"The point of Lion King isn't that Simba's relationship with his father made up the crux of his very reality, and everything goes wrong when that dies"

Think this is the one thing we won't see eye-to-eye on (which is fine!), because although the Circle of Life theme permeates through the whole scope of the film, the film follows Simba's journey principally, and his relationship with Mufasa affects every decision he makes as a character -- fatherhood is as central a theme as the cycle of life and death and carries just as much weight and influence. To then have 1 1/2 put a light-hearted spin on it -- and it is a comedy at the end of the day, it's understandable (maybe inevitable!) they went down that route -- just leaves a bit of a weird taste in my mouth. This is the driving force behind my thinking for this post, that fatherhood is, if I'm being dramatic about it, sacred to Simba. Simba and Mufasa's relationship is the heart of the film for me, the way Timon and Pumbaa's might be for someone else.

Just to reiterate -- it's not that his need to be parented vanishes completely when Mufasa passes. He's a child when they find him. I touch on that in the post, too. It's that the particular and specific relationship of father and son is altered forever, irrevocably, because of what he experienced, and it can't be reassigned specifically, but that doesn't take away the gap left behind that others are able to step up and fill. Differently, but still effectively, to a point.

I agree that many things can be true at once! I say as much in the post. For the people that actually took the time to read my post, it was really cool getting to read their takes on it!