#antagonist analysis

So, is it hypocritical that I enjoy/like Niragi more than Heiya and Shibuki? I don't like Shibuki for what she did for Chota (tv show) and I hate Heiya for what she tried to do to Arisu (also because I think she is annoying, but that's off topic). But I feel like a hypocrite for like Niragi.

I don't support his actions, but I like this character and think it was well written. But I somewhat feel the same way towards the others as well, but I don't like them as much. He's not one of my favorite characters, but I like him a lot.

Should I feel bad for liking Niragi more than them?

No. You shouldn't feel bad for a single second, and I'm going to tell you exactly why.

Liking a character has never been the same thing as endorsing what they do. If it were, every person who's ever been fascinated by Hannibal Lecter or found Walter White compelling would need to hand themselves in at the nearest police station. That's absurd. You already know this instinctively, you said it yourself. You don't support his actions. You recognise the craft.

And here's the thing that separates Niragi from the other two in a way that has nothing to do with hypocrisy. He's written with purpose. His depravity isn't just there to shock or to create a quick plot complication, it's the thesis statement of an entire philosophical argument the story is making. He exists to say "humanity is rotten at its core," and the entire narrative bends itself around proving him wrong. That's compelling. That's a character serving his story on every level. His arc has weight. It has resolution. People risking their lives for someone who doesn't deserve it, specifically to disprove everything he stands for? That's satisfying writing.

Shibuki is a plot device who exits early. Heiya's scene is tonally messy and narratively undercooked. You're not a hypocrite for responding to the character who was given more to work with. You're responding to craftsmanship.

Also, and this is just me being honest with you, finding a character annoying is a perfectly legitimate reason to not like them. You don't owe every fictional personal equal emotional investment. That's not how stories work. That's not how people work.

So stop punishing yourself over this. Your taste is your own, and it's sharper than you're giving yourself credit for.

In her debut episode, Jasper managed to solo the Crystal Gems, poofing the strongest gem (at the time) Garnet and imprisoning the two other gems, Pearl and Amethyst while knocking out Steven in the process. When I first saw that when I was a kid, I was REALLY surprised because the crystal gems are extremely powerful in their own right but realizing that one gem took down the crystal gems with minimal effort shows how threatening Jasper is and how more threatening Homeworld as a whole is.

While Jasper was later on defeated by Garnet, it's still impressive because no other gem in Season 1 was really able to hold off Garnet, who was the strongest crystal gem at that time. So it takes a fusion between two gems to defeat Jasper which was shown consistently throughout Steven Universe. Not to mention the iconic battle in Steven Universe that somehow has fewer views on YouTube than the Undertale parody lmao. 💀

But then we move on to Steven Universe Future. After training a teenage Pink Steven for a while, Jasper with no hesitation fights him after Pink Steven challenges her. Let it be known that Pink Steven was gaining powers from his mom's gem who is Pink Diamond and despite the fact that Jasper was shattered in the end, she was still able to hold her own against a Diamond essentially.

Jasper is definitely the strongest lone gem I've seen since she's able to mop the floor with other ordinary gems and only loses against Fusions or Diamonds. But it would be really interesting to see her fight against Spinel or Bismuth.

Another reason why I like Jasper is that to me, she's a foil to the three main characters Steven, Garnet, and Amethyst.

Jasper is big, tough, and strong while Amethyst is small, not as durable as Jasper, and definitely not as strong as her. Jasper is the perfect version of Amethyst, physically even Jasper points out multiple times in "Crack the Whip" and "Earthlings".

She constantly looks down on and berates Amethyst for being physically inferior to her, but Jasper doesn't have the meaningful relationships that Amethyst has. So Jasper has power, but no friends, and due to her lack of teammates she always loses against others who have teammates.

In Garnet's case, Jasper forces gems to fuse with her in order to become more powerful which can hurt the gem she's fusing with in the process and even herself. Garnet is a fusion out of the love of two gems and she's able to handle that form for a long amount of time as opposed to Jasper who was able to withstand a fusion with a corrupted gem for like a few minutes at most.

Jasper does not know that fusion requires consent or love, when she fuses with another gem she's essentially using them to gain power which led to gems not wanting to fuse with her or forcing themselves out of the fusion with her.

Steven's case, she's a foil to his belief that everyone can change. Jasper in Steven Universe Future was the only character who for the most part did not change, she still remained a gem who worshipped their diamond regardless of the other gems aren't doing so anymore, she still remained violent and alone because she trained nonstop in a forest in isolation, and she still viewed power over everything.

She's also the opposite of Steven in one way because she tells Amethyst "Fighting is my life!" And Steven Universe isn't much of a fighter more like a pacifist.

So yeah that's really why I love Jasper and why she's my favorite antagonist in Steven Universe as a whole...but there is one thing I will say that I don't really like.

I don't like the fact that Jasper was brought back from being shattered just to do nothing after she was shattered. It immediately removed the tension that Gems can be erased due to the fact that Steven was able to repair and revive Jasper hours after he shattered her.

It would've really been disturbing if they just kept Jasper shattered because not only is the danger of shattering still..dangerous, but it will also somewhat work thematically with Jasper's character. Jasper is the only gem who didn't change their violent tendencies from the start and because of that, Jasper's fate couldn't be changed after she was shattered. But then again SU Future also showed that Yellow Diamond was able to repair shattered gems so it's possible that Steven doesn't even need the essence of all the diamonds to repair a shattered gem.

Would I be sad if Jasper stayed dead? Definitely, but it was pretty underwhelming to see her again just not do anything after she was repaired but then again what could she have done when she was repaired? Y'know?