Fanfic / Born to Be Wilde

He's looking for adventure and whatever comes his way.

"You can't hang with cops and criminals. It just doesn't work like that. Sooner or later, you're gonna have to pick one."

— Finnick

Born to Be Wilde is a Zootopia fanfic co-authored by Berserker88 and Mind Jack. Taking place only weeks after the events of the film, Nick Wilde is slowly adjusting to his new life as an officer of the ZPD, believing that he's left his old con artist side behind him for good. That is until a seemingly routine drug bust shakes that belief to the core, and suddenly his change of lifestyle doesn't seem so simple. Wrapped up in a conspiracy to eliminate Zootopia's biggest criminals, Nick will have to choose once and for all which path to follow.

Despite that rather serious premise, Born to Be Wilde is often anything but, relying extensively on Rule of Funny and Rule of Cool while still telling exactly the story it sets out to in between the increasingly self-aware humor. Take one look at its actual summary or its tags on A03 to get an idea.

It can be read on Fanfiction here or A03 here.

A oneshot compilation titled Born to Be Drabbles was later released, aiming to further explore some of the plot points that the main story couldn't quite cover. It too can be read on Fanfiction or A03. As these are intended to be intertwined with the main story, the recommended reading order can be found here.

The side-story Bloodlines has its own page.

WARNING: For the sake of readability, all spoilers prior to Chapter 14 are unmarked. And there are many. Read at your own risk.

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Born to Be Troped:

• Acoustic License: Lampshaded in regards to Dream Time, where the music is so loud that the patrons don't even notice a murder taking place, yet the characters can still hear each other perfectly.
• Actionized Sequel: The movie had a fair share of action, but there is significantly more of it here, with entire chapters being dedicated to one or more action scenes.
• Added Alliterative Appeal:
  • Some character names, such as Lady Lang and Sandcat Sanchez.
• Air-Vent Passageway: Judy uses the vents in Chapter 26 to escape from Simon. They're implied to be a fairly realistic size, as even Judy (a rabbit) has to squeeze into them, and her pursuer is too big to follow.
  • Lucy uses another one in Drabble 6. Unfortunately for her, Reynard is a bit more Genre Savvy and booby-trapped it.
• All Bikers are Hells Angels: The Lang Family initially appear to be playing this straight, being a pack of not-particularly-bright wolves who ride around on weaponized choppers. However, they're eventually revealed to have a borderline-Proud Warrior Race mentality and most of their number, especially their leader Lady Lang, are actually quite nice if you get on their good side. Even Junior, the most antagonistic of the lot, keeps his word and tells Frost where to find Lang after he's defeated.
• All Just a Dream: Drabble 13 is revealed to just be a nightmare Jimmy Frost is having.
• All the Worlds Are a Stage: Parodied in the final arc with Wilde Times, which is split into six zones with the first five each representing one of the previous five crime lords and their story arcs.
• Amusing Injuries: Frequent, given the sheer amount of slapstick involved in most of the fight scenes. More serious injuries do occasionally occur, but are rarely treated as seriously as they should be.
• Amusement Park of Doom: The fic's version of Wilde Times is one of these, in delibrate contrast to its original concept.
• Animal Jingoism: The Cold-Blooded War was fought between mammals and reptiles.
• Animal Stereotypes: Like the original movie, this fanfic likes to play around with them.
  • Hyenas are often portrayed as laughing at everything. Carla Hyenandez has No Sense of Humor. But her Masked Luchador persona, "La Mala Perra" is known for her manic laughter.
  • In cartoons, even male kangaroos have pouches. Boomer doesn't have one, and implying that he does is his Berserk Button. On the other hand, his violent behavior fits the Boxing Kangaroo stereotype, minus the gloves.
  • Fangs, a dingo, once mentions that his species has the reputation of eating babies.
  • Koalas are usually thought of as cute and innocent. Damien Thornbrush is a crime lord who wants to avoid the stereotype by wearing fake fangs and claiming he's a drop bear.
  • Lucy Sang, the vampire bat thief is a very straight example of the Bat Out of Hell stereotype, being creepy, sadistic, and literally bloodthirsty.
  • The Lang Family, a pack of wolves, are both violent and honorable (if not too bright), and prefer to attack as a team.
• April Fools' Day: Subverted. Chapter 27 was released on April Fools' 2019 as an actual update in a ploy of Reverse Psychology. The actual joke was Berserker88 spending the day roleplaying as Reynard on the ZNN Community Discord server under the name "CrazyFoxGuy33".
  • This was repeated on April Fools' 2020. The Discord part anyway. This time Berserker88 played Jimmy Frost ("DatFrostyBoi") while Mind Jack later joined as Carla Hyenandez ("LaMalaPerra"). The resulting fourth wall-breaking shenanigans took place across both the ZNN server and the ZAA (Zootopia Author's Association) server. Archived here.
  • Happened again on April Fools' 2021. Berserker88 played Vexey Wilde ("4EverVexed") and Jack played Lucy Sang ("LucyYouLater") within the ZAA Discord server. Archived in a cleaner fashion here.
