Zootopia Fanfiction Thread

I knew there must have been a moment, somewhere, I forgot to freeze frame and examine. In the Savannah, makes sense.

The Zoo Crew was all DC, yeah (and very Eighties), they even brought them back—to do terrible things to them, but at least that got fixed. And yes! You would be thinking of Jaxxon, who actually came first by a year. Weird. Oh, and come to think of it, they also referenced Superman in The Looney Tunes Show...you're right, it does.

I mean, everything else is kind of a parody of a licensed property, but having entirely different superheroes would be interesting. (I bet they probably did a Superfriends kind of Five-Token Band of different types of species when they were originally teamed up, too.)

Ah, bringing the topic back around to fanfiction! I can go with that, though I do have a weakness for classic Bond films that gritty realism just doesn't fill. Perhaps Jack is a fictional creation based on a real person (much like Ian Fleming was the actual inspiration for his own character)? And speaking of...you know Mistermead's Jack comics? I'm very conflicted by them. I want to like them, since they're very well-written and drawn. Jack and Skye make a good Shadow Archetype for Nick and Judy, and even the washed-out color palette suggests a bygone golden-age. But it's just so relentlessly downbeat that I can't get into it!

The Five-Token Band thing does seem very likely indeed... but would lesser-respected species appreciate the tokenism? :V

I could also take the 'based on a real person rabbit' thing. I figured that he'd be a big childhood inspiration of Judy's; how'd she think to pretend to be affected by some kind of poison so the Big Bad would gloat about their diabolical plan, allowing them to record everything? Why, she got it from a Jack Savage movie, of course. And as an added bonus, Bellwether's comparatively restrictive upbringing prevented her from seeing such movies, explaining her Genre Blindness in that scenario. :V

As for Mistermead's work, unfortunately I've only seen one of those comics; the one where he was describing his revenge for Skye's death to Judy. I pretty much have the same opinion as you; they're well-written, well-drawn and I have genuine respect for his skill (and he's a nice person, too), but the sadness is laid on a bit too thick.

Oh, you should see "Judy Is Dead", the comic he's most famous for. Lots of people greeted every new page with "Fuck you, Mead!"

XD

They probably wouldn't, but I expect complaints would be limited to some grousing about it on social media, especially years after the fact. (I mean, DC's Apache Chief, Samurai, etc. still occasionally show up!)

And it does seem like Judy would be a huge fan—she's fond of theatrics, her own props, and of course ridiculous action movie stunts, as we've seen. What better series to learn them from, especially featuring her own species as an inspiration? (Double points if it did feature Skye, too, as foreshadowing and for being made about the time when interracial relationships in those kinds of movies IRL stopped being taboo.)

Ah. Yes. That one...it actually ended a lot better than I think anyone was expecting, though!

Yeah, it did.

Okay, while I'm at it, I'm aware that I usually wind up getting too frustrated to actually follow up on anything, but I thought I'd announce this nonetheless.

I'm going to start working on an adaptation of the original 1960 novel The Razor's Edge - A Jack Savage Adventure, in which Savage is pitted against a sinister presence lurking in Mexicow!

I lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllike the sound of that! Most definitely! It's not a presume I think anyone would expect, and certainly a good way to handle Jack Savage. Since it's a 'modern' adaptation (presumably), perhaps it'd work to edit out the Values Dissonance present in the original 1960 novel, or would it leave it in to remain true to the less pred-friendly, less-small-mammal-friendly times? :V

I've had sort of a plot bunny (snrk) about that in my head for some time; Nick and Judy start to live together, and end up getting a duplex with another rabbit/fox couple, Jack and Skye. Dom Com ensues xD

Haha, thanks! I may have mentioned before that I honestly enjoy a good Tuxedo and Martini adventure, and for that matter the whole idea of "editing" a fictional work, which leaves it open for Conversational Troping. On that note: a certain amount of it is bound up in the plot (particularly once you realize which Bond novels it's inspired by in particular), but it'll definitely be toned down somewhat for modern sensibilities, particularly the vocabulary. Of course, it was shockingly progressive at the time, what with it starring a small mammal as an action hero and inter-class romance (with Skye, who will live, because I want to avert the all-too-common Women In Refrigerators problem Bond always has in every version).

That's a fantastic plot-starter, too! ^^ I've seen comics with that before, and they're generally adorable◊.

All sounds good to me! Whatever you do, I'd just be glad to see Jack Savage and Skylar Vexington in their own element, as they were originally intended; i.e., out of Nick and Judy's shadow.

