Disclaimer: moderate spoilers.  Spoilers will be fairly vague without names or specific details and won't ruin the show, but if you're interested in Disney's The Lion Guard and want a completely spoiler-free experience, then watch it before proceeding.

One of my complaints about Friendship is Magic was their refusal to touch the beginning or end of life.  I always thought it was kinda weak and lame that they were forbidden to actually have a character die for real (as opposed to ambiguously disintegrated by friendship rainbow lasers).  I wish that they had had the stones to actually properly kill a villain.  I suggested this a number of times on the forums, and each time the response would be, "well, c'mon, they can't actually kill a character.  That would be too intense for a kid's show," to which I would always reply, "Ursula, Scar, Gaston, Judge Frollo..."  And then they'd go, "...oh... yeah... I guess you're right. 

I also think that FIM should have killed off a good character.  No, not a main character, but a lesser, background good-guy character.  I think that an episode that tastefully, tactfully, and sensitively dealt with the death of, say, a grandparent, could have been one of the most powerful, poignant, and useful stores of the entire show.  When I've floated this idea, I've been met with a similar response--"Well, c'mon, they can't actually kill a good character in something made for kids!"  Uh huh.  Right.  Mufasa, Bambi's mom, Anna and Elsa's parents, Tadashi Hamada.

C'mon, Hasbro.  Are you gonna let Disney keep kicking your ass at this?

A couple blogs back, I talked about how I've been marathoning through every animated Disney sequel and spin-off on Disney+, mostly as an MST3K experiment to see how bad they are.  I've been pleasantly surprised by quite a few gems.  I recently watched Lion King II: Simba's Pride.  It was good.  It certainly didn't beat the original, but good.

Then I checked out the Timon & Pumbaa show from the 90s.  I would be remiss if I didn't go a quick tangent to mention this.  So... um... what to say.  *Sigh*, *shakes head*, *chuckles*, *facepalms*.  Uuuummm....   Okay, look, if you really want to know what it's like, you know how to use Google.  I'll just say that my primary question is whether or not Disney considers this show to be official canon in The Lion King franchise.  I mean, seriously, I would love to talk face-to-face with Disney's CEO, or whoever the right person is, and just ask them--is the Timon & Pumbaa show official Lion King canon--yes or no?  If it's supposed to a tongue-in-cheek spoof that's not canon, then I guess I can excuse it.  If it's official canon, then it is absolutely the worst piece of entertainment that humankind has ever created, bar-none, period.  It's worse then the Star Wars Christmas Special.  It's the most heinous desecration and obliteration of a franchise's lore that I've ever seen.  It makes The Last Jedi look like a timeless masterpiece of the highest order.  But look, I'm sure it's not supposed to be taken as canon.  But either way, I found it to be tedious, boring, lazy, and completely un-funny.  And look, I'm not averse to zany slapstick.  Rocko's Modern Life is one of my favorite cartoons of all time.  But Timon & Pumbaa just plain sucked.  I couldn't survive more than a few episodes.

Then I moved on to the much newer Lion Guard.  I had seen some clips and it looked good, so I had high hopes going in.  It did not disappoint.  After the vomitorium that was Timon & Pumbaa, I'm so thrilled that The Lion King franchise got the treatment it deserved with a proper series.  The Lion Guard is The Mandalorian of The Lion King franchise--it did for The Lion King what Mando did for Star Wars.  TLG is a lovingly crafted, spectacular show that faithfully and loyally handles and expands upon The Lion King lore, and treats it with the utmost respect.  If you loved TLK, then you would absolutely love TLG, and you should absolutely watch it.

Now, to be fair, there are some shortcomings to pick at--namely some corny, cliche villains with rather bland motivations.  And songs.  Too many songs.  FIM had the right balance, and the songs were good.  TLG packed in too many, and most were pretty bad.

