Tetragrammaton Labyrinth is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by manga author Ei Itou. The story is set in alternate pre-industrial London, where in Scotland Yard call on Meg Cross, a nun with a special talent in exorcism, and her eternally youthful partner Angela to deal with extraordinary crimes.

Gilles de Rais was featured as the main antagonist in Tetragrammaton Labyrinth against the main characters which consisted of one of the child victims that he murdered. It was explained that he murdered the children to turn himself into an immortal demon. Later it was revealed that this was to further his plans to resurrect Joan of Arc.

The Death Of Love

The Life and Crimes of Gilles de Rais

With Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder, all the ingredients are there for a very good Cradle of Filth album. Always fascinated with the idea of the concept albums, having covered everything from Clive Barker, to John Milton, to Countess Bathory, Dani Filth takes on the story of notorious French serial killer Gilles de Rais on his band’s eighth record, and the tale fits this band like a bloody glove. You’ve got a French nobleman who fights alongside (and is presumably in love with) Joan of Arc, delves into sorcery after her execution, proceeds to sexually abuse and murder of dozens, perhaps hundreds of children, and is eventually arrested, tried, and hung. Filth, a master of macabre imagery and savage wit, is the perfect person to deliver an opera based on the exploits of one of the most infamous sadists in history, so you can’t blame fans for getting their hopes up.

Popmatters

Felices cámaras aquellas en las que aparecía el pajarito y sonaba un "click"...

Por suicidio inmediato, vendo cámara digital SAMSUNG L73.  El Hombre Desesperado- había intentado una y otra vez entender las instrucciones de manejo de aquel ingenio que, a decir de su hijo, era lo más fácil de manejar del mundo. Imposible.

Para empezar, el manual de instrucciones  decía Leia com atençao este manual antes de usar a nova câmera. El Hombre Desesperado no creía en la unidad ibérica, que ahora ronda en el pensamiento de algunos politólogos ilustres. Por tanto le molestaba que una cámara japonesa se adelantara a los acontecimientos y eligiera el portugués como idioma oficial de sus explicaciones. A decir verdad, entendía casi todas las palabras. Pero le cabreaba que una cámara japonesa comprada en el Corte Inglés le hablara en portugués. Y además no entendía lo que querían decir. Era dramático: todo, desde la explicación de lo que era ese aparato a las instrucciones de uso, le parecía tan rematadamente mal expuesto y peor escrito que no entendía ningún manual.

Anotó en su Moleskine de puño y letra: no puedo seguir viviendo en un mundo para el que soy tan inútil. No aguanto ni un minuto más sentirme el más gilipollas del planeta. Quiero desaparecer, que es una de las pocas cosas para la que no necesito manual de instrucciones.

En la redacción de su improvisado testamento, una luz le iluminó. Pensó que a pesar de su baja autoestima, su muerte no debería ser en balde. Así que, dominando por un momento su obcecación, tomó la pluma y añadió: si a pesar del suicidio inmediato, Dios me indulta  y me concede la gracia de sentarme a su lado, le convenceré de que incluya en su lista de condenados sin remisión posible a todos los redactores de instrucciones de los aparatos modernos. A todos.

Se consoló pensando que al menos esos sutiles malvados arderían en las calderas de Pedro Botero con las almas de todos los villanos que en el mundo han sido, desde Nerón y  Gilles de Rais hasta el inventor de los muebles de metacrilato y el compositor de  Macarena. Y a continuación se dirigió al botiquín para coger la caja de barbitúricos.

No pudo ingerirlos. Una semana antes su lupa se había hecho pedazos al estrellarse contra el suelo de la cocina. Y su vista, ya fatigada quizás por  haber visto tantas muestras de la estolidez humana, no alcanzaba a leer las diminutas letras del prospecto. Editores de prospectos de fármacos  en letra microscópica, anotó en su testamento como adenda: otros que deben ser arrojados al fuego eterno.

Así que, incapaz de saber cuántos barbitúricos necesitaba para despedirse de la vida sin excesos, reprimió la ira de haber perdido las fotos de su último viaje –un desastre más en su vida- y decidió aplazar el suicidio para mejor  ocasión.

Gilles de Rais, Born 1404

Before he began his killing spree, he rode as a military captain in the army lead by St Joan of Arc – though it is unlikely that she knew him. He was accused and ultimately convicted of torturing, raping and murdering dozens, if not hundreds, of young children, mainly boys.

According to surviving accounts, Rais lured children, mainly young boys who were blond haired and blue eyed (as he had been as a child), to his residences, and raped, tortured and mutilated them, often ejaculating, perhaps via masturbation, over the dying victim. He and his accomplices would then set up the severed heads of the children in order to judge which was the most fair. The precise number of Rais’s victims is not known, as most of the bodies were burned or buried. The number of murders is generally placed between 80 and 200; a few have conjectured numbers upwards of 600. The victims ranged in age from six to eighteen and included both sexes. Although Rais preferred boys, he would make do with young girls if circumstances required.

At the transcript of the trial, one of Gilles servants Henriet (an accomplice to his crimes) described the actions of his master, which were essentially:

Henriet soon began to collect children for his master, and was present whilst he massacred them. They were murdered invariably in one room at Machecoul. The marshal used to bathe in their blood; he was fond of making Gilles do Sillé, Pontou, or Henriet torture them, and he experienced intense pleasure in seeing them in their agonies. But his great passion was to welter in their blood. His servants would stab a child in the jugular vein, and let the blood squirt over him. The room was often steeped in blood. When the horrible deed was done, and the child was dead, the marshal would be filled with grief for what he had done, and would toss weeping and praying on a bed, or recite fervent prayers and litanies on his knees, whilst his servants washed the floor, and burned in the huge fireplace the bodies of the murdered children. With the bodies were burned the clothes and everything that had belonged to the little victims. An insupportable odour filled the room, but the Maréchal do Retz inhaled it with delight

Richard Trenton Chase, Born 1950

One of my personal favs. So hot. He can slice and dice me anytime!!!

Richard Trenton Chase (May 23, 1950 – December 26, 1980) was an American serial killer who killed six people in the span of a month in California. He earned the nickname The Vampire of Sacramento due to his drinking of his victims’ blood and his cannibalism. He did this as part of a delusion that he needed to prevent Nazis from turning his blood into powder via poison they had planted beneath his soap dish.

On December 29, 1977, Chase killed his first victim in a drive-by shooting, Ambrose Griffin, a 51-year-old engineer and father of two. Chase’s next victim was Teresa Wallin. Three months pregnant, Teresa was surprised at her home by Chase, who shot her three times, killing her. He then had sex with the corpse and mutilated it, bathing in the dead woman’s blood. On January 27, Chase committed his final murders. Entering the home of 38-year-old Evelyn Miroth, he encountered her neighbor, Don Meredith, who he shot with the same .22 handgun. Stealing Meredith’s wallet and car keys, he rampaged through the house, fatally shooting Evelyn Miroth, her 6-year-old son Jason, and Miroth’s 22-month-old nephew, David. As with Teresa Wallin, Chase engaged in necrophilia and cannibalism with Miroth’s corpse. Chase returned to his home, where he drank David’s blood and ate several of the infant’s internal organs before disposing of the body at a nearby church. A witness saw him leaving the scene where he left perfect fingerprints and shoe-prints – leading to his arrest.

On May 8 Chase was found guilty of six counts of first degree murder and was sentenced to die in the gas chamber. Waiting to die, Chase became a feared presence in prison; the other inmates (including several gang members), aware of the graphic and bizarre nature of his crimes, feared him, and according to prison officials, they often tried to convince Chase to commit suicide. On December 26, 1980, a guard doing cell checks found Chase lying awkwardly on his bed, not breathing. An autopsy determined that he committed suicide with an overdose of prison doctor-prescribed antidepressants that he had been saving up over the last few weeks.

Jeffrey Dahmer, Born 1960

Think he’d go straight for me? He did have jungle fever, so…thats not a problem.

Dahmer murdered at least 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, with the majority of the murders occurring between 1989 and 1991. His murders were particularly gruesome, involving acts of forced sodomy, necrophilia, dismemberment, and cannibalism. Dahmer committed his first murder when he was 18, killing Steven Hicks, a 19 year-old hitchhiker. Dahmer invited Hicks to his house, and killed him because he “didn’t want him to leave.”

On September 25, 1988, he was arrested for sexually fondling a 13-year-old Laotian boy in Milwaukee, for which he served 10 months of a one year sentence in a work release camp. However, in 1988 there was not yet a law requiring offenders to register when convicted of a sex crime against a minor. He convinced the judge that he needed therapy, and he was released with a five-year probation on good behavior. Shortly thereafter, he began a string of murders that would end with his arrest in 1991.

In the early morning hours of May 27, 1991, 14-year-old Milwaukee Laotian Konerak Sinthasomphone (the younger brother of the boy Dahmer had molested) was discovered on the street, wandering nude. Reports of the boy’s injuries varied. Dahmer told police that they had an argument while drinking, and that Sinthasomphone was his 19 year-old lover. Against the teenager’s protests, police turned him over to Dahmer. They had no suspicions, but reported smelling a strange scent. That scent was later found to be bodies in the back of his room. Later that night Dahmer killed and dismembered Sinthasomphone, keeping his skull as a souvenir. By the summer of 1991, Dahmer was murdering approximately one person each week.

On July 22, 1991, Dahmer lured another man, Tracy (Traci) Edwards, into his home. According to the would-be victim, Dahmer struggled with Edwards in order to handcuff him. Edwards escaped and alerted a police car, with the handcuffs still hanging from one hand. Edwards led police back to Dahmer’s apartment. The story of Dahmer’s arrest and the gruesome inventory in his apartment quickly gained notoriety: several corpses were stored in acid-filled vats, severed heads were found in his refrigerator, and implements for the construction of an altar of candles and human skulls were found in his closet. Accusations soon surfaced that Dahmer had practiced necrophilia, cannibalism, and possibly a form of trepanation in order to create so-called “zombies.”

The court found Dahmer guilty on 15 counts of murder and sentenced him to 15 life terms, totalling 937 years in prison. At his sentencing hearing, Dahmer expressed remorse for his actions, also saying that he wished for his own death. On November 28, 1994, Dahmer and another inmate named Jesse Anderson were beaten to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver while on work detail in the prison gym. Dahmer died from severe head trauma in the ambulance en route to the hospital.

Albert Fish, Born 1870

Albert Fish, also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria and possibly the Brooklyn Vampire, boasted that he molested over 100 children, and was a suspect in at least five killings. Fish confessed to three murders that police were able to trace to a known homicide, and confessed to stabbing at least two other people. He was put on trial for the murder of Grace Budd, and was convicted and executed.

Fish was visited in prison by the mother of his victim Billy Gaffney to get more details about the death of her son. Fish said:

[I c]ut one of my belts in half, slit these halves in six strips about 8 inches long. I whipped his bare behind till the blood ran from his legs. I cut off his ears, nose, slit his mouth from ear to ear. Gouged out his eyes. He was dead then. I stuck the knife in his belly and held my mouth to his body and drank his blood. I picked up four old potato sacks and gathered a pile of stones. Then I cut him up. I had a grip with me. I put his nose, ears and a few slices of his belly in the grip. Then I cut him through the middle of his body. Just below the belly button. Then through his legs about 2 inches below his behind. I put this in my grip with a lot of paper. I cut off the head, feet, arms, hands and the legs below the knee.

In addition to this horrifying description, Fish confessed to eating parts of Billy:

I made a stew out of his ears, nose, pieces of his face and belly. I put onions, carrots, turnips, celery, salt and pepper. It was good. Then I split the cheeks of his behind open, cut off his monkey and pee wees and washed them first. I put strips of bacon on each cheek of his behind and put them in the oven. Then I picked 4 onions and when the meat had roasted about 1/4 hour, I poured about a pint of water over it for gravy and put in the onions. At frequent intervals I basted his behind with a wooden spoon. So the meat would be nice and juicy. In about 2 hours, it was nice and brown, cooked through. I never ate any roast turkey that tasted half as good as his sweet fat little behind did.

