by BlitzRogue » June 7th, 2010, 5:40 pm
[quote="Vitanisdude"]Anyway, the story needed the death. Think, if Mufasa was still king in the second movie 1. It wouldn't be called Simba's Pride, 2. Kovu and Kiara wouldn't have been born, and 3. the lions wouldn't reunite.[/quote]
You're looking at it backwards, methinks. If the story line were set up for Mufasa to remain alive through to the second film, there would have been no need to name it "Simba's Pride". Alternatively, they could very easily have set the start of SP to a later time after Mufasa died of natural causes (age, illness, etc.)
Kovu would still have been born, depending on who you consider to be his parents and where you think to Outsiders were during the first film. And Kiara certainly would have still been born, probably sooner than she was in SP. If Mufasa never died, Simba would never have run away, and he probably would have "fallen in love" with Nala long before the time when he would have come back from the jungle in accordance with the plot where Mufasa dies. But again, the plot would be entirely different if Mufasa wasn't killed off, so there wouldn't necessarily be a need for Kovu and Kiara to be born.
And yet again, no need for the prides to "reunite". Because as far as the first film is concerned, the "Outsiders" don't exist. They were simply added to give the second film a plot. If Mufasa never died, the plot line could have taken a completely different road that effectively eliminated any need for the Outsiders; and no Outsiders, no need for the prides to reunite.