#TLKII

[jayietheriverwarrior]

I actually drew this, and my next drawing, before any of the other ref sheets I just posted, quite soon after the announcements surrounding the upcoming Mufasa prequel movie. For reasons that will soon become clear, the announcements about the movie made me super motivated to draw some lions from the era of Mohatu and Ahadi's reigns. ^^

Background again belongs to Disney, and was edited for use over here. You can see them without the background here.

The three lions we see here are the Selfish Lion from the TLK book "The Brightest Star", the Strange Lion from the TV show The Lion Guard, and an OC of my own creation who appeared in my old fanfiction Quiet Before the Storm. They are Prince Hifadhi, younger brother to King Mohatu, leader of the Lion Guard, and strict traditionalist to a fault; King Jadi, son of Hifadhi, raised to believe he is the true heir to the throne, succeeded in claiming part of the Pride Lands for his own, only to meet his end while trying to manipulate the young Prince Taka; and Nyonda, younger sister to Jadi, raised to lead his Lion Guard, but saw her father and brother for what they truly were and turned to Mohatu and Ahadi's side instead, eventually becoming leader of the true Lion Guard of the Pride Lands. That may all seem confusing, and bear in mind, my headcanons for the TLK verse have changed quite a bit from when I wrote my fanfic over a decade ago, so much of that has changed as well. For a proper explanation of who these characters all are, keep reading below. But first, a look at the art itself. Hifadhi draws all of his colors, and most of his build, from his appearance in The Brightest Star, but since his design there is just a recolored Scar, I took the liberty to make a few tweaks - mostly just exaggerating or underplaying features that were already there, rather than adding or removing anything entirely. I mostly made him more angular and overall more like his granddaughter Zira in appearance. The hair is also meant to look a bit military-ish to fit with his role and personality. Since we only saw his left side in TBS, I took the liberty of adding scars to his right side, since leading the Lion Guard is a tough job and bound to result in some scarring. For Jadi, I mostly just tweaked his TLG design a bit to make the proportions better and drew him in the art style of the first movie. He took forever to finish and to get looking right, but I'm very happy with the end result. I feel like you can see a fair bit of Nuka in him, especially in the nose and chin. For Nyonda, I kept many of the components of her original design (the shape of the head, eyes, and nose), while adding a few things to make her look more like her brother and father, and also more like her great-granddaughters Tiifu and Zuri. I gave her freckles, cheek tufts, a swept-back hair tuft, as well as tweaking the colors a bit to better match her future granddaughters, while overall still greatly resembling her old design. She's also now skinner like her dad, but she's a strong as ever. You can find her old design here. And now, for the story. ^^ Sorry, it's pretty long. There's a second half to this image which will show Mohatu, Ahadi, and Uru's side of the story, but I just typed over 3K words (the same length as the chapters I usually write in fanfics), and it's late and I'm tired, so the rest might have to come tomorrow (or Tuesday), sorry. ~-~-~ Prince Hifadhi, rather than just being a selfish and violent rogue as The Brightest Star implies, was instead a fiercely dedicated and dutiful leader of the Lion Guard during his brother's reign as king. There was no jealousy over his brother's role, no squabbling to be king - indeed, Hifadhi would have considered such a thing to be treason of the highest degree. His first and greatest loyalty was to the traditions and laws of the Pride Lands. He was the second son, and thus he was to lead the Lion Guard. That was how things were, how things should be, and he took to his task with a steadfast determination to serve and play his part in the Circle of Life. He was dedicated to laws and rule-following to an almost obsesive degree, leaving no room for nuance or consideration of things outside of his experience. His scuffle with the lions by the watering hole in The Brightest Star was not out of seflishness to keep the water for himself, but because he believed the animals were not strictly adhering to the water-sharing rules his brother had put in place, and he would not hear excuses on the matter, unlike his more merciful brother. He and Mohatu did not always see eye to eye, but no one could doubt Hifadhi's dedication to serving the Pride Lands. He had known from cubhood how every step of his life would be laid out before him. He would protect the Pride Lands as long as his brother was king, and he would teach