#tlg season 2

[archive-lion-guard]

The Lion Guard | The Scorpion’s Sting | S2 EP17

[kaythefloppa]

Whenever I think about the topic of a fourth season of The Lion Guard (beyond the fact that there won't be one and that it was never planned), I don't often think about it as a continuation of where the show left off, but the main storyline (from Return of the Roar to Return to the Pride Lands) lasting for four seasons, (i.e. if 4 seasons were commissioned for the show from the beginning, instead of 3).

Here's how I'd imagine this hypothetical four-season version of TLG would go:

Season 1: Introduces The Lion Guard, their enemies, establishes and sets up ‘the norm’ for the series. Re-introduces characters from the movie.

Season 2: Introduces Scar and focuses on his revenge plot as well as Kion and the Guard gathering as many forces as they can to unite him. Ends with his defeat (essentiallly, the entire Scar arc lasts the whole season).

Season 3: Focuses on The Lion Guard following their battle with Scar. The conflict is how things have changed since the battle, and how it has affected the group. So there'd be some story in between the end of the final battle and the beginning of the journey. Would also set up Makucha as the main antagonist for the latter half of the series. The season finale ends with them leaving the Tree of Life to regain their strength with peace restored.

Season 4: Picks up at the Tree of Life and focuses on the Guard healing and defeating their new enemies. Ends with a one hour special involving their return in order to cap off everything in the show.

[dawn-sunlight]

They silly

[randomfoggytiger]

The X-Files 30th Anniversary

Day 2: Favorite Season (Pt. 1)

Here is a clip from each episode of the first half of Season 8-- because, while a lot of them were skippable, there were some really good moments.

[mask-of-prime]

TLG: Final 10 Episodes Sketch Dump

September 2nd once again fell on a Labor Day, like it once did when the final 10 episodes of TLG dropped on WatchTLG (due to its early release on the old DisneyNOW app). The alignment of the exact day, month, and holiday five years later put me in the spirit to sketch away as I rewatched these episodes.

I was there when the countdown on the WatchTLG site had about an hour left. I hadn't seen a full episode of TLG until that point because I at the time thought I wouldn't be into it. I saw the synopses for these episodes leaked somewhere online and was doubtful yet VERY hopeful that the one with Vitani's Lion Guard was going to be a real episode simply because I wanted to see her in new content, regardless of my familiarity with the show.

When I binge-watched these final episodes with a friend, my relationship with the show improved as I went to watch the rest of the show over the next few months. I was so grateful to see so much content and worldbuilding for the TLK universe

Sketch descriptions under the cut:

1. Friends to the End

I've said this before in a review of this episode, but whether or not the writers intended this, their portrayal of irritability brought on by an anxiety attack is astounding. Kion's anxiety is piled up more and more when he's in a hurry to find a cure at the Tree of Life, Bunga repeatedly tells him he's becoming like Scar, and the rest of the group just "blind leading the blind"-in their journey SO badly because they're a bunch of unsupervised freshman-aged kids who are in their "Well I wouldn't go THAT far" or "Can I be the devil's advocate" phase.

This situation of fearing becoming like a shitty family member and being told you are by people when you're already in a vulnerable state is just SO vile and unfortunately so real. I found myself relating hard to this episode due to Kion's valid af anger in this episode, which is why I had to draw Kion claiming his "Don't you just wanna go apeshit??" era.

Kion is basically me throughout this episode and the entire first half of Season 3. It is SO HARD to get through this season sometimes when these same couple of lines keep coming at least once per episode. As soon as I hear Fuli saying "Uhh... Kion?" or "KION!!" I know exactly what's coming.

2. The Tree of Life:

Since we never get to see Sahasi and Ananda's color palettes they had in life, I took what I could make out from their spirit forms as well as some creative liberties, and came up with what they may have looked like on Earth.

Ananda is where Baliyo gets his freckles and dull, dark pelt, and where Rani gets her purple pupils, red nose, and dark tail. Sahasi is where Rani gets her richer pelt and where Baliyo gets his nose gradient, multicolored mane, and lighter tail color.

Fun Fact: According to some email responses from a member of the team who worked on TLG, they said that Sahasi was meant to be Janna's son, which for me, puts an end to a debate I had in my head where I was stuck between either him or Ananda being Janna's child: On one hand, I liked the idea of Sahasi and Surak being the foils of Mufasa and Scar, but also liked the idea of Ananda as Janna's daughter and heir since they looked so alike, as well as it solidifying the martriarchy headcanon I have for the Night Pride. Though the team member didn't straight-up provide Sahasi's relation to Janna and Surak as an absolute fact, rather it was simply the gist they got from the creation of Sahasi's character, it's an answer from a team member at all, which I can absolutely settle with. I decided to give him a similar fur color to Surak because of that.

