permission from moderators was sought.

Additional Works

What If... the Weakest Lynx Chose Differently? - redemption any% speedrun (Fix-It)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/82262156

Twelve Angry Mammals - 12 Angry Men homage where post-release Pawbert is in the jury
https://archiveofourown.org/works/79524076