Was Jafar ever really your friend? It seems to me he treated you like dirt. You really were the brains behind the operation, and you had to do a lot of his dirty work! Proof that he was nothing without you: You defeated him!
âJafar was never really anybodyâs friend,â Iago said with a huff. âIâm glad that chumpâs outta my life â who did all the work? Me! Who came up with all the good ideas? Me! He really was nothinâ without me, and sure yeah he was real nice to me when things were goinâ good for him, but if you got a âfriendâ who bosses you around and treats ya like a jerk when times are tough, that ainât a real friend, and donât stick around âem even if you feel like you owe âem somethinâ.â
ââŠOkay, but real talk here. It was more complicated than that. Things were real good sometimes, and he did save me from the bazaar when nobody else wanted me. He saw a bit of talent in me I guess, and he liked my fightinâ spirit (I finally lost my temper on some chump and bit his finger, and it took about three whole minutes to shake me off! Jerk!), so he took me in and I got to live in a palace where the worst thing I had to put up with was the stupid Sultan and his moldy, disgusting crackers. It was real nice compared to what I was used to in a hot cage squawkinâ âpolly wanna crackerâ just to get noticed. I got a shot at beinâ important, and beinâ needed, and yâknow, that was all I wanted. âŠAnd treasure. And power. Lots of that! And I had that, all thanks to Jafar. He was kinda like a dad or somethinâ, since I never knew mine, and he taught me all I know about legends and artifacts and treasure anâ all that great stuff.â
âBut it ainât beinâ ungrateful to stand up for yourself when that same chump is also real mean to ya the other half of the time. The mark of a true friend, I found out, is somebody whoâll stick by ya when things are at their worst, and they actually care about YOU, and not what you can do for them, and they donât go around tearinâ ya down when ya ainât perfect. So yeah, I got real complex thoughts on Jafar. I canât help it. He was all I had for almost my whole life and itâs tough to give that up â but I was fed up with getting bossed and kicked around, and my new friends â Cassim and Jasmine and Aladdin, and the chump Genie and the hairball-spitting monkey and the rug â they mean somethinâ to me, and I ainât gonna give that up. Maybe Iâm a jerk sometimes, sure, but I ainât just lookinâ out for me anymore â Iâm lookinâ out for them too. âŠJust donât tell âem that. Itâs kinda on a need-to-know basis, or theyâll expect me to be nice all the time! Yeesh!âÂ