3. The River of Patience:

I just HAD to doodle eepy Kion. It's like the one part of this episode that sticks with me outside the wholesome therapy dynamics and Kion heroically holding the flower between his teeth. This is basically him but if he fully succumbed to falling asleep waiting for the log.

4. Little Old Ginterbong:

Can I just say that I fucking LOVE Mama Binturong's character?? She's absolutely insane and constantly looks like an addict that needs her fix. She makes me nostalgic for some reason, and I think it's gotta do with her Mama Gunda vibes (which is odd because I wasn't even that young when I saw Tarzan II). I had to draw her doing the thing lol

5. Poa the Destroyer:

All I could think about throughout this episode besides the rare Evil Beshte is how insufferable Pinguino is. I mean it in kind of a good way, his personality is so ridiculous that he's made me laugh a few times.

6. Long Live the Queen:

Surprisingly, the sketch regarding this episode is probably the least expected subject matter out of anything I could've put here: An idea that's been forming in my head for a bit now was the idea of Bunga and Binga continuing the fostering/babysitting business of Bunga's "uncles". Bunga is shown to be a natural with young animals in a few episodes, and it continues in the subplot of this episode where he watches over Varya's cubs.

7. The Lake of Reflection:

The one thing that viscerally stuck with me in this episode was the unbelievably cute design they gave bby Cheezi. Had to sketch him.

8. Triumph of the Roar:

Obligatory Askari sketch because I actually love drawing him and making headcanons of his era. Looking back... he kinda looks like he's looking down at the events of the bottom drawing in slight disappointment.

9. Journey to the Pride Lands:

Drew Azaad (for what I think might be the first time) with the only thing he seemed to be doing throughout this episode -- taking any opportunity he can to comment about how much better cheetahs are at basically everything. He's fun to draw and I'd like to do more art of him one day.

10. Return to the Pride Lands

This is a sketch of what I deadass thought was gonna happen during this scene the first time I saw this episode lmao. At the time, the previous two episodes were fresh on my mind so I thought Kion was once again going to spam his tornado ability, but with Vitani as his subject for his demonstration. She already knew so little of the Roar as it was, given her absence throughout most of TLG's storyline, but could you imagine what she must've been thinking seeing how much Kion's Roar evolved?

[ihopesocomic]

Have you ever thought that maybe MP's success was partially because of children migrating from The Lion Guard? I can see a teenager being told that they're too old to watch Disney kids cartoons, finding MP and shielding themselves with the ableism, gore, etc... To feel more "mature" while still watching a lion cartoon.

It would be a bit depressing, honestly.

"Success" is a strong word because that would insinuate that it did what it was meant to do, as in be popular enough to warrant getting a season 2 picked up by a studio. It also would be successful with its intended audience which is adults. MP isn't nearly as popular as people think it is. Its views plummet after episode 1, my guess is because general audiences gave it a chance and then thought it was stupid and then stopped watching. And the only audience left was people who already liked Tribble from COTW or her warrior cats stuff. Is it more popular than it should be? I'd say so, considering I've seen more people calling male lions "manes" unironically on nature documentaries than I'm comfortable with. And most people who like TLK have never even heard of MP. And TLG is less likely as the majority of people who watched it were between 2-7 years old. But I can probably agree that the majority of people who started watching it, who weren't already fans of Tribble, watched it with the belief that it was going to be more mature than TLK. But it is a really immature show. - Cat

-

It's also worth noting that Tribble literally tried to sell it as a 'more mature Lion King' so that does come across as trying to ride off TLK/TLG's coattails to me, anyway. It's also part of what set this show up for failure. Not only is The Lion King not what I'd call a childish movie (I mean, for fuck's sake: we see a legit dead body on-screen) but My Pride also comes across as very immature and actually censors a lot of its violence when it's not treating it as edgy content.

And I could also rant for days on the incredibly stupid and patronising "trigger warnings" that treats its audience like they're toddlers. The fact that this isn't how you do trigger warnings aside, it's almost like Tribble was aware kids would sneak a look at this "adult" show and couldn't help but poke fun at it.

So, the demographic for this show is just all up in the air and I think that's another issue to consider here. I feel Tribble certainly wanted to appeal to more adult fans but she also didn't want to completely alienate her minor audience because she got big off a minor-driven fandom (Warrior Cats). Decisions, decisions...

But like Cat said, MP fans have this weird perception that this show was a smash hit based on its views alone and there's a lot of nuance that goes into YT view counts, such as rewatches being counted as new views and so on.

