Shock the Superdog[]
Shock is a fancharacter created by ArtistIssues He plays a main antagonist in the Bolt the Superdog (BtS) fanfics that she has written. His first appearance was in Bolt the Superdog: Shocking - Chapter 1.
Appearance[]
Shock is described as scruffy, scraggly, thin, scrawny, and sometimes even ugly. His ears are said to be constantly slicked back out of anger or fear, and his left one has been chewed on by a rat. He is believed to be descended from a German Shepherd and a Weimaraner/Husky mix; he has ashy-gray-brown fur accented by darker Shepherd markings dotting his eyebrows, saddling his back, and coating his muzzle, while his eyes are Husky blue and his tail is spiraled. His nails are untrimmed, and he has a pointy muzzle and sharp, angled features. His ears, when they are upright, are shorter than a Shepherd's. His fur is unruly and long. He is nearly always described as glaring, glowering, or leering. Due to being underfed for most of his life, he is skinny, and his ribs are visible. He has long legs. His teeth are also stained yellow. When only his silhouette is visible, he can be mistaken for Bolt, though that is not the case up close. He is smaller and weaker than the White American Shepherd, and much less attractive.
Personality[]
Shock is written as cynical, viewing the world from a jaded and self-preserving perspective because of his difficult, unfair life as a stray. He is untrusting, always beieving the worst about others because he has never seen anything different. He is a hothead with a short, violent temper. Shock is shown to be smart and even a little manipulative, making cocky, sarcastic comments, but his judgement is clouded by his own anger issues. Despite being scrawny and weak before being altered, he isn't afraid to insult others, even if they are stronger than he is. He is a fighter, stubborn and determined to prove himself strong enough to fight back when life kicks him. He is bitter about his lot in life and believes that the entire world has wronged him. He is also prone to jealousy, being very envious of Bolt on sight simply for being loved, being purebred, and most of all, having a Person. Shock is irrationally angry at everyone and everything; he is filled with hate, and once he has the power to use it, he directs it all on Bolt, taking it out on the Superdog he barely knows. Though he has convinced everyone, including himself, that he has given up on people and doesn't need anyone, deep down, Shock still wants to be loved.
History[]
SPOILERS FOR BOLT THE SUPERDOG: SHOCKING AHEAD
Poster for Bolt the Superdog: Shocking. Shock (left) seated comparatively next to Bolt (right), showing the differences in their appearances and characters.
In the first few chapters of Bolt the Superdog: Shocking, Shock is referred to simply as 'the stray' or 'the mutt'--an apt description. He is one of the only stray dogs in a small, one-horse town called Coaler's Mt. Town, Tennessee. He doesn't remember a time before living on the streets, and was never owned or adopted by any human. For the first two years of his life, he spent a rough time learning how to survive and barely scraping by, hearing from the pigeons about what life as a pet could be like and wishing he could have a Person. The stray is never taken home by any humans, and his gloomy, lonely life leads him to be bitter and hateful towards the world in general. The stray's life changes forever when Bolt and Penny pass through his home town. They are on their way to the town's namesake, Coaler's Mountain, where they believe Penny's father is being held.
Shock's life as a stray was miserable.
Meanwhile, having a particularly bad day, the stray strikes a bit of good luck upon finding a bit of a leftover cinnamon bagel, which rolls out into the middle of the road when local scavenging pigeons are startled by Penny riding through on her scooter. When the mutt goes after it, he is surprised to see a strange White American Shepherd running towards it, too. Shock mistakenly jumps to the conclusion that Bolt is about to steal the bagel and the two collide. While Bolt is confused and only focused on following Penny, the stray takes out his frustration on the other dog, offended by the sight of Bolt's collar because of his prejudice against purebred dogs. He gets downright hostile, but the conversation ends when Bolt spots one of CaliCorp.'s camera's atching their every move from a hiding place in the town fountain. Destroying the camera and leaving to follow Penny, who has been captured in the short time that she and her dog have been separated, Bolt's little meeting with the stray ends. However, Dr. Calico, documenting Bolt and Penny's progress, witnesses the confrontation between his nemesis and the random, ordinary mutt from the footage. Noting the other dog's hostile appearance, he decides that the mutt would be a perfect test subject for something he and his advisor call 'Operation: Charge'.
