Ok so I see a lot of debates over whether Simba's cub is Fluffy, Kiara, Kopa, Kion, Santa Claus, whatever.

To start things off: Yes, I am aware that canonically, Simba's cub is genderless Fluffy if you take only the first film in view: In the whole universe, Fluffy is Kiara. This is my headcanon though that involves Fluffy/Kiara.

So why do I think Kiara and Kopa are the same person? Two words: Maned lioness.

In the wild, there are lionesses that grow manes due to high levels of testosterone. They normally do this at around one year old. Kopa in the books grows a mane tuft, indicating that he is close to around that age (which for us, is considered teenages)

The headcanon I'm presenting you with is that Kiara is a genderfluid intersex maned lioness and Kopa is the name of her male identity. When she reached the end of her tween years (approximately around the time of TLG/the books), she started growing in a mane and slowly began to view herself as genderfluid and eventually gave her masculine identity the name of Kopa. Simba and Nala accepted their child's identity just fine and were still ready to raise them into the next monarch of the Pride Lands.

Kopa's story is intertwined with Kiara's because the way I see it, they are the same, and it makes sense. Simba and Nala never lose a child, so thus they never go through additional trauma that contradicts what we see in the second film. Zira never murders a cub, so that drama is avoided. And Kopa/Kiara is in the same age range as Kovu, instead of Kopa being born and killed months later, adding months between the age gap of Kovu and Kiara.

It all comes together in my mind:

You're free to disagree with me in the comments, but please, no transphobic, rude, or overly abash comments please.