In the films we've seen heirs get presentations where they are held up. I'm wondering if that's the same case with for second-born royal cubs who'll eventually lead the next Lion Guard (i.e. meaning that both Scar and Kion got respective presentations of their own).

On one hand, I think it'd be cool to honor not just the heir but also the future Lion Guard leader, but at the same time, it probably makes more sense for only the heir to get a presentation, since they're (as mean as this will sound) more important.

Although I do headcanon that Kiara eventually breaks that rule and has a presentation for her second-born.

Like many people, I didn't see Season 3 of The Lion Guard when it first aired on television back in 2019 (minus Battle for the Pride Lands). I watched the episodes as they were dropped on DisneyNow. Which means that I didn't see the final 2 episodes on television, nor did I see any lead-up to the finale's release. In fact the only time I saw the final season of the show on television was on demand back in 2023, four years after the show ended.

I wish I did see the finale air on television (and that Disney hadn't... stupidly dumped the last 20 episodes on a streaming platform before they were on the air). But I always wondered if there was ever a trailer or promo for the last episode. I've searched everywhere but the closest I can find is a brief promo for Season3a's DisneyNow release on YouTube.

I've noticed that by the second half of Season 2b, they stopped using promos for individual episodes, and just used the same promo that recycles clips from previous episodes, slapping a "new episode" announcement at the end (they did this for Fire From the Sky, which, mind you, was the Season 2 finale). Between that, and the shift to releasing episodes through streaming, I'm starting to think that there was no fanfare, promos or trailers for the last episode of the series. Which sucks because there was so much hype when Return of the Roar came out and that hype/relevance lasted throughout half of the series before they just got really lazy with the latter half, and the show just faded into the void without any major send-off.

But I'm gonna intake some copium; Because again, I did not see Season 3 when it was airing on television, so I wouldn't have been able to see any promos for individual episodes during the broadcast. So I'm HOPING there was at least some kind of trailer material.

To those who watched Season 3 when it was physically on the air (with or without having seen the DisneyNow releases), or those who are far more manuverable in the bowels of the Internet than I, were there any promos for the last episode of the show?

In the final episode, we see that several areas attacked by the Army of Scar managed to recover: Pride Rock, Big Springs, and Mizimu Grove. But we never get any closure for Killio Valley. The last time we see it is in Battle for the Pride Lands, in which it's still destroyed by the fire.

In that episode, Jasiri takes over the Outlands and the Outlanders peacefully accept defeat, so the valley isn't under their control anymore, but neither in that episode, nor in the finale is it addressed if Ma Tembo and the elephants return to their ancestral homeland. So what stances or thoughts do y'all have on this?

The way I see it, I think Kilio Valley being destroyed and occupied by the Outlanders for years on end, as implied by S3E1, would prevent it from healing quickly like Mizimu Grove, which at least had new "blood" in the ecosystem via Makini's baby plant. So it could very much come back but only after the events of the finale.

Which would make it really sad that the elephant herd would be displaced from their home for that long, (especially considering that's where Ma Tembo BURIED her father a few years ago). But their return home being delayed would be much easier to digest than the idea that they'd NEVER come home again.

Season 1 and Season 2's contradictory geography on Kilio Valley (former implies it to be foreign from the Pride Lands, latter implies it to be a part of the Pride Lands) makes it much more interesting in regards to what happens to that territory once the war is over and whether or not Ma Tembo's herd returns home.

This was obtained like, a month ago and my dumbass procrastinated on bringing it here specifically. But with the sudden release of Lion Guard "concepts" on YouTube that have taken the fandom by storm almost overnight, I felt this is an apt enough time to bring it. And yes, this post will be long. No, there won't be any TLDRs.

