#the lion king 2: simba's pride | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hyzenthlayroseart · 29 days

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So I came across these Tumblr posts about TLK 2 yesterday (https://waeirfaahl.tumblr.com/tagged/the%20lion%20king%202%20simba%27s%20pride) and they got me thinking about how even though I doubt I'll ever be able to hate the sequel due to being so deep into the Lion King fandom since childhood, the plot makes no sense the more you think about it. There's no way Zira and her cubs could fit anywhere in the original film's timeline, all the Prideland lionesses shown in the first film were against Scar, there's no reason any of them would be on Scar's side, Scar's a loner and his only allies were the hyenas until they realized he never cared about their hunger and was just using them to gain power…yeah I could go on.

Well just for shits and giggles I decided to try and think of my own plot for a sequel, one that doesn't involve Scar as motivation for the conflict. The drawings here are based on early concept art I found on that blog and on the Lion King Wiki.

So, before the events of this hypothetical movie, Zira was the queen of a different kingdom that was once prosperous but was slowly going through a famine. Zira's husband was a good and benevolent king who tried his best to keep his kingdom flourishing through the hardship, but eventually the once strong king became skin and bones and passed away from hunger. This left only Zira as the ruler, and while her husband was a gentle soul, Zira was cold and strong-willed. She loved her husband but her grief at his death eventually turned into resentment towards him being "soft" and "naive" for thinking he could continue living prosperously in a dying land. This lead to her deciding not to make the same mistakes he did by hoping the famine would pass and instead lead the pride to search for better land.

Before the king died he and Zira had one young cub named Nuka, but it was clear he would be unfit to become the heir to the throne due to being born malnourished from the famine, but Zira still held hope about having an heir due to her being pregnant (obviously meaning she and her husband mated again before he died lol).

Zira and her pride eventually come across the Pridelands and are thrilled to find a land with no famine (at this point it's now right after the events of the first movie and the famine during Scar's reign has passed, Simba is the king and Kiara is a newborn). Over at Pride Rock, Simba is informed via Zazu that a pride of strange lionesses are on their lands, so Simba runs over to investigate wether these strangers are a threat. Once confronted by Simba, Zira tells him that she's the former queen of a dead kingdom, her husband the king is dead and now it's just her, her son and unborn cubs and her subjects. Simba takes pity on the starving pride and concludes that they're not a threat so he invites them to join his pride.

While Zira had successfully played the part of a poor defenseless damsel simply in need of sanctuary, she was secretly hoping this king would take her as his mate so she could become queen once again. To her dismay, she discovered that this kingdom not only already had a queen but an heir. She did her best not to show her anger, as even though becoming queen clearly wouldn't be as easy as she thought, she and her pride were still starving, not to mention she herself was pregnant, and she knew she would be a fool to leave a place teaming with enough food to fill her entire pride.

Eventually Zira gave birth to two cubs, Kovu and Vitani. While her daughter still looked a bit malnourished, it was clear that her son was born strong thanks to her new life in the Pridelands. It was then that she decided this one was to be her heir once she came into power. Unbeknownst to her, her firstborn Nuka had thought this whole time that he was his mother's heir, and when he heard her cooing to his newborn brother about one day being a king, his heart shattered and he was immediately filled with hatred for his new brother.

While Zira, her children and her subjects were all at this point members of Simba's pride, they all mainly kept to themselves, only interacting with Simba's lionesses while hunting. Still, life was peaceful, with the only conflict happening on Zira's pride's first day as Pridelanders when they mistook Timon and Pumbaa for prey and tried hunting them, only to have Simba explain that the meerkat and warthog were members of the pride (much to Zira and her pride's confusion).

Despite the seemingly peaceful co-existence, Zira was secretly plotting how to overthrow Simba and Nala to become queen. One night when the Pridelanders were asleep, Zira and her lionesses took the oppurtunity to attack, including trying to kill baby Kiara. Thankfully the Pridelanders were able to overpower their attackers because even though Zira and her pride had grown slightly stronger due to having a healthy amount of prey, they were still the weaker lions. This was the moment that lead to Simba banishing Zira and her pride to the Outlands, where they were once again living in famine.

