Jasper Hale

"He moved like a lightning strike - power and speed and death rolled into one."

Jasper Hale (né Whitlock) is a vampire who once participated in the great vampire wars of the south (and is a survivor), but later became a member of the Olympic Coven. He is the husband of Alice Cullen and the adoptive son of Carlisle and Esme Cullen, as well as the adoptive brother of Rosalie Hale (in Forks, he and Rosalie pretend to be twins), Emmett and Edward Cullen. Jasper is the adoptive brother-in-law to Bella Cullen and the adoptive uncle of Renesmee Cullen.

After becoming a major in the Confederate Army, Jasper was beset upon by the vampire Maria, who proceeded to turn him. After the transformation, Jasper aided Maria in her creation of a newborn vampire army which successfully conquered the feeding grounds of Texas. However, Jasper became tired of this violent and bloodlust life and eventually became a nomad. Fortunately, he was eventually found by Alice, the love of his life and with her began a life with the peaceful coven of the Cullen family.

Early life
Jasper was a major in the Confederate Army in Texas until he was turned into a vampire one dark night by Maria and two others, who were later destroyed by Jasper and Maria when they became of no use and were planning to defeat them and take over. When he became a vampire, he gained the ability to feel and manipulate people's emotions. Jasper commanded Maria's newborn army that participated in the Southern Vampire wars. While in the army, he befriended a newborn named Peter, who Maria decided to keep. When Peter ran off with Charlotte, a newborn that they were supposed to kill, Jasper let them go. After a few years living as nomads in the Northern U.S, Peter and Charlotte came back and told Jasper about the way vampires could coexist in the North, and he left with them. A few years later he left their company, as he was still not happy, since he could feel everything his human victims were feeling while he killed them. He was also reeling from his years with Maria, which had almost turned him into a savage.

Later, he met Alice in a diner in Philadelphia, and fell in love with her. With the help of Alice's 'sight', they searched for Carlisle and his family. She also told him about the ability to survive off of animal instead of human blood. He didn't know such a thing could exist but he followed her. When he became a member of the Cullen family and while attending high school, Jasper changed his surname of Whitlock to his adoptive sister Rosalie's surname of "Hale" and poses as her twin due to their physical similarities. Out of the whole coven, Jasper has the hardest time being around humans, due to his untrained upbringing as a young vampire in an army environment. He was not taught to control or how to regulate his blood lust. He is also the newest member of the Cullen family.

Twilight


In Twilight, Jasper is a senior in Forks High School, along with Rosalie and Emmett. When Edward saves the new girl, Bella Swan, from a car accident with his supernatural strength and speed, Jasper is very upset with his act because he has given away their secret. He later learns to come to terms with Edward's new involvement with Bella when they begin dating.

During a baseball game, Bella gets unwanted attention from the tracker vampire, James. Jasper assists Alice in taking Bella to Phoenix in order to escape the tracker vampire, James. While hiding in a hotel room, he senses Bella's guilt of putting them in danger and tries to convince her to not feel guilty, but to no avail. At the airport, Bella takes Jasper to go find a place to eat. Really it was just a ploy to get lost in the crowd and go meet James at her old ballet studio. When they find her, Jasper assists Emmett in ripping James apart and burning the pieces. After James' death and the escape of his mate, Victoria, he returns to Forks and attend the school prom with Alice Cullen as his date.

New Moon


In New Moon, the Cullens throw an 18th birthday party for Bella. In the movie adaptation, Jasper uses his empathy to manipulate Bella's mood to make her feel comfortable enough to attend her birthday party. While opening a gift, she cuts her finger lightly and starts bleeding. Since Jasper is the newest vegetarian vampire in the family, he is overcome by his bloodlust and tries to attack Bella, only to be stopped by Edward, though Emmett puts Jasper in an unbreakable grip. Edward pushes Bella away and she is not bitten, but is injured further when she crashes into broken glass, requiring stitches. After Jasper nearly bites Bella, he and his family move away from Forks in an effort to protect her from their world. After Bella saves Edward from committing suicide, Jasper returns to Forks with the rest of the Cullens.

"I vote "yes". It would be nice not wanting to kill you all the time."

At the end of the book, Bella gathers the Cullens to vote whether for her to become a vampire or stay human, and he casts his vote to make Bella a vampire.

