Benevolent Genie: Difference between revisions

This is the [[Benevolent Genie]], the generally lesser-used character type of the three. This is because the very existence of such a genie is a [[Deus Ex Machina]] for most problems if the genie is so powerful they can just magic them away, becoming a [[Sidekick Ex Machina]]. One common way of adding conflict is to make the genie so ditzy that their usefulness can end up screwing things up in a [[Stop Helping Me!]] kind of way, by limiting the number of wishes that can be made, or at least giving the genie some sort of exploitable weakness.

* The d'jinni Anhikiahl in ''Poison Elves'' acts as a (somewhat) [[Benevolent Genie]] for Lusiphur, but only because she feels guilty for attacking him after being freed. When Lusiphur tries the old "wishing for more wishes" trick she points out that she can be a [[Jackass Genie]] too if he doesn't keep his wishes reasonable. (It later turns out that the wishes she ended up granting weren't that problem-free either, due to certain "mandatory bylaws".)

* The Genie in ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' functions like this, even interpreting an unconscious head bob in the best possible way (as "Genie, I want you to save my life"). In fact, he's nice to a fault -- when Jafar takes control of him late in the film, it doesn't even occur to him to try to use some [[Literal Genie]] interpretations to screw Jafar out of his wishes (for example, simply teleporting Jafar to a [[Death World]] when he wishes to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world, or making Jafar the "sultan" of an oasis). Fortunately, Aladdin himself thinks of a loophole and tricks Jafar into using it. The Genie doesn't even realize what Aladdin's plan is until after he already granted the wish. (Compare Eden from [[The Series]] under "Western Animation," who is smart enough to play this as a [[Zig-Zagging Trope]].)

* Fakrash al-Amash (Burl Ives) in 1964's ''[[The Brass Bottle]]'' is a djinn who is so grateful to architect Harold Ventimore (Tony Randall) for freeing him from his bottle, that he is continually making extravagant gifts to him -- alll of which only complicate Ventimore's life and make him miserable. [[I Dream of Jeannie|Barbara Eden]] is featured in this film, though not as a djinniyah.

* In [[Isaac Bashevis Singer]]'s book for children, ''A Tale of Three Wishes,'' three children go out on the night of Rosh Hashanah because they've heard that Heaven opens its doors then--and anyone who sees the doors open will be granted one wish. One of the boys wants to be as rich as King Solomon; the second boy wants to be as wise as the Talmudic scholar, Moses Maimonides; and the little sister of the boy who wants to be rich wants to be as beautiful as Queen Esther. Each wish gets wasted--but, when the kids grow up, the boy who wanted to be rich becomes a hard-working and extremely wealthy businessman called "a modern Solomon"; the boy who wanted to be wise becomes a Talmudic scholar known as "the Maimonides of our time"; and the little girl who wanted to be beautiful spends all her time helping her people, to the point where everyone says she's as lovely and as kind as Queen Esther.

* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' episode "I Dream of Genie" features a genie who can only grant one wish and so encourages the man who finds him to [[Be Careful What You Wish For|carefully consider what he really wants]]. The hero rejects various [[Genre Savvy|ordinary wishes for wealth, love and power]], and finally {{spoiler|wishes to become a [[Benevolent Genie]] himself, one who can grant three wishes and arranges for his lamp to be found by the homeless and needy}}.

** Despite being the [[Big Bad]], Erazor unwillingly acts as a [[Benevolent Genie]] in the end. Erazor's triumph is completely undone when Sonic reveals that he has ''Erazor's lamp'' and forces him to fix everything.