So now skip forward to when the "movie" plot begins, and it starts out pretty similar to the actual movie where older cub Kiara wanders off, bumps into Kovu, they get into a situation, they try to play but are separated by their parents and taken back to their respective homes, blah blah blah. Some differences are that now when Zira and Simba come face-to-face once again, Scar is never mentioned since he has nothing to do with her, and also when Kiara returns to Pride Rock we see that she has two newborn sisters, Chani and Aisha (when I was thinking this whole thing up I couldn't decide if I wanted to keep Kiara's name or go with one of her original names, and eventually I thought "What if she had sisters with those names?")

Also like in the movie, the scene of Simba scolding Kiara for being disobedient and putting herself into danger is presented in a loving way with Simba of course being mad at her but also telling her how worried he was for her and turns into a loving lesson, while Zira scolding Kovu is done in such an angry, verbally abusive way that he ends up scared of his mother. And like in the movie she ends up getting her epiphany about how Kovu could be her key to taking over the Pridelands by having him gain Simba's trust by befriending Kiara.

So skip forward again to Kiara and Kovu now as young adults (and as a side-note, Chani and Aisha are now the age Kiara was in the previous paragraphs when Kiara and Kovu met). Kiara goes on her first hunt while Nuka and Vitani create a forest fire, Kovu saves her, is allowed into Pride Rock, you know how it goes.

Now in this version Rafiki still gets told by Mufasa's spirit that Kovu and Kiara should get together, but here it's specifically clarified that Zira is too clouded by hatred and a need for power to be trusted. However, her children and her subjects truly just want a normal life where they can escape famine once and for all. Zira may have successfully trained her children to be deadly assassins, but on the inside they're still children who never knew what it was like to have a loving family.

In order to help the two fall in love, Rafiki recruits Timon and Pumbaa (why'd he do this instead of just telling Simba and Nala what Mufasa told him? Idk. Insert reason here. Mainly I just wanted Timon and Pumbaa to actually have something to do in this version). So Kovu ends up barely having enough time by himself to secretly plot how to kill Simba and Nala because Timon and Pumbaa keep hilariously creating reasons for Kovu and Kiara to be in the same area together, while not so subtly dropping romantic innuendos. Of course this irritates the hell outta Kovu and leads to Kiara getting flustered, but eventually when they spend time together Kovu softens and he's reminded of how it felt when they briefly played together as children, the one time he felt like a normal child, even if for a brief moment. Once he starts purposely spending more bonding time with Kiara, he's also swarmed by her two little sisters who constantly want to play with him. Pretty soon Kovu's plan to overthrow Simba and Nala is basically forgotten as he learns what it's like to be in a loving family, as he not only bonds with Kiara and her little sisters but Nala also treats him with kindness and the type of maternal love he's never felt before.

Meanwhile, Simba still can't let go of the fact that the son of the lioness who wants to overthrow him is living with his pride. Due to this he's mainly been isolating himself in the cave plagued with worry, and when Timon and Pumbaa notice how stressed their adopted son is they encourage him to come out of his isolation and see how much Kovu has changed. When Simba walks out of the cave he's met with the site of Kovu and Kiara playing with Chani and Aisha while Nala watches and laughs, and he comes to realize that Kovu shouldn't be blamed for the sins of his mother and ends up forming a fatherly bond with Kovu.

Unbeknownst to all of them, Zira, Nuka and Vitani have secretly been spying on Kovu. They're outraged that Kovu has become soft and forgotten the plan, so decide to take matters into their own hands. One day Kovu and Simba decide to go on a walk together where Simba tells Kovu that he's noticed that he and Kiara seem to have developed feelings for each other, and while Kovu reacts with shock and embarrassment, Simba assures him that he can now see that Kovu is not his mother and is just a lonely child who longed for a family. The mention of his mother causes Kovu to suddenly become full of guilt over his real reason for coming into the pride, but he's too afraid to confess. Simba starts to continue his speech, intending to reveal to Kovu that he gives him and Kiara his blessing, but is unable to finish as the two of them end up surrounded by Outsiders. Of course like in the movie, Simba assumes Kovu betrayed him and led him into an ambush, a fight breaks out, Simba escapes which leads to Nuka getting killed (I don't know if I want Kovu to still get scarred by Zira in this version, because here the symbolism would make no sense), and in the next scene Kovu is banished.

