My Lion King Forum

Remember the scene where Simba finally decides to let Kovu into the den for the night, and Vitani is watching from a short distance as she realizes that Kovu has betrayed them? I've got just one question: how did Vitani get that deep into the pridelands unnoticed? Not to mention that we don't know whether or not she was still in the Pridelands when she later reported to Zira.

It seems to me that such a breach of Pridelands security is... well, odd. It didn't seem to take long in the first movie when Mufasa found about hyenas in the Pridelands from Zazu, who heard it from "The Underground." But after all, hyenas aren't quite as stealthy as lions lol. But with an Outlander lioness so close to Priderock, wouldn't someone have noticed something? Perhaps her foreign scent, or the strange pawprints she probably left on her way there. Making it possible for an Outlander lioness to get that close to Priderock seems like a major oversight on someone's part, to me.

Yes, I agree. With a hostile pride living right across the border to the Pridelands, it’s surprising that Simba didn’t put up a night watch/patrol. It seems like the entire pride is retiring for the night inside the cave at Pride Rock..

Zazu, being a day-active bird, probably wouldn’t be much good at night, but perhaps there are other small creatures who work as security guards, patroling the Pride Lands at night? There could be night-active birds, or perhaps gophers? (I honestly don’t know if they are active at night.)

But yeah, it seems pretty strange that Vitani could get so close to Pride Rock without being noticed. Nuka and Zira also watch Pride Rock at one point.. of course, it would be useless for Zira to try to attack the pride at that point. But when one or two lions could get unnoticed into the heart of the Pridelands, I see no reason why the entire Outlander pride couldn’t sneak over the border one night and jump at the unsuspecting Pridelanders in their sleep. Pretty scary thought..

Out of the three, only Nuka might have been stupid enough to give himself away. Pride Rock isn't a military fortress, it's a home. Would you notice or pay much attention to a funny looking man standing outside an apartment building? Probably not much more than a passing glance.

Vitani is a pretty stealthy lioness. Notice that she spent very little time watching Kovu before quickly bounding off to the safety of the Outlands. Zira probably sent her on this "mission" at night because she knew many animals would be asleep then, and she specifically chose Tani because she was a lot more reliable than Nuka. I think if more lionesses had crossed the border other animals would have sensed their arrival, but with just one intruder it's easy for the scent to get lost in the wind. And with just one Outlander trespassing in the Pridelands, she's not much of a threat even in the heart of the Pridelands. It would be a lot more dangerous if a group of hyenas crossed into enemy territory because there are a lot of them and they could cause significant damage ("Sire! Hyenas, in the pridelands!"). A lone Outlander or even a rogue could quickly be shooed away with little effort.

My opinion on that is that Simba and the rest of he Pridelanders where still caught up with Kovu staying in the Pridelands and the events of the day leading up to it, they might not have even noticed her.

The rest of the pride was also inside the den at that point I believe

I thought that was weird too when I skimming through the movie the other day.

Not too much earlier in the film Simba almost om-nom'd Zira and cubbie-Kovu when they ventured about three feet into the Pridelands. And then later Zira, Nuka, and Vitani all take turns sitting on the outskirts of Pride Rock, completely unnoticed. And they weren't even that sneaky. I'd wager that if anylion ever looked out they would've been able to see them. Or maybe even hear them. Vitani spent her visit talking to herself. And Zira and Nuka carried on a nice little conversation when they were there, ending in Zira smashing through a tree branch.

I'm willing to dismiss this as a little plot hole though. In a plot which made sense, Simba was so overprotective and paranoid I'm sure he would've had some kind of security around the border between the Outlands and and Pridelands.

I also find it odd that no one ever smelled them later on...

lol, you know, I was thinking of this very same thing last night, but figured that someone would probably point it out eventually. ^^ My reasonings for why this is, is just simply that both these incidences happen at night. Unlike real lion prides, I think Disney lead us to believe that at night, all the lions turn in and no one is left on watch, aside from Zazu, who I'll touch upon in a second. The whole incident with the hyenas during the first movie happened in the middle of the day, thus why there was such a quick response from the underground, as stated by the gopher. Also, as stated by others, hyenas would be an easier target to pick out, as they weren't welcome in The Pride Lands and there's no way they could be mistaken as friends of the same species as say, Vitani, Nuka or Zira could.

Now then, during the scene when Zira and Nuka manage to sneak into The Pride Lands during the night, I think this was mainly because of the whole fire rescue scene and how much chaos it ensued. I'm sure, with all the commotion that was caused by it, along with the fact that Simba was probably more distracted with Kovu's presence than anything, that it would be fairly easy for both Zira and Nuka to go unnoticed. In the case of Vitani, I just think, like other members stated, that Vitani would just naturally be more stealthy and she didn't stick around for very long before going back to The Outlands to report her findings.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, Zazu probably was put on guard during the early parts of the night at least, as he is the one who informs Simba that The Outsiders are on the move at the end of TLK2SP and that is at night. Much like PK stated though, Zazu probably wasn't very well adapted for night life and it's probably much easier to spot a whole pride of lions moving, rather than a single lioness or pair of lions, so perhaps that's the reason why he missed catching Zira, Nuka and Vitani when they were in The Pride Lands at night. I'm sure, with very little lighting, all lions look somewhat similar to an untrained eye. ^^

Even with all that stated however, it is strange how there are no guards set up to protect the lands, although that's usually the job of the male lion(s) in the pride, and seeing as Simba was the only male there, aside from Kovu, who obviously Simba wouldn't have trusted to guard his lands from the start at least, that kind of rules out the possibility of any lions acting as guards.

I thought she just managed to sneak into it, and that it was just to demonstrate how sneaky the Outlanders can be. Even if there was a few guards, if any of the Outlanders were to be able to sneak past them, Vitani would seem like a safe bet for the mission.