by Ninaroja » April 7th, 2014, 10:10 pm
I think they both suffered a ton, but ultimately I'm going to say Nala.
With Simba, he lost the rest of his childhood innocence, was deprived of his home and family and spent years living in guilt for something he hadn't even done. However, by falling into the philosophy of Hakuna Matata I think this certainly helped to numb it all a bit. How appealing it must have been to him, the whole thought of a life with no worries or responsibilities. In a way, I think Simba wanted to run from all responsibility since it was something his father had so often stressed the importance of ("There's more to being King than getting your way all the time."), and at that point he wanted to forget all about it. Speaking as someone who has struggled with anxiety in the past (which, to my belief, Simba suffered from, certainly in TLK2 if not in the first movie), the promise of a life free from fear and worry is such an attractive concept when you're in that kind of situation.
With Nala, however, there was no "no worries" lifestyle to fall back on. In my opinion, the brief snapshot of Scar's temper that we see near the end of the movie when he strikes Sarabi is just a snippet of what went on. I've read some fanfictions with interesting theories, some horribly brutal, about what life during Scar's reign was like. I've explored it in some of my own writing, albeit in a much more AU sense, but I think life under Scar must have been a living nightmare. I don't like to hypothesize about it, but I think there are some subtle hints. For example, at the end of the movie there seem to be very few lionesses left (though the number does seem to fluctuate between shots, but when Scar is confronting Simba there seems to be only four or five of them left). Did they die? Did they run away when it all became too much? Did Scar kill them? Did they starve? I don't know, but I doubt the pride was that small at the start of the movie.
She was so young too when it all started, so I'm sure she lost her innocence as well. The difference though is that Nala probably witnessed some terrible stuff during the times we didn't see while Simba was off "enjoying" himself), not to mention the gut-wrenching creepiness that was the "Be Prepared reprise" seen on the Blu-Ray re-release.