Lady Oscar: The Rose of Versailles
40 Episodes81%FALL 1979FINISHED
Raised from birth as a man, the Lady Oscar commands the palace guards at Versailles in the years before the French Revolution. Her beauty and noble spirit make her a shining figure in the eyes of both men and women but she is torn between her chosen life of service and duty to class and country and her own heart and desires. She lives as a noble amidst the opulence of Versailles but her keen senses and compassion are not blinded to the poverty of the French people.
(Source: Anime News Network)
40 Episodes Total• Page 1 of 2
EP 1
Oscar! The Destiny of the Rose
Oscar François de Jarjayes is born. Due to her father's strong desire for a son, she is raised as a boy. At the age of 14, she declines an offer to become Commander of the Royal Guard and watch over Marie Antoinette due to her dislike for "babysitting" and a lingering desire to live as a woman, but she accepts after defeating contender Gerodere in a duel and a fight and talk with her servant and best friend, Andre Grandier. (In the manga, Oscar is promoted to Commander before she graduates from military academy and is proud of this accomplishment, accepting it without worry.)
EP 2
Fly! The Butterfly of Austria
Marie Antoinette arrives to France. Oscar foils the Duke Orleans' plot to prevent the marriage of Antoinette and Louis XVI, though he manages to avoid suspicion. Antoinette meets her future husband and is deeply unsatisfied.
EP 3
Sparks Fly at Versailles
Antoinette meets and instantly dislikes the king's mistress Madame Du Barry for being a former prostitute and commoner. She talks to every other lady in the court except for her, invoking DuBarry's wrath and making the two of them enemies from then on out. The entire court soon hears of this vendetta and begins taking sides. Duke Orleans takes this opportunity to strike an alliance with Du Barry; as the Dauphin's cousin, he would become heir to the throne if Louis XVI and Antoinette were to die. Oscar decides to remain neutral, but Du Barry sends her mother an invitation to become her lady-in-waiting, forcing the Jarjeyes family into dangerous court intrigue against Oscar's will.
EP 4
Roses, Wine and the Conspiracy...
Antoinette sends her own invitation to Madame Jarjayes in order to counteract Du Barry's. Both know that the one to get the Jarjayes' on their side will be more popular, as Oscar is highly liked in court. Not wanting her mother to be caught in the vendetta, but ordered by the King to make a decision, Oscar decides to send her mother to be Antoinette's lady-in-waiting because a future queen's power would be more permanent than a courtesan's. Du Barry is enraged by this, and pesters the King until he gives the Dauphine a warning to improve her behavior. Meanwhile, Empress Maria Theresa sends Count Mercy to France as Antoinette's advisor. Mercy writes to the Empress about the Dauphine's struggle with Du Barry, who begins to worry about the alliance between France and Austria and orders Antoinette to talk to Du Barry.
EP 5
With Tears of Dignity...
Du Barry fakes crying to get the King enraged at Antoinette and plots with Orleans to get Prince Louis killed in a hunting "accident". The plot fails when Louis drops the rigged gun on the ground, causing it to harmlessly explode. The King and Du Barry pressure Mercy to get Marie to "correct her attitude". He tells the Dauphine that the treaty between Austria and France would be broken if this continues. Not wanting Europe to be engaged in war, Antoinette frustratingly relents, but her three aunts prevent this from happening at the night's next party due to their personal hatred for Du Barry. On New Years Day, Antoinette finally speaks two sentences to Du Barry, and runs from the party in tears, telling Oscar that she would never speak to her again. Oscar, admiring her dignity, swears to protect Antoinette with her life.
EP 6
The Silk Dress and the Ragged Dress
Antoinette and the Crown Prince visit Paris. Lady Oscar prevents an assassination against the Crown Prince. The culprit, Charles Colder, commits suicide by poison. His co-conspirators Duke Orleans and Duke Guemenee avoid capture. Jeanne, a poor peasant girl, meets the Marquise de Brandvillier and persuades her to take her in, leaving her family behind.
EP 7
Who Wrote the Love Letter
Antoinette goes to a masquerade, accompanied by Lady Oscar and both meet Hans Axel von Fersen. Antoinette and Fersen are instantly attracted to each other, and he finds out that she is the Dauphine. Fersen visits Antoinette in Versailles many times. Madame du Barry takes advantage of this by paying Lazani to make a forged love letter from Antoinette to Fersen in order to destroy her reputation. Lady Oscar finds the letter and uncovers Du Barry's plot, but she kills all witnesses and destroys all evidence, avoiding capture.
