Four years ago, a desperate Jewler tried to sell Marie
Antoinette a Diamon Necklace for an impossible price. She declined.
Now this necklace has fallen into the hands of the duplicitous Jeanne
and her schemes to become rich beyond all imagination. But when she is caught in the act, Jeanne
begins a snowballing social upheaval that threatens to ruin the once loving
image of Marie Antoinette beyond repair.
As a desperate Oscar tries to contain the spread of lies and
misinformation, the people of France take their first steps towards striking
back against the Queen and the Nobility.
I’ll admit, I was a little worried when we began the
second half of The Rose of Versailles as we circled back around a character
we’ve seen do very little after her promising introduction. But as the set went
on, those concerns were dashed and I learned quite a bit about French history
through the fascinating and hyper intense Diamond Necklace Incident (even if it
apparently ended not so historically accurate).
By comparison, there’s other stuff that happens here and it’s good but
if The Rose of Versailles knows where to put the bulk of its storytelling
powers for maximum impact and Jeanne, she was the focus of all the best
efforts.
Considering where we left things at the mid series point
with Charlotte’s horrific death, refocusing on Jeanne seemed off.
I think Episode 21 left me scratching my head
more than any other episode as I wondered where her manipulations and lust for
wealth were all heading.
Doubting
anything about The Rose of Versailles should be something punishable by slap to
the face (at least for me), because this was all necessary set up for the
hammer about to fall on all of French society.
Jeanne’s immense skill of twisting and reworking the narrative to her
favor was on full display during her trial as she managed to take all of her
crimes surrounding the ungodly expensive Diamond Necklace and throw everything
back at the feet of Marie.
You as the
viewer don’t buy it but everyone else is.
The whole town is now more pissed off at Marie than ever for seemingly
covering up the purchase of a necklace who’s cost could feed them ten times
over and then some.
She even makes the
people believe Marie and Oscar are lovers (kinda meta considering I’m sure
those two are maybe the top of the ship list for this show).
The scene where Jeanne fights ferocisouly to
keep herself from being branded was the toughest scene to watch in this whole
ordeal and yet she proudly takes it on to maintain her façade of
innocence.
Whether she knows what she’s
started because of this is unclear.
However, Jeanne works the entire nation of France so masterfully, you
kind of have to clap for her and admire her skill as a liar and actress.
It almost makes you feel sad for her ultimate
fate.
BTW, the trial goes down in
Episode 23 and that is another perfect 10/10 episode (the third I’ve marked so
far, wow).
Yes despite the fame she receives from all of this, it
was clear Jeanne wasn’t going to survive much past her imprisonment and not
just because the history books say so.
While
she historically died in London after her escape, The Rose of Versailles opts
for a more explosive and emotional finale for Jeanne.
Her exile leaves her bored and broken but not
remorseful, not 100% anyway.
She did
reach out to Rosalie and it was good that Oscar didn’t act on the intel Rosalie
left to her but instead a tip given to the powers that be.
Much like Madame du Barry before her,
Jeanne’s final moments almost make you want to forgive the many terrible
atrocities and murders Jeanne committed to make herself happy only to
ultimately find none of it when she blew up her hiding place with her
inside.
Another piece of masterful
storytelling for arguably one of the shows most important villainesses.
On the flipside though, you have Polignac’s return.
And now she’s more messed up and demented
than ever.
You’d think she’d change her
ways after pushing Charlotte so far and seeing what happened to her.
But no, now Polignac has her sights set on
her other flesh and blood daughter, Rosalie.
What started as a tearful plea quickly returned to Polignac’s usual
blackmail and Rosalie was powerless against it, not if she wanted to keep Oscar
out of Polignac’s way.
The parting
between Oscar and Rosalie was very sweet.
I mean if you’re not looking to ship Oscar and Marie, Oscar and Rosalie
is a close second.
Still, Polignac’s
lost her damn mind if she thinks forcing Rosalie to live with her and call her
“Mom” is going to bring her happiness.
Yes, yes, that might be the point but it just reinforces how terrible of
a person Polignac is.
I looked up the
fate of Jeanne IRL after the Diamond Necklace Incident but I want to keep
Polignac’s fate a mystery cause I know heads are going to start rolling soon
and she needs to be near the front of the line to pay for her selfish
acts.
Fingers crossed we haven’t seen
the last of Rosalie.
If anyone deserves
a happy ending in this show, it’s her.
The crescendo and finale of Jeanne’s arc was so huge it
almost made the return of Hans Fersen seem miniscule.
I say almost cause while it didn’t have the
same emotional highs for me, it did for Oscar and Marie, both of whom virtually
melt when the handsome Swede is around.
Oscar in particular was shown at her most depressed and vulnerable
whenever he was around or the topic of Hans came up.
She’s head over heels in love with him to the
point where she dressed up in an actual dress to dance with him.
No doubt this is gonna cause Oscar to make
mistakes (like overlooking her exposition bestie Andre, seriously the guy is
like a walking Wiki whose dialogue is all the latest news and craze of the
court…still love him though).
Plus Hans
is going to be working with her more closely now that he’s pledged to aid in
repairing Marie’s public image.
Apparently Oscar’s word carries not as much weight as Hans’ cause Marie
is now slowly starting to cut ties with Polignac and return to her duties at
his suggestion.
But then again, Marie is
also a weak spot for Oscar too, considering Oscar neglected to tell her to go
back to court just because she saw how happy Marie was being a Mom raising her
kids (to be fair it’s a nice image seeing Marie happy even for a little bit).
The second half of The Rose of Versailles kicked off with
a brilliant roller coaster of societal upheaval and masterful manipulations
that played a pivotal part in starting the downfall of Marie Antoinette while
fanning the flames of the Revolution that is now nigh.
How nigh is it?
Considering we’re 15 episodes out from the
end, it’s gotta be soon right?
We’ll
find out Monday when we return to The Rose of Versailles right here at the
Gundam Anime Corner.
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