Not to mention certain things occurred that also affected the overall viewership of the entire series too. Things like Tribble being called out around the time Episode 4 came out and people just opting not to watch any further when homophobia was revealed to be a thing in Episode 7. - RJ

[prettyinpwn]

What is your least favorite episode?

Hm, I usually pick either The Love God or Roadside Attraction. The Love God was just meh to me (minus Stan's lovely/horrifying balloon) and Roadside Attraction belonged earlier in Season 2. Season 2 is so amazing at times, but I feel like it contains both the show's highest highs and lowest lows. To give it credit, though, neither TLG or RA are bad per se - no GF episode is, imo - but they're just so meh compared to the others.

Poor Season 2. To be fair to Season 2, I'll also say my least favorite Season 1 episode as well (and it might be an unpopular opinion): Irrational Treasure. It's... okay, I guess? I like how it touches on the town's history, the Northwest's history of deceit, and I love the idea that the government had been watching the town, but they never really did anything with that guy in the white shirt who ordered Blubs and Durland around.

Like... what happened to background character dude?

Because would the government really just post one guy to make sure that Trembley's truth never came out? Would citizens really be that alarmed about a secret president from over a century beforehand? And would the government actually care that much about what it might do to the Northwest's reputation; like, they're rich, but... they're just the rich folks of one small little town. It just doesn't make much sense to me, imo. And Trembley is funny but... just meh. Not really impactful.

I feel like they could have done more with that plot thread; hint at how the government was already watching for signals from the portal again after thirty years in Season 1 (but be vague of course since at that time the viewer doesn't know about the portal yet), and add something about how how weird the town is makes the government keep a really close eye on nothing leaking out about what a supernatural hotspot it is. Have white shirt dude be the overseer of the Gravity Falls project; like Agent Powers and Trigger's boss.

(Psst... here's my bonus personal crack headcanon you didn't ask for:

I think it'd be hilarious if white shirt guy was Dipper and Mabel's father/Shermie's son. He looks the right age and like a Pines. The hair color/texture, large nose, the cleft chin like Ford's. Although, no Pines hair floof on the back, but the headphones could be obscuring it. I know they said their dad worked in computers, but this guy looks like he uses a lot of tech and could have a job so top secret that he has to tell his family "oh it's just IT for the government, guys, I swear").

[devilsrecreation]

Musical theater songs I associate with TLG/see TLG characters singing

-“Candy Store” (Heathers): Literally what Kiburi and his float would sing in the episode “The Little Guy”

-“How do you solve a problem like Maria?” (The Sound of Music): Is this not everyone except Simba talking about Makuu during “The Savannah Summit”? Just listing all his flaws and shit behind his back

Could even be the Outlanders complaining about Kiburi lol

-“There, Right There/Gay or European” (Legally Blonde the musical): I’ve mentioned it before but everyone in the Outlands are wondering if Neema’s either aromantic-asexual or if that’s just normal crocodile behavior

Spoiler alert: Yes

-Ucheshi’s version of “Congratulations” from Hamilton; taking place during Kiburi and Ucheshi’s argument, Ucheshi yells at her brother, recounting the events of “Let Sleeping Crocs Lie” and explaining just how stupid his actions were by comparing him to Makuu and reminding him what Simba does. If there was a crocodile version of a slap to the face, she’d do it

Ofc Tamka, Nduli, and Neema are spying on them in the background like :0

-“God, I hate Shakespeare”: Not Ushari singing about how much he hates Bunga

-“4 Jews in a Room Bitching” (Falsettos): Janja, Reirei, Mzingo, Kiburi basically introducing themselves and how they got here living in the Outlands ig lol (Creatures in a dump bitching)

Also either Ushari or Shupavu sings “Banishment” instead of “slavery”

-“My House” (Matilda): Wrote about it here!

-“Naughty” (Matilda): The skinks (mainly Shupavu) teaching Hodari how to get revenge by causing mischief

-“Stick it to the Man”: I’ve written about this before too! I can see Kenge singing it while teaching the Outlander kids and the skinks how to defend themselves by channeling their anger. Kinda as a parallel to Bunga’s “Teke Ruka Teleza”

-“Popular” (Wicked): Anyone else see Tiifu and Zuri singing this to Vitani and her lion guard? No? Just me?

