by FriendlyHyena » April 3rd, 2018, 10:02 pm
[quote="Rollo"][quote="Hatari05"]Doesn't this same vagueness apply to the first as well, why does scar hate Mufasa so much, why are the hyenas exiled to the elephant graveyard. There's some kind of history there but we don't get it nor do we get anything on how any character but Simba developed. Were the hyenas Scar's actual friends at a time is that why they took his betrayal so hard or were they just sick of his arrogance and false lies. Did the hyenas kill Scar because he was a genuine friend who betrayed them or because he didn't live up to his end of the bargain. Either one of those completely changes the meaning of his death scene.
The first movie was very vague, Nuka as underdeveloped as he was is still far more fleshed out than anyone but Simba and maybe Scar in the first movie. This is a double standard simba's pride doesn't give us answers entirely but there's quite there actually. The first movie doesn't explain anything either we know nothing of the why of almost anything and many relationships are very vague in what we know. While having few direct answers we know a lot more there's no reason to think Nuka isn't Zira's son, if he's scar maybe but it's not important nuka's concern isn't Scar's legacy it's getting his mother's approval.
Who his father is doesn't matter anymore than who Nala's father is (which I might add is another thing from the first movie we don't know) his father isn't important and clearly doesn't matter to him, he wants to prove himself to his mother and gain her love and approval. While there could be more there doesn't need to be his motive is very clear his heritage doesn't matter that's not what is driving him, so him being Scar's son is irrelevant to the matter at hand, Kovu stole his mother's love he wants it back it back.
Note I am not dissing the original no way, but it's unfair to dock Simba's Pride for not explaining a lot when the first movie did the same.[/quote]
Well, you're wrong about a couple of things there. "Why does Scar hate Mufasa so much?" As much as we'd love to delve deep into that relationship, the simple answer is that Scar's bitter about not being king. That's his entire character. He's angry at being the younger sibling who is then pushed even further back when Simba is born. That's made very clear. I'm not entirely sure if that would warrant killing your brother and nephew, but he's a villain. His entire character trope is based around being bad.
(If you consider the musical canon, there's also a line hinting that he was neglected as a cub. That would've obviously fuelled some of his hatred for his brother who received all the attention when he didn't.)
The vagueness in the first movie never affected the movie's quality, but it certainly does for Simba's Pride. I think the biggest problem is Zira. While we're fully aware of why Scar wanted to kill Mufasa and Simba, we have very little idea about why Zira is so obsessed with carrying on Scar's legacy--again, because the relationship between them is so obscure and we're never even given a little hint. They could've easily added in a line that explained where Zira and the other lionesses were during the first movie or how they came to be or SOMETHING like that. We get that in the first movie with Scar. We get it during his first scene: "you see I, I shall never be king." We understand immediately why he's bitter but this never happens with Zira and her role as a villain is weakened because of it.
For example--even if they had some sort of backstory scene where they explained Zira's relationship with Scar, whether they were mates or she was in love with him and he rejected her; if they showed that, I would immediately feel more sympathy with Zira because she's fighting for her mate who she would perceive as being wrongly killed by Simba. But we don't get that. I think the creators of the first movie were too hesitant in their writing. If you want to make her Scar's mate, then do so. Don't cloud it for the sake of having a mystery that ultimately complicates things rather than making them interesting.
I think saying Nuka is as fleshed out as Simba and Scar is a bit of an exaggeration lol. Considering we got an entire movie fleshing out Simba's character...we didn't get that with Nuka. He's still far more interesting than Kovu and Kiara, but he's nowhere near as complex as Simba. And that's fine. He's a secondary character in a direct to video sequel, he doesn't really need to be complex. He's allowed to just be what he is without fans trying to make him more than that.
Again, this could be just be a matter of opinion, and I know it may be hard to hear, but many people do not think Simba's Pride is a good sequel to The Lion King. I'm one of them. I think it's an okay movie, and it's definitely watchable, but I'm very embarrassed to call it a sequel to TLK, almost as much as I'm embarrassed to call the third movie a sequel to TLK. Sorry![/quote]
I think it was more than just an obsession with Scar. If you listen to that's my lullaby, it's clear Zira thinks that she personally was wronged. "I've been exiled, persecuted, left alone with no defense. When I think about what that brute did, I get a little tense!"
I do have my own theory on Zira. We as the audience know what really happened with Mufasa and all of that, but Zira wouldn't have known. Let's take a look at what Zira might have viewed it as. Mufasa dies, and Simba appears to have been obliterated by the stampede. Simba stays away for years, then finally turns up and challenges Scar. Then Simba outright confesses to being responsible for Mufasa's death. Thus it might seem that Simba fled all of those years to escape justice for killing his father and that Nala had brought him back to challenge Scar. Then Scar tries to execute Simba by pushing him off a cliff. Then Simba leaps up and holds Scar down and makes him confess to killing Mufasa. Then Simba and Scar got into a fight and it appeared that Simba pushed Scar off a cliff to his death in the fire (not sure if Zira knew about the hyenas killing Scar.) Then Zira, who felt that Simba had murdered two rightful kings, challenged Simba, and got kicked out to the barren outlands with her kids for challenging him, where he was starving and always on the defensive instead of the good life of the Pridelands.
As for why Simba wouldn't have given her the benefit of the doubt and thus let her have the chance to cool down, I think he was just peeved about Scar's betrayal and didn't want anymore drama so he just threw out all of Scar's supporters.
Once in the Outlands, Zira just nursed her bitterness, until she was past reasoning with, hence her decision to either kill Simba or die trying.
Of course, if she DID know the truth about Mufasa's death and also DID know that the hyenas killed Scar but liked Scar for whatever reason and still wanted Simba dead and lied to Kovu all of those years and used her own children as pawns for revenge, then I think she'd replace Scar as the eviler villain of the Lion King saga.