This Villainous Benchmark was Headlined on March 2024.
NOTE: This article is focuses solely on the original animated version of Jafar as his live-action counterpart is voted Pure Evil, and thus only the original Jafar's info and crimes should be put here.
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In the palace, right here, lived a wicked wazir; the advisor to Sultan Hamed. And this part-time magician, this amateur seer, wished his boss, the good sultan, dead. He was charming and slick, but unspeakably sick, this despicable parasite. What a villain, boo, hiss! Further proof, dears, that this is another Arabian night...
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~ Lyrics describing Jafar from a demo of Arabian Nights.
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If you won't bow before a sultan, THEN YOU WILL COWER BEFORE A SORCERER! Genie, my second wish! I wish to be the most powerful sorcerer... IN THE WORLD!
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~ Jafar screaming in rage while he makes his second wish.
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A snake, am I? Perhaps you'd like to see how...SNAKE-LIKE I CAN BE!!!
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~ Jafar to Aladdin before transforming into a giant snake.
Jafar is the main antagonist of Disney's animated Aladdin franchise.
He is the power-hungry Grand Vizier of Agrabah who seeks to rule over Agrabah and have Jasmine as his wife, at any costs. He is Aladdin's arch-nemesis and Iago's former owner and boss.
While he has several comedic moments, such as having a door slammed in his face during Aladdin's parade, constantly mispronouncing the name "Ababwa", and bickering with Iago after his first defeat, he is still seen as a serious threat in-universe by Aladdin and his friends, and by the second film, these comedic moments are mostly gone where he becomes much more dangerous than he was in the first film. He especially becomes terrifying when he turns into his genie form.
He wants to rule Agrabah and then the universe with an iron fist and become the most powerful being in the universe, not wanting anyone to surpass him.
He is a sadistic psycho who is willing to hurt minors and even called one a "pussy cat."
While he may have initially viewed Iago as a friend, he subverts this in the sequel when he tries to kill him after the latter redeemed himself. Even before this point he was very abusive towards him, showing that he only considered him a friend due to his assistance in his villainous schemes and never genuinely cared for him.
Plus, as Iago points out, despite coming up with all of the ideas and doing most of the work, Jafar never treated him with much respect, further proving this point.
Aladdin[]
He had Gazeem try to enter the Cave of Wonders in order to get the lamp in spite of the cave explicitly stating that only the diamond in the rough could enter, thus resulting in his death and while he was shown to be shocked at first, he displayed no remorse over it, stating that he was less than worthy.
It is also likely that he fully intended on killing him after he did his deed.
He hypnotizes the Sultan into giving him his ring, uses it to discover the identity of the diamond in the rough, and orders the guards to arrest Aladdin afterwards.
He disguises himself as a beggar and tricks Aladdin and Abu into getting him the lamp from the Cave of Wonders and once Aladdin hands it to him, he tries to kill him by stabbing him with his knife, only for Abu to bite him and take the lamp back.
He has Razoul and his guards bound, tie up, and gag Aladdin (who is posing as Prince Ali) and throw him to drown into the ocean to stop him from marrying Jasmine.
He tries to force Jasmine into marrying him by mind controlling the Sultan into trying to force an arrangement between them to take the throne for himself, only failing due to Aladdin's intervention.
He has Iago take the lamp from Aladdin and bring it to him, using it to enslave the Genie to his will and send Aladdin, Abu, and the Magic Carpet away while he takes over Agrabah and holds Jasmine and the Sultan captive to his will.
He tries to kill Aladdin when he comes back and tries to kill Jasmine as well by burying her in a giant hourglass.
He temporarily turned Abu into a toy (which is a fate worse than death) and temporarily killed the Magic Carpet.
Attempted to take over the whole universe after transforming into an all-powerful genie, but he got thwarted by Aladdin, as all genies are under the rule to not be free from their lamps.
The Return of Jafar[]
He tricks Abis Mal into wasting two of his three wishes after being freed and reclaiming his human form.
He manipulates Iago into betraying Aladdin by having him bring the boy and the Sultan to a certain place.
While he does save Aladdin, this was out of pragmatism as he wanted to have Aladdin be framed for the Sultanās āmurderā.
He disguises himself as Jasmine and sentences Aladdin to death by framing him for the Sultan's āmurderā, and imprisons the Sultan, Jasmine, The Magic Carpet, and Genie to prevent them from interfering.
He once again temporarily killed the Magic Carpet.
Attempted to kill Aladdin and all of his friends once again, opening a lava pit to get them all incinerated. He then attempted to kill Iago, who redeemed himself and turned on him to save Aladdin.
While his death was terrifyingly horrible, it wasn't played for sympathy, considering that he deserved it for what he had done to Aladdin and all of his allies.
House of Mouse[]
Takes over the House of Mouse to remake it in his image, and when Mickey Mouse stands up to him, he literally throws him out of the building. Minnie demands he fix what he did, and he pushes her out just as roughly. When Mickey comes back, he retaliates and destroys his hat, horrifying him until Aladdin shows up with the genie lamp.
Although he seemed to have friendships with the other villains, this was likely due to viewing them as useful rather than actually caring for them as he never really showed genuine affections for them.
It is also likely that all of these moments are not canon to the actual Aladdin franchise, as he is still alive despite dying in The Return of Jafar.
Why He Doesn't Stand Out?[]
Both his temporary reign of terror over Agrabah and his intended rule on the universe rely on too much Fridge Horror, since it isn't explored in enough detail whether he starved or oppressed the Agrabah people and it's unknown how bad his universal domination would be. Even if they were given some context, he still massively fails the high Heinous Standards of the Aladdin franchise when compared to the main villains on the TV show, such as Mozenrath who enslaved many mystical creatures and experimented on them and Mirage who spread plagues all around the world.
Not only that, but he has the resources to do worse than what Mozenrath and Mirage did, given that he can brainwash people to do anything he wants in the first movie and he becomes insanely powerful in the sequel, as he has the resources to warp all of reality at his will, yet he only attempts to kill seven people, all of which are his heroic opposition.
Plus, his brainwashing is not even portrayed as being that painful.
While he does pass the baseline with seven attempted murders, with two being royals (Jasmine and the Sultan), counting as two assassination attempts, this isn't anything special when compared to what the two aforementioned Pure Evils did.
Trivia[]
Originally Jafar was going to be called the Vizier. In the early drafts he would have attempted to kill the sultan and would have humiliated Aladdin with the lamp. He would have turned Jasmine into stone and would have let Aladdin's mother drown in an hourglass. If any of the drafts were to be keep in the finished version, it would have made Jafar worse.
If his tyrannical rule over Agrabah had more context and confirmed if citizens died during it or were even endangered, this would possibly make him more heinous and make him Near Pure Evil or Pure Evil, assuming that he may or may not fail the heinous standards to Mozenrath or Mirage.
He is the current icon of the Villainous Benchmark Wiki after Robbie Rotten was deleted due to being too bog-standard/generic after a new rule no longer allowing such villains here.