-“Murder, Murder” (Jekyll and Hyde): You know how (in my hc) Sumu had a job as an assassin who killed all kinds of animals in his past? Yeah, this song are animals singing about his little murder spree (aka doing his job that evil animals hired him for) and not having a clue who the culprit is

Also not Sumu lowkey having fun like “(Insert name of victim here) I’m happy to inform you that you are relieved of your duties….all of them”

“My dear, you should be more careful walking around at night. You never know whom you might encounter”

“Bad news from the Kings~”

-“Confrontation” (Jekyll and Hyde): Explained here

-“The Smartphone Hour” (Be more chill): Season 2 in a nutshell

SCAR SET A FIRE AND HE BURNED DOWN PRIDE ROCK WOOOAHHHH~

“Consider Yourself” (Oliver): I wanna say this is Makuu welcoming Hodari into his float as an honorary croc but I know he isn’t much of a singer so how about Jasiri welcoming my oc’s Aibu (a striped hyena) and Kifo (a black mamba) into the Outlands/her friend group. Consider themselves official Outlanders :)

Honorable mention, “Master of the House” (Les Miserable): Remember my oc, Mamba, AKA Pua’s predecessor and a complete asshole of a croc? I imagine him singing this song about being a leader

Feat. a younger Pua who legit roasts him hghfgfg

[cunning-matriarch]

The lion guards weird timeline makes figuring things out for Shenzi and Nyota kinda weird....

Like the whole of TLK happens over like 4 1/2 years and then TLK 2 is another like 4 years due to the size of Kovus mane. We see Kovu in TLG with his little baby mane which puts him and kion at around the same age; around a year old---yet skip to the end of season 3---kovu has the mane of a minimum 4 year old adult while Kion barely has the mane of a 2 yr old sub adult

[archive-lion-guard]

The Lion Guard | The Little Guy | S2 EP15

[valentinbelleyh505]

WHY THE LADY AND THE TRAMP REFERENCE FOR BOTH THE LION KING 1 1/2 AND THE LION GUARD SEASON 3 😭😭😭

[kaythefloppa]

Oh yay, we have new lions who we’re all definitely going to make prominent characters of in our fanfics. (Starts typing aggressively)

Here’s the link to the video these guys showed up in for anyone wondering.

[intothetlkverse]

Decided to challenge myself by drawing every single TLK character out there, up until this point in time, and post it here. You can see the finished project on my main account, though I figured to post it on my tumblr just show I could proudly show off my work and a few of my head canons.

Here's part two of all the non-raptor birds across TLG/K:

Starting strong with the egrets we have Ono/Maono(vision). The last of the Guard members to be featured here, though hardly due to lack of interest. I do like Ono, for how know-it-all and blunt he can be, I do see the appeal in his respectful and pragmatic nature, plus seeing him in his arc in the third season. He eventually becomes the Night Pride's majordomo/scout for the Day Guard, filling in for the time of day when Rani and her group are asleep and Kion and his team are awake. Ono, like myself, if also ace-aro, so while he doesn't get into a relationship or fathers any children, one day, who should come to the Tree of Life but a pair of hamerkops, none other than Ona/Kuona(sight) and mother Kulinda(protect), and he does take on a fatherly-uncle type role with Ona, as well as another egret.

Next up is what I like to call the secondary TLG characters category, composed of Tamaa(appetite) the drongo, Mwenzi(partner) the red-billed tickbird, and the yellow wagtail, featured in "Beshte and the Hippo Lanes", Nyuni(the bee). For all my gripes with TLG's design and story choices, I will say that their bird designs are pretty consistently decent across the board, even if Tamaa's design resembles the Asian-native greater racket-tailed drongo instead of a more geographically appropriate fork-tailed drongo, as I've portrayed here. I did also notice that there was a female yellow wagtail, so I made her Nyuni mate and her name is Mbila(millet). Also Bupu and Kifaru make very small cameos here.

I was really surprised to find out TLK doesn't have a lot of flamingo characters. Sure they appear in quite a few comics and stories, though counting named characters and ones we see in TLG, mentioned in the TLK wiki no less, that gives us about three actual characters. So I added on two more to the ones we got. Also Africa is home to two species of flamingos, the greater and lesser species, which in my research is more just size rather then quality, though the really bright flamingos you think of when seem to be more an American/Caribbean species. Still, considering that flamingos get their pink feather coloring from crustaceans, and the more they eat the more pink they are, I'm just gonna say that the seafood/algae in TLK/G for the most part is extremely rich in carotenoid. You can pry my Barbie pink African flamingo designs from my cold dead hands.

First off are TLG's Flamingo girl 1/Fuari(happy) and Flamingo girl 2/Juisi(juice), named after two of my favorite songs. They're greater flamingos and both of them live in their flamboyance next to Azaad's territory, often becoming his meal. I imagine flamingos, while native to most of Africa where there's water, are an uncommon sight for many, though are very adored for their perky pink plumage and fabulous, flamboyant festivities. For the other flamingo character before we get to the unnamed ones we have Yeye(she). She is leader of the greater flamingos in the Pridelands, specifically at Lake Kidogo. She is also considered a bit overdramatic, as she and her fellow flamingos once nearly declared war on Kiboko and the hippopotamuses for their less kempt nature/appearances, though in fairness Kiboko was being an extra big jerk, though he alone would've made pink morsels out them realistically. I based her design off the ones glaring at Kovu before his exile in TLK2.

