As I said earlier, I had two amazing concepts that came about. And as I jolted from bed this morning, the last one hit me after this dream I had. Possible spoilers, don't expect any though. The scene was the pridelands, somewhere out in the savannah. I distinctly remember walking through dejectedly, kicking stones and other various animals in my path. Eventually, I came to a large flat rock jutting from the ground. Rather angrily, I sat down on it and draped a leg so it was dangling over the edge. A few moments later, the rustling sound of padding paws came through the grass. I didn't have to look back because I knew who was there. "Simba?" came the voice from behind me. I snorted at him. "What do you want?" The voice was hesitant before speaking again. "To talk..." he commented. "I don't know if I want to talk to you." I said straightforwardly. "You're not the Simba *I* remember." There was a ground, and then I felt a big head push me from my spot on the rock and over the edge to the ground below. It wasn't a big fall, but tall enough for me to land on my feet. I turned, irate, to see a 'just as irate' lion behind me. (Simba, if you didn't guess by now) "I don't know what your problem is." he started. I cut him off. "Problem?" I started softly, "I feel betrayed, that's the problem! What made you turn into such a jerk?? That's not like you...that's not like US." I finished by turning around on him and crossing my arms. Behind me, Simba's voice spoke quietly but intensely. "A little over 4 years ago, you and I shared our tears, we share our pains, and we shared our tears. We have not changed at all. We are one." After he finished, I made a rather obscene sound. "Don't treat me like your daughter with this 'we are one' crap and the circle of life junk. Do you realize that you made us look closed minded and like a fool for most of the movie?" The lion Simba didn't seem fazed by this. "If you call being a protective father who does not want to see his daughter get hurt a fool, then I suppose I was. Then again, if this is true then you also have played the fool." "WHAT??" I said startled, "What the heck are you talking about? I don't have any daughters!" (by this time in the dream I was reeeeeealy hoping this wasn't a hint at something I didn't know about) Simba the lion nodded his head. "Yes you do. What about Siombe?" Well, this little piece had me flipping out internally. It was a major crossover that I didn't expect. "How did you know about...?" I started before he gave me one of those utterly devilish grins (you know, that one that is intolerably endearing and defiant all at once?). I sighed and grumbled. In practice, I had been more incorrigible as a father on a MUCK than he had appeared in the whole movie. "Say it with me now..." he teased. "We are one." I grumbled. Simba came up behind me and nosed the back of my head. "Very good. Now, we have other matters to attend to." Author intrusion: At one point I would have posted the entire contents of this dream to the list, however, I will cut it off at this point for purely personal reasons. If it is killing anyone that much, then mail me privately. Bottom line behind all this is that after having (even just that little part) of the dream, I felt a world different about SP. It didn't pack the immediate punch I expected, but it did manage to penetrate deep enough to leave a sweeter taste in my mouth than I thought initially. And considering the possible theories on the work copy origins, perhaps I can stand behind my musings before. -Simba W. -------Begin TLK Code 1.51------- TLK++++ A+ B+++ D++++ C L++ Mte++++ Pns++++ W++++ S++ Tsm++++ RLMH a18 cdnw++>+++ e+>++++ h iwt++++ limnrswx pl-> sm# -------End TLK Code--------- URL: http://www.lionking.org/~simbaw/