The three lions we see here are the Selfish Lion from the TLK book "The Brightest Star", the Strange Lion from the TV show The Lion Guard, and an OC of my own creation who appeared in my old fanfiction Quiet Before the Storm. They are Prince Hifadhi, younger brother to King Mohatu, leader of the Lion Guard, and strict traditionalist to a fault; King Jadi, son of Hifadhi, raised to believe he is the true heir to the throne, succeeded in claiming part of the Pride Lands for his own, only to meet his end while trying to manipulate the young Prince Taka; and Nyonda, younger sister to Jadi, raised to lead his Lion Guard, but saw her father and brother for what they truly were and turned to Mohatu and Ahadi's side instead, eventually becoming leader of the true Lion Guard of the Pride Lands.
That may all seem confusing, and bear in mind, my headcanons for the TLK verse have changed quite a bit from when I wrote my fanfic over a decade ago, so much of that has changed as well. For a proper explanation of who these characters all are, keep reading below.
But first, a look at the art itself. Hifadhi draws all of his colors, and most of his build, from his appearance in The Brightest Star, but since his design there is just a recolored Scar, I took the liberty to make a few tweaks - mostly just exaggerating or underplaying features that were already there, rather than adding or removing anything entirely. I mostly made him more angular and overall more like his granddaughter Zira in appearance. The hair is also meant to look a bit military-ish to fit with his role and personality. Since we only saw his left side in TBS, I took the liberty of adding scars to his right side, since leading the Lion Guard is a tough job and bound to result in some scarring.
For Jadi, I mostly just tweaked his TLG design a bit to make the proportions better and drew him in the art style of the first movie. He took forever to finish and to get looking right, but I'm very happy with the end result. I feel like you can see a fair bit of Nuka in him, especially in the nose and chin.
For Nyonda, I kept many of the components of her original design (the shape of the head, eyes, and nose), while adding a few things to make her look more like her brother and father, and also more like her great-granddaughters Tiifu and Zuri. I gave her freckles, cheek tufts, a swept-back hair tuft, as well as tweaking the colors a bit to better match her future granddaughters, while overall still greatly resembling her old design. She's also now skinner like her dad, but she's a strong as ever. You can find her old design here.
And now, for the story. ^^ Sorry, it's pretty long. There's a second half to this image which will show Mohatu, Ahadi, and Uru's side of the story, but I just typed over 3K words (the same length as the chapters I usually write in fanfics), and it's late and I'm tired, so the rest might have to come tomorrow (or Tuesday), sorry.
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Prince Hifadhi, rather than just being a selfish and violent rogue as The Brightest Star implies, was instead a fiercely dedicated and dutiful leader of the Lion Guard during his brother's reign as king. There was no jealousy over his brother's role, no squabbling to be king - indeed, Hifadhi would have considered such a thing to be treason of the highest degree. His first and greatest loyalty was to the traditions and laws of the Pride Lands. He was the second son, and thus he was to lead the Lion Guard. That was how things were, how things should be, and he took to his task with a steadfast determination to serve and play his part in the Circle of Life.
He was dedicated to laws and rule-following to an almost obsesive degree, leaving no room for nuance or consideration of things outside of his experience. His scuffle with the lions by the watering hole in The Brightest Star was not out of seflishness to keep the water for himself, but because he believed the animals were not strictly adhering to the water-sharing rules his brother had put in place, and he would not hear excuses on the matter, unlike his more merciful brother. He and Mohatu did not always see eye to eye, but no one could doubt Hifadhi's dedication to serving the Pride Lands. He had known from cubhood how every step of his life would be laid out before him. He would protect the Pride Lands as long as his brother was king, and he would teach his niece or nephew to take his place, and would only retire once his part in the Circle of Life had been completed and the next leader of the Lion Guard was ready to take up his mantle. He never expected anything to change the life that the Pride Lands required of him.
