Kion

"I'm on the side of the Circle of Life"

- Kion

"They need a leader, and I'm the one."

- Kion about the Lion Guard. Kion (pronounced Kai-on) is the son and youngest child of Simba and Nala, the younger brother of Kiara, the grandson of Mufasa, Sarabi, Sarafina and an unnamed lion, the great-nephew of Scar and the main protagonist of the 2015 TV film The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar and its 2016 follow-up series The Lion Guard, both of which are inspired by the 1994 film The Lion King.

As tradition follows to all second born children of the Pride Lands's monarchs, Kion leads a group called The Lion Guard with his friends Bunga, Fuli, Beshte and Ono to protect The Pride Lands and defend The Circle of Life. As leader and the fiercest member, Kion has a power called The Roar of the Elders, which when used, causes the lions of the Pride Lands past to roar with him.

He is voiced by Max Charles.

The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar
Kion first appears in the film when he and Bunga are playing Baobab ball on Pride Rock and end up disrupting Simba, who is teaching Kiara about being future Queen. Simba briefly stops the game and says that he needs to talk to Kiara and that she is going to be tracking gazelles with her friends that day. Kiara starts to say that she is training to be Queen of The Pride Lands, but an annoyed Kion butts in and finishes her sentence, saying he knows all about it. Kiara replies that at least she has her life figured out and asks Kion what he's going to grow up to be (since Kion is second born and can't inherit the throne unless Kiara abdicates and/or doesn't have cubs) to which Kion replies "Happy". Simba breaks up the two and Kion leaves Pride Rock with Bunga to continue their game, but the Baobab fruit ends up falling into the Outlands. Kion does not wish to enter the Outlands (having been forbidden to do so by Simba), but Bunga goes in and ends up being captured by two hyenas named Cheezi and Chungu on the orders of their leader Janja. Kion orders the two hyenas to release Bunga, but Cheezi dares him to come and get Bunga to which Chungu says that Kion is too scared and the two hyenas mock Kion and call him a fradey cat. These taunts anger Kion and he lets out a mighty roar, which causes Chungu to drop Bunga, who climbs up to safety.

Kion and Bunga return to Pride Rock where Simba and Rafiki (who had heard Kion's roar) tell Kion that the roar he did was the Roar of the Elders before taking him and Bunga to a part of Pride Rock called The Lair of the Lion Guard where Simba tells Kion the history of the Lion Guard that contained the fiercest, bravest, fastest, strongest and keenest of sight in the Pride Lands and that Kion's great-uncle Scar (who was the fiercest) used to the lead it and too possessed the Roar of the Elders until he lost his Roar when he used it to destroy the other members of his Lion Guard when they refused to help him overthrow his older brother Mufasa. After Simba informs him that he is now the leader of the new Lion Guard, Kion goes out into the Pride Lands to find members. He picks Bunga to be the first member as he is the bravest animal Kion knows, unaware that Janja's vulture ally Mzingo has overheard them and reports this news to Janja.

Later, Kion and Bunga help Kiara's friend Zuri get unstuck from a log (which she was using to sharpen her claws) and meet with Simba's friends and Bunga's adoptive uncles Timon and Pumbaa. Kion and Bunga tell them, Kiara, Zuri and Tiifu about the new Lion Guard before going to find others animals to be the fastest, strongest and keenest of sight. Kion recruits an egret named Ono to be the keenest of sight, a hippopotamus named Beshte to be the strongest and a cheetah named Fuli to be the fastest.

Bunga then convinces Kion to demonstrate the Roar to Beshte, Fuli and Ono, but when Kion attempts to do so, only a squeak comes out. Just then Simba (after being informed by Kiara about Kion putting Bunga into the Lion Guard) arrives and isn't pleased with the members Kion has picked and tells Kion that the Lion Guard has always be made up of lions and tells his son to not treat his position as leader as a game and take his responsibilities seriously like Kiara is with hers. Having some alone time, Kion feels discouraged about what Simba said before he encounters the ghost of Mufasa who encourages him to trust his instincts.

