King of Beasts

Atop the mane, there is a crown.

"I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion."

— attributed to Alexander the Great

Lions, with their huge manes and rather majestic appearance, have been considered the king of beasts since time immemorial. As with many cultural memes, this has found its way into fiction.

If exotic animals play a major part in a story, it's likely that lions will be in a position of power or authority. They might command all the other animals, or just the carnivores, or even just the felines. They might not have any real authority, but the other animals (except possibly other big cats) will pay them due respect.

Alternatively, if there's a group of different animal heroes, it's common to see a lion as The Hero or The Leader. This makes lions probably the biggest cultural exception to the Cats Are Mean stereotype (though they are quite prone to Good Is Not Nice).

Sometimes, this is portrayed as a profession (whether actually royal or not), especially in a World of Funny Animals. Like with the miner moles, firefighter Dalmatians, and semiaquatic animal sailors, lions are higher ups and in positions of power in political, corporate, and military professions, making this a subtrope of Animal Occupation Stereotypes.

Medieval bestiaries go further by declaring lions to pretty much be the animal equivalent of Jesus Christ: according to them, lion cubs are stillborn, but after three days the lion brings them to life by breathing on them.

The title "king of beasts" is often also rendered as "king of the jungle", even though lions live on the savannah, not in the jungle.^note  Asiatic lions did historically inhabit subtropical dry forests (today only found in the Gir Forest) but not quite proper rainforests. The fact that lions essentially never set foot in a jungle has done nothing to make this inaccurate version disappear. Though some quip that a lion can be the king of whatever he pleases, because are you going to argue with him? If we’re talking big cats, the title of “king of the jungle” would more accurately describe the rainforest-dwelling tiger and jaguar in south Asia and Latin America respectively, both of which are very close relatives of the lion, with all three being members of the Panthera genus (close enough to produce hybrid offspring), and all three are the top land predator in their personal domains.

See also Panthera Awesome, Cats Are Superior. Noble Bird of Prey often serves as an equivalent among birds. When you combine a lion (king of the beasts) and an eagle (king of the birds) in the same creature, you get Our Gryphons Are Different.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Beast Wars II had Optimus Prime (Convoy in Japan) expy and white lion Lio Convoy leading that series' group of Maximals (Cybertrons).
• Daltanious: The titular Super Robot is an Icon of Rebellion against the oppressive Zaal Empire, and has a lion on it's chest. It's name, Daltanious, is derived from D'Artagnan of The Three Musketeers.
• Liott in The Dark Queen and I Strike Back is a lion inhuman and one of the top-ranking members of the inhuman army. But despite his fearsome appearance and strength, he's actually a Gentle Giant and a doting father to his daughter.
• In Digimon, lion Digimon are almost always powerful and heroic characters (the exception being MadLeomon of Xros Wars, who is a Starter Villain). Leomon even has an attack called "Fist of the Beast King". Each continuity tends to have its own lion present in the plot (Leomon in Adventure and Tamers, Löwemon in Frontier, BanchoLeomon in Savers, and Apollomon in Xros Wars), but it's become a rather morbid Running Gag that said lion will perform a Heroic Sacrifice for the protagonists at some point.
• GaoGaiGar: The eponymous mecha is partly made up of an alien robot lion, and the main character's last name roughly translates to "lion king". Lions show up in a few of the other Brave Series shows as well.
• Hyakujuu-oh Go Lion: The mech is made up of five lions, and the "Hyakujuu-oh" means "King of a Hundred Beasts".
• One chapter of Helen ESP deals with the ghost of a lion who grew up in captivity and never got to see the savannah.
• Jewelpet has the white lion Jewelpet Granite. While he doesn't have any hint of leadership, he has the honour of being Ruby's boyfriend in Jewelpet Sunshine and Jewelpet Kira☆Deco!.
• Kemono Friends: Lion is the leader of a group of Friends on the plains, and is in a constant state of Non-Lethal Warfare with Moose, who's called "King of the Forests". In reality though, she's actually quite laid-back and reasonable and only pretends to be stern and serious in front of her followers.
• In Kimba the White Lion, the title character's father was Emperor of the Jungle.
• One Piece has the Thousand Sunny with its very prominent lion figurehead on the bow. It was even stated by Iceburg that it'll be the "King of the Beasts" in order to carry the "King of the Pirates" or something like that.

