Aladdin has fever dreams about being useless.

As this goes on, Jasmine transforms more and more into a snake, and in this last shot the barbs on her tail actually poison Aladdin and lead him to have terrible hallucinations. 

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Now I understand that Aladdin feels helpless because he’s used to being able to fix this stuff and make everything better. Because he’s the hero. It is understandable that he’d have a crisis of faith simply because he believes he has to save everyone. 

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LOOK AT ALL THIS RECYCLED SLIGHTLY REDRAWN ANIMATION WE’RE GOING TO BRING IN FROM THE MOVIE.

What unsettles me is that it seems to be the view of the whole episode. Jasmine has all this newfound power and confidence and plays such an active role in completing this adventure but she’s also actively discouraged from respecting that power or liking her agency by clearly showing when she’s in control, bad things happen. 

Even Aladdin in his hallucination perceives the snake – the symbol of Jasmine’s transformation, the power she has – as the enemy, separate from Jasmine, and it’s no wonder Mirage comes to the conclusion that it’s Aladdin’s hope for a cure that makes him still love her. 

Overall, we can chalk this up to Mirage wanting Jasmine to see herself as a monster, but it’s a line I would have tread more carefully as a writer. 

What’s cool about this episode: Jasmine kicks a lot of ass.

Okay, so they’re following markers left behind by “Ancient Nomads” according to Genie, who knew the way to the tree but wanted to keep it secret (and safe). On the way they encounter several dangers. Most of which Jasmine does the bulk of the work defeating. 

First, they are attacked by bandits who have a pet squid that captures Aladdin. Not even kidding: 

And Jasmine puts them in their place right quick, rescuing Aladdin. 

Repeat: Jasmine saves Aladdin, not the other way around. 

They are attacked by a two-headed wolf, which corners Jasmine until Iago (who throughout the episode is the only one that notices that Jasmine does a good job of using her newfound abilities to help everyone) encourages her to fight back. 

And she totally does.

Then, when Aladdin is falling to his death: 

Check. It. Out. 

And Mirage represents pretty much the entire modern makeup and fashion industry

It takes her less than two minutes to convince Jasmine that her worth is based on how she looks. 

And Iago isn’t much of a help here because being as vain as he is, he probably thinks that he’s helping by suggesting he can see wrinkles. 

And Aladdin’s not much help, either. We know he loves her for other reasons but we also know he wouldn’t have saved her at the beginning of the movie if he hadn’t thought she was hot first. 

So Jasmine gets some of Mirage’s special lotion, which apparently shares the same bottle as Eden. 

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? 

This little moment is actually kind of adorable (a little headcanon maybe)

“Love you, too, Iago." 

I adore Jasmine’s relationship with Iago in this episode. In fact you really get to see her develop more with a lot of the more minor characters in the group. 

I think Iago actually likes spending time with her, and this is something that stuck even in that horrid Disney Princess spinoff thing that came years later. It’s not just that she has more money or anything like that. He genuinely seems to prefer her company over Aladdin’s at times. She doesn’t make fun of him when some of his more foppish tendencies come out, and they’ve actually had time to bond, separate from everyone else. (I will cover "Do the Rat Thing” soon, promise!) 

Part of this is because I think Jasmine already really likes birds (she’s pictured more often with birds than any other Disney princess and she’s not one of the ones that can summon and command legions of them by singing) and that just works out in Iago’s favor. Iago has also displayed more than once that selfish and materialistic though he is, he also seems to really get her, and vice versa. 

So when he says he’s shopping with her because the boys are shopping for sugared dates, she knows that’s just a cover and he doesn’t want her to think he’s too attached or anything, but he so is. 

These two are bffs. 

I want to preface this by saying these two characters have never been seen onscreen together before.

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But here we have Fasir and Mirage bickering. Fasir wants to know why Mirage insists on tormenting mortals and she wants to know what the Hell he’s doing on her lawn. 

