idk about any of you, but i am sick and tired of the fandom's treatment of jasper in seasons 3-4 and the way it's portrayed in fanfics.
many fans have claimed to "hate" how jasper was after season 2. they read his hostile and sometimes violent behavior as problematic, rude, etc, but when you take the time to consider the things he's gone through, you begin to understand why he went down the path that he did.
jasper was one of the younger main delinquents. his estimated age was 15-16, which means he was 14-15 when he was arrested. it's widely speculated that he and monty were locked up for smoking pot, a pretty nonviolent offense for the most part. they were then put in the same place as murderers & others who were violent.
i'm going to take a moment to compare jasper to clarke in this situation, because i feel like a lot of people are probably thinking that clarke's crime of treason wasn't violent either, but practically nothing is known about jasper's backstory. we can assume he wasn't one of the privileged because neither wells nor clarke recognized him. he was not born into the same wealth as her or gifted with the natural leadership skills she and bellamy have.
flash forward to the dropship. he watched two kids die right on impact. while it's unknown if he knew them or not, that's pretty traumatizing for anyone.
on day one, jasper jumped into the river to save octavia from the river monster that was a hair's breadth away from biting him.
he was speared in the chest the next day and presumed dead by his friends, who ran. the grounders then took him. judging by his frequent screams throughout 1x02, they weren't gentle. his blood was smeared and dripped across the forest. then, they tied him up to a sickly tree and used him as live bait for his friends. he could have been tied there for hours before they finally found him. the panther could have been prowling around below his feet, waiting for him to die. (also, panthers can climb trees, fyi.) keep in mind that he was given just enough medicine to stay alive.
jasper then had to stay in the dropship for a few days on the brink of death. we don't know if he ever found this out, but people were so annoyed by his screams of agony that they wanted to kill him.
he was so afraid to step foot out of the camp that he didn't want to leave. but when he finally did, he face-planted mere centimeters away from wells' fingers.
jasper was one of the few who stayed beyond the "beware" signs while on the mission to rescue octavia. he witnessed the brutal deaths of diggs, john, and roma. while we now know that lincoln wasn't hostile, he did stab finn and jasper was witness to that. they were pretty much friends at this point. he was probably reminded of his own suffering when he saw everyone trying to save finn's life.
jasper experienced hallucinations about the grounders when they ate the expired nuts in 1x10. then, because raven was sick, he was tasked with having a single shot to seal the fate of the delinquents.
monty, his best friend for life, went missing and was pretty much presumed dead.
he witnessed the tail end of murphy murdering myles. then, murphy tied him up and gagged him, holding him hostage, with a gun constantly in his view. jasper then had to deal with his life being traded for bellamy's and had to devise a plan to save him. when raven succeeded in opening the doors, he saw bellamy hanging from a noose.
jasper was right behind the kid who got ninja-starred in the face (i think his name was drew?)
he participated in a battle where half of the delinquents died.
he was then taken to mount weather while thinking that both bellamy and finn, two of his close friends, were dead. the mountain was presented as a safe place, but clarke disappeared and he was informed that she "abandoned" him and the rest of the 48. he decided to act as the leader of the group in place of her.
jasper watched maya almost burn to death and volunteered his own blood to save her. after this, dante asked him to convince his friends to donate their blood. jasper suspected that if they didn't agree, it would be taken by force.
harper went missing.
monty went missing again.
jasper had to pull his friends out of literal cages to save them.
dr. tsing turned the delinquents into prisoners after cage wallace took control and forcefully kidnapped one kid every time, despite jasper's best efforts to save them. he literally told fox he'd make sure nothing happened to her and then she specifically was taken after their battle in rubicon (1x12).
jasper developed relationships with the people who were trustworthy and had to hear of their deaths, then witness them firsthand after bellamy, clarke, and monty reversed the airlock. he had to watch as raven and abby were drilled for their bone marrow right in front of him. he and his friends were locked in chains, forced to witness. even if they closed their eyes, they could still hear their screams.
in jasper's mind, he thought he could have killed cage and that would've been the end of it all. he didn't think that genocide was necessary. he suffered from crippling PTSD at this point, likely combined with anxiety and depression. his brain was not working as normal people's do, and that's what i think is so difficult for other people to understand.
was jasper unnecessarily a dick sometimes? yes. did he get out of control? yes. but did anyone really try to help him cope? no. people would attempt, he'd push them away, and then they wouldn't try again. the yelling (mostly from monty) didn't really help either and seemed to only make things worse. he turned to alcohol as a way to numb the pain, though i don't condone alcoholism or support using it to solve your problems.
please don't write jasper out to be this angry kid who constantly throws fits and yells at people randomly. if you can, research how to write characters with PTSD/depression and implement some of those tips into your writing.
pls take care of this lil bean in your fanfics
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