Cant wait to be Queen SPOILER!

[kyomon]

i really enjoyed this episode a lot, it was pretty funny.

also, i watch the new episodes on Kisscartoon, they normally have good quality and they seem to put the new episodes out the day it airs.

[Tora]

Honestly I have mixed feelings about this episode. I mean seriously Kiara didn't do anything here. Sure, she made a decision about the bees, but in retrospect of what happened the one really leading the pride lands was Kion. Had she let Kion do what he thought best as the leader of the lion guard, without her putting her input in, Kion would have most likely done what needed to be done instead of what happened. Instead she stuck her neck into matters she didn't need to be concerned with. To me it seemed like it was more her friends pushing her to stick herself into that situation, but at the same time it appears to me Kion is far more fit to rule as time goes on.

I'm not sure how I feel the show is progressing. It bugs me how the show seems to want so badly to empower females. I mean that is great and all, but don't make it seem as though the females know best all the time. Kion isn't perfect either. He does need to know how to take direction, but on the other hand when you have too many chiefs in a room you are going to have a problem. Kion is a leader no matter how many ways you look at it. Although all leaders need to know how to take direction they also must be empowered to make the choices they need to make to solve a problem or else Kiara should be leading the lion guard and not Kion. A Queen's job is not to micromanage everything. Her job is to oversee everything, and with her giving Kion directive on how to do his job she might as well do it herself. A true leader is like a guide. True leaders do not direct every subject with exactly how to solve a problem, but empowers their subjects to find the solution to the problem the way they see fit. In other words Kion is like a general. A Queen with little experience should not be telling the General how to do his job. Instead she should be directing him as to what must be done and putting trust in him to do the job right.

My thoughts anyway.

[Gaze]

this is my kind of episode! the Simba/Nala/Zazu scene was very nostalgic-feeling. Zazu's song provided a look at the companionship between Simba and Zazu that I've been hoping to see, in addition to giving us a better idea of what Simba's duties entail. plus it's great to see Nala get more screentime.

I really, really like that Simba was so nervous and stressed about his funeral speech despite how short and simple it was, and the fact that he still messed it up in the end. this made Simba seem way more in character to me than he has in prior episodes. after having been away from the Pridelands for so much time when he was younger, and having missed out on a lot of mentoring he would have received from Mufasa (not to mention dealing with the trauma of Mufasa's death), it makes sense that being king might not come completely naturally to Simba and he still stumbles here and there. even if it's just over something tiny. maybe his slightly OOC personality in TLG (and perhaps SP as well) can be perceived as an attempt to cover up any lack of confidence he's still feeling.

the funeral itself was really cool to see in a preschool show and was very beautiful and emotional, I think. the fact that the body of the deceased elephant was actually shown was somewhat surprising and I'm glad they really took a serious tone there.
normally I'd be criticizing the TLK franchise for including MORE bathroom humor, but in this case I really didn't mind the poop joke and thought that bit was funny and a good way to lighten the mood.

Simba's decision to leave Kiara alone to rule the Pridelands in his absence was a little strange.....but what made it most unbelievable was, once again, the complete lack of any lionesses being present. will they ever appear? this is the first episode in which no adult lionesses appearing felt really significantly distracting to me.

I like that Kion and Kiara both learned to listen to and respect each other more. they both made mistakes and learned from them, and I hope it helped them bond and they'll be closer and get along better in future episodes. it was definitely a relief to see Kiara more hesitant about her future role as queen, and she seemed very mature in the way she gave orders (even if the orders themselves weren't perfect.)

extremely disappointed in how Tiifu acted in this episode. in RotR, I loved her so much because even her tiny bits of dialogue seemed to give her a lot of depth and make her appear incredibly sweet, loving, and caring. however....not so much in this episode, which is saddening because she was one of my top favorite characters in RotR. I did think the bit where she held Bunga down and made him continue bowing was a great gag but everything else she did here was disappointing! I hope she'll go back to her old RotR self in future episodes. I already feel bad enough that Zuri was written as a stereotypical annoying girl who loves doing her nails and hates bugs. is Tiifu going to go down this path too and be forced into the role of typical girl side character w/ little depth, that the audience is supposed to laugh at or be annoyed by, but never relate to? )~:
at least Kiara appears to have depth here.

but still, maybe we can excuse Tiifu and Zuri's behavior here. they're just kids, after all, and probably don't fully understand or appreciate the intricacies of being a ruler. if I was a lil kid and my best friend was just put into a hugely important position of power, I'd probably be a little over-excited too. and hey, at least they're supporting their friend instead of being jealous of her, even if it isn't necessarily the support Kiara needs. I think a lot of Tiifu and Zuri's lines in the episode were cute, it's just that not a lot has been added to their characters here.