At his trial, several psychiatrists testified about Fish’s sexual fetishes, including coprophilia, urophilia, pedophilia and masochism. X-rays of Fish’s pelvis show needles which he inserted in to his skin for sexual pleasure.

Andrei Chikatilo, Born 1936

Andrei Chikatilo was a Ukrainian serial killer, nicknamed the Butcher of Rostov and ‘The Red Ripper.’ He was convicted of the murder of 53 women and children between 1978 and 1990. In 1978, Chikatilo moved to Shakhty, a small coal mining town near Rostov, where he committed his first documented murder. On December 22, he lured a nine-year-old girl to an old house which he bought in secret from his family and attempted to rape her. When the girl struggled, he stabbed her to death. He ejaculated in the process of knifing the child, and from then on he was only able to achieve sexual arousal and orgasm through stabbing and slashing women and children to death. Despite evidence linking Chikatilo to the girl’s death, a young man, Alexsandr Kravchenko, was arrested and later tried and executed for the crime.

He established a pattern of approaching runaways and young vagrants at bus or railway stations and enticing them to leave. A quick trip into a nearby forest was the scene for the victim’s death. In 1983, he did not kill until June, but then he murdered four victims before September. The victims were all women and children. The adult females were often prostitutes or homeless tramps who could be lured with promises of alcohol or money. Chikatilo would usually attempt intercourse with these victims, but would usually be unable to get an erection, which would send him into a murderous fury. The child victims were of both sexes, and Chikatilo would lure them away with his friendly, talkative manner by promising them toys or candy. In the USSR at the time, reports of crimes like child rape and serial murder were often suppressed by the state-controlled media, as such crimes were regarded as being common only in “hedonistic capitalist nations.”

In 1988 Chikatilo resumed killing, generally keeping his activities far from the Rostov area. He murdered a woman in Krasny-Sulin in April and went on to kill another eight people that year, including two victims in Shakhty. Again there was a long lapse before Chikatilo resumed killing, murdering seven boys and two women between January and November of 1990. He was finally caught when trying to approach young children whilst under police surveillance. He went to trial on April 14, 1992. Despite his odd and disruptive behavior in court, he was judged fit to stand trial. During the trial he was famously kept in a cage in the center of the courtroom; it was constructed for his own protection from the relatives of the deceased. The trial had a very disturbing atmosphere. The relatives kept shouting threats and insults to Chikatilo, demanding the authorities to release him so that they could execute him on their own. He was found guilty of 52 of the 53 murders and sentenced to death for each offense.

He was executed by firing squad (shot in the back of the head) on February 14, 1994 after Russian president Boris Yeltsin refused a last ditch appeal by Chikatilo for clemency.

Joachim Kroll, Born 1933

Kroll was a German serial killer and cannibal. He was known as the Ruhr Cannibal (Ruhrkannibale), and the Duisburg Man-Eater (Duisburger Menschenfresser). He was convicted of eight murders but confessed to a total of 13.

On July 3, 1976, Kroll was arrested for kidnapping and killing a four-year-old girl named Marion Ketter. As police went from home to home, a neighbor approached a policeman and told him that the waste-pipe in his apartment building had blocked up, and when he had asked his neighbor, Kroll, whether he knew what had been blocking the pipe, Kroll had simply replied; “Guts”. Upon this report, the police went up to Kroll’s apartment and found the body of the Ketter girl cut up: some parts were in the fridge, a hand was cooking in a pan of boiling water and the intestines were found stuck in the waste-pipe.

Kroll said that he often sliced portions of flesh from his victims to cook and eat them, claiming that he did this to save on his grocery bills. In custody, he believed that he was going to get a simple operation to cure him of his homicidal urges and would then be released from prison. Instead he was charged with eight murders and one attempted murder. In April 1982, after a 151-day trial, he was convicted on all counts and was given nine life sentences.
He died of a heart attack in 1991 in the prison of Rheinbach, near Bonn.

Dennis Rader, Born 1945

Although he did some sick shit, I personally dont like him, I mean come on, I’d love to get away with murder, I’m still debating on whether he wanted to get caught or not.

Rader is an American serial killer who murdered at least 10 people in Sedgwick County (in and around Wichita), Kansas, between 1974 and 1991. He was known as the BTK killer (or the BTK strangler), which stands for Bind, Torture and Kill, an apt description of his modus operandi. Letters were written soon after the killings to police and to local news outlets, boasting of the crimes and knowledge of details. After a long hiatus these letters resumed in 2004, leading to his arrest in 2005 and subsequent conviction.

Using personal jargon for his killing equipment, Rader casually described his victims as his “projects” and at one point likened his murders to euthanizing animals by saying he “put them down.” Rader created what he called a “hit kit,” a briefcase or bowling bag containing the items he would use during murders: guns, tape, rope and handcuffs. He also packed what he called “hit clothes” that he would wear for the crimes and then dispose of. Rader bound, tortured, and killed his victims. Rader would strangle his victims until they lost consciousness, then let them revive, then strangle them again. He would repeat the pattern over and over again, forcing them to experience near-death, becoming sexually aroused at the sight of their struggles. Finally, Rader would strangle them to death and masturbate to ejaculation into an article of their clothing, usually underwear.

Rader was particularly known for sending taunting letters to police and newspapers. There were several communications from BTK during 1974 to 1979. The first was a letter that had been stashed in an engineering book in the Wichita Public Library in October 1974 that described in detail the killing of the Otero family in January of that year. In early 1978 he sent another letter to television station KAKE in Wichita claiming responsibility for the murders of the Oteros, Shirley Vian, Nancy Fox and another unidentified victim assumed to be Kathryn Bright. He suggested a number of possible names for himself, including the one that stuck: BTK

A sample of one of his letters:

The victims are tie up-most have been women-phone cut- bring some bondage mater sadist tendencies-no struggle, outside the death spot-no wintness except the Vain’s Kids. They were very lucky; a phone call save them. I was go-ng to tape the boys and put plastics bag over there head like I did Joseph, and Shirley. And then hang the girl. God-oh God what a beautiful sexual relief that would been. Josephine, when I hung her really turn me on; her pleading for mercy then the rope took whole, she helpless; staring at me with wide terror fill eyes the rope getting tighter-tighter.

Rader plead guilty and was sentenced to life in prison – a sentence he is currently still serving.

John Haigh, Born 1909

John George Haigh (July 24, 1909 — August 10, 1949), the “Acid Bath Murderer”, was a serial killer in England during the 1940s. He was convicted of the murders of six people, although he claimed to have killed a total of nine, dissolving their bodies in sulphuric acid before forging papers in order to sell their possessions and collect substantial sums of money. He acted under the mistaken belief that police needed a body before they could bring a charge of murder. As a consequence, he was convicted through forensic evidence and executed on August 10, 1949.

After hiring rooms in Glouster Road, London, he bumped into an old wealthy boss William McSwann in the Goat pub in Kensington. McSwann introduced Haigh to his parents, Donald and Amy, who mentioned that they had invested in property. On 6 September, 1944, McSwann disappeared. Haigh later said he hit him over the head after luring him into a basement at 79 Gloucester Road, London SW7. He then put McSwann’s body into a 40-gallon drum and tipped sulphuric acid on to it. Two days later he returned to find the body had become sludge, which he poured down a manhole.

He told McSwann’s parents their son had fled to Scotland to avoid being called up for military service. Haigh then took over McSwann’s and when Don and Amy become curious about why their son had not returned after the war was coming to an end, he murdered them too. On July 2, 1945, he lured them to Gloucester Road and disposed of them.

Detectives soon discovered Haigh’s record of theft and fraud and searched the workshop. Police not only found Haigh’s attaché case containing a dry cleaner’s receipt for Mrs Durand-Deacon’s coat, but also papers referring to the Hendersons and McSwanns. Further investigation of the sludge at the workshop by the pathologist Keith Simpson revealed three human gallstones.

It was reported that Haigh, in the condemned cell at Wandsworth Prison, asked one of his jailers, Jack Morwood, whether it would be possible to have a trial run of his hanging so everything would run smoothly. It is likely his request went no further, or, if it did, the request was denied. Whatever the case, Haigh was led to the gallows by Chief Executioner Albert Pierrepoint on August 10, 1949.

Javed Iqbal, Born 1956

He should be executed for wearing that sweater in hot ass Pakistan.

Javed Iqbal Mughal (1956?-2001) was a serial killer from Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. He claimed he killed 100 boys during an 18 month period. He had been arrested in June 1998 for sexually abusing 2 boys for money. He went off on bail, and began murdering boys shortly afterwards. Iqbal found boys on the street, charmed them into his confidence, and then drugged, raped, and strangled them. He then cut the body into pieces and put them in a vat filled with hydrochloric acid. Once all of the remains were liquified, he dumped them. He first used the sewer, until neighbors complained of an acrid stench. He then decided to use the Ravi River. The partially liquified remains of two boys, one of whom was named Ijaz, were the only ones found of Iqbal’s victims. He kept the rest in an acid drum outside his house. He also kept clothing and shoes as trophies of his crimes. When he got to his fiftieth victim, he started taking pictures of them.

No one had noticed the disappearance of the boys that Iqbal killed. Iqbal claimed that he could have killed 500 if he had wanted to. He reportedly said “I am Javed Iqbal, killer of 100 children … I hate this world, I am not ashamed of my action and I am ready to die. I have no regrets. I killed 100 children.”

From a letter written by Iqbal:

“I had sexually assaulted 100 children before killing them,” read the first placard. “All the details of the murders are contained in the diary and the 32-page notebook that have been placed in the room and had also been sent to the authorities. This is my confessional statement.”

Iqbal was sentenced to death by hanging, although the judge said he would have liked Iqbal to be strangled 100 times, cut into 100 pieces, and put him in acid. Before this sentence could be carried out, he was found strangled with his bed sheets in his prison cell on October 7, 2001. One of his accomplices, Sajid, was also strangled. Pakistani authorities say that the men committed suicide. Another accomplice had previously fallen to his death from a CIA window.

Ted Bundy, Born 1946

C’mon, who doesnt love Ted, that smirk alone would kill me.

Theodore Robert ‘Ted’ Bundy (November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) is one of the most infamous serial killers in U.S. history. Bundy raped and murdered scores of young women across the United States between 1974 and 1978. After more than a decade of vigorous denials, Bundy eventually confessed to 30 murders, although the actual total of victims remains unknown. Typically, Bundy would rape then murder his victims by bludgeoning, and sometimes by strangulation. He also engaged in necrophilia.

He would approach a potential victim in a public place, even in daylight or in a crowd, as when he abducted Ott and Naslund at Lake Sammamish or when he kidnapped Leach from her school. Bundy had various ways of gaining a victim’s trust. Sometimes, he would feign injury, wearing his arm in a sling or wearing a fake cast, as in the murders of Hawkins, Rancourt, Ott, Naslund, and Cunningham. At other times Bundy would impersonate an authority figure; he pretended to be a policeman when approaching Carol DaRonch. The day before he killed Kimberly Leach, Bundy approached another young Florida girl pretending to be “Richard Burton, Fire Department,” but left hurriedly after her older brother arrived.

After luring a victim to his car, Bundy would hit her in the head with a crowbar he had placed underneath his Volkswagen or hidden inside it. Every recovered skull, except for that of Kimberly Leach, showed signs of blunt force trauma. Bundy often would drink alcohol prior to finding a victim.

On death row, Bundy admitted to decapitating at least a dozen of his victims with a hacksaw. He kept the severed heads later found on Taylor Mountain in his room or apartment for some time before finally disposing of them. Bundy also confessed to visiting his victims’ bodies over and over again at the Taylor Mountain body dump site. He stated that he would lie with them for hours, applying makeup to their corpses and having sex with their decomposing bodies until putrefaction forced him to abandon the remains.

