[WIP] A Genderbender Alternate Universe Medieval Europe During The First Crusade

After watching the anime adaptation of The Ambition Of Oda Nobuna and the First Crusade series from Extra Credits, I got this idea:

What if I had a character who got transported to an Alternate Universe Medieval Europe, specifically during the time of the First Crusade, with one noticeable difference being many of the significant characters in that period were genderbent, and this main character will have to replace one of them?

So this is basically the initial draft:

The protagonist became a fan of the Crusades after playing a video game portraying that era. One day, when he was playing a campaign portraying the First Crusade, he suddenly got transported to 1095 CE Alternate Universe Medieval Europe, wherein he witnessed Pope Urban II extolling the Christians to retake the Holy Land from the Muslims, and the shouts of DEUS VULT as the response. To his surprise, a young nun came forward to Pope Urban, introduced herself as Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy, and offered to lead any willing Christian to reclaim the Holy Land for Christ.

As our protagonist is trying to make his way out, he meets Lolified!Adhemar, who questioned him about his origins. He explained that he came from a very, very far away land, he does not know how he got to where is now. Since our protagonist has nowhere else to go to, Adhemar took him and sent him to Toulouse under the care of Count Raymond, an old, devout, one-eyed man who got taken in by him as soon as they met, for he reminded him of one of his sons who died at a young age due to sickness. However, as they were about to set out, Raymond's band was ambushed, and he died in the process. In his dying breath, he made our protagonist promise to retake the Holy Land in his stead and left him under the care of his wife Elvira and daughter Philippa.

So now, all of a sudden, our protagonist now leads the largest of the crusading armies. Problem is, he has never fought in a real battle before, let alone engage in a serious hand-to-hand combat. All he has is his knowledge of the history of the Crusades that he got from his love for the era. With this knowledge, will he be able to retake the Holy Land for Christ, for Raymond, and for all of Christian Europe, and get his way back home?

So for the characters:

• The Hero - I have not yet decided on his nationality, but as of now I am choosing between Japanese^note may or may not be a Japanese Christian, Korean^note It has been said that 30% of the Korean population is Christian, or Filipino^note being the first Christian nation in Asia and all; he may or may not be of European descent. Anyways, he is basically Sagara Yoshiharu if he was into Medieval Europe instead of the Sengoku Jidai.
  What? I thought Bishop Adhemar was some bearded old man! But what is this?

• Pope Urban II - Extols the Christians to retake the Holy Land for Christ. Unlike many of the characters below, he is one of the few who is NOT genderbent.

• Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy - The papal legate assigned by Pope Urban II to lead the First Crusade. One of the several genderbent characters in this AU, I imagine this genderbent version of Bishop Adhemar as something similar to Lemon-chan^note Louise dressed as Index.

• Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse - A powerful noble in Southern France and one of the leaders of the First Crusade. He received our protagonist very well when he first met him, for he reminds him of one of his sons who died in an early age due to sickness. He died in an ambush early into the story, and his death made way for our protagonist to rise as one of the leaders of the Crusade. Survived by his wife Elvira, who is much Older Than She Looks, and their daughter Philippa, who developed a platonic relationship with our protagonist, for both are surprisingly kindred spirits. I imagine him as a much more cheerful and benevolent version of Oda Nobuna's Saito Dousan.

• Anna Doukaina Komnena I, Empress of the Byzantines - Genderbent version of Alexios Komnenos I, who in both the real histories and in this AU asked for Pope Urban II's help in retaking previously Byzantine territories from the Seljuk Turks. Known as an intelligent and wise empress, although she has her own failings. The name Anna Doukaina Komnena is taken from the real Alexios Komnenos' daughter, so basically father and daughter switched places in this AU, but instead of being mother and son, Alexios is now the shota younger brother of Anna Komnena.

• Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin of Edessa - These literal Bash Brothers are the leaders of the German contingent of the Crusade. In the real histories, Baldwin became king of Edessa, which is known as first Crusader State. Godfrey became leader of his own crusader state, but he refused the title of King. I am not sure if I am going to genderbend them, but I think it would be cool if I did, especially later on when Godfrey gets entagled with Tancred over control of their conquered territories.

• Bohemond of Antioch - Also one of the leaders of the First Crusade. A battle-hardened soldier from an early age, this genderbent version of Bohemond rose up to become Princess of Taranto despite being only slightly older than our protagonist thanks to her cunning and skills in strategy and tactics. She is basically Jubei Mitsuhide in Shibata Katsuie's body. Accompanying her is her cousin and second-in-command Tancred, whom I imagine to look like Inuchiyo.

• Hugh of Vermandois - This genderbent version is sister to King Philip of France; she is flamboyant and arrogant yet very weak-willed like her original incarnation. I imagine her as the French Imagawa Yoshimoto.

