Jasmine (Buffyverse)
Encyclopedia : J : JA : JAS : Jasmine (Buffyverse)
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Jasmine was a fictional character on the television series Angel. She was portrayed by Gina Torres and Charisma Carpenter.
History
Jasmine was a short-lived ambiguously evil character during Season 4 of Angel whose goal was to gain a corporeal form on Earth and become ruler of the world. The main goal of Jasmine, the Devourer, was to bring world peace. She was to finalize a series of events set in motion hundreds of years ago called the Troclon. The Troclon is the purification of the human race, though other languages identified the Troclon as the ruination of mankind. In a certain way, Jasmine's agenda could be seen as being both the purification and ruination of mankind.
According to her servant Skip (a demon in secret contact with Jasmine, but openly friends with Cordelia), she arranged for many of the events seen in Angel Seasons 1 through 4 all to align players as necessary in order to create the opportunity to come to Earth. These included Lorne's arrival on Earth, the passing of Doyle's visions to Cordelia, later Cordelia's transformation into a part demon and her ascension into the realm of the Powers, the birth of Connor and the coming of the Beast. However, it is also possible that Skip was just lying to make the crew feel helpless.
Jasmine is a member of The Powers That Be, forged in the inferno of creation. She later explained that long ago, the primeval forces that are now considered good and evil took shape; however, the malevolent grew in power and the era of the Old Ones began. The Powers left this world and made themselves content to watch from an alternate reality, only directing the remaining forces for good on Earth and not taking an active part in the battle against evil. Jasmine was a renegade who decided to take matters into her own hands and impose peace on Earth through mind control.
She conquered a dimension filled with a race of insectoid demons as a rehearsal before going to Earth. Jasmine, known to these demons as The Blessed Devourer, tinkered with the demons' evolution and society, but eventually abandoned them and later spoke of them as a mistake. In the following centuries many lost their faith in her but others fanatically awaited for her return. Like in the case of mankind, Jasmine asumed a shape similar to that of her zealots.
Angel attempted to give Darla, who was dying at that time, a second chance at life by passing a series of trials. However, unbeknowst to Angel, Darla couldn't use the new second chance because she was already on her second life, and Jasmine claims that she was able to use the life that Angel earned to create Connor after he had sex with Darla (who had been sired by Drusilla at the behest of Wolfram & Hart).
Following the birth of Connor, Jasmine was able to maneuver Cordelia with Skip's assistance into becoming part demon and later ascending into the realm of the Powers. Once in the realm of the Powers, Cordelia found herself consumed with boredom and it can argued that Jasmine had anticipated this. Cordelia eventually elected to give up her godhood and return to Earth in her previous half-demon form. Jasmine used this interdimensional trip to "piggy-back" into our dimension by posessing Cordelia. However, the Powers had in place a safe-guard for this type of travel and also to, presumably, safe-guard the secrets of the higher realms. Upon arrival back on Earth, Cordelia found herself with a hardened case of amnesia that locked out her experiences as Cordelia, a higher power and the dormant personality of Jasmine. Undaunted, the AI team immediately set about restoring their friend's memory by way of a magic spell. Eventually, the team was able to restore her memory, thus unlocking Jasmine's personality instead of Cordelia's.
Jasmine was able to take over Cordelia and manipulate all of Cordelia's friends, who did not know that she was possessed by Jasmine. Following her return to Earth, Jasmine worked to keep Angel Invesigations off-balance and distracted so they wouldn't notice or prevent her birth. First she summoned her servant, the unstoppable Beast, and had him create a Rain of Fire & block out the Sun all over Los Angeles through a spell that would eventually cover the entire Earth. Then, having cast a powerful spell to erase all references to the Beast (and herself) in memory & literature in this reality, she used the possessed Cordelia to convince the team to release Angelus - the only one who had memories of the Beast. Following that, she stole the Muo-Ping (a sacred glass jar that contained Angel's soul), faked a replacement way of re-ensouling Angel, and cast a spell that confused Lorne's abilities so Angelus would be "accidentally" released by pretending to still be Angel. She also murdered Lilah Morgan and had the Beast completely obliterate every presence of Wolfram & Hart in Los Angeles, presumably to prevent them interfering or finding references of her in other planes of existence.
In the meantime and with the champions distracted, she remained inside of Cordelia and seduced Connor, whose primary purpose had been to be the father of her new body and also possibly her protector in her state of vulnerability in a human body. She also magically battled Willow (and lost as she was distracted) in order to attempt to stop the soul within the Muo-Ping from being returned (and Angelus being changed back to Angel). By the end of the crisis, Cordelia had already been impregnated by the fast-gestating new body of Jasmine.
She finally blew her cover during Lorne's attempt to regain his powers. During a secret ritual where Lorne was expected to be alone, "Cordelia" arrives with a large knife to kill him. It was really a trap by the Angel Investigations team who had all realized that Cordelia was possesed, but she was saved by Connor. With his further assistance (including the kidnapping of an innocent virgin for sacrifice), Jasmine was able to give birth (while possessing Cordelia) to her new body. Upon being born, Jasmine drained the life force out of Cordelia, leaving her in a comatose state, one that she would never wake up from. Jasmine's tentacled and luminiscent form assumed the shape of a woman. When Angel and Connor saw her for the first time, they both fell to their knees, having quickly fallen under her thrall.
