Jafar

### Likes

Power, puns, apples, riches, cobras, Iago's deviousness, dark magic, beauty, torturing his enemies, getting what he wants, respect, obedience

### Dislikes

Serving others, disobedience, the Sultan, traitors, rants, being trapped in a magic lamp, disrespect, being second-best, not getting what he wants

### Powers and abilities

Alchemy (initially)
Magician tricks (initially)
Divination (initially; amateur)
Sorcery
Cosmic power

### Paraphernalia

His snake staff

**Jafar** is the main antagonist of Disney's 1992 animated feature film *Aladdin*. As Royal Vizier of Agrabah, he was presented as the Sultan's most trusted and loyal advisor. In truth, the imperious Jafar held passionate disdain for the Sultan. He dedicated the latter half of his life to gaining ownership of a magic lamp containing an all-powerful genie — to that end, Jafar would control cosmic power, which he would use to overtake the throne and the world at large.

Jafar is loosely based on the wicked sorcerer and vizier from the *Aladdin* folk tale in the *One Thousand and One Nights*collection of stories. With an elegant, yet cheeky approach to villainy, coupled with a dry sense of humor and menace, Jafar is among Disney's most renowned villains, and would later feature as a primary member of the *Disney Villains* franchise.

## Background

As established in the film, Jafar is the second most powerful authority in Agrabah, answering only to the Sultan. He is always accompanied by his sarcastic, devious pet parrot, Iago. Jafar primarily operated from a secret lair hidden behind the walls of his bedroom in the Sultan's palace.

Whilst presenting a charming and respectable exterior to the Sultan and the people of Agrabah, he secretly holds everyone around him in contempt and is a power-hungry individual. Towards Agrabah's royal family, he constantly manipulates the Sultan by means of hypnotizing him with a magical snake-headed staff, which he always carries on his person. He had traveled widely and amassed a wide knowledge of magical artifacts and legends. Until he uses Genie's powers to become a sorcerer, and later a genie, however, his magical abilities were limited to the use of such artifacts as he has collected, and his prowess as an accomplished alchemist. He also had some contacts within the Agrabah underworld, including the thief Gazeem.

Little is known about Jafar's past. At some point, he purchased Iago from a bazaar as his minion, as Jafar noted in *The Return of Jafar*. As far as Jafar's family goes, he has a twin sister named Nasira, who tried bringing her brother back to life in the game *Nasira's Revenge*. She respects Jafar and the sibling bond between them is quite strong.

### Personality

Jafar is portrayed as an immoral psychopath who will not hesitate to destroy anyone 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 cool-headed schemer and gaining the trust of those around him, despite his rather untrustworthy physical appearance. Even with this mask, Jafar's psychopathic tendencies tend to seep through and become apparent to the viewer, particularly in the opening sequence, where Jafar, outside immediate initial anger over Gazeem the thief not being the one who is the Diamond in the Rough, displays no remorse in sending Gazeem to his death in the Cave of Wonders, simply proclaiming that, "Gazeem was obviously less than worthy" in a rather dry tone of voice. It is not until Jafar gains control of the Genie's lamp that he fully shows his true colors, becoming arrogant, tyrannical, and ill-tempered with his subjects. He also was depicted as laughing excessively and in a deranged manner shortly after banishing Aladdin to the North Pole, suggesting that Jafar was also insane and suffered from hysteria.

Jafar displays narcissistic tendencies, his most obvious ones being his obsessive desire for power and sense of entitlement. However, his lust for power does not stem from a mere desire for authority (though this *is* a motivating factor), but rather an intolerance for subordination. Jafar detests being "second best" to anyone else—be it the Sultan or a cosmic entity such as the Genie. It is this excessive thirst for power that ultimately leads to Jafar's downfall; upon becoming a sorcerer (and, by extension, the most powerful man in the world), Jafar realizes that his power is still inferior to the Genie's, which drives him to hastily wish to become a genie, himself, without realizing this would render him a slave for all eternity.

Jafar has a somewhat comical edge that helps to add some humanity to his character, for example proclaiming "Ewww..." when contemplating decapitation, a trait unusual in a Disney villain. Furthermore, Jafar has a sadistic 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!"). Further humanity can be found in his relationship with Iago; although Jafar is the driving force behind each plot, and in turn reaps most of the credit and reward, he and Iago share a camaraderie uncommon in most Disney villain/henchmen dynamics. As they are both cunning, sadistic, power-hungry, and have a mutual hatred for the Sultan, they get along quite well. Jafar, at one point, exclaims that he, "loves the way your [Iago's] foul little mind works!", and further shows his appreciation for Iago by gifting the parrot with his own turban following Jafar's wish to become Sultan. Because they are both haughty, however, the two are somewhat prone to bickering.

