The Lion King Book Tag

Created by Bekah’s Bookshelf on YouTube.

You know, for a long time – and I mean A LONG TIME – The Lion King was my favorite film.

Not just my favourite Disney film, or my favourite kid’s film.

I thought it had the best score ever written. I thought each shot was a masterful work of art. I loved the voice casting and I think I even had a crush on Matthew Broderick for a while there simply because he voiced adult Simba. I know Jeremy Irons’ portrayal of Scar, one of the ONLY Disney villains ever to actually win (at least for a while) led me to explore more of Irons’ work.

And yes, I do have a very minor quibble about the lack of strong female characters in the film. In the stage show they address that by making Rafiki a female and having part of Nala’s motivation to leave Pride Rock because Scar basically sexually assaults her.

For twenty-five years, this film was my favourite. Most specifically because no one had ever done anything like Mufasa’s ghost in the clouds before, or since. That was the one scene I always compared to other films.

Then along came Moana.

Sorry, Lion King. You’ve been replaced.

But my love for you is still strong, so here’s the Lion King Book Tag!

I know it’s biologically impossible because of the rules Richelle Mead wrote into the Vampire Academy universe, but I would have liked to have seen dhampirs Rose Hathaway and Dimitri Belikov as parents. I’m not sure they want to be parents, so I doubt they would go adopting someone.

Rachel from Animorphs. She’s a punch first ask questions later kinda gal. Her trademark motto is “Let’s do it!” When she took over leadership because Jake wasn’t there, she rushed right into things without planning and it was a total disaster.

I’m picking Lord Voldemort. Sure, he made the Horcruxes because he wanted to be immortal, but it was pretty well-prepared of him to be able to come back from the dead like that. He also must have spent much of the year planning so that he could attack Harry right at the end of the school year. I guess the only thing he wasn’t prepared for was Harry himself. Ha!

I’m picking Hermione and Ron from the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling, because she made it obvious even from the first book that there was a child’s attraction/tension between the two, and we were all rooting for when they finally kissed in book 7. Even though Rowling herself has come out and said she wished she paired Hermione with Harry instead… I’m still putting these two together.

Elfangor from the Andalite Chronicles by KA Applegate, part of the Animorphs series. Elfangor grew tired of war and fighting and ran away with Loren to Earth (where he was happy), only to be tracked down by the Ellimist and set back on his true destiny: to bring the morphing power to the Animorphs.

My favourite love interest is Prince Brigan from Fire by Kristin Cashore. He’s the not-so-handsome prince who hates Fire when he first meets her, but grows to love her despite her monstrous beauty.

Ari and Janko from Maria V Snyder’s Study series. Janko grew so popular he got his own point of view in later books. I love how they bounce off each other, how Janko’s the happy-gp-lucky one and Ari’s the stoic one, how Ari’s the natural leader but Janko gets solo missions, the friendly almost-flirty banter between Janko and Yelena, just everything. They’re great.

Louise Rozett’s No More Confessions (Confessions #3) ends a little too quickly for me. It doesn’t quite wrap up all of the plot threads, like what happens with the songwriting workshop she starts attending: does she finish i? Does her songwriting and guitar playing improve? Does she make some dramatic gesture through song? The other forgotten subplot is the impossible assignmet Rose is given at school, to interview someone who had a profoundly negative effect on her. She never ended up completing the assignment and we never see the consequences of this. It’s just forgotten.

So basically in the Avena series by Marianne Curley, there’s this impossibly beautiful angel called Ebony who is the only girl in the universe who can conceive a child with the evil Prince Luca. So he kidnaps her to hell using a loophole of ‘free will’ and basically has this plan to force her to bear his children, which weirdly includes marrying her… but anyway, Prince Luca is kind of one dimensional and is supposed to be some version of Lucifer who industrialised Hell but really, I feel no sympathy towards him, he’s an evil prick who just wants to bang Ebony and turn her into a breeding factory for his evil progeny so yeah… (and also for some reason if Luca does manage to ‘consummate’ ie rape Ebony because she will never consent, then the angels, the good guys, have to give up on attempting to rescue her..)

Zoey Redbird from House of Night. Don’t even get me started, I have never read about a more elitist, ‘bullpoopie’ saying judgemental shithead of a privileged speshul snowflake  who cheats on her own boyfriend with her professor and uses loopholes to have multiple boyfriends yet slut-shames other girls. She ‘dies’ at the end of book 6 and that’s where I stopped reading, happy to imagine the fictional world was better off without her.

Black Beauty, written way back in 1877, teaches a very important lesson about cruelty to animals and that we must treat animals, especially work animals that we trust with our lives, with respect.

I don’t really read funny books so I guess the last one I read that made me laugh out loud was Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh.

Nemo
Nemo

About Nemo

A lover of kittens and all things sparkly, Nemo has a degree in English Literature and specialises in reviewing contemporary, paranormal, mystery/thriller, historical, sci-fi and fantasy Young Adult fiction. She is especially drawn to novels about princesses, strong female friendships, magical powers, and assassins.

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