Do you wish Simba had a son instead of a daughter?

[Kieran]

In the movies, I mean.

I don't wish it was a boy. A daughter was a better choice because:

1. We already saw a story about a prince. Princess gave a nice change in point of view and story aspects.
2. The princess they created certainly gave new blood to the line of royal children in the films and to the story.
3. I find it fascinating that the royal bloodline of Pride Lands no more stuck with only Mufasa’s blood but was mixed with a new male’s from outside the pride. It might make the future generations more and more interesting. Of course Nala wasn't Mufasa's child, so there already was someone else's blood in Kiara... But still. I mean through the king.

Kiara isn't the best possible character they could've come up with in detail but she had potential and was basically a great idea. Finally a child who doesn't have an eye on the throne much at all but isn't completely turning away from it either. A child that struggles with their identity instead of just being all royal and wannabe.

Plus, someone with Simba's past, as in a young man who was never guided into adulthood nor parenthood, trying to raise a child that isn't the same gender as he, is much more interesting than having him try and raise a boy. Kiara having also a brother, though, could've added and interesting aspect to all this... But I understand how it might have made it unncecessarely complicated and would've been out of place in a plot that was supposed to base on Romeo & Juliet.

[TheLionPrince]

I would have loved to see Simba have a son, but keep Kiara because she offers something new to the official story. The Lion King has a father-son relationship, so it would make sense for Simba to have his own son. But, Simba's son would be a pointless character in The Lion King II since it is based on "Romeo and Juliet" so I suggest Simba's son being used as a challenger or antagonist for Kovu when Kovu becomes king since Simba's son wants to follow in his father's pawprints. Also, Simba's son would be a perfect mate for Vitani.

[Kieran]

Welcome to the forum, lionprince! I hope you enjoy it here. ^^

I think a brother would've been out of place in the story they wanted to tell in Simba's Pride but for a TLK4 a little brother to Kiara could provide a whole new twist to the royal blood line and kingshipness.

Kovu didn't even want to be a king to begin with and SP never made clear if he really wanted it as an adult. Kiara didn't have too eager eye on the throne either. What if a son was born to Simba and Nala who was willing to become the ruler but somehow radical and about to make some really bad changes? Not like Simba who would've ditche forced marriages but something actually bad. A little brother to Kiara after her marriage to Kovu might create lots of interesting psychology and events.

But I personally wouldn't wish for the story to officially continue anymore with or without a son. I would love to see Disney's official vision of Scar and Mufasa's youth. But then again as the canon film's makers likely wouldn't bother to do it, I'm not really looking forward for such either.

[Gemma]

I don't exactly "wish" Simba had had a son instead of a daughter, but I do like to think about what the story would have been like if this had been the case.

A lot of fans tend to summarize that it wouldn't have been a big deal; Simba's son would have fallen in love with Vitani and from then on the story would be pretty much the same. But I find it more interesting, personally, that Simba's child fell for the lion that had been trained to kill Simba and take over the pride, rather than just a relative to that lion.

If "Simba's son" and Vitani were the Romeo & Juliet of the story, I expect they would have ended up making Kovu's character more villainous, rather than the trained-to-be-evil but truly nice character he really was. But then his character wouldn't have been as interesting.

However, if Vitani had been given a more important role in the story then the film makers would have expanded on her character. That's something I would have been interested in, as I always thought she was fascinating but the film makers could have done more with her (basically, I always felt like I wanted to know more about her). Even so, I don't think they needed to make her the Juliet of the film to do so.

I got the impression that, at the end of SP Kiara and Kovu are still younger than Simba and Nala were by the end of the first movie (or Kiara at least; Kovu's quite a bit older than her). So I thought it might be nice that, if they decided to make another sequel that followed the story of yet another royal cub, maybe Simba and Nala should have another child instead of Kiara and Kovu having one just yet. That would make the plot a *little* less repetitive! I think it'd be nice to have a movie focusing on just the cub's childhood too, if they can come up with a good storyline, rather than the repetitive "cub is born, becomes a child, grows up, falls in love, gets involved in a battle of some sort, villain dies, the end" format used for the first 2 movies.

The real reason I doubt there will be another sequel though is because they've run out of villains. There are ways around it I guess (by bringing back the hyenas, or introducing a new bad guy), but it might be challenging coming up with a deep and clever background story for the new villain. Still, I guess it can be done!

[Kieran]

Wow. o.O That was a great post, Gemma! Really gives food for thought!

I never really thought of how different even the Romeo&Juliet aspect of the story would be if a son of Simba had been put into it instead of a daughter, because I have never been that interested in that option anyway. But what you said is likely one of the essential reasons why they didn't use a son when they decided the final story.

Also, yeah, it would be nice to see a LK film about some cub's childhood only. That would be refreshing. I think they could do that and solve the villain problem by making their own story about Scar and Mufasa's past. That would be a different story in itself and thus a new villain might be easier to connect to it. But this is getting a bit off-topic now.

I think they could make a new sequel wherein the vilalin is not a person / living creature. Basically I mean of course that for a change the good guy would be the villain for some psychological reason and thus the "villain" would be whatever causes the person to turn bad, instead of there being a bad guy all along. Make the moral of the story something else than usually. And that way there would be no final battles and no villain dying in the same old way. But I don't know how it would be possible to make it entertaining and understandable to younger children though if there was no typical fairytale stereotypes and elements.

I kinda like the idea if Simba had a son after Kiara and there turned out to be similar sibling rivalry to Mufasa and Scar and Simba had to deal with that. This could get even more interesting as the cubs would be different gender and there would be Kovu as "the third wheel".

[bouncey]

daughter's rule ! love the no kopaness on this board !