For those of you who don’t know, there was a series of books written shortly after the release of TLK called “The Lion King: Six New Adventures”. This set contains six individual books each about a story being told to Simba’s son Kopa or Kopa learning a life lesson. The problem with this is that in TLK2 Simba has a daughter named Kiara, Kopa is never mentioned once in the movie, and Kiara is never mentioned once in the books. At first I believed this was due to the fact that the executives in charge of TLK2 probably didn’t even know of the book’s existence when they were making the movie (it’s a very difficult book to come by). After I got older and observed the cub’s ceremonies at the end of the first movie and the beginning of the second one I noticed several inconsistencies between them, so I came to the conclusion that Kiara was not mistaken for Kopa. So the biggest question is: what happened during that gap between the end of TLK and the beginning of TLK2? Nobody can truly say the real answer but there are several theories out there. In this so called story; I’ve created a list of those theories from various people, websites, and other sources (my own theory is at the very end of the list).

KOPA


KIARA


New Format:
Since this isn’t a story but rather a list I used a different format. I have listed the creator of the theory and then their theory, at the end I’ve created a bibliography (which was lazily done) giving credit to everyone that contributed.

Inconsistencies Between the Two Ceremonies

Movie
“The Lion King”

“The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride”

Time of Day:
Midday

Sunrise

Simba & Nala:
On top of Pride Rock

Inside of the cave

Rafiki:
Inside of the cave

On top of Pride Rock

Timon & Pumbaa:
On top of Pride Rock

Off to the side on PR

Carrier of the Cub:
Rafiki

Nala

Cub’s Fur:
Golden Yellow

Tan with a Yellow hue

Music in Background:
“King of Pride Rock”

“He Lives In You"


I know that the music is intentionally different. Also it appears as if Simba and Nala are older during the ceremony in TLK2 (but that’s not good evidence considering that the artwork for TLK2 is very different from TLK). However everything else is good solid evidence that the two ceremonies are for two different cubs.

My Theory:
Here’s what I believe happened to Kopa: It all started with Zira hiding her allegiance to Scar, because she wanted to take over the Pride Lands she could never allow Simba to discover that she was still loyal to Scar. Coincidentally enough Vitani and Kopa were about the same age; so Zira, who acted like the other lionesses and pretended to despise Scar, decided to set up a play date with Kopa and Vitani (Simba has no knowledge that Zira was Scar’s wife since he was gone while Scar was in charge and on the day he returned Zira was gone somewhere for the time being). Simba agreed to the play date because he had business to take care of outside of the Pride Lands in a few days. The day that Simba had to leave he led Kopa over to Zira’s den where Vitani was instructed to play very rough with Kopa. It started off all fun and games but once Simba left, Vitani was absolutely ruthless and Kopa ended up with several scars and gashes all over his body while Zira stood over them laughing maniacally and encouraging Vitani. Kopa was trapped in the cave by Nuka and he was scared out of his mind. Kopa tried to fight back but he didn’t have the training that Vitani had when it came to fighting. After Vitani got tired Zira gave Kopa a good slash across the face which knocked him unconscious. Afterwards Zira ordered Nuka to get rid of Kopa, so he grabbed Kopa by the scruff and darted out of the cave. He threw Kopa into the Elephant Graveyard and let the hyenas do the dirty work. Simba and Nala were returning home, and the Elephant Graveyard was along the way. They spotted the hyenas attacking Kopa so they went on a rampage and killed as many hyenas as they could. Eventually the remaining hyenas ran off, but Shenzi said something before they left… “Zira’s the one who did this you know.” And then she ran off. They checked on their son but it was too late, he was already dead. Simba questioned Zira but all that she did was grin, Simba didn’t want to take his chances so he banished Zira, her family, and her followers. A couple of years later Simba and Nala were able to produce a new cub… and so the second ceremony began… then came the second movie…
Then comes my fourth (well technically third) story which I will work on almost obsessively for the next week or two (actually the story takes place before Kiara’s birth but since the movie came first my story gets knocked down, up?, a peg on the release date).



Can this be another Disney's mistery/secret? What do you think?