Scar

**Scar** is the main antagonist of *The Lion King*. As the younger brother of Mufasa and second-born Prince of the Pride Lands, Scar was next in line to assume the throne as King. His chances were lost, however, at the birth of his nephew and future arch-nemesis Simba. This embittered Scar with jealousy and a sense of entitlement, prompting him to develop a regicidal plot to take over the kingdom, with the aid of his hyena henchmen. After Scar killed Mufasa to become King, Simba fought and defeated Scar as he lost his position as King.

As one of Disney's most infamous villains—made especially notorious for his success in murdering Mufasa Scar is a primary member of the *Disney Villains* franchise.

## Background

As revealed in "A Tale of Two Brothers", Scar was once named **Taka** (meaning "waste" in Swahili), and had become upset when he learned that his older brother Mufasa was chosen to be king over himself. Taka would come to meet three hyenas named Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed, who tell him that if Mufasa is made to look like a failure, then he will look kingly in comparison and soon take the throne. This leads to Taka tricking his brother into going down to the waterhole, where a Cape buffalo called Boma is refusing to share the water with the rest of The Pride Lands which, at the time, is having a terrible drought. While there Mufasa starts to try to reason with Boma and Taka roars and tells Boma that he must move by order of the Lion King, or fight Mufasa, Boma then charges out of the water at Mufasa. Mufasa escapes with the aid of a mandrill called Rafiki, and Boma goes after Taka instead.

Mufasa runs back and finds Taka being attacked by Boma's herd. A large buffalo slashes Taka with his horns, causing him to be knocked unconscious. Mufasa leaps in to save his brother and the buffaloes prepare to attack again. Before they can do so, King Ahadi, father of Taka and Mufasa, appears with a large herd of animals that surrounds the Buffaloes. It was during this attack that Taka got a scar on his eye, and renamed himself "Scar", as a reminder of his mistake, explaining his cruel name.

In *The Lion Guard*, Scar was born under the name "Askari" after his ancestor, the original Askari, and was at one point selected as leader of the Lion Guard, a team of lions who would protect the Pride Lands and the Circle of Life, as part of a tradition to all second-born children of the king. With this responsibility, Askari was given a power called the "Roar of the Elders". One day, Askari encountered a strange lion, who suggested that Askari should be the king of the Pride Lands. However, the strange lion led him to a trap where a cobra bit his left eye and left him his famous scar.

The strange lion offered to cure the cobra's venom in return for Askari's servitude afterwards, but Askari killed them both with the Roar in a fit of rage instead. After reporting the encounter to his brother, Mufasa, he was belittled and received the nickname "Scar" from his older brother and which would eventually become his only name. After that, Scar began to grow jealous and loathsome of Mufasa (as the cobra venom in his body began to corrupt him by bringing out his darker thoughts and tendencies) and came to believe that *he* should be king of the Pride Lands instead of Mufasa. When the Lion Guard refused to help Scar usurp his brother, Scar infuriatingly used the Roar of the Elders to eliminate them. Due to using the Roar of the Elders for evil, the Great Lions of the Past took the Roar away and Scar lost the power completely and descended into depression, becoming shriveled and weak.

### Personality

Scar is known to be very resentful of Mufasa and Simba, the latter for essentially ruining any chance of him legitimately becoming king. His resentment and anger towards Mufasa were strong enough that, after he usurped Mufasa's place on the throne by murdering him, he outlawed the very mention of Mufasa's name whenever he was in anyone's immediate vicinity.

Scar seems to possess somewhat of an inferiority complex, as evidenced by his sad resignation to the fact that he was passed over in the gene pool regarding brute strength. At the same time, however, Scar is egotistical and prides himself on his intelligence, saying "As far as brains go, I got the lion’s share." and is somewhat of a narcissist, the latter trait being especially prevalent when plotting the murder of Mufasa after the hyenas' failed attempt at slaughtering Simba at the Elephant Graveyard where he mentions that when he becomes king, they’ll see him "for the wonder [he is]." He has some peculiar quirks of which he is aware, as when Simba affectionately states "You're so weird," Scar tells Simba "You have no idea" (although this specific line was an intentional in-joke referring to *Reversal of Fortune*, in which Jeremy Irons utters the same line).