Kiara ends up sneaking out and reuniting with Kovu who tearfully explains that the wildfire during Kiara's hunt was no accident and was just his mother's plan to get him into Simba's pride so he could overthrow Simba and Nala and take over the kingdom and tells her she needs to stay away from him if she wants to be safe. She assures him that she knows he's changed and he isn't the killer his mother trained him to be, and tells him that she loves him, to which he confesses he loves her too.

Meanwhile, Zira finally comes to her breaking point after the betrayal of one son and the death of another, and decides the time for plotting is over and she and her pride need to go to Pride Rock themselves to kill every last Pridelander. Back at Pride Rock, Simba and Nala panic over Kiara's disappearance and decide to start a search party. Simba initially wants to lead it but Nala, Timon and Pumbaa remind him that he's in no condition to search as he still needs to recover from the ambush attack. It's then decided that Nala will lead the search party with Zazu and several other lionesses while Simba, Timon and Pumbaa remain at Pride Rock to watch over Chani and Aisha. Unfortunately, Zira and her Pride are on their way to Pride Rock.

When the search party finds Kiara and discovers that she's with Kovu, Nala angrily tells him to stay away from her family and threatens to kill him if he doesn't leave. Kiara begs and pleads with her mother and tries to explain that the ambush wasn't his fault, but this conflict is interrupted by none other than Vitani running towards them in clear distress. Nala recognizes her as the daughter of Zira and threatens to kill her too, but Vitani tearfully reveals that not only is Pride Rock under attack, but Chani has been murdered. Nala and Kiara fall to the ground and let out primal screams of agony, while Vitani tearfully tells her shellshocked brother that this conflict has gotten out of hand and she wants to put an end to her mother's tyranny. Kovu suddenly felt that murderous rage that had been trained into him by his mother come back, but this time it wasn't for Simba, it was for his mother. Kovu didn't hesitate to run in the direction of Pride Rock, causing the still-shocked search party as well as Vitani to follow.

Once they arrive, they find Simba, now even more severly injured due to this second ambush, standing over a terrified Aisha while Timon and Pumbaa are behind him guarding Chani's body. Opposite of Simba is Zira, taunting Simba that he might as well surrender now that he's too injured and heartbroken to fight back, as well as telling him that now they're even since Simba lead to one of her children being killed and now she's killed one of his. Simba responds to this by asking "You mean the son you didn't even love?"

This enrages Zira and she lunges to strike a killing blow but is pinned down by none other than Kovu. Simba's shocked to see Kovu attack his own mother and instantly puts the pieces together that Kovu wasn't responsible for the ambush. Zira throws her son off of her and into the cave wall where he's briefly knocked out but before Zira can lunge at Simba again she ends up being overpowered by Nala, Kiara and the other lionesses. Her attention changes form trying to kill Simba to trying to fight off all the lionesses attacking her. While trying to fight them all off she commands her subjects to help, but to her bewilderment they end up not fighting against the Pridelanders but WITH them. Zira's horrified by this betrayal and for the first time in her life, she's scared.

She continues getting attacked left and right, until Simba commands everyone to stop. Everyone turns around to see Simba standing tall despite his injuries while letting the still-dazed Kovu lean against him, while in the back of the cave Timon and Pumbaa are comforting Aisha. Simba declares that while Zira's penalty for her crimes should be the death sentence, he will instead banish her because enough blood has been shed already and, to paraphrase what he once said to his uncle, he's not like her. Zira laughs at him for being too weak to kill her even when she deserves it, calling him soft and weak like her husband was. This leads to Kovu trying to lunge at her despite still being weak, but Simba holds him back. Zira gets up, albeit weakly due to her severe injuries, and pretends to limp away, but at the last minute tries lunging at Kiara to push her over Pride Rock to fall to her death, but ends up getting struck by lightning mid-air which leads to her dying instantly as her limp body falls off the edge. Kovu and Vitani's immediate reaction is grief over their mother's death, which is quickly overpowered by relief at being free.