Asian Animation

• Eena Meena Deeka: In "Royal Mess", the king of the castle that the chickens are preparing food for is an anthropomorphic lion.
• The main character of King Shakir is an anthropomorphic lion and, while he's not a king, is referred to as such in the title.

Card Games

• In Cardfight!! Vanguard, the Gold Paladin Clan was originally composed of seven corps dedicated to gathering the seven Sacred Beast Armors, each themed after one of the armors: Red Lion, Silver Wolf, Black Horse, White Rabbit, Purple Elephant, Blue Falcon and Green Deer. Unsurprisingly, the Red Lion Corps and their leader, Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel got the lion's share of screentime both in the anime and in the card game lore. Ezel himself was critical to the resolution of the War of Liberation in the lore via his Super Mode: Blazing Lion, Platina Ezel.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! cards:
  • "King of Beasts", which resembles a lion.
  • "Behemoth the King of All Animals" who is much more of the humongous or elephant type.

Comic Books

• Subverted in The Beano comic strip Richard the Lion. This lion instead of being King of Beasts is weedy, skinny and only 'king' of Lord Threadbare's Safari Park.
• Blacksad: A rather crappy sci-fi movie Blacksad is watching features a lion as a US general (and a bald eagle as the president).
• Forgotten Realms: The Akri tribe of werecats are led by Los, the only werelion among them.
• In God Hates Astronauts the leader of an interstellar empire, King Tiger Eating a Cheeseburger is served by the commander of his star fleet, his son Admiral Tiger Eating a Cheeseburger. Not even close to the strangest thing about the series... it's just that kind of comic.
• In Grandville, set in a Funny Animal Alternate History 19th century French Empire, Napoleon is a lion.
• Monica's Gang: Lionel's Kingdom (called Turma da Mata in the original), is formed by several Civilized Animals in a jungle, formally ruled by the aforementioned lion Lionel, who presents himself as a king.
• Guardd the lion-man is one of the most noble members of The Others (1995), such that King Skyglider's will names him as his heir, and is the team's leader.

Fan Works

• Hobbes and a lion named Caesar argue about this in Calvin & Hobbes: The Series. Calvin ends it by beating him up and proclaiming himself as king of the jungle.
• In The Bridge, King Caesar is a kaiju sized Shisa, a mythical golem creature from Okinowan lore that is a combination of a lion and a chow-chow dog. Fittingly this incarnation has a very leonine mane and claws, but is The Cape amongst the benign kaiju. He's also been in Equestria the longest and apparently through time travel, was the one who broke King Sombra's horn and spirited an infant Princess Cadance to safety to give her to an adoptive family.
• Simba and Nala from Prehistoric Park Reimagined are a pair of cave lions rescued for the titular park. And by virtue of lions being one of his all time favorite animals in the world, their primary keeper Leon treats them with a considerably high level of respect.

Films — Animation

• The Jungle King is built on this stereotype, being about a lion king who is a Jerkass, but is betrayed and captured, so his more benevolent brother has to impersonate him.
• In The Lion King (1994), the lions are acknowledged as the kings of the savannah — even by those species they generally prey upon.
• Alex in Madagascar. When he was at the Central Park Zoo, he was known as the King of New York, and in the sequel he is revealed to be the son of the alpha male of a pride in Africa.
• The theatrical movie of Motu Patlu being named King of Kings is likely referring to Guddu the lion, who serves as one of the film's main characters.
• In Robin Hood (1973), King Richard and Prince John are lions. Richard (who also provides a Stealth Pun) fits the regal image perfectly. John, on the other hand, is scrawny and pathetic, and he notably lacks the typical majestic lion's mane to reflect this.
• The Mayor of Zootopia is a lion named Leodore Lionheart. While overall he is genuinely concerned about the well-being of the citizens of Zootopia, he does have overtones of being a Sleazy Politician.

