The hard part was going to be the lightning. Agrabah being located in a semi-arid climate, thunderstorms did not often occur. Such a storm might transpire once a year during the rainy season if they were lucky. Fortunately for him, the rainy season was about to begin. And when it did, Jafar would be prepared to capture this precious resource.
Queen of Diamonds
by Natural Logarhythm (also available here) is an Aladdin AU fic based on the idea that Jafar took Iago’s advice to just wait for a regular storm to find the ‘Diamond in the Rough’. As a result, Aladdin and ‘Yasmin’ spend more time together forming a relationship outside of Jasmine’s role as a princess, to the point of Jasmine convincing Aladdin to leave Agrabah so that they can be together. Jafar hasn't given up on getting the lamp, though...
As of 19 September 2021, this fic is complete.
There is also a one-shot, "Wild Card", that Word of God confirms can be seen as a sequel or epilogue to Queen or just serve as a stand-alone, featuring an alternate "reunion" between Cassim and Aladdin.
Queen of Diamonds contains examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
- Not only is Jasmine forced to see the man she loves being decapitated (well, it's a body double found by Jafar but she doesn't know that), she has to hear people in the palace calling Aladdin a dirty thief and rapist who got what he deserved for carrying a princess away.
- Aladdin lived for two years with a wonderful woman only to learn she was the princess when the palace guards arrested him, leaving him to wonder if she genuinely loves him or merely toyed with a street urchin's feelings out of boredom.
- Allohistorical Allusion: During Aladdin's Vision Quest, he sees snippets of canon events such as Jasmine being trapped in a giant hourglass.
- And Then What?: In "Wild Card", Cassim assumes that he can win the young Sultan over with tales of the power of the Hand of Midas, but is left confused when the young man asks what would actually be accomplished with an artefact that can turn anything it touches to gold.
- Arranged Marriage: Still an issue for Jasmine after she returns to Agrabah, but the Sultan does his best to ensure that she has a choice.
- Ascended Extra:
- Najida and Rami, the children that Aladdin gave bread to in the opening of the original film, gain greater prominence in this storyline; they become Abu's new owners, are 'arrested' by Jafar as part of his efforts to find Aladdin, and Jasmine even expresses an interest in adopting them after she rescues them from the dungeons.
- Prince Achmed was just another of the many suitors Jasmine rejects at the beginning of the movie (by having Rajah bite his ass) and never shows up again. Here, he shows up again when Jasmine calls him again in order to avoid having to marry Jafar. He even provides some insight on Jasmine's past to a disguised Aladdin, and even helps Aladdin and Jasmine in the climax by fighting the hypnotized Razoul.
- Bait-and-Switch: In a sense; after being returned to Agrabah, Jasmine believes that Aladdin is dead, while Aladdin is told that Jasmine abandoned him in the dungeons, prompting him to return in disguise as ‘Prince Ali’ to try and find out why she lied to him and left him.
- Batman Gambit: As in the original film, Aladdin defeats Jafar by playing on his ego and tricking him into wishing that he was a genie, except in this case Aladdin was apparently planning to do that from the beginning rather than making the plan on impulse.
- Benevolent Genie: The Genie shows this as in canon, such as agreeing that he can return Abu to his natural state without it counting as Aladdin using a wish, as well as offering Aladdin free advice and encouragement about his relationship with Jasmine.
- Berserk Button: Injustice of any kind prompts this from Jasmine, ranging from her own ‘need’ to find a husband to learning about how the poor are treated in Agrabah, such as Aladdin being arrested when he was only seven years old.
- The Bus Came Back: Aladdin is reunited with Abu after he is arrested, and Jasmine meets him later when ‘Ali’ has come to the palace.
- Calling the Old Man Out: In "Wild Card", Cassim is ashamed to face the knowledge that he basically abandoned his son and spent years hunting for the Hand of Midas rather than looking for Aladdin.
- Character Development:
- After their time away from Agrabah, Jasmine puts more effort into trying to find a suitor she would appreciate rather than rejecting them immediately, and Aladdin makes a much more subdued arrival as ‘Prince Ali’, such as Abu being a horse rather than an elephant.
