HOME | DD

Description
*EDIT*: for whatever reason, comments were disabled...it's ok now.

I really want to make this clear because I don't want this to lead to some confusion later.

-----

TL/DR: Ni is not the boys' surrogate father. If anything, he's their wise role-model / teacher

------

Many of you see Ni as a father figure for the boys. Some even used the term "surrogate father" but it's not the way I see him and it's not the way I'll write their relationship and it makes me a bit uncomfortable.

Ni saved the boys when they got attacked by hyenas, while trying to escape. To me, at that moment, they are not very young kids anymore, they are more pre-teens than anything.
When he meets them, Ni is a young adult, a bit older than Simba in the second part of TLK. He's a loner, an adventurer, a wandered, not interested in relationships or kids (he's a Childfree lion I suppose!). He was probably on his way to more adventure when he stumbled upon them being attacked.

In my AU, cubs who are not royals are fathered either by Rogues or by members of the neighbouring prides. In the first case, mothers stay in their pride and the rogues carry on with their rogue life or they both decide to leave and start a pride of their own.
In the second case, one of the parents decide to join the other's pride,... or not.
I just want to say that in my AU it's not unusual for non-royal cubs to grow up without their father. Tojo and Chumvi were living happily in the Pridelands without their dads (no headcanon for them, I guess they were rogues). Same for Malka who was not the Prince of his pride.

I'm not writing a realistic National Geographic documentary. I'm trying to mix reality with the human-like morals these lions have. Thus the story isn't an accurate description of reality OR of a human society.

Let's go back to our story.
Ni saves the boys and, as he has a heart of gold, he can't just leave them here. I suppose they tried to find Malka's pride (as was the plan) and either didn't find it or found it massacred by Scar's hyenas. Maybe the remaining members fled and then came back later? This is my favourite theory as former members of Malka's pride are seen when Nala escapes to find help,
there:

Anyway Ni then decides to keep them with him.
Tojo and Chumvi are leaving their mothers behind but they're sure they're alive. Malka's case is different. He doesn't know if his mother, aunts, siblings(?) are even alive.
To me, they don't need a father figure because they were used to living without their dads. In that respect they're different from Simba who used to live with his dad and thus misses him terribly when he dies.

Of course they look up to Ni, of course they admire him but pretty much in the same way that they were looking up to Mufasa (and whoever was Malka's king) back when things were normal. He's the strong grown-up they'll be one day. He's the hero who saved their lives. Ni will teach them everything he knows and everything they need to survive on their own, as a pack or Rogues because that's his way of life and, with Scar being the mad king he is, there's no way Ni is going to just drop them off in one of the Prides. He's clearly a role-model and yes, together they are a family, a family they created.

But he's not their dad and they're not his kids.

(sorry for that long boring text but I'm not a fan of the "kid misses father figure" trope, so I wanted to explain my take on those guys. Of course if that's what you want to imagine well, that's ok, it's just not my thing)

Description
*EDIT*: for whatever reason, comments were disabled...it's ok now.

I really want to make this clear because I don't want this to lead to some confusion later.

-----

TL/DR: Ni is not the boys' surrogate father. If anything, he's their wise role-model / teacher

------

Many of you see Ni as a father figure for the boys. Some even used the term "surrogate father" but it's not the way I see him and it's not the way I'll write their relationship and it makes me a bit uncomfortable.

Ni saved the boys when they got attacked by hyenas, while trying to escape. To me, at that moment, they are not very young kids anymore, they are more pre-teens than anything.
When he meets them, Ni is a young adult, a bit older than Simba in the second part of TLK. He's a loner, an adventurer, a wandered, not interested in relationships or kids (he's a Childfree lion I suppose!). He was probably on his way to more adventure when he stumbled upon them being attacked.

In my AU, cubs who are not royals are fathered either by Rogues or by members of the neighbouring prides. In the first case, mothers stay in their pride and the rogues carry on with their rogue life or they both decide to leave and start a pride of their own.
In the second case, one of the parents decide to join the other's pride,... or not.
I just want to say that in my AU it's not unusual for non-royal cubs to grow up without their father. Tojo and Chumvi were living happily in the Pridelands without their dads (no headcanon for them, I guess they were rogues). Same for Malka who was not the Prince of his pride.

I'm not writing a realistic National Geographic documentary. I'm trying to mix reality with the human-like morals these lions have. Thus the story isn't an accurate description of reality OR of a human society.

Let's go back to our story.
Ni saves the boys and, as he has a heart of gold, he can't just leave them here. I suppose they tried to find Malka's pride (as was the plan) and either didn't find it or found it massacred by Scar's hyenas. Maybe the remaining members fled and then came back later? This is my favourite theory as former members of Malka's pride are seen when Nala escapes to find help,
there:

Anyway Ni then decides to keep them with him.
Tojo and Chumvi are leaving their mothers behind but they're sure they're alive. Malka's case is different. He doesn't know if his mother, aunts, siblings(?) are even alive.
To me, they don't need a father figure because they were used to living without their dads. In that respect they're different from Simba who used to live with his dad and thus misses him terribly when he dies.

Of course they look up to Ni, of course they admire him but pretty much in the same way that they were looking up to Mufasa (and whoever was Malka's king) back when things were normal. He's the strong grown-up they'll be one day. He's the hero who saved their lives. Ni will teach them everything he knows and everything they need to survive on their own, as a pack or Rogues because that's his way of life and, with Scar being the mad king he is, there's no way Ni is going to just drop them off in one of the Prides. He's clearly a role-model and yes, together they are a family, a family they created.

But he's not their dad and they're not his kids.

(sorry for that long boring text but I'm not a fan of the "kid misses father figure" trope, so I wanted to explain my take on those guys. Of course if that's what you want to imagine well, that's ok, it's just not my thing)