Films — Live-Action

• King Leonidas of Naboombu from Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom features a zoo lion at the very end of the movie, just as Rexy the T. rex (whose name means "tyrant lizard king") breaks into the zoo. She spots the lion on a rock and roars at him, which causes the lion (an animal much smaller than a T. rex) to stand his ground and roar right back at her. This is basically the first time that the king of beasts meets the queen of dinosaurs.
• The motif is invoked in Warcraft (2016), where the kings of Stormwind use lion as their symbol.
• The Cowardly Lion from the Film version of The Wizard of Oz apparently wants to be the king of the forest, but is having trouble because he isn't brave enough. Eventually he is appointed to rule all of Oz alongside the Scarecrow and the Tin Man after Dorothy and the Wizard leaves.

Gamebooks

• According to Titan: The Guide to the Fighting Fantasy World, while the Top God of the Animal Court is Kilanirax, the dragon god, Rogaar, the lion god, is one of his immediate subordinates and rules over all the gods of land mammals.

Literature

• Older Than Feudalism: Aesop's Fables have the lion as King of Beasts. Aesop was definitely the Trope Codifier.
• Sixth Ranger David from Animorphs chooses a male lion as his combat morph. The Threat ends with a climatic battle between his lion and Jake's tiger, which ends in a decisive victory for the lion.
• Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia is Narnia's version of Jesus (same guy, another incarnation), and he's a lion. His name actually means "lion" in Turkish.
• King Leonis in The Lion's Cavalcade, a sequel to The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast, by Alan Aldridge and Ted Walker.
• Many Middle Eastern fables also have the lion as the king of animals, though he's often not a good king; in several stories he's overconfident, unwise, and easily outsmarted by his viziers, the jackals Kalila and Dimna.
• In The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli recommends being like this — and Cunning Like a Fox.
  A prince, therefore, being compelled knowingly to adopt the beast, ought to choose the fox and the lion; because the lion cannot defend himself against snares and the fox cannot defend himself against wolves. Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves. Those who rely simply on the lion do not understand what they are about.
• The Reynard Cycle: Duke Nobel's coat of arms depicts a white lion, his father's name is Leo, and he aspires to be the King. Later he has a son named Lionel.
• The Roman de Renart (i.e., Reynard the Fox) and la Fontaine's fables use this trope. The lion is called Noble the Lion in mediaeval beast fable. He was not always a Reasonable Authority Figure and indeed some fables are about his striking a Leonine Contract.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire, the sigil of House Lannister of Casterly Rock, the richest house in Westeros and eventual royal house of the Seven Kingdoms for all intents and purposes, is a lion, and their motto is "Hear Me Roar". Prior to the Targaryen conquest they were actually the ruling kings of the Westerlands, their official title being "King of the Rock".
• The Stormlight Archive: There are no lions, and in fact there are very very few Earth animals of any kind. However, in the second book Adolin sees a mural of a mythological creature that looks like a giant mink with a mane. He can't recall the name, though.
• The Way of Kings (2021), a novel about lions, features folk tales about how their original ancestor became King of Beasts.
• After he gains courage, the Cowardly Lion becomes King of the Beasts in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Live-Action TV

