The latest villain in the series was unusually weird, IMO
::: spoiler especially with the whole lab experiment treatment and cartoon biological horror moments. Also the unknown fate of the people who used its power to depart for some dream dimension or whatever. :::
It’s even worse than the villain being an idiot in this case IMO. It’s being an idiot exactly in the right way, despite it seeming quite far-fetched.
It somehow requires that Jafar believes only a genie can be ultra-powerful, but ignores that a powerful genie is supposed to be bound.
They wanted Aladdin to win by being cunning, because it’s supposed to be his main thing, and that’s okay, even if they need Jafar to be an ass for a few seconds. But for this to work, Aladdin didn’t just need to be cunning, he had to be a freaking psychic.
It does not make a lot of sense, but it was sort of established earlier in that particular universe (the “phenomenal cosmic powers, itty bitty living space” thing).
My main problem with this always was Aladdin suggesting to Jafar “Hey, you know, the genie’s still more powerful”, and Jafar reacts exactly how Aladdin had planned, by wishing specifically to be the most powerful genie.
Why was that the only option he could think of? Where was it written that a sorcerer could not be more powerful than a genie?
Aladdin tricks him by saying if a genie gave him his power, the genie could take them back too… But in the end it’s still the genie who makes him a genie too, so why would that be any different?
Some even closer than most think. The Sword in the Stone is based on a 1938 book, it’s not an original adaptation of Arthurian legend.
Though really, there never has been so many new takes on Arthur than today.
Many consider that the real golden age of these stories as popular tales is right now, kickstarted “only” 150 years ago by Mark Twain and his Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.
Again, if we’re only talking about Disney canon, according to the sequel and series (because really that movie was just the pilot for the animated series), the genie is supposed to have lost a lot of his power after being freed. It’s not obvious how much of it really.
It’s also not obvious how “bound” the genies are to begin with.
Genie is tricked into getting Aladdin out of the cave of wonders without using a wish, and he looks a bit annoyed but not that much (and it worked). He also basically forces a wish on an unconscious Aladdin to save his life, saying he can’t do it without a wish.
Whatever magic contract is used there looks quite open to interpretation…
There was a joke a bit like that in the Order of the Stick webcomic.
The hydra they were facing was supposed to be a test of wit. Fighting it mindlessly was supposed to be a bad idea, since it would just grow more and more heads in response.
Except one of them noticed there didn’t seem to be any limit to the number of heads and had an idea, so he let the violent bastard in the team go cut heads like crazy anyway.
After a while the hydra just fainted because it couldn’t supply oxygen to so many brains.