Pua

-Pua, **The Rise of Makuu**

**Pua** is a male elderly **crocodile** that resides in the **Pride Lands**. He is first seen in the episode, "**The Rise of Makuu**".

## Appearance

Pua is a large crocodile with a long snout, swamp green scales, and a dull green underbelly. He has several bright green scales running along his back, and several green spots. He also has a couple of spots on his cheek in a darker color than that of his underbelly as well as several darker green stripes on his tail. His claws are black. His back and tail have small, rounded dark green plates.

## Personality

Pua is very patient and slow to anger. Like Mufasa, he is a firm believer in the Circle of Life. Because of this, Pua, like Kion, recognizes that fighting isn't always necessary and that sometimes you must accept defeat as shown when he tells Kion to back down when he doesn't want to fight. He also has great humility as shown when he ignored Makuu's taunts after he was overthrown by him and when he tells Kion that Makuu is stronger than him and won the mashindano that ended his leadership fair and square. All this has made him a wise leader who is held in high esteem to the point where the Royal Family and the Lion Guard had misgivings about the mashindano and felt his successor left much to be desired as shown when Simba tells Makuu "You have very thick skin to fill" before thanking Pua for his leadership. However, it was shown in a flashback to Kion's youth in The Morning Report that he was not as welcoming to other pridelanders, and did not have any problem with Makuu eating trespassers. Even then, he was reasonable enough to give them one warning and was touched by Zazu's bravery while facing Makuu.

### Physical Appearance

Pua is an old, hunched, and winkled Nile Crocodile with mud green scales, a dotted hide, and pale underbelly.

### Abilities

* **Animal Strength:** While Pua's strength is not as good as Makuu's, Pua made up for it with greater skills in combat.
* **Expert Combatant:** Pua's combat skills are greater than Makuu's.
* **Animal Stamina:** Pua was able to fight Makuu for a certain period of time, but he was eventually worn out.
* **Animal Endurance:** Pua was able to take the attacks from Makuu.
* **High-Level Intellect/Leader:** Pua is highly intelligent; as he knows eating the fish will cause the problems for the Circle of Life and knowing that Makuu isn't ready for the leadership, but deep down he knew he will learn from his own mistakes to become a great leader and giving advice to the Lion Guard to back down. He is known to care for his kind deeply as he promised them to feed them when the time is right, but he has even shown his kindness to other animals and was far too much as Makuu question his leadership, thinking he was afraid of the hippo, but he knows the Circle of Life is far more important than anything.

## Role in the series

### "**The Rise of Makuu**"

When Pua takes his float to Big Springs, he asks Basi if it's all right for the crocodiles to eat the fish. After Basi politely declines, explaining that there is not enough fish to feed the float, Pua respectfully leaves. However, a young crocodile named Makuu, believing that the float has a right to the fish challenges him to a mashindano for control over the float. As the animals of the Pride Lands gather to witness the mashindano, Pua and Makuu combat each other, with Pua using impressive techniques to gain the upper hand over Makuu. However, he soon gets tired and Makuu is victorious over the aged Pua. Simba comes forward, recognizing Makuu's leadership, and thanks Pua for his service.

Makuu's leadership proves to be malignant in the Pride Lands, however, as he begins wrecking havoc across the lands. Kion seeks Pua to call for another mashindano to reclaim Pua's leadership, but Pua reminds Kion that Makuu is much stronger than him. He then advises Kion to back down if he's not willing to fight Makuu.

Though it seems most likely he wanted Makuu to learn his lesson to see how will the Pride Land will go big disaster for not following Circle of Life ways as he will learn a huge lesson that another common enemy didn't learn Scar as Mufasa seemed to agreed with Pua to back down.

### "**Follow That Hippo!**"

Pua is seen for a few seconds in this episode. When Beshte and Mtoto are underwater, Pua can be seen floating on the surface in the corner. He does not chase them, unlike the rest of the crocodiles in the lake.

### "**The Savannah Summit**"

Pua is mentioned by Kion when he expresses his concerns about Makuu joining the Savannah Summit to his father, mentioning that whilst working with other animals might be all right for Pua, the same cannot be said for Makuu. However, Makuu proved he is capable of reason and is ready to change, ultimately confirming Pua's belief that Makuu would eventually learn to be a proper leader to the crocodiles.

### "**The Morning Report**"

In a flashback to when Kion and Bunga were younger, they got in trouble with Pua for trespassing in crocodile territory. At the time, Pua would usually allow Makuu to eat any trespasser who failed to comply. As Zazu offered himself up to Makuu to take responsibility for Kion and Bunga's actions, Pua admired Zazu's bravery, and decides to let them go, but made it clear he would not tolerate another incident like that again.

### "**Cave of Secrets**"

During "**The Wisdom on the Walls**", one of the paintings of the past shows Pua's defeat to Makuu in a mashindano.

## Friends

* **Makuu** (formerly)
* **Basi**
* **Kion**
* **Simba**
* **Bunga**
* **Beshte**
* **Fuli**
* **Ono**
* **Zazu**

## Trivia

* Pua appears as an enemy in The Lion Guard (App).
* Out of all of the former leaders, Pua is the only one that's still alive.
* Pua means "Nose” or “Steel" in Swahili.