Mama Binturong (character)

**Mama Binturong** is a female binturong as her name suggests who appears in Season 3 of *The Lion Guard*. She serves as one of the three secondary antagonists alongside Chuluun and Ora.

## Background

### Personality

Mama Binturong takes care of a little group of porcupines. If other animals try to hurt them, she defends them, treating them almost like her own children. Her tendency to gather food and even steal it from other animals has earned her a bad reputation. Many inhabitants of the forest try to avoid having trouble with her, because when she gets mad, she attacks with a hard swipe from her paw, instilling fear in their hearts.

The most important thing to her is to make sure her precious porcupines are safe and sound, and if that goal is achieved by injuring other animals, she pays no mind of their well-being. She shows deep care for her porcupines and does what she can to keep them secure.

Mama Binturong is also madly obsessed with tuliza and will do anything, even steal or hurt others, to keep her precious food just for herself. When Bunga used his stink to make all of her tuliza wither, she is devastated and decides she no longer has any desire for tuliza and instead decides to pursue a new goal in getting revenge on the honey badger.

### Physical Appearance

Mama Binturong's pelt on her chest are white, while the one on her body, tail, and head are black. Her paws are dark black and her ears are silver and white with furry hair on them. Her eyes are gray and yellow. She also has white whiskers and a mole on her face.

## Role in the series

### ***Mama Binturong***

Mama Binturong first appears when a porcupine named Smun tells her after overhearing the Lion Guard talking about Tuliza scaring away Tenuk, a nervous tapir along with his friends Seisou and Bambun. Smun explains about the Lion Guard to which she explains that all the Tuliza belongs to her showing her true nature in this episode. Mama Binturong then explains that no one should mess up with her or her Tuliza. She sings to the porcupines that whenever any animal touches her Tuliza, she and the other porcupines ward off any animal getting Tuliza. Afterwards, she decides to find out about the Lion Guard's interest with Tuliza.

Mama Binturong then appears cornering an innocent civet named "Tompok" telling him about her rules to which an upon seeing the Lion Guard looking for Tuliza, she tells the porcupines to take Makini's staff to which the porcupines take it to her to make her happy. After talking to Seisou, Bambun, Tompok, and a mouse deer, the Guard enters the cave the mouse deer talked about to which Seisou talking to them explains to the group to be careful about Mama Binturong who controls all the Tuliza in her forest. Seisou privately explains that all the animals in the forest is afraid of Mama Binturong to which he explains that no one wants to say "Tuliza" because if Mama Binturong sees intruders with Tuliza, she sends her porcupines to get them from grabbing Tuliza. When Kion explains to Seisou about where to find Mama Binturong, he explains that her hideout is in the Stone Forest as Seisou explains that only Mama and her porcupines and safely get through the Stone Forest as going to the Stone Forest is almost impossible to go to.

Meanwhile in the Stone Forest, Anga discovers Mama Binturong's hideout which is a hill made of Tuliza flowers to which Ono devises a plan to get to the hideout without getting caught by Mama Binturong and her porcupines to which Bunga is the only member of the Guard who can get to the Tuliza to which Bunga gets through the Stone Forest to find the Tuliza and Makini's staff. Mama Binturong then approaches Bunga where he tells her that why she knows Bunga's name to which she explains that she has heard Bunga's name echoing throughout the Stone Forest. He requests her to get Makini's staff but she refuses to as she explains that everyone in her hideout does what she says to them. Challenging her, Mama Binturong sends her porcupines to attack Bunga with their quills to which he was able to get through them. He then asks her to hand over the staff to which Mama Binturong explains that Bunga has to get to her to get the staff. Bunga confronts her as she notices Bunga eating her Tuliza as she tells her to stop touching the Tuliza as Bunga falls off still with the staff. Bunga then uses her stench ability just as soon as the porcupines prepare to defeat him, foiling her and the porcupines. Smun tells her that they will look for more Tuliza to which Mama Binturong decides to get her revenge against Bunga instead to which the porcupine talking to her explains the Stone Forest will never be the same without Mama Binturong as Bunga brings back the missing staff to Makini.

