My Lion King Forum

After Scar kills Mufasa he comes down the cliff and talks to Simba about his father's death and blames Simba for causing it. But why doesnt Scar just kill him there? That would make certain that he would be the only contender for the throne as all other male royalty would be dead. That way his right to rule would be nearly undeniable. I know that it would be very unlikely that Simba would come back, but why would he even risk it?

I've actually wondered it myself. The only thing I could think of was that Simba screaming might wake up Zazu, who wasn't too far away, just unconscious. Or, even if he muted Simba, he may still have been concerned that Zazu was already awake and might witness it. Since Zazu was still high up he may have thought that he could make an excuse up as to why he didn't chase after the hyenas (ie. he was wounded and out of breath, etc.), but if Zazu saw him bite into Simba, it's hard to deny something like that.

I've seen some theories that the blood would get on him and the lionesses would them smell it on them.

That or he just didn't want to do it because he's Scar and he's lazy. I don't think he really likes getting his claws dirty, and 3 hyenas versus 1 cub should have been an easy fight.

He's smart, but lazy. He only goes on the aggressive when he has to.

Yeah, that always bugged me. I also was thinking he would've killed him before he told him about The Elephant Graveyard

I think because Scar didn't want to get his paws dirty for whatever reason. He killed Mufasa personally because he had a lot of beef with his brother about being king and all, but as for Simba, Scar really didn't need to stage such an elaborate and rather risky plan as the stampede in order to kill off a cub.

I think Scar considered himself too good to have to resort to killing a cub. Plus, if something went horribly wrong and a pride member saw the hyenas killing Simba, rather than it being a "terrible tragedy" like he planned it to look like, Scar can always blame everything on the hyenas and use them as a back door.

Exactly like DGF says. If Scar did the deed himself, it could be witnessed and pointed back to him. However, if the hyenas are the ones doing it, in the event anyone sees, Scar can throw the blame onto someone else. In this case, if someone saw the hyenas killing Simba, and the hyenas said Scar told them to, and Scar denied it, who would the pride believe? Not the hyenas who had killed the prince. He had the hyenas scare the wildebeest for the same reason. No one could pin Mufasa's death on him if they saw the hyenas scare the wildebeest, and he could say he was trying to help Mufasa up when he killed him.

He planned it carefully so that he could deny any guilt, should he need to.

And he would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those stupid hyenas! (And his own big mouth!)

Also, fun lion fact, apparently lions (especially male lions) go into a bit of a blood rage after killing anything, and for some reason I can imagine Scar hating that because its "uncouth" and just never wanting to kill anything.

My guess is it had something to do with his pride. I mean, yes he's evil. But do you think he would brag to himself about killing a near defenseless cub? Probably not. Killing his big, strong older brother makes more sense for him wanting to "brag" about that to himself and the hyenas. Plus, It gave the hyenas something fun for them to do.

Perhaps Scar just didn't have the stomach for cub killing? He also insisted the hyenas kill Simba and Nala during their trip to the graveyard.