• Ascended Extra: Many ZPD officers, including Grizzoli, Delgato, Fangmeyer and Trunkaby, who had no spoken lines in the original film, are a bit more fleshed out and given some dialogue. Also, Koslov, Mr. Big's bodyguard, betrays his old master and becomes one of the Count's henchmammals.
• Audience Participation: After chapter 10, the author ran a contest to name Jimmy's plush Wallabeanie. Wallace (Wallaby + Ice) end up winning.
• Awful Truth: A few big ones.
  • First, the Count's true identity as John Wilde, triggering a Heroic BSoD in Nick so severe that he goes on a downward spiral of lies and impulsiveness that ends up making things a lot worse for himself.
  • Soon after, there's Jimmy learning that Carla Hyenandez is The Mole, which causes him and everyone else she'd been associated with a good deal of distress.
• Back for the Finale: Several secondary characters from across the story return to band together at the end, even some who had become all but irrelevant like Fru Fru.
• Better than a Bare Bulb: Numerous tropes are lampshaded and often Played for Laughs, especially ones already applying to Zootopia.
• Big Bad: The Count aka Count Reynard aka John Wilde is the Diabolical Mastermind who wants to take over all criminal organizations in Zootopia.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: Chapter 35, consisting of about 30 named characters duking it out with each other in the parking lot of Wilde Times.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: A recurring theme. The story involves at least four families with criminal ties and a lot of internal conflict: the Lang, Rodentriguez, Wilde, and VanDal families. In the footnotes of Chapter 24, the authors ask the readers who they think is the most effed up family so far.
• Bilingual Bonus: The Masked Luchador characters all have Spanish names.
  • "El Orgullo" means "the pride". He's a lion^note A group of lions is called a "pride" in English, although in Spanish it is called a "manada" rather than an "orgullo".
  • "La Mala Perra" means "the bad she-dog" (or, as per Word of God, "the bad bitch").
  • "La Niñita" means "The Little Girl".
  • "La Sangrienta Baronesa" means "The Bloody Baroness".
• A Birthday, Not a Break: A key plot point. Reynard's grand HB Project actually stands for 'Happy Birthday Project', and is intended as a twisted gift for his son's 33rd birthday. When the day arrives, Nick ends up leading a raid on Reynard's amusement park, reuniting with Finnick, and finally facing off against his own father within a day.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Much of the story concerns a war being waged by the Count against Zootopia's established organised crime community. Most of them were already bastards, but they generally have standards. The Count and his henchmen... not so much.
• Book Ends: On a meta level, both the first and last update of 2020 was a drabble about Reynard and Vixey pulling scams together, albeit with very different endings.
• Brick Joke:
  • During the nightclub brawl in Chapter 8, one of the naturalists records Judy and Lucy wrestling in the punch bowl and says he's going to put it on ZooTube. Two chapters later, it's revealed that he not only did just that, but it's gone viral.
  • After his first encounter with Officer Swinton that involved locking her out of her own visitor's room, Nick off-handly mentions sending her a gift basket to make up for it. Over ten chapters later, we see the result of that gift. It was full of oat bars, which Swinton is allergic to, but ate anyway because "[she's] a pig". Needless to say, her opinion of Nick has not improved.
  • In Chapter 26, the Count tells Finnick to be sure to spellcheck something the wolves are working on. In Chapter 33, this something is revealed to be the sign for Wilde Times, or rather "Wild Times". Reynard promptly calls Finnick out for failing to spellcheck.
  • In Chapter 26, Jimmy asks if they can call in a tank to deal with the hostage situation at the ZPD. Bogo tells him they don't have time for that and Nick points out that this implies he could get a tank. Almost ten chapters later, Bogo proves that, yes, he could.
• Call-Back: Too many to count to the original movie, plus several to earlier chapters as the story goes on.
• Car Chase: The Torrential Turnpike chase in Chapter 14 is a massive one, involving about five different factions and multiple, separate fights within (or on top of) vehicles.
• Carnival of Killers: The Count eventually hires a team of assassins to accompany him in the Narwhalter arc. About the only other thing they have in common is how unfit any of them are to be silent killers.
• The Cavalry Arrives Late: Has happened three times thus far; in Chapter 8, the Outback Island cops only show up after the ruckus at Dream Time is already wrapping up; in Chapter 14, the Rainforest District cops arrive late to the high-speed chase down the Torrential Turnpike and fail to be of any use whatsoever; and in Chapter 26, Bogo, Nick, and Jimmy manage to break in and rescue the other police officers only when the fight between Judy and Simon is already over.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Crops up in just about every action scene. Nick in particular gets called out for his habit of constantly dropping one-liners even when in mortal danger.
• Chase Fight: A couple, most notably Nick chasing Reynard in Chapter 21 and Simon chasing Judy in Chapter 26. The Final Boss also qualifies.
• Christmas Special: Drabble 22, titled How the Count Hustled Kitsmas, which is also written from start to finish in Seussian rhyme.
• Censored Child Death: While most character deaths are shown in all the gruesome detail, the deaths of the Junior Ranger Scouts are both heavily toned down (with only the setup and immediate aftermath shown) and treated much more seriously.
• Chekhov's Gun: Reynard decides to store a Night Howler pellet inside of his cane in Chapter 16. It is mentioned again in Chapter 23, but still has yet to be used. Finally fired in Chapter 37, with Finnick on the receiving end. It even gets a reference to the Trope Namer.
