Headscratchers / Mowgli

• Who are Nisha and Vihaan? No characters named like that appear in any of the Kipling stories, nor in any adaptation so far.
  • Either Canon Foreigners or existing characters with an Adaptation Name Change.
  • This article seems to suggest that Nisha is a female wolf and Vihaan is her mate; likely they are Raksha and Father Wolf from the original book, going through an Adaptation Name Change.
• Is Lockwood intended to be John Lockwood Kipling? He's only ever referred to as "Lockwood", and he seems to be killed by Hathi at a much younger age than his real-life counterpart died. But if he's intended to be a completely different person, why the name?
  • Either a Shout-Out or Mythology Gag presumably, if he was meant to actually be Kipling then he'd be actually called Kipling.
• Why is Shere Khan so hellbent on killing Mowgli?
  • His pride got hurt and he took personal grudge towards Akela and the wolf pack for not allowing him to kill Mowgli. By killing Mowgli, he proves he's the lord of the jungle who kills wherever he pleases, even if it takes many years.
• Isn't it a bit dickish of Mowgli to sell Lockwood out to the elephants? Lockwood may have killed Bhoot, but he took Mowgli in, fed him, and sheltered him.
  • He may have fed him, but he also murdered Mowgli's best friend. Most people aren't too quick to forgive the murder of a loved one.
  • Even worse, Lockwood killing Bhoot also robbed Mowgli from the opportunity to reconcile with his best friend, to whom Mowgli's last words were angry insults. That must have made Mowgli especially bitter toward Lockwood.
  • The elephant attack may have been inspired by another Kipling story, "Letting In the Jungle", where Mowgli uses the elephants as the vanguard of a jungle invasion of the entire village after the villagers threaten to kill Messua and her husband. BTW in the original Mowgli stories there were only three elephants, but that was enough.

---