• In the Doctor Who serial Warriors' Gate, the leonine Tharils had been kings in the past.
• Game of Thrones: House Lannister's sigil is a lion and they use Animal Stereotypes as dynastic propaganda.
  Tywin: A lion does not concern himself with the opinions of a sheep.
• In Grimm, the Löwen (lion-like Wesen) were once kings, and still tend to be in positions of power over other Wesen, including running Gladiator Games.
• Super Sentai/Power Rangers: As stated in Panthera Awesome, nearly every series with any kind of animal theme has a big cat somewhere, and nine times out of ten, it's a lion. Some highlights:
  • The Red Ranger has a lion theme in Lost Galaxy/Gingaman, Wild Force/Gaoranger, and Kyuranger (in which the lion theme represents the constellation Leo). The Red Ranger of Samurai/Shinkenger, while being more associated with the element of fire, also has a lion mecha.
    • In Wild Force, the King of Beasts role is a plot point — the lion is king of the jungle, so the Lion Zord's chosen Ranger is the leader of the team. This is why the Rookie Red Ranger is given full formal authority over the team despite the fact that he just arrived that morning with no clue as to what was going on or what a Power Ranger even was. Taylor, who'd had the leadership role before him and got it by knowing how to lead, was understandably displeased.
    • Kyuranger also directly ties its lion to royalty, as its Red Ranger is revealed late in the series to be a prince-in-exile.
  • In Jungle Fury/Gekiranger, it's the Big Bad that's a lion in contrast to the Rangers' tiger, jaguar, and cheetah.
  • Megaforce/Goseiger has the lion theme go to the Sixth Ranger, Robo Knight/Gosei Knight.
  • A lion theme is incorporated into the Mid Season Upgrades in Mystic Force/Magiranger, Go-Busters/Beast Morphers, and Ninninger/Ninja Steel, including design motifs on the associated weapons and a corresponding lion mecha.
    • Power Rangers has twice played up the lion's connection to royalty where it didn't exist in Sentai: in Ninja Steel, the lion mecha and powerup was originally owned and granted to the Rangers by a warrior princess, while the lion mecha of Beast Morphers is named the Beast King Zord (following on how Beast Morphers' other mecha have "Beast [X] Zord" names).
  • In Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger, all of the Zenkaigers are themed around popular Sentai motifs. Gaon, who represents the animal Sentai (and Gaoranger specifically), is naturally based on a lion.
  • Separate from the franchise preference for lions, Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger themes itself completely after the concept of Kings of Beasts ("Zyuoh" even literally translates to "Beast King"). In their In the Name of the Moon pronouncements, all of the Zyuohgers proclaim themselves supreme in their animals' respective environments: Zyuoh Eagle is "king of the skies", Zyuoh Shark is "queen of the seas", Zyuoh Lion is "king of the savannah", Zyuoh Elephant is "king of the forest", Zyuoh Tiger is "queen of the snowfield", and Zyuoh Gorilla is "king of the jungle" (Sixth Ranger Zyuoh The World is "king of the world", but his powerset is a mashup of multiple animals so no specific beast is actually given that title). The true King of Beasts in this case turns out to be Zyuoh Whale, the Red Ranger's Super Mode and "king of the kings" (while Zyuoh Lion is only the Yellow Ranger).
  • In another case not involving lions, Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger is themed after kings and royalty while also having Animal Motifs of insects and other bugs, implicitly identifying them as the ruling class of the animal kingdom.
• In Zoo, lions were the first species shown to turn against humans in an organized fashion, as if they were "leading" the mass animal uprising.

Music

• A winged lion sits majestically on top of a waterfall on the cover of the Asia album Arena.
• Subverted in "Last Lion of Albion" by Neko Case, which is about the Irony of humans driving a species to extinction, then using that animal as a positive symbol. She notes that lions are among those animals that have been exterminated for whatever reason, then used as a national symbol representing heroism.
  Last lion of Albion
  They'll use you for centuries to come
  They'll steal your patents for the sun
  And you'll feel extinction
  When you see your face on their money

Myths & Religion

• The Bible:
  • The tribe of Judah, progenitor of King David and his descendants, are represented by the image of a lion on their flag. Earlier on in Genesis, Jacob refers to Judah as a young lion.
  • The Book of Revelation refers to Jesus as the Lion of Judah, although his appearance in that section resembles a rather fearsome lamb.
  • 1 Peter compares the devil, who is acknowledged elsewhere in the Bible as the (temporary) ruler of the world, to a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
• In Gujarat (home of the last surviving handful of Asiatic lions in the wild), the goddess Durga rides on a lion. Elsewhere in India and the rest of the subcontinent, she rides a tiger instead.

Pro Wrestling

• George Hackenschmidt's Red Baron was "The Russian Lion." He was born in Estonia, but it's not a case of Fake Nationality, since, at the time he was born (1877), Estonia was part of the Russian Empire.
• Chris Jericho used the Red Baron "Lionheart" prior to coming to WWE in 1999. His Boston Crab Finishing Move, later renamed the "Walls of Jericho", was called the Liontamer, and his second-rope moonsault is called the "Lionsault".
• Distaff Counterpart: The Japanese woman wrestler Lioness Asuka.
• The logo of New Japan Pro-Wrestling prominently features a stylized lion's head to go with the company's tagline "King of Sports".

Puppet Shows

• The full-body Muppet in Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Indian version of Sesame Street, is a purple lion named Boombah who is a member of "the royal family of Boombagarh".