Mufasa's appearance felt totally and completely unnecessary IMO. he could have offered far more insight into his own history, but instead just gave a bit of pretty generic advice. but hey, at least the roar wasn't used this time!!

glad to see my beloved Janja again and loved his "hey, I can hear you!" line @ Kiara.

overall really luv this episode despite my Tiifu-related disappointment!


[quote="Tora"]It bugs me how the show seems to want so badly to empower females. I mean that is great and all, but don't make it seem as though the females know best all the time.[/quote]
I'm a little confused by this. how did the episode make it seem like the girls knew best all the time? Kion and Kiara both had moments in which they were misguided and had to admit they were wrong and the other was right. neither character was presented as the most all-knowing. gender didn't appear to have anything to do with this plot point at all.
if anything, I'd like to see TLG be better about empowering young girls. the show has already disappointed in this realm numerous times, and the only thing that's happened so far to redeem it a bit IMO is the character of Jasiri. but maybe now we can put the added depth of Kiara's character on the list, too!

[Tora]

[quote="Sadiki"]I'm a little confused by this. how did the episode make it seem like the girls knew best all the time? Kion and Kiara both had moments in which they were misguided and had to admit they were wrong and the other was right. neither character was presented as the most all-knowing. gender didn't appear to have anything to do with this plot point at all.
if anything, I'd like to see TLG be better about empowering young girls. the show has already disappointed in this realm numerous times, and the only thing that's happened so far to redeem it a bit IMO is the character of Jasiri. but maybe now we can put the added depth of Kiara's character on the list, too![/quote]
Perhaps I misjudged it slightly. My point is that the episode put so much emphasis on the idea that "SHE" is queen, and that "SHE" is in charge. Yes they both had problems and they should have listened to each other. However if "SHE" would have let him do his job instead of issuing decrees just because she was Queen then Kion would never have second guessed his choices. He wouldn't have said lets move the bees. He simply was being spiteful because she told him what to do. I'm just trying to point out it always seems as though especially lately that Disney seems to relish the idea of female characters being leaders. I'll admit atleast Kiara didn't expect Kion to bow down before her. I honestly think the day she demands it he will challenge her for the throne. I digress though maybe I just see something no one else does.

[Elton John]

Outside of the poop joke the ep was delightful.

And is it just me or does simbas design look better in this ep? Also I like the subtle nuzzling between simba and nala.

[InsaneSeagull]

Alright, I watched it this night, but really was too lazy to write review at 2 AM, you know xD . Especially in exam period.

So... I liked this episode in general. I actually like how deep it was, even though there were many things that bugged me, but I also liked many other stuff. I guess the fact that I'm even writing this review is a good proof that I actually enjoyed it.

First of all, what I've written in "Simba's approach towards his children" thread after ROTR doesn't seem to have changed at all. Even after all those times where Kion proved that he's a worthy son and leader. It was him who literally told Kion that he has to listen to Kiara for the next few days just because she's a queen (was he even listening to Mufasa when he tried to explain to him that being king doesn't only mean getting your way all the time?). He also seems to have way too much confidence in Kiara, leaving her in charge of Pride Rock like that, even though he knows it's not safe. He experienced himself that Pride Rock isn't a place to be played around. It's OK to let her experience ruling, but he should at least have provided her some supervision or something. She's still inexperienced and a cub. He found it hard to adjust to ruling himself too, even though he was much older when he came back. I wonder if this was one of the reasons he was so overprotective of her in SP? Did he realize the mistake he made by doing this?

I really liked him practicing his speech all along and getting nervous over it though. I know I would have been too, especially if I was expected to say part of the speech in another language. That showed that there's still more to him than just being king and that was amazing. That was also amazing that it was Zazu who showed him all this. The song is in place too, even though I'm not very fond of it. It's great to see how much all three of them changed and started respecting each other more since the "Elephant Graveyard" scene. I also liked Nala, and her bond with Simba.

As for the funeral... I liked that part too. It was very sad, touching and emotional. I didn't really see the "poop" part as a joke, Simba said it by mistake, and I was glad that they actually received it right. It was such a joy to see all of them laughing together remembering who that elephant really was, instead of just saying "Yup, he was good." Each of us has something unique and it's always good to embrace it. No matter how silly it might sound to someone else.

