how to fuck vampires in a God Honoring Way

100% yes!

within twilight: 

sort of! he has semi- foils/counterparts in both peter and riley (I’ve joked before that peter is the Frodo to jasper’s Gollum), and he himself could potentially be employed as a foil to edward (he’s a far more ~traditional~ vampire with a 10x more violent, murdery past....and yet he doesn’t really philosophize about souls and self-flagellate about the enormity of his Crimes like edward—he takes a practical, grounded view of things.)

outside twilight:

yeah, I think you’ll find quite a few characters similar to jasper! he fits into a fairly common archetype, which @bettsfic has dubbed the “Fallen Knight.”

explanations here, here, and here.

how jasper fits the Fallen Knight archetype:

so you can definitely compare him to any of the characters on Betts’ list, and those are all characters you may wanna check out. But I’m gonna add two more to the list, both of whom fit into the Fallen Knight archetype soooomewhat.

first, the Honorable Mention: Ethan Chandler from Penny Dreadful. Very similar to jasper in surface vibes due to being a 19th-century cowboy in love with a psychic (his Queen archetype.) also fits the Fallen Knight type very well—like jasper, he did a bunch of war crimes, only instead of a scarred-up vampire, he walked away a werewolf (of the dangerous, man-eating variety, not the fun muffin-eating twilight kind.)

“there are such sins at my back that it would kill me to turn around”

—an actual quote in case you needed more evidence

they’re a little different in that ethan is a much warmer, more open and optimistic character despite his far more grimdark universe. but they also have plenty in common beyond “cowboy!” if you can handle the rest of Penny Dreadful (and it’s...A Lot,) give it a watch and see if you agree with me.

second, the most jasper-y character in all of TV history IMO: Wolfgang Bogdanow from Sense8. this guy’s got jasper vibes in SPADES.

both are highly practical, quiet, brooding stoics with a hidden soft side. both are extremely loyal. both had their "fall" and then internalized the idea that they were monsters. both are superior fighters who don't bat an eye at murder but who ultimately cast off the violent family/community that raised them and instead use that skill and ruthlessness to defend their Found Family of gentler, more morally "pure" characters. both have a quasi-magical connection where ~fate itself~ brings them together with their love interest. both love interests are physically disempowered but mentally powerful (Queen archetypes.) both love interests have unshakable faith in their True Love's intrinsic goodness and love them unconditionally despite the violence they've committed.

there are a lot of differences, of course, but most of those differences are less about internal character and more about positioning within the narrative—jasper is a static side character who gets one flashback chapter and who exists more as a cautionary tale/chekhov's skill for the protagonists than anything, while wolfgang is one of eight dynamic protagonists in an ensemble show whose story does not exist merely to prop up anyone else's. their respective canons and creators are also galaxies apart, but to me that makes it even more remarkable that they managed to create such similar characters (the power of archetypes!)

if you like jasper and the sort of wasted/unexplored potential of his character within twilight, I highly, highly recommend you check out Sense8! it will not disappoint. but just like with Penny Dreadful, be sure to check content warnings if you have triggers—it's chock full of 'em.

how about you guys—which characters do you think are similar to jasper, and why? I wanna hear your Thoughts!

oh yeah, hard agree.

for all that alice loves to make A Big Thing out of everyone else's life, she's intensely (hypocritically) private about her own stuff. I think part of that is respecting jasper's desire for privacy, and part of it is that she seems to hold their relationship fairly sacred—it's not a set piece or a tool to her. I think it's significant that she and jasper chose to hang out on their own for a few years before showing up to the family.

and of course, I've talked before about how neither of them cares much about marriage as an institution. jasper was happy to leave 1860s mores behind, and alice was never taught to Wait Until Marriage™ in the first place. they're the two least involved in human society, so why should they care whether it recognizes what they already know is a permanent commitment, something that will last way longer than any mere human lifetime? like, capital-F ~Fate~ brought them together. they're a soulmate au. I don't think they see themselves as needing anyone else's approval.

but, well. a wedding is a party, and I think once alice saw pictures of rosemmett's or carlesme's wedding, the schemey little Bastard gears in her head would start turning. they didn't have friends and family to party with before, but they do now.

and I think once the suggestion was floated, jasper would like the idea of getting married, too. the remaining old-fashioned part of him appreciates the Serious Maturity of marriage. after all, it sounds so Adult. ("that's my wife." you sound like a person.)

so I think jasper did "propose," but not in a flashy or public or even particularly premeditated way.

and they're definitely having this conversation after sex. I think that is when jasper is at his most mushy and sentimental and when alice knows she can get away with murder even more than usual.

anyway I was thinking about what a fun ask this is (thank you anon!) and my hand slipped and then this happened, so

[tooth-rotting fluff under the cut; probably T-ish in rating]

ooooh that's such an excellent and impossible question! I love them so much I wanna write them as every trope tbh.

but I assume you're exclusively talking about meeting/beginning-of-relationship tropes here so I'll limit myself to those.

