Iago’s Triumph
Characters (c) are owned by Walt Disney Corp.
The courtyard of the palace of Agrabah was alive with boisterous merriment as Aladdin and his friends engaged in a frolicsome game to pass away the afternoon. With the sun shining and the sky exhibiting a brilliant blue, it was a splendid day to enjoy the outdoors and to saunter among the lush palace gardens. Flora and greenery bristled from the lines of bushes and trees flourishing through the courtyard, and Aladdin and his companions punctuated the vibrancy of the background with their vigorous levity.
It was the Genie who had introduced the game in which the six comrades now found themselves engaged. Because he had the ability to see things from the future, the Genie had procured knowledge of an outdoor activity first devised in the late nineteenth century known as “volleyball.” Although Aladdin and his other friends had never heard of this game–just as they never fully understood the references Genie frequently made to things from the future–they were more than willing to take part in this enjoyable pastime.
The gang of six had divided into two teams: Aladdin, Genie and Abu the Monkey formed one side, while Princess Jasmine, the Magic Carpet and Iago the Parrot comprised the other. Once Genie had provided the group with a ball and net, the volleyball game began in earnest. The ball rocketed back and forth across the net as the two teams tried to gain an advantage.
“Abu! I’m sending it to you!” Aladdin shouted as he bopped the volleyball over to Abu so that the monkey could hit it over the net. Abu executed the move, and the ball flew to the other side where Carpet was waiting for it. Carpet sent the ball flying back with a swipe from his tassel.
“Look alive, people! It’s comin’ right back at ya!” Genie enthused as he whacked the volleyball with considerable force. The impact of his hit made a loud thump as the ball sailed toward the net.
“You’ll have to do better than that, Genie!” Jasmine said with a smile. She leaped up at the net as the volleyball flew over it and smacked the ball back with alacrity. At this point in the match, Aladdin’s team was slightly ahead, helped no doubt by Genie’s familiarity with the game, but Jasmine’s team was catching up. The volleyball kept going back and forth until Jasmine bopped the ball over to Iago, who jumped up to spike it over the net. But when Iago spiked the ball, Abu moved quickly to deflect it, slamming it hard. Unfortunately, Abu hit the ball harder than he meant to; the ball sailed back and smacked Iago squarely in the front of his body and propelled him backwards through the air.
“Awwwwwk!” Iago screeched as the ball carried him into out-of-bounds territory and smashed him into the ground. Jasmine ran over to where Iago and the volleyball had landed and proceeded to move the ball over so that she could pull Iago out of the ground.
“Sorry, monkey boy,” Genie said. “That one went way out of bounds. We can’t count it.”
“Jasmine!” Aladdin called out. “Is Iago alright?”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got him,” said Jasmine. She lifted the parrot from the imprint in the ground made by his crash landing and helped him to his feet.
“Hey monkey, what the heck’s the matter with you?!” shouted Iago. “You trying to kill me or something?! I’ll sue! I’m gonna call my lawyer, and then I’m gonna report you to the committee on sports safety, and then I’m gonna--!”
“Iago, calm down!” Jasmine said with a laugh. “It was an accident. And you’re going to be just fine.”
“Oh, that’s easy for you to say,” Iago said with a sarcastic roll of his eyes. “You never got bodily smashed by a rogue sphere. But when you’re my size, it’s like an avalanche decided to drop on ya! My little tiny body isn’t exactly a slab of marble, okay?!”
“Hey bird man, are you calling a foul play or something?” called Genie.
“I should be calling a whole lot of things ‘foul’ right about now!” Iago growled. “I don’t know why I let you bozos talk me into this stupid game!”
“Iago, are you hurt anywhere?” asked Aladdin.
At this point, Iago’s momentary flare of temper began to subside, as was typical with him. Taking a few deep breaths, the parrot regained his composure.
“No, no, Al. The princess is right; I’ll live,” he said. “Big objects bashing me around just put me in a bad mood, that’s all.”
“Well at least we know you’re exactly the same as always,” Aladdin chuckled.
Iago appeared slightly dazed. “Actually, Al, I have been having a different problem. It’s those migraines I’ve been having lately; they’re starting to act up again. I was starting to feel another headache coming on a few minutes ago.”
