Conclusion: Sadira learns nothing, and all of her scrolls say apparently the same things, over and over again. (Also, let’s talk about the problems this episode has.)

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As a friend of mine pointed out, the end of this episode really hints at Sadira going a more dangerous direction, maybe getting to be as formidable as someone like Mozenrath. We’ve got an actual lair, a costume change, ominous background music? It just didn’t go that way at all. It’s a shame.

Anyway, Sadira’s response to her loss troubles me on a number of levels. First, this initial reaction:

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“Ooooh, rats rats rats!”

Like she’s not heartbroken. She is just really annoyed that her scheme didn’t work. She was more moral about this stuff in the first episode, where at least she didn’t want Jasmine killed. AND SHE FELT AWFUL. In this one? She almost got her executed, stole her entire life, etc, and she’s only annoyed? Like this is a minor setback? None of the things she took were good enough that she doesn’t have a stronger feeling at losing them? Really?

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Whatever, Sadira.

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“Secrets of sand mesmerism”?

If THAT is the scroll for sand mesmerism, then WHAT scroll did you get that last spell out of? What was that if not an act of mass-charm person?  I mean, I know what’s coming next, but I’m still really confused, because I’m pretty sure the last episode ended with her pulling out pretty much the same scroll.

“If at first you don’t succeed” indeed.

And now for why this episode is problematic.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m unsettled by the whole “doesn’t take no for an answer” attitude these characters who are out to steal Aladdin from Jasmine tend to take. Because that’s bad for any character to do, but when your only conventionally pretty female villains are written as sexually aggressive toward Aladdin (or hellbent on making him love them), that’s unsettling. Especially since when guys try to “steal” Jasmine, they either have no chance and are not threatening in any way whatsoever, or they’re Ayam Aghoul. And in any case Jasmine has pretty much no agency in these situations, and it’s almost always about someone trying to steal something from Aladdin, not someone trying to coerce Jasmine. When they’re after Aladdin, he still has a presence in the episode, usually, and some power, or the ability to make decisions.

I would say that this episode with Sadira is an exception to the rule because Aladdin doesn’t have any power, and Jasmine is obviously the one human character that has to step up and change things, but she’s still moving by way of inertia. It’s the animals who see something is wrong and the animals that affect change in this episode.

Even though things are done to Jasmine when the spell takes hold, she still has a fairly passive role in it. She is not regarded as an adversary to Sadira; the animals are. Rather than make this Jasmine’s story, make it about her knowing that something is wrong and trying to reclaim her life, it’s about Iago and Abu. When Jasmine-stealing is afoot in Aladdin centered episodes, you can bet it still gets to be his battle to fight, though.

There’s a lot I find at fault with how this is handled, and I think it boils down to me feeling like the writers are crafting female villains in this show with a different set of standards than male villains, with only a few exceptions, Mirage being one of them among the recurring characters. 

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So after more Genie shenanigans Aladdin sees Jasmine again and realizes he can’t go through with the impromptu wedding.

Now, it would almost be possible that what’ll make the spell permanent is a kiss and that’s what Sadira was banking on. Except, y’know, they’ve already kissed at least once:

No, she was counting on just being bound to him legally and that somehow being enough. 

Anyway, Al and Jas kiss, and this returns them to the palace garden, morning.

And Iago and Abu are happy to see their bffs aren’t enchanted anymore.

And Jasmine, being unaccustomed to this level of physical affection from Iago, reacts about like you’d expect her to.

“If you want money, forget it.”

So Genie apparently set up Anthony and Cleopatra. In the future. Because this takes place around/during the early part of Hercules.

Are we going by Xena: Warrior Princess rules, here?

I am not going to lie, though, the story of Caesar and Anthony and Cleopatra WOULD have been very…different, with a loud comic sidekick there the whole time.

So Carpet is affected by the spell but not the animals?

(Also this is the first we’ve seen Carpet all episode. Hi, Carpet!)

After accusing Jasmine of being a witch, Sadira decides it’s time to up the ante and move the wedding to right the fuck now.

It says a lot that she senses that her spell is going to fall apart. That’s obviously what it is because she wouldn’t have been talking earlier about how she only needs the spell to last for a while, when catching Rajah. And she’s concerned about getting married. So long as she gets married, the spell can break and she’ll be fine.

