Alternative Character Interpretation in The Lion King.
The Lion King
- There are more than a few people who view Scar as a Depraved Homosexual, due to his lack of a mate and somewhat effeminate manner. The Broadway play seems to play this up to extreme levels. Scar goes from scary angry dude to Paul Lynde turned psychopath, which is still scary. This is ironic since a deleted scene (which was re-added for the musical) shows Scar choosing a grown up Nala as his mate and seeming rather disturbingly excited about making "little Scars" with her. So maybe more of a Depraved Bisexual?
- Was Scar's hatred towards Mufasa caused only by envy or was there a solid Freudian Excuse (like being always The Unfavorite, maybe also mistreated by his brother)?
- Mufasa. Noble, courageous king and loving father... or pompous Jerkass who threw his weight around to bully his little brother, was letting a bunch of hyenas starve for no reason, and who was raising his son to be as big a douche as he was? Or, alternately, a generally decent king and good father, but who's prejudiced against hyenas?
- Mufasa and his dynasty can easily be seen as pompous, racist tyrants and Scar as a Well-Intentioned Extremist trying to liberate oppressed people from Mufasa's regime. An alternative take is that both Scar and Mufasa are jerks, Mufasa exiling the hyenas to the badlands, and Scar exploiting their desperation for his own gain.
- Going off the above factors, there's a possibilty of Black-and-Grey Morality. Thanks to Mufasa being a good father and decent king despite this hatred of hyenas. Whereas Scar is still worse not only because of planned murders, but also for exploiting the hyenas.
- Zazu. Mufasa's loyal adviser and careful supervisor of Simba during his childhood... or just the comical sidekick of both?
- The hyenas. Were they really banished for not respecting the Circle of Life? They think of themselves as being oppressed underdogs, and in real life they're very real competition with lions in the food chain. After all, as others have pointed out, Scar enlists their aid not by promising them power or conquest, but food. The hyenas seem most excited about the fact that they'll be able to eat. Their apparent poverty and Scar's manipulation of it is just another eerie parallel to the Third Reich and the duped German population. The documentary Mickey Mouse Monopoly pointed this out.
- Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed - friends, or family? It's almost a 50/50 split. Other combinations include Shenzi, the alpha female, with Banzai being her alpha male and Ed his brother who hangs around with him, and Banzai and Ed both courting Shenzi at once.
- In regards to the Hamlet parallels, is Nala based on Horatio or Ophelia? Or both? Also one review has interpreted that Rafiki was meant to be a living version of Yorick.
- Scar has some parallels with Simba. Young Simba has a SONG dedicated to him proclaiming that when he's King he doesn't have to listen to anybody and "can do whatever I want". Later in the film Scar proclaims, "I'm the King! I can do whatever I want." This also brings up the distinct possibility that Simba would have been a king every bit as bad as Scar had he not run away and undergone Character Development.
- When Simba has Scar cornered and at his mercy, he seems genuinely relieved at Simba's promise not to kill him and willing to accept the punishment he has in store if it means he'll at least still be alive — only to be noticeably alarmed when Simba tells him to "run far away and never return", then steel himself and attack him. Did Scar believe a lifetime in exile away from the Pridelands he spent his whole life coveting and wishing to rule would be worse than death? Or, since he said the same thing to Simba before siccing his hyena minions on him, did he believe Simba was planning on having him killed despite his reassurance and decide fighting was a better alternative, since it would at least give him some chance of surviving?
- Timon and Pumbaa. Loveable slackers who save Simba's life and help him deal with his trauma, or two feckless wasters who encourage a vulnerable young boy to hide from his problems and responsibilities so he can stick around as their bodyguard?
- How did the lions receive their place as "royalty"? For all we know, the first "Lion King" was crazy and decided to fight and kill one of every animal and after killing the last one crowned himself king. The other animals fear the lions especially when you consider that the movie makes no effort in disguising the fact that the lions hunt other animals and they all fled after Scar became king (and the pride lands became a wasteland but that's beside the point).
The Lion King: Six New Adventures
- Was Ahadi's Parental Favoritism of Mufasa because he saw his oldest son as a more capable leader or is he an Abusive Parent who treated Scar as The Unfavorite and started his Start of Darkness?
The Lion King
- There are Ambiguously Gay / Depraved Homosexual elements to Scar's performance. Top of the list for hints is the breakdown during "Be Prepared", which has a very 90s-club beat to it, while the Hyenas on stage move aside for more muscly, shirtless Hyenas to dance in the steam. Though on the other hand, this version of Scar explicitly wants Nala as his queen...
