Kion

### Personality

Unlike his parents, Simba and Nala (when they were cubs) and his older sister, Kiara, even as a cub, Kion is a stickler for the rules, even in the face of temptation. He heeds the words of his parents and intelligently recognizes the signs of potential danger. This strong sense of responsibility is in part why Kion has such a sturdy head on his shoulders and is far less likely to jump into dangerous situations than his best friend, Bunga. Although he is mature in aspects of obedience and rule-following, he is still young and doesn't recognize more adult concepts; such as romance.

Kion is strong-willed and able to trust his instincts, which is in part due to the gentle guidance of his grandfather and his parents. Even when his ideas are challenged, he is faithful in his beliefs and brave enough to take a stand for what he feels is right, he takes his position as the leader of the Lion Guard very seriously and is a firm believer in the Circle of Life. Kion initially held prejudice against the inhabitants of the Outlands. However, after his first encounter with Jasiri, he realized that not all Outlanders are bad. He is trusting enough to give strangers a chance even if they cause trouble, but never to the point of being naïve, as he just likes keeping an open mind.

Although Kion is capable of acknowledging his mistakes and learning from them, as well as the fact that he is not above apologizing or admitting when he is wrong, he can be prideful when pitted against his older sister, Kiara. When he attempted to move the bees to another location, which ended in disaster, while he admitted this mistake to his friends, he refused to admit it to Kiara, due to the fact that he did not want to give her the satisfaction of knowing that she was right. He also has a temper when it comes to his family and friends lives being in danger. Kion is well aware he needs to learn to control his temper, but still struggles with it daily, as seen by his constant need to repeat "not in anger" to himself.

Kion's discipline and sticking by his principles stem from his fear of turning out like his great-uncle Scar. Time and again, he has expressed his insecurities on this matter and has made misguided choices because he feared he was becoming like Scar, such as when he considered never using the Roar of the Elders again after using it out of rage and putting his mother in danger. At one time, Zira convinced Kion that using the roar against lions would make him lose the power until Bunga reminded him of the real reason Scar lost the roar.

In Season 3, as a teenager, Ushari poisoned Kion with his venom during a showdown between Kion and the spirit of his great uncle Scar, causing him to lose control of his roar and his temper. As the result, Kion occasionally thinks recklessly and behaves aggressively at his friends that can only be soothed with Tuliza blossoms. On multiple occasions, Kion was unable to trust himself and was forced to give Fuli the authority. Continuously losing control of his roar gradually caused Kion to lose confidence in leading the Guard to the point he thinks he's nothing without it until his friends helps him realize that the scar and the Roar don't make him who he is, and he is already a great leader even without the Roar.

Kion later begins to develop a secret desire to stay at the Tree of Life, not just because of his romantic feelings for Rani, but also because he believes he could choose who he could be and that it was something he truly wanted. A major factor in this desire was Queen Janna asking him to stay before she died of natural causes.

Kion is also shown to have more understanding and awareness in the concept of romance due to his growing romantic feelings for Rani.

### Physical appearance

Though quite similar in appearance to his father, Simba, Kion bears a striking resemblance to his grandfathers, Mufasa and Nala's Father respectively, while Simba is more rounded in appearance, Kion is robust and block-like, with a square jaw and a pronounced chest. As far as coloring goes, Kion possesses a pale golden pelt broken only by patches of lighter fur on his muzzle, paws and underbelly. His fur is several shades lighter than his father's and carries more yellow undertones as opposed to his sister's orange. This trait most likely comes from Nala, whose tawny color mixed with Simba's gold to result in a rich yellow.

Kion inherited dark ear rims from his father, Simba and paternal grandmother Sarabi. However, Kion's ear rims are black on the top and brown on the sides as opposed to Sarabi and young Simba's ear rims, which are black only on the sides. Kion bears spots on the backs of his legs and the Mark of the Guard (a lion head) on his left shoulder. His tail tuft matches his head tuft in color, being somewhat bushier than his father's, and his eye rims follow the usual pattern, with the top shade being darker than his main pelt, while the bottom shade is lighter than his main pelt. His eyes are light brown.

In "Battle for the Pride Lands", as a teenager, Kion has grown taller, and he is showing strong shoulders and is more muscular. His mane has also grown and has more shades of red, and most of the spots on his legs have faded. During his final confrontation against Scar, Ushari bit him and placed a scar on his left eye. But unlike Scar and Kovu's, Kion's has two markings on his eyebrow instead of one. When Kion gave up his position as leader of the Lion Guard to Vitani, his Lion Guard marking on his left shoulder vanished and was replaced with the Night Pride marking on his right shoulder, Kion then gains a blue mark on his forehead symbolizing him as King of the Tree of Life and the mate of Queen Rani by Makini during his coronation/wedding.