To catch things up on anyone who is employed: Four years ago in 2022, I contacted Lion Guard writer, Ford Riley with some questions on the show. He answered and it allowed for some really interesting insights into the creative process (most prominently, Kion's age in the final season, and the Night Pride's backstory). You can see the full post detailing that info here, posted during the 30th anniversary week of the first movie (...two fucking years ago jesus christ).

https://www.reddit.com/r/lionking/comments/1dmezxk/30_years_of_the_lion_king_day_29_word_of_the/

Tonight's post is a "sequel" to that one. To keep it brief, I held off on asking the writer anymore questions for years cause, let's be honest, there's only so much time people on both sides of such a discussion can spend doing this.

Until mid-August where I, in an act of complete and utter boredom and curiosity, decided to have another inquiry exchange, with several questions that were percolating in my mind for years since the show's ending. Within the span of a weekend, he responded, breaking up the answers into chunks. Unlike the previous exchange he didn't quote my questions so I'll screenshot my own questions to make his responses make better sense. He does mention his memory was fuzzy on details, so some of this should be taken with a few grains of salt, but either way, really interesting stuff found.

And just in case the screenshots are hard to read, I'll be quoting/summarizing them.

These are the questions I sent:

Received Friday, August 14th, 2026: This is the first half of his response

We'll break these into chunks to make it more digestible.

Question 1: The Rise of Scar

Starting off fairly simple here.

I asked Riley what inspired Season 2's story arc of Scar returning. The assumption that I had led to was that it was planned from the beginning given the scene in the pilot movie that showed Scar rising over a volcano. Spoilers, that assumption was... kinda right.

This was his response:

>The return of Scar was indeed part of the earliest development of The Lion Guard, and occurred to me shortly after I devised the "Roar" for Kion. The thinking was that if the Roar must be used with a pure heart and good intentions to summon the great lions of the past, perhaps using the Roar in anger could summon an evil lion of the past. In discussing the idea of having Kion being tricked into using the Roar to bring back Scar with (future Lion Guard staff writer) Krista Tucker, she encouraged me to make the return of Scar part of the leadup to Season 2 - before Season 1 had even been approved. Also, certain elements of The Lion Guard were inspired by one of my childhood's favorite animated series, "Battle of the Planets," which was the Americanized version of the Japanese Gatchaman series. There are some parallels between the members of the Lion Guard team and the G-Force team. Also, there is a parallel between the villain Zoltar and the Imperious Leader in "Battle of the Planets" with Janja and Scar. Suffice it to say, a lot of thought went into bringing back Scar.

So yes, Scar's return was the plan all along for the show. Even before the first season was approved. And it was very closely connected to the concept of the Roar of the Elders being realized, and the thought process behind it was eventually implemented into the special; Using the Roar of the Elders can summon evil lions as well as good.

The arc (and other parts of the show) were also inspired by "Battle of the Planets," a show that Riley was very fond of. So the team definitely had this in their back pocket for a long time.

Question 2: The Hyena "Family"

Oof, this one's gonna be interesting..

In November of 2015, Disney Junior released a promo covering many Lion King easter eggs that were present in the pilot movie, Return of the Roar. One of those easter eggs was the depiction of the hyena clan in the show being a callback to the clan in the movie. In the promo, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed's clan are described as the "Lion King ancestors" of Janja and his clan. This led to a lot of speculation about the hyena "family tree." But most notably, this was not at all described in the series proper, nor did the hyena trio appear or get a mention in the series. So I brought this question to Ford.

This was his answer.

>I hadn't seen the Lion Guard promo that you linked to before it aired. So, whoever wrote it thought the hyenas in our show were related to the hyenas from the movie. But that wasn't something I intended. That said, Vargus Mason, the voice of Cheezi, always said he envisioned Cheezi as the son of Whoopi Goldberg's Shenzi character. So I think that informed his performance as Cheezi, but it was not something that showed up in the Lion Guard "show bible." As far as Shenzi, Banzai and Ed go, we decided that those hyenas perished with Scar in the fire at Pride Rock, or had run off, never to return. 

So the person behind that promo likely made an assumption, and hadn't been viewed by the writer before it aired. Janja's clan being the descendants of Shenzi's clan was not something that was intended for the series proper. The closest thing in correlation to this is Vargus Mason envisioning Cheezi as the son of Shenzi. However, again, this was not something that was conceptualized by the creative team, nor was it something within the series bible for the Lion Guard.

