Match-ups of the Friendly Five

NCAA “March Madness” (a national basketball tournament) is under full swing  in the U.S., and as I watched my bracket picks in their game match-ups, I thought about another kind of pairing up…romantic ones, of course.  A rich source of fanart around TLKFAA stems from romantic pairings, and the combinations are endless.  But today I want to talk about a specific group of subcanon lions.

The “Friendly Five” refers to the TLK subcanon cubs that:

1. Are Simba/Nala’s age
2. Did not appear in the movies
3. Appeared in an illustration in a book or comic
4. Were explicitly named in that book/comic

And these five cubs are: Tojo, Kula, Chumvi, Malka, and Tama.

The Friendly Five are particularly popular to draw, since not only do they all have illustrations, they all have names.  And of course it’s always fun to draw a bunch of lion cubs playing with each other. (You may notice that I have excluded Mheetu from this bunch–this is because Mheetu really has no subcanon design, only concept sketches that are not in the TLK style.)  But at some point, lion cubs have to grow up, and that’s where the pairing fun begins.

In my personal fanon (theory only), Kula, Chumvi, and Tama all share a father and are half-siblings, which simplifies things greatly for my pairing potentials.  My personal picks are Tojo/Kula and Malka/Tama (this latter pair producing subcanon cubs Afua and Boga).  In my fanon, of course, Chumvi throws in with the outlanders and fathers Kovu.  However, not everyone agrees with me; not by a long shot!  Here are the pairings of the Friendly Five:

• Chumvi/Kula – this one has been around the longest, since TLK6NA became known around the web.  Although I pair them as siblings due to design similarities, many fanartists pair them as a romantic couple.  One theory I remember reading actually had them as the true parents of Kovu, no doubt due to the brown coloring of them both.  Many people draw the non-illustrated cub Afua as their son.
• Tojo/Kula – not quite as popular as Chumvi/Kula, perhaps, but it certainly has its proponents (including me).  The personality profiles seem to meld together well: Tojo is a provider, as seen when he cares for his birds.  Kula needs to be provided for, as evidenced by her need to find and keep food in “Nala’s Dare”.
• Malka/Kula – I really don’t think I’ve seen this pairing around much on TLKFAA.  Maybe it’s because Malka is a relatively “recent” character, and Kula has been around for a while, pairing more commonly with the other two “older” cubs, Chumvi and Tojo.
• Malka/Tama – This pairing has recently gained ground on the Archive, and it’s one I like.  I doubt I was the first to put these two together, but I was the first to make Afua their cub, in my comprehensive family tree’s first version.   I also recently added Boga as their daughter.  I think the unconscious appeal of this pairing is that these two are both “recent” comic characters with rather unique designs.
• Tojo/Tama – As more people learn about Tama, I see more interesting theories include her.  This Tojo/Tama pairing seems to primarily exist for one reason: to cast them as the parents of Vitani.  They both have head fluff as cubs, light fur, and Tojo has blue eyes.  There are some problems with this when you ask where her outlander characteristics come from, (much like Kovu as Chumvi/Kula’s son) but it hasn’t hindered the popularity.  Some even like to think that both Vitani and Kovu came from this pair.
• Chumvi/Tama – The least popular of the Tama pairings, and I honestly don’t know if I’ve seen art depicting this one.  Like Malka/Kula, this combination of an older cub with a recent one is uncommon, and it does not explain Kiara-generation cubs so it is not as prevalent as Tojo/Tama.

So those are the potential match-ups of the Friendly Five…at least the M/F ones.  Now I kind of want to see some Tojo/Malka or something, but it can wait for another time.  But just for fun, before I go…

• Chumvi or Malka/Nala – Lots of fanartists flirt with the idea that Nala might have fallen for one of these cubs (or also Ni) and I’ve been in both camps at one time or another. Hmm…this is giving me a new idea for a Chumvi/Nala picture…keep a lookout on TLKFAA in the next few weeks and I might end up drawing a little something!