[Princess of Agrabah]

Well, the palace was empty, and it's sort of like how Jasmine felt inside, I suppose. Since like Calluna said she had no friends ( except like, Rajah XD ) and I'd think she'd be pretty lonely.

[Calluna]

I guess it would look silly for Jasmine to complain about being lonely and not having any friends when she is surrounded by servants 24/7.

[Amyrat151]

Metaphor? Explain please

[Princess of Agrabah]

I think that the empty palace was also like a metaphor for Jasmine as well.

[Amyrat151]

^
That makes the most sense. That Sultan had other advisers, but only one Grand Vizer, making Jafar the most trust adviser. And yeah, we all know he got the job by weaseling his way to the top.
About Jasmine not having a flurry of people around her, it is still a Disney movie, and they always put the least amount of characters as possible in their plots. Even nameless characters, like the group of city dwellers in Hercules that one can see through the whole movie. So yes, while surrounding Jasmine with servants would have made the most sense, it is not Disney's style.

[Princess of Agrabah]

I'm sure there were bureaucrats and officials and stuff, but Jafar was by far the most powerful. And he probably did get control of them by bribery or whatever means necessary so that no one was between him and the Sultan. There had to be other advisors, but Jafar was the Grand Vizier, second only to the Sultan. I like to imagine their government system as being similar to the Ottomans', where there was a Sultan, a Grand Vizier, and a bunch of lesser viziers.

[lisa jane]

I would think that Jafar is the Sultan's only advisor - at one stage there might've been more, that he might've killed and the Sultan most likely still thinks they're alive.

That said, Jafar himself might have advisors that he doesn't pay any attention to, because it does seem rather strange that the entire city would be run by the pair of them alone, considering the Sultan never seems to know what's going on and Jafar is more interested in his own vendettas rather than anything to do with Agrabah.

[APK]

It bugs me so much that they didn't at least show Jasmine's servants/employees/advisors in the movie, since a lot of her character motivations are due to her always being surrounded by people telling her what to do. I can understand for the series not wanting to draw anymore characters than necessary, since they were on a budget. But for the movie, they went through all that trouble drawing a very hard to animate tiger, but didn't bother with extra people

[Calluna]

I find it hard to believe that Sultan and Jafar were able to run the whole kingdom by themselves, so there must have been *someone* else. It might be similar to how we don't see many of the other palace employees. I'm sure the Melon Ball Guy isn't the only one serving the food. Abin and/or Safiya can't be the only cooks. There have to be more than four guards. A lot more servants, etc. show up in the books, so it's probably more that they don't show more people than they need to for the plot because it's too expensive. Doesn't mean they're not "really" there, though.

On the other hand, Jafar would have been trying to consolidate power and keeping anyone else away who could interfere with his control of the sultan. So any other staff members could have been sent to work in a basement somewhere, or they were bribed or threatened into taking Jafar's side.

[persian85033]

Jafar had too much power. Imagine, having one of Jasmine's suitors arrested. I wouldn't be surprised if he had the other viziers executed or something as well, and the sultan being absolutely clueless about it. He can simply convince him using his staff, after all.

[Jafaria]

Well, Jafar was, and Aladdin was about to become, the "royal vizier." It makes no sense to call one of your viziers THE royal vizier if you do, in fact, have more than one.

My theory is that Jafar got rid of the rest of them but then for some reason needed to convince Sultan they were still alive, so Sultan doesn't actually KNOW that Jafar is, by now, his only advisor.

And I totally didn't see APK's post before I posted this, we just thought the same thing simultaneously. Great minds think alike.

[APK]

Nah, you're right. I don't think Jafar would've shared power with other viziers. Unless it's just that Sultan thinks the other viziers are still around the palace somewhere, when in reality, Jafar had them all thrown off a cliff and sunk under water. And Sultan thinks to himself, "Those other guys never show up for work! That's why Jafar is my most trusted adviser!" And maybe Jafar was the one telling Jasmine where to go and how to dress, because I don't see anyone else around. He does seem like the fashionable, controlling type.

[AladdinsGenie]

The other guys were away on business during the movie and missed all the events

Although, the way sultan was ready to give Aladdin that job might suggest Jafar was the only one.

...then again, maybe Aladdin was just relacing one, idk. I kind of lean towards he was the only one, though. I don't think Jafar would have liked other people around.

[APK]

Does this mean he has other ones? There are like 3 people living in that palace