Despite having five court-appointed lawyers, he insisted on acting as his own attorney and even cross-examined witnesses, including the police officer who had discovered Margaret Bowman’s body. The Judge, when passing sentence said:

“It is ordered that you be put to death by a current of electricity, that current be passed through your body until you are dead. Take care of yourself, young man. I say that to you sincerely; take care of yourself, please. It is an utter tragedy for this court to see such a total waste of humanity as I’ve experienced in this courtroom. You’re an intelligent young man. You’d have made a good lawyer, and I would have loved to have you practice in front of me, but you went another way, partner. Take care of yourself. I don’t feel any animosity toward you. I want you to know that. Once again, take care of yourself.”

Bundy was executed in the Electric Chair at 7:06 a.m. local time on January 24, 1989. His last words were “I’d like you to give my love to my family and friends.”

]]> http://gabrielelaporta.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/la-grande-madre-%e2%80%94-dove-una-fanciulla-arriva-determinata-nella-citta-di-chinon/ Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:26:32 +0000 Gabriele La Porta http://gabrielelaporta.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/la-grande-madre-%e2%80%94-dove-una-fanciulla-arriva-determinata-nella-citta-di-chinon/ http://journaldelarue.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/science-et-croyances/ Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000 Lisa http://journaldelarue.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/science-et-croyances/ Science et croyances

Odile Clerc

(Agence Science-Presse) – Depuis des millénaires, vampires, loups-garous, buveurs de sang, morts-vivants hantent nos esprits. Au Moyen-Âge, on y croyait dur comme fer, car les mythes et légendes se fondent sur certaines histoires vraies qui font encore frémir…. Légende, mythe, folie? La science a aujourd’hui son idée sur la question.

Pâleur mortelle

La porphyrie est une maladie congénitale du sang diagnostiquée seulement au 19e siècle. Selon les cas, les symptômes varient: maux de ventre insoutenables, pâleur cadavérique, troubles psychiatriques, craquement et saignement de la peau, coloration rouge des urines, des yeux et de la dentition, gonflement de la lèvre supérieure laissant apparaître des dents déformées… La panoplie du parfait petit vampire!

Loup-garou ou lycanthrope?

Autant un vampire est facile à reconnaître, autant le loup-garou est indétectable ! Sauf lors d’une nuit de pleine lune! Si vous croisez votre voisin assoiffé de sang, galopant à quatre pattes et hurlant à la lune, il y a de fortes chances que ce soit un loup-garou! Appelez aussitôt le 911. Aujourd’hui, la lycanthropie est une maladie bien diagnostiquée en psychiatrie. Vieille comme le monde, elle était déjà connue au 7e siècle. Le patient atteint de cette maladie croit vraiment qu’il se transforme en loup. Pour autant, c’est une personne très bien adaptée à sa vie quotidienne…

Un p’tit cou de rouge, bon sang !

Il n’y a pas que les vampires qui s’adonnent à la dégustation de sang frais humain. En 1992, le psychologue américain Richard Noll a identifié cette maladie fétichiste sous le nom de Syndrome de Renfield en référence au personnage du roman «Dracula» de Bram Stoker qui s’abreuvait de sang d’animaux vivants… Certains, comme Gilles de Rais au 14e siècle ou la comtesse Erzsébet Bathory au 15e ont fait bien pire, ils buvaient, voire se prélassaient, dans le sang de leurs victimes. Et glou et glou et glou…

Cadavres exquis

À quoi reconnaît-on un vrai vampire? Son cadavre ne se décompose pas. Un vrai mort-vivant ! Bien que très rare, ce phénomène de non-putréfaction existe bel et bien. Dans certaines conditions – absence d’oxygène en pleine terre, méthane dans le corps, etc.- le cadavre reste frais comme une rose!

Malgré tous les traitements de la science moderne, vampires, loups-garous et morts-vivants sont indestructibles. Ils reviennent chaque année dans la nuit du 31 octobre pour troquer des frissons contre des bonbons. Méfiez-vous, la nuit approche…

I hadn’t, until today.   He was a Baron, and a Count, and a friend of Joan of Arc, and a Satanic serial killer.  He was executed in 1440 for sodomy, murder and witchcraft.  He’s had a concept metal album written about him, and he’s the source of the legend of Bluebeard, that wife-murdering pirate.  Come on, get in here and learn some stuff!

Gilles was born a rich kid and hobknobbed with royalty in France.  His grandfather, Jean de Craon, tried to get him to marry several different women when he came of age, but weirdly, they all died mysteriously.  They kidnapped one last lucky lady, Catherine de Thouars of Brittany, and she married Gilles.  Ahhh, true love.

He proved himself to be good in battle, and won several skirmishes, eventually landing him side by side with Joan of Arc.  He retired from war and spent all of his money promoting theater, like all Satanists.  In 1435, he began to experiment with the occult with the help of Francesco Prelati, who apparently told Gilles he could regain his squandered fortune by sacrificing children to a demon called “Barron.”

In 1440 Gilles kidnapped a clergyman over a dispute with the church, which made people a little uncomfortable, so they started investigating him.  Gilles released the clergyman, but that didn’t stop the investigation. Needless to say, they found some stuff.  They drew up a list of charges, including murder, sodomy, and heresy, and Gilles confessed.

Gilles had killed anywhere from 200 to 800 children in an eight year period.   He would generally take children that were begging at his castle, as they would not be quickly missed.  The children were invited inside, dressed in expensive clothing, and given a large meal and lots of alcohol.  After eating for hours, the child was taken to another room to which only Gilles and his immediate circle were admitted.  The child would basically be raped and tortured for hours, and then killed if they weren’t dead from the attacks.  No child survived to the next day, and often Gilles would continue pleasuring himself with their bodies after they died, playing with their organs, kissing their faces, and just generally being a sicko.

Some people tried to say that he was framed for all this so that the church could take his land from him, but seriously- if you’re going to frame someone, you do it for one murder, or one rape.  Not for 800.  He was convicted (aided mainly by his confession) and he was hanged for it.

Years later (568, to be exact), English metal band Cradle of Filth decided that they needed to really honor this guy by making something that could be worse than all those murders- a concept album. They released Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder in 2008, and here is the tracklisting:

1. “In Grandeur and Frankincense Devilment Stirs”
2. “Shat Out of Hell”
3. “The Death of Love”
4. “The 13th Caesar”
5. “Tiffauges”
6. “Tragic Kingdom”
7. “Sweetest Maleficia”
8. “Honey and Sulphur”
9. “Midnight Shadows Crawl to Darken Counsel with Life”
10. “Darkness Incarnate”
11. “Ten Leagues Beneath Contempt”
12. “Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder”
13. “Corpseflower”

Way to go, Cradle.  You guys really knocked it out of the park this time.

Lo que no tolero es la comparación con un personaje de ficción (Dorian Grey) creado por el genial Wilde: “No sé si usted se ha fijado”, dice Roudinesco, “pero cada vez que filman a Bin Laden se vuelve más y más feo. El crimen se muestra en los rasgos de la cara. Fíjese en las fotos. No es sólo cuestión de que envejezca. Es un personaje inquietante, diabólico”. Y usted, Roudinesco, es una morfodeterminista absurda e iletrada en materia de ciencia. Aplique esa estupidez a Stalin, o a Hitler, y no le saldrá. Pero aplíquesela a alguien operado de riñón, con graves problemas médicos, como es el caso de Osama, y tendremos potenciales asesinos de masas en cada hospital. Espero que Roudinesco tenga entre sus abyectos escogidos a Báthory, la condesa sangrienta, y me explique por qué la consideraban bella a pesar de lo que, supuestamente, hacía. Debe ser que los crímenes afectan de manera desigual a las caras de los humanos…

Varios de sus personajes también están en mi libro -Gilles de Rais, Sade-, que curiosamente se titula -no sé si lo he dicho alguna vez- “Alicia en el lado oscuro“. Las consideraciones sobre Sade en esta noticia que comento también son un poco aventuradas: dudo que Donatien se horrorizara de nada. Que incluya a Peter Singer en su catálogo de perversos es alucinante, aunque tiene lógica: pensar distinto, contra la corriente dominante, puede ser perverso. Lo que no tiene sostén alguno es la comparación con Foucault al decir que este libro sigue su estela. Si Foucault viviera, estaría intentando entrevistar a Osama, no demonizándolo en un libro. Parece olvidar -no sé si el periodista o la entrevistada- quién era Foucault y lo que hizo con el GIP (grupo de investigación sobre las prisiones). Foucault no apoyaría un libro así, que contribuye a la creación del individuo peligroso en lugar de que se persigan los crímenes en sí mismos. Estoy esperando a leer el libro para ver si en su catálogo de perversos está el tipo que lanzó la bomba atómica sobre Hiroshima, o Alfred Nobel, o un premiado por la fundación de este último, como Henry Kissinger.

“Todos los grandes fiscales, fiscales del alma, que quieren sanear el fondo de nosotros mismos están forzosamente habitados, ellos mismos, por el diablo, hechizados por el mal que ven en los demás”. Esto lo explica mejor Andreï Makine, también residente en Francia, aunque de ascendencia rusa:  “todos aquellos que quieren hacernos felices son siempre criminales”. Habitados por el diablo: ¿no les suena mejor esa frase en un inquisidor o en una fanática religiosa? Creía que Roudinesco era historiadora del psicoanálisis.

El libro de Roudinesco, según esta noticia, sigue más bien la conocidísima tradición judeo-cristiana del Viejo Testamento antes que ningún pensamiento foucaltiano: son perversos todos los que no siguen “nuestra” verdad. La única.

Si Osama, por feo, es perverso: ¿qué les sugiere este retrato de Dostoievsky hecho por José Luis Cuevas?

Stanze

Inspired by the life of Gilles de Rais best known as “Bluebeard”. Stanze is a show on the psychology of evil following in a poetical key all the different portraits that history and story tales have given us of this man.

Stanze is also about the cry out of the different women who happened to meet in their life “a” Bluebeard.

In this show puppets specially made by Daniele Balzano e Adriana Savastano are included in the dramatic action.

STANZE

Liberamente ispirato alla vita di Gilles de Rais meglio conosciuto con il nome di “Barbablù”. Stanze è uno spettacolo che porta in scena la “psicologia del male” seguendo in chiave poetica i diversi ritratti che la storia e le sue versioni fiabesche ci hanno tramandato.

Lo spettacolo porta in scena anche la storia delle donne che hanno incontrato nella loro vita“un” Barbablù e che formano così un carosello di voci femminili estreme.

Accompagnano gli attori le figure animate costruite da Daniele Balzane e Adriana Savastano.

With:
Daniele Balzano
Nicola Baylis
Lucie Botiveau
Daniela Caramadre
Cristina Casale
Giulia de Luca
Adriana Savastano

Je n’ai rien oublié mon premier passage à Tiffauge, sur la route du départ en vacances, vers les plages tristes et monotones de la Vendée. J’émergeais d’une nuit visqueuse, recroquevillé sur la banquette grise en skaï. La Dauphine stationnait devant la porte du château, j’avais à peu près 8 ans.
Entre la Vendée et le Poitou, une grande enceinte de 18 tours sur un promontoire au-dessus de la confluence de la Crume et de la Sèvre Nantaise. Le premier château date du XIIe, il comprend un donjon, la massive porte d’entrée et la longue enceinte. Le début du XVIe augure une nouvelle période de construction dont la tour du Vidame, énorme masse de pierre parvenue intacte. En pur granit de bel appareil, c’est une formidable construction sans équivalence en Europe de l’ouest.
Depuis quelques années le site a été repris par la commune et le conseil général. Ce qui lui vaut d’être fermé la plupart du temps, ce faisant, en longeant la muraille vous pourrez escalader le mur. Les lieux sont parfaitement entretenus, ils abritent un musée de la machine de guerre, les tours sont couronnées par des mâts et des fanions, la basse-cour, outre les engins en bois, est encombrée de cahutes de foire, une atmosphère festive qui illustre parfaitement la dure vie âpre et solitaire des châtelains au moyen âge.
Nous serions à demi tenté de regretter ce bon Gilles de Retz, époque héroïque où Gilles s’illustre dans des faits de guerre remarquables aux côtés de Jeanne d’Arc sa loyale patronne. A la mort de celle-ci il retourne sur ses terres dont Tiffauges. Pour se distraire il n’a pas trouvé mieux que de violenter des jeunes gens, garçons et filles, sacrifice, sodomie et décollation sont au programme. Lors de ces bacchanales, il invitait des soudards, plus de 140 enfants essentiellement des garçons furent ainsi martyrisés. Tiffauges ne fut pas le seul lieu, il essaima dans ses trois autres possessions fuyant les populations qui s’inquiétaient devant autant de disparitions d’enfants. Lors de son procès, Gilles de Retz a révélé son enfance, brutalisé par son grand père, un bonhomme pas catholique et surtout sans aucuns scrupules. Dur moyen âge. R.C.

