Headscratchers / The Lion King II: Simba's Pride

Why does Kiara's reflection only show half her face?

During "We are One" Kiara looks at her reflection in the water, the reflection of her face is half shown, and then it happens again in "Love Will Find a Way" but there is no explanation as to why Kiara has this happen to her, is it meant to be symbolism or something else I missed?

• Kiara is missing half of her reflection, as in she's missing an important part of herself metaphorically. It's not until after the "Love Will Find a Way" duet that the other half (of her reflection) is filled by Kovu. That's when Kiara realizes her true destiny is to bring the two estranged prides together as one and stop the fighting between them.

During the stand-off between Zira and Simba and the lionesses after Kovu and Kiara first meet, Zira gets pretty close to Simba and Kiara.

Even considering how fast everyone could move, she could have done something to at least cripple Kiara, if not kill her or injure Simba, so why is there no threatening growls or orders of "Get back!"?

• Because if Zira had attacked Kiara, Simba would have killed her and Kovu right there, and her plans for revenge would have been lost. And if she had attacked Simba instead, the other lionesses, including Nala, would have attacked her and killed her. It was to her advantage to not make any movements right there and instead, wait for the right moment to attack (that is, for Kovu to grow up, get close to Simba and then kill him).
• Actually, Zira was quite eager to attack Simba in that scene until she noticed the other lionesses there. I think both parties were well aware Zira was too smart to launch an attack when she was outnumbered.
• Zira (a malnourished lioness) was not only outnumbered, but outmuscled; had she actually gone for Kiara, Simba (a healthy male) and Nala (a healthy lioness) would likely both go for her. Considering the way lions fight, Zira's face would have been a bloody mess if she actually tried to kill the cub of the leading pair, especially if she managed to wound Kiara at all.

Simba acknowledges that Kiara is like him and he got into a lot of trouble.

So why does he send Timon and Pumbaa after her, since (a) they can't really fight so well, and (b) they're probably going to do something to get noticed?Why not send one of the lionesses, who could probably stay hidden and could put up a fight against anything that might harm Kiara?

• Perhaps he's willing to let her get into just a little bit of trouble. He knows from experience that an attempt to completely restrict her will not work, so he just sends those two to keep her out of real danger as opposed to mere mischief.
• But how could they keep her out of real danger? I mean, they obviously couldn't catch up to her if she just took off, and they can't really fight (except for Pumbaa's special ability), so what would happen if, say, an Outsider was trespassing, saw her, and decided to attack or something?
  • In the first movie, Pumbaa lays out a couple of hyenas, and that's without his stench; he can definitely fight if he needs to.
• Simba trusts them: Timon and Pumbaa are his closest friends and were somehow able to keep him alive to adulthood, so the have to have SOME kind of survival skill. They've got Honorary Uncle status for Kiara so they might be able to talk her out of something really stupid. If nothing else, they'd be able to find him if she got in over her head.
• Meta answer: The audience knew Timon and Pumbaa, so the filmmakers decided to allow them more screentime in this manner as opposed to using a background character.

How could Scar have hand-picked Kovu to be his heir when he (assumedly) wasn't born until after Scar had died?

During the confrontation after Kovu and Kiara meet, Zira says Kovu was hand-chosen by Scar AND the last cub to be born before her group was banished. Now, this implies that they left after Scar was killed. Kovu is obviously in roughly the same age group as Kiara, since he's the same size and cats (including lions) grow at a fairly different rate after the first few months, depending on gender. I'm guessing Simba took a few months to get the Pride Lands back to normal before he could focus on taking care of any possible treachery within the pride - assuming that at the end of the first movie, the Pride Lands going back to being green takes a few months after he becomes king, and the fade is just a time-skip shown in one shot. So, how could Scar have hand-picked Kovu to be his heir when he (presumably) wasn't born until after Scar had died?

