wingedbeast

Setting: Elephant Graveyard. The ground is dry and cracked. So are the bones scattered about the landscape.

A mighty lion's paw steps through the landscape, boldly but with minor efforts to avoid stepping on the bones. The lion stops and lifts his head to roar.

Simba: Hyenas! Show yourselves!

The only visible signal that the hyenas are present is the reflection off their eyes in the shadows. One speaks from a dark spot high up on an elephant's rib cage.

Shenzi: Why would we?

Simba: Because I am the King and I command you.

Shenzi: I never voted for you.

Simba: I don't have time for references. This is important.

Shenzi: Important, says the King of the Pridelands. Perhaps the Hyena King will agree?

Simba: I... didn't know the Hyenas have a king.

Shenzi: We don't. Our leadership isn't lineage based and our leaders tend to be women. No hyena king exists or ever has. So, the Lion King is invited to go bother the Hyena King.

Simba growls in frustration: Where is Scar?

Shenzi: Scar is dead. You killed him in your child-friendly revenge play.

Simba: I'm not hear to discuss claims of The Lion King ripping off Hamlet.

Shenzi: But, The Lion King didn't rip off Hamlet.

Shenzi: Hamlet was a commentary on revenge via commentary on the revenge play, an already common genre at the time, wherein a prince righteously kills the usurpers, thus proving glory without having to feel guilty. Hamlet took that play and struggled with the weight of taking a life.

Shenzi: Your movie was just that standard revenge play, the joy of killing bad people that you don't have to feel guilty for killing, presented as a coming-of-age drama.

Shenzi: You're a king. You can pretend to many things. I'm not one of your subjects. I don't have to help.

Simba roars: Stop trying to distract me with meta-criticisms! I need to know what Scar is planning!

Shenzi: But, critique is the plan, Simba, oh great King who accomplishes our banishment and privation. Who is the good guy and who is the bad guy?

Simba: Is that his plan? To alter the script so that he's the good guy?

Shenzi laughs a high-pitched, barking kind of laugh.: No need to alter the script, monarch! Only for respect!

Simba: But, respect for all things is my virtue and my father's. We are the heroes. To change that would be-

From somewhere far off, the familiar laugh of Ed.: He thinks he knows respect.

Banzai: Get away from here, you insult to all that lives. Our numbers our growing. Our fan-base is growing. The criticism will make us the good guys and you will die for your sins.

Simba: I am not the insult. I respect all living things.

More eyes shine from more shadows.

Shenzi: No! You are an insult! We may kill and laugh for joy at our filled bellies, but we *never* made anything bow to us before we killed.

Shenzi: Learn from your past, Simba. Run away before we decide to make you bow before your killers.

The laughter of an increasing number of heyenas picks up. Some of them yipping questions of why the need to wait.

Simba: You're setting up the conflict, I see. This goes beyond one story. Rumors are true. I will be back. These Disney stories can favor redemption, even for otherwise comic relief. That is your offer.

With that, Simba turns to walk away, afraid, but angry and thinking.

Next scene:

Setting: The Sky Lounge, a Multi-verse Multi-port. The Sky Lounge is either amid... or ontop of the clouds, with cloud stuff forming whatever furniture or structures needed as needed.

Simba strides up the forming ramp to a ledge.

Simba: The rumors are true.

From the cloud-stuff, a lion made of cloud seems to emerge.

Mustafa: I did not want them to be.

From far off, a lion of bright gold walks in, speaking with the voice of Liam Neesan.

Aslan: In many ways, this was inevitable. As people have stepped away from the proper, Christian values and proper true Chivalry.

King Arthur: As the first Christian King of England, I would be one to agree.

Prince Charming: This has happened in many a fairy-tail-land setting. Usually, this involves some magic item or book that can be altered.

Mustafa and Aslan nod in thought.

Aslan: We will be with you in spirit.

Mustafa: In your hearts.

Aslan: We will aid you as we can.

Mustafa: But, you, heroes, must learn their plans and defeat this band that calls itself the Black Hat Brigade.