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This gives me "Mufasa and Sarabi being reunited" ideas. Would've been nice to have seen that in the movie if she had passed before the sequel. But then again the audience would've been 'wait wat when did she die?!' so that might not have worked out after all...

I don't think so, because Sarafina looked just like adult Nala in LK1 where Simba and Nala went to the dead elephants.

I Think That Sarabi is in TLK2. The Lioness that says how you've grown IS Sarabi , because of her color tone and eye color. She Also does'nt Have Sarafina's coloring.

I think that Sarabi wasn't mentioned in the second film because she wasn't a relevant character to the plot. The second film was mainly focused on Kiara ad Kovu, it didn't pay much attention to the original characters e.g Nala, Zazu people like that. So I think she may or may not have died but was never brought up because , like Nala, she wasn't relevant to the story. Come to think of it they probably wouldn't have given Nala any lines in the film if she wasn't Kiara's mom. It's what they did with Sarabi in the first one. Gave her a few lines then left her in the background for number two leaving us to woder what happened to her and Sarafina.

Sarabi's voice actress died, so that probably why she didn't show up as much as she did in the 1st film.

I think Sarabi is still alive. She didn't appear in TLK2, maybe because her voice actor died before the film was made.
Sarabi can also die of old age. She was quite old when Simba returned to the Pride Lands.

I think she probably passed away between movies. My guess is a mix of malnourishment from Scar's reign as king (Since the herds had moved on) mixed with her being older that might have caused it. I don't think Zira killed her because Simba would've probably brought that up at some point. (And he wouldn't be so willing to say "Let it go Zira, it's time to put the past behind us)