The last two flamingos didn't have names, but considering I'm a big fan of flamingos and we definitely needed more, here you go. First off is the one we see from "A Kinglike Hair-do" I've named Sabuni(soap), yet another song I like. While walking down with his vain monkey friend Isimo, Simba and him come across a flock of flamingos, which Isimo argues about how pretty can they really be compared to him and decides to spook them by running through them. Simba then noticed Sabuni, injured and realizes her flock was trying to protect her. Simba calls the rest of the flock back, promising not to harm any of them, and they are able to go back to their injured friend, who eventually recovers. This event would make the flamingos have a more positive outlook towards Simba later on when he set about restoring the Pridelands back after Scar's reign, making them easy support. Later in the comic the flock plus a lemur Simba helped earlier save him from a snake-infested river.

Fataki(fireworks) is the last of the flamingos, and last one named after songs I like. From "Pretty in Pink", he is the only male on this list, and is the leader of a flamboyance of lesser flamingos who take over a small pond in the Oasis during a dry spell, peeving off our Hakuna Matata trio and anyone else hoping to use the pond for cooling off. The trio decide to infiltrate the pond by painting themselves pink with berry juice and gathering fallen flamingo feathers to try and trick the flamingos into allowing them to enter, though the plan fails when they topple into the water and wash away their disguise. However before they can get pecked for their trickery, Pumbaa emerges from the mud the sight of him is so frightening that the flock flees, allowing the trio to cool off in peace. Since then the flock has avoided that specific pond in fear of the 'mud monster' that appeared before them, though still are pretty selfish and vain still.

So at this point you already know my penchant for making these lists increasingly harder for myself. TLG has a long list of bird species that they've shown or used for a line or two, but are never given proper names, just barely a wiki page if they're lucky. The next five characters do have a TLG wiki page yet no specific names. After that, I decided that the other bird designs in TLG were too good to waste, so they will be given a brief mention and name.

Starting off with the unnamed characters which mostly come from "Friends to the End", we have the peacock leader of his flock, now a congo peafowl, Shabiki(fan). Congo peafowl are technically peacocks in Africa, but are much more subdued and don't nearly have as much pizzaz with their tail feathers as your typical Indian variant, and neither are nearly as stunning as the green peafowl... fight me. They've got eyespots all over, not just their tail feathers.

Next we get some waterfowl, starting with the former barnacle geese Mother goose/Ndege(fowl), now an African goose, and her son Jirgi(flight-Hausa) and daughter Gurbi(nest-Hausa) from "Friends to the End". So with barnacle geese, apparently they create nests on high cliffs to avoid predation, however within a few days of hatching goslings must jump off these cliff faces in order to meet their parents who are foraging on the grass below, which is what we learn in TLG, however I have no knowledge of African geese doing the same. However given how rude she was, in my 'verse the chicks did fall off a cliff where their mother had decided to build their nest on top of, and was too prideful to admit she was in the wrong. She later becomes food for Makucha's Army, though her chicks thankfully make it to adulthood relatively unscathed.

Last of the waterfowl is the African black duck from "The Search for Utamu" that Fuli saves her nest from some fighting oryxes. Her name is Bata(duck) and given that her species can have 4–8 eggs at a time, I like to think she named one after Fuli. Their design was pretty nice, though I changed the orange bill/beak to the original's black, though I imagine the reason why they originally had it orange was to help with figuring which part to animate.

Now for the unnamed, background species from TLG. These guys were already enough work to figure out how to make that they'll just get a brief excerpt.

White-throated laughing thrushes: Safisha(tidy). Their colors in the show just seemed to be extremely saturated, so I mellowed them somewhere between their real-life and cartoon counterparts.

Common Kingfishers: Choraji(painting). They're only found in a TLG "Look and Find" book, though still included because... well just look how pretty they are.

Great blue turaco: Mkweli(truthful) and white-crested turaco?: Mchele(rice). Such beautiful blue feathers for the former, absolutely stunning. For the white-crested turacos, for some weird reason in the show they made them... so weird. Like they took a blue-crested turaco and used pastel colors, baby blues and creams.... so I used the real-life design here. Perfectly colorful and serviceable design, I don't know what TLG was planning, though in my book these two are happily married to one another.

Grey-Headed Tanagers: Eji(dew-Yoruba). Another really-saturated cartoon design, though I honestly was doubting whether or not it was a tanager and not a sunbird or superb starling, or even if it was meant to be a variant of the grey-headed bushstrike they've already made. However it did get to a point where looking up species was starting to not be fun, so I conceded in the end, but did mute the colors more.

