A message I take from this scene is there is always 2 sides to a story, everyone has there own perspective. Zelie's sees that the king's wrongdoing affected her and her family. Well, the king sees it as being powerful. But we don't know why the king is this way or the reason behind his wrongdoings, as we don't see his perspective of things or his childhood. He's just painted in the book as the bad guy.