All right. You think crew may have possibly ruined the Redemption for jasper in favor of lapis, even though we know jasper will come back and the crew is doing some things wrong like they are afraid to put lapis in a bad light despite that lapis also did wrong things forcing herself and jasper to be in the Fusion so she can Punish her and the most recent example is taking the barn with her and leaving peridot depressed about the whole thing?
Short answer: no, not at all. I just think they haven’t gotten there yet.
Long answer: The Crewniverse has never stuck me as the type to shy away from taking risks, as calling out Lapis’ behavior would be. Hell, they’ve made ROSE QUARTZ, once the very image of Good and Just™, a controversial character, so anyone is fair game!
I’m a firm believer that Lapis’ lack of consequences for her actions is a major character flaw for Steven, and not just the Crewniverse trying to avoid backlash. Every interaction he has with her ultimately involves her hurting someone–Greg, Jasper, Peridot, etc.–and leaving to avoid conflict that may or may not be related to her actions, yet he’s still never acknowledged how she was at fault in these situations.
She broke Greg’s leg, but “Lapis was not mean, she was just trying to get home.”
She had complete control over Jasper, keeping her trapped in a fusion and torturing her for months on end, and admitted to missing keeping Jasper bound to her, but “it’s not like that anymore. You don’t have to be with Jasper” and “she’s terrible!”
She was an absolute jerk to Peridot in Barn Mates. While she wasn’t obligated to be her friend (given their former dynamic), she didn’t even try to explain this to Peridot. She just decided that she wanted to live in the barn that Peridot had already claimed, rejected all of Peridot’s advances with no explanation, then told her to leave the place she decided to call home. Like wtf! Granted, Steven did call her out for being mean and not even giving her a chance (no mention of the fact that she broke Peridot’s coping mechanism and told her to scram, but w/e).
So she and Peridot became friends and everything seemed just fine, when in reality, Peridot has been bending over backwards to keep Lapis happy, so that it doesn’t blow up like it did in Barn Mates. She cared about Lapis and probably even liked her, but she was also scared of her. And the moment Peridot’s interests conflict with her own, she left and took the barn with her. She expressed remorse for this in Can’t Go Back, but “at least [Peridot] has Pumpkin” and “they’d be glad to have you back.”
Sorry, I went on a tangent there, but you get the gist. It’s become a pattern of him excusing her actions. She’s his beach summer fun buddy, she was trapped in a mirror, she was traumatized by Homeworld, Jasper was mean to her…he doesn’t understand that one’s trauma doesn’t give them a get out of jail free card. He’s the only character that has consistently defended Lapis, regardless of what she’s done.
She broke Greg’s leg, but she was desperate to go home. She messed Jasper up–even more than she already was–but Jasper’s mean, so it’s probably justified. She hurt Peridot and caused her emotional turmoil and stole all her possessions, but Lapis abandoned her because she was scared. It’s too blatant to not be intentional.
As for Jasper redemption, I feel like the show has been too caught up in current events to even consider bringing back old shelved problems like corruption, which is something that will have to be dealt with before they deal with Jasper. And I doubt she would be Steven’s first choice if he suddenly had an idea for how to cure it; that honor would likely go to Centi, then Jasper.
It is frustrating how little development Jasper has compared to the other characters, especially when Lapis has gotten so much love and support that she ultimately rejected to save her own skin. My biggest complaint about the writing for the show is how long they’ve put off dealing with corruption, but like I said, the natural progression of events since the end of season 3 hasn’t really allowed for development on old topics that don’t relate directly to current events. There hasn’t been a pressing urgency to heal corruption, as there was with saving Greg, saving his friends, saving Lars and trying to get him home, and learning the truth about his mom, only to have that dashed as he’s given an even bigger truth to swallow.
I do think that we’re coming up on Jasper redemption soon, now that the PD murder mystery is over. As Rebecca Sugar mentioned before, season 5 is all about change, particularly after the big reveal that Rose is Pink Diamond. The CGs have to regroup and figure just who they’re fighting for, and to what end. I’m guessing that, by the end of this arc, we’ll have a new dynamic with Steven acting more as a leader, eager to take on challenges that have been left unsolved thus far.