#Kiros

[krossan]

if the movie Mufasa was 2D animated

[happyorangehound]

"The moon cuts a path. Through the sky. By night or by day. It doesn't obey. And neither do I!"

After doing my villain, Edge, in TLK style: I decided to do Kiros - the villain of The Lion King: Mufasa - in the style of my comic, @ihopesocomic. c:

[madsthedanishdream]

Mads Mikkelsen recording his voice for Mufasa: The Lion King at Palma Music Studios in Mallorca.

[madpatti]

Watched mufasa 🦁

I don't like how they didn't give scar a black mane so I had to change it obviously haha

[mask-of-prime]

MTLK: White Lions

((Same rules as before: Put spoiler warnings on the very top of your comments before commenting spoilers. The film is still very new this time around and I , myself, have not seen it yet, I'll see it as soon as I can, though. Once I do, there will be more fanart based on knowledge I have of the movie after seeing it. This drawing is a byproduct of the things I already knew.))

As a (slightly late) celebration of the long-awaited release of the Mufasa movie today, I made 2D-verse designs of the main members of Kiros' pride we were introduced to via this clip.

Design process below:

I felt that Kiros needed an update to his design from the last time I drew him. I felt I was following the features of his photorealistic counterpart too much and came up with a way too detailed lion who didn't quite fit the 2D-verse. I still went for that ice-themed shape language for his design, such as sharp points and slight hexagon shapes. I referenced Mads Mikkelsen's features just as the creators of Kiros' design said they have done, themselves. I can tell they went for that same technique that Andreas Deja once used when applying Jeremy Iron's features and expressions to 2D Scar.

As you can probably see, Amara and Akua instantly reminded me of Zira and Vitani, respectively. As soon as I saw the preview featuring them, I instantly got the vibes of already-existing lionesses based on their designs and personalities. They also gave me, like, Tarantino villainess vibes a little. Something about these femme fatale assassins working for the greedy and conniving big bad guy made me think of something out of Kill Bill.

I'm still uncertain which one lioness is Amara and which is Akua, or whether these are even their names or not at all. I heard these are Kiros' sisters? I definitely see it in Akua, she looks like she could be his identical twin.

Alternative Kiros eyes:

[zillabean]

Classy Kiros

Hail to the king, baby~

[spacelesbiandisaster]

My favorite Headcanons for the Togruta Species

And Shili

And Kiros (Kinda)

Biology

Togruta babies are called Cubs (because I think is a cute word and bc they are aliens after all. Also it translate well to my native language, so when I say Cub I thinking of the word "Filhote" and I'm well aware I probably mixing up translations here).

They live in small groups up to 500 members (but rarely more than that).

Note: I'm saying "small" because our smallest towns have 5.000 member's, but ancient Togruta lived in actual small groups with 50 members or less.

Togruta can grow anxious if they don't have a community around them. Their species were made to live in groups.

Togruta's Montrals are capable of hearing frequencies up to 200000 hz (similar to tigers and bats) and are able of echolocate close objects.

They also have powerful noses and can recognize people from their smell.

Their eyes have a peripheral vision of 200°, that combined with their hearing and flair make them the most powerful predator in Shili.

A adult Togruta eats about 1,5kg of meat every day. Ofc there's alternatives such a rations bars that can lower that amount, but considering they feeding exclusive with meat that's the right amount to maintain themselves health.

Togruta are strict carnivorous (this cannon, but I just want to reassure the idea)

The average height is 1,9 meters for Female and 2,5 meters for Males, counting with their Montrals.

Togruta can easily live up to 90 years, some even got to 120, but they rarely live much more than that. It's a little longer than most humans, but they don't come near Mirialan's lifespan of 250 years or Yoda species that basically turn into living fossils.

Males tend to have longer Montrals while Females have longer Lekkus.

They share 80% of their DNA with Akul (similar with how humans share 90% of our DNA with chimpanzee) what suggest they had a common ancestor.

