Idea

I have a killer idea for a story.

A sibling is jealous of his older brother's family and life he has made for himself. The brother has a new son to continue the father's legacy. The jealous sibling takes umbrage at this and sets forth a chain of events that kills the brother, exiles the son, and usurps the place in the village.

Just wait. It gets better! The son survives, and he is thrown off in to the wilderness to fend by his lonesome where he finds new friends, new lessons, and himself. With this knowledge, they are able to return home to reclaim their father's mantle and set right the sins done upon the land. Sounds Shakespearean, eh?

I'm hooked. What is the setting? 

Southern Africa.

Awesome! A cradle of civilization, millennia of rich histories that Western audiences have only begun to appreciate (self-included). The land where most of us come from

I am liking it so far. What is the aural experience going to be like? 

Primeval, but comforting. We got music from several different genres of African music, in Swahili, Xhosa, Zulu, and more. 

I can hear the drums now. Stop teasing me. I have to see this!

It's the Lion King.

Yes, Hamlet with Lions is my favorite animated Disney film. It is also one of my preferred Broadway musicals, and when compared between the two media, the musical is better by leaps and bounds from a more story perspective. 

 Nonetheless, we know the movie best and will go with that to start. Start with a cast of characters with some archetypes applied. For this, I am avoiding terms like hero and heroine, because I think overt gender roles only hamstring an individual's development. Also, this is by no means comprehensive, and open to interpretation. There are many paths to the mountaintop.

Cast:

Simba: Son, Prince, future King

Nala: friend, future Queen

Mufasa: Father (Ancestral Sky-father, Odinnic)

Sarabi: Mother (Ancestral Earth-mother)

Scar: Shadow-self, Trickster 

The Hyena Trio: Hunger, Thirst, Greed, etc.

Timon and Pumba: Surprise friends (my favorite kind of friends tbh)

Zazu: Herald

Rafiki: the Hermit, the Magister, etc.

Oops, did I insert some of my own  Northern-animist perspective. Yes, I did because it fits.

There will be a lot more going forward. 

Simba's journey is textbook Campbellian Monomyth theory, a perspective that each hero/heroine has a template of events to achieve their apotheosis and victory over death. See also: Star Wars, Conan the Barbarian, Beowulf, etc. Beowulf is a perfect example of it, in fact. The complete story highlights the two primary heroic stories, the "Rise of the Hero," and the "Return of the King." The "Return of the King," a concept shown in the Marvel film Black Panther, and for those familiar with Grail-lore, Arthur's spiritual resurrection and self-sacrifice, the kingdom becoming fruitful again, and the reconciliation of the Light and Dark forces within oneself. 

And, of course the small part of Tolkien's Legendarium.

I am starting to get a little in the weeds about that. 

Mufasa's failings as the father character, is similar to Odin's failures as king to not get drunk, stick his spear in to things, or get out of paying somebody. Wait... did Mufasa do all of that? No, its a metaphor. What he did do was fail to reconcile with his brother. From my perspective, he had three options: killing Scar, exiling Scar under pain of death, or complete envelopment in the Court. Is there onus on Scar to maintain his allegiance, yup. It's also on Mufasa to keep that allegiance.

He also told his son to avoid on all accounts the "Elephant's Graveyard." Instead of sating his curiosity, and giving Simba an early taste of death, decay, the complete cycle of life, it doomed Mufasa to his death. I don't know about you, but any time somebody told me to not do something, I wanted to do it all the more. My takeaway of the situation, go with the damn kid. Let him know there is no TRUE victory over death. Death is just another road. One we all must take. (Thanks, Gandalf). Regardless of your spiritual worldview, that is something universal. Death is a transitional phase, albeit a phase I am in no rush to experience at this time. I have had enough transitional phases to last me a little bit. Oops, digression.

That leads me to the ultimate "Failure," the failure of the body. But, Matt. You just said death was all this blobbity-blop, bimbam, banoobldlop.

Insert Force Ghost of me talking like Obi-Wan all prosaic and, annoyingly about points of view and how very little matters. Humility vs. pride, a closed fist vs an open hand, those are the more important battles for me to fight.

The greatest thing that Odin, Mufasa, Christ, fuck, even DARTH VADER, was to fail in their journeys, because it forced the next generation to become greater (hopefully better) than what was before.

That's the secret of legacy, huh? That is Mufasa's contribution.

Sadly, Nala and Sarabi's roles are limited in film version, but in the musical, Nala gets important stage-time, and is forced to either go off on her own, or marry the usurper, Scar, who is old enough to be her father at this point. Her strength and resilience is reminiscent of a danish-haired individual who also had to deal with the usurpation of the rule of law. She ran off to find help, and to keep Scar's claim to the throne weak due to silly marriage laws.

Are you getting tired of the character analysis? Good, because I am tired of typing it. 

I don't think there is much that I write anymore that does not have some extended metaphor, but if there is one thing that this story has taught me is the power that I has. The presentation of the story, the location on the dense African biome, all of it reminds me that hundreds of thousands of years ago, my ancestors left Africa. They ended up on the top of the world, but the beat of the drums, and the morning call of the birds and beasts is one and the same. Just like the people living there now, and those that were taken.