The effect of Zira's Death on Kiara

[Lauren]

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?

[Carl]

She probably was upset and simply put on a brave face. I'm under the impression that there are time skips throughout the movie, and that the ceremony at the end could be the next day or so, which could have made it easier for her to seem normal. I do think she would have needed to cope with it, to some degree at the very least. I don't think it would affect her anywhere near as bad as Simba's experiences however, since Kiara was already an adult and Zira wasn't someone she was or had been close to.

But your final paragraph did make me think about something else. In the final version of the film, Nuka's last words were "I'm sorry, Mother... I tried." Kiara's "Daddy... I tried," that you've brought up is a parallel of that. Which I find rather interesting, especially considering Kiara's and Nuka's characteristics; Kiara was rebellious, but she knew that her father loved her and she loved him too. Meanwhile, Nuka could also be rebellious (i.e. not watching Kovu) but that was because he didn't know if Zira cared about him. He tried to kill Simba to for her, and Kiara only witnessed or "caused" Zira's death by trying to protect her father. Both of them had just risked their own lives for their parents' sake when they uttered those words, "I tried," and both times, someone died.

If Kiara knew about, or learned about the events surrounding Nuka's death, either from Kovu or Vitani, she may have felt even worse about it. She may have blamed herself, i.e. "If I had done something sooner to promote peace, Nuka might not have died, and if he hadn't died, Zira might have come around without having to die."

I don't know. It's just a weird thought I just had.

[Elton John]

I'm of the camp that 'less is more' and that you should show, not tell, what a character is feeling. in a visual medium telling what a character is feeling via dialogue is not the best way to handle things.

Those three words tell me enough to infer what kiara is feeling without being too wordy.

[Marizzle]

[quote="Elton John"]Those three words tell me enough to infer what kiara is feeling without being too wordy.[/quote]
This.
IMO, this somehow "depends". There are people whose emotional breakdowns include crying, a lot of wording, visible fear/panic, but there are also people who breakdown "in silence", only revealing it with a few words and their expressions. I believe that Kiara is like the last option, to be honest.

[SlayerOfLight]

I don't think it affected Kiara much, but she was probably disappointed that it had to end like that, knowing she could have gotten a chance of redemption.

[Tora]

Honestly I don't think she really felt anything other than a little disappointment. There isn't really any evidence to suggest that she felt any grief about the death of Zira. The three words she told her father don't really lay out any context to suggest that she felt disturbed to the point of breakdown. However all things possible it just wouldn't have benefited the movie to put it in anyway.

[SimbasGuard]

Another thing that Kiara may have been regretting is the the fact that Kovu lost his mother. Which Kovu alleviated when he warmly embraced her.

[PrincessKiara]

Like Julie already mentioned, Zira and Kiara were not related, nor did they share any special bond, they didn`t even know each other - they had only met once and Zira tried to kill Kiaras father... I imagine that Kiara was not terribly upset at Ziras passing.
That said, of course it must have been a traumatizing experience for the young lioness to see Zira fall into the river. She did what she could to try and save Zira, but she was already way beyond saving in any way and would not accept Kiaras help. I imagine that Ziras death did not have a long-lasting effect on Kiara. She might have suffered from nightmares about it the night following the event, and had thoughts of guilt for not being able to save Zira. But she did try, like she tells Simba... I like to think Kiara talked it out with both him and Kovu afterwards/later, and was able to recover quickly from the experience.

Kiara is obviously shocked at seeing Zira fall to her death...



... and I`m sure she felt very upset at not being able to help her, but I also think Kiara realized that Zira was beyond help, she even lashed out at Kiara even as Zira was dangling helplessly, barely hanging on to the cliff wall.



And like SimbasGuard said, I`m sure Kiara felt bad for Kovu (and Vitani) for losing their mother.