Their vocal cords can mimic sounds to attract their prey and avert other predators (such as the Akul). Trogruta Cubs were specially good at this and it's not rare see them trying to imitate sounds they find curious or funny. This also means they were very talkative, if a Togruta Cubs is quiet something is terrible wrong.

Because of this trait Togruta are one off the few species capable of learning how to speak Ithorese and Shyriiwook, although their accent is told to be sloppy and child-like.

The muscles on their legs are the strongest on all their body. They were originally a migratory species, so they needed the extra force and speed.

Their gestation period is around 7 months, a little shorter than humans. But their Cubs grow faster and usually start walking around their five mouth after they were born. They development that trait so neither the mother or the Cub stays vulnerable for long.

Togruta skin color have multiple variations, but the more common are: Orange, purple, yellow and dark blue. This colors also appear on the stripes of their Montrals and Lekkus. The flash color scheme serve two purposes: It warn their predators they are a thread (like some snakes do, the vibrant colors usually scares predators away) and it's also a sign of their health.

Health togruta have stronger colors, the more vibrant their color are the more attract they were consider to be.

Togruta are usually monogamous and tend to spend their whole life with a single partner. This whoever is changing due cultural facts, current is not expected to a individual to stick to a single partner but it's a constant event on their community.

Hybrids between other species are rare, however it's uncertain if this is due their biology or they general lack of interest of breeding with other species.

Hybrids between Togruta and Twi'Lek were been recorded although their appearance are highly inconsistent. Usually they keep smaller version of the Montrals and their Lekkus are more similar with the Twi'Lek version, thus stopping growing at a certain length.

It's said they can have hybrids with human and humanoids species (such as, idk, Mirialans), but there isn't enough Togruta in the galaxy making out with humans to know exactly what that would look like.

They change the teeth twice during their lives, one time when they still cubs and another once they hit 60 ~ 70 years. This happens so they can maintain strong teeth for all their lives.

Their canine teeth are sharp ass hell, even more so when they are Cubs. This can be a problem because Togruta bite each other as a form of affection. Also it's not uncommon for them to leave bite marks in visible places on their partners. When other sentient species saw that they thought the marks were from fighting, but turns out it's from the opposite of fighting.

(Note: I saw some other writes with similar headcanons, specially in barrissoka fanfic, and it's cute! But I'm going to make a point here that they can easily kill small animals with their bite, so I get kinda nervous when people make Ahsoka bite Barriss's neck with "all her strength" because that would probably be enough to pierce her skin. So only small bites are allowed here, Barriss doesn't need die like that.)

Togruta's Montrals and Lekkus can turn shriveley if they are raised under stressing ambients. (That's why Ahsoka's Lekkus are so short for her age). Headcanon send by @kayberrie

History/Politics/Culinary

As I mentioned the Togruta were originally a migratory species, that means they used to made camps so they could hunt in certain areas and then move to another region once the resorts became scarce. This whoever changed with time as they learned to cycle their prey with the seasons.

This is a vague example, but during spring and summer they hunt Thimiars (a rodent species from Shili) and other small prey, but as the autumn comes they start to hunt bigger prey so they can store the meat for the winter. During the winter itself they fish. Base on that their villagers are usually construed near river and always with around the forest.

Unlike most of sentient life Togruta are against the domestication of animals, so to this day they still hunt for eat, however all the food (with exception of a few ritualistic hunts) are share with the whole village. So if they can't get food for a while they will start prioritize the children and the elderly while their adults focus on solving the problem.

A exception to that is the domestication of Shilidogs, a species of Tooka (relatives to Lothcats) the Togruta adopt as a companion. The Shilidogs keep pests way from the villages and are very good companions for children. Like a real dog.

Togruta development a way to dry the meat with a space salt (that I don't have a name for yet) so they don't have to throw away the rest of their meal.

Also they when they hunt they make sure to use every single part of the animal and are very against wasting food. The feet of the prey usually is transformed into soup (which they feed the babies and the elderly bc they believe it helps their bones to grow stronger), and the organs are smoked and eaten as a delicacy (god, I hope I used that word right).

