The day Oscar has feared has come: a full on Revolution
has erupted in the streets of Paris. As
ordinary citizens and military clash for the future of a nation, Oscar must
decide what side she is on while also confronting her feelings for Andre. On the eve of the Storming of the Bastille,
Oscar and Andre take their rightful pages in the history. What will be their fate and that of the monarchy
locked in the sights of the people they have neglected for so long? The French Revolution has begun but what comes
after might arguably be worse than anyone ever dreamed.
Took em long enough eh?
After almost 38 episodes of build up, The French Revolution finally
arrived in the Series Finale of The Rose of Versailles.
This was the ending promised from the get go
and true to any historical account of the event and its aftermath, none of it
was pretty.
Heroes rose and fell.
Enemies were punished and slain.
And the age of Versailles came to a
cataclysmic yet inevitable end.
But how
was this blood soaked finale for The Rose of Versailles as a whole?
Overall, mostly solid though even it’s finest
moments did highlight some curious storytelling missteps in the back half of
the series.
Moreso than the Revolution itself, these five concluding
episodes were all about the culmination of Oscars character arc.
She went from young and dutiful soldier to a
bad ass freedom fighter who fought for what her heart believed in rather than
orders from on high.
I never expected
her to live til the end of the series and Oscar’s ultimate fate was equal parts
heart stopping as well as perfectly right for her character.
The stills of her ordering cannon fire on the
Bastille while shouting “FIRE” made her look like freaking She-Ra she was so
amazing.
Even Oscars final words were
orders for Alain and her men to keep on fighting the good fight.
Oscar grew to understand her heart a bit too
late but better late than never but she was an amazing character from start to
finish.
Plus she died a heroine of the
revolution, playing a pivotal role in breaching the Bastille’s defenses.
As a Star Trek fan, she’s earned a place in
the Klingon Afterlife (Stova’kor, or as I jokingly call it, Stove Oven but I
digress).
As I’ve said multiple times over the course of reviewing
this series, the Revolution sure took its sweet time kicking off, even if this
is all how it played out properly in history.
When it did finally explode onto the screen, the show did not hold
back.
No man, woman, child or steed was
spared when it came to showing the brutality of the fighting in the streets of
Paris (or at least as much as would be allowed for Japanese TV at the
time).
What was actually handled even
better was what came after the Revolution ended and man did The Rose of
Versailles have the “Reign of Terror” live up to its name.
It was that horror movie like Carriage scene
from last week amped up to eleven as the people tore through Versailles and
began executing the nobles.
It was
chilling stuff. not for the feint of heart and a powerful reminder of the cost
of bringing about a new dawn through violence.
One criticism I have against The Rose of Versailles in
its back half is the super reduced role of Marie Antorinette.
She’s def shown up for important moments but
most of the series spotlight has been on Oscar and her part on the
Revolution.
Part of what made the first
half of The Rose of Versailles such an addictive watch was Marie’s continuous
descent into a string of naive and bad choices and the societal court drama
that came along with it.
While the Oscar
stuff is very well handled, I still think we should have seen more Marie in the
final few episodes than we did.
How was
she taking the reports of open warfare?
Was she really that naive to think it would all just blow over? (the
answer is Yes she did).
The first half
of the show felt equal parts the story of Oscar and Marie Antoinette so we
could have cut back to her a couple of times throughout the last episodes.
That said, ohhhhhh man when they brought Marie back for
the final episode…wow.
Much of the
actual Series Finale is a cliff notes version of the Reign of Terror and the
final days of Marie Antoinette and man did they save the most brutal moments
for last.
To watch this woman we saw as
a young wide eyed girl now reduced to a white haired shell of her former self
shook me to the core.
Points should
really go to the writing for that as the show did make me care for Marie right
out the gate knowing where this was all heading.
The
quick cut to the date and confirmation of her demise is easily one of the shows
darkest moments and lands with the right amount of emotional gut punch.
Seriosuly, for a character largely reduced to
guest appearances here and there for a while now, Marie’s final days got the
adequate attention and proper resonance they deserved.
Also they did a great job with Marie and
Oscars final meeting, aka the moment where it became clear their friendship was
done and Oscar knew what she had to do.
Suffice to say, this is a story without a happy ending…well almost.
Thankfully not everyone bit the dust in a “Kill em all,
Tomino” fashion.
And honestly if it
wasn’t going to be Oscar and Andre, if anyone deserved a happy ending it was
Rosalie and Alain.
Alain quickly became
a favorite character acting as Oscars conduit to Company B and slowly becoming
one of her closest confidantes and trusted allies.
Given what he lost and what he sacrificed for
Oscar, Alain getting some farm land to himself away from the Revolution seemed
fair.
Same goes for Rosalie, who went
from poverty stricken girl to noble young woman driven by revenge to wife of
one of the Revolutions key architects.
I
really wish we could have seen her ditch the Polignac household (and see what
eventually became of Madame Polignac and the rest of Marie Antoinnette’s circle
of vipers, though it’s easy to guess).
Rosalie’s a sweet girl and the kind of person the new era of France
needs more of.
Hmmm any other odds and ends before I get to Final
Thoughts?
I haven’t said much about
Andre and…yeah his ending was fine.
I’ll
admit, I’m still a bit sour on him after that incident several episodes
ago.
But Oscar still loved him and
accepted that her best friend really was the love of her life.
Given his condition with his eye though I’m
surprised he lasted longer than he did.
One thing I really didn’t like hearing was the final words of the
Narrarator revealing the fate of Hans Fersen.
Besides his ill advised tryst with Marie, Hans has been a pretty noble
guy (no pun intended) and one of the best characters in the show with him being
one of Oscars ride or dies despite not returning her feelings and saving her
life on several occasions.
To hear the
truth that he took the death of Marie so hard he coldly rejected his own
citizens out of fear which would lead to his own demise…yeah…damn.
Anyway, onto Final Thoughts.
How was The Rose of Versailles?
It was mostly pretty freaking good and easily
the best title I’ve reviewed so far in 2026.
The animation and art direction was so stunning many of the still
drawings they keep cutting to deserve a museum exhibit.
The writing and pacing of the politics and
backstabbing in the halls of Versailles was incredibly addicting to watch and I
kept jumping to the next episode pretty quickly to see what happened next.
The cast was mostly solid and led strongly by
Oscar and Marie, who’s tragic friendship provided the show with a strong
backbone even when the focus turned more towards Oscar for the back half than
Marie in the first half.
Some characters
do dumb things in later episodes of the series that cant be ignored but the
show quickly corrected itself to deliver more exciting and nail biting moments
filled with tension and dread that culminated in one of the most important and
bloody events in French history.
There’s
so much of me that wants to give this show a perfect 10 but there were some
costs to shifting almost all of the shows focus to Oscar later on, such as some
character arcs being resolved off screen and some important antagonists just
vanishing altogether.
That being said,
there are more than a few episodes I’d grade as perfect Anime viewing
experiences, especially for a show like this I normally wouldn’t check out on
my own.
Thus, I award The Rose of Versailles…a 9.5/10.
The flaws are there but this Rose is a
helluva good show that deserves the rep its gained over the years.
And I’ve gotta say it’s one of the best
history lessons I’ve ever sat through.
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