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Oct. 25th, 2013 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsSo I've just read The Rose of Versailles, which is a.) one of the most influential manga of all time, having essentially formed the founding cornerstone of modern shojo and b.) basically the story of the French Revolution as filtered through TWENTY MILLION ROSES AND SPARKLING SHOJO TEARDROPS. It is amazing.
Rose of Versailles begins like it's going to be the story of Marie Antoinette . . .
. . . including lots of chibi shojo hijinks about how she's adorable! but a BAD STUDENT! a TOMBOY, if you will!
Louis XVI is also there but he gets about as much respect and narrative attention as the little nerd-boy sidekicks get in Sailor Moon.
Then she falls madly in love with Swedish diplomat Count Fersen, for no perceivable reason except that they're both extremely attractive. Fersen is theoretically a main character but he has no personality except for being in love with Marie Antoinette, so it's hard to care.
Besides, the mangaka and everyone else very quickly get distracted by ~*~LADY OSCAR~*~, who starts out as a supporting character but within a volume or two in has rightly taken over the entire story.
Oscar is a woman who lives as a man because her father doesn't have any sons. She COMMANDS THE ROYAL GUARDS. She is NOBLE. She is HONORABLE. She is the HOTTEST PERSON IN VERSAILLES.
Roundabout volume two, she takes on a protege, a poor girl named Rosalie who is OUT FOR REVENGE ON THE NOBLES for the DEATH OF HER MOTHER.
Rosalie has a plot-relevant secret sister and another plot-relevant secret noble mother, but what is most relevant is that she falls madly in love with Oscar.
The person she is jealous of here, for the record, is Marie Antoinette. However, SADLY FOR ALL OF US, Oscar remains adamant that despite all the cross-dressing and male societal roles and dancing with hot ladies, she is both female-identified and straight, which leaves her only with the uninspiring set of dude love interests:
BACHELOR A: Fersen, who Oscar has a crush on, which of course means that he is literally the only person in the story who is not into Oscar. Your loss, Fersen!
BACHELOR B: Some dude who is Oscar's second-in-command in the Royal Guards who is her dad-approved suitor and whose name I cannot remember at this time.
BACHELOR C: The seven-year-old doomed crown prince of France who eventually dies of spinal tuberculosis, but not before proposing to Oscar first! Maybe if you'd ever gotten to be older, kiddo.
BACHELOR D: Oscar's childhood friend and second-in-command Andre, who grows up to have a number of charming habits, such as assaulting her in a fit of passion and ripping off her clothes, or attempting a star-crossed love murder-suicide in a fit of despair.
Andre, of course, is the designated series love interest. RUN AWAY WITH ROSALIE, OSCAR! RUN WHILE THERE'S STILL TIME!
The Rosalie arc -- which also overlaps with a remarkably faithful account of the historical Affair of the Diamond Necklace, secret sisters and secret mothers aside -- is probably my favorite part of the manga. After that we are mired in romantic angst for a while, but we also get Oscar starting to questioning her noble privilege and the entire divine right of kings. At first she hears about Rousseau and is like, "Rouss-who?" . . .
. . . but then she reads up and decides to align herself with THE REVOLUTION.
Sometimes this creates problem for military discipline, admittedly, as Oscar begins to take these ideals VERY EARNESTLY to heart.
The Revolution, for the record, is SUPER HOT.
That is not a girl, by the way. Oscar is confused. It is Louis St. Just.
In addition to being very hot, the Revolution is also very appreciative of the hotness of Oscar.
Have we mentioned Robespierre was the most popular boy in Arras, by the way?
Also, can we please all take a moment to appreciate Oscar's high heels and disco pants? CAN WE PLEASE. A+ job melding fashion of the 1770s and 1970s, Riyoko Ikeda.
Anyway. DRAMA MOUNTS. THE REVOLUTION BURNS WITH IDEALISM AND SO DOES OSCAR.
THE BASTILLE IS STORMED. For the last volume and a half the manga tries to remember that Marie Antoinette is the protagonist and focuses on her escape attempts and execution and so on, but nobody cares by that point. Sorry, Ikeda! YOU CREATED OSCAR TOO WELL.
It's worth sticking it out through the end and volume 10 anyway, though, because that contains the side story where Oscar fights AU Elizabeth Bathory and her murderous automaton with the help of a six-year-old. IT'S THE GREATEST.
Rose of Versailles begins like it's going to be the story of Marie Antoinette . . .
. . . including lots of chibi shojo hijinks about how she's adorable! but a BAD STUDENT! a TOMBOY, if you will!
Louis XVI is also there but he gets about as much respect and narrative attention as the little nerd-boy sidekicks get in Sailor Moon.
Then she falls madly in love with Swedish diplomat Count Fersen, for no perceivable reason except that they're both extremely attractive. Fersen is theoretically a main character but he has no personality except for being in love with Marie Antoinette, so it's hard to care.
Besides, the mangaka and everyone else very quickly get distracted by ~*~LADY OSCAR~*~, who starts out as a supporting character but within a volume or two in has rightly taken over the entire story.