### ***The River of Patience***

Mama Binturong arrives towards Makucha's Army at the mountain pass after being defeated by the Lion Guard and the Night Pride where she becomes Makucha, Chuluun and Ora's new leader.

### ***Little Old Ginterbong***

Mama Binturong helps Makucha's Army get rid of the Lion Guard in an attempt for the predators to eat the animals. She pretends to be an injured animal to which the Night Pride welcomes her to the Tree of Life to be "healed". She finds out more information on the Night Pride and the Lion Guard while talking to Queen Janna, where she nicknames herself as "Granny Ginterbong". She then asks Rani if she can find her a place to rest her leg. While "resting", Mama Binturong watches Bunga and Binga as they do their honey badger competition in which Binga ultimately wins. The rest of the Guard besides Kion and Bunga meet Mama Binturong who is shown not to be a wounded animal. Ono is amazed to finally see her while Beshte asks if she wants to meet their friend Bunga.

Mama Binturong excuses herself by saying that she's too tired, to which the Guard leaves and Ono wonders why she can climb the tree very well. She then tells Makucha's Army to attack the Night Pride and the Lion Guard at sunrise. During the battle, Mama sees Bunga and Binga and start to attack them in which the two honey badgers work together and use their stink on her, foiling her once again.

### ***Long Live the Queen***

Mama Binturong and the rest of Makucha's Army attack a tigress named Varya and her cubs in the mountain pass. They get stopped by the Lion Guard and the Night Pride.

### ***The Lake of Reflection***

At sunrise in the mountain pass, Mama Binturong and Makucha's Army once again fight the Night Pride. Seeing that Baliyo is tired due to the Night Pride's duty to protect the Tree of Life at nighttime, the Lion Guard arrives to help. After being foiled, Mama Binturong overhears that Kion is unwilling to lead and is not ready to use the Roar of the Elders due to him losing confidence during battle.

Outside, Mama Binturong tells the Army what she has learned, claiming they have the perfect opportunity to attack. Noting the Night Pride patrols at night while the Lion Guard does so at daytime, Mama proposes attacking at sunset. Ultimately, she and the rest of Makucha's Army get defeated during battle against the Guard and the Night Pride.

### ***Triumph of the Roar***

Mama Binturong and the rest of Makucha's Army take revenge on the Lion Guard and the Night Pride as they plan to kill the Lion Guard, the Night Pride, and all the other animals. She and the other members of Makucha's Army are ultimately defeated when Kion uses the Roar of the Elders after mastering it with Askari and creates a tornado to blow them far away from the Tree of Life to never be seen again just as she says her last words.

## **Friends**

* **Smun**
* **Makucha**
* **Chuluun**
* **Ora**
* **TBD**

## **Enemies**

* **Bunga**
* **Kion**
* **Fuli**
* **Ono**
* **Beshte**
* **Makini**
* **Anga**
* **Rani**
* **Nirmala**
* **Janna**
* **Surak**
* **Baliyo**
* **Ullu**
* **Binga**
* **Varya**
* **Feliks**
* **Pasha**
* **Polina**

## Trivia

* She is the only binturong in *The Lion King* franchise.
* She is the only villain that does not appear in the Season 3 intro.
* A few people believe that she is the main antagonist of the season since she is the leader of the Army while Makucha is just a follower after her rise to power. However, Makucha is shown to be stronger and not distracted by anything, and was the original leader of the army. It's easy to assume that **both** Mama Binturong and Makucha serve as doubles for the main antagonist of the third season and the leader of the army.
* Mama Binturong has the personality of a mob boss, sending her porcupine underlings to take something from others (in this case, Tuliza flowers). Even as she first appears in the series, some Italian-esque music (which is often associated with mobsters in media) is heard in the background.