#tlk taka

[beatriz-lioness]

Someone's mocking the young prince Taka, and he wouldn't take it in silence. But his big brother asks him to calm down.

Reference under the cut

[1v31182m5]

Kings

[zapporter]

Taka stomped away with a sourness in his heart.

'Why did Muffy care so much about that stupid egg?' He thought to himself. 'He thinks he's so much better than me, does he? Well I'll show him.'

"HELP!"

Suddenly, Taka heard a sharp cry ahead. Seeing an opportunity to be heroic, he lept to action.

The source of the cry came from a small lion cub, just about his age. He was stuck on a tree branch, surrounded by the crashing river below him.

'This is perfect!' Taka thought. 'A lion like me is much more worth saving than a dumb egg!'

"Don't worry, whatever your name is!" Taka rushed to the scene, smiling. "I, Prince Taka, will save you from these treacherous waters!!"

"P-prince?" The cub stammered. "Oh thank you! My name is Pendo, and I ran away from my pride-"

"You can tell me later!" Taka interrupted. "Just grab my paw!"

Pendo looked down at the water below. The waves began moving the branch slightly. Pendo grasped onto the branch.

"I'm scared!" He cried.

"C'mon!" Taka yelled impatiently. "You don't wanna die, do you?!"

He was taken aback by the prince's sudden burst of anger. However, he slowly crept forward towards Taka, while the prince impatiently waited. Finally, what seemed like moons, Pendo grabbed his paw.

"Yes!" Taka cheered. "I saved you!"

"You did!" Pendo cried happily. "Thank you so so so-"

"Let's hurry to Pride Rock so I can show everybody." Taka pranced ahead. "C'mon, Pendi!!"

"It's Pendo.." he muttered. "But YIPPEE!!"

[krossan]

if the movie Mufasa was animated

[artist-issues]

Let’s talk about this Mufasa movie.

No. Let’s not. Let’s just talk about Mufasa. This is going to be long because he’s a really good character and The Lion King is a really good movie.

Mufasa’s whole point, as a character, is to foil Simba. He’ s not just the stereotypical “great dad role model” character, or the “wise mentor who is ripped away” character.

He, as a character, is in the story because he is “Who Simba Really Is.”

Simba is our young protagonist. The whole point of Simba in the story is to start out “not yet grown into who he really is,” so that the story can teach him how to “grow into who he really is.”

So the audience needs to know “who is Simba and who is Simba supposed to be?” right at the beginning. Which is great, because all kids are trying to figure out the same question about themselves. So it’s relatable. But anyway, the storytellers make Mufasa the answer.

On a simple level, you can answer the question, “who is this Simba guy?” right off the bat in the movie with “the son of the King.” There’s the setting. There’s the set-up. There’s the title of the movie. That’s why the very first lion you’re introduced to in the movie is Mufasa, and it’s not a shot of a baby lion cub. It could have been. Lots of movies open with a shot of their main character. Encanto, for one.

Not The Lion King. The Lion King starts with, “you can’t know who Simba is without Mufasa, so Mufasa gets shown first.”

So okay, Mufasa is a King. Good to know. That’s obvious from the big rock he’s standing on and the way all the animals are coming toward him. But from there, they quickly establish a few more things about Mufasa. He smiles at this little bird that bows to him. He hugs the shaman-monkey. He goes from “big solemn lion” to “good and benevolent” immediately.

And then as it goes on, you learn more about Mufasa. He’s not an idiot; he knows Scar is up to no good, and he is very direct about it. He is not a naive dupe, trusting a schemer blindly. It’s more complicated than that. He is a better leader and a better guy than that. Mufasa knows Scar is his brother, and in a snappy little interaction with Zazu, storytellers make it clear that he worries about Scar; he knows he has good reason to worry, but hasn’t decided to give up on his brother.

Additionally, he is merciful to other dark creatures too. He beats the tar out of hyenas but doesn’t kill them. He rescues Zazu from Scar’s mouth. He scolds Simba but he does that, and more, to teach him. So what Mufasa is teaching us, according to what I just showed you the story says, is that A Good King, A Good Man (Lion, whatever) Is:

Authoritative - Makes decrees and makes decisions and yes, tells others what to do. Creates the structure his people live in.

Kind/Humble - Shows the same level of casual friendship to a revered shaman-recluse as he does a little self-important majordomo. (Humble because he’s not afraid to admit when he’s afraid if it’ll help his son.)

