What if Kiara never married?

[FriendlyHyena]

She is likely to marry Kovu at the end of Simba's Pride, but assuming she either didn't fall in love with Kovu (that whole betrayal thing could have wrecked that relationship) or if she never met him, and decided not to marry, would she still be next in line, or would the role go to Kion?

In short, does it always have to be a King, or could it be a Queen if the next in line is female and unwed?


This is a real poser because while Simba stated that Kiara is the next in line, Sarabi didn't take over for her dead husband but Scar got the new role (though who would have taken over had Simba still stuck around is a mystery too as he'd be far too young to take the throne at that point.)


I guess another way we could ask if an unmarried Kiara would be the next Queen is, what if Kiara WAS able to defeat Zira, but Zira WAS able to kill her father first before being taken down?


Would teenage Kiara take the throne, though that would mean, till she married Kovu, that there would be no King, would cub Kion take the throne, or would Nala take the throne (and still there would be no king.)

[Azdgari]

So, I still have no idea what gymnastics the canon is trying to do to get Kion to coexist in the same timeline as SP, so I'm going to ignore him for our purposes here. I don't have a clear hierarchical understanding, but I guess maybe it looks like this:

King/queen -> King/queen's immediate child (if of age) -> King/queen's biological siblings -> King/queen's mate

This satisfies all the scenarios we've seen. When Mufasa died, his child (Simba) was presumed dead, so his brother (Scar) took over. Had Scar been out of the picture, I believe Sarabi would have been queen. Conversely, if Simba had lived and Scar were still in the picture, I think Scar would still have been king at least for some time (or maybe Regent?) until Simba was of a reasonable age.

If during Simba's Pride, Simba died during the early part of the movie, Kiara would be too young, and Simba has no siblings, so Nala would be queen. Conversely, if Simba died later, I think Kiara was reasonably of age, so she would have been queen.

I choose to believe the Pridelands were gender neutral, and didn't prioritize males over females. That's just my personal interpretation--and if I missed something suggesting concretely otherwise, then... I'm wrong!

If the king/queen's mate were to die as well, Pumbaa would be king. That much, at least, we know for sure.

[TheLionPrince]

If Kion is to be considered, then if Kiara doesn't produce a heir to succeed her, he would take the throne. However, Kion's existence complicates the storyline of The Lion King II because not only does Zira have to train Kovu to take down Simba, but he also has to take down Kion, who was a viable male challenger to the throne.

For the sake of my argument, I will ignore Kion. If Kiara doesn't produce a heir, Nala as Queen Mother can't take the throne because she's not of royal blood. The lionesses would have to recruit a male lion to take the throne and start a new royal bloodline. Think of it, as similar to Nala's situation when she leaves the Pride Lands "to find help" presumably from another male lion to challenge Scar for the throne. Of course, it was miraculous that it turned out to be Simba, who should have been on the throne all along.

[SimbasGuard]

[quote="TheLionPrince"]For the sake of my argument, I will ignore Kion. If Kiara doesn't produce a heir, Nala as Queen Mother can't take the throne because she's not of royal blood. The lionesses would have to recruit a male lion to take the throne and start a new royal bloodline. Think of it, as similar to Nala's situation when she leaves the Pride Lands "to find help" presumably from another male lion to challenge Scar for the throne. Of course, it was miraculous that it turned out to be Simba, who should have been on the throne all along.[/quote]

Excellent point! I did not factor what would happen if there was no Heir to The Throne or royal siblings to assume The Throne. When the original movie shows us actually what would happen under such a scenario.