Zootopia Fanfiction Thread

Normally, I would just change the species, but this particular character actually plays off certain qualities of the Tasmanian devil. In particular, the whole ordeal with Devil Facial Tumor Disease.

Think I'll just take after Berserker after all and just call him a Tasmanian devil. Don't think readers will care all that much, and I can just lampshade it at some point.

I might as well mention that I encountered the same issue; Sam Burmowitz is a Siamese cat, and I decided to perhaps inelegantly dodge the issue by simply calling him that. Similarly, Robin Runne is a Persian cat; he's even referred to simply as a 'Persian' at one point. There isn't really an alternative without painstakingly describing what these breeds look like, feature-by-feature.

I wouldn't say it's too far-fetched when one considers that I've written several characters with real-world accents (De Schnutz and his thick Afrikaner dialect leaps to mind), and even Gazelle in-canon speaks with the same Colombian accent Shakira has.

edited 24th Jun '16 10:24:24 AM by PresidentStalkeyes

Well I've given it a bit of thought and the only way it truly won't make sense is if an in-universe narrator or character has to refer to the species of the character. If it's an omniscient narrator, then it's all good.

Whoops. I didn't even think of that honestly. Good thing I went with omniscient narrator then.

Also, Chapter 10. That's a milestone I guess.

Just reviewed.

I should hopefully have Chapter 8 of BvB up very soon, once it's been proofread. I've decided that from now on, scenes that don't directly take place one after the other will be their own chapters in order to keep them shorter and sweeter and stop all these huge gaps between updates. My problem was that I was trying to cram what essentially amounts to two full-length chapters into one chapter.

This means that what was originally going to be Chapter 9 will be Chapter 10, while Chapter 9 will be what was originally the prelude to the main event of Chapter 9... which is now Chapter 10. I'm making no sense at all, am I?

edited 25th Jun '16 5:38:09 AM by PresidentStalkeyes

@Naming Convention: Actually, giving animal name based on our, humanity-derived name isn't really that bad. We can always assume that it's some kind of convergent evolution or something like that, that language and culture in Zooverse actually develops quite similarly with our world counterpart. Siam cat predominates Siam, there's local island/ area in Outback territory named Tasmania by the locals (aboriginal locals), there's equivalent of British and/or Spanish Empire during their history, etc, etc.

Or, if all else fails, you can still used their scientific name. Latin's dead language anyway.

Well, that's certainly a possibility. I've seen one 'fic explicitly refer to Britain (as part of a title gag which I found very amusing, as someone who prefers the movie's American title. "[He] kept asking for directions to 'Zootropolis!'").

Also, Chapter 8 is finally up. Why not read it and give it a chapter rate once you're done? *Beaten to death*

edited 25th Jun '16 8:27:12 AM by PresidentStalkeyes

So me being a non-writer at fanfiction dot net, I wonder how you found out you can't strike through?

Born 10

Well of course he's reassigned to a case that is related to the original.

I'm (pleasantly?) surprised that the reason Nick didn't die outright was The Only One Allowed To Defeat You. That makes me wonder for what reasons Count has in it for Nick besides Foe Romance Subtext. (Ok just kidding, there isn't any...)

I'm amused at everything involving Zootube. I really am.

Normally I'm not a fan of telling, but IMO it's a very well done telling after multiple chapters of showing (along with an extra paragraph of reinforcement).

I just feel (a bit unwarranted, I would guess) that Judy and Nick seem a bit distant to each other this time.

Finally, are you gonna go through all the crimelords before the story is over? :D

edited 25th Jun '16 8:26:39 PM by Malco

Why you gotta be so vague?

The part where the Count looks at his list was going to have Big and Thornbrush's names strikethroughed, but after finding out I couldn't do that, I went with that sloppy-looking X thing instead.

I assure you, "Batbunny Begins" is falling firmly into Never Live It Down territory for Judy. I'll just add it to my long list of Running Gags.

I assume by telling you're referring to that whole 'recap of the week' thing at the beginning? Like I said, vague Malco is vague.

