Is Mufasa a little hypocritical?

[cleargreenwater]

Within the context of the movie I do believe so, and that that hypocracy was Mufasa's tragic flaw and why he died. You see, regardless of characterization, that's the Hyena's function in the TLK world--exploit weaknesses, they are the chaos matches thrown on top of faults already there that blow the lid off of them and sees them through to their end. Whether it's Mufasa being categorically blind to his own wisdom and failing to keep his own philosophy (regardless of the reasoning why), Scar believing that everyone is beneath him and pawns to be manipulated that he's that good to have mastery of, or even Simba's chronic self-doubt when he returns (those hyenas advancing on him may as well BE his mental demons, and the lionesses don't beat them off until Simba settles it in himself,), they are the Furies, and they enact retribution for Hubris. Whether that be hypocracy to one's own words, setting one's self up as god, or sins against the family real or imagined.

Then there's the less arcane stuff, yeah. There's no background given in the context of the film, except that hyenas are characterized as malicious and gluttonous and mean, but with such a seemingly profound lack of access to resources the movie never quite did enough to answer the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg and just how long and for how many generations they'd been relegated to live like that. There's real-life precedent for such a dynamic and good on TLK for bringing traces of that into the mix.


That's the movie of course.....At least no good background--until you consider sub-canon sources.

Actually, DGFone, interestingly enough....Okay. I know around here TLK6NA isn't regarded very highly, but in regards to the Hyenas it presents a different fact pattern from your idea. There's a lot in 6NA that's sketchy, but I have no reason to doubt the insights in regard to Scar and the Hyenas' pasts put forward in it, it's how very on-character it all was written that makes this bit so compelling.

In "Tale of Two Brothers", the Hyenas do live in the Pridelands under Ahadi. They're punks and harrass old man Rafiki, for which Ahadi scolds them on the grounds of "no hunting for sport" being a law of the land. Later, Rafiki witnesses from the treetops Scar and the Hyenas hanging out, and it very much seems like the Hyenas are the ones egging on if not actively manipulating Scar's rivalry with Mufasa with an eye to their own gain through knowing him, while Scar's control of them is more strong-arm, interestingly enough. I don't think it's a stretch to see Ahadi exiling the Hyenas in a parent's attempt to keep bad influences away from his (underestimatedly antisocial) son.....And it all leads one to wonder what Scar and Mufasa's relationship would have been like without three snickering third-parties keeping all the buttons pushed along the way. Interesting in that far from being just tools the Hyenas held a calculated angle in the game.


[quote="TheBlackCatCrossing"](No offense to cleargreenwater).[/quote]

Bahahaha <3 We'll say they're "remorselessly, ruthlessly opportunistic" and call it a day shall we?

Nah, no worries, I crossed that fine line into obsession a long time ago and it's been more about the real animals to me for many years now, truth be told.


....You all owe me for the hour and a half of my morning you distracted me into wasting on writing this post though, LOL.

[Immortal Lioness]

The hyenas won't respect the circle of life. They just want to kill and eat everything to an extent just to fill their stomachs. That would ruin everything, as seen during Scar's reign. Scar just wanted to be king so badly he just let the hyenas detroy everything. To keep them out of his way. But in one scene were Shenzi, Banzai and Ed say they're hungry. Scar just doesn't care, also about the circle of life. The hyenas are exiled to a wasteland, The 'Elephant Graveyard'. Probably because, they can over engorge in the dead elephant carcasses. But there are so many of them they are still hungry greedy hyenas. Just wanting to disrupt the natural balance in the pridelands- Mufasa's kingdom. As king, Mufasa has responsabilites to protect his pride. To help and protect the other animals from the hyenas. Mufasa if he wanted could have killed a lot of the hyenas. But didn't! Still showing his good leadership side, Of respecting the animals. But he just had to probably make a choice and send the hyenas away from the pridelands for the better of many other speices.

Now as for Simba exiling Zira and followers that's because Scar murdered Mufasa. Took ov er as the king turned the pridelands into nothing, let the hyenas ruin it all. Zira admires that, she won't let go of the hate in her heart. She wants to kill all the pridemembers, let Kovu become the false king. NOT respecting the circle of life that Simba was taught by his father. Zira and Scar are basically on the same level of not caring about others. Simba in the end with encouragement from Kiara let the outlanders join. Because well, they wanted to change their ways and stop fighting.

[Lauren]

[quote="KentuckyWildcat"]I don't think he was hypocritical. I tend to think that Mufasa knew how dangerous the hyenas would be to all the animals of the Pridelands and wisely kept them out rather than randomly discriminating against them. If they weren't going to respect the balance of life, it was Mufasa's duty as the king to keep them in check for the good of his kingdom.[/quote]
My words as well.