dailyrov

[dailyrov]

From LOVE and… MY Margaret Exhibition Visual Book

"Margaret" is a magazine I had admired since I was in high school. There were many authors I loved, such as Masako Watanabe and Yoshiko Nishitani.

I had made my debut in another magazine when I was a university student. I was scouted by "Margaret" magazine and told, "Come be a star with us." There was already a star at my debut magazine, so I thought that might be a good idea! (laughs)

When I first started The Rose of Versailles, the editorial department was against it, saying, "A historical story in a girls' magazine?" I started it with the promise that if it wasn't a hit, they would cancel it immediately. I was so nervous I couldn't sleep until the results of the first survey came out, but I believed that if I thought it was interesting that readers would find it interesting too.

The topic of women being equal to men emerged as I was drawing. At the time, working women were in a position that is unimaginable for today's working women. Men would tell me, "The best thing for a woman is to get married quickly," and women would also say to me, "Are you really a woman if you can't even have children?" It hurt me.

I feel like society hasn't fundamentally changed , but I wonder what young men today think. The economic situation has changed, and I think there are more men whose wives work and who also take care of housework and raising the children. Even when I was in my twenties, I thought that if I were to get married, both husband and wife should earn enough to support their family. There may be times when your husband becomes seriously ill (laughs)

[dailyrov]

LOVE and… MY Margaret Exhibition Visual Book, Margaret 50th Anniversary

Publisher:  My Margaret Exhibition Project

Publish date: 2014

259.pg

26 x 18 cm

Paper: matte

Margaret Exhibition book, covering over half a century of girls manga.

Love and...Beginning, spirt, horror, smile, moment character..

Riyoko Ikeda, Love and Passion

[dailyrov]

Fersen is on the first and the last page of The Rose of Versailles manga.

[dailyrov]

Say It's Possible, a Rose of Versailles fanfic

Chapter 13/20 Words: 160,538 words (total) Summary: She died underneath the glow of the sun. Oscar remembers that when she wakes up—and everything else, too. Pairing/Characters: Oscar/André Warnings: Period!Sex and soort of a threesome in this chapter. Extra Info: Inspired in part by ROE62865’s lovely art here. Rating: E Genre: Romance, friendship, angst

Because this chapter is a “timeskip” one that covers late November through the end of March, quite a lot happens here.

Notes/"behind the scenes" footage below:

Now that Oscar and André are married and have been for a couple of months, most of the chatter revolves around people simply being nosy about something that’s really none of their business. (I’m sure some of it’s just idle curiosity or even attempts to be friendly with André like they’re welcoming him into their dudebro fold, but you can’t blame André for wanting nothing to do with that.

We get another visit from Fersen (as promised)! Even though Oscar already spoke to him about Saverne, I really liked their little discussion in the manga about the Black Knight, and wanted to include that here—as well as André, because he is now in Oscar’s social sphere.

--

The letter to Hortense is definitely the kind of thing where Oscar feels like she ought to make the effort even though it feels unnatural and forced. It’s important for her to work through those things, though, because that’s oftentimes how you form relationships to other people.

--

Rosalie comes to tea! This was a scene I was looking forward to for a while. While she lived with the Polignacs she debuted in society again and probably attended quite a few events. None of this is really discussed at any length within the manga, but is at least hinted at. Anyway, I loved the idea of Rosalie having seen the Black Knight at least once on her own; I’m sure it was the most exciting thing she’s experienced in a while!

I definitely wouldn’t consider myself the leading expert on writing Rosalie but seeing as how she is a grown woman, and Oscar is far more aware of it this time around, I wanted to lean into their discussion feeling like it’s on more equal footing—especially with André there and allowed to speak freely, too.

The family stopping in to see Rosalie and to join together as one for a couple of hours is the real purpose behind my writing this scene. It’s meant to give the reader a glimpse at what life might be like if Oscar’s sisters lived close and visited regularly—but more importantly, it’s meant to feel like a sort of final curtain.

--

I’m not a French history expert, but to the best of my understanding, the historical view of Christmas Eve/Christmas was somewhat different than our current one. We often view Christmas as starting at midnight, but in this time period, they would not view it as such until dawn.

Le Réveillon was a feast historically held after midnight mass until dawn or so, to celebrate the birth of Christ. For some Catholics, this feast was also to break a fast.

(In modern society this is often held before midnight mass, or even instead of mass. As far as I could tell, this term wasn’t in use yet, so I left it out of the story.)

Basically, the point of this decorative and festive feast (and subsequent partying/dancing) was to have a grand time, but Christmas as a holiday is largely a family affair. The problem is that Oscar’s sisters are married and therefore no longer legally part of the family: they belong to their husband’s families, now. So it’s a small party. ☹

Christmas, however, was usually a quieter affair. Usually a big lunch or dinner but again focused on family and recovering from the party of the previous night.

