re: Analyzing the Lion King: Why did Scar's policies as king fail?

Way too many Scar apologists on here. His regime had many problems that doomed it to failure.

One- mismanagement of resources and crony capitalism. The hyaenas had carte Blanche an destroyed the grasslands by over grazing and over hunting. The hyaenas had no interest in the social order, an had now systemic pressures to lint their behavior. In fact, they wanted to oppress and destroy the people.

Two - suppression of rights. Scar's attempt to limit traditional freedom of expression only encouraged revolution. Dictators control language and speech, which works in the short run, but undermines genuine support for your regime. Oppression births revolution.

Three - arrogance. Scar made the classic political error of opposing certain policies for the sole reason that his political predecessor supported them. That's infantile, and Scar failed to utilize the institutional knowledge of Zazu and the lionesses. When drought hit, he had no one to help guide his policies.

He was a dictator, paranoid of any alleged threat to his power. That's no way to govern.

The drought was caused by ripping off the plot to Hamlet.

Everyone knows that the female lions are the one who hunt. He pissed them off and they weren't going to do shite for him.

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No way could Scar make the rivers dry up and the vegetation stop growing, not to mention the fricking sun not shining. I'd love to know what Simba did after defeating Scar that magically made everything turn back into paradise.

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I figure that the drought itself was just caused by the dry season...At the beginning of the film, a point is made to show the rains. By the time Scar takes over, there are none. Finally, at the film's climax/battle scene the storms come back again, putting out the wildfires, and I figure it took some time for everything to be restored again.

So, Scar didn't cause the drought, he just made everything go bad for the pride by being a poor, arrogant leader. Even after the hyenas had consumed most of the remaining resources and the herds had long since left the pridelands, he still refused to do much to remedy the situation or follow Sarabi's advice to leave Pride Rock, simply because he was too proud to.
Hell, even after Sarabi warned that not leaving would essentially be a death sentence he still didn't care...he was so blinded by power as to be oblivious to the pride's imminent collapse.

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I've often thought about writing an article for Cracked about TLK, and this is one of the points I would address. No way could Scar make the rivers dry up and the vegetation stop growing, not to mention the fricking sun not shining. I'd love to know what Simba did after defeating Scar that magically made everything turn back into paradise.

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Obviously, Scar was a dirty atheist who refused to respect the Lion Gods. Meanwhile, Simba was the single most devout Lion in Africa. Think about it, why else would the gods allow Mufasa to form in the clouds and speak to Simba and send him back to the Pride Lands.