This refsheet was commissioned from RedTheLioness on Deviantart for $50. Badala is one of the two main antagonists of the first story arc of my fanfiction Lion Guard sequel, Roar Towards the Future.

Badala is one of the agents responsible for the deaths of King Sãhasí and Queen Ãnanda. Her role in the invasion was for her and her family to infiltrate the Tree of Life and gain the trust of the royal family in order to get close enough to them and give intel to the tigers' superior, Mrtyu (an asiatic buffalo, this is important). Badala, only a teenager at the time, (15 human years old), "befriended" the young twins Rani and Baliyo (8 human years old), as well as their friends, which gave her the closest amount of access to the royals and enough info to relay the information to Mrtyu.

Her betrayal was revealed to the twins when she took part in Mrtyu's attack on the Tree of Life and helped her kill the King and Queen. Despite this, the attackers were forced to flee by Queen Janna and her allies before they could destroy the Tree of Life and its inhabitants. In the end, only Badala and Mrtyu survived, unbeknownst to anyone else. Mrtyu "adopted" Badala and the two of them rebuilt their army, the "Dhara Mrtyu." In Mrtyu's old age, Badala took control of the Dhara Mrtyu, and conspired multiple schemes to expand the army across Eurasia in order to destroy the Tree of Life in her adoptive mother's name.

On top of her strength, size, and stamina, Badala has a skill unique to tigers, allowing her to stun or even paralyze her opponents with her roar.

Throughout Part 1 of Roar Towards the Future, she's made multiple schemes against the Night Pride and the Tree of Life, taking advantage of the inexperience of its young rulers as well as that of the kingdom's new Lion Guard. She's also responsible for the trauma that made Rani and Baliyo hyperviglient and overprotective (hence their initial antagonism towards Kion and the Lion Guard), having violated and betrayed their trust in such a damaging way when they were at such a young age that left them with mental and emotional scars that follow them into adulthood. Eventually, the tides will turn in the tigress' favor when her army discovers a method to steal a piece of the Tree of Life's magic to weaponize for their nefarious schemes... as well as getting some allies on the inside.

At the end of Season 1, Badala will encounter Queen Rani for the first time in 10 years. Vengeance will be taken, but it's just a matter of when and how...

NOTES:

• Badala's name translates to "revenge" in Hindi.
• My voice-canon for her is Faye Mata (the English voice actress of Kagami Tsurugi from Miraculous).
• I initially wanted there to be waaayy more scars in her design but I ultimately decided to opt for the claw marks on her face just for simplicity's sake and to keep her design from looking too "edgy."
• To pre-empt any guesses, no, she is NOT the one to give Rani the scar on her foreleg. I'm saving that for a twist reveal. And I'm also not revealing where Badala got her facial claws. Both answers will be in Chapter 35 that's a flashback episode.
• Badala's ability to paralyze animals with her roar is based on an actual skill tigers have IRL. Tigers produce sounds in a very low range (ones that we can't hear) that can paralyze prey. The fic sorta exaggerates this for dramatic effect, but learning about this one fact was what convinced me to create this character in the first place. It reminded me of the Roar of the Elders and it seemed like such an interesting thing to explore in this universe. Some stories and characters just write themselves.

If you saw my shitty sketch of this that I posted a year ago, no the fuck you didn't.

Because of Reddit's shitty updates, I can only use one embedded link: So for those wanting to read Roar Towards the Future, here's the link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/46958152?view_full_work=true

As per usual, I'll disclaim that this is very fucking long (300K words so far...) so you should probably grab a food or drink, and play something off-tab:

Part 1 of 6 has 12 chapters left. I initially wanted Chapters 20-29 to be released last year and for the remaining 13 chapters of Part 1 to be released this year, but... college and burn-out continue to be my worst nemesis. I've only gotten two chapters out this year and am working on Chapter 31 at the moment. At the rate I'm going and assuming all goes well, the final chapter (of Part 1, not of the entire work), is expected for a 2027 release. Fingers crossed!

Once again, credit to the artist, RedTheLioness for the commission!

(Reddit's new layout is weird, sorry 'bout that guys)

The same was done for last month's episode, so I assume this will be the norm throughout the rest of the series.