• Scar could have said, 'The next cub who is born will be my heir' and Zira is exaggerating, or Zira could just be flat-out lying (to herself, even).
• Alternatively, none of the disloyal lionesses gave birth after Simba took power. Kovu may have been born not long before Simba's return.
• Maybe Nala and Simba really did "feel the love," and Nala was already pregnant by the time they got back. Kovu could have either been just born or Zira was nearly due (in which case Scar had told her that this baby would be heir). Either one is a good reason why we didn't see her in the fight; in the former instance, she couldn't risk leaving Kovu alone, in the latter, she couldn't risk the baby getting hurt.
  • As far as Simba and Nala "feeling the love that night" goes, it wouldn't be the first time Disney implied something like that.
    • The directors' commentary actually does confirm that Simba and Nala were "feeling the love that night" during that scene. While it isn't confirmed she actually got pregnant their first time, the fact we see a cub at the end of the movie would seem to suggest she did. In which case, if Zira was indeed already pregnant when Simba returned to overthrow Scar, she and Nala would have had their cubs close together (Kovu being born first would explain why he was a little bigger and bulkier) and the passage of time would allow for the dry season to end, the herds to return, and the land to recover. In which case, Scar could indeed have said her next cub would be his heir before he died.
  • As I heard, it's since been revealed that everything this movie tells us about Kovu's history is a lie. He's not related to Scar, he's not Scar's "chosen successor", and it turns out he's not even related to Zira. He's apparently just a random orphaned cub she took in, and was probably chosen as Scar's unofficial successor because he was the youngest of the Outsiders, and thus a fresh start when it comes to creating an effective assassin, as opposed to Nuka, who's already fully grown (or, at the very least, an adolescent) by the time Kovu and Kiara are developed cubs.

Why are TERMITES bothering Nuka? Shouldn't it be fleas?

• Since he lives in a termite mound, they just happen to be crawling over him all the time.
  • Termites also pack an incredibly painful bite.

Who was Kiara supposed to hook up with if she hadn't met Kovu?

Okay, so... There are no male cubs shown in the Rock Pride during the second movie. Ever. Not even in the background. So... who would ensure more cubs if Simba died?

• Well, that was a lucky break, then, wasn't it?
• Well, another thing I just realized. There are no other female cubs shown, either. It's no wonder she's so rebellious - she never really had any friends besides Timon and Pumbaa, who were more her babysitters than anything.
  • A Rebellious Princess who never had any real friends, huh?
• I always imagined that mature male lions who weren't in line for the crown would go off to find new prides in this very situation. Or, if they were too old for the queen-to-be, they'd mate with one of the other lionesses and the first son to be produced would marry the queen.
• Given how there's the relatively common theory that Nala was a "gift" from another pride, Simba could have gone and found a pride that had a lot of male cubs in it and arranged a marriage for Kiara.

Did Nala's eyes change colors or was it a coloring mistake?

Minor irk, but I re-watched the original movie and Simba's Pride the other day out of boredom, and I noticed Nala had green eyes in the original but has blue eyes in Simba's Pride.

• Definitely a mistake. Simba's Pride had some notable differences in coloring compared to the original — Timon, for example, looks like he's spent too much time in the sun and gotten an impressive tan after the original movie. Likewise, Pumbaa has gone from a more coppery shade of red to purplish.
  • Simba's nose also changed color. In The Lion King it's orange, but in Simba's Pride it's turned purple-pink. I know that a lion SHOULD have a pinkish nose, but couple it with the gradient on his muzzle and it makes him look like he has a cold.
    • Much of the color palette of Simba's Pride is pinkish. Not a change of which this troper is fond.
    • Looking at some screenshots, Simba's nose is pink in the original film and a darker purple-pink in the sequel, which leads to some Fridge Brilliance as lions' noses in real life do get darker as they age. If Disney was going this consciously, Simba's nose would be close to black a few years down the line.
• Even in the first movie, Nala's eyes are blue in some frames, and green in others. Maybe it was just a mistake at first, but then the animators decided to just go with it for the second movie.
  • Eyes can look different colours depending on the lighting; for example, a light blue eye can look almost white if in the right lighting. Considering Nala's eyes are already a vaguely aquamarine shade, under the right lighting it's reasonable to assume that they could end up looking greener or bluer. Doesn't exactly explain the sudden art shift in Simba's Pride, but that was likely due to differences in animators and modelers.

