- “What would the world be without a little Chaos?!”
- ―Chaos[src]
Chaos is a god-like being from the Aladdin television series. He is a magical being that spreads (and may even be the embodiment of) chaos and mischief.
Background[]
Personality[]
Chaos naturally causes exactly what he is named after, so he thrives on the unexpected and unpredictable; he finds order to be boring and is horrified about something being "tidy and mundane, living life as expected". Therefore, he has made it his goal to cause chaos and mischief; he only does it for fun, with a slapstick sense of humor that easily rivals, if not outshines, Genie's. Despite how dangerous he can be, Chaos is above Good and Evil, which he finds equally boring; however, he does lean towards good as he intends his tricks to be exciting and fun, for he finds disorder as a natural source-giver of inspiration more so than "stiff" tranquility. He wanders from place to place (even moving through dimensions), as he personally pleases, to "make things more lively" (i.e. wreaking chaos) wherever he deems the situation to be boring. He dislikes routines (especially repeated), clichés, and everything boring, but acts out of a love for pranks rather than actual malice and thus capable of self-restraint to a certain degree.
As a trickster, he is very mischievous and cunning, as well as a skilled and patient actor as he pretended to have fallen for Mirage's trick and was fully aware of her reason for doing so (she wanted him to bring devastation to Agrabah), which prompted him to arrange for her to indirectly save the day, thus going against her usual routine and making life more interesting.
Chaos has a warranted sense of high self-esteem as he is easily irked by others ordering him or even insulting him, the former he finds more irksome because the force of Chaos itself does not have Order. He also has a dislike of Fate; the very idea of everything happening as planned, predetermined, or even predestination to be against what he believes in and represents. He also hates to lose as he mentioned Fate cheats at cards.
Physical appearance[]
Though capable of shapeshifting, Chaos goes about in the appearance of a sphinx-like cat that vaguely resembles the Cheshire Cat. He has blue fur, green eyes, a black beard similar to Genie's, a pair of light purple wings, and gold bands on his forepaws, along with a collar.
Powers and abilities[]
Chaos is one of the most powerful beings in the Disney universe shown to date and possibly the third most powerful in the Aladdin universe, with the first most powerful most likely being Fate and the second is presumably the Ethereal. Genie stated "he has more power in his little whisker than a palace full of genies"; he can grant his own wishes, allowing him to rewrite reality into whatever he wants and since he is not a genie himself, he is exempt from any rules or limitations other than Fate, meaning that he, if he wanted to, could resurrect the dead or kill the living. He can perform many magical acts like conjuration (making things appear from out of nowhere through mere will), invisibility, enchantments, illusions, shape-shifting himself as well as others (partially or entirely), create new beings (especially evil replicas of real people), teleportation, flying, controlling the elements, etc. Chaos is somewhat immortal as Mirage and Genie know of him, despite Genie being imprisoned in his lamp for 10,000 years. It is implied that Chaos can sense intent or read minds as he was fully aware of why Mirage directed him to Agrabah; she hoped he would bring upon it its downfall.
Interestingly, Chaos is capable of surprising even himself with his own powers. When he created an evil doppelganger of Aladdin, it triggered the creation of an evil doppelganger of Genie at maximum power without Chaos even causing it willingly.
The only limit on his power is Fate, which is also the only being/force known to be stronger than him. He cannot defy Fate or change what he/it has decreed, therefore Chaos is not all-knowing as that would defeat his purpose of unpredictability. Nevertheless, due to his sheer power, he is respected and/or feared by many, like Genie, and even Mirage, who is called Evil-Incarnate. Mirage has even described Chaos as being worse than "a plague of plagues", describing just how dangerous he can be.
Role in the series[]
Chaos' only appearance is in "When Chaos Comes Calling." He appears as a winged-blue cat with god-like powers who thrives on the unpredictable.
He first appears, invisible except for his eyes as he spies on Mirage ranting about how she has failed to destroy Agrabah before he deliberately lets her know of his presence. As he makes himself visible, he criticizes Mirage that how "Evil Elementals" like her are always obsessing, saying a change of routine would be more preferable and demonstrates by conjuring an urn of water and pouring it on her. Outraged, Mirage begins to confront Chaos, but he gives her a definitive warning, making her apologize and say his surprise was "delightful". Then Chaos asks about Agrabah, which Mirage states how can she bring ruin to the Seven Deserts when Agrabah continues to inspires them all. Chaos finds this to his liking and expresses he might visit Agrabah someday. From this, Mirage gets an idea and convinces Chaos that Agrabah is not his kind of town: The people are a bunch of contented cows, a pitiful cliché of a beautiful princess who falls in love with a dashing hero, living happily ever after, a tidy mundane existence living life as expected. Horrified at "tidy and mundane" and "living life as expected", Chaos declares Agrabah needs him and vanishes as he states, "What would the world be without a little Chaos?!".
Chaos observes Abu stuffing an urn onto Iago's face. Wanting to get in on the fun, he tells Abu to be really unpredictable, one must show a little imagination, and demonstrates by removing the urn, only to show he has somehow given Iago a human head. He watches the spectacle unfold when Iago invites himself to a dinner Aladdin and Jasmine are throwing for some nobles, who are frightened / disgusted at the parrot with a human head and Iago panics when he realizes this. Deciding the situation needs more pizazz, Chaos starts to alter the guests' physical forms and all heck breaks loose until Aladdin brings out Genie. Chaos finds this rather interesting and dispels his magic on the guests and Iago. After the guests leave, Genie draws out a picture of what Abu says caused all the magic. Iago doesn't believe the picture until Chaos appears, saying, "I think it's a remarkable likeness."