And then, out of nowhere, his fool of a brother made an outrageous announcement that shattered Hifadhi's world. Not only had Mohatu announced his intention to never marry - to never take a queen and produce royal-blooded heirs, one of the most sacred and crucial duties expected of him as king - but that he had chosen for his heir the orphan rogue cub that he had recently taken in, a scruffy little thing called Ahadi. Hifadhi felt a rage unlike anything he had ever known before. To not only spit upon the laws and traditions that governed their kingdom and kept them all safe, kept them from falling to the vile depths of rogues and outsiders, by refusing to marry and father cubs - but to then choose a filthy rogue as the next king? Hifadhi couldn't believe his brother had done something so selfish, so absurd, so... so treasonous. He and Mohatu had a massive fight over the matter, greater than any of the petty arguments they'd had before, but by the end of it, Mohatu's mind was unmoved. He would not be swayed - Ahadi would be his heir.
From then on, Hifadhi knew that his brother was not the sort of king to deserve his loyalty, and that it was his duty to protect the Pride Lands from his foolish decision, and make sure that scruffy little brat would never sit on the throne. He had an infant son with his mate, as yet unnamed, but upon returning home, Hifadhi made a choice that would change the fate of the kingdom. He named the boy Jadi, meaning tradition. He would raise this boy in the traditions of the kingdom, teaching him about his birthright by blood, and one day, somehow, he would make his son the true royal king of the Pride Lands.
Jadi grew up constantly being told how much better he was than Ahadi because of his royal blood, how much wiser and stronger and more noble, and how much more he deserved the throne than such an undeserving rogue brat. Hifadhi sought to teach the boy the discipline and adherence to law that a king would need, but he failed to realize how much his own bigotry and constant praise of the cub were turning his son into a greedy, arrogant young lion. By the time Mohatu announced that he would be stepping down and handing his throne onto Ahadi and his mate Uru, Jadi had become a cruel, sly, self-serving bully of a lion.
His younger sister Nyonda was raised from the start to be the leader of Jadi's Lion Guard. But unlike her brother, this shrewd young lioness never fell for her father's self-righteous claims of being on the right side of law and tradition. She could see her father for the narrow-minded fool that he was, and Jadi for the cruel bully that he was. In her cubhood, Nyonda went behind her father's back and began meeting with Ahadi and Uru, forming a firm friendship with the pair, along with the bird Zuzu and Uru's adoptive sister, the hyena Banagi. She worked hard to learn the skills her father had to teach as leader of the Lion Guard, but resolved only to learn physical skill and strategy from him, as the rest could not be trusted. Unlike her father, she knew that one day, Jadi would force the issue of his right to be king, and when that day came, Ahadi would need fighters on his side, so that is what she would be.
On the day Ahadi was to be crowned king, Jadi and Hifadhi went to confront him. Hifadhi, ever a stickler for the rules, intended to contest the legality of Ahadi's ascension, threatening to turn to allied prides and the well-respected mjuzis of the Grass Walls, even the sacred pride tasked with guarding the Tree of Life, to pressure Mohatu to change his mind the right, legal way. But that would all take far too long, and Jadi knew better than his father than to trust in the right way of doing things to work. Instead, he used his father's droning on about laws and proper procedures as a distraction. When the moment was right, and all of his secret supporters among the pride another assembled animals were in position, he gave the signal to attack.
Hifadhi was stunned by the sudden outburst of violence. He had never expected his son to commit such an act of mutiny, even after the many years of drilling Jadi's right to be king into his head. He tried to pull Jadi away from Ahadi, but was no longer the young leader of the Lion Guard he'd once been, and was easily pushed aside. Jadi was easily able to overpower the disabled Ahadi, but support from Mohatu, Uru, and Nyonda kept him from being able to kill him. Ahadi was enraged by this treasonous challenge. While his mate held Jadi down, Ahadi struck a very deliberate blow to Jadi's face, resulting in the scar around his eye.
