My Lion King Forum

Timon the great · by **Timon the great** » June 28th, 2014, 6:03 am

This topic is mainly full of just biased and not necessarily "unpopular" opinions in which I'm pretty sure some have hit the ceiling already, reading some of the things that members have said in here.

Where's a hide/ignore topic feature in the UCP when you need it, and not just one for members?

juhouh · by **juhouh** » June 28th, 2014, 8:34 am

[quote="Timon the great"]This topic is mainly full of just biased and not necessarily "unpopular" opinions in which I'm pretty sure some have hit the ceiling already, reading some of the things that members have said in here.

Where's a hide/ignore topic feature in the UCP when you need it, and not just one for members?

[/quote]
... :ugh:

What's the point of this statement? Since you're so smart you should probably tell us some unpopular TLK opinions first before judging others'. Still haven't seen you posting any but criticizing one. If you don't like this thread, don't read it. I'm sorry if I said that Nala should have torn Timon into pieces, but that's because I hate him (if it made you to post that)

However, I don't wanna be rude towards you, you're one of these long-time members of MLK after all. Just to point out that your post is not itself necessary

Gemini · by **Gemini** » June 29th, 2014, 9:26 am

Oh, wow. This is a great thread for me. xP As I'm sure a lot of you know, I write fanfic. In fact, I've written quite a lot at this point, so by now I have some pretty... interesting... opinions/headcanon. Let me share some thoughts that come to mind. Please don't be offended by any of these.

- I don't really like Timon and Pumbaa. They're decent in the first movie and rather funny, but after that they just become more and more (and more) unnecessary. I mean, come on? Their own movie? And TV show? Why can't we have more material on... I don't know... characters we actually care about? :zirainnocent:

- I don't really like Simba. I don't know. I mean, he's the main character, and he did go through a lot, and I know that you all are probably going to hate me...

Actually, you know what? I'll just take this from my FFn profile. It explains it the best. "... I bear no particular grudge against Simba. I don't despise him. He simply does not resonate with me on a comparably significant level. Granted, this has changed slightly in the past years, as has my outlook on nearly everything, but it isn't enough to counter Scar. It simply isn't. [...] I am also frustrated to some extent by the others' faith in him, as well as his continuous luck as an adult, despite the overly care-free stance he takes and the way he abandons his family for the sake of running away from his problems. He is, in a way, overly complacent and impressionable, yet manages somehow to skirt his way through everything regardless. But alas, I won't nitpick."

Yup. Super unpopular I bet. :nomnom:

- I'm not a big fan of Simba/Nala. Or Mufasa/Sarabi and Kovu/Kiara for that matter. They just seem rather... I dunno... boring? I mean Simba and Nala are like the poster children for the movie and they were together from the beginning. I don't think anybody seriously thought they weren't going to be together, did they?

I might be a bit strange regarding my shipping tastes, though, considering the pairings I do support.

- I have shipped Scar with Nala, Zira, Shenzi, and Sarafina; I also plan to ship him with Sarabi in the future. I don't usually write romance, but Nala/Scar has become my so-called 'OTP', and I have also written one-sided Shenzi/Scar. Both seem to be my most controvertible pairings. In short, they're the rather dark/unconventional ones that people raise their eyebrows over. I don't know, but I guess I kind of like the taboo nature of both. Is that wrong? I know it's not surprising given the mood of a lot of my stories.

I guess in general I just find it way more interesting than reading about couples betrothed from birth or childhood-friend pairings or 'true-love-at-first-sight' types of goody-goody stuff. Rather I like the love/hate sentiment and sexual manipulativeness (is that a word? No?) that Nala/Scar and Scar/Shenzi - and possibly Scar/Zira even though we never see them interact - bring to the table. Neither really feel like healthy, loving romantic relationships. They're more the dysfunctional, unstable ones.

Am I a bad person? :oops:

- I kind of relate to Timon in TLK1.5. What's this? Doesn't feel like he belongs in his home society? Wants to live a care-free life? Wants to live far away to sate his adventurous wanderlust? NO WAY, DUDE. :idea:

- That said, I kind of relate to Pumbaa as well. In a way, he's like how I was when I was younger. Secretly the smartest one there, but overly kind and easily manipulated. *sigh* I guess his laid-back nature still kinda fits me, though.

- Scar is the most relatable character for me. Not just in TLK, either. I know it sounds cliche, but in my opinion he fits more the archetype of someone who's 'misunderstood', not someone who's 'evil'. In any case I don't really think he's that bad, he's just extremely jealous and has problems dealing with his inherent anger. His opening lines portray him this way quite clearly. Like me, he shies away from direct confrontation. And although we can't see what happened during his reign, I also think he withdrew from the pride and failed at leadership largely out of guilt, and that he felt ashamed over killing his brother in the end.

