The Many Fabulous Uses of Jelly!

Though the uses and merits of Jelly are far too numerous to cover in a single article, or even a series of articles, I hope to cover some of the main points, and in the process, bring about a newfound sense of appreciation for the jiggly greatness found throughout the world.

Jelly Use #1:

Jelly is amazingly collectable! I myself have collected the beginnings of a gallery centered around Jelly, the greatest of Neopian foods. Jelly comes in so many shapes, sizes, colors and flavours that it would be near impossible to list all of them. Surely an item with such variation should be the centerpiece of many great galleries throughout the world! With whole jellies, such as Glowing, Lime, Chokato, Peach, and Dung, to collect, as well as other items, such as Jelly Bread and Jelly Pop, a gallery would need to be massive to contain them all!

But wait, there's more! Even with all of these, a Jelly themed gallery would not be complete, as Jelly memorabilia is found in countless forms, such as books (mostly written about Jelly, though it would not surprise me if one or two were in fact, made from Jelly as well), stamps, furniture, and even a few NC wearables! That's right, Jelly is so amazing, you can even wear it!

Jelly Use #2:

In addition to being wildly collectable, Jelly is also the single greatest color in all of Neopia! There are 37 species of Neopet that can currently be painted Jelly, and all of them that can be, ought to be! The benefits of being a Jelly 'pet are endless! For instance, let's say that one's 'pet is a rather clumsy individual, as many of them are. This pet constantly injures his or herself falling down, over and over again. If the pet were painted Jelly, it could simply bounce back up, sustaining minimal injury to itself! (That being said, some 'pets are slightly more bouncy than others. I've heard stories of springier ones bouncing high enough and with enough force to knock over certain lighter pieces of Neohome furniture...)

Jelly colored neopets are better for more reasons than their springy-ness, though! Having a Jelly 'pet is also something of a status symbol, as pets such as these are few and far between. In fact, a Jelly 'pet is worth more than a Gold one! (From a purely monetary perspective, that is. Neopets are creatures that are obviously worth more than their color). A Golden Paint Brush costs about 340,000 NP, a high cost, of course, especially for some newer Neopians. Jelly, however, cannot be obtained via Paint Brush, and is exclusively found through the Lab Ray. If one assumes that Lab Ray access is around 900,000 NP (I apologize if this is a little off), then it could be said that a Jelly pet is worth around 540,000 NP more than a golden pet, and that's without figuring in the immense patience that it can take to get a specific color out of the Lab Ray. So, for all of you rich, aristocratic, fat-cat Neopians out there, don't paint your pet Gold. Use Jelly.

Jelly Use #3:

Ok, so I realize that color was the second use for Jelly, but it's time for a knowledge bomb to be dropped: It's the third one too. This is because Jelly is not a color reserved for Neopia's larger, more intelligent inhabitants. Petpets can be Jelly-colored too! To my knowledge, nine species of petpet can currently bask in the Jelly-based glory of their neopet counterparts. Among these are classics such as the Babaa, the Meepit, the Slorg, and the Hasee, which many of the aforementioned Neopian aristocrats would seek to own. Like standard neopets, petpets can only be colored Jelly through the use of the Lab Ray, which incidentally means that they will never be winners of the PPL... Frankly, I find this tragic, as the League should not be so high and mighty as to discriminate against an entire colour of petpet. It's just wrong.

However, despite the lack of PPL trophy winning on the part of a Jelly petpet, they are still more than worth the effort it takes to obtain one! After all, what better companion is there for a 'pet made of Jelly than a petpet made of Jelly!

Jelly Use #4:

This should, in retrospect, have been much higher on the list, because it is possibly the most obvious use for Jelly in the world. Jelly is, by nature, a food. It can be fed to a neopet like any other food, and tastes better than most! So next time you're considering giving your neopet a delightful treat, consider Jelly, because Jelly is, as the title of this article would suggest, utterly resplendent. Beyond that, though, there is a flavour of Jelly to suit every occasion. For festive summer gatherings, a fruity Jelly might be appropriate, whereas Halloween is often a good occasion for glowing jelly. Jelly can even be used as a food with which to prank your neo-frenemies, in the form of Dung Jelly and Smelly Jelly!

One question posed by many regarding the use of Jelly as a food is the ethics of feeding a Jelly item to a Jelly coloured pet. This is a completely understandable moral struggle, as feeding a neopet some of the substance that is is made from could be seen as... well... distasteful. I personally do not believe that this is a problem, when looking around at some of the other food-based colors found in Neopia. Chias, for instance, gain their new color by way of eating something of the flavour they wish to become! If this is true for fruit and vegetable Chias, surely it shouldn't be a problem for our more jiggly friends! That's right, citizens of Neopia, fear not, feeding Jelly to Jelly coloured pets is ok!

So there you have it, dear Neopian Times readers, four amazing uses for an amazing item found throughout Neopia. Next time you come across a whole Jelly, a Jelly based item, or even a book on Jelly, don't be like a normal Neopian, and spend the next hour of your life bickering with your friends over the existence of a world made of Jelly; just accept the jiggly mass for what it is. Accept it. Bask in its glory. Just, please, for everyone else's sanity, don't argue over the existence of Jelly World. Just don't.