Mirage (Aladdin)

Mirage is one of the frequent antagonists in Disney's 1994-95 television series Aladdin. She is voiced by Bebe Neuwirth.

Personality
Mirage is inscrutable in her motives; Iago has apparently heard of her, calling her "Evil Incarnate", though Genie knows nothing of her due to being stuck in a lamp for about 10,000 years. She never provides any insight on herself, and other evidence is circumstantial at best. It is possible that she intends to kill Aladdin and his friends and then take over Agrabah (or the world); she certainly attempts the former several times; as mentioned, she is called "Evil Incarnate" during the course of the series, and it is possible that all of her actions are motivated simply by malice or to destroy any form of Good, as she unleashed her fire-cats on an innocent village just for growing food and she caused a civil war to prevent two countries from making peace. Another example, and one of Mirage's greatest weaknesses, was her underestimation of Love, which she considered to be nothing more than a tingly feeling, that it's weak. The only reliable evidence is from the mysterious blind magician Phasir, who appears in few episodes of the series and who seems to have some history with Mirage, though it is not expanded on. Mirage is a sadist, enjoying others' pain and relishing in their anguish and despair, seen when she taunted Wahid about his impending death in "The Lost Ones", and taunting Aladdin and Jasmine about how could they love if Jasmine was poisonous to the touch.

She is so depraved and sadistic that when Genie called her "one sick kitty", she acknowledged "I know!" and laughed wickedly.

She rules her own ethereal realm she calls Morbia, which appears to be a cosmic void with an asteroid field where her home, a sphinx-styled temple, is located.

She seems to have no real regards for her minions as she was willing to let Wahid, a boy who fell victim to the offer of the El Katib, die simply for his disobedience, and she left the rest of her El Katib minions to die from the setting of the full moon after Amal defied her. And her firecats feared her wrath when she was angered they failed in burning a village to the ground.

Among the many aspects of Good which Mirage hates and underestimates, she considers Love to be nothing more than a tingly feeling, that it's weak. She attempted to prove how weak Love is by destroying Aladdin and Jasmine's Love, but when she failed, after a good number of attempts, she couldn't comprehend how Love could triumph over such adversity.

Her underestimation and failure to understand that Love is ever triumphant proves to be among Mirage's greatest weaknesses, if not the most.

History
At some point in her life, prior to her debut in the series, Mirage supposedly had a relationship with the blind seer, Phasir, though this is never explored. And at one point in her life of evil, Mirage created a legion of monsters called the El Katib, monsters that had the power to teleport through shadows, created from children with true seeds of evil. Every seven years, during the three nights of the full moon, Mirage would send out the El Katib to find potential recruits, enticing them with the promise of power and immortality. Aladdin's friend Amal was one of the many to fall victim to the El Katib's offer, not realizing that the El Katib must return to the Shadow Realm before the moon sets on the third night, or else they die.

In the Aladdin episode "Eye Of The Beholder" she tests Aladdin and Jasmine's love for each other by turning Jasmine into a poisonous anthropomorphic snake. The attempts initially appeared successfully, rendering Jasmine poisonous to the touch, but when Aladdin turned himself into a snake to be with her, Phasir appeared to Mirage, informing her that she had failed, and lifted the spell on the two of them. Her keenness turned Aladdin's old friend Amal against him, and finally he had to race against time before his city's inhabitants become slaves in their sleep. In another episode, she directed an even more powerful entity named Chaos towards Agrabah. However, even Mirage feared Chaos, having to use quick thinking to avoid a confrontation with him. However, it turns out that in the end of the episode it is shown that Chaos was manipulating her the whole time, putting her in a situation where she saved the day and thus making life a little more interesting.

Magic
Mirage is a most dangerous sorceress, with power over illusions, dreams and shadows, her magic powers are enough to create a mirage of Agrabah, its people and Aladdin's friends. This, combined with her stunning keenness and ruthlessness, makes her a dangerous enemy. She has demonstrated many magical abilities, such as creating feral cat-monsters made entirely of fire that grow bigger by feeding on fear, scrying, slashing Genie to pieces without even touching him, flying, teleportation, turning children with true potential for evil into monsters and reverting the change, creating a lotion that transformed Jasmine and Aladdin into snake-like humanoids, controlling the elements, energy bolts, shapeshifting (or at least glamouring), summoning natural disasters, some degree of omnipotence, etc. Mirage is very knowledgeable in arcane lore, especially regarding to dark arts as she exploited a magic music box to make everyone in Agrabah fall asleep and turn them into her sleepwalking minions, she created an indestructible obelisk of black stone whose shadow would wipe anything caught in it out of existence.

