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'Zootopia' fan comic, with themes around abortion, goes viral

Edited by Sonious
Your rating: None Average: 3.2 (48 votes)

i_will_survive___08_by_borba-db5353h.jpg

Though it was originally published back in March, the Zootopia fan comic "I Will Survive", drawn and written by Deviant Art artist "Borba", has recently garnered a lot more attention out of nowhere, and not just for its artwork. The comic, which was already notorious among fans of Zootopia for its themes of abortion and spousal abuse, has come to the attention of the wider world, and it even caused a movie nearly two years old to momentarily pop up on Twitter's trending list earlier this week.

The comic features movie protagonists rabbit Judy Hopps and fox Nick Wilde in an apparent sexual relationship, and opens with Judy finding out she's pregnant (the biological improbabilities are discussed in the comic). She informs Nick, only to tell him she'd rather not have the baby. The rest of the comic features Nick and Judy arguing the pros and cons of abortion (though the comic is often described as "pro-life" or "anti-abortion", the author has never claimed this stance), which at one point becomes heated enough Judy claws Nick's face hard enough to leave scars. Nick is presented in a way to suggest a Catholic upbringing, and a picture of a lapine Jesus appears on his dresser. The thematic content of the comic is already perhaps not entirely appropriate for characters from a family friendly animated movie (though, to be fair, the movie is famous for wading into different thematically sticky areas), but the comic does itself no favors by featuring the characters taking the most dramatic possible positions, making it ripe for parody.

Know Your Meme credits a tweet by @Hello_Tailor for causing the comic to go viral this week. A new twist was added to the story when it was noted that the apartment complex apparently used as a reference was the one featured in the 90s sitcom Seinfeld. An early and popular parody featured the the dialogue changed to a discussion of the fast food chain Arby's, while another references the cinematic art of Tommy Wiseau. More variations soon followed, including this one by controversial furry artist Adam "Zaush" Wan, which references his own 2017 Zootopia fan comic, "Mystic Tantra", which is too NSFW to link to and at least proved that Borba did not have a monopoly on messed up 2017 Zootopia fan comics.

Comments

Your rating: None Average: 3.8 (4 votes)

This was my comment 6 months ago on r/zootopia.

Your rating: None Average: 2.6 (8 votes)

Some of the background information here is interesting but this comes as remarkably judgy. Also spousal abuse is not a theme of the comic.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

Your rating: None Average: 2 (4 votes)

While the artist hasn't taken a stance, various tweets and retweets of items related to the artist make it hard not to know what their stance is. It should make anyone sane cringe.

Your rating: None Average: 4.6 (5 votes)

Having Judy throw the first physical blow does show that they are biased in that they believe which side would act in violence first, in my opinion. It is a common writing tactic that "both sides" use.

Your rating: None Average: 3 (4 votes)

https://twitter.com/mpandainsilk/status/939565878844076032
https://twitter.com/NamewithNumbers/status/938913937461993472

I mean more that he's a religious Brazilian homophobe

Your rating: None Average: 2 (4 votes)

Okay, this one is good.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (2 votes)

Interesting tidbit: The comic features a kangaroo amongst a montage of interspecies, presumably pro-life, couples. Once of the defining features of marsupials, including kangaroos, is the females ability to readily terminate pregnancies without the risk or strain that placental mammals face.

Your rating: None Average: 3.7 (3 votes)

One of the first responses I saw to this comic was someone pointing out that rabbits are one of the few placental mammals that can do that too.

Your rating: None Average: 3 (2 votes)

Small update not worthy of an in-article update and/or Newsbyte, but the artist is threatening a sequel over on DeviantArt.

Your rating: None Average: 1 (3 votes)

The fact that she wants to kill the child simply because she thinks they're a "freak" was a painful blow to me honestly. What kind of mother calls their own child such a demeaning name? She probably would have abused the child if I'm not mistaken. I'm afraid for the kid.
The quote "my body, my rules" in this situation sounds more like "their body, my rules" in such a case like this. No one ever wants to let the child live because they think adoption centers hoarde children or that the child doesn't deserve to live. It's a very heartbreaking reality.

Your rating: None Average: 2 (3 votes)

A very heartbreaking reality is that adoption as an institution is chock-full of heartbreaking realities. As an adoptee myself, I've gone back and forth on the issue more times than I can recall. Like, there's little to nothing an adopted person can experience/suffer from at the hands of their family and society that a non-adoptee can't, but for varying reasons, it just works out that adopted children are more likely to be abused in some way, have mental health issues, wind up homeless, join subcultures (like the furry fandom), join cults, etc. Reading up on adoption, especially international/interracial adoption will open your eyes to many more heartbreaking realities, the main one being that indeed, child hoarding (and stealing, and selling) is a thing. Children are nothing more than a commodity to some organizations and prospective parents.

All that stuff is heartbreaking. The reality that a large chunk of society treats you like any "ungrateful", uppity minority when you speak out about it to oppose the narrative (really, mythology in some cases) is more than that though. It's infuriating.

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