Eclipse


The events in Eclipse focus more on the newborn attacks caused by Victoria's creation of her newborn army. Bella is introduced to the term "newborn" for the first time, and Jasper, who was involved with newborns in his early life as a vampire, explains about them to Bella. This is how she learns about some of the issues she will have to deal with when she herself becomes a newborn. Since Jasper has a great deal of past experience with the newborns, including combat knowledge, the Cullens turn to him for guidance in preparation for the upcoming battle againtst Victoria and her savage army. He helps train both the Cullens and the Quileutes by putting on sparring demonstrations, and pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of newborns for both groups. Jasper's military background helps him coordinate a strategy between the Cullens and Quileutes, which ends up working perfectly. Jasper, however, attempts to be everywhere at once during the battle, helping his family and the wolves fight while protecting Alice, and gets bitten by a few newborns in the process. Jasper also tells a bit about his early life, how he was first turned, his involvement with Maria, Nettie and Lucy, and his role in helping to form Maria's newborn army.

Breaking Dawn
In Breaking Dawn, Jasper feels Bella's nervousness about her wedding with Edward and is able to calm her for a short period of time before going on a private bachelor "party" with Edward and Emmett. While Bella is a newly turned vampire, Jasper is always standing beside her to make sure she wouldn't lose control and hurt anyone. He is shocked by the fact that she is able to retain self-control, something most newborn vampires aren't able to do. This causes him some dismay over his own struggles with self-control, even as a mature vampire, and also prompts him to re-evaluate his view on newborns.

When the Cullens realize that the Volturi are coming as a result of Irina's wrongful accusation about Renesmee, Jasper flees with Alice to South America in hopes to find someone more connected to his adoptive niece's species. It is revealed that Jasper has a secret business relationship with a lawyer in Seattle named Jason Scott Jenks after Alice leaves Bella clues to find him. Jasper has been employing him to make legal documents for the Cullens whenever they move to a new place, and this connection allows Bella to have fake ID's, passports, and a driver's license made for Renesmee and Jacob. Jasper and Alice's search leads them to South America where they find a human/vampire hybrid named Nahuel in Chile. They bring him and his biological aunt, a vampire named Huilen, back to Forks in time to prevent a fight between the Cullens, the other vampires (nomads and covens), the wolf packs, and the Volturi.

Physical description


Jasper is 6'3" and has golden honey blond hair. He is muscular but lean. Like the other Cullens, he has pale, marble-like skin and bruise-like purple shadows under his eyes, which appear gradually as his thirst increases. He has golden eyes, like all vegetarian vampires, which turn darker, eventually becoming black, as he grows thirstier.

Like all vampires; when in sunlight, he sparkles as if thousands of diamonds were embedded to his skin.

He has many crescent-shaped scars on his body, face, neck and jaw from the bites of vampires he fought on Maria's behalf. The white scars are invisible to humans unless contrasted by a strong light, but when viewed by a vampire they are said to be his most dominant feature, causing defensive reactions in vampires who don't know him. In Breaking Dawn, Bella thinks the scars "screamed dangerous." She also asks herself, "How many vampires had tried to kill Jasper?", and answers, "The same number that had died in the attempt."

In twilight (the movie), Jessica Stanley calls him "the blond one who looks like he's in pain."

Personality
Jasper can sometimes pass as cold, because he has a very militaristic mindset from his time in Maria's army. However, the truth is that he is a very kind, polite and simply good guy. He doesn't abuse his talent. Instead, he uses it to soothe the people around him, or help the Cullens stay focused around humans. Jasper also uses his control over other people's emotions to calm situations that would've turned into fights (e.g. in eclipse when the Cullens and the werewolves were hunting Victoria and Emmet lands on Paul.) Jasper is also very protective of Alice and the other Cullens. We see this in Breaking Dawn when Jacob tells Edward that the pack wants to kill Bella and Edward says it in such a flat tone that Jasper and Emmet think he means Jacob and Seth, he and Emmet jump right on his sides to protect Bella, even if they disagreed with her decision to keep Renesmee.

Jasper is completely in love with Alice and he's often a lot more open when he's with her. He would also do anything to protect her. An example of this was when Jasper was trying to be 'everywhere at once' to protect Alice as they had their show down with the newborn vampires in Eclipse. Alice also is very protective of Jasper, which is the original reason that everyone thinks Alice and Jasper leave in Breaking Dawn when Alice sees that the Volturi are coming.

Powers and abilities
Like all other vampires Jasper, possesses super strength, super speed, stamina, durability, granite skin hard, immortality, regeneration and a keen sense of smell and hearing. .