The only gifts really given this time of year would be from employers to their servants (“Christmas boxes”); sometimes these contained money, gifts, or leftover food from the Christmas festivities, and came with a day off of work to visit with their own families. These details didn’t make their way into this story because I didn’t want to take the time to cover it, but it’s cute to think of a younger Oscar giving André gifts every year.

--

It's nice to see 1787 finally rolling in, but I wanted to punctuate this scene (the time of year Oscar originally intended to marry André) with a little panic.

Despite the length of this story, and Oscar’s occasional reminder in the text about how long it’s been since the future-past, I think it’s important to remember that despite having lost André a lifetime ago, as far as her heart and mind are concerned, it was less than a year in the past.

She has the benefit of André again, but even that doesn’t completely overshadow that original loss, the very real grief she experienced and barely started processing before she returned to the past. She’s still going to need moments to work through her feelings and to process what happened to both of them.

The “swear it” bit is me trying to mimic the scene where he swears to love her and only her for the rest of his life. I wanted to showcase that desperate, almost unreasonable emotion in a different context. It’s obviously unreasonable of her to make him swear he won’t die first, but she is still grieving having lost him, even if it’s hard for her to accept that.

--

I love giving André memories and I love letting the characters talk about them, but I needed to get through a lot at once, so I decided to combine a few of them into one timeskip scene (Granny fainting, André’s memorization of the house/barracks, Granny learning about his blindness). Granny’s poor health in the future-past is a concern, here. Remember, they don’t know she dies the same day Oscar does, but she was bedridden at the end, and that’s something that can and will concern them. But Oscar’s right, too: the easier future she’s already helped create shields Granny from a lot of that stress and heartache that undoubtedly contributed to her poor health.

I’m sure future-past André has dozens of memories of memorization to share, and these are all safe for him to experience, now. But Oscar never knew exactly what it was he was doing, then, and finding out now means she has to think about all the times she thought he was being stupid or weird and never questioned it. (The guilt. Ouch.)

Finally, we get the memory of Granny’s realization that André’s sight was almost gone, and her insistence that he not see a doctor.

I included the line where Oscar asks him “What if it was just an infection?” because that is one of the most likely explanations for why he lost sight in his other eye (that isn’t pointing at a deeper tragedy like a brain tumor, I mean). After an eye receives some kind of deep trauma, it can make the other eye vulnerable to infection for a time.

When I was deep in my smallpox research last year, that was a common reason people seemed to lose sight in both eyes, even if only one was blinded by the pox directly. This also happened a lot under other frightening illness. Scarlet Fever was believed to have left a lot of people blind, but more modern research points at the cause being that the fever made the body more susceptible to infection, including (and commonly) the eyes.

Anyway, I’m fond of the idea that André’s right eye could have been at least partially saved if he had been honest with Oscar from the start. This is only a headcanon/intriguing concept, though, not anything rooted specifically in canon.

Lastly for this section, Oscar’s guilt gets more seriously discussed. They’re not fighting; they’re not even really arguing. It’s just one of those things that is rooted so deeply in trauma for both of them that it needs to be worked out. She already has guilt about him losing his eye, but now her guilt is more seriously rooted in failing to notice that he needed her to help him. In hindsight it all seems so obvious and that’s hard to swallow.

Of course, I had to tie her violin in, too. We don’t see her fencing at the end of her life, but we do see her play the violin before she marches to Paris with the French Guards. It’s a very underrated blip in the manga, because her violin isn’t often brought up, but her music is an extension of her passion and for years of her life was one of the only ways she could express it.  I think her playing at the very end is a great way to 1) tie romantic/physical passion with the passion of her music, and 2) show that even though her health is deteriorating, it hasn’t taken that from her, yet.

--

Hortense replies to Oscar’s letter, hurrah! It’s a tentative relationship but maybe it will turn into something nice…

Of course, in thinking about her sister’s advice, she has to acknowledge in her own mind that she and André aren’t fulfilling their marital duties, but she’s happy with the way things are.

And future-past André is there, too, looking respectfully. (Lol.) But here we get the first glimpse of what passing those memories to André costs him. At least André can see him, now, though.

--

Finally, it’s what everyone was waiting for! The clothes for the ball! Well, the clothes aren’t fully finished, yet, but they know what they want.

And now you know Oscar’s lapse in judgment when she was so eager to match André for the ball. I warned a few of you who asked that it was something unbelievably stupid, and now you all know that it is! Yep, that’s right: she’s not supposed to blend into the gardens: SHE’S THE BAIT. They NEED the Black Knight to notice her! LOL

Truth to be told, I had a different dress chosen and drafted in the deep recesses of my brain, but realized she needs to be easily seen (and in fact, wants to ensure it). I actually considered going back to edit that scene, but I decided not to for two reasons. 1) I thought it was cute that Oscar wanted to match him, and 2) it feels very much like the kind of oversight she would have until she sat down to really consider it.

As far as the clothes themselves go, André’s shouldn’t be too hard to imagine, because men’s fashion doesn’t differ too wildly. Oscar’s, though. Let’s just say that there are a great many styles of dress for women and I got lost in that sauce for an hour or 10.

