#mada1

I WAS HOPING SOMEONE WOULD ASK THIS. I'm imagining an au where ahkj's final season instead covered the plot of the first movie but entirely from the lemurs' perspective. With apocryphal missing scenes and new subplots which would be impossible in the original movie's timeline about our ahkj lemurs spying on, scheming about, and integrating the zoosters into their society.

So when Clover recruits Alex, he goes along with it because he's reached the "ok, this might as well happen" stage of the film. I think the lemurs are still being covert about their true intentions cuz they're silly so what starts as "hey, giant freaks, come join us for a fun game" seems more and more like a Clover-designed bootcamp that Alex is not cut out for.

Marty and Gloria are juust sporty enough that they're game for it, they're really just humoring the lemurs who seem like fun hosts that keep the refreshments coming lol. However Clover won't lift her foot off Alex's neck and never lets let him sit down or tag out, and the challenges seem designed much harder whenever it's his turn.... He does NOT know why she's picking on him.

Normally, Clover would love to wield Alex as a weapon against the fossa. However, he's useless, and she's taken poorly to the idea because everyone keeps phrasing it like "wow, finally someone's here to do what Clover does except better!" How is he going to protect anyone better than her when he can't run, doesn't listen, doesn't give a shit, spends more time looking at his friends than at the coach, and seems completely clueless about the fact that some animals eat each other?

And I mean... Alex barely acknowledges the lemurs are people. 😭😂 To him they're kind of like strange fairy guides he keeps having to talk to. He's gonna piss her off just for standing there most of the time. Clover will use his lack of focus to her advantage and try to prove Julien wrong about Alex's potential (he's spectating from a shaded pavilion) and, overall, will be extremely unfair and gaslight him the whole time about it.

Ted: wow, Clover, you never trained us by throwing us in a mechanized rotating vat lined with poisoned cactus spears? Clover: I updated the curriculum. The next person who questions me about it goes inside the vat. Mort: me, me! i like the vat :D Alex: What about those of us who want to get OUT of the vat? Clover: (kicks the lid closed)

Maybe an apocryphal-timeline moment is in the middle of this, Marty gives Alex the pep talk and teaches him to run, which unlocks his mile-high pastrami on rye. At this point Clover's so unimpressed with him, she thinks her tail must be twitching about something else. So when he finally locks in with his predatory cat reflexes, they've been doing this ALL DAY, she loves a challenge... and it's finally getting FUN? The more unhinged he gets? The lemurs are all watching in excitement so it slips from everyone's notice that actually, if he's doing REALLY well, that could be REALLY bad. (Maurice notices.)

Like, I wonder how she would've reacted to the areival of the Zoosters, if she would've sided with Maurice about Alex being suspicious, what she would've done when he goes crazy with hunger, and if she would've helped fighting the fossa XD

Or what she'd do when Julien leaves in the plane to "explore other kingdoms"

I wish she was in the movies too! in ahkj-world she does have a reaction to all this, even conversations with King Julien and Maurice about it... off-screen. 😔 They created a Clover puppet for the stage musical version of the movie, so we're not the only ones who want to see her around. Anyway just for fun, I'll share my guess of what she'd do if she were there:

1) I don't think Clover would attack the zoosters! I've seen it said that she'd just kick Alex's butt and that'd be the end of it. But she doesn't attack the alligator ambassador even though he's an active threat. She's probably always weighing the costs-benefits of when to attack a 300lb predator. Despite her reputation, she actually does wait for when she's urgently needed. Clover loves a fight -- and she also loves using her discretion.

2) She and Maurice tend to be a united front, so I think she's on his side. Plus she has a twitchy tail letting her know something's wrong with Alex. But she can't deny Julien's point that the giants look like pansies... especially if she spies on them when they set themselves on fire later.

The crucial thing is her reaction to Julien's plan because I think she could be a little hurt about it. Saving everyone from the fossa is her job. The fossa are afraid of her. She's not indestructible, and sometimes she loses and lemurs get eaten, but she hasn't been just holding the line until someone else could get here. She's been the one who takes care of it. Especially bc the zoosters have NO interest in what's going on, while this is her passion. It'd kind of piss her off.

The lemur dynamics could adjust as well: Julien may callously suggest the plan without regard for Clover's feelings, or, since he can be her biggest believer, maybe he'd suggest it's her job to recruit Alex since it falls under her expertise.

3) For when Alex goes crazy, idk! I don't want to take it from Maurice that he's the one who saves Marty. Another quintessential Clover/Maurice dynamic is he fights at her side even though he's not a figher. She could totally join the fight at the end as well, but when the zoosters start kicking ass, maybe she'd stand back and watch, and be impressed!?

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As for what Clover would do for Julien's plan in mada2 to leave with the zoosters, I have three answers:

She has a serious problem with it. He's abandoning his responsibilities for a flight of fancy AGAIN.

Maybe she's in charge of the kingdom while he's gone, so she could be into it? But she doesn't feel great about going separate ways over this. Is leaving KJ and Maurice to fend for themselves in a strange land of giants really on the table?

She'd go with them!

By mada2's rules, leaving the kingdom is not a big betrayal. So maybe she'd be really excited to go conquer other lands. She loves morally dubious power as much as Julien.

That's another issue with ahkj and the movies—in mada2 he wants to force other lands to give up their homes and adopt his ideology. In ahkj this makes no sense because of what happened with Koto. Would the Julien who welcomes refugees and whose political stance is "why can't we all have a good time" really do that in mada2? without getting haunted by the ghosts of his past, lol? Then the reality is Clover would be super against it because it's what Koto would do. Or she's super for it because her way of dealing with Koto trauma is to become like Koto herself, which is what I guess Julien is also doing in this scenario. Then ahkj Maurice would nawt let any of this slide. So mada2 is not generally in character for ahkj.

Either she, kj, and maurice are just different people in this universe and leaving is not that big a deal. or their ahkj selves are destined to act out the plot of mada2 no matter what, so their reasoning is probably angsty and super troubled and juicy.

And just for fun, I'll tell you why I don't think Clover would stay behind: She puts Maurice in charge when KJ is missing, so she doesn't just seize the crown every chance she gets when she has other priorities. Clover does NOT stay home while the boys go out on adventures. They actually have to work to leave her behind in one episode. She likes to be in the center of the action. Leaving a gecko in charge is insane, but ultimately her loyalty is to protect King Julien, not the kingdom, so if it came to it, she'd bid the kingdom adieu bc she sees it as her job to make sure he doesn't die out there. (And because, let's be real, it sounds really fun and dangerous. She loves quests.)

A fundamental part of the Julien/Clover dynamic is she thinks danger is fun. He's really speaking to the part of her that wants to take that risk.

It's a very good absurd screwball workplace comedy about animals that are used to getting killed by larger predators. As a bonus it's funny, smart, sweet, and emotionally rewarding, and it has themes about family inheritance. It also incorporates a dozen ideas they originally created for the film but had to cut for time. like I discovered just recently that Skipper literally addresses Masikura by name in the movie dvd even though she didn't debut until ahkj in 2014! Given it was a decade later, it's overall a really timely and sweet homage to the first movie.

If you like my blog, there's also Clover. She's a major character in every episode and she's always making things happen. In a way she's the show to me bc ahkj is the only way to ever meet her. And King Julien is the fuzzy patron saint of finding something meaningful to celebrate when your situation is actually bleak. Their thing with Maurice became my favorite dynamic in any cartoon, they got the juice.