Jafar

Jafar
Home	Agrabah
Occupation	Evil Sorcerer
Story appearances
Feature films	Aladdin, Return of Jafar
TV shows	House of Mouse, Hercules the Animated Series, Aladdin the Animated Series (Mentioned Only)
Video games	Kingdom Hearts Series
Park attractions	Fantasmic
Voice actor	Johnathan Freeman

Jafar is the main villain in the 1992 Disney film Aladdin. To say that the scheming Jafar is a nasty piece of work would be understating the truth. That he is evil, there is no doubt; in fact, he is the worst sort of traitor, betraying the Sultan while pretending to be a faithful advisor. In a cruel mirroring of the Genie's shape-shifting performance, Jafar went through quite a terrifying diversity of threatening forms as Aladdin waged battle with him to save the Sultan and Jasmine from Jafar's enchantment. Jafar's greatest moment of cruelty came when Jasmine was seeking out her true love; with utmost callousness, Jafar lied and told her that Aladdin had already been executed. Ultimately, his lust for power led to his defeat, and he was forced into less-than-spacious accommodations.

He ranked #2 in The Top 30 Disney Villains (One better than Scar but one under Maleficent).

Physical Appearance

Jafar's physical appearence is similar to that of Ming the Merciless. He is tall and thin, and almost always depicted in flowing robes of black, dark red and other moody colors. Jafar has a pet parrot named Iago, who switched sides in The Return of Jafar. Jafar carries a cobra-head staff, which he uses for his sorcery.

Personality

Jafar's Ghost.

Jafar is evil at its most cunning. Power-hungry, manipulative, insane, and downright remorseless, he lies and cheats to win. He is also narcissistic, given the climax of the film wherein he refers to himself as "the most powerful being on earth". Jafar is usually shown to be somewhat comedic, even in his times of evil and cunning (proclaiming "ewe" when contemplating beheading, or constantly mispronouncing Aladdin's alias' name). His unique characteristics compared to most Disney villains are probably the reason that he lived at the end of his movie, at the same time arguing with Iago ("Get your blasted beak out of my face!" "Oh, shut up, you moron!" "Don't tell ME to shut up!").

In Return of Jafar he was considerably more fiendish, and was killed at the end of the movie.

Aladdin

The mighty Jafar doing some planning.

He tried to use Genie's powers to take over Agrabah, first wishing to become the sultan, and then the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Jafar had transformed himself into a giant cobra to kill Aladdin, but just as Jafar was squeezing him to death, Aladdin tricked Jafar into using his third and final wish to become an all-powerful genie himself.

Jafar is transforming into a snake

Jafar was red in hue, possibly to represent his more "evil" nature contrasting with Genie's blue tone. In Western culture, genies are almost always portrayed as being confined to small oil lamps until they are released to do a human's bidding; Jafar was therefore trapped by his own wish for power.

Return of Jafar

In The Return of Jafar, the now-genie Jafar was released by Abis Mal, and, after cunningly making Abis-Mal waste his first 2 wishes, threatens Abis into helping

Jafar as a snake

him. His plan included kidnapping (and in some instances, replacing) the royal family and framing Aladdin for the Sultan's "death," (It happened when Jafar cuts down the Sultan's hat to think that Aladdin killed him.) which would have caused him to be beheaded, but (with help from a reformed Iago) the heroes managed to escape. When Jafar discovered this, he opened up a

Jafar as a genie

fissure into the earth, and was destroyed when his lamp (which had a distinctive black color) was kicked into the pit by Iago and melted in the pit of lava he had created (ironically he was on the verge of getting Abis Mal to wish him free, which would have made him almost invincible, although his powers would have been reduced).

Hercules and the Arabian Night

Jafar dies again.

Jafar later made one more attempt at revenge in an episode ("Hercules and the Arabian Night") of Disney's Hercules TV-show spin-off, where he was temporarily revived by Hercules' arch-enemy, Hades. The two villains teamed up to get rid of Aladdin and Hercules by having them fight against each other, but their plan failed and Jafar ended up dead again, and has not at this point made any reappearances in the official Aladdin continuity.

Kingdom Hearts Series

Jafar in Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts

Jafar is part of the group of Disney villains in favour of total control of Kingdom Hearts. Jafar planned to use the Heartless and take over Agrabah. Maleficent ordered Jafar to kidnap Princess Jasmine, one of the seven Princesses of Heart, she also warned Jafar to not steep himself in darkness for too long or the Heartless would steal his heart. When Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrive they see Jafar trying to capture the princess. Eventually they meet up with Aladdin. He tries to save her by using Genie's powers to rescue her from Jafar. Jafar leads Sora and friends to the Cave of Wonders while there he uses his first wish to find the Keyhole to the world. His second wish was for Genie to crush Sora and friends. Genie then reluctantly fights alongside Jafar against Sora and friends. Jafar's third and final wish was to make him a all powerful Genie. Sora and gang go into the deepest part of the Cave of wonders and fight Jafar. In the end Sora takes Jafar's lamp and put him back in there. After the battle, Hades, Captain Hook, and Riku converse about his chances against Sora, and Hades states that Jafar may have won if Riku had supported him.