The next day, Chani is buried and given a funeral, and once the funeral is over, Kovu declares that his family has caused unspeakable grief to Pride Rock and he and his subjects will leave them, but Simba declines, telling Kovu that he and his pride were just being used by his mother and he knows that that isn't who they really are, and he finally tells Kovu and Kiara that he gives them their blessing, followed by Nala declaring the same.

So after the grieving period has passed, Kovu and Kiara are married, Aisha gains a fun new brother-in-law as well as a cousin or two in the future (wink wink), Vitani falls in love with a Pridelander lioness, no one ever goes hungry again and they all live happily ever after. Roll credits.

And yes I know Zira absolutely deserved the death penalty but this is a Disney movie, I wanted to keep up the trope of the hero not killing the villain because they're not like them and all that crap. And I couldn't have her commit suicide either because once again, Disney movie, but also her doing that in the context of the deleted scene from the actual film makes sense because she'd rather remain loyal to Scar even in death than accept help from the daughter of her sworn enemy, but here…who would her loyalty be to? Again, she and Scar being together isn't a thing here. So I thought of lighting being a cool idea since having it storm during the final showdown would be a nice callback to the first film.

Also a small detail I wanna point out because it might be hard to notice is that I gave Zira heterochromia where she has one green eye and one blue eye, because even though Zira has red eyes in the official sequel I wanted to give her eyes to match Vitani but then I gave the red eyes to their father which made me wonder where Kovu's green eyes came from, so I decided to give both blue and green eyes to Zira. And I know that in the official sequel Kovu's green eyes were obviously just to help make him resemble Scar more despite not being his son but even though there's no Scar link in my version I still gave him green eyes cuz I just like him with green eyes.

Damn this ended up long, I'm sorry lol.

#fan art #disney #the lion king #the lion king 2 #the lion king 2: simba's pride #kiara #kovu #nuka #vitani #zira #kovu's father

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kaythefloppa · 4 months

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TLK - Brutus

“There are two kinds of pain in this world, the pain that hurts, [and] the pain that alters"

Very few people know this (myself included until earlier this year) but in the early drafts of The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride, the villain of the sequel was supposed to be a rouge elephant that was given the prototype name of Brutus (because Shakespeare, I guess?) instead of Zira. He would’ve been the leader-turned second in command of his own outcasted group of animals, Kovu included, as he was the son of Scar, and plotted with the hyenas to use Kovu as a puppet king to rule the Pride Lands in Simba’s place.

As time went on, he was phased out, and in the final film, Zira and the Outsiders became the villains. Some production notes involving the elephant’s role in the story can be found here on Worthpoint (A.K.A. The fucking goldmine of TLK 2 production media).

I knew I immediately had to include this guy into my fanon, (which takes a lot of inspiration off of early drafts of the movies) bc the idea sounded pretty badass: I was already planning on having an elephant villain in my verse, but since I’m a total hack, I decided to use this semi-canon elephant villain and away I went to the writing and drawing board.

More info under the cut

With the end of Scar’s reign and the banishment of the Hyenas who had followed him came the return of Aminifu’s elephant herd. Amongst their ranks was a calf known as Butu (dull) who was the last-born before the elephants’ migration their ancestral home. The youngster hadn’t ever met Scar or his followers, but saw the kingdom’s metamorphosis from a barren wasteland to a flourished habitat.

