is no longer next in line, Simba's jealous paternal uncle Scar refuses to attend the ceremony. While Simba grows into a rambunctious lion cub who frequently boasts about the fact that he will someday rule over the Pride Lands, Scar secretly plots against him. Scar plots regicide and familicide against Simba and Mufasa by luring Simba into a vast gorge, where he triggers a wildebeest stampede. Notified by Scar that Simba is in danger, Mufasa rushes to his aid and manages to place him safely on a ledge. Weakened and unable to pull himself up the steep slope to safety, Mufasa asks his younger brother for assistance. However, Scar's true nature is revealed and he betrays Mufasa, throwing him into the gorge where he is killed by the fall. Tricked by Scar into thinking that he was the cause of Mufasa's demise, Simba runs away to a distant jungle where he is befriended by Timon and Pumbaa, a meerkat and a warthog who both help him put his past behind him whilst living a carefree life under "hakuna matata" ("no worries" in Swahili). There, he grows into a young adult lion who vaguely resembles his late father, while Scar wreaks havoc on the Pride Lands. When Simba is discovered by his childhood friend; a lioness named Nala, she confronts him, warning him of Scar's tyranny and begging him to return home. However, Simba refuses out of guilt of his father's death until a wise mandrill named Rafiki leads him to Mufasa's ghost, who convinces him to return home and take his rightful place as king. Realizing that he can no longer run from his past, Simba returns to the Pride Lands with Nala, Timon and Pumbaa and finds them barren because their natural resources have been squandered and abused by Scar. After witnessing Scar strike his mother Sarabi, Simba orders Scar to abdicate. At first thrown by the fact that he is alive, Scar soon regains composure and forces Simba to reveal that he is responsible for Mufasa's death, while cornering him at the edge of Pride Rock, hoping to subject him to a similar fate as his father. Having grown overconfident, Scar finally reveals that he killed Mufasa to Simba, who furiously tackles his uncle and forces him into announcing this to the pride, initiating a battle between them and Scar's hyena army. Simba eventually defeats Scar and throws