History Main / KingofBeasts

* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** The ''Thousand Sunny''. It was even stated by Iceburg that it'll be the "King of the Beasts" in order to carry the "King of the Pirates" or something like that.

** One of Buggy's crew members is a giant lion.

* King Leonis in ''The Lion's Cavalcade'' by Alan Aldridge and Ted Walker.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'': Teostra and its female counterpart Lunastra combine the power and majesty of the lion with OurDragonsAreDifferent. They're both highly resilient, very quick, very strong and possess a lot of devastating flame-based attacks, including a Supernova move that launches a powerful blastwave outwards, the bane of any [[CloseRangeCombatant Blademaster hunters]]. In ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld'', there's a chance to meet and fight the two on the same quest; beware their special CombinationAttack!

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'': Teostra and its female counterpart Lunastra combine the power and majesty of the lion with OurDragonsAreDifferent. They're both highly resilient, very quick, very strong and possess a lot of devastating flame-based attacks, including a Supernova move that launches a powerful blastwave outwards, the bane of any [[CloseRangeCombatant Blademaster hunters]]. In ''Monster Hunter World'', there's a chance to meet and fight the two on the same quest; beware their special CombinationAttack!

See also PantheraAwesome, CatsAreSuperior. NobleBirdOfPrey often serves as an equivalent among birds. When you combine a lion (king of the beasts) and an eagle (king of the birds) in the same creature, you get OurGryphonsAreDifferent.

** The Book of Revelation refers to Jesus as the Lion of Judah, although his appearance in that section resembles a rather fearsome ''lamb''.

[[folder:Religion]]
* ''Literature/TheBible'':
** The tribe of Judah, progenitor of King David and his descendants, are represented by the image of a lion on their flag. Earlier on in Genesis, Jacob refers to Judah as a young lion.
** The Book of Revelation refers to Jesus as the Lion of Judah, although his appearance in that section resembles a rather fearsome ''lamb''.
** 1 Peter compares the devil, who is acknowledged elsewhere in the Bible as the (temporary) ruler of the world, to a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
* In Gujarat (home of the last surviving handful of Asiatic lions in the wild), the goddess Durga [[CoolMount rides on a lion]]. Elsewhere in India and the rest of the subcontinent, she rides a ''tiger'' instead.

[[folder:Restaurants]]
* In Medieval Times' dinner theatre shows, the emblem of the Red Knight is a lion rampant, so if he wins the tournament and becomes champion of the kingdom, this trope applies. His introduction by [[TheHost the Lord Marshal]] emphasizes this, describing the knight with a lot of leonine imagery.
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[[folder:Sports]]
* The mascot of the Kansas City Royals UsefulNotes/{{baseball}} team is a lion named Sluggerrr (yes, with three r's). His notable feature is his crown is somehow a part of his head. (As in, the points of the crown grow out the top of his "skull". [[ArtisticLicenseBiology Do not ask how this works.]])
* Both major league teams called the "Kings" (the Usefulnotes/NationalHockeyLeague's Los Angeles Kings, and the Usefulnotes/NationalBasketballAssociation's Sacramento Kings) have lions as mascots, and Sacramento even has [[https://www.sportslogos.net/logos/list_by_team/240/Sacramento_Kings/ alternate logos mixing a crowned lion with a basketball]].
* A number of national and club teams in UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball use the lion as an emblem, including the national sides of Netherlands and England ("Three lions on the shirt"), and English club teams Aston Villa, Chelsea, Middlesbrough and Millwall.
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* ''Franchise/{{EXTRAPOWER}}'': King Leo is described as the king of beasts, and is unique among animals in being blessed by the phoenix Eternya herself to elevate him into a talking, sentient, 200 year old lion of great wisdom.

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleKing1967'' is built on this stereotype, being about a lion king who is a {{Jerkass}}, but is betrayed and captured, so his more benevolent brother has to impersonate him.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleKing'' is built in this stereotype, being about a lion king who is a {{Jerkass}}, but is betrayed and captured, so his more benevolent brother has to impersonate him.
* In Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'', the lions are acknowledged as the kings of the savannah -- even by those species they generally prey upon.

* In Disney's ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', King [[UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionHeart Richard]] and Prince [[UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland John]] are lions. Richard (who also provides a StealthPun) fits the regal image perfectly. John, on the other hand, is scrawny and pathetic, and he notably lacks the typical majestic lion's mane to reflect this.

