Fanfic / Pride Lands Generations

The Wahamiji ^* : From left to right: Kufa, Ushindi, Vita, Giza, Kuchinja, Tauni, Njaa

"Pride Lands: Generations", by the author of A Different Lesson, is one of the older ranks of fanfics in The Lion King (1994) fandom, having been written among the slew which were created after the release of The Lion King II: Simba's Pride on LionKing.org. Taking cues from another famous series of fanfics which were written after the first film, "Chronicles of the Pride Lands", by John Burkitt and David Morris, as well as incorporating some common Fanon notions of the time and even a few OCs created by other fans/writers, it acts as a Prequel that tells the tale of the first Lion King and his son, Dhahabu, as they deal with an incursion by a rogue band of brothers who believe they should be the rightful rulers of the Pride Lands, as well as a forbidden romance between the latter's sister and the son of the head rogue.

If it isn't obvious already, the story is told to deliberately mirror the plot beats of Simba's Pride (with nods to the first film as well, of course) as a means of suggesting an archetypal, mythic tale. There are also a number of other Call Forwards and Shout Outs to either tie the past to the future or to act as Dramatic Irony. While perhaps not as dark and gory as some Lion King fics out there, it doesn't shy away from bloodshed and gruesome injuries, or details of real-life animals and predatory life.

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This fic provides examples of:

A-C

• Aborted Arc: The story is subtitled "Dhahabu's Tale"; combining this with the fic's overarching title suggests (and the author confirmed this) that there were initial plans to continue it as a series, with each of the Lion Kings up to Simba getting their own day in the limelight. However, this was never completed; the author stated that it would have been far too much work, that he lost interest in it as time passed and life got in the way, and that in any case he didn't believe he could provide a better or more satisfying alternate life story for Mohatu, Ahadi, and Mufasa than were given in The Brightest Star or "Chronicles of the Pride Lands."
• Abusive Parent:
  • Damu the elephant is incredibly verbally abusive to his son Tembo, constantly berating him for supposedly being weak by showing emotion (especially crying) and being gentle and compassionate instead of tough and using his size to dominate. He also spanks him, whip-like, with his trunk. In the end, however, he is shown to have a heart, be willing to change his mind, and to treat his son with respect and acceptance, with his earlier behavior hinted to be a combination of species supremacy and selfishness mixed with the loss of his mate. That said, the latter seemed as much a Morality Chain on him as anything else, and his softening comes right when he's about to die, so it is debatable how much he should be forgiven; still, he is clearly more complicated than he first appeared.
  • Unsurprisingly, Kuchinja is even worse. Jahili notes that he had never been kind to him, would not even let him rub against his leg as a cub without pulling away in disgust, and told him from birth how he had caused his mother's death and was "generally useless." It all goes downhill from there, with Kuchinja applying all manner of insulting epithets, threats, and physical attacks; exiling him and declaring him to no longer be (or never having been) his son; and generally treating him like weak or traitorous vermin because he won't live up to his name or be a loyal enabler of his revenge. Despite this, Jahili still loves him and is desperate to earn his respect and affection, only turning on him after learning of his part in Sulubu's death and the threat of taking Taraji for his own.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: Kuchinja threatens to have Taraji kidnapped and held hostage, as well as to either kill her or tell her the truth about Jahili's identity, unless his son helps him bring down Mfalme (or at least doesn't get in the way/warn Kiburi). While he would welcome any of these results, the real reason he makes these threats is to get Jahili to admit his forbidden love for the lioness.
• Animal Stampede: The Wahamiji set off one of these twice as part of their siege of the Pride Lands—first a herd of wildebeest, to drive it into a crocodile-filled river so that the resulting slaughter will deprive Kiburi of food, and then a crash of rhinoceros to make a forest topple and create a dam in another river to dry up the pride's water supply.
• Animals Respect Nature: Beyond how this applies to the Lion King franchise at large, Dhahabu is noted by Tembo to have so taken to his father's lessons after Sulubu's death that he "wouldn't even step on an ant" and that instead of ignoring the trees and grass, he would greet a particular kigelia tree every morning. This is further reflected in the speech he makes to his cub Mohatu, quoted below (thus setting him on the path to becoming the Friend to All Living Things that he is in The Brightest Star). By contrast it is stated repeatedly that Giza did not respect the Circle of Life or follow its dictates (one of many reasons both Mfalme and his father stood up to him), and Kuchinja clearly is just as dismissive of anything except power, cruelty, and strength as the law of the jungle.
  Dhahabu: Do you want to know why the herds really bow to us? ... It's because they respect us. They know we have the power and strength to hunt and kill them. But they serve us at their own discretion, if they all joined together they could destroy us without a second thought!
  But they don't do that because they see it as an honor to be our prey. When we hunt them, they will always run because they wish to protect their lives and that of their offspring, but they know it is a part of the Circle that some must die so that others may live.
  And that is why we in turn must respect them, and know we are not superior to them. We may have the hunting skill, but if not for them we would starve. They know we have the intelligence and strength of heart to rule the lands with fairness and make sure all get enough to eat, but we must always keep in mind that the animals we hunt play a critical role.
  Each animal must be loved and honored for what it can do. The ant...so small, yet able to carry a tremendous weight. The eagle, soaring on the currents of the air, where we can never reach. The baboon, with his flexible hands that can do so much more than our paws. ... If not for the hyenas, the savannas would become overwhelmed by the bodies of the dead. ... every animal is important.
• Arranged Marriage:
  • Played with. Rather than one of these already existing due to tradition or prior interactions between prides, Dhahabu and Taraji hitting puberty and needing to be kept...occupied leads Mfalme to send his son to Kusini to arrange a mateship himself. To further add more choice to the matter, Adhimu doesn't allow Dhahabu to make his own pick between his daughters, with Mahiri instead arranging it via Engagement Challenge.
  • Also, in Backstory it's eventually revealed that Giza tried to do this with Njaa and one of the pride's lionesses (Malkia's sister, it turns out), but Njaa only wanted to take a mate by her own choice and refused; amazingly, his father went along with this, though more to save face so it wouldn't appear his son was successfully defying his authority.
• Artistic License – Biology: Damu leading the elephants, since they are actually led by matriarchs; the author stated this was a deliberate choice, not an error, so as to focus on his and Tembo's relationship and to reflect life under Giza (it's noted there's an elephant matriarch who rejected Damu and accepted Mfalme's rule). How big Tembo becomes in only three years is also unrealistic, clearly included just to allow him to be a dangerous and badass foe in the battles to come.
• Avenging the Villain: In this case, the Predecessor Villain—Kuchinja is seeking not only to reclaim the throne he believes should be his, but to slay Mfalme for having challenged and killed his father, Giza. To a lesser extent this also applies to the rest of the Wahamiji, and to Mwoga (who blames Taraji for contributing to Mjinga's death).
• Badass Boast: Tembo's comments to Kuchinja when preventing him from kidnapping baby Mohatu and throwing him out of the pride dens are extremely satisfying after hearing the villainous lion's smug Evil Gloating and seeing what lows he's willing to sink to.
  Tembo: You have two minutes to vacate this cave, and the lands of Kiburi, before I rip open your underbellies and spill your bowels out on the stone. Or would you like to see what your prey looks like after you've eaten it? (as Kuchinja and his brothers slink out) I should just break your back right now...but Mahiri needs healing and I can't take time out for recreation.
• Badass Family: Per usual, the royal family of the Pride Lands consists of nothing but these, considering how long it takes to kill any of them in battle (even Sulubu, as a cub!), and how often they defiantly stand up to their enemies again and again while showing cleverness, strength, and prowess on the battlefield. Even newborn Mohatu gets to claw Kuchinja's muzzle and throat to make the villain drop him. It also applies to the rulers of Kusini, based on how Mahiri comports herself (especially in the Final Battle) and what little we see of Adhimu. On the villainous side, the Wahamiji are certainly no slouch in combat either, considering they're willing to take on an entire pride that also has a bull elephant as an ally (Kufa in particular puts in a great showing here, even if it doesn't go well for him in the end), and throughout the story they also perform numerous acts of fiendish cleverness while besieging Kiburi.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: Sulubu, when he makes his offer to teach his brother how to hunt and Dhahabu, used to his teasing, questions his sincerity.
  Sulubu: Dhahabu, you're my brother, and you're gonna be the Lion King someday. How would it look if you had to depend on your brother to do all your hunting?
• Big Bad: While the Wahamiji as a unit (barring one or two of the lesser evil among them) act as the fic's stable of villains, and further have Mwoga, her sister and mate, and eventually her son serving them as Co-Dragons, the driver of the plot and the one behind all the sinister schemes to take over the Pride Lands is Kuchinja, eldest son of Giza.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Tembo starts out young in achieving this trope, seeing as he's only a baby elephant when charging into Kivuli and saving Sulubu (at first) by fatally impaling Mwizi with his tusks. He does it again as a young adult even more awesomely when he arrives in the den in time to protect Mahiri and keep Kuchinja from kidnapping her newborn cubs—right after Kuchinja boasts that there was no one to help her. And he does it a third time during the Final Battle, when he is able to catch Kufa beneath his foot just as he is leaping for Guyana.
  • Malkia, coming to Dhahabu's rescue when Kuchinja has him pinned.
  • In a series of awesome saves near the end of the Final Battle, Jahili leaps to prevent his father from attacking Dhahabu, only to in turn be saved (after Kuchinja is about to deliver a fatal blow) by Taraji, then Dhahabu.
• Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Mfalme is torn apart by a pack of jackals at the same time Taraji and Jahili are mating (and, it turns out, conceiving their cub)—with intercuts between the scenes. The fact Mfalme is the ancestor of Mufasa and Simba, while the Star-Crossed Lovers turn out to be the ancestors of Zira, only makes the juxtaposition all the more meaningful. Interestingly, Mfalme doesn't die right away, which could be seen as reflecting the fact the cub is still growing rather than actually getting born at the time. Heavy-handed, but it does fit the Circle of Life theme as well as the fic's darker tone and leaning into Nature Is Not Nice (even as it should be respected).
• Bloodier and Gorier: In complete contrast to both the original film and Simba's Pride, numerous injuries of great severity are depicted onscreen, with the most distressing examples being the graphic nature of both Sulubu and Mfalme's fatal injuries.
• Blood Oath: After the death of Giza, Kuchinja swears to reclaim the lands from Mfalme and rule as the rightful king. He does so by dipping his paw in his father's blood and marking his chest with it; apparently he neither bathes nor is caught in the rain in the years since (which, living in the desert of the Majonzi or under the trees of the nearby oasis, is justified), since he still has it as of the time of Dhahabu's adolescence ten years later. The blood is finally washed away from his slain body after the Final Battle.
• Bookends: Thanks to the Framing Device, the story begins and ends with Mufasa and Simba under the stars.
• Call-Back
  • When Kuchinja and the twins try to kidnap Mohatu but are stopped by Tembo, the latter mentions that if he didn't have to help the injured Mahiri, he would "break [their] back." This ends up being exactly what he does to Kufa during the Final Battle, and his expression at the time suggests he's thinking of the prior threat as he does so.
  • Tembo remembers pulling the stone over Sulubu's grave after Mfalme is killed, as he will now have to place one for the former Lion King as well.
  • After Jahili confesses his identity to Taraji, she remembers what he told her during their first days in the cave together—that if she knew the truth about him, she would hate him...and how she had replied she could never hate him.
