#he is more vizier than father
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Here’s a sad thought about Princess Jasmine in Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier, courtesy of listening to the soundtrack again and feeling the feelings about her and Ja’far: this version of the Sultan must be a really bad father.
We never see him interact with his stepdaughter. He already seems rather senile when he steals Scheherazade, and that’s sixteen years before the present day. His sanity may well have completely gone in that time. Even if it didn’t, he makes it clear in his one appearance that he considers everyone in his power to be objects defined entirely by how they can benefit him and remorselessly will torture, enslave and murder them on a whim. I doubt that he’d be sensitive or nurturing toward his child. Now, I think Scheherazade would be a great mother - but she never got to try.
The Sultan has evidently been very neglectful and distant, failing in his duties to teach the Princess how to be both a good person and a good member of royalty. Despite her being his only heir and old enough to marry and rule the kingdom, which apparently has no problem with a female sovereign, he’s let her grow up to be extremely sheltered and not at all adequately prepared for responsibility and politics. It doesn’t even occur to her that having her tiger assault a neighbouring country’s visiting prince might have consequences. The Sultan, and on his behalf the Captain of the Guard, don’t let her know important news and royal decrees: neither what a menace Aladdin is, leaving her vulnerable to him, nor the Sultan’s mass execution of the 2D Department, since for as insensitively egocentric as she is at the beginning, she’s still deeply sentimental and quick to empathize with the homeless peasant Aladdin, so I can’t believe that she wouldn’t be at least a little upset with the Sultan (or more likely Ja’far) over so many lost human lives.
More than that, her immaturity speaks to bad parenting on the most basic level. She hasn’t internalized the Sultan’s cruelty, but has learned his selfishness, entitlement, impulsiveness and poor emotional regulation. Her social skills are notably clumsy and underdeveloped (not picking up on Aladdin’s numerous red flags, “No high five”, “At least Abdul had a family who loved him!”, even cringing herself at the last one). The Sultan’s passed down absolutely zero wisdom of any kind.
Instead it’s Ja’far with whom she has a familiar father-daughter dynamic (“What’s up, are you mad at me?” “Where are you going?” “There she is!”). It’s him who shows concern when she runs away and gives the order to find her before all else, notices that she’s upset and talks her through her feelings, warns her about sexual predators, appreciates her idealism and effort. It’s him who provides the gentle but firm, healthy guidance and challenge that she needs to grow. Who sees her potential, respects and believes in her. Who loves her. However, he is ultimately in her service. Between the imbalanced power dynamic making him wary of treason (after all, the last time he had a stronger relationship than the Sultan with a woman the Sultan called his, it didn’t end well) and his other responsibilities taking away from their time together, he can’t be as influential a presence in his life as he’d like.
Maybe this why she’s initially so resentful of him. Subconsciously she does see him as a father all along, but he hurts her and lets her down sometimes. Like the Sultan, her only official parent, always has. That stings. The differences are that the Sultan hurts her much more, more consistently and without her best interests at heart… but Ja’far is the one she can lash out at and complain to and be a messy adolescent around, because firstly, he’s her subject instead of her ruler, and secondly, he’s actually involved in her life. He cares, and therefore yelling or halfheartedly trying to poison his wine will make an impact. The Sultan is untouchable. We know that she conflates the two in her head as unjust authority figures keeping her trapped and crushing her aspirations (“All the people who say I’m just dreaming, like Father and Ja’far”, one of the only times she mentions the Sultan). It’s easier to blame your problems on an employee everybody else hates than accept that your parent is a bad one.
Maybe this is the root of her discontentment as well, her yearning that she can’t articulate for something more than what the life she’s been given. The joke of “Everything and More” is that she doesn’t need anything besides what she has… but she does. She needs a competent, reliable parent. One who she can trusts loves her the person as her parent, not a servant of her bloodline, and she knows to love as such in turn.
No wonder she falls for “Orphaned at Thirty-Three” hook, line and sinker. She’s never known her mother. Her relationships with her paternal figures range from terrible to complicated. Having unconditionally loving, supportive parents and then suddenly losing them must be the worst thing she can imagine.
But in the end, the Sultan dies and her dad has to leave her. Although he found a way to live forever, it wasn’t enough to save her from the pain of being orphaned at sixteen.
#starkid twisted#twisted: the untold story of a royal vizier#twisted the untold story of a royal vizier#ja’far#team starkid#starkid
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Cleaning out my Google Drive archive, I happened to stumble across the original spec Hallmark Movie script that Fete For A King was based on -- not that I had lost it, I'd just kind of forgotten about it. And it occurred to me you guys might enjoy seeing a scene or two from it.
I wrote Fete basically from the script -- I made a copy of the script and rewrote it into prose as I went, then did a second pass to make it less Scripty, so most of it would be very familiar. The plot came through basically intact. The one thing I significantly altered was Jerry and Alanna's subplot -- in the script, as often happens with Hallmark films, the supporting characters also have a love storyline. I took that out of the book because it didn't need the padding, and it allowed me to give them a book of their own later, but the script scenes were pretty fun. :D
(In this version Jerry still attends the Agricultural Cabinet meeting for Gregory, but mentions this fact to Michaelis, which gets Gregory in trouble for blowing it off.)
ALANNA, spying on the lunch meeting through the door to the Prince's office, leans back behind a column or wall. DUKE GERALD (JERRY), looking apologetic, winces.
ALANNA: How could you, Jerry?
JERRY: I told you, I didn't mean to! I thought if I told the king I stepped in for Gregory, it would show I'm taking an interest. Turning over a new leaf.
ALANNA: Nobody asked you to take an interest.
JERRY: Least of all me. But I was interested, really, Alanna. We could be doing so much more with olives. I didn't know crop planning was such a precise science.
ALANNA: And that's great, but you could have just said you went WITH Greg to the meeting.
JERRY: Why would I go with Greg to an agricultural meeting? Anyway, I would have but I didn't think of it. Don't be mad at me.
ALANNA: It's not me you have to worry about.
JERRY: But Greg knows I wouldn't sabotage him. Besides, uncle Mike would have heard about it eventually anyway. Everyone in town was talking about the Prince coming to try that cheese shop with the social media chef guy.
ALANNA: He's under a lot of pressure.
JERRY: I know.
ALANNA: And now unless that cheese REALLY impresses the king, he's going to start following Greg around everywhere and trying to offer his opinion.
JERRY: He's been king for forty years. His opinion's probably useful.
ALANNA: Not if the prince wants to make his own way.
JERRY: Well, what do you want me to do? I can't make uncle Mike like cheese.
ALANNA: I want you to keep an eye on them and keep the king distracted. Can't you do something mildly embarrassing?
JERRY: More or less embarrassing than visiting a cheese shop in a "Truly Tasty" hat?
ALANNA: Fix it, Jerry!
JERRY: Fine, I'll do my best. But I want you to make Greg make me his vizier when he's king.
ALANNA: We haven't had a vizier in a hundred years. What does a vizier even do?
JERRY: Nothing, but with drama.
ALANNA: Fine. I have meetings. Stay here, keep spying, report back when they leave.
JERRY gives her a thumbs up and watches her leave, then turns to spying on the meeting.
***
And then Alanna has a realization....
ALANNA is still leading JERRY away from the picnic.
JERRY: I thought you wanted me to keep Uncle Mike off Greg's case.
ALANNA: Not tonight. Eddie's pitching his new high-concept for the coronation feast, so they've got to be there together.
JERRY: Well, I wish someone would make up their mind around here.
ALANNA: You could set a trend.
JERRY: What's that supposed to mean?
ALANNA: You're not interested in olives, Jerry.
JERRY: Of course I am.
ALANNA: You're interested in the fact that my dad heads the cabinet board that supervises the olive harvest.
JERRY: Olives are very interesting to me. (deflating) And I wanted to impress your dad.
ALANNA: He's known you since we were kids running around the palace together.
JERRY: Is that good?
ALANNA: My father has literally watched you fall out of multiple trees you were trying to climb.
JERRY: Failing to climb, mostly.
ALANNA: So why are you trying to impress him now?
JERRY: Well, isn't it obvious?
They stare at each other.
ALANNA: I cannot go on a date with you.
JERRY looks crestfallen. ALANNA pulls out her phone.
ALANNA: There's too much to do, Jerry. Between now and the coronation every hour I'm awake is booked. The best I can give you is three weeks from Tuesday.
JERRY: What?
ALANNA: Three weeks from Tuesday. Does that work for you? Never mind, your calendar's on my phone. I'm booking us in. Dinner okay?
JERRY: Uh. Yes.
ALANNA: Good. I'll send you a calendar invite, you pick the place.
She walks off, still typing in her phone.
JERRY: What just happened?
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Re-reading Twice Dead King, the character I was most struck by on a second viewing was Mentep. Now there’s a tragic figure. Simultaneously a mentor, an ally, an antagonist, someone so terribly understandable who I want to smack upside the head for being a lying liar who lies.
Ultimately, Mentep is a penitent. He has committed terrible acts (that we only get scant details of) and he wants to redeem himself. Thanks to his tampering with his own memories, he doesn't fully know what he is repenting for, which puts him in a bind. However, he knows that he played a role in creating the flayer curse/longing sickness, so he goes to a planet where a high concentration of them have gathered and works on his cure. He's respected, he's able to do his work with only occasional interruptions from the local angsty youth. Things are good-ish (until the armada shows up.)
Mentep and Oltyx have a weird relationship. Despite being his normal asshole-teenager self, Oltyx does respect Mentep more than most. Trusts Mentep enough to let the guy perform experimental brain surgery on him. Twice. And Mentep is able to be much more candid with Oltyx in return. He's one of the few consistently calling Oltyx out for his bullshit. On the surface, it is a standard mentor relationship, but what got me on a second reading is that there is hardly a single conversation Mentep has with Oltyx where he isn’t lying to and/or manipulating him.
It starts early with Yenekh. Mentep knows Yenekh has been suffering from the curse, he hasn’t told Oltyx, and when he finally has to tell him, he conveniently does so right before distracting everyone with the “oh btw, we’re all gonna die to a giant human armada” news. This is done with the best of intentions. Mentep wants to protect Yenekh (and Oltyx, in his way), so he delivers the news this way to get the bad news out of the way and then both of them on the same side. But it is the start of a pattern.
Which we get again when Mentep fails to mention a that Antikef is a flayer den ruled by a “We have Illuminor Szeras at home” Vizier, and boy does that end badly for Oltyx (see the last 60% of Ruin). Naturally, Mentep has a good explanation:
But it is another lie, one that costs Oltyx dearly (put a pin in this, I am coming back to it.)
There's some little fibs and ommissions along the way as they go to Carnotite, but it all builds up to The Big Lie. The one that sends Oltyx spiraling and gets Mentep killed. Because you know what really helps with paranoia? Finding out your mentor and your best friend have been hiding a secret blood pit in your basement! Again, it makes sense why Mentep is lying about this! He has every reason to believe Oltyx would have rejected the flayed ones he and Yenekh were sheltering (he in fact does exactly this), and Mentep's entire goal is to cure the curse to atone for his role in its creation. However...
I think Oltyx is correct to call Mentep out here (Oltyx is wrong about most things, but not this). Somewhere a long the way he became a means to an end for Mentep. Mentep was focused on The Curse and not the person in front of him who was cursed. He used Oltyx's friendship with Yenekh, his need to save his kingdom, his trust, his fears, all in service of admirable goals, but he was using Oltyx. Is it any wonder this is where it ended?
The lies were Mentep's undoing from the start. Remember the lie about Antikef? The one that led to all the events of Ruin? Yes, Oltyx and Djoseras did talk and avoid a civil war, but Oltyx also went through hell. He saw his home turned into an abbattoir, his father reduced to barely more than an animal. Oltyx was literally vivisected and almost consumed by his own dysphoria. And then committed regicide after leaving his brother behind to die. Antikef is where Oltyx truly learned that compassion was weakness and saw how horrific the flayer curse could become. So how was he ever going to accept the flayed ones as Mentep wanted him to? Oltyx experienced the comically perfect combination of traumas to ensure that would never happen, thanks in part to Mentep's manipulations.
I cannot stress enough that Mentep's individual lies all made sense at the time. May have even been the best option, at the time. But the consequences piled up, and even as he is dying he still refuses to give Oltyx even a scrap of the truth. That is the core of his tragedy for me. Well, that and this:
He bases all of his manipulations on his understanding of people's psyche's, which are usually accurate, but it also traps them. It gives them no room to grow or surprise him or for outside factors to come in and intervene. Contrast this with Zultanekh, who is upfront to a fault. He gives Oltyx advice and resources, but what Oltyx does with those things is up to him. Even when he is screwing up royally, he's allowed to make those mistakes. Mentep causes ones of Oltyx's darkest hours (the secret blood pit), while Zultanekh lifts him out of another (the Blood Angel's attack). In the end, Zultanekh is the one who sees Oltyx's true growth and witnesses the birth of his kingdom. A birth that comes not from curing the curse but embracing it.