Shortly after, while Bolt is trying to infiltrate Coaler's Mountain, Shock is snatched off of the streets by Calico's henchmen and taken to the very same mountain base that Penny is being held captive in. Since Calico has Professor Forrester at his mercy as long as his daughter is his prisoner, the poor scientist is forced to try and alter Shock the way that he altered Bolt in a half-baked attempt to re-create the experiment that gave the White American Shepherd his powers. After this, Bolt arrives and, with Mittens' (Who is a double-agent) and Rhino's help, rescues Penny and destroys the mountain base, but Calico escapes with the Professor and Shock. Before the evildoer's leave, Penny's dad manages to tip her off about Dr. Calico's latest plan, and she checks the database, discovering what he is up to. Calico is trying to bring together the various pieces of a devastating weapon called 'The Rupture', which have been scattered aroun the world. He wants to recreate the weapon, force Penny's father to make it work, and use it to conquer the world.
While Penny and Bolt make their way to Atlanta, Georgia to try and get to the first Rupture piece, Shock is being held in Chicago at one of Calico's oldest hideouts in Gato Tower called The BaseMent. He is confused and, as usual, angry, not understanding what has happened to him or what these strange people want from him. Calico and his advisor, Mr. Felis Ferahgo, try everything they can to find out whether the dog has powers, but cannot produce results. In the end, it takes Calico's favorite pet cat, Murk, sneaking the mutt out of his room to go and see the security footage of Bolt before they are able to make Shock understand that he is now a Superdog. They discover that the gray dog can now shoot neon blue laser vision and posesses super speed and strength, and they send him out with the reinforcements going to Atlanta to protect the Rupture piece from the heroes.
Believing that he owes Dr. Calico a debt for being the only human to ever give him anything, and eager to put the purebred pet in his place, Shock confronts Bolt and Penny for the first time since their random meeting in Tenessee as the dynamic duo are fleeing with the first Rupture piece down the highway. Shock drops into their path from an overpass and trips Bolt up while the Superdog is running at super-speed, but is unharmed. Bolt, unable to believe what he is seeing, only reacts when Shock threatens Penny. The two fight fiercely, but Bolt ends the scuffle quickly by super-barking the bridge down on top of the mutt and making his getaway with Penny, only to realize that Shock has managed to take the piece of the Rupture from them.
NO MORE SPOILERS FOR YOU!
Relationships[]
Shock's relationships with everyone are filtered through his selfishness, bitterness, and anger.
Bolt:[]
With all of his pent-up aggression, useless anger, frustration, and bitterness with the world in general, Shock had to have someone to aim his feelings at, take out his rage on. Who is that unfortunate character? Bolt, of course.
Shock decides to see Bolt as the living embodiment of everything he wanted but could never have from the world, and therefore chose the original Superdog as a target for his lifelong hatred. He convinces himself that Bolt is undeserving of his power and of Penny's love. Why should Bolt not only be lucky enough to be born purebred, but have a Person who loves him, a home, and, to top it all off, incredible super powers? He twists the White American Shepherd's now-hectic, on-the-run lifestyle into some unfair dream.
Always desperate to prove himself to the world, Shock would love to be better than Bolt in every way. He takes every opportunity to discourage, taunt, and otherwise torment Bolt. He is jealous of the other Superdog.
Through hateful blue eyes, he doesn't see how much stress and anguish Bolt is under while trying to protect the girl he loves, save her father, and stop the Green-Eyed Man; instead, he sees a stuck-up purebreed who has had everything handed to him on a silver platter in life, and who needs to be "taken down a peg!" When he looks at Bolt, he doesn't see the gold-hearted canine for who he really is. He sees every human who has ever thrown a rock or swerved their car at him, every pet that has ever looked down its nose at him, every child that's never wanted him, every plate of food and warm shelter and loving Person that's always been just out of reach.