soulmate - I've said it before and I'll say it again, they're basically already a soulmate au in canon. having magical foreknowledge that this chewed up war criminal in a diner is actually your One True Eternal Love? empathically sensing that a mysterious stranger loves you unconditionally and instantly trusting her despite your violent and traumatic background? yeah, it makes them extremely easy to write a soulmate au for. so although I like soulmate aus more than your average bear seems to, I kind of consider them low-hanging fruit when it comes to jalice, unless you subvert the trope somehow and give them some nice thorny obstacles.

friends to lovers - friends to lovers is a really fun challenge for them! tbh, writing them any intro where they don't start out with the aforementioned magical knowledge of each other is a fun challenge. with friendship, you have to not only give them a non-magic-based foundation but get them to fall in platonic love first. in jalice's case, there's a lot of non-romantic things to love about each other, a lot of complementary qualities that I know I love in my friends. I have to be honest, though—the friends to lovers trope by itself is rarely messy or complicated enough to catch my interest. that said, I think everyone should read @goldeneyedgirl's gorgeous jalice friends to lovers au.

enemies to lovers - this is one of my favorite tropes in general, because it's so intrinsically messy. I agree that it doesn't fit jalice—at least, canon jalice—though, because their devotion to each other is so extreme and they have no built-in reason to be enemies. HOWEVER, I look at that and think "challenge accepted." I can make them enemies. I can make them enemies all day. it's easy to accomplish that through external conflict means—put them on opposite sides of a war, or in different cults with opposed ideologies, etc etc. but I think the same complementary qualities they love about each other, they could also very easily hate about each other, giving you an internal ETL conflict. I mean, alice is so loud and shallow and materialistic and controlling! jasper is so dull and reserved and passive and judgmental! they can totally belong on rival debate teams or covens or opposite sides of a ballroom sniping at each other.

honorable mention: another of my favorite tropes that is difficult to pull off is lovers to enemies (and enemies as lovers. delicious.) this usually involves a betrayal or misunderstanding of some kind (which I also love, unless that betrayal is infidelity, a personal squick of mine. otherwise, the more horrible the better.)

so yeah. when it comes to jalice, I'm not sure I have a favorite meeting trope because by this point, I've seen them all executed well somewhere! I guess you could say my favorite trope is

a) anything that takes away their magical, insta-love advantage,

and

b) anything real messy, that uses that mess as a way to explore the characters.

what about the rest of you? I wanna hear your favorite/least favorite jalice tropes. chime in gang

daskdajhh anon I was just about to post an emmett and jasper meta but now I'm like. this is pretty much it. all done

(you're so right the dumb little "bachelor party" moment is so cute and underrated and one of the only good things in that entire film)

ohhhh man, rosalie and jasper with jane's and alec's powers would be such a menace.

like, just imagine rosalie using that gift on her attackers back in the 30s. chills.

and carlesme's horror when they realize their new daughter's power is pain. oof.

on a lighter note, imagine how much trouble she gets into for using it on edward the first time she snaps. do we think he'd be too terrified to ever piss her off again, or goad her on purpose so she gets In Trouble with mom n dad?

as for jasper with alec's power...if you keep his character the same, then come on, man, that's not even FAIR. no one would stand a snowball's chance in hell against him.

or you could argue that having alec's power would mean he never has to get good at combat. he never gets bitten and covered in scars. he never feels his human prey's emotions—he just numbs them before he kills them—so he has no reason to become a "vegetarian." maybe he never even meets alice or the cullens.

in fact, this particular power swap is a great way to lead up to volturi!jasper and volturi!rosalie, since we know aro didn't exactly recruit jane and alec for their effervescent personalities.

this is exactly correct

I think vampire alice/human jasper is a bit harder to pull off because vampire alice is so overpowered that there's way less built-in conflict.

vampire!alice doesn't have edward's "lion and the lamb" angst or jasper's control issues, so no conflict there (though you could always write her with control issues For The Drama—see @flowerslut's edge of it all.) she doesn't have jasper's paranoid overprotectiveness, because she can see danger coming from miles away and will always (at least, in her mind) have time to prepare.

and the main thing they have in common is zero hesitation about changing a human partner. alice was ready to change bella in NM, and bella was just her brother's gf—just think how much more eager she'd be to change (or have carlisle change) her own ~soulmate.~

and I think, unless you change up his characterization and give him some Reason to want to stay human, human!jasper is pretty down to be changed into a vampire. he's like "sure, sounds cool." again, you'd need an external conflict here—abusive parents, or great parents he doesn’t wanna leave, or a younger sibling who depends on him, or something like that.

