Be Prepared

Be prepared for the coup of the century,

Be prepared for the murkiest scam.

Meticulous planning, tenacity spanning,

Decades of denial are simply why I'll

Be king undisputed, respected, saluted

and seen for the wonder I am.

Yes, my teeth and ambitions are bared:

Be prepared.

–– The Lion King

Scar is, in my opinion, one of the worst Disney villains ever imagined--and therefore, by definition, one of the best.  To quote Harry Potter (which I noticed I do a lot, but who can blame me?), he "is terrible, but great."  I consider him in the same league as Mother Gothel and the Queen of Hearts, the former of which possesses the same manipulative ability as he, and the latter the same unpredictable temper simmering just below the surface.  He scares me because he is clever, [externally submissive (and thus not a clear threat)], and patient--the last of which is his most dangerous quality, as many Disney foes meet their demise by their own hubris-driven rash actions.  He is cautious, carefully devising foolproof plans (they must be, as his only employees are utter fools), but greater still are his acting abilities: convincing his own brother, who should know him and his wily ways better than anyone, that his dreams of the throne lie dormant; leading Simba to numerous dead-ends by exhibiting false good intentions and exploiting a child's innate trust.  He puts on a good show, so good that Mufasa is lured to his death.  Simba is left so emotionally scarred (no pun intended) by his uncle's accusations that he believes the obvious lies long into his adult life, thus our hero effectively negates himself thanks to the psychological damage induced by his uncle.  Scar essentially convinces Simba that he is the villain.  It's ingenious: most villains bribe, and then lose their bargaining chip, or else threaten, until the tables are turned on them; Scar needed neither: he used Simba against himself.  Very Big Brother, is it not?  Avoiding rebellion by making any potential rebels self-regulate their urge to rise up.  And yet his regime falls, and while Simba's recovery of himself and his destiny is definitely a large factor in Scar's demise, I can't help but think Scar was a greater threat to himself: in much the same way he convinced Simba to subvert himself, Scar was the cause of his own destruction.  And laugh if you will, but I think the best way to describe Scar's self-destruction is through John Tucker, who shared a similar problem: where one confessed love to three girls, the other professed loyalty to three major powers--Mufasa, the hyenas, and Simba.  In the end, neither could balance their false claims of love to three independent states, and the whole fragile structure toppled over.

Scar's doom was inevitable, regardless of the rank of his balancing abilities: after all, it is a Disney movie.  But for once, the hero faced a true threat that could not be beaten by brawn or brains or true love: Scar's mind-bending and his self-effacing trickery will always be, to me, one of the most frightening displays of villainous power ever displayed on a Disney screen.