One of the things that's always consistently surprised me about the Rose of Versailles fandom is... well, the lack of slash. I mean, come on - here's a book about a cross-dressing woman with numerous female admirers, it's occasionally described as having practically invented shoujo-ai, it's got a small but devoted and rapidly growing fandom, so... where's the girl-love?
With the exception of a couple of André/Alain doujinshi and a single fic with Antoinette and Oscar getting it on, I've never been able to find any slash for my beloved fandom. Not even an Oscar/Rosalie doujin. Not one - now that surprised me, given that doujinshi for most fandoms seem perfectly happy to grab ANY two cute girls or guys and stick them together regardless of context, likeliness, characterisation or indeed any consideration whatsoever for canon. And fandom in general, as we all know, is generally rather infamous for being pretty keen on the same-sex loving - yet here is this series which fairly drips with slashy subtext, and... nothing. What's going on?
Now I understand some people just don't like slash, and that's no problem whatsoever. I also appreciate that for many people, Oscar and André are just too lovely together to break up. Nonetheless, I have to admit that Oscar/Rosalie are my OTP, and that I've been surprised to discover how utterly alone I am in this. So I present to you now my case:
But it's not canon.
No, of course it's not. We've all seen, read and generally absorbed the canon; we know it. Both girls end up with nice (and near-identical) heterosexual partners in the end. But that doesn't mean nobody can explore any other possibilities; at least to me, that's what fanfiction is about. It's not (always) about sticking with what the author gave you; it's about saying "Hm, these people would be interesting together" (or, in the case of PWP, "These people would be hot together"), and exploring that possibility, making it as believable as you can, trying to see how it could or couldn't fit into the world you've been given. It's a what-if-things-were-different exercise, much of the time.
(Genfic, incidentally, I see as much the same: it's still an exploration of "What would Oscar do in this situation?", whether the situation is "being attacked by a mad axeman" or "finding herself attracted to Rosalie".)
But Oscar never shows any signs of being homosexual. She's straight.
Neither does Harry Potter, but it hasn't stopped his fans from pairing him up with anything with a penis and a pulse. (And sometimes without the pulse - Harry/Nearly Headless Nick, anyone?) At least Oscar's kissed a couple of girls; we've got a little more to work with there. ;) Again, I don't see fiction as something that necessarily has to follow canon to the letter; the trick, to my mind, is to keep someone in character, or as close as you can, even while you're changing some of the variables.
Besides, what about the wonderful world of subtext? Sure, there's no text to particularly support Oscar/Rosalie (well, there's plenty to support unrequited!Rosalie, since that's canon, but I digress), but I would argue that there's a whole lot of subtext.
Now, before anyone starts getting outraged about that, let me clarify: subtext to me isn't "omg, Ikeda totally secretly thought they were Doing It and left hints for clever fans to find". It isn't "this story is going on beneath the surface of the canon if you look closely enough". It isn't even necessarily intentional on the author's part; to me subtext is about seeing moments and lines which could be read differently, and RoV has those in abundance. Dozens of panels with the two clasped in each other's arms and/or gazing into each other's eyes; Oscar's tenderness as she picks up a tired and wet and angry Rosalie after teaching her to fence; their "goodbye" embrace and kiss before Rosalie's marriage to Bernard... I could go on, but I'll stop before I start drooling on my keyboard and get the keys all sticky.
People will point to all of those examples and say "that's simply their friendship" and "that's just Oscar caring about Rosalie as a sister", and to this I can only answer: yes, I agree. That is what it is, but that doesn't change the fact that it can be looked at differently.
Can't two women just be friends? Why does everything have to come down to sex?
Of course they can. Platonic friendship is a beautiful thing, whether between men, women, anything in between or any combination of the above. But quite honestly, this question has always struck me as a touch disingenuous. Why does everything have to come down to sex? First, because we're discussing pairing-based fic. If it was friendship-based fic (and I absolutely agree that there are not enough of those out there) then it would indeed be about their friendship, but it's not; as mentioned above, we've started from a position of "what would happen if X and Y were a couple" rather than "let's explore the canonical relationship between X and Y".
Secondly, quite simply, it's not all about the sex. It's just as likely to be about devotion, romance, love and general fluffiness as it is to be about the two of them screwing each other's brains out.
And thirdly, at least in this instance, let's face it: it was never about "just friends" for Rosalie. She didn't see Oscar as a sister; the girl was in love. In this particular case, we were never starting from a truly platonic basis: one-sided yes, platonic no.
So why them? Why not Oscar/André or Girodelle/Fersen or Fersen/Antoinette or...
Why do I like this pairing? First, because, to put it bluntly, I LIKE GIRLS. A lesbian pairing, as a general rule of thumb, is going to hold my attention more than a het or yaoi one just because it's got the "ooh pretty" factor and the "easier to identify with" factor. Secondly, because Rosalie's unrequited love touches me to the heart (the scene where she dances with Oscar's jacket gets me every single time); I want her to get what she wants, what she's been hoping for. And thirdly, because I just do. There doesn't necessarily have to be logic behind it; like most supporters of Harry/Hermione or Sirius/Remus (or other more outlandish pairings) in the Harry Potter fandom, I like them as a couple simply because I like them as a couple, not because I think there are sekrit hidden messages in the pages of the manga telling me that REEEEALLY they were OMGTOGETHER. And come on; you can't deny that Oscar would make a really, really hot lesbian. ;) (It does seem worth noting that Ikeda may just have agreed with me here; at any rate, she did explore the idea of rather Oscar-like characters with a preference for girls, in later stories like Oniisama E and Claudine...)
Besides, it doesn't mean I can't like those other examples too. Axel/Antoinette is actually my het OTP, and I will personally offer my first-born child to anyone who can present me with a Fersen/Girodelle fic. Especially if it's set in the movieverse. XD
~back