Where did the hyenas go?

It's vaguely mentioned that they ran away after Scar's fall from power, but where did they go? Presumably such a massive population can't just disappear into the wilderness.

• Maybe they dispersed into smaller groups? Hyena clans often do that.
• During the Battle of Pride Rock, a large group is seen fleeing, so some hyenas managed to survive. Banzai, Shenzi, and Ed, however, are strongly implied to have perished in the fire with the ones that remained after killing Scar. Come on, you don't honestly think Disney would allow them to live after being instrumental in Mufasa's death, and oh, I don't know....EATING HIS CORPSE AFTERWARDS?
  • They ate Mufasa's corpse?
    • Mix-ups aside (since, well, they did eat SCAR), they probably DID consume Mufasa's remains after Banzai recovered from his tumble into the briar patch. That's a perfectly good meal laying RIGHT THERE. The hyenas, gluttons that they are, aren't gonna let that go to waste. That's an awesome snack after a job well done, and Scar most likely deemed it a suitable reward (both to let the hyenas feast, and to watch them eat his dead brother. He seems like the sort of sick son of a bitch).
  • The trio did not perish.
  • It's unlikely the hyenas were killed in the fire, given that it started raining only moments afterward and the fires were extinguished very quickly. Sure, they might have gotten singed a little, but there's no evidence that they all died. And yes, Disney commonly does allow the lesser villains to live.
• The hyenas most likely left the Pride Lands for good in search of new territory. They probably realized things weren't going to get any better for them staying there, and they feared the lions might retaliate against them some time in the future.

Did Vitani really expect Kovu to attack Simba right on Pride Rock, in front of the cave where all the dozens of his pride's lionesses were?

• I guess she would, if Kovu was trained to the point that he could have just jumped and snapped Simba's neck in a second before the lionesses would even have known, but judging by how ridiculously easily he was knocked aside when trying to defend Simba from the Outsiders, it doesn't sound very likely.
  • Even if he could have killed Simba instantly (which is unlikely, no matter how skilled he is), Kovu would have almost no prayer of getting away alive. As far as I understood it, Zira's plan involved Kovu becoming king after a successful assassination, so doing something suicidal would put Zira's followers in a very precarious position. Nuka, the only adult male in the group besides Kovu, is not exactly a model lion. He'd be an easy kill for a rogue. Should Zira and her followers drive off the rogue or kill him, they would then be without a king, more or less dooming the pride. In short, Vitani was not thinking very clearly at all.
    • Yeah, I was wondering about that, too...Vitani jumped the gun big time there, methinks. Kovu couldn't possibly have killed Simba before the lionesses heard the commotion and came out to attack him, if he could beat Simba one-on-one at all...after all, Vitani and the Outsiders were all trained killers too, just like Kovu (though he probably had special training) and all of them couldn't take him down in one go.
  • Maybe Vitani expected that Kovu could kill Simba quickly, which would leave the members of his pride leaderless and give the Outsiders a massive advantage, since they now have a deadly and capable adult male lion to fight with them, whereas the Pridelanders do not. Maybe the other Outsiders were already mobilized to jump in and help Kovu if he couldn’t get away safely after offing Simba, or they trusted that he would hold his own long enough to be able to escape himself, if it came to that.

Simba's blind stupidity

How could Simba think that Kovu set him up for an ambush? He led them right to the place where Zira and her followers were lying in wait, having a conversation that Simba instigated. Kovu hadn't planned on being alone with him at all, at this moment.

