Webcomic / Zistopia

The Ever Sarcastic Author and Their Notes: Turns out that escaped convict you chased down and humiliated in front of an apartment of mice the other day is your only lead in solving a mystery. Good fuckin' luck.

As some might know, Disney's Zootopia was originally going to be much, much darker. The Predators and the Prey were going to be segregated, with the Prey being upper and middle class citizens and the Predators being the lower class citizens. The Predators would be forced to wear shock collars that would zap them whenever they became "too emotional" in order to "correct" them. After test audiences found the story too grim to be able to enjoy the setting or the characters, the writers started over and eventually came up with the Zootopia we know and love today. Despite the love the movie received there were actually many who have found the original premise far more interesting, including a tumblr user under the penname Nicolas Wildes (yes, we know) who decided to take these thrown out ideas and make it into a fanfic/webcomic.

The story begins with Nick Wilde, who had just recently been arrested by none other than Lieutenant Judy Hopps not long ago for illegally taking collars off of his fellow Predators, (although only for a short period of time and for a small price) being offered a way out of prison. Help the woman who arrested him solve a mystery or remain behind bars. What happens next is a character-driven story of adventure.

You can get started at the masterlist or if you want to see some extra stuff and a bit of Word of God you can begin reading here.

After a two-year hiatus beginning from November 2016, Word of God declared it an Orphaned Series due to personal issues on November 2018, leaving behind a rough cut of the remainder of the story for the sake of closure.

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Zistopia, the racist animal hell AU provides examples of:

• Adapted Out: Neither of the Ottertons have yet to appear, and Gideon Grey is explicitly stated will not appear. In fact he has nothing to do with Judy's background in this continuity, as a fox living in this world's Bunny Burrows would have been out of the question in this setting. Other characters who are suggested by the author to not appear is Mr. Big, and Mayor Lionheart. Whether or not they will appear in roles unrelated to their canon-selves is still up in the air.
  • Emmitt Otterton is implied to exist in this universe. He (if it was him) went to Wilde Times but got the wrong collar number, so when he went to put it back on he got the wrong collar, and since it was meant for a different species of animal it reacted to his different heartbeat and killed him.
    • Frou Frou, Mr. Big's daughter, makes an appearance, so Mr. Big does exist somewhere in this universe but very likely not as a mob boss.
    • Lionheart has a cameo appearance, working at a fast food restaurant.
    • The author hints that Gideon likely does exist somewhere in this continuity. Stating hes probably selling pies like in canon, just away from Bunny Burrows. He has yet to make a physical appearance though.
    • Gideon later makes an appearance as one of the foxes claiming to be Nick to help him evade police capture.
• Adaptation Name Change: The main characters' middle names are changed: Judy Bonita Hopps and Nick Peter Wilde. Also, Manchas' last name here is instead Cortez.
• Adaptational Badass: Judy in canon is a rookie cop, just graduated from the academy. Here, she's a well-respected lieutenant with a personal squad. Justified, as she was age-lifted and has been in the ZPD for 8 years.
  • Bucky and Pronk as well. Their roles and capabilities were virtually unexplored in the movie, but here they are ZPD officers under Judy. Bucky even gets down and dirty with the Manchas case and the subsequent discovery of the collar conspiracy.
• Adaptation Dyejob: Becomes evident in the few concept pages that are colored, such as this one. In the movie Nick had green eyes and Judy had violet, here they have orange and blue eyes respectively. Their fur colors are also noticeably darker, although that may or may not have something to do with the different format. The author has explained that this is supposed to make both look more intimidating.
• Adaptation Expansion: The elements from the finalized film that make it into the comic get expanded upon depending on the exact subject. Such as Judy's family.
• Adaptation Personality Change: A rather realistic case in terms of Judy. While in the film she was a Wide-Eyed Idealist who genuinely believed she could do anything if she set her mind to it and didn't start to break until reality started to hit her hard, this Judy has already lost her idealism and has been extremely worn out emotionally due to the struggle she went through in order to be taken seriously as cop who was also a Rabbit, and as a result, she can be quite the cold authoritarian at times.
  • Clawhauser is more grounded than his canon counterpart. This is eventually explained by the fact that he has to take pills to keep from getting shocked, which tones down his personality.
