Jafar (Disney)

"If you won't bow before a sultan... '''then you will cower before a sorcerer!"

- Jafar

Jafar is the main antagonist of Disney's 31st animated feature film Aladdin and its first direct-to-video sequel The Return of Jafar. He was Aladdin's arch-nemesis and Iago's former owner and boss.

He was voiced by Jonathan Freeman.

Appearance
Jafar's physical appearance was similar to that of Ming the Merciless: He was tall, thin, and almost always depicted in flowing robes of black, dark red, and other moody colors.

In the first Aladdin film, he was shown to be bald underneath his hat.

Jafar carried a cobra-head staff, which he used for his sorcery.

Aladdin
Jafar sought the Genie's lamp so that he could become the sultan of Agrabah. Originally, he was the royal vizier of the sultan who trusted him, trying to do whatever it takes to become sultan himself. Jafar disguised himself as an old man and allowed Aladdin (the main protagonist of the film) to go the Cave of Wonders to find the lamp, but Abu accidently touches the forbidden treasure and Jafar tried to steal the lamp, but fails as he discovers that the lamp is missing, due to Abu secretly hiding the lamp before the Cave of Wonders closes. Iago convinced him to marry Princess Jasmine so he could be sultan; then when they were married, Jafar would toss both the sultan and Jasmine off a cliff, although after he becomes Sultan, he decides to make Jasmine his queen consort, apparently sparing her from this fate. When Prince Ali-Ababwa (Aladdin in disguise) came to marry Jasmine, an extremely angry and jealous Jafar tried to drown the prince so he would never get in his way.

When finally acquiring the lamp, his first wish was to be sultan, his second wish was to be the most powerful sorcerer, and although his third and final wish was to become an all-powerful genie himself (after turning into a giant cobra), his original final wish was to have Jasmine fall in love with him, deciding to make her his queen. In his last wish, Aladdin tricked Jafar into wishing to become a genie by saying, "The genie has more power than you'll ever have!". When he became a genie, Jafar became imprisoned in his own magic lamp, along with Iago.

The Return of Jafar
Jafar was released from his lamp by Abis Mal. However, as he was a genie, he was bound by the rules of obedience to his master and thus handicapped by Abis Mal's habitual incompetence. Jafar desired to be free so he could get revenge on Aladdin by framing him and then having him executed; however, he needed Mal's cooperation to do this. With the use of trickery, Jafar still asserted his power by tricking Abis Mal into wasting two of his wishes before making him return to Agrabah; Abis Mal willingly went along with Jafar's plans in order to get his own revenge on Aladdin. Once in the palace, the sorcerer revealed himself to Iago and forced him to play along with his evil plans, trying to bring him back as his henchman.

The next day, Aladdin and the Sultan departed to have a discussion at a place suggested by Iago. After they left, Jafar confronted the Genie and Abu in the Palace gardens and showed his power, imprisoning the pair. Meanwhile, Aladdin had a talk with the Sultan that earned his acceptance as the future grand vizier. When Aladdin thanked Iago, he was ambushed by Abis Mal and Jafar, the latter disguised as a squad of flying horsemen. The Sultan was kidnapped and Aladdin thrown into the raging river. However, Jafar spared his life in order to exact his revenge in the most painful way possible: By splitting him away from all his loved ones. To this purpose, he left false evidence and masked himself as Jasmine to implicate Aladdin with the alleged murder of the Sultan and Aladdin was thrown into the dungeon to be executed by means of beheading come morning.

When Iago chose to try to free Genie so he could save Aladdin, Iago succeeded just in time and the Genie freed the others. Once free, Aladdin decided to attempt to stop Jafar. Genie told Aladdin that in order to kill Jafar, his lamp must be destroyed before Abis Mal wished him free. During the final fight, all of the heroes were either knocked out or unavailable. It looked like Jafar was going to finally get rid of Aladdin and the others. However, Iago betrayed him and tried to attack Jafar in Aladdin's defense. The sorcerer managed to hit Iago and nearly killed him, but the bird managed to muster up enough strength to kick his former master's lamp into the lava, destroying the lamp and killing Jafar.

Hercules and the Arabian Night
In Hercules and the Arabian Night, Jafar arrives in the Underworld as a ghost and is temporarily revived by Hades, Lord of the Dead and Hercules' arch-nemesis, by creating a staff that kept Jafar alive, though he is no longer a genie.

Jafar and Hades try to beat the heroes but they lose and Jafar is killed once again after his new staff was destroyed by Hercules and he became a ghost again. Since he was in the River Styx when his staff was destroyed, the spirits of the dead drag his spirit into the River, ending Jafar's threat for now.

Aladdin: Nasira's Revenge
Jafar returned in Nasira's Revenge as the secondary main antagonist alongside his twin sister Nasira. Nasira aimed to collect all of the magical artifacts and bring Jafar back to life whenvshe first summon her brother's spirit and informs him of her plan, Jafar than told Nasira to be wary of Aladdin. At the end of the game Aladdin faced off against Jafar's ghost and Nasira. Jafar's giant head will cause boulders to come flying at Aladdin, and after Nasira is defeated, he attempted one final attack against Aladdin before being defeated, probably for good.

Mickey's House of Villains
In the 2002 direct-to-video film Mickey's House of Villains, Jafar appeared as the leader of the villains and the main antagonist.

In the film, the House of Mouse was overthrown by the many Disney villains, such as Hades, Ursula, Captain Hook, Chernabog, and Cruella de Vil, whom were all led by Jafar. Jafar had secretly planned this because they were tired of feeling like dull villains on Halloween. The Disney Heroes were thrown out in the streets, and the house is renamed the "House of Villains".