** In ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'', the Beastlands is a wild place where animals rule, so it makes sense the most powerful subspecies of the Guardinals -- the dominant species -- are the leonals, which resemble lions. (The most powerful of ''them'' is Prince Talisid of the Five Companions, although he isn't technically the ruler of the place, although he's likely the most influential being there other than deities.)
** In the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'', the patron deities for sentient monstrous beasts and various TalkingAnimal species are Nobanion the Lion and Lurue the Unicorn. He's their King and passionately hailed as leader by the predators, while she's their Queen and protects the gentler, more thoughtful sorts.
** In ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'', the (short-lived) rebellion of Broken Ones against their [[Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau Dr. Moreau]]-{{Expy}} creator, Frantisek Markov, was led by an ambitious lion-man.
* In the Path of War expansion to ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', the Golden Lion discipline is focused on leadership and teamwork.
* In ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'', lions appear in several contexts.
** The Simba, or werelions, claim authority over all the Bastet (though most Bastet would rather follow the Khan, or tiger tribe).

* A DownplayedTrope in ''TabletopGame/{{Ironclaw}}'': the royal family are grey foxes, the other Great Houses are horses, wolves, and boars, but it's noted that lions' charisma means they do well in local politics, and often manage to get some kind of leadership position.

* In the ''Webcomic/LittleTales'' AnthropomorphicAnimalAdaptation on ''Literature/TheManWhoWasThursday'', Sunday, the leader of the Council of Seven Days [[spoiler: and the superior of the undercover police, and possibly God]] is a lion.

** Solgaleo, the cover legendary of ''[[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon Pokémon Sun]]'', is a very large, stark white and powerful (and muscular) leonine being whose mane is evocative of a sun's rays, and hailed in Alola as being an emissary of the sun. The fact that it can rip holes leading to parallel universes as well as to [[EldritchLocation Ultra Space]] only adds to its regal awesomeness.

** To a lesser degree, [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY the 6th generation]] features Pyroar, a [[FieryLion Fire-type lion]] Pokémon that is the signature of the BigBad's team.
** [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamonAndPearl The 4th generation]] also introduced Luxray, an Electric-type lion Pokémon with X-Ray vision.

* ''Franchise/{{EXTRAPOWER}}: King Leo is described as the king of beasts, and is unique among animals in being blessed by the phoenix Eternya herself to elevate him into a talking, sentient, 200 year old lion of great wisdom.

Sometimes, this is portrayed as a profession (whether actually royal or not), especially in a WorldOfFunnyAnimals. Like with the [[MinerMole miner moles]], [[FirehouseDalmatian firefighter Dalmatians]], and [[SemiaquaticSpeciesSailor semiaquatic animal sailors]], lions are higher ups and in positions of power in political, corporate, and military professions.

One reason lions may have gotten this cultural cachet is the behaviour observed when a lion is visible to prey. Most prey in Africa act on what you can call an axiom, "A visible lion is a safe lion." This means that when a lion is seen beyond a certain minimum distance, prey animals will typically not attempt to flee it, because lions have poor running endurance owing to their undersized hearts and they typically will be able to escape it easily if it tries to reach them. Likewise, the typical lion is aware of this limitation and will not bother making a futile charge. So, what often happens in this situation is the prey animals will be milling about as if standing at attention, keeping an eye on the lion who looks like he is reviewing his troops like a king.

There is another possible explanation about the royal title. Let's remember lions have not always been exclusively African animals; they did live in temperate forests in the past, even in ''Ancient Greece''. This means lions were around not far away from Creator/{{Aristotle}}, while other powerful wild animals such as elephants and tigers have always been exotic critters within the European point of view. In ancient Greek and Anatolian settings, the lion was easily the top predator, outstanding even wolves and brown bears (European bears [[MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong outside Russia]] are much smaller than North American grizzlies and kodiaks): hence King of Beasts. Then the title became a meme and remained even when modern explorations made tigers, elephants and other exotic large mammals more familiar to general public and the European lions went extinct -- the last lions in the Balkans have been (unreliably) sighted in the wild [[TheHighMiddleAges in the 14th century]], but had vanished from the bulk of Europe well before that.