Scar is heavily sarcastic, frequently replying to attempts at conversation with sarcasm and subtle insults. After taking over Pride Rock, Scar's overall demeanor takes a turn for the worse, becoming somewhat deluded, if not in self-denial, in believing that he is still a logical ruler despite clear evidence to the contrary, apparently being unprepared to confess even to himself that Mufasa was a better king or finding fault in his own leadership. As such, in a dark parallel to Simba's initial idealism to becoming king, he also proceeds to refuse relocating the Pride from Pride Rock despite being confronted with obvious evidence that any surviving animals in the region had fled the premises as well as there being an ongoing drought, not caring if this resulted in the kingdom's, or his own, death. This implied that a large part of the reason why he decided this course of action was simply because he could give that order as king. Even when he is above Mufasa, having betrayed, murdered and stolen the throne from him, he remains sensitive to his brother's mention. It is one of the only subjects that can flare his temper; at the mere mention of Mufasa, he threatens Zazu, assaults Sarabi, and snaps at his own hyena minions. This indicates that Scar suffers from low self-esteem. Even in a position of power, he remains vulnerable to bouts of indecision and insecurity, as he is unable to accept criticism and too stubborn to take the advice of his advisers. Scar is also a hypocrite, as he begs Simba to spare his life due to their family ties despite the fact that he killed his own brother. He also tells Janja not to run like a coward, ignoring the fact that he himself fled from Simba during the battle of Pride Rock.

During his younger years, as leader of his Guard, Scar often did patrols on his own, showing his confidence. He was also a bit naive, as he trusted a no-account rouge that ended up double-crossing him, which ended up wounding him in the end. However, he proved to be very tactic with his intentions as after he turned traitor and slaughtered the stranger in revenge, he spun the narrative around in his favor to make him the hero of the story, showing his lust for attention.

Scar is highly smart as he himself liked to boast, easily able to manipulate situations and conversations to his advantage. This made up for Scar's lack of physical strength, which was further demonstrated by his decision to subject a fully grown Simba to a court rather than fighting him openly. Despite this, he did not appear to mind doing his own hunts, as evidenced when he brought a zebra leg for the hyenas and in the 2019 remake he hunted alongside the hyenas. He is a fierce fighter who held his own against the bigger and much younger Simba and came very close to having him slaughtered. However, Scar will not hesitate to deceive in a fight, as seen when he flings embers into Simba's eyes, temporarily blinding him, to gain the upper hand. Scar was an extremely charismatic individual, able to inspire the hyenas to follow his cause and gain fanatical loyalty from Zira and her pride of lionesses, even in death.

Regarding his treatment of Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed, he is somewhat harsh with them, as evidenced by his berating them regarding their failure to kill Simba and Nala (even though they only escaped because of Mufasa's timely arrival), and his angrily kicking them out after Banzai made the mistake of mentioning Mufasa within earshot. He could barely tolerate the idea of relying on "idiots" like them. Worst of all, when he realized that they lied to him about Simba's fate, he gives them a glance which seemed to indicate he would deal with them later. Despite this, however, he seems to value them as friends, as evidenced by his remark when he finds the hyenas waiting for him before he realized they overheard his remarks, as well as his attempts at owing them an apology for falling on deaf ears when he realized it was too late and finally passed on.

Scar is also a detestable sadist, convincing his own nephew he was responsible for Mufasa's death and then taunting him for it further. He even toys with Zazu when the majordomo tried talking back at him. Despite his negative traits, he attempts to applaud Zazu to sing a more "bouncy" song, other than "It's a Small World", which he apparently finds to be very exasperating (like a lot of people do in real life), because when Zazu starts to sing it, Scar snaps at him, telling him to stop ("No, no. *Anything* but that.").