  • Parodied with the HB file that Reynard carries around. It starts out subtle, making its first appearance amidst a bunch of other random items that you might not pick up on, but it gets to the point where it's practically thrust in your face how important it is while still not revealing what it actually contains. Until Chapter 33, where it is finally revealed to be about the "Happy Birthday Project", or more specifically, Wilde Times. Reynard promptly burns the actual file immediately afterward.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Early chapters make mention of a "mystery arsonist" on the loose. Said arsonist eventually turns out to be one of the Count's henchmammals. Much later, the missing prosecutor mentioned also turns out to be important to Simon's backstory.
• Climax Boss: Most of the major arcs end with one, but for the story as a whole, Count Reynard in Chapter 21. The Big Bad of the story and the source of Nick’s inner turmoil for most of it up until this point. Nick defeating him both physically and mentally marks a turning point in his Character Development and how the rest of the story will play out.
  • Chapter 26 features another major one in Simon, who has been one of the most prominent antagonists in the story and the one who started it all by killing Mr. Big.
• Continuity Cavalcade: The entire final arc, with most of the named characters assembling in one place for the big showdown and getting especially heavy on the Continuity Nods.
• Continuity Porn: The fic is filled to the brim with not only Continuity Nods and Call Backs to the original movie, but also utilizes several unused locations and characters that only appear in concept art. It's own increasingly-complex continuity also gets referenced frequently in later chapters.
• Cross Counter: Judy vs. Simon ends with one, leading to the usual result of one combatant dropping while the other's willpower holds out. Except that it's Judy who falls.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Judy and Carla vs. Simon in Chapter 6. For perspective, most fight scenes in BtBW take up the better part of a chapter; this one lasts about half a page.
  • Much later, Just Judy vs. Simon goes about as well as you'd expect, at least initially.
  • Another big one is Felix vs. the Discards in Chapter 29. Outnumbered five-to-one, Felix tears right through them.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: In all of the above cases, the stompee still manages at least a blow or two on the stomper.
• Darker and Edgier: The original movie was your usual Disney fare, apart from a few frightening scenes, mild sexual innuendos and heavy themes such as racism and political conspiracy. This fanfic has a lot more violence, blood, actual deaths, mild swearing, intoxication, drug use, and at least one penis joke.
• Death by Irony: The Count's MO. Mr. Big gets iced^note Read: dumped in freezing water., his preferred method of execution while still alive, Damien Thornbrush the "Drop Bear" has one of his own giant disco balls dropped on him; Lady Lang is inadvertently sold out by one of her own children, then kicked through her office window during a full moon; Sandcat Sanchez gets killed (almost) by one of his longtime victims, with his own weapon, in a cage wrestling match he didn't authorize, and the Count's first victims, the Junior Ranger Scouts, are burned alive inside one of their own scout buses, whilst muzzled.
• Denser and Wackier: The story starts out fairly mundane, but by the second arc you've got the gang heading into a naturalist disco club, a koala kingpin who thinks he's a drop bear, Judy getting accidentally drunk, and a hilariously inept interrogation scene to cap it all off. It gets progressively zanier from there, and stuff like a wallaby headbutting a tank shell during the finale doesn't bat an eye because that sort of thing is just expected now.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • In Chapter 11, Judy's team gets into a car accident with another vehicle and they are run off the road. None of them know what the other vehicle was, but the description heavily implies it to be the Count's limousine. Later confirmed when said limo shows up again with a huge dent in its side.
  • At the beginning of Chapter 32, Nick gets an important piece of information from Narwhalter, to be passed on to the VanDals. But by the time they head back to the precinct, the VanDals are already gone. Meanwhile, they are shown to be looking for an important piece of information that Narwhalter had, while ignoring a call from the ZPD that they assume is pointless.
  • Born to Be Drabbles, by virtue of consisting mainly of scenes taking place before the main story, uses this extensively.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: At the end of Chapter 34, Reynard makes a broadcast across the entire city to announce Nick's birthday and his challenge to F.R.E.N.E.M.Y., with a bomb threat as the cherry on top.
• Enemy Mine: In Chapter 33, Nick forms a team consisting of both the entirety of Precinct 1 and several criminal characters from throughout the story, most of whom had been against them at one point or another. Their reasons range from having already pulled a Heel–Face Turn to just wanting to take down Reynard that badly.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The Lang Family, a gang of criminal wolves, love their matriarch and adoptive mother Lady Lang.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: Bogo's plot to break into the sealed ZPD in chapter 26- lighting a trail of oil to his car, and blowing open the metal shudders from the resulting instant explosion.
• Evil Power Vacuum: Stated repeatedly as a consequence of taking out a crime lord. In particular, it utterly destroyed all sense of law and order in the Nocturnal District and its precinct chief, Giles Farrow, is adamant that the same thing will happen to Zootopia as a whole should Reynard be yanked out of power.
  Nick: And let me tell you, if you think organized crime is bad, disorganized is a lot worse.
• Fantastic Slur:
  • "Trash panda" is apparently a slur for raccoons.