Sports

• The mascot of the Kansas City Royals baseball team is a lion named Sluggerrr (yes, with three r's). His notable feature is his crown is somehow a part of his head. (As in, the points of the crown grow out the top of his "skull". Do not ask how this works.)
• Both major league teams called the "Kings" (the National Hockey League's Los Angeles Kings, and the National Basketball Association's Sacramento Kings) have lions as mascots, and Sacramento even has alternate logos mixing a crowned lion with a basketball.
• A number of national and club teams in Association Football use the lion as an emblem, including the national sides of Netherlands and England ("Three lions on the shirt"), and English club teams Aston Villa, Chelsea, Middlesbrough and Millwall.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • The Simbasta are leonine humanoids from 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons who see themselves as leaders and have a natural ability to "subdue" their foes.
  • Planescape: The Beastlands is a wild place where animals rule, so it makes sense the most powerful subspecies of the Guardinals — the dominant species — are the leonals, which resemble lions. (The most powerful of them is Prince Talisid of the Five Companions, although he isn't technically the ruler of the place, although he's likely the most influential being there other than deities.)
  • Forgotten Realms: The patron deities for sentient monstrous beasts and various Talking Animal species are Nobanion the Lion and Lurue the Unicorn. He's their King and passionately hailed as leader by the predators, while she's their Queen and protects the gentler, more thoughtful sorts.
  • Ravenloft: The (short-lived) rebellion of Broken Ones against their Dr. Moreau-Expy creator, Frantisek Markov, was led by an ambitious lion-man.
• Ironclaw: A Downplayed Trope. The royal family are grey foxes, the other Great Houses are horses, wolves, and boars, but it's noted that lions' charisma means they do well in local politics, and often manage to get some kind of leadership position.
• Pathfinder: In the Path of War expansion, the Golden Lion discipline is focused on leadership and teamwork.
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Lions appear in several contexts.
  • The Simba, or werelions, claim authority over all of the Bastet werecats (although most Bastet would rather follow the Khan, or tiger tribe).
  • Lion was the tribal totem of the White Howlers. When the White Howlers fell to the Wyrm, Griffin accepted Lion into his brood. Lion now extends totemic patronage to Red Talons.

Theatre

• In Medieval Times' dinner theatre shows, the emblem of the Red Knight is a lion rampant, so if he wins the tournament and becomes champion of the kingdom, this trope applies. His introduction by the Lord Marshal emphasizes this, describing the knight with a lot of leonine imagery.

Toys

• In Legends of Chima, the Lion tribe has a place of authority as the guardians of the world's Chi and the ones who distribute it to the other tribes.

