The BEST episodes of The Rose of Versailles season 1
Every episode of The Rose of Versailles season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Rose of Versailles season 1!
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.
#1 - The Angel's Secret
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/16/1980
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.
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#2 - Mother, Her Name is...?
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/30/1980
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.
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#3 - Adieu, My Youth
Season 1 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/26/1980
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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#4 - Prelude to the Storm
Season 1 - Episode 32 - Aired 6/18/1980
Alain proves to be the most talented swordfighter Oscar has ever met and will ever meet. He disarms her, but not before she cuts him, winning the duel. She later persuades General Bouille, a higher-up, to pardon the man who pawned his rifle, earning her the permanent respect of Alain and Company B. Oscar and Andre go to Paris to thank Bouille, but are attacked by peasants due to Oscar's noble status. Fersen, now an Army Colonel, is sent to suppress the riot. He pulls Oscar from the mob, but cannot find Andre. In a moment of desperation, she begs Fersen to save "my Andre", shocking herself with her choice of words. Fersen distracts the mob from Andre, saving his life. Oscar realizes that though she still cares for Fersen, she does not love him anymore. Alain does not come back from his leave, so Oscar and Andre go to his home to deliver his pay---and find the rotting body of his sister on his bed. She had been engaged to a poor noble who abandoned her in favor of a rich lady, causing her to commit suicide. The once-spirited Alain is traumatized and refuses to go back to the French Guard. Meanwhile, the people begin demanding for the Etats-Generaux.
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#5 - The Funeral Bells Toll Amidst the Twilight
Season 1 - Episode 33 - Aired 7/2/1980
After holding a rally, Bernard reveals to Andre that he and Rosalie are happily married and working for Robespierre. The dissatisfaction and poverty of the common people reaches its peak. Under public pressure, the king convenes the Etats-Generaux for the first time in several centuries. The gravely ill, seven-year-old Crown Prince Joseph goes with Oscar on a horse ride despite his frail condition due to his great admiration for her. He vows with all his heart to someday become the King. Alain goes back to Company B to see the Etats-Generaux. Fersen returns to Sweden. At the Etats-Generaux's opening ceremony, no one claps for Marie Antoinette. A month of difficult debate between the commoner delegates and nobles pass. Oscar begins to suspect something wrong with Andre's right eye. One night, Joseph dies with the King and Queen by his bedside, dreaming of returning to Versailles with Oscar.
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#6 - The Watchword is "Au Revoir"
Season 1 - Episode 36 - Aired 7/30/1980
Robespierre persuades Finance Minister Jacques Necker to talk the King into approving the Assembly, knowing that this is the only way to avoid bloodshed. Antoinette still believes in the Royal Family's invincibility and that the National Assembly will be dissolved. She orders 100,000 soldiers from every part of France to suppress the revolutionaries, and tells Oscar that she might have to join them soon. Oscar's illness progresses, and she realizes that there is a problem with her lungs. She begins to model for a portrait of herself though she had always declined being painted before. The soldiers prevent all rallies and gatherings and skirmish with the commoners on a regular basis. Due to the large number of soldiers, Paris plunges into a severe food shortage.
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#7 - Oscar! The Destiny of the Rose
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/10/1979
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.)
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#8 - Oscar, Now is the Time to Leave the Nest
Season 1 - Episode 35 - Aired 7/23/1980
Oscar and Andre stop the Royal Guards, led by Gerodere, from firing on the National Assembly. General Jarjeyes decides to execute Oscar with his own hands and commit suicide afterwards, but she refuses to die and Andre intervenes. Right before he is about to kill the both of them, he is interrupted by a pardon from the Queen. The twelve soldiers are sentenced to death without even being called to their trial, but Oscar gets Bernard to mobilize 5000 people in a rally for them, promising a lifetime of servitude if the rally turns into a riot and people are injured or killed. She orders Company B to guard the rally, ordering them not to shoot anyone no matter what happens. Saint-Just tries to turn the rally into a riot by killing Oscar because the people would be forbidden to rally without her authority, but the assassination fails. Oscar and the Queen use their authority to persuade the King that the rally is a threat to national security, resulting in the soldiers' release.