As for the actual meat, they cook only with salt but don't you dare think it's blend or without taste! Think about a Brazilian barbecue, that's how it's like.

Once their society started to interact with other planets the Togruta became very close with Wookies and Ithorians mainly because of their ability of speaking Ithorese and Shyriiwook, but also because both of these species also live in forests and share similar values towards dealing with nature.

However their relationship with the Ithorians started pretty rough because when the Togruta first meet the species they believe to be prey animals. Which they kinda are... But this is all put in the past once the Jedi came and solve the misunderstanding.

Because of the Ithorians the Togruta learned how to make the own space ships without destroying their forests.

Because the Jedi help with their relationship with the Ithorians the Togruta respect their order very much and begin to send some of their Cubs to become Jedi.

With their population growth they decide to make a new colonie rather than open the forest to expend their villagers, that's how Kiros was born.

The government of Kiros and Shili are very different. The Togruta of Kiros adopt a lot of the republic politics and build their on government in reference, naming a Chanceller of their own and a senator to represent them to other planets.

Kiros also have big cities rather than the small villagers of Shili.

Talking about Shili government, they usually spread around the planet in small villagers led by a elder council. This villagers are independent but usually live with some level of collaboration, trading goods with each other.

Because they need to deal with other species now they do elect a senator and a small government situated in one of the few big cities they have, but Shili's Togruta couldn't care less about politics and usually let their colony on Kiros deal with all the trouble. If you go to a random village in Shili and ask the name of the senator chances are that most of the people will get it wrong.

Because of this trait most sentient species believe Togruta to be less intelligent, but that's not the case, they just have a different approach to politics.

Kiros is considered a mere extension of Shili, and although they have a more development government they still answers to the people of Shili.

Their economy with the republic are based on the commerce of healing herbs that they collect from their forests. They are far from being the richest being of the galaxy, but they gather enough money to buy the essentials for their survive.

Realistic they don't need much of outside resources anyway because the way they live it's pretty minimalist.

I already mentioned a few misunderstanding others species made while meeting Togruta for the first time, and there was a actual debate if Togruta could be considered a sentient species to begin with, but luckily for them both the Wookies and the Ithorians already faced similar problems and were able to help the Togruta introduce themselves properly to the rest of the galaxy.

Culture

As you problem can see, their society are very close to nature and try the best to not break the balance of the chain by hunting more than they need or building house in animals habitats.

They are usually led by their elder and wiser members, regardless of gender.

Both man and woman engage with all types of chores: Hunting, cleaning, taking care of the children, religion rituals, you name it!

I'm not finished writing their religion yet, but the have a vast pantheon of gods for various realms of adoration. Their most important gods are the a representation of the Sun, the Moon and the death, but I'm not going into details because I don't have any yet.

I mentioned that they don't like throwing away the rest of their prey, so they carve idols, toys and jewelry from the bones and make their clothes from the skin/leather.

Ancient Togruta also used bones to make weapons, nowadays this pieces are used in religious rituals.

Speaking of religion rituals, the hunt of Akul is exclusive made for religion purposes and it's considered a crime to kill a Akul without a reason.

The Togruta are very aware they had a common ancestor with the Akul so that's why they respect the animal so much.

When a child is given to the Jedi they first make a celebration with all the members of their village so everyone can say goodbye properly. It's a joy to have one of their own in the Jedi ranks, but it's also sad to some extent because of how close the communities are. That Cub would probably had live their entire life with them and know that they have to go the village take some time to assimilate that. (So yeah, Ahsoka got a little party with mommy and daddy before Plo take her to the Jedi temple).

Raising cubs is seem as a community work, so it's not rare to leave your kids with the neighbors while hunting or working. Usually is some elder man or woman who stays with the cubs since they can't work as well as they once did.

Some parents make straps bandages in their Cubs Montrals so they can grow in certain patterns. This is especially popular among the Togruta from Kiros and it is a mere esthetic proceed. It doesn't hurt the cub because their Montrals still soft.