A redingote is an ensemble where the coat/waistcoat looks like traditional menswear, but is worn with a skirt. Some French versions of this style were decidedly more feminine, like this one, but I was thinking something more like this. They were basically riding habits (riding coat...redingote...get it). Unfortunately for me, and for Oscar, I couldn't in good faith put her in this ensemble for a Versailles ball.

A round dress/gown is a dress with the bodice and skirt joined in a single garment, with the skirt closed all around. Examples are here, here, and finally this one.

However, the dress Oscar is having made looks like this, but instead of autumnal colors, imagine lilac/purple/green for a more springtime motif. (Yes, I realize this particular dress is dated later than the current year in the story; no, I do not care.)

I don’t think this sticks out from the rest of the clothing at the ball any more than her original dress did, to be honest, and I’m obsessed with the way it matches the Greek-inspired motif you see later in the manga (and in the Netflix film, too, at the end).

I didn’t find inspiration for all the jewelry but I thought this necklace would make a pretty nice statement piece with the pearls matching the dress, the amethysts matching the lilacs, and the gold matching her hair and wedding band.

--

I don’t have a lot to say about the mob memory, except that originally it was meant to exist as part of the earlier “timeskip” series of memories that André received. However, this specific memory felt a little more important to let breathe, so I allowed it time to be its own scene.

--

AHHHHHHH. THE THREESOME SCENE. SORT OF? Unfortunately, our future-past André isn’t really capable of having sex, so he can’t join them fully in that way, but he can certainly participate.

This scene was meant to take place A LONG TIME AGO, but as you’re well aware by now, there wasn’t a good place to include it that felt right. I feel like building up to this was definitely the right choice, and makes for a more informed and more interesting scene, anyway.

It took me ages to come up with what, exactly, I wanted to write for this scene. The original concept was future-past André helping guide André through touching her, which is obviously something he’s mastered by this point, and after talking with Sara we kind of settled on him holding her while André put his pretty mouth on her being a much more plausible and reasonable scene to fit in here.

It also gave me the opportunity for it to be André’s idea, and for him to direct it.

--

Oscar’s impatience while she can only wait for things to happen is very understandable. And this is the kind of thing that would be really difficult to wait for, even knowing there’s not much she can do right away—and nothing she does will actually help Rosalie.

It’s actually wild that the manga doesn’t call back to Charlotte or Rosalie when Oscar’s father tries to force her to marry. She can’t save Charlotte and Rosalie runs away on her own, but she’s just trapped in it until André helps her find her courage to look for a way out. It’s very interesting that Oscar witnessing the way marriage affects others then happens to her, and we don’t even get to see her think about them.

In Ikeda’s defense, the whole Diane thing was a pretty big deal.

--

Another visit with Fersen, though this one is short. I don’t have anything to say about this except that it felt rather nice to include André in the scene and to take what was a rather angsty and awkward scene between them and turn it into something a little more fun.

Unfortunately now, Oscar’s stuck doing her favorite thing: waiting around for the next thing to happen.

--

Thanks for reading! As always, feedback is appreciated. <3

See you next week!

[dailyrov]

Oscar’s sense of responsibility

I just realized something… Oscar asked Marie Antoinette’s permission to resign from the Royal Guard because, after all those conversations with Bernard, she felt that she could not be a part of an institution that served the nobility to the detriment of the third estate. When the queen insisted for a reason, Oscar said it was because she failed to capture the Black Knight. I just realized that this was not her excuse, but her justification for leaving the Royal Guard.

At the time, Bernard was still healing in captivity at the Jarjayes mansion. So Oscar fully intended to release him even back then, but she also fully expected to face the consequences even if no one would ever find out about it to hold her responsible. And asking to be demoted was her way of paying the price of what she had set her mind to do—after all, she did catch the Black Knight and would be releasing him intentionally. 

This is such an “Oscar” thing to do… So noble, so honourable… 

The concept of having a sense of responsibility as a virtue is one of the most powerful messages of The Rose of Versailles that I hadn’t given much thought to until recently. 

Oscar is aware of her privilege as a noble and takes responsibility for André after the dauphine’s horseback riding accident. As his master, Oscar feels responsible for him in what was clearly an accident and puts her life on the line. 

As the heir of the Jarjayes family, she feels responsible for the plight of the commoners living in her lands in Arras and makes it her duty to inform the royal family of their situation. 

As the captain of the Gardes Françaises, she feels responsible for the well-being of her soldiers, berating herself for not realizing that they were struggling to feed their families, and ultimately wins their hearts. 

The list goes on…

Even in her darkest hour after losing André, she leads the remainder of her troops to storm the Bastille because she feels responsible to do her part in the revolution as a citoyenne who believes in the cause.

Yes, it feels wonderful to be swept away in the romance, but such lessons to be derived from the story truly make The Rose of Versailles remarkable in a way that I have come to appreciate more lately.