- Prince Achmed shows enough courage to confront Jafar instead of running away, and even turns out to have a soft side when holding Rami afterward.
- Chekhov's Skill: After spending time with Aladdin, Jasmine is able to pick locks, allowing her to free herself from her manacles using just the pin of Achmed's brooch.
- Curse: Jafar puts a curse on the lamp, to disable anyone except himself who touches it.
- Darker and Edgier:
- This fanfic goes into much deeper detail over how much it sucks to be poor through Aladdin's experiences and past.
- Jafar is far more vile here than in the movie: some of his guards had their tongue removed so they couldn't blab about his secrets, imprisons a couple of small kids for two years inside a damp dungeon just because they associated with Aladdin a couple times, and his lust for Jasmine is way more prominent.
- Due the movies and series being family friendly works, Aladdin and Jasmine never do anything riskier than simply sharing a kiss. Their relationship here is way more physical and intimate than in canon (though they're never seen having sex onscreen).
- Defiled Forever: As pointed by Achmed, Jasmine is considered "soiled" after living with a man for two years and would realistically struggle to find a husband that wouldn't treat her as a whore.
- Dirty Old Man: Jafar is briefly drawn to a young woman dancing in the streets even before he realises that the woman in question is Jasmine.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Jasmine feels that Aladdin faced this when she learns that he was first arrested for theft at seven years old, when he had only stolen food to avoid starving when he had lost everything.
- Double Speak: Aladdin uses this when talking to Achmed as ‘Prince Ali’, recalling his brief confrontation with Achmed when Achmed originally visited Agrabah but phrasing it to avoid giving away specifics.
- Double Standard: Discussed — the author notes in the opening chapter that Aladdin lying about his true identity is portrayed in canon as a bad thing and something he struggles to come clean about, yet Jasmine also lies to Aladdin about her true identity and receives no comeuppance for it.
- Dude Magnet: Jasmine is frustrated at how she has met so many men who only want her for her status (although she presents it to Aladdin as them just wanting her father’s wealth, without revealing her status as the princess).
- Engagement Challenge: After Jasmine disappears, the Sultan offers her hand in marriage to the man who finds her. Jafar decides to kill two birds with one stone, retrieving Aladdin to get the lamp and Jasmine to take the throne.
- Everyone Has Standards: After Jafar takes over Agrabah, Achmed remains because he recognises the dangers of Jafar as Sultan. Likewise, while Razoul has obeyed Jafar's past orders, he would have sided with the Sultan during Jafar's coup if Jafar hadn't hypnotised him into loyalty.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: After Jasmine's disappearance, Jafar fails to comprehend what drives Aladdin, Jasmine and the Sultan in particular. He assumes that Jasmine was lured away by Aladdin's manipulations, because he can't comprehend why someone would want to leave the comforts of the palace, and that the Sultan's ability to resist his hypnosis is because continued exposure has led to him forming an immunity, rather than because Jafar's finally tried to make him do something the Sultan would never do (specifically, give up on finding Jasmine and appoint a new heir).
- Exact Words: When asked to justify his release of two prisoners (the children he helped previously) from the palace dungeons, ‘Prince Ali’ answers the question in a manner that suggests he and Jasmine just ended up there by chance, rather than reveal that they were led there by Abu.
- Faking the Dead: Rather than simply tell Jasmine that Aladdin was executed, as in canon, Jafar actually arranges for someone with a similar appearance to be beheaded in his place.
- For Want Of A Nail: Aladdin and ‘Yasmin’ form a relationship outside of Jasmine’s role as the princess simply because Jafar chose to wait for a natural storm rather than generate the energy himself.
- Frame-Up: Jafar's attempt to murder "Prince Ali" is canon, but there he simply claimed that Prince Ali left, which wouldn't have worked with a more emotionally invested and savvy Jasmine — so he has the guards dress up as members of Prince Achmed's retinue when doing it, to pin the crime on him. Jasmine doesn't believe him, and demands to see the body, even before Aladdin walks in.
- Friend to All Children: Jasmine in particular demonstrates this, ranging from her outrage at learning how Aladdin was treated as a child, to expressing a desire to essentially adopt two children whom she finds ‘arrested’ in the palace dungeons.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Jasmine notes that her father is so willing to forgive he can't always recognise just how evil others can be.