  • During the Cold-Blooded War, reptiles were commonly referred to as "scalies", which is clearly offensive as Karen gives Simon a Death Glare when she hears Kyle saying it. Kyle then wonders if the reptiles refer to mammals as "furries."
• Filler By the authors' own admission, the “ZNN Special Report” at the end of Chapter 15 serves no plot purpose whatsoever. The similar report in Chapter 24 seems to be much of the same until Simon shows up.
• Foreshadowing: Gets its own page.
• For Want Of A Nail: A concept thoroughly explored in Drabble 21, which is also named after it. In this verse, Harvey Montapue burned down Castle Fangpyre instead of Nick Wilde. This seemingly results in Vladzotz kicking the bucket until the drabble reveals that he survived and went into hiding instead of attempting to take revenge. Why? Because Harvey's relative lack of skill at the time compared to Nick resulted in not only Vladzotz but his family escaping the blaze, and Vlad promptly took off with them rather than risk their lives further. Vlad thus retires peacefully and happily with his loved ones. But on the flipside, his departure creates an Evil Power Vacuum that tears apart the Nocturnal District while his ship with Lucy Sang from When Instinct Falls gets torpedoed due to him still being married, to her distress.
• Friendly Tickle Torture: The Rodentriguez family inflicts this on Carla en masse in an attempt to cheer her up. Priscilla does it to win an impromptu wrestling match against her in Drabble 3. While in the Belfry, Carla gets the less friendly kind from Lucy, repeatedly.
• Fun with Acronyms: The HB Project, aka the Happy Birthday Project. There's also the group of combined cops and criminals that Nick forms for the endgame, known as the Frankly Ridiculous Entirely Nonsensical Errant Mammal Yuckfest.
• Game Changer: In Chapter 14, where it's revealed that the Count isn't just some Big Bad criminal they need to stop, but also Nick's Big Bad Dad. What was once a fairly simple crime story completely turns on its head from that point forward.
• Gilligan Cut: Chapter 19.
  Nick: After all that? You think I'm going to just sit down and have tea with you?
  (cut to Nick and Reynard having tea)
• Gratuitous Spanish: Animals coming from New Mexicow, such as Carla Hyenandez and Sandcat Sanchez, tend to pepper their dialogue with Spanish words.
• Great Offscreen War: The Cold-Blooded War, for the most part. One of Simon's missions during it is shown, but there is little actual "war" there.
• Guns Are Useless: Played With. Most evident with the ZPD's tranq guns, which almost always prove ineffective, although it's often because their user gets disarmed before they have the opportunity to actually use them. On the rare occasion they actually hit something, it's either the wrong target altogether (like the giraffe clubber in Chapter 8) or the target is simply big enough to shrug it off (like Koslov in Chapter 13). Actual firearms, on the other hand, are treated much more seriously; all it takes for Felix to get everyone to back off from Nick in Chapter 14 is to wave a gun in their faces. The uselessness of the tranq guns is lampshaded:
  Carla: Our weapons are remarkably useless.
• Halloween Episode: Drabble 13, revolving around a Hallo-er-Howloween party at Precinct 1. That quickly turns into a slasher movie parody.
• Happily Adopted: The entire Lang Family. Not one of them is actually related to Lady Lang, but they treat her as their mother regardless because she's the only family most of them ever had. They are fanatically loyal to her because of this. The sole exception is Fast Tony, who is hated by the rest of the pack for his blatant disloyalty.

  • Carla is also adopted, by a pack of rats no less and while she's not exactly very happy she genuinely loves her family.

• Home-Early Surprise: Simon gets one in Drabble 20. After leaving to bring Karen her lunch, he realizes he forgot to pack something and returns to get it, only to find Reina trying to abduct Kyle.
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Carla and Priscilla are a hyena and a rat, so they are very different in size, and yet they are in a romantic (and likely sexual) relationship. They are also a same-sex couple, so having children via hybridization is absolutely out of the question.
• Hurricane of Puns: Nick and Reynard end up in an impromptu pun duel while stuck on an elevator together. Complete with groans from their captive audience after each one.
• Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment: During the flashbacks to Nick's childhood, the one set after coming home from his disastrous Junior Ranger Scout meeting from the film ends with his father leaving the family. Just before he goes, he lends his tie to his son as a parting gift, becoming the tie he wears in canon.
• Informed Obscenity: "Fox" is consistently used as a stand-in for the f-bomb, and mostly by foxes too. Taken to its logical conclusion with an instance of Cluster F-Bomb consisting entirely of variations on "fox."
• Instant Humiliation Just Add Youtube: At the start of Chapter 10, it's mentioned that Judy's frantic disco fight with a vampire bat has gone viral on ZooTube, under the name 'Batbunny Begins'.
  • Come Chapter 38, Chief Catano happily confirms that Chief Bogo getting hit with a jar of piss by Drummond Rane has gained similar infamy.
• Interesting Situation Duel: Most of the major fight scenes fall under this, including:
  • A fight in a naturalist disco club, featuring a drunk Judy, two feral mammals, and a tattooed hippo.
  • A biker duel between two riders in tricked-out, weaponized bikes.
  • A Car Chase along a rainy highway involving about five different factions.
  • A chase through the Grand Palms Hotel across several different floors.