Kingdom Hearts VCAST

Jafar is the boss of Agrabah in Kingdom Hearts VCAST.

Chain of Memories‎

In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Jafar appears with the Heartless to take over Agrabah. In order to get the lamp, he tricks Aladdin to get the lamp so he could make Jasmine marry him. When Jafar has the lamp his first wish is to have Jasmine back, his second is for Genie to protect him from a sneak attack, and third is to became a powerful Genie. He teleports Sora and his friends to the center of the earth and confronts Sora. His attacks were similar, except ice could not damage him. Instead of attacking Jafar directly, he attacks Iago and puts Jafar back in his lamp again.

Kingdom Hearts II

Jafar's lamp is found by the Peddler. Maleficent sent Pete to get the lamp and release Jafar from his prison and turn him into a Heartless. Unfortunately for Pete, Sora and friends have already arrived. Sora and gang head to the cave of wonders to give the Peddler treasures for the Lamp. At the Palace he confronts Pete. Pete summons two powerful Heartless but Sora defeats them and seals Jafar's lamp away

But this was not the end: Due to the manipulations of Organization XIII, the Peddler finds Jafar's lamp again and releases him. After forcing Iago to keep Sora occupied with a magical shadow clone of himself, Jafar kidnaps Princess Jasmine. Sora defeats the clone and finds Jafar. He and Jafar fight and Sora destroys Jafar in the end.

Other Appearances

However, despite his death, Jafar has also had a recurring role on Disney's House of Mouse. He was even the central villain of the direct-to-video film Mickey's House of Villains. Jafar even went on a date with Maleficent in one episode and many fans agreed that they did make an excellent couple. The two are often compared as both have regal bearing, bird sidekicks, are exceedingly tall, and their robes seem to confine their movements. Also the magic powers and shapeshifting.

As far as Jafar's family goes, he has a fraternal twin sister named Nasira who tried bringing her brother back to life in the game, Nasira's Revenge. Jafar's sister is very similar both in appearance and actions as Maleficent. She respects Jafar and the sibling bond between them is very strong.

Trivia

• Jafar bears several similarities to Yzma as they are both comical. This is emphasized in The Emperor's New School where she transforms into both a giant cobra and an old man.
• Freakshow, a villain from Danny Phantom, bears a similar defeat to Jafar as he was transform into a more powerful being (a ghost) and had a weakness of that being exploited (he was able to be sucked into the Fenton-Thermos)
• Jafar is one of five male villains to shapeshift into a second form, the others being Judge Doom, Oogie Boogie, The Cloud Rhinoceros and Pain and Panic. Jafar is also the only Disney Villain to have six other forms (Old Man, Sultan, Sorcerer, Snake, Genie, and Ghost).
• He embodies the Deadly Sin of Greed given his greed for wealth and power. He could also be seen to represent Pride, given his inflated ego, Lust, because of his desire for Jasmine, or Wrath because of his fiery nature.
• According to Wikipedia, Patrick Stewart was originally asked to voice Jafar. However, he turned it down.
• Jafar is the male equivalent of Maleficent. They are both powerful sorcerers, have bird sidekicks, try to kill the heroes by transforming into giant reptile monsters, carry staffs which they primarily use to channel their magic and, of course, are pure evil.
• Jafar also has similarities with the non-Disney villain, Slade from Teen Titans. Both are dark, have calm tone of voices, disguise themselves as old men to trick others for their plans, and when they die, they get help from demons to get ressurected. Jafar got help from Hades and Slade got help from Trigon; although Jafar worked well with Hades, Trigon double-crossed Slade.
• Jafar keeps the lamp on the thrown, just like Buxton The Blue Cat keeps Zebedee's mustash on the side in the popular classic british movie, Dougal and the Blue Cat (1972). That's because Jafar and Buxton are both traitors.
• Jafar's choice to exile Aladdin is similar to Waternoose's choice to exile Mike and Sulley in Monsters Inc. after he exposed himself as the main villain. However, Waternoose had some regret doing it while Jafar did it for pure pleasure.
• Mozenrath from the Aladdin series was often compared to Jafar, by both Iago and the viewers. both were evil, used dark magic, were assisted by talking animals and wore capes.