[dailyrov]

From NHK Hobby Encyclopedia, Drawing Girls' Comics, 1992

"I've always loved creating stories. What I actually wanted was to pursue writing. The reason I became a manga artist was for financial reasons (laughs). I started drawing manga for books in rental bookstores To support myself. A publisher had read them and scouted me.

When I first started drawing, I struggled because I was completely self-taught.

I started drawing because I enjoyed creating stories, the pictures just sort of followed later. So I started by relearning sketching (laughs). Even now, I think I have the most fun when I'm creating a story, or when I'm researching materials for a historical work. I don't have a particular way of choosing themes for my works; sometimes they just pop into my head, and conversely, sometimes I've had ideas for years that still haven't made it to fruition…

People often ask me, "How can I become a manga artist?", but my theory is that those who can do it will do so even if they don't try."

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I'm going to say these things as nicely and as kindly as possible, because I think the RoV fandom needs to hear them:

Not every thought or idea or headcanon can be considered an interpretation of a canon work.

Not every "interpretation" of a canon work is reasonable, sensible, or valid.

Not every "meta" or "essay" is written in good faith. Many are biased. Most are trying to convince you of something.

Finally: words mean something. To you, to me, to everyone.

We are all people existing online within the same space. When you post in the main tags, you're posting where your words can and will be found by people who enjoy RoV. Are they something people looking at the main tag will want to read?

I want to encourage everyone to think critically, and by "think critically" I do not mean negatively. I mean: be aware of the words you and others use. Are those tags appropriate for that post? Is that a good discussion or is someone just using buzzwords in an attempt to sound smart? Are those posts actually bringing up good talking points? Is that essay discussing the source material fairly? Are those interpretations actually interpretations or are they just shower thoughts? Is that post engaging in the fandom and in the source material(s) in good faith?

Sometimes you'll find an essay that puts words to a feeling you've had for a while but could not express. Other times, the "essay" is just nonsense.

Not all essays are created equal. Not all takes are hot. Not all that you read online is valuable, valid, or well-intentioned.

Don't let yourself get gaslit by the dissonance sometimes found between Rose of Versailles and some of the RoV fandom. There are some people who are not engaging with Rose of Versailles; they're engaging with something they've made up in their heads because they don't actually like RoV.

(Let me make myself clear: if you have to change the whole meaning of the story and you have to change the characters because the way they're canonically portrayed isn't to your taste...then you don't like Rose of Versailles.)

Everyone has thoughts, ideas, and headcanons; there's no shame in that. But the way you phrase them and the place you put them matters.

Tangentially related: I've been in and out of the RoV fandom for a great many years, but over the last six months, I've noticed that this fandom has a real issue with misleading potential fans into thinking the series is great [x] representation when those ideas are not present in the source material. (I'm not specifying what [x] is, here, because multiple things apply.)

You cannot call RoV good [x] rep if it's just your headcanon or a ship you like. Anyone eager to read that rep will be disappointed if you recommend RoV to them with that as the selling point.

Unfortunately, this has already happened more than a few times. "I was told RoV was [x] but I watched/read it and I'm not seeing it. Am I missing something?" What you're missing is that people in this fandom continually conflate their own ideas, shower thoughts, and interpretations as canon and recommend the series based on what exists in their head rather than the reality.

Worse, sometimes they recommend RoV because they read somewhere that it was good [x] rep but haven't even confirmed that for themselves. Yikes!

RoV is not great [x] representation for the average modern audience member. You're not doing anyone any favors by calling it [x]; please stop saying it as if it's the definitive truth presented within the canon. It's not.

All that does is set expectations incorrectly for people who haven't seen/read it, and ultimately new fans oftentimes end up disappointed because they did not get the thing they were sold.

[dailyrov]

Lady Oscar, directed by Jacques Demy.

Screen Magazine December 1978

[dailyrov]

From The Rose of Versailles Kids: The Latest Hairstyle

[dailyrov]

On August 26, 1789 the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was adopted by the National Assembly.

Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.

Happy Birthday André.

[dailyrov]

Say It's Possible, a Rose of Versailles fanfic

Chapter 12/20 Words: 146,636 words (total) Summary: She died underneath the glow of the sun. Oscar remembers that when she wakes up—and everything else, too. Pairing/Characters: Oscar/André Warnings: None Extra Info: Inspired in part by ROE62865’s lovely art here. Rating: E Genre: Romance, friendship, angst

It's time for the honeymoon.

Notes/"behind the scenes" footage below:

Welcome to another chapter! Almost every chapter I consider skipping note-writing, because I’m like, are these notes even really necessary? But I know a good number of you read them so I always write something, anyway.

The keenly observant might have noticed that I added another chapter; oops.

Here we pick back up the morning after the wedding night.

I don’t think Oscar needs to ‘prove’ her selflessness, but considering how she undoubtedly views her behavior in the future-past, especially those last few years, I think it’s safe to say she would want to make up for that in some way now that she can.