Jasmine appeared before the rest of Angel's crew, turning them into her followers, and announcing that, despite the great evil done in her name, her plan was to bring world peace and the elimination of evil, starting with Los Angeles. However, that peace came at a high price. One drawback was that Jasmine secretly needed to devour a certain amount of humans to maintain her force. For this, Jasmine usually chose people that were both beautiful and fit, but also people that had been lost and in pain, sparing those that would prove useful for the society she planned on creating.
The real problem, however, was that Jasmine's mind control virtually eliminated free will from the world, with everyone being unable to do much of anything except praise and serve Jasmine all day. Angel Investigations was able to shake off her control after being exposed to her and Cordelia's blood, starting with Fred. Accusing them of dissidents bent of spreading their hatred, Jasmine directed her followers against them and as her powers grew, she was capable of projecting her will and voice through each of them. She began to refer to those under her control as "The Body of Jasmine", as they were veritable extensions of her own body.
While Fred, Wesley, Lorne and Gunn fought against Jasmine's forces under Connor's command, Angel was then able to undo her control over the world by revealing her true name. This second and more powerful weakness of Jasmine's was hidden in the demon dimension that she had formerly ruled, which was revealed to Angel when one of the zealots there travelled to Earth in the hope of reminding Jasmine of his world's existence. Angel traveled to the other dimension, obtained Jasmine's true name, and shattered her mind control and power by revealing her name during a worldwide news broadcast. When her name was revealed, her appearance was also altered. Though she kept her human appearance, she was covered in boils and her eyes turned purple. Her followeres ran horrified as the sensation of inner peace and bliss they experienced as part of Jasmine's collective was obliterated. Many caused riots and chaos, while others even contemplated suicide.
With her name revealed, Jasmine's mind control powers were destroyed, though she kept her superhuman strength and could easily withstand electricity. Her unique psychic link with Connor also remained, as their connection was of a different nature. Through this link, Connor tracks down Jasmine.
With her agenda ruined by Angel, Jasmine initially finds herself lost and purposeless, until Angel tries to reach out to her. Jasmine is upset with Angel and tries to impart to him that there is no absolute good, no absolute evil--everything is a gray area. Angel tries to sway her to his point of view, to recruit her to his side, but Jasmine preferred to slaughter humanity herself before giving free will a chance, as she had seen for millennia what this precious free will would bring about. Jasmine said that without her help, the world was doomed to drown in its own blood, a statement not so hard to believe given the power and sway the demons hold.
Soon after, Jasmine was killed by an increasingly unstable Connor, the only person aside from Cordelia capable of harming her and the only one that had given himself to Jasmine despite knowing Jasmine's true nature being her parent.
Jasmine's good or evil status is somewhat debatable; she argued that she was a force for good, in that she could have ended all the suffering in the world within a few years and bring about a Golden Age but Angel argues that her methods are not right, that only through suffering can humanity grow and without free will life would not be worth living. The fact that one of the last things Jasmine did before dying was pledge to use her remaining power to destroy the world shows that she at least has a very bad temper. Nevertheless Angel and his friends did feel somewhat uncomfortable after her death about whether or not they had done a good thing or a bad thing, especially when Wolfram & Hart congratulated them for ending world peace.
See also
| Buffyverse | ||
| Main | Canon | Index Chronology: Ancient | Modern | BS1 | BS2 | BS3 | BS4/AS1 | BS5/AS2 | BS6/AS3 | BS7/AS4 | AS5 | Future | Flashbacks | |
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| Spin-offs | Comics | Fan made productions | Fray | Novels | Spike movie | Undeveloped productions Buffy Animated | Card Game | RPGs | Tales of Slayer (prose) | Tales of Slayers | Tales of Vampires | Toys | Video Games Upcoming: Blackout | | | | | | Portal Through Time | Spike vs Dracula | | |
| Powers | Angel Investigations | Circle of the Black Thorn | Order of Aurelius | The First Evil | The Initiative | Monsters | Old Ones | The Powers That Be | Ra-Tet | Scooby Gang | Senior Partners | Watchers' Council | Wolfram & Hart | |
| People | Adam | Amy | Andrew | Angel | Anya | Buffy | Caleb | Connor | Cordelia | Dawn | Darla | Doyle | Dru | Eve | Faith | Fred | Giles | Glory | Gunn | Harmony | Holtz | Illyria | Jasmine | Jenny | Joyce | Jonathan | Kate | Kennedy | Lilah | Lindsey | Lorne | The Master | Mayor Wilkins | Oz | Professor Walsh | Riley | Spike | Tara | Warren | Wesley | Willow | Xander | |
| Places | L.A. | Sunnydale Bronze | Caritas | Hellmouth | Hyperion | Library | Magic Box | Pylea | Sunnydale High | |
| Music | Complete Tracklist | Use of Music in Buffy & Angel | Dingoes Ate My Baby | Film | | | Once More, With Feeling | |
| Key Terminology | "Demon" | "Slayer" | "Vampire" | "Watcher" | "Werewolf" | "Witch" "Child of Senior Partners" | Shanshu | Sunnydale Syndrome | Tro-Clon | |
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