season 2 ep 9: rescue in the Outlands

[SimbasGuard]

[quote="JackStover"]Be cautious of trusting that summary. I can find no official source, and Disney hasn't sent out descriptions for any of the recent episodes. They've issued press releases for both September and October, providing descriptions for every new episode airing for each of their shows, but The Lion Guard has been absent from both lists. It's why sites like Zap2It don't even have the descriptions up, nor can you find a description on your cable/satellite guide. Disney hasn't sent any out.

The facebook page is still fan-made, and the one that came before it once made a mistake and made a lot of people angry. I hope they have a good source that isn't IMDB or TVTropes.[/quote]

Excellent point JackStover this synopsis does sound plausible. It also just makes since that the episode has got to have more to it than what the preview indicates. However I will not become angry if this turns out not to be the case. It just sounds too well thought out to be something off of IMDB. I will just remain cautiously optimistic.

I know that after Friday's episode The Lion Guard does not have a new episode until October 27th.

Could that be why we have such little info on upcoming episodes? is it possible that the upcoming episodes have a major event that Disney wants to keep hidden? Could it be something so simple as The Lion Guard production crew forgot to write any synopses for the new episodes?

* Panics And Writes Panics And Writes* Is Disney going to pull the plug on season 3???!!!! (Recognize my sarcastic and slightly paranoid humor everyone)

[JackStover]

The summary was accurate. Not sure where it originally came from, but it was spot on. It was a solid episode, with a lot of Jasiri in it. Janja sings a song about Jasiri and shippers will appreciate the undertones, as even though it's meant to be a song about how much he hates her, it's pretty clear he's crushing on her hard. Scar is also looking to recruit the jackals into his coalition, but it looks like a future episode will deal with that.

https://watchtlg.netlify.com/watch?v=4084556

[Panpardus]

Good episode, good episode.

This one was pretty hyena-heavy, and I get the feeling that Jasiri/Janja fans are certainly going to get a kick out of their interactions and the undertones of the song. (Though as much as he might 'like' her, he still willingly agreed to kill her, so...) The song itself was whatever to me, but at least it fit and actually added something to the story and characters, so it worked out. Interesting seeing Scar putting his greater plan into motion, though I guess we'll have to wait another couple of episodes before we see the jackals actually get the pitch for Scar's Revengers Initiative. (Sorry, got MCU on the brain this week; the Infinity War trailer is rumored to be airing tonight, though I'm kinda hoping they pull a bait-and-switch and it turns out to be something from Black Panther.) Outland politics was a nice touch too, and although it's somewhat overlooked, I noticed that Jasiri wasn't exactly presented as a perfect little goody two-shoes here considering that this particular conflict between she and Janja started with her laying claim to a part of his territory. (Although the biologist in me has to mention that spotted hyenas don't leave claw marks to claim their turf, rather they leave scat traces and residue from glands on their backsides. Of course, not quite preschooler-friendly material, but they did splash dung on Fuli once.) I do wonder why Scar didn't/doesn't just send Ushari to carry out an assassination attempt; though granted, he didn't explicitly state that he wanted Jasiri dead. But now that Janja's failed yet again - and we unfortunately missed out on Scar's tirade yet again - maybe we'll see Scar assign someone else a task for a change.

The Guard's plot with the tsetse flies was enjoyable; the overall episode wasn't as Thurston-heavy as I thought it would be - which I was just fine with; his daftness is almost infuriating to watch - but I liked how they added more subtle details to underscore how tired they are of him, including Kion. (He's never yelled at someone so aggressively before.) The flies were treated more as a major inconvenience rather than a true threat, which I guess is fine insofar as avoiding demonizing bugs, but tsetse flies are major disease vectors among humans and livestock in that region of Africa, so I thought more would be made of their presence. (And I kinda did want to see the Roar used against a swarm of flies.) A lot of good one-liners and animated facial expressions too, particularly between Kion and Fuli, and the fight scenes were all very good. I said it at the beginning of the season, but the show is clearly stepping up its fight choreography and animation; still not quite at the level of the films yet (they'll have to start biting and showing fully extended claws) but it's nice seeing more realistic movements and maneuvers, and Kion's even throwing proper "punches".

Overall, good episode; definitely worth a couple of rewatches, which'll have to hold us over for a month before the next episode at the end of October.

[Elton John]

I like Thurstons daftness. It’s hilarious at just how incompetent he is. I guess it’s his snobby british accent that helps.