They made a holiday to celebrate their friendship with the Ithorians! They invite their alien friend for a three day party as a way to say sorry for trying do hunt them down when they first meet. The Ithorians are a strict vegetarian species, so the Togruta gather exotic fruits to give as a present. The Jedi send represents from both species to act as mediators in case of conflict, but ever since they stated their partnership, hundreds of years ago, they never had any conflict ever again. They truly became best buddies! (And I like the idea of having this alien festival between species that are so different. Let me have my exotic aliens!)

They used theatre to record their history, so instead of books they told teach using their plays. Usually they are full of exaggerated acrobat acts and sometimes songs. Yes, they have musicals!

Their musical instruments are also made of bones and they particular found of flutes.

Kiros is specially connect with all forms of art and their government had imported Togruta plays to all around the galaxy. Their acrobats and singers are praise and recognize as one of the best of the republic. But that's actually why the Zygerian were so interesting on making them slaves on that incident on the Clone Wars.

The children games are usually a sort of exercise to teach them how to hunt, so if you go to one the their villages you problem going to see children "hunting" each other, lefting bite marks everywhere and being absolutely chaotic, but this is considered normal so the adults don't really care. Other species say that Togruta Cubs are usually a nightmare to be around. Their best friends (aka the Ithorians) are still scared of their children.

At some point in ancient history Togruta started to cook theirs meals, but they still eat raw meat on some occasions and specific rituals.

Besides the festival with the Ithorians Togruta have a few holidays they celebrate with their village. They really like a party and even the people of Shili have a special love for the art exhibitions they do during theses events.

That's it for now.

Please feel free to use any of these headcanons if you like them. Also I would love to talk more about them, so you can make comments or ask questions if you have any.

[arthestron]

Very off from what I usually do, but I wanted to draw Kiros as close as I could get to the Original TLK art style.

[julia-beatrice]

Kiros

[victmangle]

Kiros in more old Disney-like style 🦁

[artist-issues]

I'm tired of being disappointed. By far the best part of the movie was the what-could-have-been in the soundtrack. Mufasa had seeds of being good but it suffered from a lack of focus and terrible visual language, so it was ultimately unsatisfying. 

I think it's actually worse when you can see the threads and interesting seeds of a good story just wasted and abandoned under a pile of Bad Storytelling. 

Lack of Focus:

The movie was trying to say something about Bravery, and Bloodlines, and Vengeance, and Going Against the Status Quo, and Self-Reflection, and Loyalty, and Family, and Relying on One Another Instead of Just Yourself, and Belief in Yourself, and even Vague Spirituality, all at once. So it wound up giving the movie-equivalent of two or three disjointed sentences about each topic, and never actually made a clear point about any of them. 

For example, Mufasa is afraid of water. Rafiki says that this is because Mufasa is afraid of his own reflection, even though the audience would have been assuming that it was because Mufasa almost drowned as a cub. Then in the climax, Mufasa and Kiros are battling underwater and Mufasa remembers his foster-mother telling him to close his eyes and use his other senses to hunt. So he does, and he realizes I guess through the currents, that a big rock is falling toward them, and pushes Kiros into it.

What does that tell us? That Mufasa was taught to hunt like a lioness, so he can use those skills when he needs to. Which he's already been doing with no hesitation for the whole movie. Just because he's in water during the final battle, doesn't mean that's a satisfying conclusion to what they were doing with water, as a symbol for his character.

IF Mufasa had been embarrassed about his lioness-observational-skills, thinking it made him less of a lion, or weird, and therefore rarely used those skills because he was always trying to be more like Taka or the other males—conserving energy, not being mindful of what's around him—THEN finally embraced his weird skills at the end, while in water fighting—that would be something thematic. 

You would be able to say, "he's learned not to be afraid of where his skill-set is, as a leader, ergo: he's learned 'not to be afraid of his reflection/the water.'"