There was never a sickness to be fixed, which means Mentep never would have achieved his redemption because he was focused on the wrong things. Which does make his death and rebirth as Xott a bit of a reflection of Oltyx. He was too burdened in his first life, but in his second he (or at least a version of him) was able to witness the people he hurt reaching a place of peace.
#warhammer 40k#necrons#twice dead king#oltyx#mentep#shit this one got long#I have a lot of thoughts about the sad robots okay#pro tip: maybe constantly lying to the paranoid teenager with anger issues isn't gonna end well for anybody#side note I do wonder if Mentep's habit of manipulation came from his time on Carnotite#That place got scary man#learning how to work people may have become a survival tactic that he just internalized#poor yenekh stuck in the middle#my boy did not deserve that#zultanekh repeatedly proving that he is best
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So we got the ROs rank for cunning, but what about charisma? 👀
Hmmm. Shit this may be difficult to answer ngl. Its why i kept it in mah back pocket for a time. Ill answer it two ways. Charisma for peacetime vs charisma for wartime.
PEACETIME (Administration and vassal relationship matters):
Nysthe: Hands down has the highest CHA of all the characters for peacetime relations. She can talk to people and razzle dazzle their pants and skirts off, and she can make sure vassals listen and want to do what she asks.
Amina: Princess of a kingdom herself, and student of her mother Queen Khari, Amina has learned the ins and outs of leadership and public speaking. You can count on her to handle CHA shit without worry.
Edward: Though reserved and quiet, our boy here is respected by all. As the third highest CHA, with a high INT, Edward is balanced and seemingly has no weaknesses when it comes being depended on to lead or hold discussions with vassals or other parties. A solid administrator.
Voryn: His mother is the Grand Vizier, and through her he has learned much in the way of handling vassals and nobles. Coupled with his natural charisma, Voryn could have been 3rd, but his arrogant attitude towards nobles he doesnt like (theyre alot) it brings him down to 4th.
Lucina: Beauty and charm are her weapons and Lucina knows how to utilize them well, earning her 5th place. Balls, banquets, and parties may not seem like a battlefield, but to Lucina, they are. And she wins those battles, regularly. In terms of administration, Lucina is weaker than the other ROs. But for a Politician MC, Lucina is a top tier partner to have in executing your intrigue. Would be third place if this were for that field.
Mary: Empathy goes a long way, enough for Mary to be 6th. Her ability to feel what the other person is feeling lends itself well to hearings, discussions, and leading. She is more of a listener, and sometimes, listening is better than speaking.
Cheris: An imperial noblewoman through and through, she knows how to handle herself when it comes to CHA matters. Her main weakness however, is having no fucks in calling other people out. She is too direct. Yet, like Lucina with Politics, Cheris would be higher placed if this were for Tycoon. Then, Cheris's head for numbers would show.
Veriel: He has a natural CHA that should propel him higher on the list, but the list is for administration and vassal matters. Sadly, Veriel is quite average in that department, and is outshone by the other ROs in this list. However, Veriel be much higher in the next list that deals in wartime as a leader of soldiers.
Astrid: {RETRACTED}
Zera: Son of the Kin, an outsider, and a grumpy sort of fellow, Zera is hilariously not the guy to send for handling vassals or managing people during peacetime lmao.
Max: Do not. Just don't. Your vassals will believe you're fucking with them by sending them a commoner.
WARTIME (As a leader of war):
Voryn: His men would follow him to the gates of hell. He knows how to talk to a soldier, he fights alongside them, and he makes sure their salaries always come through, even at the expense of the nobility. He has the loyalty of his soldiers, and his soldier's has his. Voryn leads from the rear and only comes to the front at critical moments.
Max: A man of the common soldier. A jumped up commoner who somehow clawed his way to the top of the imperial ranks, and his men love him for it. Beloved by his soldiers for his easy to approach attitude and reputation as a father to his men, Max is a ridiculously effective wartime leader, and decisive when others would balk. He and Voryn are neck and neck in their rankings. Max leads from the fore, and tries to break the enemy before the weakness of not having a commander directing in the rear becomes apparent.
Zera: It is only in the fires of war that Zera can showcase what a great leader he is in the face of adversity. Kin or not, Zera inspires the people around him, and he will soon create a loyal following of soldiers. He is a fair and just leader, and Zera's soldiers can expect him to protect them from malicious officers or nobles. Zera leads from the rear, coming out to the front when critical moments in batle occur.
Veriel: Like a good hunting dog that only feels alive when on the hunt, but lazy and fat when staying indoors, so is Veriel. As someone who worships King Uriel, and seeks to emulate him, Veriel will prove himself leading in battle. He has a strong battle voice, and the soldiers listen to it, as they love his larger than life persona. Of course, he leads from the fore as would King Uriel.
Edward: Again, Edward proves himself to be a balanced and solid leader who can and will meet any expectations thrust upon him. His soldiers respect him, and know they can trust him to lead on to victory. Edward as a leader is more of the logistician type. He will always make sure his soldiers are well fed and stocked, and for this, they follow him. He leads from the rear.
Amina: If this were a leadership ranking for naval combat, Amina would be third place. However, this is overall, and she faces exceptional individuals who excel in too many other facets of wartime leadership. Thus, Amina is an average, yet solid leader. She has no real weaknesses to exploit, aside from a lack of experience. She leads from the rear.
Mary: She was trained by her father, and by Master Feren on matters of war. As such, Mary is an average leader to follow in war. She can command a battalion, but an entire army would prove difficult unless she gains more experience. She leads from the rear.
Nysthe: Wartime is not her forte, and she knows this. So, she does what someone should do, and delegate. And she delegates well. She knows who to choose, and who to listen to. Nysthe will not be a commander, so she does not lead from the rear or fore.
Lucina: Only by virtue of her brother Veriel, and his constant talks regarding war and chivalry, does Lucina have some clue on how to lead people in times of duress. However, she considers herself a lady first, and does not ascribe to the martial side of her people's culture. Will also not be a commander, so she does not lead from the rear or fore.
Cheris and Astrid: As imperial noblewomen, these two have a grasp of martial matters that will help them understand basic necessities required of a leader of war. But the two are below average in this field, and are better suited for other expeditions.
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I'm sorry this has been brewing in my head for a while and I need to share it with someone: Jamil and Kalim teaming up to topple to classist society of the scalding sands.
Post-OB Jamil and Kalim actually reconciling and having some character development. Kalim breaking down realizing that his coping mechanism of obliviousness did more harm than good. Jamil actually missing his friend. Both realizing that the problem isn't just their own flaws, but the adults around them. Jamil working on letting himself go while Kalim works to become more independant (he clearly has the skill + learning capacity, he's just been so babied he never learnt). Also, adorable scenario where Kalim and Malleus become besties over their shared quest for independence. Based on this, this, this, and this.
Kalim and Jamil's relationship becoming more genuine. Honestly, I believe that Kalim will end up sooooo sassy cause of Jamil's infleunce. Jamil using his sharp tongue and Kalim trying to do comebacks. Jamil just responds by giving a rating out of 10. Jamil finally getting the personal time he so desperately needed while Kalim slowly learns to genuinely trust others with his problems. Kalim finally letting himself get genuinely angry at his parents for how they managed to ruin both his and Jamil's lives by trapping them in a codependant cycle.
Kalim getting into his first fist fight with some classist prick and Jamil's response is asking if he won.
Kalim saying something very stupid and Jamil just giving a glare and it goes like this.
Third year rolls around and the two successfully schemed to give Jamil his rightful title of dorm leader without the nobles of the Scalding Sands rioting. I don't know how yet but I know it'll involve Kalim maxing out his "innocent puppy who just wants to do what's right" to indirectly shame his father for bribing Kalim's way into power. Nothing really changes much other than the fact that Scarabia is now running much more smoothly while still having the best parties. Based on this, this, and this.
They graduate and Kalim instantly gives Jamil the go ahead to be free. It all happens so fast that none has time to protest. Jamil spends a good two years traveling while Kalim does his best to learn the ropes as being head of the family. Based on this and this. Kalim successfully setting up a trade deal with Malleus and helping to open up Briar Valley to modernization. Jamil making a name for himself by taking part in multiple projects as he travels (archeological sites, restoration projects, reformation movements, etc).
The two reuniting when they're both called to work with Leona for his relief project in the slums of the savanna as part of his political reformation of the monarchy. Jamil helping to oragnize + plan the logistics while Kalim provides funding + trade opportunities. By the end of it, the slums have turned into a major tourist stop in the middle of a major trade route (sorry for the side quest, I have a thing for Leona keeping his promise to Ruggie).
Extra context: the position of grand vizier is traditionally given to relatives of the family head, like a brother or cousin. Ever since Jamil left, the position was taken by one of Kalim's distant relatives. This guy absolutely sucks at his job, is a classist ass, and clearly only had superficial training. Its clear he only got the title cause of his relation to Kalim and never expected to do much work. Kalim having to fix this guy's messes for years and being like "oh god is this what Jamil had to go through with me?".
Back to the story, Kalim spent years kneecaping the nobility with relative success and now has the ideal circumstances for an ideological revolution. But for this, he needs Jamil. So he invites Jamil, now famous worldwide for his sills & contributions, to come back for the fireworks festival. There, in front of all the major noble families (plus a few ex-classmates like Vil, Leona, Azul, and Malleus who're there for support), Kalim begins to berate his vizier and expose him for his incompetance and blunders, ultimately dismissing him. Then he turns to Jamil, gets on his knees, and begs that he take the position because he's the most competant person in the room. Jamil revels in the ego boost that is Kalim kneeling and agrees so long as he can negotiate his contract.
The two then go on a relentless campaign to topple the classist bullshit nobility and give equal rights to everybody.
Which brings me to the x reader romance scenarios (lets say thry discovered a way to travel to & from the reader's world):
Jamil marrying and taking his S/O's last name for an "official excuse" to give him his freedom. The Vipers may be endentured servants to the Asims but the L/Ns have no such obligation. During his travels, Jamil switching between staying in a shabby hotel and spending the night at his in-laws. His S/O being his rock and offering boundless support and patience. When Jamil finally gets the title of grand Vizier, he rejoices at the thought of finally spoiling his S/O like they deserve.
Kalim marrying an S/O who is both a sweetheart but also a maverick unafraid to do the dirty work. One who makes kneecaping the nobility a whole lot easier and puts an end to 90% of all assassination attempts. Kalim having absolute trust in his S/O and their methods. Kalim being relieved that any children they have will also go to school in his S/O's world where they'll be safe and able to live somewhat normal lives. Kalim being determined to reform society so their children can live without fear or hatred.
This took me a little while to get to since I wanted to give all of this a proper thought, but here we are.
Ngl, as a sucker for happy endings it is lovely thinking of how things could work out.
Honestly, just for Jamil and Kalim to open up more to each other would take quite a bit of work. I mean, years of habits to unlearn and years of baggage to navigate through. I really wish they would, though - and not just when one of them is overblotting. Plenty of learning for Kalim to figure out how to face the things he’s been shielded from, and for Jamil to express the things he’s been bottling up.
Oh but that thought of Kalim “sassing up” because of Jamil is so amusing tho. Him trying to emulate Jamil, which would just get Jamil even more frustrated - is Kalim even going to take this from him now? Or Jamil would just be amused at the attempt, one or the other. But if they could actually get more on the same wavelength about it, that could indeed make for some real fun scenarios.
As for Kalim’s parents… Yeah don’t even get me started on that one.
For Jamil becoming the housewarden… Yeah that first pic kinda sums it up, doesn’t it?
Which makes me wonder: how much does Jamil want the power, and how much does he just want the recognition? Now my memories of book 4 may be a little fuzzy at this point, but iirc the primary motivation was to eject Kalim - to get back the blissful solace of those first few months in NRC without Kalim there. So I do feel like just being allowed to "flourish" and show off his skills and capabilities would be some balm for the wounds in his soul, so to speak.
But also, considering Kalim was able to transfer schools just because of Jamil, pretty much, I’m sure if it’s up to him he’d be well able to give dorm leadership to Jamil without too much fuss. Like, I wouldn’t be surprised if he got the position more because of a “only the best for my boy” attitude from his dad - or maybe it was supposed to be training for his future responsibilities as the head of the house.