[AnonLion]

I really liked this episode. JanjaxJasiri fans are going to love the song for sure, and the visuals were very fun to look at during it. I was happy to see Jasiri again too, and to see that although she is an ally to the Guard she still acts sneaky like hyenas. I'm also starting to notice that every time Scar makes an appearance a character is almost killed, interesting. I'm curious though as to what Scar will do with Jasiri once he hears Janja failed, will he use the jackals to get her instead? I also enjoyed Thurston's antics, they had the perfect amount of sillyness and screen time so they wouldn't get annoying (does anyone else think it's weird the Guard never calls Thurston by his name?). The fight was enjoyable to watch too, and as much as I'd like to see some biting it's probably not deemed appropiate for a children's cartoon; I'd be happy to see Kion use his claws a little more often though. Also Jasiri suspected Janja was more serious than usual, will the Guard realize this too any time soon?

Really enjoyable episode, it's a little far off but I'm already looking forward for the next.

EDIT

I just noticed there are hearts everywhere in Janja's song.

The shape of the light, the pattern on the floor, the shadows under Jasiri and Kion, the clouds, the cliffs and trees.


Now I'm wondering if this is foreshadowing or if I'm just giving it too much thought...

[zerodix]

saw it and love it!! oh this was such a relief after some bad episodes. ok thurston is absolutely a character i will never grow to like. the song and plot with janja and jasiri and their clans was cool!! i write a bigger review when i finish work..

[Ninclow]

The song was kind of unnecessary and forced, but other than that, it was decent.

[JackStover]

[quote="Ninclow"]The song was kind of unnecessary and forced...[/quote]
Aren't they all? I'm being facetious, but you could argue that the show would be just fine if none of the episodes had songs in them.

[Elton John]

I remember reading somewhere that the songs were necessary for the show, given the target audience, for a full single plot per episode, otherwise they would be forced to create two seperate stories per episode. Remember Rugrats? It would be like that without the songs.

I think it was an interview with Ford Riley?

[Kallo]

At least this song kinda served purpose and was somewhat fun.

Overall, it was a good episode. Was great seeing Jasiri and her family again. Scar felt a bit extra evil which is cool (I like that one point when his voice echoed; it had a nice creepiness to it). Fuli had her awesome moments, as usual. I was somewhat disappointed that Jasiri didn't have to leave the Outlands and ended up in the Pridelands with the Guard. I'd have loved that. xD I like that they poked a bit of fun at the "Lion Guard defend" catchphrase. It makes me think that they're hopefully realising how old it's getting, and are knowingly poking fun at it. At first with the flies immediately stopping them afterwards, and then with Thurston interrupting it. One negative thing I have to say is, while the action scenes have gotten a lot better, the animation still looks really sloppy and lazy and just... bad in them. Even the walking animations are still really poor. I feel at this point in the series, there is no excuse, especially for the characters to "slide" in the walking animations. I'm starting to think the animators are just being lazy and taking the quick and easy way out. Which is a shame.

Anyway, the one thing I TRULY picked up from this episode is that... by the Great Kings, the shipping fuel was OFF THE HOOK in this episode! This coming from someone who's not even a huge fan of shipping! xD During Janja's song, all I could think was "Yep, he totally loves Jasiri, doesn't he? These two are so gonna get shipped". But then we got that shot of Jasiri and Kion dancing. And then I thought those two are gonna get shipped even more than they already were! I'm actually wondering if that shot might be foreshadowing of romance by the writers/animators? Sometimes they like to do that. They even had hearts around them. The more I think about it, the more sense it makes that Kion would end up together with Jasiri and that's the reason he ends up leaving Pridelands before TLK2. Or... it could be the animators just teasing & poking fun at the shippers. At the same time, I think how great a chemistry Fuli and Kion have, and how much screentime and shots they are sharing together. It seems completely plausible they could end up together too. Which makes me think, considering the feeling of the song and the episode in general, that Janja might end up betraying Scar, reforming and ending up together with Jasiri. I dunno, both seem like good options for Kion, and I'd be fine with either one. Dunno about Jasiri and Janja, though. She'd have to be REALLY forgiving to end up together with Janja, but hey, it's a cartoon at the end of the day. Anything could happen.

For now, I'll leave you with this adorable Kion & Jasiri dance (thinking if I should add the gif to my signature?):