Chapter 25: Ali's Lie
A/N: This is the second chapter I published today. I hope y'all enjoy the double feature.
The princess and I slowly started to establish a new order to the chaos that Jafar had left behind. Every once in a while, we'd slip notes to each other. They were always work-related, but they weren't always the most constructive of comments. It was nice talking to the princess almost casually and I was becoming accustomed to my new abilities, but then Prince Ali ruined it.
Jasmine came into the study one morning with a contemplative look on her face.
"Rajah," she said, "You're not going to believe this."
I cocked my head to the side.
"You know our secret advisor?"
I nodded. How could I not?
"I found out who it is."
I stared at her, holding my breath.
"Prince Ali."
What!
"I know right? I never realized he was so intelligent."
I gave her a knowing look.
"That's not what I meant. Prince Ali is plenty smart. It's just well this…" She shook her head. "It's almost unbelievable."
Because it was.
"He said he was worried about me working so hard, so he decided to help out."
I snorted.
"No really, all this time, he's been helping us. He was afraid that after our fight I wouldn't want his help."
I couldn't believe she was being this gullible.
"I know you're not Ali's biggest fan, but even you can't argue with the quality of his work," she said defensively.
The quality of my work.
Then she continued in a more thoughtful tone. "You know, I really underestimated him."
That was the end of enough. Not getting credit for my work was one thing but getting it stolen by Prince Ali of all people was something else entirely.
However even as I got angry, I smiled. I smiled with all my teeth. I knew it. I knew he was no good. I knew I wasn't just crazy or jealous. And I finally had him.
That night after I finished my work, I dipped my quill pen in the ink and wrote:
Dear Princess Jasmine,
I cannot tell you who I am, but I can tell you who I am not. Prince Ali
has lied to you. He is not me and if he lied about this, I don't know
what else he might be hiding. The wedding is imminent, but in light of
this new development, you may want to reconsider that decision. A man
you cannot trust, cannot be a good husband.
Yours Truly,
SA
I looked at the letter with grim satisfaction. See what he made of that, the lying weasel.
A/N: I realize this is a short chapter, so if you have the time, please enjoy this monologue on Aladdin's chronic lying problem:
You know, when I was between drafts of Rajah's Curse another critical question was: What is Prince Ali's fatal flaw? It wasn't until I finally got around to watching Aladdin 2: Return of Jafar, that I really understood what was up. You see at the end of Aladdin 1992, Aladdin should have learned a valuable lesson about lying. Except, no one ever punishes him for lying.
Things become uncomfortable for him: Genie stops talking to him, the sultan expects him to inherit the throne (The thing that happens when you marry a princess) and due to the fact Aladdin and Genie are on the rocks, Genie gets stolen. However, the only person who tries to correlate, Aladdin's bad time with his choice to lie is Jafar. The vizier embarrasses Aladdin in front of Jasmine, but honestly after that Aladdin is let off scot-free. There's practically no liar revealed angst.
Now let's move on to Aladdin 2. After the events of Aladdin 1992, Aladdin decides to let Iago into the group after Iago "saves" his life. But does Aladdin tell Jasmine and the sultan about his decision?
No. His first instinct is to lie to them.
At first, I thought, "Like bro seriously? After all that happened in the first movie, how can you just lie like that?"
Jasmine even lampshades this fact. But the thing is: lying gets Aladdin in trouble, but it also gets him what he wants.
He technically got the princess by lying. He lied to save her from the apple merchant. He lied about being a prince to win over the sultan. And he lied to Jafar to get him to waste his wishes. So, of course, Aladdin isn't going to stop lying. You see him continue to lie and con people to solve his problems in the animated series and a lot of the time, it works!
Once I realized that I knew I had found his fatal flaw.
Now, I don't dislike Canon Aladdin. Frankly, he's adorable, friendly, and super relatable. And I believe he's a good person with questionable friends (Abu and Iago) and questionable habits. And at the end of the day, we all know he'll most likely do what's right. And maybe if the narrative didn't enable his dishonest behavior, he'd learn his lesson too. But it does, so he continues as he is.