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Jafar is the main antagonist of the Aladdin franchise, serving as the main antagonist of Disney's 31st full-length animated feature film Aladdin (which is based on the Arabic folktale Aladdin and the Magic Lamp from One Thousand and One Nights) and also the 2019 remake of the same name, and its 1994 direct-to-video sequel The Return of Jafar, a posthumous character in Aladdin and The King of Thieves and Aladdin: Nasira's Revenge, and the secondary antagonist in the Hercules crossover "Hercules and the Arabian Night". He also appears as a recurring antagonist in House of Mouse, and the main antagonist of its 2002 direct-to-video film Mickey's House of Villains, as well as a recurring antagonist in the Kingdom Hearts franchise and the Kilala Princess manga. He is the power-hungry Grand Vizier of Agrabah who serves as Aladdin's arch-nemesis and Iago's former owner and boss.

In all of his appearances, he was voiced and portrayed by Jonathan Freeman. In the 2019 live action remake, he was portrayed by Marwan Kenzari.

Personality[]

Jafar is portrayed as a total psychopath who will not hesitate to destroy anyone that he perceives as a threat to his own sinister designs. Like numerous clinically diagnosed psychopaths, Jafar wears a metaphorical mask of normalcy throughout the film, establishing himself as a calm schemer and gaining the trust of those around him, despite his rather untrustworthy and treacherous behavior, as he was unsympathetic and cruel towards his fellow conspirators or henchmen, especially Gazeem or Iago. Even with this mask, Jafar's psychopathic tendencies tend to seep through and become apparent to the viewer. He is also proven to be quite sadistic and merciless, as he enjoys putting people in suffering, such as demoting Jasmine and her father as servants after claiming as the new Sultan, and attempts to have Aladdin killed so many times with a few laughs. Though, this all ended up in failure.

In addition, in The Return of Jafar, Jafar was not outside of using loopholes to bypass the ban on Genies killing people via having Abis Mal arrange Aladdin's murder for him or using the environment to have death becomes an oppressive inevitability during the final battle, and was proven to not mind the Genies cannot kill rule because "you'd be surprised at what you can live through", implying that he could torture people to the fullest extent without killing them. He is also proven to be quite narcissistic and egotistical, due to his desire for power and his manipulations towards the Sultan. It is not until Jafar gains control of the Genie's lamp that he fully shows his true colors, becoming very arrogant, traitorous, manipulative and short-tempered with his subjects after usurping power from the Sultan. However, it is this power-hungry behavior that leads to Jafar's downfall, as Aladdin tricks him into using his third wish to become an omnipotent and transcendental genie, unaware of the life inside the lamp that he now has to endure.

Despite his psychopathic and deranged behavior, Jafar has a somewhat entertaining and comical edge that helps to add some humanity to his character, for example proclaiming "Ewww..." when contemplating decapitation, an unusual trait in a Disney villain. He is also very scathing and censorious, as he criticizes Aladdin for choosing to deceive Jasmine into thinking he was a prince instead of being honest with her, as he believed that Jasmine would never give him the time of day if she knew who he really was. He is also very close to his twin sister Nasira and relishes on her plot to revive him, so that they can rule the world together, even warning her to be cautious of Aladdin's intelligence and the Genie's power. In the episode "The Citadel", it was told that Jafar feared a ruthless sorcerer named Destane, who was the former King of the Black Sand and master of Mozenrath; Iago explained that Destane proved to be far more dangerous, that even Jafar decided to steer clear away to avoid invoking Destane's wrath. Furthermore, Jafar has a sense of humor himself, spurting several puns in a row while keeping Aladdin and his friends from getting the lamp during the film's climax ("Your time is up!", "Don't toy with me!", "Things are unraveling fast now, boy!", "Get the point?", "I'm just getting warmed up!"), as pointed out by Hades in "Hercules and the Arabian Night". This sense of humor does not carry over in the sequel at all, which aimed to make Jafar darker than usual.

He is also shown to be somewhat abusive and argumentative towards his minions, as evidenced by his interactions with Iago and, later, Abis Mal. Ultimately, this proves to be his final downfall, as Iago ends up turning against him twice by destroying Jafar's magic lamp, resulting in his demise. This abuse heavily carries over to other characters in the film, especially during the climax as, following his hostile rise to power, Jafar immediately used his newfound abilities to ruthlessly torment Jasmine, the Sultan, Aladdin, and the Genie via physical abuse, humiliation, slavery, and other forms of sadistic torture, which he openly showed amusement in.