In any case, I would assume the family wouldn’t be super upset if Kalim is the one deciding that actually, Jamil should lead. Like, it certainly goes over much smoother if Kalim instigates it and hands the position over, rather than Jamil rising up against him (because how could a servant possibly oppose his master, how dare). Tho it would certainly still raise some eyebrows, I’m sure.
(But like, while Kalim presumably has had to deal with his own brand of neglect / not so helpful upbringing, he still seems to be the sort of a golden boy who’s used to getting his whims, so.)
For Jamil being freed - to my understanding they would need to figure out a way to do it without it bringing shame / consequences to Jamil’s family (at least, based on how jp talked about these things). Like, Kalim would need to be “powerful” enough in his family to be able to shield / protect Jamil’s family from those consequences.
(As a sidenote, I do wonder how Jamil’s family would feel like being offered freedom from servitude / a different position. Are they under as intense pressure as Jamil, with their own roles? I mean, obviously it would be difficult for them to be let go without having a way to make ends meet, but I do wonder if they’re simply happy & proud of their positions or if they feel anything similar to what Jamil does.)
At some point I also made a post thinking that even if Kalim might not be able to dismiss Jamil outright (once they both come to an agreement about this being a thing they should do), maybe Kalim could still make up reasons to send Jamil out to travel. A halfway point to true freedom, and hey, at least Jamil would get to enjoy spending some Asim money for himself.
Ngl tho, I’m all for a bit of an upheaval of the social order in the Scalding Sands. Really don’t know how one could even go about making it happen - such change is slow, would paint an even bigger target on Kalim’s back, and would make for some very powerful enemies. Slow process more than a revolution.
Though, decent labor laws and prohibition for child labor sure would be a good start, considering what Jamil went through.
Jamil would absolutely get an ego boost from that situation indeed of Kalim asking for Jamil's help, but I do wonder if he really would want to tie himself to the Asims / Kalim again. Interesting to ponder just what would have to change for that to happen.
But the allure of power might indeed be enough. Now, how interested Jamil would be to effect change at large, and how much he's concerned about his own personal position... I mean, we've seen him very willing to use others, and his experiences (for a reason) have left him in a mindset that probably means seeing power equaling freedom and also as viewing the world as haves and have-nots. So he'd definitely need to start having more concern for others (and not just the people he cares about, like his family) to really be genuinely interested and helpful to the cause.
I’ve never really considered / seen a concept of the twst guys living in a different world than their s/o but still regularly traveling to see each other, that’s interesting 👀 I do love the idea of Kalim with a fierce protective s/o tho.
Ngl, there was a lot to chew over here, but interesting thoughts about the potential futures. I also have to admit that I’ve put much less thought into understanding Kalim than I’ve put to Jamil, so I’m very much open to rebuttals about any of my interpretations about him.
It really is a shame that so far, books 5 and 6 only gave us glimpses of change with these two. Like Jamil being a little bit more willing to let Kalim actually do things or help. I know, I know, it can't possibly happen overnight, but pls, give us something to see if and how things are changing - or if we're just stuck in a new, precarious status quo.
Also I don't know if you've been making posts in your blog developing these ideas but like you definitely should, if you've got this much of a concept. I'm sure others would be interested too.
ETA: forgot to say, but I think for societal change, Kalim certainly would have the funds for lobbying and charitable work. And he does have his own kind of charisma to keep that sort of stuff together, too.
Also for the kids with our world s/o... That certainly would make inheritance and things interesting in the future. Sure, if Kalim has his as you outlined, there would not be so much of a position as the family head to inherit, but still.
Not to even mention the whole literally growing up between two different worlds.
#twisted wonderland#jamil viper#kalim al-asim#ner talks#chatting with folks#lex752#ngl I almost feel honored that you felt like I was the one to share these thoughts with?#sorry it took a while#had to take some time to go through this all
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I repeat one of my comments posted on Youtube
If I had my say on the way Suleiman's children were portrayed, because like a lot of people, I didn't like the way it was written in Magnificent Century, that's what I would do. ( In my eyes, Mustafa was seen as a pure white sehzade, which therefore made him in my eyes more stupid and less interesting than he actually was. Mehmed was practically erased of his personality and seen as a pure Gary Stu like his half brother. Cihangir, who I adore, yet in the series was too naive. Selim is seen as evil, etc...)
I would respect the historical point of view more. I propose an alternative version, I would have added Suleiman's children he had when he was sehzade with his other concubines before he became Sultan and met Hurrem and then had them die of the plague as it was historically.
Sehzade Mustafa - I would keep his childlike personality, except he is not close to his siblings (because of the fratricidal law), and I wouldn't put him close to Ibrahim at least until he becomes an adult and allies himself with him. I would let his mother take care exclusively of his education. A young man who craves recognition and attention from his father, who often neglects him in return over his other children due to the fact that Mahidevran is the Sultan's least beloved concubine. The more he becomes an adult, and especially a father, the more he resents his father because of the way he treats his mother and him. He does not really understand his father and therefore his fears due to the fact that he did not grow up close to him. I would keep his efficient heir personality because he performs very well despite his father never teaching him well because of his mother who is a very good advisor. Instead of doing something for his military glory or showing off his harem too much, I would focus on how he improves the lives of common people exhausted by too much conquest. I would make his guilt very ambiguous, at the start it is clear that he wants to wait for his father to die to have the throne and restore his mother's honor, however, he realizes that his father lets his vizier lead his life impossible to see even encourages him, does not hide that he preferred to have a son of Hurrem on the throne no matter what Mustafa will do. Following this, the sehzade wants to have a second plan like his grandfather in case Suleiman wants to abdicate in favor of another of his sons which would put him in danger (which could explain the Venetian correspondence, others say that it was a plan to prevent his brothers from escaping if one day he became Sultan) but hesitates to actually carry it out, then after some hesitation goes to his father's tent and gets strangled. Instead of doing Atmaca, I would focus on Mustafa's son-in-law, Nergissah's husband who started as Rustem's ally and becomes his most loyal supporter ( it seems that it is more a legend than truth, but I didn't remeber well as I didn't have on me my books of historian like Halil Inalcık) . So I would avoid making a treacherous Sehzade, his mistakes would be understandable, but he wouldn't be a pure white Sehzade.
Sehzade Mehmed: it's more complicated for him because he died without having proven himself in a complicated province like Amasya, so it's quite difficult to make a comparison with Mustafa. But I would make sure to give him a real personality: initially close to some of his brothers like Selim and Bayezid, he becomes, despite his mother, more distant towards them because of the fratricide (Mehmed II had therefore legalized it there is not much way to escape from it at the time unlike MCK) although he is very close to Cihangir and his sister. Unlike Mustafa, his father trained him in the regency of the palace and he did very well by dint of advice and practice. When he is sent to the provinces, he often listens to his mother's advice when she visits him. Knowing that he has the support of the statesmen against Mustafa he realizes knowing his father better than his half brother that he will have to play the role of the obedient sehzade not interested in politics although deep down he prepare for it. He has the happiness of being a father but dies immediately afterwards.
Mihrimah Sultan- I would make sure to respect the historical Hurrem who wants her daughter to have a marriage of love and happiness. However Suleiman prefers Rustem, and she accepts him immediately because she will do everything to save her brothers and convince her mother to accept this marriage. I would rather show her as a politician as well as her diplomatic relations. However, I would underline the unjust side of Suleiman, he had Mustafa executed and condemned Mahidevran to poverty but refuses to punish Mihrimah by banishing her because she would have helped Bayezid financially during his rebellion. Their relationship would be cold for a time before reconciling. She will be reconciled with her brother Selim because basically they only remain and will be an ally of Nurbanu.
Sehzade Abdullah- I would have included him even if he died very young.
Sehzade Selim- Initially a cultured young man very focused on charity work like his mother and sister and very sober. Nevertheless it is often sad due to the law of fratricide. When Mustafa dies, he realizes he has a chance to escape it and he will fight in a wicked way especially for his son Murad because he knows that Bayezid's temper will put him in danger besides fratricide. He knew how to recruit powerful and efficient state members. He is on the whole an obedient sehzade but who is disgusted with his father's treatment of Mahidevran (after all she is no longer a threat to him she no longer has a son) and who will take risks to her by helping her financially. As the hardships go on, his depression increases he drinks more and more especially after his sister takes the part of Bayezid, that his brother Bayezid dies, and the fact that he is obliged to make other sons in the case where Murad dies without an heir which means that he knows that his other sons will be condemned to death. He has become a broken leader although he makes sure there is effective governance.
As a Sultan he must face his father's mistakes, including the way he led the Empire, including too many wars and unnecessary conquests in Europe.
Sehzade Bayezid- Him complicated. Due to his explosive temper he is the black sheep of his siblings (Mustafa does not count since he is a half brother, they do not even know each other) and the most incompetent of Suleiman's sons and Suleiman is worried because he has inherited the worst faults of Selim Yavuz like being angry easily (without having had his qualities). Yet deep down he wants affection and that's why he has several children even if it's irresponsible, his mother favors him because she's afraid for him because he has too impulsive nature . Mihrimah comes to his aid only in memory of his mother, because deep down she prefers Selim, Bayezid knows this, which means that he hardly listens to her. She only helps him financially as a last resort because she couldn't convince him to call off the rebellion. Suleiman was more lenient to his mistakes that Mustafa (we could once again underline the unfair side of Suleiman again with this) until the point that he took refuge to the Shah.
Sehzade Cihangir- A cultured young man very close to his parents and very sick. I would make him a supporter of Selim because although he is close to him, he also knows that he is his only chance of survival because he is not close to Bayezid at all. He often sends information from the Palace to Selim to better aid him in managing his province and at times advises him to be more ruthless in his quest for the throne while remaining an obedient sehzade. It would therefore be a good adviser for Selim (and it would give him more personality). He cannot therefore be limited to the role of a simple supporter but also of a valuable advisor.
And that's how I would portray them if I were in the place of the screenwriters. They are all very nuanced (we avoid all white or all black), we can freely pick a favorite without trying to favor another sehzade at all costs, and I try to be consistent with what we know about them and try to explain why they did mistakes or make sucess.
#magnificent century#mihrimah sultan#sehzade bayezid#sehzade selim#Mustafa sehzade#hürrem sultan#suleiman the magnificent#sehzade Mehmed#mahidevran hatun#Şehzade Cihangir#historical interpretation#historical inaccuracies
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If I Made a Second Gen of Disney Characters
Villains
Maleficent would have a child specifically to steal the fairy godmothers wand and probably with Hades too based on the house of mouse canon. I don’t see her having a relationship with him, just using him and vanishing. As I’ve said before, her naming her child after herself makes sense so I think her daughter is still named Mal but with full name being Mal Violet as both a play on malevolent and a reference to Malvolio from Shakespeare’s Twefth Night who hates parties (such as the one Maleficent wasn’t invited to) and Violet as a reference to her own color scheme.
Making Jafar a salesman of stolen goods made no sense at all so I’m scrapping that. So he would’ve been trapped in the lamp and since magic doesn’t work on the isle he was freed but he is powerless. I don’t think he would try to make romantic connections with the other villains though I feel like he was extremely antisocial for a while and then saw Maleficent gaining some power around the island so he schemes to get on her good side which is unsuccessful because she sees right through him and she’s nobody’s trophy wife. so if he were to have a child they would be from before his exile so possibly an illegitimate son with one of the brothel workers? Since we don know how long he was grand vizier the window for this child’s birth could be anywhere from near Aladdin and Jasmine’s births to just before the events of Aladdin. But for the sake of not making things more complicated than we need to, we’ll say the kid is born just before the events of Aladdin which does make him older than Mal’s generation, but much younger than Aladdin. Since this kid would’ve grown up without his father around his mom probably wouldn’t name him an offshoot of jafar’s name. I looked up a couple Arabic names and I think maybe Majid would be good? From what I read it means noble or glorious and I think maybe his mom was hoping to use Jafar’s son to get herself some status before he got exiled. Also since her son’s father wouldn’t be well known she would’ve been allowed to stay in Auradon which means we have someone from the “good” side who might want revenge adding in to the message of Descendants 3 that good and evil can come from anywhere.
House of Mouse has Cruella on a date with Beast so I suppose a one night stand isn’t an impossibility. It does seem like her attraction to him is because of his fur so maybe her and the big bad wolf have a little fling? Which now that I think of it would explain Carlos’ lil tail clip.. also maybe his fear of dogs comes from Cruella subtly bad mouthing his father? “rabid vicious animals that attack little boys who don't behave” to keep him from leaving her to live with his dad. It would actually explain why her son would be afraid of dogs instead of obsessed with them/ their fur like his mom ah ha ha what if she had multiple kids since dogs usually have litters rather than one offspring at a time and Carlos has a sister who is obsessed with furs like maybe she wants to steal rapunzel’s magic hair which is definitely the museum with the wand
Evil queen eh I think if she were to have a child it would’ve been with Snow White’s father so technically the kid would have grounds to live in Auradon since they could’ve been born pre uniting the kingdoms so there’s no reason to send them to the isle. However the timeline could also be that evil queen was pregnant at the end of her film and gave birth after her movie tbh both could be interesting. I do think that puts that child (I recommend her name be Rose Red) in Snow White’s generation instead of Descendants’ current gen since Mal would’ve been born after exile and Rose Red would’ve been born just before or just after exile.
