Post by abalancedbreakfast on Jan 5, 2023 5:15:38 GMT
So, if I can say the name "Kopa" and you understand what that means, you can understand that TLK lore gets wild at times, so I want this thread to be a place to document all the wildest implications of TLK lore that you can find. Starting with my contribution:
In Season 3 of The Lion Guard, Kion and his guard go on a journey from The Pridelands to The Tree of Life. Now, for the purposes of this exercise, I decided to place the Pridelands in modern Tanzania (which the geography would mostly support: Kenya would have been a better pick but the map is already drawn and I don't want to redraw it), and the Tree of Life in the modern Democratic Republic of the Congo (Which the geography definitely wouldn't support, but it's far more feasible to the natural range of a lion. The location of the tree of life is a can of worms I'll open later in this post).
I decided to make a Bio-Geographical map of Kion's journey in season three, and in its most charitable interpretation, the route we come up with from episode 1 until episode 9 of Season 3 is this:
In Season 3 of The Lion Guard, Kion and his guard go on a journey from The Pridelands to The Tree of Life. Now, for the purposes of this exercise, I decided to place the Pridelands in modern Tanzania (which the geography would mostly support: Kenya would have been a better pick but the map is already drawn and I don't want to redraw it), and the Tree of Life in the modern Democratic Republic of the Congo (Which the geography definitely wouldn't support, but it's far more feasible to the natural range of a lion. The location of the tree of life is a can of worms I'll open later in this post).
I decided to make a Bio-Geographical map of Kion's journey in season three, and in its most charitable interpretation, the route we come up with from episode 1 until episode 9 of Season 3 is this:
Episode 1 starts us off in the pridelands, before episode 2 takes us to a place with Leopards (Which can occur naturally in North Africa or certain parts of India. I decided to pick India for this because it'll make the one episode jump to Japan only slightly less insane. Next episode features Snow Monkeys, a species entirely exclusive to Japan. After that, we see Red Pandas native mainly to China. Then, next episode, we're back to Africa with mongooses. THEN, there is an episode featuring Komodo Dragons, which ONLY occur in Indonesia. Then, we get Flamingoes, which can be native either to Africa or North America depending on how you look at it. Now, given that the show didn't feature any North or South American species, I decided not to have Kion cross the Atlantic Ocean in this analysis. After this, we have to go back to Bangladesh specifically to catch the Binturong, before finally heading back to Africa (Point 8) to get to the Tree of Life.
Now, this route doesn't make sense for a LOT of obvious reasons, and this calls into question: Does the Lion King really take place in Africa, or even on earth more generally?
There's a couple ways we can solve this. First being the possibility that this is VERY much a pre-anthropocene earth where the tectonic plates have not yet shifted into their modern position. This would be a convenient handwave on first blush, but it's not workable in my opinion for two reasons. First, the most recent supercontinent (Pangea) occurred around 175 Million Years Ago at the latest, African lions as a species only came into their own around 300,000 years ago, and the show doesn't depict any species that don't exist in the Anthropocene (the Anthropocene is a scientific term meaning, essentially, the time period where Homo Sapiens started to exert significant impact on the climate). Second, if you look at a map of Pangea, it does not at all solve the problem of the Lion Guard's journey.
Now, this route doesn't make sense for a LOT of obvious reasons, and this calls into question: Does the Lion King really take place in Africa, or even on earth more generally?
There's a couple ways we can solve this. First being the possibility that this is VERY much a pre-anthropocene earth where the tectonic plates have not yet shifted into their modern position. This would be a convenient handwave on first blush, but it's not workable in my opinion for two reasons. First, the most recent supercontinent (Pangea) occurred around 175 Million Years Ago at the latest, African lions as a species only came into their own around 300,000 years ago, and the show doesn't depict any species that don't exist in the Anthropocene (the Anthropocene is a scientific term meaning, essentially, the time period where Homo Sapiens started to exert significant impact on the climate). Second, if you look at a map of Pangea, it does not at all solve the problem of the Lion Guard's journey.
Sure, the leap from Kenya to India makes a lot more sense, but the leap from Kenya to Japan is still not much improved, especially not by the fact that Japan is now in the Arctic Circle. So, the tectonic plate idea is off the table.