his niece or nephew to take his place, and would only retire once his part in the Circle of Life had been completed and the next leader of the Lion Guard was ready to take up his mantle. He never expected anything to change the life that the Pride Lands required of him. And then, out of nowhere, his fool of a brother made an outrageous announcement that shattered Hifadhi's world. Not only had Mohatu announced his intention to never marry - to never take a queen and produce royal-blooded heirs, one of the most sacred and crucial duties expected of him as king - but that he had chosen for his heir the orphan rogue cub that he had recently taken in, a scruffy little thing called Ahadi. Hifadhi felt a rage unlike anything he had ever known before. To not only spit upon the laws and traditions that governed their kingdom and kept them all safe, kept them from falling to the vile depths of rogues and outsiders, by refusing to marry and father cubs - but to then choose a filthy rogue as the next king? Hifadhi couldn't believe his brother had done something so selfish, so absurd, so... so treasonous. He and Mohatu had a massive fight over the matter, greater than any of the petty arguments they'd had before, but by the end of it, Mohatu's mind was unmoved. He would not be swayed - Ahadi would be his heir. From then on, Hifadhi knew that his brother was not the sort of king to deserve his loyalty, and that it was his duty to protect the Pride Lands from his foolish decision, and make sure that scruffy little brat would never sit on the throne. He had an infant son with his mate, as yet unnamed, but upon returning home, Hifadhi made a choice that would change the fate of the kingdom. He named the boy Jadi, meaning tradition. He would raise this boy in the traditions of the kingdom, teaching him about his birthright by blood, and one day, somehow, he would make his son the true royal king of the Pride Lands. Jadi grew up constantly being told how much better he was than Ahadi because of his royal blood, how much wiser and stronger and more noble, and how much more he deserved the throne than such an undeserving rogue brat. Hifadhi sought to teach the boy the discipline and adherence to law that a king would need, but he failed to realize how much his own bigotry and constant praise of the cub were turning his son into a greedy, arrogant young lion. By the time Mohatu announced that he would be stepping down and handing his throne onto Ahadi and his mate Uru, Jadi had become a cruel, sly, self-serving bully of a lion. His younger sister Nyonda was raised from the start to be the leader of Jadi's Lion Guard. But unlike her brother, this shrewd young lioness never fell for her father's self-righteous claims of being on the right side of law and tradition. She could see her father for the narrow-minded fool that he was, and Jadi for the cruel bully that he was. In her cubhood, Nyonda went behind her father's back and began meeting with Ahadi and Uru, forming a firm friendship with the pair, along with the bird Zuzu and Uru's adoptive sister, the hyena Banagi. She worked hard to learn the skills her father had to teach as leader of the Lion Guard, but resolved only to learn physical skill and strategy from him, as the rest could not be trusted. Unlike her father, she knew that one day, Jadi would force the issue of his right to be king, and when that day came, Ahadi would need fighters on his side, so that is what she would be. On the day Ahadi was to be crowned king, Jadi and Hifadhi went to confront him. Hifadhi, ever a stickler for the rules, intended to contest the legality of Ahadi's ascension, threatening to turn to allied prides and the well-respected mjuzis of the Grass Walls, even the sacred pride tasked with guarding the Tree of Life, to pressure Mohatu to change his mind the right, legal way. But that would all take far too long, and Jadi knew better than his father than to trust in the right way of doing things to work. Instead, he used his father's droning on about laws and proper procedures as a distraction. When the moment was right, and all of his secret supporters among the pride another assembled animals were in position, he gave the signal to attack. Hifadhi was stunned by the sudden outburst of violence. He had never expected his son to commit such an act of mutiny, even after the many years of drilling Jadi's right to be king into his head. He tried to pull Jadi away from Ahadi, but was no longer the young leader of the Lion Guard he'd once been, and was easily pushed aside. Jadi was easily able to overpower the disabled Ahadi, but support from Mohatu, Uru, and Nyonda kept him from being able to kill him. Ahadi was enraged by this treasonous challenge. While his mate held Jadi down, Ahadi struck a very deliberate blow to Jadi's face, resulting in the scar around his eye. In my