Because she thinks that if things go back to normal, she’ll still be married to Aladdin. And by default he’ll be hers. He’ll have to stay with her then. This is desperate, childish logic.

Hey friend! I’m curious: what’s your opinion on the Mozenrath/Sadira ship? It seems fairly popular in the fandom, given that the characters never actually met in the show.

I think given Sadira’s level of immaturity and Mozenrath’s openly expressed non-desire for a relationship of any kind, it’s kind of “meh” to me. I mentioned in Sadira’s first episode that if she pulled the same crap with him as she did with Aladdin she would have wound up dead. I could see him perhaps faking an interest in her to get at those spell scrolls, but considering he can teleport he wouldn’t even need to do that once he knew where to look, and since we see him using sand magic in later episodes anyway, he might not even need those spell scrolls. She’s immature, she fawns, she’s poor. No, if Mozenrath were not an outright danger to her, he’d still be a heinous jerk to her. He would go out of his way to make her feel bad about herself and then Jasmine would have to kill him. (And then I would have to kill him.)

That said, being someone who has played and still does play the ship, that’s not to say it couldn’t be developed. But I don’t think those two stand a chance of being good for each other until they’ve both grown up considerably and both have made some sort of turnaround. And even then they’d be awkward as Hell. Maybe adorkably awkward, but still awkward.

So we have a few more holes in Sadira’s living self-insert fanfiction.

She doesn’t plan for the fact that Aladdin used to be a street rat. If Jasmine has been one all her life in this reality, then it likely would have involved her still being in Agrabah for all of that. The likelihood that those two wouldn’t have known each other is pretty slim. So when Jasmine sees Aladdin for the first time, her spell’s hold isn’t so powerful because 1) they’ve known and loved each other for at least a year at this point and 2) THERE IS AN IMPLIED POSSIBLE HISTORY HERE THAT SHE NEVER ACCOUNTED FOR.

(Personally I would have found it that much more interesting if they DID know each other in this alternate reality and she just didn’t expect it. “Of course I know him; he was such a showoff, and the guards were so focused on trying to catch him that it made it easier for the rest of us to get our hands on food.”)

And then of course they sneak into the palace and Jasmine runs into the Sultan.

Also it almost looks like the sultan has black hair under his hat. 

Please take a second to let it sink in that Sadira stole these two from each other, and she doesn’t really address the Sultan in any way that suggests she wanted him for a father; she just wanted to be Princess.I want to think she later pondered on this, at length, and felt horrible. 

Anyway, the spell weakens here, too, and in a much more substantial way (considering Jasmine immediately feels the urge to call him “father”), because while Jasmine and Aladdin have been together about a year at this point? She’s been with her father her whole life, and it’d take powerful (and better coordinated) magic to change that. 

Because of my “Jasmine and Iago are secret best friends” headcanon I kind of assume there’s a range of emotions going on underneath the shrieking surface here.

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I think he feels a little bad for talking about “her royal highness” in a negative way right before finding out they’d been switched, as most people are shocked when something they take for granted changes in a sudden, unpredictable way. But I see this and when Iago’s going “Jasmine, you know us,” I assume he really wants to say “Jasmine, you know me.”

He’s been worried about her – probably needlessly because he knows she can take care of herself.

I’m going to be paying attention to how he reacts around Sadira in future episodes, because I’m pretty sure he’s one of the last to trust her when she becomes good later on.

And I don’t think for a second it’s because he’s even half as protective of Aladdin as he is of Jasmine. You messed with his girl, Sadira 😐 He won’t forgive easily, even for Iago.

And we come to “streetrat!Jasmine.” It’s a good thing Sadira doesn’t know Jasmine turns into a supervillain when she has amnesia.

Also, I kind of skipped past this quickly when the animals were back in the palace, but Iago figured this out very quickly. It took him all of two seconds to realize Jasmine and Sadira were switched, so he would find Jasmine as a streetrat in the market.

I think it would have been MORE interesting if Jasmine discovered sand magic, too. Because honestly, I don’t think Sadira’s planned ahead enough to keep stuff like that from happening.

So the animals escape but are caught pretty quickly, because setting up a net trap doesn’t take TIME or anything.

Also Rasoul, you know these are the royal pets, why are you talking about their capture in such a menacing fashion?

I’m honestly beginning to think he’s just used to talking that way. He doesn’t even MEAN to sound as threatening as he does; that’s just the way he talks.