hi can you elaborate on what you said abt Jesper? Bc I kinda agree, his ending was not good for him and it really could’ve been done better. btw love ur blog!
Of course! And thank you so much for the question, but now I have an excuse to do a full rant so buckle up. I went back and reread entire chapters from both books for this btw.
I did not write this in order so if some parts are clunky I apologize that was me going back and adding more.
I am gonna look at it two different ways, narratively and individually. But first I wanna talk about how Jesper begins and ends the story as a character.
Jesper is probably the most like a typical teenager out of the crew. Simply by circumstance mind you, they are all still teenagers playing adult. However I would argue he also changes the least over the two books, with minor character arcs or development.
Jesper is impulsive and definitely not as analytical as some of the other crows but he isn't naive. We get several hints that Jesper is socially intelligent. Kaz relies on Jesper to "smooth things over" with the other Dregs when he is too harsh or anti social. He also notes that "he had a gift of making Kaz's victories sound like they belonged to everyone." Later Jesper notes when the idea of the Ice Court Hesit being possible sets in and likens it to when he sees the shift in a gambler realizing they have a good hand. At the same time Inej is right when she says "You can't read people and you can't bluff." He isn't able to pick up on the obvious romantic tension between Nina and Matthias (he's a teenage boy I can't begrudge him too much for that) nor lie believably that Kaz visited Inej when she was recovering.
Jesper's motivations are pretty simple and honestly a interesting mix of teenage and adult priorities. When Inej asks him why he took the job, he first and foremost mentions his debt and his father's farm being in danger. At this point Jesper has no goals other than "pay back this debt so my dad is ok." Almost all the other characters have some dream in life, Jesper is just chasing the next rush of adrenaline.
Over the course of both books Jesper and other characters note his absolute love for fast paced, chaotic situations. He craves movement. He spends a lot of the second book grappling with guilt, for both gambling his fathers farm and lying to him, and for accidently giving Pekka info on their plans. He is also in danger constantly as a Grisha. These things inform most of his thoughts and actions until after the auction. At some point his loyalties shift from Kaz to Wylan first, which I could talk about that as it's own rant but not rn.
At the end of CK Jesper is at a fork in the road, his life has completely changed again and he now has the chance to reinvent himself. I admittedly don't dislike his ending as much having reread it, but I still have some complaints.
What's wrong for him as an indivisual?
Indivisibly, he just doesn't get an ending that centers around his needs and what would see him grow the most.
When Wylan asks Jesper if he was serious about staying with him he responds, “Let’s see. Live in a luxurious merch mansion, get waited on by servants, spend a little extra time with a budding demolitions expert who plays a mean flute? I guess I can manage it.”
This shows a few things I wanna talk about. First Jesper is still just drifting through life. He likes the idea of living with Wylan because it's easy, while not necessarily a bad desire, it is immature in a way that shows Jesper's lack of personal growth throughout the story.
As sweet as Wesper is here, Jesper is still not living his life with his own goals. Even his plans to work on his fabricating is because of Wylan (who literally bribes him). He promises to visit Colm, but that is about as far as his own plans go.
I fear some may come after me for this next bit but it's one of my least favorite parts and I need to talk about it.
In Kaz's and Inej's last chapters they both mention that Wylan is "allowing Jesper to play the market." or that he "gave Jesper an allowance." And like, I get that they are teens teasing their friends. I get that Jesper himself acknowledges he doesn't trust himself with large amounts of money (part of why he tells Kaz to put his share of the reward into Colm's name). But with the context of Wylan and Jesper being in an interracial relationship... it gets icky.
I say this as the white person in an interracial relationship, the fact that racial stereotypes, historical and modern differences in conditions exist can't be ignored. That context does inform dynamics. Wylan and Jesper feel like an extreme of these actually. Wylan the son of a rich powerful man, and Jesper who joined a gang and dropped out of school.
I know that Wylan and Jesper as characters have a very equal relationship, but the implications of the white partner having such control of the black partners financial conditions and therefore agency was clearly not thought out.
So narratively why don't I like this?
I called his ending a "nonending" because narratively his storylines aren't as tied up as some of the other crows. I do acknowledge that all of them get open endings, that feel like hopeful starts of another story, but they still have resolved aspects of their stories and characters.
Probably my biggest narrative issues are about his addiction recovery and self acceptance arcs. Or lack there of.
Addiction
Ok addiction is not something that ever goes away let me be clear. But just because Jesper isn't gambling doesn't mean he is getting better. The symptom is gone, not the disease. At the end of CK we so no clear direction of what Jesper is doing instead of gambling (aside from the aforementioned market gambling which Inej says is heavily monitored and limited). He wants to get better yes, but you can't cut out a habit like gambling without replacing it with something else.
Self acceptence
Jesper hasn't accepted his Grisha identity. Wylan is trying but that is not enough, Jesper has to be the one to want to reclaim this part of him.
If Jesper's narrative role is about how suppressing important parts of oneself can lead to self destruction, then the best ending would be to see him realize this and decide to embrace all of him. The good and "bad" traits. Jesper trying to assimilate into merch life is just as bad as when he assimilated into barrel life. He is letting expectations control how he acts and what he does.
I have always seen Jesper as the weakest willed (I think I have talked about that on here at some point). He changes to fit in, is all to eager to please in hopes of acceptance. For Jesper to have had a satisfying character arc I would've wanted to see the beginning of a spine growing.
What do I like about his ending?
I wanna end this on positive note. Both because I do like some things and because I feel like this gives the idea that I think his ending is the worst in the world. I don't. I just think it's not yet at an end point.
I love Jesper's accountability arc. He is a reckless teenage boy, who has made a lot of mistakes, but genuinely tries to repair the damage he's done and be better in the future. He takes Inej' "this action will have no echo" to heart.
By the end of CK Jesper has faced his father and the lies he told to him. He gets the needed reassurance from his dad (he's seriously just a kid who should not have been sent unsupervised to Ketterdam of all cities) and is determined to do better going forward. I might not have made it clear but I actually love that Jesper makes the choice to give Colm control of his share. It show's self awareness and maturity to be able to admit he can't yet control himself. I also think his dad being in charge of his funds is very different from his boyfriend doing so.
Jesper's reflection about how they forgot they weren't invincible after Matthias dies is really special to me. Wylan is the one who says it aloud, and Jesper muses that maybe those were the words of a sheltered rich boy, but he was thinking the same thing. For me I like this tiny detail because it feels like Jesper admitting that none of them really know what their doing. Again self aware king right there.
This is such a side note but all of the crows underestimate Wylan, and in the first book especially believe him to be ignorant to all suffering. They rightfully see that they have more life experience. At the same time, they forget that they are also still lost in many ways. There are multiple moments throughout the books from Jesper's POV where he makes small notes of Wylan's knowledge and skill. I think his ability to see the nuances of Wylan show a growth in Jesper's understanding of life as a whole.