EP 8
Oscar in My Heart
With Oscar's growing responsibility and rise in status, Andre begins to feel neglected to the point of having nightmares. Marie Antoinette sees Madame du Barry on horseback and decides to learn to ride. An accident with the horse nearly kills Antoinette and Andre, but Oscar rescues them. Andre is accused of causing the accident and arrested, but Oscar saves him by requesting a trial in the name of the Jarjayes family and claiming responsibility for the accident as Andre's master. Fersen also tries to take the blame, but Antoinette begs the King to spare them all, claiming that the accident was due to her own selfishness and saving their lives. Despite severe injuries received from the accident, Oscar survives and recovers. Fersen finds out that Oscar is a woman, and is impressed by her strength. Andre regrets ever doubting that Oscar cares for him, and vows to protect her with his life.
EP 9
The Sun Sets, the Sun Rises
King Louis XV catches smallpox. Tension rises in court as everyone decides whose sides to take in case the King dies. Du Barry, fearing her loss in power if the King dies, tries to get Oscar to persuade Antoinette to forgive her. Oscar refuses, even under threats. Orleans also refuses to see her, knowing that the mistress of a dying king lacked any power that would help him take the throne. The King expels her from Versailles on his deathbed in order to receive religious absolution. Oscar stops a soldier from beating the fallen Du Barry and escorts her out of the palace for her safety. Along the way, Du Barry tells Oscar about her past, saying that as a poor orphan, she had learned to do whatever she could to survive, and that she has no regrets because she lived her life the way she wanted to live it. She would later be executed on false charges of treason. Louis XV dies soon after, and the young and frightened Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette become King and Queen of France. Oscar leads the escort of the late king's body to his burial, crying silent tears over the destructive nature of change.
EP 10
The Beautiful Devil, Jeanne
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are crowned King and Queen of France. Maximilian Robespierre, future leader of the French Revolution, reads them their congratulations. Jeanne has trained relentlessly to become a lady, but cannot enter Versailles because her guardian is not in favor at court. Having just been fired from her job due to the depression, an impoverished Rosalie begs her sister for help, but Jeanne manipulates Nicholas, a man in love with her, into attempting to kill Rosalie. Rosalie desperately attempts prostitution to get money; the first person she goes up to is Oscar, whom she mistakes for a man. Oscar gives her one gold livre for free, and wonders just how bad the conditions in France truly are. Jeanne and Nicholas kill her guardian and forge Marquise Brandvillier's will so they inherit all of her property. Oscar meets them for the first time during the funeral and suspects foul play.
EP 11
Fersen Leaves for the Northern Lands
Antoinette is ecstatic to be Queen and believes that it will grant her the happiness and freedom she's been searching for. Her first act as Queen is to promote Oscar to High Commander of the Royal Guard, giving her a rank similar to that of a Colonel and doubling her salary and pension. Oscar accepts the promotion but turns down the raise due to France's current lack of wealth. Oscar worries that Antoinette's honesty with her emotions will cause her trouble as a sovereign, and that the taxation of the common people would lower her popularity. Her fears are realized when Antoinette begins canceling events and turning down the hundreds of people requesting an audience with her on a regular basis to see Fersen.
EP 12
On the Morning of the Duel, Will Oscar...?
Antoinette is easily swayed by Beltin Dressmakers into spending an extravagant amount of money on their finery. She spends more time entertaining herself than attending to her duties as Queen. Despite her earlier worries, Oscar decides to let Antoinette do what she wants because she senses that Fersen's leaving has left her very lonely. Guemenee and Orleans try to manipulate the King and Queen into canceling audiences with peasants, but Oscar advises Antoinette against this, and she listens. Oscar and Guemenee get into a fight over each other's behavior, so Guemenee challenges her to a duel. Orleans and Guemenee decide to hold the duel in a place where Oscar would be temporarily blinded by the rising sun at a crucial moment.
EP 13
Winds of Arras, Answer Me...
Antoinette is entranced by singer Yolande de Polignac and invites her entire family to move to Versailles—one of the many decisions that would lead to her eventual destruction. Against the rules of her confinement, Oscar takes a trip to Arras, a peasant village under her family's care. There, she learns of the terrible condition of the common French people. The peasants treat her coldly because of her noble lineage. Robespierre, there on a trip to help them, tells her that the majority of French people blame the Queen's hedonism for their unending suffering. Gilbert, the son of the peasant Sugan, falls ill, and is left to die due to his family's inability to pay for a doctor. Oscar takes him to the hospital and pays in Sugan's stead, saving the child, but is deeply affected by everything she has seen and heard.
