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Rose (ローズ Rōzu?) is a fighting game character from the Street Fighter series, first appearing in Street Fighter Alpha. She is an Italian fortune teller who wields a mysterious form of energy known as Soul Power.

Biography

Concept

Rose was inspired by JoJo's Bizarre Adventure character Lisa Lisa, Rose's outfit is almost identical to Lisa Lisa's and both share a similar fighting style that consists of channeling energy into their scarfs (Soul Power in the case of Rose and Ripple in the case of Lisa Lisa).[3] Additionally, both act as a sort of mentor to the main character. This was referenced in Rose's Midnight Bliss form in Capcom Fighting Evolution, as well as her twelfth default costume color in Street Fighter V.

Of note is that Rose's stage in Street Fighter Alpha 2 is Venice, which is the same city where Joseph Joestar meets Lisa Lisa in the story.

Appearance

Rose is a tall woman with long, purple, wavy hair that flows outward horizontally (it is bent in a parabolic line in the Street Fighter IV series), with a large, zigzag forelock. She has violet eyes, a fair complexion, and a small mouth with full lips. Most official artworks of Rose make her appear to be pursing her lips.

She wears a loose, red (pink or purple in some artworks) evening gown with a belt and large gold buttons; a violet top with matching tights or stockings under her gown; a set of red high heels; and a large, golden scarf around her shoulders and arms. By channeling her mysterious Soul Power through it, she is able to make the scarf glow and wield it as a weapon. Strangely, her cleavage is easily visible through her top. In most artworks, she appears to be wearing a tank top under her dress, but her SFIV model shows her to be wearing a sleeved top with shoulder slits.

In the Street Fighter Alpha series, Rose's hair was animated and flowed back with the wind; it remains mostly stationary in the Street Fighter IV series due to the use of 3D models.

In one of Rose's win poses, she wears a large red ball gown, a choker decorated with an antique key design, and matching earrings (in her ending movie in Alpha 2, she is seen wearing this outfit). Also, a lightning-bolt design is visible on her forehead in this form. In this particular victory pose, she holds tarot cards in each hand, and one in her cleavage. This win pose is reserved for a perfect win in Street Fighter Alpha 3 but is a normal victory in Capcom Fighting Evolution. In the UDON comic book series, Rose is often pictured in this attire, particularly when she is interpreting the future or in some removed location. Her large red ball gown is her first alternate costume in Street Fighter V with gold trims at the edge of the skirt and the center of her medium-length dress skirt are also gold. The bodice of her red gown resembles a corset and is accessorized with a long gold scarf with silver designs and the red arm warmer on her left. She also wears black stockings and red cross-lined pumps.

In her Shadaloo C.R.I. profile art, her outfit remains largely the same, except her shoes and belt are black, and her top and tights are dark gray.

In one of Menat's endings in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, she has a purple coat with a rose on her chest, choker, glasses, black shoes, and black belt.

Her battle costume is pirate themed; Rose wears a white long sleeved collared shirt with a brown plated midriff, navy blue pants adorned with a large red sash, a brown belt around her waist and black knee-high boots with gold designs. She is also adorned with a long green scarf and matching black segmented gauntlets with gold designs.

Her summer costume is a pink one-piece suit adorned with a matching long pink scarf. She also wears a large summer hat.

Her nostalgia costume gives her a red and white striped top with exposed midriff, a red scarf, dark blue pants, black heels, and a black boater's hat with a red sash adorned on it. Most notably she also wears a mask with red streaks down her eyes.

Personality

Rose is a serene, respectful, intelligent, and independent woman who muses quite a lot on destiny and fate. Wise and sophisticated, she is not prone to anger easily, and has a very calm demeanor, even in battle. She states that power is nothing without skill and that she must continue on her path, even if it means to give up her life for the greater good.

Rose seems to fancy herself a teacher of sorts, many of her win quotes and mid-round quotes, like "Today's lesson is over", seem to imply this. In the Street Fighter V timeline, this has been achieved to a degree by taking in Menat as an apprentice.

Relationships

Apart from her apprentices, there are few known people Rose is related with. The only enemies she has are M. Bison and Akuma.