Grey-Headed Bushshrikes: Pazia(veil). Not much to say, but a really good design overall, for both real-life and TLG.

Southern red bishop: Kivara(clothing). Technically put under the finches wiki page, though the Southern red bishop is actually part of the weaver family, though stunningly beautiful nonetheless.

Peach-faced lovebird: Koro(heart). A cutie patootie, him and Kivara are mates too.

Green bee-eaters: Limu(lemon) and blue-throated bee-eater: Dubaku(look). The blue-throated bee-eater is an Asian species, so it's swapped with a blue-headed/mustached bee-eater here. I also had to work with the green bee-eater design a bit, since it seems TLG based it more off the Asian green bee-eater and not off the African one, which is slightly less flashy then the former.

White-necked ravens: Mlio(crow). It seems a bit weird to put a raven here, though like the peregrine falcon, apparently they too are found all across the world minus Antarctica and weirdly South America too. Hmm, well anyways I think they are very beautiful.

Lastly is Binti the hornbill, a yellow-billed oxpecker here and you can read more about her story here, as well as why this deleted love interest for Zazu is apparently a tickbird and not a hornbill. I did give her a slight redesign and that will apply to all the unnamed chicks which I did not bother to redo here, but I feel like she has a good design for the last character on this sheet.

[randomfoggytiger]

If Mulder and Doggett Were Partnered in Season 8

@thursdayinspace, I got swept up in your alternate Season 8 idea. So, I sat down and wrote it up.

I'm operating under the assumption that Scully is pregnant; but if she weren't, Mulder and Doggett would still form a friendship along the same lines, albeit without a shared sense of loss between them. Deadalive would then focus on Scully's struggle to reintegrate after Kersh refuses to reassign her to the files, and Essence-Existence would follow other mytharc beats without a baby involved.

Lastly: Mulder would have to find out about her pregnancy in order for the level of emotional turmoil to remain equal.

THE PLAY-BY-PLAY PLOT

Scully is pregnant, and abducted.

Within. Doggett insinuates Mulder knows more about Scully's disappearance than he lets on. Skinner intercepts a punch from Mulder (having hovered nearby, knowing he'd act out in some way) and separates the two before Kersh becomes involved.

Doggett traces Scully's last movements to Mulder's apartment, where he clearly states his motives and intentions. Mulder notes but doesn't soften to Doggett's straight-forward sincerity, deciding to work around and largely ignore the other agent... until Doggett shocks Mulder with the results of Scully's blood work (a test she'd done before flying back to Oregon.) Shattered and desperate, he charges out to the UFO landing with Skinner after a call from TLG.

The flashes we get to Scully on the ship are in the same vein as Ascension, i.e. Mulder imagining worst-case scenarios.

The rest of Without unfolds; but it does open up a great opportunity for Mulder to lose it if he has to shoot Scully's clone (instead of Skinner's) to save Gibson. That, and the unprocessed grief from losing his pregnant partner-- again-- might cause him to collapse and (silently) weep. This humanizes him to Doggett (who lost a child, too); and the latter takes the x-files assignment with a little less resignation, seeing it as a way to redeem his own past mistakes.

Patience. Manbat. Doggett squares off with the sheriff at the house, cop style, rankling Mulder. Mulder later ditches Doggett for the cemetery and witnesses the sheriff's murder. The local police don't believe him, thinking his theories have wasted precious time; but Doggett ends up making a connection with past news reports (without believing fully them, of course.) The rest of the plot happens, yadda yadda.

Roadrunner. Events fall out the same, except Doggett has to walk Mulder out of town. Mulder won't apologize but does take what Doggett says on the chin, acknowledging his points silently.

Invocation. Not only does the boy's case tear at Doggett's wounds, but Mulder's as well: because of Scully and the baby, sure, but also because of Samantha and starlight. (That would have been a better episode overall, I think. Imagine if it were at the tail end of Season 8 after Mulder's return, squeezed between Alone and Essence. Alas.)

Redrum's the same.

Via Negativa is where it could get interesting. I have two theories: 1. Mulder ditches Doggett to chase a UFO sighting (and Skinner covers up for him); or 2. Mulder starts developing symptoms he's afraid might be linked to CSM's deterioration after the Amor Fati surgery, causing him to be down and out for the rest of the episode. The symptoms either stick long enough to be cured in The Gift or melt away, a nothing burger (like the canonical brain disease plotline.)

Surekill, Salvage, Badlaa, who cares.