But that's not what happened. Because they didn't devote time to developing what, exactly, Mufasa is afraid of seeing in himself, or WHY he's afraid. Because everything he does succeeds. He wins his first race, wins his first fight, wins the favor of his adoptive father, survives diving into water even though he's afraid of it, wins at saving sarabi and then wins her affections even when he's actively trying not to—there's no reason for him to be trying not to. Not any that tie back into "Mufasa is afraid of himself." There's no reason ever shown for this weird halfhearted insecurity he sometimes has, and has to overcome.

So then it's not compelling. And that sort of thing is sprinkled all over the movie.

They keep mentioning "Milele," which means "forever" in Swahili, but that whole concept is alternately described as a "dream," or "a place you feel inside of you," but basically it's also a physical location that becomes the Pridelands. And nobody ever clarifies what exactly Milele is. It's treated like a fantasy concept or a spiritual vision or a physical utopia whenever the film needs it to be those things. But if it's never clearly defined, it's not compelling, which sucks when Milele is what the characters are "searching for." Another example of starting a concept and then never following it through to a satisfying conclusion.

They have seeds of Mufasa being the only lion to ask for help and be willing to cooperate with other animals besides lions—but they are few and far-between. He doesn't ask Rafiki for help; Rafiki sort of convinces him not to eat him. And asking animals for help like he does with the elephants or the Pridelands animals isn't unique to him; the first to do it is Sarabi, who willingly accepts and relies on Zazu despite others' scorn—and MUFASA is one of the ones who is scornful, initially! So they plant seeds for the big climax where he's the only voice that can unite animals across species by the climax, but they're don't water or tend to or help those seeds to grow. So the climax feels a little out of nowhere and less compelling.

If they had just focused on one of these things, it would've been tighter and more emotionally impactful.

Except NO, it wouldn't have been. Because you will have a hard time connecting, emotionally, to photorealistic-CGI lions even if the story's focus was tight.

Bad Animation and Filming

Lions in real life move with too much weightiness and heavy-animal-breathing for you to commit to that weight 100% of the time AND have good character acting. You can only really commit wholeheartedly to one or the other.

So you can tell in this movie the eyes are bigger and more expressive than in the first CGI Lion King. But that doesn't save it. It doesn't cut it. 

When Taka is giving Sarabi his last longing look, he just looks like a vaguely displeased large animal. There's no human heartbreak in his expression. 

When Mufasa is singing a fast line about not knowing how to respond to Sarabi, he should be swinging his head back and forth, like he's looking around for something in desperation—because that's what the song sounds like—and his walking, if he's walking, should be fast. A cross between running from something and searching for something. Because that's what's happening in the emotion of the song.

But lions don't move that fast, because they're heavy. And when they're looking around for something, they do it with their noses and long head-turns in sweeping motions. No fast eyes-darting-around. Certainly no human conflict of desire in their faces. So photorealistic Mufasa can't do any of those things. Which sucks, because the actions of the characters and the action in the scene should match the emotions they're feeling, and the emotion the audience is supposed to be feeling. But it can't, so everything is flat and boring. 

And even if you could connect to photorealistically emotional lions—you might, we connect with our pets emotionally all the time—you wouldn't get the chance because the film avoids their faces every time something emotionally interesting is happening. 

For example: my favorite part of the song "I Always Wanted a Brother" is when the beat appears to hard-drive, and it feels like a "stop everything" moment, to match Taka's outrage that someone is dissing his brother. And he goes, "what did you say 'bout my brother? That's not a stray, that's my brother! You stay away from my brother 'cuz I say so."

That whole moment, I'm envisioning Taka getting all up in another animal's face, maybe taking a swipe at it, throwing his little weight around and puffing his chest, fearsome-face. The song FEELS like that's what's happening; like he's going on and on,  exploding with insistence and protectiveness.

Something similar to the "stop everything-angry" vibe of this:

But in the movie, is it a close-up shot of Taka invading another animal's space? Does the camera follow him from behind in a slow zoom, and then when he says, "what did you say bout my brother?" He spins and looks directly into the camera (in the direction of the animal he's talking to) and the camera stops while Taka charges closer? Do we get to see his angry face at all?

