Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24596759-20140305195554

So, it's been troubling me for a while that Jafar dies as a child in "Bad Blood," and yet survives after his father drowns him. Reading through the relevant scenes in the transcript, I noticed that there is a special effect of "magic dust" leaving Jafar's mother when she dies and entering Jafar when he comes back to life. I didn't notice the connection watching the episode for the first time (and probably won't have a chance to rewatch until a DVD release), but it seems that we have 3 likely interpretations available:

1) The "dust" is the soul of Jafar's mother bringing her beloved son back to life, because (as we know from OUaT), true love is the greatest magic that exists.

2) The "dust" is Jafar's own soul returning to his body because he has a predisposition to magic and was capable of returning (shaky logic and I don't like it, but given what my other options are, I had to included it).

3) The "dust is either un-allied magic of some kind or an unspecified soul possessing/reviving Jafar for its own ends. This could also explain some of the illogical behavior we've seen from Jafar that other people have pointed out in regards to his relationships with the Sultan and Mirza. 