True to her name, Mirage is a skilled illusionist, being able to make an illusion of Agrabah, its people, etc. But while Mirage's illusions are convincing they're not perfect. And she is known to disguise herself with illusions, a power called Glamouring, to completely disguise herself as another, and has fine acting skills as she posed as a Sultana to fool the Sultan and everyone else for at least a week before she deliberately blew her cover, she disguised herself as a merchant to sell Jasmine a lotion without raising any suspicion, and even disguised herself as Genie.

It is also implied that Mirage is capable of creating new realms or dimensions, such as her own realm Morbia and the Shadowrealm, where she kept her minions of the El Katib. If not than she is capable of inter-dimensional travel, and even that is limited as she is only able to bring the legion out for three nights once every seven years though whether or not she can of her own will is unknown. She also has the ability to summon nightmares in sleeping minds. She can also use "traditional" sorcery such as spells and potions.

Mirage is never seen actually fighting but she masters several magical attacks: a claw swipe which sends slicing waves of green energy (her most used attack) / green energy rays fired in rapid succession / green bolts of lightning / she surrounds herself with green and black lightning. She also displays great physical strength, being able to send Genie flying with a mere backhand.

In the Heat of the Fright
“ But with my own eyes, I witness the unthinkable. You bowed down! You inflicted bruises, I ordered lacerations! „ ~ Mirage (scolding her defeated fire cats)

Aladdin, Abu, Genie and Iago are following a river, making a map of the country nearing it, when they discover a village attacked by many demonic cats of fire, which can turn into fireballs. They engage a fight against the evil felines and manage to defeat them thanks to Genie's abundant tears. (He was watching Bambi on a TV set above the village: the moment when Bambi's mother is killed.)

The fire cats then return to Morbia where their queen, Mirage, the Evil Incarnate furiously remarks that they have been defeated. Mirage takes this as a personal challenge and drags Aladdin and his friends to Morbia, where they are tracked down by the hungy fire cats. Genie resolves to defeat Mirage on his own, and he goes to her temple, but fear gets the better of him and he proves unable to do any harm to the fire cats. As mirage revels in Genie's cowardice, Aladdin confronts her, claiming that Genie is no coward, given that he was brave enough to challenge her, thus restoring Genie's confidence. Being no longer afraid of them, Genie cannot be harmed by the fire cats and he defeats them with ease. Mirage lets them go, swearing revenge and adding a name to Aladdin's long list of foes.

Shadow of a Doubt
“ Then don't go. And as the people of Agrabah succumb to their dark fate, they will curse the hero who failed: Aladdin. „ ~ Mirage to Aladdin as she disappears.

A noble lady called Sultana is invited for a diplomatic stay in Agrabah, and the Sultan shows her the town, the palace and even (albeit reluctantly) his private collections of toys. Sultana starts making strange comments about Agrabah being a peaceful kingdom, before revealing herself to be Mirage, shape-shifted. The Evil Incarnate has placed a huge black obelisk outside the town. As the sun sets, its shadow will extend, obliterating everything that comes in contact with it. If nothing is done to prevent this, by night time Agrabah will be history. Genie attempts to destroy the obelisk but all his efforts prove in vain. Mirage gives Aladdin a sporting chance and tells him to go to the top of the world, (very likely the snowy desert where Jafar exiled Aladdin in the movie) to find a magic mirror which shows the "truth behind the appearance." Aladdin eventually finds the mirror and uses it to reflect the sunlight to destroy the obelisk, or so it seems. In fact, Mirage created a replika of Agrabah and its entire population, including Jasmine, the Sultan, the Genie and the others. (She visited the town as "Sultana" to gather enough information on them, in order to make doppelgangers which act exactly like the original ones.) Aladdin only saved this replika, and while he is kept in the party held there in his honour, Mirage captures his friends one by one as they discover the truth.

Finally Aladdin discovers the truth as well and manages to contact Genie (who was still trying to destroy the obelisk). Genie lures Mirage with an illusion of his own, making her believe that the sun is about to set while there is still time left, buying enough time for Aladdin to save the town for real.

When Chaos Comes Calling
“ You are Chaos, master of the surprise, the unpredictable. Agrabah is populated by contented cows. Quite the pitiful cliché, really. The usual beautiful princess engaged to the dashing hero, destined to live happily ever after as expected. (crystal ball shows Aladdin and Jasmine kissing) All very tidy and mundane. „ ~ Mirage to Chaos.