Next possibility: The location of the Tree of Life is not in Africa, and I was just wrong about that assessment. Now, the Tree of Life is deliberately designed by the show creators to have a tiny little bit of everything which makes pinpointing this even harder. However, we know that the guard has to pass a mountain range to end up in a lush, temperate climate surrounded by mountain ranges. We also know that this has to be a fairly central place for species from the Afro-Eurasian landmass to end up in. Given these two factors, I am going to suggest that the most likely place for The Tree of Life to be is in the mountains of Afghanistan.
I know that some of you are thinking that the climate doesn't match, but the perception of the entire middle east as desert ranges is a horrible misconception generally. Afghanistan specifically is very mountainous terrain that separates regions between of lush, temperate climate that is fairly fertile to plant life. The mountains also receive regular snowfall, which matches up with the depictions of The Tree of Life very well. To hammer in the point further, here are some comparison shots.
To be more geographically specific, the Tree of Life would most likely be somewhere in the Northwestern Provinces of Afghanistan, around Nuristan Forest.
Now, this theory doesn't account for things like the wild leaps from Africa to Japan in a single episode. That could maybe be waved off as other travelers to the Night Pride trying to navigate there and missing wildly, but that very much is a handwave and doesn't support my case very well. Nonetheless, the Tree of Life being in Afghanistan pre-anthropocene is, to me, the most plausible explanation I can come up with.
However, there is another potential explanation: The Lion King does not take place on earth. This is a very handwavey solution that could solve all of the problems with the Season 3 journey, but it also relies on a lot of species evolving in exactly the same ecological niches, morphologies, and behavioral traits as they do on earth. It also relies on the sheer luck of a place being called "Africa" by Zazu (Original Lion King, he uses the line "Out of Africa" in "Just Can't Wait to be King"). In short, while it would be the easiest solution, I'm personally not willing to bite off on it. Granted, this is also a universe where there are also animals that can talk to each other and, even more ridiculous, feudalism. So, at the end of the day, believe whichever one you want, it really isn't that serious. Still, fun things to think about.
What are some rabbit holes of Lion King Lore that you all want to dive down?
Next possibility: The location of the Tree of Life is not in Africa, and I was just wrong about that assessment. Now, the Tree of Life is deliberately designed by the show creators to have a tiny little bit of everything which makes pinpointing this even harder. However, we know that the guard has to pass a mountain range to end up in a lush, temperate climate surrounded by mountain ranges. We also know that this has to be a fairly central place for species from the Afro-Eurasian landmass to end up in. Given these two factors, I am going to suggest that the most likely place for The Tree of Life to be is in the mountains of Afghanistan.
I know that some of you are thinking that the climate doesn't match, but the perception of the entire middle east as desert ranges is a horrible misconception generally. Afghanistan specifically is very mountainous terrain that separates regions between of lush, temperate climate that is fairly fertile to plant life. The mountains also receive regular snowfall, which matches up with the depictions of The Tree of Life very well. To hammer in the point further, here are some comparison shots.
To be more geographically specific, the Tree of Life would most likely be somewhere in the Northwestern Provinces of Afghanistan, around Nuristan Forest.
Now, this theory doesn't account for things like the wild leaps from Africa to Japan in a single episode. That could maybe be waved off as other travelers to the Night Pride trying to navigate there and missing wildly, but that very much is a handwave and doesn't support my case very well. Nonetheless, the Tree of Life being in Afghanistan pre-anthropocene is, to me, the most plausible explanation I can come up with.
However, there is another potential explanation: The Lion King does not take place on earth. This is a very handwavey solution that could solve all of the problems with the Season 3 journey, but it also relies on a lot of species evolving in exactly the same ecological niches, morphologies, and behavioral traits as they do on earth. It also relies on the sheer luck of a place being called "Africa" by Zazu (Original Lion King, he uses the line "Out of Africa" in "Just Can't Wait to be King"). In short, while it would be the easiest solution, I'm personally not willing to bite off on it. Granted, this is also a universe where there are also animals that can talk to each other and, even more ridiculous, feudalism. So, at the end of the day, believe whichever one you want, it really isn't that serious. Still, fun things to think about.
What are some rabbit holes of Lion King Lore that you all want to dive down?