u/Hot_Valuable_9931

I'm sure others have come up with this theory, but I actually believe that - while Nick did end up hustling her in the end - he was actually genuinely touched by Judy standing up for him in the ice cream shop and even felt some remorse for hustling her.

Why do I say this? Simply put, we know that deep inside, he never wanted to be the sly fox society expected him to be. And sure, while Judy definitely overcompensated a bit to make up for the unconscious prejudice toward foxes she had at the time (after all, she did nearly use the spray on Nick just seconds before), the fact remains that she didn't HAVE to stand up for Nick in the first place especially when he was a complete stranger then. She genuinely wanted to do good, and I believe Nick recognized that.

This is the main point of my post here. Pay attention to his facial reaction when she steps in to defend him (provided in the 1st screen shot). He looks taken aback but also touched that someone would actually stand up for him, a fox, of all animals. Now look at his face in the 2nd screen shot. It's subtle, but you can tell that while the reaction he had toward Judy was more genuine, the smile he puts on when facing Jerry (the owner) is clearly part of his mask as he made the vow to never let anyone see that they got to him. He doesn't want Jerry to know how much his comments hurt and so he's using his smile as a shield.

Nick was truly grateful to Judy. However, because of how he grew up, he believed he had no choice but to continue the role of the sly fox with his hustle of her. But even though it was never shown on screen, I truly believe that Nick regretted taking advantage of her kindness and felt some remorse for it.

What do you guys think?

"I have unresolved childhood trauma that I refuse to discuss because being vulnerable scares me."

This was already important for Nick to say because it gives us a glimpse into why he turned out the way he did, why he has trouble taking things seriously and why he always defaults to joking even when it's not the right time to.

However, the more I've been thinking about, the more I realized something. For something that is unresolved, the obvious implication is that it needs to be resolved. I believe this moment is actually, in a way, a callback to Judy's own unresolved childhood trauma in the first film. Judy's encounter with Gideon gave her a fear of predators (foxes especially) that she tried desperately to hide. But that fear manifested in the worst way when she unintentionally but still deeply hurt Nick. Over time, however, her unresolved trauma became fully resolved when Gideon, the source of her trauma, apologized and took full responsibility for the hurt he caused her. This allowed Judy to finally erase the little bit of fear of foxes she still had and begin the path of reconciling with Nick.

And now, we need to see Nick's childhood trauma fully resolved just like Judy's was. For as much as he's grown a lot since the events of the first film, it's obvious he still has quite a ways to go. What could that unresolved childhood trauma be? Judy already knows about the muzzle, but I have a theory that the muzzle incident is a lot more wicked than we realized. Here's my theory that I'm sticking with:

When Nick was a kit, his dad was murdered. He told the junior ranger scouts about it when they were his "friends", and they assured him they would always be there for him. But that was all a lie. They took advantage of his grief by pretending to be his pack and hitting him where he least expected it, thus making their betrayal a lot darker than we and Judy realized. Nick told his mom which broke her down completely. From having her husband murdered to having Nick's grief taken advantage of, she had a complete mental breakdown that sadly deemed her unfit to take care of her young son. Nick was then placed in foster care but sometime later, he ran away and began his hustling career. This gave Nick the cynical mindset we see in the first film. He saw that nobody cared about a young fox and they were even willing to weaponize his grief against him because that's just how low society sees them as.

Whatever it is, I would love to see Nick's childhood trauma become resolved by having Judy remind him that while he can't change his past, he can certainly embrace where he's at now and how far he's come. And when Nick truly sees how invaluable Judy is to his life and that she'll never judge him or view him any less for his traumatic upbringing, he'll finally stop allowing his past to have a grip on him.

What do you guys think?

Something from the confession scene in Z2 that always stuck out to me was how, even when pouring his heart out, Nick is still absolutely terrified of admitting his biggest flaw, that he's emotionally insecure. He wore the mask of cynicism and stoicism and had it perfected for so long that there was a very small part of him that wanted to still keep it on.

Look at the screen shot and notice the way he delays the time before coming to grips with his emotional insecurity.

"I care about you. Ok? And I didn't say it. I should have said it, but I didn't because...ugh...."

He doesn't jump straight to the point because his fear is holding him back. He knows he'll have to face the truth any second as there's no turning back now, but you can tell there's a small part of him who really wishes he wouldn't have to.

But in the end, he's finally able to overcome his fear because he realized there is something even more terrifying than admitting his biggest flaw: losing Judy. To me, that was the moment he finally dropped the mask for good.

One of the things about this franchise that make it great that people correctly point out is the concept of show, don’t tell.

Well, here’s a crystal clear example of that. As Judy is fixing to give into the unfair demand of turning in her badge, all of her coworkers can’t wait to get rid of her. We see it on their faces. But observe that the one animal who immediately sees that she’s being treated unfairly is the one animal who isn’t even a coworker and who had every reason to walk away.

At this point, Judy was truly alone. But this frame tells us that was about to change. I really appreciate how with moments like these, they don’t insult our intelligence. We can tell that Nick is going to defend Judy before he even speaks a single word.

When I saw this scene, the subtle change in Judy's face immediately stood out to me.

Notice how in the first screen shot, she has a warm smile. However, when Gary says "we'll fix things for your partner, too" her smile immediately fades at the mention of Nick as seen in the second screen shot. I've seen some posts in here claiming that Nick missing Judy was more obvious than Judy missing Nick. But look at the third screen shot. We don't need Judy to literally say the words "I miss Nick" for us to tell that she clearly DOES miss him. It's written all over her face.

Keep in mind this as well: In the confession scene, Judy admitted to Nick that she suppresses her discomfort because she doesn't want to look weak. We can see that when she's separated from him. She externalizes happiness when she's with Gary and Pawbert because she doesn't want them to know she doesn't feel right. But when Nick is mentioned, she can't help herself. She looks like she's on the verge of breaking down in tears.

Also, I saw someone write this before. I don't remember who but whoever you are, if you see this, all the credit goes to you. When Judy is solving the case without Nick, she is clearly less confident than she was before, which aligns perfectly with her telling Nick "you're the only one in my life who ever believed in me, even when I don't even believe in myself." For as much as Judy exudes confidence, it's clear that confidence isn't entirely there when Nick isn't with her.