We're Talking Kings and Successions

Scar was a sneaking, conniving scoundrel, even with his own species. When Prince Simba was a little older, Scar tricked him into visiting the Elephant Graveyard. The penalty for a lion invading our home was the same as one of us invading theirs: immediate death. Only minutes earlier, five hyenas had barely escaped King Mufasa's wrath after crossing into the Pride Lands.

Prince Simba had a friend with him, and Zazu had accompanied them. Banzai, who lived for moments of unnecessary cruelty, seized the bird and placed him on the nearest geyser. Zazu had the presence of mind to fly to the Pride Lands for help while Banzai and the other two attempted to murder the prince and his friend.

Anyone who sees Shenzi's face will no doubt notice the scars across her cheek. They aren't deep, and she can usually hide them, but whoever gets close enough to converse with her will notice. Showing every ounce of his father's courage, Simba swiped his claws across the clan leader's face as she was about to seize Nala with jaws more powerful than even a lion's.

In the end, it wasn't enough. The three ruffians managed to trap the cubs.

"Here kitty, kitty, kitty!" Banzai taunted.

I'll say this for Prince Simba: He just didn't know when to give up. He tried so hard to roar, but the pathetic sound he made was a poor excuse. All he succeeded in doing was making a joke.

"That was it?" Shenzi laughed. "Do it again! Come on!"

Eveyone was caught off guard by the thunderous roar that seemed to shake the entire Graveyard.

"Huh?"

Their question was answered by powerful paws rapidly administering painful blows. King Mufasa had come to rescue his son, and he wasn't fooling around. He meant business. All three hyenas caught a solid hit, knocking them off their feet. They then felt claws across their sides when they tried to rise. Every time a hyena tried to fight back, the lion king easily blocked the counterattack. The hyenas were defeated, and they knew it. Realizing there was no point fighting back, they finally concentrated on escaping, but the monarch wasn't finished with them yet. When King Mufasa believed they had been punished severely enough, he pinned them to the ground.

Shenzi was terrified. "Oh! Please! Please! Uncle! Uncle!"

Banzai couldn't think of how to plea. All he could do was complain of the pain. "Ow! Ow! Ow!"

"SILENCE!" King Mufasa ordered.

"Hey, come on, we're gonna shut up right now!" Banzai replied.

"Calm down! We're really sorry!" Shenzi began.

The king's face was pure wrath. "If you ever come near my son again…!"

Shenzi had an idea. "Oh, this is…this is your son?"

Banzai played along. "Oh, yours?"

"Did you know that?"

"No! Me? I—I—I didn't know it! No! Did you?"

"No! Of course not!"

Turning to their companion, they both asked, "Ed?"

Honesty is the best policy unless you're dealing with an enraged adversary. Ed, who had no doubt lost over half his brain cells by this time, nodded to show he had indeed known whose son he had tried to kill.

The king roared again in agitation.

Banzai chuckled nervously. "Toodles!"

With that, the three villains ran off, yelping and whimpering like frightened cubs. If you ask me, they deserved exactly what they got (perhaps an even harsher penalty), but when I stop to consider the situation, I realize that no one is to blame. By either nature's design or the feud that has lasted so long that we continue it out of habit, hyenas eat young lions. That is just the way of the Circle of Life. That being, I can't blame my clan leaders for attacking the prince, especially since the Circle of Life also moves us all to vanquish whoever trespasses on our land. However, the love between a parent and a cub is a sweet and powerful force, a force that often proves stronger than the love for life itself. With all things taken into consideration, I can't blame King Mufasa for rescuing his son. Neither the leonine monarch nor the hyena leaders were at fault for their actions. The only one truly guilty was Scar.

Banzai later made the mistake of commenting on the scratch marks on his hips. "Man, that lousy Mufasa! I won't be able to sit for a week!"

That got Ed to laughing.

"It's not funny, Ed!"

Being told not to laugh tends to make anyone laugh harder, as Ed demonstrated.

"Hey, shut up!"

Since Ed would not stop laughing, Banzai lunged at him.

Shenzi, who had been watching the whole thing, was obviously irritated. "Will you knock it off?"

"Well, he started it!" Banzai complained.

"Look at you guys! No wonder we're dangling at the bottom of the food chain!"

"Man, I hate dangling!"

"Yeah!" Shenzi agreed. "You know, if it weren't for those lions, we'd be running the joint!"

"Man, I hate lions!"

"So pushy!"

"And hairy!"

"And stinky!"

"And, man, are they…!"

"Ugly!" Shenzi and Banzai exclaimed together, breaking into a fit of laughter.

They hadn't been expecting a visit from Scar. To shorten what would otherwise be a lengthy story, Scar was tired of waiting. He was going to be king, and no one was going to stop him. His lies worked their way down from the clan leaders to the social outcasts, gaining him the support of nearly every hyena in our area of the savanna. They allowed themselves to be fooled into believing they'd have plenty of the one thing everyone from carnivore to herbivore depends on so desperately.

We'll have food

Lots of food

We repeat

Endless meat

How blind they were! How ignorant and foolish! Couldn't they see that Scar was not really our ally? He was just using us to obtain his own goals! He didn't care about our well-being!

I knew better, but I didn't say anything. I didn't want any trouble.

The next day, Scar told our clan leaders to cause a wildebeest stampede in the gorge where Prince Simba was playing. Scar was so brutal! He told the prince before the stampede to stay on a certain rock. If the cub had stayed on the rock, the wildebeests would have run around him, and he would not have been in danger of being trampled. Scar had told Prince Simba exactly how to survive the stampede, but he had used sadistic psychology to make sure his own nephew would put himself in danger!

King Mufasa did what he had always done best. He defied incredible odds to save his son from a cruel fate. That would have made a lovely story, but Scar wasn't finished. As King Mufasa attempted to climb to safety, Scar threw him off a cliff.

I am told that in the human world, there are also unanswered questions about murders. In our world, the question is this: Did King Mufasa give his life, or did Scar take it?