headcanon, the scar isn't a magical snake venom-induced Mark of Evil, but instead, a Mark of Exile. Lions and other animals exiled from the Pride Lands for particularly egregious crimes are marked with a clean scar above and below the eye, to signal to other kingdoms that these animals are outcasts and not to be trusted. By scarring Jadi in this way, Ahadi signaled to all the kingdom that he was as deplorable as any exile, and was not the true king. It was a big symbolic blow that would harm Jadi's image in the Pride Lands and result in much bitterness on Jadi's part, but in the end, his supporters were too fierce and too many, and Mohatu and his followers were forced to retreat. Jadi crowned himself King and laid claim to Pride Rock and the Pride Lands, while Mohatu and his pridemates who had remained loyal to him were driven off in disgrace. But King Jadi's victory was not as complete as he had hoped. Many animals were disgusted with the violent and treacherous way that Jadi had seized power, and refused to bow to his rule. Mohatu was able to keep hold over a good chunk of the Pride Lands and keep himself and his pridemates within the borders of the kingdom. He held a new, uninterrupted coronation where Ahadi was finally crowned king, and then he set to work traveling his kingdom, campaigning on Ahadi's behalf, doing everything in his power to weaken Jadi's influence over the Pride Lands and win more allies to his adopted son's side. Hifadhi, still dazed by his son's violent actions and his own role in encouraging them, joined Ahadi's side, helping train the new Lion Guard and keeping Jadi's supporters out of Ahadi's part of the Pride Lands - but no one really forgave or trusted him for the monster he had created and how much destruction had been wrought on their home because of his choices. With the new king came a new Lion Guard. Another lion called Nyeusi, a distant cousin of the king and a friend of Ahadi's growing up, had been trained to be the next leader of the Lion Guard, but to Nyonda's surprise, he offered the position to her instead. He was loyal to Ahadi and would always defend his friend, but he knew in his heart that he didn't have the initiative, cleverness, and determination to lead that Nyonda did. The lioness humbly accepted, taking to her new role with all of the determination of her father before her, but with a calmer, more introspective mind, willing to listen to those around her and accept that law and tradition could not account for all that was right and good. Her outwardly stoic and stern manner made some wary that she would turn out like her treacherous father, but she soon proved that she was a loyal, steadfast lioness and truly worthy of her place in Ahadi's kingdom. She eventually became mates with Banagi, and the pair raised a daughter called Daha that had been born with the help of a willing rogue male. Daha later had two daughters of her own - one daughter would later be Tiifu's mother, while the other was Zuri's mother. The conflict between Jadi and Ahadi continued for years. For a time, Jadi tried to take over Ahadi's part of the kingdom by force, but every time he was repelled, and soon, he stopped trying altogether. Instead, he decided to wait, and think, and find a more clever way to win his prize. Several years after the beginning of the conflict, he found what he was looking for. His spies within Ahadi's part of the kingdom told him of the frustrations of the young Prince Taka. How Ahadi and Uru didn't have as much time to spend time with their young son as they'd like because of their constant efforts to hold onto their part of the Pride Lands. How Taka loved his big brother Mufasa, but was becoming increasingly jealous of how Mufasa spent more time with their parents, and that his future role as king seemed much more important than Taka's scant lessons with the also-incredibly-busy Lion Guard. It was the perfect opportunity. One day while Taka was wandering the borders alone, frustrated after being blown off for training by the Lion Guard because of an urgent situation they'd had to take care of, King Jadi approached him. He told Taka a very different version of that mutinous day, one that cast him in a much more favorable light, and which made himself seem similar to the constantly-rebuffed young prince, constantly denied what was rightfully his. He told Taka that he saw true potential in him, far more than in Mufasa, and that he wanted Taka's help to restore peace and unity to the kingdom. He proposed a plan - lure Mufasa into a situation where he would come out looking foolish and unworthy of being king, and then Taka would be chosen as the new heir for sure. Once Taka was the heir, Jadi would betroth his daughter Zira to Taka, and through their marriage, the two halves of the kingdom would be reunited once more. Taka would be the one who