### Powers and abilities

#### Powers

* **Roar of the Elders:** Kion possesses the Roar of the Elders. When he uses the Roar of the Elders, spirits of multiple deceased lions roar along with him, instilling real power in the roar. With this roar, he has flattened plains, held floods back and torn down rock-slides. Throughout the series, Kion begins to learn more about the roar and its other mysterious powers. Even after passing the Mark of the Guard to Vitani, Kion still had its power due to mastering it.
	+ **Sonic Roar:** Kion can use the roar to send his enemies several feet away. However, Kion's roar is not as powerful as Scar's, possibly because in Season 1 and 2 he was still quite young. In Season 3, as a teenager, Kion's roar has become ever more powerful than before. In "Dragon Island", Kion's roar has grown powerful enough to create a land bridge all the way across an island.
	+ **Mark of the Guard:** Whoever Kion chooses someone to become part of his team, he marks them with a lion head; to symbolize their positions as members of the Lion Guard, when Kion inherited the Roar of the Elders, a lion head automatically appeared on his own left shoulder. Kion can also bestow his own title as the Fiercest and the Roar of the Elders to another lion to be his successor, this also causes all the other marks on the Predecessor's Lion Guard to disappear and normally cause the original leader to lose the Roar. However, since Kion mastered the Roar he was able to keep it.
	+ **Precision:** Kion can use the roar to hit precise targets. However, it only works if his targets are in-sight of him. In "Never Roar Again", it is revealed that the Roar can be used to hit precise targets. For example, when Makuu and his float took Nala hostage, she encouraged Kion to use the Roar. When he did, instead of using the Roar on everything, he controlled it to only take out the crocodiles holding Nala before turning on Makuu and the rest of the float.
	+ **Spiritual Summoning:** Kion can use the roar to summon lion spirits of the pastlike Mufasa from their afterlife. However, when used out of anger, the Roar is capable of summoning the evil lion spirits from their afterlife, though the effect won't work unless a bakora staff is engulfed in a fire and roared upon by the user. In "The Rise of Scar", Kion was tricked into summoning Scar over a volcano when he uses the Roar raging against Janja threatening of his family. After evil spirits are summoned, they are capable of acting on their own accord, not needing to be called on by the user.
	+ **Atmokinesis:** Kion can use the roar to create a whirlwind to lift objects far off the ground.
		- **Hyetokinesiss:** Kion can use the roar on a cloud to produce rain clouds, as explained by Zira. He does this in "Lions of the Outlands", "Swept Away" and "Journey to the Pride Lands". In "Battle for the Pride Lands", he blows to appear the clouds and the Great Lions of the Past blow to start hailing to defeat Scar.
		- **Aerokinesis:** In "Triumph of the Roar", it is revealed that the Roar can create a whirlwind to lift objects from the ground. Kion used this ability to help carry Beshte and Bunga in order to defeat Makucha's army's biggest assault. In the next episode, he uses it to transport Bunga, Beshte, Jasiri, Janja, and himself across a dried ravine.
		- **Electrogenesis:** Kion can use the roar to summon a bolt of dry lightning.
	+ **Geokinesis:** Kion can use the roar to cause earthquakes. He was also able to lift Pride Rock with no difficulty.

