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[-] usernamesaredifficul@hexbear.net 17 points 10 months ago

I disagree Scar is very much of the ruling class and uses and exploits an underclasses anger at the status quo to gain personal power.

Like how Cortez turned a rebellion against the aztecs into a conquest

[-] LeylaLove@hexbear.net 12 points 10 months ago

The movie was widely written by Black South Africans, only 4 years after the release of Nelson Mandela. Many of the writers on the film say that Scar is supposed to represent imperialist interests, Mufasa is the traditional African rule, while Simba represents Nelson Mandela coming back from prison and exhile to rule and overthrow the imperialists and rule their world better. I usually hate looking at author's intent, but I find it to be essential to understanding the Lion King.

The Hyenas represent the imperial core, starving and doing terrible under the rule, but also having hopes of being as powerful as Scar. Scar is a good representation of facism when you REALLY think about it.

[-] usernamesaredifficul@hexbear.net 13 points 10 months ago

that really seems like a stretch especially as the film far closer follows the themes of macbeth or hamlet or any other propaganda about divine right of kings

the patriachal care along with predation offered by Mufasa is almost exactly the feudal ideological role of the nobility and his speach about the circle of life is the feudal notion of everyone having their assigned role, rights and responsibilities. Scar by killing Mufasa goes against the natural order and thus the entire system is upset. The divine right of kings espouses that when a king is killed or usurped there will be storms and nature will be thrown out of balance - as depicted in Macbeth. Then upon the return of the rightful king the natural balance is restored. So the plot of the film very closely follows the doctrine of divine right of kings

As a metaphor for apartheid it just doesn't fit very well only so far as Mandela good, racism bad. The film makes great emphasis on Simba personally coming from a royal lineage which really doesn't fit Mandela. If the plot is about Mandela or apartheid why doesn't it in any meaningful way touch upon those themes or ideas

[-] zed_proclaimer@hexbear.net 9 points 10 months ago

Where are you getting this council of black African writers from? IMDb say it was written by Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton all of which are white Americans.

[-] LeylaLove@hexbear.net 4 points 10 months ago

Musicians who also wrote on the Lion King.

[-] zed_proclaimer@hexbear.net 10 points 10 months ago

So people who had nothing to do with the plot or themes, got it. It’s Disney monarchist propaganda regardless of what some minor musical writers thought

[-] LeylaLove@hexbear.net 7 points 10 months ago

I think it's kinda short sighted to assume that minorities who got lesser credits had no impact on the story. We're literally talking about a musical, where the music is key to the themes. Lyric writers are essential in musicals.

So yes, they are authors who are able to have an opinion on what their collective work means. It's art, there is no correct interpretation of it. Their opinions on their own work are worth considering, regardless of how much you want to write off lyricists in a musical. It is a clone of Macbeth, and has all the flaws that come with that, maybe Disney even intended those flaws. But that doesn't take away from how essential lyrics are in a musical, and how those people can have specific intent for the story.

[-] porcupine@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 10 months ago

Do you have a source (or names?) for the claim about the movie being "widely written by black South Africans", because as others here have noted, the 3 credited screenwriters are all white Americans. I briefly looked up about half of the "Story by" credits, and they all seemed to be white Americans. This feels like an apocryphal story.

[-] LeylaLove@hexbear.net 3 points 10 months ago

Check the video I posted in my comments, it has the sources.

[-] frogbellyratbone_@hexbear.net 11 points 10 months ago

Scar is very much of the ruling class and uses and exploits an underclasses anger at the status quo to gain personal power

common red scare trope. Scar didn't get a chance to correctly portray the uprising from his perspective. you only saw the bourgeoisie's side/telling of it

[-] Deadend@hexbear.net 3 points 10 months ago

Scar made a deal with foreign power (hyenas). He got power and they were allowed to steal natural resources.

[-] frogbellyratbone_@hexbear.net 5 points 10 months ago

hyenas are local to africa they are not a foreign power idk why you are fighting for the divine right of kings through simba so hard , he didn't even wear eyeliner like scar did

[-] Deadend@hexbear.net 2 points 10 months ago

Different region. Scar also simply did a palace coup and used foreign armed forces to solidify his power.

[-] zed_proclaimer@hexbear.net 4 points 10 months ago

This is how all communist revolutions are framed by the right. They don’t think real communism exists, it’s always a bad faith cover for a power grab

[-] usernamesaredifficul@hexbear.net 8 points 10 months ago

whilst that is a common anti-communist trope scar is not a communist nor is there any indication whatsoever that he is meant to represent communism

[-] zed_proclaimer@hexbear.net 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

He explicitly tells the starving hyenas that they will be seizing all of the kingdom and distributing it amongst them, that they will never go hungry again. That the “natural order” with lions at the top will be upended permanently. He is coded as a leftwing revolutionary, as gay, as dark skinned and “other” and the marching in “Be Prepared” is based off red square parades

[-] usernamesaredifficul@hexbear.net 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

and the marching in “Be Prepared” is based off red square parades

no it's not it's a shot for shot reference to triumph of the will. Even the lighting is an effect from nazi rallies

watch it again Scar is clearly not concerned with the wellbeing of the hyenas nor does he value their inteligence or input. The hyenas are a pretty obvious analogy to the brownshirts or freikorps given the explicit fascist imagry of Scar's song

[-] zed_proclaimer@hexbear.net 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Scar is clearly not concerned with the wellbeing of the hyenas nor does he value their inteligence or input

Neither does Stalin in anti-communist propaganda care about the worker. Remember you seem to keep forgetting this is monarchist propaganda told from the perspective of a reactionary who believes all leftwing leaders are Machiavellian self-interested monsters. Scar is portrayed how the right sees communists. You keep using the text to try make a point while ignoring that the text has bias

Monarchists/Liberals also love conflating fascism and communism as the same thing, so the mixing of fascist and communist themes is deliberate.

You aren’t gonna make me think your Disney monarchist Hollywood propaganda is woke

[-] usernamesaredifficul@hexbear.net 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I don't think it's woke to have nazis be the villains in the movie that was very standard behavior at the time. Indiana Jones is not woke

Scar is not real the Scar of the text is the only Scar there is. And the Scar of the text is a royal dissatisfied with not being head of the monarchy who recruits disaffected hyenas (animal type is a big theme in lion king the hyenas are predators just like lions and that is relevant here) his offer to hyenas to eat all they want is analogous to offering to let his supporters kill and rob all they want. Again fitting the hyenas being a freikorp stand in. There are no communist themes scar offers nothing to the Hyenas that you couldn't find promised on a nazi propaganda poster

I have already pointed out how monarchist the film is but Scar is not supposed to be a communist.

Frankly it makes more sense to say Long John Silver is meant to be a communist or even Scrooge in fact here we go "Scrooge's ruthlessness and the way he forces people to live in draughty houses with no food is a clear reference to anti-communist tropes, Scrooge is meant to be stalin all the stuff about him being a capitalist is just the state capitalism allegation".

You can't just take a villain in a tv show and say "they're a communist all the explicit textual evidence portraying them as clearly not a communist is just propaganda"

this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
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