  • Nick, although it's more adaptational willingness to work with Judy without causing her trouble. He still has walls up like his canon counterpart did at the start of the film.
  • Bucky Oryx-Antlerson is nicer than his canon counterpart. When two of his coworkers won't stop talking about Judy nuzzling Nick after he was critically injured while defending her he delivers a somewhat aggressive speech to get them to shut up so she won't risk losing her job due to gossip.
  • Judy's grandfather, in the movie (only seen in the home release's extras), is somewhat senile and heavily prejudiced against foxes. Here, he is lucid and immediately welcoming to Nick due to having his life saved by a fox during the War in his youth. ^note However, he is still prejudiced against dogs and domesticated felines.
  Grandpa: I was the last Hopps left. But ol' Lem, bless him, he didn't let me go home alone. And we showed up on my dear mother's porch and she just... she threw a bucket of water over him. That's when I realized predator-prey segregation was a load of hooey. Sometimes I wonder where he is now.
  • Froufrou, Mr. Big's beloved Daughter, is a nurse in this universe who tries to help Judy to find out more about Collar related injuries, which are hidden by the authorities. Due to this, she comes off as less spoiled and more hard working.
• Age Lift: In the movie, Judy is 24 and Nick is 32. Here, both are in their early 30s.
• A House Divided: A variant happens to the Hopps family after they get to know Nick. Several members realize just how bad their society is because of their time with him, but some continue to maintain that everything is fine. This causes a rift between the family that causes them to argue a lot.
• Alternate Universe: An imagining of what a few of the earlier drafts for Zootopia would have looked had they been fully realized. It also appears to be set in The '70s, rather than a counterpart to The New '10s like the film was.
• Amicable Exes: Nick and Gwen are stated to have a.) been in a relationship, and b.) worked together on Wilde Times. Nick even said he "got lucky" (no, not like that!) with that turn of fate. They're shown to still get along decently.
• Ancient Conspiracy: The Cud Club. For a certain value of "ancient", anyway, as it's implied to have been active for only about two generations. Nevertheless, it's a clique of influential prey (ungulate) media and business owners, powerful enough to be the sole reason the shock collars were introduced, and have the government both cover up all cases of collar-related accidents and collaborate with them on unethical experiments on predators. It's implied that while the Club and the collars started because of the founders' Fantastic Racism against predators, their heirs scramble to keep the horrifying system going simply because all of them profit from the status quo so much.
  Llamar: Yes, maybe some lives were lost. Maybe some mothers miscarried. And for some people, childhood ended a little too soon. Heck, entire families were outright destroyed. But it was all for the greater good... Money.
• Anger Born of Worry: Later on Finnick is shown to be angry with Nick because he feels like Nick is setting both himself and Judy up for failure. Which he wasn't entirely wrong on.
• Anti-Hero: Nick technically counts as this prior to getting arrested. He ran an illegal collar removal operation in which he'd give other Preds a temporary taste of freedom for a small price. After being given the chance to work with Judy, he's more of a straight up "hero" in the story.
• Armor-Piercing Question: When Nick and Judy are talking in her room after he nearly died protecting her, she asks a very important question. It's unclear whose armor it pierced, Nick's or her own.
  Judy: Or maybe it was your "evil savage ancient predator impulses" that saved me. and if that's what happened then… Can they be all that evil? And savage?
  • One of Judy's (many) little sisters, Dolly, talks to her about whether or not she'll settle down with someone and have children. Judy jokes that she'd marry Nick first before that ever happens. Dolly presses the question and Judy insists that she's not into him - at which point Dolly reminds her that her case is officially over, which means Nick is done working with her and can finally leave. When Dolly asks her whether Judy will forget about him or try to keep in touch, Judy doesn't have an answer, and in fact seems troubled as she realizes she's not ready to part ways with him yet.
• Art Shift:
  • Commonplace starting with page 52, when multiple people started collaborating on the comic's artwork due to original author's time constraints. The art styles between pages can vary greatly, so much that certain characters can be a little hard to immediately recognize.
  • During the escape from CarniFaux facility, the normally white backgrounds become blood-red, to signify alarms sounding off.