  • During Kuchinja's Evil Gloating that precedes the Final Battle, he references a detail from the Backstory of Mfalme's challenge of Giza, that in order to lead the tyrant away from Mfalme's mother Sisasi, a young Malkia had gotten her to play dead, then promised him she would mate with him later to give her the chance to "dispose of the body" (keep her safe until Mfalme had won). Kuchinja does so by claiming her "promise" should be kept with him.
  • As she realizes during the aborted kidnapping of Mohatu that Kuchinja has never known love and does not even know what it is, Mahiri pronounces that if he does not turn from his path of vengeance, he will end up with an empty life, alone and with no one to spare him pain, and that she hopes she is there to see it. This all comes true at the end of the Final Battle, and he recognizes it.
• Call-Forward: Being a prequel, the story references a number of aspects of either the original film or Simba's Pride, as well as fanfics and other canon materials.
  • Dhahabu and his siblings encounter hyenas in the elephant graveyard, just as Simba and Nala will do generations hence.
  • Tembo's speech about the land, and how Dhahabu and all of them are a part of it, shares a number of traits with Mufasa's teaching of the Circle of Life to cub Simba, particularly when coupled with some of the landscape description that precedes it.
  • The Wahamiji live in an oasis on the edge of the desert hardpan, the latter known as the Majonzi. The oasis isn't described in the same lush and expansive terms as the jungle where Timon and Pumbaa will live in the future, suggesting this is a smaller area (perhaps like the one where they splash Simba awake), but the hardpan in question is most definitely where Simba will collapse after being forced to flee into exile.
  • Dhahabu's plaintive thought, "I'm sorry, Father...I tried," when he believes he has lost to Mahiri, will be echoed with far more tragedy by both Nuka during his death scene and Kiara after she fails to save Zira from falling into the river gorge.
  • The line "I have large pawprints to fill," uttered by Dhahabu to Adhimu, calls forward to the iconic image of cub Simba stepping into Mufasa's huge print.
  • The Wahamiji driving the wildebeest into the river to be slaughtered by crocodiles, as well as the rhinos that are made to topple a forest and create a dam, both call forward to the wildebeest stampede in the gorge.
  • Taraji and Jahili's seemingly-doomed romance, with the latter as The Mole for the Big Bad, reflects the same plot with Kiara, Kovu, and Zira.
  • Mwoga's talk of hyena glory to Ukware sets up for the visions of Gur'mekh in "Chronicles of the Pride Lands."
  • Dhahabu instilling in his son Mohatu a love of and respect for the animals, plus the reference to his star one day being the brightest, are both Shout Outs to the storybook The Brightest Star.
  • His final exchange with a dying Mfalme, "I touch your mane"/"I feel it," is a reference to the ritual greeting in "Chronicles of the Pride Lands" (and is in fact officially chosen as such at the end of the story).
  • Mfalme's horrific death, engineered by a cunning and ruthless villain who wishes to take over the Pride Lands, is a precursor for the same thing happening to Mufasa, although the method is different (nor is it made to look like an accident) and the villain in question is the son of the previous king rather than the Lion King's brother.
  • Dhahabu taking the pride to meet Kuchinja's for the Final Battle is described and staged rather like Simba doing the same to meet Zira and the Outlanders at the end of Simba's Pride.
  • The Final Battle takes place in the same gorge as the wildebeest stampede; this is also where Jahili contemplates suicide beforehand.
  • When the truth about her romance with Jahili comes out, Dhahabu demands of Taraji, "Is it true?" and after a long moment where she struggles with herself, she answers, "Yes, it's true." This exchange of course mirrors the one between Simba and Sarabi regarding him supposedly being responsible for Mufasa's death, except here the questioner is asking it in Tranquil Fury rather than disbelief and anguish.
  • Diwani has a walking stick, just like Rafiki, and he uses it in just the same way (though for rapping Dhahabu's paw, rather than his head). He also references the stubbornness of the Pride Lands royal line and their tendency to become misguided, something which will be both seen and called out in the films as well as "Chronicles of the Pride Lands."
  • Cheko discovers a new (but very familiar) catchphrase when he tells Dhahabu not to worry about the details of his advisorship: "Hakuna matata! Hey...I kinda like de sound of dat..."
  • Rafiki's iconic "It is time" is also stated in Dhahabu's thoughts when he is about to roar to summon the animals for the presentation of his sons at the very end of the story.
  • The hyenas (specifically, Mwoga, Mjinga, and their son Ukware) are revealed to be the ancestors of both Jalkort in "Chronicles of the Pride Lands" and Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed in the first film.
  • Zira (and through her, Kovu) is eventually revealed to be descended from Taraji and Jahili. On the one hand this suggests her evil was In the Blood, since she is related to both Kuchinja and Giza; on the other hand, she could have taken after the goodness in Taraji and Jahili if her mind had not been poisoned against Kiburi by first her father, then Scar. This also means that in a strange way, she did have a claim to the throne, and that by becoming Kiara's mate, Kovu has finally joined the two branches of the families together as one again.
• Calling the Old Man Out: After the truth comes out about Jahili's love for Taraji, Kuchinja lays into him for being weak, foolish, and disloyal—but Jahili gives as good as he gets. Not only does he point out the folly in the damage to the land and its resources that his father's siege has caused ("Have you not thought of that? All your attacks...they only serve to erase the future you wish to preserve!"), he lashes out at last for the abuse and cruelty his father has heaped on him, as well as his constant valorizing of Giza.
  Jahili: Forget about your damn throne for once, Father! Forget about the past, forget about what you have lost—it's irrelevant, it's elephant dung! I am here before you, now. I am your son. Why can't you be happy for me for once in your miserable life? ... Grandfather is dead! A tyrant is dead! He is everything I am not, and will never be!
• Character Death:
  • Sulubu. His tragic death takes place in only the second chapter, but lingers over the rest of the story, particularly Dhahabu who blames himself for it. Even before it is learned that the Big Bad ordered his death, so that Dhahabu can get justice and finally heal, there are repercussions for most of the main characters which affect all their interactions going forward.
  • Mfalme, who like Mufasa is a literal Sacrificial Lion. His death is even more dramatic than Sulubu's (and in a number of ways, more painful both physically and emotionally), and it's what kicks off the fic's climax, seeing as learning who was behind it (and how to track them down) is what drives Dhahabu and the rest of the pride to go face Kuchinja and finally bring him to justice; it also leads to Jahili's attempts to bring down his father, whatever the cost, to atone for his (inadvertent) part in the death, as well as the reveal of his relationship with Taraji.
• Character Witness:
  • Mfalme has Tembo travel with Dhahabu to the Kusini Pride to act as this, relying on an in-world claim to elephant honesty as a means of helping convince Adhimu that his son is who he says. Slightly subverted in that Adhimu notes knowledge of such a belief, and his own adherence to it, could allow someone to exploit it, but when combined with Mfalme's scent-marker it's enough to do the trick.
  • Several times during and after the Final Battle this is required, whether to convince someone to stop the fighting/spare an opponent or to offer forgiveness afterward.
    • Cheko steps forward to defend Jahili, explaining how the lion confessed the truth to Taraji when he didn't have to, wants to stop Kuchinja, and loves Taraji so much he was willing to kill himself if he had to go on without her. All of this both convinces Dhahabu to intervene in the battle between Kuchinja and his son, as well as to pardon him after the fighting is over.
    • Simana speaks up on Njaa's behalf, telling the story of how he refused Giza's Arranged Marriage to her because he wanted a lioness who actually loved him and came willingly. She also testifies to Taraji's intelligence and insight, claiming she could not have been deceived as to Jahili's true nature and deserves to be with the one she so clearly loves.
    • Tembo also gets to act as this again, adding his own faith and trust in Taraji's heart as capable of finding good in a Villainous Lineage.
• Circle Of Extinction: Dhahabu and Kuchinja perform the mutual hero-and-villain version of the trope, just before they are interrupted by Taraji and Jahili, although it is also a case of them taking the time to recover after both having been injured by each other. Kuchinja actually mockingly lampshades the trope ("If you continue to encircle me in such a manner, you will only make yourself lightheaded"), inspiring Dhahabu to reply, "Your throat is the first thing I will tear out, I think."
• Colon Cancer: Including the subtitle for the story that Mufasa tells to Simba turns the fic's entire title into "Pride Lands: Generations: Dhahabu's Tale."
• Coming of Age Story: While it can be argued that the story is as much about Taraji and Jahili growing up and learning to make their own mature, independent choices, the Pride Lands heir Dhahabu is the one who, like Simba before (after) him, must weather hardship and trauma before facing the savanna and its dangers as an adult.
• Contrived Coincidence: The moments when the two main couples (Dhahabu/Mahiri, Taraji/Jahili) first encounter each other happen at the same time, with each of them gazing into each other's eyes where emotions run wild and everything seems to change. Lampshaded by the narrative, but still played perfectly straight as destined to happen thanks to the mythic nature of the story. Interestingly, only one of the four (Dhahabu) seems to feel Love at First Sight; Mahiri is understandably still doubtful of this unknown foreign prince, while Jahili and Taraji simply feel a strong connection and a desire to help/get to know each other.
• Cruel Elephant: Damu is portrayed this way in his Establishing Character Moment, mostly in how he treats his son, Tembo, but also in his general arrogance toward lions and his nasty attitude toward Mfalme and Dhahabu specifically. Over time this ends up dialed back and subverted just before his death, when Tembo is able to defend himself and his choices (by appealing to his mother's memory, relating Sulubu's death, and noting how he can work to make the savanna more like his father would like if he is Dhahabu's advisor). The end result is Damu apologizing and noting that while it's too late (and he's too stubborn) to change his ways, he can at least give him the elephant blessing, so that they reconcile and part on a genuinely moving note.
• Crying Wolf: Thanks to learning Jahili is Kuchinja's son, Taraji doesn't believe him when he tells her he truly does love her—he's been lying to her the entire time and so can't be trusted, and she doesn't understand how he could while still using her to get information for the Wahamiji. (To be fair, he wasn't sure himself if he could be a useful spy without bringing harm to Kiburi, but he was so desperate to earn his father's love that he tried anyway.) Ironically, the whole reason he told her the truth about himself (other than his guilty conscience and to make sure Kuchinja didn't first) was because he thought she wouldn't believe his warning about Mfalme unless she knew where he got it from; in his defense, he admits to not being a good liar (he only gets as far as he does through omission, Exact Words, and careful editing), so he probably didn't think he could come up with a plausible alternative source.
• Cub Cues Protective Parent: Played with. Danger to cubs does result in protection arriving several times (Mfalme and Malkia right in the opening chapter, when Damu threatens Dhahabu, and Tembo when Kuchinja attempts to kidnap Mahiri's cubs). In the elephant graveyard, Dhahabu tries to invoke the trope if the hyenas harm him and his siblings, but Mwizi correctly surmises that no one knows the cubs are there. Despite this, Mfalme does show up again (drawn by the vultures and the cubs' cries, rather than Zazu as Mufasa was), but while he ends up killing one of the hyenas for their actions, he is not able to get there in time to save Sulubu.
• Cycle of Revenge: The Backstory of the founding of the Pride Lands is, sadly, based on this. After interfering when he was raping one of his subjects, Mkase (Mfalme's father) was exiled by Giza. Returning later after Mfalme had grown up thanks to a drought making food scarce, he begged for forgiveness, only to be fought and slain before his family's eyes. This in turn caused Mfalme to track Giza down, challenge him, and leave him dying of his wounds. Kuchinja and his brothers, banished by Mfalme, swore to kill him and reclaim their lands, leading to the siege in the fic's present-day events. When the Wahamiji succeed in killing Mfalme, Dhahabu and the pride in turn track them down to kill them (and Kuchinja is more than ready to kill Dhahabu too, so he can finally retake the throne). Breaking this cycle is in the end what both Jahili and Taraji are determined to do so as to finally bring peace.
  Dhahabu: It was Giza's own suspicious nature that led him to kill Mkase...which set in motion the chain of events that leads us to this moment in time.

