𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐁:
MysticPsyche's Opinion
𝐢𝐢. Maria of the Mexican Coven

Maria is the catalyst of Jasper Hale's vampire life.

Before I talk about the Southern Vampire Wars in Jasper's vampire past, let's talk about why he participated in it and that, of course, his creator/sire Maria of the Mexican Coven.

Who is Maria, anyway? She's a Mexican vampire with a mate and two other older vampires that she considered as parents, and she's part of a coven that, unfortunately, lost them in one of the battles for territory. After losing her mate, as any vampire's instinct in canon, when a vampire loses their mate or someone kills their mate, all they can feel is the urge to avenge and kill the one who caused the demise of their mate. She did just that by conquering and battling other covens for territories.

Now, I know every reader of mine knows that I loathe Maria. But I'm going to be an open-minded person and discuss Maria's character from different angles.

In some ways, I understand what Maria did to Jasper, but I do not condone nor excuse it; she is a woman in the 19th century and a POC during the time they were heavily discriminated against. As the leader of the Mexican Coven with Lucy and Nettie, they needed a man to prove the worthiness of their coven, yes. Hence, the creation of Jasper Whitlock, a young and charismatic soldier.

She was the one who practically built Jasper and why he is such a tortured character that we loved. Jasper has been with her since 1863 until he left in the 1940s. They were in a coven together for about seventy-seven years, which is a long time.

Now, let's answer the most common question. Why didn't Jasper leave Maria early when he was already suffering from feeling the pain of others in his gift?

It's fairly simple. Maria is his creator, and we all know that a vampire feels connected with his creator. It's also stated in the Twilight Official Illustrated Guide that Maria is all that Jasper had in his life when he turned into a vampire. Maria is what he all knew about his new life, and Maria used that opportunity to manipulate Jasper into doing her bidding. Jasper is a lost soul that needs someone to tell him what to do. He can't go back to his family because he could kill them.

Jasper only has Maria.

We all know that Jasper is submissive; he needs someone more powerful than him to guide him; look at Maria and Alice. Alice dominated him in every aspect.

In some way, he feels a certain gratitude of some kind for Maria helping him. We know canonically that Jasper respected Maria. He knew what led Maria to create him; we can assume that when women were looked down upon, many covens undermined Maria and discriminated against her, and she couldn't lead her coven because she was a woman.

That I understand.

We all knew that Maria never moved on from losing her mate. No vampire could ever. She was lonely and broken, and Jasper was there to relieve her of that burden somehow. Even in canon, Jasper has been emphatic; Jasper understood what Maria was feeling because, being a soldier in a war when he was human, he would understand what loss feels like, and also add because he has a gift of feeling it.

But let's look at this from a different angle. Maria could have eliminated the coven that killed her original coven and stopped from there and left the bloodshed behind because she didn't want to feel it again anymore. Yet, that did not happen. She continued seeking out territories and eliminating other covens, and Jasper even said Maria became power-hungry.

So it's not about the territories anymore. It's about feeling the power and glory of winning a battle. A vampire and human battle for territories are different. For humans, battling territories is for the money and the land. But for vampires, I know that battling out territories is for the rush and to eliminate other covens because we know that vampires are territorial creatures.

Okay, Mystic, say you're a misogynist and get over it?!?!

No, that's not the point, okay, LOL. Being power-hungry and manipulative doesn't have a category. Regardless of skin color and gender, you can be downright manipulative and selfish. Every person can have that trait.

Let's just ASSUME that Maria, like any other vampire, didn't want to be a vampire in the first place; let's ASSUME that her mate changed her for a reason. Because there's no background on how Maria was turned anyway, so let's discuss the possibilities. Maria may have been a victim of her mate, and as mates do, they do what the significant other wants to do, to follow them mindlessly. So when Maria's mate battled for territories, Maria saw no problem doing so.

We know canonically that Maria's mate/original coven battled out for territories, which is why they died. It's called the consequences of their actions and choices; they know that they won't always win and that death closely follows when it comes to losing.

Maria could have sought her vengeance and killed the coven that killed her mate, and say quits. But no, she continued the cycle of endless death and violence. Maria became her mate. Why? When a person has tasted power and glory, it's difficult to stray away from it. Maria liked the power of being the most successful coven in the South. Let's also say that she did that to survive.

I'll give you that.

So, like any survivor, she placed herself first when Maria felt Jasper's deteriorating emotions.

This is an excerpt of what Jasper told Bella in eclipse. "Maria was mystified by my ever-deteriorating frame of mind. She'd never felt a moment's depression, and I wondered why I was different. I began to notice a change in her emotions when she was near me - sometimes there was fear . . . and malice - the same feelings that had given me advance warning when Nettie and Lucy struck."

Maria wanted to kill Jasper. Jasper felt the same emotion he had felt from Maria when they killed Nettie and Lucy. Jasper was also preparing to kill Maria, but Peter arrived and Jasper left with him, relieved that he doesn't have to kill his creator.

And as we all know. Maria is still battling out for territories during Twilight, which doesn't make sense. The Volturi would have AGAIN ended that in the South because of their fear of revealing the existence of vampires in the world. That's just one of Smeyer's lack of development for her world-building.

I hope you enjoyed reading my opinion on Maria, but I saw many comments from readers who love Maria. You can see her as a victim in her human life, especially when she loses her mate, but not when she starts fighting for her own territories and begins to feel selfish and power-hungry. Jasper and Maria mirror Victoria and Riley.

Smeyer wrote Jasper's backstory to complement what was happening in Seattle, which Jasper had experienced before, and that's why he trained them in the first place.

I love powerful women. I do, but I cannot excuse the action of killing thousands of innocent lives for her army, and for what? For her gain? She took away people from their own families so that she could conquer territories.

It's not an excuse anymore that when she was human as a person of color and a woman, she experienced her homeland being taken away from her. It doesn't mean she can take innocent human lives away from their homeland. It's the colonized being the colonizer.

"Maria and I always kept a dozen or so newborns ready. They meant little to us - they were pawns, they were disposable. When they outgrew their usefulness, we did dispose of them."

I'm POC; my country has been colonized by three countries: Spain, America, and Japan. But would I do what those countries did to other vulnerable countries? No, because I wouldn't want them to experience the agony of your motherland being taken away from you.

Maria has conquered territories and, thus, its residents. She and Jasper had no care for human life, so you can interpret what they did as vampires to the humans in those territories.

You can interpret Maria as broken and filled with vengeance and anger, seeking power and glory, but she isn't a villain. She was only doing what she thought was right, with no regard for anyone. This is where you can say that Maria is the product of her environment; she has only known war, and that is what she'll do forever.