• Ascended Extra: Bucky Oryx-Antlerson becomes one quite unexpectedly. He's a background extra in the comic as well, until after Judy is expelled from the ZPD he makes the decision to finish what she started and goes with a squad-mate to check a previously omitted lead despite the Manchas's case being closed. This makes him a viewpoint character for page 63, where he's the first protagonist to witness the conspiracy associated with the collars.
• Aside Glance: Sheena does this at one point.
• Berserk Button:
  • Seeing Manchas hurt Judy enrages Nick so much that he starts attacking him with his claws and teeth and his fur stands on end.
  • Judy's little brother Chet sees red when a group of prejudiced rabbits attacks Nick with water balloons, causing his collar to malfunction and shock him.^note At this point, Nick has saved Judy's life, befriended all of the Hopps family, and is trusted around baby rabbits despite being a predator.
  Bully: Whoa, Chet, it was just a long-nose chomper! A friggin conniving fox!
  Chet: (pummeling the other rabbit to the ground) NICK WILDE! IS! A! SAINT! YOU! JERK!
  • Nick gets incredibly furious at several points early on over Judy's lack of knowledge on Predators. Especially when she tries to imply that she has it hard despite being uncollared (Nick himself refers to the collars as "handicaps") or when she tried to imply that the snow vixens were prostitutes. So mad that his collar shocks him heavily. He eventually calms down and explains these things to her in a heart-to-heart moment. Which helps them become close, and helps her mind be open to the bad things that are happening to the Predator community. Likewise Judy gets defensive when people question her skills.
• The Berserker: Finnick is stated to be this to such an extent he actually caused his collar to fizzle out.
• Big Bad: Nancy Goetz is the prime suspect for the part. Not only she pretty much fills the role Bellwether has in the movie, of leading a group exclusive to her species that kidnaps predators and makes them go savage to manipulate public opinion, but her follow-up to the plan is to introduce a new collar that pretty much robs the wearers of any semblance of will. The idea is to make sure that they still have predators to sell to in the long run.
• Blatant Lies: This conversation has some of it.
  Nick: Lieutenant, did you pretend I was your boyfriend so you could rustle your bitchy sister's jimmies?
  Judy: You hallucinated that.
• Boxed Crook: If Nick helps Judy he doesn't have to go back to jail.
• By-the-Book Cop: Judy, until Nick's collar nearly kills him as he was trying to protect her. Then she starts to question bias against Predators, and by extension the bias the "book" has as well.
• Can't Have Sex, Ever: It has been stated that most Predators of Nick's generation largely don't participate in sexual acts, as it can set their collars off.
• Change the Uncomfortable Subject: After Nick's You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech to Judy as below, Judy is left speechless before she starts talking about getting new shirt for Nick (whose shirt is shredded some time prior)
• Character Catchphrase: Just about anytime Nick sees a baby or small child he'll wave and say "Hi baby/babies."
• Chekhov's Gun: The tranquilizer gun that Honey gave Judy during her and Nick's visit. There's also Judy's collar key, which she eventually leaves with Nick on accident. This sets up her losing her badge/job and Nick becoming a wanted mammal. This also gives Nick the opportunity to start his own rebellion of sorts due to feeling betrayed. Also, later on an inconsistency in Mancha's mail is what inspires Judy's former platoon to launch an unofficial investigation of their own.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Nick has a tendency to drop the f-bomb when angry.
• Cold Open: Sort of. The comic starts with Nick already being placed in Judy's custody and the two working together to catch a killer.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Honey. She believes the sheep are behind most things. If the culprit is the same as in Zootopia, she could be right. Grandpa Hopps comes off as this to his younger family members, but he actually has a point in his ramblings.
• Cool Car: Judy's rarely seen ''Bunny Buick." Designed more or less to look cool.
