Lions

"And lions are fierce. It's kinda common knowledge, really."

- Ono, The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar Lions are felines that appear in The Lion Guard universe. They live in the Pride Lands, the Outlands, and the Tree of Life.

In the Real World
Physically, lions are a tawny golden color and are the only cats whose sexes can be told apart at a distance. Males bare thick, shaggy manes of either blond, black, red, or brown, while lionesses are barren around the neck. Both sexes have a tail tuft, always black in color, though cubs are born without this tuft. Lion eyes are most commonly amber, but brown, green, and blue eyed lions have been observed. A male lion is roughly twice the weight of a female, at 420 pounds, while lionesses only weigh 290. The age of a lion can be told by examining how dark its nose is. Lion cubs startup with a nearly pink coloured nose. An older lion has a light brown and the very old are spotted by their dark brown noses. If you want to find a certain lion that you observed this trick will help out: By counting and looking closely at the lion's whiskers you can recognise each lion individually. Each lion has a unique pattern and amount of whiskers that stays with it as long as the animal lives.

A lioness can have when pregnant a litter of one to four lion cubs. Rarely, a pair of lions will give birth to a white lion. A lion cub is born with little, brown spots on its legs. As the cub grows older those start to vanish and disappear completely when having reached adulthood. But there has also been seen some lions that maintained their brown spots after they were full grown. 

In The Lion Guard
As far as looks go, lions in The Lion Guard franchise are far more diverse. They range from gold, cream, tawny, tan, brown, and reddish-brown. Their eyes have a wide color range as well, including brown, red, orange, green, and blue. For Pride Lander lions, the males are usually portrayed as being bigger and more muscular than the lionesses and are also identifiable by their manes. They tend to have brightly-colored fur, often yellow or orange shades, with goldish undertones. Their manes are most often red or orange. However, the paintings of Scar's Lion Guard showed that they all had dark fur tones and brown manes, and another painting in The Lair of the Lion Guard depicted a Guard with black manes. The lionesses, meanwhile, are more slender, built for hunting and speed. They tend to have duller and/or paler colors than the males.

In the Real World
Lions live in different parts of Africa and Asia. They are the second largest big cat after the tiger. They spend around sixteen-twenty hours of their day sleeping and resting. A lion's roar can be heard from five miles away.

When lionesses come into heat, the male lion will indiscriminately mate with all of them to increase the chance of spreading his genes via offspring. Cubs may be born to different mothers or share a father if only one male is present. Cubs born in the same litter may also have different fathers, especially if the pride that they and their mother are a part of is dominated by more than one male. Even if the litter consists of only two cubs, there is still a chance that they may only be half-siblings, whether their mother mated with a rogue male in addition to the pride male or if the pride consists of two males and the mother mated with them both. Cubs practice their hunting skills by stalking each other. Like many cats, lions see well in the dark.

In The Lion Guard
The lions in the film and series look and behave markedly different from actual lions on the Serengeti. Simba's Pride operates in a monarchy, where the firstborn child of the current ruler sits in line for the throne as the crown prince or princess. This child is anointed and presented before the animals of the Kingdom in a ceremony that occurs early in the morning. The second-born cub is gifted with the Roar of the Elders and leads the Lion Guard as the fiercest member.

Hyenas are generally treated as enemies because they do not follow the Circle of Life. However, Kion, a lion cub, befriended the spunky hyena Jasiri during the episode Never Judge a Hyena by Its Spots whom is from a clan that does.

The Lion Guard
The lions Kion, Kiara, Simba, Nala, Mufasa, Tiifu, and Zuri all appear throughout the series The Lion Guard.

The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar
Simba is the king of the Pride Lands, Nala is the queen. Kiara is the future queen and the princess. Kion is the leader of the the Lion Guard, a team defends the Pride Lands and protects the Circle of Life. Mufasa is Simba's father and Kion and Kiara's grandfather. Kion always gets advice from him. Scar is the worst lion that ever ruled the Pride Lands, he's Mufasa's brother, Simba's uncle, and Kion and Kiara's great uncle.

