Anyone else disappointed with the 'Kion's scar' story?

[ValiantVitani]

I really hoped the story was leading up to him fully snapping at one point and the Guard actually having no choice but to fight him to stop him. Now, he would have returned to normal once they could get him better at the Tree, but forcing them to have to fight Kion to stop him from doing something horrible to them or another animal could have been a really cool story. Plus, the rest of the Guard being able to forgive him after having to go so far as a fight to get him under control and a heart-felt apology from Kion would have been great examples of their good character.

Besides all of that, Kion never actually snapping kind of makes the bite by Ushari meaningless as anything but a plot device to make the trip necessary, IMO. The main in-universe reason they went was because of the threat to Kion of potentially becoming immoral/evil (along with getting Ono healed), but the fact that he never actually bore out the reality of that threat hurts the idea; he came close in Friends to the End, but was eventually able to get himself back under control even when the tuliza no longer worked. And the Guard being so confident that Kion would never turn or change (besides Bunga) despite the venom as to sing a song about it when he was at his absolute worst takes away even more of the stakes in his situation.

I get that it is a show for very young kids where Disney might not wanted to go that far, and that turning the protagonist permanently dark is never something that was actually going to happen, but it still feels like a waste. Every time he got agitated during the journey, his behavior got worse, so I feel it was fair to expect that this was building up to a breaking point we didn't get to see and to be a bit unhappy with that.

[Stormy]

I totally agree with this, I was actually hoping to see something like this as well.

[TTB-Kun]

i actually i'm totally fine, expecting to see more than wath we had was kinda irrealistic

[Panpardus]

I was really thinking they'd have reached that point in "Friends to the End". When he and Fuli squared up I actually got chills because I'd been envisioning them coming to blows at some point ever since their first face-to-face back in "Return of the Roar", and they've have similar interactions in other episodes too (most notably to me the one in "The Search for Utamu") so it would've been an interesting buildup and role reversal since in the earlier instances it was Fuli mouthing off to Kion but now she's the one who has to do the mediating. But yeah, as it stands, Kion's story arc this season doesn't really feel like it hit the low it needed to for this to be as compelling as it could've been, and it would've made all the subsequent togetherness songs he and his friends sing together in later episodes have more emotional resonance. (Especially so if they'd ended "Friends to the End" on uneven or even bad terms and then at least took steps to resolve that issue in the next episode.)

Also, side thought on that episode/interaction; why didn't the writers ever get to sufficiently telling off Bunga for constantly picking at Kion given how delicate the situation was getting? You figure Fuli would've finally done it but then they just switched to song time!

[SimbasGuard]

[quote="Panpardus"]Also, side thought on that episode/interaction; why didn't the writers ever get to sufficiently telling off Bunga for constantly picking at Kion given how delicate the situation was getting? You figure Fuli would've finally done it but then they just switched to [i]song time![/i][/quote]

They used song time as a way of telling Bunga off...Without telling Bunga off.

Personally though, I'm glad Kion did not succumb to the Venom. I like seeing the hero triumph over adversity. Seeing a hero rise after he has fallen is very good too, but with Kion this type of story arch would not have worked. If he had fought his friends, yes they would have forgiven him, but Kion would never have forgiven himself. Not even after being cured, To Kion at least there would always be a darkness within him that he would be forever struggling with.