EP 14
The Angel`s Secret
Oscar and Andre return to their manor. Polignac manipulates Antoinete into giving her family undeserved wealth and ranking, causing resentment among the nobles. Oscar tells her father about everything she had seen in Arras, but is rebuked for her rule-breaking and told to ignore the peasants. Rosalie finds a job at Beltin Dressmakers---right before her mother is run over by Polignac's carriage. Before she dies, her mother tells her that she is not her real child, and that her real mother was someone called "Martine Gabrielle". Rosalie is comforted by Bernard Chatelet, a news reporter who promises to help her whenever she needs it. Swearing to avenge her mother's death, she heads towards Versailles, and mistakes Madame Jarjayes for Polignac. Oscar foils her attempt to stab the Madame. After hearing her story, Oscar takes her in as her protege so she could enter court and avenge her mother.
EP 15
The Countess of the Casino
Oscar is released from confinement and put back on duty. Orleans and Guemenee place pressure on Antoinette for her lack of an heir, using her rising insecurity and tarnishing reputation to their advantage. Polignac scares Antoinette into lying that she is pregnant. She feels horribly guilty, but Polignac persuades her from turning back. Polignac and her friends begin gambling illegally with Antoinette under the guise of cheering her up; in reality, the games are fixed so they could cover their own gambling losses. Antoinette from then on becomes addicted to gambling. Oscar confronts Polignac, but is unable to report her because the Queen's reputation would be further tarnished if the public knew of her activities. Antoinette becomes 500,000 livres (55 million U.S. dollars) in debt, but Polignac's crocodile tears help her avoid punishment.
EP 16
Mother, Her Name Is...?
Rosalie struggles through etiquette and fencing lessons and attends her first ball as Oscar's distant relative. Jeanne and Nicholas pose as Count and Countess de la Motte to con money from the ball's hostess. Rosalie's quick popularity attracts Charlotte's scorn, who humiliates her to tears and causes her to run from the ballroom. As she leaves, Rosalie sees Jeanne, who is shaken by the knowledge of her mother's death and the fact that Rosalie is being cared for by a family richer than her. Oscar confronts Polignac over her daughter Charlotte's behaviour, and she begins to view the Head Commander as a threat.
EP 17
Now, the Moment of Encounter
Oscar and Rosalie go to court to introduce Rosalie to the Queen. Rosalie finally encounters Polignac and the two of them recognize each other at once. Oscar stops Rosalie from killing Polignac with a hidden knife due to the large number of witnesses, and uses threats to prevent Polignac from revealing Rosalie's poor background. Afterwards, Oscar, Andre, and Rosalie begin searching for Rosalie's birth mother. Polignac rigs a chandelier to fall on Oscar, but Andre saves her life. She then tries to have Oscar killed in the middle of the night by assassins, among them own brother. Oscar is injured while trying to protect Rosalie, but Fersen arrives just before the finishing blow.
EP 18
Suddenly, Like Icarus
Fersen's sudden arrival causes the assassins to retreat. Oscar is taken back to her manor to recover, and correctly suspects Polignac as the mastermind of the plot. Charlotte is horrified at her mother's attempt at murder due to her admiration for Oscar. Fersen tells Oscar that he came to France for business---and due to his father's desire to find him a wife. Fersen has a prospective candidate in mind, but has never met her before, and he desperately asks Oscar if people should only marry for love. Antoinette is ecstatic at Fersen's return, but breaks down in tears when he tells her of his marriage plans. Oscar angrily asks Fersen why he told her this, and he says that he is wrongly in love with the Queen, and wants to break away from his feelings in order to do the right thing. Oscar spends the next few hours in emotional pain, and goes to an opera alone because Fersen is too saddened to attend. Antoinette, late for the concert, accidentally meets Fersen in the woods, and one thing leads to another.
EP 19
Farewell, Little Sister!
Polignac agrees to marry off 11-year-old Charlotte to Duke Guiche, a powerful but shady middle-aged man with an unhealthy fetish for young girls. Charlotte is so terrified of her suitor that she faints upon meeting him. She begs Polignac not to force into the marriage, but to no avail. Rosalie trains and improves drastically in order to avenge her mother, but Oscar wonders what Rosalie would do after this is accomplished. Andre finds out that "Martine Gabrielle" was the former first name of Polignac; in other words, Rosalie's birth mother was the murderer of her foster mother. Rosalie accidentally overhears Andre telling Oscar this, and claims that she feels no love for Polignac in spite of their relation. Oscar tells Rosalie that she had lied when she offered to help with her revenge, hoping instead that time would've caused her to abandon her revenge plans.