He was incredibly curious of this new place that they would call home, and this excitement grew even more when other animal herds had followed the elephant’s migration. Being a youngster who up until that point didn’t interact with other animals, this was his calling to play. But he wasn’t always the most mindful of his endeavors, as with any kid who wasn’t properly taught to be careful when excited. Without even knowing it, he had almost inadvertently stepped on two infant lion cubs, and would have faced the gruesome sight if not for the roar of an angry lioness who swiftly took her cubs from under his hooves and slapped poor Butu on the cheek. Despite his apologies, Butu was faced with severe harassment from the lioness and a few others who stood by her side, and all in front of the watchful eyes of animals who’d been attracted by the noise. Fearing scrutiny from his herd, he refused to reveal the origin behind his injury, until the animals of the Pride Lands were called to Pride Rock for an important event;

The same lioness was on trial for a similar attack on the king, and her family seemed to support her. Simba ordered them all out of the Pride Lands, with many animals booing and hissing at them to leave and never return. Even for a child, he felt a strange satisfaction of making fun of someone after they had hurt him, even joining in on the mockery, launching whatever childish insults he could, backed up with the rest of his angry herd. He learned a lot that day; About Scar and his hyenas, about Zira and her followers, and about who Simba was. But most of all, he learned about a little thing known as karma… and he certainly wouldn’t forget it — among many things.

Roughly a year after Aminifu’s funeral did Butu come of age to decide whether or not he would stay in his herd or live life as a rouge. Butu’s love for his herd remained strong, but he had chosen to separate himself from his herd and join a bachelor herd in another forest section of the Pride Lands. With the elephant’s maturity under the peaceful reign of Simba, life went well for him… until the day of the Crown Princess’s first hunt.

The Pride Lands were set ablaze, trapping Butu and his herd as if they were in an ambush. In all the chaos between trying to protect each other, and help other animals that were trapped in the inferno, the rouge was separated from his bachelor herd forever, and found himself engulfed in flame, seeing many feline-like figures running across the plains before blacking out.

In the aftermath, parts of his ear had been burnt off and several areas on his leg were swollen. His injuries made himself an easier target for predators, earning him even more injuries. The rest of his herd was gone, and his birth-herd was on migration as many herds were that season. For a while it looked like he was alone. Until a few days later where the King and Queen sought out survivors of the bushfire, and ensured that they’d all be treated by the Mjuzi. Seeing other animals with the same struggles as him eased his mind, and it wasn’t long until he had new faces to call friends. His empathy, sympathy, and his generosity earned him the unofficial title of the leader of their little “gang.” Things seemed to be making a slow incline upwards.

Until Kovu showed up.

News quickly spread that the savior of the Crown Princess during her botched hunt was none-other than Kovu, the hand-chosen heir to King Scar. Kovu’s integration into the Pride Lands, as per compliance with Mufasa’s law of debt repayal made several animals talk. Some guessed it was a ruse. Others believed his claims of having left Scar’s pride. Butu was curious above all else. He recognized Kovu as one of the 2 little cubs he nearly trampled on, the cubs who were carried away from the Kingdom. Now he was an adult and had saved the future queen from certain death. Both of them were survivors of the fire, so he was able to relate to them, even if they had been luckier than he was.

As Kovu’s time in the Pride Lands prolonged, Kovu interacted more and more with the subjects of the royal family, Butu included. The young lion seemed to be very sympathetic towards the survivors of the fire, always incredibly apologetic for what happened to them and for not being able to help them. His apologies were met with some understanding, it was a horrible circumstance. It wasn’t exactly his fault. It’s not like the fire was planned and that Kovu had specifically singled out only the Princess to be rescued above all else? Right?

When Simba had returned to Pride Rock, injured, and with the claims of an ambush, the kingdom went into an uproar, making sure that the backstabbing murderous Outsider was out of their home once again. But Butu and his gang weren’t satisfied with seeing him flee. They analyzed the King’s story; How Kovu supposedly lied about joining the pride, used the Princess to get close to him, and ambushed him with Zira. There was one thing missing. The fire. The fire that had threatened Kiara’s life before Kovu intervenened. Either that was a lucky variable that the rouge lion exploited… or it was planned. With how the fire came out of nowhere, it was easy to assume how it happened,

Butu, amongst his group, was none-too-pleased at this. Kovu was the source of his problems. Whether it’d be him directly or with help, hen thinking, the elephant and his crew vacated the Pride Lands, following Kovu’s trace to find him and perform vigilante justice on him. It had taken days until they found their trail doubling back home, only now, things were different. There was talks in the Pride Lands about the Outsiders, but not in the way the outcasts expected.