Vampire myths disappear and reappear having existed for ages, much like their main proponent Dracula. Since ancient Persia, there have been characters throughout time that drank the blood of men (and babies) and often were members of the undead. They would evolve to be called Witches, Demons, and Vampires. Over the ages vampires became the “mythic reasoning” behind such events as the bubonic plague.

Vampires would soon have an identity in three crucial tyrants, the first of which was Gilles de Rais. Gilles was a Frenchman who searched for “the Philosopher’s Stone,” and had help from the blood of 200-300 children to do his experiments. Around the same time Vlad Tepes Dracula, Prince of Wallacia, came into power. When you have a name of Tepes (“Impaler”) and Dracula (devil or dragon, it was his dad’s name) ya gotta live up to expectations; he liberated the land from Ottoman invaders and then ordered thousands impaled for his pleasure.

The last of the three arrived in 1611 as Countess Elizabeth Bathory. Bathory’s husband was always at war, so her spare time was spent dabbling in black magic and the thought that the blood of the innocent (young girls) would keep her young and youthful. She was found out and her life spared, but was thrown in the tower.

The vampire mythos came back in the 1800’s through poetry, novels, and stage productions. “Vampyre” by John Polidori (1819) was the first vampire story written in English. Supposedly this came about the same night Mary Shelley concocted “Frankenstein.”

Not too far after came “Varney (Feast of Blood)” (1845) a full-fledged novel based off collected “penny dreadfuls,” inexpensive pulp pamphlets that used vivid imagery to describe Varney’s exploits. Varney influenced current vampire culture with the addition of fangs, leaving two puncture wounds in the neck, having hypnotic powers, and superhuman strength. However, Varney was immune to sunlight and wasn’t allergic to garlic.

“Carmilla” by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1872) introduced the world to a female vampire. Laura, the protagonist of the story, is a young girl who has a dream in which she’s bitten by a figure who disappears. Fast forward and she becomes friends with a girl named Carmilla. After a series of incidents Carmilla is found not only to be a vampire, but Laura’s ancestor. She has to be killed by exhuming her body and destroying it by cutting off the head. This story was also the beginning of lesbian sexuality in vampire stories.

Taking 8 years, Bram Stoker delivered the eponymous epistolary novel, “Dracula,” in 1897. Taking ideas from previous novels (especially “Carmilla” and “Varney”) as well as the life and times of Vlad the Impaler, Stoker wove a story about Johnathan Harker, a real estate solicitor who travels to a remote castle in the Carpathian Mountains to do business with one Count Dracula. He barely gets out alive. Meanwhile, Dracula decides to do London hitting on Harker’s fiancée, Mina. When Mina’s friend Lucy begins looking pallid, Professor Abraham Van Helsing is called in. Van Helsing figures out what’s going on and is hot on Dracula’s trail. Dracula packs his bags and heads back to his castle but not before the Van Helsing faction traps and kills him.

With the advent of the motion picture in the latter portion of the 19th century, Dracula and other vampyric kin had a new world to conquer. Filmmaker Gustave Le Rouge made two movies about bat-winged, blood-drinking creatures on Mars in 1908 and 1909. Dracula himself first appeared on screen in 1922’s “Nosferatu.” German director F.W. Marnau asked permission from the Stoker estate. The Stoker estate said, “No,” and Marnau did it anyway. Changing the names of the characters, eliminating secondary players, and using a bona-fide weirdo named Max von Schreck to play Count Orlok, this film is the seminal “Dracula” movie, inspiring take-offs and even a remake in the Seventies. Of note, the Stoker estate filed a copyright infringement lawsuit and won, sinking the newly-founded Prana production company.

“Children of the night… what beautiful music they make.” The infamous Bela Lugosi “Dracula” movie was released in 1931. Now a staple of American cinematic mythos, “Dracula” cast a hypnotic spell over audiences, leading to sequels and remakes. Lugosi, a Hungarian stage actor who played Dracula in the theatrical production, was spot-on with his film delivery of the character. Of note a Spanish version was shot at the same time using the same sets.

There’s still probably the lingering question of: what about not being able to see his reflection in the mirror? Or a stake through the heart? Or being afraid of religious symbols? These ideas came mainly from various filmmakers, TV directors, and authors who would pick and choose what traits a vampire would have in regards to the story.

“Children of the night, shut up!” –“Dracula: Dead and Loving It”

Bueno, te dejo el coche pero me tienes que comer la p..aella...

Seguramente sean de los que les ponen a los niños el Pokémon pa que se sobe… que tampoco está mal… pero que los libros no muerden, señores… y luego la gente ve las cosas que hacemos y nos dejan a la altura del betún…

Me explico…

Barbazul es un personaje de un cuento clásico de Charles Perrault, en el que el francés narraba la historia de un noble con la barba de color azul (de ahí el nombre, estos franceses…) que se casaba con una jovencita. La chiquilla en cuestión se iba a vivir a la mansión de Barbazul, a la que su nuevo marido daba total acceso salvo a una habitación, a la que le decía que no debía entrar nunca.

Pues al final, la muchacha se las apañaba para entrar en el cuarto, donde descubría los cadáveres de las anteriores esposas de Barbazul (menuda pieza, el fulano), quién, además, la pillaba in fraganti en el “cuarto de los horrores” y la mataba. Digno de salir en “Gente” o “Está Pasando”.

Aún estamos estudiando si Barbazul, además de asesinar, se dedicaba a bajarse pelis con la mula. Si no es así, ya me diréis donde véis los piratas…

El príncipe de Bekelar

Y la cosa mejora si nos vamos a la historia en el que se basó Barbazul: Gilles de Rais.

Gilles de Rais vivió en Francia (10 de septiembre de 1404 – 26 de octubre de 1440), y su nombre completo era Gilles de Montmorency-Laval, baron de Rais. Como podéis ver, de Móstoles no era, no.

El pequeño Gilles se crió en la torre negra del castillo de Champtocé (no confiudir con Chimpancé, que es mono en francés), a la ribera del Loira en Bretaña. A pesar del bucólico paisaje que le vio nacer, el carácter de Gilles siempre fue bastante tornadizo y más bien propenso al cabronismo de la peor calaña.

Un hecho terrible marcó a Gilles cuando tan solo tenía 10 años; su padre Guy fue atacado por un verraco moribundo mientras cazaba con otros nobles una mañana de febrero de 1414. Resultó que llegó a herir al animal pero este en su último estertor le dio una enorme embestida que consiguió incrustar los colmillos en su estómago. Guy fue llevado a su casa, en donde nada pudieron hacer por él. El pequeño Gilles vio como agonizaba su padre desangrándose lentamente, mientras sus visceras se esparcían por su lecho. Esta sangrienta visión la tuvo presente durante toda su vida y la repetiría con muchas de sus víctimas en el futuro, cuando les rajaba el estómago y se quedaba ensimismado con el espectáculo de sangre y entrañas. Poco después de este hecho su madre Marie también murió y Gilles y su hermano quedaron bajo a la tutela del abuelo materno, Jean de Craon. Este hombre inculcó a los dos hermanos el narcisismo, la soberbia, el poder, el orgullo, con los que Gilles fue desarrollando su personalidad. Al principio Jean no prestó mucha estimación a Gilles y le dedicó más tiempo a su hermano. Entonces Gilles se fue refugiando en las bibliotecas de la casa Craon, en donde encontró a sus alter ego y héroes en el libro de La vida de los doce Césares de Suetonio. Libro que marcó profundamente el sentir de Gilles. En este recopilatorio de cómo fueron las vidas y milagros de Julio César y los primeros emperadores romanos, Gilles vio que todos ellos ostentaron riqueza y poder y se dedicaban a los mayores placeres de la vida además de cómo impartían poder sin verse obligados a dar explicaciones. Tomó buena nota de todos los césares y de sus personalidades para después repetir esos perfiles a lo largo de su poderosa vida de noble. Sus emperadores favoritos fueron siempre Nerón, Tiberio y Calígula, personajes claramente desequilibrados. Según dijo el propio Gilles en los juicios que lo acusaron de sus crímenes, en su infancia y adolescencia no tuvo ningún gobierno de su abuelo e hizo siempre todo lo que quiso moviéndose por impulsos violentos la mayoría de veces.

A los 14 años su abuelo le regaló una gran armadura milanesa y fue proclamado caballero. Manejó pronto la espada y también fue temprano en aburrirse al practicar sólo con peleles (muñecos construidos precisamente para la práctica) y empezar a relucir toda su agresividad hacia todo ser viviente. Primero animales, pero luego con seres humanos, como fue el caso de su compañero y amigo de la infancia, Antoin. Un día propuso un duelo entre ellos con machetes, que al principio fue inofensivo, pero que luego a Gilles se le escapó de las manos y asestó con su machete en el cuello de Antoin. Gilles no ayudó a su compañero mientra éste se desangraba en el suelo y se quedó disfrutando de la visión del brotamiento de la sangre. Fue su primer asesinato, a los 15 años. Quedó sin condena debido a su condición de noble y la intermediación de su abuelo Craon. La familia de Antoin de origen humilde aceptó la exigua indemnización que se les ofreció y así todo quedó zanjado. Otros hechos criminales de su adolescencia fueron alguna que otra perversión sexual.

Su abuelo era un hombre sin escrúpulos con tal de engrandeceer su fortuna y poder; era calculador y astuto, todo lo contrario que lo que ya demostraba su nieto, que aunque también sin escrúpulos, siempre actuaba sin ninguna reflexión y era un inútil en materia de política y obtención de poder y riquezas. Un hecho marca la personalidad de abuelo y nieto; fue el del acto de extorsión mediante rapto de una gran dama a la que sus tres hermanos quisieron rescatar y que fueron encarcelados por Craon, mueriendo de hambre uno de ellos.

El abuelo también era un crack, sí…

Pues resulta que como persona Gilles era un auténtico cabronías, pero en una Francia en guerra contra Inglaterra, uno podía labrarse un futuro holgadito dando matarile a los enemigos y, de paso, saciar la necesidad de sangre…

De jovencito se alistó en el ejército y ya en su primera campaña (la Guerra de Sucesión Bretona, entre los Montforts y los Penthièvres) demostró que mataba mucho y bien.

En 1422, de vuelta de esta campaña, y con 17 años de edad, raptó a su prima Catherine de Thouarscon, dos años menor, y se casó con ella. Ni Meetic, ni Sexyono, ni ná… esto sigue pasando hoy en día en algunos pueblos del interior de España…

Gilles no era tonto y se casó con su prima para hacerse más rico (aún), pero la familia de la chiquilla, que se olía la tostada, se negó a reconocer el matrimonio. El fulano, ni corto ni perezoso, raptó también a su sugra (a la sazón, también su tía) y obligó a la familia a ceder dos castillos ya que tenía a la mujer a pan y agua. Como lo oís. Riéte del Eliflexir vientre plano…

Más tarde, de nuevo con Francia en guerra, ahora contra Inglaterra, Gilles fue reclutado por el chambelán del rey Carlos VII, Georges La Tremoille, junto a quién combatiría y gracias al cúal conocería a Juana de Arco en 1429, quién marcaría profundamente su personalidad.

