What the fuck is that supposed to mean? :dubious: Another cheap swipe at a group of people?
Female hyenas have pseudo-penises. The original European wildlife observers had a hard time distinguishing them from males. This was probably exacerbated by the fact that having females leading the pack went against the European worldview of the time.
They also give birth through their pseudo-penis, which causes firstborn young to die much more often that later-born young.
Actually, Diggerwon a Hugo. The hyenas in that comic were fierce, and their social structure was different from the humans and the other animals in the area. And Grim Eyes and her crew did try to eat the protagonist, at the beginning. But they were basically good guys.
In fact, if you’re going to read it, don’t ask about Ed. Anything anyone tells you about Ed would be a major spoiler.
Just as a quick aside, not to highjack too badly, but you might enjoy “The Last Ringbearer,” an upside-down retake of Lord of the Rings, where (much as in The Lion King) it is an environmental collapse that prompts Sauron’s military aggression. When the crops fail, and the neighbors won’t sell you food, what else can you do but starve?
There’s a lot more to it – the middle part of the book is pretty much a modern Spy Thriller (!) – but the upshot is that a couple of Orcs are the heroes, Gandalf is an undead, and Galadriel is a tyrant who makes Stalin look like a champion of liberty. (She has a secret police and everything.) One of the wildest efforts at fannish revisionism I’ve ever seen – but I certainly will make an effort to track down Needle’s Wild Woods! Thank you for the mention!
And the English translation is available as a free ebook, due to the questionably legality of selling what is essentially fanfiction of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Be sure to check out the External Links on that wiki page to get it.
Evil antelopes?
Thanks ! I’ve seen mention of “The Last Ringbearer” before, on the Dope: felt intrigued, but didn’t actually follow it up. Will definitely do so now.
I saw The Lion King when it came out, I enjoyed it, and I didn’t raise any of the hundreds of possible objections to the plot at the time.
Why were the hyenas the bad guys? Because SOMEBODY has to be the bad guy in a movie like this. There’s no more reason to it than that. And IF you start with the assumption that lions are the good guys, then yenas make pretty logical bad guys.
I have a few quibbles of my own, of course. Like…
**
- At the start, why are all the gazelles, giraffes and antelopes celebrating the birth of a new lion?
**Mama gazelle: Kneel, baby, in honor of the new baby lion.
Baby gazelle: Uh, Mom? Aren’t those the creatures that tore Grandma apart and ate her? While she was still alive and bleating?
Mama: Well, yes, dear, but…
Baby: And Uncle Fred?
Mama: Yes, but…
Baby: And my cousin Brigid?
Mama: Yes, dear, but…
Baby: And we’re supposed to be happy that now there are MORE of them???*
2) When things go wrong at Pride Rock, how is any of it SCAR’S fault?
The lions and hyenas are going hungry. Why? There’s a drought and all the grazing animals have migrated away. How is that SCAR’S fault? Would the rains have come sooner If he’d been a better king? Of course not!
Heck, if Simba had just dithered one more day, the rains would have come while Scar was still king! Then the grass and the ruminants would all have come back, and there’d be plenty of food for all the predators!
Maybe there was some other mismanagement during the drought? Like you should hunt less so you might have less food but the herds don’t immediately flee, or changing up your hunting locations or maybe Scar was breaking whole “truce at the last watering hole” thing so the herds were leaving or sharing the hunting grounds with the hyenas was too many predators? Even if he didn’t cause the drought himself, his hunting directives could have exacerbated the problem.
If that’s the case, then there’s just going to continue to be problems each time the weather situation isn’t wonderful.
Sarabi tells Scar that they need to leave Pride Rock because the herds have moved on - presumably so they can follow the herds and eat again. Scar says no, the lionesses just aren’t looking hard enough.
(This part isn’t in the movie, but in reality, here’s where the “king” - the male lion - has to get off his babysitting duff and do some hard work. When the herds do move, and lions follow, he’s got to carve out new territory for the pride, fighting the other male lions whose territory they move into. Y’know, like Simba does by challenging and overcoming Scar. Scar isn’t down with the actual work involved in being “king”, he just wants to power and the coconuts.)
The reason for the drought was that Scar did not follow the tradition of all new kings when they take over the pride, thus offending against the natural order.
Regards,
Shodan
Mama: Honey, one way or another you’re going to be part of this celebration. So would you rather be part of the crowd that’s kneeling or be part of the post-kneeling feast?
Baby: I’m kneeling, Mama.
Mama: Smart girl. Oh look, they’re killing a giraffe.
If you believe in the Divine Right of Kings (with all the bending-of-the-knee by grumbling antelopes and all), then you believe in the Divine. So, yes, if Scar had been a better king, then the deity would have sent rain.
I’ve often wondered if right-wing folks use this movie very consciously to indoctrinate their children into their beliefs. It’s not only supportive of Divine Right and Natural Entitlements for those already at the top, and of the existence of a supernatural deity enforcing those rights and entitlements through the mechanism of the weather, but in the whole “all should know their PROPER place and keep to it” philosophy made explicit in the Circle of Life concept.
The whole story is more right-wing than any GOP platform has ever dared to be.
Uh, I’m as solidly right wing as anyone on this board and I have no idea what you’re talking abou.
And if there are environmental problems, put a different group in power - one that respects tradition and obeys divine will and doesn’t fall for that multicultural diversity nonsense. Put this group in power, and problems will just solve themselves.
Heh. Or as Reagan’s Interior Secretary, James Watt, said when asked about his plans to sell off public lands and mining rights, “I don’t know how many generations we can count on until the Lord returns.” 
“So we should make as much money as we can now because I think there’s something in the Bible about riding into Heaven on a camel loaded with riches.”
Around the same time period I read a “sequel” to the Wizard of Oz, with Dorothy’s kid. It had the same theme of the story not being exactly what you thought, this time being sensationalized version of what Dorothy reported to the news. It’s called A Barnstormer in Oz by Philip José Farmer. Unfortunately, you can’t read it online legally, as it’s a legit book. All I can recommend is to click here to find it in a library near you. (It’s not available in the OpenLibary.)
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Prosperity Gospel megachurches used Bibles that do make that one teensy little change in Matthew 19:24.
“Eye of a needle,” indeed! Harrumph!!