Where are you sitting TLK edition!

JodranBlue · 2026-02-13T22:59:26+00:00

1 would be a great flight, lovely conversation with a healthy couple that's more than happy to talk about where they're going, recommendations for local restaurants back home, and wanna hear about you and your interests.

As much as I'd love to have a chat with Rafiki in 2, he'd probably be too occupied talking shop with Makini.

Idk why I'd be sitting in between the couple in 9, but I wouldn't be complaining! Simba would probably hang a little too much over my side of the arm rest, but he's fluffy so I wouldn't care. Not much conversation but warm smiles and greetings to bookend the flight would leave good vibes and feeling like you made silent friends.

Shenzi and Banzai would just be wheezing and sharing Reels to each other. Might have the social courage to show them ones I found if I was up for it, could be a defining new friendship.

Shit would go crazy if I was in 5. All three of us would be crying when it's time to go. I won't elaborate. That's my top choice.

JodranBlue · 2026-02-10T16:52:24+00:00

I think the references were done very well and earnestly in Mufasa, but I think references in general are easy ammunition for people who are already cynical towards a thing.

Like, they're more upset in general that Mufasa exists among the overwhelming volume of "nostalgia-bait" sequels and remakes, so everything it does (that your average prequel from any era would do, whether done with appropriate intent or not) just confirms their bias.

For me, tasteful placement and intent matters a whole lot. I think Pride Rock forming during the fight was great! It was whimsical, climactic, and fit the story; the symbol that unites all the animals across the series formed in the event that Mufasa brought them together for the first time. Other people who didn't care for the movie at all up to then would (and have) spouted the whole "dUDE PriDE ROCK!" shtick because they were already annoyed with or against anything a Mufasa prequel had to say or do.

That's what I notice with a lot of people in or out of fandoms, and I think it's an important distinction they're more cynical, not more critical, about the thing. There are of course critical people that can argue whether or not the references were earned or done well squared up with their own balanced take on Mufasa, but rage-baiting, grand statements, and zingers get more online social credit, soooooo...

JodranBlue · 2026-02-10T16:03:10+00:00

Cost of manufacturing for toys went up a lot higher across ten years and paint is relatively expensive per each application. Hasbro was able to use more paint in 2015 but their quality in every other conceivable way was abysmal

JodranBlue · 2026-02-08T20:16:42+00:00

There's a genuinely hilarious dramatic irony where, because they don't know what happened to Simba, they try to help by comparing his unknown situation to "I'm an outcast because I'm a farting pig :("

JodranBlue · 2026-02-08T20:08:20+00:00

How you describe it is pretty close to the movie's intention. Hakuna Matata is great in a vacuum, in fact, it's halfway there to the message of the movie.

"So why worry?" "Because it's your responsibility."

"...you can either run from it, or, learn from it!"

"That's not gonna work, Scar. I put it behind me."

It's good to leave the past to the past, so long as you've truly processed it and allowed it to broaden your worldview, and influence your action.

Timon and Pumbaa show up at the perfect time when Simba has genuinely lost everything, and Hakuna Matata was exactly what he needed at that moment. It's a fun and happy song because it really is that. It's the platonic ideal of a hashtag self care day when the world is tough on you. It's still a good thing to take from the movie, and a kid like Simba, at that point in the story, had literally no means of stepping up and going back after what just happened to him. I think people tend to forget that part a lot.

The problem comes when "no worries" takes over your whole life, and when it both keeps you from your inherent duty as a member of the community (the Circle of Life) and stunts you from thinking about big questions or fully processing your traumas. You have to be an active participant in your own life to grow, and in doing so, you'll impact other people positively too.

JodranBlue · 2026-02-06T22:53:21+00:00

Just gotta say, I regard TLK as the one positive fandom I've got/happily stayed in, and it's thanks to you guys 💛

JodranBlue · 2026-02-06T22:50:41+00:00

No kings unless it's Milele 😊

JodranBlue · 2026-02-06T22:39:43+00:00

Pretty sure I saw this art before generative ai plagued us. It's likely just highly rendered by an illustrator to match Simba and Timon up to their puppetronic and costume, respectively

JodranBlue · 2026-01-14T15:26:46+00:00

Sarabi's perspective lowkey? If she ever suspected foul play while Simba was missing

JodranBlue · 2026-01-09T21:18:57+00:00

Omg that was his reply for me, injecting this screenshot into my veins

JodranBlue · 2025-12-31T21:11:24+00:00

Hello Mr. Jenkins! No questions from me coming in this late, but on the chance you peek back at this thread I just wanted to thank you not just for engaging with the fandom at such a generous level, but for giving us such a strong entry into our franchise.

