Should Nuka had been exiled?

[Braveheart]

According to the six new adventures, Ni mentioned that males are usually ousted from their pride once they reached a certain age. He is big enough to fend for his own. If that is so, wouldn't Nuka have been sentenced to exile because of his age? Also, he wasn't the 'chosen' one since Kovu was. Sentencing a lion into exile would provide less competition for food resources as well...

[TheLionPrince]

The content featured in Six New Adventures isn't considered canon because Kopa was never recognized or accepted by the filmmakers of both films into the film universe. Therefore, it is non-applicable in the film canon. Even while the content is based on real-life male lion activities after they reach maturity, there's not much of a reason for Nuka to start his own pride because a usual lion pride has one to two male lions and the rest are lionesses and their cubs. There are no other male lions in the pride to challenge Nuka for shared supremacy with Zira now that Kovu is gone. In terms of the story, Zira must have considered Nuka still useful in her master plan to reclaim the Pride Lands so that's why he stuck around.

[DGFone]

It is true that in RL, male lions are exiled out of the pride. However, I am not so sure if Nuka was actually old enough yet to be of an exile age. The little I know from watching documentaries and the occasional wiki walk, judging from Nuka's lack of a proper mane (I'm judging more by hair length rather than by how neat it is), I think Nuka would still be too young. But then again, he is older than Kovu, and Kovu by the time he gets sent into the Pride Lands to take over certainly does look old enough to have been exiled as well normally, so Nuka would certainly be above that age as well...

Another reason could be, since the TLK lions behave somewhat differently than real lions, is that Zira saw some use for him in terms of muscle or some other benefit, and chose to keep him for that reason.

Yet a third theory, going by how she acted when Nuka died, is that despite her treatment of him, she still cared for him and simply didn't want to get rid of a family member.

[Braveheart]

Looks like it's another sign that LTK lions are behaving more like humans than actual lions. Nuka's mane has always been frizzled since Kovu was a little cub so I think his mane here is not really an indication of age. (His build is also consistent throughout the movie until his death.) Were this be true, does it mean that the lions of lion king can live a similar age as humans do?

If we were to compare real lions to LTK, Scar would have been made king because of his darker mane.

Conclusion: It seem that Nuka only hang around because Zira have some kind of plan involving him.

Thank you for your answers

[Squeely]

Going by Kovu being of "exile age", Nuka would have been, too. But Zira probably saw Nuka as a valuable asset, despite her mistreatment of him. She knew, at least deep down, that he was loyal to her. And, however scrawny he may have been, he was still a male. Males offer the pride protection from threats such as hyenas thanks to their bigger stature. Even being something of a runt, he was probably the best bet for going toe-to-toe against Simba in battle thanks to being male as well. Zira's plan A was sending Kovu to infiltrate Simba's pride, but failing that, or if Kovu needed backup or something, the Outsiders had a better shot of winning with Nuka in the wings.

[Troll Berserker]

I don't think so. Zira wouldn't be as heartless and cruel to exile her own son just because he's a male. He was no threat to her. Nuka was fully devoted to her, plus he was pretty weak so I think that even if he wasn't so blindly loyal, he was still no match for Zira. Zira knew she had power over Nuka, so there was no need to get rid of him.