To Catch a Thief...

[SnowyCheetah]

...you need to think from the thief's point of view.

In a lot of the posts here, especially related to the aging of lions in TLK, I've noticed something very important and I think that all this time, a lot of us (myself included) have been thinking about things all wrong while trying to figure things out about the Lion King world and what it contains, whether that be characters or the TLK world itself and its realities.

The creators of TLK studied lions before making the films, then they went to the studios and created a fictitious world, with fictitious characters, with fictitious realities specific to that world. When we're trying to figure out whether or not something happened, or whether it happened one way or another, we need to think in the terms of that fictitious world that is TLK, and not the realities of the real world. If the lions age a certain way in the TLK world, that's what we need to refer to when discussing TLK character aging, not the way real-life lions age. Same goes for everything else that is TLK. We need to think in the terms and realities of the fictitious world TLK takes place and resides in. That means the books too, and it means keeping controversial characters such as Kopa and Mheetu in mind at all times, not just when they support our arguments and ignoring them when they hurt our arguments. If something that is canon (or merely official, for all you book canon haters) hurts your argument, maybe your argument is flawed and you should re-evaluate it. I know that's happened to me before.

So let's stop trying to force our own known realities, such as the way lions age, onto a fictitious world in which they don't apply, and think from a TLK world point of view. After all, you don't get anywhere trying to solve a math problem with lessons learned in Spanish class.

[atouchofgrace]

I agree with you, Snowy. It seems that fans like to use real life lion reality to support certain theories but then deny it to support others.
TLK is fictional. Even Thomas Schumacher, TLK's executive producer, described Nala as a "10 year old child". Of course he was not talking about lion age.

(btw, I love the title "To Catch a Thief", one of my favorite movies)

[PrincessKiara]

Thanks for posting this, Snow. Well said.

[SuperBabySimba]

Hmm... I see where you're coming from. In the end, my point of view is that real life lions may apply to TLK world just as well as they may not. I don't think there's saying for sure which is the case because fiction and real life can be combined without anyone knowing, but it's completely up to the creator how much they're combined. And I think there is a very good chance they used what they studied, to make the storyline work believably to thhose who like to dig into it from a real life point of view.

What I've forgotten to say earlier to explain my point of view... I think on the commentary track they even said something that they tried to keep it to the animal world as much as possible. Though, I'm not entirely sure were they speaking of something specific at the time. And of course that was only the first TLK, not SP's makers. But somehow I just extented that to SP too.

[supersimba]

I agree with the OP. Wish I'd said this lol

[SnowyCheetah]

SBS, as true as that might be, my point is that although they studied lions, we have to think in terms of the world they created with the knowledge they gained from that, and try not to include the stuff that they didn't learn or chose to ignore.

[SuperBabySimba]

[quote="SnowyCheetah"]SBS, as true as that might be, my point is that although they studied lions, we have to think in terms of the world they created with the knowledge they gained from that, and try not to include the stuff that they didn't learn or chose to ignore.[/quote]

But how can we tell what they didn't learn or chose to ignore out of all the possible things...? In order to try and not include them ourselves?

[SnowyCheetah]

We don't have to know everything, only the relevant pieces of information, which can usually be found out by taking a look at the way things worked in TLK.

Edit: or the books. And yes, they're relevant.

[SuperBabySimba]

[quote="SnowyCheetah"]We don't have to know everything, only the relevant pieces of information, which can usually be found out by taking a look at the way things worked in TLK.

Edit: or the books. And yes, they're relevant.[/quote]

Would you please explain further? What do you mean by the way things worked in TLK or the books, which in your opinion makes the possibly used real life facts irrelevant to the story/timelines?

[SnowyCheetah]

Here's an example:

In real life, lions age in way A. In the TLK world, they age in way B. If we're discussing how the lions in TLK age, we need to be referring to way B instead of way A, because referring to way A will get us an incorrect answer, or none at all.