Ursula has the best birth control magic can make ain’t no way she has a kid. And even if she didn’t, she seems like the type to keep her pleasure in her own hands. But I love the idea of her raising a child so we’ll say after her banishment she couldn’t collect souls as payment since the isle doesn’t allow magic so someone gives her their baby. Since life on the isle is like super awful maybe they’re pirates and they needed her permission to have a boat without her destroying it. And possibly after she gets the baby she realizes the only chance for fresh food in the isle is fish and that’s when she opens the restaurant and forces her new daughter to work there. I don’t think she would really put much thought to the kid’s name so we’ll say her original parents named her Uma and Ursula let her keep it.
Captain James Hook had that weird vibe with Zarina so he’s definitely capable of seducing someone if he has something to gain from it. (I acknowledge that Disney’s descendants canon has him having children with Jane Darling but given that’s dumb as hell I’ve decided to ignore it.)But I can’t think of anything he might want on the isle since he’s not really power hungry he just wanted Peter dead. Except there is one thing he might want: safety from Ticktock the crocodile. So I think he would find someone associated with crocodiles. Like Madam Medusa. He gets to live without fear of the crocodile and she gets whatever probably fake diamonds hook has however he can’t exactly ghost her without risking ticktock getting him so he’s stuck in this relationship with her. Win, sorta win. And now we’ve got our boy Harry, (and yeah his sisters prob exist too) destined from birth to be a pirate and covet diamonds raised by unhappily married parents. Also, I’m giving him a juvenile’s crocodile as his animal sidekick and no one can stop me.
Heroes
Having Beast and Belle be rulers of Aurodon felt so random to me and there’s never a reason for it to be them. They could be replaced with any couple and make zero difference. Also they both seemed content in their castle away from everyone else I don’t think they would enjoy all the attention royalty entails. I think their kingdom is part of auradon but I don’t think they’re In Charge. As much as I hate it, I feel like Belle would name her son Maurice after her father. I think he would probably be a lonely kid having no siblings and probably not be very good at relating to his peers, “mature for his age” and all that so I think he could be drawn to the dark side for friends or maybe vengeance against some of his peers for excluding him?
I feel like Cinderella and Prince Charming wouldn’t raise someone like Chad, but maybe I’m biased since Charming is my favorite Disney prince. Personally I feel like their kid would be the one pushing for the kids on the isle of the lost to be given a chance to live in auradon and I do think that his parents would still be resistant to the idea because there is very real potential danger from opening the barrier to get the kids much less letting these kids live in auradon. Also I’m aware Cinderella isn’t the first Disney princess but she is widely considered the “leader” of the princesses so I think she and her prince are a better fit as rulers of auradon also it makes more sense for fairy godmother to have such a prominent place in the kingdom
Okay so i did some digging and apparently in Enchanted Tales Aurora is kinda spoiled and in love with the idea of being royalty which since she was raised in the woods, kinda makes sense so I could see her being disgruntled that someone else is in charge of auradon and wanting her kid to be queen and being disappointed when it doesn’t work out. However I think king Stephan rather than Queen Leah would be the one to kick up a fuss over Maleficent’s daughter being allowed in Auradon.
I don’t understand why the dwarves have kids in the descendants canon and even though I loved Doug I can’t work my way to any of them having kids. At best they would babysit Snow White’s kid(s) I think and teach them to mine and stuff. I think probably her kid(s) would be a little naive and easily misled or manipulated. I don’t know why but I like the idea of her having two kids so I’ll say the older is naive and delicate and the younger wants to explore. I think both would be easy pickings for a villain to trick though, but I think the explorer might turn to evil himself so he can get some freedom similar to Melody in the little mermaid 2 giving Morgana the triton.
Let’s see, both Mulan and Shang wanted kids according to Mulan 2, he wanted lots and she wanted “maybe one or two” so I am giving them three. They have a son named Ping who was supposed to be a girl. I will accept zero arguments on this. Mulan gave birth to a boy and she and Shang looked at each other and named him Ping. Their youngest will be a girl with Lonnie’s personality but Mulan would not deny her daughter her own identity like that so we’ll say.. An. It means peaceful. Also there’s a female tennis player named An Li who I think Mulan would admire if she knew she existed. The oldest child I think Shang would’ve wanted to name after his father but since we don’t have a canon name for his father we’ll say Zhou after Milan’s father.
I actually do think Jane fits the person I would expect Fairy Godmother’s child to have but who to put as her father.. um I’m actually not really sure. It could be anyone.
#disney descendants#descendants#Disney#disney princes#Disney princesses#descendants au#harry hook#mal bertha#evie#prince ben#princess audrey#aurora#why tf is beast the ruler of aurodon?#belle#Cinderella#Snow White
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@dayrisen said (inbox):
[ kingdom au ] ❛❛ Please, excuse me, my friend. ❜❜ Her form shifts, suddenly leaning against his own as her eyes fall shut. She's tired, more tired than usual & her headaches, to the point of feeling heated. She let's out a soft breath, fingers resting on her own lap as she let's her full weight lean upon him. ❛❛ May I rest here for awhile, Ramses ? Forgive me but, it seems I'm rather worn today. ❜❜ Well, duty will do such a thing ; running an empire, lands upon lands, requests, people seeking, worry, the like. ❛❛ Just for a bit. ❜❜ She's already beginning to drift, a soft breath flowing from her.
❝OVERWORKED YOURSELF AGAIN?❞ HE could understand when so much was placed on Koto’s shoulders. He wondered if she had an advisor who could help assist her with the more mundane activities like Ozymandias did with his Vizier, but he never did ask. Primarily because he didn’t want to appear lacking in knowledge after all the years he had been coming here. His visits were not frequent considering his father held little interest in travel in itself, but the times he had come, he had been hesitant to ask half the questions that had been in his thoughts. Shifting a little so that they were both more comfortable, he slipped his hands into his sleeves, leaning his head back against the wisteria tree that shielded them from the sun above. ❝Very well. It is not as if I am particularly in a hurry to move from this spot anyway.❞ How could he when this was one of the most beautiful trees he had ever bore witness to? How wonderful it would have been to grow this in his homeland. Alas, doubtful the poor thing would survive that repressive heat. So, he would just memorize the scent of it to recall on more quiet days.
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😡 maybe the first time he felt betrayal?
The apprentice High Priest of Ra--Mahad, of Deir El-Medina, disciple of Anubis, beloved of Thoth, dedicated to Meretseger--took over as High Magician on the day that the Prince was crowned King.
Though he was hardly older than the Prince--though the two of them studied magic together under the same master--it had indeed been deemed that he would be skilled enough to take over the training of the next God's Wife of Amun, if only because he was the last magician who was skilled enough under the court of Ma'at, due to the day of the Prince's crowning of Kingship.
He had been decorated that day, of course, small face tipped upwards as his servants attended to him. Shimon, his adviser, had been acting in place of Pharaoh since the death of his father, and while the boy king was talented in magic, intelligent, and inquisitive, he was still immature, due to his childish nature. He was still a sensitive child--prone to bursting into tears, prone to childish pranks, prone to mischief. The court attendants, of course, took notice of his behavior. He was frequently scolded for such actions, only encouraging him, in his mind, to act out more. To convince his fellows that their days of fun were limited, so they may as well make their time together last. Such was the innocence of the Prince, and such was the behavior, he figured, that led to his friends needing to take on too much responsibility, much too soon.
It was because he had decided to skip the formalities. It was because he had run, skipping the ceremonies he needed to attend. It was because he had been caught, and he had cried openly, angry that he had to do these things, angry that he still felt the pomp and circumstance was ridiculous. It was because he had cried about not wanting any of it. It was the resentment that had built in the older court members, watching a child throw away years of tradition that they had worked hard to maintain. The old guard of Pharaoh Akhenamkanon. The ones who had given up so much to get where they were, only to have a spoiled brat come in and throw everything away due to his selfish tantrums.
It was only fair that they should turn on him, when he would be crowned king.
"I will not dedicate my life to an unworthy King!"
He had been dragged into the throne room by Shimon, and while his vizier had stood in front of him protectively, his scribe priest Akhenaden on his other side, one arm in front of him. Ceremonial robes in place. Both had been standing in front of him, guarding him, while the magicians of his father had come to stand before him in protest--and the Prince, for the first time, had seen faces that would have him harmed--things that saw him as unworthy, that had expected more from him than he'd ever known before.
"He is the son of Akhenamkanon, whom you have sworn yourselves to. Understand that he will one day be the same."
"And what until then? What will become of Kemet under a child?"
"He has the guidance I have offered him. He will grow into a fine King."
"That isn't good enough! Look at him--he has no love for tradition, no love for his people, no love for what brought him here! He is an emotional child without pride--you are only defending him because you will be acting as Pharaoh until then!"
The Prince, who had been gripping his Vizier's arm in fear, shook at the words. Was he really disrespecting his father as much as they said he was? His father's words rang in his head. To never turn his back on something that was unjust. Had this been what his father had spoken of? Had he been acting unjust to his own court?
"You must stand down, in the name of Akhenamkanon, great Pharaoh of Kemet." Akhenaden said, firmly. "His son will be put on the throne. That is the way it will be."
And it had all happened in an instant, really. Too fast for him to really register.
In just a few second's time--half a minute or more--he had been swept up by the torso, and yanked into the hold of an adult. The High Priest of Ptah. The one who had been holding the Scales. The ceremonial sidearm had been brought to his throat.
And the Prince's blood ran cold, his head feeling distant. Perhaps it was a dream. Tears welled up in his eyes, spilling down his cheeks. He started to sniffle, and cry. Wailing, and he pushed, crying out for Shimon's help.
He'd tasted blood for the first time, too.
"Shut up, you stupid brat!"
In his struggling, he'd managed to pull somewhat out of the Priest's grasp, and he was yanked back by the arm. He was cut, then. The blade ran across his lower lip, enough to leave a scar. He'd frozen in shock, fear filling his bones. He'd never been struck before, not really. He'd never been threatened before. He'd never known pain like this before.
"This prideless, emotional thing is supposed to lead us? Do you forget what the King is supposed to be? This child will never be a man to begin with--I will refuse to accept this as the end of Kemet, so let it begin at the 20th dynasty!"
He was going to die.
And he knew that, deep in his bones, and he knew that there would be nobody else to save him, here. He knew that they were right. He knew he wasn't fit to be King as he was. He knew he was without pride. He knew he would be the end of his father's legacy. But he knew he wasn't going to die here and now.
He still had so much left to do.
If he was going to live, he was going to have to be King.
And his tears would be dried by himself. And his blood would be stopped by himself. And his life would be saved by himself.
"Stand down."
And when he spoke, his voice was not his own, and his eyes were not his own, the blood of the Dragon of the Heavens was in his veins, and in his bones.
And when the sky opened the heavens split.
And he was dropped in fear, but that was not the end. He was scrambled away from, ran from as his father's court, and the boy of all of eleven stood before the throne,
And he wiped his mouth free of blood, and even as he shook. He would be what they wanted. He would be what his people desired.
He would be his father.
The mouth of the dragon god opened.
He walked past them, bodies splayed, blood pooled. Hands that were open. Eyes that were open. Without pomp, without circumstance. He picked up the Items in shaking hands. Gold that he tucked under his arm. He sat upon the throne, for he would be the King of a throne soaked in blood, and he would be crowned in a Kingdom soaked in blood, and he would bear the curse of his very eyes being the blood of the Demon King, and this would be what he would inherit.
For if they did not want a boy to lead them, for if they did not want a human to lead them, for if they wanted the tradition of his forefathers, he would be that. He would be exactly what was asked of him.
He sat upon a golden throne.
"Crown me as Pharaoh, Akhenaden. Continue with the ceremony."
And that would be the last time he would cry.
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Ka & Ankhesenamun: The real tragedy in TUT (2015)
As I rewatch “TUT” for the millionth time, I am again struck by how much emotion and weight is packed into the short (screen time-wise) relationship between Ankhesenamun and Ka. Tutankhamun and Suhad were an easy, light-hearted foil of the complicated, traumatic struggle that haunted the older couple.
