Why is Lion the King?

While the world is awaiting the 2019 live action reboot of The Lion King, I got to watch the 1994 animated classic on TV. It is perhaps one of the first films you ever watched. If not, never mind. We're going to retell the tale. Warning - if you're a fan of The Lion King, you wouldn't watch it the same way ever again after reading this.

The Lion King is a heart-warming father-son tale that took Hamlet—a Shakespeare masterpiece—to the '90s kids. Hamlet is supposedly the most adapted piece of literature for films. Think of the most successful Indian film and it likely was inspired by Hamlet—from Padayappa to Baahubali. The one-liner for 'hamletian' stories are,

Dad is killed by conspiracy (often by a relative) and the son is pushed to revenge (which he eventually succeeds).

Here, Mufasa is the dad/king, Simba his son and Scar his brother/conspirator. Scar joins the hyenas that live beyond the kingdom to conspire against his brother Mufasa and conquer the throne. I've always tried to analyse why the evil is evil. Here, I don't have to explain why Scar wants to kill his brother, but the hyenas - they are simply evil and nobody knows why. Let's investigate.

The sun shines only on Mufasa's kingdom and beyond that live the hyenas, like the Mexicans and Rohingyas. There are hundreds of hyenas but we see only the 3 wicked ones that lead them. On the contrary, there are only a few lions but an evil one resides among them. Ratio matters.

Scar brings hyenas into the kingdom after killing Mufasa. The hyenas eat up everything and drain the kingdom's resources—correlating with the fear-mongering on immigration in the USA. How could an entire species—the hyenas—be greedy? Is it because they're led by the wrong ones? If so, the evil Scar that takes the place of Mufasa should have turned his subjects evil too but that didn't happen.

Mufasa's kingdom is diverse and all the different species peacefully coexist. They trust in the rule of their righteous king. Only lions become the king because they're on top of the food chain—like the Indian varna system. In reality, a lion neither calls itself the king, nor the creatures in a forest believe they're ruled by a lion. It's just a fun way of teaching kids the mischievous social darwinism.

The inhabitants of Mufasa's kingdom have no problem with the lions ruling over them. They've accepted the social hierarchy. The question of democracy has not arisen. A wise man once said, there's enough for everyone's need but not for greed. The Lion King says the outsiders are greedy, so keep them out.

All the good and bad in the world stems from stories.

If you think I sounded far-fetched and hypercritical, that's because you've always underestimated the power of stories. Never again.