Jafar is quick to abuse his underlings as a means of releasing his own anger. Ultimately, this proves to be his final downfall, as Iago ends up turning against Jafar in large part because of his abuse and not giving him credit when it was due, and to a lesser extent, Abis Mal ends up delaying his wish and buying enough time for Abu to grab the lamp before the final battle to ask Jafar whether the latter will remove the treasures he had summoned to bribe Abis Mal for the third wish largely due to Jafar's earlier actions of abusing his wish-granting abilities to essentially torture Abis Mal. Jafar's mercilessness more heavily carries over to other characters in the film, especially during the climax; 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 torture, of which he openly showed amusement. The deleted song "Humiliate the Boy" also establishes Jafar as an emotional sadist, getting a laugh out of seeing "another fellow's dreams turn into nightmares one by one" and treating the Genie in an especially harsh manner. Additionally, in *The Return of Jafar*, Jafar was proven to not mind his inability to kill as a genie because, "there are things so much worse than death", implying that he would simply torture people to the point that his victims wished they were dead.

Jafar is also attracted to Princess Jasmine, but primarily for her physical appearance, 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 of 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*").

Deleted scenes for the original film (such as "Why Me?") implied that most of his negative traits and motives stemmed from having to grow up impoverished and bullied on by the populace of Agrabah, making him almost similar to Aladdin, although their similarities differed in how they handled their suffering.

### Physical appearance

Jafar is a tall, bony, middle-aged 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 was supposed to be designed as ugly, and Genie makes this obvious when he refers to him as "a tall, dark, sinister, ugly man." He is apparently 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 was naturally bald or if he shaved his head for the disguise. Jafar also carries a cobra-head staff, which he uses for his sorcery.

As Royal Vizier, Jafar wears black robes that reach the ground over top a red garment with bell sleeves, under which he wears a jet-black shirt with very close-fitting sleeves that reach his wrists, all held in place with a red-violet sash tied around his waist. The shoulders of his outer robe are pointed and curved upward, connected to a long, billowing black cape with a blood-red underside, while his brown shoes curl inward at the tips. He also wears an odd, pale-yellowish garment that covers his neck, the back of his head, and his chest.

The outfit is topped off with a tall, black headdress, seemingly a type of mitre, with a thin, yellow pattern lined around the middle and downwards at the front, a ruby-like gemstone situated in the front, and a crimson-red feather sticking out above it. The headdress itself is apparently (yet strangely) made out of metal, as evidenced by the hollow clonking sound it made when Iago briefly knocked on it while trying to get Jafar to calm down from a laughing fit as he thought he went insane (not realizing he was actually laughing because he realized that not only did the lamp actually survive, it's actually in close proximity since Prince Ali, or rather, Aladdin, owns it). A red-violet cloth hangs from the miter, draping over Jafar's shoulders. As Sultan, Jafar wears a white, blue, and gold version of this outfit resembling the actual sultan's.

When he's turned into a sorcerer, Jafar's wardrobe goes to a more exaggerated, sinister form of his normal attire; The head-dress sports distinct, horn-like protrusions, the red feather is gone, and only the ruby on the front remains. The shoulders of his outer robe are even pointer and maintain a higher position than before, no longer curved. The sash on his waist is also different, bearing a pattern of magenta and copper stripes and a gold border. Here, he regains his iconic snake staff, but it now has an open fanged-mouth that fires beams magic on command.

In his showdown with Aladdin, Jafar transforms into an enormous cobra, greatly bearing the color palette of his main wardrobe. The cobra is mainly black, representing his main robes, with the hood having a crimson underside with a red dot on each side, making the hood resemble his cape and mitre combined. He has a tan underbelly, resembling the garment covering his neck and most of his head, and he has red markings running down his back to his unseen tail-tip. The Cobra also has menacing red eyes and sharp (possibly venomous) teeth.

