I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director
Chapter 457: Miss Jeanne Is the Only True Villain
For Olga, acting was never about making money.
As the head of the Department of Astromancy and a Lord of the Clock Tower, even without taking the Animusphere family's assets into account, she was already absurdly wealthy.
The only reason she seemed somewhat strapped for cash in FGO was because she had to support Chaldea, a gigantic organization that burned through money like a flood bursting through a dam.
In this world, however, Olga had no Chaldea dragging her finances down. Combined with the fact that her father had died early enough, she was the very definition of a rich young heiress.
As a result, Olga did not care how much money she could earn from her acting career. What she cared about was whether she could make a certain flat-chested woman sincerely acknowledge her superiority.
However, not caring about money personally and being mercilessly exploited by a heartless director were two entirely different matters.
For that reason, Jeanne had not abandoned her dream of hanging a certain someone from her banner pole.
"One day, karma is going to catch up with you," Jeanne frowned as she cursed Shinji.
Completely clueless as to what had set off the French country girl this time, Shinji looked baffled.
"What are you ranting about now? Didn't I already revise the shooting schedule?"
After a great deal of trial and error, Jeanne had finally managed to grasp the distinction between playing Jeanne and Jalter as separate characters. In response, Shinji adjusted the filming schedule to give her plenty of time to mentally switch between the two roles.
More importantly, after hearing Jeanne's complaints, Shinji was genuinely worried that she might actually cause the Jalter Saint Graph to manifest independently—just like Alter.
People often called Jalter "the easiest woman in all of Chaldea to get along with," but whether someone had won her over or not, she was still an explosive, hot-tempered woman.
What would happen if someone like that appeared on set?
Shinji didn't even dare imagine it.
"Black is great. Very alluring. But one is enough, thank you very much."
Shinji stated his opinion.
"Jeanne, you should still keep a little of that pure, virtuous white side."
"This has nothing to do with me..."
Jeanne sighed.
Since neither of the people involved seemed to care, she decided not to interfere any further.
"Still, I really do look good with short hair!"
Looking at herself in the mirror, Jeanne could hardly believe what she was seeing.
She had read the concept art for Hundred Years' War of Evil Dragons. At the time, she had felt that she was nothing like the Jalter depicted there—whether in appearance or demeanor.
In Jeanne's own view, the only thing she shared with Jalter was her facial features.
Well, that and the fact that Jalter's skin was much paler than hers.
This was also the main reason she had tolerated Shinji's "unrestrained meddling" during the acting process.
She genuinely needed to change.
Of course, Jeanne knew that "unrestrained meddling" was a strange way to describe it, but she couldn't think of any better term for what she had gone through recently.
The important thing was that the results were undeniable.
The woman reflected in the mirror was unmistakably the Dragon Witch from the story's setting.
Most notably—
Is this aura really mine?
Jeanne blinked subconsciously.
Yes, the person in the mirror was definitely her.
But what was with that faintly deranged atmosphere surrounding her?
Surely she hadn't secretly been a bloodthirsty maniac all along?
"Of course not! I'm not crazy enough to actually turn you into a mass-murdering psychopath."
Faced with Jeanne's confusion, Shinji shook his head immediately.
"If all I wanted was a simple corruption, I could've just contaminated your Saint Graph. But if I want you to perfectly portray Jalter, I need to dye you black while still preserving most of White Jeanne's personality."
"There's quite a lot of magecraft involved in that process!"
"Ah... magecraft."
When the topic became this technical, Jeanne had no idea what to say.
While the Holy Grail had provided her with basic knowledge of modern magecraft upon her summoning, she was far from being an expert in the field.
What Jeanne did not know was that Shinji's design for her Jalter persona involved far more than merely modifying her Saint Graph.
He had also layered several minor spells onto her.
Some were purely for atmosphere—things like drifting black miasma and bursts of dark energy—special effects intended to save money on post-production later.
Others released magical energy and subtle suggestion effects designed specifically to alter Jeanne's presence whenever she entered Jalter mode.
In essence, Shinji had applied a kind of debuff to her:
"Anyone who sees her immediately feels annoyed and wants to punch her."
Through these spells, the personality adjustments brought about by the Saint Graph modification, and Jeanne's own acting skills in controlling her expressions and mannerisms, a perfect Jalter faithful to Hundred Years' War of Evil Dragons was finally born.
Of course, this so-called "perfect Jalter" was only a still image for now. If she was going to look just as perfect once she started moving on screen, these little tricks alone would not be enough.
"Jeanne, I need you to focus on practicing your laugh now."
Shinji looked at Jeanne and said somewhat awkwardly,
"It would be best if you spent some time with Gilgamesh and properly studied his distinctive laugh."
Jalter's laugh was legendary even within FGO.
Together with Gilgamesh, the Lion King, and the Count, she was one of the famous "Four Laughing Maniacs," beloved by FGO players—emphasis on beloved.
Before Shinji had transmigrated, there had been an endless number of meme videos featuring the quartet's laughter. Even the official staff had poked fun at it more than once.
In particular, Jalter was the only woman in the group, so her laughter often served as a refreshing contrast to the other three men, making it especially memorable.
"Practice... my laugh?" Jeanne repeated in confusion.
To be honest, she wasn't particularly opposed to the request.
It was just learning a laugh.
Gilgamesh's signature villainous laugh was indeed quite distinctive.
What confused Jeanne was why Shinji seemed so embarrassed to bring it up.
