After a discussion on Twitter about the mechanics of wishing (a niche interest of mine, and apparently of others) I somehow ended up being talked into / talking myself into writing some fanfic of Disney’s Aladdin.

Yeah, I know.

I keep thinking “It’s completely impossible to write this because  once (event happens) then (character) has too much power and you just can’t construct a plot around that” and then I come up with a great solution to that problem and I come up with a scene around that and then I write that scene.

The result is that it’s not really a whole fiction so much as a set of isolated scenes that probably make sense if you’ve seen the movie and definitely don’t if you haven’t. There will almost certainly be a certain amount of backfilling and it may eventually turn into a complete story in its own right.

Current features:

1. The Genie features a very large number of rules, which are dynamically altered as people try to work around them. WIshing is powerful but you simply can’t bootstrap into godhood with it. Mostly because every time I think of a way of bootstrapping into godhood I write a scene in where someone tries to do that and then the rules are added to in a way that prevents it.
2. Everyone who gets their hand on the lamp (and it’s not just Aladdin and Jafar) is severely clued in and makes intelligent use of their wishes.
3. Jasmine is a character with a great deal of agency and does not do the whole “I’m not just a prize to be won!” thing followed by having all her agency taken away and acting as a prize to be won in a fight between two men.
4. Jasmine is scary. Don’t mess with her. You’ll regret it.

If that sounds appealing, here’s the work in progress.