Was Scar really treated unjustly?

[InsaneSeagull]

The last time I've listened to Be Prepared, the line "And injustice deliciously squared, be prepared!" caught my ear.

The whole morning, I've been thinking: was Scar really treated unjustly? I mean, he isn't a crown prince, but he's still a prince, part of the royal family, and he should be treated like one. Instead of it, he was treated like a rubbish since he was born, put in his older brother's shadow. Even Mufasa treated him like any other subject, not even like a family. Trough the whole movie, I had a feeling that even Zazu felt more important than him.

What do you think?

[TheBlackCatCrossing]

It's certainly possible that Scar/Taka had dealt with enough rejection in his life that he became resentful. That will definitely do that to someone. Add to that, the favoritism, the being set aside, etc. I also think that even if Disney made it so that they were co-rulers, as real life lions operate, Scar still would have found a way to usurp power: simply because he can. He's never satisfied.

[KentuckyWildcat]

We don't really know any of Scar's backstory, so it's hard to say. I could see a scenario in which he was constantly overlooked at a young age becuase his older brother was the future king. Maybe Mufasa always looked down on him and it made him bitter over time. It's fun to think about the possibilities.

As for his actions in the movie itself, I kind of get the impression that he was an outcast by choice at that point and that he was so jealous and power hungry that he considered the simple fact that he wasn't the king to be injustice.

[DGFone]

I think it all comes down to the fact that Scar was not king yet, and he was planning to set that 'right'. In his eyes, it was extreme injustice that Mufasa became king and not him. Which makes sense why, by killing Mufasa, the injustice will become square.

Mufasa is king? The injustice! Mufasa dead? Much better!

[TheLionPrince]

^I think I can agree with DGFone's answer. The line he sings before that is, "When at last I am given my dues", which he is referring to his dues he will be given when he becomes king. So, the injustice is him not being the king.

For an alternate evaluation I thought up, click below.

Spoiler: show

I believe Scar is referring to Mufasa's treatment of the hyenas, who are banished from the Pride Lands with little food and water resources elsewhere, in which Scar sees as "injustice". Remember "Be Prepared" is basically Scar singing about what he will do when he becomes king, and how he will planned to be.

So, when Scar becomes king, he will allow the hyenas to live good off the land, and the injustice will become square.

[TheBlackCatCrossing]

^I always thought that the 'injustice' was Scar being histrionic about not being king. LOL.

[cleargreenwater]

Yeah, I....I don't know. There's a lot of dripply miserable fan theories about Scar being treated terribly, but I often think in my own mind if the actual problem wasn't more just that he was coddled/sheltered TOO much and went through his life with an ungodly inflated sense of entitlement and too much pampered time to just sit and think and get irrationally butthurt instead of spending it facing challenges the way Mufasa was presumably encouraged to for the sake of training/learning. The feeling I often get from Scar veers more towards "spoiled" than "grossly wronged/mistreated".

As for the song I never really questioned that line referring to more than just that he wasn't going to be king.