Rosé Thomas

Rosé Thomas (ロゼ・トーマス, Roze Tōmasu; also spelled Rose) is a young girl living in the Eastern Amestrian town of Reole. A former Letoist adherent, Rosé was a devout follower of the false prophet Cornello until the Elric brothers Edward and Alphonse intervened in the priest's deception of the townspeople and opened her eyes to the truth. Due to the differences between the original manga storyline and the plot of the 2003 anime series, Rosé's appearance and story relevance differ greatly between the two adaptations.

Manga and 2009 Anime
Rosé 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, Rosé 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, she helps to rebuild the town, eventually reuniting with Al. 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 taunts her with.

She later comments to Winry how she is thankful toward Ed for opening her eyes to the false belief and got the town moving on their accord.

On The Promised Day, Rosé 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, Rosé's part begins similarly, but expands differently as the two plots diverge. Rosé 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 Rosé 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, Rosé 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, Rosé 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 Rosé'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, 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, Rosé had been watching and had to fill Edward in on the grim news about his brother. 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. (These are apparently private words of advice between them both).

In the end, when Al is returned as a human, and Ed has disappeared to the other world, Rosé 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
Rosé appears in the movie, Conqueror of Shamballa. When Al makes his first appearance in the movie, Rosé 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 Rosé grabs him and pulls him away saying, "Don't go, you'll disappear too!"

At the end of the movie, Rosé 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. One of the small children is her baby from the series, but the other two are unknown. They are presumed to be orphans that she took in, because she doesn't have a family of her own.

Also, in the parallel world, Ed meets a Romani woman named Noah who looks just like Rosé. Noah is our world's version of Rosé, though there are some differences. Rosé has dyed her bangs pink, and also wasn't as quiet as Noah was. Noah also wears part of her hair in braids, and wears make-up.

Trivia

 * In the first anime series, she is portrayed with having dark skin, purple eyes and dark brown hair with bright pink bangs. In the second series however, she has pale skin, purple eyes and black hair with her pink bangs noticeably darker, much like the original manga.
 * In an omake, Arakawa depicts Rosé as a hardened warrior, in Joan of Arc-like style.
 * It would appear that Rosé is named for Rosé, a specially-crafted variant of red wine, making her namesake similar to those of Martel, Dolcetto and Roa.

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