Video Games

• The King of Armello is a lion, who is dying and going insane as a result of The Corruption. The players compete to try and succeed him, one way, or another.
• Toyed with in Aviary Attorney, where the first lion you meet is a wealthy, intimidating captain of industry. The second you meet, actually a lioness, comes from grinding poverty and is the furious Rebel Leader debating whether to put Revenge Before Reason and trying to set up the Second Republic, which she wants to be a fair and equal society. The King of France, meanwhile, is a penguin.
• Campfire Cat Cafe & Snack Bar:
  • Parodied. CEO Leo, as his name indicates, is a lion who works as a corporate executive. His character bio calls him "king of the concrete jungle."
  • Averted with Witty Bran, a standup comedian lion. He's one of the few special NPCs, but he doesn't seem to have any sort of high position.
• Cat Quest: King Lionardo of Felingard is, of course, a lion.
• The KingLeo monsters from the Dragon Quest series seemed to be designed with this trope in mind. They have eight limbs.
• Averted hilariously in Dwarf Fortress, in which the King of Beasts as a title has been awarded to rather unintuitive candidates such as elephants (most famously seen in Boatmurdered), giant sponges, unicorns, and recently, giant dingos.
• Elden Ring: The "beast regent", Serosh, is an anthropomorphic lion who rides the shoulder of Godfrey, the first Elden Lord — royalty by marriage to the God-Emperor Queen Marika the Eternal. Serosh restrains Godfrey's bloodlust so he can be a proper ruler, and is said to have provided wise counsel to his descendants.
• EXTRAPOWER: King Leo is described as the king of beasts, and is unique among animals in being blessed by the phoenix Eternya herself to elevate him into a talking, sentient, 200 year old lion of great wisdom.
• In Final Fantasy VIII, Squall Leonhart is very well remembered for his omnipresent lion motif.
• In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, it's the Lion Clan of Laguz that rule Gallia. The lions are also the strongest of the beast tribe. In the backstory, a member of the Lion Clan ruled about eighty percent of the continent. The setting's ostracized beorc-laguz hybrids eventually fall under the lead of a half-lion.
• Leo Whitefang from Guilty Gear fashions himself after a lion, with his blond mane, fur coat and sharpened teeth. Fittingly, he's also the Second King of Illyria.
• Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft has the King of Beasts card, which is naturally a lion. Stat-wise, however, this card's nowhere near as impressive as the hunter legendary King Krush (who is a devilsaur, the fantastic version of a T. rex). And then in a meta-based Double Subversion, neither card is as commonly used or well regarded by the players as the Savannah Highmane — which is another lion-based card.
• The Aura Lion Dream Eaters in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] are referred as the kings of beasts, and fittingly, are one of the most powerful enemies or allies you'll encounter.
• Leongar from Kirby and the Forgotten Land is an anthropomorphic lion who rules over the militaristic Beast Pack. His Boss Subtitles, "King of the Beasts, Leongar", even namedrop the trope. He was once The Good King, but years of Mind Control from contact with Fecto Forgo turned him into a no-nonsense military general who kidnaps the Waddle Dees for his own ends.
• Slash Beast from Mega Man X4 is based off a lion (his Japanese name is "Slash Beastleo"). He's also the captain of Repliforce's army and gets really pissed off when you attack his unit on his military train.
• Monster Hunter 2 (dos): Teostra and its female counterpart Lunastra combine the power and majesty of the lion with Our Dragons Are Different. They're both highly resilient, very quick, very strong and possess a lot of devastating flame-based attacks, including a Supernova move that launches a powerful blastwave outwards, the bane of any Blademaster hunters. In Monster Hunter: World, there's a chance to meet and fight the two on the same quest; beware their special Combination Attack!
• Pokémon:
  • Solgaleo, the version mascot of Pokémon Sun, is a very large, stark white and powerful (and muscular) leonine being whose mane is evocative of a sun's rays, and hailed in Alola as being an emissary of the sun. The fact that it can rip holes leading to parallel universes as well as to Ultra Space only adds to its regal awesomeness.
  • The 6th generation features Pyroar, a Fire-type lion Pokémon categorized as the "Royal Pokémon". It is the signature of the Big Bad's team.
• Twisted Wonderland: The Sunset Savanna, a country that references The Lion King, is currently ruled by a lion beastman.
• World of Warcraft:
  • A regular quest type involves hunting down the King of Beasts in a particular zone, which is sometimes a lion, though it can just as easily be a tiger, raptor, primitive dragon, or most any sufficiently impressive creature.
  • The Cataclysm expansion introduced a rare spawn named Sambas, a lion with a unique model that's tameable by Hunters.
  • The lion is the Animal Motif of the human kingdom of Stormwind and thus the Alliance as a whole, playing into the imagery of pride and protectiveness.

Visual Novels

• Reinhard, the Big Bad of Dies Irae, is a man with unparalleled charisma and leadership abilities who is said to be next in line to become the God of the universe and rule all of reality. Fittingly, he rocks a strong lion motif and is known among other titles as The Golden Beast.
• Fate/stay night:
  • Saber apparently once took care of a lion cub as a child. She also likes the lion doll that Shirou gives her in Fate. With her true identity being King Arthur, it's not all that surprising that she likes the King Of Beasts.
  • And then there's Saber Lion in Fate/tiger colosseum, which is as adorable as this trope can get.
  • Heracles also gets this, as his design seems very reminiscent of one.

