Decided to watch Gates to Paradise in full, and, yeah, it's pretty much as I expected. Overall, the way I see it, it's about people seeking validation (and redemption) for their worldly desires by taking part in a crusade that just so happens to need people just like them. Basically, imagine the 1212 equivalent to this:
With a side order of the Koch Brothers in the form of The Count.
And about the Count having sex with Jacques around the same time he pitched the idea of the Children's Crusade to him, while I'd be lying if I said the Catholic Church was more tolerant towards homosexuality than Fake Messiah thinks (20 years later, Pope Gregory IX would call people who engaged in sodomy "abominable persons despised by the world... more unclean than animals",) it's worth noting that the Count is nowhere near the only male in the cast attracted to Jacques. In fact, the Monk is probably the only person in the cast who isn't attracted to him, and there's plenty of other men in the cast besides Jacques, himself, and The Count. And yet, he never singles that out. It's honestly pretty bloody sufficient for the Monk to completely change his mind about the Children's Crusade due to Jacques admitting he lied about having a vision from God without the admission that the Count was a pederast. And, of course, his claiming that the Crusade is of the devil and not God, it makes sense to see it as a shift from talking frankly about it to someone who knows exactly what he's doing to speaking all ecclesiastically to a crowd of true believers.
With a side order of the Koch Brothers in the form of The Count.
And about the Count having sex with Jacques around the same time he pitched the idea of the Children's Crusade to him, while I'd be lying if I said the Catholic Church was more tolerant towards homosexuality than Fake Messiah thinks (20 years later, Pope Gregory IX would call people who engaged in sodomy "abominable persons despised by the world... more unclean than animals",) it's worth noting that the Count is nowhere near the only male in the cast attracted to Jacques. In fact, the Monk is probably the only person in the cast who isn't attracted to him, and there's plenty of other men in the cast besides Jacques, himself, and The Count. And yet, he never singles that out. It's honestly pretty bloody sufficient for the Monk to completely change his mind about the Children's Crusade due to Jacques admitting he lied about having a vision from God without the admission that the Count was a pederast. And, of course, his claiming that the Crusade is of the devil and not God, it makes sense to see it as a shift from talking frankly about it to someone who knows exactly what he's doing to speaking all ecclesiastically to a crowd of true believers.
Comparing the Universal Oneness of All Life to Yo Mama since 2010.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.