Why Scar is the hero of the Lion King.

So last week I re-watched the Lion King, and I honestly think Scar’s military junta might have been justified…

Just what was going on with the government under Mufasa anyway? With the lions as the only animals in charge, it’s basically a species based Oligarchy.

Obviously there’s a Hereditary Monarchy in place, but then you’ve got Rafiki who is essentially kung-fu Rasputin, pushing a theocracy with all this ‘Circle of Life’ stuff, which the Lions are just SUPER INTO because they’re at the top of the food chain anyway so that’s just a nice little bit of religious dogma they’ve laid into the lion constitution in order to oppress the other species.

So yeah, you’re goddamn right Scar is annoyed. He can see exactly what’s going on, despite everyone else being completely blind to it.

Meanwhile, everyone else is blithely rocking up to this unveiling of their new oppressor. Of course Scar isn’t going to this bullshit.

So obviously he’s got to do something about it. But needs support — which is where the Hyenas come in.

I have a question here, if Mufasa is so altruistic, why have the Hyenas been ostracised to begin with?

I’d probably hate Lions too if I’d been blatantly persecuted by them for no obvious reason other than they’re a bit ugly and annoying.

So, it’s not an ideal situation, but Scar’s coup d’etat is probably preferable to the current theocratic dictator oppressing everyone.

So Scar does what he need to do, nails the regicide/fratricide double whammy, welcomes back the persecuted hyenas. Great job Scar.

So then Simba then runs away, and rather than creating a government-in-exile and being proactive essentially just wanders around a bit until he meets a couple of Burning Man attendees, who indoctrinate him with all that Hakuna Matata stuff, and yeah he’s totally radicalized.

Then after a good 10 to 15 years of slacking off (as far as I can tell from that one growing-up montage) he runs into Nala, who’s in the process of shutting down the radicalized Warthog — and then she’s all like, “you gotta come back Simba! Scar is in charge and now the Pride Lands are in drought”

WAIT JUST A SECOND NALA.

This is some climate change denial of the highest order. Scar is clearly not the reason for the drought, and I think Simba kinda knows it in his heart, so he bails on the idea and in a classic Simba move, runs away again. Then he runs into good old Kung-fu Rasputin, who’s somehow still practicing religion in Scar’s socialist utopia.

Rafiki then literally beats his insidious and oppressive religion into Simba, who he see’s as his ticket back into power.

So this rag-tag much of religious zealots head back to Pride Rock with nothing but a flimsy claim to the throne of the old monarchy.

Rafiki obviously wastes no time getting back to his favorite activity of persecuting the Hyenas…

Meanwhile, Simba corners Scar and with no trial, jury, no due process what-so-ever throws him of a cliff.

From there things go back to their old oppressive ways and everyone is super happy about it, because OF COURSE they are because if they are in any way not on board with this shit, they’ll go the same way as the Hyena’s so everyone just keeps quiet about any dissent.

And that’s it. The Hyenas are really the victims here, Mustafa and Simba are the villains, and Scar is the flawed hero who did his best.

(adapted from an original twitter rant here)