As a small child, I had quite the obsession with Jasmine (yes, the Disney princess). While I always hated the notion of being a princess due to years and years of Princess Smothering (something I'll explain at another time), I always have and still do love Disney movies. I have it on good authority (my mother) that any chance I had to wear my Jasmine costume I would. Aladdin has always been my favorite Disney movie.
At the age of small child, I never really thought much as to why Jasmine was so awesome. All my small child mind could think was that Jasmine was awesome because well Jasmine is awesome.
Eventually, sometime when I got older I actually thought about why I liked Jasmine so much at age small child. It was very obviously because she was the only princess that wore pants. Plain and simple fact.
She is also notably one of the least dressed Disney princesses. (This has less to do with why I liked her, than it is an observation (although some of my friends might argue otherwise).) Ariel is quite naked for a good deal of The Little Mermaid. That is true, but unlike Jasmine, she eventually ends up in the more traditional princess outfit of an obnoxiously large hoop skirt, presumably five petticoats, a corset, and a dress that could pass for a Narnian tent. Jasmine however never dawns any such attire. It's pants and an exsposed midriff all the way. Well, she does where a dress at her wedding, but there are no hoop skirts, petticoats, or corsets involved.
When I was a child I actually got to be quite familiar with hoop skirts due to my dad's reenactment (or as I like to call it Historically Accurate LARPing) obsession. I knew the hoop skirt as the tent my mom wore when we were told to wear old fashioned underwear and use chamberpots. I personally never and still don't have any desire to wear a hoop skirt.
Now back to Jasmine. Now as an adult there are more legitimate reasons why I like her so much. (Though the wearing pants thing is still quite cool.)
5. She doesn't wish for a more rich filled life. She wishes to experience the real world. (Though, she may have second guessed this when she almost lost a hand.)
4. Unlike the other princesses she doesn't fall for a prince. (I'm talking about the ones I grew up with. 2D ones not based loosely on real people, so Brave and Pocahontas* are not part of this conversation, nor is Tangled.) Through dialogue we learn that she has had many cocky bastard princes after her hand in marriage. She says "screw you" (presumably in arabic with more tiger bites) to them all.
3. She doesn't hold a pointless grudge. When it's found out Aladdin was only a prince by magic and dumb luck, she doesn't waste a moment getting all pissy about it. (I've seen that in movies and it's annoying and ridiculous.)
2. She hands Aladdin his ass a couple of times. She does this when he's acting like a cocky prince trying to convince the sultan he can woo Jasmine. She shocks him by pole vulting over the gap on the way to Aladdin's pad. She also very easily discovers who he is (this might be because it wasn't much of a disguise to begin with) and tricks him into admitting it.
1. Jasmine has imperfect morals. She doesn't really have a sense of right and wrong in the black and white sense. She doesn't even shrug at the fact Aladdin was/is a thief. She thoroughly enjoys duping the guards of Agraba. She's willing to flirt with a creepy ugly scrawny old dude as a distraction. (That takes guts and skills my friends.) "Your beard it's so...twisted." is one of the best lines ever (just saying). She sicks a tiger on a cocky prince and doesn't give a shit. This is something many woman would do if they a) had a tiger and b) wouldn't get arrested for it. (There are some perks to being a princess, I guess.)
*As a child I never actually got to watch Pocahontas much do to my dad's LARPing...hhmmmhhmmm...excuse me reenacting obsession. My dad spent so much time criticizing it when I did watch it, it wasn't worth it. We never even owned a copy of it until I was in high school and my mom brought it home from work because the library was getting rid of their VHS collection.
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