Jeanne D'Archetype: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:Jeanne 8524.gif|link=Joan of Arc|frame|Our [[Trope Maker]].]]

 

{{quote|''"Hope in God. If you have good hope and faith in him, you shall be delivered from your enemies."''|'''[[Joan of Arc]]''' (the original)}}

 

May also overlap with [[Sweet Polly Oliver]], [[Lady of War]], or [[Church Militant]].

 

 

{{examples}}

== 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 [[Church Militant|X-LAWS]], her guardian spirit is [[Physical God|Shamash]], and she eventually {{spoiler|gets [[Kill It with Fire|incinerated]]. Her "Iron Maiden" [[Good Thing You Can Heal|regenerates any and all damage she takes]]. It does put her out of meaningful action for the rest of the series, though.)}}

* 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. {{spoiler|She eventually becomes an actual witch.}}

* Jeanne Francaix in ''[[Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross]]'' (Dana Sterling in ''[[Robotech]]''),

* 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 [[Destructive Savior|causing as much damage as she manages to prevent]].

* The 1995-96 manga ''Joan''/''Jeanne'' by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko<ref>The same one who later penned ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]: The Origin''.</ref> isn't actually about La Puchelle herself, but rather a girl following in her footsteps not long after Jeanne's death and in the process, mirroring her life.

 

== Comic Books ==

* The [[Witchblade (Comic Book)|Witchblade]] was supposedly once worn by Joan.

 

 

* ''[[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]].

* 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.

* 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.)

* 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 [[Hijacked by Ganon|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.

* After she {{spoiler|kills [[Evil Overlord|the Lord Ruler]]}}, 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 [[Career Killers|assassin]], is more than a little disturbed by the whole thing.

* [[Badass Princess]] Shakuntala in [[Belisarius Series]].

 

== Live Action TV ==

* 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 ==

* 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.

* 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 Character]]s.

 

== [[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 ==

* ''[[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... {{spoiler|She is not actually a dragonslayer, she is an actual dragon, able to assume human form. The whole Dragonslayer story was cooked up by an elvish rebel named Iorveth, to help endear her to the people. Why she feels the need to fight for the common folk is a bit unclear, but perhaps she just felt the humans were doing it wrong and decided to show them how do to it right.}}

* 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, {{spoiler|her father}}, and exterminated them. However she's actually the [[Big Bad]] of the game since the main characters are attempting to rebuild the Legion.

* 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,<ref>being an immortal she can't be a martyr</ref> has a fanatical cult following, and is thrusted into a conflict greater than herself. [[Black Magic|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|Warriors Orochi 3]].

 

== Visual Novels ==

* Saber from ''[[Fate/stay night|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.

** [[What Could Have Been|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 {{spoiler|human sacrifice}} 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 Trope|Subverted]] and possibly [[Deconstructed Trope|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 [[Deconstructed Trope|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 ==

* Anita Garibaldi: certainly not a [[Battle Couple|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.

* 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.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Action Girl]]

[[Category:Fountain of Expies]]

[[Category:Just for Pun]]

[[Category:Always Female]]