Teaches - Takes time out of the day to pass on what he’s learned to someone who is going to take his place—he’s not hoarding his own position or gatekeeping his life-experience-expertise. He’s not finding his identity in how he has this wealth of information that causes people to need him; he gives it away freely, purposefully.

Protects - Is willing to endanger himself and go to the trouble of defending creatures that are weaker than himself.

Shows Mercy - See Scar and the hyenas, who deserve death, but he doesn’t give it to them.

Prioritizes Family - The time he’s taking out of the day is for his son. And he follows up with his recluse of a brother instead of going, “that’s Scar, I know he don’t care about nobody but himself, his loss, not my problem.” And he extends trust to that brother, which is really just an example of gift-giving to a family member who’s done nothing to keep that trust.

Has Faith - Mufasa makes a point of not answering Simba’s question about “Will you always be there for me,” with just himself. He could’ve. Many parents do. Many parents are tempted to, to show their love. “Yes. You’ll always have me. I’ll always be there to answer your questions; I’ll always protect you, I’ll always be what you can count on, you’ll always find a need fulfilled in me.” But Mufasa doesn’t take that bait. He gives Simba an answer that is not “himself-based.” Not selfish. “Look at the stars.” I don’t care what ya’ll say. Mufasa has faith in something outside of himself. He says “and so will I,” but that’s after contextualizing himself within “something bigger than us.” (And oh my gosh, he doesn’t even answer with, “let me give you a lesson you’ll need for your whole life.” He doesn’t even take credit for this faith, for himself. He gives his own father the credit.)

And really, all of those traits can be summarized with the phrase: Lives His Life Sacrificially For Others.

That’s what a leader, a good father, a king, a good man, does. And pay attention: That is what Simba is supposed to be. Simba is supposed to be Mufasa. That’s who Simba really is, that’s where he’s supposed to go. There is a “real you.” But you have to agree with it and accept it, even though your natural bent is to give in to the illusion that you “don’t have to be that, you can choose who you are.”

Yeah, sure, in a sense you can reject Who You Really Are. You can spend your whole life playing pretend, like you’re not That. But you’ll be doing just that: playing pretend. Unfulfilled. Dissatisfied. Running from the misery that is the natural response to your silly game of pretend. Insisting that “there is no misery, this is what I want.”

Okay. Sure it is.

I’ll save Simba for another post.

The point is, Mufasa is a template for who Simba Really Is. Look at those traits. When it’s Simba’s turn to exemplify those traits, does he?

Act I: Is he authoritative? He tells characters what to. And he makes his own decisions—sometimes for good, sometimes bad. For example, he won’t let Zazu deter him from going to the elephant graveyard, so that’s a bad decision, but he does choose to go back and help Nala instead of running to save himself. Authoritative and protective. But it’s all misplaced because he doesn’t “Live His Life Sacrificially For Others.”

Act 2: He’s not. Timon and Pumbaa tell him to do something and he goes along with it. Timon and Pumbaa claim an ancient tradition and his father’s lesson is stupid and Simba goes along with that. He’s no longer making decisions of his own accord, for anything but his own comfort.

The idea is, in Act 1, you see Simba has the same traits as Mufasa, budding inside of him. But they’re all misdirected, and they’re all twisted, because they’re missing one key ingredient: he’s supposed to use those traits in the context of “Live His Life Sacrificially For Others.” Simba doesn’t want to do that. Simba wants to do whatever he wants.

Sure, there’s a part of him that combines that motive with “I want to be like my dad.” But that part dies on the vine and turns sour when his father dies saving him.

So then in Act 2, not only is Simba clinging to “I’m going to live life all my way,” but he’s changed what that means by pushing the nugget of “I want to be like my dad/I WANT TO BE WHO I REALLY AM” completely away. Because it’s too hard, and he’s got shame tangled up in it.

And worse—he starts doing basically the opposite of all of Mufasa’s traits, all of the traits that make him Who He Really Is. He’s not prioritizing family—he’s abandoning them. He’s not protecting others—he runs from the idea of going back to help Nala. (tiny glimmer of it still being inside him because he does try to protect Pumbaa from her.) Kind and humble? No. It’s unkind to tell your best friend you won’t help her because you’re afraid. Humble, no, because humility is thinking of yourself less, not thinking less of yourself.

Ask the question. When Simba’s living in the jungle with Timon and Pumbaa, is he exemplifying any of the traits of Who He Really Is? Or is he doing his best to bury that?

