Q: How did Jaffar ever expect to become Sultan?

[zethholyblade]

Meant to start a fun discussion.

In PoP, he was ruling Persia in the Sultan's stead, and had seized the Princess hoping to make her his queen and grant him acess to the throne, thus officially starting his coup.

True, he had the Palace Guard and 'teh (fat) Politician' on his side - the latter likely had a lot of sway within the Sultan's court to draw people on his side, but would they alone have been able to keep the Sultan and his armies at bay, even with the threat of executing the princess?? (let's face it, it's silly he'd sacrifice his one and only valuable hostage).

My guess is that he was a far more cunning and politically savy villain than we were allowed to know, since the whole 'oh such evil, wicked sorceror' was reason enough for us (as children) to embark on the epic quest of defeating him, rescuing the princess, and saving Persia

If so I'd imagine he already had swayed many among the Persian nobilty on his side, even planted a few of his minions among the Sultan's emirs and war council (possibly the Sultan's enemies' owns even in some sort of conjointed/ unholy alliance), sending the truly loyal ones to die in battle alongside their ruler, thus decreasing any threats to his rule.

But if he does kill the princess, then what? Trick the demoralized Sultan to start a vengeful siege on his own city and people (assuming he cared) and lure the enemies of Persia in to trap him (sword + wall)? I for one believe that plan had high risks of him being betrayed and either executed or turned into a vassal king... If only temporarly.

In PoP2, it made somewhat sense, since the Prince had already married, could attempt to dispatch the Sultan, or wait until he dies in battle, or a combination of both ...

And then sway the nobility (somehow) to back him up as the (beggar) 'Prince' until he came out as Jaffar reborn - Unless those faithful to him still lived - Lest he risked a civil war easily exploited by Persia's enemies.

Over the recent years the thought kinda went by in my mind. How did he plan on winning other than through sorcery (his or the Witch's)...what are your thoughts?

I for one think this is some good (graphic) novel material. Temptative to get to work on.

[4DPlayer]

Perhaps if he indeed killed the Princess and killed the Prince in combat, Jaffar would have to resort to lying that the Prince was a mad prisoner who found his way to the palace and that the Prince, instead of Jaffar, killed the Princess. He would also lie to the people that the Sultan died in battle, and with that, demand that the people except him as their new ruler.

This plan would work until the Sultan would return back to Persia. If Jaffar wins enough respect from the people, he could probably argue that the Sultan is an imposter of the actual Sultan who died at war, and start a mob that would kill the supposed imposter. However, the Sultan would bring a full army back with him— an army that is still loyal to the Sultan. After the Sultan is killed by the mob, what will actually happen is that a civil war would wage between the Sultan’s supporters and Jaffar’s supporters. This war would break the country apart and it would easily fall into enemy hands.

So, I guess the answer is that Jaffar could not have successfully taken a long-term reign as Sultan without the aid of sorcery.

[Coco]

Fun question. I've never saw user manual, nor played SNES versions of the game, so all of the story I know of is in the intro of the PC-version of the game. And boy, it's full of plotholes. Is the prince an actual prince (betrothed to the princess)? Will he ever answer for brutally murdering so many innocent guards who were just doing their jobs in order to feed their families?
We're told that Jaffar is the villain, but he basically took control over kingdom (shahdom) with little magic and a single hostage, while the Prince...

[David]

Fun question. I've never saw user manual, nor played SNES versions of the game, so all of the story I know of is in the intro of the PC-version of the game.

You can find some manuals here: https://popuw.com/download.html

And boy, it's full of plotholes. Is the prince an actual prince (betrothed to the princess)?

I remember reading an article (in a PDF?) which wrote that different ports of the game handled the story quite differently, and only PoP2 cleared it up.
One example was "Is he already a prince or does he only become one after marrying the princess?"
Unfortunately I didn't save the PDF or its URL, and I couldn't find it again.

Speaking of PoP2, its intro doesn't call him Prince before he marries the Princess.
(But as a twist, according to the "father's sword" cutscene, he was a prince of a land which was destroyed.)

Will he ever answer for brutally murdering so many innocent guards who were just doing their jobs in order to feed their families?
We're told that Jaffar is the villain, but he basically took control over kingdom (shahdom) with little magic and a single hostage, while the Prince...

This is brought up in this review as well.

[Coco]

Ok, I've read the manual.

You are the only obstacle between Jaffar and the throne. An adventurer from a
foreign land, innocent of palace intrigues, you have won the heart of the Sultan’s
lovely young daughter. And in so doing, you have unwittingly made a powerful
enemy.

Meh... Why those the dumb adventure cliche/conventions, when you can be in the shoes of the Sultan's slightly psychotic genocide champion, and the princess is digging him for the bad boy attitude

Then again, if that was the case, he would be off with the Sultan, spilling blood of the adversaries of Persia on their home ground.

[zethholyblade]

Man I've been sort of away but I sure am glad people began without me.

Regarding the Prince's legitimacy to the throne of Persia.
- In PoP he gets acknowledged as such at the end for saving the Sultan's daughter and the kingdom itself. Silly in a realistic sense since such thing would never happen, but hey these are fantastic tales. Other ports expand on the Prince's BG claiming he's a traveler from a foreign land if I'm not mistaken.
- In the PoP2 his BG gets revisioned and expanded a bit. He arrived Persia as a stowaway on a merchant ship (and leaves as such). How long did he stay at Persia before meeting the princess is unknown.

Later we find out (via ingame and manuals) that he is member of the royal family, and sole heir, of the (fallen) kingdom (of Basra), being also the sole reason he could ride the magical white horse.

However I wasn't considering the events of PoP2 for this subject, since nobody knew about them (chronologically speaking) for if they did from start the Princess' prospect would've never come to question (read that funny review)

I'd stick to Jaffar having plants on the sultan's armies, possibly his adversaries as well, while keeping his own ever faithful in Persia or buy their loyalty off.

Jaffar accusing the Prince of killing the Princess would never fly off for the Sultan would likely kill them both, slowly. Jaffar (and surviving guards) for their incompetency and the Prince for committing such heinous crime.