Inspiring Kings: Part 3.1 (Kimba, Me, and Community)
Previously, I wrote about how The Lion King influenced the way I am trying to understand and cope with my trauma. Here, I plan to discuss my relationship with Kimba the White Lion — specifically, the 1965 animated series.
But I won’t start by talking about how the show inspires me. Instead, in this portion, I’ll be talking about my experience with the fanbase.
As a kid, there were hardly any people I could share my love for Kimba with. The size of the franchise and its obscurity made it difficult. While some of my peers expressed interest, they never got fully engaged, nor had it in their minds to. Still, I made an effort to spread word about Kimba.
The more I rattled about Kimba, the more I was advised by adults not to talk about it too much. I didn’t understand why this was an issue until my final year of elementary school, when I learned I was on the autism spectrum. Eager to make friends, I adopted the social skill of expressing interest in other’s interests. Growing ashamed of my own special interests, I made room for others to speak while digging a hole to hide my treasure in.
Over the years, I learned to embrace my interests and my love for Kimba was reborn. Still, I didn’t share a lot about Kimba with anyone, assuming a lot of my peers wouldn’t be interested in it, so I shouldn’t bother. Even as an adult, I genuinely felt crushed by this. Not having anyone to share your special interests with is a lonely, painful feeling.
Then, in the spring of 2019, one of the most amazing things in my life happened. I was browsing through YouTube, looking through Kimba videos to pass the time, and in my mindless pursuing, I stumbled upon a channel titled Kimba’s Kingdom. Through this channel, I discovered a channel on Discord (a social media app), created for fans of Kimba old and new. I hopped onto what was originally a small channel of 11 people, which I admittedly didn’t do too much on.
Spring turned to summer. I had graduated from college and was searching for work. To cope with this stress, I gravitated towards my special interests and socializing. As I invested more time in my love for Kimba, I grew closer to the creator of the server, Bud Charles, and slowly we became friends.
Wanting to do something meaningful and being a huge fan of Kimba prompted me to ask Bud if I could help work on the server as a mod (short for “moderator”) He happily agreed. This led me to become a “Kimba activist.” I put in so much effort, recruiting online fans from other social media platforms, making suggestions on how to improve the way the server functioned, including recommending a channel for discussing theories and analysis. My growing confidence as a mod even led me to share some Kimba episodes and movies with my real life friends. I no longer felt alone and ashamed in my interest. I felt so happy and free.
Over time, the mod position on the Kimba server, unfortunately, became stressful for me. I was going to start an apprenticeship at a children’s theater organization, which I knew I needed to focus my energy into. On top of that, the stress of transitioning into a new life structure was coming to the forefront of my mind and bogging me down. I forced myself to step down from the mod position. And although I still loved (and love) Kimba with all my heart and soul, my attention shifted to other interests and events… And, for a period of time, away from the fan community I’d grown so attached to.
This loss of interest occurred when I had wanted to write and publish my “Inspiring King” series last winter. It’s a miracle I finished the Lion King article and got it published last month. That I’ve managed to regain some faith in and motivation to write.
And I have to write. I’m at another standstill, where real life events are again forcing me to be alone with myself. If I’m going to pass the time and feel productive, the way I did when I was a mod on the Kimba server, then writing is one of the best routes for me to take. Hopefully, by returning to my “Inspiring Kings” series and sharing my stories and analyses, I can inspire not only you, but myself, to grow and care about the world.
