Black Hat Brigade: Episode 20
Dec. 11th, 2015 05:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastSetting: Pridelands at night. The full moon casts upon Pride Rock and, in the shadow, Rafiki works. He clears a patch of all grass, positions a circle of stones and places dry sticks within.
Simba looks uneasy: Is this really necessary?
Rafiki: Summoning your father to remind you of your identity of being his son is simple magic. It is to make sure that what should be and always was is what is again. But, you are asking for me to do something that could change the world. That needs the element that causes change and transformation.
Simba visibly steels himself against his instinctive fear.: Fine.
Rafiki: This meeting with the rat, Templeton. Do not let it shake you from your identity.
Simba: Yes, I am my father's son. I know that. You can stop waving that staff. But, it's more than Templeton. It's the Hyenas. It's other things.
Rafiki: I can't imagine what a hyena would have to say to a King, especially after-
Simba: I didn't, either. That could be the problem.
Rafiki: Are you sure you want to do this?
Simba steps closer to the circle with the dry sticks: Do it.
Rafiki takes a stick and a stretch of bark and begins his ritual of tightly twisting the stick over the bark. Soon an ember starts to burn and Rafiki moves it to the pile of sticks and carefully breathes on it to expand the fire.
The fire builds and Rafiki backs away, making one last check to ensure that there's absolutely nothing that will allow it to spread beyond its confines.
Simba: Now what?
Rafiki quickly snatches some hairs from Simba's mane.
Simba: Hey!
Rafiki throws the hair into the fire and mumbles some incomprehensible words.
Simba and Rafiki both respond to the smell of burnt hair.
The smoke burns white at first, then black.
Rafiki: Ancestors of Simba, previous Lion Kings, a current King needs your wisdom and council.
The smoke grows thicker and darker, taking the shape of a lion behind a curtain of smoke. Then, through the curtain.
Scar: I'll do what I can.
Simba and Rafiki both look shocked.
Scar: Oh don't look like that. We're not breaking for commercial. You called me for wisdom.
Rafiki: I called to the ancestors of the current Lion King.
Scar: And, though for a short time only, I was a Lion King. And, you want advice that I am the Lion King to provide.
Rafiki: You were never a legitimate Lion King. You only got there because you killed the-
Scar: Your propaganda is not a legitimate understanding of history, Rafiki. You barely acknowledge that it happened. Here I am, a Lion King to advise the next. That is the situation. You cannot debate it away.
Simba: Okay, you being you means I don't have to explain anything. What is the plan of your Black Hat Brigade.
Scar: Justice.
Simba: You can't possibly mean that. Justice wouldn't mean anything good for you.
Scar: Oh, but it would. Justice requires that all of the questions be asked and the answers be acknolwedged. Questions such as how, possibly, could my leadership have any causal relationship to the drought? How could a full Pride of many lions have survived such incredible privation without any comment made on fatalities? Is it really respect for all living things to define the way of things, the cycle of life, such that their purpose is to die, immediately, to feed you while you rule and your return is to die, eventually, at the end of a long life?
Scar: Justice requires looking at many perspectives, understanding that whether or not the system, itself, is just must always be the eternal question, never unasked.
Scar: Why, when the greatest threat to my legitimacy was right before me, did I not do what male lions in reality would do, when taking over a pride, and simply kill the offspring of my predecessor?
Simba: So, you want a more sympathetic portrayal, to be seen as a good guy?
Scar: Perhaps, perhaps not. It's one thing to have good motives, so as to not be completely evil. It's another thing to actually be a good guy. But, I will not be the one and only evil in this story, not in a story about a young lad protecting privilege from the evils of integration.
Scar: If you want to pretend that morality is always so simple and easy and clean as that, you will do it without my help... and with the Black Hat Brigade following close at hand to correct you.
Scar: And, from what I hear, you wouldn't want that anyway. Here we are in the dark of night and dark of shadow. It seems that someone has found out that, sometimes, the dark is the only place you're allowed to be you.
Simba: You know about my conversation with Templeton?
Scar: I know that you looked in the wrong place for allies. Templeton and Charlotte won't be on your side, they know, too well, what it is like to need to be seen for your virtues in order to live... and what it is like not to be. You'll have to travel far and wide to find those who would see Aslan's vision of an ideal society to be just... or your father's.