Jasmine looked concerned. “Iago, maybe you should take a rest for a while.”
Genie suddenly transformed himself into a doctor and started looking Iago over. “You’re right, ma’am,” he reported to Jasmine. “I’m prescribing a minimum full day’s rest until the bird sees a significant decrease in symptoms. Here, give him two tablets and have him call me in the morning.”
“All right, all right, you don’t have to baby me,” grumbled Iago. “I just need a little nap.”
“Sounds good, Iago,” said Aladdin. “You take care of yourself, and we’ll see you later.”
“And if you need anything, don’t hesitate to let us know,” Jasmine added.
Iago had a greedy gleam in his eyes as he fluttered over to Jasmine. “Well princess, if you can manage it, maybe you could set me up with some room service, and a bigger bed, and a few sacks of gold coins, and…”
“Don’t push your luck,” Jasmine said with an amused smirk as she playfully tickled Iago under his bill. “Now scat.”
After Abu and Iago had shook hands and made up, Iago flew into the palace and headed for his bedroom. The rest of the gang remained in the courtyard to finish the volleyball game.
“Hey, my team needs another player,” said Jasmine. “It isn’t fair otherwise.”
“Help is on the way!” declared Genie. With a wave of his arm, Genie conjured up a clone of himself on Jasmine’s side of the net. “My homemade twin brother will serve your purposes.”
The Genie doppelganger saluted the genuine article, and the game continued.
* * * *
Later that day, Aladdin and Jasmine went to check on Iago. Peering into Iago’s bedroom, they saw that he was asleep. At the same time, they noticed that he seemed to turning slightly in his sleep as he lay in bed, and they could hear him making odd mumbling and growling noises. Deciding not to disturb him, Aladdin and Jasmine quietly closed the door again and tiptoed away from Iago’s room.
“Aladdin, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I’m worried that something else may be wrong with Iago,” Jasmine said once they were a fair distance down the hall. “I have this odd feeling that something besides ordinary sickness may be bothering him.”
“I know what you mean, Jasmine,” Aladdin nodded. “I just wish I knew what it was. I honestly can’t think of why Iago would be so uncomfortable all of a sudden.”
“Well, we both know that Iago is a special case,” Jasmine mused. “After all, he became our friend only after he forced himself to give up his…unfortunate past as an ally of Jafar.”
As that particular name passed her lips, Jasmine moved closer to Aladdin and gently placed her fingers upon his shoulders, as if imploring him to give her strength as she remembered that horrible man. Of all the nefarious enemies they had faced, none had menaced them as personally or as powerfully as their first and original foe…Jafar. At the mention of his name, Aladdin drew Jasmine close, holding her tenderly as if to comfort her and to shield her from the fearful memories of dangers past. In turn, she held him in the same manner to communicate her steadfast devotion to him in the face of all hardships–past, present and future.
As she delicately and lovingly touched her fiancé’s face, Jasmine continued. “We know that Iago suffered unimaginable fear and repression in Jafar’s employment, and we also know about the enormous guilt that he felt when he finally came to terms with the fact that he had collaborated with evil. Iago may have become evil while he was with Jafar, but deep down inside, there was a trace of his original goodness. Aladdin, what if Iago is subconsciously being tormented by his guilt over some of the bad things he did in the past?”
“It’s possible,” Aladdin agreed. “Iago had to make a difficult personal journey in order to rediscover his basic decency. Something like that doesn’t happen easily.”
“We can’t let this continue,” Jasmine said. “If this is what’s bothering Iago, it’s up to us to remind him that he is part of a family that cares for him. It’s the only way to make him feel that he is where he belongs.”
“You’re right, Jasmine,” Aladdin replied. “I think we sometimes forget about Iago’s problems because he always acts so cocky, egotistical and obnoxious.”
“Yeah, he can be exasperating, even if it’s funny at times,” Jasmine said with a small smile. “But at the end of the day, it’s just Iago being Iago. He still has real feelings, even if he hates to admit it.”
“Maybe we should go talk to him–try to get him to open up,” Aladdin suggested.