In my headcanon, the scar isn't a magical snake venom-induced Mark of Evil, but instead, a Mark of Exile. Lions and other animals exiled from the Pride Lands for particularly egregious crimes are marked with a clean scar above and below the eye, to signal to other kingdoms that these animals are outcasts and not to be trusted. By scarring Jadi in this way, Ahadi signaled to all the kingdom that he was as deplorable as any exile, and was not the true king. It was a big symbolic blow that would harm Jadi's image in the Pride Lands and result in much bitterness on Jadi's part, but in the end, his supporters were too fierce and too many, and Mohatu and his followers were forced to retreat. Jadi crowned himself King and laid claim to Pride Rock and the Pride Lands, while Mohatu and his pridemates who had remained loyal to him were driven off in disgrace.
But King Jadi's victory was not as complete as he had hoped. Many animals were disgusted with the violent and treacherous way that Jadi had seized power, and refused to bow to his rule. Mohatu was able to keep hold over a good chunk of the Pride Lands and keep himself and his pridemates within the borders of the kingdom. He held a new, uninterrupted coronation where Ahadi was finally crowned king, and then he set to work traveling his kingdom, campaigning on Ahadi's behalf, doing everything in his power to weaken Jadi's influence over the Pride Lands and win more allies to his adopted son's side. Hifadhi, still dazed by his son's violent actions and his own role in encouraging them, joined Ahadi's side, helping train the new Lion Guard and keeping Jadi's supporters out of Ahadi's part of the Pride Lands - but no one really forgave or trusted him for the monster he had created and how much destruction had been wrought on their home because of his choices.
With the new king came a new Lion Guard. Another lion called Nyeusi, a distant cousin of the king and a friend of Ahadi's growing up, had been trained to be the next leader of the Lion Guard, but to Nyonda's surprise, he offered the position to her instead. He was loyal to Ahadi and would always defend his friend, but he knew in his heart that he didn't have the initiative, cleverness, and determination to lead that Nyonda did. The lioness humbly accepted, taking to her new role with all of the determination of her father before her, but with a calmer, more introspective mind, willing to listen to those around her and accept that law and tradition could not account for all that was right and good. Her outwardly stoic and stern manner made some wary that she would turn out like her treacherous father, but she soon proved that she was a loyal, steadfast lioness and truly worthy of her place in Ahadi's kingdom. She eventually became mates with Banagi, and the pair raised a daughter called Daha that had been born with the help of a willing rogue male. Daha later had two daughters of her own - one daughter would later be Tiifu's mother, while the other was Zuri's mother.
The conflict between Jadi and Ahadi continued for years. For a time, Jadi tried to take over Ahadi's part of the kingdom by force, but every time he was repelled, and soon, he stopped trying altogether. Instead, he decided to wait, and think, and find a more clever way to win his prize. Several years after the beginning of the conflict, he found what he was looking for. His spies within Ahadi's part of the kingdom told him of the frustrations of the young Prince Taka. How Ahadi and Uru didn't have as much time to spend time with their young son as they'd like because of their constant efforts to hold onto their part of the Pride Lands. How Taka loved his big brother Mufasa, but was becoming increasingly jealous of how Mufasa spent more time with their parents, and that his future role as king seemed much more important than Taka's scant lessons with the also-incredibly-busy Lion Guard. It was the perfect opportunity.
One day while Taka was wandering the borders alone, frustrated after being blown off for training by the Lion Guard because of an urgent situation they'd had to take care of, King Jadi approached him. He told Taka a very different version of that mutinous day, one that cast him in a much more favorable light, and which made himself seem similar to the constantly-rebuffed young prince, constantly denied what was rightfully his. He told Taka that he saw true potential in him, far more than in Mufasa, and that he wanted Taka's help to restore peace and unity to the kingdom. He proposed a plan - lure Mufasa into a situation where he would come out looking foolish and unworthy of being king, and then Taka would be chosen as the new heir for sure. Once Taka was the heir, Jadi would betroth his daughter Zira to Taka, and through their marriage, the two halves of the kingdom would be reunited once more. Taka would be the one who had finally ended the years-long conflict and brought peace. He would be adored and adulated as a hero. It was too much temptation to resist.
