Does cub Simba have a undeserved bad reputation?

[Elton John]

I've seen a lot of people think of him as a selfish, obnoxious know it all whose only concern is being the king. This I think is very unfair to him.

-in spite of him being annoyed by zazu and singing a song that involves tormenting him... After escaping the hyenas was 'yeah, but where's zazu?' Instead of trying to run away even farther with nala, they go back looking for zazu. Simba then says to three hungry hyenas 'why don't you pick on somebody your own size?' He desperately cries for zazu's help in the gorge.

This tells me that he does care about zazu. Showing concern over his safety. Trusting him to help save his life....

-Simba and Nala had a strong friendship. Not just that, he'd go out of his way to save her when it would be much easier to save his life. When nala is struggling to climb up the bones in the elephant graveyard, this close to being hyena chow instead of saving himself he takes a powerful slice into shenzi, enough to draw blood and buy nala time to climb up.

When cornered by three hungry predators he doesn't stand behind nala cowering, he doesn't stand to her side, he stands in front of her, willing to go out fighting to save his best friend.

Another thing. When learning about the elephant graveyard, the first thing he does is go to see if Nala wants to go with him. He doesn't exclude her from dangerous things because she's a girl, he thinks of her as a partner in adventure.

Also when being pinned by nala, he doesn't make excuses, he doesn't call her a cheater, he doesn't get too angry... He goes at it again and the two are laughing. He's pinned again but makes no excuses.

-He loves his dad. So much that he blames himself for almost his entire childhood to adulthood for his death.

-when meeting timon and pumbaa he doesn't eat them. They quickly become friends. He sees them as equals despite being much lower on the food chain. He goes 'it's beautiful' when introduced to his new jungle home instead of complaining about it.

So yeah, I don't think lil simba gets enough credit.

[Ninaroja]

I think a lot of people forget that Simba is just a child, who has had a privileged and likely sheltered upbringing - notice that Mufasa doesn't outright tell him about the elephant graveyard (only referring to it as being "beyond our borders"), at even the slightest hint of danger he is returned to the safety of home, and can't go anywhere without an escort of some sort. He has spent his whole life with enough to eat and enough shelter and protection, all the while in the knowledge that some day he is going to be king of the entirety of the Pride Lands. With this in mind, I think it's completely understandable that he seems a bit bratty.

However, Simba's transition from this to taking his place and accepting responsibility is one of the key factors of the whole movie! As he grows up he realises that life is not a basket of roses, and being king isn't all fun and games and just being able to do what you want all the time. It really annoys me when people pass judgement of him too quickly without stopping to think about why he is the way he is.

Same goes for his "over protectiveness" in TLK2 - he is clearly still in a world of pain and anxiety from his past traumas.

[SimbasGuard]

You two have really stated things very well. The only thing I can think to add are that when he sings I Just Can't Wait To Be King, it is because he didn't exactly understand what Mufasa meant when he said that One day the sun would set on his time. As proved when Simba says: "We'll always be together" I am sure Simba thought that one Day he would wake up and Mufasa would tell him that he was King now.

I also thought it was very significant that in Lion King 2 Simba flat out told Kiara: "One day I won't be here."

[Ninaroja]

[quote="SimbasGuard"]

I also thought it was very significant that in Lion King 2 Simba flat out told Kiara: "One day I won't be here."[/quote]

Woah... I never actually thought of it that way

[it means no worries]

Simba being an obnoxious, selfish, bratty spoilt kid was kinda the point of the first part of the film. That behaviour emphasised his transformation from that into a responsible adult. If he was a polite, well mannered young man, then there would be no bildungsroman.

[SimbasGuard]

Young Simba had his faults, but he was not as rotten to the core as some people seem to think he was. He did mature greatly in his adulthood, but even as a cub Simba was always a good character.

[DGFone]

I wonder how much people hate cub Simba because he reminds us all of just how much we used to be so annoying when we were young?

I understand people calling him as a cub very annoying and very much not-a-future-king - because he is still the equivalent of a 10 year old human. When was the last time one of those went about saving the world? Now yes, you do get the very rare and occasional prodigy, but if cub Simba was portrayed as one of those, not only would people call out TLK for being highly cliched, the movie itself would have been much worse because a, if not the, significant aspect of the movie is Simba's character growth throughout the movie. If he started at the top, what growth would there have been left for him to achieve? Biological growth?

Script early draft: A lion cub named Simba is already ready to take on his role as future king. He is kind and selfless and no one could have asked for a better son.

How does he improve by the end?

He uh... gets bigger.

[Lauren]

If people think Cub Simba was an obnoxious and annoying child, then I don't know what they find to be a normal child.

The way Simba thought and behaved in the first half served a point to the whole film since he had to change and transition into adulthood with a completely different mindset. That's how you grow up. The way he thought about leadership was not the same as to how he really saw what it was like once he became an adult. You're not just given a privilege or position; you have to work for it. Simba had to realize that being a king was not all fun and games, but a huge responsibility.

[quote="Ninaroja"]Same goes for his "over protectiveness" in TLK2 - he is clearly still in a world of pain and anxiety from his past traumas.[/quote]
I seem to be one of the few fans out that disagrees with the idea that the second film "ruined his character". His guilt for the trauma that occurred years ago never completely went away but it took another form (i.e. the nightmare sequence). I wouldn't just expect for him to run around in a field of roses like everything's completely fine. His character arc in the second film seems to be hated a majority of the time due to the fact it focuses on a character who continues to suffer heavily from a past in which causes him to not be the most nicest guy, but is only trying to do what he feels is right to protect his family and the rest of the Pridelands. It reminds me of the way fans seem to give damaged and traumatized characters hate like Severus Snape from Harry Potter.

[Elton John]

I'm just saying I don't think he's as bratty or selfish as most people paint him to be.

[Carl]

He is bratty and selfish, but I have rarely seen anyone hate him for it, because that's how kids are. Yes he obviously cared about others, but that doesn't make him not selfish. Most kids are selfish and bratty. Being selfish and bratty also doesn't make someone a bad person, er... lion, at least not when one is young. Most fans love Simba, and cub Simba gets more love than adult Simba from what I've seen in the past 3 years on here and about 4 on deviant Art.