Once Jafar makes his third lamp wish to be an all-powerful genie, he takes on a form resembling Genie himself, but with a more sinister appearance and a muscular physique. Jafar's skin becomes blood-red, his ears become pointed, his right ear gains a gold piercing (which changes from big to small in the second film), 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"). He has five-fingered hands (albeit with black claws, compared to Genie, who has four-fingers), and when his full genie body is shown, his entire physique is revealed to be muscular with legs looking somewhat demonic with feet bearing the same black claws and the red-violet sash on his waist that is shown in his genie smoke form is revealed to be the top of a loincloth (in comparison to Genie's trousers and turned up shoes) which is the only article of clothing that he wears in this form. When he's in his normal human form, Jafar wears a slightly recolored version of his sorcerer outfit, with the red and black colors switched. He also retains his snake staff. When he guest appeared in an episode of *Hercules*, he regains his sorcerer outfit.

### Powers and abilities

* **Alchemy:** At the start of *Aladdin*, despite having extensive knowledge of arcane lore, Jafar did 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 sorcerer was with his Snake staff's hypnotic properties. In the demo for "Arabian Nights", however, he was mentioned to be a part-time magician as well as a seer, although he was specified to be an amateur in the latter job.
* **Master of Disguise:** Jafar was surprisingly effective 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. This disguise would reappear during "Hercules and the Arabian Night", where he posed as a beggar to trick Hercules into fighting Aladdin.
* **Sorcery:** After wishing to become the most powerful sorcerer in the world, he could levitate objects, breathe fire, summon objects, and transform himself and others. In addition, he also was 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.
* **Phenomenal, Cosmic Power:** After making his final wish to become an all-powerful genie, Jafar became a being capable of commanding not only the world but the universe as a whole. However, in the same way as Genie, he was still bound by the rules of being a genie, meaning that he was unable to physically kill anyone, make people fall in love with each other or bring people back from the dead. He also was unable to travel outside the close proximity of his lamp. Despite this, some of his abilities as a genie—demonstrated in both his human and genie forms—were reality manipulation, teleportation of either himself or anyone and anything else, breathing underwater, superhuman strength, terrakinesis, summoning lightning bolts, superhuman endurance, shape-shifting, telekinesis, size-alteration, object conjuring, projecting fire, creating water tornadoes, and various usages of energy beams that were powerful enough to stun various opponents, in addition to the abilities he previously demonstrated in the first movie. 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, and also demonstrated the ability to generate monsters, and was nigh-immortal so long as he had his staff.

## Appearances

### *Aladdin*

In *Aladdin*, Jafar is introduced as the sinister Royal Vizier to Agrabah's Sultan who desires power over the kingdom. By the start of the film, Jafar has spent years searching for the Cave of Wonders, home of the Genie's lamp. He manages to obtain one half of a Golden Scarab Beetle that—when joined—will lead its holder to the Cave of Wonders' entrance. One night, Jafar rendezvous with an underworld contact named Gazeem, whom he hired to find the second Golden Scarab Beetle half. After encountering some delays, Gazeem finally delivers the scarab, allowing Jafar to unite the two halves together and summon the Cave of Wonders from the sand. Jafar orders Gazeem to enter the cave to retrieve the lamp while promising the cave's other treasures as compensation. Once Gazeem steps into it, however, the guardian of the cave recognizes Gazeem as unworthy and closes itself off, resulting in Gazeem's death. The cave passes only a cryptic warning to Jafar relating to a "Diamond in the Rough" capable of entering the cave. Despite Iago's frustration, Jafar remains undeterred, and simply declares that he must find this "Diamond in the Rough" for their plans.

Jafar returns to Agrabah, where he learns from the Sultan that Jasmine doesn't wish to marry a prince. Jafar offers to help in exchange for the Sultan's familial sapphire ring. When the Sultan shows reluctance, Jafar uses his hypnotic snake staff to change the former's mind. After departing, Iago voices his frustration with the Sultan, but Jafar assures his accomplice that he will soon be in power. In his secret laboratory, Jafar uses the Sultan's ring to power the Sands of Time, which he uses to uncover the Diamond in the Rough. Eventually, the individual necessary to access the Cave of Wonders is identified as Aladdin. Jafar orders for Aladdin's arrest as a subtle means of recruiting him, although he did not expect Jasmine to have accompanied the street rat (she had escaped from the palace earlier to avoid having to find another prince at her doorstep). When Jasmine tries to defend Aladdin from the guards, Razoul informs the princess that his orders *actually* came from Jafar and must be taken up with him, to which she said that she will. Jasmine confronts Jafar that night, but he lies to her, claiming that he cannot release Aladdin as he had already been executed for his committing the crime of "kidnapping the princess", which Jasmine is horrified by (despite telling Jafar that she actually ran away from home).

