I feel like we all know the story, so I'll cut to the chase.
In Disney's animated film The Lion King, Scar wants the crown, so he sets Mufasa up. He has Simba almost trampled by wildebeests, Mufasa jumps into action to save his kid, and when Mufasa climbs up the side of the mountain and asks Scar to save him, Scar tosses Mufasa off the ledge.
Mufasa dies, and Simba runs away to the jungle after a botched assassination attempt by the hyenas.
That sequence has haunted most of my generation.
Of course, it's also one of Disney's proudest moments. The Lion King is Shakespeare. This is when the movie went full Hamlet, and I think it made people take their animation more seriously.
And that wasn't the only nod to the play, there's this image where Scar talks to a skull, which is right out of the Danish Prince's playbook.
Credit: Disney
But take a closer look at the skull he's holding...
Is that... a lion's skull?
TikTok user ClassyKing0 began to wonder... what happened to Mufasa's body after he died? His video below quickly went viral.
@classyking0 Me and @notalexislol just figured this out #fyp #foryou #lionking #simba #mufasa
After watching that video, I was pretty convinced that Scar ate Mufasa and kept his bones to taunt long after he died. This feels both in line with the animal kingdom and the story of Hamlet. Scar thought Mufasa was a joke, and Yorick, the guy who Hamlet digs up in the play, was his jester.
But then I saw this reply video from straw_hat_goofy, and I wasn't so sure anymore.
@straw_hat_goofy @classyking0 close but no cigar
He did some research and found out that hyenas don't usually hunt lions, but they'll kill and eat a vulnerable lion if it is alone, outside of the pride. We saw that in the movie several times with baby Simba.
What he thinks happened is that the hyenas ate Mufasa's body and then gave Scar the bones.
Later, when Scar falls, they eat him too. The same fate befalling two brothers.
Which, as he points out, is very Shakespearean as well.
This is all pretty messed up. I know a few people on Twitter tried to claim that the skull Scar is playing with is not a lion skull, but a baboon, but I just don't see it.
To me, Scar is just an irascible deviant waiting to take his place on the throne. And he's cool with holding onto his brother's bones as a token of his success and power.
So much for it being a kids' movie!
Let me know what you think in the comments.