"As long as you don't mind."
Hearing no resistance in Jeanne's voice, Shinji nodded and handed her a USB drive.
"This contains thirty minutes of Gilgamesh laughing. Spend some time listening to it on loop."
Even without Shinji wearing the kind of grin that practically screamed 'Want the files?', Jeanne knew with absolute certainty that whatever was stored on that USB drive would be pure torture.
"Master, if your goal is to drive me insane, you can just use a Command Spell. There's no need to resort to something this cruel."
In the end, under the saint's vehement protest, Shinji's plan of making her learn through a nonstop audio loop was abandoned.
And so, the next day—
"Seriously, wouldn't it have been easier to do it this way from the beginning?"
Even though the other person was wearing an absurdly flashy pair of sunglasses, Jeanne recognized him immediately.
"Gilgamesh, are you here as an acting coach?"
"Naturally," Gilgamesh answered succinctly.
"I had no intention of coming, but Enkidu..."
He paused.
"...Forget it."
"Thank you for your help."
Jeanne nodded before hesitantly adding, "That's quite a unique new look you've got there..."
Gilgamesh: "..."
Unable to bring himself to explain, the King of Heroes pushed his sunglasses upward, revealing a large red mark resembling a chain imprinted across part of his face.
"I think I understand what Mr. Enkidu did," Jeanne spoke sympathetically.
"You have my condolences."
Gilgamesh replied coldly, "The Saint of France isn't doing any better. Shinji isn't exactly easy to deal with either, is he?"
"No..."
The two exchanged glances.
For a moment, both looked rather melancholy.
"Alright, you two, stop standing around looking miserable! Get over here already! We're about to start the first scene!"
Gilgamesh reacted a fraction too slowly, allowing Shinji to catch sight of the mark on his face.
"Tsk. Enkidu sure has some wild tastes."
"Get lost!"
Gilgamesh's response came in the form of the Longinus driven into the ground right in front of Shinji.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
Today's filming schedule for Hundred Years' War of Evil Dragons was a scene Shinji intended to place at the very beginning of the movie:
Jalter summoning the other Heroic Spirits and brutally executing Archbishop Pierre, officially setting the Evil Dragon's invasion into motion.
In both manga adaptations, this sequence occurred after Chaldea arrived at the Singularity and was shown later as a flashback.
In Shinji's film version, however, it had been moved to the opening as the prologue of the entire movie.
The purpose was to establish several key characters from the start.
The main reason for doing so was to accelerate the pacing, reduce the amount of screen time spent introducing characters, and compress several less important roles.
One of the fundamental problems inherited from the original game was that its character relationships were not particularly well-structured.
As a result, both manga adaptations ended up featuring a significant amount of redundant characters and scenes.
To put it bluntly, there were simply too many characters, making the story overly chaotic and leaving readers thoroughly confused.
If you weren't already an FGO player, it was easy to end up asking questions like:
"Who is this?"
"Why did he suddenly show up?"
"Why are these people fighting each other?"
—and so on.
Shinji understood very well that, for a commercial film to be well-received by audiences, one of the most important things was ensuring that viewers could clearly distinguish between major and minor characters and remember the most important ones.
On the protagonists' side, the first priority was naturally the male and female leads, Ritsuka and Mash.
Next came the chapter's central heroine, Jeanne Alter, and her guide, Gilles.
These four were the core cast who required the most character development.
Beyond these "Four Heavenly Kings," there were several characters who needed lighter but still meaningful development such as D'Eon, Mozart, Elizabeth, and Kiyohime.
Though their characterization would be comparatively light, they would still occupy a considerable amount of screen time.
Kiyohime in particular would become a recurring character in future films.
The reason Kiyohime earned this status was not only because she had already been a recurring character in the Kawaguchi manga adaptation, but also because Shinji needed a comedic character within the protagonist team to lighten the mood and provide comic relief.
In most Hollywood movies, that role was traditionally filled by a Black character.
While FGO certainly had plenty of dark-skinned Heroic Spirits, none quite fit the role as well as Kiyohime, who was beautiful, cute, and hilarious—at least in the manga version.
Furthermore, Mash's abilities leaned heavily toward defense.
Having Kiyohime serve as an offensive Servant under Ritsuka—someone capable of dealing damage without being overwhelmingly powerful, yet possessing the potential for explosive "burning spirit" moments—was actually a pretty good choice.
However, for Hundred Years' War of Evil Dragons alone, audiences already had to remember the protagonist team's "Eight Guardians."
How much brainpower would they have left to remember the villains?
Especially considering that many Western moviegoers tended to watch films without thinking too deeply about them. If the villain side had too many named characters as well, their brains might overload right there in the theater.
As a result, on the antagonist side, only Jalter and Gilles would receive substantial characterization, while everyone else would essentially be elite henchmen.
They would get little to no character development.
Their job was simple:
Show up.
Fight.
Get beaten.
Done.
A useful comparison would be the Black Order under Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame—even though only four of them actually appeared in the films despite the group being known as the "Black Order Five."
Shinji knew that designing the story this way would inevitably leave some regrets behind.
But his version of FGO was ultimately a commercial movie.
Certain realities of filmmaking could not be avoided.
Making difficult choices and cutting back even on things he personally liked was simply part of the job.
After all, even Thanos had reduced the effective size of his own organization.
Shinji wasn't even removing characters entirely—he was merely reducing their screen time.
No matter how he looked at it, that wasn't being too unreasonable...
...probably.
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