Rafiki: Don't listen to him, Simba. He's just trying to make you doubt yourself and who you are. Remember, before all else, you are Mufasa's son.
Scar looks aghast.: That is what people have been telling you?
Rafiki: You dare to suggest that he is not Mufasa's son?
Scar: No, of course not. I mean, if we were real lions, neither the males nor the females would be at all interested in monogamy. The only issue would be availability, which would make paternity something of a guessing game. But, we're a fictionalized version intended to stand in for an idealized monarchical family structure.
Scar: But, that is not your identity, Simba.
Simba: Oh, then you tell me what my identity is?
Scar: Well... the part that I can tell you is that Simba is that lion, right there. *points to Simba* Everything else is yours. You are you, that the fact that you are the offspring of an autocrat voiced by James Earl Jones is only one descriptor. It may be important, but it certainly is not your identity.
Scar: I suppose it could be worse. You could be identified as your father's lesser son.
Simba: I... see.
Rafiki strikes Simba on the head with his staff.: There's nothing to see.
Simba roars and strikes out with a paw, sending Rafiki to the ground.
Simba: You started out with that. You made some purely semantic argument about putting things in the past, rather than just telling me straight out. You think that makes you wise? It doesn't. It makes you an ass! So, stop being an ass, stay put, and let the King do the duty of hearing someone out!
Rafiki makes a motion to get up but stops in the face of another Simba roar.
Simba looks to Scar: That said, you do lack for a certain amount of credibility.
Scar: Of course I do. I'm coded evil in my coloration, with a scar that touches my eye. And, I'm coded gay in mannerism... that and the whole bit about me killing your father and convincing you that you caused it trauma issue. *waves that off*
Scar: But, you are engaging in a standard hero-trope, questioning the way of things so that you can do something different. Maybe you are in the story where you are convinced of the wrong thing by the bad guy until just the right moment. Maybe you are in the story where you achieve a new, more just way of things.
Scar: Or, maybe, everybody is the protagonist of their own story and you've got to learn that those called "good guy" *attempts air quotes with his paws* aren't the center of all stories.
Simba looks uneasy: Is this really necessary?
Rafiki: Summoning your father to remind you of your identity of being his son is simple magic. It is to make sure that what should be and always was is what is again. But, you are asking for me to do something that could change the world. That needs the element that causes change and transformation.
Simba visibly steels himself against his instinctive fear.: Fine.
Rafiki: This meeting with the rat, Templeton. Do not let it shake you from your identity.
Simba: Yes, I am my father's son. I know that. You can stop waving that staff. But, it's more than Templeton. It's the Hyenas. It's other things.
Rafiki: I can't imagine what a hyena would have to say to a King, especially after-
Simba: I didn't, either. That could be the problem.
Rafiki: Are you sure you want to do this?
Simba steps closer to the circle with the dry sticks: Do it.
Rafiki takes a stick and a stretch of bark and begins his ritual of tightly twisting the stick over the bark. Soon an ember starts to burn and Rafiki moves it to the pile of sticks and carefully breathes on it to expand the fire.
The fire builds and Rafiki backs away, making one last check to ensure that there's absolutely nothing that will allow it to spread beyond its confines.
Simba: Now what?
Rafiki quickly snatches some hairs from Simba's mane.
Simba: Hey!
Rafiki throws the hair into the fire and mumbles some incomprehensible words.
Simba and Rafiki both respond to the smell of burnt hair.
The smoke burns white at first, then black.
Rafiki: Ancestors of Simba, previous Lion Kings, a current King needs your wisdom and council.
The smoke grows thicker and darker, taking the shape of a lion behind a curtain of smoke. Then, through the curtain.
Scar: I'll do what I can.
Simba and Rafiki both look shocked.
Scar: Oh don't look like that. We're not breaking for commercial. You called me for wisdom.
Rafiki: I called to the ancestors of the current Lion King.
Scar: And, though for a short time only, I was a Lion King. And, you want advice that I am the Lion King to provide.
