r/LionGuard

Just thought it’d be fun to ask

So it’s titled “Descendants Of Villains Lions And Ducks” it’s a retelling of the first Descendants film but with characters from The Lion Guard and Ducktales 2017 thrown into the mix.

I got inspired when I realized that most characters from both of those shows are also descended from well known Disney characters.

So the Lion Guard and the Duck kids are among the Auardon kids, the guard is a bit of a technicality since they are descended from random Pridelands animals but I wanted to feature them, a special mention to Bunga whom I heavily debated since he technically isn’t descended from any characters but that would imply that he Timon and Pumbaa aren’t as much of a family as the others, which isn’t a good moral to send

Also this is the 2017 DT, so Webby is the daughter of Scrooge in this continuity

As for the VK’s I’ve added Janja and Lena to the lineup, in this timeline the theory of Janja being descended from the hyena clan that served Scar originally is true, and as for Lena, even though she calls her Aunt Magica she’s by all intents and purposes her daughter, and if I’m gonna count the brothers she counts too

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?)