Taka did just as Jadi had suggested. He lured Mufasa into a conflict with the water buffalo Boma, manipulating the situation so that it appeared Mufasa had acted brashly and foolishly, causing Boma and the other water buffalo to attack the young prince. But while Taka was leaving the scene behind to go and fetch his parents, so they could witness Mufasa's foolishness for themselves, Jadi appeared from nowhere and attacked the young prince. He sneered at the young lion for being so gullible and trusting. He had never intended to wed Taka to his daughter or make Taka king. It had all been a trap to lure both of the young princes into a dangerous situation and ensure both of their deaths. With both their beloved sons gone, Ahadi and Uru would be too heartbroken to go on, and would be easy to oust from power once and for all. Jadi would finally have the entire kingdom under his thrall. Victory was within his grasp.
But he spoke too soon. As Taka listened with growing fear, and rage, to Jadi's crowing, he became desperate to escape. He kicked at Jadi's belly and threw the older lion off of him. They were at the edge of the ledge overlooking the watering hole - as they grabbled, Jadi fell, desperately clinging to the edge with his front paws. Taka went to try and pull him up, but Jadi grasped at him with his paws, fury and vengeance powering him. With a burst of rage, he thrust out with his paw, slicing Taka across the face, marking him with the Mark of Exile. Cruel glee filled him at the thought of Taka being forever marked as a traitor for the treacherous plotting he had done to dethrone his brother. But this petty action cost him - as Taka desperately shook him off, Jadi lost his grip, and fell back into the watering hole below, quickly becoming trampled by the furious water buffalo.
With the death of the treacherous King Jadi, the Pride Lands were finally made whole again, united under the rule of King Ahadi and Queen Uru. Most of Jadi's kingdom returned willingly to the fold, having grown disillusioned with Jadi after years of poor leadership, but some chose exile over bowing to Ahadi. In particular, Jadi's mate and young daughter Zira, and some of the rest of the pride, chose to settle in the nearby Outlands and plot their revenge for the overthrow of their rightful king. Taka boiled with bitterness over the betrayal of Jadi, the trauma of his near-death, and the adulation Mufasa had received for helping calm the situation with the water buffalo and for his (admittedly small) part in ending the civil war.
Something changed inside of him after that day. He knew now that he could trust no one but himself, and that lions were willing to do whatever it took to seize power, so why shouldn't he? With a new sense of purpose, he claimed the name Scar, ready to start down the path of doing whatever it took to become king. As well as allying with the hyenas, he reached out to Jadi's old followers. He told them of Jadi's wishes for Scar to wed his daughter Zira and unite the kingdom under their combined banner, conveniently leaving out the part where Jadi had been lying through his teeth. Jadi hadn't told the pride of his plans, and Scar was so clever and convincing, that they soon believed him. He made sure to bring Zira under his sway, earning himself a loyal follower and queen for his future rule. He would not risk open rebellion as Jadi had, not if it would mean losing half of his kingdom's support because of the open violence. No, he would be smarter about things. He would wait, and he would plan, and he would bring about Mufasa's fall in such a way that no one could lay the blame on him or deny him his rightful ascension to the throne. One day, no matter what it took, he would be king.
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Soooo yeah, Selfish Lion is a loyal (but bigoted) guard leader, Jadi is a mutinous king rather than a scheming rogue, and Nyonda is now Zira's aunt rather than a former rogue and Uru's adopted sister. And yeah, I know TLG says that no females have been on the guard before, but shhh, Nyonda as I wrote her ages ago was always a fighter and guard-material, so I just decided to ignore that little factoid.
I had a lot of fun mixing and matching elements from Lion Guard and the semi-canon books to create this story, particularly the bit about how Taka got his scar. I loved being able to combine the water buffalo incident with Jadi's trap for the prince. I also loved playing with the idea of of the scar marking being significant to the Pride Landers, without it being anything magic or supernatural as the show implied. Instead, it's more of a political/symbolic thing, used to mark traitors and criminals, so other kingdoms would know not to take them in after their exile.