Judy being distant is kind of intentional I guess? Their only real scene together this time is her being suspicious of Nick's motives.

But of course. :P

Sorry I am vague. Please forgive me.

The reason I seemed vague was that I was talking about Show, Don't Tell in general and I wasn't comparing to any previous instance of Telling in the story.

When you finally say the squad had gotten closer you had built up enough plot to earn it. And I liked it.

Watch as Jimmy gets Fridged despite having avoided that once. Pun intended.

B v B next.

edited 26th Jun '16 7:44:19 PM by Malco

Oh okay, that makes more sense now.

Goddamn, why do you want to see terrible things happen to this poor arctic fox? XD

edited 27th Jun '16 5:41:31 AM by Berserker88

Probably because it'd make for a great Break the Cutie moment late in the story, and totally not out of sheer sadism. :V

Might as well say that, thanks to my efforts at chapter-slicing, Chapter 9 may be coming much sooner than you expect.

Well there may be such a moment coming up, but perhaps not in the way you expect...

Good to hear. :)

Ok well to clarify... I don't want something to happen to the poor kid, I dread/expect something to happen to the poor kid...

B v B 8

Ok so as collaborator, you already know mostly what I think about that, so this will be short.

As for Sam facing Judy, he's really trying too hard to get a longer jail time isn't he... it's like he has some real urge to make sarcastic quips at a police officer. The "bomb threat" is explained well, and you will be giving out only random cops to Sam, right? Not someone special, I guess. We'll see.

You have done "OOC" Nick beautifully. As I said, Nick to me, loses his wits when he loses his cool.

There's a Feral Dream pill hidden there, I wonder if and when Sam will be taking it at all.

Sam was pushing his luck, and he knew it. He was just lucky that Judy deals with much worse than that on a regular basis. :V

Not sure where you get 'bomb threat' from, since the Crypsis fellow never mentioned a bombing, but a bomb is a means by which someone could assassinate Sam's client if they wanted to, yes.

And come on now, you already know I'm not going to write in a nameless background character if he's going to be spending a significant amount of time with Sam. I tried to contrive some in-universe excuse for this, but I eventually just settled on 'I like writing new characters too much'. I'll try to keep a curb on it from then on, though.

I was very concerned about Nick's characterisation, myself, so I'm glad there haven't been many complaints on that front, thanks.

I haven't forgotten about the Feral Dream, either, but it might linger for a bit longer before it really comes into play.

edited 27th Jun '16 10:59:24 AM by PresidentStalkeyes

The "bomb threat" is a metaphor for cops taking it seriously and just being on the safe side. Well, it's more correctly "death threat" so, my bad.

EDIT: http://sta.sh/0fs8zs5qecv - I sketched stuff.

I think I messed up Carla's height (should be shorter than Nick). Should not have drawn Judy. :D

So haven't asked if she's a spotted or striped/"shadow" hyena. Even if she's mostly clothed, it matters! (The ears are different, and there's more differences.)

You might ask why she ain't a "hunchback", that's because (it seems) only unique to character designs in Lion King.

As for Sam, he look standard. I didn't shade the face enough so it's not obvious what part of his face is darker.

edited 29th Jun '16 3:25:37 AM by Malco

Holy shiznuts, that was a pleasant surprise! I'm honoured to have gotten some... could this be considered fan-art? I think so. Obviously it's not exactly how I pictured him, but that's not the point, is it? Besides, I think the wide hips were a nice touch, since the slimmer cat breeds tend to look a bit more feminine like that; either that, or you were taking inspiration from Cats Don't Dance. I'm guessing that's his expression when he saw how Przewalski was dressed. :V But anyway, thanks a box full of thanks!

Carla is also looking quite nice there. Very ferocious, and I can still detect the Lion King inspiration even without the hunchback. I suspect that she's very ripped under that uniform, and while she would probably be taller, I'm just assuming that their sizes aren't to scale. I didn't realise at first that was supposed to be Judy in the middle, though. I initially thought it was a gender-swapped Judy... Jude the Dude, perhaps?