Ankhesenamun and Ka have been pining for each other for TEN YEARS. There is nothing more obtuse in this show than when Tutankhamun tells Ankhesenamun Suhad was “All he had left in his heart”, as if Ankhesenamun hasn’t been running on fumes and vengeance since he killed the love of her life.
I believe that Ka may have been the only person to truly know Ankhesenamun as a person. And he was the only one she was able to let all of her walls down with. It wasn’t blind lust or a flash in the pan, it was devotion, yearning, and seeing each other through their lowest points from CHILDHOOD.
❀ ❀ ❀
Ankhesenamun probably met him when he was still mourning the loss of his father as a young boy (we assume his mother is also dead, since Ahkenaten had to adopt him) and they fell in love. For a brief time, they probably thought they may be able to marry, based on Ankhesenamun’s comment about how she had once believed marriage was about more than convenience.
Suddenly, her older family members, all in line for succession, start dying. Ankhesenamun can only watch helplessly as her idealized love match becomes less and less likely. By default, she is thrust into the position of royal wife of Tutankhamun, but her true affection never changed.
Her brother being still a child, forced Ankhesenamun to shoulder the burden of motherhood, sisterhood, and marriage to the same young boy, especially in the early years. She had to grow up and protect her dynasty.
Silently, she pushed her personal feelings aside and swallowed her fear every time Ka went out on a campaign with the army, knowing she could only say or express so much of it — in Part 1, she insinuates that Ay will “have [Ka’s] skin” for disobeying him. She has to protect not only her reputation, but also Ka from being physically harmed by the vindictive vizier, who we clearly see does not have any fondness for Ka.
On the other hand, Ka grew up with Tutankhamun too. He knew how much responsibility Ankhesenamun was carrying for her little brother. He would have known of her multiple pregnancies over the years. He watched her heart break every time she got her hopes up about an heir, only to miscarry and feel like she let the entire kingdom down. He had to fear for her safety and emotional state without being truly able to stand by her. Just watch from afar as she slowly grows more desperate.
I can imagine the frustration Ka felt, hearing Tutankhamun bemoan "not being given an heir", while he watches Ankhesenamun hemmorage physically and emotionally from the same experience.
❀ ❀ ❀
The amount of dialogue the two share is relatively small, but the word choice is very deliberate in explaining the nuanced nature of their relationship. Ka truly understands the complex, and, I would argue, traumatized, Ankhesenamun.
“Do you think something’s changed now, when it hasn’t in ten years?”
“It can change if you want it to.”
Right there, we see that Ka has put the ball firmly in Ankhesenamun’s court. This says everything we need to know about his intentions. Certainly, Ka is not insinuating that he would kill Tutankhamun, which means he is either offering her an affair, or to elope. Either way, he is making it known that he wants her — not her wealth or the power that comes with marrying her. Ka will take whatever Ankhesenamun is willing to give. Even if that would mean forefitting his wealth, lands, titles, etc. and having nothing except for her.
They are the foil of “Tuhad”, the antithesis of "King elevates poor peasant girl out of her dire circumstances." Ankhesenamun is living in a golden gilded cage. Ka sees her sacrifice her happiness and her health for the good of the kingdom and seeks to free her from that burden before it crushes her.
Considering her position, I would argue that he is the only man in her life that sees her without any concern for what she can give to him. On top of that, he never tries to force her into anything, even with his own mounting frustration regarding their situation. When she pulls away, he lets her go. After all this time, he wants nothing more than to help her realize that her feelings matter, her hopes and dreams matter.
The next time we see this deeper understanding Ka has for Ankhesenamun is when she calls for him before the battle.
“I couldn’t let you leave without knowing how much I...”
She trails off, seeming uncomfortably demure compared to the confident poised mask she wears as queen. This is a woman who is not used to having her personal feelings considered with any real weight, and so, while she wants to tell him how she feels, struggles to actually articulate it. Ka’s response is to kiss her.
He knows what she means, they have been together for years, and he doesn’t want her to feel uncomfortable or like she isn’t getting her point across to him. In return she takes his hand, proof again that she struggles to voice the emotions she has for Ka, and he doesn’t intend to make her say things out loud just to stroke his ego.
❀ ❀ ❀
“He wasn’t ready!”
“You’re wrong.”
This scene, right after the battle when Ka seeks Ankhesenamun out in her personal quarters is short and ends with them apart, but it speaks to how comfortable they are with one another.
She doesn’t show a lot of emotion to anyone outside of her inner circle, but is very blunt with him, very earnest. Her face is pleading because she expects him to understand the grief she is feeling and to sympathize with it.
Ka is equally as blunt in his response. I don’t think even Tutankhamun would ever have said “You’re wrong” to Ankhesenamun in such a way, and it certainly isn’t something she hears regularly. They are close enough as confidants for him to know that him disagreeing with her, even on something so important, isn’t going to affect their relationship. He then goes on to tell her what Horemheb was going to keep secret, that the battle strategy was Tutankhamun’s not his. He does not feel comfortable lying to her.
"This is our fate. I won't let it fall from us. I won't lose you to anyone else."
If only read superficially, this seems almost arrogant in nature, but we have to remember that Ankhesenamun has been married twice before, and Ka could only watch on helplessly. Now, he is in a place of power with Horemheb's backing. He is able to promise her protection he couldn’t before — namely, she does not have to fear being traded to whomever maneuvers his way into power.
Their relationship extensively centers around a "We" dynamic. Unlike Tutankhamun and Suhad, who frame much of their language around how she will help him succeed, Ankhesenamun and Ka consistently use language that establishes a united, balanced front. This example included. Neither one of them has ever had the political leverage necessary to sanction their union, until now. And Ka plans to use it, trusting that Ankhesenamun will too.
❀ ❀ ❀
Of course, the final scene we get of them together before the throne room, I think speaks the very most to how well Ka knows the more damaged side of Ankhesenamun.
“Anubis has freed us to live our lives.”
“But do we deserve it?”
...
“Hey, it’s okay that you still mourn him.”
To me, this is everything. Ankhesenamun has been taught her whole life to play a role, to put her feelings aside because they do not matter. That her only purpose is to support the pharaoh, keep sweet, and pray. Here we have another moment of Ankhesenamun saying nothing at all. In fact she tears up at his comment about how they were free to be happy. She turns away from him, ashamed because she thinks that her emotions are not what he wants to see, because they are not attractive or alluring. Her darker emotions take up space, they require regard — things she has been taught are not acceptable.
Instead, Ka takes her face in his hands, he turns her back to face him and holds her arms reassuringly. He tells her with sincerity that her feelings are not something to hide. She can mourn and miss her brother as long as she needs to. And as someone who (historically) lost as many siblings, cousins, parents as she did, having someone tell her that she would not be judged for how she processed her grief was everything. Ka was where she was safe to be a woman, to just be vulnerable without fear that it would be held against her.
“We are with child.”
This reverberates to me in part because of how weighty it was for Ankhesenamun to become pregnant after so many failed attempts, but also because of how different this interaction was than the other pregnancy announcement in the show:
“You still have an heir, my love.”
Of course, we know that Tutankhamun loves Suhad, and they will love this child. But their happiness is still being framed around him, and how this will affect his political legacy. The wording almost excludes Suhad completely, treating her as simply the vessel for the pharaoh’s dynasty, and showing her that that is where her prominence will lay.
Ankhesenamun’s joy at telling Ka that “[They] are with child” is solely focused on the two of them, and the family she imagines they will have. It puts equal weight on both parties for the duration of the pregnancy, and asks Ka to be involved throughout, instead of only once the child is born. It echoes of a modern pregnancy, they are a team in this.
His response to her, which could be seen as nothing more than an excitement for his impending coronation, rings much differently based on this understanding of their relationship.
He kisses her cheek, hugging her tightly, and whispers:
“We will have a new dynasty that will last a thousand years.”
To me, this is the same verbiage as “We are pregnant”. Ka is inviting her to play a different role, a prominent role in the new era he plans to create.It is the “We” dynamic. Ankhesenamun will no longer be the “burden” trapping her poor brother into a loveless marriage. They will create a dynasty, together. One that serves them both equally.
Along with that, it’s an assurance. One that comes from he fact that he knows she has birthed two children (at least) who did not survive. It is a reasurance, one that modern day logic knows he cannot make, but that he is confident in: Everything will be alright. All at once, Ankhesenamun is frightened and hopeful for this baby, one born of love and passion, and she believes him. If they are together, everything is alright.
❀ ❀ ❀
TLDR but if you made it all the way down here, you'd probably enjoy my TUT fanfic "Lady of the Two Lands" on wattpad and Ao3!
#fanfiction#tut#tut spike#tut 2015#tutedit#Sibylla Deen#Peter Gadiot#tuhad#suhad#tutankhamun#ankhesenamun#ka#avan jogia#kylie bunbury#ramblings#fanfic#ao3 fanfic#wattpad#fanfiction.net#historical fiction#historical rpf#romance
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&& @spareisms sent: ❝ i need you to just forget about me, okay? i’m not going to let you get hurt. i’m sorry. ❞
Aladdin scoffed before he could stop himself. “Please,” he said, consciously softening his tone so that it came off as more reassuring than mocking. “You think this is the first time I’ve dealt with advisors who want me dead? My father’s vizier tried to drown me when I was twelve. This is nothing.”
Sure, learning that there was an assassination plot against him the week before his and Anna’s wedding was something of a downer. But Arendelle had seemed a little too perfect, and Aladdin was an adventurer at heart: he could do for a spot of action every now and again. To keep him young, or whatever.
“Besides,” he added as an afterthought, “isn’t it nice to know who’s going to betray us before we even get started? Cuts the security risk in half, if you ask me. And the guest list.”
#he's TRYING TO LIGHTEN THE MOOD BUT HE'S#tidings and cheer: assassination arc#idk. why not for a title#tidings and cheer#✧ ° ιт'ѕ α вrιgнт ηєω ѕтαr | verse · ° ✧#✧ ° вυт I rєαƖƖу αм α ρrιηcє! | ic · ° ✧#guard vc: prince aladdin... someone is trying to kill you.#aladdin vc: omfg no way *twirls hair*
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Meet Jasmine & Mulan
When Jasmine turned of age, her father ran a procession of potential suitors past her, she turned down every one of them. Finally, he stopped consulting her and arranged a marriage between her and his loyal vizier, Jaffar. Terrified of spending her life with him, she fled the palace. She spent a few weeks in the company of a street tough by the name of Aladdin, but eventually was forced to abandon him when Jaffar’s hunters got too close.
Exposed as a woman while still in training, Mulan’s family sheltered her from the death penalty for impersonating a man, but couldn’t stop her being banished. For a few years she wandered the silk road, accepting contracts to defend caravans and making her way west until she found herself in Agrabah, where she met Jasmine. While between jobs, she saw a young woman running through the streets, clearly being pursued. Stepping in, Mulan thrashed the bounty hunters after Jasmine, but let them live. Later that day, the bounty hunters returned with friends, forcing the women to flee. She’s taken Jasmine under her wing, teaching her to fight. In return, Jasmine has begun to instruct Mulan in several of the languages she learned in the palace.
Their flight took them to the coast, where they met up with Santiago and Meg while they were on a cargo run. Bartering passage for work, and with no clear destination in mind, they joined the crew. At first Mulan refused to get involved in some of the crew’s less than legal activities, but as time went on, she found herself slipping deeper and deeper into the gray areas of morality as she found she enjoyed the respect and admiration the crew gave her, seeming not to care about her gender.
Now she serves on the Menagerie’s vanguard, one of the first to board a prize. Her relationship with Jasmine has grown as well. Mulan views herself largely as one of the guys, having found a place where she’s accepted, she’s pulled back a bit from the forced masculinity of her time as a sellsword. She’s comfortable being around the more wild and outlandish of the crew, but feels no need to pretend to be something she isn’t. She had found that she enjoys a fair bit of drinking and sex though, so that’s fun.
Since joining the crew, Jasmine’s truly thrown herself into the life of a pirate. She occasionally misses the comforts of palace life, but nothing beats the sense of adventure. She’s also grown much closer to Mulan, with the two of them officially becoming an open couple after a year at sea. Jasmine is brash, spontaneous, outspoken, and always up for a good time.
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Someone to Watch Out for You: Chapter 16
Shattered Diamond
Summary: In which Ventus tries to protect a certain Arabian princess.
Word Count: 2,228
First | Previous | Next
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The idea was risky, but he had to try. Ventus carefully navigated his Keyblade glider to the palace's balcony. All his thoughts focusing on getting Jasmine out of the palace for someplace safer completely overrode the notion of taking off the Keyblade armor. He could only imagine what Jasmine's first reaction would have been, having a stranger at her bedroom window and telling her she was in grave danger. He was fortunate enough that she seemed to already know the situation she was in, and agreed to follow him.
