The Cubs' Ages and Lineages

[Skywalker]

Ok, so. According to Zira, Scar "handpicked Kovu" to be his heir. Many people believe this to be true. Some people believe Scar to be Kovu's father (despite the line in the movie that disproves that theory). Kovu and Vitani however, who can be presumed to be littermates as they have the same mother and are roughly the same size, are not bigger than Kiara.

Lion cubs grow quickly. Very quickly. Kiara could not have been born before Scar's death. We know for a fact that she wasn't. So, it stands to reason that since Kovu and Vitani are not drastically bigger than her, that they couldn't have been either. We know Kovu isn't Scar's son, and we know Scar was dead when Kiara was born.

Personally I have always assumed that Zira's assertion that Kovu was chosen by Scar was simply a fabrication on her part. Some fans don't think so, some think Scar really did choose Kovu and therefore that Kovu and Vitani are older than Kiara, and some believe them both to be his offspring.
Well, I know it's not completely accurate as a movie, but those theories don't make sense to me. So, what are you guys' thoughts on this?

I made this thread a long time back on MLK, but I'm just curious as to what's the most popular opinion here too.

If you guys think one of those theories is true, that's fine, and I'd like to hear why, but I believe none of Zira's children are Scar's, Kovu and Vitani were born after Scar's death (meaning he didn't choose Kovu for anything), and Zira's just a psycho fangirl.

[Nilla]

This is a tricky subject to think about, because we really will never know who Kovu belongs to and if Scar was his father. Either way, Kovu has some kind of connection to him and therefore was there before Scar died. I believe Scar hand picked Kovu, but he is older than Kiara and so is Vitani.

[Skywalker]

The thing is he can have a connection to Scar without having ever met him. We know based on the movie that Scar wasn't his father, Kovu says so, and Nuka says so.

If we take into account, however, the duration of Nala's pregnancy, and the time it would have taken the Pride Lands to recover from the drought that plagued them during Scar's reign, then even if Kiara was conceived during the "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" sequence in the first film, if Kovu were alive before Scar died, he'd have to be closer to Nuka's size by the time Kiara met him, even with the meager food of the Outlands stunting his growth, because cubs do grow quickly.

Which still isn't to say you're wrong. Disney could have done a poor job of showing they were older than her.