by lackadaisicallexicon

Of all the Beta kids, Jade Harley has the most mixed reception. John’s easy-going protagonists’ charm, Dave’s farcical irony, and Rose’s macabre, loquacious humor gained them their respective massive followings; Jade seems the odd one out, even at the beginning of the comic, when her friends collectively think of her as an amusing, but harmless sort of psychic.

Alone of her foursome, she requires two whole pages in order to display her interests, which range from anthropomorphism and gardening to nuclear physics, nostalgic children’s television, and playing bass guitar. Her myriad interests, coupled with a bizarre bubbliness and quirks like her colorful reminders, lead to labels like “Mary Sue” and “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” being applied to her…the latter of which actually turns out to be literally true. It’s just another bend in her meandering path to her fully realized self, which is both the reason for the confusion over who she truly is as a character, and why I enjoy her so much.

Jade spends most of her early youth locked in dreaming by Vriska’s experiments on mind controlling humans, and her dreamself’s personality is completely different from her true one—it’s frivolous and silly where she’s the physical manifestation of agency and practicality, as seen in the only time they actually spoke. But when she comes to herself, is forced to be Jade in the waking world and focus on completing her goals within the constraints of linear time’s vision, she changes her entire paradigm. The ditzy seer of the past is replaced by the intrepid, rifle-toting badass in cute dresses we only got flashes of before: the first steps on the road to apotheosis.

Jade’s character develops within pesterlogs of her dreamself’s death, and the best part is that every part of Jade went through this process. Jade’s slow realization of her flaws, and just how terrible they are, is pointed out by Karkat in text as being proof positive that she wasn’t actually as crazy as her dreamself had been. And, when pushed to a situation where the fate of her friends relied on it, even the sappy Jadesprite matured into someone who would help however she could.

It’s ultimately the unification of three beings that creates the full Jade Harley: the waking Jade, having at last completed the Genesis tadpole and encased it in a safe environment where it still remains; the dreaming Jade, having grown into a young lady worthy of the name and capable of using her powers; and lastly Becquerel, whose godlike abilities meshed perfectly with hers and fulfilled her dream of being an anthropomorphic creature, with her beloved science woven into her being.

Jade’s a wonderful mix of furrycore eclectica, a saccharine disposition, and a no-nonsense attitude that makes up the steel beneath the plush. Like Nepeta, she sees no contradiction in the mixture of cute and badass, and she demonstrates it with her every action, even as a mind-controlled slave of Her Imperious Condescension.

You spend the next moment lamenting that your aesthetic cannot be accurately described by the term “furrycore eclectica”.