Fanfic When your work pays off
I've read a lot of fanfics in my lifetime. Some were bad, other were good...But not many of them pulled me in right from the start.
The Lion King Adventures is so interesting that once you've started it, you can't just look away.
The fanfic has a serial format which works really well, I might add.
I can't picture this any other way, it's stuck.
It's like... watching a really good animation series. But with a little bit more saturated violence... Which I love.
The relationships between the characters are well established and the overall flow of the story is buttery smooth. The author has done a brilliant job there.
The villains are cheesy but in a good way. Remember those 90's movies? That's the same feel. It's epic and entertaining at the same time.
The humor is signature and there are plenty of scenes where you must bite your toes to stop the laughter.
As a whole, The Lion King Adventures is an epic experience that I'm sure everyone will enjoy. It has everything! Purring romance, cool adventures, epic battles, heartbreaking moments... Who doesn't love such tale?
Now, go ahead and read it!
Fanfic Great for all the wrong reasons
I used to come across a particular type of fanfic series, one that tried to basically translate animated movie franchises into bad Anime story telling conventions. In these types of stories, the protagonists are hopelessly derailed at best and for some reason hang out with OC's trying too hard to be One Piece protagonists. A common story telling device is an over the top Black and White Morality, understandable in a child oriented series but made exceedingly bizarre, with the villains being over the top rapists that you are meant to find cool instead of revolting, fulfilling simultaneously the teen writer's needs to express his/her "edgy" worldview. Hilariously stereotypical romances may occur, as do spontaneous rape to make the characters "sympathetic" and "sexy".
Lo and behold, after years and years, I have found a series that fullfills most of these critteria:
- Disregarding the character's original characterisation to match more closely a very botched, overly superficial ideal of bad anime? Check!
- Making up O Cs that aren't exactly Mary Sues, but nonetheless presented as wishful fullfillments? Check!
- Making up overthetop villain O Cs that try desesperately to be "edgy" and cool whilst actually being basically Stupid Evil? Check!
- Derailing not just antagonists and characters the author disliked into shells of their former selves? Check!
- Basically inserting everything your heart desires without concern for the setting? Check!
The Lion King Adventures (even the fricking name follows this genre's conventions!) is an almost perfect pastiche of these fanfics, as if the author had a Litmus Test and made sure all the answers were checked, with the same notion that respect for his favourite animated movie = make it into an Anime. But the really distinguishes it is that the author has opted for positively brilliant creative choices. Let's just say that some pairings and some characterisations are quite in line with the likes of HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Thus, instead of a boring, simply downright stupid "teen" fanfic, The Lion King Adventures will go down in history as a work that is amazing, the author's sheer genius silver what could had been cliché.
Fanfic The Ruler of Animated Films is Now the King of All Fanfics
Beauty is a rare thing in this world, and it must be appreciated in any form in which it appears. When I first stumbled upon The Lion King Adventures way back in its earliest days, I knew it was something special, but I could never have predicted how much it would change my life.
From the moment I began reading, I was hooked. The adventures of Simba and Nala pulled me in just as much as in the film, and it was simply a delight to read their struggles against Hago and Scar, the ruthless scoundrels hell-bent on killing them. As the series progressed, more characters appeared, such as Tama, Tojo, Shocker, Interceptor, and most famously, Haiba. In all my life, I could never have guessed that a character as entertaining and compelling as Haiba could exist, but he did, and still does.
Every little twist and turn had me gripped from start to finish. Every hilarious line had me laughing, every sweet moment or awesome scene had me smiling, and in one of the few cases this has ever happened, the sad scenes truly had me feeling for the characters. Following Simba and Nala on their journey truly helped me gain a new perspective on life, and their story remains as inspiring as it was in its original form in 1994.
Seeing the series end was a truly sad thing, but I could not have asked for a better end to it. And yet the end proved to be a new beginning, as it has left a strong legacy, and it is guaranteed to become as timeless as its predecessor.
This series reaffirms everything the original film teaches us, with a little flirtatious lion cub and what may be the best rogue's gallery in the history of fiction only adding to it.
The world is a better place for the existence of this series, as well as the original film. It has become quite clear that one can no longer exist without the other. They are as intertwined as Simba and Nala themselves.
I can find no other words to describe the beauty of all this, but you don't have to take my word. In fact, I would prefer that. Just go read the series, from start to finish. You will see what I mean. And when you are finished, perhaps you will feel that you have done something worthwhile, succeeded in fulfilling a true accomplishment, and then, maybe you too will find your place in the circle of life.