had finally ended the years-long conflict and brought peace. He would be adored and adulated as a hero. It was too much temptation to resist. Taka did just as Jadi had suggested. He lured Mufasa into a conflict with the water buffalo Boma, manipulating the situation so that it appeared Mufasa had acted brashly and foolishly, causing Boma and the other water buffalo to attack the young prince. But while Taka was leaving the scene behind to go and fetch his parents, so they could witness Mufasa's foolishness for themselves, Jadi appeared from nowhere and attacked the young prince. He sneered at the young lion for being so gullible and trusting. He had never intended to wed Taka to his daughter or make Taka king. It had all been a trap to lure both of the young princes into a dangerous situation and ensure both of their deaths. With both their beloved sons gone, Ahadi and Uru would be too heartbroken to go on, and would be easy to oust from power once and for all. Jadi would finally have the entire kingdom under his thrall. Victory was within his grasp. But he spoke too soon. As Taka listened with growing fear, and rage, to Jadi's crowing, he became desperate to escape. He kicked at Jadi's belly and threw the older lion off of him. They were at the edge of the ledge overlooking the watering hole - as they grabbled, Jadi fell, desperately clinging to the edge with his front paws. Taka went to try and pull him up, but Jadi grasped at him with his paws, fury and vengeance powering him. With a burst of rage, he thrust out with his paw, slicing Taka across the face, marking him with the Mark of Exile. Cruel glee filled him at the thought of Taka being forever marked as a traitor for the treacherous plotting he had done to dethrone his brother. But this petty action cost him - as Taka desperately shook him off, Jadi lost his grip, and fell back into the watering hole below, quickly becoming trampled by the furious water buffalo. With the death of the treacherous King Jadi, the Pride Lands were finally made whole again, united under the rule of King Ahadi and Queen Uru. Most of Jadi's kingdom returned willingly to the fold, having grown disillusioned with Jadi after years of poor leadership, but some chose exile over bowing to Ahadi. In particular, Jadi's mate and young daughter Zira, and some of the rest of the pride, chose to settle in the nearby Outlands and plot their revenge for the overthrow of their rightful king. Taka boiled with bitterness over the betrayal of Jadi, the trauma of his near-death, and the adulation Mufasa had received for helping calm the situation with the water buffalo and for his (admittedly small) part in ending the civil war. Something changed inside of him after that day. He knew now that he could trust no one but himself, and that lions were willing to do whatever it took to seize power, so why shouldn't he? With a new sense of purpose, he claimed the name Scar, ready to start down the path of doing whatever it took to become king. As well as allying with the hyenas, he reached out to Jadi's old followers. He told them of Jadi's wishes for Scar to wed his daughter Zira and unite the kingdom under their combined banner, conveniently leaving out the part where Jadi had been lying through his teeth. Jadi hadn't told the pride of his plans, and Scar was so clever and convincing, that they soon believed him. He made sure to bring Zira under his sway, earning himself a loyal follower and queen for his future rule. He would not risk open rebellion as Jadi had, not if it would mean losing half of his kingdom's support because of the open violence. No, he would be smarter about things. He would wait, and he would plan, and he would bring about Mufasa's fall in such a way that no one could lay the blame on him or deny him his rightful ascension to the throne. One day, no matter what it took, he would be king. ~-~-~ Soooo yeah, Selfish Lion is a loyal (but bigoted) guard leader, Jadi is a mutinous king rather than a scheming rogue, and Nyonda is now Zira's aunt rather than a former rogue and Uru's adopted sister. And yeah, I know TLG says that no females have been on the guard before, but shhh, Nyonda as I wrote her ages ago was always a fighter and guard-material, so I just decided to ignore that little factoid. I had a lot of fun mixing and matching elements from Lion Guard and the semi-canon books to create this story, particularly the bit about how Taka got his scar. I loved being able to combine the water buffalo incident with Jadi's trap for the prince. I also loved playing with the idea of of the scar marking being significant to the Pride Landers, without it being anything magic or supernatural as the show implied. Instead, it's more of a political/symbolic thing, used to mark traitors and criminals, so other kingdoms would know not to take them in after their exile.

