Who is the best mother?

[SimbasGuard]

I agree some Nala Kiara interaction would have elevated the movie.

[AnActualLion]

Personally I chose Nala and Sarabi, but I'd like to explore each of them as a mother and a potential mother to their cubs.

I'll start with the first option, and my personal favorite character of the franchise, Sarabi.
We don't as much interaction between her and Simba as we do him and Mufasa, but there is one scene where we see a good example of her parenting skills in the first film. When Simba, after Scar baits him with the knowledge of the Elephant Graveyard, goes to tell Nala of their potential adventure there, Sarabi immediately is suspicious of her son. But she is neither smothering nor is she too trusting. She allows them to head over to the 'waterhole' as long as they are under the supervision of Zazu. She's careful without having to be a helicopter parent like Simba ended up being in the sequel. I think this is an incredibly smart way of parenting. If you're too lenient with a child, they'll most likely not understand the boundaries of rules or respect the parent's authority as a guardian who has their best interests at heart. However, if you're too smothering, you'll end up driving your child away, which can also cause them to fall into trouble. Sarabi has found ground in between, a very, very difficult thing to do for most parents that few can achieve.

Nala tends to value support very strongly in her parenting method. Every interaction with Kiara she has seems to involve defending or reassuring her. Kiara shows signs of low self esteem, in the song Love will Fin a Way ("I may not be brave, or strong, or smart"). She tells her that she'll do fine on her first hunt just before she leaves, giving her an extra self confidence, and manages to not completely freak out and remain calm after her and Simba find Kiara after the fire, and even decides to give Kovu a chance once she sees Kiara trust him. The importance of support in a parent-child relationship is huge, and Nala seems to understand this.

It's very hard to tell whether or not Sarafina was a good mother. I'd like to think she was, considering how Nala was as a cub and how she turned out as an adult. The only criticism I have is that she potentially relied on Sarabi to make the decisions for what the cubs should and shouldn't do, but that's purely speculation from the less than a minute of the film that we see her in.

Kiara, as a teenager, is impulsive and quick to rile up. She immediately becomes defensive of herself when she finds Timon and Pumbaa out in the pridelands while she's on her first hunt. She also shows resentment for her father's helicopter parenting, so it's a safe bet that she'll take the opposite approach and potentially give too much freedom to her cubs. This could go equally as sour as showing too much attention. I don't think she'll be a bad parent though, because although her father may be smothering, he isn't a bad parent either, and Nala is an excellent mother, giving Kiara good rolemodels for dealing with her future cubs.

It's extremely difficult to tell how Vitani will be as a mother. Her own parent was incredibly harsh and exhibited behavior that is that of an abusive parent if you could even call her that. Vitani is definitely not the same lion as her mother, as she showed good judgement in the final scene of the movie, choosing to side with her brother before anyone else in her pride did. With such a poor rolemodel, I'd imagine Vitani having a very difficult time as a mother, though I don't think she'd be a very bad one either.

I have a lot of opinions on Zira, the first being that she is a hateful and abusive lion. She acts more like a drill sergeant than a mother, seeing her cubs as tools of vengeance more like her own children. We see that the majority of her anger is deflected onto her eldest, Nuka. Many abusive parents will target one child the most, making them the scapegoat of their problems and taking out almost all their anger on them. She regularly beats and demeans him in the movie, and only shows any sign of care or affection in his final moments, when it is already too late. She also physically injures Kovu after Nuka's death, smacking him with her claws in such a way that if she hit him while his eye was open, she would have blinded him. And when Vitani decides to join her brother and stop fighting, Zira decides that she will die with them. Zira is one of the worst villains Disney has created in my opinion, mostly because of her willingness to abuse and even kill her cubs for the sake of revenge.

[Cowell_lk]

[quote="SimbasGuard"]I agree some Nala Kiara interaction would have elevated the movie.[/quote]
i agree %120. nala is pretty lackluster in the second movie and her being my favorite character it kinda sucked

[Elton John]

As far as Sarafina relying on Sarabi goes I think she asked for her opinion due to her respecting sarabis authority and not because she couldn't make decisions on her own.

[PrincessKiara]

[quote="Elton John"]As far as Sarafina relying on Sarabi goes I think she asked for her opinion due to her respecting sarabis authority and not because she couldn't make decisions on her own.[/quote]

I agree with this. Sarabi is the queen and mother of the crown prince, I think Sarafina let her make the final decision on whether the cubs (well, Simba, really) could go off on their adventure. Sarafina naturally makes the decisions where Nala is concerned, but it would be up to Sarabi if Simba could go.

[NaiaRulez]

Mother weren't showed much as fathers did, but If I need to choose one it would be Sarabi.
According that she was Mufasa's mate and Simba's mother, she was wise and protected her son the most. (e.g.: When Simba meets Nala when she's taking a bath to tell her about a great place, Sarabi wanted to know that place, and finally they we're along with Zazu)
Or before Simba's return to PrideRock scene, she realized that Scar only wanted to take over the reign along with the hyenas and let all the pride members die of hunger.

[Iberian]

-----------------