Kopuri

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Kopuri
GENERAL
The Lion King
Character	Kopa
Character	Zuri
Canonical?	Fanon
Status of Relationship	Never Met
IN FANDOM
Type (?)	Het

Kopuri is the het ship between Kopa and Zuri from The Lion King fandom.

Canon

Kopa is the son of Simba as introduced in The Lion King: Six New Adventures series of books. Zuri is a young lioness introduced in The Lion Guard animated series. Both these pieces of media are typically treated as separate continuities, with The Lion Guard serving as a spinoff from The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. Both the series and the film feature other children of Simba with no mention of or allusion to Kopa. As such, Kopa and Zuri have never met in any officially published material.

In her appearances, Zuri is presented as one of the best friends of Simba's daughter Kiara. She is also a close associate of the entire royal family, often accompanying some or all of them at important functions. As such, it seems probable that she would also closely associate with Kopa were the two to appear in the same canon. It also seems likely that, unless the two regarded each other as honorary siblings, there might be the potential for romance between the two. For that matter, barring the addition of later members of the former Outsiders, Zuri would be among the few named lionesses in the Pride Lands who might serve as a potential romantic partner for Kopa.

Fanon

There is not a great deal of fan made material covering this ship, and the reasons for this are plentiful. For starters, the two have never met or even appeared in the same piece of media, with Six New Adventures largely being seen as having been decanonized by The Lion King II and The Lion Guard. Despite this, there are fans who enjoy the idea of merging the two continuities and including Kopa as an older sibling of Kiara and Kion. However, this in itself also works against Kopuri as a ship, as it gives both characters a number of alternative romantic partners. Kopatani is undoubtedly the most prominent ship between Kopa and a Simba's Pride/The Lion Guard-canon lioness, while Zuri's rival ships include KiZu and Zuriyo.

Another obstacle to Kopuri is the fact that including Kopa in the canon established by the animated sequels necessitates explaining Kopa's absence from such material. Some such media depicts Kopa being killed while still a young cub, presumably putting a tragic end to any budding romance between him and Zuri. Alternatively, Kopa may be driven from the Pride Lands only to return years later. In this scenario, his presence introduces tension into the storyline that would presumably include Zuri. However, though both characters display certain undesirable character traits at times, there's really no reason why a romantic relationship between the two couldn't work out.

Fandom

FAN ART

Doodle I had some time for on Instagram