In the Cullen family, Jasper is the best fighter, the second fastest (next to Edward), and the second strongest (next to Emmett). Jasper and Edward explained that two of the most dangerous predators vampires in the Twilight series and possibly in the world, In Eclipse, during the training Jasper gives the Cullens and Quileutes, it is noted that Jasper was unable to beat Edward due to his ability to see what Jasper was about to do; neither was able to defeat the other (but without Edward's mind reading ability, Jasper would have defeated him). This was shown during their sparring, which only stopped when Carlisle told them to, suggesting that it could have continued indefinitely. As shown in Breaking Dawn, the Quileute wolves consider Jasper the largest threat to the pack above all the other Cullens, describing him as "power and speed and death rolled into one."

Empathy
"Jasper, no fair with the mood-control thing."

- Bella complaining about Jasper's power of empathy

Some vampires have extra abilities beyond normal which amplifies an ability they had as a human. Because he was charismatic as a human, Jasper can feel and change the emotions of others, though must be careful not to constantly manipulate those around him, so as not to create a false reality of others simply feeling what he wants them to feel. His gift is one of the few that can affect Bella despite her shield. Jasper also becomes very connected to Bella in Breaking Dawn because of her constantly joyful mood as a vampire as he finds Bella's strong emotional climate intresting.

Family
Jasper is thought, by Bella, to be on the fringe of his adoptive family. As Carlisle didn't change him he doesn't have the same connection with him as Esme, Edward, Emmett and Rosalie do. He has always thought of himself as the weakest link due to his old background and is comforted by Edward on this fact. He, Emmett and Edward enjoy playing wrestling with each other, and hunting together on a regular basis, they would seem to be real brothers. His connection with Alice is quite remarkable, proven by the fact that meeting her has completely changed his way of life. His connection to the Cullen family as whole is very firm, but as he is quiet and very reserved, it can be mistaken that the connection is quite dull.

Alice Cullen


"Overprotective fool."

Jasper first met Alice after facing almost a century long depression to walk into a diner waiting for him. She was sitting on a stool in a diner in Philadelphia waiting for him, having used her ability to see into the future to see that they would meet there. Jasper, a little taken back by her knowing him, apologized sheepishly to her when she teased him about how long she had been waiting for him by "bowing his head like a good southern gentleman" and answering, "I'm sorry, ma'am." as Alice had said when Jasper was telling his story to Bella in Eclipse. Alice then, offered him her hand in a silent request to leave the diner and start a new life together. Jasper accepted (as quoted from Eclipse, "For the first time in almost a century...I felt hope"). They fell in love and eventually found the Cullen family together. Alice helps Jasper regulate his blood lust by looking into the future or calming him down. They have been a part of the Cullen family ever since.

It is stated throughout the Twilight series that Alice and Jasper have a special, somewhat private relationship. They were both never complete until they met each other, and they are the only members of the Cullen family who were not turned into vampires by either Carlisle or Edward. Their distinctly understanding love is what separates them from the other couples in their family. They aren't as flamboyant about their relationship as Rosalie and Emmett are. The two are very committed and protective of each other, and have been married legally once, while Rosalie and Emmett tend to do so often when they move to a new place. It is obvious that Jasper is in love with Alice and would do anything for her. He has quite a protective nature toward her, as Carlisle with Esme, Edward with Bella, and Emmett with Rosalie.

Maria


Jasper was found by Maria during the Southern Vampire Wars. At this point, he was a major in the Confederate Army, and Maria was looking for humans that she could turn to vampires to create a newborn army, using the idea given by Benito. After she turned Jasper, she found that he was extremely useful to her, because he was able to control the emotions of the vampires around him, and make them work together. With her and her sisters, Nettie and Lucy, she was able to take over many Mexican territories previously owned by other vampire clans. During their time together, Jasper and Maria became close and she rewarded him, particularly for helping her defeat her sisters when they rebelled. One night, Maria ordered him to get rid of the newborns that showed no potential. It made him sick to do this, and so later ran away with two other members of Maria's army, Peter and Charlotte.

Carlisle Cullen


Carlisle is Jasper's adoptive father. He first joined their family with Alice in 1950's.

While some vampires find Carlisle's choice of lifestyle disgraceful to a vampire's nature, he finds it humane and reassuring to a normal life, although he has trouble controlling his thirst.

Esme Cullen


Esme is Jasper's adoptive mother. Her passionate personality brings comfort to Jasper, and Jasper loves her very much.

When he and Alice return from their quest in Breaking Dawn, Esme embraces both of them tightly, welcoming them back. This shows that Esme and Jasper are really quite close to each other, as with the rest of their family.

Edward Cullen


Jasper is extremely close to his eldest brother, Edward, along with Emmett. Whenever the three of them are together, they enjoy wrestling together, and often go on hunting trips together. Since Jasper is the best fighter and Edward has telepathy to back him up, their fighting techniques are very well-matched.

