Board Thread:Article Discussion/@comment-1942179-20130927234545

I have a little backstory in mind for this character. It's based on old RP events from way back in late 2006/early 2007. I probably would have gone ahead and made it canon if it weren't for a small issue: Doing so would bring back an old character who belongs to someone I lost contact with ever since. It wouldn't quite feel the same if I used a different character as a replacement, as I probably wouldn't have even come up with the idea for the backstory had I not remembered this character.

I'm going to show what I'd written down in my personal notes about various ideas that I may or may not use.

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Firstly, I'd been planning for a little while to have him and Crystal end up together as a couple. I was unsure about it at first, but I think it's safe to say that it's gonna happen at this point. Though there wasn't too much development between them (onscreen at least) to justify why Zap has been so incredibly protective of her in dangerous situations.

So for one, about the character development, let's delve into the past. Zap's mother and father died when he was very young. He had to have been about 2 years old at most. Until they moved out into an old house, he and his brothers stayed in the Black Rose Orphanage. The whole experience made him pretty shy, timid, and distrusting. He didn't make any friends until he went to middle school. There he met Crystal, who pretty much hung out with him whether he liked it or not, and eventually she helped him get over his awkward nervous habits of avoiding people, and changed him for the better. This would explain why he became somewhat attached to her.

This actually happened, in the currently unwritten Episode 9.

Now the idea I had was something a bit deeper. What I'm thinking is that no, his first friend was not Crystal, but another fox. Yes, that other fox. ((Few people here would actually recognize her though.)) Ciara was his first love interest, who unfortunately vanished from 4kids shortly after their relationship began to really develop. ((Because the person who owned the character stopped visiting entirely.)) Instead of completely writing her out of the story, I thought of having Ciara take Crystal's original place, (though really it was the other way around; Crystal took Ciara's place since Ciara technically came into Zap's life first.) and be the one to cheer him up. What happens to her? She dies and becomes The Lost Lenore. Zap blames himself for the death, as he feels that he could have saved her had he not been paralyzed with fear. What exactly happened to cause her death is currently unknown. My first thought was that somebody killed her. My second, as of now, was her getting caught in a bus accident--a direct callback to the cancelled RP/Fanfiction which was supposed to develop their relationship. In it, Ciara was almost caught in a bus accident, but Zap ended up saving her; getting caught in it himself. Though he survived that time, Ciara would not.

This incident pretty much drives Zap to be at his best at all times when it comes to Crystal, so that he wouldn't make the same mistake again.

It's pretty deep, and overall I think it's actually pretty good. But it bothers me a little, bringing back old characters that had previously been removed. And adding on to the fact that Ciara wasn't even mine in the first place further discourages me. And lastly, Zap doesn't really need much more of a backstory than he already has. Still, it's something to keep in mind.

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This has been on my mind for months now, and I haven't really made a decision. I think an outside opinion would be ideal at this point. 