Don't get me wrong, I like Nick and Judy as much as the next guy, and I know they're the main protagonists of the movie, but I still feel the fanfic output makes it seem like the zooniverse revolves around them. It's why I made a conscious decision to leave them out of Weaselling entirely, minus a few nods here and there (they are Famed In-Story, after all - though even as I write this, I think I might have referenced them too much :V). Plus, I don't want to risk writing them OOC, which apparently happens quite a lot. I wouldn't know, I'm very picky about what I actually sit down and read. :V

edited 12th May '17 8:25:52 PM by PresidentStalkeyes

Agreed! The main characters (and settings associated with them) have a tendency to become a Plot Tumor in all fanfic. In this particular work, the entire setting is as much a character as the actual protagonists. (Heck, there are probably eight million stories in Zootopia...and that was just one of them. I'd even be interested in a fanfic showing what Judy's hypothetical deleted classmates are up to in this reality.) And agreed, while I do enjoy casually RPing as canon characters sometimes, I wouldn't necessarily want to actually put it into a fanfic for fear of getting something about them wrong.

Definitely gonna use that fanon name now. :P

(By the way, do you think 'Alpacapulco' sounds too ridiculous...?)

edited 13th May '17 7:42:08 AM by TheGreatUnknown

Oh shit, I completely missed that question. :/ Nah, it sounds fine. But of course, by now, you've probably made a decision anyways. :V

That definitely sounds like a good idea, also. Reminds me, I think there was a fic a while back about Bobby Catmull going into music, but I never did get around to reading it. I'm also a fan of the wild mass guess that the actuary Jaguar joined the ZRS as an adult, and pulled some strings to help Judy get Nick's tax records. And that's not going into all the others; the porcupine and the raccoon in particular caught my eye (the porcupine even looks like a younger version of the one that crosses the road during Nick's Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids! (literally) speech ).

This got me thinking; I wonder if anyone's written a story focusing on Judy's parents? I think it was mentioned in the movie that Stu Hopps once played cards with a local weasel, which makes me want to see Stu playing poker with all his grumpy, middle-aged friends. :V

I have, but I really have to keep working on it, been a tough week. Got a least a good opening. Oh, well, long weekend to do so!

Maybe I'll look it up! And yeah, one of the many things that impressed me about the movie is the diversity of background character designs, even for the ones just sitting on benches in the background, really made it feel more like a city and, you know, fanfic fodder. But now that you mention it, that actually does fix a minor plothole on how Judy got the tax records so quickly (which I hadn't even considered)!

I don't think they have, actually. (Probably they thought "We settled hard" wouldn't make an interesting story, but it could! Haha.) Also, if I could draw I would now parody "Dogs Playing Poker".

Oh, by the way, saw that other commission from Temiree, of the girls! Very nice. Got one lined up myself, crossover with other fanfic.

That is all very agreeable indeed. I think in some scenes, you can see some interspecies couples milling about as well, further emphasising the city's relative progressivism.

'Course, I can't take credit for that particular WMG; the only WMGs I've written are on Bellwether (the 'her adorkable nature wasn't an act' and 'she was really sizeist all along' theories, if you're curious ). Speaking of which, another common theory behind that was that Judy got Bellwether's help in acquiring the tax records - and since she was part of her plan to frame Lionheart, she'd stop at nothing to get them for her. Presumably if this happened, she didn't bring it up when she visits her with Nick later because it wasn't really relevant.

Also, a Bunnyburrow Residents Playing Poker? That'd be a sight.

Thanks! But what fanfic is this, if you don't mind me asking?

Indeed.

I can get behind those ones! Dawn does come across as essentially The Napoleon, and one can't help but notice her emphasis on physical size every time she helps Judy, as tiny as she is compared to the others. The metaphor for a lack of power is obvious, and it's an all-too-common occurrence about a good intention to make things better for the physically/politically small and meek...well, you know what they say about those. And then, of course, there's the meta when you remember that she was explicitly designed after characters from Lambert The Sheepish Lion, which is about being ostracized for being different (and the juxtaposition being obvious)... Also, her little Happy Dance and desktop clutter? So adorkable.

Oh, that'd be my personal favorite, Pack Street! (On the Image Boards and tumblr, it's got a sizeable following.)

Damn, bringing all that up reminds me that I kinda abandoned my previous fic, BvB: Butting Heads. I do want to update it one of these days, but I can never seem to summon the willpower to do so. I've had the 12th Chapter on the cards since halfway through last year. :/

The position I was taking there was that Dawn came from a very similar background as Judy (except her parents were even more restrictive and virulently speciesist) and went to Zootopia to make the world a better place, but circumstances arose that left her jobless and homeless, and unable to suppress her instilled prejudice, she blamed it all on big predators trampling all over her. Things seemed to look up once she started working in government and Lionheart offered to make her his running mate, only for him to relegate her to 'glorified secretary' once she'd served her purpose, and accused her of being ungrateful when she meekly objected. Not that any of this excused her decision to then seek out ultimate power just so she could turn the tables - I like to think I tried my best to avert a Bellwether In Leather Pants scenario. :V

Yeah, I knew P.S. had a bit of a following. I suspect Nakhta would want to advertise around that part of town to get herself some pred cred. :V

edited 29th May '17 7:04:28 PM by PresidentStalkeyes

Idk when I'm going to start writing my own Zootopia fanfic again >.>

I know all about losing the willpower and momentum. >.> 11 chapters is a darn good run comparatively, but hopefully you can get that out there! Don't let your dreams just be dreams!

