Spotlight Character: Oscar Francois de Jarjayes (Rose of Versailles)

I said:
This is something I'm writing from a trasatlantic plane. It's 9 hours of travel so I got all the time I want. Or at least till the laptop battery is over. I will use this time and oportunity to dissecate my dear Oscar. Maybe this is just an exercise for me and will not convince anyone, but I don't care because I have 7 hours of flight left and I'm bored as hell.

For starters, this evaluation is based both off the manga and the anime. I believe that concerning Oscar's character more than copying the manga, the anime completes her exposition. There are three main points I would like to focus on:

• The design
  
• The exposition
  
• The historical and cultural meaning and significance
  

The Design of Oscar de Jarjayes and its conivence with the piece

As fit to any shoujo manga and anime counterpart, Rose of Versailles it's crowded with shine, random flowers and an uprecedent ammount of useless ornaments. Consider how old the manga is and the media available at the time this is amazing, but that's a debate to have in a later discussion. What matters here is that Oscar is a flower amongst the background. As the name says: the Rose of Versailles. Her own design is a personification of a flower in all its meanings. The beauty associated to suffering and sacrifice, a delicate creature surrounded by thorns. The graphic design is more than appropriate inside the environment. The manga has a lot of mythological and classical references, which denotes and elevated culture of the author and exposes her association to the world of history academics. Anyway, the main character herself appears as a demi-goddess of war and love. This also appears at the anime, at the portrait she has painted for herself. The figure of an high official surrounded by the beauty of the nature , delivering it on her arms and always accompanied by her white horse. Dianic figure, the virgin that rules upon fight and beauty but has to keep veiled from love and her most inner designs.

The other important fact about her design is the most obvious fact: the - most likely first - use of a travesti to create a dilema and generate suffering for the character and, therefore, juicy story. If we're aknowledged with the story, we know the whys and hows of Oscar and her outfit option. It all starts in the figure of her father that, frustrated by not having anyone to receive his heritage, forces his youngest daughter to follow the path of a man. While this is mostly to characterize the environment of the time setting, we may shoot in the dark and say that this father also works as a complex for Oscar that, unable, will redirect it to other male figures, namely Fersen. If we pick her family environment, more problems add up. She is the youngest of a herd of daughters and thus is surrounded by female figures. However, educated as a man, she most likely uses this family environment only as rolemodel for her "girl adventures", like wearing a dress and... Well, that's basically it. Both in anime and manga her mother plays an important role and through her we see that Oscar treats fellow woman with the respect of man. She is not able to understand her own genre and has no other option than following her feelings. Which is exactly what any shoujo lead should do, but in this case it's not because of an higher cause or a love doubt, but because it's her only option. I like to imagine how confusing was to Oscar to suffer all the female wonders for the first time, when even a the end of the manga (when she's about 40 years old, according to my rusty maths) she still has male traits stuck into her personality. Her first period, the first fast heartbeat, or even breasts. If for a girl that is a girl this is freaky, for a boy that is actually a girl it must be a nightmare. xD

In a whole, her design is perfect because it's not only original: it's appropriate. More than appropriate: it's fit. It fits the whole story and makes it move forward, even when the story does not center around her. It's said by sme critics that the true Rose of Versailles is Marie Antoinette instead. Indeed, the Dauphine is the central character of the story and Oscar is very secondary. But her presence is so believable that her influence on the story (and history) is simply necessary.

The expositon of the character: how the evolution of events changes Oscar (and makes her more awesome)

Oscar is not the kind of character thathas only an excellent design and original purpose. She is very moulded by the story. If we consider the tragedy of France's monarchy as the central plot, Oscar is the one that makes it move forward. However if we consider Oscar's actions concerning this historical momen as the main plot, she is the one that is moved forward by it.

Let's start with her childhood. As refered before, educated as a man but surrounded by females, she only has an escape route. Which is Andre, her playmate and servant. As the time goes by, she grows up a little bit and another person appears in the game: Marie Antoinette. She appears as the example of everything that is fragile and beautiful, the thing that Oscar must protect at all costs and that she protects till the end in her own way. In the manga they are almost depicted as lovers in Oscar's youth (but then she grows up, thank goodness) but I think this relationship is more of a butterfly and the person that hunts for it to keep it safe In the end of the anime there is an official release of the butterfly, a depart brilliantly named "Farewell is See You Soon" (in French sounds prettier) which only deepens the importance of this bond. Time goes by a little bit more and Fersen enters the game. Oscar discovers that she can have female feelings. These are a little bit ignored in the anime comparing to the manga (really, her desperation is... More desperate) but in both Fersen is that friend all the girls have: the one we'd not mind having as lover but, due to a lot of circunstances - including the fact some of us are actually travestied army leaders - are just very close friends. Then Madame de Polignac teaches Oscar about how the society of the works. Finally, the two sisters, Rosalie and Jeanne. Rosalie shows Oscar a whole new form of love and, again leads to more tears. Oscar falls a little bit in love with her, as quoted in the manga:

"I promess you that if I was a man I would make you my wife"

But, nonenthless, accepts her position and rol as protector and "onii-chan" (sorry, got to use the term xp)

Finally, in the fan of characters that mould Oscar's personality, Jeanne (the ebil sister). Jeanne does not really do anything besides spreading venom. In a way this is very important because Oscar has to deal with it. The exposition of her identity, position and gender make everything more complicated to deal with.