- Happily Adopted: After the final confrontation, Najida and Rami are adopted into the royal family for their role in fighting against Jafar.
- Hero of Another Story: By the time of "Wild Card", Cassim has heard various stories about the new young Sultan, including that he supposedly defeated an evil sorcerer to win the hand of the princess when Cassim is aware of reports that Mozenrath has disappeared recently.
- Hidden Depths: Pointed out by Aladdin when seeing Prince Achmed hold Rami.
- Idea Bulb: Genie has one when Jasmine suggests that she take the lamp from Jafar and use it to become Genie's master. Jasmine, not knowing what a lightbulb is, thinks of it as a strange glass bulb containing light.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All chapter titles allude to cards or card games (i.e. "2 of Clubs", "Three of a kind", "Straight Flush", etc).
- I Just Want to Be Free: While she acknowledges that her father loves her and she will have trouble living a poor life with Aladdin, Jasmine prefers the freedom she would have with him over the privilege of her real upbringing.
- I Know You Know I Know: In "Wild Card", Aladdin and Cassim do everything but explicitly state that they know that Cassim is Aladdin's father, and Cassim is forced to accept that his son wants nothing to do with him and he will never have an opportunity to bond with his grandson.
- In Spite of a Nail: Once Jafar captures Aladdin and Jasmine after two years, events proceed more or less like (film) canon, albeit with some adjustments due to their increased maturity — especially Jasmine's — and their closeness. Mostly, the changes take the form of extra events, such as Jasmine inviting Prince Achmed back to court her again when she believes Aladdin has been executed, since he's a better choice than Jafar and she's grown up enough to be pragmatic about that; "Prince Ali" helping her to rescue Najida and Rami from prison; and an earlier reveal to Jasmine that "Prince Ali" is Aladdin, since he already knows she loves him; the basic plot remains recognisable.
- Innocently Insensitive: Fatima (Jasmine's handmaiden) and the Sultan each initially assume that Jasmine will be glad about Aladdin's death after he spent two years "forcing" her to stay with him, although once she explains the truth they both accept her view of Aladdin as a good man.
- Insecure Love Interest: Downplayed; once Aladdin learns of Jasmine’s real history, he wonders why she lied to him and abandoned him after his arrest, and even after he learns that she thought he was dead, he is still uncertain if he deserves to be her husband given his lack of prince-related experience. Despite his wondering, he's not going to walk away from her after he learns that her only alternatives are Prince Achmed and Jafar.
- Internal Reveal:
- In chapter 17, Jafar reveals to Aladdin that "Yasmin" is Princess Jasmine.
- Chapter 27 sees Aladdin finally learn what really happened after their parting, Jasmine revealing to 'Prince Ali' that she thought Aladdin was dead, and thus freeing Aladdin to reveal his own identity.
- In chapter 30, Jasmine learns that Aladdin achieved all this with the aid of the Genie.
- Literal-Minded: Iago initially thinks that the Diamond in the Rough is an actual diamond.
- The Matchmaker: Genie takes on this role to a greater extent than in the original film; rather than just encouraging Aladdin to tell Jasmine the truth, here he takes Aladdin’s insecurities about Jasmine’s past deceptions into account and encourages him not to give up just because he’s anxious.
- Mood Whiplash: In the final confrontation, Jafar goes from revelling in his new power as a genie to outraged and horrified when he starts being drawn into his lamp.
- The Mourning After: Jasmine admits at one point that she would almost prefer marriage to Prince Achmed over Prince Ali because Achmed wouldn’t expect her to love him, as she’s not sure if she’s willing to open herself up emotionally to that extent after losing Aladdin.
- My God, What Have I Done?: In chapter 30, Aladdin spends some time kicking himself for giving Jafar a chance to steal the lamp.
- Named by the Adaptation: The children that Aladdin gave his bread to in the film’s opening are identified as Najida and Rami.
- Never the Obvious Suspect: Achmed is initially accused as being the one responsible for Jasmine’s disappearance from Agrabah, although they establish his innocence soon enough.
