“Why do you ask, Kenta?”

“In case I become one of them.”

After how long it took me to finish my last drawing, I felt like making something more simple that I could finish in a day or two. Thankfully, that estimate was right. In this one, I wanted to draw a father-son moment between Kovu and Kenta, something I’ve never really done before. They’re on the summit of Pride Rock in the morning here, much like Simba and Mufasa were in the first movie. Only this time, it takes a bit of a darker turn.

Now, one of the most prominent character traits Kenta has is that he’s scared to death of turning out like Scar once he’s king. He never met Scar in person, of course, but he’s heard enough about him to make him question his own path as the royal heir. So while up there one morning, he asks Kovu what the inverse of the Great Kings of the Past would be. Something Kovu himself had never considered before, as a matter of fact. I’ve always found it interesting how the fate of the good kings was explored so clearly in The Lion King, but we never got any word on what happens to the kings who, well, aren’t so great. If the stars are like their Heaven, then what would their equivalent to Hell be? It’s just one of those things that keeps me wondering, really. And evidently, kept Kenta wondering too. I personally don’t have any idea for what happens when a bad king dies, so I’ll leave the ideas up to you.

I wanted to do a more serious drawing than my previous few, but nothing too grim at the same time. So I figured this would be appropriate. This is the first time I’ve ever added a DVD-like subtitle to one of my drawings to convey dialogue, so there’s a little tidbit for the books, I suppose. Another fun fact about this one: I actually managed to binge-listen to all 9 of Led Zeppelin’s albums in order while making this, which took around 7 hours. So that was definitely fun for me.

Just a reminder that, during the making of each drawing, I always post updates of its progress onto my Twitter page. (twitter.com/simba_lennon) You can follow me there to see them as they're posted. If you do follow me there, then thank you so much for the support!

Let me know in the comments what you think!