  Jahili: Dhahabu did nothing to you—and killing him will not bring Grandfather back. All this will lead to is suffering and death, on both sides. Why must you be so blind? Your actions only condemn us all to more and more atrocities!
  • Unfortunately, the cycle still continues even after Dhahabu's day, as Mufasa reveals in the epilogue that Taraji and Jahili's grandson misunderstands the story of his grandparents, thinking they were exiled out of hatred and rejection rather than to keep their being too many males in one pride (and willingly, on their part). So he raises his daughter to harbor thoughts of revenge on the Pride Lands, which she is only too happy to pursue after she and the other followers of Scar are exiled by Simba...since she's Zira. Only when her son Kovu and Kiara become mates, and the two prides rejoin for good, does the cycle finally come to an end.

D-F

• Darker and Edgier: In general, the fic tends to show the direct results of things which the films ignored, glossed over, or used Gory Discretion Shots for, but it also shows darker and more serious consequences of events or plot points the films did use. The visit to the elephant graveyard this time not only results in severe injuries but two deaths, including that of a cub; the Backstory for the Kusini Pride includes a character who was held captive by humans and a cub being killed for not having been sired by the king or an official pride member; Kuchinja actually attempts to carry out on Dhahabu's cubs the threat of kidnapping (or worse) that Zira strongly implied in regards to Kiara; Mfalme suffers an even more gruesome and onscreen death than Mufasa; and not only does the Kiara of this story reject her Kovu at first when the truth of his The Mole status is confessed, but he falls into such despair he almost commits suicide. "The Circle of Life is not always gentle," indeed.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Or in this case, brother. Played with in that at first Taraji has no idea who or what Jahili really is, only seeing him as a lonely exile she keeps drawing closer to, and when she does learn the truth, she at first is just as angry and rejecting as Dhahabu would be. But once she calms down and thinks matters over more clearly, she realizes she still loves him and wants to continue seeing him, even though she knows how Dhahabu (and probably the rest of the pride) will react if they find out. While she doesn't do this to spite him, she does see it as a way to put an end to all the fighting and death, whatever her brother thinks. True to form, he doesn't take the reveal well at all when it comes...but in the end, after his own soul-searching, advice from Cheko, and seeing just how much Jahili is willing to sacrifice to stop his father and protect Taraji, the young Lion King changes his mind as well.
• Death by Childbirth: Jahili's mother Tisho died giving birth to him; Kuchinja, of course, blames him for this—not out of grief or love for her, but because she had been "stolen" from him.
• Death Equals Redemption:
  • To an extent, this holds true for Kufa, since once he is trapped by Tembo and knows he is going to die, the fear and despair allow him to let down the mask of cruelty and hate he had grown into in his years of exile so as to regain some of the warmth of his cub self. Simana, watching, still encourages Tembo to kill him because she doesn't want him to go back to being a monster, instead to die while he was himself again.
  • Subverted with Kuchinja. While he does have a Heel Realization that allows him to apologize to Jahili and to Face Death with Dignity, he otherwise only allows himself to be killed so as to not have to live with the knowledge of his failure or that another was ruling his lands. He does hope for a better judgment from the Kings for this, but considering part of him still wants to keep planning a final treachery, his death is not likely to bring actual redemption, merely peace of a sort.
• Death Is Dramatic: Even more so than Sulubu, Mfalme's death is played for as much sorrow, tragedy, irony, and impact as possible, and rightly so; unlike Simba, who didn't have very long to grieve before suddenly having to run for his life (and Mufasa was already dead when he found him), Dhahabu gets to find his father while he is still alive so as to hear his final words, and while he is adult enough to understand death, he is also suffering from the similarities to Sulubu; add this to his already well-established insecurity and uncertainty, and it's no surprise he's nearly broken, again. Even with the long, drawn-out nature of the moment (and some of the dialogue), it's still heartbreaking to read.
• Defector from Decadence: While there are other reasons (his love for Jahili, his not actually enjoying bloodshed or slaughter, realizing Kuchinja has gone mad), the one which finally compels Njaa to a Heel–Face Turn is learning of Giza's Attempted Rape of a cheetah that led to the whole conflict with Mkase, as well as the lie regarding Mfalme's challenge (which he thinks Kuchinja concealed from him but it turns out he didn't know either). All of this sheds new light on the sort of lion their father was and so convinces Njaa that none of them are worthy of the Pride Lands or its throne; seeing Kuchinja expose Taraji and Jahili's romance, then try to kill his own son, is the last nail if one is even needed at that point.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When Mahiri realizes that thanks to what Giza was like, Kuchinja never knew love or even what it truly was, he has a brief moment of shock before contemptuously rejecting her sympathy.
• Double-Meaning Title: Chapter 5, "To Win a Mate", refers to both the combat Dhahabu has to fight against Mahiri and the process of Taraji and Jahili getting to know one another. Chapter 8, "A Son's Grief", while obviously referring to Dhahabu dealing with Mfalme's death, also describes what Jahili goes through with Kuchinja (although the grief is for being rejected and losing any chance of changing his father's mind about him, rather than death).
• Dramatic Irony: Just the fact that so many characters and events from the past parallel those of the first film and Simba's Pride makes for a great deal of this writ large (Mfalme receiving a horrible death thanks to a group of animals driven by the Big Bad, a set of Star-Crossed Lovers where one is the son of the Big Bad acting as The Mole, an encounter between hyenas and lion cubs in the elephant graveyard, the desert and the gorge playing prominent roles, the mirroring generations and intertwining bloodlines, and so on). But there are also some more specific points, whether between the Pride Lands' past and present or only within the fic.
  • In Simba's Pride, Kiara was a terrible hunter and had to learn from Kovu. In this fic, Taraji is the amazing hunter and has to teach Jahili (which is actually more in line with how lions are in the wild). On top of that, when they meet he is so weak from lack of food that she has to carry him to shelter on her back, just as Kovu would carry the smoke-overcome Kiara generations hence. And while Kovu deliberately planned to find and "save" Kiara via Engineered Heroics, Taraji and Jahili's meeting genuinely happens by chance; the irony, and specifically the fact that after deciding to become The Mole in Kiburi he happened to run into (from his perspective) the worst possible pride member (a member of the royal family might be more likely to recognize him or his backstory, and would give him information far too useful to secretly sabotage Kuchinja's plans) contributes to his fainting spell.
  • The terms of Mahiri's challenge are that Dhahabu can only claim her as his mate by winning the fight against her. He loses...but still wins her, because of the manner of his loss—not due to being outfought or badly wounded, but because he cannot bring himself to harm her, cannot commit to the fight and still pull his punches, and he would rather she be with someone who respects and protects her, even if that isn't him. It's also in contrast to Simba, who had absolutely no problems fighting Nala but never managed to beat her in a fight despite very much wanting to, lost a fight against her simply by their recognizing each others' identities, and then became mates without fighting or a test even entering into it. Also, amusingly, Dhahabu succeeds in pinning Mahiri after she pins him twice...and then when he realizes how close he came to killing her and backs down, he gets thrown and pinned again after all.
  • Right as the two main couples are meeting and first falling in love, Kuchinja and his brothers are starting their siege of the Pride Lands, resulting in cross-cuts between scenes of love and friendship and those of slaughtered wildebeest and a murdered head huntress. Although a bridge between the scenes is the fact Dhahabu and Mahiri's courtship is begun through combat.
  • Mufasa reveals in the epilogue that Tembo died the day before Simba's birth, so he sadly cannot meet him. He also mentions in passing (without naming him, so that Simba won't recognize him later) Timon's carefree lifestyle in the jungle near the Majonzi, in the company of a warthog. This leads his son to laughingly say, "Boy, am I glad I won't ever meet him!"
• Driven to Suicide: Jahili, after he tells Taraji his true identity and she rejects him. If he had given any thought to the matter at all, this is likely what Kuchinja would have hoped for (or at least expected) when the truth came out. Thankfully, Cheko happens to interrupt Jahili and talk him out of it.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Although he goes through a great deal of sorrow and tragedy, losing both his brother and his father, and several months of terror and stress, in the end Dhahabu is able to save his pride, stop the Wahamiji, and bring peace to the Pride Lands. In the process he learns lessons in forgiveness and not rushing to judgment, aids in the redemption of several good lions who otherwise never could have found it, establishes new traditions and guarantees a future of prosperity with new blood, brings happiness to his sister, and gains the confidence and wisdom he needs to be a good king. As Mufasa says to Simba in the prologue:
  "Good will follow evil, hope will follow despair. It is like a rainstorm: shadows and gloom may sweep across the land, but there is always sunshine on the other side. And you must never avoid the storms the Circle brings, for this will only lengthen your journey."
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Subverted with Taraji and Jahili, at first. Unlike Kiara with Kovu, Taraji initially refuses to believe that the mysterious lion she has fallen for, now revealed to be the son of her enemy, genuinely did love her and did not mean to use her, instead rejecting him with equal parts cold rebuke and tearful fury. In Kiara's defense, she knew from the beginning who and what Kovu was (just not about Zira's scheme or his part in it) so that their love wasn't based on a lie, and by the time Zira made her move, Kiara had already seen evidence of Kovu changing and being genuinely loyal to her and her father. In Taraji's defense, as soon as she calms down enough to think things over more clearly, she realizes that she was being too harsh (Jahili still confessed the truth to her willingly, and everything he told her about himself except his exact lineage was true), and once she gives him the chance to prove himself in stopping Kuchinja and saving her brother, she does forgive him.
  • Played straight after the Final Battle when Taraji forgives Dhahabu instantly for the awful things he said to her after learning of her romance with Jahili, helped by the fact she knew how bad things looked from his side and that he in turn calms down and changes his mind, forgiving and pardoning Jahili thanks to his actions in Kiburi's defense. The pardons of Njaa and Tauni straddle the line, since on the one hand they are given with very little evidence (especially on Tauni's part) of deserving it, but only after persuasive testimonials are made on their behalf. And since everyone at this point is tired of fighting and bloodshed, and those pardoned will be going into voluntary exile after relinquishing all claims on the Pride Lands, it's less forgiveness, more "out of sight, out of mind."
• Elephant Graveyard: Not only does the one from the first film appear again, it is now given a name: Kivuli. Aside from being a Call-Forward, its appearance actually acts as a plot point, since it's the fact it's where elephants go to die that enables Tembo (coming to visit his mother's bones) to aid in saving the day against the hyenas this time around.
• Empathic Environment: Aside from the sun eventually setting near the end of the Final Battle so that the gorge becomes lost in shadow, a storm eventually starts brewing during the violent fights between Mwoga and Taraji, and Kuchinja and Jahili. Although lightning punctuates the battles at dramatic points, it does not start to rain until afterward, when understanding and forgiveness has been reached and everyone is seeking out healing.
• Engagement Challenge: How Dhahabu gains Mahiri as his mate. As a sign of just what a strong-willed and assertive character she will be, it is Mahiri herself who sets the challenge—to fight her, with Dhahabu having to take her sister as his mate if he loses. Naturally it acts as a Secret Test of Character on several levels: as she herself says, it shows right from the start whether he is prone to violence or has a joy of killing, and how far he is willing to go to get what he wants, and during the fight he also gets to show his noble heart by being merciful, accepting defeat, and granting her both her freedom to choose his fate and her happiness.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones
  • Well, not "evil" as it turns out, but even before certain members of the Wahamiji perform a Heel–Face Turn, it's quite clear how much Jahili loves his uncle Njaa, and more importantly how much the latter loves him.
  • On the other hand, despite how cruel and terrible a villain he is, Kuchinja did greatly love his father, Giza, which is why he is so determined to kill Mfalme and take back the Pride Lands. While he doesn't seem to care much for his brothers (though he does show shock and anger at seeing the bodies of Kufa and Vita, albeit more at being deprived of their battle prowess), they do seem to care about each other to various degrees.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Njaa is only too happy to stay behind with Jahili while the others head off to incite the jackal pack against Mfalme—because while he wants Mfalme punished for killing Giza, he does not enjoy the slaughter the way his brothers do, or wish to witness such a horrific death. Judging by his reaction after the attack itself, Tauni feels much the same way. And Njaa ends up inadvertently confessing to his nephew that he does not want to reclaim Kiburi at all through such cruel and vile means. All of this, naturally, plays into their Heel Face Turns during and after the Final Battle.
• Evil Gloating: While Kuchinja indulges in this repeatedly throughout the fic, his words just before the Final Battle are especially nasty and arrogant—taunting Malkia over Mfalme's death (as carrion whose name he can't even remember), suggesting she should fulfill her promise to mate with Giza with him instead, and goading Dhahabu into attacking by admitting to having ordered his brother's death and relishing the "lurid details" Mwoga supplied while describing Sulubu's fate. He also threatens to take and seduce Taraji for his own to goad Jahili, to his regret.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Ukware listens in on Taraji and Jahili right as they are discussing Dhahabu's cubs (specifically, that they should not speak of them "any more" and the princess shouldn't even have told him of their birth). Then he gets to hear them declare their love for each other and even witness them having their First Kiss, all so he can tell everything to Kuchinja.
• The Exile:
  • For much of the story, Jahili is cast out from the Wahamiji for having a conscience and so refusing to aid their plans of conquest and vengeance, and later for being exposed as a liar and secretly in love with the enemy. At the end of the story he is a different sort of exile, pardoned by Dhahabu but compelled to wander the savanna since he could not stay in Kiburi with so many males there.
  • Njaa and Tauni, as well as Taraji, end up joining him in this secondary, voluntary exile, and are stated to have eventually found new lands and started a pride of their own, subverting the trope.
  • Mfalme and his parents were also exiled, in Backstory, thanks to Mkase interfering in Giza punishing a recalcitrant pride subject, which naturally ends after Mfalme challenges and kills Giza as an adult. At this point it was Kuchinja and his brothers who were then exiled.
• Expy: Most of the main characters, and a few supporting characters, are clearly based on or inspired by characters from the original film or its sequel, either by their appearance, their personality and role in the story, or both (and sometimes also by their fate), but with enough differences to make things unexpected.
