by Carl » October 29th, 2013, 7:48 pm
The hyenas are victims of Scar just like everyone else in the film. He manipulated them into helping him. Out in the Elephant Graveyard there isn't much to eat. The hyenas are starving out there. Scar promises them food. Of course they help him. That doesn't make them evil. It is shown that none of the lions liked the hyenas, except for Scar, and Mufasa runs them out of the Pridelands if they are seen there. They could have done something to deserve that treatment but the fact is we don't know. Most likely the hyenas we see in the film and the lions we see were born into this grudge, and probably neither knows what started it. In this case, neither the lions nor the hyenas are bad, while both believe the other to be.
The hyenas had a strong connection with each other, and they saw Scar as a friend. They weren't precisely nice to each other, but they clearly valued friendship. Evil beings don't care if they have friends or not. When Scar promised they'd never go hungry again, of course the hyenas would do anything he asked of them. The hostile nature between them and the lionesses would only be natural after years of holding a grudge, and with the drought setting in, tensions would only worsen.
From what we are given, the only definitively evil character is Scar. The hyenas just wanted a better life for themselves.