Jafar

Jafar is the main antagonist in Aladdin and its first sequel. He also appeared in an episode of Hercules: The Animated Series. Jafar was the Royal Vizier of Agrabah, voiced by Jonathan Freeman.

Personality
Jafar is tall and thin, and almost always depicted in flowing robes of black, dark red and other moody colors. He also carries a cobra-head staff, which he uses for his sorcery.

Jafar is portrayed as an amoral 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 displays no remorse in sending Gazeem the thief to his death in the Cave of Wonders, simply proclaiming that "Gazeem was obviously less than worthy" in a rather dry tone of voice. The deleted song "Humiliate the Boy" also establishes Jafar as an emotional sadist, getting a laugh out of seeing "an other fellow's dreams turn into nightmares one by one" and treating the Genie in an especially harsh manner. Jafar also displays narcissistic tendencies, his most obvious ones being his obsessive desire for power and sense of entitlement, as well as manipulating the Sultan to achieve his goals. It is not until Jafar gains control of the Genie's lamp that he fully shows his true colors, becoming arrogant and short-tempered with his subjects after usurping power from the Sultan. It is this impulsive behavior that leads to his downfall, as he uses his third wish to become an omnipotent genie, unaware of the life inside the lamp that he now has to endure.

Jafar is usually shown to be somewhat comedic and plucky (giving a slight human side to his usual evil, a trait not usually seen in Disney villains), even in his times of evil and cunning, proclaiming "Ewww..." when contemplating decapitation. This, however, doesn't keep Jafar from having a sub-par 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!"), as pointed out by Hades in Hercules and the Arabian Nights. This comical humor does not carry over in the film's direct-to-video sequel, which aimed to make Jafar more sinister and ruthless.

Designs
Jafar is a tall, bony man dressed in extravagant clothing, always seen carrying his gold, ruby-eyed, cobra scepter to supplement his magical powers. Jafar wears black robes that reach the ground overtop a red-violet garment with bell sleeves. Underneath this second garment, Jafar wears yet another shirt, this one black with very close-fitting sleeves that reach his wrists. The shoulders of his outer robe are pointed and connect to a long, billowing black cape with a blood red interior. His shoes are brown and the tips curl inward. A red-violet sash is tied around his waist. He also wears an odd, light-colored garment that covers his neck, the back of his head, and his chest. Jafar has a twisted, black goatee and a faint mustache, as well as grey eyeliner. He sports a distinctive black headdress, seemingly a type of mitre, with a thin, yellow pattern wrapping around the middle, what seems to be a ruby set in the front, and a bright red feather placed just above it. More red-violet cloth hangs from the mitre, draping over Jafar's shoulders. As Sultan, Jafar wears a white version of this outfit. When turned into a sorceror, Jafar's wardrobe goes to a more exagerated form of his normal attire, with a head-dress sporting horn-like protrusions. Here he regains his iconic snake staff, but notably with an open fanged-mouth that fires beams of magic on command.

Once Jafar makes his third lamp wish, he takes on a form resembling Genie himself, with some differences. Jafar's skin becomes blood red, his ears become pointed, his right ear gains a gold piercing, his hair becomes tied in a topknot, and his eyes become completely yellow. He retains his red-violet sash and five-fingered hands (albeit with claws, compared to Genie, who has four-fingers). When in normal human form, Jafar wears a slight recolor of his sorceror outfit, with red more prominent than before. He retains his snake staff.

Aladdin
In Aladdin, Jafar is introduced as the sinister Grand Vizier to Agrabah's Sultan who desires power over Agrabah and lusts over the Sultan's beautiful daughter, Princess Jasmine. He is the second most powerful authority in Agrabah, answering only to the Sultan. He is always accompanied by his sarcastic, devious pet parrot, Iago.

Whilst presenting a charming and respectable exterior to the Sultan and the people of Agrabah, he secretly holds everyone around him in contempt and manipulates the Sultan by means of hypnotizing him with a magical snake-headed staff, which he always carries on his person. He has traveled widely and amassed a wide knowledge of magical artifacts and legends. Until he uses Genie's powers to become a sorcerer, however, his magical abilities are limited to the use of such artifacts as he has collected, and his prowess as an accomplished alchemist.

Like some villain characters from other (including non-Disney) franchises, Jafar is attracted to a beautiful girl or woman that is a protagonist. Here, he is attracted to Princess Jasmine, but primarily for her good looking body, 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 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". Genie could not grant this wish, but after she spotted Aladdin and Abu above Jafar and the Genie in a balcony, Jasmine got the idea to pretend to do so, and she and Jafar shared both their first kiss together on the lips, in order for Jasmine to distract Jafar's attention from Aladdin as he tried to get the lamp back. (Much earlier, though, he says in a sexist manner that Jasmine's speechlessness is "a fine quality in a wife").

Jafar transformed himself into a giant cobra to kill Aladdin, but just as he was about to eat him, Aladdin tricked Jafar into using his third and final wish to become an all-powerful genie himself. In this form 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 selfish wish for power. Screaming in rage he was sucked into a black oil lamp, dragging the protesting Iago with him. The Genie then flung the lamp into the Cave of Wonders for 10,000 years.

