Aladdin Central Messageboard

Jafaria · Vizier's Handmaiden Joined: 14 Feb 2006 Posts: 419

I was recently cooped up on a small island with nothing to read but my edition of the "Arabian Nights" so read it I did. It has a version of Aladdin in it. It's pretty different from the movie, as most people know, but I did notice that the princess pretends to be in love with the sorcerer. They didn't get that out of thin air. Here's a quote, liberally cut by yours truly for conciseness. "She greeted him with a smiling face and said, 'I have thought about everything and decided to accept you as my friend and lover and as Aladdin's successor.'...Although the lady's change was sudden, she managed to convince the sorcerer that she had abandoned all hope of seeing Aladdin." Sorry to burden you with late-night Arabian Nights observations, but I happen to be fascinated with that scene in the movie where Jasmine pretends she's in love with Jafar. Okay, so maybe my quote isn't exactly "Jafar, I never realized how incredibly handsome you are" but still. I wondered whether that whole thing was in the original story. [Whoa. What a long post. I've got to stay away from AC late at night.]

AladdinsGenie · Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 10:07 pm Post subject:

Yep, I always figured that was a slight reference to that along with the glass of wine that she uses to poison him Laughing

Jafaria · Vizier's Handmaiden Joined: 14 Feb 2006 Posts: 419

yeah, although throwing it in his face isn't exactly poisoning him. Another thing I noticed while I was reading the Arabian Nights was this story about a mermaid. The mermaid couldn't talk before she married the prince but afterwards she could. Hmmm....

AladdinsGenie · Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 1:49 pm Post subject:

That's why I was taking about the glass of wine itself.

AmethystFae · Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 8:36 pm Post subject:

Jafaria · Vizier's Handmaiden Joined: 14 Feb 2006 Posts: 419

I know that the Little Mermaid is based on Hans Christian Andersen's story [My dad says that it's actually a combination of that and Shakespeare's The Tempest]. What I was saying isn't that it was based on that Arabian Nights story but that it seemed weird that there's that in common between two mermaid stories. Besides, maybe Andersen had to get his little mermaid story from somewhere too!

AmethystFae · Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:04 am Post subject:

Calluna · Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 10:07 am Post subject:

There are parts of the Sinbad stories that remind me a lot of the Odyssey, so I think they just picked up a little bit of everything. Wink

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