Jasmine shook her head. “Not all of us at once. It would only make him defensive. You know how Iago is–it’s hard for him to admit when he has a problem, especially an emotional one. Being confronted by a whole group of people would just provoke him. Someone needs to talk to him one-on-one, to help him feel comfortable discussing this kind of thing.”
“I’ll do it,” offered Aladdin. “After all, I brought him into the fold in the first place.”
“Actually, Aladdin, I think I should be the first one to bring this up with him,” Jasmine said. “I’ve spent enough time hanging out with Iago that I think I know exactly how to talk to him. Let me give it a try tonight.”
“Are you sure you think you can deal with him okay?” asked Aladdin.
“I don’t think I’ll run into any big problems,” Jasmine replied. “I can be very persuasive with other people.” Then she let a mischievous smile curl over her face and playfully ran her fingers over Aladdin’s chest. “But you already know that quite intimately, don’t you?”
Aladdin laughed as he felt a tickle from Jasmine’s fingers, and she giggled along with him. “Don’t you? Don’t you?” she teased. “Don’t you know how persuasive I am?”
“Yes, yes, I admit it!” Aladdin laughed. “It’s hard not to be swayed by you.”
Jasmine leaned forward and pressed her lips against Aladdin’s, and he offered no resistance. When Jasmine had ended the kiss, she resumed a serious tone.
“I’ll try to learn everything that’s troubling Iago, and I’ll do what I can to make him feel comfortable confiding in us,” she said. “Then we can see what we’ll do going forward.”
“Good thinking,” Aladdin said. “I knew there was a reason I fell in love with you.”
“Try not to forget it,” she grinned. They kissed once more and walked on down the hall.
* * * *
That night, Jasmine went back to Iago’s room to see if he had woken. Glancing through a crack in the door, she saw that he was indeed awake, though he was still sprawled across the bed. She was about to open the door, but she stopped herself when she remembered how much Iago hated being barged in on by other people. So she knocked on the door instead.
At the sound of the knock, Iago seemed to jump abruptly in his bed. Jasmine could see his eyes grow as big as baseballs as if in sudden shock.
“Huh?! What?! Who--?!” she heard him sputter. “Who’s there?”
“It’s me, Iago–Jasmine,” the princess replied. “May I come in?”
“Ohhhhh, Jasmine.” Iago sounded like he was exhaling in supreme relief. “Sure, princess, come on in.”
Jasmine entered the bedroom and strode beside Iago’s bed. Now that she was nearer, she could see that the parrot did indeed appear tense–and not tense in the way Iago normally would display, but in a way somehow more distant and more petrified.
“Hey princess, you’ve got some nerve sneaking up on a guy like that,” Iago groused. “What are you trying to do, give me a heart attack? I’ve got a delicate constitution here!”
“Oh really?” Jasmine said with a skeptical raise of an eyebrow. “Then how, pray tell, do you manage to keep up that hot temper of yours without giving yourself a heart attack?”
Iago looked a little abashed. “Touché, princess, touché,” he said with a sheepish grin.
Jasmine smiled and sat down on the side of Iago’s bed. “And you realize, of course, that I didn’t sneak up on you, right? I knocked first. You wouldn’t accuse the Princess of Agrabah of being discourteous, would you?”
She looked at Iago with mock seriousness even as she maintained a merry twinkle in her eye to let him know that she was just kidding around with him.
Despite himself, Iago couldn’t help chuckling. “Maybe in my sickly delirious state of mind, I blurted that out without knowing what came over me,” he said in an ingratiating tone.
“You’re a funny bird, Iago,” Jasmine noted. “What in the world am I ever going to do with you?” As she and the parrot shared a laugh, Jasmine sensed that the time was right to bring up her intended subject. Since Iago now appeared more relaxed than he did a moment ago, she figured it was best to start breaking the ice while she still could.
“But speaking of sickness, what I really came here to do is ask you how you were feeling,” she said. “I know you’ve been a little under the weather lately, and I wanted to see if you felt better.”
Iago sighed. “I’m okay, really. It’s not that bad. Just a few migraines, that’s all. A little sleep helps. It’s just that it feels kind of weird because they keep coming back.”
“Aladdin and I have noticed that you seem more tense than usual,” Jasmine said. “Your facial expressions and your body language just seemed to suggest that you were worried about something.”