--

One thing the manga never did that I was surprised it didn’t do is go into any kind of detail regarding Oscar’s parents and how she felt as they began to age. I’m sure the manga didn’t touch on this because the author knew already that her parents would outlive Oscar (and so narratively, it just wasn’t necessary), but it’s the sort of thing every person around the age of 30 starts to have to deal with, especially if their parents were already on the older side when they were born (and Oscar’s were).

--

Unfortunately, Oscar is not spared well-meaning “advice” from her parents and Granny, but at least they aren’t being nasty about it. She keeps her mouth shut (mostly) because she knows she’s fortunate in many ways—not just to have been allowed to marry André, but to retain her job/position afterward, which would be nigh unheard of.

To be clear, this is sort of a plot-convenience thing, too; if she lost her job marrying him, here, she loses the kind of power she’s used to wielding. I do think she could adapt and overcome, eventually, but that is not the sort of story I want to tell with Say It’s Possible.

Fortunately, Hortense, at least, has good advice. I always imagined that Hortense is 10-15 years older than Oscar, and I tend to estimate closer to 15, so she was getting married when Oscar was still a baby. As the oldest daughter in this time period, it was vital that she secure a good match. Yes, her family’s wealth would ensure all of her sisters married well, but her making a good match effectively still doubles their chances at also marrying well. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a young girl. I like the idea of Hortense being the typical “oldest daughter” personality-wise. In the gaiden chapters she has a spark of Father’s temper but is otherwise rather level-headed. Hopefully Oscar takes her advice to heart.

--

The Normandy estate! I struggled with this for what felt like ages but was probably just a couple of days. My issue is that I looove details, but I kept including too many here and bogging the story down, so I ultimately had to cut things to make it work. Don’t worry; you didn’t miss much. The biggest issue I found was striking a balance between Oscar’s curiosity/desire to know things, and accounting for the fact that most of what takes place here doesn’t matter long-term. Basically, I was just beating back the rabid part of my brain that kept trying to add details to the new characters.

Two details that were taken out (just for fun): 1) Élisabeth’s romantic interest in Gilbert, and 2) Théo was married for a long time but his wife died a couple of years ago. In the end I didn’t really even have time to introduce Théo properly.

But sometimes for the sake of clarity and moving a story along, such things have to be eliminated.

--

Oscar gets her turn to put her mouth on André. Hehe.

--

Oh man, Oscar’s period, or uh, the lack thereof. This whole section was really fun for me to write (I was cramping my brains out the whole time—sorry, Oscar!) but difficult because I was more or less expanding on the original RP, which did not go over this in detail.

Actually, the original RP never sent them on a honeymoon at all.

I mentioned before that we sometimes “roll” for events to see what the outcome of them is, and this is one such event! We really threw the fate of this story in random.org’s hands back on May 5, 2025.

We always roll 1-100, and in this instance decided that 1 to 49 was not pregnant, 50+ was a pregnancy, and 75+ was she loses the baby (with the higher the number, the worse the loss). Sara rolled a 42, which was close enough to 50 that we felt it should be appropriate that a week or two passes where she thinks she might be pregnant, but eventually gets a late (and especially painful) period.

Hence, this part of the story. I don’t have a ton to say about this that didn’t make it to the story itself, but I really wanted to go over her complex feelings about children again, this time with the context that she could actually be looking at bringing one into the world. The timing IS bad, and that frightens her more than the pregnancy or labor does, in part because she’s heavily in denial that she could even be pregnant in the first place. But as her period gets later you see her start to kind of accept it as a possibility despite her fear. To cope with it, she lets her thoughts settle on things that bring her comfort—like the idea that the baby will look like André, and that he’ll be a good father.

That said, in her state of denial and fear, she falls right back into old habits and stops communicating with her husband. Fortunately, in this, André is understanding, and gives her grace for a while. We don’t get his perspective, here, but he knows how hard this is for her, and wants to give her space to figure out how she feels on her own—but when it takes her too long and she doesn’t open up of her own accord, he has to step in and pry the lines of communication open again.

But that he feels comfortable doing so is a change that has been wrought that cannot be overlooked or understated. <3

Finally, Oscar’s mixed feelings about getting her period:

This isn’t a story about Oscar getting pregnant while it derails the main events of the canon (I have other stories for that LOL), but I still wanted to address her complex feelings on pregnancy and children. Also, I wanted to show that despite the relief she feels, there’s that twinge of disappointment, too, because some part of her imagination conjured up their baby and reality almost makes her feel like she’s lost that child, even though she hasn’t lost anything.

Ultimately, though, it is relief that she feels, because like she said: it’s really not a great time or place to raise a child.

--

Fencing on the sand sounds absolutely insane and also, dare I say it, fun? I feel like it would be a fun match to watch, but I didn’t want to write about it in detail because this scene was here specifically to let them have sex outside in relative privacy. There’s just something about the sound of the waves and the wind tousling their hair that makes it good.

