New episode - "The Trail to Udugu"

[Elton John]

He's a young king (assuming this series doesn't take place long after the first movie) and lost his father early on. He pretty much has nobody to show him what being a proper king is.

I'm assuming that Mufasa was king for a far longer time before he died.

[Aelwen]

[quote]He's a young king (assuming this series doesn't take place long after the first movie) and lost his father early on. He pretty much has nobody to show him what being a proper king is.[/quote]
If TLK lions age more or less like real lions then Simba has been a king for over a year. If they age like humans then he has ruled for 10-12 years years. It's quite a lot of time to become a competent ruler, isn't it?

[Elton John]

I'm just assuming that he ages like a real lion. So assuming he has been king a little over a year and how he has nobody to show him how to do a proper job he's not doing that bad of a job considering.

[Aelwen]

[quote="Elton John"]I'm just assuming that he ages like a real lion. So assuming he has been king a little over a year and how he has nobody to show him how to do a proper job he's not doing that bad of a job considering.[/quote]

We don't really knowq what the Lion King must do to be a good ruler. It doesn't seem like he has to be very wise and "all-knowing". He doesn't even have to prevent disasters because he has the Guard for this.

[Elton John]

Well, it seems that a good king has to keep stability in the pridelands. Never taking more than what they give.

Sure, the lions eat prey but they also keep out predators who would kill more than what they need to survive.

The first movie was made as a complete story with no sequels or side stories in mind. In it, Mufasa was 'the lion guard'. Yeah he ate zebras, aka the taking, but he also offered protection for them aka the giving back and in it there is a balance.

With this new series, the lion guard protects and the king makes the important decisions.

If we are going to make paralells to The Avengers or marvel comics in general...which this series was influenced by... 'lion guard defend' is so obviously the 'avengers, assemble!' of the franchise.

These are all fairly loose comparisons

Kion is the Captain America of the group. A born leader, sticks to his own moral code, the roar is similar to caps shield in a way.
Fuli is the Quicksilver of the group more than any female avenger.
Beshte is The Incredible Hulk of the group.
Ono is... The Falcon? Sorry, could not think of an apt comparison.
Bunga is like Jubilee. A useless character who nobody knows why they are allowed in the team. I forgot if jubilee was ever allowed in the avengers but her power is making sparkly things appear out of her hands. They make her fight sentinals!

[SimbasGuard]

[quote="Elton John"]Bunga is like Jubilee. A useless character who nobody knows why they are allowed in the team. I forgot if jubilee was ever allowed in the avengers but her power is making sparkly things appear out of her hands. They make her fight sentinals![/quote]

Very good comparisons. Jubilee was not an Avenger (Outside of the alternate reality future of the MC2 Universe) so I'd have to compare Bunga to Ant-Man. The member of the team that enemies tend to overlook. That enables him to contribute more than what you might expect.

As for Simba's mistakes in leading The Lion Guard. Simba led The Lion Guard the way he would led a Lion Guard composed of Lions. In doing this he was basically placing The Guard on the same level of any incarnation of The Guard that came before them and therefore showing them how highly he thought of them. Unfortunately that was also his mistake. To paraphrase what Fuli said, the true strength of Kion's incarnation of The Guard comes from their diversity. That is what Simba did not realize.

[Elton John]

Making jubilee fight sentinals is like making bunga go up against a Gundam, or Godzilla... yeah good luck with that

Bunga is like the Zoidberg of the show. The millhouse of the show. The bill dauterive...the meg griffin...

[SimbasGuard]

[quote="Elton John"]Making jubilee fight sentinals is like making bunga go up against a Gundam, or Godzilla... yeah good luck with that

Bunga is like the Zoidberg of the show. The millhouse of the show. The bill dauterive...the meg griffin...[/quote]

O.K.

[quote="Kallo"]anyone else think the ending to this episode felt unusually epic somehow? I almost got a feeling this episode was meant to be the end of the season, judging by that ending. The next episode's title doesn't seem like anything special really, so I'm wondering if they're just gonna use 'Udugu' as their "season finale" and technically use the next episode as the start to the second season. Judging by all these small hiatuses, I doubt there's gonna be any big break between the two seasons.[/quote]

Yes the ending felt very epic to me, it wound have made a great season finale. I have always assumed that the long breaks between new episodes was because they didn't want there to be to long of a break between seasons. I don't think the will just bump the next episode to next season, but I am wondering if they will even acknowledge the start of a new season.

[PridelandsPhantom]

I saw the episode a bit back, just been slow to post because of work and my husband tinkering with the computer. I liked the episode, for the most part. I like seeing Nala being able to be a parent and contributing more to Kiara and Kion's development. It's also nice to see Kion and Kiara play and compete like siblings rather just seeing Kion lead the guard all the time. I do agree that the situation should have been more dire instead of Nala just wandering off and Kiara and Kion having to find her. I don't really hold much water to real life biology in comparing cub sizes as they're anthropomorphic animals and I doubt that much thinking goes into this. They already said Kion is the younger brother, hence I doubt they're litter mates.

I don't think this was a "made up" tradition as someone stated. There's no reason to think Mufasa and Scar couldn't have passed it as some point as brothers. We have no idea when their relationship really became strained. Do I ever think they were super close, no I doubt it. A lot of real life siblings are not super close but can come together when necessary and still bond together. Mufasa and Scar could have been closer as cubs than as adults. We don't really know the true reason they became so estranged (personality conflicts and sense of duty aside). A lot could have happened between cubhood and adulthood to drive a wedge between them but still pass the kinship test.

Simba still really has a hard time seeing the guard as anything other than "a lion guard." He led it without thinking of individual abilities and Kion knows the group's strengths because he leads it all the time. Simba had no siblings thus no need for a lion guard.

[SimbasGuard]

[quote="PridelandsPhantom"]I don't really hold much water to real life biology in comparing cub sizes as they're anthropomorphic animals and I doubt that much thinking goes into this. They already said Kion is the younger brother, hence I doubt they're litter mates.[/quote]

That is entirely possible, but even in the case of litter mates one must be born before the other. Kion was born 2nt and is therefore still the younger brother.