I think the best conflict in a human!jasper/vamp!alice AU would be some situation that plays on alice's dramatic flaw—her hubris. similar to edbella in twilight and NM, you'd have to cook up some scenario where her overconfidence in her gift ends up getting jasper hurt.

so yeah, I personally haven't written an AU like this because I feel like I would have to mess with their characterization too much in order to give them a nice juicy conflict (that, and I'm happy with the ones already out there!)

but maybe I'm just not thinking creatively enough. if y'all have cool human jasper/vampire alice hcs, I'd love to hear them!

lol anon I love that scenario. feels so accurate that a) jasper is definitely The Mediator in a lot of disputes and b) he definitely has Rules about who he is allowed to influence and when and rosalie is the one calling him out if he dares to Cheat

like, jasper and alice probably had that conversation early on in their relationship, and then when they showed up at the cullens' place, there was probably some kind of group discussion about who's comfortable having their emotions tweaked and in what circumstances vs who categorically refuses help (rosalie.)

but even rosalie gets curious, and she has bad days, and I bet eventually she caved and asked/allowed jasper to influence her. I think she would hate the idea of him softening her anger in any way (forbidden!), but might like to be artificially lifted out of her sadness on occasion (especially if she feels like she's hurting emmett.)

but she also dislikes the idea of "cheating" at anything, or changing herself to be more palatable to others, so I think it's very rare that she requests jasper's help that way. as for the rest of the family:

edward - absolutely not, he wants to stew in abject misery forever. he is a foul loathsome damnèd being who doesn't DESERVE to feel joy

esme - sometimes requests an emotion boost! she's all right with dwelling on sad memories, but she doesn't want to get bogged down feeling depressed about things she can't change—she'd rather find the energy to keep moving forward and appreciate what she has

carlisle - doesn't really need much help, and is a bit of an emotional purist who, like rosalie, doesn't want to "cheat." lowkey wishes he had jasper's power for himself, though—he'd like to understand other people's feelings better

alice - jasper is Allowed to use his gift on her under certain circumstances (cheering up, removing anxiety, and sometimes during sex.) they also have a more general understanding that he can try his luck at other random times, because she has a better sense than the others of when he is/isn't using his gift and will simply say no if she doesn't want him to

emmett - "yeah dude go nuts just don't make me horny in the middle of algebra II or whatever"

awww, thank you! I'm really happy with that one.

and you're right, I don't really have plans to continue it, mostly because I think it would just be...canon? I mean, when it comes to jalice, canon is basically a soulmate au already.

the only additional scenario I can think of that might be interesting to write in that universe is maria discovering the mark, which. hmmm. maybe! that's one where I wouldn't be opposed to writing more if more specific inspiration struck, y'know?

me when I read the phrase "rosalie x jasper" vs me when I realized you meant rosalie & jasper (their sibling relationship/friendship)

(forgive my paranoia anon I can't stop thinking about a comment someone left me telling me I'd made them ship ROSALIE/EDWARD in Good Politics. it Haunts me)

but you and I are clearly sharing the brain cell anon, because one of my popular posts is about rose & jasper and how much I love their Fake Twin dynamic! there’s a reason it’s so easy to write them as real twins in fic.

and that’s because, like you pointed out, they have a lot in common. as I pointed out, they’re both good at making tough, even ruthless decisions and therefore see themselves as protectors of the more gentle and “morally pure” members of their family. they’re extremely practical and frank people who don’t sugarcoat, so I’m sure they appreciate each other’s communication style.

when jasper first arrived, I think rosalie must have had seeeerious reservations about him. I mean, he’s terrifying as all hell, looks like he’s been through a meat grinder made of teeth, and (presumably) freely confessed to actual war crimes. rosalie has more reason than most to be suspicious of violent men.

then, as she got to know him, I’m sure she appreciated how different he was from edward—he’s easygoing, he doesn’t pry or invade her privacy (gift notwithstanding), he doesn’t whine and bitch about things or judge her for being “shallow.” he’s just a calm and patient Alice Simp whose addition to the family has given emmett a new prank target and helped him blow off steam with goofy roughhousing.

so yeah, I think she came to appreciate his unobtrusive presence and honesty, and then realized they were both good in a crisis and actually make a great team.

I think jasper, for his part, has a lot more patience than the rest of the family for rosalie when she’s being “~difficult~” because he can literally feel her emotions and knows where she’s coming from. he’s not gonna dismiss her as shallow and childish because he can feel that’s she’s actually threatened and defensive, or secretly hurt, or righteously angry. he’s kind of an ideal listener for rosalie’s problems. 

and he’s unreal levels of good at self-defense, something crucial to helping rose feel safe in the vampire world. in return, as his “twin,” she’s the one by his side helping him navigate the human world and re-learn how to blend in after almost a century apart. where he’s an expert at self-defense, she’s an expert at self-control and sticking to the animal diet. and since emmett went through similar control struggles, she’s ideally suited to be the one to help jasper in a non-judgey way.

so, yeah. LOADS in common other than being hot tall dumb blondes. including the out-of-universe fact that they’re smeyer’s Unfavorite characters, lmao. carol & ronald forever 💕

dajksdjkas anon I love you

I'm also deeply concerned for the two of you so far that found that scene hot, but. perhaps I shouldn't set myself up as #1 Size Kink Blog In The Fandom and then get all surprised pikachu when a bunch of horny little size kink gremlins show up. it's far too late to repent for the damage I've done so I think I'll fuck around and do more damage 😈

tbh I feel a little guilty for the somewhat edward bash-y direction Politics is going (I mean it's not wrong to want romance for yourself and to be concerned about your idiot sister) but not enough to stop doing it oops 🙊

thank you so much for sharing your thoughts (and compliments omg 🤠💗)