An Obscure Canon Pairing: Chaka and Timira

[Akril]

Some of you might have seen my posts about how in an early draft of SP, Simba was meant to have a son named Chaka (which technically means that he's more canon than Kopa), and Chaka was to be betrothed to a female cub named either Timira or Kirijah.

I read about this in The Unnofficial TLK character Encyclopedia, which is pretty old and contains a lot of fan-made characters, but a lot of official ones as well (the ones that list Disney in their sources section are official, or at least very close to it). When I heard that Simba actually was not only going to have a son, but a future mate selected for him, I had to draw the two of them together.

Neither Chaka nor Timira/Kirijah have official designs, but since all the pre-SP TLK storybooks that give Simba's newborn cub a gender say it is a boy, I decided to base Chaka's design on that cub (whose official name is "Fluffy"). That cub's golden fur also fits with one of the meanings Chaka's name has in Swahili: "blazing sun". I also gave Chaka green eyes like Scar, which is surprisingly also fits, since i just discovered that some of the other meanings of Chaka are "bushes", "stand (of trees)" and "undergrowth".

As for Timira, her name has no meaning in Swahili, but it does have a couple of meanings in another language. There is a male Indian name, Timir, which means "inferno", and in Sanskrit, "timira" means "darkness" and "obscurity". I couldn't find any meanings for "Kirijah", so I decided to stick with Timira as the name for Chaka's future queen.

Coming up with a design for her was a bit tricky, since her name had two meanings that flat-out contradicted each other. I eventually decided to give her fiery orange eyes (to fit the "inferno" meaning) and dark fur, like smoke or a storm cloud (to fit the "darkness" meaning). I also added a couple of elements to her design to make her different from the other lion designs in the movies, but not too different. One change I made is making her belly fur darker than her paws and muzzle, and her dark ears are inspired by some concept art of cub Nala (as well as pictures of real lions' ears).

Okay, essay over. Here's the picture.

P. S.: I recall reading a page from an Australian kids' magazine saying that "Chaka" was one of the several names thought up for Kiara. This discovery of Timira/Kirijah seems to prove this article false, since it wouldn't really make sense for Kiara to be betrothed to a female cub. The article also says that "Shari" was another name proposed for Kiara, and this is probably wrong as well. The name Kiara was called by most often during the earlier days of SP's production is Shani (you can see that name written on storyboard images from the film), and I suspect that the magazine might have just misspelled that name.

Also, I haven't given any real thought as to who Timira's parents could be, but the dark lioness on the far right in this screenshot seems like a good candidate for her mom. ; )

[CheetahCat]

The image looks really well my friend. The fiery orange eyes really did fit well her well too.

Keep up the marvelous work. ^^

[Simba]

I'm familiar with this

actually, I've planned on having Timira and Kirijah both in my fanfic (if I ever get to writing it). I decided to make them sisters, which would explain some confusion on who he's betrothed to since Disney had 2 different names for the concept of his mate.

hmmm...it makes me wonder if one piece of concept art was meant to be Shani or Timira. it has a brown lioness with amber eyes running from the fire trap we're familiar with that made it into the movie. since her name means "dark" or "inferno", that could work if they were aiming for a design that matches her name. but then Kiara's name does mean "little black one".

I'll see if I can find anywhere that has a meaning for Kirijah. it could be that they just made something up, as that's where Nala's name came from (although it did turn out to have a meaning that Disney was unaware of).

[Akril]

[quote="Simba"]I'm familiar with this

actually, I've planned on having Timira and Kirijah both in my fanfic (if I ever get to writing it). I decided to make them sisters, which would explain some confusion on who he's betrothed to since Disney had 2 different names for the concept of his mate.[/quote]
Yay, I'm not alone! Interesting story idea, too. Since a lot of people make Simba have a whole litter of male and female cubs based on alternate names for Chaka and Kiara (with Kopa thrown in as well), it sort of makes sense that Kirijah and Timira could be two separate entities.

[quote]hmmm...it makes me wonder if one piece of concept art was meant to be Shani or Timira. it has a brown lioness with amber eyes running from the fire trap we're familiar with that made it into the movie. since her name means "dark" or "inferno", that could work if they were aiming for a design that matches her name. but then Kiara's name does mean "little black one".[/quote]
I've wondered about that piece as well. I've always thought that it was meant to be Kiara, but with the discovery of Kirijah/Timira, now I'm kind of confused. : / (This is the picture we're talking about, for those of you who are wondering.)

[quote]I'll see if I can find anywhere that has a meaning for Kirijah. it could be that they just made something up, as that's where Nala's name came from (although it did turn out to have a meaning that Disney was unaware of).[/quote]
I did a few Google searches, and all I found out about Kirijah is that it is a city in Syria, and a few people have it as a name. (I also found out that Timira is the name of a city in India, and a few people have it as a name as well.) Funny how both of those names sound vaguely similar to "Kiara."