Well, yer welcome, and I hope it's accurate "enough" even if it's not exactly how you imagined him.

As for Sam's wide hips, I got them from the Si and Am reference you provided me. But maybe I overdid it.

And I think "Jude" needs a bit more breast plate as well as obvious waist/hips, I guess. I drew "him" for height references from memory, but kinda messed up in more ways than one. Yep, their sizes are supposed to be in scale...

edited 29th Jun '16 6:47:37 PM by Malco

Nice! I love it! I personally picture Carla as roughly the same height as Nick and not a hunchback, so that's pretty close. Love her expression too. It's almost a little evil looking.

She seems to be standing on her toes though. Is that intentional digitigrade posture, or is she just trying to look taller?

edited 29th Jun '16 1:26:52 PM by Berserker88

So, I was curious. Has anyone else here checked out the Zootopia fanfictions of AgentExeider? The stories can be pretty crazy, edgy and over the top, but I have found them fun to read and the emotional and romantic moments are pretty great. I think it has a good sci-fi take on the Zootopia setting. There are 4 stories so far, starting with Zootopia: Shadows in the Dark and the author is planning to write several stories in the future all taking place in the same universe.

Well I always thought she was crazy or at least a warfreak... and yeah that's digitigrade standing and not an artificial height increase for intimidation.

Come to think of it, everyone on Zootopia was turned into plaintigrades (like Nick) so I suppose I shouldn't have drawn Carla and Sam as digitigrades... <3

I don't often read fanfics or movies, but when I do... well the only fanfics I ever read are from this thread out of... laziness? Gratitude? Something?

Well maybe you can link to these once you've reached a month or so. Ya think they're more than decent? Cool, even?

I find several parts of AgentExeider's fanfics pretty cool, yeah. One of the coolest things of those stories have to be the main OCs who befriend Nick and Judy, actually. They are cyborg predators of a secret agency; I especially love Kaiden the fox. The main villain is pretty cool too.

Some parts of the story can be very over the top and melodramatic, but I enjoy it in general. The narrative is very fun.

edited 29th Jun '16 7:50:58 PM by sorako

What's that, kids? Stalkeyes managed to finish a chapter within a week of the last one? Don't be silly, you've clearly been eating too much candy!

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11924329/9/BvB-Butting-Heads

You may notice that I've jumped on the audience participation bandwagon by asking someone to think of a joke in the author's note at the end. It'll make sense once it's been read. :P

BvB 9

I like the cruel joke fate (or the ZPD) is playing on Sam. Well at least he's a cool guy so far. Can't wait to see if this is only going to increase Sam's instability.

Dawn x Sam shipping soon? I mean, a crazed fan would think this is possible, if not at least plausible since she's warming up to him and acting like some Tsundere. "Because you were nice to me I respect you and your similarity to my former pawn. Don't get me wrong, I never liked you and still don't!"'

Ah, so she has a brother and a family business. Ok, I wonder how this will feature. After all, both parties deny any involvement with the schemes.

The CRT monitor brings back memories. And the return to the office just screams cheap-ness and excessive belt-tightening from our hero. I mean, if he can afford those drugs, I bet he can afford renovations, an aircon and a janitor...

Finally, he just set aside the last remaining drug he has... I'm still anticipating when and if he'll take it, or not...

edited 1st Jul '16 12:29:18 AM by Malco

Heh heh. You know, I think I realised how Tsundere-ish Dawn was actually acting partway through writing, so I decided to push my luck and see if people would start putting on shipping goggles like Cochelle did, and evidently it worked. :V I'm not really into shipping, myself, but I won't judge anyone else who sees them that way. :P

Yeah, Sam is a massive cheapskate. But who's to say there won't be a major renovation before the story's over?

There'll be plenty of reasons for Sam to lose his cool in the next two chapters, I can tell you that much. Like Skippy. When I'm writing her, I listen to this. :V

edited 1st Jul '16 6:35:57 AM by PresidentStalkeyes