With Jasmine out of the way of his plans, Jafar disguises himself as an old prisoner and sneaks into the dungeon, where he offers to help Aladdin escape in exchange for aiding him in retrieving the lamp from the Cave of Wonders; Jafar assures that the cave is filled with enough treasure to "impress a princess". Aladdin accepts the deal, and together, the two travel to the cave's entrance. Aladdin is declared worthy by its guardian, and Jafar promises to hand Aladdin his reward once the lamp has been retrieved. While inside, Aladdin's pet monkey triggers the cave's downfall. Aladdin rushes to the exit, where he finds himself dangling for life. Jafar madly requests the lamp, to which Aladdin obliges. With the lamp in his possession, Jafar attempts to kill Aladdin, but he is foiled by Abu. Aladdin and Abu are nevertheless dropped into the dissolving cave and apparently die alongside it. As Jafar boasts about his victory, he finds that the lamp is missing. Unbeknownst to him, the lamp was actually stolen by Abu, who hands it over to Aladdin. By teaming up with the Genie, the two escape the cave and return to Agrabah safely.

Afterward, Jafar is reprimanded by the Sultan for executing a prisoner without even consultating him first (Jasmine had informed the Sultan earlier of Jafar's supposed execution of Aladdin), with Jafar swearing that it won't happen again. Despite the Sultan’s forgiveness, the furious Jasmine vows to "get rid of" Jafar once she’s Queen. Jafar takes Jasmine's threats to heart, fuming over the loss of the lamp while also fearing the possible loss of his position in the palace, or worse, his head. As he contemplates on the matter, Iago concocts a new plot to have Jafar marry Jasmine, thus legally becoming entitled to the throne as sultan. Once the kingdom is under their command, they can kill both Jasmine and the Sultan and maintain absolute power for themselves. Jafar is enticed by the idea and carries it through by using a fake provision in the law that would allow a royal vizier to marry a princess, as a means to "solve" the Sultan's problems of finding a suitor for Jasmine. The Sultan, for a number of reasons, is not keen on the idea, forcing Jafar to resort to hypnosis.

Before the power of the snake staff can take full effect, the Sultan is freed from his trance by the sounds of fanfare entering the city, belonging to the flashy parade of a visiting suitor named Prince Ali. Jafar immediately sees Prince Ali as a rival for Jasmine's hand in marriage, and plots to have him killed. That night, he orders Razoul and the guards to kidnap Ali and ensure he's never found. When he returns to the palace, Jafar successfully hypnotizes the Sultan, forcing him to abide by the marriage between the former and Jasmine. As Jasmine refuses, Ali reveals himself to be alive and accuses Jafar of attempted murder. Jafar tries to cover his crimes by hypnotizing the Sultan, but Ali realizes what he’s doing and destroys Jafar's staff—freeing the Sultan. Ali hands the staff to the Sultan and reveals what Jafar was doing. Jafar tries to cover himself but this time the furious Sultan doesn’t believe him and calls for Jafar's arrest. As the guards take him away, Jafar manages to escape with a smoke bomb, although not before glancing at the lamp inside Ali's turban. Back in his lair, Jafar deduces that Prince Ali is actually Aladdin in disguise. He orders Iago to steal the lamp, which the latter accomplishes the following day.

Later on, the Sultan gathers the people of Agrabah to announce the engagement of Ali and Jasmine, while Jafar observes from his hideout. Now more vengeful than ever, Jafar rubs the lamp and unleashes the Genie. He declares himself the new master of the lamp and proclaims that his first wish is to rule on high, as sultan. The Genie makes it so by stripping the Sultan of his royal garb and placing the palace atop a high mountain. Jafar's first order as ruler is to have Jasmine and her father bow to him, but they refuse. Scorned, Jafar looks to strike fear by wishing to become the most powerful sorcerer in the world. The Genie grants Jafar magical powers and a new snake staff, which he uses to humiliate Jasmine and her father. When Ali tries to intervene, he is exposed as a fraud by Jafar's magic, and is reverted back into a street rat. Jafar then banishes Aladdin to the ends of the Earth, where he will freeze to death. With Aladdin gone, Jafar falls into a fit of hysteria as he assumes control of the world.

