Would Kovu and Kiara make good rulers?

[ScarsLove]

My biggest problem with SP is the rate in which Kovu changes. The movie could have only shown the span of a few days ( after Kovu is taken in by Simba ). Kovu goes from a murderous outlander to a heroic, righteous pridelander in just a few days. From my point of view, Kovu was trained as a killer before and after he met Kiara at the border. The kind of knowledge just doesn't go away within a few moments. Surely that would rear it's ugly head one way or another. Kovu is no saint and I'm sorry but I think he would make a lousy king. Maybe Simba could teach him how to be a king but here's the thing... Simba wasn't trained either.

He lost Mufasa at a young age and found himself being raised by two care-free friends with no responsibilities. Simba might try and teach him based upon the little knowledge Mufasa managed to show him. I don't think Kiara would know much about being queen either. Nala was never raised as a princess, she was just betrothed to the prince who was then assumed dead after the incident with Mufasa. Kiara is also quite, ditzy and care free as well. She too was raised ( partially ) by Timon and Pumba, who are very care free. Maybe as they would get older they would learn, but I really think they would be terrible leaders.

[Simba_At_TLK]

you just hit the nail on the head, when i watched SP i was like wtf why did he just change in the matter of seconds, you go from this cold hearted bloodthirsty killer, to a teenager with a crush. it just dosn't make sense, i would of liked to see the more cold hearted side to kovu, maybe hes just got a split personality. we havnt seen what hes like when kiara's not there though, so maybe hes just lovey dovey when shes around, who knows.

[AdAstrα]

I agree that Kovu's "transformation" from brainwashed killing machine to good guy is a little rushed. It's not realistic. An upbringing like the one he had would literally take years to get over, if that would even be possible. As for Kiara, I guess it's possible that she learnt to become a decent Queen as she grew older. But Kovu....I'm not so sure.

[Carl]

I think they would suck as rulers, personally. Kiara never even wanted the throne, for one thing. For another, as has been pointed out, Simba was untrained as well. Kovu.. while I agree that his transformation was quick, it pretty much had to be for their purposes; having a second time skip between them meeting and him having a change of heart could have been... awkward. Nevertheless, feeling love for the first time can make one quite different spontaneously, so maybe he's just still in shock; in that case, he would start to fall back into his former attitude as he got used to the feeling, and would probably still be a lousy king.

Of course, on the other hand, Simba was presumably still young(ish) at the end of the film. This means he'd have at least a few more years to learn more about ruling and teach his successors. Also, Nala, while maybe not trained, still has a reasonable mind, and she'd be able to logic things out I think and be helpful to them, so by the time Kiara and Kovu were to take over, they would most probably be more prepared than they were when last we saw them.

In conclusion, who knows? One could always check out some fan-fics and see which seem plausible.

[PrincessKiara]

Interesting topic.

I do agree that Kovus transformation goes by rather quickly, but for me, that just confirms that he`s not the cold blooded killer that Scar was, he doesn`t seem to have that darkness in him. The way I look at it, Kovu has a much gentler nature, he`s a softie at heart. There is for example a deleted scene from SP where Cub Kovu is seen chasing a bug, he catches it only to release it. Zira comes over to him and crushes the bug, telling Kovu there is no room for weakness. Although this scene was not included in the final movie, I think it shows that (as a cub, in any case) Kovu showed signs of a gentle, kind nature.

Now, he was trained and brainwashed by Zira throughout his life, and of course that would take a very long time for him to get over, way longer than what is shown in the movie.. of course, Disney movies usually don`t strive for realism, so you have to take some things with a pinch of salt.

The way I see it, the writers intended for Kovus transformation/change of heart to occur due to him falling in love with Kiara, but I also think he was never that cold or hard to begin with..

Anyway, regarding Kovu and Kiara as rulers...