Here is an art-piece that I commissioned this weekend from a very talented artist, Rickymansonic. I already posted the art itself AS a link, but I'm gonna go the extra mile and link to their page as well: Here!

This is essentially a scene in an upcoming chapter of Roar Towards the Future; a "montage" of the Night Pride helping out the different animals at the Tree of Life during their night patrol. I like this scene, I think it reallly humanizes all four members and gives us more of an insight into their day-to-day lives (or... night-to-night? 😭) compared to the Lion Guard's.

Panel 1 shows Surak helping a baby aye-aye out of a thorn bush. Panel 2 shows Baliyo saving a spider monkey by carrying him whilst swimming across the river. Panel 3 is Nirmala giving advice to a striped hyena, and Panel 4 is Rani with a gila monster she just rescued.

This story mostly follows the logic of the show hence the presence of non-lion animals at the Tree of Life that are not native to Africa, nor India (...ironically enough the striped hyena is the only animal in this piece that is native to BOTH, but I digress).

Panel 4 is definitely my favorite, but that's mostly because I fucking love gila monsters and wanted to depict one in this universe - that and I wanted to feature a positive portrayal of venomous animals in this story as an inverse to TLG largely depicting them as villainous. You can tell this was VERY self-indulgent and shamelessly so, but I stand by it. Beyond that, the Tree of Life is said to be home to endangered animals, which gila monsters very much are (unfortunately), so it also just managed to fit lore-wise. I also just love Rani's big toothy grin compared to the gila's small smile, I think the differences in the same expression really power this scene's niceness. And Rani's scar being as visible as it is makes this entire thing come together neatly.

Anyways, hope y'all enjoyed, and once again, credit goes to the artist, Rickymansonic!

After a two year long hiatus, Descendants 5: Wicked Wonderland is finally on Disney Channel and Disney +. The 5th installment of the Descendants franchise was confirmed ahead of time prior to the release of Descendants 4: The Rise of Red.

In my "review" of the previous film back when it came out on Disney +, I mentioned that Rise of Red had pleasantly surprised me with its ability to stand on its own two legs without riding the coattails of the original trilogy, as well as its neat expansion of the world that said trilogy established, I found the aspect of a fifth movie to be more digestible, despite the valleys amongst the 4th film’s peaks.

I went into Rise of Red expecting a D- and walked out of it being pleasantly surprised at a B-. As such, I walked into this film expecting a B+.

I came out with a resounding A- and just gonna lay it out to y'all. This is not only much better than Rise of Red, this is the best movie of this entire Descendants franchise.

I think it’ll be easier to start off with the movie’s flaws that since that makes for a more concise description, and because I want to justify the minus I gave.

Cons:

• I did NOT like how Robbie and Felix were constantly sidelined. Any time they were involved in the main group, something would always happen that would separate them, usually for the sake of a cheap gag. Granted, the tea joke was actually funny and didn’t overstay its welcome, but by the time the chess game rolled in and they got booted off out of the plot again, I rolled my eyes. Even worse, it was very hard to notice that they were gone because they contributed so little to the actual plot. Even when they came back in the climax, it just felt hollow. The movie does such a good job at character building that it felt really lazy to just have these characters be off-screen for most of the movie.
• Also,I can stomach a lot of Descendants’ deviation from the franchise’s parent films but Robbie, the son of Robin Hood being a human is where I cross the line. They could’ve used anyone else.
• For some reason, the marketing of this film had a rendition of the titular song “Mad: Wicked Wonderland” sung by Red. This was featured in the soundtrack as well and yet the song is sung by Maddox instead. For so long I was expecting there to be some reprise of the song sung by Red to Maddox, in which she “turns the tables on him now,” and yet that never comes. In an inverse to my relief at the godawful Red remix of “What’s my Name” not being in Rise of Red, I feel cheated that the Red remix of “Wicked Wonderland” wasn’t at all in this damn film because it would’ve been so earned.
• The Smees also were just there, I guess. It was a nice play on Hook’s dynamic with Smee himself buuut I feel there could’ve been more done, at the very least make the jokes surrounding it funnier to justify it.
• Castlecoming is not once referenced here. The very thing that kicked off the previous film’s events was the entire main conflict of said film, and it not once gets referenced. This film, which shows the consequences of fucking up the timeline for that very event, just ignores it. I do like that they don’t solve the conflict via time travel, (major pro) which I guess justifies us not seeing this, but the movie could’ve at least COMMENTED on this.
• The film could've been a bit more overt in Red's confession at the end where she admits to using time travel. Although this is a nitpick.
• Not a single person does anything about those goddamn robot dodo birds and it's driving me MAD (oh wait, now I get it!)