Perhaps if Shock stopped comparing his own tragic life and abilities to Bolt's, he and the hero's relationship might go differently, but for now, the selfish stray is perfectly content to unfairly make Bolt his outlet for his hate.
Bolt is unnerved by Shock's irrationally angry behavior when they first meet, and continues to be disturbed by different aspects of the mutt's character each time they encounter each other. Having lived an unusual life as a Superdog, Bolt doesn't fully comprehend Shock's hard life as a stray, so he doesn't understand the other dog's motives. He is particularly unsettled when he learns that Shock has powers, doing his best to push aside his insecurity at not being the only one anymore and his worries that he won't be able to keep Penny safe if he isn't 'special'.
Their first encounter after Shock gained powers got off on the wrong foot. Bolt and Penny were on the run, full of adrenaline and near-fear of being captured, as usual. It was a tense moment when Shock chose to drop in for the first time, and Bolt didn't have time to think through his reaction to the grumpy mutt. They ended up fighting, though in hindsight, Bolt wishes he would have handled the situation more delicately.
Later Bolt tries to reason with Shock, but of course, he is stubbornly <i>un</i>reasonable in his hate. Once the hero learns that Shock has 'chosen the path of evil' and poses a threat to his Person, he stops all attempts to redeem Shock and sees him as nothing but a threat to Penny's safety, and one that must be stopped at all costs. He does take Shock's alliance with Calico a little more personally than he would any other henchman; Bolt always believed that dogs should be 'brothers', and didn't really understand why any would work for the cat-loving Green-Eyed Man. Shock rubs him the wrong way in every way, to say the least.
Penny:[]
Shock seems to try not to think too much about Penny. He lumps her in with all of the humans who have ever done him wrong as a stray and focuses on taking it out on her dog, Bolt. If anything, she is just the subject of one of the Green-Eyed Man's errands for him to run. He has no problems with tricking her, frightening her, and capturing her for his boss. Like his view of Bolt, he doesn't really think of Penny as a person with feelings; just another target. Because the former stray finds it difficult to relate to or understand humans, nothing the redhead does or says sways him.
Penny has seen what a Superdog like Bolt can do firsthand, but she has never been on the receiving end of those superpowers until Shock makes his appearance. Because of this, she is more rationally afraid of Shock than any of Calico's other henchmen or goons. This is because she knows how powerful and unstoppable Bolt is; Shock is not much different. She worries that he may finally be just the tool Calico needs to get past Bolt and capture her once and for all. Unlike Bolt, Penny did not at first consider the possibility of redeeming Shock, or convincing him not to be a villain. The teenaged spy considers him a threat to her family and the mission to get her dad back, and if anything, she's outraged that Calico would try to rip off Bolt's powers.
Dr. Calico, "The Green-Eyed Man:"[]
Shock's first impression of the Green-Eyed Man is one of awe and admiration of the villain's power. It eclipses his anger at being kidnapped from the streets and experimented on, especially when he learns that it is Calico's doing when he is given powers. Shock immediately feels indebted to the dark criminal for this, and slowly begins to think of the Green-Eyed Man as having adopted him because of Murk, the dark cat's, manipulation. He reminds himself constantly that the Green-Eyed Man is the only human who has ever 'given him anything'. Shock is blind to the villain's faults. Although he likes to think he is hardened and doesn't "need anyone", deep down, Shock still wants to be loved; he chooses to believe he can earn this love from the Green-Eyed Man by doing everything the maniac wants, despite the fact that Calico obviously doesn't care about the dog. No matter how ruthless and hard on Shock the Green-Eyed Man is, Shock, oddly, never resents his master for it, instead believing every insult the villain throws at him for his failures and pushing himself to succeed even harder next time because of them. Shock is more loyal, however misplaced, than most of the Green-Eyed Man's henchmen and even some of his pet cats. He will do anything to please the bad guy, though he won't admit it out loud. This may come from a deep-seated fear of being rejected, now that he views the Green-Eyed Man as his Person.
