[quote="The Boyfriend"]
After being made to sit through all 3 films (to be fair, during the first one) I realised that the lions of pride rock have varied magical powers. These include, but aren't limited to:
Super Speed (possibly linked to Flight.) - Several instances of Mufasa and others crossing the Pride Lands in mere moments.
Colour / Environmental / Genetic Control and/or Manipulation - They make the freaking colours of the sky, trees, ground, etc. change like it's some major acid trip on a regular basis. Extensive use in songs.
Weather Control, Geomancy (control of the ground and rocks, lava, steam vents etc.), and probably a few other elemental abilities. - Scars songs and whatnot, as well as the skies darkening and the drought with scars leadership, lightning bursts in simba/scars fight.
Some form of low level telepathy or inherent mind control - The dance routine with all the animals somehow being perfectly choreographed, including that final tower, not going to be all through a few whispered words without practice.
Levitation / Flight - Possibly linked to leaves, but leaves alone won't make a hippo float, let alone fly (possibly linked to Rafiki's powers, or maybe rafiki is a conduit for the power of pride rock? iunno).
Divination / mild Necromancy / Ascendancy - Rafiki is able to talk to the past kings and predict the future, also seems to have the ability to know where / what things are in the pridelands. I think these are linked, and that rafiki is possibly simply a conduit for the past kings, which when their physical body dies, their spirit / power becomes energy, ascending past the physical plane, this is likely what gives Rafiki his power.
Also evidenced when Mufasa appears in the clouds, giving further credence to the theory of ascension (once ascended little things like controlling the clouds is small beans).
The powers seem to be linked to 3 things as far as I can tell:
Pride Rock / Distance From it. - The power of Pride Rock seems to be the overbearing factor, closer you are to it - the greater your abilities, the further away you get from it the weaker the link to the magic becomes ( as showcased by Zira and her exiles having to specifically work at creating the same special lighting effects that Scar previously simply conjured from the shadows). This is possibly partially proven by when Kiara and Kovu did that song with the colours and the flying etc, though this could simply have been Kiaras superior ties to the king, and Rafikis own channelled power. I would say this is also possibly due to weakened genetics, but to be honest, the bloodlines may not have anything to do with it. Distance definitely does though, as while Simba is away from the Pride Lands with Timon and Pumba, he doesn't exhibit any use of powers.
Genetics / The Royal Bloodlines - the kings of pride rock seemed to be tied to its power, I think that having the royal line is a genetic to the magic, stronger the bloodline = more power. Also, being the king / queen seems to give you the 'lions share', the ruler having the most power of all.
Emotion - Most of the powers seem to be controlled by strong emotion, either expressing it through song, or when someone is in danger / during a fight.
It is also evidenced that these aren't simply 'graphical whimsy' on the part of Disney or some sort of trip, as Timon and Pumba exited their little hole in TLK3 and commented about how the colours had changed etc., as well as when scars song starts the lights appeared.
Some of this has been fleshed out as writing this down - I'm quite sure if I sat down and looked harder I could probably solidify it further and/or that you lion-king-heads may be able to expand on the initial ideas.[/quote]