  • Mfalme: As the wonderful dad character and ruling lion when the story starts, he fills Mufasa's role. He's also the one being plotted against by the Big Bad (albeit with more understandable motivation), and while he does receive a terrible death that traumatizes his son, it comes much later in the story when the latter is an adult, and they get to have a last moment together and quite a few final words.
  • Malkia: The queen of the pride, taking Sarabi's role. Rather than serving as a Defiant Captive of sorts after the Big Bad takes over, she instead helped bring down the Big Bad's villainous father from within, though she still gets to stand up to him as well at various points in the plot, as well as provide some very timely advice to the suffering hero.
  • Dhahabu: The protagonist, a young prince who must grow up quickly and suffer through trauma before he can become king of the Pride Lands, is in Simba's role. While he does suffer from some arrogance and naivete early on, he gets over this much quicker than his antecedent does, and while his trauma for most of the fic involves getting over his brother's death rather than his father's (though he still blames himself), he gets to grow up with his father, learn how to be a king, and even take a mate and have cubs before his father is taken from him. That said, he's just as crippled by self-doubt and insecurity as Simba is, possibly more.
  • Taraji: The female lead who falls for a lion that (initially) is The Mole for the Big Bad, is in Kiara's role. However, she is the protagonist's sister rather than his daughter, and thus has a lot more agency, badass hunting (and fighting) skills, and ability to call out both her lover and her brother for their actions.
  • Mahiri: The protagonist's love interest, taking the role of Nala. However, as the daughter of another pride's king (a friend of Mfalme's) she is an outsider (which might be viewed as a nod to the fandom notion that the meaning of Nala's name, "gift," reflected her having been presented to Mufasa by a foreign pride, except the author has stated he wasn't aware of this until after the fic was completed, making it only a fun coincidence). Although there is no Arranged Marriage, she does put Dhahabu through a test before she will agree to be his mate, so has a more active romantic role than Nala does, but in the end she's still as determined to protect the Pride Lands from the Big Bad, and has a number of badass scenes (including playing a key role in the Final Battle).
  • Jahili: The Mole who serves the Big Bad, only to eventually turn on him and join with the Pride Lands' lions after becoming Star-Crossed Lovers with a lioness there, takes Kovu's role. Unlike Kovu, however, he never believes in his father's vendetta or approves of his plans and actions; ironically, he gets put through the wringer a lot more than Kovu despite thus not deserving it, thanks to his Kiara being a lot more assertive and less easily forgiving and a few other mistakes he makes which have dire consequences. He makes up for it by getting to stand up to his father even more aggressively and furiously than Kovu did Zira. Because his mate isn't the future queen, he ends up Walking the Earth with her and his remaining uncles at the end.
  • Kuchinja: This story's Big Bad is something of an amalgamation of Zira and Scar. He has the former's motivation (seeking revenge for a deceased loved one's death and wanting to rule the Pride Lands in their stead) and the latter's scarred appearance taken up a notch (with a bit of the filmmakers' original intention to have Scar be an unrelated rogue). Like both of the canon villains, however, he is cruel, ruthless, and mentally unstable, willing to manipulate and abuse (whether emotionally or physically) to get what he wants but also incredibly happy to dish out as much bloody violence as possible. That said, there are small hints he has a bit more to him than his sociopathy, unlike Scar and Zira he actually has a somewhat-understandable motive due to being the son of the previous king Mfalme ousted, and while he isn't redeemed by any means he does at least have a Heel Realization just before death.
  • Mwoga, Mwizi, and Mjinga: The two female hyenas both seem to have similar personalities to Shenzi (not surprising, since they are sisters), while Mjinga speaks and acts a great deal like Banzai, and they too work for the Big Bad and are encountered by Pride Lands cubs in the elephant graveyard. Unlike the first movie's hyenas, however, two of them get killed while they in turn succeed in killing Sulubu.
  • Cheko: A very late-appearing character, this meerkat fills the roles of both Timon and Pumbaa for Jahili: aside from his species, he's very comedic, has marked selfish tendencies, and has similar speech patterns to Timon at times, but he also has a good heart, works to aid Jahili in his plans against Kuchinja, and offers simple but warm wisdom like Pumbaa. While he doesn't participate in the Final Battle, he does help Jahili and Taraji catch up to where their prides are facing off.
  • Diwani: While he doesn't perform the same roles in the plot as Rafiki did, this mandrill does act as a shaman and advisor to Dhahabu at the story's end, and has a similar whimsical sense of humor if his bantering with Tembo is any indication. He also urges Dhahabu to create a shaman role in the Pride Lands, essentially setting up for Rafiki's existence in the films.
• Eye Scream:
  • Kuchinja lost an eye to a leopard, leaving him with only a mass of scar tissue and a deep, dark, empty socket. He seems to be aware of the Primal Fear which lies behind the trope, as Jahili notes that his father knows how much his injury bothers his son and likes to torment him with it. Father of the savanna, this one.
  • Mfalme also loses an eye to the jackal pack.
• Face Death with Dignity: In the end, seeing that he has no allies left and cannot defeat Dhahabu, Kuchinja realizes at last, only when it is too late, that Jahili truly did love him all along and the value it held, and understands it was losing his own father who had rejected love that caused him to do the same thing. So he relinquishes the throne to Njaa to do with as he sees fit, apologizes to Jahili for not being the father he wanted, and allows Dhahabu to kill him without a struggle.
• Failed Attempt at Drama: Cub Dhahabu seems prone to these. Not only does he try unsuccessfully to bluff the hyenas that his father is on the way and will soon make them regret threatening the cubs, but when he earlier tries a similar tactic with Damu, his fear makes his voice emerge as a cracked squeak (which he then tries to make sound deeper like Mfalme).
• Faking the Dead: As a minor plot point in Backstory, Mfalme believed Giza killed his mother as well as his father because, after separating, he could find no trace of her except for her blood. It turns out that while she was battling Giza, a young Malkia managed to whisper this plan to Sisasi from hiding, then distracted the tyrant by offering to mate later so she could get the wounded lioness into hiding. Only after Giza is left for dead and his sons banished does Malkia bring Sisasi out to meet her newly-crowned son.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: A fair number, to go with a more realistic depiction of animals in nature, rather than the (relatively) kid-friendly ones from the films.
  • Right from the very start, the death of Sulubu. When Mwoga and Mjinga are chased away by Mfalme, the lion cub is left with a missing ear, a forepaw nearly chewed off, a very deep gash over his chest, an eye swollen shut, his right hind leg pulled from its socket, and his underbelly completely shredded and blood-soaked.
  • Mfalme's death is just as bad. His sides, chest, and shoulders are shredded, his face scratched and with a flap of skin torn loose, one eye is torn out, and his underbelly is so eviscerated (it's mentioned the jackals had pulled out some of his intestines) that he has to use one paw underneath himself to push them back inside and hold them in place. What brings this to the same level (aside from the damage to his guts) is that unlike Sulubu, he lingers all night, suffering in pain, just so he can get the chance to say good-bye to Dhahabu. As difficult as it is for him to do so, it's understandable that Dhahabu gives him a Mercy Kill so he can rest.
  • It gets less detail than the others, and is thankfully over quickly, but Tembo breaking Kufa's back with his foot is still rather gruesome.
  • Vita, Mwoga, and Kuchinja all end up dying from having their throats ripped out, the latter two after a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• Fantastic Racism: While the hyenas have the usual hatred for lions (because of being denied more food resources as well as power and influence in the savanna), the lions are generally shown not to suffer from the same feelings in kind, with first Mfalme and then Dhahabu defending their role in the Circle of Life to his cub and implying that it is individual actions which should be condemned, not entire species. The further implication is that this open-mindedness is eventually worn down over time, and successive generations of hyenas continually causing strife and discord in the Pride Lands, until culminating in the decree given by Ahadi in "Chronicles of the Pride Lands" (thanks to Gur'mekh and Jalkort) and the attitudes of Mufasa and Simba. And of course Kuchinja and the other more evil members of the Wahamiji consider hyenas useful only as subordinate servants, and other animals as beneath their notice at best, good only for prey at worst. On the other side, Damu also has contempt for lions, both for denying the elephants the food and power he thinks they should have and for their perceived (or actual, in some cases) arrogance (a bit of hypocrisy considering his loyalty to Giza, let alone his own ego), but this is clearly limited only to him, not all elephantkind.
• Fatal Family Photo: Since animal characters can't have family photos, the spirit of this trope is implied when, immediately after Kuchinja comes up with a plan to murder Mfalme, the Lion King is seen being intimate with his mate, playing with and doting on his grandcubs, and bonding with his son over how proud of him he is—showing such an overdose of familial bliss is a sure sign that in some way or another it will be placed in danger or outright shattered.
• Final Battle: Like both the first film and Simba's Pride, the fic's climax is a fairly large combat between opposing forces for the fate of the Pride Lands, as well as resolving several character arcs, settling (one way or another) the various quests for revenge, allowing characters to achieve peace, and tying different plot threads together. By the time the initial melee, several one-on-one duels, and a great deal of verbal sparring has ensued, there have been a number of Big Damn Heroes and Leave Him to Me! moments, lots of Internal Reveals, and Family Unfriendly Deaths. But at the end of it all, good wins out, love finds a way, and forgiveness or even redemption has been granted.
• Flat Character: While this charge could be leveled at any character who isn't part of the main cast, it's especially true of the Wahamiji other than Kuchinja and Njaa, who get very little dialogue (the twins Kufa and Vita are even lampshaded by Jahili as being "as laconic as the shadows they resembled") and mostly exist to up the threat factor, add extra muscle, and carry out various schemes (especially the more unprincipled ones that Njaa and Tauni can't bring themselves to do). For the twins and Ushindi this may be justified in-story by having only been cubs when they were exiled, leaving only Kuchinja to shape their development, but Tauni has less excuse. That said, a little more is hinted at their characters by the thoughts of the lionesses fighting them during the Final Battle, and Ushindi at least receives a POV scene, which is more than can be said for the others.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: Taraji first starts falling for Jahili while she is nursing him back to health; it's from malnutrition thanks to his poor hunting skills, not an illness, but the same principle applies.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In retrospect, the fact that one of the hyenas compares Mfalme unfavorably to Giza, while not standing out from Damu's praise of the tyrant, should have been an indication before the reveal that the three of them worked for Kuchinja and had been tasked to kill as many of Mfalme's cubs as possible.
  • When Mfalme tells Dhahabu the story of how Giza murdered his father before his eyes, the prince compares this to his own experiences with Sulubu, then thinks to himself that thankfully "such a thing could never happen to him." While he fortunately doesn't get to watch it happen, he certainly does see the aftermath.
  • The sheer number of indications that Mfalme is going to die in Chapter 8 is actually a bit overwhelming—he gets to mate with Malkia one last time, is seen being extremely loving and devoted with his son and grandcubs, tells Dhahabu he is proud of him, shares a Last Kiss with his mate, claims he can handle Kuchinja or his brothers if he runs into them, and is told by Dhahabu (after he is too tired to join him on patrol) that "I'll see you tonight." Not to mention the almost angelic halo the sun makes around his mane as he leaves, or the fact that while he's actually on patrol he not only gets to have a last beautiful view of his lands, he hopes to himself that he'll still be around to see how his grandsons turn out when fully grown and notes that he's had a difficult life that has yet brought him peace. What keeps the Trope Telegraphing from breaking all disbelief is that the reader already knows of Kuchinja's plan to "feed him to the jackals"...so that instead of being overly obvious, the foreshadowing acts as painful Dramatic Irony.
    If the Great Kings decreed his allotted years had been achieved, he would go with pride and even a certain relief...knowing his kingdom was in capable paws, and that the Circle would remain complete. His rest among the stars, if it came soon, would be well-deserved.
• Fourth-Date Marriage:
  • Taraji and Jahili seem to fall in love fairly quickly, but most of this is due to the relative shortness of the fic (and its narration), since at least seven months actually pass between their first meeting and their officially declaring their love to one another (and they're said to meet once a week during most of this time). While the process before this isn't shown in extreme detail, there are several well-written conversations in which they explore commonalities and differences and develop as characters to provide the needed realism; by the time the rising action begins, it's believable that have a genuine relationship.
  • By contrast, Dhahabu falls in love with Mahiri at first sight, and it only seems to take one conversation (albeit a very heartfelt and meaningful one) before she returns his feelings. To be fair, they're both quite young and Dhahabu has just been hit by puberty, plus he is still unable to get over losing his brother; clearly the poor guy needs someone else to rely on, and Mahiri's common sense and stability are a boon to him. At least their fight beforehand was for him to earn her paw in marriage rather than a rivalry or a means of recognizing one another, nor are they suddenly gaining feelings to resolve an arrangement they once detested, so there's a contrast to Simba and Nala.
• Framing Device: The story is presented as one which Mufasa tells cub Simba the night after they returned from the elephant graveyard (in other words, the night before the stampede in the gorge). This makes for a number of sad and painful bits of textbook Dramatic Irony (things the reader knows are coming which the characters do not). The fact said story contains a great deal of darkness, blood and death, and even frank discussions of sex both reflects Mufasa's initial demurral in telling it (that it "isn't for a cub's ears") and is lampshaded in the epilogue when Simba is left shocked, embarrassed, or in tears over various parts of the tale but is also grateful his father did not gloss over or try to shield him from them.
• Freudian Excuse: Kuchinja was raised by a cruel, power-hungry, bloodthirsty tyrant with no sign of a mother or any other mitigating influence in sight. On top of this, the one virtue he had, love for his father, he deemed to be worthless when despite this he was not able to save Giza. Add in the harshness of a drought and the fact Giza lied to him about pretty much everything regarding Mfalme and his family, and it's not hard to understand why he turned out as he did. That said, he still has enough personal love of violence, bloodshed, and sadism to show it can't all be blamed on his upbringing.
• Friend to All Living Things: In a twist, the Pride Lands lion most known for being this, Mohatu, is depicted as a cub as an Innocent Bigot when it comes to other animals. Dhahabu, of course, is horrified and quickly sets him straight with a very heartwarming speech, and it's strongly implied that his own My God, What Have I Done? reaction to having his eyes opened is why he swings so far the other direction in his book depiction as to be almost an Actual Pacifist.