[vitani-maybe-blog]

Now, I’m no character design expert, but something has bothered me for long enough I’ve decided to make a post about it. 

Well, I’ll get straight to the point. Does anyone else feel like the lion designs in The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride were based less on lions in real life, and more off the first movie? 

I was thinking the other day, how in the god damn hell does this: 

Resemble this?:

Sure, they’re similar, but it feels more like all of the lions in TLKII are more cartoony and other-species-esque than the lions in the first movie. I can’t put my finger on it, but the strange boxed muzzles, the compressed noses, the almost uncanny human-like facial proportions, it feels like whoever designed the characters in TLKII didn’t even look at a lion, but just went off the first movie, further distancing itself from reality. 

I’m fine with not having realism, don’t get me wrong. It IS a Disney movie after all, and a SEQUEL to a stylized animated movie, but even when I was young, the designs struck me as unrealistic. 

WARNING: you are getting into nitpick territory, you have been warned.  Lets take a look at the cast, shall we? 

First off, let’s look at Kovu.  Ah, Kovu, you little heartthrob, you are responsible for hundreds of active fursuiters. Lets tear his design a new one. 

Don’t get me wrong, Kovu’s design isn’t god awful. Honestly, no one’s design in this movie is TRUELY atrocious, but let’s make some assessments right off the bat.  In reality, there are no cranberry/red grape/chocolate brown lions. The closest I could find on Ye Olde Trusty Google was this fellah right here and his cute gf 

Even then, it’s not a reddish pelt. It’s more of a dusty orange/yellow.  But what about Scar? Does he get a pass? Well, in direct daylight, Scar is a saturated orange, which is a bit of an exaggeration of darker brown. 

But wait! You object, the picture you provided of kovu wasn’t in broad daylight! Well, this is kovu the purple lion in broad daylight. http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/lionking/images/2/20/HuntingpracticeKovuKiara.png/revision/latest?cb=20120403182230

Next, lets take a look at zira/the outlanders. All of the outlanders have that sharp, wolf-like design like Scar, which always made me wonder as a child, did they start out that way? Is this a lion subspecies? If you follow Scar, do you gradually become more scar-like? “Oh but Vitani-maybe, they’re malnourished!”  Well that still doesn’t sell me, because sure as hell Scar wasn’t malnourished, you can’t convince me that if he ate an extra protein bar he’d end up with Mufasa’s big ass mane and jaw.  Honestly, back to the thoughts I had as a kid, I honestly thought Zira was some gender-bend/cut out Scar wife.  She has the long wolf muzzle and the slanty beady eyes, you know, the works.  But what I DO appreciate is the fact that her colors are muted, and that one stripe on her head adds some ties to a real life lioness. Bonus points. 

Now, lets talk about Vitani. Ah, Vitani, Vitani, Vitani, you precious little pinkie toe.  Listen, I understand this is a CARTOON, but compared to the semi-realistic designs of the first movie, uh-- 

 http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/lionking/images/3/36/CubVitani2.png/revision/latest?cb=20131202215412 Listen. You’d have to be high as hell to see that in real life and think “lion”.  Don’t believe me? Look at this lion cub.

Like, come on.  The other point I had on Vitani, is even though I think her hair tuft is really cute, it always stuck out to me when I was younger, because even though there ARE such a thing as sterile maned lionesses, Vitani doesn’t have a “mane”. Look at any image in the google search of a lioness, you will not find one hair tuft, cub or otherwise. Just like it always stuck out that Kovu, as a cub, already has a god damn mane coming in. Like-- how old was he supposed to be when they met? I always assumed they were around the same age as Simba was when Mufasa died, but APPARENTLY not, because Kovu here already got an edgy haircut coming in.  As for Nuka, god bless Nuka, I don’t really have to make a point about him, because he’s just so outlandishly cartoonish, all I have to do is show you a picture. 

And finally, probably the biggest offense of the TLKII designs--

Simba and Nala.  Okay, I get it, they can’t REPLICATE the original animation style with the budget they were given for a STRAIGHT TO DVD SEQUEL, but come on. Come on. 