Ryu

Rose cares deeply for Ryu due to his inner conflict with the Satsui no Hado and the people who desire that power, such as Bison. One can also note that Ryu and Rose share a deep friendship since in Street Fighter IV, Ryu stated that he does not want to hurt her. She often tries to help him overcome the Satsui no Hado and warns him of the people who would stop at nothing to get this power. Even though she is aware that she cannot protect Ryu from Bison or Akuma, she would guide and help him defeat Bison.

Guy

Guy is a friend who respects Rose for wanting to put an end to Bison's evil on the innocent. Due to their views on what they think is right, they will often argue but, ultimately, help one another.

G

Rose senses "a strange energy" in the world, despite having been rid of "the evil energy" in the world. This happens to be G. After defeating him in battle, she gets frightened, as she foresees the end of everything thanks to him; G wholeheartedly acknowledges this.

M. Bison

Rose has a strong hatred for Bison due to his immoral actions. Before M. Bison pursued Psycho Power, he was once Rose's master and passed down his knowledge of Soul Power onto her.[4] With his Psycho Power being the dark side of Soul Power, she seeks to stop him despite not wanting to due to their previous relationship.[5]

Menat

Rose hired her as an apprentice to spy on Shadaloo. Menat has great respect for Rose, who she always refers to as "Master".

It should be noted that in Menat's story mode, Rose didn't physically appear. She only was shown through a drawn silhouette or shadow (the latter of which was also used for Hugo in Poison's story mode). Rose didn't have any dialog but had Menat imitate her SFIV era voice.

Maggio

Maggio searched for Rose during the events of Street Fighter Alpha 3 to seek help with finding his sister Aprile. Rose apparently trusts Maggio enough to make him an apprentice.

Story

Street Fighter Alpha 2

A fortune teller from Genoa, Rose sensed that Doomsday was approaching, and that a person of great evil was causing it. She found the source of evil in M. Bison and defeated him, believing that she had rid the world of him for good. Unfortunately, by reading her tarot cards, she discovered M. Bison was still alive.

Sometime before facing M. Bison, she somehow encountered Akuma, noticing that his power was the same power Ryu used in his fateful Shoryuken against Sagat. Akuma promptly told her to leave but reacted with anger after Rose realizes who Akuma is, telling her to perish. The two fought and Rose was able to survive their battle.

Street Fighter Alpha 3

In Street Fighter Alpha 3, Rose learned that, despite being a natural-born human, she shared some of M. Bison's soul. Facing M. Bison once more, she rammed her fist through his chest and channeled all of her Soul Power into his body, to no avail.

Rose, passed out from complete exhaustion, was soon found by Guy, who she met earlier when he was pursuing Shadaloo. When M. Bison was eventually defeated by Ryu, destroying his body in the process, Bison's soul went to the Psycho Drive; Charlie sacrificed his life in an attempt to destroy it but was unsuccessful. Bison then made Rose a temporary host of his soul by entering her body.

At some point during the events of Street Fighter Alpha 3, a young man named Maggio appeared in front of Rose and asked for help with searching for his sister, Aprile. Rose took him on as an apprentice, teaching him her power.[6]

Super Street Fighter II Turbo

M. Bison's soul stayed in and controlled Rose's body until a new, albeit weaker, body was made for him during the time of Street Fighter II. Akuma supposedly killed M. Bison during the second World Warrior tournament with the Raging Demon, which would destroy his soul.

What became of Rose during this time was largely unknown, but the Street Fighter IV Training Guide revealed that Rose was still alive during this time, but had no memory of what had happened to her while being possessed by M. Bison.

Street Fighter IV series

Upon learning from her tarot cards that M. Bison had somehow survived Akuma's Raging Demon, Rose enters the new tournament.[7] Her cards also reveal "The Fool," a card which, in this case, symbolizes reckless heroism, and determines that the person represented by this card is the only hope for defeating M. Bison. She also decides that this person cannot defeat M. Bison until the stars align and that she must protect him until such a time. However, she knows that she cannot defeat M. Bison herself, as she possesses the same power he has. During her participation in the tournament, she runs into Ryu, dead set on stopping his advancement for his own protection, stating that he is "the last hope." This results in a fight with much reluctance from both parties.