G-I

• Generational Saga: While a number of Lion King fanfics have used this trope, usually this pertains to moving forward from Mufasa and Simba to Kiara and Kovu, and even one or two generations after them. This fic (and it's right in the name) begins with the first Lion King Mfalme and his son Dhahabu, then introduces the latter's sons, particularly the heir Mohatu. True to the trope, the first generation is one beginning with a fresh slate of sorts (having eliminated Giza and banished his sons, so the pride can take a new name and establish a benevolent rule according to the Circle of Life); the second generation has to build on what came before and fully solidify the first's success (taking care of the unfinished business of Kuchinja and his brothers, then setting in place the traditions and home at Pride Rock that will serve the pride going forward); and the third generation will reap the benefits with many years of peace and prosperity (eventually earning him the brightest star). Matters of Generation Xerox are addressed (see below), and the family tree certainly gets tangled when multiple second-generation characters (Taraji, Jahili) and even first-generation (Njaa) get involved, and both Giza's bloodline and Kusini's are added to the mix. On top of all this, the Framing Device of Mufasa telling the tale to young Simba not only adds later generations, it reflects the notion of teaching the newest family member his history to inspire him with successes to emulate and warn him of dangers to avoid.
• Generation Xerox: Like Simba's Pride, this fic has the prominent theme of declaring that one's bloodline does not determine fate or character, and that each generation has the chance to choose whether to be like or unlike the previous one. Jahili adamantly rejects any attempts to make him like his father or grandfather from the very start, only going along with Kuchinja's plans out of a futile attempt to earn his love and respect (and a chance to get close to Taraji), and in the end Njaa and Tauni also reject Giza and their brother's example. Meanwhile, Dhahabu is worried that he will let his father down and not live up to his (or Sulubu's) memory as king, but he eventually is able to make his own pawprints, leading well while making his own choices as ruler.
• Ghost Reunion Ending: At the end of the fic, Dhahabu is allowed a visit with the spirits of both Mfalme and Sulubu, so that he can finally lay his demons to rest, forgive himself, and receive closure. It's both sad and heartwarming—Dhahabu gets to have a lovely moment of purring with his brother and what feels to him like a ghostly embrace—and even has a little humor thrown in thanks to Sulubu showing off how he'd have looked as an adult, to Mfalme's eye-rolling.
• Go and Sin No More: After listening to the various testimonials in their defense, but also the urgings of his own heart, Dhahabu agrees to pardon not only Jahili, but also his remaining uncles Njaa and Tauni. While the former does end up departing the Pride Lands with Taraji, this is only to keep there from being too many males in the pride and to start a new life; in fact there is no implication he has any sins to atone for. The trope does fully apply to Njaa and Tauni, and based on the epilogue, they do indeed become The Atoner. Njaa in particular is allowed to becomes mates with Asumini, while their future daughter ends up betrothed to Mohatu.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: After the fight in Kivuli, Taraji and Dhahabu are left with scars—the lioness receiving one on her cheek just beneath her eye courtesy of Mwizi, the lion receiving four jagged ones on his shoulder dealt by Mwoga. While the latter are described in more unsettling terms, they all heal over well and do not mar either character's attractiveness to any great extent. Kuchinja has a terrifying, disfiguring scar over one eye (and the eye itself is gone), which only adds to his villainous appearance. Unusually, the scar came from a random encounter, rather than one of the heroes or his Arch-Enemy, Mfalme.
• Go Through Me: At various points the members of Kiburi or the Wahamiji interpose themselves to protect someone behind them during the Final Battle. One of the more poignant, however, is when Njaa stands over his injured brother Tauni, ready and willing to make a Heroic Sacrifice if it will buy him even a little more time. Another is when Jahili not only comes between his father and Taraji, but also stops Kuchinja from attacking Dhahabu. Also, see Standing Between the Enemies.
• Hair-Trigger Avalanche: Once she observes enough of the environment to notice the effects loud sounds have upon it, Mahiri manipulates Ushindi into setting off a rockslide in the gorge, using either his own roars or the ones she's forced to give in pain. The end result is the rogue lion ending up Buried Alive. Not only is this a Call-Forward to Simba thinking his roar is what sets off the wildebeest stampede (both of which do cause some rocks to fall), the pile of fallen boulders this creates seems to be the same one which blocks the end of the gorge in the first movie, and which Simba climbs to escape the hyenas.
• Have You Told Anyone Else?:
  • When Dhahabu and his siblings attempt to bluff the hyenas that their father will show up and punish them if they dare try and hurt any of his cubs, Mwizi calls him on the fact that she's certain they didn't tell Mfalme or anybody else where they were going (because she's Genre Savvy as to the nature of overconfident, rebellious cubs).
  • Jahili decides, after he and Taraji have declared their love for one another, that he can't serve his father anymore (and with someone else to love and support him, doesn't need him). He goes to tell Kuchinja this...completely alone. Even if his father hadn't already known thanks to Ukware's spying, this would have been a bad idea. Naturally he gets attacked and knocked out, giving Kuchinja a chance to plan and set in motion the jackal attack on Mfalme.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Jahili was never truly a villain or on Kuchinja's side in the first place, at least when it came to his plans for Kiburi, but he is still nominally serving him as The Mole thanks to his desire to earn his father's love and respect. Once he falls in love with Taraji, he resolves to leave the Wahamiji, but it takes convincing Njaa to let him pursue his heart's desire and several other events before he can do so—and enough taunting, mockery, and threats to his life (or Taraji's, or her consent) before he can go as far as attacking Kuchinja himself. This is, however, what convinces Dhahabu as to his allegiance.
  • Njaa and Tauni, while not as evil as their brothers, are more fully members of the Wahamiji and a part of a number of Kuchinja's schemes, so their changing sides after the Final Battle are straighter examples of the trope. Njaa is the Token Good Teammate among his siblings (described by Asumini as "goodness amongst evil...respect for others warring with contempt for them...taking the lesser of numerous ill choices...compromise and cruelty"), but he does still aid in the attack on the wildebeest herd, the creation of the dam, and other acts during the siege, as well as believing Mfalme deserves to be punished and the lands belong to Kuchinja. After enough threats, realizing his brother is mad, and learning the truth about Giza and Mkase, he fully changes sides, relinquishing the throne to Dhahabu after Kuchinja's death (only asking for pardons for him, Jahili, and Tauni), and eventually becoming Asumini's mate.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Sulubu gallantly attacks Mwizi, even knowing he is likely to suffer fatal injuries, in order to protect his older brother, and then faces off against Mwoga to protect Tembo, who had just come to the rescue and saved him by killing Mwizi. Already severely injured by this point, it isn't surprising he doesn't survive the encounter long. In his own words:
    Sulubu: Dhahabu...this wasn't your fault. I had to protect you, and your friend. You're going to be the king, and you'll need an adviser. My place was to serve you, however I had to, and this was the way.
  • Although he ends up surviving thanks to the intervention of Taraji and Dhahabu, and then is healed afterward with everyone else, Jahili is quite willing to give his life to stop the fighting and keep his father from succeeding in conquering Kiburi—including by saving the young Lion King himself.
• Hidden Depths:
  • There is more to Kuchinja, buried deep underneath all the hatred, cruelty, and bloodthirstiness. Not only does he actually return Jahili's hug (somewhat) after lifting his exile—to Njaa's wondering disbelief—he doesn't immediately launch into his usual Love Is a Weakness rant when his son talks about how powerful love is.
    Kuchinja: Love...powerful? No. I loved Giza with all my heart...and it could not save him.
    Only Njaa caught the smallest tear in [his] eye before he angrily blinked it away.
  • Kufa, at least, was once a gentle and humorous cub before becoming the cold and heartless killer he is as an adult. As he is pinned and about to be killed, he drops this attitude, seeming relieved to soon be at peace instead of endlessly fighting and slaughtering, implying that at least some of his previous personality was a facade he adopted to please Kuchinja or because it was expected as a son of Giza.
• History Repeats: Another major theme, to tie into the Circle of Life while also acting in contrast to it. Either similar character types/personalities recur (particularly within the same bloodlines), similar villainous plots are attempted, key locations from the films turn out to have been important before in Pride Lands history, or all of the above, with variations on how all the elements interact or resolve. Since several characters, either implicitly or explicitly, rail against the idea You Can't Fight Fate, the story seems to be proposing that while some things are set in stone and some things will always plague the Pride Lands (because that's the nature of life, or because characters don't learn from history/become complacent), there will always be the choice to be different, to change and grow and make a better future. In fact, since the Cycle of Revenge that began in the fic's Backstory with the conflict between Giza and Mfalme's father is finally resolved by the ending of Simba's Pride, the implication is that at that point this repetition of darkness, loss, and villainy has finally been ended.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In the end, Kuchinja is brought down in multiple ways thanks to his treatment of Jahili. If he had not scorned, insulted, and otherwise abused him, the young lion would never have sought to balance helping him and Kiburi in the first place; telling him his plans for Mfalme and attempting to blackmail him into helping with threats to Taraji is what inspires Jahili to confess the truth to her so that he can warn her (not to mention turning Njaa more against him when he finds out); this confession, and Taraji turning on him, is what in turn leads Jahili to meet Cheko who both galvanizes the young lion to do whatever it takes to stop Kuchinja and obtains the information he needs so that he and Taraji can come to the rescue; and it's his taunting and belittling, revealing their romance to Dhahabu, and the threat to take Taraji for his own that cements Jahili's Heel–Face Turn and leads to him savagely attacking him. Even Dhahabu stepping in to help save Jahili after this is thanks to Cheko, who had convinced him to withhold judgment.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: A few examples, tailored to the African landscape, flora, and fauna.
  • When speaking of Damu's selfishness to Dhahabu, Mfalme observes that he "cannot see the savanna for the grass."
  • After knocking Jahili out, Kuchinja chooses not to kill him (yet) because he is focused on his revenge against Mfalme...or as he puts it, "I have a larger zebra to catch." ^* Which in this setting would normally be a literal thing the characters do, but here is meant as a metaphor.
  • Kuchinja seems to like this trope, actually. During the Circle Of Extinction with Dhahabu in the Final Battle, after describing how (as he was led to believe) Mkase tried to take the throne away from Giza, he insinuates Dhahabu is the same as his grandfather (having taken the throne he believes should be his) by stating, "Apparently the blossom does not fall far from the kigelia."
• Hostage Situation
  • When the Wahamiji drive the jackal pack to attack Mfalme, Kuchinja holds the packleader hostage (literally pinned with his claws to his throat) to enforce compliance, complete with a Shame If Something Happened threat.
  • Also, see I Have Your Wife, below.
• Howl of Sorrow: Or in this case, roar.
  • Mfalme unleashes a particularly heart-rending one after the death of Sulubu "until it seemed all the world joined [him] in his mourning."
  • Fittingly, Dhahabu gives one for Mfalme himself when finding his body after the jackal attack; the rest of the pride echoes it when they come to pay their respects, and it's noted this time that the clouds passing over the sun and the shadows on the land indicated "Aiheu and the Kings grieved with them."
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: When a place is named Kivuli ("Shadow"), the Majonzi ("Grief"), or Kituko Rock ("Fright"), it's not one most would want to frequent. Interestingly, while the Majonzi is avoided more for its dry, desert climate and Kituko Rock is avoided due to its association with Giza, the Kivuli is avoided because it is considered sacred, and Dhahabu is only concerned at first because of its association with elephants (after his encounter with Damu). When the cubs are actually in the graveyard, however, Dhahabu does begin to have a sense something is not right there and thinks they should leave; sadly too late, of course.
• Identical Son: They aren't noted to look alike in other respects, but Jahili is described as having very similar coloring in mane and pelt as Kovu, who is revealed in the epilogue to be a fourth-generation descendant. Similarly, although he is nothing like him in personality and has the Heroic Build that seems to breed true in the Pride Lands' royal line, Sulubu otherwise has the same coloring as Scar (and, going by the text of The Lion King: Six New Adventures, Ahadi). Mufasa also notes in the epilogue that Scar and Zira's son, Kiruu, is the spitting image of Sulubu. This is meant to underscore the History Repeats theme, as well as illustrating (depending on your point of view) that You Can't Fight Fate or that the choice to be different and not fall into villainy was always in the bloodline.
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: When an outnumbered Kuchinja starts pleading for mercy by limiting the fight to a one-on-one battle, Dhahabu realizes that as much as he hates his enemy and is disgusted by this tactic after what he did to Mfalme and Sulubu, if he were to send the entire pride (and Tembo) down on the other lion, he would be no better than he is. Considering how close he comes to falling into bloodlust in the name of revenge, resisting this was probably the better choice.
• I Have No Son!: In his very first scene, Kuchinja declares this after Jahili has criticized his plans, his outlook on life, and Giza for what is apparently the last time he can stand. It is rescinded when Jahili comes up with his plan to become The Mole and gain intelligence from Taraji on Kiburi's movements, but after finding out Jahili not only was lying to him but had fallen in love with his mark, Kuchinja rejects him once again. Only at the last, when he is dying and realizes how futile his quest for vengeance was, does this change...with Kuchinja inverting it by regretfully stating Jahili didn't have a father, at least not the one he deserved and longed for.
• I Have This Friend: When she is probing Njaa to see whether he returns her feelings, Asumini employs this trope, claiming some other lioness in the pride finds him handsome and wishes to get to know him better. He plays along for a while, even implying he wants to become very close to this mystery lioness (to Asumini's irritation) until revealing he knew she meant herself all along.
• I Have Your Wife: Kuchinja seems fond of this trope. First he attempts to kidnap baby Mohatu to try and force Dhahabu to agree to his demands for Kiburi, then he threatens to capture and abuse Taraji unless Jahili helps him take out Mfalme.
• Incest Is Relative: Because both Zira and Kovu are revealed in the epilogue to be descended from Taraji and Jahili (and Winda, Mohatu's future mate, is the daughter of Njaa), Kiara and Kovu would indeed be related, but quite distantly and only through Giza's bloodline, ironically.
• Insult Backfire: After Kuchinja dismissively insults Mfalme to Malkia, Dhahabu reacts first with Angrish, then a string of blistering curses. The leader of the Wahamiji counters not only by praising the Lion King's spirit, but by noting that he needs to do better because "those aren't really insults, since I've been known to do that to any number of females."
• Internal Reveal:
  • Dhahabu and Taraji are made aware of the true history of the Pride Lands, Mfalme's challenge to Giza, and the Wahamiji, although the reader is already aware of this thanks to previous scenes with Kuchinja; the general facts were explained as well by Mufasa to Simba in the Framing Device. (Giza's name, his status as the king, and his poor rulership were also mentioned when Mfalme gave his rationale to Damu in the very first chapter, but seeing as this was three years earlier, before Sulubu's death, and in the middle of a tense scene, Dhahabu and Taraji can be forgiven for forgetting it.)
  • Jahili's identity, known to the reader from his first appearance on the page, gets revealed in-story twice, first when he confesses to Taraji, then later when Kuchinja reveals it (along with his son and Taraji's romance) to Dhahabu and the rest of the pride.
  • Mwoga's employer being Kuchinja, revealed when she shows up to give a report after the three-year time skip, is revealed to both Taraji and Dhahabu when she appears for the Final Battle. In a fun bit of mutual Locked Out of the Loop, the fact she was the one to kill Sulubu, however, is revealed to Jahili (who did, of course, know she served his father).
  • As mentioned above, Taraji and Jahili's forbidden romance is revealed to Dhahabu and the pride by Kuchinja, but it was also revealed to him by Ukware (and then confirmed when he gets Jahili to confess).
• Interrupted Suicide: Cheko happens to show up at the rim of the gorge when Jahili is planning to jump, although it isn't certain he knows at first what the lion was planning (after his story is told, the meerkat clearly does), only that he is concerned and wants to know what is troubling him. He does talk it out and convince Jahili not to go through with it, albeit with humor, simple wisdom, and common sense as well as giving him something else to focus on—stopping his father.
• Ironic Echo: Dhahabu preparing to deliver a Mercy Kill and Jahili preparing to confess his identity to Taraji use the same dialogue ("X, forgive me for what I am about to do/say") and even the same gesture but with a different result (a paw reaching to slash the throat vs. to wake someone up). The use of the paws also implies a Match Cut would have been used, were the fic animated.
• It's All My Fault:
  • Despite the fact it was Sulubu's idea to go to Kivuli, and that he fought hard and well for a cub so as to protect his brother, Dhahabu can't help blaming himself for the hyenas killing him. Partly this is because he sensed something wrong in the graveyard but wasn't able to convince his siblings to leave sooner, partly because he feels he didn't do enough to save him, but mostly because Sulubu's initial injuries were suffered as a Heroic Sacrifice to protect Dhahabu. The trauma and Survivor's Guilt from this haunts him for almost the entire story, whether he claims to understand he isn't to blame or not. Even after learning his brother's death was ordered by Kuchinja, and seeing both him and Mwoga pay for their crimes with their lives, he isn't able to finally forgive himself until speaking to Sulubu's ghost.
  • Jahili also blames himself for what happens to Mfalme, seeing as he allows himself to be Overcome with Desire when he meets Taraji in her season, thus delaying his warning of his father's plans. When she learns the truth, Taraji blames him too, at first, but it seems unlikely that knowing sooner would have allowed her or anyone else to get to Mfalme in time, whether to prevent the attack or heal him from it afterwards. His guilt does strongly motivate his full Heel–Face Turn as well as his willingness to perform a Heroic Sacrifice for Dhahabu vs. Kuchinja.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: When Jahili returns to the oasis near the Majonzi at the start of Chapter 8, he is uncomfortably aware of the lack of noise or movement from any animals or even the breeze. This is, of course, just before he's about to be confronted by Kuchinja with his lies and "treachery."

