Kovu's exile

Kovu's exile was a punishment inflicted on Kovu by Simba due to the latter's conviction that Kovu was responsible for Zira's assassination attempt. It resulted in the temporary expulsion of Kovu from the Pride Lands, which lasted until his marriage to Kiara.
==Information==
===Zira's ambush===
After being encouraged by Nala to spend time with Kovu, Simba took the young lion on a walk through a fire-ravaged portion of the Pride Lands to tell him the true story of Scar. Suddenly, Zira and the Outsiders surrounded Simba and Kovu, and Zira falsely congratulated her son on getting Simba alone. Hearing this, Simba turned on Kovu despite the younger lion's insistence of his innocence. Zira ordered her pride to attack Simba, and Kovu was knocked unconscious during the initial scuffle, leaving Simba to defend himself alone.
The Outsiders chased Simba into the Gorge, where he scaled a dam of logs in an attempt to escape. Meanwhile, Kovu came to and appeared at the rim of the gorge, where he helplessly watched Simba's ascent and ignored Zira's repeated orders to finish off the king. Nuka ascended the mound of logs and grabbed one of Simba's legs, but he slipped and crashed to the bottom of the pile, where he was crushed by incoming logs. As Simba pulled himself to safety, Zira dug frantically through the logs until she uncovered Nuka. She comforted her son until he died in her arms.
Badly injured, Simba limped back towards Pride Rock, where he was intercepted by Kiara, Timon, and Pumbaa. Simba collapsed, and his friends and daughter helped him back to Pride Rock. Back in the gorge, Zira blamed Kovu for Nuka's death and slashed him across the face, giving him a mark identical to Scar's. After asserting his unwillingness to be associated with Scar and the Outsiders any longer, Kovu fled the gorge.
===Trial and exile===
As word of Simba's condition spread, concerned Pride Landers gathered at Pride Rock. Meanwhile, Kiara tried to convince her ailing father that Kovu could not have had a part in Zira's ambush. Just then, Kovu appeared. When Simba demanded to know why he had returned, Kovu explained that he was not responsible for the ambush and pled for Simba's forgiveness. Despite Kiara's pleas, Simba turned a deaf ear to Kovu's petition and declared that the result of his delayed judgment on Kovu would be exile from the Pride Lands.
As an icy Simba and a horrified Kiara looked on, Kovu was driven from the Pride Lands by the Pride Landers ("One of Us"). Kiara attempted to intervene, but was repeatedly prevented from doing so by the pride. When the animals finally ceased to chase him, Kovu paused briefly to gaze back at Simba, then watched in terror as his reflection in the pool he was standing in morphed into an image of Scar. Horrified, he continued to run. From afar, Rafiki watched sadly, mourning the apparent failure of Mufasa's plan to unite Kovu and Kiara.
===End of the exile===
Shortly after Kovu fled the land, Kiara, ignoring Simba's orders to not go anywhere unescorted, fled Pride Rock in search of Kovu. When she found him, he suggested that they abandon their respective prides to start their own family, but Kiara asserted that were they to do so, their prides would "be divided forever."
Kiara and Kovu hurried to the gorge, where the Outsiders and Simba's pride were engaged in battle. They planted themselves between Simba and Zira, and Kiara urged her father to end the fighting. After a moment, Simba agreed, and when Vitani echoed Kiara's sentiment, the rest of the Outsiders switched sides. Zira tried to make one last stand against Simba, but she was stopped by Kiara and ended up perishing in the gorge. Afterwards, when Simba observed Kovu embracing Kiara, he admitted to the young lion that he had been wrong to banish him and asserted that he belonged in the Pride Lands. He then invited Kovu and the rest of the Outsiders to return to Pride Rock with the pride.
==Appearances==
*The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
*The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (Grolier edition)
*The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (Little Golden Book)
*The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (Mouse Works edition)
*The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (Read Along edition)
==Trivia==
*The image of Scar seen by Kovu in the pool is reused from the scene in The Lion King in which Scar orders Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed to kill Simba.
==Media==
The Lion King II- Simba's Pride - One of Us (Part 1)|Kovu's exile, as depicted in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride.
The Lion King II- Simba's Pride - One of Us (Part 2)|Kovu's exile, as depicted in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride.
==References==
Category:Canon articles
Category:Events
Category:Exiles