  Author: Zistopia AU concepts. I looked at the concept art for the animal themed cars and rabbit cars were these tiny one person vehicles and I thought, “Fuck that shit, she’s drivin’ a Buick”
• Cool Old Guy: Judy's Grandfather is pretty cool.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right:
  • Honey comes off as a crazy conspiracy theorist, and Nick explains it to Judy that it's her way of coping with the loss of her husband and subsequent shock collar-induced miscarriage, trying to find something bigger than herself to pass the guilt and blame onto. His explanation seems to make sense on the face of it, give how seriously he takes that traumatic event. Except she was right- there is a conspiracy against predators that involves collars, and part of it is run by sheep, as well as goats. By the time Nick is free, and after he realizes Judy never sold him out, Honey warns him to stay low because Judy being fired could very well be a means of baiting him, especially since at this point he's been uncollaring predators all day. All of the sudden, Honey doesn't sound so crazy.
  • Grandpa Hopps' belief that the shock collar actually made Manchas go savage is laughed off by his grandchildren.
• Darker and Edgier: This story takes scrapped elements from some earlier scripts of the film that were scrapped for causing Too Bleak, Stopped Caring in test audiences (namely the shock collars were stated to cause the viewers to not be able to love the world as much as they could) as well as adding some (mild) sexual themes and having a character be brutally murdered (eaten) off-screen. The author presents all this in a way that overall averts the Too Bleak, Stopped Caring of the original script.
  • The author has pointed out that she goes far more into to depth about the implications and possible effects the shock collars could have than the film probably could have had the element remained in the final product.
  • It also deals non-hetero themes and mixed species/race relationships in a time where such things aren't considered acceptable.
• Dark and Troubled Past: In the comic Honey is stated to have lost her litter (while she was pregnant with them) due to a collar related accident. Sidenotes reveal that after she lost her husband, she was in such despair that the collar shocked her until she was injured and her unborn babies were killed.
  • Nick, of course.
  • Pretty much any Predator counts simply because of the collars. Not helped that they began use just weeks after forced segregation ended.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: The roles are reversed, with Nick having to defrost Judy.
• Department of Redundancy Department: The slogan for Hopps Carrot Farms.
  "WE DON'T JUST GROW CARROTS!" "WE GROW BLUEBERRIES." "NOT JUST CARROTS!" "A WHOLESOME VEGETABLE."
• Didn't Think This Through: Nick never considers the long-term ramification of uncollaring 200 predators to spite Judy for what he thinks is her betrayal, and he's horrified when he learns of some foxes turning themselves in to throw off the authorities. And that's before he then learns that Judy actually never betrayed him.
  • The Cud Club got hit hard by having Nancy Goetz, one of their most prominent members point out the Fatal Flaw of the modus operandi of their entire shock collar-based industry by pointing out that predators can't buy vehicles due to risk from shocks and driving adrenaline, workout equipment is out due to exertion, effectively limiting their own market. The shock collar effectively makes them second class citizens resulting in declining birth rates and in the long run, there won't be any predators left to sell their outdated merchandise to. Is it any wonder that she would resort to a collar that robs the predator customers of their free will to make sure that they stay in business?
• Disappeared Dad: John Wilde disappeared after being arrested, 20 years ago. Word of God says he is dead.
• Disaster Dominoes: A big one. Judy forgetting to take back her collar key from Nick after loaning it to him for Wilde Times. When Judy realizes that fact, she lets slip that Nick has the key, right in front of President Bellwhether after arguing with her on how screwed up the society is. As a result, Judy got fired complete with a "Reason You Suck" Speech from her boss and lost any authority to continue investigating the collar issue. As for Nick, he's a wanted man again and seeing the warrant for his arrest made him think that he was betrayed by Judy after opening up to her. Now he wants to go out with a bang by removing the collars of 200 predators and start one of the biggest upheavals in the city's history. The one silver lining in this whole event was that by getting fired, Judy's squad is counted as "off duty" around the time they just discovered a new lead in the murder case, as it was closed and no other police branch will reopen it.
• Dominant Species Genes: Well, more like dominant sex - hybrids always take the mother's species, and only minor traits from the father.
• Do Wrong, Right: Inverted; Nick did a good thing, but not for entirely unselfish reasons. During a flashback to the grand opening of Wilde Times, Nick realized his mother might be disappointed if she was there to see that he'd found a way to get the collars off, but only did it for a limited amount of time and also for a small profit. Although as the author points out later during an ask, if someone were to go around taking random predators' collars off, it could ultimately cause a reaction from the government or police force that could make life even worse for them than it is already.
