"Simba, what have you done?"

[TheBlackCatCrossing]

Okay, serious question here.

A lot of us were little kids when we saw this dumb little movie. We all remember the chill we got when Uncle Scar lied to Simba about how his dad died. Looking back at it now and rewatching that scene again as an adult, I get chills and the back of my head and the bells are going off "CHILD ABUSE!"

Back then, abuse was physical. The idea of psychological abuse did not really exist IIRC. It was bad enough that Simba's own relative LIED about the true circumstances of Mufasa's death but to blame him and make him actually believe it is so messed up. I think this is another reason why the Lion King is still popular and why Uncle Scar is so f*****d up.

Did anyone else get this feeling back in 1994 or is this interpretation a result of twenty first century conditioning on how we treat kids? If this is a sensitive issue, I apologize.

[Elton John]

I didn't truly understand what he did until I got older. It's not a modern interpretation to say that scar manipulated simba, there are plenty of scenes that reinforce him as being a manipulative "jerk" {to put it very lightly}

The fact that he sings a song about wanting to kill cub simba and his dad, and that he also manipulated simba into going into the elephant graveyard with nala with the hyenas waiting for them means he probably wanted cub nala dead too. There was a line about him gift wrapping "those cubs" meaning, more than one of them. Yeah.

On the other hand I don't understand what is wrong with having a villain that is evil in almost every sense of the word. I dislike the modern trend of sympathetic villains.

[Captain Cupcake]

[quote="TheBlackCatCrossing"]Back then, abuse was physical. The idea of psychological abuse did not really exist IIRC.[/quote]

Of course it existed back then. The concept of psychological and emotional abuse was always a thing.

[Elton John]

[quote="Captain Cupcake"][quote="TheBlackCatCrossing"]Back then, abuse was physical. The idea of psychological abuse did not really exist IIRC.[/quote]

Of course it existed back then. The concept of psychological and emotional abuse was always a thing.[/quote]

I'm pretty sure he meant in the mind of a kid, that didn't exist. Simba trusted his uncle, because the concept of his uncle lying to him was never on his mind.

[Captain Cupcake]

[quote="hey101hey"][quote="Captain Cupcake"][quote="TheBlackCatCrossing"]Back then, abuse was physical. The idea of psychological abuse did not really exist IIRC.[/quote]

Of course it existed back then. The concept of psychological and emotional abuse was always a thing.[/quote]

I'm pretty sure he meant in the mind of a kid, that didn't exist. Simba trusted his uncle, because the concept of his uncle lying to him was never on his mind.[/quote]

Given how she worded that sentence, as well as questioning whether this is an idea of 21st century conditioning or not, I assume she is actually referring to whether this concept was understood back in the '90s by those of us who saw the film back then.

In which case, this was definitely a thing probably realized by those who could catch on to the movie's subtleties. Maybe not by the really young(although, in their case, even the not so subtle stuff can go over their heads and they're just in it for the lovely visuals and the pretty animals), but some older kids probably noticed, as well teenage and adult audiences. Maybe some kids could even relate to being emotionally abused and/or manipulated by a bad adult(excluding the part about being framed for murder which isn't exactly a common thing when one is a child ).

The entire plot hinges on Simba going through a traumatic emotional experience and allowing a form of guilt and fear fester in his mind, all of which were planted in his head by Scar's actions in the first place. That psychological aspect is a big factor in what makes all the drama that much more compelling.

[TheBlackCatCrossing]

Okay, let me rephrase this.

Did anyone else, at the time, note the psychological abuse that Scar imposed on his nephew? The fact that he lied about what happened really happened was one thing. Because of Uncle Scar's power, what he said to Simba and how said it was chilling. It was the intent. I work with kids. That is why when I watched it the other day, this idea came into my head. Abuse whether physical or emotional is understood today but was that understood in 1994? I don't see too many discussing that (at that time).

[DGFone]

While I was hardly old enough to understand that back then, I think that you might have a point here, TBCC.

As for Scar's intentions, and really strictly speaking, what the animation team had Scar do, was I think to traumatize Simba enough to get him to run away anywhere except home, which would naturally be his first instinct after he would finally leave Mufasa (assuming Scar didn't arrive first as he did in the movie). This was why Scar asked "what would your mother think?" - I don't think Scar was actively planning to "abuse" Simba mentally. At least, not on purpose for the sake of abuse as what I think you are referring too. He needs to get Simba away where Scar can send the hyenas to kill him without arousing suspicion.

Scar needed Simba dead, or at the very least, unable to talk about what happened and eventually piece everything together. If he needs to traumatize the cub in order to do so, he would. Just as I think that Scar would not have bothered to do so if he wouldn't need to. After all, his plan was to have both Simba and Mufasa die in the stampede - not exactly a setting for mental abuse, is it?

But I do think that Scar would delight at least partially in this sort of mental abuse, and if the concept was more well known back then, I think he would have done more of it.