En este mismo año de 1429, tras retomar Orléans de manos Inglesas y ganar un par de batallas más para el rey, fue proclamado mariscal de Francia con sólo 25 años (un hito en la historia francesa) y pasó a ser uno de los hombres más importantes de Francia.

Sin embargo, en 1431 y mientras disfrutaba de su cargo de mariscal (no confundir con el creador de Cobi), Juana de Arco fue quemada en la hoguera (por hereje!) y esó transtornó (aún más) al pobrecito Gilles.

Desde ese momento, Gilles se dedicó a derrochar su fortuna en músicos, actores, alquimistas… y a satisfacer su sádicas ansias con niños y niñas de todas las edades, llegando a asesinar a más de 200 víctimas (confirmadas) en ocho años, en sus castillos de Tiffauges, Machecoul, Champtocé y la casa de la Suze.

Los niños, entre 7 y 20 años, eran desmembrados, violados, destripados, estrangulados, desangrados… etc, etc, etc… y no siempre en ese orden.

Finalmente le pillaron (sólo tardaron 8 años, se ve que el que llevaba el asunto era antepasado del Inspector Closeau) y tras venirse abajo en el juicio y confesar todos sus crímenes, fue condenado a ser decapitado.

Sus restos reposan en el cementerio de las carmelitas de Nantes, como Dios manda, ya que el tío era un auténtico ejemplo de savoir faire cristiano.

Así que, amiguitas, las que fantaséeis imaginandóos a lomos de un caballo blanco con Barbazul, quizá deberíais pensároslo mejor y darles las gracias a los de Multiópticas por conventir un personaje de cuento asesino de mujeres o, peor aún, un personaje real violador y asesino de niños y niñas en un apuesto pirata perilludo y gafarrón.

~Fin~

En El mariscal de las tiniblas; la verdadera historia de Barba Azul Juan Antonio Cebrián nos cuenta la vida de Gilles de Rais, uno de los caballeros más poderosos que tubo Francia durante el siglo XV, protector de Juana de Arco, heroe de la guerra de los cien años, nombrado mariscal por el rey de Francia y asesino, torturador y violador de niños en sus ratos libres.

El libro se podría dividir en tres partes, no separadas entre si sino habilmente hiladas; una primera en que nos describe el contexto social en el que vive, narrando como Gilles de Rais es la confluencia de varias ramas de alta nobleza francesa, de hay su gran poderio economico y político. También hace una pequeña cronica de la guerra de los cien años, desde sus raices en el siglo XI y XII (donde hace una pequeña biografía de Leonor de Aquitania), hasta la guerra en si misma, y su final con la entrada en escena de Juana de Arco.

En una segunda parte nos narra como fue su vida, su educación, su obsesión con el mal, su fascinación por Juana de Arco, en quien veia a su salvadora y a quien amaba platonicamente, su profunda religiosidad y como, tras la ejecución de la Dama de Orleans cae en una doble vida donde de dia es profundamente jovial, caritativo y “buen cristiano” y por las noches se dedica a torturar, violar y matar niños con la ayuda de sus secuaces, que previamenta habían raptado a las criaturas.

En la tercera parte ya se nos cuenta como fue su caída, su juicio y su confesión, así como su condena.

El libro termina con dos anexos, el primero es el cuento que escribio Perrault en 1695 basandose en su leyenda y el segundo, titulado “los herederos de Barba Azul” nos cuenta como ha habido más asesinos psicopatas y se centra en narrar la vida de Desiré Landru, que en el contexto de la I Guerra Mundial en Francia sedujo y asesinó a más de 200 viudas.

Es un libro que se lee muy facil, está escrito con fluidez y no se centra en saturar con nombres y datos, sino que le importa más las cualidades humanas de las personas que retrata, aunque a veces se moja y da su opinión sobre personajes y hechos.

Barrio conflictivo le da un 9

This game has won hands down right from the start. Why? Because, it has a female lead. Female leads are AWESOME. So there.

But to take things more professionally, I do suggest that there should be plenty of good reasons to dub Jeanne d’Arc a good game. Yes, I would object if people were to give it a ten, but I’d beg to differ if they rate it lower than six. If they do, I shall declare it perfectly rational to start questioning their sanity.

To begin with, I’ve always got a thing with SRPGs; these chess-emulating battle simulations can deliver battles and skirmishes in a far more epic manner than traditional console RPGs could ever dreamed of. There’s something sublime in those acts of moving your characters one by one slowly about a wide combat map… it is a sensation every gamer should savor. I take it that an average RPG gamer should have played Final Fantasy Tactics at least once. You don’t have to beat the game, but at least you’ve played it. If you haven’t, go do so now. Buy, rent, borrow, or steal. Whatever it takes.

Now, returning to the game we’re reviewing, Jeanne d’Arc offers you, as the name suggests, an exhilarating ride through French history. It is to present a dramaticized historical event: the rise and fall of Jeanne d’Arc (1412-1431)—also known as Saint Joan of Arc—a Catholic saint that reportedly claimed that she’s been hearing the voices of God. She then went on to have this God guy guiding her into leading the French through the Hundred Years’ War, before (alas) the English captured and burned her at the stake. One of those “based on a true story” kind of thing.

But of course, this is no history class. Our friends at Level-5 twisted, spiced up, and toyed with the story a little.

A very late review, but after all, it’s not meant as a professional guide that aids game-purchasing considerations (seek professional reviews for those), but rather a post-game afterthoughts.

Contents Technical stuff Graphics Sounds Gameplay Replay value Plot Plot overview Characters overview Plot analysis (spoilers) Characters analysis (spoilers) Final verdict Scores Impressions Credits

Technical stuff

Graphics

I don’t think people take graphics seriously anymore; they don’t have to, and indeed they don’t. The influence of graphical presentation was at its pinnacle around late ’90s, where the then-novel 3D graphics were creeping about. Today it has grown so much to the point that high-end visuals in a game is no more a phenomenon. What, you’ve got a nigh-realistic graphical presentation in your game? Big fucking deal. Not to say graphics are unimportant, but it is now receiving the same treatment we’ve been giving to the a game’s sounds and music: enthusiasts may pay extra attention to it, but mostly it goes unnoticed. What’s more amusing is people tend to value 2D and stripped down visuals more these days—as an artistic choice rather than a sign of a game being low in budgets— elevating the status of graphics from polygon wars to pure aesthetics.

A fancy familiarity.

Jeanne d’Arc employs cel-shaded, anime-style graphics; so it counts as one of those games with minimalist graphical approach (in a sense that it does not pursue realism—cel-shading is very complex programming-wise). Also true to the cel-shaded, anime-style traditions, its characters are chibified and it provides anime sequences as its cinematic device (in which the characters are, true to traditions, not chibified).

The in-game world is colorful with just the right amount of details. One might say that it reached the level where the graphical area is virtually perfect for the purpose to which it is intended, and I’ll wholeheartedly agree. No complaints from the graphics area.

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Sounds

The baroque, medieval-esque music isn’t something memorable, but is solid enough so that you won’t hear any disappointed looks aside from gaming audiophiles. It does an excellent job to spice up the moments, despite not being able to draw the attention to itself. I personally hate the gloomy overworld map theme, but overally, good, but not great, for the music department.

The dub, however, is a different story. I’m not the type to complain about dubs—fact is I find Japanese dub purists to be quite a pain in the ass—but unfortunately I must suggest that Jeanne d’Arc‘s dub is rather below average. Well yes, it is understandable that since the Hundred Years’ War was about the French against the English, maybe someone would feel the need to thicken each side’s accent; i.e. giving Jeanne and her posse English dialogues with rather silly French accents. The developers felt that need, and they did so. Sadly, but not all that surprisingly, it turned out to be quite ridiculous. Sure it’s somehow cute to see a hotheaded teenage fox like Jeanne beating the crap out of the Englishmen with that accent of hers, but it’s still something that can be avoided. Plain American English would be fine. Not really detestable, but still.

“Fow de fweedom ofh Fghwance…!”

See, Jeanne is adorable.

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Gameplay

There exists some sort of a blueprint for SRPGs indeed, the results being games that adhere to such blueprint won’t be too different apart. It’s the familiar stuff; you have an overworld map that’s not physically explorable with options to pay a visit to towns and dungeons (for free battles), you get to access shops in the same fashion, you have the MOVE-ATTACK-SKILLS-ITEM thing for the battle system, and so on. But then again, the secret of a good work of art is the right mixture of familiarity and novelty; so a trope is not essentially a bad thing.

Thence the real fun is in the details: on how they invent their own battle mechanisms to accompany the big picture. Among those novelties are;

Limited turns
Each battle has a limited number of turns, so slacking off too much in warfares may result in a defeat. The limits are not something so alarming, however, since battles will be over before the time runs out anyway (unless you suck). But hey, it does add to the aesthetics.

Transformations
While there are no historical records that suggest that Jeanne d’Arc was transforming into an angelic creature during her tenure as the Pucelle of Warfare, Level-5 took the liberty of conjuring up such a fantastic trait for the good lady. Basically, with this special relic she has, she can transform to kick major ass. It’s not free, of course, since you need a certain value of points to transform, something that builds up by one point each turn. These transformations lasts 2-3 turns before you’d have to build it up again (several transformations are available and you can transform once per form). Jeanne is not alone, as a number of major characters are blessed with the same flair.

Automated MP mechanisms
MPs are filled by a certain value in the beginning of battles, and gradually increase each turn. So, unlike games with conventional MP systems, the best spells should (and would) be saved for the last minutes (like it or not).

No generics
This game does not have generic characters, i.e. you can’t make/recruit random characters and toy with the job system. The characters you’ll be using are all unique, and they have specific combat abilities. Not really a “novelty” but I don’t know a better place to put this section.

“Skill stones”
That’s a pretty lame name. But anyway, skill stones are at the heart of the character customization. There are four types of stones;

• The ones that give you special moves. Based on class. (e.g. sword attacks, spear attacks)
• The ones that give you special moves, but not based on class. (e.g. magic attacks)
• The ones that give you support abilities. Based on class. (e.g. counter skills for swords)
• The ones that give you support abilities, but not based on class. (e.g. stat ups, EXP bonuses)

So you equip those on the characters (in skill slots that increase with level), and that’s how you build up your army. You also get to combine stones to create new ones, which can help tremendously.

Merits of classes
Classes (or jobs) are sexy stuff. Here you’re also given the good old variety of skills; spearmen can attack from two squares away, bows can attack from afar, rogues can manipulate ladders and pathways (as well as treasure hunting), and so forth.

Burning auras
A feature unique to the game. When you attack an enemy from one side, a “burning aura” appears on the other. What’s this thing doing is, essentially, if you stand on it, it acts as an attack boost. So there’s the strategy: attack normally from one side, and attack with a burning aura from the other side. The best thing about it is that it only works for you, and not the enemy.

Unified guard
If a character is being attacked and s/he has an ally one square away, that ally’s defense will boost that of his/hers. This can be chained to the defenses of the entire troop, so contrary to other SRPGs (where being close to each other means asking for an area spell), you might want to keep your allies close for the entire battle scene.

Spirit affinities
Good old classical elements. But Jeanne d’Arc dared to stray from the conventional fire-water-wind-earth standards—they introduced Sol, Luna, and Stella, to be assigned to each character. These stand for, of course, sun, moon, and star respectively. It (still) works like RPS: Sol > Stella > Luna > Sol. Novelty? Yes. Good? Well personally, I think it’s bollocks. The reason is mainly because to assign an element to your character, you have to equip them with a stone. With a limited number of stone slots you have, you’d really rather going to a battle with neutral-element characters. Elements can be vital in some games (in Suikoden Tactics, for example, elemental affinity is at the very core of your strategy), but not in Jeanne d’Arc.

