| “ | You knew I love her, my brother There's nothing we keep from each other I saved your life This is how you repay me? |
„ |
Hoo boy, I've got plenty of removals planned for this year.
Created with permission from Jester of Chaos.
The Work[]
The Lion King is a 2019 musical drama film and yet another unnecessary live-action remake (even though all except the opening shot are just hyper-realistic CGI) from Disney trying to cash out on their classic movies, somehow grossing a billion worldwide. If you have seen the original film, you're not missing much as its almost a complete shot for shot retelling with only a few script changes, such as the hyenas being portrayed less comical and more serious.
Instead, let's talk about the recently released prequel Mufasa: The Lion King, which explores the origins of Mufasa and Scar, I mean Taka, before they became the Cain and Abel royals of Pride Rock.
Who is Taka/Scar[]
Born as the son and next in line to Obasi's pride, Taka befriends a cub named Mufasa who was separated from his family from a flood. Despite his father's request to not take in outsiders, Taka allows Mufasa to win a race to accept him to stay, and the two grow up becoming both best friends and adopted brothers, though his father warns him that Mufasa could betray him one day. Then one day the pride are attacked by white lions, and Mufasa kills their leader's son. Taka is evacuated to the promised land of Milele to carry out his blood of the pride while Mufasa joins him as an escort as the Outsiders wipe out Taka's pride and pursue the brothers.
Along the way, they meet Sarabi who Taka would find himself interested in, though his days of growing up with only males lead to some awkward flirting. Even when Mufasa would credit Taka as the one who would save Sarabi from a stampede of elephants, she sees through the lies and falls in love with Mufasa, breaking Taka's heart. Driven by envy, he aids himself with the Outsiders, claiming Mufasa stole his destiny for becoming king.
The Outsiders attack and overwhelm Mufasa, but showing some remorse for the betrayal, Taka intervenes and takes a scar across the eye. Mufasa falls into an underwater pool and while Taka at first thinks of drowning him, decides to help him up. Mufasa is made king of Milele, renamed to the Pride Lands, and decides to let Taka stay at the cost of never saying his name again for the betrayal, to which Taka allows him to rename him Scar.
And so, Scar became forced to fall in the shadows of Mufasa's reign, ultimately leading to Mufasa's downfall as Scar's envy ultimately drives him mad, enough to kill Mufasa to claim the Pride Lands for his own. Which in turn leads to Scar's own downfall as his nephew Simba defeats him and the hyenas tear him apart for his lies and treachery to frame them for his crimes.
Why he doesn't count[]
So the Mufasa prequel revealed several new story arcs to Scar's characters. He saw Mufasa as taking all of the admiration from his parents, which isn't completely true considering his mother told him that "his time would come", and also "stealing" his love for Sarabi.
In hindsight, this would give him a more pettier motive for wanting to kill his brother and usurp his territory. At the same time, however, this shows that deep down, Scar did indeed love his mother and his viewpoint of her choosing Mufasa over him would drive him down to his path of villainy. While his love for his adopted brother Mufasa would fade out, nothing is shown or suggested that he hated or subverted the care for his mother.
If you're still not convinced, we're introduced to Kiros, the king of the Outsiders, who could easily rival him in terms of heinousness. Where Scar committed a single regicide on his brother, Kiros wiped out multiple prides of lions, including Taka and Sarabi's families, so he can be the "One lion king" and even held no hesitance to let his lionesses kill one of his pride members for failing him. Additionally, him wiping out Scar's family can be seen as one of the triggers to Scar's villainy, considering had Kiros not provoked them, Scar would've never had went on his journey of seeing Mufasa claim all of the attention. In case you're curious, Kiros can't count since he's motivated by the death of his son.
Verdict[]
Long live the king!