#### Abilities

* **High-Level Intellect/Expert Tactician/Leader:** Kion is highly intelligent for his age, as the leader of the Lion Guard, later the king of the Tree of Life, he is an excellent tactician and leader. Kion used echolocation in "Cave of Secrets". As a teenager, as demonstrated in "Battle for the Pride Lands", Kion has become an even more formidable tactician and leader than before, as he was able to unite all the animals in the Pride Lands, and lead them in the final confrontation against Scar's army. He was also intelligent enough to think to have the Great Lions of the Past to judge Scar. However, in Season 3, when his scar is hurting, Kion could not think straight with the lack of tuliza, as seen in "The Accidental Avalanche".
* **Expert Combatant:** As the leader of the Lion Guard, Kion is an excellent combatant; for example, he is well able to tackle and pin down Janja, a teenaged hyena, all the way down to the ground with little difficulty. He is also shown to be able to easily fight Nuka, a teenaged lion, and Zira's pride one-on-one, very easily. In "The Lost Gorillas", Kion was shown to be able to pin down a forest hog without any difficulty, even as a lion cub. Kion can also easily fight Kiburi and Makuu, two adult male crocodiles. In Season 3, as a teenaged lion, Kion is even stronger. He can also easily fight off Mackucha and Chuluun, two fully grown leopards, without any difficulty. Kion has shown he can easily hold a tree trunk on his back with no difficulty. Kion's strength, speed, and agility also makes him a formidable opponent alone in single combat. Even as a baby lion, Kion was well able to fight off predators, as shown in a flashback in, "The Lake of Reflection", where baby Kion very easily pins down and intimidates a young Janja.
* **Expert Swimmer:** As demonstrated in "Battle for the Pride Lands", Kion is a great swimmer.
* **Expert Tracker:** As an apex predator, Kion can track down any animal relatively easily.
* **Singing:** As demonstrated throughout the series, Kion is an excellent singer.
* **Lion Physiology:** Kion possesses incredible feats of strength, endurance, speed, agility, eyesight, hearing, sense of smell and stamina, even for a lion cub, making Kion one of the most physically powerful animals in the entire Pride Lands, and overall one of the most physically powerful animals in the entire *Lion King* franchise.
	+ **Animal Strength:** Kion is the second strongest member in the entire the Lion Guard and the Night Pride respectively; for example, he was able to send Janja, a teenage spotted hyena, flying several feet away with a single swing from his paw. In "Lions of the Outlands", he pinned Nuka, a teenage lion, down to the ground relatively easily, despite the latter being twice his size. In "The Lost Gorillas", Kion was able to hold down both Majinuni and Hafifu, two gorillas, simultaneously with little difficulty. In "Journey to the Pride Lands", during the song, "Of the Same Pride", Kion has shown he can easily hold a tree trunk on his back with no difficulty. Kion's strength, speed, and agility also makes him a formidable opponent alone in single combat. As a teenager, he surpasses, most Mackucha, Chuluun and most other characters in terms of physical strength.
	+ **Animal Speed:** Kion is the third fastest member in the entire Lion Guard and the Night Pride respectively; he is surpassed only by Fuli, and Anga respectively in terms of physical speed.

#### Weaknesses

* **Evil Deeds:** If Kion were to ever use the Roar of the Elders for evil purposes, he will permanently lose the power.
* **Rage:** If Kion ever uses the Roar of the Elders when he is in a state of rage, he will temporarily lose control of it, as he could unintentionally hurt or kill someone, as well as accidentally summon evil lion spirits. In "Never Roar Again", his roar echoed off a cliff, blowing off all five of Ono's crest feathers, as well as creating an earthquake causing the ground to open that Nala nearly fell in. In "The Rise of Scar", he made the Outlands volcano erupt. In "The Accidental Avalanche", Kion started said avalanche while trying to blast a hole through a tall mountain. In "Dragon Island", he created a tidal wave while defending his friends. In "The Race to Tuliza", Kion almost lost control of the roar, again. In "The Tree of Life", he roared at Baliyo, sending him flying.

#### Former Weaknesses

* **Venomous Scars:** Ever since Ushari bit him, Kion has experienced frequent personality changes such as aggression, irritation, dominance, hostility, frustration, impatience, quick temper, recklessness, uncertainty, pain and anger. The Roar of the Elders has become more difficult to control and Kion's darker instincts start to unfold because of this. It makes Kion lash out at his friends, demonstrating hostility to the animals they encounter and make bad decisions. He can only be calmed when eating tuliza blossoms, or by talking with Fuli. After undergoing several healing sessions with Nirmala, Kion finally became cured of the venom even though his scar would remain. However, the lessons he learned under Nirmala have allowed him to find peace with himself and accept that he is who he is and that his scar will not change that.

## Role in the series

### *The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar*

Kion makes his debut in the series premiere. He first appears on Pride Rock playing Baobab Ball with his best friend, a honey badger named Bunga. At the urging of his father Simba, who is teaching Kiara the responsibilities of being Queen, the pair takes their fun to the Savannah. Their fun comes to an end when their ball gets knocked into the Outlands. Kion does not want to go in because his father told him to never go in the Outlands. Bunga, however, jumps in any way. However, Bunga runs into Cheezi and Chungu, two members of the hyena clan that used to work for Scar. Kion saves Bunga with a very powerful roar.

When the pair gets back to Pride Rock, they find Simba and Rafiki waiting for him. The pair takes Kion to the Lair of The Lion Guard and tells him about his destiny: He is the new leader of the Lion Guard and that the Roar he used is the Roar of the Elders. Kion leaves to go assemble his team and picks Bunga to be the bravest member because he is the bravest animal he knows. He picks Fuli to be the fastest, Beshte to be the strongest, and Ono to be the keenest of sight. Simba comes by and refuses to accept his son's choice of teammates telling him that the Lion Guard has always been a lion only group and asked him to take his new responsibilities seriously. This disheartens Kion and he goes off by himself. He meets the spirit of Mufasa, who tells him to trust his instincts. Later, Kion decides to stick with his choice of teammates. When the hyena clan led by Janja start attacking gazelles, Kion and his team drive them off.