• Do You Trust Me?: When Judy asks Nick the true reason for his arrest, he offers to show it... but only if she trusts him enough to visit a shady predator-only part of town, where she would be unarmed and alone with him, and no one would hear her scream.
• Dummied Out: Characters who had this happen in regards to the actual film, such as Honey and the three snow vixens, are brought back in.
• Dystopia: This story shows just how the old concepts for Zootopia could be this.
  • Hell the title is stated to be a play on the word, but with the y changed to an i because that's widely considered more visually pleasing in the marketing industry.
• Easily Forgiven: Played for Laughs early on between Honey and Nick. She's initially sour with him because he got her prototype confiscated. All Nick has to do is sing a little song while snuggling her a bit to get her to forgive him.
• Establishing Character Moment: The first time we see this AU's version of Judy it's established she doesn't abide by her family's traditional values. The second time we see her, it's made clear she's both hard-as-nails and is prejudiced. The second one also establishes Nick as being extremely sarcastic.
• Everyone Can See It: Practically anyone who sees them interacting assume Nick and Judy are together, even before the two of them realize they have feelings for each other.
  Dolly: So, do they register on your screwdar?
  Herb: They are most definitely doing it.
• Explosive Breeders: Both Judy's parents and most of her siblings are this.
• Fantastic Racism: Even more so than the film. When Nick was a child, the Preds and Prey lived segregated from one another, and when forced segregation ended, the Predators were then forced to wear shock collars that causes them great pain when they experience strong emotions and sometimes malfunction and shock them for no reason. They're treated with fear by the Prey populace. There's also enough stereotypes for each species that you can be judged no matter what you are. For example, Judy 'really had to struggle to become a respected high ranking cop.
  • There's also prejudice against characters who are non-hetero, especially if they fall under Pansexual (In-Universe described as being able to be romantically and/or sexually attracted to anyone regardless of gender or species,) Predophile (Prey who are interested in Predators as romantic and/or sexual partners), or Preyophile (Predators who are interested in Prey as romantic and/or sexual partners). Being a Predophile is enough to get kicked out of the police force in this Universe.
  • The comic also deals with internalized racism against oneself.
  • In the hospital Judy visits the Maternity ward for predators, which are completely separated from the outside world and treated as if they had Ebola and every doctor and Visitor only enters the room with a Biohazard Suit. Everyone outside is quite shocked when Judy opens her suit to talk more directly with the pregnant woman. The only doctor who did this as well was fired. The Predators in the ward reveal that the doctors aren't really afraid of the Predators but more of something else, most likely some authorities.
• Feel No Pain: Jessica Jett, a minor fox character, is incapable of feeling pain from her collar.
• First Kiss: Nick's, silly enough, was taken was he was a kit by a young Gazelle at a concert their families were attending, before the collars came to be used. Alas, reactions to the deed were mixed.
• Fragile Speedster: Judy, who, being a rabbit, is insanely fast (so fast she kinda scares Nick; see Killer Rabbit for further details) but goes down hard against all but the lightest hits. She even admits this herself.
  Judy: I'm fast. But I'm still a bunny. I have to dodge every time. He only has to hit me once. And he did. I thought I was going to die.
• Friend to All Children: The few times Nick interacts with children he seems quite happy and is extremely gentle and patient with them.
  • Finnick, of all mammals, is stated to be at least decent with kids.
• Gas Mask Mook: All Goetz employees in the CarniFaux facility. Which just makes the place that much creepier.
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: The effect of the " collar that does not shock". It also renders the subject completely apathetic, unable to do anything but stand around and grin, even as they're being physically hurt.
• Great Offscreen War: The Great War against Purrussia stated by Grandpa Hopps. How Zootopia won laid the foundation of the Shock Collar and its hidden function.
• Hero-Worshipper: Lee the female Hyena develops this towards Gazelle after she tells Lee she's beautiful.
  • Several of Judy's relatives get this towards Nick after after he saves her from being mauled. Most noticeable is one of her younger brothers, Chet, who attacks another rabbit that deliberately tried to cause Nick pain (by throwing a water balloon at him while his collar was on,) and Jim (one of Judy's nephews) who is shown drawing pictures of Nick doing stereotypical "cool jobs" (such as a secret agent and an astronaut) that Nick couldn't possibly become due to the setting.