The Return of Jafar


Jafar returns as the main villain in the film's sequel. In this film he is freed by one of Aladdin enemies, Abis Mal, Jafar forcibly recruiting Abis Mal as his partner by forcing him to waste his first two wishes so that Abis Mal will assist him in his plot against Aladdin in order to get his third wish.

Jafar reunites with Iago (who has freed himself from the lamp a few hours before Jafar) and demands him to lure Aladdin and the Sultan into a trap. Iago successfully gets Aladdin and Sultan to go for a flight on Carpet and while they're gone, Jafar invades the palace and begins to torment Genie and Abu. After the torture, he captures the two and begins the next part of his plan.

Aladdin, Sultan, Carpet and Iago reach the destination and what seems to be a peaceful and relaxing area, turns out to be a death trap as Sultan is kidnapped by hooded men on magic flying horses. Aladdin threatens Iago saying he'll deal with him later and rushes off on Carpet to save the Sultan. Aladdin fails and is thrown down a waterfall by Abis Mal but rescued by Jafar. Abis Mal is in shock but Jafar explains their act of revenge is not completed just yet. Jafar frames Aladdin for the murder of the Sultan who is really being held in captivity by Jafar. Jafar disguises himself as Jasmine and right before Aladdin is exiled, Jafar reveals himself to torture Aladdin even more. Genie is freed by Iago and saves Aladdin.

At the palace, Jafar orders Abis Mal to grant his freedom but before he can, the lamp is taken by Aladdin. Jafar transforms into a genie and battles the heroes. He creates a wasteland in the palace's garden creating pits of lava and knocks out Genie. Before Aladdin is killed, Iago kicks the lamp into the lava killing Jafar. Peace is restored and Iago is welcomed into Aladdin's home.

Aladdin and the King of Thieves
In the series' final installment, Jafar makes no physical appearance but is mentioned by Genie in the film's opening song Party in Agrabah. Genie believes with Jafar out the way there is no possible way the wedding can be interrupted by trouble.

Hercules and the Arabian Night
Jafar later made one more attempt at revenge in an episode ("Hercules and the Arabian Night") of Disney's Hercules TV-show spinoff, 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.

House of Mouse
Despite his death, Jafar has also had a recurring role on House of Mouse. He was even the central villain of the direct-to-video film Mickey's House of Villains, in which he relieved the villians of the Halloween boredom at the House of Mouse by taking it over and transforming it into the House of Villians. However, Jafar is later sealed into one of the magic lamps and the other villains flee with their most powerful member defeated. Jafar even went on a date with Maleficent in one episode and many fans noted that the two characters possessed many similarities. The two are often compared as both have regal bearing, bird side-kicks, are exceeding tall and dress in long, dark robes and peculiar head-wear.

Two other of Jafar's most notable appearances on the show are on 'Donald's Lamp Trade" where he tricks Donald into thinking Mickey's not his friend so he can obtain a lamp and in "House of Magic", in which he and Iago use the famous magic spell Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo to return the House of Mouse after Daisy Duck magically causes it to vanish.

Kingdom Hearts series
Majority of information taken from Kingdom Hearts Wiki-Jafar Jafar is a recurring villain in the Kingdom Hearts games. He is a member of Maleficent's group, and appears to be her second-in-command.

Kingdom Hearts
Jafar was part of the group of Disney villains in favor of total control of Kingdom Hearts. Jafar, along with his parrot Iago, planned to use the Heartless to take over Agrabah. Maleficent ordered Jafar to kidnap Princess Jasmine, one of the seven Princesses of Heart. She also warned Jafar to avoid steeping himself in darkness for too long or the Heartless would steal his heart. When Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrive, Jafar was trying to capture the princess. Eventually they meet up with Aladdin, who tries to save her from Jafar by using Genie's powers, but the plan backfires with Jafar obtaining the lamp.

Jafar lead Sora and friends to the Cave of Wonders, where the Guardian of the Cave was possessed by Darkness. As Sora and company dealt with the Guardian, Jafar retreated to the Lamp Chamber. While there he used his first wish- to find the Keyhole to the world. The Keyhole was revealed on the far side of the chamber; shortly afterward Sora, Aladdin, Donald and Goofy arrived. Ensuing a battle, Jafar used his second wish for Genie to crush Sora and friends. A slave to the lamp, Genie reluctantly fought alongside Jafar against Sora and friends. After his first defeat, Jafar used his third and final wish to make him an all powerful Genie. Sora and the gang went into the deepest part of the Cave of Wonders and fought Jafar. In the end, Sora took Jafar's lamp and sucked Jafar into the lamp along with Iago. After the battle, Hades, Captain Hook, and Riku conversed about his chances against Sora; Hades comments saying that Jafar may have won if Riku had supported him.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Jafar appeared in the Agrabah made of Sora's memories with the Heartless to take over Agrabah. In order to get the lamp, he tricked Aladdin to get the lamp in an attempt to make Jasmine marry him. When Jafar stole the lamp from Aladdin, his first wish was to have Jasmine in his clutches, his second being for Genie to protect him from a sneak attack led by Sora and Aladdin, and his third wish was to become an all-powerful Genie. He teleported Sora and his friends to the center of the earth and attacked them. His attacks were similar to that seen in the first game, except ice could not damage him. Instead of attacking Jafar directly, Sora attacked Iago, grabbed the lamp, and trapped Jafar inside like the previous encounter.He also appeared in Riku's story representing Riku's dark memories.

