Maybe the “darker realm” could be Agrabah. (a) Agrabah had disappeared so that not even Jasmine could find it without Aladin’s genie help and (b) Gideon turned the Evil Queen into a cobra of sorts. In the Disney film, Jafar transformed into a serpent and had a snake staf.
What if the Black Fairy and Jafar are an evil power couple who took over Agraban? It just seems like those two narrative threads need to come together at some point, especially since Aladin said he’d be back (or something like that) in 6×10.
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"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy