10 Movies Where The Villains BOTCHED An Easy Win
2. Scar - The Lion King
And now we come to yet another classic Jeremy Irons villain who had basically won, but ruined it all with a small yet significant act.
In The Lion King, Scar successfully plots to have his brother, King Mufasa (James Earl Jones), killed, allowing him to ascend to the throne.
For added measure he even blames the "accidental" wildebeest stampede on Mufasa's son Simba (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), before banishing him from the kingdom and ordering his hyena pals to kill Simba.
And so we come to mistake number one: not killing Simba himself or at least visually confirming Simba's death at the hyenas' hands. This allows Simba to escape and eventually return to the Pride Lands as an adult.
But even then, Scar still gets the drop on Simba during their final showdown, leaving Simba hanging off the edge of Pride Rock and seconds away from death.
His next mistake? Admitting that he killed Mufasa, giving Simba the furious resolve to fight back and get Scar to admit his act to the rest of the pride.
Oh, and because Scar tries to blame it all on the hyenas, they refuse to help him during the final fight and then rip him apart once he's banished from the Pride Lands.
Had Scar just kept his mouth shut and been a little more conscientious about dealing with Simba, his reign would've effortlessly endured unopposed.