Nuka’s, Vitani’s, and Kovu’s Parentage

            Nuka, Vitani, and Kovu are the Outlander cubs from Simba’s Pride (SP). Kovu is Scar’s heir but is canonically not Scar’s cub, which begs the question: where did he come from? Nuka’s and Vitani’s parentage are also both hotly contested so I’ll be addressing multiple fan theories about all three of these cubs. I will be working on the assumption that Nuka and Vitani are Zira’s biological cubs, even though this is more of a personal headcanon than an actual canon fact, because Zira doesn’t seem to be the type of lioness who would care for cubs who weren’t hers unless they were special (like Kovu, who was hand-chosen by Scar).

Kovu Is Zira’s Cub

            If Kovu is Zira’s then there are a few possibilities for his parentage and relationship with Vitani. One theory is that Kovu and Vitani are littermates, which would mean that neither of them could be fathered by Scar because otherwise it wouldn’t really be possible for them to know that Kovu isn’t Scar’s. If they were littermates it would explain why Kovu and Vitani are similar in size and appearance. However, even if they had different fathers and/or weren’t littermates it would be fair to attribute their physical similarities to the fact that they share a mother.

If they weren’t littermates then Vitani would have be older because, as Zira notes, “Kovu was the last born before [Simba] exiled [them] to the Outlands.” Then why, you may ask, do Vitani and Kovu look the same age (or, at the very least, the same size)?

The answer is probably that Kovu, as Scar’s chosen heir, was receiving better nourishment than the other cubs. Both Nuka and Vitani are very scrawny and you can tell by the way Nuka’s mane growns in that he’s not getting a lot of nutrients.

What if Vitani isn’t either? It would make sense for Zira to devote the most resources to maintaining Kovu’s health and strength because she sees it as her personal mission to mold him into the leader that Scar wanted him to be, which would explain why Kovu is so much more filled-out than his siblings. That being said, it’s possible for Vitani to be a little over three months older than Kovu but appear the same age because of her stunted growth.

Kovu Isn’t Zira’s Cub

            If Kovu isn’t Zira’s then there are two main possibilities for where he came from. One is that he was abandoned or orphaned and either Scar or Zira decided to take him in. Nuka even says, “Scar wasn’t even his father. He just took him in.” While this doesn’t explicitly rule out the possibility of Kovu being Zira’s cub, it does seem to imply that Kovu has different parentage. Nuka points out that Scar wasn’t Kovu’s father as the first reason why Kovu shouldn’t have been chosen. He goes on to say that he’s the oldest and the strongest but if Nuka and Kovu had the same parents it really wouldn’t make sense for Nuka to complain about Scar choosing an heir that wasn’t his cub because Nuka wouldn’t be Scar’s either.

            The other option is that either Scar or Zira stole Kovu so that Scar could have a suitable heir. While we can’t know for sure because none of the movies cover all of Scar’s reign, it seems likely that Nuka and Vitani would have been malnourished from the get-go because Scar letting the hyenas into the Pridelands threw everything off-balance and drove the herds away. There was very little food in the Pridelands when Simba showed up to challenge Scar in The Lion King (TLK). We don’t know for sure how long they were starving or how long Nuka and Vitani had been living in the Pridelands before Kovu came along but, based on just how desolate the land was when Simba returned, it’s fair to say that the lions and hyenas must have been going hungry for some months. This would mean that both Nuka and Vitani would have likely been smaller and possibly weaker than your average healthy cub. Scar, who wanted to make sure his legacy carried on, would want a strong and healthy cub to be his heir. It would be plausible in this case that Scar would either sound Zira out to find a suitable cub or kidnap one himself.

Nuka and Vitani Are Scar’s Cubs

            If Kovu and Vitani aren’t littermates then both Nuka and Vitani could have been fathered by Scar. Zira is canonically Scar’s mate so it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to say that Nuka and Vitani are Scar’s cubs, even though Kovu isn’t. For the reasons I listed above, and possibly given the fact that Vitani is female (based on how he treats Sarabi and blames the lionesses for the ruined state of the Pridelands), I would posit that even if Nuka and Vitani were his it would be in character for Scar to choose Kovu over them if he was stronger and/or healthier. This theory gives support to the idea that Kovu was stolen or found by providing a motive. His cubs weren’t good enough so he went looking somewhere else.

Other Possible Fathers

            If not Scar then whom? Kovu could have been fathered by a rogue lion who wandered into the Pridelands. This wouldn’t be a realistic theory to apply to Nuka and Vitani though, unless the Outlander cubs were fathered by three separate rogues (which seems unlikely) or one rogue who came back periodically (which seems even less likely, given that Scar would probably not have taken kindly to outsiders or anyone else who might have posed a threat to him).

            Another option is that there was at least one other male in the Pridelands who lived with Scar’s pride. However, there aren’t any males other than Mufasa and Scar in TLK and there are no adult male Outlanders in SP except for Kovu and Nuka so there is no canon evidence that there were any other male lions in the Pridelands during Scar’s reign. That said, it isn’t the most probable explanation.

            There is also the possibility that Zira (and maybe even some of the other Outlander lionesses) came from a different pride and that all three of her cubs were fathered by a lion or multiple lions within said pride. This would mean that Zira could only have been in the Pridelands for a maximum of three months and she would have been pregnant with Kovu (and possibly Vitani) when she joined Scar’s pride. The only reason I’m personally not inclined to accept this fan theory is that it really does seem like Zira was around Scar for a good while. Even the line “Kovu was the last born before you exiled us to the Outlands” implies that other cubs were born during Scar’s reign.

            What do you think? Let me know in the comments!