K-R

• Know When to Fold 'Em: After Mwoga's death, Ukware realizes he has no chance of surviving further combat since all the rest of the Wahamiji are dead, incapacitated, or have changed sides and Kuchinja is about to be done away with by Dhahabu. So while everyone else is watching the resolution, he slips away to lick his wounds, planning to join the other hyena clans and eventually find a way for him or one of his descendants to one day get revenge and gain power in the savanna.
• Last-Minute Hookup: Njaa and Asumini meet for the first time during the Final Battle (after Asumini herself was introduced late), and after seeing he's the Token Good Teammate, sparing him during combat, and healing him afterwards, Asumini ends up falling hard for Njaa. Since the latter ends up going into voluntary exile with his brother, Jahili, and Taraji, it'll have to be a long-distance relationship, but they are both willing to risk it. The epilogue reveals it does become a lasting and devoted relationship.
• Last Words:
  • Sulubu's to Dhahabu's are rather tear-inducing, particularly for his older brother: "Be the greatest king ever, bro."
  • Giza's were a command to Kuchinja to avenge him and reclaim his birthright as king.
  • After a Final Speech, Mfalme elicits two promises from Dhahabu—to be a wise king by saving their lands, undoing his mistakes, and stopping Kuchinja; and to give him a Mercy Kill. Also a case of Long-Lasting Last Words, justified in-story by the fact he deliberately kept himself alive by Heroic Willpower so as to be able to speak to his son one last time.
  • Kuchinja's are an apology to Jahili for not being a better father.
• Liar Revealed:
  • While a good portion of the story involves Jahili concealing the truth about himself from multiple characters, and the reader waiting for the shoe to drop when it all comes crashing down, ironically the first time it does so, it's with Kuchinja learning (courtesy of Ukware's Exact Eavesdropping) Jahili had both kept the truth from him about Dhahabu's cubs and his own love for Taraji. The result isn't as personally harmful for Jahili as it could have been, but it does end up leading to the plot that kills Mfalme.
  • The second time the truth is revealed, it's by Jahili himself confessing to Taraji about being The Mole, and his identity. While she reacts as poorly as he feared, she eventually is able to understand both why he lied and that it doesn't change who he is at heart or how she feels about him.
  • The third time is when Kuchinja spills the beans during the confrontation in the gorge, so as to turn Dhahabu against his sister (either for knowingly getting involved with one of the Wahamiji or for still standing by Jahili after finding out the truth). Though at first the consequences of this do seem dire, the intervention of Cheko, a Character Witness or two on Taraji's behalf, and Jahili's willingness to perform a Heroic Sacrifice eventually convince Dhahabu to forgive and accept them. Ironically, this same gorge would in the future be a site for the creation of a lie with large repercussions (Scar's murder of Mufasa and blaming it on Simba) which wouldn't be revealed till much later elsewhere.
• Love Is a Weakness: One of Kuchinja's mantras. While he states or implies it at various points, the first and most explicit time is when he derides it to Mahiri during the aborted kidnapping. Interestingly, while some of this comes from the usual villainous view of sentimentality, it's also clear from his comments to Jahili that he views love this way because it wasn't enough to save Giza.
• Mama Bear: Mahiri, unsurprisingly, is determined to protect her cubs from any danger that threatens, but especially from Kuchinja when he and the twins invade her den to try and kidnap them. The fact this takes place only a short time after she gave birth verges on Pregnant Badass.
• Meaningful Echo: At the end of the story when Dhahabu speaks with his father and brother's ghosts, two important lines get repeated. One, which Dhahabu already remembered during the Final Battle when trying to give Jahili a fair judgment, was Mfalme's urging to follow his heart. Sulubu's are nearly the same as his Last Words: "Be the greatest king ever, brother."
• Meaningful Name: Almost every Swahili-named character in the story has one of these, and even some place names follow the same pattern.^* A few of the translations are inexact, since the author was writing long before major language resources were available online, and employing a physical English-Swahili dictionary that didn't provide enough information to always properly identify word meanings, parts of speech, or conjugation. Most are commented on In-Universe, occasionally in asides to the reader since the story isn't (always) told in limited third-person narration, although the knowledge in question sometimes relates to the future that the story's in-world teller should not know; presumably these were meant as "translations" the author was providing for irony.
  • Characters:
    • Dhahabu: "Gold" (in reference to his pelt)
    • Taraji: "Hope" ^* or "Expectation", remarked on by Dhahabu
    • Sulubu: "Strength" or "Stamina"
    • Malkia: "Queen"
    • Mfalme: "King"
    • Tembo: "Elephant"
    • Damu: "Blood." At first accurate thanks to his Cruel Elephant (and Abusive Parent) nature, but eventually subverted when he turns out to be more understanding and forgiving than he was given credit for.
    • Mwoga: "Coward"
    • Mwizi: "Thief"
    • Mjinga: "Idiot/Fool"
    • Tisho: Jahili's mother, who is described as being paralyzed with fear while Kuchinja raped her, has a name that can mean "Terror."
    • Ukware: "Lust"; based on his actions and thoughts this would seem to refer to the blood and violence variety.
    • Adhimu: "Noble"
    • Mahiri: "Clever" or "Crafty"
    • Busara: "Wisdom". Also meaningful In-Universe because he was inadvertently Named After Somebody Famous; see Shout-Out.
    • Makani: "Home", remarked on by Mahiri when she names him.
    • Cheko: "Laughter"
    • Diwani: "Adviser"
  • Places:
    • Kiburi: "Pride", to give the Pride Lands a less generic-sounding name, although it becomes Department of Redundancy Department when paired with the pride's name instead of the lands' (something the author unfortunately falls into more often than he avoids it).
    • Kivuli: "Shadow" (as in "the shadowy place")
    • Majonzi: "Grief" (the desert hardpan where Simba ends up collapsing after fleeing his home)
    • Kusini: "South" (the direction the lands lie from Kiburi)
    • Kituko Rock (previous name of Pride Rock under Giza): "Fright"
    • Nje: "Outside" (as in the Outlands)
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The villainous rogues the Wahamiji ("the Wanderers")^* actually "immigrants"; this should have been Wasafiri were named by their father (in a bit of In-Universe Anviliciousness) after the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, with two extras added that are Shout Outs to Incarnations of Immortality:
    • Kuchinja: "Slaughter"
    • Njaa: "Famine"; ends up subverted thanks to his being the Token Good Teammate and performing a full-on Heel–Face Turn at the end (although it could be seen as referring to his being "starved" for love and acceptance)
    • Tauni: "Pestilence"; also subverted, though with less onscreen evidence
    • Kufa: "Death"
    • Vita: "War"
    • Ushindi: "Conquest"
    • Their father Giza: "Darkness"
    • Subverted with Jahili, who was named "Cruel" as an in-world invocation by his father but ended up turning out the exact opposite.
• Meaningful Rename:
  • After Mfalme fights and fatally injures Giza, as well as banishing his sons, it is stated that he renamed the pride to "Kiburi," though what its original name was is never revealed.
  • Similarly, at the end of the story when the pride relocates to what had been Giza's throne (the kopje so well-known from the films), Dhahabu renames it to "Kiburi Rock", with the implication that it being called Pride Rock in the films is a Translation Convention.
  • In the epilogue, Mufasa states that the current descendant of Taraji and Jahili, Ushandra, has done this to herself...taking the name Zira. See Shout-Out for more details.
• Mercy Kill:
  • Although he has lasted all night with his injuries and seems on the verge of dying on his own, Mfalme requests this from Dhahabu, since there is no chance of a healer getting there in time to save him and he doesn't want to keep suffering, even for just a little longer—the king would rather die on his own terms. Though it is also possible he wanted to prepare Dhahabu for having to make difficult, painful decisions.
  • Incredibly, Kuchinja actually asks for one of these as he is pinned and badly injured, though in his case it isn't about his physical suffering or trying to play for sympathy but because, after losing the battle, about to lose his life, learning everything his father told him was a lie, and knowing his lands were now going to be ruled by Mfalme's son, he considers living to be more of a revenge than anything else. Although he briefly considers denying it, Dhahabu does go through with it, albeit by ripping his throat out rather than merely slashing it.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal:
  • Somehow, Jahili weathers years in backstory, and months onscreen, of Kuchinja's constant contempt, disgust, hatred, and cruel abuse—mostly verbal and emotional, but some physical blows do enter into it—all revolving around how useless and worthless he is (whether to his cause or in general). It's only when his father finally threatens to kill him, and then to seduce and claim Taraji for his own, that Jahili finally turns on him and attacks with a ferocity and viciousness that startles and disturbs everyone, even Kuchinja himself. The only reason he doesn't succeed in becoming a Self-Made Orphan is his father injuring him badly enough that he is caught and pinned, and then Taraji and Dhahabu intervening to bring the battle to its conclusion.
  • To a much lesser degree, Kuchinja's treatment of Njaa also contributes to his Heel–Face Turn, particularly his abusive verbal rage when he learns his brother "let" Jahili escape and his earlier threat, after Njaa is bemoaning Jahili's tragic, seemingly-doomed love, to rip his throat out since "you are far from necessary...[and] I do not need five brothers to accomplish my goals."
• The Mole: Jahili, like Kovu, takes this role, spying on Kiburi by getting close to Taraji and probing her for information his father and uncles can use to win their siege. Once he truly falls for her, however, and finds out just what they intend to do to Mfalme and his family, he refuses to aid them any longer.
• Moment of Weakness: Jahili is an extremely moral, brave, and determined lion who, despite his desperate need for his father's approval, is strong-willed enough to stand up to and resist every attempt to turn him into a bloodthirsty villain or bring down an innocent pride, especially the lioness he grows to love. However, he does make one mistake that goes contrary to his nature—but it's a doozy. After resisting for so long because he was afraid it would change the relationship, he gives in to temptation and mates with Taraji before telling her the truth and warning her about the danger to her father. The obvious reason is due to being Overcome with Desire thanks to her season, but his thoughts also suggest that he decides for once to be selfish, to take this chance since he is afraid he won't get another once Taraji knows who and what he really is. True to form, the result is awful, since while they are...occupied, the jackal pack deals mortal wounds to Mfalme. To be fair to Jahili, knowing the truth sooner likely wouldn't have made any difference based on where Taraji was in relation to Mfalme (i.e. there wouldn't have been any chance to prevent Mfalme going on patrol, chase the jackals away, or get a healer there sooner), and other events make what happens seem destined. But this doesn't prevent Taraji from turning on him for a while, or Jahili blaming himself and doing all he can in the Final Battle (right up to sacrificing himself) to make up for this moment.
• Motivational Lie:
  • Cheko claims to work for Mfalme, and to serve the lions of Kiburi generally, which of course Taraji exposes for a lie as soon as she meets him. While it's clear he hopes to make a name for himself and be given a reward for making himself useful, his lie comes before he knows anything about Jahili or thinks he could receive anything from him. In which case he lied just to get the lion to trust him and listen to his advice, because he felt sorry for him and wanted to help him.
  • On the villainous side, Giza lied to Kuchinja about the nature of Mkase's "crime" and exactly how and why Mfalme challenged him. This guaranteed that even after he suffered fatal injuries, his son would refuse Mfalme's generosity and instead go into exile to plan his revenge and conquest. At first Kuchinja refuses to believe, of course, and tries to dismiss both what Mkase witnessed and the murder of his father. But Dhahabu actually agrees with the latter (a challenge doesn't have to end in death), and Kuchinja eventually admits to himself Giza really could have been a rapist. This contributes to his Heel Realization and Face Death with Dignity moment.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Although in this case, it would be "Great Kings, What Have I Almost Done?"—during his fight with Mahiri, Dhahabu is horrified after Adhimu's roar snaps him out of his instincts and he realizes the injuries he's dealt and how close he came to killing her.
  • Jahili also has this reaction once he realizes that taking the time to mate with Taraji rather than tell her the truth and warn about Kuchinja's plan sooner might well have doomed Mfalme. After actually coming close to taking his own life (though more because of Taraji rejecting him), he spends the rest of the fic doing all he can to make up for it.
• Natural Spotlight: A sunbeam falls on cub Dhahabu after he swears to fulfill Sulubu's Last Request. Considering the same thing happens at the end of the story, after speaking with his brother's ghost (and it also happens in the films whenever an heir is presented or the prides join as one), this is almost surely a sending from Sulubu.
• Nay-Theist: Several of Kuchinja's comments make it clear that he acknowledges the existence of both Aiheu and the Great Kings, but that he chooses to reject them because he believes they have refused to help him or give him his rightful dues. That said, he's not above making appeals to their power to bolster his own points, such as claiming that Mfalme doesn't have their blessing because his father stole the throne from Giza, or that the Kings are actually on Kuchinja's side because he wouldn't have succeeded in killing Sulubu or Mfalme otherwise.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: A number of fights during the Final Battle are truly wince-worthy bouts of slashing, biting, clawing, and ripping the combatants to bloody pulps, but the strongest examples are the ones which end it—Taraji and Mwoga, and Kuchinja and Jahili. The latter is especially violent, seeing as it leaves thick trails of blood all across the ground where they roll, and after plenty of claw attacks that leave underbellies shredded, chests and necks bitten deeply into, and Jahili's whole front half soaked crimson, he is weakened enough to be easily pinned to the ground for a throat laceration.