EP 20
Fersen, a Farewell Rondeau
Fersen continues spending nights with the Queen, but the guilt is eating away at him. He begins spending his time at run-down, shady bars while rumors of their liaison spread throughout France. Andre notices that Oscar cannot stop thinking about Fersen and fervently wants him to forget about the Count. Antoinette begs Oscar to tell Fersen that she needs to cancel one of their secret meetings because a friend of the King was coming and Oscar is the only one she could trust. Oscar tearfully tries practicing asking the Queen to stop her affair, but knows that she will not succeed due to their intense love for one another. She delivers Antoinette's message and rides away before Fersen could say too much. Drawings of the nude Queen seducing Fersen sell in great numbers on the street, while the Revolutionary War rages in America and France sends voluntary troops to help them fight.
EP 21
The Black Rose Blooms at Night
Sleazy Cardinal Rohan tries to seek the Queen's favor but is hated by her to the point where she will not even talk to him. This is because he was a former Austrian ambassador who was fired by Empress Maria Theresa for his habit of fooling around with prostitutes. Rohan asks Jeanne for help. Oscar is visibly depressed by Fersen's leave, so she retreats with Andre and Rosalie to a beachside manor. Jeanne visits Oscar and tries to bribe her with gold, but she coldly refuses them, not trusting her. Jeanne lies to Rohan and says that she had accepted the bribe, and that their plan to use Oscar to get to the Queen had worked. She also pretends to be in love with him, and asks for 10,000 livres so she could meet with the Queen and introduce him to her, but she keeps the gold bribe and 10,000 livres for herself. She then lies to Rohan and tells him that she has met the Queen, forges a reply to a letter he wrote her, and asks for 50,000 more livres under the guise of donating it to the Queen.
EP 22
The Necklaces Shines Ominously
Two years after Fersen leaves, the Queen has given birth to daughter Marie Therese and son Joseph. She moves to Petit Trianon, a small villa, to spend more time with her children---and thus, ignores her Queenly duties and ends all audiences for good while the troubles of the peasants grow with each passing day and the nobles are frustrated due to their inability to talk to the Queen. Oscar, knowing the harm that Antoinette is causing, chooses to ignore it because the Queen has not been so happy in years. Empress Maria Theresa dies worrying about her daughter. Boehmer, a jeweler with a 1,600,000 livre diamond necklace (200 million US dollars) was unable to sell it to the Queen four years ago and now asks Jeanne for help. She convinces Rohan that Antoinette wants the necklace and had asked Rohan to be the guarantor. Instead of delivering the necklace to the Queen, Jeanne separates each of the diamonds and asks Nicholas to sell them in England.
EP 23
Cunningly and Resiliently!
When the almost-bankrupt jeweler does not receive his payment, he continually begs to meet the Queen until the King summons her to Versailles. Rohan is arrested and questioned, revealing that Jeanne was the culprit behind the fraud. He presents the love letters and sales contract as proof of the Queen's buying of the necklace and her love for him, but the King reveals that the signatures are wrong. The King asks the Queen to forgive Rohan because he correctly believes him to be set-up by Jeanne, but the Queen does not, believing that he had deliberately plotted with the Mottes in order to take revenge for her and her mother ignoring him. Jeanne decides to kill Nicole the prostitute in order to silence the witness, but falters at the last moment and instead gives her 100 livres to escape---right before they are arrested. Robespierre uses the Necklace Affair as propaganda against Versailles. Rosalie begs Oscar to give Jeanne their mother's old ring in prison as a keepsake.
EP 24
Adieu, My Youth
Jeanne is broken out of prison by a masked man who enlists her help. She publishes a book series listing all of the Queen's supposed crimes while hiding in Severne Monastery with Nicolas, intensifying the rumors that Versailles is falling apart. The Cabinet sends out the Royal Guard to capture Jeanne and enforce the ban against the books. Jeanne makes a lot of money on the books but cannot set foot outside of the monastery. Not trusting the masked man's promise to send them overseas, she becomes depressed, and her drinking intensifies. Polignac blackmails Rosalie into joining her household, saying that she would spread information implicating Oscar in the Necklace Affair if she does not. After Jeanne's series is finished, the masked man lets the Cabinet know her location in order to silence her. Oscar's regiment is sent to Severene for the arrest, and she enters the building alone. Nicholas wants to use her as hostage, but a drunken Jeanne refuses to escape. He then tries to strangle Oscar, but Jeanne stabs him and explodes the monastery, killing the both of them. Andre senses Oscar's danger and saves her life. The masked man's identity is never known, though Orleans is suspected.
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