Calico could care less about Shock's well-being and happiness. It wasn't even his idea to have a super-powered dog to counter Bolt; it was his advisor, Ferahgo Felis's. He would have much rather gone on firing missiles at the Superdog and hoping it worked. But when his advisor finally convinced him of the plan to try and duplicate Bolt's alteration, the Green-Eyed Man only agreed to allow a dog, his least favorite animal, into his employment because he didn't want to "experiment on any of his precious cats" or put them in danger. Honestly, Shock was only a test subject. If Bolt had not stopped Calico, he would probably have tried to give powers to his henchmen, too. In short, Calico doesn't see Shock as special; just a tool on his path to world-domination. The Green-Eyed Man doesn't even care much enough to manipulate and trick Shock into thinking he loves the mutt; if it weren't for Murk's scheming, Ferahgo's strategy, and Shock's emotional insecurity, Calico might have had two Superdog enemies, with the way he treats Shock. Poor Shock can't see that Calico is using him like a litter box; once he's served his purpose, Calico would be happy to throw him out.
Murk:[]
At first, Shock didn't care much for Murk, being generally hateful towards the world and disliking cats. Murk didn't have a much better opinion of Shock, thinking of him as little more than a 'homeless bum' and disgusted that his boss would take in a dog off the streets for any reason, even a little jealous that the dog is the one being given super powers. He eventually sees that Shock is important to Calico's plans, whether he likes it or not, and, seeing that there is a communication barrier between the clueless stray dog and the evil human masters, Murk steps in to explain everything to Shock and convince him to join them in taking down Bolt. Because of this first meeting with the cat, when Shock was confused and scared at being taken off of the streets, the dog secretly relies on the cat for direction. Even though he used to hold no liking for the dark feline, the stray has come to look to Murk for answers, especially when he doesn't understand how to deal with his human superiors, and Murk, being pompous and cruel, is fine with that. Shock, who doesn't always comprehend humans and their ways, being a stray, has no choice but to trust Murk's every word. The tricky cat loves to manipulate and impress others, and knowing how important Shock is to his master's plans, Murk is largely responsible for keeping the dog loyal to the Green-Eyed Man. He has no trouble lying to Shock.
Murk is Calico's favorite pet cat, and he likes to keep it that way, being enormously jealous of anything else that gets the villain's attention. Luckily enough, he doesn't see Shock as a threat; more like a puppet, if he can be carefully controlled. Deep down, though he may not think of Shock as anything but a tool, the cat might just enjoy the dog's company.
Ferahgo:[]
Shock does not care much about Ferahgo. Because he is so focused on making the Green-Eyed Man happy, he does what Ferahgo asks in training, but otherwise takes no notice of him. To Shock, the advisor is just another henchman.
Ferahgo Felis is a mysterious figure, and at first it is unknown how he rose in ranks to be Calico's advisor, and why he would propose such a random idea, altering a dog to give him Bolt's powers. One thing is certain; he doesn't view Shock the same way his master does. While Ferahgo either ignores or is annoyed by Calico's many pet cats, he always takes special notice of Shock, personally attending to the dog's feeding, training, and missions. Maybe this is because Shock's altering was his idea and therefore his personal 'pet project', but one can't help but wonder what might happen if Shock stopped focusing so much on pleasing the unresponsive Green-Eyed Man, and gave Ferahgo Felis a little attention.
Trivia[]
- Shock's favorite color is actually yellow.
- The original design for Shock was a gray Husky with royal blue eyes.
- Shock has only three of Bolt's powers; super strength, super speed, and laser vision. His super strength is weaker than Bolt's, but his super speed is faster.
- Unlike Bolt, Shock is not completely indestructible after he is altered. He has no super-bark and no heat-vision (though he does have laser-vision.)
- Shock's laser vision is blue instead of green.
- Shock absolutely hates pigeons.
- Shock is afraid of tight, closed in space. This is probably because he loves to run.
- Shock is shown to have much more difficulty understanding humans and their wishes than the other characters in Bolt. This is probably because he spent his whole life as a stray.
- Shock's running insult for Bolt is calling him 'Dolt'.
- ArtistIssues was originally going to call Shock 'Charge', but changed the name because it's meaning might have been confusing.