My Lion King Forum

... between "Be Prepared" and the stampede?

Before I thought it may have been the next day, but now I wonder would Scar have been able to plan such an important event in just a few hours?
The movie gives no indication as to how much time has passed. What does everyone else think?

I think it would have been a few days, at least.

I've planned things in just a few hours. It's not that hard.

I always thought that when people mention that the stampede happened only the next day after the "Be Prepared" scene, that the time passage was too small. I always thought that at least a few days at least would pass, enough for everyone to calm down from the elephant graveyard ordeal, and for Scar to know for certain that no suspicion fell on him before taking the drastic step of murdering Mufasa.

Plus, he needed to wait for security to lower enough for him to bring in a few hyenas into the Pride Lands, something that I am sure Mufasa would have watched out for after basically invading their territory and attacking them.

^ I'm pretty sure Mufasa never knew that Scar allied himself with the hyenas. Maybe in subcanon he knows, but he's never seen with them by any other lion until after Scar takes over.

A few minutes before the stampede erupts, Scar drops an interesting, but vague clue as to the amount of time that passed between the stampede and Elephant Graveyard scenes:

[quote]Scar: Just stay on this rock. You wouldn't want to end up in another mess like you did with the hyenas.
Simba: You know about that?
Scar: Simba, everybody knows about that.
Simba: Really?
Scar: Oh yes! Lucky daddy was there to save you, eh?[/quote]

Judging by Simba's reaction to Scar's line, the incident is still fresh in Simba and Scar's mind. And considering Simba's questioning of "everybody knows about that", it would have taken a least few days for the news to spread across the kingdom even though Scar was probably lying about that anyway. So, I'm willing to believe no more than a week did the wildebeest stampede occur after the Elephant Graveyard incident occurred.

[quote="Regulus"]I've planned things in just a few hours. It's not that hard.[/quote]

Yeah but the wildebeest are in such a strict formation. I'm sure there was a rehearsal or something

If they've spent half their life hunting wildebeest, I doubt it would take any rehearsal.

The only reason why Scar would have waited is if the wildebeest weren't grazing at the gorge, at the time. However, if that was the case, I doubt he would have planned the entire stampede to begin with.

A few days I think, for the same reasons TLP stated. It would probably have taken a while for the news to spread. Unless, of course, Scar lied about that as well.....which is quite likely.

Yeah, maybe a few days, the movie being great was full of plot holes, which didn't ruin the movie one bit, we needed to know what went on before the stampede, did Mufasa beat Sarabi for letting Simba and Nala go to The Elephant Graveyard, did he yell at her? We don't know, we didn't see how long it took before the Pride Lands went bad, we needed a few more details to know what was going on, but I think in one of my books, it states that the stampede happened "a few days later".

I`ve always assumed it was the very next day.. and I`m quite certain Scar lied when he told Simba that "everybody knows about that."