  • A two-on-two tag-team luchador match.
  • A showdown in the middle of Precinct 1, in the midst of a lockdown, and ending in the boiler room.
  • A battle atop a vintage pirate ship, involving four separate duels and at least half of the participants dressed for the occasion.
  • An underwater chase, interspersed with a group battle on an underwater, constantly shifting train, and a fight in a wrestling ring tricked out with death traps.
  • A mock lightsaber duel whilst riding a roller coaster through a mockup of outer space.
• Interspecies Romance: Carla Hyenandez and her partner, a rat named Priscilla Rodentriguez.
• Juxtaposed Halves Shot: The cover image, contrasting Nick's cop side and criminal side.
• Land Down Under: Invoked in-universe by the waterfront at Outback Island, an extremely tacky tourist trap that exploits every Australian stereotype in the book to rip off unsuspecting visitors, much to the annoyance of everyone except Frost.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Becomes more and more prevalent as the story goes on, but avoids outright breaking it.
• A Lizard Named "Liz": A theme continued from the original film: an arctic fox named Frost, a hyena named Hyenandez, a vampire bat named Sang (meaning "blood"), a sand cat named Sanchez, a rat named Rodentriguez...
• Masked Luchador: Officer Delgato is a big fan of lucha libre, particularly a female hyena wrestler named "La Mala Perra". It is revealed that both Hyenandez and her partner Priscilla Rodentriguez used to be luchadors, strongly implied - and then, in Chapter 22, finally confirmed - that "La Mala Perra" was Hyenandez herself. El Orgullo, Sandcat's bodyguard, is also a luchador, and the Sandcat arc climaxes a wrestling match between Hyenandez and El Orgullo, with Priscilla and Lucy Sang joining in.
• Mister Big: Besides Mr. Big from the original movie, this story also has Damien Thornbrush, a koala flanked by Fangs the dingo and Boomer the kangaroo, and Sandcat Sanchez, a sand cat accompanied by his massive bodyguards El Orgullo the lion and Gomez the bull.
• Mood Whiplash: Frequently. One scene can be dramatic and serious while the next is lighthearted goofiness, sometimes switching back and forth multiple times per chapter. Chapter 21 is probably the biggest offender, and lampshaded as such.
• Mook Carryover: Happens quite a lot as a result of the Big Bad outright killing their old bosses and taking over. So many characters first seen taking orders from another crime lord eventually end up in a fancy new suit.
• Motive Misidentification: In Chapter 10, Nick comes to the conclusion that the Count has a serious vendetta against him, which is why he refuses to let anyone else kill him. He's entirely correct about the villain's fixation on him, but not the context.
  • In Chapter 25, Nick makes another deduction that Karen VanDal deliberately acted as suspiciously as possible while "interrogating" him, causing them to look into her history and discover her connection to Simon, luring them out of the precinct while Simon himself moves in to take the place hostage with less resistance. Again, he's half-right, except that Karen was just trying to get Simon arrested and the whole hostage situation was just as unexpected to her.
• Mythology Gag: Some elements from the earlier, "tame collar" version of Zootopia are worked into this story.
  • An actual tame collar is worn by Harvey Montapue.
  • Nick's father had a clothes shop named "Suitopia". The fact that the Count's henchmen all wear sharp suits is an indication of his true identity.
  • Jack Savage, a bunny spy who was initially planned to be a protagonist but was dropped early in development, is mentioned as an in-universe spy movie protagonist. Later revealed to be an actual spy whose cover is a spy movie protagonist.
  • The Count's HB Project is ultimately revealed to be Wilde Times, once a pred-friendly theme park that Nick used to let predators take off their collars and run free in the original concept. The park itself is very different, but Reynard gets on Finnick's case about the sign spelling it "Wild Times", which is actually how it was originally going to be spelled.
  • In Chapter 25, Simon's incorrect notes about the police officers' names is a reference to the Flip-Flop of God regarding which name belongs to which animal - whether Fangmeyer's a wolf or a tiger, Delgato's a tiger or a lion, and whether Francine's last name is Trunkaby or Pennington.
• National Animal Stereotypes:
  • The citizens of Outback Island, based on Australian Wildlife, are all stereotypical Aussies.
  • Averted with Carla Hyenandez, Sandcat Sanchez and El Orgullo, who are Hispanic characters based on African mammals.^note Historically, there were parts of Africa that were colonized by Spain, including the Spanish Sahara, Spanish Guinea and the Spanish protectorate of Morocco, but the characters are closer to Mexican stereotypes, down to living in a town named New Mexicow. Played straight with Sandcat's henchman Gomez, a Spanish fighting bull wearing a matador outfit.
  • Mrs. Pong is a panda running a Chinese restaurant (that is based on Mr. Ping's restaurant from Kung Fu Panda).
  • Koslov, the polar bear mafioso with a Russian name and accent, also runs a borscht restaurant.
• Newhart Phonecall: Any phonecall from the Count prior to his identity being revealed. Special mention goes to the call at the very beginning of Chapter 1, as Drabble 1 shows the other half of the conversation in the same manner.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • Fangs and Boomer come very close to killing Nick when they take the Feral Dream pellets in chapter eight. Nick is barely able to put up any fight, resorting to unsuccessfully begging them to stop.