Overall, the game does give a satisfying experience. Indeed, it still can’t match the likes of Disgaea in terms of hardcore gaming potentials (where you get to level up to Level 9999, and that’s still not the best you can do)—in fact, it has some sort of a hole in the leveling-up department: the lowest EXP you can get by killing an enemy is 5 points. This means, when you’re at level 50, killing a Level 50 enemy and effortlessly slaughtering a Level 3 weakling give you the same EXP. I hereby confess to have trained my troop at the first battle map: One level up in 2-4 minutes if you use a good EXP Bonus stone. Why bother grinding in a snake pit if you can do this?

I personally beat the game, and accidentally played Wild Arms Crossfire afterwards. I felt a big gap between the sophistry of the games’ gameplay mechanisms—Jeanne d’Arc‘s too simple. But, like I said, unless you’re interested at doing really hardcore gaming, I say Jeanne d’Arc is decent. It provides you that satisfactory feel of completion when you clear a stage. The gameplay suffices to give you the RPG experience you’re looking for, while the plot and overall disposition adds up to form the game as a whole: a solid SRPG.

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Replay value

Will you replay Jeanne d’Arc? One thing for sure is that you’d want to do its post-game feature. When you beat the game, you’ll get to save, and when you load the said save, you can return to the overworld map for some extras.

As for actually starting over from scratch, you might do so on completionist grounds, since some things, though minor, are unavoidably missable due to plot branches. While it has nothing to do with the story as a whole (only some unimportant details), you might want to check it out. Besides, with its mild difficulty, it really is some game you’d want to replay some time in the future. Not really a high replay value, but a good score nevertheless.

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Plot

Plot overview

Jeanne d’Arc offers a tale based on the historical account of the real Saint Joan. The teenage Jeanne was raised in a family of peasants in Domrémy, a small village north-east of France. That is, until the fateful day where the village was reduced into piles of ashes by the forces of Henry VI of England. The young Jeanne and her two (fictional) friends, Liane and Roger, escaped, with the aid of the voice she’s suddenly hearing in the midst of the invasion.

Thus Jeanne went on a journey of guiding France into breaking free from the clutches of the Englishmen, accompanied by her two friends, her pet frog, and most famously, “the Voice of God”. So far not breaching terribly from the history. Except, well, that magical armlet God has bestowed upon her, blessing her with magical prowess. It has become something of a MacGuffin, since there are five armlets in total.

That, and the fact that the English was employing an army of demons (now that’s something). According to the game, prior to the game’s lifespan there existed a war between humans and demons, buried deep and unknown to history. Five heroes with five armlets came to the rescue and sealed the demon’s big boss (how overused is that, anyway?), before the Duke of Bedford set him free once more, casting a shadow looming over humanity.

But, overally, still a Saint Joan story with a twist—for now.

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Characters overview

An overview on the main characters in the first arcs of the game, without spoiling anything major.

Jeanne, Roger, Liane, Gilles,
La Hire, Richard, Henry, Bedford

Jeanne d’Arc [real-life]
Jeanne serves as a lead—and as I said, female leads are awesome. Overally, she’s a female version of your typical Japanese RPG protagonist: impulsive youth with cockeyed judgement, naïve disposition, reckless antics, an expectional gift of power, and basically all that is needed to be a perfect teenage annoyance. A rancid formula that doesn’t usually work for boys, but apparently it does for girls. Not an overly sophisticated character, but is simply lovely.

Roger [fictional]
Roger started out as a, somewhat, male lead. He’s in his 20s, and initially gave us the impresion of being quite a bland character. Also hinted that he’s got the hots for the Pucelle, though the said Pucelle doesn’t give a hoot about it. A good character in the first hours of the game, he could have done better if only he’s not acting so foolishly in one of the first battles where he screamed something like; “Get behind me! I’ll protect you!” to Jeanne, whose battle power exceeded his own. Shiro Emiya, anyone?

Liane [fictional]
You started playing, and you look at Liane. Well, Liane is… a friend of Jeanne. Gameplay-wise, she died every now and then in the battlefield, and story-wise she… accompanied Jeanne. Weak-willed, foolishly-dressed, Liane would be something you’d call the most minor of details in the first arcs of the game.

Gilles de Rais [real-life]
You know who the hell Gilles de Rais was? In case you’re unaware of the existence of this man, historically Gilles de Rais was the ancient icon of serial killing. This mad dude here slaughtered and raped children aged from 6 to 18—with the number’s estimation ranging from 80 to a whopping 600. Yes, Saint Joan fought side by side with a bloody murderer. But then again, he became quite the sadistic at the later part of his life anyway, far after the Saint’s death. He’s somehow a symbol of a pious man falling from his grace; initially a noble knight, but then was driven insane late in his short life (he was executed at 36). So what about the game’s version Gilles? Well in fact, despite his freaky makeup, he’s arguably one of the most gentlemanly of all your kin (and he holds a magic armlet too). The bomb was then yet to explode.

La Hire [real-life]
In the history class, they’ll teach you that La Hire was a military commander that fought alongside Saint Joan. In the game, however, La Hire is a lion. You heard me right, since traditionally there should be beastmen in RPGs, Level-5 chucked La Hire in to fit that role. And he’s insignificant, too—only occasionally showing up uttering idiotic lines to illustrate better the stupid tough guy role he’s playing.

Richard [fictional]
Richard serves the role of an old friar that holds yet another armlet. He does what the older folk do best: a central for inquiry and wisdom. His significance in the game is minor when compared to Gilles, but more or less the same with La Hire’s portion.

Henry VI [real-life]
The young King of England, so basically that means he’s the enemy of Jeanne’s forces. In the opening sequence, it was shown that the young lad had been possessed by an ancient demon (cheesy, yes), hence the antagonism.

Duke of Bedford [real-life]
In the first few hours, little is known of Bedford aside of him being an evil chancellor that plans, well, evil plans. Complete with the ecstatic grins and maniacal laughters. Also, Rita Repulsa!

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Plot analysis (spoilers)

I’d rather not going into details; just the major events. Because, after all, if you’re reading this section in spite of the spoiler warning, you’re either done with completing the game—then I’ll only need to explain my views on the big picture—or you simply don’t care much about the game, and you read this just for the hell of it—a case in which minor details are unimportant. Am I right? Even if I’m not, then it’s your problem. So let’s proceed.

So, while it is fairly a pleasure to indulge in, Jeanne d’Arc‘s plot is quite a wasted potential. It started as a fantasy-clad, alternate-history-laden version of the legendary life of the Catholic Saint. As the story progresses, however, I must admit that it provides quite praiseworthy plot twists and surprises; including some crowning moments of awesome later in the story.

What’s tragic is, that the awesomeness turned out to be ephemeral. Much later in the game, the plot would become predictable, clichéd, and sometimes enough to deliver me into a squirming position. The correlation between the story’s progress with its epicness can be illustrated by using a graph as follows;

It ROTS.

A rather dull start

It started off simple; Jeanne, as we know it, received a foul gift from the English as they annihilated her hometown. Sworn to a life of vengeance, Jeanne set off to aid her home country in warfare (and with her, the two friends and a pet frog). Even with the monster and transformation twists, we can still see the big picture very clearly. The Pucelle could do henshin and she fought against demons. Big deal.

As the story moves on (rather quickly and groggily at the first hours), Jeanne proved herself to be highly reliable in the battlefield, and then proceeded to do what the real Saint Joan did; leading the French to winning the famous Siege of Orléans. Now if you’ve been following history, then the next mission is clear: to secure the path into the coronation of Charles VII as King in Reims—arguably one of Saint Joan’s most famous accomplishments.

The rather juicy parts began here. I’ll even get into all the trouble of retelling the story;

Rather awesome middle portion

Apparently, after awhile, this good lady of ours, Jeanne, died. Yes, died; she fell from a god damn cliff after being assaulted by her fellow Frenchmen that’s being politically manipulated by the English. And that was before any kind of coronations or burnings at the stake. Worried that the Pucelle’s death might influence the army’s (and the people’s) spirit for rebellion, the army chose to install Liane, that battle maiden’s fragile childhood friend, as her replacement. That is, the French refused to publicly acknowledge their loss and listed that Jeanne d’Arc officially survived the siege. Then we have a new main character! A mightily amusing twist.

Despite a rough start, Liane rised to be just as fierce a commander than her friend was, and carried on to crown the King—suggesting the players that she is the real Saint Joan in the game. Then shit happened; Liane turned out to be growing more and more mental, as she became obsessed with victories and started caring less about her soldiers. Disturbed by her increasingly megalomaniacal nature, Roger (who had changed from an okay character to an annoyance since he started his emotic tenure), left the group. His departure contributed to Liane’s stresses, and finally the great Pucelle suffered defeat in battle. She was captured and set to be executed, as it is written in history. Upon learning the news, Roger rushed to the rescue, but did little and ended up being captured as well. It was decided; Jeanne d’Arc was to be burned at the stake. We’ve seen this coming, yes, but we expected Jeanne to be cooked, not Liane. Thumbs up for the twist.

The story then shifted back to Jeanne, the “real” one, who’s apparently still alive (no surprises). Apparently while her friend was crowning the King, she’s been following the Voice inside her head, and finally arrived in the depths of a forest east of Paris. There he met the Voice: not God, but rather the dying spirit of an elder knight that was once a wielder of the armlet (contradicting popular belief once more). Once she learned of the truth that’s whispering from the spirit’s last breaths, Jeanne decided to make her return. Gilles de Rais was the first that can (viscerally) feel Jeanne’s presence and hurriedly rushed there, accompanying her in her return.

Back to the main scene. Upon her return, Jeanne (the original one), Gilles, and their gang stormed Rouen, where the execution of Jeanne (the second) was to be carried out. Unfortunately, it was all too late, and the condemned was already reduced to ashes by the time of their arrival. There stood Roger (who’s also not quick enough), clearly in despair over Liane’s death. He’s blaming Jeanne responsible to the whole fiasco (“It should have been YOU at that stake, not her”). He even went into berserk mode and transformed temporarily into a demon (“Reaper”), a possessing greater demon which was the reason of all his nightmares (don’t really like this twist, but it happened). The poor kid then made his escape, vowing that he would dedicate his life to have his revenge against the Pucelle. In Liane’s name.

Still in shock over Liane’s death, Jeanne returned to the army, who commanded her to not using the Pucelle’s identity anymore—she’s officially dead at the stake—and the event ended with Jeanne changing her in-game outfit. As the dust settled, there’s another surprise: that pet frog I’ve spoken about suddenly can talk. And it can fight. Yes, it can fight and what’s even more surreal is that he’s pretty good at it.

This, I think, was the finest point of the story. Swiftly, in about one chapter, awesomeness happened;

• It featured a lead character switch, a rare (and AWESOME) instance in RPGs.
• It featured a military cover-up (the Pucelle’s identity).
• It featured a yandere (Liane).
• It suggests the fancy conspiracy theory of Saint Joan being two persons, while giving the surprising premise that the real Saint Joan is arguably not the lead character herself, but her decoy—unlike what the gamers would have expected. A rare instance where the lead is not dominating the spotlight (another example would be Final Fantasy XII‘s Vaan).
• It revealed that what Jeanne had been hearing was not the Voice of God.
• Roger’s revealed obsession of Liane suggests an interesting twist. Since it is natural to expect him to be all over Jeanne, it is amusing that he breached that standard. Wikipedia’s article on the game suggests that he is “in love with Jeanne”, but at this point it became confusing. Which Jeanne? The game suggests that it could be the latter Jeanne, which is novel.
• Note that Jeanne changed her in-game outfit. That’s novel, rare, and AWESOME. From a Saber-like outfit, she switched to an attire that’s reminiscent to that of Dual Hearts‘ lead, Rumble. Jeanne became so bad ass; totally one of the higher points of the game.
• And of course, the frog (Cuisses) now can talk. And is one hell of a fighter. Awesome or what? He also seems to be very much knowledgeable of the English’ insider informations.

