So the evil scheme is fairly standard: Evil puppy will destroy the City of Agrabah unless the Sultan surrenders.

Which is actually pretty much back on the same wavelength as he started when he first met Aladdin. In fact, the dialogue when he presents his logic for making such a plan is almost completely identical.

“With the Thirdac in my coil, no other sorcerer could touch me.”

“Scirocco can reduce an entire kingdom to dust. Who would dare challenge such power?”

This is going to be a running theme in most of Mozenrath’s schemes (not necessarily all). This is not a kid who enjoys direct confrontation. He could arguably build an army large enough to march on any city he wanted, and the nature of the Mamluks would allow him to continuously replenish his ranks. The thing is that 1) He is not knowledgeable enough in military strategy to utilize the Mamluks to their full potential, and 2) That’s too much of a fighting chance.

Mozenrath, as a character, is pretty much never after a fight. He’s a bully. His go-to tactic is to scare people into submission. He relies on trump cards, and he’s actually kind of fucking terrible at strategizing without them. Without an ancient and magical equivalent to a doomsday weapon, he sucks, and the second his new toys stop working the way he wants them to, he either 1) stubbornly sticks around until he’s scared away and/or gets his ass royally kicked, or 2) he packs up and goes home because he’s out of his depth.

Whenever he deviates from this formula his defeats tend to be a lot more humiliating, I’ve noticed, but we’ll get to this again later, I’m sure.

“Expiring minds want to know: What’s in the crate?”

This weapon what Mozenrath has obtained turns out to be another magical creature. In this case, as the title of the episode suggests: a wind jackal. (The title says there’s more than one, but you’re just going to have to get used to disappointment.)

“Scirocco, a magical wind from a dark and dangerous corner of my desert.”

Which…is interesting, but how the Hell does it add up that he bought it, then? More than one reference is made toward the idea that this was purchased. In fact, I’d think that’s pretty much the only surefire way the Sultan’s spies would ever get wind of it (no pun intended).

Was this thing too difficult for him to capture? Is there someone who specializes in capturing wind jackals? Or was Mozenrath just not taking any chances after the Thirdac incident blew up in his face so spectacularly?

The point is that this creature can decimate any structures by just flying around them super fast, as it reduces a pillar to dust before our heroes’ very eyes.

I also want to point out that I love how the creature is introduced and i wish I were better at making animated gifs so I could show it off a little more. (But for as little as I know it’s just too much additional work.) The whole “Hear me, Scirocco!” sequence is just really well done and it shows off some of Mozenrath’s agility, too, which is rare. Just like in Dagger Rock where you see him snap into that defensive stance, it gives you some idea that he’s trained in something other than just magic.

Sidekick Priorities

When last we left off, Aladdin was calling for an end to hostilities while Mozenrath’s midsection slowly began to recede out of existence (seriously wtf is with his body proportions here?)

Of course, Moze already has an insurance policy in the form of Aladdin’s meddling friends.

See, Iago I understand. Iago is very against torture or death of any kind. Genie’s interesting, though. Because Genie’s so guilty over messing things up (and he’s still not even sure WHAT he messed up yet) that sure, he’ll take one for the team if it means Aladdin doesn’t have to put himself in anymore danger.

Do you buy the headcanon that Aladdin and Mozenrath are brothers, either half or in full? Personally speaking, I’m totally on board with the idea that they’re half brothers via their father.

It was intended for the third movie before they got Robin Williams back and the writers were told to distance the film from the series as much as possible. I think that the way King of Thieves is written negates the possibility unless some other things were at play, because Cassim would have mentioned another son.

In RP, I have played Mozenrath as having been Cassim’s firstborn son, and he has actually been with Destane so long he can’t remember anything from before a certain age, so he doesn’t remember his family or the circumstances that brought him to his mentor. In my longest run playing him (some four or five years of continuous writing), he had magical abilities from a very young age that he couldn’t control, making him especially dangerous because the family had a new baby, too. Around four years old he took ill and Destane appeared, claiming to be a healer. He switched Moze’s body with a glamored mamluk and took him back to the Land of the Black Sand, basically telling him his parents couldn’t take care of him anymore because his magic would inevitably hurt the new baby.