Now for the pros that justifies the A.

Pros:

• The film does a good job at connecting us to the 4th film. the narration definitely helped fill in some gaps for the audience. I was at first, DREADING Akwafina's cameo in this film since in a lot of other films, she tries wayyy too hard to be funny and/or is given really shitty direction. In this film however, I was actually digging it here. She plays into the whole "villain" role pretty well and gives off a really cool perfomance that matches her character's "trickster" type. I was also expecting Chessy to join the protagonists at some point, but no, she remains a villain even after Maddox is dealt with. The cliffhanger scene at the end (and yes, we'll get to that) implies that she'll be the villain of the next movie and I'm honestly all for it.
• Save for Robbie, Felix, and the Smees, the new characters are really damn good. Luis Madrigal was honestly hilarious but also someone to relate to and take seriously, and his story connects to Encanto's pretty well thematically (continuity wise, not as much, but those two things even out). Hazel Hook is unique in her own way and not juse an expy of Harry, and Max actually surprised me with his arc. His shift into a full on villain and his redemption both felt pretty earned. Pink definitely stole the show here. When I first heard of the character, I assumed they would have her become a villain, or make her the annoying comic relief, but they actually subverted my expectations by surprising me with how her bubbly personality ties into her internal conflict. In a way, she's very much like Bridget from the last film, only she becomes much better than who the OG version of her mom turned into, and I found her and Red's relationship to be very believeable.
• Most of the good things I already mentioned and will mention are because of this film's pacing. This film is much longer since it's a Disney Channel Original Movie and not a Disney + original. There's much more time for things to take into effect in the story, for character and plot progression. Everything has its enough time to connect like a bow.
• The songs are fucking amazing. Even though I was PISSED that the Wicked Wonderland song was diferent than it would be, it was still good, and the others were awesome. Perfect Princess is by far and away the best song because it sums up this film's premise entirely, directly showing us the events following RoR, whilst setting up Red and Chloe's respective characters. Yes, even with the "perfect princess nepo babies" bit (which I'm not gonna lie, was fucking hilarious), this song ROCKS. I can understand why the marketing milked the hell out of this song.
• Unlike The Rise of Red, THIS film actually lives up to its title by having a majority of its plot take place in the titular Wicked Wonderland. I remember there being mentions of a Kingdoms' Cup or some tournament the characters would play that was reflected by the original title "For the Win." After seeing this film I'm very glad they changed that plot and its title because the one they went for works SO much better.
  • Although, now, it just makes the previous movie's title, even worse. There is no Rise of Red! Ever! Why was it even titled that? I know this is a problem with the 4th movie and not this one, but this movie is so good, it now makes me angrier at that one for this really stupid reason!
• Luis and Red's romance was... okay. When D4 came out I was a die-hard GlassHearts shipper but when Luis was confirmed to be Red's love-interest I decided to grin and bear it. Plus, I was interested in seeing where this went. And it went well, the characters had enough time to bond and it was cute. It works.
• Red and Chloe's dynamic is the strongest part of the film. Because the last film took such great pains to establish a connection, it allowed this film to explore that connection more. You can really feel that they are friends and you can believe the challenges that come to their friendship and the flaws both of them have to overcome. Red using her friend as live-bait honestly shocked me, I had to rewind that shit just to catch it. Chloe's turn was also really unexpected. I saw clips/screenshots of "Evil Chloe" before the movie came out and I assumed that it was another result of the timeline, but no, it was actually real. And, if I may test the waters, Chloe's corruption arc felt way more believeable and engaging than Audrey's because there's actually some real history and connection amongst the characters that makes the two-sided "betrayal" feel very real. That and she wasn't surrounded by other characters that fit the role of villain much better.