In her ending, M. Bison ambushes her and grabs hold of her face, taking back what little power of his remained in her, and awakening the memories of what he did while in her body, as well as visions of the horrific acts he would continue to do. When finished, he lets her live and leaves her unconscious, saying she will make excellent fodder for his insatiable spirit.[8]

Rose's ending is directly tied to Guy's, in which he confronts M. Bison and demands that he hand Rose over or he would destroy his jet, his only source of escape. M. Bison reluctantly agrees, and Guy holds his part of the bargain and allows him to escape. Rose wakes up to the sight of Guy and decides that there is still work left for her to do.

Street Fighter V

At some point, Rose takes on another apprentice[9] - a young Egyptian girl named Menat.

Rose makes a cameo in Nash's character story as a queen card and appears as a silhouette in Menat's character story. She can also be seen in Menat's ending in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition. Rose also makes a cameo in G's character story.

Rose herself joins the playable cast in the fifth season of DLC fighters.[10]

In her character story, she spars with Menat who loses her battle regarding about her words. Rose decided to travel around the world and letting Menat to stay guard. On her travels, she meets up with Oro regarding about the premonition she had. After defeating G in a match, Rose predicted a future involving the entire world in some unspecified way involving him, despite his well-meaning demeanor. As soon as returns, Menat finds her exhausted, leading her to prepare for her bath. While bathing, Rose tries to think about how to stop the destruction of the world, not by looking to the future, but rather to the past. If she were able to contact her past self, then she might be able to prevent the calamity and start over from zero.

Crossover appearances

Namco × Capcom

Rose appeared in Namco x Capcom first as an enemy unit, then as a fully playable ally. She is initially introduced as an enemy to the heroes onboard the Woglinde from Xenosaga Episode I alongside Armor King from Tekken, being made to serve Black Valkyrie from Legend of Valkyrie via soul contract. This is much to Ryu's disbelief, as he knows that Rose was always a good person before her death at M. Bison's hands. She does not speak very often and fights against the party a few times throughout the story, even demonstrating incredible healing powers. Rose, Armor King, and Judas from Tales of Destiny 2 are unable to refuse Black Valkyrie's requests to attack the team as she holds complete sway over their souls. This is finally halted when, during Chapter 27, Heihachi Mishima arrives with the Golden Seed, giving it to Valkyrie. Valkyrie then uses the powerful item to break Black Valkyrie's control over the three souls, allowing them to escape.

After being freed from Black Valkyrie's influence, Rose appears before some of the scattered party members during Chapter 29, where she attempts to use her Soul Power to stop M. Bison. However, due to being inside the Soul Edge's metaphysical world, the party is unable to damage him until Ryu appears later. After the chapter is cleared, Rose officially joins the party for the rest of the game.

Rose is a solo unit who never gains a partner of her own, but her high MP and extensive spell list make her a great support character. Rose's character theme during her active turn is the same as Sakura and Karin's.

Capcom Fighting Evolution

Rose appeared as a playable character in Capcom Fighting Evolution.

Street Fighter × Mega Man

Rose is one of the bosses of Street Fighter × Mega Man.

Comics

Street Fighter Alpha manga

Rose plays a major role in the 1995 manga adaptation of Street Fighter Alpha by Masahiko Nakahira, where she is a soothsayer who guides Ryu in his personal quest to overcome the Satsui no Hado's influence. She meets up with him after he falls into a sewer. Ryu begins to wonder if she has any relation to Shadaloo and Bison himself, who are after him for his dark power. After a short battle between the two, which Rose wins, she tells him that the Satsui no Hado is a dangerous power. Ryu questions her knowledge of his Satsui no Hado and who she is; she then tells him that he must go to see two fighters in red (Ken and Guy). After she gets out of the water of the sewers, she tells Ryu that he will get a cold if he does not get out of the water as well, before she leaves him.

