Creator questions
What's your name (real or screen, your choice)
Answer: I go by either N.P. Wilde or Shadow
Tell me about yourself, age, where you're from, what you do, anything you want others to know about you, sex, etc.
Answer: I'm currently 28, male from California. I work at a gas station and do a little bit of writing whenever I get a chance. I do have a story that I've been working on for the past couple years with four chapters available for reading. I'm also slowly learning how to draw.
What brought you to the Zootopia fandom?
Answer: honestly for the first couple of years after Zootopia came out I didn't even know there was a fandom dedicated to Zootopia until I stumbled across a comic made by feverwildehopps
Who is your OC today?
Answer: my OC today is my actual sona Shadow Darkclaw
What animal are they?
Answer: they are a silverfox
What do they look like? Special markings, colorations, etc.
Answer: The primary colors on shadow or a darkish grey with black from his muzzle all the way down his chest and stomach. He has purple for on his paws leading up to his forearm and the same from his feet all the way to below his knees, his paw pads and claws both on his hands and feet are red. He also has a purple X starting from the center of his back then wrapping around over his shoulders and sides eventually nearing out to a point without actually connecting to the other side of his torso. He has red highlights in his black hair with the tip of his tail being a mixture of purple and red along with purple eyes.
Sounds like he has a fairly elaborate color scheme going on. When you write him in story is this some strange natural mutation or does he get his fur dyed?
So if it's a Zootopia related story he dyes his fur if it's any story that's outside of the realm of Zootopia it's a somewhat natural mutation.
What inspired you to create them?
Answer: personally I like how Silver foxes look in general. The design with the X Actually comes from my Zootopia OC character Alex Wilde from my story, who also has an X but it's on his chest. so shadow has an X on his back which pays tribute to my Zootopia character. As for the purple and red parts those are two of my favorite colors, purple being the primary focus/my number one favorite color.
What are they like?
Answer: shadow is pretty carefree looks have fun and joke around. Although he is pretty protective over his friends and would go to the moon and back if they needed his help. He can also be quite a bit of a handful as he is one giant ball of energy and a big goofball, so try not to feed him too much sugar.
What's their family life like?
Answer: he has a total of four siblings although he's only close to two of them since his family dynamic isn't necessarily the best. He never really had a father figure to look up to and having entitled/narcissistic older sisters and mother he never really formed a bond with him compared to his older brother and younger sister Who he loves greatly.
Do they have a love interest?
Answer: he has several love interests depending on story/RP worlds. He's definitely the type that the first being in relationships
Do you have any stories written about them or that they're included in?
Answer: There are several stories that I've commissioned spazziebunny that contain shadow. I do have a story that I've personally written that has shadow and I plan to write another story that has his love interest/his family with the love interest later down the line
So how much of yourself do you put into shadow? Does it depend on the story or rp? Or is he very consistent over all?
Overall he's pretty consistent, there are one or two stories that kind of changes how he is but that's a rare occasion while still keeping some elements of shadow. Also there about 80% of me within shadow so he's pretty close to representing me entirely
So a big part of many zoot fics is the culture. How do you see it? For example, do all foxes or rabbits have the same culture or does it vary depending on something like subspecies or regions?
I think it's a healthy mixture of both culture and subspecies and regions. Pretty similar to the real world to a certain degree. Like for example there would be large groups that share the same cultures for their respective species and from those said species there could be individuals that don't share that culture and Focus on subspecies or regions.
Where do you see your character going in the future?
To be perfectly honest I'm not 100% sure but I do know he will still show up in the stories and hopefully stories that I personally write along with stories that I commission from my friend. Maybe he might happily retire and a new character takes his place but that's probably a scenario that might not ever happen since it's too hard to predict what will happen in the future. so much like my character we try to focus more in the present and have fun in the present
How do you feel about hybrids in Zootopia? Do they occur naturally, require an outside force or don't happen at all?
OK so this question probably would be difficult to answer but first things first I do like hybrids, I don't mind seeing them as long as they make sense like if the tiger and a lion had a baby or a wolf and a fox and the occasional prey and predator mix. However, I think whether it happens naturally or with outside force there should be a limit and some real life mechanic thrown into that scenario. Like you can't have a huge size difference like an elephant and a tiger, that won't work on so many levels and it will never be believable. So with the real life factor that I see for hybrids, it's possible but the chances are not very good and it can be extremely dangerous for both the baby and the mother depending on the species in question. Example let's say a male wolf successfully breeds with a rabbit, that female may not be able to carry the baby to full-term and if by some chance they're able to carry all the way till term then they run the risk of being in danger during birth resulting in the obvious worst case scenario. Much like in real life, there would be the danger of something going wrong during labor which results in either mom or child losing their life or both. Again I do like hybrids and I don't mind seeing them in Zootopia.
Ultimate Zootopia question. Are you a WildeHopps shipper or do you prefer them with a different ship?
I'm definitely a Wildehopps shipper and I do like seeing them with different ships. I just love saying the wonderful potential art from the different ships along with the wildehopps ship! Basically I love both!
For the purpose of the OC interview the setting is the creator's OC is about to be interviewed by my co-owned OC Vicky Chola. A north american grey fox vixen in her mid 20s. They're both in a studio booth with headphones on and microphones to speak into. The interview we did earlier about the creator and their OC is considered a pre conversation between these two before going on the air. Vicky will ask questions based on the answers provided by the creator. Enjoy!