We have Simba here, who is rocking a Donald Trump approved spray on tan, and Nala, who looks like she got her fur bleached. I guess my biggest grudge is the fact that the WHOLE ANIMATION TEAM COULDN’T DRAW THEM PROPERLY...? Like, okay, you’re a straight to dvd sequel, there’s already more effort than I expected, but christ in a sidecar, did you HAVE to make them like, new character sheets? Were they trying to make them look older? WELL, THAT’S NOT THE WAY I WOULD HAVE DONE IT BUT OH WELL, C’EST LA VIE. 

Anyway, in conclusion, I have no life and am overanalyzing a cartoon. Do I fit in with the internet, yet?

[raemanzu]

I know everybody hates TLK II but like... I just rewatched a good chunk of it and

Kovu is actually a fav. I’m weak for his character tropes?

Poor kid is indoctrinated and emotionally manipulated into thinking he has to kill Simba... when really deep down he’s just a big old dork (I mean... as painfully cheesy as it is... the “why are we doing this? what’s the point of this training?” “training? this is just for fun!” “fun?” “yeah, fun! yeehaw!” “.... YEEe..HAw... YEEHAW!!” is... cute and endearing and DORKY af) 

So yeah he’s basically ticking a lot of boxes for me child “soldier”, indoctrinated and sheltered even while having to deal with some pretty rough stuff, identity issues... secretly a dork even though he tries to be cool... 

So... I kind of... unironically love his character and story... now if only the rest of the movie was better... I love all the songs except Upendi (or however you spell it)... what if kovu and kiara were just friends? that’d still work and avoid the stupid cishet love conquers all trope... and Simba could have been a little less overprotective, it was overkill... like is it reasonable fo rhim to be protective given his past? yes... but his attitude strays a little too far into typical dad who doesn’t want anyone to even LOOK at his daughter EVER... also make kiara have more strengths... I know she was held back from developing her hunting skills etc but like you could at least make her smarter or something, she had to have SOME way to occupy her time if she wasn’t allowed to wander around by herself, and again that wouldn’t be an issue if simba were just a little less overprotective dad. 

And if anybody’s gonna be like “Well they’re lions so of course they ended up being mates” I’ll just be like “okay fine make them the same sex then problem solved” good grief

Anyway yeah I guess I unironically love TLKII still despite its many flaws, I am weak :\\\

[james-is-nasqueer]

I will forever love the TLK and TLKII soundtracks more than my own life.

[disneyprincessabby]

So I have an issue...

In The Lion Guard, Kiara is actually a half-decent hunter. And she knows how to track and all that other stuff that Kovu pretty much had to teach her in TLKII. It's weird, I mean, 'Lions of the Outlands' gave us a bit of a timeline, but everything else almost doesn't make sense within the pre-established TLK lore. (I'm sure if I took a few hours of my life and actually tried to I could probably come up with a theory of some sorts that makes it all sort of fit together, but it's 2:00 in the morning, so I ain't doing that right now). Also, Kiara's snobby arrogance is annoying me, that isn't the Kiara I know and love. The Kiara I remember had no interest in being queen and definitely didn't flaunt her title around. But I will admit it's a cute show and some of the episode are decently written with good morals and lessons.

[askurbanexplorerspencer]

Petition to give The Lion King 2 more attention: http://www.change.org/petitions/disney-make-kiara-a-disney-princess-and-give-more-attention-to-the-lion-king-2 The Lion King 2 Archive: archiveofsimbaspride.webs.com/

[jayietheriverwarrior]

And now for the last (for now) TLK art I currently have done - sorry for just reusing the Kion art from the last drawing, but I didn't feel like drawing that mane again.  I'll warn you now that I'll probably be reusing a lot of these for different family portrait type things. Lazy, yes, but I don't draw TLK art that often these days and these are more family/group portrait type things than full scene drawings anyway, really just there to let you compare designs.

Anyway, since I drew Kion with his siblings, it seemed only right to draw him with his Lion Guard in the first movie's art style.  So here's the Guard! I'll also go a bit into my headcanons for how I would fit TLG into my TLKverse, if I were still writing anything in my TLKverse.