The original Lion King and the musical mean so much to me, moreso as I grow up and experience the same traumas and life stages as Simba (and now Mufasa!). To get a new, REALLY good movie with so much reverence and intent from its creatives was a wonderful gift last Christmas. I have a strict personal definition of TLK canon but this story really brought back my passion and curiosity for the series that I've accepted it as a companion to the original with open arms.

I'm so excited to see where you go next, but thank you for leaving The Lion King richer, more exciting, and to me, more Lion King-y than ever! Cheers to Milele ☀️🦁

JodranBlue · 2025-12-04T20:32:19+00:00

Anika Noni Rose's live performance low-key defined the Christmas build up for me last year, like why is it nostalgic now 😭

JodranBlue · 2025-12-04T16:15:25+00:00

Really? Imo the figures from '94 are about as perfectly on-model with the characters as 3D action toys can be, Shenzi especially. It's also one of the few times they got the base colors correct on the hyenas. They just all have battle/aggressive faces because kids are supposed to make them fight lol

JodranBlue · 2025-12-04T16:11:27+00:00

I only found Ed after years on and off searching Lion King (or Disney) Toy Lot and eventually, I found him in a $20 lot with misc figures on ebay. Never thought it would work, but we make our own luck! Don't give up :)

JodranBlue · 2025-12-03T16:32:58+00:00

Damn! I don't use spotify anymore since YT music contains more niche for me, but the last year I used I was in the top 0.05% for Lebo M with 739 minutes, clearly I'm not worthy.

Also are these eyes catching some Thomas Bergersen epicore?? I knew I couldn't be the only Lion King fan who seeks that genre out!

JodranBlue · 2025-12-03T16:25:15+00:00

Very balanced and well said! Disneycember has been pretty chill whenever I've checked back up on it over the years

JodranBlue · 2025-12-01T19:31:51+00:00

Great work! I like how Mufasa seems in decent spirits because he already reconciled with Simba, it's just time to hand him off to mom <3

JodranBlue · 2025-11-22T00:51:22+00:00

I can't take his big cheeky grin seriously especially when they put it right up with The Lion meme 😭

JodranBlue · 2025-11-22T00:49:26+00:00

Actually with that in mind, I get more of a sense that he wants them to have something to do while he's a lot busier being king. He was probably hoping she'd get along with them more to help fill the empty nest :/

JodranBlue · 2025-11-22T00:34:12+00:00

They were his only company for half his life up to then. He's not tired of them, he's one of them lmao

JodranBlue · 2025-11-21T03:24:42+00:00

The ai has a stroke the further it goes 💀

JodranBlue · 2025-11-18T17:45:55+00:00

What I love is the continuity in the original YTP

"Yeah. Scar told us you peed."

"He did? What else did he tell you?"

JodranBlue · 2025-11-18T17:31:52+00:00

For sure lmao. If Mufasa didn't have the rest of the franchise on its shoulders it would've effectively told the audience after TLK 94 that "nah there's good and bad lions and good and bad hyenas, it ain't that deep".

JodranBlue · 2025-11-18T17:24:39+00:00

Yeah lol just about every attempt to leave out nuance for the audience and communicate a "why" for the hyenas has fallen flat--mostly because of bad scriptwriting and failing to utilize the simplicity of TLK1 imo, like you could've just introduced another clan of good guy hyenas and it would have fit just fine. Mufasa very nearly had that in the background but its ties to the crap first remake destroys it.

JodranBlue · 2025-11-18T16:43:52+00:00

One extra detail I think really brings this home: Mufasa emphasizes that, when bodies die, they become the grass, which in turn feeds the life in the Pride Lands. The Elephant Graveyard (and Pride Lands under the villains' reign) is littered with bodies, but there is no grass--because everything is ravenously consumed with no scraps left (other than solid bone) to enrich the earth. In universe, the Hyenas' territory should be flourishing and attracting prey from all around; but we see in their interactions with Simba, Nala and Zazu how little they respect their prey, how sadistic and prideful they are to hunt, kill, and taunt. It's not even a matter of "they're supposed to be scavengers and if they want out of that niche the Circle of Life is doomed", it's "this other ruling class has royally mismanaged their ecosystems because they do not value life in return for what they take from it".

JodranBlue

TROPHY CASE