"Welcome everyone to another edition of the Characters of Zootopia show! I'm your host Vicky Chola and with me today is Shadow Darkclaw. Thanks for joining me Shadow."
" well thank you for having me, it's a pleasure to be here~.
"I have to say for our listeners out there, you have quite the exotic fur pattern. Is it natural?"
" A lot of it is fur dye and let me tell you it is a pain to maintain haha"
"Have you ever thought of using permadye or maybe some fur tattoo?"
" actually now that you mention that, I did get a fur tattoo It's on both my shoulders and it's the same symbol. Along with getting my paw pads permanently changed from black to dark red which pretty much sucked, couldn't grab anything for a solid two weeks because of that
"That sounds painful. Why do all that to yourself?"
" well to be honest. After growing up in a very toxic household I couldn't really stand to look at myself in the mirror as a normal silver fox. I'll always replay some of the things that my parents would tell me and my older sisters, who were all basically entitled and narcissistic . So that's what sparked the change to look different, look unique which eventually helped me get over a lot of the problems and trauma to a certain extent. You could also say this is another way of wearing my heart on my sleeve, so to speak . Sure this may not look natural but it was my coping mechanism, my defense mechanism and my fuel to be slightly better than where I was. "
"What were some of the things they would say to you?"
" A lot of the things that they said I'm pretty sure a good majority of mammals have heard before. You're useless, a disappointment, mistake, the list goes on and on. of course that also comes with physical abuse just because they needed something to hit . Thankfully my older brother was always around to make sure I wouldn't get hurt too bad physically but mentally I'm sure you can guess it took a toll. Eventually my brother, the second he was legally allowed to take custody of me and my little sister he took that opportunity
"Were you able to get help with the issues that caused you?"
" overtime I eventually got over the majority of the issues especially with my brother taking me to therapy . I will be lying if I got rid of them 100%.
"Do you feel like you're able to move on and build a life for yourself?"
" yes I do. I'm pretty much already building a life as we speak learning through trials and errors as long as I have my brother and little sister around me it's a definite yes."
"What do you do for a living?"
"I design buildings, making blueprints , basically I like doing freelance stuff along with hobbies and random things that I can try to learn, like blacksmithing or welding... between you and me don't tell my brother I almost burn the house down trying to making a sword hahaha"
giggles "Oh my gosh how'd you keep that a secret? Did it damage anything?"
laughing "I'm lucky my brother took my little sister on a trip to go attend a concert across the country so I had a couple of days to fix everything. Haha The tough part was trying to find the exact same paint for the walls."
"So what's the age difference being you and your siblings?"
" so my oldest sister is about 12 years older than me followed by the second oldest sister who is about nine years older. My brother is eight years older. he was literally born almost a whole to the day after my second oldest sister , he was off by a week . And then my baby sister she's about four or five years younger than me
"And how old were you again?"
"25
"And how long have you been out on your own with your siblings?"
" it's been a little over 13 years from when my brother got custody of me and it's been about four years that I was able to get my own place and live by myself but I don't live too far from my brother, like we basically live in the same neighborhood
"Where does your sister live?"
" my sister primarily lives with my brother but she does like to come visit and stay the night every so often at my place."
"What kind of place are you able to afford right now?"
" I was able to get approved for a loan to get a two bedroom small house which is a perfect size for me."
"Was it hard to find a good paying job with such an exotic coloration?"
"At first yes, I mean you don't see a silver fox with purple fur on their arms and legs along with the ears. however it was more satisfying being able to get a job looking like this in a weird way. You know like you purposely stack the deck against yourself and it motivates you to go above and beyond others who have the advantage of looking normal so to speak. Afterwhile I prove my worth and I end up discovering the freedom of being a freelancer right after my worth was valued and proven."
"How are you generally treated in public?"
" well a lot of mammals do give me weird looks but that's kind of the obvious thing that's gonna happen. At least nobody bothers me so I'm pretty much left alone."
"Do you come from a family of silver foxes or did you just happen to get that genetic gene?"
" you hit the nail right on the head. Haha yeah I'm pretty much the odd one out getting lucky enough to have the genetics of a silver fox out of a family full of red foxes. According to my brother that caused quite a fight between my mother and father. My father immediately accused my mom of cheating on him. So they end up doing a DNA test three times believe it or not because my dad was convinced the test was rigged but all three tests came back confirming that I was his son and it turned out there was a silver fox on his side of the family a few generations back. That bit of information shocked him and my mom apparently again according to my brother held that jewel over his head for months... she was very petty obviously."
"What would you say to others who are in a similar situation as you were with your parents?"
" stay strong, that situation is only temporary . Always try to find the positives even in the darkest of times. There will always be somebody in your corner to help you along the way and protect you, it may be a sibling in my case, it may be an aunt, it may be an uncle or could be a friend. The main thing I want to give as a bit of advice there's always away to get out of a toxic situation and potentially use that toxic situation as fuel and motivation to prove those toxic parents or toxic individuals in general wrong."
"A good message and also a good way to close this episode. Thank you for joining me today Shadow but unfortunately we are out of time."
" no worries it was absolutely fun being on today show~! Thank you so much for having me here."
"And thank you listeners for joining us once again. See you next time."