Background again belongs to Disney, and was edited for use by here: www.deviantart.com/through-the… You can see them without the background here.

I very heavily referenced Fuli off the cheetah at the very beginning of the first movie, and I changed her colors and pattern to look a bit more fitting for a king cheetah, while still trying to keep her looking properly like herself. Beshte was fun to draw, I definitely wanted to get across how bloody huge and terrifying hippos are, especially since they have jagged spear teeth rather than the harmless peg teeth they're portrayed with in TLG, while still having him as his friendly happy self. I mixed elements of the second movie's hippo designs, and his TLG design. Bunga is basically the same, I just darkened his coat to look more like a real honey badger and aged him up a bit by making his eyes smaller, face longer and less rounded, and lengthening his torso. Ono's adult design is based off of the adult egrets in his flock that appear in TLG.

The one I changed the most is Anga - I really love her design, but after looking at photos of martial eagles online, and seeing both how their faces darken as they age and how they're more of a dark brown with spots than purple with little V markings, I decided to change her design to look more like a real martial eagle, while still keeping a lot of elements from her old design, mostly shape and lineart-wise.

~-~-~

Now onto my headcanons. In my imagining of things, there's no Roar of the Elders. Kion is the second son of Simba, who is working very hard to reestablish good ties with the herds after the destruction Scar wreaked on the Pride Lands. As a result, he is frequently meeting with various herds, addressing problems and building up trust, and sometimes Kion gets brought along so Simba can keep a protective eye on his beloved son. When Kion starts getting friendly with some of the young animals around the Pride Lands, someone brings up the idea of forming a new Lion Guard, but this time with animals from various herds and animals around the Pride Lands, as a sort of way of reassuring the herds that the lions weren't just going to trample all over the rest of the kingdom like they did under Scar. As stated, Simba is very eager to not piss off his still somewhat mistrustful subjects, so he agrees.

However, after the loss of his first son Kopa, Simba is very overprotective of his other two children. Kiara we see dealing with that in TLK II when she has to constantly have Timon and Pumbaa looking after her - for Kion, he was initially really excited at the idea of training to become leader of the Lion Guard - until he realized that it was just his father's way of giving him his own personal bodyguards while ensuring that his son never actually faced any danger himself. Simba helped train the Guard and pushed not-so-subtly for Kion to be protected and kept out of danger should anything actually happen. While the Guard were cubs, the positions they held were more ceremonial than anything, a way to assure the herds that they were being listened to and represented - but they were all being trained for the day that they could actually step up and take their true place as guardians of the Kingdom, and as time passed and Simba got more protective, Kion began to despair that he would ever be truly allowed to be his own lion and make his mark on the world without his father constantly trying to protect him.

Kion's friends, growing up beside him so closely, could see the effect this was having on him, and tried in whatever ways they could to make him feel better or to help him get away from his dad's protective gaze for just a little while. Bunga in particular acted obnoxious and goofy in public mostly to divert animals' attention away from Kion and to him, and to help shield his friend from the blame if anything less than perfectly safe managed to happen... better for everyone to roll their eyes and blame Bunga's incompetence for things getting out of hand, rather than Kion getting in trouble for disobeying his father's strict rules. Around his friends, Bunga was a much more mature and sympathetic indivudal. It was he alone among the Guard who knew of the hyena cubs Kion had befriended in secret, and who he met at the border often, playing games of wild adventures the Guard could go on (yes, I'm going with the "the events of the show are just games Kion plays as a kid, but his friendships with the Guard and with Jasiri are very real - Janja is Jasiri's friend who disapproves of her friendship with the lion prince, but covers up for her anyway, Jasiri and Kion make him the villain in their games mostly as a teasing joke, but they both very much care about him despite his grumbling about meeting with Kion being dangerous).