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
- Zira was originally intended to be Driven to Suicide, but it was deemed too dark and was censored. It's still possible to interpret her death scene as suicide either way. We never see her lose her grip, with instead the camera panning to Kiara's shocked reaction, and the animators accidentally (?) kept her smile right as she falls. With her oldest son dead, her pride's betrayal, and everything done in vain, Zira may very well have decided to kill herself instead of joining Simba.
- What was Zira's relationship to Scar? Was she a Loony Fan in Mad Love or were they a couple? Are any of her cubs Scar's? If not and she was either in love with Scar or together with Scar, why did she have cubs with an unknown male?
- They weren’t Scar’s cubs…Don’t think they explained the other male though.
- The entire movie. Zira could be a Jerkass Woobie, depending on how you interpret her Freudian Excuse. Her death scene opens up possibilities too. She could have just fallen off the rock by accident or she could have willingly let go and killed herself. She was faced with the option of either dying as an outcast or joining her hated rival, so she could have chosen death. It should be notable that, even in the film's final version, she seemingly smiles while falling, so suicide is a likely possibility. It was actually intended for Zira to have committed suicide if one watches the deleted scenes. This was removed however when it was deemed too dark for children.
The Lion Guard
- There has been a lot of speculation as to Scar's role as leader of the previous Lion Guard, and especially with his relationship with Mufasa. Were Scar and Mufasa once close as brothers, or did Scar at least respect Mufasa? And what of Mufasa's view of Scar? While advising Kion to support his sister during her day as queen, Mufasa tells Kion that it's important to be there for his sister "especially when she's wrong." Perhaps Mufasa's resentment toward Scar as seen at the beginning of TLK is due more to Scar's lack of support as a brother than due to Scar's apathetic behavior as a prince neglecting his duties. This raises the question of what caused Scar to appeal to the Lion Guard for help in deposing Mufasa. Perhaps Mufasa made a mistake early on in his reign as king, and Scar tried to call him out on it (or prevent it), leading to a quarrel between them that ended in Scar's decision to try and have Mufasa removed from the throne.
- Jasiri's striking similarity to another hyena in a licensed spin-off story raises the question of whether she counts as a Canon Immigrant, or whether the creators of the show itself were even aware of the side materials released with the original movie in 1994. Kion gets similar questions on whether he is an expy of Simba's non-canon son Kopa or whether it's coincidental.
- Most of the time, Janja and his clan are just trying to get a meal, or taking an opportunity. The Lion Guard keeps scaring them off because... why? They don't have a problem with hyenas as scavengers. In real life, they'd be doing it because they're competition for food, but obviously this risks the lions looking like jerks for chasing off starving hyenas. Instead, Kion just calls Janja and his clan troublemakers, which makes him a hypocrite. Presumably believing in the Circle of Life means his steak dinner loves him back.
- Related to the above. Are Janja and his clan simple predators wanting to get their meals, an enemy faction trying to chase the lions off the Pride Lands to take their place (as hinted in Outta the Way), or villainous gluttons who just want to eat as much as they want without caring about consequences and disrupting the balance of the ecosystem justifying the Guard's antagonism towards them?
- Zira telling Kion that Scar lost the Roar because he used it against other lions — was she deliberately lying to him, or (since she has no problem with Scar's actions and wouldn't see him attacking his enemies as "evil") did she sincerely believe that must be the reason?
- "The Hyena Resistance" reveals that Janja lied and let Scar believe he succeeded in killing Jasiri back in "Rescue in the Outlands," but we're never told why he would do such a thing. Was it just because he was afraid of getting in trouble... or because he didn't want her dead? He did hesitate when Scar first gave them that assignment ("Oh... yeah... sure thing...")...
- Is Ushari a normal cobra turned to villainy, or was that just a front and he was Evil All Along? The fact that he's friends with other sinister reptiles and suddenly has plans to conquer the Pride Lands seems to suggest the latter.
- In Season 3, Kion has a Rage Against the Reflection moment where he sees Scar talking to him from within the water. Was this an artistic rendering of Kion's imagination, an artistic rendering of a legitimate venom-induced hallucination... or the real Scar actually talking to him from beyond the grave (since we know the Lions of the Past can do that)?
- Is Rani actually in love with Kion, or did she only want him for the Roar of the Elders? Her saying at their wedding in the Grand Finale how [she] is glad the Roar has returned instead of Kion and her reaction to finding out Kion unlocking all the secrets to the Roar would seem to suggest the latter.
