Wishmaster/Headscratchers

• I have to admit that I haven't actually watched the movies, just heard of them, but there's something that's been bugging me since I actually started thinking about them. To my understanding, the Djinn of the film are Jackass Genies who, after they grant a third wish, are all released from captivity forever; however, they do ultimately have to grant your wish, they just do it in as nasty a fashion as they can get away with. So what's stopping someone from just wishing that all Djinn were destroyed forever and finally putting an end to things?
  • It's been a while, but if I remember correctly the heroine's freebie starter (granted by the Djinn to "get her in the spirit of things") wish is for the Djinn to "blow his brains out, right now." He manifests a gun, puts the barrel in his mouth, and blows the back of his head out. It regenerates, and he comments something along the lines of "that which is made cannot be unmade," implying that the Djinn cannot be wished out of existence, merely imprisoned.
    • It is possible to wish for whatever event that freed him to be un-done, which re-sets the time-line to that point, and continues on, without whatever event that freed Djinn ever happening. This way, whatever wishes he granted during his time with a person are null and void, as he was never released to grant them in the first place. It does not kill Djinn, but it does fix the life of the person who was unfortunate enough to come across him, and anyone else who came into contact with Djinn during this period.
  • The Djiin cannot destroy that which is eternal; which includes himself and evil.
• "I wish for wishes to be granted as the wisher would interpret them." Problem solved.
  • "Okay, fine then." Evil Man then does so for exactly two wishes. The wish was granted, and now he can be evil again. Problem back with a vengeance.
  • Three wishes being granted still unleashes the Djinn's hoards as well.
  • Second wish: "I wish that every single djinn in existence is resealed into an absolutely unbreakable prison for all eternity."
    • "Very well. The Earth will now serve as their new, absolutely unbreakable prison for all eternity. And of course, 'unbreakable' doesn't preclude it being 'unlocked', so the universe is still ours too. Oh, I'm sorry, did you say 'as the wisher would interpret them'? Well, now that I've explained this wish to you, that's how you're interpreting it. Next wish?" Jackass Genies can be very hard to manipulate, especially when, like the Djinn, they're willing to twist words around into outcomes that only Insane Troll Logic would've predicted. Of course, if the Djinn's really Dangerously Genre Savvy he'll just nod and say "done" until the last wish is granted, and then start springing the legalistic snares.
• This troper's problem is why the Djinn has to be an ass in the first place. Sure, it makes for a better story, but given the selfish nature of some people, wouldn't it be in the Djinn's best interest to just say, "Fine, I'll grant your wish exactly as you want," just to keep the ball rolling and get to that third wish faster?
  • The Djinn don't view humans as much more than means to an end, the Djinn probably derives some twisted pleasure from making people suffer, awfully human for an immortal being.
  • Yeah, he's evil and he likes torturing humans. He does simply grant wishes without being a Jackass Genie when it's in his interest to do so (like when he's granting the pivotal three wishes), but when he's just granting extra wishes to get through people, he sees it as a chance to inflict some mayhem along the way. Even in the prologue, when he twisted the king's second wish, it seemed to be with the intent of pushing him into immediately making the final wish ("then wish it away, sire, just wish it away").
    • That seems to be his pattern: seduce the wisher with the first wish going well so they will make a second wish, then make the second wish go disasteriously wrong and then they'll waste their third wish to undo the damage from the second wish.
• The heroine of the second movie wishes that the cop she shot was alive again so she could qualify as "a woman with a pure heart" and thus use the Banishing Spell. Two things here:
  • She's a thief. Apparently she never killed before but does repairing one crime really nullify all the other ones?
  • Suddenly discarding his Jerkass Genie manner Djinn actually grants her wish as desired and completely rewrites the cop's fate, returning him home as if nothing happend. Uhm, why not make him alive...in his grave?!
    • If I recall correctly, the only robbery she ever mentions committing is the one at the beginning of the movie, and in the montage she's shown secretly returning all the stuff she stole. That made up for it... I guess. And maybe the Djinn just wanted to get the second wish over with quickly so they could move on to the third, so he couldn't be bothered to twist things around.
• Another try at disarming the Djin through wishes. "I wish that you never ever grant another wish to anybody else, including me" or "I wish that you never speak with or contact in any way or even approach any human being closer than, say, 10 km, ever again, after you grant this wish". Would that work?
  • Eeeeh... Not really. The Djinn can fulfill those two wishes simply by exterminating humanity altogether. In this way, the Djinn won't be able to grant another wish to any human any more --and, definitely, he won't speak with, contact in any way or approach any human being any more. I don't think this would be the intention of the person making the wish, no?
  • Or he fulfills it by making humanity something other than humanity. What if it was fulfilled by making every human a host for an imprisoned Djinn, technically they wouldn't be human any more and the legions of the Djinn would walk the earth in place of mankind. The Djinn then wouldn't be speaking to any one that was human. Then he wouldn't have to grant wishes, there would be no need.
• Another try. The Djinn can go anywhere, do anything, as long as a human told him to. What if a human told him "Get Lost." Or for that matter "Stay lost."
  • 1) He reinterprets "lost" in some way. Like he blips himself to some far-off Death World... but you never said he couldn't take you or, for that matter, the rest of the human race with him. 2) Attempting to outsmart an ancient force of evil whose entire existence revolves around perverting your words and outthinking you is, by definition, really really dumb. If we can think of an answer, he can think of one a million times worse. Just stop.