Season 2- Episode 58
Wha’ happen
One of the big challenges for adapting Aladdin as a tv series is the absence of Jafar, one of the all time GOAT Disney villains. So props to the creators because TV Aladdin has an impressively deep bench of villains, ranging from the comically inept to the terrifyingly powerful. Firmly in the latter camp was Mirage, a literal goddess of evil voiced by Bebe Neuwirth.
This episode begins with Mirage in her evil dimension known as Morbia (where it’s always Morbin’ time) arguing with Fasir, another recurring character in the series. Fasir is basically a blind, mystically powered mysterious old person who’d show up randomly to give Aladdin a quest to go on. He’s Aladdin’s Madam Webb.
Fasir and Mirage are arguing over whether evil will ultimately triumph over good. Fasir claims that love is the greatest power in the universe and Mirage hisses that love is weak. Then Fasir is all “have you not seen my servant Aladdin?” and claims that Aladdin’s love for Jasmine is stronger than all of Mirage’s power. And Mirage is all…
In Agrabah, Jasmine is out shopping in the marketplace with, of all people, Iago. This episode takes place really late in the series and I absolutely love the fact that by this point Iago has gone from plotting Jasmine’s death with Jafar to basically being her sassy gay best friend who fake-flirts with her and it’s kinda adorable.
They’re interrupted by a mysterious merchant woman who tries to sell her some lotion by preying on her insecurities about ageing. Jasmine says that her man loves her no matter what and Mirage (for it is she in disguise!) says that men are fickle dogs who will dump a girl over a single wrinkle to which Iago replies “that’s true! I do it all the time!”
Just then Aladdin arrives and it’s fucking hilarious. He just jumps into the frame with this ridiculously overly zany music sting, like he’s the wacky comedy relief neighbour about to drop his catchphrase.
He tells her he just had to see her beautiful face again and she says “Oh! So you love my beautiful face do you?” and he, get this, says “yes” because the poor idiot chump thinks that’s the right answer. Worried that he’s going to dump her for a younger model (she is 17) she buys the lotion and applies before going to bed. And when she wakes up.
Genie tells the others that there is a magical tree who’s fruit can heal anything so they set out on a quest for the tree. They encounter many obstacles but Jasmine slowly starts to become more and more snakelike. Mirage is at first baffled that Aladdin is still with Jasmine but realises that he’s just hoping out hope that she can be returned to normal. On the journey, Jasmine has to save Aladdin from falling and almost kills him because the barbs on her tale are venomous. They finally reach the tree but Mirage casts a spell that causes all the fruit to wither, meaning that Jasmine is now permanently stuck as a snake. She tells Aladdin to leave her as she can’t even touch him now without endangering his life. Instead, Aladdin uses the last of the lotion to transform himself into a snake so that they can be together.
Mirage is furious but Fasir appears and tells her that just because she lost is no reason for Aladdin and Jasmine to suffer and changes them back to their human forms. They kiss and swear that they will love each other forever, and Fasir, watching from a distance, says that one day he Mirage will realise the truth and realise that she loves him and will back with him because apparently they were once an item but she broke up with him when she became evil.
How was it?
I really enjoyed this. Jasmine and Aladdin have always had one of the more interesting relationships of any of the Disney leads (no doubt helped that they had three movies and a long ass TV series to explore it). But I’m a sucker for a good “true love conquers all story” and this is a genuinely sweet one.
unshavedmouse 
🙂
Wow, either you’re doing a great job of picking the most memorable episodes of this series, or it occupies more hard drive space in my brain than I thought because I’ve vividly remembered every episode you’ve talked about so far.
And you ain’t lying about how fetishistic this show can be, this one’s got representation for the furries and the scalies.
When you covered the previous episode I figured this one would come up next. We can joke about the fetish fuel but these sort of plots were common in Saturday Morning Television, was it really intentional on the writers part or was it retroactively applied from the audience once they realized it awoke something in them?
And I did not expect to be writing this much about kinks in children’s television.
Anywho, this was a good one and I have to admit I’m also a sucker for true love conquers all bits.
Now this genuinely sounds like a tale that could have been adapted from the Arabian Nights – I wonder how many other episodes of the show could pass the ‘Scheherazade Test’?