--

I mention cravats/neckcloths having to be white at evening parties/events. This was mostly the rule in a slightly later time period (early 1800s, until around 1830, I think), but I’m sure that rule started a lot earlier than that, so I included it here for the 1780s.

Also, don’t get too attached to the clothing discussed here. There’s a small flaw in Oscar’s idea.

--

Finally, she gets to watch him bathe on-page. And before her. This is significant because he spent his life as a servant and would always go after her (cleanest water to the more important person). This is just a little way for Oscar to show him he matters to her.

But it was also rather fun to call back slightly to that original bathing/bedtime ritual scene here, where this time they get to get ready together…and then sleep together, too.

--

Oscar’s rooms being rearranged to be “their” rooms. You might see her mistakenly call them ‘her’ rooms a few more times in this story, but she’s trying! I just love the concept of her moving her things around to make space for his so that they’re fully sharing the space—and making it theirs.

--

MEMORY! COME AND GET YOUR MEMORY!

André’s discussion with Girodelle from the manga is such a fun topic, but I chose it for this scene because it’s something Oscar never knew took place—but connects really well with her own conversation with Girodelle. The man really did know they were soulmates the whole time…and tried to accommodate it.

In the English manga, Girodelle says that André is Oscar’s “second self.” In the French manga, he says that André is Oscar’s “alter-ego.”

I went with “other half” because I think it ties in best with what Girodelle says about how they’ve never been apart, and there could not be a him without her/her without him…as well as what Oscar says about their souls having drawn close together over the years. I think you could safely say “soulmates” here too, but “other half” feels more accurate to me.

Something that I think doesn’t get talked about enough with regards to Girodelle’s offer is how his own privilege probably makes him ignorant to how it might be perceived by André. To be fair, I don’t think André’s in the habit of wanting to share Oscar. It seems pretty clear before Girodelle interrupts him, that he was trying to do the right thing and admit his role as Oscar’s valet and friend were over. Before he's interrupted, he says, “From now on…” which makes me think he was about to pass that torch to Girodelle.

Girodelle could have taken that and run with it, but he didn’t; I believe his offer was genuine and well-meaning. He knew Oscar didn’t love him; he loves her and he wants to save her from the same fate her father is looking to save her from. If nothing else, it’s a convenient marriage for him. If André has her, he’ll be happy; if he’s happy then she’s happy; if she’s happy then Girodelle is happy. Everyone wins.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t occur to him that the power he has over André means it’s an offer that can be taken back—or never honored in the first place. I think André has some reason to believe the offer is genuine even in the manga (Girodelle is never mean or cruel to him, after all; he’s not even really condescending), but the fact that he would be beholden to Girodelle’s whim for the rest of his life has to be nigh unbearable. ESPECIALLY because he’s almost blind—something Girodelle doesn’t know, but will undoubtedly figure out. And then what does he do? Beg not to be tossed onto the street?

Anyway, this memory does a good job of giving the characters more to discuss, specifically Oscar’s struggle understanding her own feelings, Girodelle’s proof of love, and how the poisoning scene ultimately affected both of them (for better and worse).

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: Oscar needed a wake-up call, and André’s attempt to poison her was that. It shook her out of her stupor and showed her that she was not the only person suffering.

This obviously isn’t intended to excuse his behavior, but when he received the poisoned wine memory earlier in this story, Oscar thinks something like, it’s hard to imagine it could have gone any other way. André didn’t have the right to speak up. She wasn’t paying him enough attention to realize he was suffering because she was drowning in her own despair.

And seeing her helplessness for what it was, André felt suicide was the only way to save her. It’s difficult to understand that mindset if you’ve never been in it yourself, if you’ve never been in a position where your future was misery and it truly felt like the only way to escape it was death. I think that was André’s mindset, then, and I think it was Oscar’s, too; he understood that and did what he thought was best with the information he had.

In the end, it’s good he didn’t follow through on it. But it did get through to her. She understood what it meant right away. And even though she felt helpless to help herself, when it was André’s life on the line, she found the courage to act.

Like she tells him in this chapter: he is her courage. This is a theme throughout the manga. The aftermath of the poisoning scene is the clearest proof of it, but we see other instances where it’s a bit more subtly shown—and at the end, we see her want him close to her so that she doesn’t lose her courage.

(Her in the film asking for his hand as she’s dying almost made me emotional on its own, more than any other part of the film.)

But with Oscar’s second chance she gets the opportunity to tell him this truth directly.

Despite all this, she can't answer Girodelle's question because she doesn't know if she loves André like that. But the moment she says their souls have drawn close together, the moment she admits that his unhappiness is hers, Girodelle knows it's love.

And this is what enables him to give her proof of his own love: the withdrawal of his proposal. With this, he is telling her that her happiness means more to him than his own.

--

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Due to the addition of another chapter, we have some more timeskip stuff to get through next week.

And we'll finally get the scene that is partially based on the artwork that inspired this story! (And here you thought you'd never get it, didn't you?)

