Are the Second-Born Royal Cubs Really Treated Worse?

[Jack_Lionheart]

I've seen a lot of posts/discussions among TLK fans on tumblr about the fact that Taka/Scar was treated worse than Mufasa (in everything down to names because Mufasa means "king" whereas Taka can mean "greed," "dirt," or "garbage" and none of those are flattering). Do you think it's a general rule that second-born royal cubs are treated worse?

[TheLionPrince]

No. Kion seems to be doing just fine as the second-born cub of Simba and Nala for now. As for Scar, the fact is that nothing is officially known about his formative years outside of The Lion Guard which had a hammy backstory that Scar was the previous leader of the first Lion Guard. The account of Scar's story told in The Lion King: Six New Adventures was rendered non-canon indirectly by the first film's filmmakers when they call the cub seen at the end "Fluffy" and not Kopa, who is the protagonist of Six New Adventures. So no Taka, no scar from a water buffalo, and sadly Ahadi and Uru don't exist either in the movie universe.

[Jack_Lionheart]

That's actually an interesting point you make about Fluffy and Kopa. I actually talked about them some in one of the posts on my TLK fan theory blog. I think that "Fluffy" was just a placeholder name because they didn't actually expect to make a second movie so Kopa and Fluffy could technically be the same cub.

As far as Kion's situation, I tend to agree with you. Simba seemed kind of rough on him in Return of the Roar (and also seemed to favor Kiara by not only spending more time with her but thanking her for telling him that Kion had recruited his friends for the Guard) but they seem to have a pretty good relationship overall. I compared Taka's experiences with Kion's in another blog post and I think Kion has things way better than Taka did.

[Elton John]

Sigh. As far as Disney is concerned, the first born royal cub at the end of tlk1 was Kiara. Also Kopa was not a Disney creation (alex simmons created him I think?) which is why he hasn't been in any animated tlk media.

I'm not even sure if Disney even owns the rights to Kopa.

[Amur_Tiger]

I don't think too much weight should be put on the meaning of the names in an 'in-universe' sense. After all the meaning of Simba's name is 'lion', not insulting but pretty weird, like naming your kid 'human'. Certainly we can draw some lines between the names and the role they play but that's an inside joke for us, not a meaningful choice being made by characters.

[zerodix]

as far as i know, no. there is not a clue given in the movies or books for this statement. scar was jealous of mufasa s position as a king and his envy made him go badguy. where do people base these theories on?

[PrincessKiara]

TLK 6 New Adventures are not canon/official, so the only second-born royal cub we know of is Kion. And like someone else mentioned, he seems to be doing pretty well, he`s certainly not being ill-treated, ignored, abused, etc. The cub that is second in line for the throne, and will likely never become king or queen has a very different role to play within the pride - at least Kion has the chance to make something of himself as leader of The Lion Guard, all Scar wanted was what he could never get - the highest position of power.

[Squeely]

It's hard, if not impossible, to answer this question definitively. My best guess is it varies from parents to parents; some parents are great while others aren't. Obviously, the first-born will have to spend more time around their parents because their parents must teach them how to rule. However, Kion is proof that parents can do that and still give their second cub plenty of love and attention too.

As far as Scar goes, we don't really have a canon source that lends any insight into how he was treated. The closest could be his line from the musical: "Nobody loved me! There's the rub. Not even as a cub." But even then, we don't know if that actually holds true or if Scar twisted his perception of everything.

[PridelandsPhantom]

I honestly don't think second born cubs are treated worse than first born. We're going by TLK rules when it comes to cubs vs real lions who have far more than two cubs (usually). I think Taka/Scar was not treated worse except in his mind. He simply wanted to be king and felt snubbed for being the younger brother. He probably felt Mufasa got more attention. This is a common dynamic among siblings even in non-royal bloodlines. Ever heard of "Marsha" syndrome? Scar felt he couldn't measure up to Mufasa in terms of what was expected of him with Mufasa being the future king. Even Kion in RotR before he became leader of the guard showed some resentment towards Kiara for being future queen. She even rubbed it in that Kion seemed to not any future really planned out for him. Second born cubs have it a bit tougher in their future not being as clear-cut as their brother or sister's as heir to the throne. I don't think Ahadi was abusive towards Scar like some fans suggest but maybe a bit neglectful because the time needed to teach Mufasa how to become king would be extensive. Scar also just had a very different personality and attitude than Mufasa. It happens with siblings that temperments can be different and it can be harder to get along with someone with a more pessimistic and self-centered attitude (Scar is very me based).