Aladdin Central Messageboard

[Salukfan]

I've watched this episode a few times this week and I'm just wondering what everyone else thinks about it.

It has the distinction of being the series' first episode, both in production order and airing order. (I assume it's second to RoJ only, but is that necessarily a fair assumption? Obviously, RoJ came out way before the episode aired, so would that just count as an extended pilot to the series, production wise? Or would they have done a separate story first to test the series premise? This has become a different thread entirely. )

Anyway, this has always been pretty high up on my list, probably just out of the top 10. I love that it opens with Fazal and Omar. That may sound silly, but I love episodes that don't start with our heroes. It's fun to hear conversations that we're not used to and interactions that don't often get a lot of time.

I also love the banter between Aladdin and Rasoul/Fazal. They're taunting each other, the crowd rallies behind Rasoul, Aladdin gets bullied into the bet to save face... great stuff. It's also, I don't know, strange? that Aladdin tells the guards to get off their butts and go after the thieves, rather than just doing it himself. It's kind of the opposite of Aladdin going after Abis Mal for who knows what reason at the start of RoJ.

Another random opposite-- we get this big D: moment with Fazal putting the leash on Abu... when Aladdin does it a couple episodes later.

Lastly, I love the bits of dialogue between Abis Mal and his men. This explains why they start to disappear over the course of the series. Haroud was right.

What do you guys think?
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"This cow's been covered with flour!"

[AladdinsGenie]

I go D: when Aladdin does it there, too

I haven't seen this one in a while, too. I need to have a series marathon. I remember wanting a feather

[Salukfan]

Aladdin leashing Abu = the great character assassination of 1994. I hate to claim bad writing for the characters, but that's something I just can't justify any other way. Yeah, Abu embarrassed him in front of the Sultan, but a leash?! Really?!

I'm with you on needing a series marathon. I tried to list Akbar's episodes today and realized that I had completely forgotten him in "Caught By the Tale"... and forgot that the Skull and Dagger was in it at all. I'm slippin'.
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"This cow's been covered with flour!"

[AladdinsGenie]

I tell myself he was acting that way because Abu was acting more like an un-trained pet than a bad friend, so he treated him like a pet, but then I can't justify Aladdin downgrading Abu like that. He's quick to correct people when they call Abu his pet by saying he's his friend, and considers an animal on the same level as himself. Not that many people considered Aladdin all that high on the scale either, but still, that's the beauty of their friendship and Aladdin's character

That's what I love about this series. After all these years, I still don't know everything yet and I have to keep refreshing myself with it to remember things.

[Salukfan]

That's what I have the issue with too. I can't see him treating Abu like that, especially as close as that episode is to this one. Aladdin he does kinda sell Abu out in AFF to avoid humiliation, he didn't do it to be malicious-- he did it because he got caught up in the moment and didn't realize how it would hurt Abu.

I love that too. There's so many different characters and settings and situations that it's impossible to have it all 100% memorized and taken in. Also, there's a lot of issues to discuss and think about and tie together... I mean, there's a reason we're still here talking about it almost 15 years later.
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"This cow's been covered with flour!"

[Calluna]

I'm going to have more to say about this ep later, but just for now...

I'm having a lot of fun taking screencaps of this episode. Maybe it's just because the last episode I saw was Armored and Dangerous, but the animation seems pretty good by series standards...
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"If only I could believe you. Perhaps I can! After all... you do bear the name of a flower." -- Arbutus

[Calluna]

[Salukfan]

[Calluna]

[AladdinsGenie]

[Calluna]

[Salukfan]