See you next week!

[dailyrov]

The Rose of Versailles Kids: The Latest Hairstyle

ベルばらKidsさいしん ヘアスタイル

By Riyoko Ikeda

Publisher: KIN-NO-HOSHI SHA

Publish date: 2015

22.pg

18 x 18 cm

Children's picture book featuring The Rose of Versailles Kids and the newest most fashionable wigs.

[dailyrov]

Trying my luck showing off my Oscar cosplay here because unfortunately many people on TT have decided to be racist 🥲

[dailyrov]

I'd be surprisingly good for you

[dailyrov]

From The Rose of Versailles Kids: Andre's Secret

[dailyrov]

The Rose of Versailles Kids: Andre's Secret

ベルばらKidsアンドレのひみつ

By Riyoko Ikeda

Publisher:  KIN-NO-HOSHI SHA

Publish date: 2015

22.pg

18 x 18 cm

Children's picture book featuring The Rose of Versailles Kids, find out Andre's secret. Comes with a pull out poster.

[dailyrov]

Say It's Possible, a Rose of Versailles fanfic

Chapter 11/19 Words: 133,204 words (total) Summary: She died underneath the glow of the sun. Oscar remembers that when she wakes up—and everything else, too. Pairing/Characters: Oscar/André Warnings: None Extra Info: Inspired in part by ROE62865’s lovely art here. Rating: E Genre: Romance, friendship, angst

We've made it to the wedding/wedding night chapter, which also happens to be the longest chapter yet (clocking in at 18,457 words).

Notes/"behind the scenes" footage below:

Let's go!

I dropped a couple of hints about Lyne and Henri's backstory; curious to know if anyone will be able to guess what their deal is. I don't expect anyone to care overmuch, though, since they're OCs lol.

Rings were almost exclusively a wealthy-people thing in this time period, and they could be rather ornamental! Oscar wouldn't be into that, if only because of her career and the fact that she's not used to wearing jewelry. I think a plain band suits her best (and André, too, in his new role as officer).

Of course André is worried about feeling out of place at his own wedding. He knows logically that he belongs there but it's the kind of event he knows someone of his original status had no right to partake in, so it will still feel very weird to him!

--

Wedding traditions in 1700s France are notoriously hard to find information about, by which I mean...it's hard to find reliable information. A lot of "information" I found were just blog posts with no sources, so make of that what you will. And a ton of information pretended to be historical but were just modern wedding traditions. 🙄

Something I saw mentioned quite often was silk being held over the couple's head during the wedding ceremony, but I forewent that because this is a strange combination of a church and military wedding where the bride is wearing men's clothing. If I'm being perfectly honest with you, it's doubtful this wedding would ever be allowed to happen in the first place, so in stretching the bounds of believability anyway, I forewent this tradition.

The groom making a visit to the bride's house the morning of the wedding and riding over to the church in a procession where she went with her parents in the first carriage, and he in the second with his, seems to be historically accurate.

Armoire de mariage / trousseau: Typically a marriage armoire would be given to a girl when she is born, or in her teen years, and filled as she ages. The items inside were often called a trousseau. It's the equivalent of a hope chest, really, and meant to supply the bride with everything she needs to run her husband's house and take care of herself there. Because Oscar was raised as a man, she doesn't have this, and because she lives with her parents anyway (and will after she marries) she has no need for it.

It still feels kind of bad and wrong for Mother to see a daughter marrying without something she feels is her right, though.

I mentioned this before but I'll say it again. A dowry was a complicated thing, and not always money. The point of it is to give the bride "her part" of the inheritance. When a dowry was money, it was often invested in some way, and the bride received the interest it earned as spending money. The bride's husband could take the interest as it came in and spend it, but he could not under any circumstances touch the principle amount of money. This ensured the bride had something of her own if her husband died in less fortunate circumstances (as she could then live off of that money).

Oscar works for a living and doesn't really need financial reassurance, though.

A marriage contract would be drawn up between the families and signed, but unfortunately for André (or perhaps fortunately), he has only his grandmother left. This contract was probably drawn up primarily between Oscar, her father, and André, then.

It's not mentioned in this chapter but was talked about earlier in the story: André is a "de Jarjayes" now that he's married Oscar, as he joined her family rather than the other way around. His full name changes to André Grandier de Jarjayes so that he has that noble sounding second name. ;)

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I don't think Oscar is terribly close to any of her sisters but a month isn't really enough time to send invitations to all of them and expect them to drop their plans to attend her wedding. If she had been given more time to plan, they probably would have come (who doesn't like the excuse to party?) but as it is they're pretty lucky even one sister managed to make it.

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FERSEN... I was going to just mention him in passing but I felt like this was a great excuse for him to apologize to her for abandoning her to go to Saverne alone. He seemed bothered by that even a year later in the manga, so I let him express that here.

