by Timon the great » January 8th, 2020, 10:52 pm
Thanks to the Freeform channel (formerly ABC Family) showing both LK 1 and 2 a good handful of times during the past 2 years, I now have much more exposure to this film. So because of that, I've seen a lot more of this character in depth. And I have to say that while I'm not fond of any of the lion characters, adult Kiara has become a (partial) exception in my book.
Very honestly, she's a character that I personally find to be a bit hard to not like regardless of her being a lioness and princess. Although, having a somewhat unique design from the rest. Heck, even seeing fanart of her as an LK meerkat out there (before I saw more of her character in film), intrigued me.
The main reason why it's hard for me to Not like adult Kiara is because she has a Very strong underlying sense of morality. Watching SP fully several times now, she stands up to Simba twice and tells him the reality of what things really are and should be (that he'll never be Mufasa and that the outlanders are also them). But more important, she sacrifices herself and even goes to the point of trying to save a hostile enemy who almost kills her in the process. Although this may also be because she's the character who got the most development in SP.
The part where Kiara says [i]"..I'll help you."[/i] to an about to fall to her death Zira always gets me, because it's such merciful and un-common compassion to have toward a highly evil or aggressive person. Plus, Kiara's expression at that part paints this clearly and this all goes to point that this character would mean no less to me even if she wasn't officially created as a lioness in the franchise.
Another less significant reason is because of how poorly Simba as her father treated and wanted her to conform to him. Seeing as I dealt with obviously different conforming issues coming from my father, these kind of actions usually Do result in the child having at least some personal resentment to their parent even if it's temporary.
As far as brains are concerned, Kiara isn't necessarily a smart character and pretty far from an "Einstein". She engulfs herself in a fire without much thought beforehand, and hunts so blindly to the point that I don't think she should be a lioness in this case (but goes back to why I still wouldn't see adult Kiara any less of an interesting character even if she wasn't a lioness).
Though, adult Kiara as a person is pure and fairly wise, and so I definitely credit her for that. But, wisdom and smarts are two different things. A dumb person in real life can easily still have a sense of morality and wide open compassion towards others in them. 'Definitely Not a bad thing at all though.
"I found a place that was beyond my wildest dreams. But..., it still wasn't home." - Timon; Lion King 1 1/2 (3)
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