Simba

Simba is the protagonist of Disney's 1994 animated feature film, The Lion King. He is the son of Mufasa, who was destined to rule the Pride Lands, as king. When Mufasa is killed in a wildebeeststampede, Simba is blamed for the tragedy and abandons his kingdom in guilt. He finds refuge in a jungle oasis with a meerkat and warthog, but the Pride Lands fall to disarray during his absence. With the kingdom in peril, Simba is forced to confront his troubled past to take his place in the "Circle of Life".

Upon entering adulthood, Simba marries his childhood best friend, Nala, and has two cubs named Kiara and Kion.

Personality
As a cub, Simba was quite adventurous and impressionable, he highly admired his father, Mufasa, and wished to someday become a ruler as mighty as he, spending much of his time either learning the ways of a king or simply envisioning what life would be like with such power and self-esteem. This inflated his ego, making him arrogant and boastful towards characters such as Zazu and Scar, and additionally led to troublesome situations, as his viewpoint on Mufasa led him to believe being a king meant being fearless and looking for unnecessary danger, just to prove how mighty one could be. This would fall perfectly in line with the schemes of Scar, who plotted to kill Simba to increase his chances of becoming ruler of the Pride Lands. Nevertheless, Simba was able to learn from his mistakes in the end, as his negative actions were primarily driven out of admiration for his father.

As a young adult, Simba's personality takes a shift, becoming melodramatic and fearful – a direct result of Mufasa's death. Because he believed his father's demise was ultimately his fault, Simba felt unworthy of ruling the throne, hinting at signs of insecurity and low self-esteem, in addition to becoming reluctant to ever face his past. It wasn't until he met and obtained guidance from the wise mandrill, Rafiki, that Simba would learn that the past is important, and should be looked to as a means to learn from mistakes, but never as a reason to prevent one's self from moving on in life. It also wasn't until Simba learned the truth of his father's demise, he was more confident and self-assured. In spite of this, Simba was also willing to partake in more easy-going hobbies, such as loafing around with Timon and Pumbaa. As seen during "Hakuna Matata", and his time as a teenager seen in The Lion King 1½, Simba retained some of his childlike nature when simply in the presence of his friends, and away from the pressures of his past, being laid-back and fun-loving if given the chance.

Now as a full grown adult and King of the Pride Lands, with a loving family, including a daughter and a son, Simba is no longer overly adventurous and outgoing, instead of becoming humble and rather soft-spoken, even in the face of his family and closest friends. As a direct result of Mufasa's tragic death, Simba also became fearful and overprotective, specifically with his daughter, Kiara, as he feared the dangers that lurked in the Pride Lands, be they outright such as the hyenas were or hidden within the shadows, such as the true nature of Scar. He also looked back at his childhood with some sense of shame, as evidenced by his conversation with Nala early in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, in which he claimed that Kiara's adventurous spirit made him fearful, as she mirrored his own adventurous attitude as a cub, referring to the dangers he endured during childhood. Despite this, he was not over-protective of his son Kion as he was with Kiara. This was probably due to Kion's role as leader of the Lion Guard, as well as the fact that he was more obedient and followed the rules more than Kiara did.

Simba was also shown to be a wise and respected ruler, much like Mufasa before him. He had the prejudice against those who retained loyalty to the dethroned Scar, but was willing to accept them eventually, as he followed the philosophy verbally showcased in "We Are One". However, despite being King, Simba knows that he has to respect the traditions of other animals, which was why he didn't interfere with Makuu and Pua's mashindano.

Simba also likes to stick to tradition, which was why at first, he was disappointed with his son Kion for putting other animals in the Lion Guard instead of other lions like the previous Lion Guards. However, after witnessing the new Lion Guard defeat hyenas, Simba accepts his son's choice and expresses pride for him.

Like his father, Simba is willing to jump into combat when it comes to rescuing his family and friends, even if it means his own life is in danger. When he and Nala were being chased by Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed, he noticed Nala was starting to slip on a mountain of bones in the elephant graveyard. Without hesitation, he ran down the bones to assist Nala to climb back up for their escape. Simba then also swipes at Shenzi's face, which leaves 3 scratch marks on her. Another example is when Timon and Pumbaa were being chased by a lioness, Simba quickly springs into action and battles the lioness until coming to the realization that he was battling Nala.

Simba sometimes doesn't listen to the advice he is given from his friends and family right away, showing he has to find out the hard way. As time went on he got what his friends and family meant when he sees things for himself, shown when he finally understood the advice he was given from Timon and Pumbaa about letting go of the past back when he was cub after witnessing Zira not willing to let go of it. He also uses the same advice that he was given to him from his friends and family for others, shown with Zira.

Despite his many commendable attributes, Simba can sometimes be arrogant, even towards those who know him well, he is also sometimes gullible (a trait he still possesses from his childhood) to the point of believing his enemies, evidenced by the fact that when Zira claims that Kovu led him into an ambush, however, in truth, the latter had no knowledge of the ambush, and was completely innocent.

Simba later developed a ferocious temper in his adult life that he can quicky enter, swinging from one mood to the next, and this temper frequently gets the better of him as he held a grudge against those loyal to Scar or who he considers enemies, as seen when he did not give Kovu a chance to explain that he didn't see the ambush coming. Simba was so caught up with his grudge against the Outsiders that he had forgotten they are also lions just like him and his pride until he was reminded by Kiara that they are one which helped him see through his mistakes.

Realizing the error of his ways, Simba is finally able to put his tragic past and hatred of Scar behind him, remorsefully forgiving and accepting Kovu and the other outsiders back into his pride. He even forgives Zira, offering her the chance to return to the Pride Lands peacefully, despite his intense hatred of her in the past and her previous attempts on his life. This shows that thanks to his daughter's guidance Simba is becoming a far better and wiser ruler.

Physical appearance
Newborn Simba was very small with a large head. He had light spots on his head and body as newborn lions usually have. As a cub, Simba has "brownish-gold" fur, with a lighter cream color accenting his belly, muzzle, and paws. He has large, bright eyes with red irises and yellow scleras; his upper lids are a deep tawny. Additionally, he has a light pink nose and four black whiskers on either side of his muzzle, and the insides of his ears are tawny and rimmed with black. Young Simba boasts a small tuft of hair on top of his head and a short bushy tail. He has somewhat stocky proportions.

As an adolescent, Simba retains much of the appearance he had as a cub but is more lithe. He has a mop of reddish-orange hair growing on the top of his head and partially down his neck; this is the early stage of his mane growing in. He also has some noticeable darker colorations on his body, such as a brownish point above his nose.

As a young adult, Simba is much larger and his body is muscular. His russet mane is now fully grown and covers the entirety of his neck and much of his back and his ears are barely seen. His eyes are smaller in relation to his head and are more oval-shaped. In Simba's Pride, now a full-grown adult, the colors of his pelt and mane are somewhat duller and he has a more aged look and a heavier build.

In the remake version, young Simba has brown eyes and his fur is tan and gold which resemble real-life male lion cubs. As a young adult, Simba resembles his father Mufasa; to differentiate his traditional animation counterpart who had a fringe on his russet mane, he has white marks on each side of the bridge of his nose.