First Visit
One year later, 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 had already arrived. Sora and gang head to the Cave of Wonders to give the Peddler treasures for the Lamp. Sora returned to find Pete chasing the Peddler for the lamp. Pete chased the Peddler all the way to the Palace, but Iago, who had previously escaped from the lamp, snatched it in the nick of time. Angered, Pete summoned two powerful Heartless but Sora defeated them and sealed Jafar's lamp away.

Second Visit
However, the "defeat" was bittersweet. Due to the manipulations of Organization XIII, the Peddler found Jafar's lamp again and released him. Jafar forced Iago to keep Sora occupied by telling him that he would be in the Desert Ruins. Sora and the gang arrived at the tower in the ruins, with the help of Genie and Carpet, while Jafar kidnapped Princess Jasmine. Once Sora and Aladdin discovered the ruse, Iago informed them that Jafar would be attacking the Palace at that point. They arrived at the Palace to find Jafar taunting Jasmine, who was chained to the gate. Jafar fired a beam of dark lightning at Aladdin, but Iago intercepted it and fell unconcious. Jafar turned into his Genie form and rose into the sky, with Sora in pursuit, riding on the magic carpet. Sora and Jafar battled one-on-one in a battle that destroyed half of Agrabah. Sora came out the victor, with Jafar exploding, his lamp dissolving into the darkness.

Kingdom Hearts coded
Jafar appears in Kingdom Hearts coded, in Agrabah, in his genie form, confronting Genie and Sora. He steals the Genie's lamp and has a fake lamp that can control time. He kidnaps Princess Jasmine and uses his new powers over time to delay Sora from getting rid of the bugs. In the game, you must fight him twice as his normal self and once as his genie form.

Disney Parks


Jafar appears occasionally in the Disney Parks as a meetable character.

Jafar can be found often at Disney's Hollywood Studios and even more at Disneyland Paris

Fantasmic!
In the Walt Disney World version of Fantasmic!, Jafar is summoned by The Queen when she plots to destroy Mickey Mouse and take over Disney. In the show, Jafar turns into his snake form in an attempt to eat Mickey. When the villains get the upper hand, Jafar becomes a Genie. Soon Mickey saves the day and Jafar is killed off along with everyone else.

Disney Villains Mix and Mingle
In the live castle stage show in the Walt Disney World Resort's Magic Kingdom, Jafar is summoned by Maleficent along with other villains. In the show Jafar and the villains celebrate Halloween with music and mingling.

Starlight Dreams
Jafar was one of the villains that joined in the attack on Mickey Mouse and Friends. Like the other villains, Jafar was only seen through water projectors.

Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular
Jafar appears as the main antagonist in the Broadway-style show. Jafar is first seen at the Cave of Wonders to retrieve the lamp. However his plans are foiled when the thief he hired was not worthy. Later on Jafar eventually steals the lamp ceasing control over Agrabah. He is defeated by Aladdin.

Family
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. Jafar's sister is very similar both in appearance and actions as Maleficent. She respects Jafar and the sibling bond between them is quite strong.

Powers and abilities
At the start of Aladdin, despite having an 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. However, after wishing to become the most powerful sorcerer in the world, he could levitate objects, summon fire, and transform himself and others. Jafar's next wish - to become a Genie - made him arguably one of the most powerful entites in the Disney universe.

Trivia

 * Over the years, Jafar has become one of the most popular Disney Villains, second only to Maleficent.
 * The Nostalgia Critic listed Jafar as Number 10 on his "Top 11 Disney Villians" list.
 * Sir Patrick Hewes Stewart, was originally offered the role as Jafar's voice but had to decline due to scheduling difficulties, noted by himself as something he regrets now.
 * Jafar is listed 2nd in Ultimate Disney Villians right after Maleficent.And is the first Disney Villian to get kissed by the heroine.
 * The Genie's cheerleader routine in mockery of Jafar, "Jafar, Jafar, he's our man! If he can't do it, GREAT!" is parodied in the card "Eryss" from the now discontinued TCG, Magi-Nation Duel.
 * Jafar's betrayal of Jasmine and the Sultan in Aladdin shows he has similar character to Clayton who betrays Tarzan, Jane Porter and her father near the end of Tarzan (1999) and Thadeus Thatch's friend, Preston Whitmore's "comrade" from Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Except unlike Jane and Milo Thatch, Jasmine never trusted Jafar.
 * Jafar also has many comparisons to Maleficent. Both have long robes, Tall Hats, Magic Staves, birds as sidekicks (Iago and Diablo), charming personalities with violent tempers, and they both turn into monsters in the climactic battle with the hero (Jafar turns into a giant Snake, Maleficent turns into a dragon).