Under Jafar's rule, Agrabah is a dystopian city clouded by a blood-red sky. The Sultan has been turned into a jester, forced to endure torture at the hands of Iago. Jasmine, meanwhile, is turned into Jafar's slave. While lounging about in the palace, Jafar offers to make Jasmine his queen, which she hotly refuses. Unfazed, Jafar wishes to have Jasmine fall desperately in love with him, but the Genie tries to explain that his magic can't make people fall in love. Despite this, Jasmine appears to fall madly in lust with Jafar as she seductively flirts with him. Jafar is too caught up in his own pleasure to realize that this is a ruse, as Aladdin is mere feet away from the lamp. Iago tries to warn Jafar, but Abu intervenes. As the parrot and monkey scuffle, Jafar's attention is nearly caught, but Jasmine hastily pulls him in for a kiss to buy Aladdin more time. However, Jafar sees Aladdin's reflection in Jasmine's tiara and instantly attacks. Through the power of the snake staff, Jasmine is imprisoned in an hourglass, Abu is turned into a toy, and Carpet is unraveled. When called a "cowardly snake" afraid to fight for himself by Aladdin, Jafar responds by transforming himself into a giant cobra and striking at Aladdin. Eventually, Jafar traps Aladdin within his coils.

Jafar taunts Aladdin’s helplessness without the Genie’s magic. Aladdin retorts by declaring Jafar is still just "second-best" to the Genie, as the genie gave Jafar his power in the first place and can also take it away. Realizing what Aladdin says is true, Jafar uses his final wish to become an all-powerful genie, himself. With phenomenal, cosmic power at his command, Jafar seizes control of the cosmos and declares himself ruler of the universe. But this does not last long, as Aladdin points out that the power of a genie comes with a price, which manifests in Jafar receiving his own golden shackles and a black lamp. Jafar, realizing too late that he has been tricked, makes a desperate attempt to escape being sucked into his lamp by grabbing onto Iago's tail feathers, but this merely drags Iago into the lamp alongside him. Foiled and trapped by his own greed, Jafar's magic over Agrabah and its inhabitants are undone. Jafar's Lamp, meanwhile, is sent to the Cave of Wonders by Genie, where the bickering Jafar and Iago would be doomed to remain, as prisoners, for no less than 10,000 years.

## Trivia

* Jafar has a recurring theme in *Aladdin*, which can be found as "On a Dark Night" on the official soundtrack. The character was intended to have a song that would have been placed during the climax; some include "Humiliate the Boy", "Why Me?", "Master of the Lamp", and "My Finest Hour"—the latter of which incorporated the melody of "On a Dark Night". In the end, as the filmmakers believed a full song would disrupt the film's pace, Jafar was given a dark reprise of "Prince Ali".
* Jafar's sorcerer outfit was originally going to be blue as shown in the storyboards of "Why Me?"
* "Jafar" translates as "Stream" in Arabic.
	+ The name itself is reminiscent of a 1790s Indian politician named Mir Jafar, who was particularly infamous for selling out the then-reigning Nawab (leader) to the English in order to usurp the title, which was similar to Jafar's plot to overthrow the Sultan in the movie, although unlike Mir Jafar, Jafar failed.
* As he spends much of the film hiding his true emotions, Andreas Deja designed Jafar's face to resemble a mask.
* Jafar's death is one of the slightly more graphic deaths of a Disney villain, as he behaves in a manner similar to electrocution as his lamp melts and his skeleton can even be seen.
	+ The DVD release, however, censors this by removing several frames of his skeleton (though the last two scenes of his skeleton remain intact) This is due by the fact that the frame rate of the DVD version is different from the VHS since the parts of his skeleton flicker in a different frame rate from the last two scenes.
	+ Jafar is also the only villain to die in his second film instead of the first.
* During the scene where Genie is discussing his wish for freedom, he briefly transforms into a sinister-looking version of himself with a reddish-pink hue, similar to what Jafar would assume at the climax, even adopting a similar cosmic background and body language.
	+ Both Genie's description of what Genies entail and the scene of Jafar's transformation in the climax were homages to the Disney educational short *Our Friend the Atom*.
	+ Also, the lighting on Jafar's genie design pays homage to Chernabog from *Fantasia*.
* Originally, when he made his wish to become sultan, Jafar did more than merely steal the Sultan's attire and have Genie place the palace atop a mountain behind them: He also unleashed a shock wave that resulted in history being altered to make it appear as though Jafar had been the sultan all along instead of usurping the position from the actual Sultan. The only ones immune to this and retaining their knowledge of what really happened were the Magic Carpet (due to being immune to the effects of the wave), Aladdin and Abu (the latter two being covered by the Magic Carpet at the last second). This plot point was cut due to it being too confusing, although a similar plot point would eventually be enacted in the *Aladdin* TV series episode "SandSwitch" via the character Sadira against Princess Jasmine, and the ones immune to the spell are Iago, Abu, and Rajah due to Sadira neglecting to include animals in the spell.