#jrweek2021
It’s still Day Three of JR Week (somehow. In my time zone, anyway), which is Jeffrey’s Day.
(Yes, I know I skipped Day Two; I didn’t have any thoughts, okay)
Jeffrey is represented by the Alexandrite stone, which in addition to symbolizing wealth and prosperity and good fortune is basically a Magic Color Changing Stone: the color shifts depending on what light you view in under.
The first sections obviously mark Jeffrey’s place as probably the wealthiest and most ostentatious of the Claremont family that we see in the series. Jeff tried to use his money to help save his brother, it destroyed his relationship with Richard, he uses it again to seek information on Richard and damages Richard and Vince’s relationship, he works in some vague financial role in America…
Well. There’s a reason Richard calls him a talking wallet.
But the color-changing thing is more interesting to me. Before volume ten, it seemed to be representing the way Jeff betrayed Richard and caused Richard to switch from seeing him as his dearest brother and one of his most important people in his entire life to…well, someone he never wanted to see or hear from again. Someone he viewed as danger.
But after volume ten…
Well, Seigi never trusted Jeffrey originally. He knew enough of Richard’s family by the time he met Jeff not to trust him until he got more details.
And after we discover that Jeffrey is a closeted gay man who has been hiding himself from his family for…well, decades, honestly, at that point, the light shifts.
And we see him different. And we see the way his alexandrite represents him differently.
Jeffrey can’t really be his full self…anywhere, not for a long, long time. His family and his job and his public self can’t be gay, and anything he does with romance or sex has to be divorced from his identity so rumors and scandals don’t spread. He cannot be seen as who he is all at once in one setting. It’s too dangerous.
This starts to break down a little–at least, his family learns what he’s been keeping to himself and Joachim is apparently just traveling the world with hm, but even then Jeffrey is a fairly private person. The people close to him may be able to see the full spectrum of his colors, but I really quite doubt most of the world does.
And I just still am floored that Tsujimura-sensei pulled that one off.
