Rose Thomas

This article is about a character known as Holy Mother in the 2003 anime. For the episode of the same name, see Episode 41: Holy Mother (2003 series).

Rose Thomas^[1][2][3] (ロゼ・トーマス, Roze Tōmasu^?), also spelt Rosé Thomas^[4] and known only as Rose in the 2009 anime,^[5] is a young girl living in the Eastern Amestrian town of Reole. A former Letoist adherent, Rose was a devout follower of the false prophet Cornello until the Elric brothers Edward and Alphonse exposed the priest's deception and opened her eyes to the truth. Due to the differences between the original manga storyline and the plot of the 2003 anime series, Rose's appearance and story relevance differ greatly between the two adaptations.

In Japanese media, her name is pronounced Rosé (ro-zay), like the wine, but spelt with no accent mark as Rose when romanised into English. In all English media aside from VIZ's English translation of the manga, her name is both spelt and pronounced like the flower, Rose.

Personality

In the Manga and 2009 anime, Rose is depicted as an overall kind and compassionate girl who is a staunch believer in the the teachings of Leto. She was a woman who had unwavering faith in the teachings of Father Cornello and would readily believe all his words, even believing that he would be able to bring her boyfriend back to life. This belief, possibly out of desperation, led her to be overall very defensive of the religion, reacting poorly when Ed challenged her beliefs and delighted when he feigned interest.

Upon realizing that the church of Leto was a fraud, Rose appeared to go under something of a crisis. Unable to accept that her boyfriend was truly gone, she was desperate for any solution to her problems, even wishing for the Philosopher's Stone to bring him back to life. However, after meeting with Ed and having time to reflect, Rose seems to have overcome her grief, choosing to believe in herself and putting her efforts into rebuilding the damaged Leore.

Manga and 2009 Anime

Rose first appears in Chapter 1 of the manga, where she greets the Elric brothers upon their fresh arrival in Reole. After the death of her boyfriend in an accident, Rose became enamored with Father Cornello's claims that the sun god Leto was capable of answering any prayer - even the resurrection of the dead - if said prayer were made by someone devout enough and became one of the priest's foremost believers. She, at first, scoffs at Edward's staunch disbelief in resurrection and a higher power, but after the Elrics help her confront Cornello and reveal that his "miracles" were the work of alchemy and his "great cause" a selfish pursuit of military power, she collapses spiritually. As Ed and Al leave the town, she demands angrily why they had to come and destroy the only hope she had left of reuniting with her lost love, to which Edward replies that she should stand on her own power and walk forward into a future she decides for herself.

Taking Ed's words to heart, Rose leads the effort to rebuild the town. There she meets Van Hohenheim, who enlists his services of help but does not reveal that he is the Elrics' father. Eventually Al and his allies arrived in the town following their escape from Fort Briggs. She makes a comment on how she is depressed that Ed is not with them, admitting that she has really missed him and that she wishes to see him again. This causes Winry to become slightly jealous, something Al catches and teases her with. Rose later helps Winry take a bath, and comments to her how she is thankful toward Ed and Al for opening her eyes to the false belief and got the town moving on their accord.

On The Promised Day, Rose was seen falling victim to Father's Nationwide Transmutation Circle along with the other Reole residents; but thanks to Hohenheim's fail safe, she was resurrected.

2003 anime

In the 2003 anime series, Rose's part begins similarly, but expands differently as the two plots diverge. Rose first appears in Episode 1 of the 2003 anime, she was a young girl living by herself in her hometown, inferring that her parents died sometime when she was a child. When she becomes older, she has a boyfriend who she cared for deeply, but then died in an accident. When Cornello arrives in their desert town claiming he is a prophet of the Sun God, Leto, he fills Rose with false hope telling her that he'll bring her dead boyfriend back. She then becomes a dedicated and faithful believer in the new church of Letoism, hoping that if she does good, it will increase her chances of bringing him back. When the Elric brothers arrive in town, they help her open her eyes to the fact that Cornello is a fraud using alchemy to do his miracles, lying to the town about being the son of Leto. Distraught by this, Rose doesn't know what to do, and Ed just promptly tells her that the only thing she can do is keep moving forward because she has two perfectly good legs to stand on.

Near the end of the series as a major role, Rose returns again, this time as the holy mother of her town. During the genocide in Reole, many of her people were slaughtered and she was captured by the military and assaulted and raped by a soldier. Due to the trauma of those experiences, she became mute and some time later gave birth to a son, who is implied to be born of that rape. She deeply cared for her baby and often carried him around with her, even when she was kidnapped and put into a trance by Dante, who was inside the body of her student Lyra and planned on transferring her soul into Rose's body. Throughout all of these experiences, she keeps hold of her memories of Ed. When she meets Ed again, they ballroom dance, and she finally confesses that she loves him. After Ed is killed by the Homunculus Envy, who is revealed to be Ed and Al's half-brother as well as the very first Homunculus, she mourns him with a pain-filled heart. Ed's death manages to shock Rose out of Dante's control. At the end, when Al sacrificed himself to revive Ed and sent Envy to the Gate after failing to stop him, Rose had been watching and had to fill Edward in on the grim news about his brother. After that, Edward tells Rose to leave the hidden city and take Wrath with her. When Ed wondered how to bring Al back, she told him, like he told her at the beginning, to stand up and keep moving forward because he had two strong legs to walk on now, due to the fact of his limbs being returned.

In the end, when Al is returned as a human, and Ed has disappeared to the other world, Rose and her baby are seen with the Elrics' friend Winry Rockbell sitting on a hill in Edward and Alphonse's hometown Resembool, her baby a few months older.

Conqueror of Shamballa

Rose appears in the movie, Conqueror of Shamballa. When Al makes his first appearance in the movie, Rose is amazed because he looks just like Ed, and because he has become so skilled with alchemy. She is seen protecting and giving commands to the townspeople, back in her own town in the desert. When the strange robots invading the town begin to float away, Al tries to grab them and hold them back, but Rose grabs him and pulls him away saying, "Don't go, you'll disappear too!"

At the end of the movie, Rose is seen outside in Resembool once again near Winry and Pinako Rockbell's house residence along with Lt. Colonel Alex Louis Armstrong and Pinako with three children now, her baby from the series and two orphans.^[6]

Also, in the parallel world, Ed meets a Romani woman named Noah who looks very similar to Rose.

Trivia

• In Japanese, her name is pronounced Rosé (ro-zay) like Rosé wine, but is spelt with no accent mark like the flower, Rose. In the English dubs of both anime and related media, her name is both spelt and pronounced like the flower, Rose.
  • Rosé wine is a type of wine which incorporates some colouration from grape skins, but not enough to become red wine, leaving it a light pink colour instead. This makes her namesake similar to those of Martel, Dolcetto, and Roa, who are all named after various types and brands of alcohol.
• The 2009 anime series never uses her last name, instead simply calling her Rose on her eyecatcher.
• In the first anime series, she is portrayed as having dark skin, purple eyes and dark brown hair with pastel pink bangs. In the second series however, she has pale skin, purple eyes, and black hair with red bangs. The latter depiction is more accurate to coloured depictions of her from artbooks, which weren't around yet when the 2003 anime was made.
  • While Rose was never shown coloured in the manga itself, her skin was not shaded like other dark-skinned characters are, meaning she likely always intended to be light-skinned in the manga. The change to having dark skin was likely an intentional one by the creators of the 2003 anime, as that adaptation puts much more emphasis on political issues and atrocities committed by governments, including racial discrimination.
• In an omake, Arakawa depicts Rose as a hardened warrior, in Joan of Arc-like style.

References

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