And, if you can describe The Lion King as “Hamlet, but with lions,” you can describe The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride as “Romeo and Juliet, but with lions.” And who ends up being the Romeo to Kiara’s Juliet? A lion named Kovu.

And well…considering how Kovu looks, and the fact that his mother, Zira, is implied to be Scar’s queen, and the fact that Kovu is a member of the Outlanders, a pride of “evil” lions who believe Scar was/is the rightful king and Simba was a usurper…people took that and ran with it.