Before I put that character’s timeline on hold he had recovered some memory from closer to that time, so at present he believes his parents gave him to Destane because they didn’t love him anymore, but he can’t remember anything about them or that he had a sibling.

Brief note on Mamluks, because ya’ll should know where the word comes from.

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In the series, Mamluk is a word used specifically to refer to a member of Mozenrath’s undead army and is never referenced anywhere else. However, the word (and its many spellings, I’m finding) pertains specifically to a caste of warrior slaves found in various places and times throughout Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, etc who in many eras took and held an impressive amount of political power.

This may or may not give further credence to my theory that the city in the Land of the Black Sand is a former military installation. I honestly couldn’t tell you if Disney did their research on this and designed the Land of the Black Sand in this way on purpose, or if they just lucked into it, but I’m impressed.

This actually makes the scene in Dagger Rock with the guards make more sense, giving us hints at why they know what they are. If the above theory holds true, then the Land of the Black Sand probably had a reputation LONG before Destane was ever there and might have been rumored to be haunted because a whole squad of Mamluks perished there, a natural disaster that likely ended their presence in this region altogether.

Very short fight scene, but I will accept every opportunity to watch Jasmine kick ass.

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But I will point out there’s a moment where I just kind of “-_-” because they had to throw in a brief “reminder” that as a woman she can’t be totally cool with fighting.

She uses her whip to disarm a Mamluk and that winds up being a literal thing.

This startles her.

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Even though SHE’S FOUGHT MORE OF THESE THINGS THAN ALADDIN HAS.

In fact, as far as we know, this is the first time Aladdin has EVER had to tangle with Mamluks. Jasmine knows they fall apart. He probably shouldn’t. But no, he has to reassure her because apparently she can’t handle an arm popping off when she’s currently the veteran between the two of them. “Don’t worry, Jasmine, they don’t feel a thing!”

I will END YOU, episode.

And of  course Mozenrath shows up and shoots her. (More specifically, he turns her weapon against her. With bad dialogue.)

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Which – I’m on one hand pissed that they use it as an excuse for Aladdin to get super protective, like attacking her serves no purpose save to be an attack on him, because that’s exactly how it looks.

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On the other, this is reason number 75 million why this episode has to have taken place after Dagger Rock, because the first thing Moze does after gloating (and making a pun about undead servants) is neutralize her as a potential threat.

Because she wiped the floor with him the last time they met, and he’s not going to underestimate her anymore.

Iago isn’t just a parrot. He’s also a stool pigeon. (Also, genuine conflict for Genie!)

As soon as torture is threatened, he sings like – well, a bird. He doesn’t have much to give him. They have no idea why Aladdin and Jasmine are here, but mentioning that they came here without Genie and Carpet is enough for Genie to finally figure out why they weren’t told anything:

“Because the Genie and the magic carpet would set off the local bad guy security system.”

Ding ding ding! We have a winner.

Mozenrath also immediately figures out that Aladdin is the driver of the cart. Because apparently he was being observant but just didn’t put any of the pieces together until after he caught the Genie?

Mozenrath…that’s not good planning. You’re kind of terrible at this.

This is also a pretty good episode for Genie, because we see some definite flaws in his magic, but we can also see why even with a maguffin to help him he still botched things up with the best of intentions. They’ve only run into Mozenrath twice now, but in both instances, Genie was placed in mortal danger, (or in danger of being enslaved again at the very least,) a rarity for something that supposedly shouldn’t be able to die save under extremely special circumstances.

It is reasonable for Genie to have panicked a little and jumped the gun as a result, because Mozenrath is an actual threat to him, and Mozenrath has displayed in the past a willingness to start shit with them without provocation and a certain deadliness when he actually is provoked. No matter what Iago claimed, there was no way Aladdin and Jasmine would be there just to steal treasure – in fact he has trouble believing they would even go there willingly. Because Mozenrath actually kind of scares him – for reasons more legitimate than the ones we got in Mirage’s first episode.