• Ella and Bridget's subplot was also beautiful. During their song I almost wanted to roll my eyes at how much padding they had, until it made me realize something: Ella and Bridget are direct foils to Red and Chloe. In the previous film, we see the consequences of their fall-out, which is a catalyst for their daughters to grow closer together and learn from their moms. In THIS film, Red and Chloe's journey to Wonderland together is a catalyst for Ella and Bridget to get trapped together, and ultimately grow a much stronger bond whilst learning from their daughters. Again, the story is kinda hurt by not referencing Castlecoming, but apart from that, this is a GENIUSLY written narrrative that makes perfect use of these characters. Their duet reminds me of "Space Between" only y'know... it DOESN'T suck.
• Red's arc was genuinely fire. You could understand every action she took, whilst not agreeing with them, whilst wanting her to succeed AND wanting her to grow. A perfect example of a flawed protagonist. Red's character is frankly a good enough reason to keep watching the movies after 3, because she is an amazing protagonist all around.
• So, here is the very controversial part that justifies the A part. This film manages to stand out beautifully from the first three films, but at the same time, manages to reheat the trilogy's nachos, but BETTER. For example, this film's third-act breakup and "liar revealed" trope is handled much better in D3 because it feels way more earned with how there was more of an apparent set-up and the pacing surround it was much better. Having the two people Red "betrayed" become the secondary antagonists of the film was also a very interesting twist on the cliche, because it once again, has a point instead of wasting time like in other movies. Maddox's "second chance" works than D3 letting all of the villains off the Isle because the movie actually takes its time and is smart enough to work around this decision to give off the idea that it's not gonna immediately backfire upon them later. Red herself making so many mistakes, and Chloe herself becoming magically evil, and both of them developing from that also makes the message of "Hero and villain are not always appropriate constructs" much stronger. In general, this movie was way more experimental with its concepts, characters, and ideas than the first 3. I always found myself being pleasantly surprised with the unique decisions they made that both fit this franchise, but also wouldn't be found in any other movie in said franchise.
• I'm glad that they DIDN'T reverse the actions of the 4th movie. Since they took great pains to establish "NO, time travel is wrong!" it made so much sense for them to actually take that to heart and throw the damn pocketwatch away. It felt way more challenging for the characters and less of a cop-out. Especially since, again, there were so many great ideas, characters, and development that all connected together into a giant step forwards. In a sense, this film reminds me of Cinderella 3, another time travel movie, where the time travel itself is permanent and overwrites the ending of the first two movies, but has a satisfying conclusion because it's written that well. This film has just as much advantage. Basically, the moral of the story is if a movie features Cinderella and has time travel, it is gonna kick some fucking ass.
• This movie was really visually interesting. I never really noticed nor care for Chloe's inconsistent wigs (the discourse around that felt incredibly Cinemasins-esque to me, like, damn lmao), but this film's colors, choreography, and affects were so cool. Really immersed the feel of the world that this story was in.
• Fairy Godmother's "What the fluff" was fucking hilarious. I have never loved my rewind button so much.
• The climax actually feels earned. Sure, there's no big final battle, but in terms of characters (Robbie and Felix NOT included), everything just comes together full circle. It's poetic how this film lacks a big final fight sequence, but has a good climax, whilst the previous one had a big final fight sequence, but lacked a good climax.
• The CLIFFHANGER! I've made it known that RoR's biggest problem is the Cliffhanger. It breaks the rule of "show, don't tell," in that it only tells us that messing with the timeline had consequences, but does nothing to hint at those consequences, whilst showing us everyone dancing and having fun. This film actually manages to give us a damn cliffhanger, in which Chessy causes more mischief; Either she rescues the Pocketwatch and plants it near Pink, or she finds an entirely different magical object that could cause some more trouble for our heroes in the future. It's strongly implied that Pink may actually become a villain, or that what she found will be a source of conflict. I don't know, but the movie went out of its way to SHOW us that there is more to the story, and it did that perfectly. Another movie is guarenteed and this movie sets that up perfectly. If the next film winds up being the end of the Pocketwatch trilogy, and if the franchise will end at the second trilogy, then this film has beautifully laid the groundwork out for the final chapter, and has now raised my expectations for the future higher than ever after succeeding my expectations here.

