Rosé Thomas

Rosé Thomas (ロゼ・トーマス, Roze Tōmasu; also spelled Rose) is a young woman living in the Eastern Amestrian town of Reole. A former Letoist adherent, Rosé was a devout follower of the false prophet Cornello until Edward and Alphonse Elric 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 Alphonse Elric. 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 (highly suggesting an attraction towards him). This causes Winry to become slightly jealous, something Al catches and taunts her with.

She later comments to Winry how she is thankful for Ed 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 failsafe, 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. She must've had parents who 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. Rose then becomes a dedicated and faithful believer in the new church of Letoism, hoping that if she does good, this will increase her chances of bringing him back. The Elric brothers arrival in town, helps her open her eyes to the fact that Cornello is a fraud using alchemy to do his miracles, and lying to the town that he is not the son of Leto. Distraught by this, Rose doesn't know what to do, and Ed 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, Rose returns again, this time as the holy mother of her town. During the Ishbal var, half of her race had been slaughtered and she had been captured by the military and assaulted and raped by a soldier. Due to the trauma of the rape, Rose became mute, and had also gotten pregnant. She had a baby, which she cares for deeply and often carried around with her, when she was kidnapped by Dante. When she meets Ed again, they ballroom dance, and Rose confesses that she loves Ed. At the end, when Al transmuted himself to save Ed, Rose had been there when he woke up and had to be the one to tell him that Al was gone. But when Ed plans to bring Al back, he wonders what he'll do now, and Rose tells 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. (Because he had gotten his human arm and leg back.) (These are private words of advice between Ed and Rose)

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 Winry sitting on a hill in Ed & Al's hometown, 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 "You'll disappear too!"

At the end of the movie, Rose is seen outside a house with 3 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 Rose took in, because she doesn't have a family of her own.

Also, in the parallel world, Ed meets a gypsy named Noah who looks just like Rose. Noah is probably our world's version of Rose, though there are some differences. Rose 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. Things they have in common are that they both love to dance, (though Rose likes ballroom dancing, and Noah does gypsy dancing) and possibly have a romantic interest in Edward.

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 guerilla warrior fighting against Central forces after the fall of the Leto church.