239 submissions
It’s sad that Nuka can go and procreate, and yet I can’t even get a date yet.
All dumb joking aside, out of all the characters in The Lion King series as a whole, Nuka is one of the ones I’ve felt the most sorry for thus far. Although he might seem like an annoying comic relief character on the surface, to me he’s a poor, mistreated lion who wanted nothing more than Zira’s love, and it literally took his death to even get her attention at any point. He was a shell of what he had the potential to be, he did everything in his power to make Zira proud, and depending on what you believe, he could’ve been the youngest character in the franchise to have known Scar in person. There’s just something so sad about the way he died (especially if you consider the deleted version of his death canon), and it’s just as sad thinking about who or what he could’ve been had he lived.
That’s where this comes in. Even in my TLK art career’s infancy, I’ve had an AU idea where Nuka, instead of being isolated and deprived all his life, was able to find someone to give him the love he always wanted when his mother wouldn’t. The lioness’s name here is Mila. She’s the youngest of the Outsider lionesses, and therefore the closest to Nuka’s age. (And yet she’s still older than him.) She fell for Nuka after finding his “antics” charming and funny, saw that he was a nice person when he wanted to be, and that he genuinely cared for her and stood up for her whenever Zira was being… well, Zira. As a result of Mila’s love, Nuka didn’t feel as much of a need for his mother’s approval, and she directly saved Nuka from dying when he tried to kill Simba. From there on out, they both side with Kovu and Vitani on things, and the ending events of Simba’s Pride play out largely the same. After all that goes by, Nuka and Mila settle down the same way Kovu and Kiara did, and within months, they have their first cub - Kito.
If you look closely in the background, you’ll see the silhouette of the Outsiders’ termite mound against the sun. I put this there to symbolize that Nuka’s life in the Outlands is behind him, and that a new beginning in the Pride Lands is what he has to look forward to in the wake of Zira’s death. In fact, even the title is a metaphor; It refers to Scar himself and the influence he had over Zira's pride, as well as the physical and mental scars Nuka got because of his life in the Outlands. Both are healing in both senses, so it has a nice double meaning in my eyes. I always love it when drawings have little bits of symbolism like that, so I wanted to try my hand at it.
Let me know in the comments what you think!
All dumb joking aside, out of all the characters in The Lion King series as a whole, Nuka is one of the ones I’ve felt the most sorry for thus far. Although he might seem like an annoying comic relief character on the surface, to me he’s a poor, mistreated lion who wanted nothing more than Zira’s love, and it literally took his death to even get her attention at any point. He was a shell of what he had the potential to be, he did everything in his power to make Zira proud, and depending on what you believe, he could’ve been the youngest character in the franchise to have known Scar in person. There’s just something so sad about the way he died (especially if you consider the deleted version of his death canon), and it’s just as sad thinking about who or what he could’ve been had he lived.
That’s where this comes in. Even in my TLK art career’s infancy, I’ve had an AU idea where Nuka, instead of being isolated and deprived all his life, was able to find someone to give him the love he always wanted when his mother wouldn’t. The lioness’s name here is Mila. She’s the youngest of the Outsider lionesses, and therefore the closest to Nuka’s age. (And yet she’s still older than him.) She fell for Nuka after finding his “antics” charming and funny, saw that he was a nice person when he wanted to be, and that he genuinely cared for her and stood up for her whenever Zira was being… well, Zira. As a result of Mila’s love, Nuka didn’t feel as much of a need for his mother’s approval, and she directly saved Nuka from dying when he tried to kill Simba. From there on out, they both side with Kovu and Vitani on things, and the ending events of Simba’s Pride play out largely the same. After all that goes by, Nuka and Mila settle down the same way Kovu and Kiara did, and within months, they have their first cub - Kito.
If you look closely in the background, you’ll see the silhouette of the Outsiders’ termite mound against the sun. I put this there to symbolize that Nuka’s life in the Outlands is behind him, and that a new beginning in the Pride Lands is what he has to look forward to in the wake of Zira’s death. In fact, even the title is a metaphor; It refers to Scar himself and the influence he had over Zira's pride, as well as the physical and mental scars Nuka got because of his life in the Outlands. Both are healing in both senses, so it has a nice double meaning in my eyes. I always love it when drawings have little bits of symbolism like that, so I wanted to try my hand at it.
Let me know in the comments what you think!
Category Artwork (Digital) / Fanart
Species Lion
Size 1280 x 497px
File Size 147 kB
Listed in Folders
i understand your point
i dont think zira was a bad mother it look more like she was the one risponsable for the whole pack and sees kovu as the hope for everione it was more like she had to take hard desicions for the good of all of them
i also find strange the whole movie
for example its never said why sira her family and all the other lioness and cubs where punished when they did nothing to deserve that punishment
i dont think zira was a bad mother it look more like she was the one risponsable for the whole pack and sees kovu as the hope for everione it was more like she had to take hard desicions for the good of all of them
i also find strange the whole movie
for example its never said why sira her family and all the other lioness and cubs where punished when they did nothing to deserve that punishment
That's a very interesting interpretation of things, I have to say. Sometimes I like seeing Zira be put in a more sympathetic light, I could easily see her being in the position you described. It makes her feel more three-dimensional as a character. As for the exile, The Lion Guard stated that the Outsiders were exiled after Zira physically attacked Simba at some point. Unfortunately the details are still vague, so I guess it's up to the fan theories to fill in the other gaps for now.
if it was like in the movie
simba tgreatened kovu when he find him whit kiara and also after he hear kobu was chosen by scar to become the next king even though its xplaines scar is not his phather
if you ask me i think something like that happend and she just reacted like a mother would do
simba tgreatened kovu when he find him whit kiara and also after he hear kobu was chosen by scar to become the next king even though its xplaines scar is not his phather
if you ask me i think something like that happend and she just reacted like a mother would do
I feel you, man. Nuka almost always has my sympathy, I feel that Zira's rejection of him was the whole reason he was as... "Nuka-ish" as he was. I love imagining what he would be like if he'd gotten a second chance and gotten more down to earth in some ways.
As for Kovu's father, there's tons of theories about who it could be, but no one seems to know for sure. The director of Simba's Pride was once asked about it over Facebook, and he said Kovu was written as an orphan. This leads some fans (myself included) to believe he's not even Zira's cub either. After all, he can't be an orphan if he still has a parent around.
As for Kovu's father, there's tons of theories about who it could be, but no one seems to know for sure. The director of Simba's Pride was once asked about it over Facebook, and he said Kovu was written as an orphan. This leads some fans (myself included) to believe he's not even Zira's cub either. After all, he can't be an orphan if he still has a parent around.
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