I think that his goals were understandable, regardless of the means he used to achieve them, so in my book he is not completely irredeemable.

- I don't 'believe' in Kopa. That's already been mentioned, but the fact is he's not canon. People need to understand this and accept it as it is.

TLK:6NA, TLK1.5, T&P, and other semi-canon sources generally play very little role in my stories.

- I like "My Lullaby" and "Be Prepared" the most. In my opinion, ML is hands down the best song in the sequel, and BP is my favorite from the original as well. I dunno. I like all the songs in the movies, but I'm not as much of a fan of the popular ones (like "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?").

On the subject of "In Upendi" - that song scares me a little. It's just... so weird... :eek2:

- I rather like Kovu. People always claim he's a 'boring' character, but to be honest, I rather like his dark inner conflict, and his angsty struggle with who he is vs. the fate that was planned out for him. I guess that seems to a recurring theme in this series... but I find it a bit more interesting considering that his 'destiny' was to murder the so-called king, and that was all he was really trained to do. Most of the characters in the series don't seem to be as dark, save maybe Scar.

I've always wanted to write a dark-Kovu fic examining the nature of his struggle.

- Scar's death saddens me more than Mufasa's. Mufasa's had me bawling as a kid, but now I spend too much time being impressed with Scar's deviousness and cunning to really feel that sad for him.

Don't get me wrong, I like Mufasa, as I think he's a great father and a good character. However, he doesn't really get that much screen-time, so we don't know much of what he's like. That said, I don't think he's the shining white-knight everyone imagines him to be. I mean, Simba was still so young, and who doesn't think that their parents are infallible at that age?

- I like Vitani as Scar and Nala's daughter, and Scar as Nala's father... just not both at the same time. That'd be bad even for me. :roll:

But anyways, that's another one I've seen in here a few times. I guess it has to do with eye color/behavior/subtext/that "where's your pretty daughter" line, and the fact that Vitani was born during Scar's reign... with a certain lioness around... if you get what I mean. :cheesysmile:

Last question: what's with fan character hate? o__o I mean, I totally agree with Niña when she says that a majority of TLK fics are bland, many fan characters are flat, and most 'TLKIV' scenarios suck... but I still think you're generalizing a little too much. What you mean to say, I think, is that you hate Mary Sues, in which case every sensible person on this planet would very much agree with you.

That said, though, I myself have had to make a handful of 'fan characters'/OCs at this point - as someone else pointed out, they are nearly unavoidable in a real, full-length story. Nearly all authors have faced the same situation, and I wouldn't say that all of their characters out there are bad. After all, you must also keep in mind that even the canon characters were once somebody's creations, too! It's all about how you characterize, portray, and develop them. The difference between a good and bad fan character is quite a big one. ^^

In any case, I'll post more here if I can think of any. I know that can't be all of them. :3 Like I said, just don't get offended and we're all good. Peace out!

Lauren · by **Lauren** » June 29th, 2014, 5:38 pm

[quote="GeminiGemelo"] - I rather like Kovu. People always claim he's a 'boring' character, but to be honest, I rather like his dark inner conflict, and his angsty struggle with who he is vs. the fate that was planned out for him. I guess that seems to a recurring theme in this series... but I find it a bit more interesting considering that his 'destiny' was to murder the so-called king, and that was all he was really trained to do. Most of the characters in the series don't seem to be as dark, save maybe Scar. [/quote]
Honestly, I've never heard people claim that Kovu's boring. For all the reasons why you like Kovu are pretty much the same reasons as to why I also like him, making him my 2nd favorite character.

Gemini · by **Gemini** » June 29th, 2014, 8:44 pm

^

I dunno. Someone on FFn told me they thought he was boring, to my slight bewilderment, and even people on here have commented things along the line of him being flat. Even though, if you really think about it, bad guys (which, in my opinion, is what Kovu was when he started out) turning into good guys doesn't happen all too often.

Maybe they just found 'troubled'/'star-crossed' lover to be a bit cliche? They didn't like him betraying his family? They thought he was stupid for falling for Kiara? I could see why people wouldn't like him for those reasons, or even if they just don't like the sequel in general, but to be honest Kovu gets a lot more character development than most of the characters in the series, save Simba and maybe a few others. Him, Vitani, and Zira are like the highlights of TLKII for me.

ScarsLove · by **ScarsLove** » June 30th, 2014, 4:47 am

GeminiGemelo, why do we have so many of the same opinions on things? ( outside of the not believing in Kopa and relating to Timon/Pumba ) :lol:

Gemini · by **Gemini** » June 30th, 2014, 8:47 am

[quote="DatLioness"]GeminiGemelo, why do we have so many of the same opinions on things? ( outside of the not believing in Kopa and relating to Timon/Pumba ) :lol: