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I just rewatched SP yesterday (I had the day off, and I felt like watching it again) and one scene caught my attention more than it had in previous viewings.

Remamber the scene after Kovu rescues Kiara from the fire and Simba, although he feels that Kovu's up to no good, agrees to allow him to be a temporary part of his pride? Well, he has a dream that struck my interest.

The dream had him on the canyon, looking down at his father that is clawing the rocky walls for dear life. Simba tries to stretch out his paw to him, as if to try and save him from the fate of stampeding death that awaits him below. Just when he almost reaches him, a clawed paw of darkness grabs ahold of Simba's free front paw; the dark lion is revealed as Scar, his own uncle. He murmurs the words, "Trust me," as Mufasa lets go, causing Simba to cry out for his father once more. Suddenly, Scar's evil laughter begins to morph his shape from Scar to the rebel lion Kovu, who also releases his grip on the recent Lion King's paw. Simba falls, and the King awakens with a sudden gasp.

Now, I'm sure that most people would think that the message of the dream was that Simba was to be overly worried about Kovu (in other words, Kovu = bad news for Simba), since he is the one that was chosen to follow Scar's paws (thanks to Zira, of course). However, I believe that there was a slightly different message here.

Could it be possible that the dream was a sign of the film's ending? Since Simba falls, could that mean that Kovu was to become the next King in the royal line of things (especially since he and Kiara, the future Queen, fall in love later on in the film)? I mean, this would make sense, because Mufasa, Simba's patriarch, was the first to fall, symbolizing that he was the original King (mentioned in the films, mind you) and that Simba was the next in line by birth to become his heir. However as we all know in the original TLK, Scar, Mufasa's jealous brother, was the heir prior to Simba's birth, and his actions of killing Mufasa and sending Simba away forever led him to taking his place as King, not knowing that Simba was still alive and would soon return to reclaim his birthright. And of course, Scar was killed as well in the original, so Scar as the next in line is out of the picture - perhaps the switch of Scar for Kovu in his dream might have been the proof that Mufasa's plan of getting Kiara and Kovu to unite the two feuding prides would lead to Kovu becoming Simba's heir to the title of King.

What do you think? Does my theory of Simba's nightmare make sense to you or not?

Thanks for reading!

- Juuchan17

figur that out all on your own did you?

A very good theory. I believe it!

Well, yeah.

But actually when I first watched the film (many, many years ago when it first came out on VHS), I thought the obvious thought: Simba's dream meant that Kovu was actually going to fulfill the destiny that Zira was preparing him for - to overthrow Simba and follow Scar's pawprints by killing a king and taking his place.

However, Simba had a good reason to be worried about him from the get-go. He's so overprotective of Kiara, wanting her to stay out of harm's way and so he instinctively tries to prevent the two young lions from getting too close. He had a feeling of Kovu possibly betraying him ever since he saw his daughter with him anyway . . . but I suppose he never realized how complexed Kovu's situation really was.

Although everyone meant for Kovu to follow Scar's paws, ever since he got closer to Kiara, his motives changed . . . but Zira and the other Outlanders made it seem that Kovu was only trying to make Simba trust him so that he could kill him easier. And of course, we all know the rest of the story . . .

Phew! I'm glad you guys like my thoughts on this. I hadn't seen this anywhere else, so I thought it would be interesting.

Maybe I'll write an article on it for TLK Source . . .

- Juuchan17

Wow! You really put a lot of thought into that! And I totaly agree. ^^ It's the theory that makes the most sence out of them all that I have seen so far.