Lions of the Outlands
Jasiri takes Kion to the Outlands after telling him about lions taking over her family's watering hole. Here, Kion meets Nuka and Kovu, a pair of young male lions who decide to take him to their mother. He follows them to the watering hole and encounters a lioness, Zira, with her daughter Vitani. Zira talks to Kion and sings Lions Over All.

At the Lair of the Lion Guard, Rafiki tells the story of how Zira and her family were banished. His paintings show them leaving the Pride Lands.

Back in the Outlands, Kion denies Zira's request to join her. He ends up trapped by her lionesses until Jasiri and the Lion Guard arrive. They begin to fight, and Zira points out that her lions outnumber them. But after being prompted by his best friend Bunga, Kion uses the Roar of the Elders to blast the Outlander lions away.

The Lion Guard: The Rise of Scar
After using the Roar of the Elders in anger, Kion accidental summons Scar, the worst lion ever to rule the Pride Lands.

The Ukumbusho Tradition
Askari was the first lion in the lion royal family to become the leader of the Lion Guard. During his time he brought peace between the lions and elephants. The Lion Guard performs in the Ukumbusho with Ma Tembo's herd and sing "May There Be Peace" until Bees come and ruin the performance. Also this is King Simba's first very Ukumbusho.

Timon and Pumbaa's Christmas
During the song "The Twelve Ways of Christmas", Simba's Pride comes to the performance as "Six Lions Leaping."

The Scorpion's Sting
The Pride Landers have the Kumbuka celebration to celebrate King Simba’s return to the Pride Lands.

Cave of Secrets
A very long time ago, a group of evil lions tried to take over the Pride Lands and nearly destroyed the kingdom until they were stopped by Askari and his guard.

The Underground Adventure
After a fire created by Scar hits the Mud Pots Kion, Bunga, Kiara, Toifu and Zuri go under the Muhangus' burrow to escape from it. They soon find out that Tiifu is afarid of the dark and the gang tries to find away out. They meet a golden mole named Kuchimba and helps them. Soon they find Thurston the zebra and they get lost. Kion and Kiara sniff out for Muhangus. Kion and Bunga annoy him until he decides to help them. Once they hit daylight Tiifu starts running towards it. After Thurston finds out that they've been trapped in the dark he starts to panic and run. Tiifu comes back to calm him down and everyone gets out of the cave.

The Queen's Visit
Simba invites Queen Dhahabu and [Dhahabu's Herd|her herd] into the Pride Lands for a celebration to thank them for sharing their Watering Hole. He asks Kiara to show Dhahabu around the Pride Lands with Tiifu and Zuri. The Lion guard escort them and a fire hits the ground due by "Dry Lighting." Fuli helps Kiara, Tiifu, Zuri and Dhahabu over the fire while the guard took it out. Dhahabu asks if Fuli, Tiifu and Zuri would be her royal guards. Kiara goes back to help set up for the celebration. Wheen Dhahabu learns about baboons the girls get attack by the jackals. They get help from the Lion Guard and Starehe and Raha. However Dhahabu doesn't see the zebras in action and claims that she wants her guards to be permant. The girls don't agree and Kion thinks that Starehe and Raha should be her guards. The jackals come back again and this time they're joined by a couple of crocodiles. Starehe and Raha save them again and Dhahabu makes them her new guards. That night Dhahabu tells the Pridelanders that they're welcomed to save their Watering Hole forever.

The Fall of Mizimu Grove
Simba welcomes his friends Timon and Pumbaa to the stage as they sing a song for Makini's Mpando Mpaya. The Army of Scar crashes the party and the Pride Landers work together to fight them. Soon Scar reveals himself in front of the Pride Landers and explains his plan. Simba wipes away the Mark of Evil and the herds start to panic and run. Kion uses the roar on the Outlanders Simba says that he wants to talk to Ma Tembo while they take out the rest of the fire. Once the herds are calm everyone is not happy and are scared they claim that they want to leave. Simba feels bad for not telling them but he says he did it for a good reason. That night Kion explains about what happens to Mufasa and asks for help. The next day everyone meets at Pride Rock for an annoucement. Kion tells everyone to come back to Mizimu Grove and he shows them Makini's baobab tree. Everyone decides to stay in the Pride Lands and Makini plants the tree.