  • The fight between Judy and Simon in Chapter 26 also is extremely brutal. However, after the fight, Karen claims that Simon was holding back, because he didn't want to kill Judy.
• Not What It Looks Like: The conclusion of the Outback Island arc features Judy, Frost and Carla getting interrogated by the local cops about the ruckus they caused at the Dream Time Club. Unfortunately, they word their testimonies in such a way as to provoke some hilariously inaccurate conclusions.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: When Officers Baggins and Barnum interrogate Carla Hyenandez, she explains in detail how a naked hippo "pounded her with his enormous rod". She's talking about a metal rod the hippo used as a weapon.
• Painting the Medium: Each scene is marked with a stamp displaying the location (usually a district of Zootopia), sub-location (the specific place they're in, sometimes with its own sub-location), and the time of day. These are based on the perceptions of the character(s) involved, not what they actually are, and occasionally get altered to reflect that. Best displayed in the Belfry sub-arc. Nothing about the place or time is known to Carla or displayed for the reader at the beginning. Once she learns the place is called the Belfry, that gets added. Once she learns it's in the Nocturnal District, that gets added. Once she learns what the current challenge involves, that gets added too. And as she has no means of ever telling the time, every time stamp during that arc is just various phrases based around the word "time".
• Parallel Conflict Sequence: Most of the major arcs end with one. Special mention goes to Chapter 35, where ten vehicles try to reach the gates of Wilde Times and every one of them has its own confrontation along the way.
• Parts Unknown: La Sangrienta Baronesa claims she comes from here when she applies for the lucha libre match. Sandcat Sanchez frowns at this boring wrestling cliché.
• Pirate: A recurring theme in Chapter 28, with both Jimmy and the Count getting in on the fun, and the latter even bringing a (replica) pirate ship into the fray.
• Plot Armor: Lampshaded, especially in regards to the ZPD's tranq guns and why they never hit anyone important. Eventually, the Big Bad outright challenges Bogo to shoot him, knowing it'll never work. Reynard deflects the dart with his Sword Cane, causing it to ricochet back into Bogo's gun, destroying them both. He even admits that he has no idea how he did that.
• Protection in Mouth: When it becomes clear that the protagonists can't use the normal route to Narwhalter's underwater base, they take Plan B— Riding inside the mouth of Bella Blue, a friendly whale, in order to make it down safely.
• Psycho for Hire: As Finnick points out, nearly everyone the Count hires is some kind of nutjob.
• Psycho Serum: Night Howlers are back, now turned into a recreational drug called Feral Dream. Fangs and Boomer use it with terrifying results.
• Pun-Based Title: Obvious song reference aside, most of the chapter titles are also puns of some kind.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Nick's F.R.E.N.E.M.Y. team is a larger than usual example that includes a family of hyperactive rats, two nude drug dealers, a former mafia princess, a bull dressed as a matador, a skunk arsonist and his legal guardian, a seal with a captain complex, and an entire gang of hick biker wolves, among others.
• Reference Overdosed: Referential humor is common, using animal puns when a specific work is mentioned. The Shout Out page covers nowhere near all of it.
• Revenge:
  • Carla wants revenge on Sandcat for crippling Priscilla.
  • Also one of Reynard's motivations against the other crime lords.
  • And one of Simon's motivations against the ZPD, which also turns out to be a case of Revenge Before Reason.
  • In the drabbles, this is revealed to be Up and Down's motive against Reynard for the death of Sideways.
• Rewatch Bonus: Knowing later reveals about certain characters makes large chunks of the fic read differently. Particularly, knowing that Carla is The Mole and that Reynard is actively plotting out his own downfall from Chapter 26 onwards.
• Rule of Cool: The fic features numerous flashy and over-the-top action scenes that really only happen because they look cool. This is also the reason why the ZPD's tranq guns never do the job, to the point of Lampshade Hanging.
• Rule of Funny: It never really lets up on the humor either, no matter the situation. Even in the most serious of scenes, it's definitely lighter, but still present.
• Running Gag: Too many to list, but some of the most prominent are:
  • Judy's "sweet cheese and crackers" becoming a Mad Libs Catch Phrase.
  • Nick never being able to live down his Outside Ride in Chapter 2.
  • Jimmy's back and forth banter with his own plushie.
  • Carla having No Sense of Humor, and especially her Entendre Failure.
  • The many appearances of crazy like a fox.
  • Junior's similes.
  • Sandcat Sanchez abruptly bursting into song.
  • Danielle attempting to swear around Marian.
• Sequel Hook: Chapter 39 teases at least three, two of which hit harder for those who have kept up with the drabbles.
  • Fangs and Boomer know of the existence of another drug, more dangerous than Feral Dream or even Night Howlers, that Thornbrush was working on before his death. And at least one test batch has already been sold.
  • Reynard predicts that Nick will soon meet someone he should have met a long time ago, clearly hinting at his adoptive sister, Vixey.
  • And of course, the events of the finale have kicked the doors wide open for a certain secret organization to start moving in.
• Shifting Situation Duel: A couple, such as the fight between Judy and Simon that ends up spanning several rooms of the Precinct 1 building, and the fight on the Sea Train, with said train moving like a roller coaster and occasionally shifting the gravity on those inside. The former gets a lampshading.