Mirage gets visited by Chaos, the Master Trickster: a god-like, winged cat, who uses his unlimited magic powers to break every routine he can, and make things lively wherever he deems the situation to be boring. Chaos is the only being in the universe Mirage is known to be terrified of. Chaos first makes fun of Mirage, telling her that it's always the same thing with Evil Elementals "crush this, destroy that, kill her main him", but Mirage manages to draw his attention towards Agrabah, which she describes as a boring cliché with "the usual princess and hero destined to live happily ever after." Hearing this, Chaos decides to go to Agrabah, to put things in disorder. there, he interupts an important lunch with several lords of the country, transforming almost everyone into animals or inanimate objects, causing big disarray. Chaos eventually reveals himself, and in spite of Genie's warning ("He's got more magic than any genie and he makes his own wishes!") an infuriated Princess Jasmine orders him to leave, prompting Chaos (who hates being ordered around) to reduce her to a few inches in size. Genie saves her from being crushed by Aladdin's foot and warns her again to not make chaos mad for "he has more power in his little whisker than a palace full of genies!". Later, Jasmine, Genie and Aladdin try to convince Chaos that nothing is boring in Agrabah, by telling him all their adventures; but Genie makes a fatal mistake when he says "Aladdin always wins." Chaos then creates an evil twin of Aladdin, and makes him fight his (reluctant) original counterpart. Chaos' point being: Aladdin always wins? Fine by me, but which one?

Aladdin manages to defeat his evil twin, but not before said twin calls forth a giant, evil twin of Genie, who starts rampaging Agrabah and even defeats the real Genie. As Mirage is watching the whole mess with delight, Chaos mentions her name, prompting her to go to Agrabah. It appears to be a big mistake, as Mirage is immediately captured by the evil Genie and has no other choice than to tell Aladdin to use the evil Genie's lamp. Aladdin rubs the lamp and wishes everything back to normal. Aladdin then thanks Mirage; being devoutly good, he never would have realized that his evil twin wouldn't have released the evil genie, meaning his lamp could still be used to control him - it took an evil mind like Mirage's to think of this solution. It appears that Chaos saw through Mirage's clever deceit all along. He feigned being fooled by her and wreaked havoc in Agrabah, indeed breaking its routine, but only to force Mirage to appear and to save the town instead of causing its destruction, thus teaching her than no one manipulates him and breaking her routine too. Humiliated, Mirage disappears with an anguished hiss and Chaos takes his leave, telling Aladdin that if he ever gets boring, he will be back.

The Lost Ones
“ Bah! Take them! Those brats are useless crybabies not fit to be El Katib. (Amal stands next to her) You see, every seven years brings new blood into the kinship. The promise of power and immortality entices them. Those with the seeds of true evil within them are perfect additions to the legion. „ ~ Mirage

Every seven years, children disappear all around the Seven Deserts. (Last time, Amal: Aladdin's best friend vanished out of thin air and now it's happening again.) Aladdin meets a young street rat named Wahid, who ultimately vanishes as well, and the gang starts to investigate. They son discover that the children are kidnapped by a monster who travels trough portals of shadows, that Iago recognizes as an El Katib (Shadow Walker) a creature who walks the earth 3 nights every 7 years, during a full moon. Worse, they discover that Wahid agreed to join the El Katib, because they are powerful and immortal, and that he is slowly becoming one of them. Even worse, the El Katib they met is none other than Amal. The gang follows Amal and Wahid through their portal of shadows, and ends up in ruins where Mirage greets them. The Evil Incarnate commands the El Katib, and every seven years, when they can walk the earth, she sends them kidnapp children. She tempts those with the "seed of Evil" within them, promising them power and eternal life if they become El Katib. Upon learning that the El Katib must stay in the Shadow Realm for seven years and that they are erased from existence if they are out when there is no full moon, Wahid changes his mind. Aladdin then offers Mirage to take him in Wahid's place, which Mirage accepts, overjoyed by the prospect of having her greatest enemy as her personal slave. But Aladdin tricked her, and the Aladdin who made this promise was in fact Genie shape-shifted.

Furious, Mirage orders her El Katib to destroy them and Aladdin is caught by Amal, who cannot bring himself to kill his former friend. Mirage then retreats, leaving Amal to die by the sunrise, but as Amal has lost his "seed of Evil" the sunlight only makes him regain part of his humanity. To Mirage's dismay, Amal departs to do good deeds in order to fully regain his human nature.

