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And now, for the most anti-climactic of anti-climactic returns after a long dA absence. I hope you're all doing well.

So (for reasons better left unexplained) I was feeling nostalgic a few days ago, and my thoughts meandered to the Aladdin television series that aired on Toon Disney....what, 1995 or so? Oh, good Lord, that was fifteen years ago. It wasn't exactly what you could call stellar entertainment, but it was fun. Anybody remember it?

I found the episodes on YouTube, and realized that the two characters who had stuck in my head for all of this time were the antagonists Sadira (a self-taught Witch of the Sand, whose powers were somewhat equivalent to the sandbenders of Avatar with some spells thrown in for good measure) and Mozenrath (a sorcerer/necromancer/notorious complainer.)

I liked Sadira, for all of her failed attempts to win Aladdin over. Her goals were fairly innocuous and understandable as far as the villains went, and you can't help but consider the fact that she was an attractive young woman who'd grown up on the streets ("Locking me up in chains? What were you thinking?! I've been picking locks since I was five!") and had fended for herself since childhood. She had a quirky, hard-headed personality I couldn't help but enjoy. In the end, she got her priorities straightened out and "Witch Way Did She Go" (oh, those titles) is my favorite episode.

Plus, her powers were cool.

Mozenrath, on the other hand, was one of those characters who I (and anyone else) should have detested. He was egotistical, manipulative, temperamental and prone to alternating between boasting about his own abilities and whining about how unfair everything was whenever he lost.

But then there's that episode where you find out that the gauntlet he wears (the source of his powers, which he acquired in order to overthrow the sorcerer who taught him) had eaten away the flesh on his right hand and was draining him like a sort of metaphysical cancer. He wasn't that pale and thin because it fit with his intellectual persona or made him look more villainous: he looked that way because he was physically deteriorating and trying to buy himself more time before he died. Probably one of the only cases in a children's show where the bad guy suffers serious personal consequences for ambition. That huge ego actually bruised pretty easily.

Plus, his dry, cynical sense of humor was amusing. And he owned a flying lamprey. And he made the BEST FACES.

And of course, I always assumed that they got together after the show ended. (Or would have gotten together, rather, had it continued.) Persistence and cheerfulness meets cool pragmatism. CLASSIC.

Alright, I think I've said enough.

Description
And now, for the most anti-climactic of anti-climactic returns after a long dA absence. I hope you're all doing well.

So (for reasons better left unexplained) I was feeling nostalgic a few days ago, and my thoughts meandered to the Aladdin television series that aired on Toon Disney....what, 1995 or so? Oh, good Lord, that was fifteen years ago. It wasn't exactly what you could call stellar entertainment, but it was fun. Anybody remember it?

I found the episodes on YouTube, and realized that the two characters who had stuck in my head for all of this time were the antagonists Sadira (a self-taught Witch of the Sand, whose powers were somewhat equivalent to the sandbenders of Avatar with some spells thrown in for good measure) and Mozenrath (a sorcerer/necromancer/notorious complainer.)

I liked Sadira, for all of her failed attempts to win Aladdin over. Her goals were fairly innocuous and understandable as far as the villains went, and you can't help but consider the fact that she was an attractive young woman who'd grown up on the streets ("Locking me up in chains? What were you thinking?! I've been picking locks since I was five!") and had fended for herself since childhood. She had a quirky, hard-headed personality I couldn't help but enjoy. In the end, she got her priorities straightened out and "Witch Way Did She Go" (oh, those titles) is my favorite episode.

Plus, her powers were cool.

Mozenrath, on the other hand, was one of those characters who I (and anyone else) should have detested. He was egotistical, manipulative, temperamental and prone to alternating between boasting about his own abilities and whining about how unfair everything was whenever he lost.

But then there's that episode where you find out that the gauntlet he wears (the source of his powers, which he acquired in order to overthrow the sorcerer who taught him) had eaten away the flesh on his right hand and was draining him like a sort of metaphysical cancer. He wasn't that pale and thin because it fit with his intellectual persona or made him look more villainous: he looked that way because he was physically deteriorating and trying to buy himself more time before he died. Probably one of the only cases in a children's show where the bad guy suffers serious personal consequences for ambition. That huge ego actually bruised pretty easily.

Plus, his dry, cynical sense of humor was amusing. And he owned a flying lamprey. And he made the BEST FACES.

And of course, I always assumed that they got together after the show ended. (Or would have gotten together, rather, had it continued.) Persistence and cheerfulness meets cool pragmatism. CLASSIC.

Alright, I think I've said enough.