Saying this after seeing the opinions of the rest of the fandom and not being a Lion stan (those who have seen my comments shouldn't be surprised):
Even if he remembered what really happened, he would still resent Elphaba.
Okay, I have your attention, I'll explain:
1- The basics of wildlife rehabilitation is to ALWAYS ensuring that the animal has/relearns its survival instincts; if it is a young animal, ALWAYS keep it in groups (preferably with adults).There have been cases of activists who recklessly tried to free animals from laboratory testing, and the results, unsurprisingly, were terrible.
"But the Lion is a sentient being—" EVEN WORSE!! He must have been a little older than a baby, he couldn't speak yet, and everything indicates that Elphaba or Fiyero didn't check on him.A child left alone like that, without support, won't be 100% functional; it was a miracle he reached adulthood with only psychological problems.
2-This has been said thousands of times here, but Dorothy was accidentally thrown into these lands by Morrible (because the cyclone was her doing) in the worst possible way, Glinda (certainly with Morrible's help) put the shoes on her and sent her to the Wizard and now Elphaba is into infanticide.She was the Lion's first friend, willing to help him be more than a coward even though she doesn't need it and was in a bad place, and she never wanted to hurt anyone.Is it surprising that he dislikes/stops liking the adult who is threatening her and treating his friend as if all that chaos is her fault?
I'll probably get yelled at by the fandom, especially Elphaba's fans, but this needed to be said.
(She does not misses the scarecrow the most because he is "the one who cares".It's because he, who is experiencing body horror and trauma from have been beating to death + crucifixion, is the most sane between a survivor of dictatorship + slavery + toxic relationship, also experiencing body horror and on the verge of a breakdown and a young adult with high anxiety/paranoia who has lived in isolation for most of his life (their strongest connection is their affection/love for Dorothy).And not even that stopped Boq from succumbing to a maniacal rage, if his music had been kept in the timeline of the stage version this happened because Dorothy was kidnapped, so now what was left of his morals has been thrown out the window. .)