• Hotter and Sexier: To an extent. There is a level of sexuality to this AU, but it's definitely not in-your-face or anything.
• I Am Spartacus: After Nick goes around uncollaring predators, several foxes (including vixens, who claim that Nick's wanted poster never said he's a guy) decide to turn themselves in in hopes that the real Nick can evade capture.
• Informed Flaw: Nick, at several points, is described as "needy and pathetic." The only time this is (arguably) shown is when Nick goes to Honey to get his tie tied, because "It feels like being loved." It eventually becomes something of a gag, when "distinct vibe of 'needy and pathetic'" is put as Nick's characteristic on his wanted poster.
• In-Series Nickname: Judy is called "Judy-on-Duty" by her co-workers when they think she isn't paying attention. She doesn't appreciate it.
• Intergenerational Friendship: It's established that Nick and Honey have been very close since Nick was relatively young despite Honey having been an adult, married, and having children when Nick could have been no more than ten.
• Interspecies Friendship: In-Universe this is considered fine.
• Interspecies Romance: In-Universe reception to this varies. If it's a Prey/Prey (or alternatively Predator/Predator) relationship, such as a rabbit and a hare, it would be easier to find people who support it, but you'll also find people who are against the relationship. If it's a Prey/Predator relationship however...
  • Gazelle is the only one who practices a predator/prey relationship publicly with her tiger companions,^note (It is implied that only Ian is her lover, as he quips to the others that "you'll never know her the way I know her".) and she only has the luxury of doing so because of her celebrity status- and even then, she had many detractors who wear her down. The best that can be said is that the taboo has only become marginally accepted if the predator involved is a tiger, since "that's what you go for if you're a 'predo'."
  • Even prey/prey and pred/pred relationships get some flack if they're different species. While most of the Hopps family are shown to be okay with Dolly and Herb's relationship, the poor hare has to deal with quite a bit of attitude from the members who don't. Likewise Cherry and Finnick relationship is shown to be incredibly rocky, because while they both are foxes one of them is an arctic fox and the other is a desert fox - Which presents noticeable challenges.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sheena, Judy's punk younger sister, is this to an extent. She loves her boyfriend and family but that doesn't prevent her from being an invasive ass-nugget.
• Killer Rabbit: Nick ponders this idea when Judy catches the "prey" in the theme park's Cheetah Run in only three seconds (time limit was sixty). Justified that she is a police officer but still...
  Nick: If rabbits ate meat... Only rabbits would have survived to evolve...
• A Lizard Named "Liz": Honey the honey badger.
  • Let's not forget Nancy Goetz and her father Billy.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • After Judy gets fired, a few of her underlings decide to continue investigating the Manchas case despite it having been closed, reason being that they're now technically off-duty.
  • Some vixens turn themselves in to the police claiming to be Nick Wilde because his wanted poster didn't say he's a guy.
• Love Epiphany: Nick with Judy, after she leaves the theme park.
  Nick: ...Judy ...she's a rabbit. The... the vixen...Is A RABBIT... I didn't get her number.
• Love Hurts: Seems to be a running theme.
  • Nick's father getting arrested completely destroyed his mother.
  • Honey is the way she is because her husband died, and her grief was so great that it caused her collar to shock her until she miscarried.
  • Finnick and Cheery are shown to be interested in each other romantically, but neither seem willing to make a move due to the fact that he's a desert fox and she's an arctic fox. This actually brings both of them to tears at different points.
  • Then there's Nick and Judy. Just a day or so after he realizes he has feelings for her, poor Nick is led to believe that she has betrayed him, which launches him on a less then stable, possibly revolutionary path.
  • Dolly becomes catatonic when Herb leaves the Burrows after yet another spat with his in-laws.
• Married to the Job: Judy. She had to be or else her career wouldn't have gone anywhere.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Like in the film Judy has 275 siblings, and most have many, many children of their own. Unlike the film we actually get to see them and even get to learn a decent bit about a few of them.
• Mood-Swinger: Nick was shown to be this the first time he got his collar was taken off. Justified as this was the first time he could feel such intense emotions without fear of being shocked. Probably not helped by the fact that he was drunk.