• Simple: Simba's paranoid. Think about it: He's alone in the wilds with a younger and probably fitter lion whom he knows has been trained practically from birth to assassinate him and take his place then suddenly, from out of nowhere, they're surrounded by this lion's pride, who are out for his blood because he banished them for supporting his tyrant of an uncle. It wouldn't be that difficult for Simba to jump to the conclusion that Kovu could have sent word to a pride member of his progress within the pride and had arranged for the rest of the pride to be on standby should he ever corner Simba alone. I mean, Kovu is shown to sleep outside alone while the rest of the pride are sleeping soundly inside the cave, it wouldn't have been that difficult for him to sneak off in the middle of the night, meet Vitani or another lioness, update them of his progress and tell them to have the pride waiting then sneak back to Pride Rock before the sun rose and everyone woke up again.
• In the first film, it's established that it never once crossed Simba's mind that Scar may have been responsible for Mufasa's death. We probably have to admit that Simba is not especially clever.
• It's hard to tell, but the exile does not seem to be a punishment specifically for the ambush, but for the fact Kovu was a spy, as revealed by Zira's (incorrect) congratulations. So, Simba is punishing Kovu's whole duplicity, because of how long he took to admit his double-dealing at the beginning and now that the facts revealed it instead of his words, Simba can't trust Kovu any more (so in the end, Kovu loses on both sides). You have also the impression that Kovu is exiled because now that he has the exact same scar as his adoptive father, he looks like he probably walks on his path, plotting evil things while acting friendly to others. That's a paradox, because this was indeed material evidence he was no more supported by the Outsiders who hurt him (except you imagine it is again a subterfuge).
• It's actually not that hard to tell. Simba never suggests that he thinks Kovu personally lured him into the trap; he just thought Kovu was in on Zira's plan for an ambush once Simba was alone, and didn't say anything about it.

Why didn't Zira send Kovu to challenge Simba in a straight fight?

According to the first film (and what we know of lion biology in Real Life), this is the way to contest leadership of the current boss of the pride. So, why not dethrone Simba on the fair side?Obviously, this is more hazardous than assassination, but take a look at the arguments. On one hand, Kovu is one generation younger than Simba, he is well-built (if not better) and has been trained his whole life to fight. On the other hand, Simba barely fought at all until there, and we are even reminded that Nala, the Queen, has no difficulty in pinning him down casually, and she presumably never trained him. So, the odds are clearly on Kovu's side in a square fight.

• It's possible that despite despising Simba so much, Zira does not want to take such a risk to lose Scar's only valuable heir (she probably doesn't expect Nuka to take over if Kovu lost). In parallel, she is convinced that Simba assassinated Scar, and did not defeat him in a fair fight himself (he flipped him off a cliff, and the hyenas at the bottom finished the job), so she sees her plan as a more karmic retribution to punish Simba's alleged treachery.
  • Also, Simba challenged Scar as the rightful king returning to take his place on the throne, not some random lion popping in to try and seize power. Kovu isn't Scar's son, and even if he was, he wouldn't have a rightful claim to power until both Simba and Kiara are incapacitated.

Why did not Zira scheme for Kovu to become king by marrying Kiara?

The plan in the film is Kovu infiltrates the Rock Pride, assassinates Simba, and claims the throne. Zira would relish the blood of the royal family (strangling herself the daughter), of course, but didn't they ever think that Kovu could become the Prince consort by marrying Kiara (who was still not betrothed), and later, when Simba would be too old or dead, overthrow Kiara to claim her title?

• Zira didn't want mere power, she wanted revenge. Sure, she wanted Kovu to rule, but first and foremost, she wanted Simba dead, and the sooner, the better. She didn't want to wait years and years for that, letting Simba live a long and happy life while she would probably pass away before she could see her enemy's death.
• Even without a single lion remaining in Africa, Simba would probably never willingly consider marrying his daughter to the heir of his evil uncle. Kovu only gained acceptance by saving the princess' life, explicitly stating he had run away from the Outlands. The only plausible way it would have been brought up is as a clause of a peace plan between the two prides (the heirs from each side forming together a royal couple). However, even so, Zira is not the kind of person with whom he could live under the same roof.
• She says as much during her Villain Song: She could come up with a more amicable plan to seize power, she's just so bloodthirsty that she doesn't want to. She wants to take revenge on Simba's pride and to see him and Kiara dead. It's the same reason why she couldn't bring herself to make a Heel–Face Turn in the end.