But then after Mufasa reminds him of who he Really Is, and Rafiki shows him how to get his past out of the way so he can accept it, Simba goes back. Into Act 3 we go

Now. Does Simba exemplify Mufasa’s traits? Does Simba start becoming Who He Really Is? There’s not a lot of time left in the movie. Look at the traits, see if he does.

Authoritative? Yep, comes up with the plan to break in and get to Scar, doesn’t back down from the confrontation.

Kind and Humble? Yeah, he willingly admits the truth (he thought it was true) that makes him look bad to give his mom closure. He’s kind to Nala and to Timon and Pumbaa, admits his mistakes, when they come to help him. Hugs the old shaman who cracked him in the skull with a stick—just like Mufasa hugged Rafiki to show us kindness and humility at the beginning of the movie.

Teaches? We don’t really see an opportunity for him to do that yet at this point in the story and his life, give me a break.

But protects? You bet. That’s why he’s there for the confrontation in the first place. Shows mercy?

Yep.

Because he’s not like Scar. He knows who he is. THE POINT.

And when he runs in for the big confrontation, he doesn’t immediately leap on Scar and rip him to pieces. Even though the storytellers make sure to show us he clearly wants to.

Instead, he runs up to his mother to see if she’s all right and show her that he is. And again, he tells her the truth because that’s what she needs even if it’s not what she wants, and he’s learned not to run from what he’s “done.” And faith in something bigger than himself?

Yeah. His father’s voice comes through the clouds just before he decides to roar and claim his title. Through the clouds. Because that whole “we’re a part of something bigger, something more important than ourselves,” was always what he was missing. He was just thinking about himself.

And all of this is because Mufasa is the example of Who Simba Really Is: Lives His Life Sacrificially For Others. That’s Mufasa.

That’s Mufasa, in the story of The Lion King. That’s his purpose as a character, that’s who he is.

So now if you make a movie that’s just about him, what you should be doing is showing how he got there. How he accepted who he Really Is instead of choosing who he wants to be, on his own. And you should make his father, and learning humility, an enormous part of that. Because self-sacrifice is such a pillar of his character. It’s the whole thing.

What you should certainly not be doing is telling a story that ends with finding self-worth or a kid who makes a name for himself. I repeat: if the Mufasa live action movie ends with Mufasa doing anything that revolves around self, they got him wrong and they set him up nonsensically for the next movie.

He should have to decide whether or not he wants to believe his own father, because of that one line, “let me tell you something my father told me.” That shows that he accepted his father’s lesson. And what was his father’s lesson about? Faith. In something BIGGER THAN YOURSELF. So then Mufasa grows up to be a character who lives his life sacrificially for others, and you can trace the roots back to that: “I learned a lesson about something bigger than myself from someone who was not myself, and I humbly believed and accepted that lesson.”

I mean jeez, the line is: “LOOK AT THE STARS.” Whenever you feel alone. Whenever you’re wrapped up in who you are and who you’re not and failure and the idea of what you want to be, knock it off. Quit looking at yourself and look at something bigger than you. And then you’ll get “Understanding of Who You Really Are”—no matter what mistakes you’ve made, no matter how you’ve failed, no matter what your circumstances are—thrown in.

…Of course, the Lion King remake ruined him anyway by having the point be “I’m not worthless.” And that was never the point. But whatever. I’m rambling now. You get the idea.

Mufasa is exactly what he needs to be for the original The Lion King. He’s exactly what he needs to be for Simba’s story. Mufasa is awesome.

[doverstardoodles]

I am not immune to I Always Wanted A Brother by Lin-Manuel Miranda

[0kelkha0]

they destroyed my childhood

[pugcrumbs]

the cartoon lions got me

[mask-of-prime]

MTLK: The Parents

We recently got some full design reveals for both Scar's and Mufasa's biological parents for the upcoming Mufasa movie. If you know me, I love a good character design opportunity.

((Disclaimer: This is merely a design challenge and not an attempt to blend the two TLK universes together. As far as I know, the CGI movies are meant to tell a different story from the original 2D animated works. It's presumed that in the 2D movies, Mufasa and Scar are biological brothers from a more traditional, established bloodline of royal lions, while the CGI movies tell the story of a new pride from Mufasa's generation being formed at what is now known as the Pridelands.

