PART 1 - THE LAST RAYS OF A CRESCENT LOVE
Before meeting each other, "Love" was a mystery for the both of them. As Evi says: "Before Q2, Ali was
never interested in girls, until he realized he was getting older and there were no sight of love in his life. He started to see it as an
obligation." He was the heir and he needed to marry for the kingdom's sake, but he couldn't find any suitable princess. Ali knew what
true love means, because he could see everyday that wonderful feeling reflected in his parents' eyes. But since he couldn't find
anyone that would spark that magical light in his own eyes, "he was just waiting for any princess to come and that was all. He
started to believe that love was only a fairy tale... until a certain blue eyed princess came along."
Things were even more difficult for Azul. Her story and her feelings before and during Q2 are perfectly
analyzed in the Diary that Evi decided to write to get deeper into Azul's mind and heart. Love was not part of Azul's projects.
She had always believed that no man would have ever loved her, and that she could have never found someone to be loved the way
she dreamed of. Azul was just as sure that she could have lived a beautiful life all on her own, with the sweet support of her family.
Until a gorgeous prince came whispering her: "I love you!".
In Q2 we see A+A meeting and slowly getting to know each other and, even unconsciously, falling in love.
Their past reflections about love are hard to be won, but, chapter after chapter, they find the courage to prove themselves that they
were wrong: they're brave enough to admit that what they have between them is a real, true and sincere love. When a cruel war
comes along, their love grows stronger and deeper. The grand finale of Q2 portrays the beginning of their new life together.
The Crescent Love Trilogy is a continuous process of growing for Ali and Azul. Those 3 stories are
fundamental in order to understand their feelings at the beginning of Q3. When they're together on the scene, they have a
very special way of acting. This playfulness and sweetness among them describes A+A as a couple better than any word.
At first, Q3 may seem another part of Crescent Love, but every now and then the magical
atmosphere jumps in to reveal something new and weird, outside in the deserts and in Agrabah itself. They're just few clues, when
A+A are walking in the alley and they find the antiquities shop for example. From the moment you get to know about an alley they've
never visited before, you could guess there is something Azrak related going on there.
When Ali and Azul find two swords in the shop, they're amazed and immediately interested in them. This idea
comes out from a couple of real twin swords that Evi found in an antiquities shop in December 1999. They're about 55 cm long (22
inches more or less) and they have a dragon craved in one side of their blades and an inscription in the other side. The inscription
says: "Get off my way or your destiny will change". There's something… magical around those swords.
The inscription is soon deciphered: "I will change your destiny". But A+A are still unconscious of the magic around
them, they feel weirdness, but not magic. This is why playfulness and magic can live together in these first chapters. Very soon,
magic will take over. Evi says: "Since the story is going to be a pretty dramatic one I tried to insert humor in the first 3 chapters...
after that I don't think we'll smile for a long while. Besides it's really easy to insert humor when A+A are around. They are just plain
funny when they are together."
The first chapter is full of funny scenes like the library one. But slowly this scene turns out to reveal a dangerous
and even funnier secret, back to the times when Sadira was in love with Aladdin. At this point the story gets part hilarious and part
serious. The secret opens the doors to a journey to the past of Ali's father and Azul's mother. They both need to know how their
parents life was.
I really think that Aladdin's past is a point that should be emphasized very often. And it's good to see how Ali and
Azul love their parents, it's good to see that the love they share is not something possessive, that leaves out other kind of love. They
love each other deeply and they love their parents, with a different kind of love but with the same deepness. As Evi once said: "I
know this is not part of Q3 (the Aladdin past I mean) but Ali NEEDED to understand Al's past in order to start a new life as a
married man. And in fact this was the FIRST scene we planned for Q3 back in October. We cannot focus only in the magical
part. I mean, their lives have a lot of faces and this was one of them, Q3 related or not... we just HAD to include it."
There is a review of Aladdin and the King of Thieves that applies perfectly both for Aladdin and Ali. In
occasion of the wedding and before a rite that will consecrate him husband and then father, Aladdin decides to take a journey to find
out the identity of his dad. When the Oracle reveals him that his father is alive, Aladdin's afraid that his parent abandoned and
refused him. Thus, he wants to know him. Princess Jasmine allows him to go, but before he leaves, she reassures him with a
beautiful expression, a confirmation of his identity of man: "I already know your father, because I know you." Searching for his
father, within himself and outside; facing the journey of life to be recognized and accepted; preparing himself to the adult rite of
marriage and wanting to know his own origins is something beautiful, that needs to be learned.
In the same way, Ali is searching for his father, who's always been his role model and hero. Ali knew what true
love is thanks to his parents. Unlike Aladdin, Ali knows that his father will always be there for him, to reassure and help him, to show
him how a husband and a father must be. In his own family, Ali can find the ideal family.
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The other 3 chapters of Part 1 keep this Crescent Love style, but they're also highly involved into the
Q3's story line. They're quiet, sweet, slow chapters, where reflection overwhelms action. They prepare the reader to what's
coming next, taking him to a deeper contact with the characters. As Evi says: "I tried to foreshadow stuff as much as I could. Like
those parts when Azul asks Ali if he'd fight for her and he replies: "I'd die for you.", or when Azul tells Ali that she'd love to save his
life but alas, she's not strong and stuff... all those lines are foreshadowing of what's coming." We could also other examples, such as
when Azul's shirt is stained with red painting: that is obviously a prefiguration of the blood on Azul's shirt at the end of the story.
The characters have to get prepared for the hardest adventure of their life, they have to nurture those seeds of
hope, faith and spiritual strength that will allow A+A to keep going on even when everything seems to be lost.
There're some meaningful scenes, such as when Ali proposes again to Azul. This will be important, specially in the
last chapters of the story, when A+A want to speed up things and get married as soon as it is technically possible to set a wedding.
They won't be rushing things, since this idea have been grown into their hearts since ever. Besides it shows the high level of
intimacy and closeness they share. They are ready for marriage, BEFORE than the real Q3 adventure starts.
It is also interesting to see how Karak and Lord Aswad got into the plot. The Castle of Karak, in Jordan, was the
headquarters of Rinaldo of Chatillon. The fortress was part of the defensive line that controlled a section of the route between
Damascus and Mecca. Only after a long siege, Saladin conquered it in 1183. But the Lord of Karak was a real pain for the Sultan. He
almost robbed the sanctuary of Mecca. Prisoner after the battle of Hattin, in 1187, Sultan Saladin punished and killed him with his
own hands. As Evi says: "That antagonism between Saladin and Rinaldo inspired me SO much to base the relationship between Ali
and Aswad, but I never remembered that Rinaldo's fortress was in Karak... Rinaldo was mean, he kidnapped Saladin's sister and
killed her, that's why Saladin lost his usually kind temper and killed him with his bare hands. I was looking at that part of the story all
the time and I never realized the fortress was in Karak... I guess it was destiny."
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