Actually, it is kind of a shame they didn't elaborate more on that. It would have been a good chance to really hammer home the point about them both having a similar experience, but approaching it in two different ways, especially if they had an Ironic Echo scene similar to Nick's attempt at Break Them by Talking earlier. Oh, she wanted to make the world a better place, but she learned early on that this was the best she could get and she'd better take it. Well...what if things were different? But yeah, that's going waaaay above and beyond.

She does! I hear she's even looking to find some local talent for modeling, have Marketing raise brand awareness awareness (for expensive gifts, considering the area) and look good with PR. Win-win!

Also, yeah. 10/10 would cuddle that bearcat avvie.

Thanks; I'll try not to let dreams be dreams. Uh... mostly. :V

And thanks again. Bindy's turned out more popular than I expected. Might turn out to be more popular than her brother, who's supposed to be my kinda-sorta-sona-maybe-but-not-really.

Also, on an unrelated note: have a free Hopps family headcanon. Or Hoppscanon, if you will. And try to spot all the references. :V

edited 30th May '17 9:29:33 AM by PresidentStalkeyes

Because yours is the pen that will pierce the heavens. X3

I wonder why that might be? Haha. But hey, always good to have an interesting fursona, and even more so if you have more characters to bounce off them!

Oh, you. Very clever! I like it a lot, and funny you should mention Violet, I just got a physical copy of the comic she appears in. X3 I do like the fan elaboration on her, though.

I've seen a lot of Violet, myself. I have no idea how most people see her, but judging from the way she acts in the comic, she seems like the oldest and most responsible of Judy's siblings - and the way she dresses makes me believe she's a teacher or librarian, even though that's probably a tad stereotypical of me. :V

I'll say that image I used for the ol' headcanon was pretty well-crafted, as it gets across a lot of subtle personality traits. Take Briar-Rose, for instance. The fact that she's sitting on the ground and looking contented, not caring about all the kids messing around with her leads me to believe she's very free-spirited, probably a creative type, and gets along well with kids despite not having any herself - all those kids around her belong to her other siblings. Or the fact that Lyndon is pulling a stupid face and leaning on one foot makes me think he's camera-shy and was trying to 'hide' behind Judy (failing to realise that he's far too tall), but Judy clearly finds this endearing rather than annoying. Whoever made that image deserves major excellency points.

The one exception is probably Cotton, though that's probably to be expected given how she's received extra prominence anyway. Her cutesy smile seems a little mocking, which makes me think she's a Little Miss Badass who uses her adorable appearance to her advantage, but also looks up to her Auntie Judy as a role model and can consistently beat her brothers in sudden wrestling matches.

I should probably make a headcanons trope page one of these days. :V

edited 30th May '17 12:40:05 PM by PresidentStalkeyes

I think it was definitely meant to invoke it. I mean, cat glasses and a turtleneck (besides being adorable X3) definitely scream bookish, along with the timid demeanor. She's generally pretty nerdy in fan interpretations, too (plant jokes!).

Very well thought-out, yeah—Lyndon's also putting his paw out, like he wants to cover his face but doesn't want to screw up the photo. Briar-Rose seems pretty young, somehow, maybe she's going through college (she's also got a bit flashier jewelry, by the family standards, as seen on Jasmine—who is already married, to Lyndon?) but, yeah, is good with kids. Cotton has the expression of someone who's plotting someone, or who just got away with taking an extra snack or something with nobody noticing. Definitely another future Action Girl, yeah. X3 Altogether, a very realistic family picture!

It'd help to keep them all sorted, heh.

I think all the bunnies in the image are Judy's blood relatives, rather than in-laws; and some of them are just amazingly embarassing aunts and uncles. :V Weirdly enough, I thought about Lyndon Hopps much earlier than the others purely because of that stupid expression on his face. I decided he was the Hopps Farm's accountant, good with numbers and bad with people mammals, and despite his smarts is rather ignorant of the world outside Bunnyburrow, leading to plenty of Innocently Insensitive and Genius Ditz moments.

Maybe somebody should right a fic from his POV. X3

The gaps between updates just keep getting longer, but so do the chapters. Here's another one .

edited 18th Jun '17 6:46:49 AM by Berserker88