Overall, much like The Rise of Red, Wicked Wonderland succeeded my expectations, but so much better, succeeding in areas where that film, and even the original trilogy missed (and this is coming from someone who loves every film with my heart). It jumps the shark in really amazing ways and makes use of the material that it's been given, in so many ways that really make it stand out above the rest.

It works as a sequel, as a standalone, as part of a soft reboot, as part of an extended franchise, and as a solid beginning of the end. For years I was praying for this film not to suck. And low and behold, it did not suck. It is the BEST Descendants film ever! Madd Hats off to this film.

Final Ranking: 9.8/10

Anyways, bring on Descendants 6!

The Scar arc is by far the strongest part of the show: It has the most plot, the most characters, the most worldbuilding, the most character development, and stakes. Bringing back Scar was a good decision because of how they set it up in the pilot and Season 1, tie him into the show's backstory, lore, mythology and worldbuilding, and give him a personal connection to Kion and co. in ways that other villains like Janja, Makucha, and Ushari don't (bc that's not the kind of characters they are).

When I was a kid, I was convinced that they were going to have the arc carry onto the end of the show because it could've easily been the main conflict of the entire series. Which is why it was a very big surprise when they killed off Scar in the season premiere. The way they did it wasn't bad at all, but with how he was built up as this big menacing force throughout Season 2, and with how the season ended with him still at large, I wasn't expecting him to go down at the start of the season.

It would've been one thing if they killed him off and the show was done having a big villain (because you can have a main conflict without an antagonist), but that was not the case: In the episode directly after that, they introduce Makucha who replaces him as the Guard's nemesis and is the de-facto final villain of the show along with Mama Binturong. They both fail at this role because they pretty much reheat Scar and Ushari's nachos respectively (Ushari's weren't even that good to begin with) with none of the sauce. They don't have nearly as much personal connection to the Guard, nor are they that threatening. Even beyond stuff such as writing and consistenty, jumping from Literal Fucking Satan to that is extreme tonal whiplash (one of many reasons why I refute the idea that Season 3 is the "darkest" or "most mature" season but I'm getting ahead of myself)

With Scar, the biggest flaw that came with killing him off so early was the fact that they left so many loose threads with his backstory that they set up, but go nowhere with (Who was the strange lion and cobra? How effective was the "Mark of Evil" if he was apparently willing to overthrow his family beforehand? Why did he not seek counsel at the Tree of Life and most importantly, how did he get away with killing his Lion Guard?). His birthname of "Askari" (named after the first Lion Guard leader) is not even mentioned on-screen. That's how underdevelped it is. The season's main conflict - the journey to the Tree of Life, Kion's trauma arc, and his healing - is kicked off by having Scar's backstory influencing Kion's current story, but when we know so little of the former, it's hard to be engaged in the latter.

Keeping him as the main antagonist of the 3rd season would keep the character relevant to the story. We would get to explore him as much as we explore Kion so that the parallels and foils are much stronger and so that we'd have more reason to gravitate towards the characters. You could even keep Makucha and co. as Scar's new minions, show how different they are from the Outlanders and how that may help or hurt Scar's plans.

And whilst I don't love the Tree of Life arc... at all, if they had to go the direction they went, the Lion Guard fighting Scar at the Tree of Life (either chasing him out of the Pride Lands or he's the one who follows them) had way more dramatic potential than them fighting three random chucklefucks they barely know. It would've also been a better climax to Kion's character. Him "forgiving" Scar for scarring him is now much more powerful if you have it come after Kion's arc healing and mastering the Roar of the Elders. Now it's not just Kion forgiving Scar, it's him forgiving himself whilst reaffirming that he's nothing like him. It would've connected the plot together whilst tying Season 3 back into the first two seasons in a really profound way.

Obligatory TLDR: Kion should have remained single by the end of The Lion Guard. The prospect of romance undermines the series in terms of its main themes, morals, and characters, Kion included. It should never have been an option regardless of who he would've wound up with for that very reason, and the show would've had a better conclusion if he did not have any love-interest.

Back when the show first aired and even almost 7 years later now that it's over, a big topic of discussion is who Kion should've ended up with, but my own mean opinionated take: None of them would've been good options.