Then Chaos notes Genie, stating the situation with him included makes for a lot of potential for fun. Genie warns Aladdin and Jasmine about Chaos, how powerful he is, and to not to make him angry. Jasmine ignores this and confronts Chaos for meddling in palace affairs. Chaos shamelessly states she should thank him for livening things up in what he thought was a boring situation. Jasmine still persists, reasoning the guests were not invited to be humiliated and orders Chaos to leave. Deeply offended that someone would dare give an order to him, Chaos ominously states, "YOU, order me?! Wrong move..." With a whirl of his magic, Chaos makes Jasmine vanish and when Aladdin demands to where she is, Chaos offhandedly replies, "Oh, she's somewhere... underfoot."
Chaos begins to lap some milk when Aladdin warns him to bring Jasmine back. Chaos puts on a frightful act, stating, "You'll what?! You expect me to listen to your puny threats?!". In a flash of magic, Chaos surprises Aladdin and brings back Jasmine (who had actually been shrunk to ant-sized) and Genie, just to be unpredictable and because he would not be expecting it. Then he states it must be far more exciting than their own boring existences. At this, Iago starts ranting about the "cockamamie adventures" he is always getting dragged on and would prefer a boring life. When he is done, Chaos, as it turns out, was never listening and asks if he was saying something, much to Iago's ire.
Here, Aladdin, Jasmine, and Genie start talking about how much adventures they have been on, the villains they have faced, the monsters they have fought, and how it is always unpredictable. Genuinely interested, Chaos is surprised by how they have such a variety of adventures. The gang makes note of how they have encountered more monsters and gone through a lot of adventures until Genie makes the mistake of mentioning that Aladdin always wins.
With a menacing look, Chaos echoes, "Aladdin always wins...?", to which Genie tries to downplay this by saying they are often hollow victories or "draw" situations. Ignoring Genie, Chaos states that, to always win, Fate must have smiled upon Aladdin. But he expresses a distaste for Fate and predestination. He muses out-loud that if Fate has decreed Aladdin always wins, what can he do, as there is no unpredictability in such a situation. Then Chaos is struck with inspiration: He creates an evil replica of Aladdin for him to face, wondering whether which Aladdin can win: Good or evil?
Aladdin and his evil doppelganger go at it and are somehow transported to the marketplace. Aladdin states Chaos cannot make him fight, but Chaos says he would never; he just sets things in motion and observes the results, and they both find evil Aladdin giving the real Aladdin a bad name. The two Aladdin's fight again, but Chaos is growing bored, noting, "It's like he's fighting a mirror."
Then he notices an airplane flying overhead piloted by Genie, who helps Aladdin out. As Chaos makes sense of this, the Evil Aladdin summons an Evil Genie, which starts to rampage through Agrabah. Genie turns into Godzilla and fights his evil counterpart. As the fight progresses, Chaos casually remarks, "Mirage was right. I should have visited sooner." Jasmine believes Mirage sent Chaos to Agrabah, but he denies the very idea of anyone sending him anywhere. Then Aladdin and Iago call Mirage the boring one by stating how she goes through "evil thoughts, evil plans, every day the same thing!". As Genie is knocked out by his evil counterpart, Mirage appears, which Chaos takes as "volunteering" to join in on the excitement, and Evil Genie grabs her. Mirage tells Aladdin to use the lamp, which he understands that Mirage means the Evil Genie's lamp. Picking it up, he wishes for Evil Genie to release Mirage and restore Agrabah. Once all is said and done, Chaos notes the surprising turn of events that, instead of destroying Agrabah, Mirage helped save it. Realizing this, Mirage vanishes in outrage as she now realizes that she's been played for a fool all along, as Chaos gloats how she probably won't dare to try and trick him again. Jasmine realizes this was all to teach Mirage a lesson, which Chaos confirms to be on the most part, and teach her about obsessing with her evil rut. Chaos then says, "Keep up the good work, Aladdin! Because if you ever get boring, I'll be back!" and with that, Chaos disappears.
Chaos' only other appearance was in a short Aladdin comic in the Disney Adventures magazine where Aladdin is fighting a devilish entity simply called Evil while Genie is on vacation. Chaos shows up and strips Evil of his powers in a Deus ex Machina type ending saying, "Come on, I HAD to step in. Things were getting too predictable!".
Trivia[]
- Considering the crossover between Hercules and Aladdin, the fate Chaos was referring to could possibly be the Fates of Greek and Norse mythology although he spoke of Fate in the masculine singular pronoun i.e. "he" which makes it unlikely that he was talking about the three Fates. Speaking of Hercules, his voice actor Matt Frewer would later voice Panic.
- Going along with this, in Greek mythology, Chaos is the first being created. If this is carried over into the Hercules / Aladdin universe, Chaos is the oldest being in the series and might be even more powerful than the Olympian Gods.
- He is called "The Master Trickster" by Mirage, as well as "Master of Surprise, the Unpredictable."
- Chaos possesses several traits similar to the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, such as disappearing, leaving only his eyes and grin behind, and leaving footprints before actually appearing.
- Like the Genie, his magical tricks tend to make references to other media.
- He does get angry when people give him orders, warning in a threatening voice not to do so. This may be because chaos has no order.