Kiara... Kiara. I did like her here more than I did in the ROTR, mainly because she was more concerned about being a queen, probably because she now realized it's a real thing. I guess that before that she was just excited about that coming sometime in the future, but not really realized how great responsibility it was. I was just bothered by a few things. First of all, just like Zuri, Tifu, and pretty much everyone but Kion - she took her temporary responsibility way too seriously for her to handle. Simba and Nala left her to practice ruling, but not to really be queen. How come no one realized that? Only Kion once yelled at her: "You are not really queen!" and she didn't even listen to that point! She should know that someone left for looking over her land for temporary isn't supposed to take such important concerns in her hands - I especially allude to the part of her making peace with Janja. It's fine, but she should have told them "Alright, I'll inform my father about this," or something like that, because he is a king. Even if she managed to make peace somehow, she could have been in a serious trouble because of it. It's a way too serious politics, and something she should have known she wasn't supposed to mess with.

I liked her and Kion's relationship. They acted like true siblings, fighting over nothing and not listening to each other's opinions, even when they made sense. But that got better by the end, and I'm sure they'll get along better later, even though they'll probably still have small sibling fights, but don't we all? I like how they both learned to respect each other more, not just Kiara.

I liked how Kiara didn't want anyone bowing before her, too, even though Bunga insisted on it. That leads us to Zuri and Tifu. Uf. I did expect them to be different, especially Tifu, but after all, we know nothing about them. I realize them getting over-excited over Kiara ruling, she is their friend after all. But, they should have taken it more seriously than they did. They just assumed that, just because she's now a queen, she can do anything she wants and is always right. They didn't even listen to where Kiara was going to make peace with Janja, they just let her go - on her own, and weren't even worried, even after they saw how worried Kion was! I also hated how they ordered everyone to bow before KIara, while they didn't do that themselves. Do they really concern themselves more important than The Lion Guard!? I'm starting to understand why Scar got so corrupted.

I also think Mufasa's ghost made sense here too. He was just what he is - Kion's guide.

[Squeely]

Definitely one of the best episodes thus far, though the lack of lionesses really is a glaring flaw here, moreso than in other episodes. Did they just all think nothing would go wrong leaving the cubs alone? If there's some reason why the lionesses are seldom at Pride Rock, that's fine, but we're way overdue for an explanation as to why that is.

Aside from that flaw, though, this was a really good episode. I loved that attention was given to Simba, Nala, and Zazu. It gives me hope that they won't always be relegated to side characters and will get occasional focus. A funeral is a very deep subject for a kids' show, and they struck a good balance of not shying away from it while keeping it appropriate. And toilet humor that was actually funny as opposed to simply gratuitous? Hallelujah!

I also noticed Nala's colors seem to perfectly match her TLK colors, and Simba's eyebrows were drawn a lot less thick and a lot more like his TLK eyebrows in some shots. That shows some dedication and improvement in terms of animation.

[Rollo]

Here's my usual review: http://leliizwe.tumblr.com/post/1383383 ... o-be-queen

It's a positive one. I'm really pleased with this episode. I didn't add this in, but I was happy to see that Kion didn't use the roar. Janja's 'six-on-six' line was pretty funny. It was a refreshing ending, compared to the usual fight scene.

Mufasa's appearance didn't bother me so much now that I have a different take on it. Perhaps we ought to think about that with some other questionable elements--it really won't matter to a child, and I think in some cases, we're maybe just being too fan-ish, if you know what I mean.

Also, good point Squeely: I was also thinking about the absent lionesses. We're still a little mixed on how old Kiara and the girls are supposed to be, but I suppose it's old enough for Simba to feel that they'd be okay on their own, watching over Kion. I would like to see at least one lioness introduced, though. Who are Zuri and Tiifu's parents? Maybe we'll get the answers in the future.

[Elton John]

I wouldn't say that 'deep' is the right word for the funeral scene, as having heavy subject matter in anything can come across as corny or shallow with poor writing and direction.

I'd say that the way they handled it was mostly poignant. Which is especially amazing since this is a disney jr show.

[Squeely]

[quote="lelizwe"]I’d recommend this to everyone, especially those who prefer TLK 2, you might find an appeal in Kiara having such a big role. Then again, knowing the TLK 2 crazies, you probably won’t.[/quote]
I definitely appreciated Kiara's role in this episode, and it made the episode all the more likable. Though, despite my massive amounts of love for TLK 2, I still like TLK better, and I also really like TLG, so I'm probably not as crazy as the type I've seen mentioned in your blog a couple times.

I agree with your points on Zuri and Tiifu. I wanted more of both of them after RotR, since they got so little characterization there. It was a let-down that this didn't really add anything, though a minor flaw since there are a few focuses in the episode and they aren't really one of them.