- Nice to the Waiter: Jasmine is shown to have a good relationship with the palace servants, to the point where Fatima (her handmaiden) assures Jasmine that she is a good person when Jasmine wonders if she deserves love after her actions led to Aladdin’s apparent death.
- Oh, Crap!: Jasmine's reaction, when Jafar reveals her true identity to Aladdin.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Subverted; Genie explicitly confirms that ‘Prince Ali’ includes a subtle spell to stop anyone recognising Aladdin if they already knew him unless he tells them the truth himself, although Jafar realises who 'Prince Ali' is when he sees the lamp.
- Put on the Bus: Aladdin leaves Abu behind when he and 'Yasmin' leave Agrabah, as he worries the monkey wouldn’t cope well with their planned trip across the desert. Also, his new owners need him more.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: While he was presented in canon as a good person but potentially eccentric as a ruler, the Sultan gets a chance to show more political skill here, such as explicitly telling Jafar that a good leader doesn't blame his subordinates for his failure when he learns that Razoul is in the dungeons for failing to find Jasmine's "abductor" in time. Later on, the Sultan listens to all arguments when he learns that there are two children in Agrabah’s dungeon, even if he genuinely disapproved of the act. After the final confrontation, when Genie apologises to the Sultan for his actions while Jafar held his lamp, the Sultan immediately affirms that he understands that Genie had no choice but to obey Jafar's commands, and also affirms that he will appoint Jasmine his official heir regardless of whether or not she marries (even if he also accepts her choice of Aladdin).
- Refuge in Audacity: When Genie first hears Aladdin’s story about his life with Jasmine, he muses that it’s so crazy it has to be true.
- Rescue Romance: Applies to Aladdin and Jasmine’s relationship in far greater depth than usual in this version of events, as Jasmine spends more time with Aladdin when he doesn’t know about her true identity and just thinks of her as the girl he rescued.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: After Jafar takes over Agrabah, Achmed remains to try and help Jasmine escape to mount a counter-attack because he recognises the dangers of Jafar as a ruler, although Jasmine in turn recognises that Achmed is hoping to use this situation to boost his own standing.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Jasmine expresses a desire to be this after she returns to the palace.
- Rules Lawyer:
- Genie manifests duplicates to act as this, consulting various scrolls before concluding that it wouldn’t cost Aladdin a wish to turn Abu back into a monkey as Aladdin only wished for himself to change rather than Abu.
- He enlists them again at the end to point out that Aladdin arguably was the one to find Jasmine and thus could claim to be entitled to her hand in marriage.
- Shout-Out:
- When Jasmine runs into Achmed after Jafar has become Sultan, his reaction references his counterpart in Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier.
- After the final confrontation, the Sultan's comments about Aladdin are very similar to the Emperor's praise of Mulan, as he lists Aladdin's crimes and then affirms that he has saved them all.
- Swapped Roles: After Jafar's defeat, unlike in canon, Jasmine is the one to apologise for lying to Aladdin while Aladdin expresses his understanding.
- Title Drop Chapter: The last chapter of the story is titled "Queen of Diamonds".
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: A villainous version of this; Jafar placed a curse on the lamp, to strangle anyone but him who tries to use it, but this is only revealed when Jasmine tries to steal it to make a wish of her own.
- Vision Quest: After saving Aladdin's life, Carpet takes him back to the Cave of Wonders so that he can go on a vision quest to learn what it truly means to be the Diamond in the Rough.
- What You Are in the Dark: After Jafar takes the lamp and banishes him, Aladdin decides to go back to Agrabah despite Carpet's warnings. Carpet, in turn, takes him to the Cave of Wonders to go on a Vision Quest, even though Aladdin assures Carpet that he can just take Aladdin to the outskirts of Agrabah and then leave.
- Would Hurt a Child: During the final confrontation, Jafar threatens to kill Najida if Jasmine smashes his staff.
- You're Not My Father: After making it clear that he knows Cassim was his biological father, Aladdin says that he doesn't want to ever see him again, on pain of death.
She looked up at him with a smile and tears brimming in her eyes. "We made it, Aladdin. We're free."