What are they looking at?!

Here's a random one: At the end of "We Are One", Kiara has a really intense stare at... something. Simba notices, follows her gaze, and has an expression that's all, "Oh. Heh." But no matter how many times I've looked for anything up there at the edge of Pride Rock, I see absolutely nothing. What caught her attention, and if it's nothing, why in the WORLD did they animate it that way?

• This is just guesswork, but they were looking up at Pride Rock itself. The whole song is about how Kiara and Simba are one because of their relation, thus their royalty, but Kiara isn't too keen on ruling the Pride Lands when Simba dies because, in her words prior to the song, being queen is not fun. Simba was looking up at Pride Rock, and she looked upset because it was all set in stone according to him. I honestly think that 'Oh. Heh.' expression was because he understood what she looked upset about and tried to reassure her that it was who she was positively (which she doesn't really want since she told Timon and Pumbaa, quite irritably, that a princess was only half of who she was and can't think of an answer when asked what's the other half). Again, just guessing, but I saw the movie recently for a bit of nostalgia and wondered that myself.
• The above has it more or less right. At this point, Kiara is characterized partly by a fear of bowing to destiny and losing her own individuality in the process. While Simba is trying to reassure her, she sees his face in profile with Pride Rock looming large behind him. Remember that Pride Rock is much more than just the lions' home. It's a symbol, like a palace or a throne, or even the White House. Kind of an oppressive reminder of what fate had in store for her down the road. Simba sees her looking rather distressed at something, turns, sees Pride Rock and, with surprising insight, gleans what she saw and tries to reassure her again, even if he probably chose the exact wrong thing to say.

Kopa and Vitani shipping

This is a fanon thing, obviously. I don't get how Kopa and Vitani could have been the same age. I can accept Nuka and Kopa but not Vitani. She seems too young come her first appearance, once Kiara is born.

• Well, you could chalk appearances up to being malnourished. I've never heard this fan theory before. Most of the ones I've heard of involved Kopa and Kiara being twins. In that case, Vitani should be older than Kopa.

The hunting scene with Kovu and Kiara

• I know that the trilogy has never been concerned with scientific accuracy, but still... A male lion teaching a lioness to hunt. How does that work? (Maybe Kovu was trained to hunt because the Outlands were so lacking in prey, but he still wouldn't know how to catch big game. For example, Nuka "caught some field mice for [Zira's] dinner.")
  • The concepts used to catch small prey (stealth, speed, accuracy of attack) are the same as for catching larger prey. Most of Kiara's problems with hunting aren't things Kovu can't already do better. He also said he could do better than she could, so she's daring him to prove it. She's also learning how to hunt alone, which Kovu would naturally be better at explaining than one of the lionesses, who almost always work in a group.
  • Male lions do hunt. And they mainly hunt either when game is scarce or to attack very large prey.
    • Yep. This is even alluded to in the first movie, when Scar brings the hyenas a bit of zebra meat.
  • And lest you forget, Kovu was raised his entire life to have the skills of a merciless assassin. It can't be that hard for him to extrapolate those skills to regular hunting. Maybe Zira snuck him into the Pride Lands or took him elsewhere where there was big game in order to help him hone his skills.
  • Not to mention, considering how overprotective Simba is, it's unlikely he would've let Kiara learn how to hunt.