Then there are some specific moments of the plot that trigger new facets of her character. From the party where she goes as female, where she firmly admits her role and true desire, to the Bastille guerrilla where she finally accepts with a full heart her condition and leaves as a martyr for love (and freedom as well, ok). Other important moments that help to expose her character are the sacrifice for Andre when the Princess is taken by the horse (and the rescue of the Princess as well) and the first meet with Robespierre. Here she evolves from a simple girl with gender confusion to a politically active figure, that doubts and wonders and participates in the whole revolution. In a way her participation is motivated by her feelings of love, but if she never knew about the situation of the people in Paris she would have never got into it (I bet shed just run a way to some cool place, like Portugal where we have nice beaches, and live happy ever after. You see, her courageous nature of protecting and loving errors in its own nature. If running off had been the first plausible option to protect her loved ones, it would have been. But then the story would have been over too soon!) It is also extremelly relevant that she joined the "army of the people" to get away from the Queen and Fersen and the whole nobility and ease her own pain. Through the vivence within men that do not respect her by anything except her inner qualities she finally learns to accept herself as she is and live with that. Quoting the anime, she once says:

"I am sorry I never told you but I am actually a woman. You may keep respecting my authority, but you are also allowed to leave"

To which the most irritating soldier answers

"It does not matter if you are a man or a woman as long as you keep being our General"

However, what matters most in the way the character is coveyed is her relationship with Andre. Ignoring the fact that it is one of the most beautiful love tragedies I've ever watched or read, Andre is the guy that in a way or another moves Oscar. She does not know this till the very end (in the anime, earlier in the manga). She originally moves to protect the Princess, the King, her mother, Rosalie, even Fersen. But in the end it's Andre that makes her move, due to his loyalty as servant and trust as friend. As platonic lover, he holds her from the dark. As soon as he admits his love, in the manga, Oscar's attitude change: she becomes lost for a while and then accepts him as protector. He is the one that helps her to grow up from the may-be-a-boy person that protects a princess to the half-adolescent that engages in an impossible love to a mature woman that offers herself as sacrifice for the sentiment. It is with him that most moments happen.

First, when he disguises as Maque Noir and loses his sight: for the first time, Oscar values his presence and his life, since she never expected that he could get hurt, or die, or leave her in some way. At this moment she even orders him to never leave her again, admitting that she needs her "servant" as mullet to survive as a lie in such a complicated social environment.

Second, a manga only event. In a desperate and half-drunk moment, Andre declares and forces himself into it. Basically, he tries to rape Oscar. =D Here, she learns about fear and the inevitable conclusion. It does not matter how good you are with the sword or how many times you kicked his head during training. He will always be stronger, because he's a man. Thanks to this knowledge her adaptation to the new army is even harder in the manga.

Third, when Andre is mistaken as noble and taken away by the people of Paris. She surddenly discovers that she loves him and is surprised by it herself. This moment means exactly what it seems so. When Fersen finds her desperate begging him to "Save my Andre!", everyone finally sighs in relief that she got the obvious. Except Oscar herself, because she seems terrified at this and does not know what to do now with her protector. Should she take him as lover as a woman should do or keep him away as friend as a man should do?

Fourth, the consumation of the love. They happen very differently in manga and anime but they basically represent the maturity of the feelings and the naturality of the act. Oscar takes the whole 40 episodes and 10 volumes to discover that she is in love with Andre enough to throw away her mask of male and go for it. In the anime it's a beautiful scene that moved me to tears all the 6 times I watched it, surrounded by some shiny bugs in a forest, a deliver to the nature appropriate to her Hellenic features. In the manga, it's more planned which works very well as the official destruction of the facade.

The final event is Andre's death. It happens in various scenes. His death, right after they just decided "let's just throw away the Bastille and then marry and have a flock of children". The attempts of revival and the desperation. His funeral and Oscar's decision: without her love there's nothing else in the Earth to live for. The most wonderful moment of the anime is, for me, at this moment. In a flaschback narrated by an enemy soldier, she fights with the Guards and they kill her horse. The narrator says:

"We just fought a brave enemy General on the bridge. As his horse fell and he lost his pistol, he pulled his sword and fought bravely killing many. And as he did, his eyes were shiny with desperation and loneliness and it seemed that they cried"

And this is about it: Oscar exists not only by her, but through others. This is another thing to make the character beautifully crafted.

The significante of the character in the exterior world

Quoting the Preface of my manga edition:

"Now the tourist guides of the Palace of Versailles will know shy so many girls ask "and what about Oscar de Jarjayes" on the tours"

If this does not tell everything I don't know what does. Oscar is so well done that she seems real. So much I researched half the internet to convince myself she was fictional (and even now I'm not well convinced yet).