When asked about Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed in the series, and if there was a reason they didn't appear in the spin-off. The answer he gave was that the creatives opined that they either went down in the fire at Pride Rock, or ran away never to return.

This is why Janja's clan being relatives of Shenzi's clan was never once referenced in the show. Because it was never meant to be in the plot. This also means that all of those fan-theories of Shenzi, Banzai, and/or Ed being the parents of Janja, Cheezi, and/or Chungu were the simple consequence of someone making an assumption and implementing that assumption into a promotional video 😭😭😭

This doesn't necessarily kill those headcanons, but it does clear up the air. The hyena clans are not "canonically" related is what I'm saying.

It would've been cool to see Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed come back in the series, but at least there is some explanation for why that wasn't the case. And it definitely makes the Scar arc a lot more digestible in hindsight.

Question 3: The Final Season

Aaand I've opened Pandora's Box with this one lmao.

There are a total of 78 episodes in The Lion Guard. 72 half-hour episodes, and three double-length episodes, or one-hour specials (Return of the Roar, The Rise of Scar, and Battle for the Pride Lands). Season 1 consists of 28 episodes. Season 2 consists of 30 episodes. Season 3 consists of 20 episodes. With Season 3 being the shortest season of the series, I asked if that episode quantity was something that was always planned (since the story arc for the season played out the same way as it was pitched to the network), or if it was a network mandate.

His answer:

>Season 2 was longer than I wanted, and Season 3 was much shorter than I had hoped, but that was what Disney gave us. My hope was that Season 3 would be the journey to the Tree of Life, and Season 4 would cover Kion recovering from his scar, discovering the true power of the Roar, and building his relationship with Rani at the Tree of Life. But we were told Season 3 would be the end of the series when we received the greenlight. Not wanting to end the series on a "cliffhanger" of sorts, I decided to try and fit the two season story arc I had envisioned into the 20 episodes we were approved for.   

Season 2 being the longest season (28 episodes + 1 special) and Season 3 being the shortest season (18 episodes + 1 special) was the network's decision and not the writer's. Additionally, Ford had initially envisioned four seasons for the show;

In this vision, Season 3 would've centered entirely around the Lion Guard's journey to the Tree of Life after their battle with Scar. Season 4 would've covered the Lion Guard's stay at the Tree of Life, and the events that followed their arrival; including Kion recovering from his scar, mastering the Roar of the Elders, and building his relationship with Rani.

The team was informed that the show would end after Season 3 upon receiving the greenlight. To avoid ending the series on a cliffhanger, Season 3 and Season 4's story arcs were fit into the final 20 episodes of the series. The first half of Season 3 (the first 10 episodes) covered the series' third story arc: The journey to the Tree of Life. The second half of Season 3 (the last 10 episodes) covered the fourth story arc that was envisioned as its own season: The Tree of Life arc.

Which recontextualizes... so much about Season 3. For one, (and what I'm gonna say is pure speculation on my end), this could probably explain why the Night Pride's intended backstory never made it into the final episodes, since there wasn't enough time spent at the Tree of Life to explore it. This could also be the reason why Season 3a and Season 3b have different intros, because they were initially thought of as two different seasons. And finally, this could possibly explain why the the final episode Return to the Pride Lands wasn't a one-hour special. Because each season of the show only has one double-length episode. Previously, on August 21st, 2019, a screenshot of a fan's DM with Ford Riley stated that the finale is consisted of the final two episodes: Journey to the Pride Lands, and Return to the Pride Lands - both of which are 24 minutes long, slightly longer than the occassional 22 minutes, but not "double-episodes." He mentions "3" in paranthesis, unofficially including Triumph of the Roar in this collective. But either way, making the finale be consisted of multiple episodes instead of one long episode could've been compensation for not being able to do any more one-hour specials after using their free card with the premiere, Battle for the Pride Lands.

If the fourth story arc was its own season, the rule of "one special per season" could've been applied to the final episode.