Talking things out

• Why would Kiara and Kovu trying to talk through the issues between the Pridelanders and Outsiders have worked, given the circumstances? One of the things that was common to the story of Romeo and Juliet is that the two families didn't actually know what they were fighting over or how it got started, which is why the tragedy of losing their respective children could drive them to forgive each other. In this story, though, the Outsiders specifically opposed Simba because they were supporters of the "House of Scar" (Zira and Kovu) and saw it as the rightful ruling family - I could see Vitani choosing to switch sides since she probably didn't experience Scar's reign personally, but not all of them would've given up their ideology just from Kiara giving a generic "We are the same" speech. They wanted to fight to take back the Pride Lands.
  • Note that the reconciliation is Kiara's (naive) idea in the first place. Kovu wanted more reasonably to start a new pride somewhere else (much to his "pleasure") to get away from the senseless feuding. Just to be clear, the opposition between the two prides is never clearly explained. It is just implied that followers of Zira don’t acknowledge Simba's right to the crown. So, one can suppose that they were exiled for this lone reason. As soon as any of them accepts him as the rightful king, they can go back to the Pride Lands. Conversely, any Pridelander could potentially join the Outsiders if she swears allegiance to Scar's dynasty (purely hypothetical). However, when Kiara convinces her father to stop fighting, she simply says they are not different. Again, the justification of the war is not lampshaded, but there is a vague impression that it is more a kind of Fantastic Racism between the prides because the lionesses had a different design according to their side. Eventually, everybody joins up with Simba with no questions, just because they suddenly decided it was “enough”. The ending scene clearly shows that only the Outsiders were wrong and evil, as their design changes to resemble the established members of Simba's pride, looking more light-sided. Their pride is more "annexed" than reunified into a third different nation, after all (granted, Kovu as the prince consort looks like a concession to the Outsiders, but he was a defector at this point, not their representative). Problem is, the writers didn't bother to expose some big collective agreement about Scar's misdemeanor, and we never know if the Outsiders were following him in full knowledge of the cause.
  • You have to remember, Zira's followers realized how crazy their chief was when she said that she would kill her own child. We don't know how strongly they believed in her ideology, but maybe the group was holding more by the herd instinct than anything. Vitani's defection started the pride's disintegration, just like unraveling a ball of yarn.
  • Also consider that it wasn't too long ago that the Outsiders and the Pridelanders were both part of the same pride. In Romeo and Juliet the feud had been going on between two separate families for some time, whereas here it was between two halves of a single family for hardly a single generation. They'd probably be more inclined to reassimilate with that in mind.
  • Put simply, the entire conflict is negotiable and likely always has been, except for the singular problem that Zira's been trying to make this into Macbeth with lions. Kiara sees the former point, because she knows what it would take for the Outsiders to be accepted back into the Pride Lands. Kovu sees the latter, and so knows negotiation is impossible as long as Zira's around, and if he's even considering the option, he'd know that getting rid of Zira would only make it even more impossible.

Kovu's heel-face turn

Why did Kovu change sides so quickly (basically within ONE day)? Has he not been brainwashed and trained his whole life to hate Simba and his family with every shred of his being, and to consider Simba's death as the sole purpose of his life? Was good so deeply-embedded in his soul that it took only one afternoon of fun for him to reject Scar's legacy? After that, the reason of his reluctance to tell the truth is not loyalty to his family, but the fear that he will lose Kiara once she learns about the whole machination. Simba's whole exposition of Scar's real backstory is thus rendered moot, because he had already defected at this point, but simply lacked the time to confess everything himself.