Also, he's like radio silent for a LONG TIME in the canon! After her harrowing experience in Saverne, Oscar doesn't see Fersen again until Rosalie runs away from home almost a year later and Oscar stops at Fersen's place to see if Rosalie might have gone to him.

Princess Conti is mentioned once or twice in this chapter, too; it's her ball that Oscar danced with Fersen at—and where she first ran into the Black Knight.

Anyway, Oscar deserved a little closure with Fersen and hopefully this helped to give her that.

--

Future-Past André kissing her forehead, cheek, then her mouth is from the manga when she says she's afraid and he tells her there is nothing to fear. This scene was also in "Where You Lead."

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More wedding traditions! The going-to-bed/bedding ceremony is one Marie Antoinette endured (RIP). Basically it involved parading the new couple up to their rooms when it was time for them to consummate their marriage. Family or friends would help them get ready for bed, and they'd lie in bed together while the priest blessed them, the marital bed, and sometimes also the armoire de mariage.

Then they would get advice from well-meaning (or maybe not, lol) relatives and important guests, and left to do the deed.

Oscar's giving that concept two thumbs down!

While this was a really common tradition and OA do sort of bend to doing it in some capacity anyway, after the wedding, it seems much more important for arranged marriages, as the point was to encourage the consummation as well as bless the marital bed.

This is why André is basically like, we don't need any encouragement, actually.

Like Oscar said though, if the guest list were primarily friends and even family she adored, it wouldn't be so bad to go through with it. But very few people have showed up for them specifically, so...why should she suffer through embarrassment and seeing her privacy violated?

--

Oscar and André's dress uniforms are basically like the one she's wearing here:

I can't defend myself. I just really like how this uniform looks on her and thought it would make splendid wedding attire with a matching veil. ⛪

--

Another wedding tradition in this time period was for a little procession into the church itself. The clergy, then the parents, then the bride and groom together.

I largely skipped over the service itself because it's Catholic and therefore BORING (AND LONG!!!) but they usually read some choice passages and ensured consent was being freely given and all that. Typically, especially in high-ranking marriages like this one, there would not be the chance to speak anything off-script.

After the wedding, the bride, groom, and witnesses would sign the marriage register, and then it was off to the party!

And boy did the French love to party in this time period.

These wedding parties often lasted two meals and sometimes even three (all the way to breakfast the next morning). OA's party is a pretty big one but perhaps not an "all nighter" party.

Once again I ran into serious trouble learning about traditions in this time period. I could have probably found a good book on the subject, but this is fanfiction and I'm not delaying a chapter for a month so that I can research the finer details. (Maybe for a final edit, I'd consider it, lol.) To be fair, too, I don't think anyone reading cares that much about the food.

I did find several sources talking about Onion Soup as a traditional French wedding feast end dish (basically to sober everyone up? LOL), but most of these sources were not about 1700s France, and instead talking about the 1800s and even modern weddings. I also tried to find some information about where this tradition began and I only found some bloggers who, frankly, seemed to just be making up stuff for fun.

Croquembouche is a traditional dessert (basically the equivalent of a wedding cake), but it wasn't mentioned in cookbooks until the very early 1800s, so I wasn't terribly confident about mentioning it, here.

(Basically, the trouble with researching 1700s anything is that the internet only gives a single fuck about the 1800s, so good luck.)

Once again with dancing, we have the minuet and then an allemande (typically paired with a courante). If the wedding were a small and intimate affair, I would have let them dance André's waltz together, but unfortunately this isn't the time or place for that. :(

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ROSALIE... We know that she was basically blackmailed into staying with the Polignacs but Oscar never figures out the exact reason Rosalie left (and Rosalie never tells her). Even though Oscar certainly had her suspicions, I thought it might be nice to have that mystery solved.

Also, I wanted to show how Rosalie, like Oscar, wants to live her own life (her own way), and through this we kind of get to see how she ends up deciding to go back to Paris when she does leave the Polignacs.

--

Wedding night scene was kind of tame compared to some of what I've written for this story, but I wanted it to be more about Oscar's connection with André and seeing that original goal of marrying him and having him as her husband realized.

That said, their pillow talk finally addresses some of Oscar's self-doubt and shame about not being "woman enough" to feel deserving of a child.

She definitely doesn't want one right now, but she also has it in her head that living her life as a man for thirty years has somehow also impacted her body. Like it's made her body a hostile environment to a baby.

I felt like it needed to be addressed sooner rather than later, so André gets to say his piece. He doesn't much like it when Oscar is hard on herself; he loves her so much it's hard for him to imagine anyone else might not.

But also, it's definitely a possibility that she could get pregnant, so he wants to make sure she has one and isn't just living in denial-land, because boy would it suck for her to deny the possibility only to have to face it later. She strikes me as the sort of person who doesn't cope with change very well, especially not very sudden, dramatic change (which a baby would be).

--

I probably forgot something in here, so if there are any specific questions, let me know and I'll answer them.

Otherwise: thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was great hearing everyone's thoughts last time; if this chapter gave you more, please do share!