That's basically it.  Otherwise, it's overwhelmingly great.  I'm not going to talk about much of the plot here, but suffice it to say that it captured the feel of the movies and expanded on the lore brilliantly.  Also, to my utter surprise and delight, it closes the door to every apparent continuity error with TLK2: Simba's Pride perfectly.  It seemed like it was going to be a minefield of continuity errors at first, but every single one of them is resolved, and they managed to do it in a genuine way without it ever feeling contrived.  Instead of making up a convenient excuse to fix a continuity error, it felt as though they told am important and natural story that, just by sheer coincidence, happened to completely resolve a continuity error.  Well... there was one little thing--Kiara's coloring.  She was supposed to have the yellow-orange male coloring.  That's how she looked in Simba's Pride.  But they changed her to have the cream-tan coloring of all the other females.  I don't know what possessed them to do that, but that was the only continuity error, and the only thing that really ground my gears.  Otherwise, perfect continuity.

But where TLG really shines is in it's handling of the beginning and end of life.  In addition to Pony being forbidden to even mention death, I also thought it was kinda lame that they were forbidden from showing a pregnant Cadance, or depicting Flurry's birth in any way.  Impossible for a kid's show, you say??  Well, The Lion Guard does both, and it does it beautifully.  TLG featured an episode that showed a pregnant zebra, complete with a kid-friendly, non-graphic birth scene.  It was emotional, touching, and meaningful.

It also featured an episode where Simba attends the funeral of old elephant friend.  Also touching, and beautifully done.  They have the most wonderful phrase that they use for when a character dies.  They often say, "he/she has completed his/her journey through the circle of life."  I love that.  But they also weren't shy about stating that Simba's friend had "passed away."

The pinnacle of the series by far, however, was an episode where a fairly primary character confronts the death of her grandmother.  The episode is actually preceded by a disclaimer which reads, "This episode contains strong, emotional depictions of the circle of life, and may be intense for very young viewers.  Parents are encouraged to watch with their children."  Now, see?  That's how you do it!  Don't shy away from the important stuff.  Just include the disclaimer so can't nobody say you didn't warn 'em!

In that episode, the character sits with her elderly grandmother on her deathbed, who gives her granddaughter some final words of love and encouragement before passing away.  The entire scene is incredibly meaningful and achingly beautiful.  It's one of the best scenes I have ever seen in any animated kid's show or movie.

That scene is also, as far as I can recall, the only instance I have ever seen in animated kid's show or movie where a character actually dies on camera.  What I mean is, the only example I can think of where we actually see that final transition from life to death clearly without cutting away.  In that scene, we see a close-up of the grandmother's face as she utters her final words, then slowly lays her head down, closes her eyes, and she's gone.  I can't think of any other time when that's happened.  Bambi's mom died off-camera.  Gaston and Frollo fell to their deaths and disappeared from view before we saw them land.  Ursula was skewered and sank with the ship, but I don't think we really say the moment of death.  Maybe that one's a grey area.  We only saw Scar's silhouette fall as the hyenas mauled him.  Anna and Elsa's parents died at sea off-camera.  Tadashi Hamada was blown-up off-camera.  That's only Disney, of course, but I can't think of any other kid's stuff that killed characters, either.  I mean, I'm sure there are some, I just can't think of any.

The point is, I felt like the death scene in TLG was rather unprecedented, brave, and absolutely beautiful.  It was also incredibly useful and important.  A story like that can potentially help children handle the death of a loved one, or even a pet.  As much as I love FIM, TLG absolutely kicked Pony's ass at depicting birth and death.  The beginning and the end are critically important parts of the circle of life--they absolutely should be dealt with in kid's shows, and they absolutely can be with care, love, and sensitivity, and The Lion Guard shows us how.

It can be argued that the true measure of the quality of a piece of art is how long it lives in your memory after you've seen it.  How often do you think about it?  How often does something remind you of it?  The Lion Guard hasn't left my mind since I finished watching it, and that death scene will stay with me for a long, long time.

Hevi kabisa was this show good.