Anyway, the next bit I'm not as clear on how I imagine it happening, but when Kion's mane has just grown in (so older than he was in the show, think closer to Kovu's age in the second half of TLK II, has a full mane but still a very new adult), something happens that results in him getting the scars on his eye and Ono getting partially blinded. Kion not only has to deal with the trauma of the painful injury, but also the reaction of the rest of the Pride Lands. Simba has shielded his son so completely from any chance of danger that most of the Pride Lands don't actually know the prince that well. So all they see is another second son of a king with an eerily-familiar scar on his face, and the rumors and whispers of Kion becoming a second Scar start spreading through the Pride Lands like wildfire. Kion is horrified. He hates being compared to such an evil lion just because he has a scar on his face, and having so many mistrust and doubt him. To make matters even worse, he can't even combat the claims himself, because Simba has basically refused to let him step foot outside of Pride Rock except under heavy guard since the attack happened. He feels more trapped than ever.

That's when Bunga comes up with the idea. The Lion Guard protects the Pride Lands from intruding animals, but it's also meant to be sort of a spiritual position - they must fully understand the Circle of Life and uphold traditions and some other stuff that I haven't quite pinned down yet in my mind. Anyway, the Lion Guard is meant to complete their training with a pilgrimage to the Kingdom of the Tree of Life, where deeply knowledgeable healers live and use the unique herbs found in the kingdom to heal many ills (no magic healing here, just a lot of knowledge and herbs). The pride that lives there has a deep respect for the Circle of Life and the Great Kings of the past, and they are meant to help guide the Lion Guard in the final steps of their training. Simba will never let Kion go on such a long and dangerous journey, and the Pride Lands will never trust Kion unless he does something drastic to prove his dedication to his part in the circle of life - something drastic like traveling to the Tree of Life and completing his training. So Bunga and the rest of the Guard (and Makini) explain their idea to Kion, who hesitates over disobeying and scaring his father with his departure, but eventually agrees, desperate to finally prove himself. They sneak away, sending a bird a few days later to tell Simba why they left and what they're doing.

Stuff happens kinda similar to the show after that, but more toned down. Basically they travel to the Tree of Life, learn to love the place and the respect and ability to take on actual responsibility as a true Guard that they find there, and decide to stay permanently. Ono' eyes are never fully healed (though the healers do find ways to help restore his vision a little, mostly they help lessen his pain and help him fully recover in that sense), but he adapts well to his new role as the guard's Smartest. They never return to the Pride Lands this time, instead sending another bird to tell Simba they're staying. By this point, the whole TLK II thing has happened, so Simba is sad to lose his son but much more able to understand and respect his decision now. Kion eventually marries Rani and becomes King Consort of the Tree of Life. Simba and Nala travel to the Tree to meet their son's cubs, and Kion visits the Pride Lands to meet Kiara's cubs.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed my ramblings, and my drawing.  

[cloudyisthenewclear-blog]

One of Us - The Lion King II

I love this movie. I regret nothing.

[strangenocturne]

[jayietheriverwarrior]

Like I said on my last drawing, I had the urge to draw Kion and Kiara in the first movie's art style. In the last drawing, I drew them as cubs - here, I drew them as adults!  And this time I threw in Kopa too. The K siblings reuinte! ^^ The title is due to the fact that Kion is the King of the Tree of Life, Kiara is Queen of the Pride Lands, and Kopa is the Majordomo of the Hidden Valley Clan (yes, he's a hyena Clan's majordomo, go here and here to read more about that).

Background again belongs to Disney, and was edited for use by here: www.deviantart.com/through-the… You can see them without the background here.

I had a ton of fun with this one too.  I once again changed Kopa's design from the last time I drew him.  I saw this concept art of Simba back when he had a scruffy tuft on his mane and immediately decided to adopt that as my new Kopa design. I pushed his colors to be closer to his mother's, with a lighter and less saturated brown mane. Kiara is similar to her first movie colors, but darker like her mom's fur darkened as an adult, again trying to strike that balance between looking like herself from the second movie, not being a golden copy of her dad, and not exactly her mom's dark sandy coat. Kion looks a fair bit like his father, but I tried to keep his face distinct enough to be recognized as Kion, with the chin and cheek shapes and eye markings and thicker eyebrows.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with this.  

[strangenocturne]

Hahaha, another reaction gif. :)