  Karen: Don't mammals have the decency to at least keep a fight in one room anymore?
• Shout-Out: A lot, to other Disney Animated Canon movies and others. Enough to get their own page.
• Skull Cups: Felix and Junior both have a wolf skull mounted on the fronts of their bikes. Implied to be the skulls of their abusive biological parents, reduced to hood ornaments.
• Sliding Scale Of Silliness Vs Seriousness: The plot itself is relatively serious, but the general tone veers heavily towards silliness. Even scenes that are mostly serious will still throw in a joke or two to lighten the tension.
• Species Subversives: Carla Hyenandez inverts both Heinous Hyena and The Hyena, seeing as she's not that morally unsavoury despite being The Mole, and she doesn't have a sense of humour.
• Storming the Castle: The premise of the final arc. But instead of a castle, it's an Amusement Park of Doom.
• Story Arc: The fic is split into six main arcs, each centering around a different one of Zootopia’s crime lords and their territories, with intermissions in between. These are:
  • Tundratown/Mr. Big arc - Chapters 1-4
  • Outback Island/Thornbrush arc - Chapters 6-9
  • Rainforest District/Lang Family arc - Chapters 11-15
  • Sahara Square/Sanchez arc - Chapters 18-23
  • The Docks/Narwhalter arc - Chapters 27-32
  • Wilde Times/Reynard arc - Chapters 34-39
    • The Narwhalter arc has a sub-arc involving the Belfry happening simultaneously as the B-plot.
    • While it is officially considered an intermission, Chapters 24-26 could be considered an arc in its own right, as all three chapters revolve around Simon holding the ZPD hostage to extract information from them, while his wife manipulates the ZPD into capturing him.
    • Born to Be Drabbles has the Vexey arc spanning throughout, consisting of Drabbles 5, 11, 16, and 24.
• Suddenly Sober: Zig-zagged. Judy goes through an entire chase and fight with Lucy Sang completely doped after drinking a glass of "non-alcoholic" carrot juice, lasting at least ten minutes. By the time it's finished and Lucy escapes, she's still sloshed... that is, until she sees Nick's body lying in a pool of blood. Then the Precinct 5 officers bust in, and due to a bad impression resulting from the fight, she's shot with a tranq dart. When she comes to, the blend of tranquilizer and the remaining alcohol has sent her right back to being heavily doped.
• Systematic Villain Takedown: The final arc is made of this. Chapter 35 has F.R.E.N.E.M.Y. taking on the majority of Reynard's forces outside of Wilde Times, including all the basic mooks and several of his lieutenants, plus his Cool Car. In Chapter 36, they go inside the park itself and split up to deal with the rest of the lieutenants, the more important ones, along with Felix Dire Senior and RJ. By the end of the chapter, all that's left of Reynard's criminal empire is Reynard himself.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Usually played straight, but averted twice in quick succession during the Belfry sub-arc. The first time, Carla is caught up in a moral dilemma of if she should save Harvey from imminent peril or escape herself. By the time she decides to save him, Lucy points out that he's still been in danger that whole time and could've well died in the interim. In the following (timed) challenge, Carla, Harvey, and Kyle have a small chat with each other at the outset...until Lucy reveals that the challenge has already started and they've just wasted three minutes talking.
  Lucy: You guys really need to learn that talking ain't a free action here.
• Theme Naming: The Count uses card names as aliases for himself and all of his minions.
  • The Count — Wilde Card (unpredictable and above the others as well as a pun on his surname).
  • Simon VanDal — Ace of Spades (an elite mercenary, i.e. The Ace of the team. As a bonus, the Ace of Spades is also known as the "death card").
  • Harvey Montapue — Jack of Hearts (a bit of a soft-hearted jackass).
  • Koslov — King of Clubs (the physically most intimidating member, who gives his enemies a clubbing, i.e. beating).
  • Lucy Sang — Queen of Diamonds (the most feminine member of the team and a known jewel thief).
  • Carla Hyenandez — Joker (a bit of an outsider, not part of the core team and also a hyena, known for its laughs).
  • Finnick — Two of Clubs (a jab at his short stature and violent temper).
  • The team of assassins the Count hires become known as the Discards, in reference to them all being rejected from the other crime gangs for various reasons.
• Timeskip: Happens between Chapters 9 and 10, skipping a week to let Nick recover from his feral injuries in the hosptial. Happens again between Chapters 32 and 33, this time skipping a whole month to let pretty much everyone recover, among other reasons. Both instances have the highlights that were missed literally bullet-pointed out at the beginning of the chapter.
• Troperiffic: Just look at the size of this page, and even moreso the character page(s). Tends to happen when both authors are active tropers.
• Underwater City: The Narwhal Nexus, built beneath the relatively-mundane Docks and under the control of Piers Narwhalter. Given how he is, very few terrestrial mammals ever get to visit it.
• Villain Opening Scene: The first scene is of The Dragon getting a phone call from the unseen Big Bad. It ends with them mentioning Nick Wilde, who then first appears in the next scene.
• Wham Episode: Big twists are dropped pretty regularly, but these ones stand out:
  • Chapter 2: Right off the bat, Nick is forced to arrest Finnick and Mr. Big is murdered.
