[quote="SnowyCheetah"]There's one thing that's been bugging me the last day or so. When Simba arrives back in the Pridelands to overthrow Scar, Sarabi (the Queen) is obviously still alive. But once Simba defeats Scar, he and Nala take the throne. So... is it just tough luck for Sarabi? Game over? You're out? No soup for you? Just because Mufasa's gone, she loses her position?

or did Simba and Nala wait until her death to take the throne, and I'm missing that?[/quote]
As it’s been mentioned earlier, Sarabi was only royalty by the marriage to Mufasa, so she probably lost her title as Queen when Mufasa died and Scar took over.
But at any rate, when Simba returned he was the rightful king and finally ready to take over and rule. He was the heir to the throne and simply claiming his birthright.
Sarabi was most likely just extremly happy and proud to have her son back, and to see him claim his position in the Pride. She would be getting old by that time too, so she was probably grateful to finally be able to retire from major responsibilities.
It wouldn’t make much sense for Simba to wait until Sarabis death before taking over the throne. She’s not blood royalty, and the Lion Pride needs a male leader after all.. So yeah, it was completly natural that Simba took over the throne immediatly after defeating Scar.
And about Sarabis death.. We don’t see her at the presentation of the cub at the end of TLK, but she could have been resting inside the cave or standing off-camera on Pride Rock. She could also have died in the gap between TLK and SP or in the time that went from Simbas return to the birth of the new cub at the end. (Obviously it would have taken some time for the Pridelands to be completly restored after Scars reign.)
She’s never shown or mentioned in TLK6NA (when the characters are telling Kopa stories) so I think she died before Kopa was born. (Or before the cub at the end of TLK is born, if you don’t think that’s Kopa, lol)