Aqua Burst

Instead of cursing her to an eternal sleep or death, Maleficent declares that the princess will grow up to betray the kingdom and serve her instead. So the king sends Aurora away, but one day the young adventurous girl strays a bit too far and right into her territory.

okay

SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937)

“Think about the happiest things, 

“Think about the happiest things, 

The way I understand their family histories, there were two siblings. The brother became the sultan, making him Minhaj’s grandfather. The sister married into the Asims, and suddenly that family shot up to become one of the most prominent in the country.

That alone should raise eyebrows. Families don't just stumble into that level of power without some kind of leverage. If anything, it suggests that Kalim’s grandparents and father may've capitalised on that royal connection in a very deliberate way. That kind of social climbing isn't unusual at all.

A good comparison would be the Medici family in Renaissance Florence. They started as merchants and bankers, but through strategic marriages and political manoeuvring, they embedded themselves into the highest levels of power, even producing popes and effectively controlling the state from behind the scenes. On paper, they were just another wealthy family. In practice, they were pulling strings that shaped the entire political landscape. It is not hard to imagine a similar dynamic at play here.

Seen through that lens, Kalim’s version of his family starts to feel a bit too clean and benevolent. If his grandfather used that royal connection to build the Asim fortune, then Kalim has grown up with a narrative that frames that rise as natural or even virtuous, rather than strategic or opportunistic. That alone would make his perspective limited at best.

And then there is the more unsettling possibility. If the Asims aren't just wealthy but politically entangled, then Kalim’s father starts to look less like a passive figurehead and more like an active player. Someone who might be influencing the country’s politics from behind the scenes in a way that mirrors Jafar in canon. Jamil outright says during the Fireworks Event that the Asims are involved in politics. Combine that with a direct familial link to the monarchy, and the implications become difficult to ignore. At that point, the question isn't whether the Asims have influence, but how much, and how visible they choose to make it.

We could just chalk it up to Kalim just isn't that smart, but I don't think that's it. I think the Asim family had some really messed up intentions with Kalim. I've been sitting on the fact Kalim is 9 months and 13 days younger than Jamil, which had some really UGLY implications about that there, but it feels more and more like Kalim's family treats him like a PROP or an OBSTACLE.

He had to be born fast because there wasn't an Asim for Jamil to serve. He has to be this clean and innocent face to cover up the very dark undertones of what the Asims do behind closed doors. Kalim is supposed to be head of the family yet knows VERY LITTLE of business or politics... That's... That's not how you do business. You have to be on top of and aware of anything that could screw up your business. Instead, he's a very sociable, cheerfully naive guy who can endear people to him because he does genuinely care, even if his understanding of issues is misguided or ignorant.

I think Kalim is meant to be the face when he inherits, but there are other siblings who are being trained to play in the political world or do other... less than savory things for the family and Kalim is kept ignorant because if he doesn't know, the Asim family can use him to claim innocence if someone gets caught.

Say a younger half-sibling gets caught doing something majorly illegal in the Scalding Sands. Well, if Kalim, the head of the Asims, doesn't know, it's easier to claim that the sibling did something on their own and the rest of the family wasn't involved. That would also explain why relatives are trying to kill him.

My theory is the assassinations come majorly from the mothers of his half-siblings. Originally, I thought it was so that the majority of the inheritance will go to their children first instead of Kalim and his full blooded siblings, but if Kalim is the face, that puts a new perspective on it.

What parent wants their kid to be considered disposable if something bad happens? No loving parent wants to watch their kid go to jail, or worse, be executed. Death of a child is a very painful experience that no parent should ever face, but knowing your child is being raised to do something potentially illegal to lift up your family only to be cast aside if they mess up somewhere because they aren't the future head?

And it's likely Kalim is kept unaware of this. I think he's been set up by his family to be what is basically a puppet ruler. Yes, we see Jafar puppeteers the Sultan in Aladdin, but Japan has a HISTORY of puppet emperors. Emperors who were emperor in only name and had to constantly do what other people around them wanted or else they would be replaced with a younger, more malleable replacement.

Like I don't feel like getting into all the dark theories today I have about how things are set up in like The Scalding Sands and the Kingdom of Heroes and how come Riddle's mom gets away with her abuse in the Queendom of Roses, but I do want to point out that a lot of these issues aren't the complete fault of these teenage boys.

A lot of their issues are stemming from the way society has been set up to fail all of them and the fact the adults have done very little to step in and fix or change it. Yes, the boys are responsible for their actions, inactions, reactions, and how they choose to respond to these issues, but a lot of these issues, particularly Jamil and Kalim in particular, are a microcosm of the issues in their societies.

There is no good, moral reason Jamil should have been born into any servitude, especially one that is inhumane enough to force kids to be poison testers.

There is no good, moral reason Kalim should be having to live in constant threat of being murdered by his family.

There is no good, moral reason Riddle's mom got to continue to abuse Riddle the way she did.

There is no good, moral reason Leona has been made to feel hated and despised in his own home.

There is no good, moral reason Azul had to endure horrendous bullying with no adults stepping in to stop it.

There is no good, moral reason Vil has been typecasted constantly as villain just for being ethereally pretty and good at his job.

There is no good, moral reason Idia's family was doomed to start to lose their magic if they aren't constantly depressed or negative.

There is no good, moral reason Malleus was blessed (read: cursed) with magic that made him so much more freaking isolated that he already was due to the loss of his parents to war.

Kaiba: i want unlimited commercial rights to blue eyes white dragon because you stole my and my brother's soul and i feel like you owe me.

Pegasus: yeah i probably do also i feel kinda bad about copyrighting your wife so yeah i'll sign the papers

My submission for the Jamil x Prefect Paper Rally at the Valentine's Rose Fes 2026 earlier this year! (ft. my genie AU)