“I had to sift through TONS of sand to find a jewel!” …Aladdin, that’s terrible. (Aladdin might be an asshole, Part 8)

No seriously, on multiple levels that is the wrong way to alleviate her concerns. You two are dating now. You’re engaged. You had previous relationships. They are all obviously over. 

Jasmine had NO human friends before she met Aladdin. So it might be understandable that she’d be surprised and might even think to feel jealous initially because SHE had no time for previous relationships. 

I think what bugs me is it falls under all that “competition” garbage that girls and women have heaped on them day in and day out. Other women are competition for getting and keeping your man. This is different from what we saw in the last episode, where a villain was coming to take Jasmine away. There was no question of her affections wavering; she had no agency in that whatsoever. She was just the damsel in distress. It was about someone coming to take Aladdin’s girlfriend and doing things with Aladdin’s girlfriend that only Aladdin should be doing. 

But the other woman? That could turn Aladdin’s head.

No, what’s alarming here, to me, is that Aladdin had previous relationships and apparently respects all of those women/girls so little that the first thing he thinks to do is talk shit about them so that Jasmine won’t feel threatened. 

Aladdin might be an asshole. 

“Aladdin, did you date other girls before me?” Some headcanon.

“TONS!” is his reply. 

BACKPEDAL FOR YOUR LIFE, ALADDIN. 

Okay, so some headcanon. I think Aladdin DID date around before he met Jasmine. In fact that “getting into trouble a little early today, aren’t we Aladdin?” moment makes me think he’s kind of KNOWN for being a little ladies’ man. 

Also, those girls from One Jump Ahead? 

I have this head canon that he’s probably dated every single one of them. 

Which is also why their mom hates him. (I assume they’re sisters.) 

I imagine he probably convinced one to go on a date with him and then throughout the day kept mistaking her sisters for her. Until he had suddenly set up rendezvous with all three of them. So we have this situation where he’s TRYING to make all three of them happy and just get away without getting killed or caught and yeah.

It all went wrong. 

Because Aladdin has a problem with lying. 

If you think about it, Abu’s reaction to him when he first sees/meets Jasmine is pretty “OH MY GOD YOU ARE ALWAYS DOING THIS” in tone. 

For a monkey, anyway. 

So Agrabah is near the sea or ocean.

We kind of get this impression throughout the series anyway. There is a market for fresh seafood, and more than once references are made to local fishermen, a harbor, etc.

Also, this place is within walking distance of the city. 

Iago does not get the attraction behind hanging out at the beach. 

When you live in the desert, going to a designated place in order to frolic in more sand is kind of deranged. Like going out for frozen custard in a blizzard. 

On one hand I feel him here. But I think it’s more about frolicking near the water than in the sand. 

Probably another episode coming soon, because I need to get the taste of that one out of my mouth.

Next on the list is “Elemental, My Dear Jasmine." 

And yes, I’ve skipped over a few episodes in the production code, including the first of two episodes featuring the Almuddi, Thundra’s intro episode, and Prince Uncouthma’s first appearance. I promise I’ll get to these. 

Conclusion: The episode tries to end on a funny note and I’m so glad this damn thing is over.

“It’s the thought that counts,” Jasmine says when Aladdin apologizes about her present. Which…No. We’re not there yet, episode. Sorry. I’m not coming with you on this. 

And then there’s some whining from Iago because the spice and the money and we skipped that B-plot because I didn’t have enough shits to give. 

Anyway, on to some observations:


image

Things you probably didn’t notice: Ayam Aghoul’s “dream house?" 

image

THEY APPARENTLY DEMOLISHED HALF THE CITY TO BUILD IT. 

Okay, moving on to other things. I need to watch more episodes with this villain because while I’ve been able to come in here with theories for a lot of these villains and how they tie into the greater mythos of this world, I spent so much time in this episode feeling uncomfortable and intruded upon that I just didn’t have much to spare for this guy. 

A great lord of the Netherworld COULD be interesting in the grander scheme of things. It certainly raises a lot of interesting questions, considering that apparently the Netherworld is not the same as the Underworld of Greek mythology (which is established to EXIST in the same world as this), 

For one, Mozenrath. Who dabbles in necromancy. It could have been interesting to see if these two ever crossed paths before and where one would stand, power-wise, versus the other. I think Moze would actually probably be out of his depth if he’s not careful because he always gets into shit when he’s not careful who he’s making deals with. 

I also think Aghoul’s semi-comical nature would drive him up the wall. 

But that’s beside the point. Where would a character like this stand with a character like him? Or Mirage? Or up against someone like Fasir? 

There is a lot of potential that I can’t explore from just this episode because it was too distracting overall. 

Want more episodes? See the Episode Masterlist.
Hop on over to the Series Theories page for organized rambling.
Send me an ask if you have questions or requests or just want to talk about any ideas YOU got from reading all this.
See my support page if you’d like to send a donation!

So the Genie pulls a fakeout that would have been more tense if the audience had a few more seconds to let it sink in.

Seriously it’s like: 

image

Yoink.

image

“We’re leaving." 

image

Sad.

image

"It’s me!”

image

Then who’s…?

image

SCANDALOUS.

And for whatever reason while Genie’s in there stalling they DIDN’T use that time to take the damn necklace off. 

The point is that this took about 10 seconds, that entire scene. There wasn’t enough time for the audience to let it sink in that the bad guy won and Aladdin had just lost Jasmine. It was just there and gone far too quickly.