Sadira is a recurring character in Disney's television series Aladdin. Sadira was initially introduced as a minor antagonist with a hapless goal to win Aladdin's heart. She would later become one of his allies after forming a friendship with her former rival, Jasmine.
Background[]
Personality[]
When she was first introduced, Sadira was portrayed as an envious, determined girl who was trying to get Aladdin for herself by any means necessary, though she was shown not wanting to physically harm anyone, such as when she told the Sand Monster when he captured Jasmine that she simply wanted her out of the way.
Toward the end of the series, Sadira became more friendly and kinder to Aladdin and his friends, accepting their offer of friendship and becoming extremely loyal. She is very determined, as shown by her numerous attempts to win Aladdin’s heart or fix her mistakes, however she is really just a misunderstood character who simply wanted to be loved by someone.
Sadira’s biggest flaw, however, is her inability to face the reality of things (denialism), which is commented on by her own Sand Monster. This flaw is shown numerously when she constantly tries to get Aladdin to love her, by going to lengths such as creating a Sand Monster, changing reality and memories themselves, and even creating an actual fantasy land for her and Aladdin and no Jasmine. Sadira couldn’t accept that Aladdin and Jasmine were made for each other and had constantly tried to win his heart even though it was never going to happen, which proves that Sadira cannot face reality and is stuck in her own fantasy when unable to accept things as the way they were.
Appearance[]
Sadira is a beautiful girl with a slender body. She has tanned skin, blue eyes, and messy dark brown hair (mostly due to her living on the streets before finding the Witches of the Sand’s lair).
Sadira wears a ragged white shirt with patches over the sleeves with a green vest over it, and white harem pants with a purple sash.
After discovering sand magic, Sadira sometimes uses a more formal, long red dress with a purple sash and long yellow shirt.
When switching places with Jasmine, Sadira wears Jasmine's blue outfit and gold necklace, without the blue headband and large gold earrings, and later a white wedding dress with a white headdress.
When she creates a fantasy land for her and Aladdin, Sadira wears a reddish pink princess dress for herself with a matching pointed hat.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Sorcery: Sadira often uses objects and sand potions for her magic. She used a hourglass filled with an unidentified blue 'memory sand' that caused the entire city's memories - and apparently even history itself - to be altered except for the animals, although the power of love restore the reality. Using an inedible mixture onto sand, she unknowingly released the Witches of the Sand. Sadira also can use a spell to transform someone into a heroic dragon-slaying prince and his pet into a horse and simultaneously opening a portal to the land of her fantasies until he was kissed by his "princess."
- Sand Magic: Sadira learnt a lot of spells over magic based on sand through ancient scrolls written by the sand witches and former rulers of the deserts. She is able to make constructions of sand, including mini-buildings and traps for offensive purposes. From a mystical amulet, she calls up a Sand beast and ordered him around with the threat of destroying it. The mixture of Genie's magic with Sadira's spells doesn't act as fully intended.
- Intelligence: Sadira is very cunning, as shown by her numerous attempts to win Aladdin’s heart or solve her mistakes.
- Thief: Like Aladdin, Sadira is an experienced "street rat". She can open locks easily.
Appearances[]
Aladdin (TV series)[]
Sadira's first appearance was "Strike Up the Sand". Originally just another street rat - much like Aladdin himself had been - Sadira developed an obsession with Aladdin after he saved her from Razoul, but was sad to find out that Aladdin already had someone, and worst of all, the Princess Jasmine (whom Sadira believed she could never compete with, due to Jasmine’s title and beauty).
Later, Sadira lamented on never being able to win Aladdin’s heart. She went to an old abandoned house and as she sat down to cry, she fell through the floorboards and accidentally found a hidden palace and became a sorceress of the ancient secrets of the sand when she discovered how to train herself using the instructions on a scroll. She decides to make her first attempt to get Aladdin for herself. From an ancient scroll and a mystical amulet, she calls up a Sand beast and ordered him to bring Jasmine to her, so she was out of the way which brought Aladdin and the others to come and save her. But the Sand beast was disappointed at not being able to cause destruction and turned against Sadira, swallowing the amulet and attempting to crush them all. With Aladdin, Abu, Iago, Jasmine and Genie's help, they managed to recover the amulet and destroyed it and the Sand beast forever. Aladdin tells Sadira that he likes her, but Jasmine is the one he truly loves. However after they left, Sadira had found another way to get Aladdin to love her and was willing to put it into action.
Her second, "SandSwitch", featured Sadira using an unidentified 'memory sand' that caused the entire city's memories - and apparently even history itself - to be altered, resulting in Sadira being the princess and engaged to Aladdin while Jasmine was a street rat, with she and Aladdin never having even met. However, she found out the spell had no effect on the animals of the city, these notably being Abu, Iago and Rajah, who kept their memories and swiftly escaped the palace to search for Jasmine. Despite her initial skepticism, Jasmine began to believe Iago's story when she saw the wedding parade, feeling drawn to Aladdin despite having no memory of him. Upon Jasmine entering the palace, the power of love was further proven to be stronger than the memory sand, as even the Sultan felt drawn in some way toward Jasmine, mentioning kindly that though he had only one daughter, if he had another, he would want her to be as pretty as Jasmine. Sadira attempted to stop Aladdin and Jasmine meeting by having Iago, Abu, Rajah and Jasmine imprisoned after she accused Jasmine of being a witch and having the wedding moved to that very night, but the animals and Jasmine managed to interrupt the wedding before Sadira and Aladdin kiss. Realizing that he felt more attracted to Jasmine than he ever had with Sadira, even though he couldn't remember her, Aladdin kissed Jasmine, which broke the spell. Sadira however, still refused to give up and was even more determined to get Aladdin to love her. She finds another scroll containing "Secrets of Sand Mesmerism" and decides to use it in her next plan.