However, Jafar and the Villains were defeated when Mickey engages in a magic duel with Jafar, which Jafar was winning at first. However, when Aladdin arrived and handed Daisy Duck the magical lamp, Daisy handed it to Mickey who used the lamp to imprison Jafar after the rest of the villains fled. The House of Mouse was restored.

Kingdom Hearts
Jafar also appeared as a boss in Kingdom Hearts. He served as one of the main villains in Maleficent's team and is her second in command. Jafar takes over Agrabah and manages to kidnap one of the princess. He is defeated by Sora and his allies. Jafar then transformed into a genie and fought again but was defeated.

Chain of Memories
Jafar was an antagonist in Chain of Memories and was fought in the memory Agrabah.

Kingdom Hearts II
Jafar was an antagonist in Kingdom Hearts II and the final Disney boss. He was fought twice, once in mirage form and again in genie form. Jafar managed to take over Agrabah for a short time and planned to make Princess Jasmine his queen before being destroyed for good by Sora.

Coded
Jafar invaded the digital realms along with Pete and Maleficent, he uses a Lamp to cast a time stop spell over Agrabah and takes it over. He later fights Sora twice and is defeated.

Kingdom Hearts Manga
Jafar also appears in the manga series-adapted by Shiro Amano-along with other Disney villains like in the game-except that Clayton and Oogie Boogie were not in it. In the U.S the manga, after Kingdom Hearts 2 Volume 2 discontinued and Jafar and the others did not show for a while. The last appearance Jafar made was in Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories Volume 1.

Kingdom Keepers
The evil sorcerer was also in the Disney and Hyperion novel series, Kingdom Keepers. He was also an Overtaker, but he did not join Chernabog, Maleficent, Frollo, Evil Queen, Cruella and the others to take over the Disney parks at first. Like Shan Yu, he wanted the Kingdom Keepers' magic for himself. But after being tricked by one of the Kingdom Keepers, he later joins the other villains.

Kilala Princess Manga
In the manga, Jafar is one of the Disney villains that were supporting the main manga villain, Valdou-the others, Maleficent, Grimhilde, Ursula, Lady Tremaine, Gaston and their henchmen/women. Jafar was still a vizier like he was in the movie Aladdin. Not much changed with him and his scenes, except for when he saw the Sultan giving Kilala the diamond that he wanted, he was never too pleased, and when Iago and him talked about Kilala, Rei, and Sylphy intruding Agrabah and hanging out with Aladdin and Jasmine. Both Jafar and Iago were somewhat allies with the android Valdou.

Videogame appearances
Jafar appeared as the main villain of the 1993 videogame adaptions Disney's Aladdin for the Mega Drive developed by Virgin Interactive's studio of Virgin Games USA and published by Sega.

Jafar appears as both the main villain and the final boss of the 1995 game Disney's Aladdin (アラジン Arajin?) developed for the SNES and published by Capcom separately from Virgin's version, since Capcom still held Disney licensing rights for Nintendo consoles at the time of the film's release.

Jafar made an appearance as both the final boss and the main antagonist of Disney's Aladdin developed by SIMS and published by Sega, and released in 1994 for the Sega Game Gear worldwide and for the Sega Master System in Europe.

Live-action appearance
Main article: Jafar (Once Upon a Time)

Trivia

 * Jafar also has a twin sister named Nasira.
 * Jafar is the male equivalent of Maleficent. They are both powerful spellcasters, have bird sidekicks, try to kill the heroes by transforming into giant reptilian monsters, carry staffs which they primarily use to channel their magic and, of course, are very evil.
 * In the first movie, Jafar is similar to Ben Yusuf, the main villain from Spanish animated movie El Cid: The Legend: Both characters kidnaps to protagonist's love interest and forces her to be his slave.
 * Jafar is also similar to Queen Grimhilde from Snow White. Both will do what ever it takes to succeed at their goal. They also disguise as an elderly person to trick the protagonist to gain the upper hand. Both have birds as their side kicks.
 * Jafar is one of 5 male villains to shape shift into a second form. the others being Judge Doom, Oogie Boogie, and Pain and Panic. Jafar is also the only Disney Villain to have nine other forms (Old Man, Sultan, Sorcerer, Snake, Genie, Ghost, an old granny, an army of thieves with winged horses, disguised as Jasmine).
 * Part of his design, motive, and his position in Aladdin could have been inspired by ZigZag from The Thief and the Cobbler.
 * In House of Mouse, episode House of Magic, Jafar and Iago use the famous magic spell Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo to return the House of Mouse after Daisy Duck magically causes it to vanish, and were tricked by Mickey to receive "Agrabah" as a reward for their good deeds.
 * Despite being a villain, he is the main protagonist of StarKid Productions' parody musical Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier.
 * Jafar is the only main villain of a Disney Princess movie not to die in his first appearance.
 * Jafar also appeared in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse as one of the Disney Villains celebrating Christmas and is even shown in the music song, The Best Christmas of All as one of its notable singers, singing it with his fellow villains alongside with many Disney heroes. Also, Jafar, alongside with Iago (as well as his enemies Genie, Carpet, Abu, and all Disney characters), are all insulted when Donald Duck refuses to change his un-Christmas mood.
 * In the films, Jafar is the main and most recurring antagonist, but in the second movie he was ultimately killed off and in the third film is replaced by a new main villain.
 * His My Life as a Teenage Robot counterpart is Dr. Locus because they both have side characters that turned good(Jafar has Iago, Locus had Melody), trap heroines, have handy objects(Jafar has a staff, Locus has a remote control), and got trapped in metal objects. (Jafar was sucked into a magic lamp, while Dr. Locus was eaten by a robot snake with a set of teeth for a head.)
 * In 2014, when Aladdin was turned into a Broadway musical, Jonathan Freeman, who had voiced Jafar in his every appearance, returned to play the character onstage.