Again, that particular bit is just my speculation but there is an insinuation to be had.

So the whole "Season 4 of The Lion Guard was supposed to happen" talking point is almost correct. Not in the sense that it was ever approved or considered by the network at some point before being "cancelled." It was envisioned by the creator, but never got off the ground. And the hypothetical "cut" fourth season wasn't going to be a continuation of the ending focusing around the Night Pride, Vitani's Lion Guard, the Tree of Life, or Kion and Rani's cubs. The closest thing we had to a fourth season of TLG was simply going to be Season 3b's plot spanning across an entire season, and it would've had the same ending that the final version of Season 3 had. But really interesting shit to think about.

And now the second half of Ford's response, the conclusion of the email exchange.

Received August 16th, 2026.

Question 4: Nuka's Absence

The two-part series finale, "Journey to the Pride Lands," and "Return to the Pride Lands" tie back into Simba's Pride, taking place after the film. However, one notable aspect is that Nuka is not mentioned at all. In Episode 19, Jasiri only mentions Kovu and Vitani when warning the Lion Guard of Zira's invasion. In Episode 20, Kovu informs the Lion Guard that Zira has completed her journey in the Circle of Life, but not Nuka. Later on in the final episode, Kiara, Kovu, and Rafiki narrate the events of Simba's Pride to the Lion Guard, but Nuka's death is not mentioned in the scene.

This led to years of speculation as to why this was not the case. Some suspected that the character's ommission had something to do with the listless controversies of his voice actor. Others wondered if mentioning the character's death would've been too tense for the young audiences.

I asked Ford what was up with Nuka's absence and he gave me an answer.

>Nuka not being mentioned in Journey and Return to the Pride Lands was the result of a network note stating that too many character names were mentioned in the dialogue, especially since these characters hadn't appeared in the show in years. (Keep in mind that we were in production before Disney+ existed, and "streaming" wasn't as prevalent as it is now.) Not mentioning Nuka was simply to make the dialogue and story less confusing and convoluted for our audience. Though obviously now it's more confusing that Nuka wasn't mentioned!

So the reason Nuka was snubbed in the finale was because of executive meddling a network mandate! According a note from the network, too many characters were mentioned in the dialogue, characters who hadn't appeared in the show in years, and thus would be unfamiliar with the audience. So Nuka was not mentioned or referenced in the last 2 episodes to avoid confusing the audience.

Riley admits that this was a double-edged sword, because now, the audience is even more confused by Nuka not being mentioned.

So the reason why Nuka was absolutely snubbed in the finale is because of network interference. Which still sucks; they dedicated the entire finale to "wrapping up loose ends" with SP, so not mentioning Nuka really short circuits that goal. But at least there is an answer for why he wasn't mentioned.

Question 4: Kion and Vitani's Endings

I asked Ford about the thought process behind the ending of the series, in which Kion concedes to Vitani, making her the new Lion Guard leader. This was his response.

>Vitani becoming the new leader of the Lion Guard was a concept that evolved during the course of the series. When I was first developing the series, I knew something would need to happen to Kion to justify his absence in Lion King 2. My instinct was that it was some sort of tragedy that was too painful for Simba, Kiara, etc., to acknowledge. After Return of the Roar premiered, I received considerable feedback from young viewers who all wanted Kion to become King of the Pride Lands. As you and I both know, this wouldn't be possible because of the events in Lion King 2. But that feedback set in motion the idea that Kion could become king somewhere else. You've seen how that idea played out in the series. In the end, I liked the idea that Kion's journey was complete, and he no longer needed the Roar. And buy giving it away, he truly became the master of the Roar. Themes of forgiveness and reconciliation for Vitani played into it as well. I also liked the idea of an all female Lion Guard - especially since, in nature, lionesses are the real hunters. That's some of the reasoning I had. The truth is that there were a lot of complex thoughts and reasons that there was a "new" Lion Guard with Vitani as leader. 

