“ | Nobody has ever fully deciphered the hieroglyphics, but I have! It's a magic chant that needs to be recited in order to complete the ritual! I'm sure of it! | ” |
—Jalil, "The Pharaoh" |
Jalil Kubdel[1] is a young historian and Alix Kubdel's older brother. In "The Pharaoh", after his theories about an ancient Egyptian scroll are disregarded by his father, Jalil is Akumatized by Hawk Moth and becomes The Pharaoh, a supervillain with the powers of each ancient Egyptian god.
Appearance
Physical appearance
Jalil is tall with chin-length reddish-brown hair and dark blue eyes.
Civilian attire
He wears glasses, an orange scarf, a scarab pendant, a white shirt with a golden Eye of Horus on it, a grayish-green jacket, beige jeans and sandals.
As the Pharaoh
The Pharaoh is tall and muscular, his eyes are glowing blue and his skin is black, like the ancient dioritic statues of the pharaohs. He wears golden bands on his wrists, ankles and biceps, a golden mask (which resembles Tutankhamun's funerary mask) with a nemes, a fake beard and a cobra on the top, a golden shendyt (a kilt-like garment) and two necklaces. One necklace has three lines of beads (alternating light blue and white) connected by golden pieces. The second necklace is his old scarab pendant that considerably changes after getting Akumatized: it becomes light blue, flat and winged and has a sun disk above its head.
When The Pharaoh uses the power of a god, his face becomes the one of the god's sacred animal: when using the power of Thoth he gets a baboon face, for Sekhmet a lioness, for Anubis a jackal, and for Horus a hawk.
- For more of Jalil Kubdel’s outfits and designs, see Jalil Kubdel/Designs.
Personality
Jalil is very passionate about his job: he is able to translate an ancient papyrus by himself and wants to perform the spell that is written on it. According to Marinette Dupain-Cheng, he jumps straight to conclusions, just like Alya Césaire. He is also willing to take the scepter from the exhibition to prove it, despite the spell being a theory and his father's job being at stake if he touches it. He's also a bit clumsy, as shown when he runs to the exhibition and bumps into Marinette and Alya, dropping everything he's holding in the process.
Pharaoh seems to believe that he is the ancient pharaoh Tutankhamun, and he tries at all costs to perform the ancient resurrection ritual for his wife Nefertiti: he's even willing to transform a hundred people into mummies and to sacrifice Alya to Ra.
Abilities
As a civilian
Jalil is able to translate ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
As The Pharaoh
As the Pharaoh, he gets supernatural strength, the power of telekinesis and the ability to perform an ancient resurrection ritual, which consists of using 100 mummies and a pure soul as a sacrifice to please the sun god Ra, who would then bring Nefertiti back from the dead. The ritual requires Tutankhamun's scepter to shoot a ray towards a pyramid (like the one at the Louvre), which would then direct it towards the sky creating a black cloud, where the human sacrifice is supposed to go.
He's also able to use the power of an ancient Egyptian god at choice:
- Thoth, the god of knowledge, gives him the power to create time-slowing bubbles that trap people. This may be due to the fact that Thoth is also the god of time measurement, and he once won 5 days gambling with Khonsu, the Moon, making the year of 365 days instead of 360.
- Sekhmet, the goddess of fire, war, dance, love, the desert wind and medicine, gives him even more strength, making him able to create powerful shockwaves only by clapping his hands. This power may come from Sekhmet's name: "sekhem", in ancient Egyptian, means "power or might", so Sekhmet's name means "the (one who is) powerful".
- Anubis, the god of funerary rituals and (in more ancient depictions) death itself, gives him the power to shoot rays from his eyes that turn people into undead mummies under his control.
- Horus, the god of the sky and kingship, gives him the power to fly.
Family
Tree
Unknown ancestor | |||||||||||||||
Missing Generations | |||||||||||||||
Alim Kubdel | |||||||||||||||
Jalil Kubdel | Alix Kubdel | ||||||||||||||
Unknown ancestor | |||||||||||||||||
Missing Generations | |||||||||||||||||
Alim Kubdel | |||||||||||||||||
Jalil Kubdel | Alix Kubdel | ||||||||||||||||
= Male
= Female
= Gender Unknown
Relationships
Mr. Kubdel
Jalil usually respects his father, but sometimes he doesn't when he is overconfident in his own theories, even to the point of willing to risk his father's job to prove them.
Sightings
Episodes
Other Media
Comics and books
Other
Trivia
- In the original French language, the Akumatized villain is called Akhenaten, a genuine Egyptian pharaoh. This is perhaps ironic, as Akhenaten is remembered as the ruler who attempted to overthrow worship in the old gods and install a sun cult religion in Egypt, yet The Pharaoh actively calls on those same ancient pantheon gods, not Akhenaten's "Aten" sun disk god.
- Akhenaten is also the father of history's famous boy-king Tutankhamun, also known as King Tut.
- Although Jalil is the older sibling, Jalil's father gives the family heirloom watch to Alix instead of him.
- In the French version, Mr. Kubdel says that the youngest child on his/her fifteen birthday inherits the watch.
- Despite the fact that the show states that Nefertiti was Tutankhamen's wife, she was actually one of his father Akhenaten's wives.
- In the Korean version of the show, The Pharaoh tries instead to resurrect Ankhesenamun, Tutankhamun's half-sister and wife. However, this is still historically incorrect because Tutankhamun died before Ankhesenamun.
- Even though Thoth is represented as a baboon when he uses his power, Thoth was more commonly depicted as an Ibis in Egyptian mythology, although some Egyptians did believe he was a baboon too.
- The Pharaoh reappears in the two-part special event "Heroes' Day".
- The Pharaoh appears another time in "Gamer 2.0" for Gamer 2.0's powers.
Gallery
Click here to view the gallery.
References