“Aladdin noticed too?!” Iago’s eyes widened. “Oh, that’s perfect! It isn’t enough that my head feels like a fried egg, but now everyone is speculating about my emotional welfare! Geez, how embarrassing is that?! I might as well walk around with a sign around my neck that says, ‘Wimp of the Year’!”
“Iago, calm yourself,” Jasmine urged. “No one is going to think any less of you just because you’re feeling anxious or worried about something. We are all your friends. In fact, we’re your family, too. And we care about you. But you have to be open with us about what’s troubling you if we’re ever going to be able to help you.”
Iago hesitated. “I don’t know if I feel good about this–,”
“Please try,” said Jasmine. “I think you’ll be glad you did. Don’t you care enough about yourself to try to make yourself feel better? Don’t you care enough about your friends to let us help you? Don’t you care enough about…me?”
As Jasmine spoke her words, Iago looked into her bright, misty eyes and perceived an earnest compassion emanating from them. The genuine kindness in her eyes seemed to convey a kind of angelic benevolence that actually made him feel…comforted. The palpable goodness of Jasmine felt so different from the relentless malice he had constantly felt flowing from Jafar. So different from all that time he had spent as Jafar’s assistant, feeling Jafar’s wrathful spirit and absorbing his malevolent psyche. Jasmine made all of that seem like a lost, forgotten world.
“Jasmine…you’ve convinced me,” he said finally. “I’m going to get this off my chest. I just hope you won’t laugh at what I have to say.”
“I won’t even think about doing that,” she promised as she gently stroked Iago’s head.
Iago took a deep breath. “The truth is, I’ve only told you part of the reason I’ve been feeling sick lately. It isn’t just these headaches. I’ve been having nightmares too.”
“Nightmares?” Jasmine was now intently concerned.
“Yeah,” Iago said. “These nightmares have been coming back to me a lot lately whenever I’ve fallen asleep. I can’t figure out why they won’t stop. And they all involve…Jafar.” He choked out that name with a hoarse noise that sounded halfway between a cough and a vomit.
Jasmine’s eyebrows rose for a moment, and then she lightly stroked Iago on the cheek. “I’m so sorry, Iago,” she said, and then added, “Please go on.”
“I keep seeing his face, hearing his voice,” Iago continued. “And I keep reliving all those times when I made him angry.” He shuddered. “And then it gets even worse: Not only do I keep seeing Jafar, but I keep seeing myself when I was as bad as he was. I’m reminded of how evil I was under his guidance, and I start becoming afraid that I’ll turn out that way again someday.
“The sad truth is that I’m a coward and an idiot as far as my past is concerned. I couldn’t find it in myself to turn away from Jafar. Okay, it’s true that he used a little magic to help influence my darker side and bring it outward, but I’m ultimately responsible for my choice to do evil. Jafar couldn’t have influenced me to show my dark side if I hadn’t let him…if I hadn’t done it of my own free will. I was just too weak to resist. Too weak and too stupid.
“I was scared to death of Jafar, and I was angry at the world in general. When Jafar first took me in to be his pet and his helper, no one else cared for me. I was owned by some wealthy merchants who kept me locked in a cage and fed me lousy food. They didn’t care for me; they just wanted to sell me for the highest possible price, especially since I could talk like a human. Then Jafar comes along one day with all his money, and he buys me. He takes me to the palace and promises to make life better for me, to treat me better than my previous owners did. But it becomes clear that he just wants to use me, just like all the other humans I had experienced…except Jafar does it in even more awful ways.”
Iago paused and fell silent. Jasmine continued to pet his head as she sat at his bedside and listened. “I know he hurt you, didn’t he, Iago?” she said.
The parrot nodded and shut his eyes. “And I gradually became as bad as Jafar,” he went on. “I became just a reflection of his evil. I was driven partly by fear of making Jafar mad, and partly by my continuing resentment of other humans because of the way my former owners had treated me.”
Iago then looked Jasmine right in the eye. “And that’s why I often feel like I don’t deserve friends like you. I did some terrible things. Not only that, but I actually hated you when I was on Jafar’s side! In my warped thinking, you were someone who was trying to keep people like me and Jafar down. I despised you back then. Can you believe that? And yet here you are, showing me compassion and generosity that I don’t deserve.