He didn't need a romance because it was not something that was ever set up for his character, and it wasn't something that his story was about. He was a well-rounded protagonist with the traits, quirks, and flaws that was established for him throughout the first two seasons and how that ties into the show's main theme. He's the second-born who doesn't covet the throne, he breaks tradition, he accepts and offers help from other animals, he's inspired to do good despite the bad that came before him, he has weight on his shoulders, he likes to have fun, but also has a sense of responsibility, he learns from his mistakes and inspires others around him, and has a deep love for his home and wants to protect it. Even his trauma arc, as poorly written as that was, said something about his character that could be applied to the overall show enough to have significance in the ending.

The show giving him a love-story and having the love story be the conclusion of his character arc was a bad way to end the show. Not just because of it being rushed and forced, but largely because it undermines the character. We're left to believe that his romance with Rani and him becoming King was the most important thing about him and it's not. If you watched Season 3 in isolation, or even just the last 9 episodes, maybe, but we have had three seasons to follow this character and get to know him. The ending has virtually none of those character and story elements come into play and has very little to say about Kion besides "He's a King now!" (even though the whole point of his character was that he wasn't going to be king. That's... kinda what the whole show was pitched around!)

It has the added negative bonus of undermining other characters. Because the show ends on Kion and Rani and puts so much focus on them, the rest of the mains don't get any conclusion to their arcs, no significant final lines, no singular scenes or moments of focus, nothing. They're relegated to background characters in the ending of their own show because Kion falling in love and becoming King is supposedly more important.

Except it's not.

Speaking of Kion specifically, there are so many other puzzle pieces to his character (see: above) that have far greater relevance to the story - or rather, should've had far greater relevance to the story in the final season.

But for the love story to work, the show ignores these puzzle pieces to force in a new one that wasn't even in the box at all. And that's bad writing. It's the core reason why the ending of the show, and by extension, the final season was bad: It's a pay-off with no set-up and sacrifices previous set-ups and establishments in the narrative in order to justify this.

If this seems like a dig at KionxRani, it kinda is, but at the same time, it's not entirely that. Because while I do have my issues with Rani, the issues don't stop with her or KxR itself.

Basically, if you replaced Rani with any other female character as a candidate for a love-interest to Kio (Fuli, Jasiri, Tiifu, Zuri, or god forbid Vitani) you would run into the same problem. Even if there's more "chemistry" or "cute moments" between them (...Vitani nonwithstanding), it goes against what we fundamentally know about him and would be an unsatisfying ending because it's not what his character is about, nor is it what matters the most about him. Sure, the ending would've been different if Kion got with say, Fuli, or Jasiri. And maybe I'd find it more palpable, but I see no way for it to work in the story without feeling forced on a narrative level.

With Fuli in particular, I don't like the idea that she and Kion would find each other more important than the rest of the Guard. It disrupts the dynamic of the core 5 in my opinion (which is also why I don't think their dynamic in Season 3a... sucked. They get all the big emotional heartfelt/dramatic moments and the others are just sitting there).

With Jasiri, I could maybe see it as a book-end to their first episode, but again, I don't see how it would be accomplished in the grand scheme of things. The story is much bigger than the two of them which nullifies the necessity of them getting together, is what I'm saying. And the less said about Zuri and Tiifu, the better (and as a side-note, I don't think the interspecies-ness of Kion x Fuli or Kion x Jasiri is a bad thing. So what if they can't have kids? They ARE kids ffs.)

That's not even considering the fact that all of the other ships in Season 3 (JanjaxJasiri, BungaxBinga, FulixAzaad) were awful for very similar reasons. So I don't think they would've been able to execute any other Kion ship well.

And finally, I think it would've been a bolder move for Kion to wind up single. Not just so that his actual character can be given an organic and satisfying ending that fits the story, but because it would be a decent message to the show's target demographic: That you can live a happy fulfilling life without a romantic partner. I was 13 years old when the show ended, and around that time, I saw many people getting into romantic relationships whilst I struggled in that department a lot. In the least oversharey way I can relay this, I would've been really touched if they went with the route of Kion having a happy ending that didn't involve a love-interest. Considering the show's intended target audience is 4-7 year old boys (who would be 8-11 year olds by the end), I think it would've been a very sweet (and very relevant) lesson of the week for them. It would've had the added bonus of having a TLK franchise protagonist that doensn't get a romantic counterpart (I think another issue with the ending is that it tries way too hard to be more like the movies by ending with two lions getting married/roaring, which, again, is not what this show needs. S3 has a full on identity crisis on what it wants to be and it fails at every angle.)