Watching from afar, Simba and Nala express pride in their son with Simba accepting the new Lion Guard.

### *The Lion Guard*

Set after the original film and in the middle of *The Lion King II: Simba's Pride*, Kion continues serving as leader of the Lion Guard and also continues protecting the Pride Lands' animals mainly by making sure no predators overeat, especially outside their own territory. Near the middle of the second season, Ushari finally gets tired of getting hurt by the Guard, so he soon forms an alliance with Janja and his clan by helping them find how to summon Scar after hearing that Kion can talk to Mufasa. Other Outlanders such as power-hungry Kiburi the Nile crocodile, gluttonous Reirei the black-backed jackal, and Mzingo the bossy vulture eventually join the cause to claim the Pride Lands.

As summoning Scar's spirit requires Kion's powerful roar, Ushari and Janja's clan stole Makini's staff and kidnaps Kiara and brings her by the Outlands volcano, forcing the Lion Guard to go to the Outlands to rescue Kiara. Kion distracts Janja while his friends rescue Kiara, and Kion able to stall enough time without fighting Janja until Kiara is saved. However, Janja is able to goad Kion to roar by threatening to kill his family next time, enraging Kion enough that he used a more powerful roar than usual. Without Kion realizing that this allows Ushari to summon Scar's spirit.

For a while, Kion and his friends didn't know that Scar was behind the hyenas', jackals' and crocodiles' recent attacks on the Pride Lands. Kion got suspicious when he saw a glimpse of Scar in flame talking with Janja when they were attacking Rafiki. But because Kion is unsure of what he saw, he didn't say anything at that time. Kion and his friends finally found out about Scar's revival when Simba was stung by a scorpion sent by Scar, leading them to go to the volcano to get the ashes needed to cure Simba. Inside the volcano, Scar reveals himself and Kion instantly recognizes him. They got cornered by Scar's army as they're about to return to cure Simba, but Kion uses the Roar on them, and they are able to get out safely with Fuli and Bunga returning ahead with the ashes that cure Simba right on time.

After his father is cured, Kion tells Rafiki and Simba about Scar's revival. He and his father discusses with Mufasa about Scar's return and seeks his advice, but since the return of a lion of the past is something that never happened before, Mufasa couldn't help much. However, he assures them that since Scar has been defeated before, they can do the same again. As to not cause further panic, Simba asks Kion and the Lion Guard not to let the Pridelanders to know of Scar's return. Since then, Kion and his friends focuses on fighting against Scar's army. On two occasions, they lost against them, which caused Killio Valley and Mizimu Grove to be under Scar's control. During "The Fall of Mizimu Grove", the rest of Pride Landers who finally found out of Scar's revival became afraid and contemplated on leaving the Pride Lands. Fortunately, Kion manages to convince them to stay and fight back to protect their home. He also enlisted Jasiri's help who has formed the hyena resistance to fight against Scar and his army.

In the third season, Kion is shown to have grown into a teenager. Simba suggests they take the battle against Scar's army into the Outlands. The night before the attack, Pride Rock is attacked by Janja and his clan under Scar's order. Unbeknownst to Janja himself, Scar has the vultures assigned to set Pride Rock on fire to kill them all. Fortunately, Kion and his friends escape through the water tunnel in their den while Anga and Hadithi saved the royal family. When Jasiri arrives with the reformed Janja, Simba is skeptical to listen to the latter, but Kion is willing to forgive Janja because of his trust in Jasiri. After Janja informs them of the way how to supposedly beat Scar, Kion and the others rest for the night to prepare for tomorrow's final battle. The next day, Kion leads his Guard and the army of Pridelanders to attack Scar's army.

While the Pridelanders and Jasiri and Janja's clans fights against the Outlanders, Kion and the Guard goes into the volcano. Confronting Scar, Kion is prepared to use the Roar, but is attacked by Ushari, giving him a scar over his left eye similar to Scar and infecting him with Ushari's toxic venom. To make it worse, for a moment, Kion finds it difficult to think properly due to Ushari's venom inside his body. Kion almost uses his Roar against Scar until he recalls Mufasa's words not to fight fire with fire. Kion chooses to forgive Scar and invokes the Great Lions of the Past to cause rainfall that destroys Scar once and for all. Ushari tries to attack Kion in retaliation to strengthen his venom by biting him again, but Bunga comes to Kion's defense and tackles Ushari into the crater. Bunga is rescued thanks to Ono, at the cost of Ono being blinded by the volcanic fumes and toxic air, but Ushari meets his own demise being immolated in the magma.