  • Chapter 14: The Count's true identity is revealed to be John Wilde.
  • Chapter 17: Finnick is released from ZPD custody after the evidence against him is stolen, Nick is framed for the theft, and suspended from the force. He soon after goes Cowboy Cop and decides to take down Reynard himself while Judy decides to track down Nick's mother for help.
  • Chapter 20: Nick's extended backstory is revealed through both of his parents. And right when it seems like this chapter is going to be nothing but exposition, Marian is shot by a vengeful Felix.
  • Chapter 21: Nick finally gets his act together and takes down his father, both physically and emotionally. Reynard gets away, but is left broken while Nick turns himself in.
  • Chapter 23: In case you thought Sanchez was safe after Reynard's retreat, nope! Carla is revealed to have been The Mole from day 1 and almost kills him herself, only to have a change of heart at the last second and hold the line for Jimmy and Priscilla to escape, getting captured in the process.
  • Chapter 24: Judy finally meets Reynard face-to-face, the fox changes his focus from killing just the crime lords to also targeting the ZPD, and Marian wakes up from her coma. Meanwhile, Simon goes on a personal crusade to find his kidnapped son by directly assaulting the ZPD.
  • Drabble 5: Nick has an adoptive sister, whom Reynard left in charge of his operations in Foxden.
  • Chapter 27: Carla is revealed to be trapped in an Immoral Reality Show for Lucy's entertainment, one taking place in the thus-far unrepresented Nocturnal District. On top of that, there used to be six crime lords, including Vladzotz Fangpyre from When Instinct Falls.
  • Drabble 10: For the first time, all of the Zootopian crime lords (and their predecessors) are seen meeting and interacting with each other, including Vladzotz. Halfway through, it suddenly turns into John Wilde's Start of Darkness and we see the event that made him detest the crime lords firsthand. It also one-ups Chapter 27 by implying that there may have actually been seven crime lords at some point.
  • Chapter 29: Kyle VanDal's fate is finally revealed when he shows up in the Belfry. Reynard explains more of his backstory, namely his first ever victims: The Junior Ranger Scouts.
  • Chapter 33: One month has passed, Nick's birthday is tomorrow, the six other ZPD precinct chiefs are all introduced at once, Nick forms a massive combined force of cops and criminals to take down Reynard once and for all, the HB Project is finally revealed, and then another secret project is hinted at directly afterwards. All of which is just the intermission for the Grand Finale.
  • Drabble 20: One of the biggest whams yet. It's finally revealed how Simon lost his leg, which involved his house being blown up by a sleeper agent from the Sauriet Union. And there is an unknown number of other such agents planted all throughout Zootopia, who can easily be just about any of the numerous characters introduced thus far, with no indication of where or when they'll strike. Narwhalter's paranoia starts to make a lot of sense.
  • Chapter 38: After a lengthy battle, Count Reynard is finally defeated for good. Soon after, Nick starts getting a suspicious amount of attention from the general public and it's revealed that the events inside Wilde Times were secretly being broadcast all across the city. Then a flashback shows that not only did Reynard plan this exact outcome to turn Nick into Zootopia's "Hero Fox", he'd been planning it since before the Narwhalter arc. So much for not taking a hint.
• Wham Line: Likewise:
  • The Count's response when Felix demands to know who he is. "Take a Wilde guess."
  • Bogo telling Nick about Finnick's release and the investigation that is going to go into him. "And until that investigation is concluded, you are hereby suspended from duty. Turn in Your Badge."
  • Lucy revealing The Mole in the ZPD's midst. "Well, well, it looks like your time has come Carla. Or should I call you Joker?"
  • The Count's change in priorities. "It's not just the crime lords I should be targeting..it's all of you!" Referring to the ZPD.
  • Almost immediately after, Marian waking up. "Nich...olas? Is...that...you?"
  • The first sign that Drabbles isn't exempt from big game changers. "How can you expect to get anywhere living in your father's shadow, Lady Reynard?"
  • The Count revealing his first victims. "So I abducted those children, chained them to the inside of their own bus, muzzled them all, and then lit up the specist little pricks like a Spring Break bonfire."
  • The very casual reveal of what the HB Project really is. "My son deserves the very best presentation I can provide tomorrow. The Happy Birthday Project wouldn't be anything without him, right?" Even Finnick needs a second to notice.
• World of Pun: It’s a Zootopia fic, so animal puns are naturally everywhere. So are many other kinds of puns. Even the chapter titles are puns!
• Wretched Hive: The Nocturnal District is so hopelessly crime-ridden that it's become oddly institutionalized. There are traffic lights to regulate gang warfare and dark alleys that advertise themselves on how well they'll get you mugged. Its local police force, Precinct 7, is so utterly overwhelmed that they might as well not even exist. All of this was caused by a combination of its seclusion from the rest of Zootopia and the loss of its crime lord creating an Evil Power Vacuum that was never filled.
  • A more subtle example is Foxden, which initially appears to be a bright, cheerful suburbia with overly friendly neighbors. Then it's revealed that all of those neighbors are just criminals playing a role and that the town is not only controlled entirely by the mob, it effectively is the mob.

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