Vitani is the former tertiary antagonist in Disney's 1998 film The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. She is the daughter of Zira the older sister in law of Kiara and Kion, the adopted older sister of Kovu, and the younger sister of Nuka.
Background[]
Sometime in between the events of The Lion King and The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, Vitani, along with her mother, brothers, and the rest of the Outsiders, was banished from the Pride Lands, for supporting Scar.
Personality[]
Vitani is something of a tomboy, likely from growing up in such an inhospitable environment. As a result, Vitani is portrayed as loyal to her mother's cause, tough, and prickly, who has a tendency towards making sardonic taunts or sly remarks. Vitani is aware of her own intelligence and loyalty (that is, in comparison to the rest of her family). Vitani is shown to openly support Zira's plan to make Kovu the next king, aware that Nuka is bull-headed, bitter, and unstable. Vitani does seem to show genuine care for Kovu's safety, becoming irritated towards Nuka for leaving him on his own, and again when she excitedly says "Kovu, what a guy!" in Zira's number. Though cruel at first, as an adolescent, she begins to see the error of her ways, and becomes the next outsider, after Kovu, to rejoin Simba's pride.
Physical Description[]
Vitani bears a strong resemblance to her parents, she has the Blue eyes, nose color, forehead, the cheek hair, and the chin shape of Nala, and the head shape, dark eye rims, and the triangular nose shape of Scar, greyish-cream fur and a less prominent jaw. As an adolescent, her ears are striped with black. However, this feature was not present as a cub and appeared intermittently after it was introduced. Vitani's front claws are, like the rest of the Outsiders, constantly unsheathed.
Disney History[]
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride[]
Vitani is seen first as a young cub, arguing with her brother Nuka over Kovu. She points out that Nuka's failure to babysit Kovu will get him in trouble, and scoffs at his claim that he could be a better leader than Kovu. When Zira returns with the wandering Kovu, Vitani greets him and challenges him to a fight. She later approves of Zira's plot to kill Simba by taking advantage of Kovu's relationship to Kiara.
As an adolescent, Vitani and Nuka are tasked with setting a wildfire in the Pride Lands while Kiara is hunting. The two gather fire from the elephant graveyard and quickly set a large blaze. This interrupts Kiara's first hunt and forces the princess to flee, which allows Kovu to rescue Kiara and eventually enter Simba's pride. She is later seen spying on Kovu and becoming dismayed when she witnesses her brother sparing Simba's life when he could have taken him from behind. Vitani quickly informs her mother. Zira is angered and plots an ambush of Simba, in which Vitani takes part. In the course of the fight Vitani notices Kovu's attempts to defend Simba so she kicks him into a boulder and knocks him out to end his interference. When Nuka is crushed by logs that fell from the dam, she rushes forward to see her brother and witnesses his death. Along with Zira, she is shown to mourn Nuka's death, but her feelings on Kovu's betrayal are not shown.
Vitani is shown to take part in a battle against the Pridelanders, planned by Zira as an attempt to take the throne by force. She momentarily taunts and then fights Nala but is defeated with Nala using the flip move she used on Simba in the first film, while Zira deals with Simba. Kiara and Kovu intervene, and Kiara argues that the two prides should stop fighting and come together, as there is no difference between them.
Vitani is the first to understand the truth of Kiara's words. She surprises both Zira and Kovu by being the first to rejoin Simba's pride and makes an attempt to convince her mother that it's time to stop fighting. But Zira is angered and sees Vitani as a traitor. Zira threatens to kill her own daughter as well as Simba's pride, which shocks and disgusts the other outsiders enough to join Simba as well. She later joins Pride Rock following the death of her mother and lives the remainder of her life with the rest of the lions.
The Lion Guard[]
Vitani along with Kovu, Nuka, Zira, and their pride, appeared in the Disney Juniorseries The Lion Guard episode "Lions of the Outlands". She openly shows her distaste for Jasiri though that doesn't stop her from enjoying the young hyena's actions that help make Nuka look more like a fool than he already is. She is in awe and curious about the Roar, asking her mother to explain it before watching Kion use it on a cloud to make it rain. She is eager to fight when the Lion Guard shows up only to be taken down by Fuli.
Vitani, along with the rest of the outsiders (sans Kovu), is blasted away by the Roar of the Elders to termite mounts
After Vitani and the rest of the Outsiders switched sides and with Zira dead, she formed her own Lion Guard, with Shabaha as the Bravest, Kasi as the Fastest, Imara as the Strongest, and Tazama as the Keenest of Sight. Kion then passed the torch to Vitani to gain the Roar of the Elders.
Trivia[]
- Vitani and Kovu appear to be close, such as in the end when she turns to Simba's pride, she is seen standing right by Kovu.
- Vitani has a slightly shifting design throughout the film. As a cub, Vitani was shown without dark earmarks and pointier cheeks (Similar to Scar). As an adolescent, her cheeks became rounded (Similarly to Kiara and Nala) and was sometimes drawn with dark earmarks, and sometimes without. One error right as Zira was leading the Outsiders to war had her drawn with pointed cheeks (Similar to Scar).
- Her name was originally named "Shetani", but since the word means "Devil" in Swahili, her name was changed to "Vitani". "Vita" means "war" in Swahili and "life" in Latin, so it is suggested that her name is a portmanteau meaning "Demon of war". However, during the fight scene of the film, Nala appears to say "Shetani" rather than "Vitani", pointing out the potential that the name was changed after production had already begun. The actual name "Vitani" means "War, demon of war" in Swahili but the comparison was logical because the makers thought that "Shetani" sounded rude and was insulting to the character.
- Vitani is the second of three lionesses in The Lion King franchise to have blue eyes. The first being Nala (though her eyes are teal in The Lion King and green in The Lion King 1½) and the third is Zuri.