Tear Jerker / The Lion King II: Simba's Pride

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked per wiki policy. You Have Been Warned!

♫ Born in grief, raised in hate
Helpless to defy his fate ♫

• After Kovu and Kiara escape from the crocodile swamp, Kiara tries to play tag with Kovu, who doesn’t respond to it as much. When she tries to casually explain the game like it’s the most obvious thing, Kovu merely gives her a confused look, making clear he doesn’t even know what it is. Later on, when meeting back with Vitani, she asks if he wants to fight, which seems to be their way of playing. It’s a subtle showing of how Kovu wasn’t raised to enjoy something as simple and innocent as a game of tag.
• The death of Nuka. He goes after Simba to please his mother, only to be crushed by falling logs. For the first time in the entire movie, Zira rushes over and shows genuine concern for her son.
  Nuka: I'm sorry, Mother. I tried.
  • Would have been even sadder if they had used the original version.
    Nuka: *smiles* Well... I finally got your attention, didn't I? Didn't I?
  • The consequences given to Kovu, who is disowned by his mother and branded with a villainous scar after she strikes him in fury (even she needs to briefly pause from her fury in disbelief following this imagery). Keeping in mind Kovu, despite outshining Nuka and earning his constant jealousy, genuinely cared about his brother, being blamed for his death served as quite a gut punch.
  • Vitani's reaction is just as saddening. She looks just as horrified as Zira when she sees he's about to fall, and when he dies, she just says his name quietly, then bows her head in grief. Even though they spent most of their scenes bickering, she clearly loved him. Also, when we come back to this scene, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment where she lifts her head back up and opens her eyes with this broken look on her face.
  • Zira mourning Nuka's death and asking Scar to watch over him is a Tear Jerker for three reasons. The first one is that it reminds us that she actually loved Nuka, even if she was too unstable to show it. The second one is that, even after Nuka's death, she's still devoted to Scar and unable to get over her thirst for revenge. Then there's the fact that as per The Lion Guard, Scar's soul got wiped. He's gone-gone.
• Kovu being rejected by Simba, and seeing Scar as his reflection. Made even worse by the fact that he loves Kiara and no longer wanted anything to do with the plot to kill Simba.
  • After exiling Kovu, Simba says that he must follow his father's pawprints. But the kicker is that it was Mufasa's idea to unite Kovu and Kiara. The same guy that Simba thought would've banished Kovu had he been alive. And so in cruel and saddening irony, in an attempt to follow the perceived example of Mufasa, Simba ended up going against his own father's wishes and never even realized it until it was too late.
    • And to make things worse, it was originally planned for Mufasa’s spirit to appear to harshly tell Simba off for his selfishness, as not only had he approved of Kovu, Simba had also driven away Kiara by exiling Kovu, breaking apart both his family and the Circle of Life. One can only imagine just how horrified and guilt stricken Simba would have been if that did happen at knowing just how much he had failed and disappointed his father..
• The song, "One of Us", is one of the most emotional songs in the movie. Kovu looked so heartbroken while he was being cast out of the Pride Lands. It didn't help that all the animals attacked him all the way to chase him out, treating him like a pariah as Kiara could only watch helplessly as the other lionesses kept her from reaching him.
  • On top of it Simba is glaring at Kovu from on top of Pride Rock.
  • The depressing Face Palm that Rafiki delivers at the end of the song as he sadly watches the scene doesn't help either. It's almost as if he's representing us, the audience, and how we feel about Kovu being driven into exile. It's also somewhat of a Call-Back to a similar reaction he felt in the first movie when Scar announces his takeover.
    • Then there is the other Call-Back to the first movie in the scene, of the famous scene where Simba sees his reflection turn into Mufasa's. Only now it's an Ironic Echo with Kovu's reflection turning into Scar's (the page image).
• After all this time, it turns out Simba is still not completely over his father's death (even though he wasn't responsible for it). He shuns the Outsiders for their actions, thinking Mufasa would have done the same. Plus, he has a nightmare of not being able to save him in the stampede. Makes you wonder who's the real woobie in this.
  • Simba begging the dream version of his father to reach just a little farther so he can grab his paw, calling him "Dad" and letting out a desperate Big "NO!" as he witnesses Mufasa plummeting to his doom once more, tears in his eyes.
  • But at the end, he welcomes the Outsiders back into the Pride Lands. And he gets this message from his father...
    "Well done, my son. We are one."
• Kiara, devastated at Kovu's exile and frustrated with Simba's obstinate attitude, yells, "You will never be Mufasa!".
  • Simba's Stunned Silence when he hears this shows that he knows he screwed up big time. The equally stunned lionesses simply looking at Kiara as she runs crying into the den just kills it.
    • Kiara using her grandfather's name in her sentence hits especially hard. She knows that if Mufasa was alive, he would have never wanted to banish Kovu, knowing that the ambush was not his fault since he had been lied to his whole life.
    • The whole sequence would have been one hell of a lot worse if they kept in this deleted line from Mufasa's spirit as he scolds Simba for what he had done, as seen in the making-of featurette.
      Mufasa: You have let your family break apart, and in doing so, you have broken the Circle of Life!
• Upon further reflection on her father's words, Kiara is very heartbroken that her father and Kovu's mother are fighting a war that ended a long time ago. Upon learning that the Outsiders have invaded, she just couldn't bear the thought of her fellow lions slaughtering each other.
• Simba's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown during Zira's first attack. When it was all over, he could barely even get up.
• They somehow make Vitani's reaction to Kovu abandoning the plan genuinely saddening. She just lies there with confused Puppy-Dog Eyes as he walks into the den with Simba.
• Sure, his mother was an Ax-Crazy, deranged sadist hellbent on revenge, but that doesn't stop Kovu from mourning Zira after she falls to her watery grave. He simply bows his head in silent grief.
  • Likewise, Kiara clearly feels sorry that she was not able to save Zira, despite her best efforts. Her words echo the ones Nuka spoke to Zira.
    "Daddy... I tried."
  • It also doesn't help that while trying to pull Zira up, Kiara outright pleads "Zira, come on; let me help you..." She desperately wanted to give everyone a happy ending but failed.
  • Even though the cut scene of her was incredibly dark and sad in its own way, the way Zira goes out in the official ending is this in a way if you look carefully. Even after Kiara gets swiped at in an attempt to help her, likely trying to at least take Kiara down with her, Zira is still shown mercy by Kiara who states that she wants to help her. As Zira struggles to get back up, you can see the fear in her eyes before she plummets to her doom and a slight gasp after Kiara's offer, implying that she actually finally believes her. Unfortunately, by that point it's too late. In this regard, Zira may have died knowing that she made a horrible mistake and regretted it.
• Kovu struggling with how to tell Kiara about his role in Zira's plot. He's fallen in love with her and is no longer the person he was before in wanting to kill Simba due to his mother's orders. He's clearly sickened over having lied to her, and, let's face it, having to admit to the person you've fallen in love with that you were using them and trying to murder their father to invade their home isn't easy. When he ultimately decides to come clean with Kiara, his last words before he tries to tell her (before Simba interrupts) are "She'll never believe me, but I gotta try." Kovu clearly knows that if he tells her this, she will likely abandon him out of disgust. However, it's the right thing to do, so he must do it.

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