ALSO IMPORTANT: I understand some may have gotten special viewings of the movie, heard the entire soundtrack, and may have read the novelization if that came out at all yet, but please be courteous and don't comment any spoilers of the film, not without a warning on top of your comment.))

Design Process Below:

Masego: I took the first noticeable traits that jumped out at me and exaggerated them to fit the original 2D style. He kinda looked like a mix of Mufasa and Simba to me. The bright red patterns on his mane are based on the distinctive gray patches in Keith David's hair (I can't believe Keith David never occurred to me as a voice for a lion who would father Mufasa, that casting goes so hard ngl)

Afia: When I first saw Afia, I noticed how much she looks like her grandson, Simba. I decided to have her greatly resemble Simba's 2D counterpart as a nod to that. I modeled her eye shape after Tiana's eyes as an allusion to her voice actress, Anika Noni Rose.

Obasi: First thing I noticed about Obasi was how much he resembled the classic Yellow Ahadi model, so I mostly followed that. I struggled so much with his color scheme. I have alternate color schemes below the description.

Eshe: Eshe is very clearly where Scar got his slender face shape from in the CGI-verse. She also has a very obvious brown pelt that could easily be adapted into the 2D style. She was the most difficult for me to design as she already had a kinda cartoony appearance in her original CGI depiction, so I had trouble doing it justice.

It's just so funny that Scar's parents ended up looking like that common Yellow Ahadi model and Brown Uru models, while Mufasa's bio parents ended up looking like the less common Brown Ahadi and Yellow Uru models, lol.

Alternative Obasi Colors:

EDIT: Tweaked Eshe's design, here's the previous version:

[zihette]

i did NOT spend my formative years on deviantArt watching the lion king fanbase dissect obscure lion king books for this oncoming shitstorm!!!!!!!!

[beatriz-lioness]

What if Taka and Mufasa had a sister? Lots of artists already did, but I can't remember why did I 😅 - Months ago I was looking at my old art and found a image of prince Taka and a lioness cub, but only recently I re-discovered the story behind it!

Her name was Kiara (how original past me), princess of the Pridelands and daughter of Uru and Ahadi. Lil Taka's probably proudly showing off something really cool to her.

Old version below the cut:

[mandrawsdog]

"Hey Taka! When I'm king, what'll that make you?"

...

[zapporter]

Mufasa and Taka were galloping through the grasslands, when Mufasa saw something while passing a tree.

"Taka, stop!"

"What?"

"There's an egg alone on the ground! What if someone gets it?"

"Not my problem."

"I know, but I can't let it be here all alone.."

"Just let me eat it." Taka smirked as he lunged forward. Mufasa quickly stopped him.

"Why do you care about this bird egg?" Taka whined. "It's below us! We're the most important animals!"

"Mom says everyone has a part in the circle of life! Including this baby bird!"

"Ugh, fine.."

"I'm going to stay here and guard the egg. Can you look for the mother?"

"Yes, your majesty..", Taka groaned as he turned around and stomped off.

Mufasa kept a steady eye on the egg, looking around occasionally for a predator. He wasn't sure what he would do if say, a hyena showed, but he felt an urge to protect the egg no matter what.

"Oh goodness!" He heard a worried voice from above. A very tired looking hornbill flew up ahead. "You're about to eat my baby!"

"No! I promise I wasn't! It fell and I stood here and watched it while my brother went to try and look for you! I didn't mean to scare you, miss.."

"Wait a second.." the mother rubbed her tired eyes. "You're the prince!!"

"Heh, I suppose so.."

"Oh I've been blessed this day!! Thank you for saving my baby, your majesty! How can I repay you?"

"Gosh, miss, I dunno..my parents would be better at this kinda thing.."

Suddenly, the egg hatched. A joyful young bird popped out, smiling at Mufasa.

"Oh, my baby! Hello my baby! Welcome to the world, my Zazu!" She cried tears of joy. "I'll talk to your parents, and make sure you get a reward!"

Mufasa blushed, smiling at the mother bird.

"I should go look for my brother..but thank you, miss!"

"You can call me Zuzu dear, and thank YOU!"

[morte-a-elle-meme]

As an act of protest against Disney's """live-action""" (aka realistic CGI) remakes, I've remade parts of the Mufasa trailer in the style of the original movie.

[artist-issues]

I'm tired of being disappointed. By far the best part of the movie was the what-could-have-been in the soundtrack. Mufasa had seeds of being good but it suffered from a lack of focus and terrible visual language, so it was ultimately unsatisfying. 