If I wrote Season 3, I would've had the show end with Kion and the Lion Guard returning to the Pride Lands as adults, have their return be permanent, and center the final episode around them re-adjusting to the changes to their home and more importantly, themselves, being a not-so-subtle message to kids about growing up and what that entails.

Or if you really want to go into the whole "You can be single and happy moral," keep the other love-interests (Binga and Azaad) in, have them follow the Guard to the Pride Lands, but keep Kion single and have him evaluate this lesson through one final reflection of his character, how far he's gone since his journey and everything that makes him, him (they did a whole song about that in Episode 17, but again, the wedding finale undermined that). And then wrap up his character with a neat little bow through one final moment between him and the rest of the mains.

I'm just spitballing hypotheticals here but at the end of the day, I think Kion remaining a bachelor at the end of the show would've allowed for a better conclusion to his arc, that of other characters' arcs, and the show overall than simply having the end-all-be-all to the series be every main and secondary character delegated to NPCs whilst the final scene shoves all of the glory and spotlight to Kion's wedding (also I'm seriously not over how Kion gets married at 16 years old on a TV-Y7 show, what the shit?)

Kicking the hornets’ nest once again to say that the complaint of the show being on Disney Jr is one that I contend with for one reason: It throws the baby out with the bathwater.

Are there issues with the show? Yes. But that comes down to the writing: Things such as the pacing, tonal balance, focus, and the progression of the plot are things that ultimately hinge down to how well one is able to write it.

The show has both sides to that coin. Some characters are not that well handled. The focus can suck sometimes and there are lots of things to pick apart with the main conflict.

On the other hand, some characters are great, there are as many peaks that you can find as much as there are valleys, and the main conflict is one that really fits the story.

I think there’s way more nuance to be had than simply “This is bad bc it’s a Disney Jr. show.” Being darker, edgier, or for older audiences doesn’t make something good. You can make something darker, but tone is something that has to be backed up by the writing, not substitute for writing. TLG wouldn’t automatically be better if it was made for teenagers. It honestly could‘ve been just as flawed, or worse.

It also ignores the many shows with the exact same age-rating as TLG that are just as good (even better)! Which really goes to show that the rating isn’t as much of a problem.

In Season 3, Kion invents a new role of the "Smartest" to give to Ono when he is no longer the "Keenest of Sight." By the end of the series, Kion's Lion Guard is succeeded by Vitani's Lion Guard, which notably doesn't have a Smartest role.

The finale leaves things ambiguous in regards to whether or not the role of the "Smartest" is continued, so what do you think?

I think that Kion and the Lion Guard's impact on the Pride Lands would've been so great that it would eventually become a new tradition. Either Vitani eventually gets a "smartest" on her Lion Guard, or Kiara and Kovu's second-born does as well.

I can also see Kion choosing to have the Lion Guard tradition start at the Tree of Life (or maybe the Night Pride, or whatever it would be called now, is lead by him and Rani's second-born). And on those parameters, if the Smartest role is a one-and-done deal in the Pride Lands, I can at least see it DEFINITELY becoming a tradition at the Tree of Life.

Ever since Season 2 ended, this is always the hill that I have died on.

The Fall of Mizimu Grove works as a better finale to Season 2 than Fire from the Sky. The stakes are higher, there's more character development, and it gives us the pay-off to Scar's return that was set up in The Rise of Scar (which, side-note, was originally going to be the Season 2 premiere. One of the VAs even said as much).

Fire from the Sky, whilst a good episode, is way less tense in tone and doesn't resolve anything apart from discovering that the vultures are responsible for the fires (which is something that the characters should've already guessed or suspected considering they saw the vultures with Scar's army in Episode 17). It's a good introduction to Anga, but it's way too late in the season since she joins the squad in the next episode.

If Anga was introduced earlier in Season 2b (either by having her debut air earlier or merging it with Pride Landers Unite) it wouldn't change much. Then you can end the season with the Pride Landers (both terrestrial and aeriel) finding out about Scar's return. In fact including Anga being involved in the episode's conflict could potentially set-up her joining the Lion Guard in the next season.