Scar remains conniving and power-hungry, even after his demise, as evidently shown by his schemes to weaken the Lion Guard, led by his great-nephew, Kion, and he has apparently become less forgiving of failure to the point that Janja fears Scar greatly. In death, he is still manipulative and—in spite of his pridefulness—knows that his goals cannot be accomplished without the assistance of the Outlanders, prompting him to use both intimidation and temptation to keep his new lackeys compliant. He retains his plotting nature, though he becomes more maniacal, as he gleefully sows dissent, panic, and unrest in the Pride Lands through the work of his allies. He attempts to break the Circle of Life and even kill massive herds of animals in order to weaken the kingdom he'd once ruled.

If his allies show any sign of failure, cowardice, foolishness, or weakness, Scar will fly into a terrible rage. His anger only rises when his multiple plots are foiled by his grand-nephew, Kion, for whom he harbors a special hatred. In the end, Scar has no concept of forgiveness nor compassion towards others, caring only for himself, and has no comprehension of family, clearly shown when he is surprised and dumbfounded when Kion forgives him for his crimes and instead calls upon the Great Kings of the Past to judge Scar rather than eliminating the evil spirit in hatred.

## Trivia

* Scar appears in Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's Adventures Series to get revenge on Thomas, Twilight Sparkle and their friends for foiling his plans to take over The Pride Lands as king and trying to take over it again ever since he returned as a spirit in *Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's Adventures of The Lion Guard: The Rise of Scar* until his second and permanent death in *Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's Adventures of The Lion Guard: Battle for the Pride Lands.*
* Scar is also Shere Khan's partner since they're both evil felines.
* As the inhabitants of Pride Lands say, especially Mufasa: Scar has never cared for anyone but himself, which implies that he has chosen Kovu to be his heir only to renew the flawlessly loyalty of Zira and that he did not really care about Kovu. This is further supported in The Lion Guard because at no point did Scar showed concern for where Kovu was and was obsessed only by his revenge against Simba.
* As explained in "Lions of the Outlands" during his reign, he shared the knowledge of the Roar of the Elders with Zira.
	+ Scar is easily the most evil villain in the *The Lion King* franchise as most villains have redeeming traits, taken comically or have noble goals.
	+ Scar is the only leader of the Lion Guard who has turned evil so far.
	+ According to Ford Riley, Scar was originally named after Askari, the leader of the first Lion Guard. It was shortened by Mufasa to the nickname "Scar" after he got his scar.

## Gallery

Scar's spirit in The Lion GuardScar in The Lion King."Long live the King."A tyrannical Scar ruling over a now barren Pride Lands.Scar and Simba battle to the death.Scar is surrounded by the hyenas after being defeated by Simba, moments before his death.Scar in Simba's nightmare in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride.Scar in The Lion King 1½.Scar face to face with Simba, years since their last fight.Scar with KionScar with ZiraScar ordering MwogaScar glares at BungaScar with Shere KhanScar at the House of MouseRafiki and Scar in House of MouseOne of Scar's cameos in The Lion King's Timon & PumbaaScar's second cameoScar (Live Action)Cave painting of Scar and his guardScar with UshariScar with JanjaScar with ReireiScar speaks to the leaders.Scar with SumuScar destroys his GuardScar's new plan to take over the Pride LandsScar's second defeat and deathScar and MufasaScar saying his final words before he's defeated by KionScar with UshariScar with the Strange LionScar becomes evil and begins his hatred of MufasaScar loses his role as Leader of the Lion Guard after his actionsScar and his Lion GuardScar destroying his Lion Guard with The Roar of the Elders after they refuse to help him overthrow Mufasa.Scar appears at the top of Pride Rock.Scar during "Be Prepared".Scar fights SimbaScar with SarabiScar with ZazuScar as a teenage lion