Kovu, the lion accused of attacking Simba, was now engaged to Princess Kiara. His sister, who was allegedly responsible for the fire that he exploited, that nearly killed him, had become leader of the new Lion Guard in Kion’s absence. This was enough for the elephant. The Outsiders had taken so much from him, were the devils in his eyes for as long as he could remember, and yet here they were, basking in the sunlight, rewarded by the monarchy and cheered by his fellow Pride Landers. He wouldn’t stand for it. Not. One. Bit. All that mattered now was justice. Kovu had to go. Vitani and her Lion Guard had to go. All of Scar’s loyal followers had to be exterminated.

Giving up his old name, and dubbing himself Brutus in reflection of his tormented soul and his recent violent tendencies, the rouge and his gang reserved himself to the abandoned Elephant Graveyard, where no one would hurt them again. It didn’t matter that there was less food in the Graveyard, or that they had friends and family left behind. All that mattered to them now was justice. Kovu had to go. Vitani and her Lion Guard had to go. All of Scar’s loyal followers had to be exterminated. With the royal family united as one with the former exiles, they were a liability that had to be worked around carefully. But with the elephant’s brute strength, calculating mind, and a support group, he wouldn’t let anything stand in his path to level the playing field…

~~~

Character Notes:

Brutus and Mtoto are second cousins in my headcanon (i.e. Mtoto’s mom is the first cousin to Brutus’s mom or dad). I’m considering having Brutus’s branch of the family tree being OCs since I can’t really find a way to retroactively make any of the canon elephants his parents.

Since I age the characters like humans, and because I want to clear some air with both myself, and the audience about the timeline, he is 4 years old when his herd returns to the Pride Lands, 5 years old when Zira and the Outsiders are banished and Kiara is born. He’s 8 years old when Mtoto is born. When Aminifu dies he’s 17 years old. He is 18 when he leaves the herd (likely midway through Season 1). He’s 22 during Kiara’s first hunt, going closely on his 23rd year.

Voice-Canon: Denzel Washington (Robert McCall from The Equalizer trilogy)

My fanon of the events of TLK 2 are mostly canon-compliant (..mostly, I’ll try to illustrate the details in another post). So a lot of Brutus’s original story I had to alter or nix altogether for the sake of my verse. The biggest example of the change being where Simba yells at and humiliates him for almost crushing Kiara/Shani by accident. I felt like that was too out-of-character with canon!Simba (which I’m sticking true to in my AU) so I transplanted that situational archetype onto Zira, replacing Shani/Kiara with Vitani and Kovu, to make it feel more in-character, and to give a sense of irony to the later events of his story. This, I feel, also helped to expand Brutus’s hatred of the Outsiders, and why it hits hard to him when he realized the truth about what they’ve done and where they’re at.

According to a user on Deviantart who purchased the early scripts and production notes of Simba’s Pride, Brutus’s gang consisted of two twin cape buffalos (erroneously noted as water buffalos, one or both of them being voiced by comedian Paul Rubens,) a rhinoceros and a tick bird (the latter of whom would’ve been written to be Zazu’s wife in the story), and Kovu himself. I’ve recycled that ‘gang’ and that overall concept in my fanon (mainly so that the reveal of Kovu’s betrayal can be a valid motivating factor for Brutus’ downward spiral). I’m also considering having a giraffe in the gang because more herbivore villains are awesome.

This guy more than likely won’t appear in Roar Towards the Future, but will probably appear in a separate interquel story that takes place in the Pride Lands.

The background is edited by knightmare1985

I own nothing but the art. TLK belongs to Disney.

#The Lion King #the lion king 2: simba's pride #the lion king 2 simba's pride #the lion king 2 #the lion king ii: simba's pride #Lion King fanart #Disney #disney jr.#the lion guard #Elephant #semi canon #Really wish they kept this guy in the story #Not only would it have made a lot more sense than the Outsiders but it would’ve led for a far better conflict #I’m a bit burnt out right now so I’m not in the “fic making” mood - I wouldn’t hold your breath on seeing this guy in any written works #But you never know

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