He largely mentions Kion and only briefly mentions Vitani at the end, but there's still some interesting "lore" he gives in his answer, in that it was an idea developed during the course of the show. When he first developed the series, he was fully aware that he would have to provide an explanation as to why Kion wasn't seen in Simba's Pride: Something would need to happen to him at the end of the show to justify his absence.

His first instinct was a tragedy too painful for Kion's family to acknowledge. But when Return of the Roar premiered, Riley had gotten considerable feedback from younger audiences that suggested otherwise. According to him, many kids who watched The Lion Guard wanted Kion to become King of the Pride Lands! This canonically could not happen. In the second half of Simba's Pride, Simba is still the king, and Kiara is still the Crown Princess. Kion becoming the next King couldn't happen.

However, the feedback inspired the idea that Kion could still become King. Not in the Pride Lands, but elsewhere. This led to the realization of the final story arc, in which Kion leaves the Pride Lands in search of the Tree of Life, and eventually marries Rani and becomes the co-ruler. So Kion's ending was inspired by feedback from the show's young demographic, in a sense.

Eventually he mentions Vitani, stating that themes of "forgiveness and reconcilliation" inspired Vitani's arc in the final episode - presumably referencing her redemption in the movie that the finale expands upon. He saw the merit in an all female Lion Guard. He states that there were a lot of "complex thoughts and reasons" for this plot-point but this was the one he gave. I wasn't willing to pry for anymore answers from that, but this does give an interesting perspective.

I haven't particularly made my feelings on the ending of the show a secret. I... don't like it. I think it lacked set-up, and it didn't feel like a coherent conclusion of his character given how he was created specifically to explore the notion that he wouldn't become King (and him getting a love-interest being the whole focus of the ending undermined the show). I also think the plot-point of Vitani becoming the new Lion Guard leader wasn't executed well, both due to lack of set-up and because of how, in my opinion, the characters in that episode were lacking agency (the concept was good, but the execution.... meh). But with that said, it's interesting knowing why this decision came to be, even if I don't agree with it.

And to be frank, as unsatisfied as I was with the ending, I probably would've been moreso if it ended on a tragedy. The Lion Guard going on a journey outside of the Pride Lands felt like a much more natural explanation of their absence in Lion King 2. And I'm ESPECIALLY glad that Kion did not become King of the Pride Lands. Beyond breaking continuity with the second movie, it would've done both him and Kiara's characters a huge disservice and would've been too similar to the ending first movie. I still think the ending could've been written much better - either provide more of a set-up to Kion's rise and the Lion Guard leaving the Tree of Life, or simply end with the Lion Guard returning to the Pride Lands. But it at least had a positive note to it, and was interesting in of itself.

Question 6: The Lion King 3

Disclaimer: The word "canon" is used in this exchange. All r/lionking users tread carefully.

No characters from The Lion King 1½ (or The Lion King 3: Hakuna Matata for those of you who use the metric system) appear in the show. Timon's mother is mentioned in Beware the Zimwi and makes cameo in a Lion Guard book, but other than that, no "official" appearance. Since characters from the first and second film appear in the show, I wondered why none from the third movie appeared, or if it was ever considered, and I brought that curiosity to Ford.

His answer

>When I first started developing The Lion Guard, I was told that Lion King 3 and the Timon & Pumbaa TV series weren't necessarily Lion King cannon, and I shouldn't think too much about those stories. So I didn't. And as far as I can recall, no writer pitched stories involving Timon's Ma, Uncle Max from Lion King 3, or Quint from the Timon & Pumbaa TV series.  

The showrunner was informed that neither the third movie, nor the first cartoon show, Timon & Pumbaa were canon, so he shouldn't think too much about those stories. So because of this, Timon's family from TLK 3 and Quint from the T&P show did not appear.

Note: I... didn't ask him anything about the Timon and Pumbaa cartoon, nor did I ever mention Quint. He probably mentioned it since he himself worked on the first cartoon.

