There are some crucial differences between the two stories. "King Lear" is a play about undeserved suffering, and Lear himself is at worst a fool. Hidetora, by contrast, has been a cruel warrior for most of his life: a man who ruthlessly murdered men, women, and children to achieve his goals. In "Ran", Lady Kaede, Lady Sué, and Tsurumaru were all victims of Hidetora. Whereas in "King Lear" the character of Gloucester had his eyes gouged out by Lear's enemies, in "Ran" it was Hidetora himself who gave the order to blind Tsurumaru. The role of the Fool has been expanded into a major character (Kyoami), and Lady Kaede serves as the equivalent of Goneril, but is given a more complex and important character. Kurosawa was concerned that Shakespeare gave his characters no past, and he wanted to give his version of "King Lear" a history.