Spoiler: Alone at Sea spoilers, question honestly, i feel like i could do with a breakdown on why people think jasper is evil? this isn't snark or passive aggression, i just see a lot of jasper hate that i don't entirely understand. the most i get is she's kind of intimidating. she's big and scary and grabs and is forceful. she starts out clearly on the 'bad guy' side. but lapis was the one that let them fuse with the intention of imprisoning them both together. and held them that way deep in the ocean for a long time. and at least from the snippets we saw of their fusion situation, lapis was essentially using herself to hold jasper prisoner. without them going more indepth into how things were when they were fused, it didn't seem like jasper was doing much in that situation to be 'evil'. which is why i'm curious about what jasper means when she says that she's changed and that lapis changed her and that that change will somehow make their fusion better and more 'healthy'. cuz all i can think she means is that she won't need to be imprisoned and that she won't fight the fusion? i'm legitimately not sure if i'm missing something and honestly my memory of past episodes isn't 100% great.
I'd like to know, too. Spoiler: more alone at sea None of Jasper's behavior pinged me as evil. Strung out and desperate, yes. In that weird, bad place a mutually toxic relationship can put a person when they're in denial about how it needed to end, yes. It was all very "Take me back baby, please, I've changed, it'll be better, I know you better than anyone else does." It's creepy, but saying that's 'evil' is reducing a messy emotional situation into childish black and white morality.
Spoiler: alone at spoilers Lapis is clearly v. traumatised but still trying her best to blunt those responses and get on with her friends because they're trying to help. Greg is still the best dad too. Jasper is also traumatised, and I really like the contrast between her and Lapis. I really hope Jasper gets a redemption arc, she's just not doing well at all. And Lapis being able to draw a line and say 'no' even though she liked the bad relationship is Very Good. Spoiler: re: question @Aniseed, I think people say that because she oversteps boundaries and throws a lot of punches? Like, when she asked Lapis to fuse, it was after grabbing her and not letting her fly away, and leaning over her and generally being Very Overbearing about it. I'm not sold on Jasper being Pure Evil but I do think it's pretty reasonable to go 'oh wow Jasper has no clue what boundaries are does she'. Spoiler: cw: pro-jaspis And oh my god my garbage ship is so much better now. Toxic and abusive and terrible and Good.
Spoiler: jasper thoughts honestly to me she just came across as extremely desperate. we've seen what pearl would do to be a fusion, there's definitely a "power" aspect to it. fusions feel strong, they feel MORE, and regardless of how unhealthy it was jasper's whole world has been flipped on her, she's just come out of something she was lied to about her whole life for the first time and desperately wants it back. it's like she's addicted, and being who she is i have no doubt she's been trained to be listened to and do whatever necessary to complete a goal.
Spoiler I never read her as manipulative, more like someone who is using the language she's got without really understanding the meaning others not coming from ber background might glean from it. If you're a soldier class gem, physicality is your language. Grabbing people and getting up in their face is just how you do. I kinda read her as very sincere, i guess. In her motives and desires and whatnot. and I don't know that she has a good enough grasp on how other people think differently than her to be truely manipulative.
Spoiler: I deliver for those wishing for a porn (i will be posting this on tumblr later but heres a sketch) I LOVE THIS EPISODE SO MUCH MMMGHHHHHHHHG BNG
Spoiler: jasper talk yeah she kind of pings me in this episode as really being basically an addict? also yeah that bit was.. creepy. but it's also sort of confusing me because again i'm sort of drawing a blank on how exactly jasper thinks she needs to have changed to make that healthier when it didn't seem to be her making it unhealthy other than by fighting it? Spoiler: more jasper talk yeah i've got my fingers crossed for a jasper redemption. while i don't think it'd be a great idea for her to stick around after being redeemed though? i think it'd be better for both her and lapis' trauma to be away from each other. it's definitely not something that can be bandaged over by steven singing a song and dancing or something. i kind of hope they go for a 'sometimes it's best for people to not be around each other' lesson with this one. jasper gets to be a better gem while, idk, exploring the earth and continuing to become better, or something. and yeah, i think a lot of it is 'violent, has poor sense of boundaries'. which is shitty but not inherently evil. she needs to stop smacking and headbutting steven around like he can take it though. part of it seems to be that she doesn't quite get that steven isn't entirely a gem and not actually his mom and can't take her hits though. Spoiler: more and more jasper talk yeah, i don't understand the manipulative talk about jasper. in general, she isn't, lapis is more so than she is. but that 'i've changed i promise!!' stuff was kind of manipulative. it just seemed like it was coming from a place of desperation and not outright plotting/maliciousness/ulterior motive or something.
?? Spoiler: alone at sea i called her evil because i wanted a single word to express 'bad terrifying bad bad exactly like people who are real and could hurt you at any time' and that was the best i could think of. needless to say, emotional trauma impulse does not account for discourse on the weight of intentions vs actions wrt morality.
Spoiler She doesn't have much respect for how much power Steven has, but now has a LOT of respect for how much power Lapis has. I doubt it even occurred to her that he was trying to protect Lapis; she just thought he was trying to protect himself.
Spoiler i don't think Jasper gets that it was unhealthy, as in it made Lapis into a person she didn't want to be amd also hurt Jasper. I think when Jasper says Lapis changed her and she'll be better now, she means that Lapis made her see that she never should have fought to escape and that she'll do what Lapis wants without a fight, because it'll make her stronger than she was on her own. I also get the sense that she was proud of how much she withstood, and that maybe she thinks that one party hurting the other might just be how fusion is, and that how much Lapis hurt her is a badge of honor. It means Lapis is strong, and Jasper is strong for taking it and being willing to take it again.
@tinyhydra yeah, that makes sense to me now. i was having a hard time wrapping my head around it, so thank you
lol, fair. I should have picked a better word than 'childish' rather than going "eh fuck it, I'm tired, that's close enough." I reserve the right to call tumblrites who get screamy about it childish, though.
Spoiler: jasper talk this is giving me some intense feelings thinking about like. a more-redeemed jasper learning from like garnet what fusion actually can be like. and having a really big 'OH' moment about it. and having to process what she went through.
and yeah @furrylatula while your response made me ask the question it's not just you.. i have seen on tumblr since the first time we even saw jasper a lot of discourse about her being awful awful evil evil and it's always just been kind of ??? i don't see it to me.
I like how Spoiler it got confirmed via implication that Jasper's eyeliner isn't a natural part of her look, she specifically applies it. She's been in water who knows how long, so it's all washed off!
and to add on the whole like 'jasper is bad and has been bad since we first met her' discourse. especially baffling because jasper got that treatment while peridot didn't. gem on the 'bad guy side' shows up, treats her sentient seeming orb things like shit, actively tries to harm the gems, has at least some involvement with some weird 'inhumane' fusion experiments, but doesn't get as much hate because she comes across as less brutish, more harmless, more nerdy/invader zim like. it's.. interesting. people rooted for her to be redeemed but just want jasper to die in a fire.
but... she is so orange... and has floofy hair... and stripes... how could anyone hate her at first...