I think it's actually worse when you can see the threads and interesting seeds of a good story just wasted and abandoned under a pile of Bad Storytelling. 

Lack of Focus:

The movie was trying to say something about Bravery, and Bloodlines, and Vengeance, and Going Against the Status Quo, and Self-Reflection, and Loyalty, and Family, and Relying on One Another Instead of Just Yourself, and Belief in Yourself, and even Vague Spirituality, all at once. So it wound up giving the movie-equivalent of two or three disjointed sentences about each topic, and never actually made a clear point about any of them. 

For example, Mufasa is afraid of water. Rafiki says that this is because Mufasa is afraid of his own reflection, even though the audience would have been assuming that it was because Mufasa almost drowned as a cub. Then in the climax, Mufasa and Kiros are battling underwater and Mufasa remembers his foster-mother telling him to close his eyes and use his other senses to hunt. So he does, and he realizes I guess through the currents, that a big rock is falling toward them, and pushes Kiros into it.

What does that tell us? That Mufasa was taught to hunt like a lioness, so he can use those skills when he needs to. Which he's already been doing with no hesitation for the whole movie. Just because he's in water during the final battle, doesn't mean that's a satisfying conclusion to what they were doing with water, as a symbol for his character.

IF Mufasa had been embarrassed about his lioness-observational-skills, thinking it made him less of a lion, or weird, and therefore rarely used those skills because he was always trying to be more like Taka or the other males—conserving energy, not being mindful of what's around him—THEN finally embraced his weird skills at the end, while in water fighting—that would be something thematic. 

You would be able to say, "he's learned not to be afraid of where his skill-set is, as a leader, ergo: he's learned 'not to be afraid of his reflection/the water.'"

But that's not what happened. Because they didn't devote time to developing what, exactly, Mufasa is afraid of seeing in himself, or WHY he's afraid. Because everything he does succeeds. He wins his first race, wins his first fight, wins the favor of his adoptive father, survives diving into water even though he's afraid of it, wins at saving sarabi and then wins her affections even when he's actively trying not to—there's no reason for him to be trying not to. Not any that tie back into "Mufasa is afraid of himself." There's no reason ever shown for this weird halfhearted insecurity he sometimes has, and has to overcome.

So then it's not compelling. And that sort of thing is sprinkled all over the movie.

They keep mentioning "Milele," which means "forever" in Swahili, but that whole concept is alternately described as a "dream," or "a place you feel inside of you," but basically it's also a physical location that becomes the Pridelands. And nobody ever clarifies what exactly Milele is. It's treated like a fantasy concept or a spiritual vision or a physical utopia whenever the film needs it to be those things. But if it's never clearly defined, it's not compelling, which sucks when Milele is what the characters are "searching for." Another example of starting a concept and then never following it through to a satisfying conclusion.

They have seeds of Mufasa being the only lion to ask for help and be willing to cooperate with other animals besides lions—but they are few and far-between. He doesn't ask Rafiki for help; Rafiki sort of convinces him not to eat him. And asking animals for help like he does with the elephants or the Pridelands animals isn't unique to him; the first to do it is Sarabi, who willingly accepts and relies on Zazu despite others' scorn—and MUFASA is one of the ones who is scornful, initially! So they plant seeds for the big climax where he's the only voice that can unite animals across species by the climax, but they're don't water or tend to or help those seeds to grow. So the climax feels a little out of nowhere and less compelling.

If they had just focused on one of these things, it would've been tighter and more emotionally impactful.

Except NO, it wouldn't have been. Because you will have a hard time connecting, emotionally, to photorealistic-CGI lions even if the story's focus was tight.

Bad Animation and Filming

Lions in real life move with too much weightiness and heavy-animal-breathing for you to commit to that weight 100% of the time AND have good character acting. You can only really commit wholeheartedly to one or the other.

So you can tell in this movie the eyes are bigger and more expressive than in the first CGI Lion King. But that doesn't save it. It doesn't cut it. 

When Taka is giving Sarabi his last longing look, he just looks like a vaguely displeased large animal. There's no human heartbreak in his expression. 

When Mufasa is singing a fast line about not knowing how to respond to Sarabi, he should be swinging his head back and forth, like he's looking around for something in desperation—because that's what the song sounds like—and his walking, if he's walking, should be fast. A cross between running from something and searching for something. Because that's what's happening in the emotion of the song.

But lions don't move that fast, because they're heavy. And when they're looking around for something, they do it with their noses and long head-turns in sweeping motions. No fast eyes-darting-around. Certainly no human conflict of desire in their faces. So photorealistic Mufasa can't do any of those things. Which sucks, because the actions of the characters and the action in the scene should match the emotions they're feeling, and the emotion the audience is supposed to be feeling. But it can't, so everything is flat and boring. 

And even if you could connect to photorealistically emotional lions—you might, we connect with our pets emotionally all the time—you wouldn't get the chance because the film avoids their faces every time something emotionally interesting is happening. 

For example: my favorite part of the song "I Always Wanted a Brother" is when the beat appears to hard-drive, and it feels like a "stop everything" moment, to match Taka's outrage that someone is dissing his brother. And he goes, "what did you say 'bout my brother? That's not a stray, that's my brother! You stay away from my brother 'cuz I say so."

That whole moment, I'm envisioning Taka getting all up in another animal's face, maybe taking a swipe at it, throwing his little weight around and puffing his chest, fearsome-face. The song FEELS like that's what's happening; like he's going on and on,  exploding with insistence and protectiveness.

Something similar to the "stop everything-angry" vibe of this:

But in the movie, is it a close-up shot of Taka invading another animal's space? Does the camera follow him from behind in a slow zoom, and then when he says, "what did you say bout my brother?" He spins and looks directly into the camera (in the direction of the animal he's talking to) and the camera stops while Taka charges closer? Do we get to see his angry face at all?

No.

The camera does this stupid boring thing where we, the audience, are in the branches of a tree (where the animal Taka is addressing is safely out of reach) and it pans slowly along, unfocused, like we're casually passing this interaction by. Taka's face is far away on the distant ground and you can't really see it's expression, his body language isn't doing anything interesting (he's just standing there for the whole part of the song) and at one point because of the panning, the tree the camera is in has a branch that actually hides Taka completely from view during the song.

We don't even get to see the animal he's talking to react. All we see is the back of its head.

They do this over and over in the movie. When Rafiki is finally running to meet his long lost brother, we get the back of his body, one quick snapshot of the underside of his face, and then it's flyover drone-style shots. When Sarabi and Mufasa decide to love each other, it's a close-up on the backs of their chins; no eyes, no mouths, no head-body-language. When Sarabi and Mufasa are singing a very back-and-forth interactive duet to one another, the camera is, again, far-off and distant for most of the song, rotating slowly around a landscape that they're lion-lumbering through. Boring. Distant. Wasteful.

Sometimes the movie tries to match the emotional pace in the way it's shot. When Kiros is readying a killing blow and Taka has moments to decide if he's going to save his brother, that scene cuts well between the raised paw and Taka and Mufasa's faces—for example. But those are the most basic ways to shoot those scenes, and scenes like them are few and far-between.

What it needed was one overarching idea to connect the character threads, and give them time to unspool. And then it really, desperately needed to be animated traditionally so that the lions could emote like humans.

So! I'll probably be writing a series of posts exploring what could've been to correct the fumble. Because I did enjoy the concepts in Mufasa.

[little-witchys-garden]

I wanna rant about the live-action lion king vs the animated lion king.

I don't like how they made scar. For me as a kid one of the scariest things about scar was that he would hold simba. In every scene we see scar and simba in together, scar is always reaching out to hold him close or act like a caring uncle.

We know that scar has bad intentions but it makes sense that simba wouldn't see those bad intentions because scar always reaches out for him, holds him close, smiles at him, claims he only wants the best for simba, andalways comes off as a strange yet caring affectionate uncle, who's protective.

we know simba truly does love his uncle, we can see in his scenes with scar that he trusts scar and is affectionate with him.

Scar plays the part of a eccentric, playful and affectionate uncle so well, so when he tells the hyenas

" kill him"

right after pulling simba in and holding his grieving nephew, it made my lil jaw drop. I was SHOCKED because I thought as a kid that he has a shred of love for simba and didn't really wanna kill him.

No, scar was just super manipulative.

it was all just manipulation. That's what made scar scary for me as a kid because he pretended he loved simba so effortlessly.

Scar always reached out for simba first, that stayed in my mind for years.

In the live action lion king, scar doesn't feel do any of that. I don't think he ever even touches simba other then in like 2 scenes...

It really bothered me that they took those scenes out, I felt like those scenes showed how truly manipulative, cunning and apathetic that scar truly was.