Portrayed by: Kit Young
Book | Show: Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom, and Netflix’s Shadow and Bone
“But when it came down to it, Jesper’s life had been full of blessings. His father. His mother. Inej. Nina. Matthias leading them across the muddy canal. Kaz—even Kaz, with all his cruelties and failings, had given him a home and a family in the Dregs when Ketterdam might have swallowed him whole. And Wylan. Wylan, who had understood before Jesper ever had that the power inside him might be a blessing too” (Bardugo 311).
The common denominator between each of the six crows amid their differing personalities is the desire to belong somewhere. To be a part of something bigger than they are. Each of them is flawed in ways they can’t accurately confront, but they give themselves to what matters most—protecting their friends. Jesper Fahey is many things: a sharpshooter, a Grisha, a gambler, but most importantly, he’s loyal. He’s devoted, and he’s good, and he’s brave enough to be himself.
Jesper Fahey and His Armor
When it comes to the Crows, they are all internally and externally armored. For Jesper, his external armor openly reveals itself in the form of his pistols, and his internal armor can be seen through his unapologetically remarkable charisma.
It’s true that no character in Shadow and Bone (or in the books) has as much charisma as Jesper Fahey, and that includes our beloved Nikolai Lantsov. (Sorry, bud; we love you—we do.) But this is the case because Jesper is so deeply loving that he doesn’t know what to do with himself. And much of it comes to life expertly on screen because of the layers Kit Young adds to the characters. Iconic lines like “No, not just girls” hit as hard as they do because, with it, he makes it effortless to want to be around him. It’s why it’s so easy for Wylan Van Eck to fall in love with him and why it’s easy for the Crows to trust him, even when he isn’t always responsible.
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This level of trust is ultimately the case because, through every little thing he does, Jesper shows that he cares. He ensures his friends know they can count on him, even when he can’t control some of his urges. It would’ve been worth seeing how the show would address certain matters if they weren’t all kids, but still, Leigh Bardugo does an intriguing job of ensuring that Jesper’s gambling never goes too far. She doesn’t gloss over or sugarcoat the fact that it could be dangerous, but she paints an honest picture of why people do what they do.
Further, he wears charm like an armor because, like most of the Crows, Jesper Fahey is driven by grief. He gambles because he believes he can control the outcome. He uses his kindness to hide the fact that he’s hurting. In the beginning, when he hides the truth about his Fabrikator identity, he does so because he’s ashamed of what it did to his mother. He puts all his energy into everything but confronting his heartaches. However, when it finally comes to light, in the short moments we get, he’s better about working through it. He starts to focus on the people beside him.
With the show’s heartbreaking cancelation, we don’t get to see much of the character’s past. But the poison-induced dream Jesper has with his mom is everything we need to understand an immense chunk of his heart. In my review of Shadow and Bone’s “Nih Weh Sesh (I Have No Heart),” I wrote: “Where the episode is quiet for most characters, it’s brilliantly loud for others, and Jesper Fahey’s arc is part of the latter. Or a bit of both, because in the serene, we get some of the most unbeatable growth for a character who keeps things bottled up, even if he isn’t as emotionally stunted as Kaz Brekker. But following up after the argument with Wylan, through the haze of the poison, Jesper sees his late mother. It allows him a chance to grieve the loss by talking things through and understanding her choice a little bit more, alongside his blessings.
The setting gives Kit Young some of the most powerful scenes to work with, as it allows him to make Jesper feel like a kid again. ‘Little rabbit’, she calls him, and his entire heart is on display as he has the venture to be with her again. It might not be real. It might be a haze. But it’s an experience that changes him because it gives them the kind of second chance he might not have otherwise gotten. ‘Did anyone else get lulled into a comforting sense of joy?‘ he asks the Crows plus Tolya when they’re all safe. This sense of joy is exactly what Jesper needed to remember that his mother was the kind of person who’d stop at nothing to protect others—the type of woman who’d give to make everyone else’s lives easier, especially the kids who needed protecting.
“What we do while we’re alive; who we are; our truth, that is all we could control. That is all we have. Hiding who you are won’t save you.”
The decision might have taken her away from him, but he’s better for the type of person that she chose to be—loving, helpful, and full of conviction. Despite his confidence, Jesper needs more belief in more areas than he understands. This vision allows him to not only see how important time spent with people you care about is but also why living his truth matters in honoring his mother as well. Again, we don’t know how much of it is real (considering everyone’s visions operate differently), but if this is the version of his mother that he remembers and finds comfort in, and if she died trying to protect another child, then the chances are she’s the type of woman who’d want her son to be happy no matter what he does. It’s heartbreaking, awe-inspiring, and beautifully poignant all at once in showcasing his profound adoration and understanding of Jesper.”
The Depth of Love
Often, charismatic characters aren’t given enough depth. Writers focus so much on how delightful and witty they are that they forget to look inward to examine the wounds that haunt them. And it’s riveting to note how Jesper Fahey is someone who shoots and aims so perfectly, but his own pain is something that doesn’t get examined sharply enough. We understand very early on that even while he’s with the Crows because they give him a place to belong, he stays because he also understands that he’s safe with them. He knows that no matter how far he goes, Kaz will forgive him because they could throw punches like brothers but love each other fully.
There are secrets that plague them all—secrets they keep buried under lock and key and in far-off corridors where no one could touch them. But when push comes to shove, the risks they take are driven and solidified by how deeply they love. And again, here’s where performances come into play exceptionally because Kit Young also shows this depth of love again when Jesper Fahey has to (temporarily) say goodbye to Inej Ghafa in a deleted season from Shadow and Bone Season 2. He deflects with humor, but when he chokes up, it’s because he himself can’t grasp the magnitude in which he cares for her. His sister. His confident. One of his best friends in the entire world. This depth is so transcendent that in the limited time we have, we feel every ounce of it. The same can be said about how Leigh Bardugo layers it into every line in the Six of Crows duology. He and Kaz fight as hard as they do because, despite the barriers between them, they’re brothers still. Matthias, Nina, all of them, included.
We see the depth and loyalty of his love in how fiercely he adores Wylan and accepts him as he is. Jesper Fahey might not be as crude with his words as Kaz is, but sometimes, Jesper doesn’t have the right things to say either. Still, this is where his effort deserves to be part of the conversation because how he chooses to formulate his language around Wylan matters tremendously to show that he’s in for the long haul. He wants to get things right when it comes to their relationship. He wants Wylan to feel safe with him. He wants Wylan to know how deeply loved he is, and amid his imperfections, he tries and tries to show it consistently.
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Jesper is honest. He’s warm. He’s loving. He’s hilarious. He doesn’t know how to take no for an answer because he doesn’t know how to give up. He’s gentle when he needs to be, charismatic at all times, a little edgy when he’s frustrated, and always always looking out for those around him. If he’s not a well-written, thoughtfully brought-to-life character in a cruel world, then I don’t know who is.
First Featured Image Credit: ©Netflix