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#9 - Now, "The Tennis Court Oath"
Season 1 - Episode 34 - Aired 7/9/1980
The conflict between the commoners and nobles intensify. Oscar coughs up blood during patrol. The delegates cooperate with some nobles and clergy to form the National Assembly. The King denies the delegates entry to the assembly hall due to their rising number of victories. Oscar is ordered against her will to seal the doors, and the delegates move to a tennis court where the Tennis Court Oath is made, marking the start of the French Revolution. The King reopens the doors to resolve the situation, but the delegates are allowed only through the back doors, which they refuse to go through. Oscar opens the front doors against orders, allowing the delegates into the hall. The King is badly advised into trying to dissolve the National Assembly. Company B is ordered to forcibly remove all delegates from the hall, but Oscar refuses and is arrested. Twelve soldiers including Alain who refuse to take orders from a new commander are arrested and held at Abbey, presumably until they're shot for treason. Oscar escapes with the help of Andre once she learns that the the Royal Guards would be sent to remove the delegates, and they rush to stop them.
#10 - You are the Light, I am the Shadow
Season 1 - Episode 30 - Aired 5/21/1980
General Jarjeyes decides to marry Oscar off to Gerodere and have her quit the military. Louis Saint-Just, one of Robespierre's more unstable allies, begins killing nobles unnecessarily against Robespierre's wishes. Alain informs Andre that it is now widely known that he was once Oscar's servant, and tells him to watch his back. The Company B soldiers deliberately disobey Oscar's orders to investigate the Opera House, but she insists to her father that the disobedience is exciting. She asks him to refuse Gerodere's proposal, and Jarjeyes begins to cry, feeling that he had caused her unnecessary hardship by raising her as a man. Oscar tells him that she is grateful for her life because it taught her to be strong. Nanny tells a horrified Andre about Gerodere's proposal. He is then beaten up by fellow soldiers, but Alain threatens them so they promise not to do so again. Alain learns the reason for Andre's enlistment when he begins talking about Gerodere's proposal in his unconsciousness. General Jarjeyes insists that Oscar attend a grand party as a woman with all of her (many) suitors as guests, but he is shot by Saint-Just the following day. Oscar vows to avenge her father's injury, but he tells her that her marriage would make him happier. She tells Andre that she "won't get married so easily" and makes only a brief appearance at her ball in soldier attire. Jarjeyes decides to stop pressuring her, but hopes that she will never stop searching for love.
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#11 - Cunningly and Resiliently!
Season 1 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/19/1980
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.
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#12 - Suddenly, Like Icarus
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/13/1980
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.
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#13 - The Sun Sets, The Sun Rises
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/5/1979
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.
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#14 - The Black Rose Blooms at Night
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/5/1980
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.
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#15 - Roses, Wine, and the Conspiracy...
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/31/1979
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.
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#16 - With Tears of Dignity...
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/7/1979
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.
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#17 - A Sought Encounter with the Black Knight!
Season 1 - Episode 26 - Aired 4/9/1980
A masked vigilante called the Black Knight begins stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. His popularity increases to the point where marches are being held for him in the streets. Andre begins spending an abnormal amount of time outside during the evenings, causing Oscar to suspect him of being the Knight. She starts attending every ball available, because that is where the Knight usually strikes. He does so one ball after Andre mysteriously disappears. Oscar chases him into Palais Royale, Orleans' manor, rumored to be an anti-monarchist meeting place. Oscar is injured by the guards, but the Knight stops them from killing her. She escapes, collapses on the street, and has a nightmare where Andre is the Black Knight and is killed during a mission. Oscar is rescued by a peasant family housing Rosalie. She tells her that she left the Polignacs when they tried to force her to marry Guiche in order to expand their prestige.
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#18 - Sparks Fly at Versailles
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/24/1979
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.