The Gift. Again, two theories: 1. Doggett stumbles onto shady things Mulder did off-the-grid during the Via Negativa episode-- really, really questionable moral decisions-- to get answers. Skinner advises him to let it go, for everyone's sake. 2. Mulder disappears again and Doggett traces him to the magic man's house where he just misses Mulder being cured of brain disease (because Mulder took miracle man up on the offer, needing to be alive to find Scully.) He finds Mulder unconscious and the other man weakened by the procedure; and intercepts the local police's attempts to capture and rug sweep. He's killed, then healed. When both men recover, Mulder shares his own experience with near death (obliquely, as is Mulder's way.) The episode continues, the end.

Medusa is the first episode where they're both a team. Doggett stays up top while Mulder explores the tunnels.

Per Manum. Mulder becomes too emotionally involved, tying his IVF journey with Scully to the case. Skinner calls him out, saying he's "saving" the Haskell woman as a proxy because his own pregnant partner is missing. Mulder does not take the victim to a military base; but his truck is intercepted, he's knocked unconscious, and the woman is taken (by Doggett's pretend friend Rohrer), regardless. Doggett relays what everyone believes, but says he understands what Mulder's going through.

This Is Not Happening. The only changes would be that Monica Reyes starkly reminds Mulder of Melissa Scully, and that he yells for Jeremiah Smith to come out while cradling Scully's "dead" body.

Again, we hit a crossroads: does Jeremiah Smith heal Scully?

If he does, then Deadalive focuses on Scully's struggles working back from her abduction and "replacement" on the files (she'd likely flunk all the tests for field work because of her vivid memories and trauma, to begin with), not to mention her pregnancy.

If he doesn't, then This Is Not Happening-Deadalive Mulder will have to put on extended "medical" leave following Scully's burial. Kersh seeks dismissal but is held at bay by the optics of the situation. Skinner digs up Scully and bears the brunt of Mulder's anger when the latter isn't immediately told. Krycek doesn't make a deal with Skinner (both know there would be no gain unless Mulder's in that hospital bed) and yanks Scully off life support. One of two things happen: 1. the episode unfolds as usual or 2. Mulder chases him down and they have a conversation at gunpoint, with Krycek claiming his actions saved Scully's life, then threatening to exposure for Mulder's actions in Via Negativa if he's not let go. Somehow, Krycek gets away (likely because Mulder pauses long enough for Doggett to catch up and reason with him, revealing he'd learned the sordid details during The Gift.)

Three Words through Alone. Lots of trauma for Scully and Mulder, I'm sure.

THE FINALE

Essence and Existence.

The Supersoldiers can stay because they will give Mulder and Scully renewed purpose for Season 9. However, they are not indestructible, and are few in number (with only a few being able to turn because of Jeremiah Smith's healing efforts.) If they've infested government, then only a few key positions.

Option One

Essence: The plot unfolds like normal until Krycek drops in and saves Mulder and Scully from Billy Miles. He warns them about an alien elimination program to clean up loose ends (not because of some Messiah baby) and offers them a place to hide out. Mulder and Scully escape with Krycek's coordinates while Skinner and Doggett destroy Billy in the garbage truck.

Existence: After they leave, Knowle Rohrer contacts Doggett and warns him Krycek recently switched sides and is leading Mulder and Scully into a trap. (If Mulder has dipped into darkness during Via Negativa, all the more motive for his enemies to want him permanently out of the way.) Skinner and Doggett track and confront Krycek for information; and in the scuffle Skinner kills him to save Doggett's. They triangulate coordinates with TLG; and, realizing the location is in Mexico, call in Monica for help. Meanwhile, Mulder and Scully deduce they're being followed. Here's where the episode can get its Chris Carter drama: the two switch course without the viewers knowing, and Scully's labor and delivery happen (safely) concurrent to Skinner, Doggett, Reyes, and the Supersoldiers running into each other at the original location and fighting it out. The Supersoldier group isn't large enough to beat back the ambush, and retreat, setting up a problem Mulder, Scully, and the gang will have to deal with next season. Everyone gets home happily, the end.

Option Two

Essence is the same, but Existence takes a turn. Rohrer contacts Doggett to let him know the Supersoldiers aren't a danger to Scully or the baby. Their mission is to take back alien tech from the remaining Syndicate's grasp, which is against Krycek's group's interests. Krycek sent Mulder and Scully to a fringe Syndicate conclave, where Scully and the baby will be detained and tested in the hopes that their DNA will somehow unlock the elusive Colonization cure. (If Mulder did shenanigans during Via Negativa, all the more reason to eradicate him from the game.) Doggett and Skinner track Krycek, Skinner kills Krycek, they triangulate coordinates with TLG, call in Reyes, and head out.

Mulder and Scully either veer off-course last minute, wary, or follow-through on the plan and reach the compound.