We don’t see people talking to villains like this very often. Here we get implied familiarity, which is interesting, and it’s not just an old rivalry. If Mirage wanted to attack him, she absolutely would. She doesn’t. 

“You’re so pathetic with your hopeless causes." 

She’s not talking about humanity, there. Never in the show does she give off the impression that she views humanity as anything other than a pawn in the game, an integral part, but one to be tested and manipulated. 

Given Fasir’s insistence on Mirage’s goodness, the "hopeless cause” she’s referring to in this scene may very well be Mirage, herself. We know the two were previously involved, and it’s Fasir’s entreaties about love being the “strength of good” that gets the ball rolling in this episode. 

He’s trying to get her to admit that she still has feelings for him. 

And naturally, she protests too much. 

Seriously, I love the range of expressions in this scene. Let’s be clear. This isn’t a case of someone whose advances were always unwanted. When Mirage gets to talking about how love is just a feeling and nothing more she’s clearly talking about feelings she’s had that she wants to make very clear she gives no weight now. So what if she was in love at one point in time. That’s weakness. LOOK AT HOW OVER YOU I AM GOD. 

The fact that Fasir shows her Aladdin and Jasmine as an example of true love offends her – which we’d consider natural. She hates them. But more importantly I don’t think she appreciated having herself compared to them. 

So she believes she can prove to Fasir that she can make them stop loving each other. More specifically, she can make Aladdin stop loving Jasmine. 

Hold onto that because that’s going to be really important to bear in mind as we go through this, because it has WAY more to say about how Mirage sees herself than how Aladdin and Jasmine see each other. 

Production Code Episode 68 – Eye of the Beholder

Here by popular request! I remember thinking this episode was really cool when I was a kid, but beyond the basic premise and Mirage and Fasir’s involvement, I didn’t remember a whole lot about it. Rewatching this episode was a joy, and I think it’s one of the stand out episodes of the series. We’ll explore why. 

Once again, if there are any episodes or specific characters you’d like me to cover, drop me a line!

Conclusion: So they all decide not to be scared and…that’s it?

No seriously. Mirage could have left them floating in Morbia, unable to find a way out. She could have done that. She didn’t.

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There are no reasons given for why she just sends them back, because it’s pretty obvious that no one in Aladdin’s group is responsible for that.

I don’t know if this is an issue of writing or the nature of her power. It is quite possible that once she’s set a test before someone and they pass, she is bound to let them walk free. 

OR there are other powers at work in her dimension that decided she’d had her fun. 

These are pretty much the only explanations I have for this. We’ll see if they hold true later. However, it need be acknowledged that she is shown time and again to be held to certain rules like that, spoken or unspoken. 

In many cases there is not much else stopping her from just outright killing these people when one of her plans doesn’t go the way she wants it to. That suggests to be that she’s following a code in some shape or form. 

I’m really sorry that the conclusion of this episode was delayed so much, but when you get busy, you get busy! 

Next I’ll be covering “Eye of the Beholder,” as requested, and remember: if there are any characters you’d like to see covered or specific episodes you want to see discussed, feel free to shoot me an ask! 

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Genie being afraid would make more sense if we’d been given a reason to think he might be in danger.

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Also the “yellow” thing didn’t work for me, guys. There are a lot of uncomfortable implications behind it. Before cowardice it was associated with being deceitful or a traitor. This is why the yellow stars forced on the Jews were what they were – it was meant to symbolize that they “betrayed” Jesus. This color was also forced on asians as a race, giving the connotation that they were a deceitful people not to be trusted, and was further attributed to people of mixed race, particularly children with both a white and black parent, because it was believed that the mixture of white and black blood made a person unstable and untrustworthy. SHIT IS PROBLEMATIC IS WHAT I’M SAYING, OKAY? . 

But seriously, back to the story. Genie is a Genie. We only know of one sure way to kill one – destroy the object they were bound to, and we don’t even know if that would work for this Genie because he’s free. Iago says that Mirage “eats Genies for breakfast.” But there’s no further development on that. I think there was time in here to explain this a little better.