“I know I’ve been a jerk, always complaining and yelling. That’s enough to make me wonder why I have any friends at all. But I’ve also been an evildoer, which makes me even more upset now that I can actually think like a sane person. The fact that you and all the others have forgiven me, taken me in, and included me in all of your wild adventures in spite of everything I was and everything I still am…it just surprises me sometimes when I think hard about it.”
Jasmine was listening intently, and her face continued to shine with compassion. “I understand what you’re saying,” she said. “It took me a while to be convinced that you really had changed. But once I was sure, once I realized it was true, I came to love you as much as all the rest of my dearest friends.”
She leaned closer to Iago and continued. “You mustn’t hold onto your guilt, Iago. You’re forgetting so many important things: You saved us all from Jafar when he tried to take revenge on us. You were the key in destroying his magic lamp, which destroyed him as well. Jafar is dead now, and there’s no reason for him to haunt you anymore.”
“I just can’t forget the bad things I did,” Iago said.
“But you can forgive yourself for them,” said Jasmine. “We have all forgiven you because you have proved, time and time again, in all of our adventures, that no matter how self-centered you make yourself appear, you really do have a caring heart underneath it all. You’ve saved us, and you’ve helped save the kingdom. And I know true goodness when I see it.”
“You really believe that?” Iago asked.
Jasmine nodded. “We all need to be able to forgive ourselves for things we’ve said or done. I’ve made mistakes in my life, and so have Aladdin and everyone else. You’re not the first person to make bad decisions, Iago, and you won’t be the last. What matters is how we live our lives after we change for the better.
“Those things you said about you being ‘cowardly’ or ‘stupid’–that’s Jafar talking, not you. He wanted you to feel that way about yourself so he could control you. But you don’t need to listen to any of that, because you won, and Jafar lost. And your final victory over him wasn’t the fact that you helped destroy him. Your final victory was that you found a family.”
Jasmine smiled when she saw that Iago was now listening even more intently than ever. “Think about it,” she continued. “Jafar wanted you to believe in nothing except the will to power. That’s all he ever cared about. But you now possess something that he never did–the love of family and friends. You surpassed him in what really matters in life, and I’m proud of you for it.”
Iago’s face brightened. “You’re right, princess!” he said with renewed confidence in his voice. “I do feel like a lucky bird! I don’t know why, but I’m kinda cheery right now!”
“I think you’re starting to realize what you have,” Jasmine smiled. “It’s something that neither Jafar nor any other evil can take away from you. It’s something that no one can take away from any of us.”
“So you mean, like, living well is the best revenge, and all that?” Iago ventured.
“In a nutshell,” Jasmine grinned. She then gave the parrot a hug. There were times when Iago would have dismissed all this as “mushy stuff,” but he wasn’t in that kind of mood now. He was feeling too good at the moment.
“Thanks, Jasmine,” he said with a big, toothy smile. “I’m not exactly one to overindulge in emotional escapades, but this conversation was fantastic. I think I’m gonna be a lot closer to a speedy recovery now.”
“I’m so glad,” said Jasmine. “Just get a good night’s rest and think about everything we’ve discussed.”
“Say, Jas, how’d the rest of that volleyball game go?” Iago inquired.
“Oh, Genie’s team won,” Jasmine told him. “We figured that was likely, of course. But don’t worry, we’ll get even next time.” She laughed. “Genie and Carpet have actually left for the night. They’ve gone to one of those future time periods Genie’s always talking about to watch ‘movies’ or ‘motion pictures’ or whatever those types of entertainment are called. But if you need anyone else, Aladdin, Abu and I are around.”
“Sounds good, Jas,” Iago said. “Hopefully I’ll be better in the morning.”
“Good night, Iago. Sleep well.” Jasmine gave him a small kiss on the forehead and then quietly exited Iago’s room.
* * * *
Iago's Triumph by Blackford
Author's Notes:
I had a lot of fun writing this story. It's a lot of fun to write about all of the great characters in the Aladdin series. Hope you all enjoy it!