• My Greatest Failure: For Nick, the death of a male otter at Wilde Times who grabbed the wrong shock collar from Nick's own perceived negligence appears to be this.
• Mythology Gag: There are several lines and events that refer to the actual Zootopia.
  • The following exchange between Bucky and Pronk (here being Judy's underlings) refers to their role in the movie.
  Bucky: But why's [Judy] gotta be such a bitch all the time?
  Pronk: Man, I dunno. Maybe in some alternate universe we're her really annoying neighbors and this is punishment for it.
  • Whereas Judy in the movie is good at multiplying, here, Tulip, one of Judy's younger siblings, proves her skill with arithmetical division.
  Fiona: Not to mention he's old enough to be your dad.
  Tulip: How old are you?
  Nick: Little girl, I am 32!
  Tulip: 13 y/o DADDY!! I'M 59% HIS AGE!!^note I.e., Tulip scoffs at the idea that Nick could've been a father at only 13, thus indirectly mentioning that she is 19 years old, a.k.a. about 59% of 32.
  • The 200 uncollarings of predators Nick makes before midnight to send a point is a dark parallel to Judy's effort to issue 200 parking tickets before midday to prove herself.
• Noble Bigot with a Badge: Judy, like in the film. Although the film downplays this trope, the comic plays it a bit straighter, which helps emphasize her character development as she begins to question society's outlook on the Preds.
• No Indoor Voice: In-Universe there's an urban legend that foxes scream the name of their True Love when seeing them. Nick's parents apparently did this to each other and Nick does this to Judy upon finally finding her in Bunny Burrows.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Nick's father was basically arrested for saving a pregnant predator woman's life who was almost shocked to death by her collar as she was in labor on a street in flooding rain. Removing her collar was illegal of course but otherwise she would have died.
• No Love for the Wicked: Word of God described Nancy Goetz as a "self serving asexual".
• Not So Above It All: It becomes obvious fairly quickly that Judy isn't as stone-faced as she'd like everyone to believe.
• OC: Justified in some instances, usually in order for world building.
• The Oldest Profession: Averted. Judy is quick to assume that the three arctic vixens are prostitutes, only for Nick to angrily correct her that they're "comfort vixens". Their job is to keep other preds calm so that they don't accidentally make their collars kill them.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Gazelle abandoned her birth name ^note Aria Salma De Asta to cut ties with her intolerant family.
• Parental Favoritism: Grandpa Hopps immediately chooses Judy as his favorite grandchild when she's born with her eyes open. ^note Rabbits normally only start opening their eyes 10 days after birth.
  Stu: Favoritism isn't good, pops
  Grandpa: You were never my favorite, Stuart.
  Stu: Pops why
• Parental Substitute: With Nick's father being absent since his adolescence and his mother becoming so heartbroken and cold, Honey becomes the closest parental figure for him. It doesn't help that she lost her own kids due to a collar shock, so to her, Nick and his gang are virtually her children.
• Perspective Flip: The story is from Nick's point of view rather than Judy's like it was planned in the early scripts, whereas the actual film was from her point of view.
• Promoted to Love Interest: Maybe. In the film Nick and Judy's relationship can be interpreted a number of different ways by the end of the film. Either they're just friends, have developed a sibling-esque relationship, or they have a possible budding romantic relationship. In this AU there's a lot of different things that indicate that they're meant to be love interests. Such as Nick yelling Judy's name repeatedly and very loud once he finally finds her after having searched for her in her family's very large, very confusing home for what can be presumed several hours. Prior to this there's Judy nuzzling Nick's face after he gets injured trying to protect her. It's notable that several of Judy's siblings seem to ship them together due to the events prior. By the time they temporarily part ways they both acknowledge they have feelings for each other. The only question is when they'll tell each other.
• Remember the New Guy?: Gwen the fox. Whereas most OC characters receive an established background in side drawings, or their backgrounds are shown in the comic itself, Gwen just sort of pops up at random with little to no explanation both in the present and in flashbacks. The author eventually lampshades it, and provides a rather hilarious comic (justly called "Properly Introduced Gwen") to establish that she and Nick have known each other since they were kits.
