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Akril15 β Naanda Confusion
Published: 2012-12-20 08:58:38 +0000 UTC; Views: 9160; Favourites: 119; Downloads: 26
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Description
I'm sure many die-hard Lion King fans know about the character named Naanda who is featured in a piece of concept art on the TLK Blu-Ray. The caption of this picture identifies her as Sarabi's sister.However, something that not as many fans seem aware of is that earlier this year, two very early drafts of the script for The Lion King found their way onto the Net, both of them featuring Naanda (in fact, the caption of the picture of her is taken verbatim from the first script). Several interesting things about Naanda are revealed in these scripts:
1. In both drafts, Naanda is Nala's mother.
2. Naanda is only called Sarabi's sister in the first draft. [EDIT: First draft, not second.]
3. Sarabi has two other sisters in both drafts named Diku and Dwala.
4. There is no character named Sarafina in either of the scripts.
The odd thing is that despite this info being made public, virtually every drawing I see of Naanda calls her Sarabi's sister, and sometimes Sarafina even appears alongside her as a separate character. Even though I have frequently portrayed earlier versions of TLK characters as separate entities (e.g., Shani [one of Kiara's early names] and Kiara existing in the same universe as sisters), I find it strange how so many fans portray Sarafina and Naanda as separate characters.
Are they implying that Nala...has two mommies? Or that Naanda was born male, but became female shortly after Sarafina became pregnant by him?*
*Shrug.*
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Note: I don't usually upload Lion King stuff to DevART, but since this is where the majority of TLK fan art is uploaded these days, I decided to upload this picture here as well as TLKFAA so it stood a chance of reaching a wider audience. Also, this version of Naanda is an amalgamation of most of the common designs for her I've seen on DeviantART -- I'm not trying to copy any single artist's design.
If you haven't seen the early TLK scripts yet, you can read synopses of them here (links to the complete scripts are at the bottom of the page):
[link]
*Disclaimer: These are just rhetorical questions.
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Comments: 52
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Here's how I do it with Sarabi and her sisters:
Sarabi - Mother of Simba and Noxolo (Sarabi was revealed to be pregnant with Mufasa's second child after he died)
Diku - Mother of Ayo and Auni (cubs from An Unusual Choir)
Dwala - Mother of Mtoto (father was a member of Scar's Lion Guard)
Naanda - Mother of Nadra (father was a member of Scar's Lion Guard)
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You know, funny enough, I used to think Sarafina & Sarabi were sisters when I was little (and no, it had nothing to do with "all the females are related to each other in real prides" thing. I guess the two just gave off a sisterly vibe to me or something; I don't know). And, seeing that Sarafina is based off Naanda, I was kinda right. lol
And if you're wondering who I thought Nala's father was, I always thought it was some rogue, right from the beginning.
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In my universe, I put Naanda as Sarabi's sister, mother of Mtoto and Nadra (they are not the cubs from "An Unusual Choir", just saying). In any moment, Mufasa thought to put together Nadra and Simba, but Sarabi didn't like the idea because they were cousins, and instead of this, they thought about Nala and then the betrothal was made, making Nala's parents very happy and proud.
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Heh, yeah -- I kind of hinted at that hypothetical with the "Does this mean Nala has two mommies?" thing in the description.
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I think that people just like the idea of Sarabi having a sister, especially since so many of the "pride landers" look very similar to Sarabi. Β However, they don't want Simba and Nala's union to be incest (the reason Naanda was changed to Sarafina in the first place), so they just make the two separate characters. That way, Nala still has a mother and Sarabi still has a sister.
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The thing is that even without Naanda, Sarabi still has two sisters in the early drafts (Diku and Dwala).
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Well yes, but Naanda was kind of implied to be her closest sister. Β I think people just love the idea of Sarabi having a close, level headed sister.
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That seems like a bit of a stretch to me, though it has been a while since I've read the scripts, so I don't recall exactly how the sisters acted.
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As someone who includes Shani and Kiara in the same universe, it's to bring to life characters that have essentially been deleted and forgotten.
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they're lions so its not really a big deal.( let your head-cannons flourish)
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I think Sarafina and Naanda are separated characters. On my headcanon, Naanda is Sarabi's sister, and Sarafina is Sarafina, queen's right hand and best friend. That's basically how I also portrait Shani and Kiara, separate characters.
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Early versions of the script. Meaning not the true script. Meaning the director(s) or whatever didn't like it. Meaning the 2 are not the same. Meaning Sarafina is Nala's mom in reality and Naanda can either not exist or can be Sarabi's sister. There ya go.
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I think it's kinda like how you mentioned Shani and Kiara; they just use them as separate characters. Otherwise your Shani might as well be Kiara.xD
this image is hilarious though, Simba's like "...wait a minute..."
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True, I have depicted Shani and Kiara as separate characters. The thing is, Simba and Nala can have more than one cub, but Nala can't have more than one biological mother.
