Zira/Relationships

The relationships of Zira from The Lion King franchise.
==Family==
===Kovu===
Kovu is Zira's youngest son. Throughout Kovu's childhood, Zira raised him to follow in Scar's footprints, wanting him to take Scar's place as King of the Pride Lands. After Nuka's death, Zira angrily strikes Kovu in the face and ends up scratching his left eye, giving him a scar just like his surrogate father. Zira becomes enraged that Kovu betrayed them and decides to attack the Pridelanders. Kovu and Kiara stop her from trying to conquer the Pride Lands from falling during a feuding battle between; however, she refuses to rejoice just as all the Outlanders stop attacking. Zira, however, is defeated when Kiara attempts to let her join Simba's Pride to which she refuses to rejoice as she falls to her death. Kovu looks very distressed as Zira drowns in the water meaning he still cared about her as his mother. Kovu would ultimately fulfill his mother's (and Scar's) wish for him to be king by marrying Kiara and becoming her king consort.
===Nuka===
Nuka is Zira's oldest son. Nuka tries to make her proud of him; however, he doesn't like it how Kovu was the chosen one and not him. Once Simba is in the Outlands, Nuka tries to destroy him; however, he gets crushed by a log. He said that he tried to help and passes away, finally gaining his mother's attention. Zira is upset that Nuka was killed, scaring and blaming Kovu and declaring war on the Pridelanders.
===Vitani===
Vitani is Zira's daughter and middle child. Vitani cared a lot about her family. Vitani tries to help Kovu complete Zira's mission. When Kiara says that "we are one," Vitani joins her and her Pride. Zira feels betrayed by this and threatens to kill her as well, leading to the rest of her lionesses, who were disgusted by this threat, to side with Vitani and join Simba's pride as Zira died by falling into a river and crushed by a log, 
Like Kovu, Vitani would also indirectly follow her mother's desire of following Scar's legacy by becoming leader of the Lion Guard as he was, though, like Kion, would avert following his example.
===Kiara===
Zira hates Kiara since she's Simba's daughter. When she takes Kovu back to the Outlands when he wanders into the Pride Lands and Zira comes to retrieve him, she first laughs evilly at Kiara, which instills fear in the young lioness. During her musical number, she expressed desire to kill her along with her father. Out of all Simba’s family, Zira seemed to underestimate Kiara the most, having virtually no respect for her. Unlike with her brother Kion, Zira never once called Kiara by name, only referring to her as "the daughter", showing her utter lack of respect and underestimation of the princess. Realizing she could use the friendship between Kiara and her son Kovu, Zira came up with a plan for Kovu to save her from a fire and be welcomed into the Pride Lands, only to take down Simba and his place as king.
However, Kovu falls in love with Kiara and changes sides. During the final battle, Zira's plans are permanently thwarted by Kiara when she convinces Simba to end the feud between the prides and accept the Outsiders back into his pride. This causes Vitani and eventually the other Outsiders to abandon Zira and join Simba. Zira, however, refused to let go of her hate, Zira attempts to destroy Simba, but Kiara pushes her away. The two fall down a cliff with Kiara landing safely on a ledge and Zira hanging for her life. Kiara tries to save her, but Zira angrily refuses Kiara's help to overcome with hatred for Simba to accept help from his daughter, despite her offers to be pulled back up. In the end. Zira‘s rejection of Kiara’s aid results in her falling into a river and drowning. Kiara was horrified when Zira died and was filled with sadness and regret over not being able to save her. This regret still exists, even days after her demise, as Kiara is shown to be sympathetic to Kovu and Vitani over the loss of their mother, possibly blaming herself for failing to rescue her. Not long after she died, Kiara married Kovu thus making her Zira's daughter-in-law.
==Friends==
===Scar===
After Scar took over the Pride Lands and became king, Zira became his most loyal follower, honoring him to the point of fanaticism and the worship of his very name. Her loyalty to Scar was so obsessive that she still considered him her king even in death. After Scar died, Zira was determined to kill Simba in order to avenge his death. Her loyalty to Scar is even far greater than her love for her family, as she will not hesitate to kill her own children if they betray Scar’s legacy and memory. Overall, Scar was the person Zira loved the most. While it is unknown if Scar had any real regard for Zira, there are some instances that imply he did indeed genuinely appreciate her loyalty.
In the Lion Guard episode, "Lions of the Outlands", Zira revealed to Kion that Scar taught her all about the Roar of the Elders, causing him no to trust Zira. He even chose her son Kovu to follow in his footsteps and take his place as king of the Pride Lands, despite the lack of relation between the two. Some scenes even indicate that Scar and Zira were romantically involved or at the very least she held feelings for him. In a deleted scene of Simba’s Pride, Zira claims that Scar made her his queen, whilst in Lions of the Outlands, a cave painting shows Scar and Zira ruling the Pride Lands together, with Zira in that episode later saying that Scar and she were very "close."