Like some villainous characters from other franchises, Jafar is attracted to a beautiful teenage girl who is a protagonist. Here, he is attracted to Princess Jasmine, but primarily for her good-looking body, and not for Jasmine herself as a person. His final wish was initially for Jasmine to fall desperately in love with him so he could make her his queen (he and Iago originally planned on killing her as soon as he became Sultan, but at some time later he refused to kill her, instead sparing her life); he first creates a golden crown for her from her shackles to do so with a wave of his hand, saying that a girl as beautiful as her "should be on the arm of the most powerful man in the world". Much earlier, though, he says in what we would consider being a sexist manner that Jasmine's speechlessness is "a fine quality in a wife".

Appearance[]

Jafar is a tall, slender man dressed in extravagant clothing, always seen carrying a gold, ruby-eyed, cobra-headed staff to supplement his magical powers. Jafar has a twisted black goatee and a faint mustache, as well as gray eyeliner. He is supposed to be designed as ugly, and Genie makes this obvious when he refers to him as "a tall, dark, sinister, ugly man". Apparently, he is completely bald, as evidenced by when he removes his beggar disguise, acting as the only time Jafar did not wear his distinctive headdress, although it was never made clear whether he is naturally bald or if he shaved his head for the disguise. He also carries a cobra-head staff, which he uses for his sorcery. Jafar was animated by Andreas Deja, who also used the character Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty and the voice actor Jonathan Freeman as the basis for Jafar's design.

As the Royal Vizier, Jafar wears a black robe that reaches the ground over top a red garment with bell sleeves. Underneath this second garment, Jafar wears yet another shirt, this one black with very close-fitting sleeves that reach his wrists. The shoulders of his outer robe are pointed and connect to a long, billowing black cape with a red interior. His slippers are copper and the tips curl inward. A maroon sash is tied around his waist. He also wears an odd peach garment that covers his neck, the back of his head, and his chest. He sports a distinctive black headdress, seemingly a type of mitre, with a thin yellow pattern wrapping around the middle, what seems to be a ruby set in the front, and a red feather placed just above it.

The headdress itself is apparently made out of metal, as evidenced by the hollow sound it made when Iago briefly knocked on it while trying to get Jafar to calm down from a laughing fit due to thinking he went insane (not realizing he was actually laughing because he realized that not only did the lamp actually survive, it is actually in close proximity due to Prince Ali (or rather, Aladdin) owning it). More maroon cloth hangs from the mitre, draping over Jafar's shoulders. As Sultan, Jafar wears a white version of this outfit.

When he is turned into a sorcerer, Jafar's wardrobe goes to a more exaggerated form of his normal attire, with a headdress sporting horn-like protrusions. It does not have a red feather on it as it is used to, only conserves the ruby on the front. The shoulders of his outer robe are even pointer and maintain a higher position than before. His maroon sash on his waist is slightly different. Here, he regains his iconic snake staff, but notably with an open fanged mouth that fires beams magic on command. He also transformed himself into a giant black and orange cobra.

Once Jafar makes his third wish, he takes on a form resembling Genie himself while that last wish in the process would soon create his magic black Lamp, with some differences. Jafar's skin becomes red, his ears become pointed, his right ear gains a gold piercing, his hair becomes tied in a topknot, and his eyes become completely yellow (although there are instances where Jafar gains pupils, such as in "You're Only Second Rate"), and when he uses legs, instead of his genie smoke, the legs look muscular and somewhat demonic, with claws. He retains his maroon sash and five-fingered hands (albeit with claws, compared to Genie, who has four-fingers).

When he is in his normal human form, Jafar wears a slight recolor of his sorcerer outfit, with red more prominent than before. Interestingly, his sash on his waist is seen black instead of being red. He retains his snake staff. When he guest appeared in an episode of Hercules, he regains his sorcerer outfit.

Powers and Abilities[]

At the start of Aladdin, despite having an extensive knowledge of arcane lore, Jafar does not seem to possess any genuine magical powers and thus could have been no more than an alchemist. The closest he had ever come to using actual magic prior to becoming a powerful sorcerer was with his Snake Staff's hypnotic properties.

In the demo for the song "Arabian Nights", he was mentioned to be a part-time magician as well as a seer, although he is specified to be an amateur in the latter job. He is also surprisingly effective and authoritative at disguising himself when he was a regular human, as evidenced by his posing as an old prisoner to recruit Aladdin into retrieving the Magic Lamp from the Cave of Wonders after arranging for his arrest, and later to trick Hercules into fighting Aladdin.

However, after wishing to become the most powerful sorcerer in the world, he could levitate objects, breath fire, summon objects, and transform himself and others. In addition, he is also immune to the effects of fire, as evidenced by his passing through the flames generated by him unharmed immediately before transforming himself into a giant Cobra. Jafar's next wish - to become a genie - made him arguably one of the most powerful entities in the Disney universe.

