Headcanon time? Headcanon time.
I think that Kiara is a good character! Atm I'm not sure wether or not I consider TLG canon or not in my verse, but at least parts of it will be in it, for sure. I really like Kion, Tiifu and Fuli, so expect to see them in future TLK drawings of mine.
Now, Kiara herself. I think that she is one of Simba's oldest cubs, but not the oldest, y'know? She was presented to the kingdom as an older baby after something happened to her older siblings. Now what happened I'm not really sure about yet. I think that Fluffy and her are seperate characters, mostly because of the color differences and overall different looks that Simba and Nala had in SP and the original TLK though, so that's a thing....that I'm certain of.
She eventually became queen, although she did it as a "single" lioness, as I'm not sure that her relationship with Kovu would work (I'm not really into Romeo and Juliet archetypes, sorry y'all!!). She and him would definitely still be very close friends though. They just grew apart while they were in their relationship and thought that it would be for the best to break things while they were still amicable towards each other.
She and Kovu had two children during their relationship (one of them died young due to Kiara's inexperience as a mother) and she later took a neighbouring prince as her mate in a political marriage, having three cubs with him. Kiara isn't really interested in anyone romantically in my verse, because as much of a hopeless romantic that she is, she feels it is her duty to bring peace to the land after the messes that were the Pridelands' latest rulers.
So, TL;DR:
She tries her best and i appreciate her