However, Jasmine helped him more than he helped her. The princess was well familiar with the in and outs of her palace, along with the general marketplace that rested right outside of it. If anything, Ven fought back the Heartless Jasmine herself couldn't otherwise subdue. There were a lot more here than in Traverse Town- was the situation in the worlds getting worse?
“Someone’s coming,” Ven quietly told Jasmine. “We need a place to hide.”
“There.” Jasmine instructed, pointing to an empty market stall. The two exchanged a nod before ducking behind the main counter. They were quick enough that the people walking up likely didn’t even realize they were there.
“And the keyhole?” a female voice, proud yet uncaring, asked. A chill ran up Ven’s spine- he knew that voice. But it couldn’t be…
“The Heartless are searching for it now.” a male voice informed her. Jasmine had a physical reaction to this one. “I’m certain we’ll find it soon enough.”
Ven signaled for Jasmine to keep silent. She nodded, even covering her hand over her mouth, just in case. They listened as the male and female talked more to each other, mostly about the capture of Princess Jasmine herself.
“We need all seven Princesses of Heart to open the final door. Any fewer are useless.” the woman snapped at the man, in response to him questioning if they even needed Jasmine. Ven, hearing this, mouthed the words ‘final door?’ in confusion. Why would anyone want to open a door with the Princesses of Heart?
Even the man seemed a little offended by this.
“Well, if the princess is that important, we’ll find her.”
The man then gave a snap of his fingers, summoning several Heartless and commanding them to go out to find Jasmine. Ventus and Jasmine waited several minutes more after the man and woman were done talking before leaving their hiding place.
“That man was the royal vizier, Jafar.” Jasmine informed Ven as they hid in Agrabah’s shadows. “He took control from my father, the sultan, not long ago. He tried to keep me in my room. Someone else was going to help me get out until you came along. I didn’t know why he had me there until now, but I knew it couldn’t have been anything good.”
“Good intuition.” Ven approved as they moved to an unused corner alley. “Would you happen to know where the keyhole they mentioned is?”
“No. I can't even say I’ve heard of such a thing before now. At least, not in the context they were implying.”
“And that woman,” Ven asked, making sure the area was secure, “Do you know if her name is Maleficent?”
“I wouldn’t know that either.” Jasmine said. “I’ve certainly never seen her around here before.”
“Not surprised.” Ven grumbled. To her proper, he said, “Maleficent can’t be trusted, if that was her. She and I are not what you would call friends.”
“Right,” Jasmine agreed with a nod. “I only wish that Aladdin knew I made it out of the palace safely. He was the one who had promised to help me.”
“Aladdin?” Ven repeated.
He went unanswered, however, as someone had found their hiding place. It was in shock that Ventus locked eyes with none other than Sora. Goofy and Donald not far behind the much younger Keyblade wielder. It was Sora who spoke first.
“Who… are you?” he asked, looking directly at Ven. “And why are you wearing armor like that person back in Wonderland?”
“Don’t be so rude, Sora!” Donald squawked. “It’s just-!”
Goofy immediately slapped a hand over Donald to shut him up in time. The duck was furious at the gesture. He bucked and shouted, causing quite a racket, before realizing the point that Goofy was trying to make. All of this went undetected by Sora, who instead was far more intent on figuring out why Ven’s armor looked so familiar. Ven thought it was time to fill the poor kid in a bit.
“You may not know who I am, but I know who you are.” he said. “This is Princess Jasmine. She’s being chased by Jafar, the royal vizier. He’s overturned the sultan’s control and is looking for this world’s keyhole. I need you to help me stop him before it’s too late.”
Sora looked more than apprehensive at this. He looked from Ven to Jasmine as the pieces sorted themselves out in his head.
The poor boy didn’t have the time to figure it all out before a voice from above them snorted, “Excellent summary, boy. But I’m afraid there are still a few details you are critically missing.”
Everyone turned their attention to Jafar, who had taken a position above them from the shop’s rooftop. The vizier gave them a sneer as a row of Heartless formed beside him on either side.
“Jasmine,” he said in a controlled voice, “Allow me to find you more suitable company, my dear princess. The street rats are especially biting today.”
“Make sure Jasmine gets out of here.” Sora said to Ventus, preparing his Keyblade at the summoned Heartless.
For a moment, Ven had to do a double take. Sora turned to him and gave the armored knight a firm nod.
“If you really want to protect Jasmine, then you’ll let me take care of these guys. It’ll be a piece of cake!”
“O-okay.” Ven agreed. Still dumbfounded, he looked over to Jasmine. She gave him a firm nod of agreement, and not long after, they left Sora behind.
Unfortunately, now that Jafar was filled with more ire at witnessing the princess escape, the Heartless in this world were starting to come out in twofold. There wasn’t a safe place for the two to hide anywhere. Ven wasn’t sure which one of them had the idea of doubling back to the palace gates, but he really wished they hadn’t. The doors were locked from the inside. They were trapped.
“Oh Princess Jasmine, I thought you were far more dignified than this.”
Ventus and Jasmine spun around to find Jafar walking up to them. Behind him was a large Heartless that completely blocked the way out.
“Misbehaving like a child,” Jafar went on in mock condescension, “Scurrying around like a mere street rat. What an infectious disease…”
“If you want Jasmine, you’ll have to get through me!” Ven declared, readying his Keyblade. “I’m not letting another Princess of Heart get out of my sight. Not now, not ever!”
This seemed to be exactly the reaction Jafar wanted.
“As you wish, my boy.” the evil vizier smirked. He snapped his fingers and the Heartless blocking the entrance went straight for Ventus.
It had been a lot tougher than Ven had been anticipating. The Heartless had the mission of wearing Ventus out. And he hated to admit it, but the strategy worked. By the time he was able to defeat it, Ven could barely stand. He might have collapsed completely had Sora and his friends not returned at that moment.
“Jafar!” a young man now occupying Sora, Donald, and Goofy shouted.
“Ah, Aladdin.” Jafar greeted, using his voice like a dripping poison. “Setting your sights a little high, aren’t you, boy?”
Ven flinched as he tried to straighten himself out. Before he could find a way to catch Jafar off guard, a blue genie appeared out of nowhere. The genie mentioned something about a second wish being used as he scooped Jasmine up and out of harm’s way. Unfortunately, the plan was quickly thwarted when Jafar’s red parrot snatched a lamp from behind Aladdin, putting the genie in control of the evil vizier. Jasmine soon after fell into a pot-turned-Heartless, which sprung Sora, Aladdin, Donald, and Goofy into action. Ven was able to help for a little, but could not do much in his injured state.
Ultimately Jafar had won. Almost, at least, as he released an evil cackle that seemed to originate from the desert.
“I’m coming with you.” Ven told the odd foursome.
It was Aladdin who gave him a firm nod of agreement. A part of Ven felt relieved that someone still wanted his help, even when he kept messing things up.
The trip to the Cave of Wonders was hurried and silent. Sora and his friends were able to hitch a ride on a magic carpet that Aladdin was friendly with. Ven remained on his Keyblade glider, flying right beside them. The latter pretended not to notice when Sora would glance at him, still trying to figure out how Ven’s armor was familiar, before quickly being reminded by Donald and Goofy that he was the one steering the carpet.
“Sora told me that you tried to protect Jasmine for me.” Aladdin quietly told Ven once they entered the Cave of Wonders, as to not disturb Sora, Donald, and Goofy from trying to solve a puzzle.
“Yeah?” Ven said with a small eyebrow raise. “She’s really important to you, then?”
“She’s great!” Aladdin smiled. “Her hair is just so soft, and you could get lost in those eyes of hers for hours…”
For this, Ven let out a soft snort.
“I know the feeling,” he agreed. “I have someone a lot like that too.”
“I’d do anything for Jasmine,” Aladdin then wistfully told him- assuming he wasn’t just so lost in his own world now that he forgot Ven was still there. “Even if I can’t give her everything.”
Ven gave himself a small smile in remembering his own princess. “Yeah… I’d do anything for her too.”
The small moment of reprieve was unfortunately all they could share. Once they caught up with Jafar, he had already used Genie to reveal the keyhole. Jasmine was unresponsive on the ground. Next to Jafar was someone different, and Ven now had confirmation as to why that female voice from before sounded so familiar.
"Maleficent!" he shouted, immediately pulling out his Keyblade to attack.
The evil fairy just smirked at him before disappearing in an overwhelming burst of green fire.
"Jafar, let Jasmine go!" Aladdin demanded next.
"Not a chance." the vizier chuckled. He idly gestured to Jasmine as he explained, "You see, she's a princess- one of seven who somehow hold the key to opening the door."
"Which was why I tried to protect her." Ven mumbled.
"And you have failed quite spectacularly. You fools won't live to see what lies beyond that door!" Jafar declared. "Genie! My second wish; crush them!"
Ven didn't claim to be a genius, but he somehow got the feeling that Genie didn't completely follow through with the whole 'crush them' thing. Even if he was bound to Jafar's wishes. Jafar was the one who blocked the exit and keyhole from them. Jafar was the one using his staff to create pillars and barriers for them to get past in order to reach him at all.
It was at this point, no longer injured to the point of exhaustion to really notice, when Ven took a real good look at how Sora fought. The boy's attacks were vicious, but unpracticed. Maybe one day he could set aside time to teach him a bit more finesse than full gung ho?
Regardless, the five of them were able to put Jafar back in his place pretty quickly. The vizier staggered back after dodging a blow from Aladdin' scimitar. A brush so close to defeat sent an intense fury through Jafar's blood.
"Genie!" the vizier thundered. "My final wish! I want you to make me an all-powerful genie!"
Genie refused to look as he granted Jafar's wish. Now in greater control once more, Jafar made the floor sink into the earth's crust, forcing the five fighters to avoid the pools of lava that were emerging.
"The lamp!" Aladdin realized first. "Get Jafar's lamp!"
The other four did not need to be told twice. Unfortunately, Jafar's parrot was also aware of the fact. The bird remained just out of their grasp while Genie Jafar attacked them head on.
"Distract Jafar," Sora told Aladdin and Ventus, "Donald, Goofy, and I will get the lamp."
"Got it." the human duo agreed.
Jafar was a powerful foe. Ven didn't even have the breath to make sure Sora, Donald, and Goofy were doing well in their quest. It wasn't until Sora shouted, "Okay, Jafar! Back to your lamp!" that Ven even knew they were safe at all.
With Jafar sealed away, the boys made their way back up to the surface. The keyhole was open once more, but Jasmine was nowhere to be seen.
"Jasmine? Jasmine!" Aladdin cried, rushing to where Jasmine last laid. Ventus could feel his whole body clench.
"Another one gone." he mumbled to himself. He left the world not long after without letting anyone else know.
Little did he realize that his failures were far from over yet.
#someone to watch out for you#chapter 16#kingdom hearts fanfiction#Ventus#Sora#Donald#Goofy#Aladdin#Jasmine
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Israel in Egypt
Slow change is hard to notice. This, we all know from daily life: you hardly notice children growing taller if you see them every single day, whereas you are often amazed at how much those very same children have grown if you haven’t seen them in a few months. The same is true about gaining or losing weight: you can see changes easily in people you see once a year that you would hardly notice at all if you saw that same person daily. And the same is true about far more challenging aspects of life than height or weight: it’s always hard to notice incremental change.
With Pesach approaching, the story of Israel in Egypt is on my mind. There are a thousand different ways to think about that famous story, but the one that seems the most relevant—and chillingly so—to our current situation has to do with just that notion, with the concept of incremental change.
Sometimes, the Torah teaches its best lessons so subtly that it is entirely possible to miss them entirely. When Jacob comes to Egypt, he is awarded a private interview with Pharoah, something that must have been as rare and special in his day as it would be today. Their conversation is an interesting one in lots of different ways, but the most interesting part is when Jacob tells Pharaoh that he is 130 years old. It sounds a bit like a throwaway line to most: Pharaoh asks and he obviously has to answer, so he does. And yet there is a lot packed into that single number.
Jacob comes to Egypt in the second of the seven years of famine. That would make him 135 when the famine ended five years after his arrival and life in Egypt returned to normal. But the Torah makes the point later on that Jacob lived to be 147 years of age. So why, Scripture prompts us to wonder, didn’t Jacob and his clan return to Canaan once the famine ended and they needed no longer to fear starvation back at home? (Jacob would have had a full dozen years to get that all organized.) The question is unasked, so also unanswered. But then Scripture tosses some new numbers into the mix.
