share even after I became king, and it has not been and never will be forgotten. It really breaks my heart to see them gone, but I know that their spirit will continue to live within my heart forever.

You and Nala fell for each other when she returned. What is it that you see in her?

There is more than just pure beauty and a beautiful signing voice that I see in her. I see someone with a real open heart, wisdom, nobility, love and care. We share a long connection together ever since we were just cubs. She was my best friend and one of the only ones who I could count on to help me in life. Her friendship meant so much to me as did everyone else’s. I mean, everyone liked me because I was the prince at the time, but there was something in Nala that I saw completely differently; and that was how to get through life in the way of wisdom and nobility and the way your heart tells you. She once said that if you follow your heart and look deep inside yourself, you will find what you are looking for. She also said that if you have faith in yourself, you can do anything. That is another thing that I see within her: her faith; which is something that I never truly understood most of my life, up until now. And it is those very characteristics in her that I see; the correct path in life; and that is why I love her. I will always love her, and I don’t think that many others could ever compare to her. Nala reminds me so much of my mother, Sarabi. She is just as sweet, noble and caring as my mother. Well, Nala’s mother Sarafina was in fact my mother’s sister, so she and Sarabi were very much alike; and it is what is in both my mother and my mother’s sister that made Nala what she has become. When she dies, I want her to be known as the noblest queen ever to have lived.

Even though it would have been tough to put behind, you thought that you lost your father but you eventually discovered that you lost yourself. Is that true?

Yes it is. The fact that I had lost my father made me think too much of what I thought was the terrible truth. But there was something that I had forgotten. I now realized that my father gave everything up for me. I knew that my father never turned his back on anybody, never ran away and never thought twice about giving. For a long time I thought I had lost him, but it was actually me. I now have to accept myself for who I am in spite of the things that I had done. I got some sense knocked into me and I have the bump to prove it when our shaman, Rafiki, hit my head with his stick. It was kind of a funny but good metaphor: Having something bad happen to you in your past is like being hit by something and feeling the pain: It can still hurt later on, but you must learn from it. The next time you are attempted to get hit, you must be able to counter it. So from that, I have now learned from my past and faced my main responsibilities. From an old saying: You can’t dwell on your mistakes; you must learn from them and then move on.

As soon as you knew the truth about your father, you felt enraged and said that Scar did not deserve to live. Yet you decided to let him go. What was that all about?

Well, killing someone is not something that the side of good usually ever does. I felt humiliated that he betrayed my entire family, tried to kill me, killed my father and framed me for murder just so that he could get rid of me. I knew that he didn’t deserve to live, but I am the king; so I can never do something like murdering someone else. I tried to save him by telling him to run away, because I knew that the rest of my pride would have killed him instead. I might also add that, under my father’s law, if the death penalty is in fact the decision for the offender, someone else of the king’s pride must kill the offender; not the king himself. He died anyway because he betrayed his own pride of hyenas and they killed him in revenge. So I let him go because the king does not kill, and I knew he was going to die anyway because he betrayed his pride.

After all that happened; the betrayal and the lies that he made you believe, what was that darkness that you saw in Scar?

I saw him as a dark and twisted black hearted animal that might have killed just about anyone who would have gotten in his way. I would sometimes like to think of him as the Prince of Darkness. His pure evil heart took over him and made him do the most terrible things that the world would probably not expect to see. I could not believe that he, a member of the royal family, would turn his back on his own flesh and blood. The truth is; although he may have been apart of the family, he may have been different in terms of his race. The color of his fur was darker than my father’s and he was slimmer is size. He also wasn’t as strong as my father. That is probably why my father’s father; Ahadi; chose his strongest son, Mufasa, to take his place instead of his weakest son, Scar. So from all this it may have been that although we were the same kind, we might be different sub-species. My kind might be a different sub-species to his kind. So maybe my sub-species, if existent at all, might have dominated in terms of fitness and survival over his sub-species for generations. Therefore he might have taken over the crown to ensure that his sub-species would dominate and reduce the risk of extinction in future generations to come. Maybe he believed that neither sub-species could live while one survives. But here’s the truth: That can only be the case if both sub-species do not learn to work together to survive; such as sharing vital resources including food, water and appropriate habitats. That is exactly what being “one” is all about: We unite together and assist each other to live in peace. Plus if only one sub-species could survive, then it would be the dominant sub-species. Scar just didn’t understand that. If he did, conflict would never have risen between us. I think that his own kind understands that now ever since they joined our pride.   

Shortly after your daughter Kiara was born you became very protective of her. Were you a bit afraid that you were going to lose her?

I knew that she was exactly like I was when I was just a cub: Curious and mischievous. I didn’t want her to be that way because I remember the dangers that I put myself in that almost got me killed. She was the future queen and I didn’t want to lose her. If anything ever happened to her I didn’t know what I was going to do. I will not be here one day and I need her to carry on in my place to continue the great Circle of Life. I got even more cautious shortly after I became king when Scar’s mate, Zira, tried to take over the Pride Lands because of her fury over Scar’s death. She killed my mother Sarabi in the attempt and therefore I exiled her and her pride from the lands and into the forbidden Outlands, which are off-limits to us. If Kiara ever got near the Outlands, God only knows what could have happened to her. Then over time she got frustrated for me sending Timon and Pumbaa watching over her all the time. She kept on running away as a result, and I almost lost her a few times. So I think that it was my own fault that I almost lost her. I just learned that over protectiveness does not help a situation. It just makes it worse. I know that she knows about responsibility and caution and so I let her run free now.

I understand that again it must have been hard for you to see both your parents leave you since your mother died. What did you believe that your mother was feeling after loosing her mate and what were you feeling after loosing her?

Well I knew that my mother was finding it hard loosing her one true love; but even harder the thought that she lost her only son; me. Throughout the years that I was away, I really started to worry about how my mother would be able to put behind the trauma that she had had to put up with in my absence: Loosing her son, her mate, and seeing the Pride Lands destroyed under evil power. I thought that she was going to kill herself because everything was getting too much to bear. But knowing her, she has faith; and from what I was told; she once said to Nala that if you have faith in life, you can make a difference. It is all about believing. From that, it must have been her belief that kept her alive. When I returned and took over the kingdom, she started to feel better, but she was still finding it hard after all that happened. Deep down inside, I knew that she was missing her mate, and she wanted to be with again so bad. She said to me just before she died that she was going to see Mufasa again, and this would make her happy; while at the same time sad to leave me; but whatever made her feel better I was happy for her. As for me, it was really hard seeing her go as I was going to be parentless. It is hard enough loosing one parent, but to lose both of your parents is worse; especially seeing them die in such an unfair way. It still hurts me to think about it, but I have learned that it is important to look towards the future and slowly let the past go. I was broken at the time, but I did manage to mend, metaphorically speaking. As Timon and Pumbaa once said: “You have got to put the past behind you”. I might just add that their parenthood and Nala’s love helped me through all this, and I deeply appreciate all that they have done for me. Bottom line, at least I know that both my parents are happy now that they are together. Whatever makes the ones I love happy is all that matters to me.

What is it that you see in your daughter, Kiara?

Curious and mischievous as I said before when she was young. I knew that