My Lion King Forum

Yeah, I pretty much agree with you. I think she did love her cubs, but she put Scar and her revenge first. I personally think she loved Kovu more than her other two cubs for obvious reasons (Scar chose him). I do think she loved Vitani, she was Zira's right-hand lioness so to speak. Nuka, I don't know, but when he died she does appear distraught as any mother would.

Of course she did love them too much that she wanted to make them do whatever she wanted.

The way I see it is this: Zira only realized that she loved her cubs when it was too late.

While Nuka was still alive, he was an annoyance, but one that can occasionally be put into good use in order to further her agenda at getting Simba killed.

As soon as Nuka got hit by the logs did Zira realize that he was more then that. Of course, it was too late by then.

Like you and AmyMarie said, Zira loved her children, but Scar and her revenge plot came first. I would also add that as long as her children were in agreement with her master plan, they would be in her favor. When Kovu stood up for himself after Nuka died, Zira lost favor with him, but notice how she said, "Let him go!". She still loved Kovu, and if she didn't, she probably would have ordered the Outsiders to have him killed. However, by that point, Zira had just lost Nuka, and she didn't want to lose another son to death. When Vitani stood up for herself during the battle sequence and defected to the Pridelanders, Zira, hurt again by her last allied child's betrayal, was driven further mad that if none of her children were no longer on her side, then, they all deserve to die.

As for Nuka, I find her relationship with him more complicated. She had no problems stepping on his tail or throwing him off the top of the lair after she sang, "The battle may be bloody, but it kind of works for me." Personally, I don't see no reason why she wouldn't love him, but Kovu deserved her full efforts, and as long as she remained allied with her, she was satisfied with him. Overall, she didn't know what she had until it was gone. However, she used his death as a front to rally what's left of her broken pride for her selfish purposes. A real mother would have used her son's death to prevent what caused his death from happening to somebody else's son. Sometimes, I wonder if Nuka died getting in the way at the start of the ambush, she wouldn't have mourned his death the way she did in the film, but because he died as a result of Simba, it's why she cared about his passing. Overall, the only reason Zira would have loved him was because she expected him to help bring home her victory, and if not, he's worthless, but he was already worthless even before he died.

I think she did but not love them equally. She favor kovu over the others.

I think she did love her cub's, but it was her overriding madness and lust for revenge that drove her to ignore and use them as pawns, maybe even abuse them. I think she did not realize what she had until it was gone, for example Nuka. He was an annoyance, yes, but it was not until she realized she had lost someone that wanted to please her so bad and loved her when she let's out her motherly side for Nuka's last moments.

The way I see it, Disney villains are portrayed so evil they seem incapable of loving anyone.. aside from themselves, that is.
Clearly, Zira is upset over losing her eldest cub. She is shocked and appears to be grieving before channeling that grief into anger..
There seems to be no love shown for Vitani or Kovu, though. Seems to me she was just using her two younger cubs as means to an end, and she saw Nuka as an annoyance, he was of no real pratical use to her.

I think she did love them, in some way. I don`t think she was completly indifferent to them, or was purely using them.