Discussion Literature / ArabianNights

I'm going to make a new page exclusive to the stage show. I am including the trope list below in order to keep that info until I make the page for the stage show, which I will do later this week.

A stage version entitled Arabian Nights also exists, with the script encouraging characters in the sub-stories and sub-sub-stories to improvise at points, as well as a rather clever device near the end to show off the huge number of stories in the original work after only actually telling a handful of them—it's only a 2-3 hour show. (It leaves out, by the way, all three of the aforementioned famous tales.)

The 2010 musical version composed by Felix Gray contains examples of:

• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In-universe, Sheherazade's stories have the power to blur the lines between fiction and reality, so that her sister Jasmina falls in love with the character Aladdin and an evil sorceress crosses over to wreak havoc in the real world.
• Breakout Character: Jasmina, the little sister Sheherazade used as an excuse to tell her stories, breaks out with a vengeance as a Yandere who tries to murder her own sister due to her mad magic-induced crush on Sultan Soliman.
• Crowd Song: "Les Lumieres De l'Orient," "Vive La Mariee," "Demander Pardon," "Ce Qui Ne Nous Tue Pas."
• Easily Forgiven: Everyone, in the end, without a jot of consequence. Although the music is so awesome, you can almost believe it.
• Evil Sorceress: Djinninia.
• Face–Heel Turn: The Sultan Soliman, at the end of the first act. But the story's not over yet ...
• "I Want" Song: "Etre Une Femme" (To Be A Woman), in which all the female characters sing about their wishes — royal status (a happily engaged Sheherazade), the end of her unrequited passion (Jasmina), peace and solitude (Djinninia), and love (Amina, a harem girl, who never had the chance for it).
• Lighter and Softer: Instead of killing his wives, the Sultan banishes them to some sort of parallel dimension, and after marrying Sheherazade, he sets them all free.
• Love Potion: Djinninia casts a love spell on Jasmina, to make her forget Aladdin and fall desperately in love with Soliman instead.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Jasmina is deeply annoyed by this.
• Say My Name: One of Sheherazade and Soliman's love songs consists almost entirely of this.
• Villain Song: Djinninia, with electric guitars.
• Woman Scorned:
  • Djinninia. Because of a lover's quarrel with the male genie (we never do find out what he did to hurt her so badly), she shuts him up in that infamous lamp and, after Aladdin frees him, decides to get revenge on both of them by breaking up Aladdin's love affair with Jasmina even though the latter two never did her any harm.
  • Soliman qualifies as a Man Scorned in the beginning.

"(How he managed to get 3,000 in the first place, we're not supposed to question."

No need to. Ancient and Medieval Oriental societies often had conscript or near conscript brides for powerful people and royal talent scouts combing the villages for candidates. While 3000 is hyperbole, some Oriental monarchs have had a remarkable number of wives. Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, founder of Saudi Arabia was legendary for that, though he was reasonably sane and simply said "I divorce thee" three times when he tired of a wife.

I may sound a little ignorant here, but: if the 75% of the nobles, princes and kings of the Tales marries their cousins/close relatives, how can they always get beautyful/handsome and smart children instead of a retarded, deformed lad/guy?

Values Dissonance or not, I still cannot see how Harun al Rashid was put "In a better light" in the novels: in the story where the corpse of a mutilated young lady is found, he says that he fears that the souls of the unavenged victims will cry for his fall when he will be judged (or something like that) yet, he has no problem with killing not only his Vizier but also 40 members of his family if he doesn't find the killer in time. Eventually in the end both the killer of the lady and the slave who caused the ruckus are Karma Houdinis....and so the poor lady is still "Unavenged". Furthermore, it's shown in other stories that Harun has the tendency of threatening to execute the poor Jaffar at any given chance.... I'm the only one to think that, Values Dissonance or not, he's still a huge Jerkass?