If both agents reach the compound, they either 1. evade capture long enough for the Supersoldiers (who'd used them to find Krycek's group) to surprise everyone and burn the place down or 2. are captured but escape during the ensuing chaos. Mulder and Scully and the Supersoldiers go their separate ways, knowing their paths will cross again. William is likely born off-screen, the end.

CONCLUSION

And there we go!

Don't know what this accomplishes, but it was fun.

[mask-of-prime]

TLG: Battle for the Pridelands Sketches

To celebrate the 5th Anniversary of one of my favorite episodes of TLG, I decided to do some sketches of some takeaways I had during a rewatch of the episode:

1. Wema, Tunu, Dogo, and Kijana aged up to how old I think they'd be around the time of the episode. Why were they not aged up?? Kiara, Tiifu, Zuri, and Mtoto were given some specific age models only used in this episode, why not the Outlander kids? I feel the jackals would be the equivalent to 12 years old by this time, while Wema and Tunu would be like 8-year-old kids.

2. I've heard people ask where the zebras and baboons were during the final battle, and for a while I was like "Yeah aren't they significant recurring characters? Where even were they in the Pridelands Army arc of Season 2?", but THEN it dawned on me: Baboon. Zebra. Cavalry. When watching the scene where everyone charges to the Outlands, I saw the galagos riding the sable antelope and went "haha like horses, that'd be funny if it was with zebras because equines", then I was like "baboons would probably be like humans while riding zebras" and I was just "WAIT IS THAT WHY PEOPLE WANTED THOSE ANIMALS IN THIS EPISODE". So here we are, Big Baboon and Thurston team up to surprise the Outlanders (and even the Pridelanders) by doing what they do best -- throwing fruit and panicking and running, respectively.

3. A sketch of this sudden visual I got during Ushari and Scar's conversation where Scar promised that Ushari and the rest of the reptiles would have whatever's left of the ravaged Pridelands. I instantly imagined the Pridelands becoming this unrecognizable wasteland ideal only for heat-seeking reptiles after the disastrous volcanic eruption Scar had in mind. The environment would be a tad like something out of the Mesozoic era.

4. One of my favorite aspects of this episode: The famous important-as-hell-but-vaguely-presented lore drop of the Strange Lion's (actually pretty ambiguous) existence as well as his actions accelerating Scar's entitlement and envy of Mufasa (which would kickstart the very premise of the first movie and the franchise as we know it). I love this guy's design for the same reason I love Zira's -- it's just so consistent in shapes and colors that all match with each other.

5. I find it funny that in order to not interfere with the events of TLK 2, TLG just decided to have it so the Outsiders would be completely out of the loop of the fact that Scar's spirit returned. It could easily be explained that Scar kept Zira out of it on purpose, or that he didn't know (and possibly didn't care) that she was still around. I have to think that the Outsiders don't live too far from the Outlands Volcano, so they've had to have heard some commotion and wonder what on earth could be going on. Looks like Zira's fanatic spiritual connection with her beloved Scar can apparently be heard by her peers.

[bandydear]

With all the s3 YJ hype building up I just want you to know it's gonna be so weird going back to the canon show ever since tlg universe has rewired my brain.

What do you mean Jackie got slow smoked, what do you mean nat dead faced said lottie may be better off dead?! They're in NYC!! They're all married!! Nat n Jackie are besties and Ben is so funny what do you mean its still winter 😭

Also thank you for writing tlg I can confidently say it's one of my favorite written works, not just fanfiction but like written works in general, it perfectly fit the niche I think I'm always looking for in stories and the way you portrayed the characters is so good. 💜

I’m really excited for season 3. I have some insider scoops that have me chewing my nails, but I think it’s a great show that keeps surprising us each season. I wanna see AQ!Nat, and I want to see how “bad” everything gets, and the fallout of Season 2’s finale. I really am going to miss JL and Adult Nat (even if it made writing tlgbf easier because i was working off two fixed points). I wanna know if there’s an 8th survivor, and what Lisa is gonna do now.

I love that tlgbf gives people a comforting AU ending because we do write fanfiction to give ourselves what the source material doesn’t. The reality is bleak and 3/4 of the roommates in apartment 8 are dead (not counting Lottie because she didn’t pay rent, and assuming Ben is dead). In a kinder world they’re voting for Harris (or Jill Stein in Lottie’s case) and then getting pizza.

(And I still think Nat saying Lottie might be better off dead was partly empathetic. She did after all say she envied Jackie for dying early.)

Thank you so much for coming into my inbox with your positivity, my dear. I really appreciate that tlgbf is still touching folks and still comforting them. I’m working on an original novel that I think fans of tlgbf will enjoy immensely, so if you’re looking for another story soon then keep your eyes peeled.

Have a wonderful rest of your day!