Hearing that the third movie isn't canon to the show breaks my heart in two, but I guess it tracks on some level. Still though, Ma and Max are technically Bunga's relatives, so it would've been so cute to see an episode where they meet. Even though they likely would've recasted the characters (Julie Kavner working on The Simpsons and Jerry Stiller's retirement in his old age). Ideally I would've loved to have seen the TLK 3 cast get their own guest episode like the TLK 2 ones did, and then in the finale, the returning cast of SP and HK all show up together to wrap the series up in a nice bow.

Once again... try to behave with the "canon" mention.... I know what y'all are....

Question 7: Production Time

The final question was how much time it took to make each season. The Lion Guard started production in February of 2012, and wrapped up production on July of 2019. A total of 7 years' worth of work dedicated into the 78 episodes that went into the series. I wanted to know how long each season individually took to make.

His answer:

>Season 1 of the Lion Guard started pre-production in August 2013. The last episode of Season 1 was delivered in November 2016. Season 2 started pre-production in September 2015, and the last episode was delivered in May 2018. Season 3 started pre-production in September 2016, and the final episode was delivered in July 2019. Obviously there was lots of overlap. For example, there was a stretch where we were writing Season 3 while Season 1 was in post-production and Season 2 was being storyboarded. But this was pretty normal, and desirable, for TV animation at the time. We wanted our creative team to be able to keep working on the show, with as little time on hiatus as possible. 

Season 1 of TLG started pre-production in August 2013 and the season finale was delivered to the network in November 2016. A rough timeline of a year and 3 months.

Season 2 of TLG started pre-production in September 2015. The season finale was delivered in May of 2018. A rough timeline of 2 and a half years.

Season 3 of TLG started pre-production in September 2016. The series finale was delivered in July 2019 (specifically July 19th, 2019; The same day the live-action remake came out in theaters). Almost three years.

He mentions that there was a significant overlap in between the making of these seasons, such as them writing Season 3 whilst Season 1 was in post-production and Season 2 was being storyboarded. This is not uncommon in production of an animated series, and it's done to keep the creative team working on the show with, in his words "as little time on hiatus as possible."

I find it all really fascinating. The most fascinating about this however, is the fact that Season 2 was wrapped up in summer of 2018. It was delivered to the network in May of 2018, and a Mercury Filmworks post announced the season's completion in June of that year. This was interesting to me because the final four episodes of Season 2 aired in January-April in 2019.

I went back and checked those episodes' end-credits. Usually the end of closing credits of an episode will show the copyright date to that episode, when it was finished and delivered to the network. And lo and behold, the last four episodes, including the Season 2 finale, are dated "2018." The network calls the shots on when the episodes come out, so this tracks. Personally, I think it would've made more sense to for Disney Junior to air the final episodes of Season 2 at the end of 2018 (likely November 2018), and then go on a 9 month hiatus until Season 3, so that the viewership of the show wouldn't have suffered as much, but I digress.

To provide an example, here are the end-credits of Season 2, Episode 30 \"Fire From the Sky\" in which the Disney Enterprises Inc. copyright dates the episode to 2018.

Aand that was it. This was definitely quite the long post but I hope it was worth it for some insightful facts about this show, and some longtime questions finally getting answers after 7 years of the show's ending (and on the anniversary of the finale's release). Which Q&A surprised you the most? I imagine a lot of people will be surprised with some of the info shared here.

Anyways, if you read this far, have a cookie. 🍪

Hopefully this'll be a good addition to the Lion Guard crumbs we've been getting from Christian Larcoque's YouTube channel, and a nice in-between appetizer before the main course of the big "Creation of Kion" video next week. Toodles!

I almost thought this was AI.

Commissioned from Rickymansonic on Instagram (since he publically posted it as a link, I'm gonna share it as such).

Years of patrolling the Tree of Life has naturally led to Rani's sleep schedule being messed up, making her frequently fatigued during the daydespite having many duties to attend to as Queen. Luckily, Kion is able to lift that weight off of her shoulders... by lifting her onto his.

In one of the slides, Kion has white sclera. This was per my request since my "version" of his design recycles his white sclera from concept art, test animation and promos released prior to Return of the Roar. I think it stands out more among his design.

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!