In "Dune Quixote", Sadira casts a spell to transform Aladdin into a heroic dragon-slaying prince and Abu into a horse, simultaneously opening a portal to the land of her fantasies, where she and Aladdin could live without any interference from Jasmine. Although Genie managed to close the portal, the subsequent mixture of Genie's magic with Sadira's spells meant that Aladdin still believed himself to be the prince despite the lack of any armor or even a dragon to slay, as well as Abu becoming a mule, forcing them to recreate Sadira's fantasy in order to break the spell. In the process, however, Sadira and Jasmine actually bonded to a certain degree, developing an appreciation for their skills and putting their old rivalry to rest as they worked together to vanquish the out-of-control mechanical dragon Genie had created while Aladdin was under the spell's influence. Sadira begins to accept that Aladdin's love will always be for Jasmine.
Despite her new friendship with the group, Sadira was forced to face the remnants of her past actions in "Witch Way Did She Go?". While attempting to make a soup for her friends, she accidentally mixed half of the soup recipe with half of a sand witch spell. When she threw out the inedible mixture onto sand, she unknowingly releasing the Sand Witches who had taught her in the first place. Jasmine is the only member of the group who believes Sadira was innocent. Having framed Sadira for releasing a sand viper on the city, the Sand Witches attempt to win her over to their side and thus raise the ancient City of Sand to destroy Agrabah. However, Sadira chooses her new friendship with the group and helps them to defeat the Witches.
Aladdin and the King of Thieves[]
Sadira briefly appears at the end of the film as a guest at Aladdin and Jasmine's wedding, which hints that she is fully over Aladdin and truly accepts him and Jasmine’s relationship.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The name 'Sadira' is Muslim for 'Lotus Tree'[1][2][3], Arabic for 'Ostrich from water or Ostrich running from water'[4][5] and Persian for 'Dreamy'[6]. The latter is especially fitting as she refuses to see the realities of the world.
- Unlike Jasmine's more Persian features, Sadira has more Levantine Arab features. This is referenced in her sorceress outfit which is almost identical to the national costume of Lebanon, a country in the Levant region.
- Her plan in regards to using time travel to have her switch places with Jasmine where she herself was the Princess and Jasmine became the Street Rat was actually similar to one of the original concepts for the first Aladdin movie, where Jafar would invoke time travel to switch places with the Sultan, and as a result, have everyone's memories altered to think Jafar was Sultan to begin with, except for Aladdin, Abu, and Magic Carpet, who were only unaffected due to Carpet wrapping itself around them before the wave hit.
- It is hinted (and very suggested) that Sadira is an orphan and was never shown love by anyone, which would explain her obsession with Aladdin when he saved her.
- She constantly gets Razoul's name wrong.
- When all is said and done; Sadira is only a villain in the loosest sense of the word. While it's true, she has tried to use her magic to try and make Aladdin her's and/or remove Jasmine as an obstacle, she bears no malice toward them or their friends, not even Jasmine (she never wanted Jasmine harmed or killed, she just wanted Aladdin to love her instead of Jasmine).
- Sadira's attempts to steal Aladdin for herself are similar to those of another Aladdin villain, Saleen. However, Sadira is considerably more benevolent in her attempts than Saleen, and actually reforms.
- Sadira is one of the very few characters that was introduced in the TV series to reappear in the series' finale movie Aladdin and the King of Thieves, the other ones being Merc, King Mamood and Wazeer.
- She may have been inspired by the unused character Abbi from Howard Ashman's 1988 treatment for the original Aladdin movie, who served as the character's official love interest instead of Jasmine, who was originally written as a spoiled brat in this version as opposed to the headstrong, compassionate woman as seen in the final film. She's a tomboyish street urchin (not unlike Sadira) who joins Aladdin on his quest to rescue Jasmine. At the end of Ashman's treatment, when he was offered the princess' hand in marriage, Aladdin refused in favor of his true love Abbi (while Jasmine seems to fall for Aladdin's friend Omar).
- In the TV series, this similar scenario from Howard Ashman's 1988 treatment for the original Aladdin movie has been somewhat reversed, with Aladdin's true love being Jasmine (a princess) not unlike the unused character Abbi, and Sadira (a street urchin) serving as Jasmine's original scrapped role as the "bratty, antagonistic love rival" which Aladdin turned down in end. In addition, Sadira originally believed Aladdin to be her true love and initially assumed Jasmine was a spoiled princess.
- Ironically, in the episode "SandSwitch", when Sadira altered history with an unidentified 'memory sand' resulting in Sadira being the princess while Jasmine was a street rat, this entire altered setup created by Sadira herself appears to be very close to that of the original portrayals of Abbi and Princess Jasmine from Howard Ashman's 1988 treatment for the original Aladdin movie, especially in terms of appearances and personalities, right down to the ending where Aladdin leaves Princess Sadira for Jasmine the Street Rat which parallels the ending of said scrapped treatment where Aladdin leaves Princess Jasmine for Abbi the Street Rat.
