Aladdin Central Messageboard

[HeavensxJoke]

This confuses me. In the first movie, they establish the fact that he has "phenominal cosmic powers" yada yada, and he shows it by doing all these amazing things. Shape shifting, changing the scenery around them, his entrance! Everything he did during the "Friend Like Me" song, giving Jafar his powers... you get the point. Then in the second movie, he doesn't seem to be "up to par" according to what 'The Return of Jafar' establishes. That movie establishes that his magic isn't what it used to be & Jafar is infact a stronger genie. How so? What can Jafar do that Genie can't in the second movie? They clearly, numerous times, show that he is stronger. A few examples would be... A. Genie mentions his powers being not whaty they used to be, to take a quote from the movie, "semi-phenominal, almost cosmic". B. Jafar waiting until AFTER all his business being done to demand to be wished free. C. The song, Jafar clearly dominated over Genie. Anyways.... even in the series Genie gets taken out of the picture over the lamest things. Getting hit, whatever it may be. BUT, then in the third movie he is back to being this amazing Genie who can do almost anything again. This has been haunting me since I've seen Aladdin, ROJ & KOT... and the series..

Anyways, if anybody could tell me the difference between a genie that isn't free and a genie that is free(magic-wise, capability differences and so on) that would be great. Thank you in advance!

[AladdinsGenie]

Once Genie became free, he lost some of his powers. He can't be free AND have unlimited powers for some reason. Rule of the Genie, I guess. Jafar was still bound to his lamp, so his powers were unlimited.

As for getting them back in KOT, I try to ignore the fact that he has all of them back because Robin is back playing him and just say that after two instances in the series (The Genie Embrace from Book of Khartoum and having his magic mixed and restored with 100 sorcerer's magic in Beast or Famine) somehow slowly gave him back some of this power.

I doubt if he is completely back to normal, but it's not like KOT showed anything where his powers would limit him. All he really did was change into things and he's always been able to do that. It's just when it comes to transportation and transformation of others that it gets tricky.

Yeah..BIG Genie fan talking

[Salukfan]

The different between free Genie and slave-Genie is clear- less powerful, which is something Genie deals with in the series (esp. Power to the Parrot, in which is has no power at all). A free Genie can't have all the power of the universe, I'm assuming, because there's no one to keep it in check, which could lead to a BIG power trip.

I mean, the rules seems pretty strict. Genie's aren't even allowed to create giant sundaes for themselves. Now that sucks.
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"This cow's been covered with flour!"

[Iago]

The way i see this Genie lost some of his powers when he was freed, like that was the only downside to being free other thsn tht everything else was fine. I dont have any real exact answer as to why genie's a bit weaer than jafar and how he has less powers and all in ROJ and the TV series. my guess for ROJ maybe it was used for plot reasons and all because keep in mind TV animation has a tight buget when making these little things so they cant do everything the original disney anmation can do. Also in ROJ and the Tv series genie was taken way out of context into some areas and in the words of eric goldberg was basically turned into a clown of some sorts when he was acctually pretty smart but as soon as they brought robin back for the KOT show most of the genies original personalitycame back to him imediatly. I would listen for the acctual words of eric since its still on my mp3 player but im to lazt to now but that ast bit of info was from eric goldber supervising animaor of genie and i was there and i met him so i know that fact is in fact true no way in hell it could be fake
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[IRideAladdin'sCarpet]

yeah. what they said. it's just mainly b/c genies lose most of thier powers when they become free. it's sucks, but thast's life for ya. well, more like "fairy-tales" for ya.
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I loveses my Ger-bear! (me and Ger-bear>>)

[Calluna]

It's not that he gained more limitations, he just has less actual power.

IMO I don't think he was more powerful in KoT than in RoJ and the series. In KoT all he basically did was change his appearance; there was nothing remotely approaching some of the things he did in the first movie (making a whole parade appear out of nothing, lifting the palace, giving Jafar enourmous amounts of power as a sorcerer and then as a genie). He couldn't even stop the turtle the Vanishing Isle was on from diving. He didn't do more to fight the 40 thieves at the beginning than he did fighting the al-Muddi or Mamluks in the series...

[Syera]

I wrote a fanfiction that required me to put a lot of analyzation into genie powers. Here are my personal thoughts...

Genie magic seems to be a lot more limited than people think. As far as I can tell, it includes and only includes...

-Transformation, self or other objects
-Creating illusions, ala a holodeck.
-Teleportation - but it's probably a bit hard, like teleporting in the Pern series.

Much of Genie's gags can be attributed to illusions. Keep in mind that as soon as he's done goofing off, they disappear, hinting that they're only around as long as he's actually thinking about them.

In an older version of the Aladdin script, Genie states that Aladdin's servants and whatnot (the ones you see in the parade) were bugs, rats, etc, which he transformed.

Genie physically moved the palace when Jafar took over - not magically.

It's my theory that because a genie must grant the master's wishes by definition (with the obvious three exceptions), they will have as much power and as much know-how as they need to accomplish this task. If they are freed, however, they can no longer receive this... er, energy boost, and are thus more limited.
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Weblog | SH.net | Ed-sprite by Janette

[Calluna]

[Syera]

I personally theorized that it might be a knowledge-on-demand sort of thing. If a genie was required to know something in order to fulfill a wish, then I think they might just know it. At least, that's what happened in my fanfiction. *Shrugs*

I can see this now...

"Genie, I wish to know what the Answer to the Question of Life is."
"Forty-two."

Hehehehehe...
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Weblog | SH.net | Ed-sprite by Janette

[Calluna]

"What? But what's the question then?"
"Oh, sorry, you've used up all your wishes. But the genie who is to come after me..."

[/i]

[Syera]

Uh-oh. There goes the Universe!
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Weblog | SH.net | Ed-sprite by Janette

[Ariellen]

[AladdinsGenie]

I was doing research one night on genies and I found the following:

Genies do not know everything. They know what Allahu ta'ala makes them know or what they see. If the genie discloses what it has learned through either way, there is nothing wrong with saying that the genie has let you know.

At one place it [The book on genies] says, "It is permissible to ask genies about past things. It is not permissible to ask them about the things that will happen in the future. They know past things by seeing and hearing them.

so...I guess they could tell you when you'd die, but then you start messing with fate and asking yourself the question "Do you really want to know?" Be careful what you wish for

[Calluna]

[AladdinsGenie]

Of course I wish traditional genie mythology was a class

But I've never really thought about if you could ask Genie when you'd die, and if he could in fact tell you besides that pebble poisoning skit in "Egg-stra Protection"