“Somebody has to check for traps.”

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Okay so, using the princess to spring traps that might be there – evil thing. But can I pause for just a second and appreciate that Abis Mal doesn’t do what Jafar and numerous other villains do – which is make vaguely sexual allusions toward her?

Can I point out how much it unsettles me when people do that in this show? Fuck, even Mozenrath does it at one point. Even if they’re just saying it to scare her or make Aladdin angry, it’s really not appropriate. (And people need to stop assuming that the best way to unsettle a female audience is to threaten female characters with sexual violence AND THIS SHOULDN’T BE HAPPENING IN A KIDS SHOW ANYWAY.)

So kudos to Abis Mal for not pulling that shit here. See? Tension has been created with one of the least threatening villains in the series and they didn’t have to do it by alluding to sexual assault.

“Seems to be a Genie of some sort. Absolutely powerless when confined.”

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This raises some interesting questions. We know that Genies are magically bound to specific objects. Genie was bound to a lamp, Eden to a bottle, and in the original plans for the movie there was a genie of the ring, too.

(For this reason it would have been REALLY INTERESTING to see Jafar bound to an object he already had, like his snake staff or the hourglass in his lab and not just another lamp.)

We know Genie can be captured because we’ve seen it happen multiple times, even in Return of Jafar. We let that slide because Jafar was a genie himself and could conceivably create something that could trap another.

But if a Genie can be caught in any old thing, I have to wonder why Mozenrath’s Crystals of Ix are supposed to be significant? Perhaps because they actually catch their captives themselves without someone having to put the captive in there. Maybe if used correctly a magical creature can be fully bound to it.

Either way, Genie  thinks it’s a big deal but considering Moze’s first appearance was the seventieth episode written we have seen Genie caught in bottles and jars enough times that there HAS to be something different enough about it for him to be afraid.

“Starting tomorrow, I learn at least one new curse every day.”

…That’s actually rather proactive of you, Abis Mal. Probably one of the few times he openly acknowledges a shortcoming and resolves to improve on it. Of course it’s cursing. But we should celebrate the small victories. May I direct him to this nataliedee comic:

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