Why is Mufasa so much more serious than Adult Simba?

[Animal of the Wild]

This was a really useless topic I made that I think (like many of my other pointless topics) should be deleted. I want to do better here, and I feel this evidence of what a troll I was isn't helping

[Carl]

And how old are you?

Mufasa was old. OLD. He was visibly old and he was a monarch. The more a person ages and takes on more responsibility, the more stressed they get and the less they feel like goofing around and being "cool" and the less time they have for "loosening up." As Mufasa says, being king doesn't mean getting your way all the time. It's not a cakewalk, and neither is being a parent. Having that kind of responsibility is stressful.

As king, Mufasa has to make sure the entire kingdom runs smoothly. He has to sort out any issues between the animal species living in the Pridelands and he has many duties to attend to. There are more things that would require his attention than I can come up with in a moment to jot down. It's a very busy life, being king.

As a parent, he has to take care of his son. He has to impart knowledge onto him and train him to become a king himself. He has to make sure he stays out of trouble and that he is well fed. He has to make sure that Simba has everything he needs, that Sarabi does, that Sarafina and Nala do, and that the whole pride does.

Think of it like this: imagine a human family. The dad runs a company. He has a wife who is a stay at home mom, a son, and a mother and father who are retired. He has bills to pay, he has decisions to make regarding his business, he has issues between employees to work out, issues between customers and employees to deal with, and he has to come up with new ideas to keep the company fresh and in competition. Is this guy going to be "cool" or "loosened up"? No, he's going to be busy, stressed and tired.

It's not exactly the same, but Mufasa's place is kind of like that. Add in that he's always dealing with Scar and it's no wonder that he's not swinging from vines and dancing and having a merry old time with the gang. Why would he? He has much more important things to attend to.

And, actually, adult Simba was only "cool" as you mean it before he had responsibilities. In the sequel, he was even more uptight than Mufasa. Why? Because he wasn't prepared for all of that stress and responsibility and it's harder for him to handle it.

Tl;dr people become less happy-go-lucky and fun when they have to do serious things like run a whole kingdom. It happens to everyone, and it doesn't take anywhere near as much as Mufasa had to deal with to turn most people into a buzzkill.

[TheLionPrince]

Julie Skywalker pretty much explained that, but I felt we saw a softer, more playful side to Mufasa when he gets a good laugh after Simba pounces on Zazu during his morning report, and when he noogies and plays a brief game of chase with Simba after he finishes scolding him for entering the Elephant Graveyard. And it is rather a unfair comparison to compare adult Simba's carefree days of "Hakuna Matata" to Mufasa's stern reign as monarch of the Pride Lands. One requires a no-nonsense responsibility and one doesn't.

[KiarasBiggestFan]

They're right. Simba had a carefree life and Mufasa had a kingdom to run. Simba became much more serious when he fought Scar for the kingdom. And in Simba's Pride when he is king responsibility sets in. He's very serious in The Lion King 2. There's a pride trying to kill him and he's overprotective of Kiara. He has a sweet spot his daughter as shown in "We are one" and as TheLio Prince said Mufasa showed a sweet spot for Simba when he taught him about the Great Kings of the past.

[Animal of the Wild]

Again, I'm sorry about all of this. I think it should just be removed.

[Animal of the Wild]

Really, the answer to this is pretty self explanatory.

[juhouh]

Everything doesn't have to make sense, not even in real life

[Carl]

[quote="Simba the Lion King"]Gee...like age really matters to be cool!![/quote]

My point was that when you are old enough to have responsibility, then you do not have time to be carefree like Simba did in Hakuna Matata which is apparently your definition of "cool" based on this thread. Now stop trying to instigate fights with me.

[UncoordinatedPisces]

Dude stop making these threads.

[EdtheHyena]

Because they're not the same people...er, animals. That's like asking, "Why is Banzai taller than Shenzi?"