Tag: aladdin

Mechanicles’ introduction to our heroes, Greek philosophers, and that pesky crossover with Hercules

“Archimedes? Amateur. Socrates? All talk.”

Y’know, I know they made this long before a Hercules cartoon was ever in production but I want you to think about that. Hercules is not in school yet when this cartoon takes place because that crossover doesn’t even happen until AFTER Aladdin and Jasmine are married. Presumably Hercules doesn’t even know he’s a god yet.

Why am I bringing this up? Because these people are being spoken about like they were all walking around at the same time, or their time has passed.

The mind boggles. Now Socrates I can let slide because he references Plato later, who was a student of Socrates so presumably Socrates is already dead at this point having been executed for having unpopular opinions.

And given that Mechanicles is an obvious expatriate, I wonder what his opinions of the man are in spite of his bragging. Socrates chose to die rather than accept exile or something worse because he was a patriot to the greatest extreme. He risked his life and went to war for his country and he accepted their death sentence as he believed a loyal Greek should, even though he made clear that he did not agree with the sentence.

Mechanicles’ pride for his Greek routes which comes up more than once in the series is wholly secondary to his plans for world domination. His inventions are not for the glory of his city state. They’re for himself.

Basically what I’m saying is that a crossover with Hercules that featured him and maybe explained why he left Greece in the first place would have been really interesting.

Production Code Episode #15: Getting the Bugs Out

The first Mechanicles episode. I did not like this character very much when I was younger – I kind of had to be in the mood for him. My mind has changed some partially because as an adult I find his snobbery and antics way more funny but also because one of my roommates got me to give him another chance. (And I think that Disney made a huge mistake not featuring this character in a Hercules crossover.)

Oh, and alternate title: “Aladdin Deserves Every Bad Thing That Happens To Him: The Sequel.”

((Those girls are from a brothel. Perhaps he wished to frequent it or did when he could. That woman is a madam.))

–mozenrathoftheblacksand

In reference to my headcanon about the ladies in “One Jump Ahead” here. Considering I’ve seen a few things label them as “harem girls” (and a harem is not a whorehouse like most westerners believe it to be – this was an assumption brought over by ignorant white imperialists who didn’t understand what a harem was), I really don’t think that’s the case. (I think the lyrics identify them as harem girls but I’m not sure.) A harem is a sacred space where men aren’t allowed – the word translated literally ties to “haram” or “forbidden,” and according to wikipedia, this is a space where young women were raised in preparation for marrying noble and royal men, or the living quarters of the wives of polygamous individuals, etc, but to add onto that: 

“A Muslim harem does not necessarily consist solely of women with whom the head of the household has sexual relations, but also their young offsprings, other female relatives, etc.” (x)

So no, my money’s on them being sisters and the woman in that scene being their mother.

“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. 

I know what Genie is trying to do here but it’s kind of his fault that Jasmine’s engaged to the evil undead, too.

Genie does reverse psychology and agrees that everything is Aladdin’s fault. To make Aladdin angry. 

“How was I supposed to know giving Jasmine a gift was going to unleash that guy?" 

MAYBE IF YOU READ THE WARNING LABEL ON THE BOX. OR PAID ATTENTION WHEN THE JEWEL STARTED SMOKING. OR WHEN THE BAD WEATHER CAME UP. 

You had every opportunity! All of you. Everyone at that site dropped the ball on this one. You suck. This is your fault. Now go fix it. 

The entire premise of this episode is dependent on the notion that this group of mostly literate people, with two experts on magic and the supernatural, would be too ignorant and/or clueless to see the anvil-sized hints being dropped that bad things are about to happen.

image

Seriously. The person who wanted this chest not to be found put clear warnings on the box, and THEY EVEN OBSERVE THAT WHOEVER BURIED IT DIDN’T WANT IT TO BE FOUND. The warnings on the box SHOULD be clear, anyway, if Al can read that much of a language used by the ancient nomads depicted in “Eye of the Beholder.” But apparently the glyphs for “DON’T OPEN DO YOU EVEN WATCH SCARY MOVIES” are still dusty or something. 

If he’d ever seen The Mummy he wouldn’t be bothering with this thing. 

image

Oh look. A thing buried in magic spice. I wonder why that would be there. 

image

I MEAN IT LOOKS SO NORMAL. 

image

WOW LOOK AT THAT COMPLETELY COINCIDENTAL CHANGE IN THE WEATHER. I’M SURE THE TWO ARE UNRELATED. 

I assume some of my followers have seen the Evil Dead movies, even the reboot. I’ll bet you even wondered what kind of people would be silly enough to read from the book covered in obvious warnings, thus unleashing the deadites and spelling death for everyone but Bruce Campbell.

These people. These are the kinds of people that unleash deadites.

Aladdin, and all of his conveniently oblivious friends. All but one of whom are supposed to be older and wiser than he is. 

And Bruce Campbell isn’t anywhere in sight.