Oscar is a woman who lives as a man because her father doesn't have any sons. She COMMANDS THE ROYAL GUARDS. She is NOBLE. She is HONORABLE. She is the HOTTEST PERSON IN VERSAILLES.
Roundabout volume two, she takes on a protege, a poor girl named Rosalie who is OUT FOR REVENGE ON THE NOBLES for the DEATH OF HER MOTHER.
Rosalie has a plot-relevant secret sister and another plot-relevant secret noble mother, but what is most relevant is that she falls madly in love with Oscar.
The person she is jealous of here, for the record, is Marie Antoinette. However, SADLY FOR ALL OF US, Oscar remains adamant that despite all the cross-dressing and male societal roles and dancing with hot ladies, she is both female-identified and straight, which leaves her only with the uninspiring set of dude love interests:
BACHELOR A: Fersen, who Oscar has a crush on, which of course means that he is literally the only person in the story who is not into Oscar. Your loss, Fersen!
BACHELOR B: Some dude who is Oscar's second-in-command in the Royal Guards who is her dad-approved suitor and whose name I cannot remember at this time.
BACHELOR C: The seven-year-old doomed crown prince of France who eventually dies of spinal tuberculosis, but not before proposing to Oscar first! Maybe if you'd ever gotten to be older, kiddo.
BACHELOR D: Oscar's childhood friend and second-in-command Andre, who grows up to have a number of charming habits, such as assaulting her in a fit of passion and ripping off her clothes, or attempting a star-crossed love murder-suicide in a fit of despair.
Andre, of course, is the designated series love interest. RUN AWAY WITH ROSALIE, OSCAR! RUN WHILE THERE'S STILL TIME!
The Rosalie arc -- which also overlaps with a remarkably faithful account of the historical Affair of the Diamond Necklace, secret sisters and secret mothers aside -- is probably my favorite part of the manga. After that we are mired in romantic angst for a while, but we also get Oscar starting to questioning her noble privilege and the entire divine right of kings. At first she hears about Rousseau and is like, "Rouss-who?" . . .
. . . but then she reads up and decides to align herself with THE REVOLUTION.
Sometimes this creates problem for military discipline, admittedly, as Oscar begins to take these ideals VERY EARNESTLY to heart.
The Revolution, for the record, is SUPER HOT.
That is not a girl, by the way. Oscar is confused. It is Louis St. Just.
In addition to being very hot, the Revolution is also very appreciative of the hotness of Oscar.
Have we mentioned Robespierre was the most popular boy in Arras, by the way?
Also, can we please all take a moment to appreciate Oscar's high heels and disco pants? CAN WE PLEASE. A+ job melding fashion of the 1770s and 1970s, Riyoko Ikeda.
Anyway. DRAMA MOUNTS. THE REVOLUTION BURNS WITH IDEALISM AND SO DOES OSCAR.
THE BASTILLE IS STORMED. For the last volume and a half the manga tries to remember that Marie Antoinette is the protagonist and focuses on her escape attempts and execution and so on, but nobody cares by that point. Sorry, Ikeda! YOU CREATED OSCAR TOO WELL.
It's worth sticking it out through the end and volume 10 anyway, though, because that contains the side story where Oscar fights AU Elizabeth Bathory and her murderous automaton with the help of a six-year-old. IT'S THE GREATEST.
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Date: 2013-10-25 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-25 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2013-10-25 07:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-25 10:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-25 10:15 pm (UTC)I mean, don't get me wrong, the Oscar/Antoinette subtext is not nonexistent in the manga; Rosalie gets super jealous of Marie Antoinette, and at one point during the Affair of the Necklace someone accuses Antoinette of having lesbian sex with EVERYONE, Oscar included (Oscar: HOW DARE ANYONE ACCUSE ME OF BEING A LESBIAN!!! INCONCEIVABLE!!! THIS IS OUT OF NOWHERE!!!!!) but most of the ladyslash focus is on how Rosalie loves Oscar SO MUCH, she just wants to hang out in her room and smell her clothes all the time.
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Date: 2019-02-23 04:37 pm (UTC)Also,how can someone say,in a comment,that "wants to believe that Andre is an unfortunate mass hallucination" when IT'S ABSOLUTELY OBVIOUS that Andre IS THE ONLY GREAT AND TRUE LOVE for Oscar,no matter if that one likes that or not!IT'S THE VERY TRUTH!And to say that you are "at least 93% uninterested in the French Revolution and any stories to do with it" means THAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ALMOST ANYTHING from "Rose of Versailles" story and the person who tells that SHOULD REALLY READ(OR WATCH) THE ENTIRE STORY(or at least the biggest part of the story) in order to have a proper opinion about it!
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Date: 2019-02-23 11:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-26 03:16 am (UTC)in summation: LADY OSCAR IS SO HOT. GO OUT WITH ME, LADY OSCAR.
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Date: 2013-10-26 04:09 am (UTC)