Now I’m dying to see rational treatment of Mozenrath.
You know, the fellow who had a lot of raw magical power, and hence every problem looked to him like a nail in a desperate need to be blasted away with his gauntlet? The fellow whose ego was very inflated and sore, and the concept of “pretending to lose” was so alien to him that he had his ass kicked by a book? The fellow who was unable to think clearly while his place in dominance hierarchy was challenged by Aladdin because he cared about proving his worth more than about getting actual work done? The fellow who believed that other people had no use for him, and only way to make them helpful was to turn them into obedient zombies? The fellow who apparently knew many ancient places of power and pieces of forgotten magical lore yet fails to use them successfully?
Yeah, I want to see a rational treatment of this one. And don’t think that we ought to give Aladdin a Death Star to make story balanced. He already has an unlimited supply of wish spells.
Was the Genie’s post-liberation power ever explained in the animated series? I only watched a few episodes, and am more familiar with Disney’s movie trilogy; I got the impression that, in the movies, the Genie retained the power to solve pretty much all the problems (hence why Jafar had to out-Genie him to keep the second movie afloat, and why the Genie was left at the palace in the third while Aladdin was out at the actual plot). I think I’ll have to read the TV Tropes page again, now that I’m curious as to how well they kept each episode from being “Villain casts a spell on Genie, Aladdin breaks spell, Genie saves the day”.
Tangential: I think this is the first time I’ve looked at Chapter 64 since the most recent arc started up, and this
If that’s not enough to motivate you, then let me add that if you don’t help spread rationality, Hermione will be sad. You don’t want her to be sad, right?
Jasmine, as a woman, is unable to command the Djinni? Obviously that wouldn’t fly in a Disney production, but I can’t recall any women commanding djinn in the Arabian Nights (not that I’m familiar with all of the stories); more generally, the women are pretty passive. (The exception, of course, is the framing story, but Scheherazade would find it unwise to put powerful, active, clever women in her stories.) The original story’s Jasmine character (Badroulbadour) is actually pretty stupid.
In the original stories only powerful wizards can command djinn. The way non-wizards get access is by freeing a djinni whom a powerful wizard has trapped and the djinni granting wishes out of gratitude if he’s in a good mood (and after being trapped for centuries the djinni isn’t necessarily in a good mood). Also in neither story a djinn all-powerful.
That’s true about the original original stories, but the djinn in the original Aladdin story[^1] were bound to their objects pretty much in the way that Disney treats their Genie. They still don’t seem to be all-powerful; I agree about that.
[^1]: The original Aladdin story is centuries later than the original Arabian Nights. It is first attested in 18th-century French, although people do seem to accept that it came from an oral Arabian predecessor.
For those interested: Chapter 64 has a new omake, “Jasmine’s Lamp”.
Now I’m dying to see rational treatment of Mozenrath.
You know, the fellow who had a lot of raw magical power, and hence every problem looked to him like a nail in a desperate need to be blasted away with his gauntlet? The fellow whose ego was very inflated and sore, and the concept of “pretending to lose” was so alien to him that he had his ass kicked by a book? The fellow who was unable to think clearly while his place in dominance hierarchy was challenged by Aladdin because he cared about proving his worth more than about getting actual work done? The fellow who believed that other people had no use for him, and only way to make them helpful was to turn them into obedient zombies? The fellow who apparently knew many ancient places of power and pieces of forgotten magical lore yet fails to use them successfully?
Yeah, I want to see a rational treatment of this one. And don’t think that we ought to give Aladdin a Death Star to make story balanced. He already has an unlimited supply of wish spells.
The Naruto one is also new—at least, it wasn’t there the last time I read MoR a year or two ago.
Was the Genie’s post-liberation power ever explained in the animated series? I only watched a few episodes, and am more familiar with Disney’s movie trilogy; I got the impression that, in the movies, the Genie retained the power to solve pretty much all the problems (hence why Jafar had to out-Genie him to keep the second movie afloat, and why the Genie was left at the palace in the third while Aladdin was out at the actual plot). I think I’ll have to read the TV Tropes page again, now that I’m curious as to how well they kept each episode from being “Villain casts a spell on Genie, Aladdin breaks spell, Genie saves the day”.
Tangential: I think this is the first time I’ve looked at Chapter 64 since the most recent arc started up, and this
Was kinda saddening in light of certain events.
Jasmine, as a woman, is unable to command the Djinni? Obviously that wouldn’t fly in a Disney production, but I can’t recall any women commanding djinn in the Arabian Nights (not that I’m familiar with all of the stories); more generally, the women are pretty passive. (The exception, of course, is the framing story, but Scheherazade would find it unwise to put powerful, active, clever women in her stories.) The original story’s Jasmine character (Badroulbadour) is actually pretty stupid.
In the original stories only powerful wizards can command djinn. The way non-wizards get access is by freeing a djinni whom a powerful wizard has trapped and the djinni granting wishes out of gratitude if he’s in a good mood (and after being trapped for centuries the djinni isn’t necessarily in a good mood). Also in neither story a djinn all-powerful.
That’s true about the original original stories, but the djinn in the original Aladdin story[^1] were bound to their objects pretty much in the way that Disney treats their Genie. They still don’t seem to be all-powerful; I agree about that.
[^1]: The original Aladdin story is centuries later than the original Arabian Nights. It is first attested in 18th-century French, although people do seem to accept that it came from an oral Arabian predecessor.