It is not perfect, and it has some lame, overused tropes to which I squirm (Roger’s “Reaper” charade, Jeanne being trained by the spirit, etc.), but overall, it’s the shining moment of the game.

Then, as my graph suggested, the story gets lameified.

Rancidification

Afterwards, what remained of the story were Jeanne’s attempts to save the world (how original) from the clutches of the Demon King (how original) Gilvaroth, that had taken control over King Henry’s body. It became some sort of MacGuffin hunt (how original), involving collecting the gems of the armlets, asking for the aids of other tribes like the beastmen or the elves (those EXISTED in 15th century France?), and encountering four lesser demons (the Reapers) that were possessing some of France’s political top brass. It goes just like that; you meet this guy, s/he transforms into a mighty beast, you beat the crap out of the thing, and then Henry came to steal what’s supposedly yours for the taking.

Occasionally, Roger, now the Prince of Darkness with glowing eyes, a long cape, mascara, and dialogues full of aches, tortures and inner pain, interfered and recited vampiric poetries to you. This can get annoying over time. There are some other minor plot elements, from recurring enemies to insights of some characters’ past, but none of them are strong enough to make up for the mess—aside of the discovery that the frog is really the real Henry VI, whose soul was trapped inside the creature (which you would have predicted).

Then there’s this arc entirely devoted to Roger. I couldn’t stand this—we got to explore Roger’s “soul” to “understand his inner pain”. What’s up with all this? Where did all that mid-game awesomeness go? I mean, it spewed lines like “That is the source of Roger’s pain” and all that? What the fuck? Oh, and it turned out that Roger’s a guinea pig of some weird occult experiment, and was made to host the Reaper. And apparently his soul is “unusually strong” so that the Reaper never gained complete control of him. Suddenly it’s all akin to the familiar “chosen one” bullshit we’ve been hearing in RPGs for the past twenty years. What’s worse is that Roger jumped ships and rejoined us after we beat the Reaper inside of him—a really lame scenario that featured the presence of Liane’s ghost, fighting alongside us, and “forgiving” Jeanne (and Roger). Yes, he rejoined us. Just like that. He murdered people while being on that Prince of Darkness persona and he joined us just like that. The following sequences showed how Roger proposed the strategy of capturing Gilvaroth’s soul in a crystal (or something) to seal him completely. A really weak arc that, in my opinion, did a disservice to the characters of both Liane and Roger.

Bet what happens next. No brainer, really; the world was saved. Big deal. That’s how the story ended. I felt betrayed.

However I feel the need to credit two last-minute events that are worth noting. One is pretty cool and the other disappointing;

The cool: just after the very last battle, Gilvaroth’s soul was about to escape from the crystal. Richard suggested that it is sealed within the soul of one of them, whilst hoping it would not break free and will die with the bearer. Roger stood and was willing to take the risk (darkness was his thing, anyway), but Gilles de Rais ended up saving his ass by forcefully taking the dark soul. This explains Gilles’ destiny of being a serial killer later in history—it was his sacrifice. Another alternate history spell and it screamed a chant: Gilles da man!

The disappointing: so yes, the ending was really lame. While Gilles’ time bomb thing was awesomeness, Jeanne’s and Roger’s epilogues are something so corny you can almost give spoilers to yourself. They return to their village and helped with the rebuilding. Well, no, they don’t marry and all that (not even romantic hints, thank heavens for that), but it’s still something reminiscent of bedtime stories. I don’t mind happy endings, but it’s just so poorly-conceived. The game ended with the sight of Jeanne and Roger praying for Liane.

Fin.

What an immense pile of wasted potentials. The sequence is this: Bullshit – Conspiracy theory/alternate history goodness – Bullshit.

What went wrong

I can’t really explain what is wrong, but definitely something was screwed up in the latter hours of the game. Mostly because it failed to surprise me any further. Halfway, the game set the bar of our expectations quite high, so the poor finishing was just disappointing. Things like the blasphemy and the “in love with Jeanne” riddle were left untouched. I think it mainly has something to do with the vision we’re having; initially, it was a no-naïve, less bombastic mission. It was to save a country. And our knowledge of history suggested us a down-to-earth resolution—Jeanne’s death. It was relatively mature, heavy, and less fairy-tale-like.

Then the conspiracy theory thing kicked in—it was fresh, it provided mild surprises, and it worked. Actually this part served as a smokescreen for other aspects of the storyline that had begun to rot at that time (Roger started emulating Sasuke Uchiha, for example). When Liane’s arc was over (signaled with Jeanne’s return), the excitement died with her. The story became a poorly conceived quest to save the world, complete with MacGuffins and really really stupid teenage drama scenarios. The advent of Liane’s ghost as some sort of a deus ex machina proved this point: the game lost its maturity midway through the story, and proceeded to be a predictable, low-quality tale afterwards. I don’t suggest that it must be sad to be mature, and there’s no room for joyous resolutions, but the kind Jeanne d’Arc employed was just unimaginative.

It is sad, because it could have ended more gloriously.

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Characters analysis (spoilers)

My judgement on the final quality of the major characters, with an ascending rank system. I liked some minor characters like Colet and Rose, but I chose not to include them;

#8 – La Hire

Of all the real-life people associated with the tale of Saint Joan, I love La Hire the most—a seasoned veteran that came to the maiden’s side in the midst of raging warfare (most notably in the Battle of Patay). Thus, when I heard of a game that’s based on such a tale, he was the one character that I was looking forward to see. How would he look like? What’s his role?

And there stood the lion. He plays the archetypal role of a dense juggernaut: big brawn, no brain (complete with that antic of referring to oneself in third person). He played a minute role overall, and he’s not all that great in battle. In short, douchebag.

Such a waste, because La Hire can play the role of a wise senior that’s given to Richard. The game can even exploit his alleged reputation as an unbeliever—how about that? A heathen serving loyally to a saint that claims she’s been hearing the Voices of God? That’s dramatic, and even almost romantic. (Though since Jeanne is assumed to have really been hearing voices in the game, that can hardly work)

All in all, I like (the real) La Hire, but this game’s depiction of him is just shallow and unattractive.

#7 – Roger

Roger was okay—and that’s in past tense.

He started as the female lead’s main male companion, and initially acted low profile; less talk, more job done. He can fight well (although I have almost never used him), and overally was just a good plain guy behind the Pucelle that did no harm. He developed more and more annoying antics, however; with him beginning to have nightmares marked the starting point of his emotic parade. Turned out that he was really slated as the dark pretty warrior that moans left and right about inner struggle, “demon withing myself”, vengeance, and just plain existential angst. A.k.a. the Prince of Darkness.

When all of his charade ended, he rejoined the party as if nothing happened, and went on to have a happily-ever-after epilogue. What Roger did over the middle portion of the game was essentially being a rebel with barely any cause and did serious crimes in the process. Then he returned to our ranks, saved the world, and went back to his village with Jeanne. A perfect end, but we know something’s terribly wrong with the guy’s karma meter—unless our sophistry of understanding the world is comparable to kids (who think that the old farmer from their bedtime stories is the bad guy when he shooed away the Bunny that stole his carrots).

So, what Roger may call redemption, I call karma fail. What would come to his defense, anyway? Fangirls (assuming he’d attract some) may argue that when he did damages he was possessed by the Reaper, but I beg to differ. Roger was stone cold sober—why else would the Prince of Darkness lecture Jeanne about Liane? Was is the Reaper’s sense of humor? It’s not, and I have a better explanation.

Listen up: Roger’s the rule of cool on two legs. This is what the developers had in mind, I assure you: “A nice, kind pretty boy that’s good with swords is cool. A scarred youth that spent years being a lab rat and is having recurring nightmares is cool. An emotic, vengeful Prince of Darkness is cool. A male companion for the chick lead that serves as her partner to the end is cool. Why not combine them?“

It seems to me that Roger’s purpose was to represent all things black and dark (what’s supposedly cool nowadays) while still maintaining that happily-ever-after privilege. It doesn’t work—you can’t have it both ways, at least not without being weird and awkward. A lollipop is tasty and so is a serving of meatballs, but we don’t mix them up. If Roger wants to be a good protagonist that reserves a happy end, he can drop the whole dark asshole gimmick—and if he wants to do the Prince of Darkness thing, don’t expect a painless end. I personally think they should have killed Roger mid-game (and somehow denying his happy end ticket in the process) to render him a full-fledged tragic character. Else it’s half baked.

So, quite frankly, I am not impressed, and neither should you.

#6 – Duke of Bedford

Duke of Bedford is what I’d call an efficient character. I personally have no substantial complaints on his performance other than his appearance being a bit too comical for my liking. On the other hand, I see no reason to praise him either; he does what an evil chancellor does, and that’s all. He does have some kind of noble motive behind it, but it’s not all that impressive, if not rather silly.

A very plain character, but the game’s plot isn’t so sophisticated in the first place. So let Bedford be, at least he doesn’t annoy you the way La Hire and Roger do.

#5 – Richard

A good company. Richard for me was more about disposition than anything else, it’s about his presence. Every Japanese RPG needs a matured, fatherlike figure like this, because the market has a pretty bad tendency of being too teenage-centric. Nevertheless, there’s nothing much to say about him, since unlike other major figures, his character did not evolve in the slightest way during the game.

#4 – Henry VI

When we speak of Henry VI post-game, we’d be referring to two related entities; Gilvaroth and Cuisses. Apparently through some bizarre plot twists, the demon Gilvaroth’s soul possessed Henry’s body, and Henry’s soul possessed a frog’s (which is then made as Liane’s pet, Cuisses). Now, while Gilvaroth (who’s been consistently referred to as “Henry VI” until very late in the game) had been just a plain good old villain with no sophistication whatsoever, Cuisses was an interesting character.

I mean, you get to play a frog. A pretty powerful one at that. How the hell is that even possible, anyway? I mean it’s the soul of a kid trapped in a frog. Well, suspending our disbelief for a moment, at the end of the day, Cuisses was a good buddy. God save the frog.

#3 – Jeanne

Jeanne scores pretty high, and for good reasons, too. First off, she’s a female lead—I can’t stress it enough, they’re awesome. No, really. Jeanne has a certain charisma of a lead character that conventional protagonists don’t possess. This was best presented in the latter half of the game, up to just before the ending. At this point, Jeanne is worth worshipping. Unfortunately, before that point she’s a bit too naïve, tribalist, and immature; and after the said point, she became too plain a character I can’t even begin to describe anything about her.

Overally I find her character development a good one, but they really flopped it around the end. All the same, she’s still easily the game’s more interesting characters. Maybe it’s the Saint Joan aura that’s emitting about her?

I’d describe Jeanne as somewhat fitting to my ideal blueprint of such a role—anything cooler than her wouldn’t be too good, since the coolest of characters, in my opinion, should instead be a secondary character.

#2 – Gilles

Gilles da man. Personally, Gilles is my favorite out of the bunch—he’s got a peculiar look which strayed from a conventional RPG design, he’s calm and composed (but, most importantly, not in the arrogant, pouting kind of way), and he managed to have a tragic past without us seeing him chirping left and right about how it sucked; basically he gives us the impression of a gentle, reliable major character. Or, if you like, he’s basically what Roger is not.

If you were to go to a deserted island and was asked to bring with you a partner, he’s the kind of man you’d choose. Gilles is a man worthy of reliance and trust.

And I personally think he’s one of few characters to leave the yucky ending with all his integrity intact. And he carries with him a curse, Gilvaroth’s spirit, that would later overtake him and force him to live a life of pure evil—Gilles de Rais the Killer, as we know it. It’s about the only badass thing in the whole last chapter fiasco. If Roger failed me by being a prick over the game and secured a joyous end, Gilles has my reverence of being the opposite. Gilles de Rais was given a time bomb as a medal of honor of all his services. The tragedy.

