Jeanne D'Archetype



""Hope in God. If you have good hope and faith in him, you shall be delivered from your enemies.""

- Joan of Arc (the original)

Jeanne D'Archetype is a fictional character inspired by Saint Joan of Arc. This can incorporate various elements of the historical Joan's story. This character is Always Female, usually young, often an Action Girl, and often of humble origin but become thrust into leadership and danger by her devotion to a cause greater than herself. Such devotion also inspires many others to follow that same cause - even past her often untimely death, in which case she will sometimes be turned into a larger-than-life mythic persona (such as a saint) by a fanatical cult following. She may also crossdress, experience supernatural voices or visions, be a farm girl, join the military, or be persecuted and martyred - extra points for being burned at the stake. May also overlap with Sweet Polly Oliver, Lady of War, or Church Militant.

Arguably a subtrope of Magnetic Hero.

Anime and Manga

 * Shaman King's Iron Maiden Jeanne plays this trope about as straight as possible. She's the Well-Intentioned Extremist kid-leader of the X-LAWS, her guardian spirit is Shamash, and she eventually
 * The anime series Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne.
 * Farnese in Berserk is kind of presented like this at first: girl on a holy mission who fights (sometimes). Thing is, she's actually revealed to have no combat skill whatsoever (women being at the head of the order for symbolic purposes), the voices she hears actually come from demons (Joan of Arc's enemies accused her of this), and she's a pyromaniac.
 * Jeanne Francaix in Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross (Dana Sterling in Robotech),
 * Fairy Tail's Erza Scarlet has this in her Backstory, a young girl leading slaves to freedom with her newfound magic powers. It is even specifically referenced in the chapter title of the manga.
 * Lady Oscar from Rose of Versailles has shades of this.
 * In the wider Digimon canon, Darcmon is an angel Mon specifically based on Jeanne. Her appearance in the film Digimon Frontier: Revival of the Ancient Digimon, however, is a subversion:.
 * Code Geass Nightmare of Nunnally puts a bit of Mind Screw on this.
 * Esther Blanchett of Trinity Blood was something like this in the light novels. She was the young orphan-novice who acted as the brave cross-dressing leader of the partisans in István and later on was hailed as Lady Saint. However,, subverting this.
 * Joan of Arc herself shows up in Axis Powers Hetalia... for about five seconds. Plus she's only listed as 'that girl', though it's obvious who the girl is. Fandom, however, has taken the concept of France/Jeanne and run wild with it. In one of the more recent strips in volume four of the published manga France.
 * Joan of Arc is, well, Joan of Arc's clone in the series Afterschool Charisma. It's questionable whether she has visions or not since she does spend a lot of time staring into a mirror. The latest chapters have introduced the idea of Joan pseudo-sacrificing herself (being burned at the stake, of course) in order to break her chains with destiny and hopefully live past her original's age of nineteen.
 * Sephiria Arks, the Lady of War from Black Cat. She leads a special military unit of assassins, is ridiculously skilled at using a sword, and her last name is probably a homage to Joan d'Arc.
 * In Kouta Hirano's Drifters Joan is an Ax Crazy Omnicidal Maniac.
 * In the manga version of Chrono Crusade, Chrono calls the main character Rosette Christopher "a modern-day Joan of Arc" in an attempt to cheer her up. She does fit some of the trope--a girl from humble origins who becomes a Church Militant Action Girl for a noble cause (saving her brother from a demon)--but her personality is a loud, Hot-Blooded Idiot Hero that swears like a sailor and has a bad habit of causing as much damage as she manages to prevent.

Comic Books

 * Joan Dark (yep, obvious name there), aka the Maid, of the Top Ten of 1949.
 * The Witchblade was supposedly once worn by Joan.

Film-Animated

 * Mulan has a lot of the elements, despite being based on a Chinese legend a thousand years older. Maybe Joan of Arc isn't so much the Trope Maker as the Trope Codifier.

Film-Live Action

 * In the extra features on Hard Candy, when asked which historical figure her character was most like Ellen Page responded "Joan of Arc."
 * Princess Leia of Star Wars might almost qualify except her down to Earth and snarky personality makes it an uneasy fit.
 * In The Legend of Billie Jean, Billie Jean Davy is inspired by a broadcast of the 1957 film Saint Joan and re-fashions herself after Joan of Arc as part of her campaign to get justice for her brother.

Literature

 * D'joan/Joan in the Cordwainer Smith story The Dead Lady of Clown Town, although she's more of a nonviolent revolutionary with religious overtones than a warrior.
 * Saint Sabbat in the Gaunt's Ghosts novel Sabbat Martyr has an origin story that is quite Joan of Arc-like (young farm girl with divine visions becomes a charismatic military leader and is eventually martyred.)
 * "Wazzer" in Monstrous Regiment: dresses like a man  and receives visions from the spirit of the Duchess, a kind of spiritual protector / Virgin Mary figure for their country. Also ends up leading the army.
 * Paks from The Deed of Paksenarrion has aspects of this.
 * Mina of the Dragonlance War of Souls trilogy is a subversion -- she's very much the traditional image of Joan (teenage girl who is nonethless a deadly warrior and an incredibly inspiring leader on a mission from God), except that the voice she hears is actually that of the setting's traditional Big Bad. Mina, however, has no real idea that she's evil's tool and believes she's this trope played straight.
 * Laurana in the original Chronicles trilogy fits the trope very well. She never intended to be a leader, but after being incomparably badass at the High Clerist's Tower she found herself in command of the Knights of Solamnia and the armies of Palanthas.
 * In the Belgariad, Princess CeNedra takes up the role of figurehead for the army of her husband while he's off fulfilling prophesies and such, mostly to make a lot of noise and distract the bad guys. She may not actually BE the Jeanne D'Archetype, but she presents herself as this to her army, and plays the role to the hilt. She even goes so far as to have gold armor made (too thin to actually be protective, so she can actually move with it on) which... exaggerates her pettanko frame, to the gripes of the armorsmith tasked with making it.
 * Ash, in Mary Gentle's  Ash: A Secret History , is very much this archetype in some ways, as a female military leader in the fifteenth century who hears voices. Unlike her in other ways; she's not very religious, for instance.
 * After she, the people start to view Vin of Mistborn as something akin to this. Vin, who thinks of herself as little more than a magic-using assassin, is more than a little disturbed by the whole thing.
 * Badass Princess Shakuntala in Belisarius Series.

Live Action TV

 * Joan of Arcadia is an odd case, since it clearly references Joan of Arc but avoids many of the usual elements, apart from having a young girl carrying out missions from God as the protagonist.
 * Wonderfalls was loosely based on Joan, with Jay being urged to help people by strange voices -- in her case, from inanimate models/pictures of animals.
 * Ambassador Delenn in Babylon 5 is an obvious example, being a mystically inclined woman who uses her charisma to lead in battle against a great enemy and inspires devotion and heroism in her followers. However she is a high class woman rather then a peasant girl.
 * Joan of Montreal, a one woman comedy special featuring Brigitte Gall, tells the story of a young French-Canadian woman chosen by God to defeat the English by being goalie for the Montreal Canadiens in the last game of the Stanley Cup Final.

Tabletop Games

 * The Sisters of Battle of Warhammer 40000 in general are modeled off of Jeanne D'Arc (note the fleur-de-lys for one thing), but the Living Saint makes it obvious.
 * Several characters in the Yu-Gi-Oh Card Game are based off of Jeanne D'Arc either in name or appearance, most notably St. Joan and Guardian Angel Joan.
 * Repanse de Lyonesse from Warhammer Fantasy.
 * Lady Jehanne in Warlord.
 * Red Phoenix from Silver Age Sentinels is a Magic Warrior whose origins may hint a connection to the actual Joan of Arc.
 * Female paladins in Dungeons and Dragons and its spinoffs often share in this trope to varying degrees. The goddess Iomedae from Pathfinder even has the haircut.
 * The sci-fi miniatures wargame Infinity takes this a step further, in that it has Jeanne d'Arc herself as a character that can be fielded. In reality, it isn't the actual Jeanne d'Arc (the actual warrior, for example, wasn't wearing Powered Armor) but is a "recreation" of her designed by the super-AI AELPH to serve as a battlefield commander for the armies of PanOceania, along with countless other Historical Domain Characters.

Theatre

 * "You Can't Keep A Good Girl Down" from Sally has a refrain beginning "I wish I could be like Joan of Arc."

Video Games

 * Leliana of Dragon Age has shades of this character, as does Andraste. Leliana is more of a warrior, although she also claims to have visions; Andraste is more of a saint, though she also led an army of human barbarians and elven fighters against the Imperium. Andraste was burned at the stake.
 * Obviously the story of Jeanne D'Arc is based very closely on the actual story of Joan of Arc, but with many additions and imaginings (like a magic gauntlet that transformed her into a valkyrie, for example).
 * Likewise, La Pucelle is another game with a Joan-like heroine, and is also named after one of her titles (French for "The Maiden"). Though Prier is a little more selfish than most archetypes, and her story may take a horrendously wrong direction. If you allow the dark energy on a stage to build up, a portal into the Dark World eventually forms. If Prier kills a significant number of demon lords and overlords while in the Dark World, she eventually gathers so much demonic energy that she becomes an overlord herself. (Interestingly enough, this event does not end the game, which also makes Prier the first canon example of a non-evil Demon Overlord, as well.)
 * Joanna Dark of Perfect Dark was named after Joan, but her resemblance to the archetype is indirect; she is rather androgynous, and gets involved in a plot that's beyond her position.
 * Monica of Yggdra Union.
 * In a way, The Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater, although she's older than the usual examples. However, during World War II she became a military leader at an early age, she fought for her country, and
 * Janne from World Heroes.
 * Charlotte from Samurai Shodown.
 * Arguably, Chris Lightfellow from Suikoden III.
 * Micaiah in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. She is named the Silver-Haired Maiden, she leads La Résistance, she's the one to find the lost heir to the throne, and everyone, enemies included agrees that she's the one the people of her country will follow to the death, rather than the king.
 * In the MMORPG Atlantica Online, one can hire a Lady Knight mercenary, whose final upgrade is Jeanne D'Arc (or Joan of Arc). She is a sword type and is an extremely good tank.
 * The Witcher 2's Saskia the Dragon Slayer fits this trope to a tee at first glance, a peasant girl who had by all accounts slain a dragon and is much beloved by the common folk who leads a peasant uprising, and helps to defend the city of Vergen from an invading army. She dreams of creating a queendom where humans, elves and dwarves live together as equals. An uncommonly noble goal in the Crapsack World of the Witcherverse (whether she is successful or not varies depending on your game choices). But there is a twist...
 * Jeyne Kassynder of Dungeon Siege III, who in the backstory riled up the populace against the 10th Legion in order to avenge the slain King,, and exterminated them. However she's actually the Big Bad of the game since the main characters are attempting to rebuild the Legion.
 * The "Sword Magess" from Wild Arms 2 was obviously based on Joan, from being chosen by a divine being (a wolf) to save her world, to having her humble family become nobility after her death.
 * Emilia Nighthaven from Heroes of Might and Magic IV, who goes from a glassblower's child to the Queen of Great Arcan during the course of the Order campaign.
 * Byakuren from Touhou. A religious figure, is/was persecuted, has a fanatical cult following, and is thrusted into a conflict greater than herself. She's not exactly "holy", though.
 * Joan herself appears in several Koei games, debuting in Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War, and later appearing in the Massive Multiplayer Crossover game Warriors Orochi 3.

Visual Novels

 * Saber from Fate Stay Night is actually a very straight example. She is an expert swordswoman, was born humble but became the leader of her people, pretended to be male, and even eventually died because she was betrayed by her people. It's often the first guess as to her true identity. Of course, that's assuming she's based on a female hero... In Fate/Zero she actually is mistaken for Jeanne D'Arc by a character who was Jeanne's contemporary.
 * Had it reached completion, Fate/Apocrypha would've featured the actual Jeanne D'Arc.

Web Comics

 * In life, Jeanne of Gunnerkrigg Court, a French Hot Chick with a Sword, Lady of War, and in the early days of the court. Now she's a ghost stranded on the shore of the river who is "beyond even the Guide's reach."
 * Subverted and possibly deconstructed with Jone (sic) Half-Orc in Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic. Jone starts as a sympathetic young character with humble origins who just turns out to be a natural fighter and on a mission from the orc-god Gruumsh; it's too bad that her eventual army of followers consists of self-deluded fanatics (including a self-styled prophetess "interpreting" Jone's wishes as she sees fit, since their savior-figure is unfortunately mute) and that Jone herself gets so caught up in her "crusade" that she ultimately ends up going Ax Crazy beyond redemption.

Web Original

 * Pucelle of the Whateley Universe. She's really a deconstruction, because she sees herself as a Joan of Arc figure and pushes toward that image, while irritating the heck out of her dormmates and classmates.

Real Life

 * Saint Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc).
 * Anita Garibaldi: certainly not a pucelle, but definitely a Lady of War. Bonus point from coming from a poor family and dying in the aftermatch of the Italian revolution of 1848.
 * Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, sister of Edward the Elder and daughter of Alfred the Great. She was a beloved Anglo-Saxon leader against the incoming Danes.
 * Hua Mulan was a young Action Girl thrust into leadership long before the Trope Namer was even born.
 * Wang Cong'er was a rebel leader during the Chinese White Lotus Rebellion. She gained that role after her husband died, never planning to take on military command beforehand, but she ended up becoming a fierce thorn in the side of The Empire who danced out of their grasp for years. She was fiercely devoted to the freedom of the Han and (supposedly) to her White Lotus Society ideals.