Question About Aladdin

[Crockett]

So here I sit on this lazy Sunday afternoon watching Aladdin on ABC Family channel. As many times as I have seen this great film, this plot loophole never dawned on me until now:

Why didn't Jafar just use his snake staff to hypnotize the Sultain, order him to step down/give up his position, and proclaim Jafar his successor? If the snake staff is powerful enough to manipulate the Sultain into giving up a treausred family ring, or order his own daughter to marry Jafar...then surely it would work to manipulate Sultain to step down / "retire" early.

Rather than Jafar going through ALL the trouble of hypnotizing the Sultain to get the ring so he can discover the identity of the "diamond in the rough" who can enter the cave in order to retreive the magic lamp so Jafar can use it to grant him power.....(pause to catch your breath). But you see what I mean.

 

[Hakunamatata]

So here I sit on this lazy Sunday afternoon watching Aladdin on ABC Family channel. As many times as I have seen this great film, this plot loophole never dawned on me until now:

Why didn't Jafar just use his snake staff to hypnotize the Sultain, order him to step down/give up his position, and proclaim Jafar his successor? If the snake staff is powerful enough to manipulate the Sultain into giving up a treausred family ring, or order his own daughter to marry Jafar...then surely it would work to manipulate Sultain to step down / "retire" early.

Rather than Jafar going through ALL the trouble of hypnotizing the Sultain to get the ring so he can discover the identity of the "diamond in the rough" who can enter the cave in order to retreive the magic lamp so Jafar can use it to grant him power.....(pause to catch your breath). But you see what I mean.

Because if he did it would have been about thirty minutes long....

 

[Malvito]

Why didn't Jafar just use his snake staff to hypnotize the Sultan, order him to step down/give up his position, and proclaim Jafar his successor? If the snake staff is powerful enough to manipulate the Sultan into giving up a treausred family ring, or order his own daughter to marry Jafar...then surely it would work to manipulate Sultan to step down / "retire" early.

No mention is made of the hierarchal order or method; could be that the Sultanship might be a family thing, passed down through generations, as opposed to something that could just be doled out.

There would also be a matter of the support of the local citizenry. No monarch ever ruled without a sizeable amount of public support. Hamlet is not long because the lead character cannot make up his mind, Olivier notwithstanding; Hamlet has to: meet the ghost, decide if the ghost is actually his late father, decide if the ghost is telling him the truth about being murdered by Uncle Claudius (played in the Branaugh movie by Derek Jacobi, and oh, the irony ... ), and make the evidence obvious enough to the rest of Denmark that he does not just come off looking like a power-hungry political assassin. All the while dealing with his friends, his uncle, and his girlfriend's family, all of whom are trying to trip him up, as well as dealing with the suspicion that his girlfriend just might be inthe kahoots with them. And that's not even touching on the foreign army that is crossing Poland to take back land that they believe to rightfully theirs.

Of course, that's an awful lot to place on Aladdin, which is not Hamlet, nor does it aspire to be. But the point is that political power, even in a Disney animated feature, does not pass from person to person that easily.

Because if he did it would have been about thirty minutes long....

That, too. :ROFLOL:

 

[Crockett]

Because if he did it would have been about thirty minutes long....

:ROFLOL:But it would be a more logical 30-min. Maybe the worst Disney film ever made, but more logical nonetheless. :ROFLOL:

 

[Wilt Dasney]

My thought is the same as hakunamatata's. The laws of Agrabah probably prevented a new sultan being named who was not a direct descendant of the old sultan unless he entered the bloodline through marriage (e.g., by marrying the sultan's daughter).

Of course, this explanation is itself undermined in the film, because at the end of the movie the Sultan just swats away a law stating that the princess has to marry a prince by saying "Well, am I sultan or am I sultan?"...implying that no law is too entrenched for the sultan to change on a whim if he desires. Still, it might have been enough to give Jafar pause.

Also, Jafar REALLY wanted the lamp (even though I can't exactly recall how it fit into his plan). But even if he had managed to get himself named sultan, I'm thinking he still wouldn't have been happy without the power of the Genie at his disposal...meaning he'd still need to find the "diamond in the rough" and off to the races we go.

 

[Mad Stitch]

Maybe it’s as simple as Jafar just didn’t think to do that. Haven’t you ever done or made something and then after the fact realize it would have been easier to do it another way?

 

[Malvito]

Also, Jafar REALLY wanted the lamp (even though I can't exactly recall how it fit into his plan).

Very true; throughout the movie, Jafar is presented as craving more, more, more power!!!!!!
(Bwa-hahahahahahahahaha etc.)

But even if he had managed to get himself named sultan, I'm thinking he still wouldn't have been happy without the power of the Genie at his disposal...meaning he'd still need to find the "diamond in the rough" and off to the races we go.

Heigh Ho Secretariat!