• Close, but no banana. First, he wasn't brainwashed "all his life" — we see him as a free-roaming, regular lion cub interacting with Kiara before Zira comes up with the "assassinate Simba" scheme. That would mean there was some semblance of normalcy underneath the cold, relentless persona that he gradually came to adopt, and as such, his afternoon spent with Kiara as an adult isn't him being introduced to something he's never experienced before, but rather him remembering life from before his training. And secondly, Simba explaining Scar's backstory is important because it gives Kovu a deeper incentive and a better reason to defect from the Outsiders. "I realize that Scar was an evil person and don't want to follow in his footsteps anymore" is guaranteed to sound a lot better to Simba than "I was raised to assassinate you, but now I love your daughter, so just trust me when I say that I changed my mind and don't want to do it anymore." Kovu even tells himself how stupid the second argument will sound if it’s all he has when he comes clean to Simba.
  • The training presumably took years, and represents a large part of Kovu's life after the time skip. Even so, arguing the short period of freedom he had before as a lawless cub in the Outlands is not much different than saying he was just born naturally good. Secondly, if the exposition of Scar's real life is certainly instructive for a lion raised by someone glorifying such a tyrant, once again, it is completely useless at this point, since Kovu had utterly reformed after the "Upendi" song, and had no intention to fulfill his mission anymore, as he tried to confess openly. The Outsiders already considered him a traitor by the time of the ambush scene, as evidenced by Zira faking congratulations just to mislead Simba. But if you follow his evolution closely, you will notice "Upendi" is not even the real turning point. Just before that scene, when they are looking at the stars, he mentions his fear of sharing the same darkness that Scar had, like it was a bad thing, when you would expect him at this point to mistakenly defend the memory of his "father", or even to call himself on his evilness. It just looks like he had suddenly transformed into a nice guy because of the friendship/love of Kiara, and disavows his father’s legacy.
    • First off, Scar isn't his father by blood. Both Kovu and Nuka say this during the film. Apart from that, it's suggested above that the Outsiders are largely holding together out of loyalty to each other than to any actual worship of Scar — they all switch sides at the end just because Zira condemned Vitani for her defection. If we assume that Kovu was the same way, he probably secretly disagreed with the ruthless ideals Zira tried to teach him, but pretended to go along with them because he didn't want to disobey her. And even if we go by what you said — that Kovu wanted to shed Scar's legacy from the get-go — then the talk Simba has with him is still important to that goal. Simba doesn't just talk about how evil his uncle was; he also explains that after a dark time, new life has the potential to rise up and become something better than what came before it. He's saying that just because Kovu was an Outsider, and was chosen as Scar's successor, what he grows up to become is of his own choosing.
    • Also, no, Kovu having friends and a somewhat normal upbringing early on is in no way the same as him being predisposed toward good from birth. You're just a blank slate when you're born. It's your upbringing that determines where you choose to align yourself.

About Nuka

I was just rewatching the movie recently and then something occurred to me: We know that Nuka is the counterpart to Tybalt (very impulsive and not very fond of Kovu/Romeo), but isn't it also possible that he could have some of Mercutio's traits as well, like the fact that he apparently has some mental issues and is from the rival house (discounting the fact that Mercutio wasn't a Montague)?

How there are lions loyal to Scar even years after his reign ended.

Not counting elements introduced in The Lion Guard (which may not necessarily be canon), it was established that Scar wanted to be king because he felt he was owed the title after spending years languishing in Mufasa's shadow. And when he became king, it was shown that he was a terrible ruler — he didn't care for the responsibilities that kingship demanded, he only cared about the perks and privileges his title provided. So, that raises the question: How did Scar manage to get so many lionesses to be loyal to him, even years after his death? Zira still being loyal to him makes sense, with her being implied to be his mate, meaning she still clearly loves and mourns him, but what about the other lionesses Simba had to banish? Do they not remember how bad things were when Scar was king?

• It's important to remember that, while Zira was obviously the most fanatically loyal to Scar, it's not like she (or anyone else) had the idea of restoring him to the throne or anything...since he was already dead. My personal hypothesis is that most of the Outsiders had become disillusioned with Simba's rule at some point, and so Zira managed to convince them that Kovu, once grown, would make for a better, more suitable king than Simba, and so that (along with "pride" mentality) is what they were all rallying behind the entire time.

Lion construction?

• These lions are quite adept at tools, with the Outlanders using fire and there being a dam. How and why did these lions build a dam?

Mufasa and Rafiki's "Secret" Matchmaking

• Why didn't Rafiki just tell Simba about Mufasa's plan to have Kiara and Kovu unite the two prides? It's not like Mufasa explicitly wanted it to be kept secret, and it would've saved a whole mess of trouble and paranoia on Simba's end if Rafiki told him that his father, who he holds on a pretty high pedestal, saw potential good in Kovu.
  • Maybe Mufasa and/or Rafiki thought it was more important for Simba to learn this lesson on his own. Besides, we know Mufasa must have “seen potential good” in Scar to have kept him around so long, and look how that turned out. It’s very possible Simba wouldn’t have taken that piece of his father’s wisdom too seriously, regardless of how much he respected him.

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