My Lion King Forum

We all know Zira is Vitanis mother. In SP, Kovu is the only of her cubs Zira is seen to treat in a loving, motherly way. Nuka seems like an annoyance to his mother most of the time.. But what about Vitani?

In general, I’d say her character is pretty minor, and very underplayed. I don’t feel the movie gives her much depth or character development.

Cub Vitani.. does she have any interaction with Zira at all?

Adult Vitani.. I feel like she just acts like Ziras soldier, spying on Kovu for her and only being a part of her army of lionesses. Zira even threatned to kill Vitani if she refused to fight the Pridelanders. (If you will not fight, that you can die as well.) Not very motherly, Zira.

What do you think of the relationship between Zira and Vitani?

Vitani's defining personality trait is loyalty. Having someone to look up to gives her purpose in life and she repays them by being absolutely rock solid behind them. Vitani grew up looking up to both Kovu and Zira as heroes and future rulers. When Kovu turned, Vitani was torn between them, and it was Nuka's death that sent her over the edge and made her realize that Zira wasn't worth her loyalty, which brings us to the moment she turns.

Vitani has a brilliant character if you give her a chance and appreciate the little things. In many ways her turn to the pridelanders is even more realistic than Kovu's.

I think Zira was completely absorbed with training Kovu that she didn't pay much attention to Vitani, but unlike Nuka
who has angry and sad that he didn't get enough attention,Vitani didn't mind.

I guess I haven’t given Vitani a fair chance. Look harder, right?

I think you’re right about that, Ralexia. I like to think that Vitani and Kovu were very close growing up, and Vitani was proud of him, looking forward to the day he would become king. So she understood Ziras need to give Kovu the most attention.

Well, from what we know of Cubby Vitani and Zira's interaction, which was little at best, Vitani seemed to abide by Zira's rule, as she seemed concerned in the fact that Nuka had left Kovu out on his own again, and that Zira would be mad about this fact. Later on, when Vitani is grown up, Zira does use her to spy on The Pridelanders and to watch over Kovu, but I feel as though this is more out of trust. Vitani was the one who brought Zira the news to her about Kovu and Zira seemed to trust her for the most part, so this leads me to believe that they had a mutual respect for one another. This clearly didn't last after Nuka's death however, and obviously wasn't strong enough to keep Vitani from seeing the light of her mother's misdoings, but I'd still say that Vitani and Zira's relationship was a lot more stable than even Kovu/Zira or Nuka/Zira.

I'd have to agree mostly with Mike. For the most part, Vitani and Zira's relationship was actually about as civil as you could probably get with Zira. As mentioned, Vitani seems to be a very loyal creature, though her loyalty seemed swayed once Kovu's allegiances began to change. Nuka's death and Zira's subsequent reaction seemed only to further this, the last straw being when Zira seemed perfectly fine with disposing of her own son. But all that said, there was certainly a better relationship there than Zira seemed to have with her other children.

I think Zira didn't care about one of her cubs at all. Nuka was useless for her, so he was annoying from Ziras point of view. Kovu was a male and could be trained, he fitted right into her plan, so he was usefull, and that gave her a reason to pay attention to him. Not a very loving mother, but he got some attention at least.
Vitani is just as much used by Zira as her other cubs and the Outlanders pride. Yes, she spies on Kovu for her mother, but for the rest I don't think Zira is any closer to Vitani than to any other Outlander lioness.
But I wonder about Vitani's personal development too.. what was she like? Okay, she was loyal, but was she good/evil or what was she towards her family? Vitani's character is pretty undeveloped in the movie, is my opinion. Too bad, because she could have been made more interesting if she had more of a "backstory" and lines in the movie.

well i think zira payed most attention to kovu because he was the next king to come so she dosent have much interaction with vitani your right.

Actually, Zira has more interaction with Vitani than almost anybody else, and that's only counting what we saw on the screen. I'd imagine them to be relatively close, with a fair amount of mutual respect. It was clearly not easy for Vitani to turn on Zira, and she only did it at the last moment when the alternative was getting almost everyone killed.

I agree, TG. I would definatly want to know more about Vitanis personality and her backstory.

It seems that Vitani has great respect for Zira, and seeing as Vitani was the one Zira used to spy on the Pridelanders, I can imagine they had a close relationship.. But at the same time, all Zira cared about was her plan to get revenge and take over, so I just can’t see Zira and Vitani sharing a real loving mother/daughter bond, it’s more like a relationship between a soldier and a commanding officer or something..