• Not Really a Birth Scene: Non-comedic variation. Although there is no intercut with the actual birth scene, this trope is implied—Mahiri begins giving birth, the lionesses are quickly summoned to take her to the birthing den...only to switch to Dhahabu, Tembo, and two other elephants helping break down the river dam created by Kuchinja and his brothers, complete with "One, two, three, PUSH!" The water breaking through the dam only adds to the symbolism. Then the real birth scene is shown (albeit mostly off-screen and without graphic detail).
• Odd Friendship: Dhahabu, a lion cub, and Tembo, a baby elephant. Not only is it indicative of the former's good heart and character judgment, it pays dividends in the number of times the latter helps protect the pride and save the day in the years to come. It's also a fun pairing personality-wise, since Dhahabu is generally straightforward, easygoing, and open while Tembo is shy (at first), intelligent, and low-key snarky.
• Odd Name Out: Aside from being the only member of the Wahamiji to subvert his intended Meaningful Name (by not being evil from the start), Jahili is also the only member whose name isn't one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse or a related Shout-Out.
• Offing the Offspring: Although he contemptuously considers killing Jahili at several points in the narrative (and even planned to get rid of him at birth until convinced by Njaa that he could still be useful), it isn't until he learns of his "betrayal" with Taraji that Kuchinja directly and openly threatens to kill his son if he won't continue spying for him. He doesn't go through with it since he is more focused on his revenge against Mfalme (and then having to face off with Dhahabu and his pride), but eventually does make a pretty serious attempt to kill Jahili during the Final Battle. Unsurprisingly, this pushes Jahili to make an equally dedicated attempt to return the favor.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Kuchinja invokes this trope as a last-ditch effort to save himself from being ganged up on by the lionesses and Tembo—both in the sense of Dhahabu being the one with the most right to face him (as vengeance for Sulubu and Mfalme) and that doing so will prove he does not need his pride or an elephant backing him up to do so. While Kuchinja also insinuates that if the others attack as well, he will be certain to take at least some of them with him, it's mostly this jab at Dhahabu's insecurity that sways him. The young king is aware of what he's doing, but tells Tembo to Leave Him to Me! (though he can step in if Njaa or one of the hyenas tries to interfere) because his anger and pride are too strong to resist.
  Dhahabu: And now it is down to you and me, Kuchinja...
  Kuchinja: As it was always meant to be...
• Outliving One's Offspring: Mfalme and Malkia are quite shaken and overwhelmed by having to bury their youngest cub, Sulubu; the former is particularly left gaunt and sleepless, haunted by memories of carrying his son's body home on his back. It turns out he only outlives Sulubu by another three years, however.
• Overly Specific Afterlife: Addressed obliquely in Jahili's thoughts while stargazing in exile. While he doesn't refer to other animals, he does observe to himself that there are so many stars in the sky, it must be the case that all lions become them when they die, not just kings.
• Panicky Expectant Father: True to the origin of the trope (and fitting for a society of animals), when Mahiri gives birth it takes place in a den reserved for the purpose (since having lionesses give birth out in the savanna could draw scavengers to the blood, where there wouldn't be safety in numbers to protect them), and only the lionesses are involved. Poor Dhahabu does manage to burst inside briefly, more because of the overall situation (in the middle of a siege, plus all the blood) than just being a first-time father, then gets banished back outside to pace for hours. Only after being told the first cub (the heir) has been born does he settle down and fall asleep waiting.
• Parents as People:
  • When Mohatu is disbelieving that his father once enjoyed playing, Dhahabu deadpans, "Yeah, your boring father used to do nothing but pounce all day," which causes the cub to amend this to never imagining he was once small.
  • Similarly, Dhahabu is left confused when Adhimu calls his father an "ornery rascal." On the other hand, much later in the story he actually walks into the den just after his father and Malkia have finished being intimate. His only response? "Now I know where I get it from."
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up: After Sulubu's death, three years quickly pass. As the author himself states in a note, even in a story that's Darker and Edgier it's hard to believably have "meatier, more dramatic things" happen to cubs. And of course to have a Generational Saga and romances, as well as more ability for the characters to fight in battles, adulthood is required.
• Pregnant Badass: Aside from how this somewhat applies to Mahiri (as mentioned under Mama Bear), it is revealed at the end of the story that Jahili and Taraji's first mating led to her bearing cubs, meaning she was pregnant throughout all her fights during the Final Battle.
• Pretender Diss: Mwoga seems to believe she is a clever villain, judging by how she banters with Dhahabu and Sulubu as cubs, not to mention confident in her abilities to outmaneuver her enemies generally. When Kuchinja questions her on information she had previously given him to both prove her loyalty and boast of her connections, however, it's clear she is out of her league, he knows it, and he is taking great pleasure in sardonically pulling the rug out from under her.
  Kuchinja: You have told me that the head of the local pack of jackals is your close friend. Was this true, or another one of the many lies you told me to get in my good graces, of which you thought I was unaware?
• Pun: A lot of Lion King fanfics (and even the movies, to some extent) make use of puns, particularly animal-based ones, but this story is surprisingly lacking in them for the most part. However, one of the worst (or best) examples appears right in the fic's opening pages when Taraji walks up to her brother Dhahabu, who has just been pounced by Sulubu and knocked to the ground: "Oh, look! It's the Lying King."
• Raging Stiffie: Although the circumstances are far from amusing, sporting one of these is how Dhahabu is found out by his parents when his sister Taraji is starting to go into heat, with the usual effects.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Kuchinja takes the lioness who produces Jahili, since "the sons of Giza always get what they want," and his self-narration notes both how much she was terrified by the experience and that he enjoyed having her life in his paws as much as the pleasure. Unsurprisingly Giza is guilty of the same sin, seeing as he not only is noted by Mfalme as having "appeased his cruel desires whether his lionesses agreed to it or not," but it was being caught raping a cheetah female that led Mfalme's father to attack Giza so she could escape, in turn leading to the exile of him and his family. Also unsurprisingly, it is learning of this that helps to finalize Njaa's Heel–Face Turn. Oddly, Kuchinja at first denies the possibility before swinging to the usual victim-blaming defense; whether this is because he knows how bad the charge looks, species-ism, that targeting a pride member is more justified in his mind than a mere subject, or the simple fact Giza lied about it isn't clear.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After having given several heartbreaking and rather despicable examples to Jahili, Kuchinja finally ends up on the receiving end from Dhahabu when he is about to finally achieve justice by killing him. In doing so he echoes sentiments Taraji made when trying to convince him to end the fighting (and is in fact thinking of her words).
  Dhahabu: Killing you will not restore my father to me, but it will keep you from ever ruining the peace and prosperity of my lands. You are a disease far easier to prevent than to cure. Look around you...your brothers lie dead, all but two, and the only one who could aid you will not, because he sees the wrongs you have perpetuated. Your own son has abandoned you. You are alone, as the defiled are. If I did not wish to banish your evil from Kiburi, I would let you live, for that is the worst punishment you can face. Death would be mercy for you, a blessing.
• Rebellious Rebel: Although he disapproves of Giza, his rule, and everything he stood for, Jahili does acknowledge he was originally the rightful king and so his father and uncles have a legitimate reason to oppose Mfalme and his pride. But since the lionesses of the pride are innocent, as are the rest of Mfalme's family, Jahili can't approve of any actions taken against them. Even when he convinces himself he can still aid the Wahamiji as The Mole, he has to force himself to do so, and when his love for Taraji and the horrific nature of what Kuchinja has planned for Mfalme become clear, he finally rebels completely.
• Redemption in the Rain: Played with. While the Final Battle does end with a lightning storm that turns into rain, the dying Big Bad isn't the one who receives the redemption (although he does have a minor Heel Realization and decides to Face Death with Dignity on the off-chance it will give him a better judgment before Aiheu and the Great Kings—also showing a slight relenting of his Nay-Theist stance). Instead it is Jahili (and to a lesser extent, Njaa and Tauni) who are redeemed by their heroic actions and/or by being pardoned, and even Dhahabu himself by letting go of his Black-and-White Morality and not giving in to vengeance and hate. The rain does wash the Blood Oath from Kuchinja's body, but this might be more properly interpreted as the land itself being redeemed of the dark legacy of Giza.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Kuchinja's single remaining eye (see Red Right Hand below) blazes "the color of blood," though whether this is its actual color or a light that burns in it is never made clear, or explained.
• Red Is Heroic: Interestingly, based on the coloring of the main characters, it appears that, other than the red stripes in Mfalme's mane, the tendency for Pride Lands males to have red or reddish-brown manes (Mufasa, Simba, Kion, plus Mohatu in some depictions) is due to the introduction of Kusini genes into the bloodline, since Mahiri's father Adhimu has a striking red mane. (Although Njaa, who ends up fathering Mohatu's future mate, does have a brother with a reddish mane as well.) Considering Mfalme, for all his The Good King traits, still fought and killed Giza when he could have spared him (something Dhahabu acknowledges) while Dhahabu came close to falling into vengeance rather than justice (as well as turning on his own sister), this might also indicate that the greater heroism in later Pride Lands generations came into the bloodline along with the red manes. (This despite Adhimu's own less-than-upstanding actions toward his then-unknown son Malachi and killing what he didn't know at the time was his own future grandcub.)
• Red Right Hand: Kuchinja is missing an eye, which is surrounded by a mass of scar tissue that still leaves a dark and empty hole; it is remarked by several characters as being far too unnerving to look at for very long.
• Remember the New Guy?:
  • Just before the Final Battle, the lioness Asumini is suddenly introduced as one who had been a member of the pride all along, simply never named until that point. The in-story excuse is that she has a healer's pouch (something true to her origin; see Shout-Out) which will be needed in the fight ahead, and that there needs to be someone in Kiburi willing to be open-minded and fair so they can argue for clemency for the less-evil Wahamiji (again, true to her original character). Still, the late appearance plus her sudden romance with Njaa does emphasize an insertion that was not prepared for or foreshadowed in any real way. The author has stated that since the story was written as he went without a great deal of planning and outlining, he didn't get the chance to include her earlier since he hadn't thought of her (or a role for her) until that point, and that if he could rewrite the fic he would work to make her appearance less clunky.
  • Similarly, a number of other lionesses receive names at this point who never did before, but the author explained in a note that he did this to help anchor the upcoming battle scenes rather than using nameless placeholder lionesses. For the most part they are unobtrusive and don't act with much personality and characterization that would distract at this late notice. One, though, turns out to be Malkia's sister and plays an important Character Witness role after the battle, and another gets inserted into offscreen events from earlier in the story; see Retcon below.
• Retcon: The lioness Guyana who suddenly gets named during the Final Battle is also given an offscreen role that was supposed to take place earlier in the story (helping cub Taraji and Dhahabu deal with their grief and trauma over Sulubu), as well as a place in Backstory where she was allowed to stay in the pride by Giza after predicting the rainy season. The author again stated these are things he came up with near the end of the story, and that if he were to rewrite it he would include those scenes properly in the fic's early chapters.
• Rightful King Returns: Inverted—because Giza was the ruler of the Pride Lands before Mfalme, Kuchinja views taking the throne back from him to be the rightful ruler (as decreed by the Great Kings) as regaining what should have been his. However, Mfalme won a challenge against Giza fair and square, just as occurs in Real Life prides all the time (and after his family was unfairly exiled and his own father murdered), and the means Kuchinja employs to achieve this are cruel and undeniably villainous—particularly since leaving the Pride Lands was his own choice in the first place, after Mfalme offered to let him and his brothers stay.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Literally, when Dhahabu not only leads his pride to hunt down Kuchinja and (in his own words) "hasten his departure from our lands by streams of blood", but attacks him in a violent rage after his enemy tauntingly reveals that he was behind Sulubu's death. The initial battle which follows is certainly a savage beating on both sides. One of the lionesses also expresses such a sentiment in her thoughts as she attacks Vita, while Taraji and Jahili have the same reaction when facing down Mwoga and Kuchinja, respectively.
• Rousing Speech: Interestingly, before the Final Battle both Kuchinja and Dhahabu give speeches to rally their allies and encourage them for the fight ahead, and both of them do so in two parts—the first when they set out to meet their enemies (at the location of Mfalme's death and in the oasis near the Majonzi, respectively), the second when they reach the opposing ends of the gorge.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Par for the course with the Lion King lions, but from the very first we see Mfalme return from border portal to use diplomacy and reason as well as mild threats to get a pride vassal to back down, then come charging to the rescue in the elephant graveyard. Throughout the story there is plenty of indication both he and Malkia (and later Dhahabu) interact with the herds and other pride animals, address complaints and concerns, and defend the pride, and of course all of them are ready to fight or go into battle when needed. On the villainous side this also applies to the Wahamiji, since they are all princes.

