Okay, so I think I’ve got a handle on what’s bugging Genie.

Other than the fact that he has this deep well of hatred for imps. He gets to talking about how his powers are “semi-phenomenal, nearly cosmic” and is worrying about how that isn’t good enough. “I’m not even a second class genie. I’m coach!" 

And okay – okay, episode – this is actually a good thing to bring up because it needs to be addressed. I really wish it had been addressed in Return of Jafar, where it should have been but better late than never. 

This did not build up well, though. I see what you were trying to do but this desperately needed more polishing first. 

What would have really helped cement this all together? Rather than confuse all of this with Genie’s irrational dislike of imps? Give us a reason early on to think his limited, free-genie powers are on his mind and he’s still figuring things out. Like, back when this is happening: 

Nefir can sense he’s a Genie? Fine. Have him sense that his powers are limited, too. Have him make some snide remark that makes Genie question his worth as a magical creature because he became less. Hell, have him snark at him for pretending to be human, like he’s so limited in power that’s what he must want to be. 

What this would do? It would establish a clear connection between Genie’s bias against imps and his self-consciousness. It would establish a more clear reason other than IMP for him not to trust this guy – because he makes him feel bad. 

You had an opportunity to address several different themes in this episode, writers, but it needed more time to cook. 

I don’t understand the getshistan pun? how is it racist?

It’s the name puns in general. They are taking (usually) Arabic names and making puns out of them because “lol arab names sound funny” and it’s no less racist to do that than introduce Native American characters in a show with names like “Chief Premise Running Thin” or making a joke about a pilot on a crashing asian airliner being named “Sum Ting Wong” (among other names), which an American news channel actually did. 

…That said, Getzhistan is kind of a stretch. But considering I’ve been tripping over bad name puns since I started doing these liveblogs, it’s not like it’s new? In fact I pretty much expect it, but it bugs me every single time. 

So in the middle of all this there’s more pissing-contest between Genie and Nefir.

“Not bad. For a Genie.” and why are you even taking the bait, Genie? 

No seriously there is no background given for why they don’t like teach other. This isn’t just “the Genie could see through my ruse and he needs to be gotten rid of.” Nefir has a clear low opinion of genies as a group just as Genie has of imps and there is no reason. 

So while this is going on, Samir finishes trashing the place and then sashays away. 

and I’m still not sure what I just witnessed. 

Anyway, the next day, Genie builds a fighter jet to kill Samir because…Genie. 

Of course Nefir sabotages it and convinces Aladdin to buy weapons from him instead. 

And because Aladdin was literally unconscious for most of the last scene, he apparently lacks the perception to know this guy is bad news. So he leaves and Genie is sad. I…really don’t know how I feel about this conflict. 

Like it’s not like Nefir looks trustworthy and it’s Genie going “oh no it’s a bad guy why won’t anyone listen to me” because that is the plot of like five other episodes. We see Nefir is probably not trustworthy, but Genie doesn’t see what we see so he has no support, just his prejudices, to hold against the imps, and this is really really frustrating. Shoehorning in potential feelings of abandonment doesn’t help, either. 

Genie tells Aladdin he’s met Samir before and that he’s small, easy to take on.

image

And once again this is one of those episodes that’s really well animated. All the faces and expressions are just really well articulated. 

But I had a spit-take moment because Aladdin suddenly became aware of the soundtrack. 

image

“Do you guys hear music?" 

Crap, when the main hero is breaking the fourth wall like this, it can only mean Deadpool is about to show up. 

So the Imps special powers other than causing blogger aneurysms is they can do things fast. Like. Really fast.

Building whole cities in about a minute, fast. 

And Genie is like…extremely offended at how cheeky they are. When that’s his schtick, okay? And I know it hints early on that he thinks they’re dangerous; it’s not just him feeling threatened (even if that seems to be how Aladdin is taking it), but damn, this really does play off that way. 

So of course the Sultan stays in high spirits. The only problem, he says, is it gets expensive rebuilding the city every day. They’ve had to do this more than once. 

And he is paying A LOT. 

The reason? Samir the Destroyer. Who (you guessed it) destroys the city every night. The imps fix it super quick, but it’s apparently scared away all the “tourists.” Anyhoo, the Sultan tells Nefir that Aladdin has volunteered to get rid of Samir (even though he didn’t, really). 

Which of course means this guy will be out of a lot of money. The show doesn’t even try to hide that they’re connected to Samir somehow. It’s obviously a moneymaking scheme. 

Which – bit of headcanon – leads me to suppose these guys are dressed in Egyptian garb because that’s where they had their last big job. The clothes they’re wearing were fashionable wherever they were last. I’d love to rationalize them into being Egyptian but seriously – seriously – I can find absolutely nothing, folklore-wise, that would tie them to that region, and so far Disney hasn’t completely sucked at doing its research when it comes, at least, to their main villains. 

The Imps are led by title character Nefir, who feels about the same toward genies as Genie does toward his kind.

Nefir sees right through Genie’s disguise and is even able to dispel it. The first characteristics we see of him are that he’s a workaholic, or just greedy as Hell, because all his toadies do plenty of work while he stamps around talking like a reverse Jack Torrence voiced by Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. 

Edit: Just checked. Yep, that’s Rene Auberjonois, playing the role of….

…

…

…I was going to talk about prejudices and how they could potentially inform some of the development in this episode, but I need to go have a beer.