History Headscratchers / Aladdin2019

[[folder:Agrabah existing for 1000 years seems a little bit iffyl]]

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[[folder:Why does Jafar want an alliance with Skanland?]]
* Jafar pushes for Jasmine to marry Prince Anders of Skanland, as he wishes to add Skanland's military might to Agrabah's when he attacks Shirabad. But Skanland is implied to be a Scandinavian analogue, while Agrabah (and presumably Shirabad) are in Arabia. How does an alliance with such a far away land improve Agrabah's position in case of a war with Shirabad?
** Had Anders married Jasmine then he would have been the new Sultan, meaning Skanland would have been obligated to send troops and supplies to Agrabah if they went to war regardless of how far away it was.
** In addition, Skanland's national dress seems more Slavic than Scandinavian; if Skanland is Russia and Shirabad is Persia, an alliance lets Agrabah hit them from both the north and south in a pincer movement.

** Because he knew of Aladdin's want to woo Princess Jasmine, and then suddenly this "Prince Ali Ababwa" shows up with the pomp turned up to eleven right after that whole incident at the Cave of Wonders. Jasmine figured it out because of prior knowledge too.

*** He was not dead. Many people who were brought back from the brink of death with modern medical science would have been declared dead by medical knowledge centuries or even decades before. Furthermore Aladdin started breathing again on his own once he had air to breathe again; Genie was begging him to start breathing again and then Aladdin hacked up lungwater onto a dually disgusted and relieved Genie. As for Genie's action on Carpet: since the whole nature of Aladdin's Second Wish to "save you from certain death" was already in a gray area in invocation, and Genie already had been on an extended job in full faith of Al's first wish, he considered surreptitiously blinking Carpet to Aladdin's location to be in the spirit of Al's second wish.

* Genie explains that his glamour magic is just "an Illusion" and will only allow people to see what they want to see. Genie's rules of not being able to make anyone fall in love with you can be extended to mean "I cannot change someone's free will", and that includes forcing someone to believe you are someone or something you're not. Genies transformation doesn't change what you actually look like, instead only giving you enough external accessories to pass when it comes to cursory inspection/being glanced at for a second or two by people that don't know who you are. Jafar can break this immediately because he is an accomplished sorcerer but most importantly knows what Alladin looks like. Jasmine took longer, but still got through because the Magic is paper thin, and all it took was a closer look at his face from up close and some trapped questions for her to recognise him. Someone that doesn't know Alladin at all would likely be totally unable to break the "Prince Ali" disguise because "Prince Ali" is all they have ever known.

*** He was not dead. Many people who were brought back from the brink of death with modern medical science would have been declared dead by medical knowledge centuries or even decades before. Furthermore Aladdin started breathing again on his own once he had air to breathe again; Genie was begging him to start breathing again and then Aladdin hacked up lungwater onto a mildly disgusted Genie. As for Genie's action on Carpet: since the whole nature of Aladdin's Second Wish to "save you from certain death" was already in a gray area in invocation, and Genie already had been on an extended job in full faith of Al's first wish, he considered surreptitiously blinking Carpet to Aladdin's location to be in the spirit of Al's second wish.

** Building on the above, Jafar knew Aladdin still had the magic lamp. That none of his maps showed the kingdom of Ababwa and that "Prince Ali" couldn't say where it was just helped solidify things. Meanwhile Jasmine didn't seem to figure it out until "Prince Ali" did a couple things, such as brushing her hair aside, that Aladdin had done before, much like the original when "Prince Ali" asks if she trusts him the same way Aladdin had.

*** He was not dead. Many people who were brought back from the brink of death with modern medical science would have been declared dead by medical knowledge centuries or even decades before. Furthermore Aladdin started breathing again on his own once he had air to breathe again. As for Genie's action on Carpet: since the whole nature of Aladdin's Second Wish to "save you from certain death" was already in a gray area in invocation, and Genie already had been on an extended job in full faith of Al's first wish, he considered surreptitiously blinking Carpet to Aladdin's location to be in the spirit of Al's second wish.

*** He was not dead. Many people who were brought back from the brink of death with modern medical science would have been declared dead by medical knowledge centuries or even decades before. Furthermore Aladdin started breathing again on his own once he had air to breathe again. Furthermore, since the whole nature of Aladdin's Second Wish to "save you from certain death" was already in a gray area in invocation, and Genie already had been on an extended job in full faith of Al's first wish, he considered surreptitiously blinking Carpet to Aladdin's location to be in the spirit of Al's second wish.

* The Genie says that his magic will make Aladdin unrecognizable (ostensibly to explain why Jasmine didn't recognize him in the original film), so how is Jafar able to know who he is nearly right away and Jasmine isn't?

[[folder: Genie Magic?]]

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Jafar pushes for Jasmine to marry Prince Anders of Skanland, as he wishes to add Skanland's military might to Agrabah's when he attacks Shirabad. But Skanland is implied to be a Scandinavian analogue, while Agrabah (and presumably Shirabad) are in Arabia. How does an alliance with such a far away land improve Agrabah's position in case of a war with Shirabad?

The Genie does plenty of magic without an explicit wish. If he can teleport the flying carpet to the "ends of the earth" without a wish, why can't he just teleport Aladdin out of the water?