Kovu

"You'll never hurt Kiara, or Simba, not while I'm here."

- Kovu to Zira

Prince-consort Kovu is the main deuteragonist of The Lion King II: Simba's Pride and a guest character in it's midquel series The Lion Guard. He is the second son and youngest child of Zira, Scar's adoptive son, Nuka and Vitani's younger brother, Simba and Nala's son-in-law, Scar's heir and Kiara's best friend and later, her husband.

He is voiced by Ryan O'Donaugh as a cub and Jason Marsden as an adult (Gene Miller, singing).

Early Life
Kovu was born sometime near the end of Scar's reign over the Pridelands to Zira (who already had two other children: Nuka and Vitani) and an unknown lion and was hand chosen by Scar to be his heir. Sometime after Kovu's birth, Scar's nephew Simba returned to the Pridelands and battled and defeated Scar and reclaimed his rightful title as King, before banishing Kovu, his mother, siblings and several other lionesses who were loyal to Scar, to the Outlands.

Cub
Some months later, Simba's daughter Kiara distracted her babysitters Timon and Pumbaa and sneaks into the Outlands and bumped into Kovu. He demands to Kiara to tell him who she is before teasing for doing what her father says, saying that Outsiders don't need anybody and that he take cares of himself. Kiara and Kovu end up wandering onto crocodiles. The crocodiles tried to eat them, but they escaped from the angry reptiles. After this, the two cubs play before Zira pops up and tries to face off with Simba, Nala and some of the Pridelander lioness, but to no avail. Zira picks up Kovu and then takes him to their home The Outlands where his two siblings Nuka and Vitani are. Kovu is seen sleeping during Zira's song ("My Lullaby").

Young Adult
As the years go by, Zira sets up her plan for Kovu to kill Simba. After Kovu's siblings Nuka and Vitani set fire to the Pride Lands whilst Kiara is out hunting trapping her, Zira sends Kovu into the fire to save Kiara from being burned and along the way they fall into a lake but Kovu manages to stop Kiara from drowning and swims her to land. When Kiara wakes up she at first angry that Kovu ruining her hunt but when she recognises Kovu she is happy to see him. Just then Simba and Nala arrive and find out from Rafiki that Kovu saved Kiara and Kovu asks to join the pride but at first Simba refuses as he is an Outsider but Kovu says that he left the Outsiders and is now a rogue and tells Simba to judge him for who he is or blame him for a crime he didn't commit. Simba going by the law of owing debts decides to let him join the pride, but says he will reserve judgement until he sees what Kovu really is and makes him sleep outside Pride Rock. Kiara goes to see him and arranges for him to teach her to hunt whilst being watched by Zira and Nuka. He later appears in Simba's nightmare in which Simba tries to save Mufasa from falling into the gorge but is stopped by Scar who then turns into Kovu and throws Simba into the gorge after Mufasa.

The next morning, Kovu prepares to sneak up and attack Simba but fails when Kiara arrives to start her training. Along with Timon and Pumbaa and Kiara, they accidentally run into a group of angry rhinos. After avoiding the rhinos, Kiara and Kovu are later seen laying on the grass stargazing. They later appear in the song "Upendi". After the song, Simba following Nala's advice to give Kovu a chance,lets him sleep inside Pride Rock and starts to trust him unaware that Vitani is watching and reports to Zira that Kovu did not kill Simba. The next morning, Simba and Kovu go out walking when they are ambushed by Zira and the Outsiders. They attack Simba and when Kovu tries to save him, he is knocked away by Vitani and Simba unintentionally kills Nuka by knocking logs onto him crushing him whilst escaping up a dam. After Zira says a prayer to Scar (the first film's antagonist), she gets angry for Kovu and scratches him across the face leaving a scar over his left eye and blames him murdering Nuka, having enough Kovu stands up to his mother and leaves to return to the Pride Lands. But when he gets there Simba accuses him of causing the ambush and has the other animals of the Pride Lands chase him away, much to Kiara's sadness who believes Kovu is innocent and against her father's orders leaves Pride Rock to look for Kovu.

She eventually finds him and convinces him to return with her to try and reunite their prides. Kovu along with Kiara return to the Pride Lands and see the battle between the Pridelanders and Outsiders going on and manage to stop the fight by jumping in front of Simba and Zira just as they were about to fight. Zira tells Kovu to move but he refuses saying he won't let her hurt Kiara or Simba whilst Kiara reminds Simba about what he told her We Are One she didn't understand him then but does now, hearing this Vitani and the Outsiders go over to the Pridelanders except Zira who tries to attack Simba but Kiara knocks her aside causing the two lionesses to go over the side of a cliff. Luckily Kiara lands on a platform and tries to help Zira but she falls to her death into a fast flowing river below much to Kovu's sadness having lost both his brother and mother. Simba apologises to Kovu and allows him and the other Outsiders to rejoin the pride. Kovu is last seen at the end of the film now married to Kiara and joins her and Simba and Nala to roar at the end of Pride Rock.

The Lion Guard
Kovu along with Nuka and Vitani, is set to guest star in the upcoming Disney Junior series The Lion Guard (which takes place in the middle of the second film).

Family

 * Father: Unknown Lion
 * Mother: Zira
 * Adoptive Father: Scar
 * Brothers: Nuka
 * Sisters: Vitani
 * Wife: Kiara
 * Father-In-Law: Simba
 * Mother-In-Law: Nala
 * Brothers-In-Law: Kion and Kopa

Trivia

 * In the original script for The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, Kovu was originally called Nunka and was going to be Scar's son and be voiced by Andy Dick and would have had orangey-brown fur, a black mane and green eyes like Scar. However this would have made him Simba's cousin and therefore Kiara's second cousin, thus having a relationship with Kiara would count as incest. So Kovu instead became Scar's adoptive son and Dick went on to voice Kovu's brother Nuka. The only thing Kovu has left from his original design is his green eyes.
 * In the documentary Proud of Simba's Pride, Kovu is described as a "teenage killer". Which would mean that his young adult self is meant to be the equivalent of someone in their late teens (approx 17-19 years old). Kiara is likely the same age or slightly younger.
 * Kovu is similar to Coryn
 * Both their mothers are villains (Zira and Nyra).
 * Both their mothers wish for them to be like their deceased father/paternal figure (Zira wanted Kovu to be like his adoptive father Scar whilst Nyra wanted Coryn to be like his father Kludd).
 * Both are given scars by their mothers after they join the opposing side (Zira scarred Kovu when he joined the Pridelanders and Nyra scarred Coryn when he joined the Guardians).
 * Both have seen or encountered their deceased father/paternal figure (Kovu, when banished from the Pride Lands by Simba, looks in a puddle and sees Scar's reflection instead of his own whilst Coyrn has encountered Kludd's ghost).