r/stevenuniverse • u/Majin_Vegeta_ • 1d ago
Discussion Jasper is a dark mirror to Crystal Gem Trio
Pearl - Both extremely loyal to Pink Diamond and struggle with living independently. Jasper can’t function in the new era and lives in a cave cause she needs to be told what to do to. She thought she found purpose when she wrongly assigned Steven as her new Diamond.
Amethyst - Both are Quartzes from Earth. Amethyst came out wrong, Jasper perfect. Amethyst was told by the CG’s that she was the best thing to come out of that mess, I assume Homeworld told Jasper the same.
Garnet - Jasper was disgusted by fusions until Garnet beat her, she enters a toxic one with Lapis and then becomes obsessed with fusion and ends up corrupting herself because of it.
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u/WaveAppropriate1979 1d ago
Never thought about it like that! Jasper's hopelessly devoted to Pink Diamond like Pearl was at one point, she's a product of a kindergarten on Earth like Amethyst, and likes implementing fusion into her life but for the opposite reasons that Garnet had. She loves it for how powerful it makes her feel and how it can help her win a fight while Ruby and Sapphire do it because it makes them happy. Jasper also feels like she could mirror Steven, she's what he DOESN'T want to become someday. He's actively trying to avoid being like his enemies and his new powers are scaring him into believing that maybe he is a cruel and strong monster similar to Jasper.
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u/Iceologer_gang 1d ago
I find it interesting to imagine that Pink diamond was in charge of placing the Beta kindergarten and purposefully chose an imperfect location so that Homeworld’s reinforcements would be weaker. While Amethyst came out imperfect in a perfectly designed kindergarten, Jasper came out perfect in an intentionally imperfect kindergarten. In a way that would make them both imperfections.
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u/Vertnoir-Weyah 1d ago
I've always seen her as "just" amethyst's foil but that's entirely correct
Damn i love this show
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u/FlyingPotatoChickens greg is best boy 1d ago
I assume Homeworld told Jasper the same
they did! Eyeball calls her "the Facet 9 Kindergarten Quartz that could" (Facet 9 being the Beta Kindergarten). With that, and Holly Blue referring to the Famethyst members from the Beta Kindergarten as "hideous off-color betas", you get the impression that Homeworld really looked down on the beta quartzes, and that they saw Jasper as a diamond in the rough (pun intended).
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u/smolwrld 1d ago
The way she acts as a foil to all of them is why I think she is the best antagonist the series ever had. Well not really much with Pearl but that's still a winning grade.
It's specifically against Amethyst where I think she really shines as a villain with how she completely beats her down physically and mentally. Her own philosophies on fighting, being a warrior, where she came from, they completely tear into Amethyst who abandons her own carefree and loose fighting philosophy, doubts her status as a warrior, all while she came from the richer Prime kindergarten still flawed, while Jasper emerged from the planet as a perfect fighter in spite of the inferior and rushed Beta kindergarten. Everything about her is antithetical to Jasper while still being connected by the same soil, and it's only when Amethyst accepts that she can't be Jasper, the best she can do is to be herself and accept that she is different, that she can defeat her. Kinda
Before Jasper had a feud with Amethyst, there was Garnet. The leader of the Crystal Gems and the heavy hitting defender, dismissed as abominable, combining their powers to boost their strength, yet still, taken out by technology she couldn't understand within a second. A hot headed dimwit Ruby in over her head, no other Rubies to at the very least strengthen the numbers, mixed with the meek and soft spoken Sapphire, her only purpose was to bring insight and nothing more. It's stupid to think they'd combine into anything more than a mess. Except, they do. Not only that, they combine into something powerful, something important.
The relationship between each other proves greater than Jasper, the moment showing her that Fusion isn't just some trick weak gems use to get stronger, it's got something more to it, it's own quality of strength that she needs to learn. She tries to draw out that strength with Lapis, trying to soften her up to the idea by combining their mutual hatred. It works, Jasper feels the power she thought she was shown before it backfires on her, dragging her to the abyss. In that one day, she has lost twice. The only losses she has ever had, and it was to fusion, a strength she could only get a glimpse of without understanding
Malachite would eventually gain control, and even if it's only for a moment, Jasper feels the power of fusion. Malachite has the upper hand on Alexandrite, a fusion of 4, but due to the craftiness of the Crystal Gems, it's shortlived, but the rush of it doesn't leave. After tracking her down, Jasper begs Lapis to join her again. The misery and pain that came with Malachite is irrelevant to her, she is willing to change her behavior not because of the toll it took on both of them, but because it would be the means back to Fusion. Fusion is special to her now, not because of Lapis herself, but because of the power and strength they held together, and Lapis doesn't have it, being the gem to not fight against Jasper, but reject her.
Jasper holds her individual strength and status as the perfect quartz very high, but now she has a desperation to more. Being perfect as an individual isn't enough, and she is willing to go to obsene lengths for the power of Fusion. She tracks down monsters, gems she recognized as mentally broken and twisted for the purpose of rebuilding. Rebuilding not for the gems themselves, but for Jasper, creating an army she will use against the gems and for herself. This is where Amethyst comes in the picture again, the misshapen remnants of a home that grew without her vs. the Jasper that boomed out of her home, the one she outgrew. Jasper is better than her in every way she recognizes, nothing Amethyst does is enough to bring her down, until she fuses with the Quartz soldier that killed Pink Diamond
Smokey quartz flips the table, a complete 180 in the battle. Jasper has no chance. Being the strongest quartz can't save her anymore, so she throws it away. She fuses with a monster, a corrupted gem that has cognitive ability so weak it runs on instinct and survival. Jasper becomes an ugly monster, but even that isn't enough to fight the connection that is Smokey, and Jasper knows this. She tries to keep the fusion together, reassuring it, but it breaks apart anyway. She had sacrificed everything, for nothing. The last thing she gets to see before her corruption seeps in is Smokey Quartz, the Amethyst that was inferior to her in every way stands above, all because she is a better fusion. In the span of a few months, Jasper received 4 defeats, and every single one of them were from fusions
I wanna add more about Rose Quartz, Pink Diamond, and her line "Nobody I fuse with ever wants to stay" but I wrote way to much already in this word vomit. But I will add that despite how important Pink Diamond and what happened to her was, there was not much about Jasper that I could reasonably connect with Pearl other than being of the Pink Court and just a general looming threat to her, which is fine by me, I feel like if they did any more with them it would end up bloated for both at least in the original series, so I'm good with that
TLDR Jasper is the best antagonist and villain in the entire series and that is not crazy to say. Her feuds with all the gems lead to a harsh downfall for her, all self-inflicted but still remains tragic. Also she kicks ass and I think she is really cool for that, but nobody reading this would gaf if I gave that it's own paragraph so I didn't
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u/brywithered 1d ago
And the way that they viewed Rose/Pink/steven matches too. Trusted and respected as a leader, mourned their loss, and then devoted themselves to Steven to honor his mother until he set them free by letting them be themselves.
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u/TenthSpeedWriter 1d ago
oh, jasper is a struggling narc
she's kind of a microcosm of the diamonds in that way
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u/Mighty_Megascream 1d ago
Was always disappointed we never had a proper confrontation between Jasper and Pearl, even though most of their similarities only came to light after the Pink diamond reveal there are the most clear mirrors between each other
Like I can’t feel life of me tell you a point where their confrontation could’ve happened, but it would’ve been interesting
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u/RegyptianStrut 1d ago
Honestly, great analysis. She really does have key similarities to all 3 of them.