Joseph, who was sold into slavery at seventeen and who was thirty when he became the grand vizier of Pharaoh’s Egypt, presided over the seven years of plenty that preceded the seven years of famine. That would make him thirty-nine years of age when his father and his father’s family arrived in Egypt in the second year of famine, and forty-four years of age when, five years later, the famine ended. That being the case, he would have been fifty-six when, twelve years later, Jacob died. But the last lines of Genesis report that Joseph lived to be 110 years of age, which means that the Israelites would have been living in Egypt for something like fifty-four years when Joseph died.
Eventually, a Pharaoh came to the throne who, to quote Scripture, “knew not Joseph” and that was the Pharaoh who enslaved the Israelites. Were there Pharaohs in between the one who welcomed Jacob’s family to Egypt and the one who knew not Joseph? The Bible doesn’t say. But what it does say—albeit subtly—is that the Israelites were in Egypt for more than half a century, and possibly a lot longer than that, when their situation had finally deteriorated to the point at which they could no longer just go home and, in fact, they had no choice but to endure the misery that slavery brought them in that land not their own.
They should obviously have left when the famine ended, but they didn’t. I suppose they eventually realized that. (After the fact, everybody’s a chokhom.) But my question has to do with the years between the end of the famine and the rise of the Pharaoh who knew not Joseph.
Let’s imagine another half-century passed as things began to deteriorate for the Jews of Egypt. At first, it was small things, what moderns would call instances of extra-legal microaggression. Then as now, these kind of things were easy to shrug off: an overheard insult, a vulgar joke, an instance of being made to feel unwelcome in familiar places—in the locker room at the gym or at the pool or in the supermarket. But public opinion began slowly to shift as the Israelites were increasingly less welcome in their host country, increasingly resented, increasingly disliked. Could they have stemmed that tide by acting forcefully to make things right? There’s no answer to that question, but in my fantasy version of the long stretch of time I’m imagining between Jacob’s death and the Israelites’ eventually enslavement, things began slowly to snowball as the Israelites’ prosperity was resented, their clannish ways disliked, and their refusal to embrace the national religion of Egypt found more and more insulting.
But the Israelites failed to notice any of that. Or to take any of it too seriously. They withdrew into their communities, failing entirely to understand the depth of the antipathy they were dealing with as they circled their wagons and took pride in the degree to which they had managed to keep the world at bay while, at the same time, missing the point about the level of rage that was slowly reaching boiling point in the world in which they actually lived. In other words, they managed to make a virtue about looking inward when what they really should have been doing is looking out at the storm brewing on the horizon and working to fix things before they truly became unfixable.
Could they have returned to Israel? Was that door ever really shut? Or did the Israelites just like living in the world’s most sophisticated superpower, in a center of world culture, in one of the handful of nations never to have been conquered or subjugated by any hostile neighbor ever? Did they think of themselves as Egyptians? It’s a less silly question than it sounds at first. They must have spoken Egyptian. (How else could have communicated with the citizens of their host nation?) They surely must have had contact with Egyptian officials of various sorts. I imagine that, at least in the beginning, they did think of themselves as some version of Egyptians, perhaps some going so far as to think of themselves as Egyptians-of-Israelite-origin, something in the away the more assimilated Jews of Germany used to refer to themselves as deutsche Staatsbürger jüdischer Herkunft, as German citizens of Jewish origin. (This was only ironic after the fact, obviously.) But things got worse, not better. At first no one even noticed, not really. And by the time they all fully understood how things were, they were making bricks for Pharaoh and building his storage cities as his fully unwilling slaves.
We just came back from a few days in Canada visiting with Joan’s family. Everything seemed normal. But things have changed, almost without any of the locals noticing. The Canadian government, once a staunch defender of its citizens civil rights, has outlawed kosher slaughter. Of course, they didn’t put it that way and said instead that they were enacting a new law that would guarantee that animals be slaughtered in a way that they argued would be more humane than the way Jewish tradition requires and they simply didn’t care if that basically meant outlawing kosher slaughter. (This from a nation that sanctions as legal the clubbing of baby seals because outlawing such a barbaric practice would offend the basic right to cultural self-preservation of the Inuit nation that inhabit Canada’s Arctic. For more on that, click here.) Of course, Canada is not alone. Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, Estonia, Slovenia, and Finland have also outlawed kosher slaughter, in effect saying that Jews are tolerated in those places as long as they don’t mind abandoning their own traditions and living as others would prefer them to live. But my point today is that none of this is evident—and not even slightly—on the streets of Toronto. Everything really did feel normal. When I asked some of the people we met about the kosher meat thing, they mostly shrugged. Yes, they agreed, it’s terrible. But what can you do? We’ll just import meat from the States. So it will be a bit more expensive—it already costs a fortune so it will cost slightly more of one. It’s just the government. It’s just the Liberal Party. It's just the New Democrats. It’s just the Greens. It’s just Justin Trudeau. It’s always just something! No one said any of this to me in Egyptian, but they might as well have! (To be fair, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, a kind of umbrella group representing Canada’s Jews, is suing the government to force them to amend the legislation. But I don’t think anyone is especially hopeful this effort will be successful.)
And that brought me to thinking about our nation in that same light. Things have changed quickly and slowly at the same time. Some of our most prestigious college campuses have become centers of intolerance, including of the violent kind, aimed directly at Jewish students. Some of our most revered public officials—including the President, the Vice President, and the Senate Majority Leader—have spoken hostilely, even crudely, about the duly elected Prime Minister of Israel. (The President’s endless critique of Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the settled results of a fairly-held election seems only to apply to our own country, not to our allies.) Suddenly, things feel different. The bond between Israel and our nation feels less strong, less sturdy, less un-unravelable. The degree to which the Trump campaign has begun openly to mix evangelical tropes into its campaign rhetoric feels ominous, not merely exclusionary and off-putting. The subtle sense that it might be wiser not to wear a kippah on the subway, a feeling I had previously only felt strongly on the Metro in Paris, suddenly feels fully reasonable.
Everybody knows that you can boil a frog alive in an open petri dish if you only heat the water slowly enough. Whether that’s actually true or not, I have no idea. (The blogosphere is equivocal.) But the Haggadah’s famous remark that Jews are required at Pesach to think of themselves as though they personally were slaves in Egypt and were personally liberated from their bondage by God’s might hand and outstretched arm—that remark seems to me to include the parallel obligation to think about all the years that led into slavery, decades of ever-increasing signs of degeneration blithely ignored by all until it really was too late.
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THE TALE OF THE KINGDOM OF HUKUM MATI
Long ago, and on a tiny island nestled in the sparkling grey ocean, lived a strange people. Strange because it was ruled by a king, except he was not. The people knew of this fact, but pretended nevertheless to accept the pardonable lie that he was their monarch. Everyone, from the wide-eyed child in the first grade to the stoic magistrate bowed their heads instead in stupefying obeisance to the mendacious vizier, who ruled from behind the elaborately-carved paper throne. The sovereign, ever the sycophantic opportunist, found validation to his existence not through the rowdy masses whom he despised but rather from his slavish behaviour whilst in the presence of the vizier.
One rainy day, the vizier decided to depose the monarch. It was customary for the king to be relieved once he had served out his useful purpose as the Court Jester. Except no one ever addressed him as such since the defamation laws of the land were onerous and well, blatantly one-sided.
And so, it came to pass – the jester was handsomely rewarded for his orchestrated stage performance throughout his reign of the island. He retired fitfully to a life of ceaseless and, also senseless opulence, of which the people were forcibly burdened to finance and then to applaud in awe. Wealth, it seemed was glorious, more so when it was taken from the people by law.
The vizier, who learned the crafty art from his departed father, the first vizier of the deemed independent kingdom, next enjoined the people to help choose a new king. It sounded pleasantly democratic, some thought, except the chosen candidates must of necessity originate from among the aristocracy. These owed their personal sanitation, allegiance and chromed plaques denoting their respective smoke-infused merits, to no other than the wizened vizier.
Quite possibly the people were aware of this Shakespearean drama unfolding before their misted eyes. Claudius, in his everlastingly murderous envy, could not have imagined a clinical and porcine-less kingdom as this. The purified or perhaps petrified island of law had no equal. Everything was in its properly designated place, as the old vizier before had once demanded. The High or Brahmin aristocrats insisted on a clear separation from the filthy and maddening crowd. Crime was believed to exist but only among the masses. It was they whom the punishment was immensely severe and deserving – violent execution became a matter of course, since the stoic magistrates preached and upheld the vizier’s gospel of purity. The prisons were filled, mostly with citizens who had unwittingly ventured into an amorphous spider’s web known simply as The Law.
The day for the election of a new king came and passed, with unsurprisingly negligible merry-making. If anything, it was layered with a deep sense of realism. Of the candidates, only one could be king, in name and no more. Neither departed from the other in appearance, inclination nor thought. Of course, anything else was never a possibility in any sense, since their creator had no use for mobbed-up and sinful lawbreakers. Purity, according to the vizier was synonymous to a time before the disgraceful Fall – when Innocence or maybe ignorance, was a virtue. The fallen people were thought incorrigibly uncouth and fully lacking in divine sponsorship. They needed to be forcefully guided. None certainly could ever hope to be king. At best, their existence paralleled that hideously mangled being who lived, isolated like a plague in the darkened tower far beyond the pomp of the Court.
This mythical kingdom of Hukum Mati remained for a time in trance-like peace. But unlike other kingdoms, it’s overriding insistence on unblemished individuals and manufactured experts to administrate over the island soon became a state religion. Added to this extremism, it had little if any, empathy for and intimacy with the mosaic mob. This classically platonic social formation devolved further to castes. It would be some time later before the clarified kingdom proudly morphed toward heightened sophistries, like a dazzling peacock – of mass removals, especially against the poorest, yet most industrious who scraped for a living on the permanently barren fringes of society. Reservations and work camps appeared quite suddenly as noble solutions to the institutional problem of the taint on the multitude of lenses. Purity, after all, requires just one clear and superior pair of lenses.
It could be said that the vizier was not the author of the final act. His vapid ideology, inherited from his law-giving father to cleanse the kingdom of perceivably disease-borne dirt, was generally accepted in the name of the collective good.
Hatred of the masses, especially the vulnerable was a necessary pre-condition to de-sensitize society and to impel it to collaborate in their spiteful punishment. No one ever could have foreseen where this would in time burrow to. No one, since pretence or artful ignorance was virtuous. Not even the vizier could have anticipated the ruin to the kingdom that his extreme religion had wrought. By then and quite fortunately for him, he laid in immortally glorious silence within the impenetrable tomb of smoke and mirrors situated on the serene grounds of the palace.
Inscribed on a reflective plaque at the entrance to the tomb, were these words:
“I would rather be feared than loved. Fear is forever, whereas love is fleeting.”
The seed of hatred, if nurtured with fearful devotion, brings forth a tree, bearing poisonous fruit. The famine which ensues, will persuade everyone to take a bite of that fruit for the sake of deliverance, or so we believe.
Long live the king!
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The Serpent's Conquest- Chapter 3
Summary:
Princess Jasmine has always been a thorn in Jafar’s side, but as her sixteenth birthday approaches, he begins to see her as an object of desire. The thought of possessing her is eminently satisfying, but even more delicious is forcing her to choose him. Jafar forms a plan to seduce the princess and seize the throne for himself, knowing with certainty that he will be victorious.
Notes:
Here is another chapterI Before diving in, I wanted to talk about the Jafar I picture when writing and reading J&J stories. Of course, I started liking this pairing because of the animated film. Jonathan Freeman's voice work is flawless. But I believe the perfect Jafar, and the one I picture as I write, is a combination of iterations.
My Jafar is about 40, with the looks of Oded Fehr (the Once Upon a Time Jafar), the voice and twisted ruthlessness of the animated version, and some backstory elements from Marwan Kenzari and Oded Fehr's iterations.
So for this story the age difference between Jasmine and Jafar is about 24 years. I can't help it, the underage nature is part of what makes this pairing more interesting. Fehr was in his late 40s when he played Jafar, and he did it to perfection.
Without further ado, I present to you chapter 3, which is still rated T, but we are slowly approaching M territory.
A03, Chapter 1, Chapter 2
_________________
A month had passed since Jasmine’s birthday, and she had been forced to meet with new suitors each week. They all arrived in the same fashion, parading through the streets of Agrabah, displaying their wealth and finery, only to kneel before her and vow that she was the loveliest creature they had ever beheld.
Jasmine had been disgusted with each of them, and had used a combination of intimidation and acerbic, cutting wit to send them on their way. It was ridiculously easy to manage her perspective suitors, almost too easy.
Jasmine relished the challenge of outmaneuvering a man, but the only one in the palace that was not cowed by her fiery temperament was Jafar. And she had been trying to avoid the vizier at all costs.