No.

The camera does this stupid boring thing where we, the audience, are in the branches of a tree (where the animal Taka is addressing is safely out of reach) and it pans slowly along, unfocused, like we're casually passing this interaction by. Taka's face is far away on the distant ground and you can't really see it's expression, his body language isn't doing anything interesting (he's just standing there for the whole part of the song) and at one point because of the panning, the tree the camera is in has a branch that actually hides Taka completely from view during the song.

We don't even get to see the animal he's talking to react. All we see is the back of its head.

They do this over and over in the movie. When Rafiki is finally running to meet his long lost brother, we get the back of his body, one quick snapshot of the underside of his face, and then it's flyover drone-style shots. When Sarabi and Mufasa decide to love each other, it's a close-up on the backs of their chins; no eyes, no mouths, no head-body-language. When Sarabi and Mufasa are singing a very back-and-forth interactive duet to one another, the camera is, again, far-off and distant for most of the song, rotating slowly around a landscape that they're lion-lumbering through. Boring. Distant. Wasteful.

Sometimes the movie tries to match the emotional pace in the way it's shot. When Kiros is readying a killing blow and Taka has moments to decide if he's going to save his brother, that scene cuts well between the raised paw and Taka and Mufasa's faces—for example. But those are the most basic ways to shoot those scenes, and scenes like them are few and far-between.

What it needed was one overarching idea to connect the character threads, and give them time to unspool. And then it really, desperately needed to be animated traditionally so that the lions could emote like humans.

So! I'll probably be writing a series of posts exploring what could've been to correct the fumble. Because I did enjoy the concepts in Mufasa.

[aaronsacunt]

Who am I going to have to pay for a fanfic or oneshot of this beauty 🙏 I’ll take anything someone feed me

[swagst0rm]

ppl on TikTok are saying Mufasa reawakened the Hannibal fandom and like honey no we’ve been here you’re just looking on the wrong site it’s time to migrate

[madsthedanishdream]

Mads talks about Hannibal and Le Chiffre

[anagatajavanese]

Kiros (Mufasa The Lion King)

Drawing Kiros use voice actor reference (Mads Mikkelsen🗿🫰🩵)

[mask-of-prime]

TLK: The Circle is Broken

You know, after giving the trailer a few rewatches, I realize now that the shot where Kiros is saying "There will be one Lion King" doesn't really sync up with his lips, it made me realize that he probably wasn't actually saying that in that shot. Possibly just a really spliced-up trailer trick to keep the viewers in mystery of how the full scene's gonna go.

Either way, I absolutely loved this shot of Kiros and am so happy to see him so clearly for the first time (and hearing him for the first time, I did not expect Madds Mikkelsen to do such a raspy voice. Made me wonder if just about anyone could've done his voice but Disney just wanted to score celebrity casting points by recycling their Marvel/Star Wars actors like they always do in their remakes lol).

I'm not sure if he's snarling or smirking in the screenshot, but just I drew the first thing that jumped at me, so I went with a conceited smirk bordering on a slasher smile. Also just a good excuse to show off my 2D Universe design for him.

I was gonna try and give him scruffy, pointed cheeks (I think the original movies made that feature so commonplace in male characters to represent that light part of the mane that grows on a lion's jaw), but his original realistic design influenced me so much that I just stuck with the barren cheeks. I'm gonna justify it by saying that it at least alludes to his voice actor's appearance (Madds Mikkelsen has kinda gaunt cheekbones I think)

Also, if the lioness in the background looks like a certain someone, it's because she reminded me of a certain someone. A lot of people (myself included) have been getting massive Zira vibes from this fierce lioness that pursues Mufasa and Taka in several scenes shown in the trailer, so I based a few of her features on Zira. I'm excited to know more about this white lioness, whoever she is. I mean, she appears to have some speaking lines if the shot where everyone is in the snow is anything to go off of.

(EDIT: Gave the lioness blue sclerae, felt like they'd make her stand out more)