In the final act of the movie, Kiara defends Simba once Zira is about to attack him and both of them end up falling down the cliff where the dam is approaching below them. Kiara tries to save Zira by telling her to reach for her paw, but she couldn't and died.
After watching that scene, I couldn't help but think about something:
How would it have been like if there was a scene where Kiara broke down or was emotionally misunderstood about what she was feeling during Zira's final moment?
She could've talked with her father about how she felt like a failure for not being able to save Zira when she managed to change the Outsiders' minds. It would've paralleled to Simba feeling guilty about "causing" his father to die back in the first movie. It would've also paralleled to Simba feeling horrified about not only dying in his nightmare, but failing to save Mufasa from death. That was his guilt years ago and it returned back to haunt him during that night.
It's made very clear from the beginning of the movie that Kiara and Simba are very alike as cubs, but they seem different as adults despite their age differences. Like Kiara, he has experienced witnessing death before as a cub and as an adult (both in reality as well as mentally when it comes to his nightmares). Even though Simba dealt with his experiences on a much more difficult and emotional level, Kiara is similar to her father in the aspect of witnessing death. The only difference in their situations was the force that made them disadvantaged when trying to save the victim. Mufasa saved Simba from the stampede when he was a cub, but Scar murdered him and since Simba was very high up on the cliff, he couldn't do anything afterwards. When Simba had his nightmare as an adult, he was trying to save Mufasa from falling down the cliff, but Scar stopped him unfortunately. In his nightmare, Scar was still that same force that prevented Simba from saving his father from death. When it comes to Kiara's situation, nothing stopped her from trying to save Zira. I never realized until now that the position Simba was in during his nightmare was foreshadowing the position Kiara was going to be at the end the movie since they were both trying to reach their paws out towards the falling victim in order to save them.
Although Zira is more of Simba's enemy, wouldn't it have hurt Kiara more emotionally since Zira didn't even try to accept her help? Despite Zira's suicide being cut out of the final film, it did seem that she would've rather die than accept the help from the daughter of her enemy. The fact that she didn't even make a second attempt to properly reach Kiara's paw after slashing towards her the first time makes me feel that she saw no hope for herself anyways and slid down too easily. Zira never forgave her father and did not change for the better.
When I watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, there's a scene where Harry goes into the Forbidden Forest to "die" in order to get the horcrux destroyed inside of him. After seeing Lily, James, Sirius, and Lupin, he asked them, "Does it hurt to die? "
Kiara may have had a similar, but emotional discussion like that with Simba, in which she reflects on the victim's death by saying:
"I can't get her out of my mind, daddy. I don't understand how it feels like to watch someone die right there infront of you...I-I couldn't save her...Did you watch Scar die after you fought him?"
Kiara witnessed death for the first time in her life. In general, witnessing death is very scary. Yes, Kovu and Vitani lost their mother, but she was the only one who saw Zira die right there on the spot up close. When she grabbed Simba's paw, she said in a disappointed tone, "Daddy...I tried." After that, it seemed like she got over Zira's death very quickly, which always baffled me despite how good that scene is. Honestly, if I was Kiara during that moment, it would've taken me a while for me to accept what happened and move on. She brushed it off after reuniting back with Kovu.
I don't know if this may make any sense, but I still want to know how you think this may have been like. What are your thoughts?