Ideally, Battle for the Pride Lands works better as the Season 2 finale than either episodes simply because it actually concludes the Scar storyline and would keep it contained within one season - the Lion Guard's journey to the Tree of Life could simply be a cliffhanger for Season 3 (although had I written the show, I would've cut out the Night Pride/Tree of Life/Makucha's Army stuff altogether and have the Scar arc be the main conflict of the entire series, but that's a different rant for another day)

But if the conclusion of the story arc was always going to be saved for the final season, fine. But in that case, we needed another episode to end Season 2, one that tied into the ongoing narrative whilst wrapping up major plot and character elements reserved for this season. And this episode would've been perfect for that title.

The main conflict of Season 3 is how Elena gains new magic that comes from her emotion (the most powerful of which being anger). Magic that she needs to control so she can protect her kingdom.

Doesn’t that sound awfully familiar?

Charoca has almost the exact same ability. His anger causes volcanic eruptions, his calmness cools them down. And it was Elena who helped teach him how to manage his emotions.

We could’ve had an episode that did the opposite, where Elena learns from Charoca how to manage her emotions. Maybe tie them into the Esteban subplot. Dreamcatcher established her learning not to suppress them, but a Season 3 episode featuring Charoca could’ve built from that to show Elena how to take the next step in getting her shit together. It would’ve been thematically appropriate since Esteban brought out the worst in both Elena and Charoca. It would’ve been so cool to see!

I’m aware that Charoca appears in Season 2, Episode 14, (the one with that awful cisbend of him that shows up as a love-interest… avoiding that episode with a 10 ft pole), but it would’ve been much better suited for Season 3, and it would’ve added some extra flavor to his cameo in the finale.

This is something that bounces around in my head a lot. On Disney + the one-hour specials of The Lion Guard are divided into two parts. This is the case for many other Disney shows on many other streaming services. This is because the production team for those specials considers them to be double-length episodes, or two collective episodes in one, since they are twice the length of a regular 22 minute episode.

If you look at production codes and storyboards for the show, Return of the Roar is listed as Episodes 1 + 2. On YouTube, Disney Junior uploaded it in two parts (Part 1 in 2019, and Part 2 in 2022). Even when uploading the entire special onto the channel during the Mufasa release, it was uploaded as Parts 1+2. Battle for the Pride Lands is also technically two episodes as well (one of the writers repeatedly describe Season 3 having 20 episodes because of this). So it makes sense that the hour-long specials are just "two in one" episodes.

Buuut at the same time, the individual parts of these specials never aired independently, at least not here in the U.S. (I watched the show when it was airing television, including reruns during hiatuses and not once did I see Part 1 or Part 2 of any of the specials air). And Disney Jr. markets these specials as "movies" to garner hype even though they're just extended episodes (okay maybe the pilot can count as a movie, but the other two? No). The Rise of Scar is only 205 in production code - then again, I realize with that season, production codes aren't that reliable because the finale is listed as 232 even though there are 28 episodes (29 counting the special, and 30 if we count said special as a double episode).

And you can tell that the specials weren't entirely made in mind to be "two-parters" in the traditional sense. Like, the specials' first parts don't have any significant "cliffhangers" and the specials' second parts don't have any recap like most two-parters, they're made first and foremost to be seen as one continuous episode.

So, with both perspectives in mind, which stance do you take? Do you think the hour-long specials are double-episodes or just individual long episodes?

For years I've leaned towards the latter, but now I'm leaning towards the former. I think it just adds more to the show to view them as two parters: both figuratively and literally. Because if we do the math, then the show has a de-facto total of 78 episodes (72 regular length, + an additional 6 episodes from the three two-parters) which is interesting, especially when you remember that a since-deleted post from Mercury Filmworks back in March of 2019 stated that the show would end with "close to 80 episodes" and 78 is pretty damn close, (...not that 72-75 episodes isn't also close, but 78 mogs those numbers both so I gun for that one). But what are your thoughts?

(I would've made this into a poll had that option still been available. Fuck you Reddit for continuing to suck ass and balls with your updates).