When Edward accidentally exposes his speed and strength to Bella Swan, Jasper is upset with the potential danger she has to Alice and plans to kill her, prompting Edward to plan a head-on strategy to stop him and almost cause a rip in their brotherhood. This doesn't happen, however, as Alice has a vision of her involvement with them turning positive and is able to convince him to leave her be.

When they leave Forks in New Moon to protect Bella from themselves, Jasper feels saddened by Edward's heartbreak over leaving Bella behind. On occasion, Jasper would find his brother annoying due to him using telepathy and Alice's vision to in check of his bloodlust. He considers himself as the weakest link in the family, and Edward often comforts him on this.

Emmett Cullen


Jasper is extremely close to his brother, Emmett, along with Edward. Whenever the three of them are together, they would wrestle, compete and often go on hunting trips together. Jasper and Emmett also like to bet on things they find interesting, as well as play chess. Emmett prefers to play chess with him and Rosalie rather than Alice and Edward, because their "extra" senses give them an advantage to his moves.

Rosalie Hale


Due to their similar features, Jasper and Rosalie sometimes pose as biological twins using Rosalie's surname of "Hale". This is to ease the confusion that comes from the people that they know and make their relationships with Emmett and Alice less complicated.

Not much has been known about their relationship, but it is known that they love each other as brother and sister.

Bella Swan


Jasper initially worried for their family secret when Edward saved her, and subsequently revealed his vampire nature, and plotted to kill her, but Edward stopped him and Alice convinced him to drop the thought. After Bella and Edward began dating, Jasper warms up to their relationship, though he often has trouble keeping his thirst in control. In New Moon, Bella gets a paper cut and the blood overwhelms him, causing him to attack Bella. Edward manages to shove her aside, but also accidentally worsens her injuries.

In Eclipse, when Victoria creates an army of newborn vampires to destroy the Cullens, Jasper gives her a preview of what she may be like if she becomes a vampire by telling his life history before he met Alice and the Cullens.

After Bella became a vampire, Jasper expected her to act exactly like a newborn vampire should: vicious, instinctive and lack of control. However, she succeeds in keeping herself in control, which causes Jasper to re-evaluate his opinion on newborns and his own control. After that, he becomes increasingly connected to Bella, due to her constant happy moods, which drags him towards her without thinking.

Renesmee Cullen
Jasper worried for Bella's safety when she was pregnant with his niece, Renesmee, but does nothing to help.

It is unknown how close Jasper is to his niece after her birth since they never shared a moment together. But as they are members of the same family, it is implied that they do care for each other.

Jacob Black


Jasper and Jacob's relationship started in a quite dull beginning, as both were natural-enemies. Their relationship turns friendlier when they decide to come together to destroy Victoria's army, and are willing to train under Jasper to learn their strengths and weaknesses.

Jacob becomes more interconnected to the Cullens after he imprinted on Jasper's niece, Renesmee, and subsequently became closer to him as well.

Etymology
Jasper is a variant of its original Persian "Kaspar". In accordance with the Bible, Casper is the name of one of the "Three Kings" who, by ways of divination through astrological mathematics, presented gifts to Christ on the night of his birth. Casper's gift was that of frankincense. The name Gaspar or Caspar, along with the names of the other two legendary magi, appeared for the first time in two medieval Latin texts and dates from the 9th century AD. The spell containing the name of "Jaspar" is a French/English transcription of the Latin word "Caspar". Its Biblical reference led to its adoption as an English name in the 17th Century.

Jasper is also the name of a precious and beautiful gem, which translates to "speckled or spotted stone", derived via the Greek iaspis (a feminine noun). On metaphysical standards, it has the ability to foster and nurture and its energy is used for grounding and protection, while Native American traditions use the stone for connecting with the spirit world and for protection during travel, believed to stabalize emotions, and 'ease emotional stresses', which fits in with Jasper's ability to manipulate emotions, in particular to calm and relax.



Film portrayal
American actor Jackson Rathbone played the role of Jasper Hale in the Twilight film.

He reprised his role in New Moon and Eclipse, and has been confirmed to return once again in Breaking Dawn.

Appearances

 * Twilight (First appearance)
 * Twilight (film)
 * New Moon
 * The Twilight Saga: New Moon
 * Eclipse
 * Eclipse (film) 
 * Breaking Dawn
 * Midnight Sun
 * The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

Behind The Scenes
Stephenie Meyer has said on her website that Jasper's name was originally "Ronald". Sometimes when writing her books she would accidently refer to him as such and confused who ever was reading it.

When filming the birthday scene in New Moon, Jackson got so into his character, that Peter and Kellan really had to hold him tight.