SomeClodWithTheTheories has a rather interesting theory on Jasper and her history. Take a look below to see what they think.
In the episode Earthlings (and the episode before it, Beta), we learn a bit more about Jasper’s past; we learned she was made in the Beta Kindergarten, we learned that she served under Pink Diamond, and we learned that her motivation for wanting Rose gone so badly is because of what she did to Pink Diamond. However, I think we can gleam a bit more than that from a few of the things she’s said in this episode.
This theory’s going to be a bit more speculative than normal, just because I’m looking at how certain lines are being said, and the emotions on Jasper’s face, etc. which makes the evidence a bit more subjective. That being said, watch this clip, you can stop when Jasper starts talking about Peridot.
The line “Because when you’re at the bottom, you’ll follow anyone that makes you feel like less of a failure,” sounds like it comes from personal experience, if you ask me. Whether she was the one at the bottom or the one being followed is unclear, but I think it’s pretty certain that she had that kind of relationship with someone else in the past.
Also, the line “No one I fuse with ever wants to stay,” sounds a bit off to me if you assume she’s only referring to Lapis and the corrupted gem. I think there was another gem before Lapis.
And if that’s the case, we have to look at one of her more well-known lines under a new light.
Before I go any further, I want to say that, above all else, I think that following lines are based on experiences Jasper’s had before the start of the show: “When you’re at the bottom, you’ll follow anyone that makes you feel like less of a failure,” “No one I fuse with ever wants to stay,” and “Fusion is just a cheap tactic to make weak gems stronger.”
I tried to think through what Jasper’s backstory could be based on this information. I’m much less certain about this backstory; it’s basically complete speculation, but it’s all I could think of that lines up with everything we know and this new information. I mostly just wanted to give an example of how these lines can be reflective of her backstory without contradicting anything. That being said, here’s what I think Jasper’s backstory could be.
Jasper’s fighting in the war against the Crystal Gems. One of her fellow Quartzes (let’s call her Agate, just to give her a name) isn’t as effective as she should be. Jasper takes pity on Agate and agrees to show her how to be a proper Quartz soldier. Jasper is her normal, aggressive, unfriendly self, and only sees this training as a service to the Diamonds by improving one of their soldiers. Agate doesn’t exactly like spending time around Jasper, but Jasper’s training was working, so she felt she needed to continue.
Their training was only been helping so much, though. Jasper needs to get into Agate’s head to properly correct some of her behaviours. That’s when she gets the idea to fuse with her. That way she could teach her from inside her head, show her how to think, show her how to act. So, they fuse and go out into battle. Jasper’s still just as prickly and aggressive as ever, making her not the best fusion partner, but Agate feels she needs to learn how to be strong. She may not like it, but she’s at the bottom, and training and fusing with Jasper makes her feel like less of a failure. Jasper, being fused with her so often, becomes familiar with these feelings.
Still, this kind of relationship is emotionally taxing on Agate, and over time she feels worse and worse about fusing with Jasper. Eventually, they run into some Crystal Gems (maybe Garnet and/or Rose) that try to tell the fusion that she’s unstable, that they’re not working in harmony, that they’re going about fusion all wrong. This is Agate’s breaking point. She separates from Jasper and tells her she never wants to fuse with her again and joins the Crystal Gems. Because Agate was a Crystal Gem now, Jasper had no choice. She had to shatter Agate.
After this, Jasper forsakes fusion as just a cheap tactic to make weak gems like Agate stronger. Still, though she doesn’t want to admit it, it kind of hurt that Agate didn’t want to stay.
Whether or not this is true, I don’t think we’re done with Jasper. I’d honestly be surprised if this is exactly how her backstory went down, but I’d be interested to know if this is at least close.
If you would like to see more by this theorist or see the original article, click here.