However, after he was killed and later revived by Hades as a spirit in an episode of the Hercules animated series, Jafar no longer has his genie powers but remains as a sorcerer.

Jafar is unique among Disney villains in that he initially starts off as being relatively normal (i.e., non-magical, his staff's hypnosis capabilities aside), yet eventually gains genuine magical powers late into the film, as most Disney Villains before him either lacked magic from their various appearances (i.e., Gaston, Percival McLeach, or Madame Medusa), or otherwise were magical from the start (i.e., Ursula, The Evil Queen, or Maleficent).

Relationships[]

Family[]

  • Nasira - Twin sister
  • Jay - Son (Descendants series)

Allies[]

  • Hades - Resurrector and friend
  • Pain and Panic

Enemies[]

  • Sultan - Former thrall and former slave
  • Jasmine - Former love interest
  • Aladdin - Attempted victim
  • Abu - Kidnappee
  • Genie - Former slave and kidnapper
  • Magic Carpet
  • Iago - Former pet and minion turned killer
  • Rajah
  • Hercules - Attempted victim turned second killer
  • Phil
  • Pegasus

Quotes[]

Aladdin[]

Jafar: You are late.

Gazeem: A thousand apologies, oh patient one.
Jafar: You have it, then?
Gazeem: I had to slit a few throats, but I got it.
*He holds the scarab piece Jafar reaches for it*
Gazeem: Uh-uh-uh.... the treasure. (*Iago steals the scarab piece*)
Jafar: Trust me, my pungent friend. (grabs piece) You'll get what's coming to you.

~ Jafar meeting up with a thief named Gazeem and promising that he will be rewarded for his services.
Jafar: At last, after all my years of searching. The Cave of Wonders.

Iago: (squawks) Cave of Wonders!
Gazeem: By Allah!
Jafar: Now, remember. Bring me the lamp. The rest of the treasure is yours, but the lamp is mine.

~ Jafar telling Gazeem to go into the Cave of Wonders.
Yes. Only one may enter. I must find this one, this diamond in the rough.
~ Jafar planning to find the Diamond in the rough to retrieve the lamp from the cave.
Your Majesty certainly has a way with dumb animals. Now, then. Perhaps I can divine a solution to this thorny problem.
~ Jafar offering to help the Sultan to find a new suitor for his daughter Jasmine.
Let's have the guards extend him an invitation to the palace, shall we?
~ Jafar
Jafar: Sadly, the boy's sentence has already been carried out.

Jasmine: What sentence?
Jafar: Death. By beheading.

~ Jafar telling Jasmine that the guards have already sentenced Aladdin.
I think it's time to say goodbye to Prince Abooboo.
~ Jafar seeing Prince Ali as a rival for Jasmine's hand in marriage and plotting to secretly have him killed.
I'm afraid you've worn out your welcome, Prince Abooboo. Make sure he's never found.
~ Jafar revealing his true nature to Prince Ali and ordering the guards to ensure that no one finds him
This is not done yet, Boy!
~ Jafar, before he escapes after Aladdin, exposes him.
Jafar: I am your master now.

Genie: I was afraid of that.
Jafar: Genie, grant me my first wish. I wish to rule on high, as sultan!

~ Jafar making his first wish of becoming the new sultan and rule Agrabah.
Jafar: So Ali turns out to be merely Aladdin. Just a con, need I go on? Take it from me. His personality flaws. Give me adequate cause. To send him packing on a one-way trip. So his prospects take a terminal dip. His assets frozen, the venue chosen. Are the ends of the earth, whoopee! So long!

Iago: Goodbye, see ya!
Jafar: Ex-Prince Ali! (*Laughs like a maniac)

~ Jafar during the reprise of "Prince Ali" before banishing Aladdin, Abu and Carpet to the Arctic to freeze to death.
Jafar: It pains me to see you reduced to this, Jasmine. A beautiful desert bloom such as yourself should be on the arm of the most powerful man in the world. What do you say, my dear? Why with you as my queen...

Jasmine: Never!
Jafar: I'll teach you some respect! Genie, I have decided to make my final wish. I wish for Princess Jasmine to fall desperately in love with me.
Genie: Ah, master. There are a few adenas and some quick pro-gos.
Jafar: Don't talk back to me, you big blue lout! You will do what I order you to do, slave!
Jasmine: Oh Jafar, I couldn't help noticing how incredibly handsome you are.
(*Genie's jaw drops*)
Jafar: That's better. Now, pussycat, tell me more about... myself.

~ Jafar V.S Jasmine and Genie.
That was... (*sees Aladdin*) You!! How many times do I have to kill you, boy?
~ Jafar after realizing that Aladdin is still alive.
Jafar: You little fool! You thought you could defeat the most powerful being on earth!

Iago: Squeeze him, Jafar. Squeeze him like a--awk!
*Iago was hit by Genie.*
Jafar: Without the genie, boy, you're nothing!
Aladdin: The genie (*looks at Genie*) The Genie! (*looks back at Jafar*) The Genie has more power than you ever will!
Jafar: What?
Aladdin: He gave you your power! He can take it away!
Genie: Al, what are you doing? Why are you bringing me into this?
Aladdin: Face it, Jafar! You're still just second best!
Jafar: You're right! His power does exceed my own! But not for long! (*he goes to Genie*)
Genie: He's a little punch drunk. One too many hits with a snake.
Jafar: Slave, I make my third wish! I wish to be an all-powerful genie!

~ Jafar before making his third wish.
Jafar: Yes! The power, the absolute power!
~ Jafar upon transforming into a Genie.
The universe is mine to command, to control!
~ Jafar briefly declaring himself the ruler of the universe.
Jafar: Get your blasted beak out of my face!

Iago: Oh, shut up you moron!
Jafar: Don't tell me to shut up!

~ Jafar's last words in Aladdin.

The Return of Jafar[]

I am FREE!! Free to exact vengeance upon thee who has imprisoned me! (attempts to leave but can't as his shackles prevent him from leaving the proximity of his lamp) It is the curse of the lamp. All the power in the universe and I am bound by the rules of the GENIES!!! Which means I can't kill that upstart Aladdin, unless... I have someone arrange it for me.
~ Jafar being released from his lamp by Abis Mal in The Return of Jafar.
Let's not be too hasty, my simple-minded friend. It's not enough that we simply destroy Aladdin. After all.... there are things so much worse than DEATH!!
~ Jafar, after learning that Abis Mal wants to have revenge on Aladdin as well and warning him not to underestimate Aladdin's intelligence.
Good help is so hard to find these days, isn't it, Aladdin?! (laughs evilly until he spots Iago kicking his lamp into the magma) My lamp! NOOOOOO!!!!
~ Jafar's last words in The Return of Jafar moments before his death.

Others[]

Iago, Let's work some magic!
~ Jafar following Mickey's command in House of Mouse.
Jafar: Allow me to cast a spell. Salago-

Iago: Doola!
Jafar: Menchicka
Iago: boola
Jafar: Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo Put'em
Iago: Together
Jafar: And what have you
Iago: Got?
Jafar: Bibbidi...
Iago: Bobbidi...
Jafar: Boo!
Iago: Now salago-doola means
Jafar: Menchicka boole-roo
Iago: But the thingmabob
Jafar: That does the job
Iago: bibbidi...
Jafar: bobbidi
Jafar & Iago: boo!
Jafar: Salago-doola
Iago: Menchicka boola
Jafar: Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo
Jafar & Iago: Put 'em together And what have you got? Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo!
Iago: Bibbidi...
Jafar: Bobbidi...
Jafar & Iago: Boo! [laughing wickedly]

~ Jafar and Iago performing "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo!".

Trivia[]

  • He is ranked #2 in the Top 30 Disney Villains, second only to Maleficent.
  • In the House of Mouse episode "House of Magic", Jafar and Iago use the famous magic spell Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo to return the House of Mouse after Daisy Duck magically causes it to vanish, and were tricked by Mickey to receive "Agrabah" as a reward for their good deeds.
  • Jafar also appeared in the 2001 direct-to-video film Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse as one of the Disney Villains who celebrate Christmas and is even shown in the music song "The Best Christmas of All" as one of its notable singers, singing it with his fellow villains alongside with many Disney heroes. Also, Jafar and Iago (as well as his enemies Genie, Carpet, Abu, and all of the Disney characters in the House of Mouse) are all insulted when Donald Duck refuses to change his bad mood towards Christmas.
  • On February 26, 2014, when Aladdin was turned into a Broadway musical, Jonathan Freeman had voiced Jafar in his every appearance, so he returned to play the character onstage; he is the only Disney voice actor with this honor.
  • Tim Curry, Kelsey Grammer, the late John Hurt, Christopher Lloyd, and Ian McKellen were all considered for the role of Jafar before Jonathan Freeman was cast.
    • Patrick Stewart was originally going to voice Jafar, but scheduling conflicts with Star Trek: The Next Generation forced him to turn it down.
  • In the 2019 remake of the film, it is implied that most of Jafar's negative traits and motives stemmed from having to grow up impoverished and bullied on by the populace of Sherebad, making him almost similar to his rival Aladdin, although their similarities differed in how they handled their suffering. Ironically, in the deleted scene, "Why Me" from the original as well as the restored version of the scene in the Broadway musical imply that Jafar was bullied and considered a street rat. 
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