The relationships in the Twilight franchise are worshiped by fans with the utmost severity. Those in favor of the relationship between Rosalie and Emmet are easily aggravated into a screaming match to protect the love between our gentle himbo and beautiful blonde. Readers who imagine themselves as the latest adopted children of Carlisle and Esme could be persuaded to sacrifice you to the vampiric gods if you so much as imply that the pair have their own issues. Bella and Edward are an entirely separate can of radioactive worms and volatile battery acid that we can’t address within the constraints of a page or two. The point is, I’m putting myself at great risk by attempting to dismantle the fantasy of a loving relationship between Alice Cullen and Jasper Hale. WTF—is this relationship actually the most toxic of them all?
If you’ve read the Twilight books or this extensive Twilight Wiki fanpage, you’re probably familiar with the backstories of these two characters. Alice Cullen is the most cheerful vampire of the Cullen family. She beams at Bella Swan when they meet for the first time. It’s initially unclear what Alice’s backstory is, since she can’t remember how she was turned into a vampire or by whom. Alice’s earliest memory is waking up alone and venturing out into the world to explore.
Fortunately for the young vamp, Alice has the ability to see events that may happen in the future. As soon as Alice awoke after being transformed into a vampire, she had a vision of Jasper Hale and knew that they would fall in love. She was led to Jasper by her power of premonition.
Jasper grew up in Texas during the Civil War and became a major in the Confederate Army there before he was turned into a vampire. Read that again. Jasper fought for the wrong side in the Civil War and advanced high enough to maintain a leadership position in the army while doing so. This is more than a red flag. This is a giant warning label in 86-point font that reads, in all caps, “POISON! DO NOT CONSUME!”
Alice knew this fact about Jasper—he didn’t keep it hidden from other vampires—and, for some reason, decided to stay with him, going so far as to bring him with her to meet a new clan of vampires that she’d heard of: the Cullens.
Jasper’s vampire power, paralleling Alice’s ability to see the future, is pathokinesis, or the ability to control the emotions of those around him. Let’s keep that in mind.
Alice has never known Jasper before seeing him in her visions. Each vision predicts events that will likely happen in the future, so Alice had no other reason to meet Jasper then the fact that it looked like they would meet at some point. When Alice emerged into Jasper’s proximity, she became immediately vulnerable to Jasper’s mood control.
What’s to say that Jasper didn’t look at the beautiful young vampire and immediately decide to make her fall in love with him? There’s very little written context around the backstory of Jasper and Alice, so it’s hard to prove either side of this argument. However, if you’re a fan of logic, the facts remain that Jasper was a Confederate soldier—racist, murderous, low moral code—with the ability to control peoples’ moods. The odds don’t look good for the innocent female vampire who believes she’s been led to this guy by fate. It’d be too easy for him to take advantage of her.
Alice remains cheerful and bubbly despite her troubling human past, which the first Twilight book eventually describes. Does this imply that Jasper is keeping Alice content so that she will stay with him? Perhaps. On the other hand, maybe Alice wants to keep forgetting the events of her human life. Jasper could be her favorite addictive drug, in a sense.
It doesn’t matter. Neither theory ends in a healthy relationship. The fact that Alice Cullen was not repulsed by Jasper Hale’s support of the Confederate Army either indicates impaired judgement on her part or a rotten character beneath that bubbly personality. Break up with him, dude.