Scar (The Lion King) their victims' fears. The original plot of "The Lion King" revolved around a rivalry between lions and baboons. A baboon himself, Scar was their leader. After this plot was abandoned, Scar was re-written into a rogue lion lacking any blood relation to both Mufasa and Simba. The writers eventually decided that making Scar and Mufasa brothers would make the film more interesting. An abandoned character, at one point Scar owned a pet python as a sidekick. Because the film was originally intended to be much more adult-oriented, Scar was to have become infatuated with Simba's childhood friend and eventual love
Nala (The Lion King) University of Waterloo's Kinema, Vicky Wong believes that Nala reinforces the film's "take your place" motif, reminding main character Simba of his responsibilities. In his book "Retelling Stories, Framing Culture: Traditional Story and Metanarratives in Children's Literature", author John Stephens credits Nala with teaching Simba about responsibility – "the lesson the hero must learn before he can become an adult". Film critic James Berardinelli identified Nala as "The Lion King"'s "sole significant female character." Including Nala, "The Lion King" has only three major female characters in comparison to the film's total of nine male ones. Shepherd University's Emmylou Allen observed