For the longest time I’ve been a huge opponent of the idea that Jasper will be redeemed. She’s violent, cruel, and has never been portrayed in a goofy or sympathetic light.

That said, part of what makes Steven Universe so powerful is the message that even the most dangerous people are still people and that battles can be won without violence. It would go against everything SU is about for Jasper to stay the one-dimensional villain she is now, but getting to change sides the way Peridot did is no easy task.

When Peridot switched sides in Message Received, it was because she was young and impressionable, and Steven’s actions taught her to see the earth in a new light. All it took to push her over the edge was to see that her leader was fallible.

Jasper on the other hand is old and set in her ways. She doesn’t value the unknown, she only values strength and is disgusted by the Crystal Gems, Steven, fusions, and humanity for being weak.

Her experiences as Malachite have changed her perspective on fusion, but her current perspective is even more unhealthy than before. She sees fusion as a way of gaining power, and now that she’s beneath the earth’s crust…

where a bunch of gem mutants remain…

I expect things are only going to get much, much worse as she forcibly fuses with the gem mutants to increase her own power.

So, what needs to happen for Jasper to be redeemed?

1: Jasper needs to see homeworld as weak

2: Jasper needs to see earth and its inhabitants as strong

3: Jasper needs to see that fusion isn’t the only source of strength.

I’m going to tell you up front that I do have an idea of how requirement 1 will work out, but because it depends on knowledge of episodes that haven’t currently aired outside of France, I’m going to include them below under the Read More and move on. The important part is how requirements 2 and 3 will be reolved

As for parts two and three, we have a problem. The gems can’t beat Jasper

Obviously the gems are capable of beating her, especially Garnet, but in order for Jasper to be redeemed she needs to be defeated by someone she considers weak. Garnet is out for being a fusion, and Pearl and Amethyst are out as well because even if they do defeat her, Jasper will have no reason to respect the earth or humanity.

Steven is of course the obvious choice, but for all his powers we need to accept that Steven is not a fighter, and even if he did fight he wouldn’t stand a ghost of a chance against her. What we need is someone to help Steven: someone who is as weak as he is but alongside him is strong enough to win. What we need is…

Connie!

Yes, you read that right. Connie is going to be the one to beat Jasper, and I don’t mean as Stevonnie either.

Connie and Steven together are an incredibly effective fighting force as we saw in Sworn To The Sword and Nightmare Hospital with Connie having been the one who popped the gem mutants. Because they know each other and love each other they are able to fight completely in synch even when not fused. Them not being fused is important for two reasons:

First, it would mean Jasper got beat by a human and a half-human, but more importantly, it would meant that their love is stronger not only than Jasper, but the power Jasper would have gained by fusing with gem mutants!

Only through being defeated by a human can Jasper learn the value of earth. And only together can Steven and Connie show Jasper the power of love.

Okay, back to requirement 1:

As we learned from Hit The Diamond five rubies from homeworld are tracking down Jasper, and based on their attitude it doesn’t seem like they want to congratulate her on a job well done. As Yellow Diamond said, the earth mission was a failure every step of the way, and as Jasper was the leader, responsibility falls on her.

Rubies are common soldiers, but all things considering, they are not strong gems. Rose took out three fused Rubies with ease, and I doubt Jasper would have any more trouble taking out five of them on her own. When they do come back to earth, and Jasper does fight them, she would see it as proof that homeworld is too weak to drag her back.