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I remember hearing somewhere that Lionesses in the same pride will sometimes suckle each other's cubs; Maybe Sarafina for some reason couldn't produce enough milk to feed Nala so Naanda took over the baby feeding.
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That idea almost works, but it still doesn't explain why both Sarafina and Naanda are explicitly referred to as Nala's mother, and don't appear together in any version of the story.
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They're both her mother because they both raised her; Not all family is blood-related you know.^^
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Why do you insist on making Sarafina and Naanda two separate characters, though? Other characters have had different names in other early drafts (e.g., one of Nala's early names was Nadra, Pumbaa used to be called Harold).
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Because you drew two lionesses here and Nala calls both of them "Mom".....My original comment was really just me stating how my brain made the impossible scenario you drew possible; I never said I insisted on makingΒ them two separate characters, but here they obviously are because you drew them as such.Β
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Aaaah, I see now. I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions like that.
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It's okay, don't worry about it.^^
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Could you be a bit more specific?
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This confusion is odd.
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Psh. She was a hermaphrodite.
NAILED IT. :I
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Perhaps Naanda passed away, and Sarafina is her aunt or adoptive mother? Or maybe.... SARFINA IS NAANDA! Because Sarafina's name is never mentioned anyway.
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Naanda is alive when Simba's son is born in both early drafts, so her dying wouldn't really make much sense. Your second idea makes much more sense, but for some reason, nearly everyone portrays them as two separate characters.
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So where did people get he name Sarafina?
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The TLK credits and various other pieces of TLK media, such as this one: lionking.wikia.com/wiki/File:S...
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Ahh. Well then, she couldn't be Naanda.
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That doesn't make sense -- you seem to be arguing that Naanda isn't Nala's mother because Nala's mother isn't named Naanda in the final draft of the movie. They're still both Nala's mother, and I don't understand why fans would portray them as two distinct characters on the sole basis that they don't have the same name.
I mean, Nala's name was going to be Nadra at one point. Would you say that an early version of the TLK screenplay containing a female lion cub who was Simba's childhood friend and became his mate when they became adults isn't Nala just because she was named Nadra in that particular script?
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Hm, I guess you're right. But it just seems strange to me. Perhaps Sarafina is still Naanda, they just changed he name.
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Hmm....This made me think about Naanda, 'n what I'll be using her for.
That's it.
Naanda's gonna be a dude in my headcanon, period dot end.
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Best answer to the "Who is Nala's father?" question ever.
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xD. If you think about it, it IS pretty cool. I mean, I'm a solid supporter of the 'Scar=Nala's Dad' theory[Have been since I was 3], but maybe I'll have Male!Naanda in one of my alt. universe canons. Now, to go and design Male!Naanda. Although Naanda will still be dude in my regular headcanon, BECAUSE I CAN.
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I never actually thought about Naanda being Nala's mom; I suppose it never really registered in my mind. Now that I think about it *is* and interesting concept. Perhaps Sarafina *is* Naanda, but for some reason she chose to go by a different name? I will have to ponder this further...
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Since Nala's mother in the early scripts is named Naanda and her mother in the finished movie is named Sarafina, I'd think it would logically follow that the two are one and the same, yet many people still call Naanda a cut character and treat her and Sarafina as two different characters.
I'm just speculating here, but perhaps Naanda's name was changed because it was so similar to Nala's.
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Huh. I've never heard that bit about Nala being Naanda's daughter in early scripts. I see them as two different characters because I think they both have parts to play in the story. Oh well.
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Sorry for the late reply, but I just realized something about your comment that I wanted to ask you about: if you never heard about Naanda being Nala's mother before now, why did you say that both Naanda and Sarafina "have their parts to play in the story" if you never read the drafts that featured Naanda and thus never saw what sort of part she actually played?
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I had only heard of Naanda being Sarabi's sister. And what I mean by parts to play, is that they each had/have some significane no matter how small.
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I still don't quite understand your logic. If a character in a movie/book/game/etc. has a name, he/she is obviously going to play a part in that movie/book/game, large or small, but virtually all we knew about Naanda prior to the early scripts' discovery was her relation to Sarabi.
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I'm afraid I don't quite follow your reasoning. It's hard to compare Naanda and Sarafina when Sarafina's role is so small in comparison, but to me it seems like Sarafina's role is essentially a pared-down version of Naanda's -- they both play supportive members of the pride who take part in hunts (Sarafina did this in the musical) and caring mothers. There's really not that much difference between them (especially when you look at a character like Scar, who was a huge, muscular, brutish, slightly deranged, not that intelligent rogue in the early drafts and a thin, scrawny, soft-spoken, manipulative, plotting brother of Mufasa in the movie).
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That's ok. I can see where you're coming from.
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Interesting... I think I'm just as confused as Simba is in the picture.
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Hmmm maybe a maneless lion or has both genders or a futa
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