It`s true that Simba never recieved any proper training. He`d barely learned that he would become king before Mufasa died. We see in SP that he seems to be following Mufasas laws, and I can`t imagine Mufasa had time to teach him much before his tragic passing. As for Nala, she grew up as just a normal cub in the pride, but she is sensible and wise in my opinion, and I think she makes a great support for Simba and a good queen. I don`t think Sarabi recieved any training either (if we assume that Mufasa was the crownprince) and yet she seemed to perform her tasks well.

It`s only mentioned once in the movie that Kiara will one day become queen, and as a cub she is very reluctant to embrace her role in the pride, unwilling to take on the massive responsibility that comes with her regal position. This issue is never brought up again when Kiara is older (which annoys me to no end) so we don`t know how she feels about becoming queen now that she`s a young adult.
Would she make a good queen? Hard to say. She`s still quite young by the end of SP, and like it has been mentioned, it`s not like her father recieved much training, so one can wonder how much wisdom he can pass on to his daughter. I think that when Kiara becomes older and more excperienced, she`d be better suited to deal with being queen. If she were to become queen when SP ended, I don`t think she would have done a good job, as she`s too young and still in much need of her parents support.

As for Kovu, I don`t see him as a leader.. And considering his background, he is bound to carry some baggage, regardless of how he might have changed when getting to know Kiara and learning to enjoy life. I`m not sure how well both Kovu and Kiara can deal with pressure... then again, Simba and Nala seem to be doing fine, and it`s not like either of them were very prepared to rule the Pride Lands when they were young.

So, to sum up.. I don`t think Kovu would make a good king (though I suspect most of the desicion making and law passing would be done by Kiara, as she is the royal heir)
And Kiara as queen? Give her a few more years to gain maturity and wisdom, and I think she`d do OK, but not as well as Nala or Sarabi before her.

[Ananda]

I don't think so. They seem too young to me to be rulers lol.

[MrsTimon]

As soon as I read the title of this thread the first thing I thought is that if there was a movie about Kiara and Kovu ruling then it would start with them being quite an immature king and queen then learn responsibilities throughout the film and fully learning how to rule properly by the end but then I remembered that they kind of matured as they tried to stop the outlanders and the pridelanders from fighting so I'm not sure. I think they'd know how serious their duties where but be very playful with them along the way.

Af for Kovu changing fast. I agree that he was being taught at a very young age to be a killer but when you see him as a little cub you sort of know that he just wants to be a normal little kid, he wants to play, he almost admits to wanting to be friends with Kiara. He didn't seem an evil little cub. I think that side to him shone back through again when he started having fun with Kiara, Timon and Pumba, I think it was always the real him.

[Jiirani]

Haha oh god they would be terrible they probably would have no clue what to do, i think they would be in over their heads and what u said about kovus transformation is one of the main things i hated about that movie because that just doensT FADE THAT FAST and love is not that 'powerful' or whatever to change someone completely

and he might not have been evil as a cub, because he was still innocent, but with all the training to be a killer
as kids we are so easily influenced and i dont think kovu would be any different if his training was severe enough

[MrsTimon]

But if you look at Vitani as a cub (there doesn't look like much of an age difference between her and Kovu) she wasn't exactly evil but during the song Zira sings about Kovu taken over, Vitani was joining in and very much up for all the plans. Kovu's personality wasn't like that and they where both being taught by the same person. I just don't think a 'killer' was the true Kovu there for it didn't surprise me when his true self shone through again.

[MooLion]

Interesting thoughts.

It's in Kiara's blood, so I think she would step to it in the end. She'd need a lot of teaching, but Simba IS still with them and is capable of teaching her what he learnt from his dad and what he learnt since taking back the throne.

Mufasa was a better ruler than Simba, and Simba a better one than Kiara appears, so uh-oh, is it all going downhill? :p

Kovu is quick to pick up things so I think he'd learn well from Simba, too, and then Kiara and Kovu would both learn better together, their skills and whatnot bouncing off of eachother. (Had to rush that comment a bit - I'm starving!)