Well, Jasper did grab her as she was trying to flee, and mystery gem punched her in the back when she was trying to flee. Which poofed her and lead to the whole mirror situation in the first place. The entire situation could have just reminded her of that particular trauma and the feelings of helplessness that went with that. Then Jasper was talking about how this was her chance to take revenge. She just didn't think that Lapis would want revenge against her for making her feel like a tool again. This is another situation where I think the info we have is already enough to explain away Lapis's actions and their motivations without adding another layer of "well, what Lapis did was really bad so Jasper must have done something really bad to her off screen" like... even if you consider that disproportionate retribution, why not have Lapis be a gem who will fuck you up if you cross her? Given what we've seen of Jasper and her personality it wouldn't surprise me if she did do something to Lapis, but until we see it there is no reason to jump to that conclusion when "she is a loud pushy asshole who hammered on Lapis's buttons" works too. I'm not going to throw out the possibility until we learn more about them, but to me "Jasper and Peridot are obnoxious jerks and Lapis hates being used as an informant and hates them by association" is more morally grey and interesting than "Jasper and Peridot tortured Lapis and treated her like a criminal to get information out of her and that's why Lapis hates them." because in the first option everyone is kind of a douchebag and they all hurt each other, and in the second there are clear bad guys and good guys.
I do wonder how much cracking a gem has an affect on mental state though-- it seems weird that she'd try and smash the crystal gems and steal the oceans for the grand crime of not knowing she was in the mirror, but her response to Jasper was just ("""just""") forcing her into a fusion and locking her at the bottom of the ocean. Which isn't to say that it wasn't Lapis doing that, but given that a lot of the monster gems are wildly and randomly violent for no apparent reason, I'm hesitant to say that "stealing the oceans and trying to kill the CGs" is a normal degree of retribution for Lapis. I don't think she was tortured, because it is a kids show, and one that would rather handle things like civilian POWs with nuance, but I can see where people get the idea.
I dunno that that was pure retribution. She was making an attempt at smashing them because they were trying to stop her from getting away. she stole the ocean to try and get away, and only got murdery when the CGs made it clear that they weren't gonna let her. so, how Lapis acts when you treat her bad just seems to be what we get with Peridot. That's the only time we've seen her free of external pressures of motivations. The CGs were trying to stop her (from her POV) from going back home, and Jasper was trying to corner her into fighting when she'd rather have run.
We see Amethyst with a severely cracked gem and even on the verge of death her mind was fine, it was her body and her ability to communicate that was falling apart. Even the shards in the cluster were pretty coherent even if they had no idea who they were and wanted to find the other shards of their original gem. Even if they were only a partial consciousness Steven could talk to them and reason with them that reforming wasn't going to help, it was just going to destroy the earth, if they bubble each other thy won't have to form, and they can rely on each other if they need to feel whole again. All of the corrupted gem monsters we've seen have a fully intact gem which points to something psychological and not something physically wrong with the gem. So I really don't like the idea that Lapis would only do the things that she did in Ocean Gem/end of Mirror Gem because she was cracked.
While an altered or unusual appearance of the eyes is a common visual cue for ' altered/unusual state of mind,' The counter example of Amethyst and the cluster shards does suggest a damaged gem is more about their bodily wholeness/integrity. I wonder if there's a relationship between gem size and ability to create a consciousness and project a body. There's probably a minimum threshold you have to pass before, bam, now that chunk of rock can be a person! But...In a weird way, it also makes sense that the cluster shards had the ability to communicate in a limited way--crystal structures are regular and repeat their patterns even at the molecular or atomic level. Even at a very very small scale, their crystalline nature is still there. So by analogy, the consciousness is still there too! So the awkward result: someone/something that can't really interact with the world properly, because there isn't enough of the right Stuff present, but still aware of the world around it, because that sentience is an emergent property of the crystal structure. Magic geology of the soul.
PROTECT GREG UNIVERSE AT ALL COSTS. Honestly, he reminds me a lot of my own dad in a lot of ways, as I've said before. My dad's worked full-time my whole life, and has still always managed to squeeze in time to be with his little girl. We even had "daddy-daughter days" when I was little, where we'd get lunch or go to the arcade or something (and just like Steven and his beloved Ranger Guy, I still have trinkets from those outings that I cherish simply because of the memories behind them). And my dad's not in the same circumstances as Greg. My mom--his wife--is still alive and well, and he's got a pretty high-paying job. We live in a nice house. And Greg has none of that, plus he has to deal with the Gems and the fact that he genuinely can't help Steven with his Gem powers...and he's still just as amazing a dad as mine. I really love Greg, okay.
it's called a style. look it up. eyes inhibit the emotions of the piece fuck you eyes are hard and i don't wanna.
that reminds me that this sketch by Lauren Zuke exists: tsundere!Jasper is now at least 10 times funnier after Super Watermelon Island. also Lapis says anime is trash:
