I Want To Talk About Jeanne And Jeanne Alter. First Off White Woman (laugh Track So Loud It Shakes The

i want to talk about jeanne and jeanne alter. first off white woman (laugh track so loud it shakes the building) ok now that thats out of the way what I really want to talk about is how interesting i find the dynamic between the two because for all that jalter is this 2 kool 4 skool edgy jeanne born from a grudge the truth of the matter is that regular jeanne is far more insane than her. jalter is very much this tortured soul born from gilles’ agony but the fact of the matter is that shes actually quite easy to understand. The moment she and her anger are validated she immediately chills because yeah, she was someones idea of what jeannes anger would be, in every respect she is a fake of a fake because the regular jeanne is so insane and inhuman that she feels basically no remorse guilt or resentment for every wrong she committed and was committed against her. jalter is a counterfeit, a fake who unlike every other faker in the series doesnt really aim to surpass jeanne as “jeanne d’arc” (nothing says a faker cant surpass the original), but rather exist entirely independent of jeanne d’arc because her idea of surpassing jeanne is entirely rooted in being jalter instead. Its why in every subsequent appearance she went around jumping between hobbies, learning how to read and write and generally trying to ingratiate herself in every clique she could, she doesn’t want to be just the fake alter of jeanne, she wants to be recognized as her own person separate from jeanne.

and the reason thats so significant is because the original jeanne gave up every bit of herself without a single regret. it’s brought up by mephistopheles in her interludes but the reason why jalter was such an impossible idea to exist is because jeanne is so committed to god and her cause that mephisto considers her lacking in humanity. jalter refers to herself as a mercy born for jeanne because shes someones idea of jeanne having been avenged, jeanne having given in to human anger at being betrayed and thrown away. But jeanne in having never broken was also hollowed out, by her own hand no less. anyone halfway familiar with the apocrypha novels knows that jeanne is genuinely kind but also merciless when needed: she has no issue striking down the children jack creates because they are already forsaken and jeanne knows she cant save them alone, she tells atalante to her face that while god is merciful she very much isnt, jeanne freely admits that she believes humans are ultimately evil despite being capable of good, she doesnt even consider herself a saint because as much as she would have liked to remain a farmgirl she threw herself into a war knowing the death it would entail and was not even phazed by it. jeanne heard gods lament but she was not aided by god, she did everything because she was helping god, and had no issue having a cruel and pitiful death for that. which causes mephisto to call her fucking insane! mephisto in her interludes doesnt try to break jeanne by having her face every horrible thing in her life, what mephisto aimed to do was simply have jeanne admit that she did feel some kind of emotion about it, any anger, resentment, even despair, because jeanne at the very least deserved that. but she never does, which in turn terrified mephisto because he’s someone who ultimately values humanity and in his eyes, jeanne was freely throwing hers away. despite every atrocity she faced, jeanne still did hold hope for humans and was fine throwing herself away for their sakes.

But it’s also why jeanne is so kind to jalter in turn. jalter is the human jeanne wished she could be but ultimately isnt, the version of her who was allowed to be human. jeanne is too unshakeable in her principles to ever let herself break or be broken, but jalter doesnt have that commitment, that sense of duty or even that discipline. jalter, for all that she is an impossibility, is free to be herself, more than anything she allows herself to be free when jeanne never did. jalter might on the surface be the evil version of jeanne but truthfully she is the kindness that jeanne was never afforded, and while mephisto couldn’t really break her, at the very least he was able to get her to admit that even if there was no resentment, she did hold a wish to live. and above all, there was nothing wrong with that wish. jalter forces jeanne to acknowledge her because even if jeanne didnt let herself stop and always ran towards her end, there were people who did grieve for jeanne, people who cared about jeanne d’arc the human and not the symbol. when jeanne first meets jalter in orleans, the first question she asks is if jalter has any memories of their past, because those memories of simpler days and simple happiness were enough for jeanne to fight for. and when jalter told her no, and yet in turn forced jeanne to acknowledge her, jeanne had decided to give that simple happiness to jalter.

jalter is not jeanne d’arc, she could never be jeanne d’arc and she doesn’t even want to be her, but jeanne wants to be kind to jalter, because it would also be allowing kindness to herself. and for all that jalter is abrasive towards jeanne, she also knows that her existence hinges on the fact that someone did care about jeanne on an individual level, so no matter how annoying she might find her “original”, the truth is that jalter existing and being happy as herself is also the wish and the validation for jeanne to be happy as herself. jalter might be the dark reflection of what jeanne could have been, but the dark reflection is not an admission of evil or the possibility of revenge, its the idea that jeanne could live for herself and have individual human happiness, and it ties back to what jalter always establishes about herself: once something is born, it cant ever be erased.

once the impossible idea of jalter was born, so too was the impossible idea of jeanne d’arc allowing herself to live as a human.