After learning from Bunga that Janja and his clan are attacking a gazelle herd and have caused a stampede trapping Kiara, Kion, Bunga, Beshte, Fuli and Ono jump into action with Simba, Nala and Tiifu watching from afar. The group are able to save Kiara and get her to safety before Kion uses the Roar to drive Janja and his clan out of the Pride Lands.

Following this, Simba and Nala express pride for their son.

The Lion Guard
Kion returns as the protagonist of The Lion Guard, which takes place some short time after the film. In the series, Kion and the Guard continue to fight against Janja and his clan, but also other villainous animals who also come from the Outlands, other areas of Africa and even the Pride Lands.

The most notable villains Kion and the Lion Guard encounter in the series besides Janja's Clan are: Makuu the crocodile and his float (whom he later makes peace with), Reirei the jackal and her family, and Zira and her pride the Outsiders (whom Kiara encountered in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride).

Despite being the protagonist, not every episode focuses on Kion, as some episodes centre on another member of the Guard.

Apperance
Kion bares a striking resemblance to both his father Simba and his paternal grandfather Mufasa. Small and lithe, Kion is in good shape, bearing slight shoulders and a moderately well-muscled build. His fur is bright gold (which is resulted with Simba's gold fur mixing with Nala's tawny shades), while his muzzle, paws, and underbelly are all lighter in color. Although his lower eye shades are also light, his upper eye shades are chestnut. His most distinctive features are his ear rims (which were inherited from his father (who lost them when he reached adolescence) and paternal grandmother Sarabi) and a tuft of reddish fur on his head that is the beginnings of his mane. Unlike cub Simba's tuft, it is swept back in a style similar to that of Scar's. Kion has spots on the backs of his legs.

Since becoming leader of The Lion Guard, Kion (along with the other members of the Guard) has a lion head shaped marking on his left shoulder known as The Mark of The Guard.

Kion also bears a resemblance to his maternal grandfather when he was a cub.

Personality
Kion is described as one who "defies tradition," as he has assembled a guard that consists of creatures other than lions. In this way, he is open to other species and willing to give underdogs a chance at making a difference.

Unlike his father (when he was a cub) and sister, Kion is very slick with rules and is reluctant to go against them, whilst a younger Simba went to The Elephant Graveyard, despite being told not to go there by Mufasa, whilst Kiara sneaked into the Outlands, despite being told not to.

Trivia

 * Like his father Simba when he was a cub, Kion has told hyenas to pick on someone their own size (Simba to Shenzi, Banzai and Ed and Kion to Cheezi and Chungu). Also like his father when he was a cub, Kion refers to his hair tuft as his mane.
 * Kion is the second named leader of the Lion Guard. The first being his great-uncle Scar.
 * In earlier promo photos for The Lion Guard, Kion's Mark of the Guard was a pawprint rather than a lion's head.
 * It is currently unknown how younger Kion is than Kiara. Whether they are twins (with Kion being the younger twin) or that Kion was born a few months after Kiara, it has not yet been confirmed. Though in the episode "Lions of the Outlands", when meeting Kovu, Kion is surprised to learn that he met Kiara, to which Kovu says was a while ago. This could mean that when Kiara met Kovu, Kion was either not born yet, was really young or was doing his own thing and that Kiara and Simba choose not to tell him about the incident, possibly to protect him.
 * It is also currently unknown where Kion was during the events of The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (of which The Lion Guard is the midquel to). Though he may have been an infant or not yet born during the first half of the film (where Kiara met Kovu), it is possible that for the second half (when Kiara is an adolescent), he was away from home with the rest of the Lion Guard or had left Pride Rock to start his own pride.
 * Despite being the youngest of Simba and Nala's children, Kion is shown to slightly larger than Kiara. This could be because in real life, male lions are larger than females.
 * Though not outright mentioned, in the episode "Paintings and Predictions", it is revealed that Kion had a great-great uncle who led The Lion Guard that saved his maternal grandfather when he was a cub.
 * Kion's name comes from the word Kiongozi, which means Leader in Swahili.
 * Everytime the Lion Guard faces their enemies, Kion will always jump on the leader of the group (ex: Janja, Makuu, Reirei and Mzingo)