==Enemies==
===Simba===
Zira hates Simba for overthrowing and supposedly killing Scar (unaware or not caring that the hyenas were his real killers). Zira still thinks that Scar should have been the king of the Pride Lands instead of Simba. When she protested Simba's rule. he tried to explain to her that Scar was never the rightful king. This only angered Zira more, causing her to attack Simba in an attempt to avenge Scar. Simba was able to defeat her easily, and, in anger over her defiance and consumed with hatred for Scar, he banished Zira, her children, and all the other lions who respected Scar to the Outlands, forever. Since then, Simba and Zira shared an intense and unrelenting hatred for one another for their contrasting views of the late Scar. For years, Zira plotted against Simba dreaming of the day she would have her revenge on him and avenge Scar. She eventually decided to use the friendship between her son Kovu and Simba’s daughter Kiara as a way for Kovu to infiltrate the Pride Lands and assassinate Simba. However, this plan ended in failure when Kovu fell in love with Kiara instead, and thus abandoned his mission. This resulted in her attempting to kill Simba herself, with her and her pride attacking him and framing Kovu for the ambush. However, not only did Simba manage to escape, but Zira’s oldest son Nuka ended up dying in a failed attempt to finish the king off himself. Nuka’s death only intensified Zira’s hatred for Simba and thus she leads an attack on the Pride Lands deciding to wage war while Simba was injured. During the battle between the prides she and Simba faced off and were about to engage in a bloody battle until the intervention of Kiara and Kovu. Kiara managed to convince her father to end the fighting and accept the Outsiders back into his pride, while Zira was too overcome with her hatred for him to accept any compromise, even after the rest of her pride, including her own daughter Vitani, abandoned her after she threaten to kill Vitani for refusing to fight. Simba tried reasoning with Zira, forgiving her despite their hateful past, and urged her to let go of the past as he had, allowing her to rejoin his pride and live amongst them again. Zira, however, still refused, as she was too consumed with hate and made one last attempt on Simba’s life only to be thwarted by Kiara, ultimately resulting in her death. In the end, it was her hatred of Simba that caused her destruction.
===Kion===
Zira hates Kion since he's the son of Simba. Despite their sole encounter, Kion was a major adversary of Zira due to his position as leader of the Lion Guard and acknowledged her as a serious threat to the Pride Lands and his family for her fanatical loyalty to Scar. Kion meets Zira when he comes to ask why she has taken over Jasiri's Watering Hole. In the song "Lions Over All", they both explain to one another how lions should rule: Zira believing lions should use intimidation and threat while Kion compassion and kindness. Zira asks Kion if he's on the side of hyenas or lions. Kion says that he's on the side of the Circle of Life and the animals who respect it. When he learns of her loyalty to Scar and hatred of his father for dethroning him, Kion angers Zira by stating Scar was never the true king. Zira traps him, likely intending to use as leverage or a pawn against Simba, until he uses the Roar of the Elders on her and her followers. They would never meet again, not even during the Pride Lands' war with a resurrected Scar which concluded with Kion needing to journey to the Tree of Life. In "Journey to the Pride Lands" after hearing that Zira had resurfaced leading an invasion of the Pride Lands, Kion decided to return home and stop her, only to learn in "Return to the Pride Lands" that Zira had died in the aftermath of the feud.
===Jasiri===
After taking over the young hyena's watering hole, Zira refuses to let Jasiri or her clan drink from it, she begins to not trust Zira after Kion tries but fails to resolve the matter peacefully. She is nearly hurt by her son, Nuka, and she even lies to her, stating that Kion has selected his own kind over her to try and get her out, but eventually helps rescue Kion and defeat her pride.
===Bunga, Fuli, Beshte and Ono===
Through their association with Kion (and by extension, his father, Simba), Zira hates them. Facing Kion's Lion Guard for the first and only time, Zira thinks lowly of them as their leader is the only lion. 
===Timon and Pumbaa===
Zira hates Timon and Pumbaa for their association with Simba. Timon even yelled at Zira to stay out of the Pride Lands only to be cowed by her enraged snarling. She likely thinks lowly of them.
===Nala===
Zira hates Nala since she's Simba's mate, although her enmity towards Nala is rather curt and dismissive compared to her hate for Simba.
===Janja's Clan===
Because Zira hates hyenas, she makes no distinction between Janja’s clan As such, Janja and his clan are scared of Zira. Janja and Jasiri went to go look for Kion to get him home and stop her.
Category:Relationships
Category:The Lion King relationships