Battle for the Pride Lands
Simba is at Pride Rock with Rafiki watching over the Pride Lands. Years later when the guard is all grown up Kion uses the roar on the Outalnders. Simba claims that it's time to defeat Scar once and for all. Later that night Zazu reports that Hadithi and Shujaa have showed up to help.

Simba asks Kion to lead the herds to the Outlands the next morning. Later that night Pride Rock is on fire. With the help from Hadithi and Anga the royal family is free. Soon Scar comes ontop of Pride Rock and explains that they can't stop him. When Scar is gone the herds start to worry. Soon Janja comes and says that he knows how to defeat him. At first Simba doesn't like trusting Janja but Makuu convinces him otherwise. ​​​​​​He says that Kion should use his roar on him. The set up the plan and gets some rest.

Back when Scar was leader of the Lion Guard, a strange lion walks up to him. Knowing that he has the Roar of the Elders, the strange lion suggests that Scar should be the king of the Pride Lands. But Scar then meets a strange cobra and the snake gives him a scar on his left eye. Afterwards, The Lion Guard arrive at the Outlands volcano where Scar has Ushari attack Kion, who is left with a scar over his left eye. When Scar declares that he and Kion are the same, Kion replies that he forgives Scar for what he has done, much to Scar's horror. Kion then summons the Great Lions of the Past with a gentle blow of air who then summon rain over the volcano. Being made of fire, Scar's spirit is extingushed by the water of the rain. Scar then curses Kion and insists to him that the Roar of the Elders is a curse and that he will see that they are the same before vanishing completely. The lava then hardens into igneous rock, destroying the Mark of Evil, finally ending Scar's threat to the Pride Lands once and for all.

When Ono can't see they get  Ono to Rafiki. Rafiki says that there's nothing he can do about Ono's eyes. However for Kion's scar he says to go to the Tree of Life. Ono might get healed too. Anga soon becomes the new Keenest of sight while Ono becomes the smartest. Now with six members on the guard they leave the Pride Lands. Nala and Simba wishes them good luck and is hoping to come back before Kiara's first hunt. The guard leave with Pride Landers wishing them goodbye. Kion talks to Thurston who says that the zebras will protect the Pride Lands while they're gone.

Notable Lions in The Lion Guard

 * Simba's Pride
 * Simba
 * Nala
 * Nala's Father
 * Kiara
 * Sarabi
 * Tiifu
 * Zuri
 * Kovu
 * Vitani
 * Lioness
 * Shabaha
 * Kasi
 * Imara
 * Tazama
 * Outsiders
 * Zira
 * Nuka
 * Lions of the Past
 * Askari
 * Mufasa
 * Scar
 * Janna
 * Sâhasí
 * Ãnanda
 * Night Pride
 * Rani
 * Nirmala
 * Baliyo
 * Surak
 * Kion
 * Strange Lion
 * The Bravest (Scar's Guard)
 * The Fastest (Scar's Guard)
 * The Strongest (Scar's Guard)
 * The Keenest of Sight (Scar's Guard)

Trivia

 * According to the directors of The Lion King, male lions were given whiskers and females were without them during finalization because they were difficult to animate. This appears to have been continued in The Lion Guard. Nala, Sarabi, Kiara, Tiifu, Zuri, Vitani, Rani, Nirmala, Janna and Zira do not have whiskers while Kion, Simba, Mufasa, Scar, Kovu, Nuka and Surak are given whiskers except Baliyo despite also being male.
 * Lions are featured in the It's Unbungalievable! shorts Who's Mightier? and Who's Louder?.