Eye of the Beholder
“ Ho, ho! Love! It is no more than a tingly feeling. It is weak! „ ~ Mirage Fasir tries to convince Mirage to stop tormenting humanity, stating that love always prevails. Determinate to prove her former lover wrong, Mirage goes to Agrabah shape-shifted as a beautiful peddler lady. There, she instills doubt in Jasmine's mind, saying that her beauty will fade with age, and so will Aladdin's love. She then offers her a magic lotion which will "help her retain her beauty." Jasmine uses the lotion, but to her horror, she awakes the following morning transformed into an awful half-snake hybrid. Genie decides to lead the gang to the Tree of Renewal, a tree whose magic fruits can cure any ailment, but which is located in a highly dangerous and hardly accessible place. During the trip, Jasmine's transformation worsens, making her more and more snake-like, to the point of frightening everyone who sees her. Aladdin nearly dies after touching her, because of the venomous barbs that cover her body and Mirage, who is watching the whole ordeal, revels in her torment, convinced than no love can survive such adversity. The gang eventually reaches the tree but Mirage withers it completely with a spell, crushing any hope for a cure. Mirage then appears gloating, easily defeating Genie when he attacks her, but Aladdin empties the entire bottle of lotion on himself, becoming a snake hybrid too. He says that if he can't stay by Jasmine's side as a human, he will do so as a snake.

Thwarted again, Mirage departs saying that they can love each other as much as they want, they will never be humans again. However, Fasir restores the tree, whose fruits turns the lovers back to normal. Fasir states that there is no need for Jasmine and Aladdin to pay for Mirage's defeat, and that one day, love will bring Mirage back to him.

While The City Snoozes
“ I would kill for a world without Genies! „ ~ Mirage

Mirage appears in an ancient, subterranean city below Agrabah, where dwells the Slumbergath: a monster born from nightmares. She opens a magical music box whose sinister tune is heard all over Agrabah. Meanwhile, the whole gang returns to Agrabah after having spent the whole night watching the stars and drawing astronomy maps. They find every town citizen, including the Sultan and the royal guards, fast asleep. When Abu and Iago, shortly followed by Genie, fall asleep, Aladdin and Jasmine understand that the city is under a curse. Mirage then appears, revealing that this is all her doing, but Aladdin and Jasmine manage to flee to the town. Without leaving the palace, Mirage, takes control of everyone under the sleeping curse, and orders them to destroy Aladdin. Aladdin and Jasmine try to escape the city, but the Magic Carpet falls asleep as well. The two lovers are now tracked down by an army of sleepwalking townsfolks, including Abu, Iago, Carpet and Genie, who chants "destroy Aladdin" over and over. As they're surrounded by the sleepwalkers, and as Genie is about to finish them off, they are saved by Fasir, who teleports them into the subterranean city. The prophet tells them about the magic music box, (the source of the sleeping curse) before falling asleep like the others. The two then flee, fearing that he will soon start to sleepwalk like the others. Jasmine ultimately falls asleep and attacks Aladdin in her turn.

Aladdin manages to escape and reaches the room where the magic box was placed, guarded by the Slumbergath. The monster's power is fueled by the nightmares that Mirage has placed in every victim of her slumber, and it has gained gigantic proportions. Mirage herself appears to witness Aladdin's demise, but being a nightmare, the Slumbergath cannot harm him no matter which frightening form it takes. Aladdin makes the Slumbregath vanish by repeating to himself that it is not real. Aladdin is exhausted and about to fall asleep, when Fasir and Jasmine enter, sleepwalking and chanting "destroy Aladdin." This wakes him up and he manages to close the music box, breaking the sleeping curse and awaking everyone, preventing Mirage from controlling them any longer. Infuriated, Mirage cuts a pillar with her claw swipe energy blast, making a huge boulder fall from the ceiling on Aladdin. Thankfully, Genie appears and saves his friend, ready to "kick kitty." Outnumbered, Mirages flees once more.

Quotes

 * You're too pure of heart to ever be El Katib, Aladdin. Mmm, but I will relish having you, my greatest enemy, as my personal manservant! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
 * Oh, Mirage! You are too good...
 * Careful, Aladdin. I could tear you apart like I did your genie. But you're filled with blood...
 * I don't like the direction this is going.
 * Blast! You've come further than I thought!
 * Of course! What was I thinking? You still love her because you have hope she will change back. But what if I should take that from you as well?
 * No, this can't be! Love is weak, weak!!
 * Oooo. I failed to mention that too. Bad Mirage. Bad bad Mirage. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. All part of being El Katib. Everything has a catch!

Trivia

 * Mirage sort of looks like the Egyptian goddess Bastet
 * It is implied that Mirage was once good and in love with Phasir though this was never explored