After the feast, he had begun to appear in her dreams, and slowly, the dreams grew more vivid and enticing. Dreams of sensuous kisses and embraces, the feel of silk against her flesh, and a heat so intoxicating that she arched to press herself against a well-muscled chest. She would often wake in the middle of the night flushed and panting, the spot at the apex of her thighs pulsing with need. And then she would remember the identity of her dream lover and shiver in revulsion and shame.
The few times Jasmine had been unable to avoid her father’s advisor, he had met her with a knowing smirk before she forced herself to avert her gaze, flushing with embarrassment. She wanted more than ever to strangle Jafar where he stood, much as a king cobra did to its prey.
Jasmine sat at the edge of the massive white marble fountain in the palace gardens. Rajah was curled up at her feet. There was a soft breeze rustling the tree leaves and the air was scented with the rich fragrance of summer blooms. It was utterly peaceful.
Which is why Jasmine scowled when her father interrupted this peace.
“Jasmine, my dearest, I have some news that I hope will make you happy. I know these last weeks have been trying.”
“They would not have to be if you were not forcing me to receive every prince in the surrounding kingdoms.”
“Now, now, Jasmine, you must be wed. There is no escaping that, but I realize that the marriage is not just about ensuring your welfare. You will be Queen soon, and you must be prepared.”
Jasmine sucked in a breath. She was almost afraid to ask for clarification of his meaning, lest she misunderstand the intentions behind this discussion.
The Sultan was oblivious to her conflict, and continued to speak. “Jafar brought it to my attention that eleven months is hardly enough time to teach the art of ruling and diplomacy but that it was necessary to begin your education as soon as possible.”
Jasmine was immediately suspicious of Jafar’s intentions. She knew that he coveted the throne. Surely he would not want his rival to become a competent ruler. It would make her even more of a threat. “And how am I meant to be educated in these matters?” Jasmine asked.
“You will attend all council meetings of course. Jafar will provide you with a collection of books, maps, and your mother’s study will be opened for your personal use.”
Jasmine was stunned. The Sultana’s quarters had been closed since her sudden death so many years ago.
“And will I be able to leave the palace walls? A future queen should be permitted to walk the streets of her own kingdom.”
“No,” her father said. “It is far too dangerous for you. When you are wed, you shall walk the streets with your husband when he deems it appropriate.”
Jasmine was about to scowl, but she knew that the opportunity to learn to rule was too good to squander. She rose and kissed her father’s cheek. “Thank you, Father. I will be pleased to learn all I can. I want to be a worthy queen.”
The Sultan patted her hand. “And you will, my dearest, much like your mother before you. The council convenes in an hour. Please ensure you are appropriately attired and join us in the council chambers.”
Jasmine nodded. She suspected that she would need to dress more conservatively for these meetings. Jasmine did not want to give any of her father’s advisors any reason to declare her unfit.
Jasmine still wondered why Jafar had felt compelled to advocate on her behalf. She was certain he had some nefarious purpose, but she would take advantage of his generosity, and then make him regret it when she finally took her place as queen.
_______________
When Jasmine arrived in front of the guarded council chamber doors, it was to find Jafar waiting for her, rather than her father.
Jafar’s voice was smooth and oily as he greeted her, but like the falsely subservient tone he used upon the Sultan. It made Jasmine’s skin crawl, but not as much as it did when Jafar took her hand and kissed it, lingering longer than was strictly appropriate. “You shall be very welcome in this gathering, Princess. You shall be the decoration this assemblage is desperately in need of.”
Jasmine wanted to smack that condescending smirk off his face. As though he sensed what she was thinking, he clutched her hand hard enough to make her wince, and pulled her to his side. “You will comport yourself with grace, Princess. You will not be allowed to humiliate the crown.”
Ah, so there it was. It was a test. The Sultan did not care to educate her in the ways of ruling. He was simply bringing her before his advisors knowing that when her temper got the better of her, he would have an excuse to lock her away more tightly than ever before. Naturally, this was Jafar’s hope as well.
“Where is my father?” Jasmine asked through clenched teeth. “I do not need to be escorted by you.”
“Your father is late as usual. In a moment we will enter and I shall begin the proceedings, but not until you give me your word that you will only listen. You do not know enough to contribute. You are here to learn.”
Jasmine rolled her eyes. “I will not consent to being a Princess who is seen and not heard. And have you forgotten that you cannot order me about. I outrank you.”
Jafar twisted her wrist so painfully that Jasmine’s words of protest died on her lips.
With a raised brow and a smug grin, Jafar said, “Give me your word, or I shall tell your father that I spoke too hastily in making my recommendation that you be allowed to attend council meetings.”
Jasmine glowered at him but at length silently consented with a nod of her head.
Jafar kept her by his side as he led her into the chamber. The grand room had high, vaulted ceilings and the space was dominated by a gleaming mahogany banquet table, surrounded by a dozen royal advisors.
They rose as the Royal Vizier and the Princess crossed the room to take their places near the center of the table. Jafar pulled out an ornate chair beside the throne and indicated that Jasmine should sit.
His fingers brushed the bare skin of her shoulders as he took the seat to her right. Jasmine shivered at the contact. It was true that her embroidered gown was far more modest than her usual attire, but her shoulders were still bare, and the faintest hint of her decolletage was on display for the royal advisors to see.
She straightened her back and surveyed the group of men, hoping that they would each have some sort of wisdom she could use.
Jafar began the proceedings and plunged into a discussion of the kingdom’s foreign trade connections and how the new recent influx of goods from Pascua was impacting the fortunes of the kingdom.
Jasmine was surprised at how articulate Jafar was, always believing him to simply be a conniving snake who wanted the throne to satisfy his own ego. And while it was true that Jafar was overconfident in his addresses, and harsh in his dismissals of ideas of other council members, after only half an hour, Jasmine could tell that the vizier wanted to make Agrabah more prosperous.
He seemed to understand the most intricate inner workings of the kingdom, and Jasmine could not help but be slightly mesmerized by his commanding voice.
The spell was interrupted when the subject moved to the state of the poor in Agrabah.
“This capitol city is growing,” said the Agrabah’s Minister of Finance. “There is not enough housing to meet the needs. The number of street dwellers has increased. I suggest we banish those who cannot afford a dwelling.”
“You can’t,” Jasmine cried.
All eyes turned to her, and worse, Jasmine felt Jafar’s finger squeeze her thigh beneath the table in silent warning.
“I beg your pardon, Princess, but you have no way of knowing the conditions in the capitol. Crime is rife in the market district, and it is because of ruffians and thieves who have no business in our city.” The minister’s chest puffed with self-importance. Jasmine instantly disliked him.
“As royalty, it is my job to be concerned with every citizen of my kingdom. We cannot simply banish those who have fallen upon hard times. The need assistance from the crown and from the royal coffers.”
Jafar’s grip tightened on her thigh, and Jasmine bit back a wince. The Minister of Finance began to wave away her words when Jafar said, “If we banish those we deem unworthy, the crown will be accused of being cruel. Resentment will rise and cause further difficulties in the poorer parts of the city. A shelter should be constructed for those needing aid. This will provide more opportunities for employment. By all means, banish the petty criminals, but for Agrabah to be considered truly great, there must be a minimal standard of living for all.”
“But the coffers can ill afford—”
Jafar’s eyes narrowed. “I believe you will find that our coffers are more than replenished with the trade profits with Pascua. The council will fund this new project without complaint.” Jafar turned to a man with a thick grey beard before the Minister of Finance. “Now we shall hear from the Minister of Law.”
Jasmine was stunned that Jafar possessed even a streak of altruism. He had not defended her outright, and Jasmine was certain she would have bruises from his silencing grip, but he had put the pompous minister in his place. Her father could have never done so, she was certain, especially considering that he had not even deigned to appear.
Much to her dismay, her father did not enter until the council was addressing its last issue: that being the approaching arrival of Prince Khaled of Potamia.
“He is famously particular in his accommodations,” one advisor said.
“The prince will have whatever he needs, whatever this expense,” the Sultan declared.
The Minister of Finance looked as though he would very much like to protest, but was silenced by one dangerous look from Jafar. Jasmine idly thought that the Minister of Finance would be one of the most trying aspects of her new obligation. Still, she was dismayed that her father appeared to be so cavalier about spending the royal coffers on people with no loyalty to the kingdom. It must be his idea of further swaying the suitors into offering for her hand.
After the details of Prince Khaled’s stay were settled, her father dismissed the council. The men filed out one by one leaving the Sultan with his most trusted advisor and his daughter.
“Well, my dearest, how did you enjoy your first meeting?”
“It was enlightening, Father,” Jasmine said truthfully. “I thank you for the privilege.”
“You should thank Jafar, dearest. The idea was entirely his.” With that, the Sultan kissed his daughter’s cheek and made to leave. Before he did though, he looked over his shoulder. “Jafar, please escort my daughter back to her chambers. I am sure she is exhausted from the day’s events. It will not be long before she must meet her next suitor. She must be well-rested.”
“Of course, my liege,” Jafar said, inclining his head.
Jasmine glared at him. It was insulting that her father believed she was in need of an escort. She did not take Jafar’s proffered hand and swept out of the chamber ahead of him.
Unfortunately, Jafar’s height allowed him to catch up to her quickly. His fingers closed around her upper arm. “You did not keep your word,” he hissed. “You will be punished.”
“I am not a child, and the Minister of Finance is cruel, and a fool. My people deserve better.”
“His idiocy does not matter,” Jafar said. “It was not your place to offer an opinion. You may contribute once you have read the books I had sent to your mother’s study and when you have attended several more council meetings.”
“If you think I am so ill equipped to participate, why did you convince Father to allow me to attend?” Jasmine demanded of the vizier.
He drew her into a curtained alcove. Drawing himself to his full height as a method of intimidation, he said, “Because, Jasmine, I have no wish to have a stupid, uninformed girl for my wife and queen.”
Jasmine gaped at him, dumbstruck by his matter-of-fact tone. “How dare you presume that I would ever choose you as a husband. I will never be your wife.”
Jafar pressed her against the smooth brick of the alcove, his hot breath tickling the flesh of her cheek. “We shall see, my dear. I know you have been dreaming of me.” His hand caressed her breast, and the silk did little to minimize the heat of his caress. She curse herself even as she leaned into his touch. How does he know I’ve dreamt of him? Am I truly so transparent?
Jafar’s thumb lightly circled the sensitive tip of her breast as he spoke with sultry tones. “You feel something for me that you have not felt for the dozen suitors you have met thus far. Given time, you will come to realize that I am the one you wish to be at your side.” Jafar raised his staff to her, its eyes glowing menacingly. “I will teach you the intricacies of ruling, and in return, you will fall at my feet in gratitude and grant me the honor of becoming your husband and the next Sultan.”
“Never,” Jasmine spat, the sinfully delicious sensations he was creating within her body were not enough to overpower her hatred of him. She raised her hand to strike him for his affrontery.
But Jafar caught it in his and crushed her to him, claiming her lips in a fierce caress. Against her will, her body surrendered, and she allowed her tongue to glide against his. This created a shot of liquid fire that went straight to her center. When he pulled away at last, Jasmine was panting heavily.
Jafar gave her a wicked grin, his hand dropping to her side, only to caress the curve of her hip. “I’ve been longing to do that for a month, my insolent princess. Continue to defy me, and you will find your honor compromised and we will be forced to wed. I trust you can make it the rest of the way to your chambers, where I am certain that my touch will enliven your fantasies.”
Jasmine’s fingers curled into a tight fist. The bastard had the gall to wink before he bowed and swept away.
She longed to tell her father of the vizier’s inappropriate advances, but she knew he would never believe her. Jafar was too capable of manipulating him.
Not for the first time, Jasmine wondered about the snake staff with its glowing ruby eyes. But if it did indeed have power, she intended to be strong enough to resist.
_____________
Jafar’s heart pounded as he entered his secret tower. That tempestuous little witch had resisted his hypnotism.
It was evident that he could not rely upon hypnosis when it came to his conquest. He could only seek to manipulate her dreams, as he had been doing for the last several weeks. He took pride in that stroke of genius, knowing that before too long, Jasmine would be so intrigued that she would instigate a compromising encounter.
Jafar had known the effect his work was having upon her sensibilities by the furious way she blushed when in his company. She had responded, however innocently to his illicit touch. And once again, she had responded to his kiss, allowing him to deepen it. He was certain that she loathed him, but that was no matter.
Perhaps Jafar had overplayed his hand, but his longing for her had gotten the better of him. He would have to be more circumspect in the future. He would not bring up the matter of marriage for the time being, but now, the possibility was in her head, and Jafar fully intended to show her flashes of what being his wife would entail.
If he could not make her fully submit to him in the waking hours, Jafar would have to settle for haunting her dreams.
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