• Rescue Romance: Nick and Judy seem to begin to develop feelings for each other after he saves her from being mauled from a savage Manchas and she saves him from being shocked to death.
• Running Gag: Many characters dislike President Bellwether, and show it vocally.
  • You saved my [x] from a Jaguar! I wouldn't even save my [x] from a Jaguar!
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Nick's uncollaring stunt rubs off on Dr. Mueller^note (a donkey doctor Judy meets in the hospital when investigating about the collar), who decides to join in the fun, and in fact expresses excitement on the prospect of being discovered.
• Shout-Out: Judy's sister Sheena takes her name from The Ramones song "Sheena is a Punk Rocker". Liath is stated to be based on Tiny Tim.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: It's implied Judy was once just as optimistic as her canon counterpart but the struggle to prove herself wore her down tremendously and made her somewhat apathetic and overly task oriented. Prior to the collars, child-Nick was shown to be quite a happy child.
• Smug Smiler: Nancy Goetz has her moments. Most notably when Llamar gets mad at her due to her plan possibly putting him out of business and when panic breaks out during Gazelle's concert, as one of her dancers goes savage and attacks her, something Nancy caused to happen.
• Super Breeding Program: Purrussian domesticated felines are said to be the result of selective breeding in the Great War. Even the usually open-minded Grandpa Hopps calls them "monster race" and "crime against nature"; however, a cat named Tom is later shown as friendly and humble. How Zootopia won against them would lead to the creation of the Shock Collar.
• Super Prototype: Collar Zero was used in the Great War as the Zootopia's trump card. One of the creators was a member of the Cud Club and the rest is history...
• Took a Level in Idealism: Judy, after learning why Nick was arrested, refuses to return his shock collar.
  Judy: I took an oath. To defend, and serve, and protect. And just recently I found out I've been all wrong about this. About who should be feared, who needs to be protected from who. It's got to be everyone. That means predators too. That means you. I've got to defend you. I can't let you tie this around your neck.
  Nick: Judy, I... I just got out of jail. And if you take that with you, I can't leave this place! I'll be stuck down here... right after I became a free man.
  Judy: ... You were never a free man.
  • This happens to Buck and Ernie, a pair of Judy's fellow cops- inspired by the now fired lieutenant, they both decide to launch an unofficial investigation of their own when they come across suspicious evidence. The case is officially closed, but like Judy they're not satisfied with the results. What they find has frightening implications of population control over predators.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Judy. It happens slowly but surely during the course of the story but is cemented when Nick saves her from certain death in the hands of a savage Panther. Since then Judy is much more open and friendly towards Predators.
• Trans Nature: Tom the cat believes that, deep down inside, he is a moose.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid:
  • Judy was described as being much happier and friendlier when she was younger by her grandfather. See the progression to her present personality here.
  • Nick's flashbacks almost always show him as a happy, smiling child. It all comes down when his father is arrested - and is never seen again.
• Workaholic: Judy's coworkers call her "Judy-On-Duty" for a reason. Becomes especially notable with her reaction to Nick suggesting she takes a day off.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Judy finally opens up and reveals the kind of things her coworkers say about her Nick has this big heartfelt, completely unplanned speech in reply. The words have a profound effect on the lieutenant.
  Judy: I told you. I have to work harder than everyone else. Otherwise, I'd... never be anything more than some uppity little bunny. You have to keep proving it to them. Including your own people. The boys at the ZPD call me "Judy-on-Duty" behind my back. They call me worse than that. They don't think I notice. Some things just aren't worth addressing.
  Nick: ... You are amazing.
  Judy: Flattery will get you nowh- [stops short when she sees Nick on both his knees with a look of admiration]
  Nick: I'm not trying to flatter you. I just - I want to tell you I think you're amazing. You're the greatest cop I've ever met, hands down. That thing you did, when you figured out why we found him in the tub? That was incredible. And you looked a serial killer in the eye and aimed a tranquilizer gun at him and didn't even blink. That takes guts. And you brought a fox home with you. A FOX. NATURAL ENEMY. You took my collar off. ... You're not afraid of me. ... I've never been this close to a bunny before. You're the first one brave enough to let me near you. You are the BRAVEST woman… and rabbit… and cop... I have ever met. I just wanted you to know that.

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