But what I don’t get is, if his freakiness was to be caused by Gilvaroth later on, why the fuck dressing him like an evil clown BEFORE such a thing happen? I can’t follow the logic in that at all! Play the game, read his lines, watch his moves, and you’d realize that this dude’s not the type you’d expect to dress so flamboyantly. Besides, other popular depictions of Gilles depicted him as not so extravagant a person. Like this;

Bladestorm‘s depiction
of Gilles de Rais

Indeed some other depictions of him were just as freaky (Fate Zero‘s, for example), but these outrageous depictions are meant to represent the already-insane Gilles, not the gentlemanly one Jeanne d’Arc stresses so much. So still Level-5 owes me an explanation.

#1 – Liane

As much as I love Gilles and Jeanne, Liane is by far the best character in the game. Hands down.

Liane is THE REAL Jeanne d’Arc—it was Jeanne who sieged Orléans, but it was Liane, her decoy, that crowned the King, got imprisoned (possibly sexually harassed there), and, most importantly, died at the stake. Liane started out as a nobody, before finally stole the show; her brief reign as the main character was magic. Surrounding her is the aura of a charming battle maiden that unexpectedly rose from the very bottom of swordsmanship.

Play the game, see how the story unfolds, and I dare you to tell me that Liane’s not the best thing that ever happened there. Heck, if you erase Liane from existence, then what would the game have to brag, story-wise? Without Liane, there’s no decoy twist. Anything epic left of the story? A resounding no.

Riot grrrl.

She stole the lead character position, did the yandere thing, and died a martyr. That’s a terribly rare instance in RPGs. So I hereby dub Liane the best character of the game. A richly deserved recognition!

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Final verdict

Scores

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Impressions

A pretty solid game. A must-have for PSP gamers—it’s far from perfect, and indeed it has major holes here and there, but a good game nonetheless. It might not appeal to those who pay attention to deeper storylines and/or seeking a challenging gameplay experience, as it is seemingly more geared towards the lighter entertainment area. Jeanne d’Arc employs a simple, stripped-down, and swift gameplay mechanisms with a linear story—good old RPG fashion.

I have this suggestion that the game would mostly attract RPG gamers with a strong dose of Japanophilia (even better if you happen to dig all things French). The game’s overall disposition was so very anime-like; specifically alike to those you’d find in the shonen demography. Add that to the relatively light gameplay, and there you have it; moderate depth in both story (it’s not something that would change your life) and gameplay (it’s not something worth a hundred hours of attention either).

Three and a half out of five.

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Kgeddoe, now playing Crossfire

Headbanger’s Blog recently talked with CRADLE OF FILTH frontman Dani “Filth” Davey about the sound of the British extreme metal band’s forthcoming album. The as-yet-untitled CD is a concept record about a legendary serial killer from the 15th Century, Gilles De Rais, a French nobleman who fought alongside Joan of Arc and accumulated great wealth before becoming a satanist, sexual deviant and a murderer. Davey also spoke about the song he wrote for Dario Argento’s new horror film “Mother of Tears”, the horror-themed video he wants to do for the new record and the long-awaited history book he wrote with Gavin Baddeley, “Gospel of Filth: A Bible of Decadence and Darkness”, which he hopes will be out by Halloween — around the time the new record drops.

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The Damned/Là-bas (1891)

There’s not much of a plot to this book, in fact it reads more like nonfiction sometimes. But the subject matter is interesting and shocking for its time, hence quite a page turner. The novel starts with the author’s rambling on his dislike for Naturalism through the main character Durtal, a 19th century man bored with unromantic modern life and delved into writing a biography on Gilles de Rais, who’s also known as the “Blue Beard,” the world first known “serial killer” who tortured, raped and killed more than five hundred young boys during the Middle ages. A large part of the novel devoted to Durtal’s biography on Gilles, chronicling his role in aiding Joan of Arc to the very horrific atrocities he committed for Satanism. Dural also attempted to explain “how an honest soldiers and a decent Christian, could suddenly turn into an evil, cowardly, sacrilegious sadist.” These parts are the most captivating parts of the novel. It’s a good source to learn about Gilles de Rais and the medieval time. The author offered some interesting views on the matter through the characters.

Another interesting portions of the novel is on the dinner parties Dural and his friends held at the bell-tower of St Sulpice. They shared knowledges of alchemy, occultism and satanism throughout the history. What an appropriate topic for a dinner party that’s held at a Gothic church right? ^^;; There’re lots of fascinating historic informations on occult that you’ll never read from history books. I like Huysman’s humorous tone in these scenes, such as describing gruesome details of a satanic ritual like it’s a regular dinner conversation, followed with “want some more mash potatos?”

In between writing about Gilles de Rais and going to dinner parties, Durtal encountered a married woman who sent him amorous fan letters and it turn into an affair. She was later revealed to be a member of a modern satanic cult and led Durtal to witness a real black mass in person. I found this part a bit dragging. Durtal acted like the typical misogynistic man: create a hyper-fantasy for the mysterious woman before he knew who she was and immediately lose interest when he found out her identity, to the point that he had to forced himself to sleep with her just to get it over with. Though I appreciate the fact that the woman was not the typical Femme Fatale whom he couldn’t resist, rather she’s merely a “he’s not that into you” victim. I found the black mass at the end to be quite anti-climatic, especially compare with the black mass we read about in the dinner parties, though that’s probably the point. Fantasy always fail to meet reality.

Stephen (from Rezinator)
Gilles de Rais
Shadow Dreams
Laidrive
Eagle Fox Twelve

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Erzsébet Báthory, the beautiful 17th century Hungarian Countess who tortured and killed more than 600 girls and bathed in their blood, was not as widely known as the infamous Vlad the Impaler (immortalized as Dracula by Bram Stroker), nevertheless she was a popular gothic icon in horror stories (especially in Japan!? ^^;;). I’ve read dozen of Erzsébet Báthory-inspired characters in girly horror manga when I was young. Horrible but fascinating figure…

Unfortunately, this book was painful to read; it is messy with overtly flowery Gothic prose. I wouldn’t know if it’s the writer or translator’s problem (originally written in French). The author tends to get lost once awhile in a paragraph talking about positions of the stars and planets (ex: how Erzsébet Báthory is possibly a lesbian because she was born under the Mercury blah blah~). It is also poorly constructed, the writing jumped all over places: one minute it is about the witchcraft then it’d wander off on and on about certain cousin of the countess. The author mentioned in the introduction chapter about how difficult was to obtain historic documents, yet she could went in intimate detail descriptions no one could have known. It was starting to read too much like creative writing. It makes you wonder if the supposedly ‘factual’ parts have historical based or not (such as the Hungarian customs). There was no footnote nor bibliography. Though there’s an appendix of the trial records. A map of the region and family tree would help too, as the aristocrat families and their relationships get complicated. Later I found the author was actually a surrealist writer, rather than a well-researched and articulate historian.

The atrocities were so gruesome and sickening…almost numbing to one point. Even though it was the Renaissance in majority of Europe, the author presented the backward and superstitious mindsets persisted in the remote Hungary and Transylvania region. The frightened and oppressed peasants were living upon the mercy of their aristocrats. The book made the point that the intermarriages among the Báthory clans might resulted in concentrated high amount of sadistic psychopaths populated in the family. Powerful, wealthy, cruel and crazy…scary combination. Many factors contributed to why her cruelty was tolerated for such a long period even though the authorities had heard rumors from the peasants: the Báthory family name was THE power and wealth in the country; Erzsébet Báthory’s cousins were Kings; her husband was a well-respected war hero; she was a much needed powerful supporter for the Protestant Church. Even in the end, she was spared of a trial and public execution because of her family status.

” She likes them young, tall and blonde.” A lot of her victims were lured in by being promised a job and better prospect in the castle. Many peasants help the countess finding girls for rewards, one woman even sacrificed her own daughter. She had a few loyal henchmen who carried out her works: the nurse of her children, an ugly dwarf, a washer woman, they carried out most of the actual torturing and killings. In the beginning the countess was just a cruel mistress who beat up her maids, humiliated them by making them stripped naked and worked in front of boys. She would bite them when she had a heredity headache attack. One time she punished her husband’s relative by stripping the poor girl naked and tied her to a tree, covered her body with honey so she would get stung by ants and insects. Later the countess put an oiled paper between the victim’s legs and set on fire. She would stretch the poor maids’ mouth wide open until the rim of the mouth was tear apart (did the same for the victims’ fingers). She would dropped red hot coin and iron onto victims’ palms and even sticking them down their throat.

A witch in the forest whom Báthory acquainted with taught her much of the torturing tricks, which escalated her insatiable appetite for blood that sparked off the killings. She made her victims stood naked in the icy winter and pour water on them continuously until they froze to death. She custom made a spiked cage that locked girls inside while her henchmen pierced them with long spears. She burned the girl between the legs with candles; used a pincher to tear off victims’ flesh (usually of the most sensitive area); beat them black, sliced off pieces of their flesh and feed them (and other prisoners) their own grilled flesh. One time when her daughter and son-in-laws announced to come visit one of her castle, she locked up all the servants and maids in the underground jail and starved them all to death. As old age caught up with her, the witch introduced her the idea of keeping young by bathing in the virgins’ blood. She also custom made an mechanical Iron Maiden (a torture device that shaped like a coffin casket in shape of a woman, with metal spike inside the cover) decorated with one of victims’ long hair, equipped with with mechanical arms and rolling eyes and smirking mouth. It was broken and rusted by blood eventually so she reverted back to her torture sessions.

As her continued to age the countess denounced the bath useless, it was then the witch claimed maybe the lowly peasants’ blood were not effective, she needed blue-blood…the blood of nobles. The countess then began luring and killing daughters of lesser noblemen. It was the deaths of noble girls that prompted the uproar and demands for investigation.

When the authorities finally caught up on her, she resorted to witchcraft to save her. The witch prepared for her long ago a ‘fill-in-the-blank’ written curse to whomever in her way. In that critical moment she couldn’t find it, there they baked a “magic cake” to poison them (which baking it with water she bathed in with poison plants). However her main target: the King, palatine, her son’s tutor (an activist in his anti-Countess crusade) didn’t eat it. The Palatine, an ex-lover of the Countess, had tried to avoid confrontation in honor of her well-respected deceased husband, but were shocked when he found the horrifying disfigured corpses of girls in the torture chamber. His conscience took over and prosecuted her.

All of her henchmen were executed. She was imprisoned inside her own room, with the entrance and windows wall-up, except for a little slit for food delivery. She died three years later. Such end and punishment just wasn’t enough for the monstrous deed she committed. The author never elaborated why and what made Erzsébet sadistic and cruel (except blame all on heredity). There was suggestion of her homosexuality but was never explored nor how it’s supposed to relate to her sadism. The chief motivations suggested of her later blood baths was vanity and desperate grasp of youth and beauty. Erzsébet Báthory, under the writing of this author, just doesn’t feel convincing at all.

Two chapters of the book are on Gilles de Rais, another famed sadistic 15th century French aristocrat serial killer, whom the author drawn parallelization with Erzsébet Báthory. The author assumes everyone knows who he is (well I guess if you know Erzsébet Báthory you would know he is ^^;;) as she started at the point when he was discovered. Gilles de Rais was immortalized as Bluebeard in fairy tales. He was known as the celebrated lead commander of Royal army helping Joan of Arc. After the war he tortured, raped and killed hundreds of young boys, sacrificing them to devils, engaging in cannibalism and necrophilia. The parallelization was evident: both relied on witchcraft and demonic rituals, both chose victims of their own gender, luring peasant boys/girls with lavish promises. As if it was all Satan’s schemes, both couldn’t find their magical relic they relied protection on when they were discovered (in Gilles de Rais’s case, it was a human heart carved with drawings of a devil on it). Though during the trial he tried to lay blame of his crimes on being exposed to the tales of the acts of Roman Emperor Caligula and Nero (just like nowadays some tried to excuse their crimes by blaming video games and violent movies).

The book was short but still took me awhile to read because of the clunky writing. I wished there’s a more reliable, better researched and documented and more readable book out there.