Web Comics

• In minus., a Great White Hunter shoots a lion. His assistant is sent to check on the animal and comes back with boxing gloves and the lion's request for a proper match. Cue Lion Boxing. Disagreement on the result led to an all out war between the animal kingdom and human kind, which Minus solved by summoning a giant octopus.
• One-Punch Man: The second-strongest fighter in the House of Evolution is Beast King, a human/lion hybrid with claws sharp enough to cut through buildings. Unfortunately for him, he tried to pick a fight with Saitama, and got splattered before he could show off properly.
• In the Little Tales Anthropomorphic Animal Adaptation of The Man Who Was Thursday, Sunday, the leader of the Council of Seven Days and the superior of the undercover police, and possibly God is a lion.

Web Videos

• CGP Grey uses the conceit of the "Animal Kingdom" in his "Politics in the Animal Kingdom" video series explaining various kinds of voting systems. And who's the monarch in this system? Why the Lion and Lioness of course! (The Lion abdicates, but the Lioness stays on to monitor the election system.)

Western Animation

• On Alfred J. Kwak, the king was a lion, though a somewhat feckless one who constantly needed shouting at from Alfred.
• The eponymous character of Around the World with Willy Fog (based upon Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days) is an anthropomorphic lion. While he is not a ruler of anything,^note at least nothing the audience knows of — the setting being Victorian London, there is still the possibility that he is of lower nobility and reigns over a small piece of rural land somewhere, he seems to be of relatively high social status, and is filthy rich. Also, due to the facts that he is the one who made the bet that leads to the journey, and that Rigodon and Tico are his employees, he is logically the leader of this travel party.
• Spoofed in Babar, in which each animal species represents a particular nation with its own monarch. Naturally, the lion nation would have its own king, but the king of the lions is shown to be one of the most cowardly of all the monarchs.
• Dandi Andi from Babar and the Adventures of Badou is a lion known as the "king of the savannah" and a friend of the royal elephant family. Though he is normally a Cool Cat, he has the job of keeping the savannah in order and protecting it from intruders.
• In The Busy World of Richard Scarry, royal figures are often portrayed as lions. The Queen of England in particular is portrayed as a lioness with a mane.
• The King of Vampires in Adventure Time is a lion. Being a vampire made him highly intelligent and anthropomorphic (and gave him chicken feet and lizard talons for some reason), but without it, he isn't even sapient, just a big kitty.
• In The Crumpets, one of the Crumpets being named King references the trope, since he pretends to be a lion.
• Kikoumba from Kikoumba Crown Down is a lion who defends his title of king from different challengers who attempt to take it from him, in a tradition that happens every 1,000 years.
• Referenced in The Legend of Tarzan. In her debut episode, Queen La describes Tarzan as fighting with the strength of ten lions after seeing him effortlessly defeat several of her Leopardmen. The fact that Tarzan is known as "The King of the Jungle" makes the comparison more apparent.
• In an episode of The Raccoons most of the cast think that the royal family (it's a Canadian cartoon) is visiting the Evergreen Forest. As it's a show with anthropomorphic animals, the King is represented by a Lion (imagined by Bert as it turns out it was just a play that Ralph and Melissa were rehearsing).
• In Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the Island of Misfit Toys is ruled by a sentient, winged lion called "King Moonracer."
• Snagglepuss frequently cites himself as being king of the jungle, even though strictly speaking, he's not that kind of lion; he's a mountain lion.
• Steven Universe has his own pink lion named Lion, who can run on water, create portals by roaring, and store things inside his mane (there's a pocket dimension in there). It apparently belonged to Steven's mother, Rose Quartz, who was leader of the Crystal Gems. It's revealed that Lion gained his powers when Rose brought him Back from the Dead.
• ThunderCats
  • Lion-O, Lord of the ThunderCats.
  • In Thunder Cats 2011, the catfolk have a Fantastic Caste System, and as you might expect the royal family are lions.
• Transformers:
  • Generation 1 has the Predacons, whose leader, Razorclaw, has a mechanical lion for an altmode.
  • Beast Wars Prowl is (The central component of the (toy-only) combiner Magnaboss).

• In Visionaries, Leoric has the ability to shapeshift into a Lion, reflecting his heroic qualities. Also, he is the ruler of New Valarak and is referred to as "Prince Leoric" in one episode.
• On The Wuzzles, Bumblelion (he's half lion, so it counts) is the de facto leader of the group. At the very least he's the one who takes the initiative.

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