Rafiki: You were never a legitimate Lion King. You only got there because you killed the-
Scar: Your propaganda is not a legitimate understanding of history, Rafiki. You barely acknowledge that it happened. Here I am, a Lion King to advise the next. That is the situation. You cannot debate it away.
Simba: Okay, you being you means I don't have to explain anything. What is the plan of your Black Hat Brigade.
Scar: Justice.
Simba: You can't possibly mean that. Justice wouldn't mean anything good for you.
Scar: Oh, but it would. Justice requires that all of the questions be asked and the answers be acknolwedged. Questions such as how, possibly, could my leadership have any causal relationship to the drought? How could a full Pride of many lions have survived such incredible privation without any comment made on fatalities? Is it really respect for all living things to define the way of things, the cycle of life, such that their purpose is to die, immediately, to feed you while you rule and your return is to die, eventually, at the end of a long life?
Scar: Justice requires looking at many perspectives, understanding that whether or not the system, itself, is just must always be the eternal question, never unasked.
Scar: Why, when the greatest threat to my legitimacy was right before me, did I not do what male lions in reality would do, when taking over a pride, and simply kill the offspring of my predecessor?
Simba: So, you want a more sympathetic portrayal, to be seen as a good guy?
Scar: Perhaps, perhaps not. It's one thing to have good motives, so as to not be completely evil. It's another thing to actually be a good guy. But, I will not be the one and only evil in this story, not in a story about a young lad protecting privilege from the evils of integration.
Scar: If you want to pretend that morality is always so simple and easy and clean as that, you will do it without my help... and with the Black Hat Brigade following close at hand to correct you.
Scar: And, from what I hear, you wouldn't want that anyway. Here we are in the dark of night and dark of shadow. It seems that someone has found out that, sometimes, the dark is the only place you're allowed to be you.
Simba: You know about my conversation with Templeton?
Scar: I know that you looked in the wrong place for allies. Templeton and Charlotte won't be on your side, they know, too well, what it is like to need to be seen for your virtues in order to live... and what it is like not to be. You'll have to travel far and wide to find those who would see Aslan's vision of an ideal society to be just... or your father's.
Rafiki: Don't listen to him, Simba. He's just trying to make you doubt yourself and who you are. Remember, before all else, you are Mufasa's son.
Scar looks aghast.: That is what people have been telling you?
Rafiki: You dare to suggest that he is not Mufasa's son?
Scar: No, of course not. I mean, if we were real lions, neither the males nor the females would be at all interested in monogamy. The only issue would be availability, which would make paternity something of a guessing game. But, we're a fictionalized version intended to stand in for an idealized monarchical family structure.
Scar: But, that is not your identity, Simba.
Simba: Oh, then you tell me what my identity is?
Scar: Well... the part that I can tell you is that Simba is that lion, right there. *points to Simba* Everything else is yours. You are you, that the fact that you are the offspring of an autocrat voiced by James Earl Jones is only one descriptor. It may be important, but it certainly is not your identity.
Scar: I suppose it could be worse. You could be identified as your father's lesser son.
Simba: I... see.
Rafiki strikes Simba on the head with his staff.: There's nothing to see.
Simba roars and strikes out with a paw, sending Rafiki to the ground.
Simba: You started out with that. You made some purely semantic argument about putting things in the past, rather than just telling me straight out. You think that makes you wise? It doesn't. It makes you an ass! So, stop being an ass, stay put, and let the King do the duty of hearing someone out!
Rafiki makes a motion to get up but stops in the face of another Simba roar.
Simba looks to Scar: That said, you do lack for a certain amount of credibility.
Scar: Of course I do. I'm coded evil in my coloration, with a scar that touches my eye. And, I'm coded gay in mannerism... that and the whole bit about me killing your father and convincing you that you caused it trauma issue. *waves that off*
Scar: But, you are engaging in a standard hero-trope, questioning the way of things so that you can do something different. Maybe you are in the story where you are convinced of the wrong thing by the bad guy until just the right moment. Maybe you are in the story where you achieve a new, more just way of things.
Scar: Or, maybe, everybody is the protagonist of their own story and you've got to learn that those called "good guy" *attempts air quotes with his paws* aren't the center of all stories.