• Peter the Hermit - The genderbent version is a mysterious hermit girl who claims to have received a vision from God to lead the spiritually pure who will be protected by divine intervention to retake the Holy Land for Christ. Many answered the call, including Walter Sans Avoir and Count Emicho of Leiningen, who eventually became the leaders of the Peasants' Crusade in this AU. Genderbent!Peter has the ability to read minds and feel the emotions of others by just touching them, which is how she knew that our protagonist is from the future. This revelation resulted in Raymond's replacement getting more credibility as the main military leader of the Crusades as his knowledge of the future could lead them to retaking the Holy Land and possibly driving out the Muslims entirely.

• Kilij Arslan - The Sultan of Rum, he is not genderbent like Pope Urban, but he might be much older than the one in the real histories. The Crusaders are getting ready to retake the territories his predecessors have taken from the Byzantine Empire, but is he prepared for their onslaught? Would he be able to drive out this massive horde of Christians back to Western Europe?

• Coloman, Queen of Hungary - Genderbent version of the King Coloman of Hungary. Her nation is the gateway to the Byzantine Empire, and by extension, the Holy Land. They have been providing for European pilgrims to the Holy Land since time immemorial, but is she ready to welcome tens of thousands of Crusaders to her country while making sure her people are out of harms' way?

• Several characters like Robert of Flanders, Robert of Normandy, Steven of Blois, among others, all of which may or may not be genderbent, depending on how this First Crusade AU story goes.

Basically, one big thing different from the real histories asides from several characters getting genderbent is the peasant Crusaders merging with the main crusading army thanks to our protagonist meeting Peter the Hermit before the Peasants' Crusade set out to the Holy Land, whereas in the real histories the Peasants' Crusade was decimated by the Turks before the main crusading army came.

So what are your thoughts about these? Thank you in advance.

edited 7th Jul '17 12:51:19 PM by judasmartel

So how close to the horrifying reality of the first crusade are you going to go?

I agree with her.

You have to remember the Crusades were nasty and the people surrounding it were power-hungry or morally bad.

Is there a specific reason for the genderbending? Personally, I dislike genderbending merely "to make it be different from the original." (Like the remake of Ghostbusters.) That's not a real reason, that's doing it just for shits and giggles.

I'm also going to add a big bag of nope as my opinion of this idea.

The reason why The Ambition Of Oda Nobuna works is that the Sengoku Jidai, in contrast to the Crusades, was a purely political conflict the events of which have been elevated to legends of honour, courage, cunning, loyalty and betrayal. Legends which have been built-upon, examined and played with in Japanese fiction since about five minutes after the Sengoku period ended.

Whereas the first Crusade was a religiously motivated clusterfuck full of explicitly intentional genocide and other nastiness by the people you're planning to use as the good guys.

The Peasant's Crusade, for instance, spent more time killing Jews across Europe (these days it's sometimes actually referred to as 'the first Holocaust') and harassing and plundering Eastern Orthodox towns in modern day Bulgaria than it ever did fighting in the Middle East.

And even the Princes' Crusade (the 'formal' part of the first Crusade) was a campaign of indiscriminate murder and forced conversion visited upon not just the Muslims, but also Jews, Samaritans, Zoroastrians and non-Catholic Christians. And then, of course, there was that famine where the Crusaders resorted to cannibalism... Of captured non-Christian locals.

So yeah, even if you weren't simply nicking someone else's idea and filing off the serial numbers by setting it in another place and time, it would still be a horribad idea.

edited 8th Jul '17 7:35:19 PM by Robrecht

Why the heck are you doing this op?

My first thought about the crusades was just how horrifying brutal it was:

The Chronicle of Fulcher, Book one, chapter 27, part 13.

I mean, if you wanna do that but it doesn't seem very fun.

The remake of Ghostbusters wasn't bad for its genderbending, it was bad because it had a nonsensical plot riddled with unfunny jokes. There's nothing wrong with genderbending for the sake of it.

While that is true, and I too do not think there is anything intrinsically wrong with gender bender stories, I do note that it is possible for someone to concentrate too much on a given element to the detriment of basically anything else. To me at least, using a protagonist that ... doesn't really match the setting, to put it lightly, to have someone to interact with a group of gender-bent people who've had that inflicted upon them just for the sake of doing it, is a yellow flag that this may be happening.

Since this is clearly a fantasy land version of the First Crusade and the Middle Ages in general, the genderbending itself doesn't seem too outrageous. And fantasy land versions of the crusades/Middle Ages have been part of literature since the crusades/Middle Ages themselves, so that doesn't seem too outrageous either; the only question is your audience. How much do they know or care about what really happened? My guess: not much.

It's not a story I would write, but I see no reason not to go for it. I think you'll find at least a few people out there who dig it.