S-Y

• Saying Too Much: Twice, and both times by Jahili.
  • When Jahili needs something from Taraji he thinks is harmless to tell his father, he decides to report the prey animals being hunted for the feast in honor of the birth of Dhahabu's cubs. Unfortunately for him, Kuchinja is knowledgeable enough about Pride Lands tradition to recognize what the particular choice of prey means (i.e. that the cubs have been born, which Jahili was trying to hide from him). As soon as he's sent his son away, Kuchinja heads off to try and kidnap them.
  • Even worse, a random comment Jahili makes while Calling the Old Man Out ("I would rather be fed to the jackals than to lift one pad of my paw to help you again!") gives Kuchinja the idea of how to kill Mfalme. Jahili has the appropriate reaction.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: After an encouraging talk with Cheko, Jahili realizes it doesn't matter whether or not Taraji still loves him or will forgive him, or even what Njaa or Dhahabu think about him interfering—he still has to stop his father and save Kiburi. (Granted, if doing so helps her see him in a better light, he certainly won't complain, but his motives are more selfless than that.)
• Shout-Out:
  • The scene in the cave, where Jahili and Taraji are first getting to know one another by speaking of the solitude and loneliness they have in common, is rather similar in feel to the one in Aladdin when the titular thief is in his hovel with Jasmine, each talking about being trapped in their lives. The only difference in staging is that Taraji and Jahili don't have their lines intercut, nor do they speak in chorus at the end (though they do both call themselves "alone" at different times).
  • The lioness Asumini (complete with her backstory of having lost a mate and possessing a healer's pouch) and the mandrills Busara, Kima, and Makedde (only appearing off-screen) are characters from the aforementioned "Chronicles of the Pride Lands" by John Burkitt and David Morris, as is the leonine deity mentioned fairly frequently, Aiheu. Also name-dropped are Shaka and Avina (Sarabi's parents), Gur'mekh, and Jalkort.
  • In addition, the author has the mandrill Diwani direct Dhahabu to establish many of the Pride Lands traditions seen either in the films or in "Chronicles of the Pride Lands": Pride Rock being the king's throne (complete with cistern), having a mandrill shaman, the anointing and presentation of the heir to the kingdom's subjects, the mantlement ceremony, the ritual greeting, and the role of prince consort for non-heir sons.
  • The son of Zira and Scar, Kiruu, who is mentioned out of nowhere in the epilogue, is a reference to a character from an old bulletin board RP forum on LionKing.org. Zira's given name is from a Dark Fic written by another member of said forum, one of many fics meant to explain if not justify Scar's villainy but which also addresses her Freudian Excuse in a more nuanced, heartbreaking fashion.
• Shown Their Work: The author straddles the line between animals' real nature and what was needed for either the plot or to be sentient and civilized in the first place. Among the aspects which are either touched on or play important roles in the story are elephant morality and honor for their dead; Mfalme's takeover of Kiburi being like how real lion pride leadership changes; male lions being run out of their prides at age two (as part of Jahili's cover story to Taraji); the nature of pheromones and leonine libido, and the length of the leonine gestation period; Adhimu distrusting and wanting to run rogues out of his pride (called "the Rule of the Pride" in-story) but being convinced by a scent-marker; and his killing Nuala's cub for not being of the pride (while by Dramatic Irony not knowing it was his own grandcub). A fair amount of attention is given to leonine hunting practices as well.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Kuchinja's revenge scheme, aside from getting him back the throne he believes is owed to him, is partly thanks to this trope. Mkase, the lion who denied Giza his lusts, humilitated him (unintentionally), and tried to claim the Pride Lands from him (or so Kuchinja believes), is long dead, killed by Giza himself. However, his son Mfalme challenged and fatally injured Giza as well as banishing his sons, so by killing him Kuchinja not only gets the throne back and avenges his father's death, he repays the sins of Mkase. And once Mfalme is dead, Dhahabu inherits a throne which, again, should never have been his in Kuchinja's view; so naturally, he too must be punished. On the heroic side, Taraji (at first) and Dhahabu both hold Jahili accountable for being Kuchinja's son, though they don't attempt to punish him other than by rejection (or in Dhahabu's case, letting him and Kuchinja take each other out). Thankfully, they both eventually realize this mindset is wrong and forgive him.
• Smitten Teenage Girl: Imani, Mahiri's sister, is characterized this way, to the amusement and fondness of the rest of her family, though there are hints this is more In Love with Love than her simply being hormone-addled or boy-crazy.
• The Smurfette Principle: Lampshaded, but eventually subverted. One of the complaints Taraji makes during her first conversation with Jahili is that her older brother is the future king and her younger brother (when he lived) was exceptionally strong and a good fighter and hunter, leaving her without much of a role or a way to stand out other than by being the only girl in the litter. Even in young adulthood the best she can hope for is to just be one of the many lionesses in the pride's hunting party, while her status as a princess would scare off most suitors in her mind (at least those she'd like). However, not only do other female lion characters still have important and different roles (Malkia, Mahiri, and to a small extent Simana), the role Taraji ends up playing with Jahili, putting an end to the fighting, killing Mwoga, and helping Dhahabu put a stop to Kuchinja all make her much more than the token female she thought she was.
• So Proud of You: Mfalme tells Dhahabu "Well done" when he returns to the Pride Lands with Mahiri, just as his son had been badly hoping for. He also explicitly tells him he is proud of him for all he has done for the pride and its future after his cubs have been born, again when he is dying and proclaiming him to be ready to be king, and for a third time when his spirit speaks to him at the end. (Dhahabu really needs to hear it.) Just as meaningfully, Sulubu's spirit tells Dhahabu this as well.
• Spanner in the Works: Cheko. If he hadn't shown up to talk Jahili out of jumping into the gorge, a lot of things would have been different, but most directly it is likely Taraji would not have forgiven Jahili as relatively quickly as she did, and that would have kept both of them out of the Final Battle or at least delayed her (or their) arrival...which, considering their acts against Mwoga and Kuchinja, could well have had fatal or at least dire results for Dhahabu and the rest of the pride.
• Spiteful Spit:
  • Kuchinja gets to be on the receiving end of this mark of disgust and hatred twice. The first time comes from Malkia, spitting in his good eye when he first reveals himself in the Pride Lands as she declares him to be no prince. The second time comes from Jahili after Calling the Old Man Out and refusing to ever help him again in his plans for revenge; in a variation, he spits on the ground instead, which in some ways could be considered more insulting (he's not even good enough to be touched by spit; plus the amount of reverence the Lion King characters tend to show for the land).
  • Jahili himself gets the same kind of spit on the ground as he gave his father...from Taraji, after he reveals his identity to her.
  • Ukware also gives one on the ground as he slinks away from the gorge so as to live to fight again another day, though whether he is directing it at the lions of Kiburi or his former allies who have proven unable to win a lasting victory is unclear.
• Standing Between the Enemies: Like Kovu and Kiara will generations hence, Taraji and Jahili intervene in the fight between Dhahabu and Kuchinja to put an end to the vengeance and bloodshed. Unlike their descendants, things take a darker turn—the Star-Crossed Lovers relationship in this fic was unknown until this moment, so when revealed by Kuchinja it almost causes Dhahabu to turn on his sister, so that she in turn must call him out even more strongly than Kiara did Simba. And unlike Kovu, Jahili actually has to fight his villainous parent to save both the Lion King and his lover, in the process showing exactly the kind of battle prowess his descendant was claimed to possess.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Taraji and Jahili, of course, seeing as their prides are at war, their fathers hate each other, and Kuchinja wants Mfalme dead as vengeance for killing his own father, Giza. While Malkia and the other lionesses are more understanding when the truth comes out, the rest of the Wahamiji (sans Njaa) are at least somewhat disgusted if not angry, Dhahabu nearly turns on his sister, and Kuchinja nearly kills his son for his "treachery". Thankfully, things turn out with a relatively happy ending for them after the war is over.
• Survivor's Guilt: Practically the first thing Dhahabu thinks, as he is crying and cradling Sulubu's body, is that "it should have been [him]" to die in Kivuli. The longer the story goes on and the more he loses himself in tears and self-blame, the more clear it becomes how much his brother's death broke him. Thankfully, after Kuchinja's death and a talk with Sulubu's spirit in which he stresses in no uncertain terms that it was not Dhahabu's fault and he does not blame him, the young king is finally able to let it go.
• Symbolism:
  • Just as in the first movie when Simba was driven into exile, Mfalme is left bleeding to death as the sun is setting (and its light had earlier made the bluff and his mane appear blood-hued as well).
  • The end of the Final Battle takes place during a brewing thunderstorm, and after it ends, the falling rain washes Kuchinja's body clean of the Blood Oath he swore long ago. Although the fact it sinks into the earth of the gorge, the place where in the future Scar will engineer Mufasa's death, could indicate a sort of curse remaining.
• The Talk: A different form than usual takes place after the Plot-Relevant Age-Up—because the nature of pheromones and heat means that Mfalme has to explain to Dhahabu how close he had come to mating with his own sister. Thankfully this is enough to horrify the two of them into having the will to resist, and soon after Dhahabu departs to find a mate in another pride. (And, as it turns out, so does Taraji, though unintentionally.)
• Talking Is a Free Action: For the most part this trope is avoided, as the vast majority of talking during the Final Battle (whether Break Them by Talking, Shaming the Mob, or other forms of heroic or villainous interaction) takes place before it starts, during lulls or other moments when characters are pausing to recover/take stock, or when they are pinned or otherwise indisposed. One notable moment, though, is when Cheko acts as a Character Witness for Jahili, and Dhahabu debates with himself and recalls past advice he'd been given, all while both Kuchinja and Jahili and Taraji and the hyenas are fighting with very little time passing.
• Thicker Than Water: Although no one (including himself, or his father) can understand it, Jahili continues to insist on standing by Kuchinja—for no matter how he abuses him, the awful things he asks of him, and his terrible plans against the innocent lions of Kiburi, Jahili believes that family comes first; he can and will endure anything to earn Kuchinja's pride and respect because "that's how love works." Some of this may well be Stockholm Syndrome, but growing up without a full pride of his own and his mother no longer living, it is sadly understandable why he would cling to uncles who are negligent and passive at best, and to such a cruel and sadistic father. It isn't until he is pushed to the breaking point by threats to his own life and that of Taraji that he finally turns on Kuchinja. Thankfully, he finds out in the end that he was right in one respect: sticking with the Wahamiji for as long as he did, while also remaining decent and moral, earns him the genuine love and pride of his family members after all...Njaa and Tauni.
• Third-Act Misunderstanding: Played with for Jahili and Taraji, when she learns he is actually Kuchinja's son. Unlike most examples of the trope, there is no Becoming the Mask—while Jahili willingly became The Mole (to try and earn his father's love), he never had any issue with caring about Taraji; in fact he wanted to care about her, and already did care about her pride to the extent that he saw them as innocents who should not be harmed. (This is something Njaa calls him out on later, that he should have known what would happen if he got too close to her.) Also, he is the one who confesses, although it is because he needs her to believe him (in this case, so she'll know his information is accurate). In most other respects, though, the trope is followed, right down to him insisting he really does love her (while she thinks it was all an act) and him needing to make a very large, impressive, and risky act to convince her he isn't like Kuchinja. In this case, though, it's not a romantic one but him doing everything in his power to find out where the Wahamiji are and stopping them from killing Dhahabu, to the point of risking his own life by fighting his father.
• Token Good Teammate: While Jahili could count for this trope as well, he is never truly in favor of Kuchinja's plans. Njaa, however, is supportive of the Wahamiji for most of the second act, since he is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who believes that Mfalme's murder of Giza justifies punishment and that the pride and its lands rightfully belong to his family. However, as time goes on and Kuchinja's plans become more cruel and savage, target more innocents, or both, Njaa shows his inner good nature more and more, though it takes a particularly nasty act, and The Reveal of an important lie, for him to fully change sides. To the extent he gets any characterization, Tauni would be this as well.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Said almost word-for-word by Mfalme when giving the eulogy at Sulubu's grave. Malkia is not comforted by the sentiment, but her mate is able to remind her (and everyone else) that they still have two other children in this world who need them. Dhahabu, meanwhile, takes it as Sulubu being too strong for this earth, and that if he had lived he would have overshadowed him. Considering how much he continues to grieve for him for the rest of the story, this is clearly a coping mechanism.
• Tranquil Fury: While there are plenty of moments during the Final Battle where both Dhahabu and Jahili are enraged, roaring, and shouting, the more unsettling and worrisome moments are when they speak with calm, quiet, cold tones. This is especially true when Dhahabu confronts Taraji about her romance with Jahili, at the end when he has Kuchinja pinned and is giving him "The Reason You Suck" Speech, and when Jahili calls his father out for revealing said romance.
• Twisted Echo Cut: The scenes of Mfalme being attacked by the jackal pack, Taraji and Jahili being Overcome with Desire, and even Kuchinja holding the packleader hostage are not only intercut, some of the same phrases and physical acts (eyes closing, teeth gripping, being pressed to the ground) are echoed to interlink them. A rather dark invocation of the Circle of Life, suggesting the two aren't as different as they seem (and most likely that Kuchinja has the same reaction to both).
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Simana remembers Kufa this way during the Final Battle, "a pudgy and gentle cub who had filled the savanna with an infectious laugh of innocence and humor"; whether his twin and Ushindi, also being cubs at the time, were the same way is not known for certain, but is certainly implied by Njaa's thoughts after their deaths. This does not change, however, the villains they have become by their own choices, or that they need to be stopped (which both Simana and Njaa agree on).
• Villain Ball: Kuchinja is generally a very clever, manipulative, and scheming villain, able to back up his brawn and fighting skill with intellect and cunning. But he does make one very large mistake thanks to his overconfidence: after all the times he and his brothers were careful to wash away or otherwise conceal their scents and their trails to keep the lions of Kiburi from finding out where they laired, he does not do so when they put in motion the plan to murder Mfalme. In his defense, he could never have expected that Jahili would meet Cheko and be inspired to finally fully turn on him; that Taraji would accept and stand by his son; that Cheko would then find out where Dhahabu and the pride were following him; or that they would then race to the gorge and intervene. If none of this had occurred, it is still possible the Wahamiji could have won. But it was still a big error, and one based on his belief that he could easily defeat the heroes. Continuing to mock, needle, and provoke Jahili for supposedly being a weak, lovesick pacifist also bites him in the ass in the end.
• Walking the Earth: Downplayed; at the end of the fic, the pardoned Jahili and his uncles willingly go into exile because of there otherwise being too many males in the pride, and Taraji goes with them. But they only wander the savanna for a relatively short time before finding new lands to settle and starting their own pride there.
• We Barely Knew Ye: Sulubu is only in the story for two chapters (not counting his ghostly appearance at the end), but what little characterization he does get is still memorable, and the amount of grief, guilt, and anguish the characters suffer (especially Dhahabu) because of his death gives him a far more long-lasting effect on the narrative. Even if the reader feels they did not know him well enough to truly care about him, the reactions of the main characters really do effectively show that he mattered to those who loved him.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy:
  • Jahili is a particularly upsetting example, seeing as it is made clear from the very outset how little his father cares for him—at best, only seeing him as a tool to help achieve his vengeance—even as he continues to wish futilely to receive his love and make him proud. Even though he is a kind-hearted pacifist and rejects everything about Giza and his manner of ruling, he continues to try to find ways to please Kuchinja and aid in his plans because he knows it will make his father happy. The familial form of Love Martyr seems to be in play, though the fact he had no one else growing up (and he did receive love and encouragement from at least Njaa) likely helped.
  • By contrast, Dhahabu is also desperate to earn his father's approval, but Mfalme never says or does anything to make him think he's not proud of him; it's just that there's so much pressure on him to measure up as the heir, and he blames himself for Sulubu's death, so his insecurity has made him constantly look to Mfalme to make sure he is still doing the right thing, still has his pride and respect. Thankfully, he finally seems to accept it when his father's spirit reiterates it, while also telling him he needs to be his own lion and rule acccording to his own heart and conscience.
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: When they are on their way to Kivuli and Sulubu has noted that (according to his source) there are no predators there, Dhahabu responds almost word-for-word with the trope name. While he never calls himself out later for this line specifically, after what happens to his brother he most certainly is blaming himself for years to come.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Amusingly, a number of plot points that are left dangling at the end of the story are followed up on in the epilogue thanks to Simba asking this question In-Universe. Most of these are addressed under either Call-Forward or Shout-Out above, but Mufasa also ends up speaking of Mohatu's reign (and his future mate), Ukware's fate, and the fates of Tembo and Cheko.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Unsurprisingly, Taraji calls Jahili out for his plan to spy on her and obtain information for Kuchinja yet somehow also protect Kiburi through what he holds back or how he phrases the information. She also is furious that the delay caused by his Moment of Weakness with her might have kept anyone from getting to Mfalme in time to save him.
  • With less anger but more defiance and vindication, she also calls out Dhahabu during the Final Battle when he deems her a Category Traitor for loving Jahili. It's mostly a "You Used to Be Better" Speech, though she also appeals to his Pride and a bit of Reverse Psychology to make him realize how Kuchinja is manipulating him.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Just to grind in the suffering all the more, Mfalme is revealed to have had a fear of jackals since he was a cub. One might think Kuchinja learned this somehow and so chose to use jackals on purpose to attack him, but it came about simply due to a stray comment from Jahili (and Mwoga being friends with the leader of a jackal pack).
• Wise Beyond His Years: From the very start, and unlike Simba, Dhahabu displays this trait. Right after being typically arrogant and cocky regarding his being the future king, he not only stops himself from calling his siblings' treatment of him unfair to his station, he realizes that this attitude is why they make fun of him, wonders why they put up with him, and then resolves to do better and earn their respect the right way. He also trusts and befriends an elephant calf, despite his belligerent, species-ist father, and seems aware of something being wrong with the elephant graveyard before trouble appears. By the end of the story he has most certainly shown insight and wisdom on numerous occasions, displaying his fitness for the throne, although he has also had it tested by his temper, pride, and desire for vengeance.
• Worthy Opponent: After spending over half the fic disparaging Jahili and treating him with contempt, Kuchinja finally realizes and admits (though only to himself) that his son's rage at the threats made to Taraji have made him a true adversary in battle "and perhaps even a superior one."
• You Are Not Alone: Taraji and Jahili first begin bonding in this manner, realizing that while they are both isolated and feel unloved in their prides, there is another like them and they can be Lonely Together. Things only deepen from there.
• You Can't Fight Fate: As a corollary to the theme of History Repeats, the fact Taraji and Jahili's descendant ends up being Zira suggests that no matter how much he (and Njaa) wish to not be like Kuchinja or Giza, their evil is In the Blood and will continue to recur, the same way hyenas will continue to plague the Pride Lands and tragedy (namely, Mufasa's death) will keep striking the royal line. However, aside from the fact that both Jahili and Njaa finding peace, love, and happiness in lives without revenge or darkness proves it is also possible to be different, Zira's son Kovu is the one who will end up breaking the Cycle of Revenge and bringing true peace and unity to the lands. And as Mufasa points out to Simba right in the prologue, there will always be bad times, suffering, death, and strife; it is part of the Circle. The important thing is not to run from the past, but learn from it, and to not give up believing in and fighting for the good things—that is how you Earn Your Happy Ending.
• "You!" Exclamation: Dhahabu reacts this way upon hearing (and then seeing) Mwoga just before the Final Battle. This is of course quite understandable, since she was one of those who killed his brother; seeing her not only brings the trauma back, it reveals to him that she works for Kuchinja (thus also revealing that Sulubu's death was not as random as it seemed).
• You Killed My Father: Both heroic and villainous examples.
  • On the villainous side, all of the Wahamiji—but especially Kuchinja—want to get revenge on Mfalme for killing their father Giza, preferably as painfully and fatally as possible. Also, Mwoga wants revenge on Taraji for her contribution to Mfalme killing her mate Mjinga. (Not for her sister's death, however, as she's not stupid enough to go up against a now-massive elephant.)
  • On the heroic side, Mfalme himself fought and killed Giza at least partly out of revenge for him killing his father, Mkase (and, he thinks, his mother Sisasi). Dhahabu goes to the Final Battle to bring down Kuchinja for having engineered Mfalme's cruel and painful death, but also finds out the leader of the Wahamiji was behind Sulubu's death as well. The result is to be expected.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: After Jahili explains his plan to become The Mole, and gives his first report about Mahiri, Kuchinja not only agrees it is a worthy endeavor, he puts a paw on his shoulder, smiles, and says, "Now I see a little of myself in you at long last." Jahili pretends to be pleased, but notes he feels "sick inside."
• You're Insane!: Jahili declares this when Kuchinja taunts him with his plan to have Mfalme attacked and ripped apart by jackals, apparently due to the infeasibility of the idea. Whether his father ever was mentally stable is questionable; Njaa at least concludes just before the Final Battle that Kuchinja's mind has snapped, but even he isn't sure when or why it happened.