However, not all people agree about the lion deserving the noble tin: RealLife lions have many potential enemies to look for. [[https://youtu.be/sZJLUY3k3co Adult elephants, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, tigers, buffaloes, and Nile crocodiles]] are far too big and powerful to be killed by a solitary lion, and can kill in turn a fully-grown male lion more easily than the opposite. Meanwhile spotted hyenas, with their powerful crushing jaws, despite their reputation as humble scavengers, are actually feared by lions just like the latter are feared by hyenas, to the point that hyenas can actually defeat lions if they are in group. In addition, a popular misconception is that male lions are poor hunters due to the fact that the mane is supposedly a [[AwesomeButImpractical huge, impractical display structure]]; the lioness does most of the hunting. Given that male lions are kicked out of their pride at a young age, and must fend for themselves until they can take over a pride from another male, however, there's not much validity to this claim. Nonetheless, a male lion with a pride does typically leave the hunting to the lionesses, conserving his stamina in case he needs to either fight off rival lions or ward hyenas off either their own kill, or one made by his lionesses (although a male will still help with the lioness's hunt if extra muscle is needed to bring down bigger prey -- for example, [[https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/older-elephants-know-the-best-anti-lion-moves a herd of elephants won't consider lions a threat unless a male is present]]), and across much of its ancient range (from North Africa and the Balkans across the Levant, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and Persia to India, where elephants reappear), the lion was indisputably on top.

Interesting to note that many human cultures have or had a different hierarchical vision about the animal world. Some African people say the lion is the "king" but the elephant is God. In Indian tales, the elephant and the lion are often portrayed as they are contending their supremacy over all animals. In Europe before, and in some cases after, Christianization, it's the bear that is considered the lord of the beasts. The wolf has also had this reputation among other ancient European peoples (for example, in pre-Roman Italy). In Muslim traditions, the lion is respected (and there are a number of Arabic masculine names that mean "lion"), but it is the giraffe who is the "Queen of the Beasts" (for its elegance).

In many Eastern countries, the tiger often takes the role of the king of beasts [[TigerVersusDragon despite having to compete with what Westerners call the "Chinese dragon"]]. The tiger is often associated with the Earth (king of earthly beasts) and the dragon is associated with the Heavens (king of mythical beasts). The "[[AsianLionDogs Chinese lion]]", often outside Buddhist temples or homes as a protector of those inside, looks so unusual because lions were long since extinct in China when the Chinese first carved such statues; they have been theorized to be based on a kind of dog. Another points to the Jade Emperor origin stories of the zodiac of how the tiger became the king of beasts, as it was said that though the lion ruled first, the Jade Emperor disapproved of its tyranny and later bestowed the tiger with its title after showcasing acts of heroism throughout the natural world, with each deed as the black mark upon its head eventually forming the ideogram for king (王). This is the reason why Chinese tiger portrayals, also in the form of plushies and statues, are recognizable as being tigers for this ideogram on their forehead.

In pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, the jaguar had a similar status as the lion or tiger in the old world. Among the Maya, only rulers were allowed to wear jaguar pelts, and often incorporated the name "Jaguar" in their titles.

In the Bible (Book of Job) two animals are mentioned as "God's most powerful creatures", the Behemoth and the [[KrakenAndLeviathan Leviathan]]. Some think both are real animals: the first one may be the hippopotamus, the latter is presumably some kind of large sea creature (Leviathan in modern Hebrew language means "whale", though it could also be a [[ThreateningShark shark]] or a [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile crocodile]]). In DinosaurMedia, ''UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex'' has a [[KingOfTheDinosaurs similar reputation]]; its name even means "tyrant lizard king".

The title "king of beasts" is often also rendered as "king of the jungle", [[MisplacedWildlife even though lions live on the savannah, not in the jungle]] [[note]] Except for Indian lions, who of the moment of writing only live in the Indian Gir forest [[/note]]. The fact that lions essentially never set foot in a jungle has done nothing to make this inaccurate version disappear. Though some quip that a lion can be the king of whatever he pleases, because are ''you'' going to argue with him?

The title "king of beasts" is often also rendered as "king of the jungle", [[MisplacedWildlife even though lions live on the savannah, not in the jungle]]. The fact that lions essentially never set foot in a jungle has done nothing to make this inaccurate version disappear. Though some quip that a lion can be the king of whatever he pleases, because are ''you'' going to argue with him?

* ''ComicBook/MonicasGang'': Lionel's Kingdom (called Turma da Mata in the original), is formed by several CivilizedAnimals in a jungle, formally ruled by the aforementioned lion Lionel, who presents himself as a king.