Your analogy about "questioning the narrative" incorrect from the start. It is better to NOT use analogies. Analogies are proven to be poor tools to change people's minds, and are always flawed.

I'll show you what "questioning the narrative" means using your flawed analogy. Your narrative is that Russia is like a lion, a wild predator without human reasoning or judgement. I question that narrative.

I say that Russia is a sovereign nation with economic, military and political interests that sometimes do not align with powerful countries like the US or weak (relatively speaking) countries like Ukraine.

The more powerful a country, the more sphere of influence they will have. That is the way the world works.

Power is not static. Noone is all powerful. That is also the way the world works.

The situation in Ukraine is conflict of interests and spheres of influence and massively changing power balances over 30+ years.

Using that frame of reference would have allowed us to avoid this war, and will be the only way to end this war any time soon. Analogies about lion attacks offer no useful solutions in ending the war in Ukraine, for the very simple reason that Russia is not a lion attacking a man.