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#19 - Adieu, My Beloved Oscar
Season 1 - Episode 40 - Aired 9/3/1980
Mortally wounded, Oscar's last request is that the former French Guards continue firing and seize Bastille Prison. She dies on July 14, 1789, listening to the sounds of the Storming of Bastille. It surrenders an hour afterwards. Five years later, Rosalie and Bernard visit Alain at his farm, filling him in about the fate of the King, Marie Antoinette, Hans Axel von Fersen and other figures of the Revolution. Polignac and many other nobles had fled the Queen's side, but Fersen returned to Paris to help the Royal Family escape. His plan failed, and Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and their children were executed, though the Queen's mind was comforted whenever she thought of Oscar.
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#20 - Fersen, a Farewell Rondeau
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/27/1980
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.
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#21 - The Necklace Shines Ominously
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/12/1980
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.
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#22 - Minuet of the Unrequited
Season 1 - Episode 25 - Aired 4/2/1980
Oscar is promoted to Brigadier, but revolution is ablaze in France's streets. The royal family is hated, commoners are assaulting nobles and vandalizing mansions, and some nobles have even joined the civilians against Louis and Antoinette. Fersen returns to France after a seven year absence, much to Oscar's delight and Andre's carefully hidden jealousy. He tries to keep his return a secret and resolves not to see the Queen, but heads to Trianon to support her once he realizes the graveness of her situation because he still loves her. He pledges his life to her, but promises not to rekindle their romance in order to avoid anymore trouble. He advises her to return to Versailles and break ties with Polignac's clique, and she listens. With her hopes that Fersen is no longer in love unrecognized, Oscar is distracted by thoughts of him during duty and feels ashamed. She dresses up as a woman for the first time and attends a ball as a magnificent, unnamed foreigner.
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#23 - Even if I should Lose the Light...
Season 1 - Episode 27 - Aired 4/16/1980
The Knight escapes while Oscar tends to Andre. The doctor tells him to keep bandages over his eye until it is healed to avoid blindness. Oscar decides to investigate Royale after the Knight steals 200 new rifles. She questions Orleans, but learns nothing, and is instead taken to his salon where young intellectuals and "Liberalists" from all classes gather regularly to talk. Oscar investigates the Liberalists under the guise of light conversation, but the Knight is watching from a distance and decides to take Oscar hostage in order to blackmail firearms from General Jarjeyes, her father and the one in charge of all the Royal Guard's military weapons. After being held in a cell for two days, the Knight asks Oscar to write the ransom letter, falsely thinking that the "weak pride of nobles" will lead her to do so. When Oscar does not return, Andre takes off his bandages, dons his Knight costume, rides to Royale, and steals Oscar's cell keys.
#24 - André, a Green Lemon
Season 1 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/30/1980
Andre begins to experience blurring vision in his right eye due to the stress he must put on it ever since his left eye became blind. Fersen visits Oscar, and figures out that she was the unnamed woman he danced with. Oscar runs from him in tears. The two of them agree never to meet again because Fersen cannot return her feelings for him. Andre temporarily experiences a moment of blindness. He rides out into Paris and joins in the merrymaking of the French Guards for an entire night to take his mind off of the knowledge that he will eventually go blind. Oscar quits the Royal Guards because she wants to do riskier jobs in order to ensure that she will always live life as a man. She dismisses Andre, telling him that she wants to be able to live independently.
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#25 - The Doll that Began to Walk
Season 1 - Episode 29 - Aired 5/14/1980
Oscar is appointed as the Commander of the French Guards Company B, a particularly rough regiment filled mostly with commoners. She tells Andre that she does not hold the other night's incident against him. She promises to avoid seeing him because she does not love him back, similar to what Fersen did for her unrequited love, but Andre joins Company B so he will be able to see and protect Oscar, much to her chagrin. Company B decides to boycott Oscar's inaugural troops review because they do not want to be commanded by an aristocratic woman. She responds by challenging one of their troops to a duel, saying that she would leave the French Guards if they lost, but that they would have to do the review if she won. She wins, and the review takes place, but Alain de Soissons, the group's squad leader, tells her that winning one fight will not gain her full acceptance, and that the majority of soldiers in Company B are only in it for the salary.
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