She is a wonderful model for anything a shoujo lead should be and she is remembered even by the most improbable people- There is a museum in Lisbon called "The Carriage Museum". It only has carriages. One of the guards there is so much of an Oscar fan that he cosplays French Royal Guard inside the museum. On other occasion we were at a Japanese class debating about our favourite animes and characters and when I referred "Versailles no Bara", our teacher squealed in joy and shared that she read the manga during her adolescence. And she also referred her love for Oscar who still is her favourite manga character. Socially, the character was a revolution, a woman made off courage that lived for the same values all the others did.

And, my favourite social impact... The prototype of shounen ai (forgive me for the outdated term, but the manga is so old anyway that I may as well use it xD). Finally, no longer the boring female lea.d Now we have a female that looks awfully similar to a man. She has all the characteristics of both a male character and our usual anime girl, the personality of the first associated to the doubts and emotions of the second. Many critics debate that Oscar was the one to open the path to the BL genre (I actually read this in a magazine a couple or more years ago). And that is fantastic.



In conclusion, Oscar is an outstanding character both by her inherent characteristics and social influence. I wont be very mad if anyone votes Nuh, but that's just because the anime is already at the list. The anime is only the digivolved form of the character, so having one is kind of having the other.

Anyway, Yes, Yes and more Yes My battery is almost over and there are like... 6 hours of flight left. I will only c/p this when I get home (if internet gets in the plane, plane falls. According to this lady in a TAP uniform, at least). I think I will now ask them to get me some coloured pencils and a book to paint, like they give to children. I think it's unfair that I don't get one.

p.s. My Oscar action figure is ordered and on its way for quite a while now. But just so that the club knows I already paid for an Oscar figure (together with her Andre, so she can live happy forever on my shelf)

Tonkam Editions said:
Presentation of characters
Oscar

Oscar François de Jarjayes, sixth daughter of General of Jarjayes. To keep with the tradition of the family, Oscar is raised as a boy. She grows up with Andre in a familiar environment and their friendship will grow till the day it turns into love. Turned Captain of the Royal Guard, she will keep her duty with courage, resignation and fervorously. Promoted Coronel, she will clearly make a choice for her destiny and assume what her father decided for her: become a soildier. If the body betrays the character, the two souls are ambiguous: one is constantly attentive, the one of dutyy, and tries to run away from the other in way to keep that duty well performed; the other soul is the one of the woman that lives in Oscar that will only reveil at the ending.

Oscar is the duality: two souls in a single body.

Discovering love, her heart delivers to Fersen, but since he does not return anything but friendship she ends up saying good-bye. It's what she believes as friendship for Andre that turns into love- Cruel destiny for this woman that, if we don't see anby further, is mistaken in her life! Her choices of work, friendship, love, everything is wrong. She loses herself to the Revolution, she changes side and faces royalty, she loves Andre. But the change can't take long, as death takes it.

(...)

Reflections

Vice and Versailles, a certain look upon a time

Quat comes from Lady Oscar is the study of the life at the Court, the aristrocacy that planned biabolic maquinations and machiavelic revenges.

By the end of the 90s, the move of Patrice Leconte "Ridicule", brought an addituional stanza to the Chateleaine valse, in which Lady Oscar could have been a magnific musical note. The very poor medical knowledge at the time added happily years of life to the men and women of that time. Therefore they lived quickly their times, like they could never conclude. Their perverse spirits turned into absurd and cruel machinations and at those dark time, the shadow of the Revolution could play much better than today. To taht, nothing better than money and power. And to attain the power you could only be born in health and totally lack any humanity, do not think about anyone else and never hesitate. Oscar, she will try to counter the most terrible reventes, gthe lowest traitors, to console the victims of drama, punish guilty people, etc. So is her party, with the innevitable opposers- Her will to change the way of things, to turn them better drove her to actions equally dangerous, even homicidal, guided by her emotional and personal feelings in direction to the just and nobler than nobles cause. Oscar is an heroine that can illustrate today: choose betweeh the destiny and duty, between the conditoon and the power, between her own choices and her job, or even, adapting to our days, between work and family.

The Rose

As Andre will tell Oscar: "White or red, a rose is always a rose!" Whether she carries a dress or an uniform, she's still the same. The rose represents the essence of the ephemeral: she is born, grows, blooms bnbut quicklu fades and is condamned to see its petals taken by the wind. That is the destiny of Oscar. She grows up and turns a man for the good of men and efen women... She will fade, taken by the hand of destiny, and her memories will be taken by the wind till only a whisper is left

ladyxzeus said:
This also appears at the anime, at the portrait she has painted for herself. The figure of an high official surrounded by the beauty of the nature , delivering it on her arms and always accompanied by her white horse. Dianic figure, the virgin that rules upon fight and beauty but has to keep veiled from love and her most inner designs.

a depart brilliantly named "Farewell is See You Soon" (in French sounds prettier)

Second, a manga only event.

Fourth, the consumation of the love. [...] In the anime it's a beautiful scene