Later on, Ryu is about to leave for Japan in an effort to locate and fight Akuma. However, Rose finds Ryu and insists that he not risk losing to Akuma, as Ryu is the "only hope" to defeat Bison. She and Ryu travel to Shinjuku-ward in Tokyo, Japan, where Bison has launched an attack. Rose battles Bison in order to do as much damage as possible before Ryu's fight with him. However, after an explosion caused from above, by Bison's jet, she is knocked unconscious and trapped underneath the rubble. Rose is rescued by Guy and wakes up in his arms shortly afterwards. She immediately thinks of Ryu and his ongoing battle with Bison. Rose is last seen protecting Shinjuku-ward from the explosion of Bison's Psycho Drive (contained within his jet), following Bison's defeat.

Street Fighter III: Ryu Final

Rose makes a cameo appearance in the Street Fighter III: Ryu Final manga as a memory inside Ryu's head.

UDON comics

Rose appears in the Street Fighter comic series produced by UDON in close collaboration with Capcom. In Street Fighter #1, it is told that Rose was a member of a group of Romani that followed a white-haired woman known only as Master. The woman had a glowing yellow lightning bolt on her forehead and a very similar hairstyle to Rose. When Rose was a child (roughly ten years of age), M. Bison, a former student of the Master, returned to the tribe and declared that he was going to kill the Master, as her knowledge of Soul Power and its origins being rooted in the supernatural was a threat to him. Though the Master fought bravely, M. Bison's Psycho Power destroyed her body and almost every other person present in the village; only a man who was away chopping wood away from the village survived. He returned after the explosion and discovered an unconscious Rose, who now bore Master's lightning bolt on her forehead and Bison's good soul.

In Street Fighter #2, Cammy is tracking Ken and Ryu in San Francisco when she is intercepted by Rose. Later, Rose completely cleansed Cammy of the Psycho Power's influence and erased her brainwashing. She later deposited Cammy on the doorstep of the British Embassy in Italy, where her instinctual response to a terrorist attack directly led to her being recruited to Delta Red, the organization she works for in Super Street Fighter II. Rose is distressed when Cammy, under the employ of MI5, not only returns to a life of violence but also engages in missions that will inevitably lead her back to M. Bison.

Rose appears to lose her body by M. Bison's hands in Udon's Street Fighter II #6 after a battle between herself, M. Bison, and Cammy. In the same issue, Rose explained to Cammy what she had done to free her from M. Bison, and also explained to Cammy that she was a clone created to serve as M. Bison's next body should the need ever arise. Rose's body is destroyed by M. Bison, and her body turns to dust, blowing away in the wind, unknown to Bison, her soul lives on.

She appears as a soul repeatedly in M. Bison's nightmares, and her face randomly appears on his computer monitor. Dhalsim later warns M. Bison: "Someone with purple hair and a yellow scarf will one day be your destruction."

In a final battle between M. Bison and Ryu that was interrupted by Akuma, M. Bison attempts to place his soul into Cammy but is pulled away by a ghostly yellow scarf wrapped around his neck. Rose's ghost then tells him that it is time for both of them to die, and she holds him in place for Akuma to deliver the finishing blow via Shun Goku Satsu, however, Bison had a backup plan and became a soul like Rose as he forms an alliance with the Secret Society.

Street Fighter vs. Darkstalkers

Rose makes a cameo appearance in the comic crossover Street Fighter vs. Darkstalkers.

Street Fighter: The Novel

Rose makes a cameo appearance in UDON's novel Street Fighter: The Novel alongside Ryu.

Daigo The Beast

Rose makes a cameo appearance in the Daigo The Beast manga.

Animations and movies

Street Fighter cartoon

Rose makes a cameo appearance in an episode of the first season of the American Street Fighter TV series, titled The Medium is the Message, as a competitor in a Street Fighter tournament in India among other Street Fighter Alpha characters. She has a more prominent role in the second season episode The Flame and the Rose, where she teams up with Ken and Blanka to fight against M. Bison, Zangief, and Cammy.

Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation

Rose appears in the 1999 Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation film, where she tells Ryu about his Satsui no Hado and his meeting with Shun, as she shows him the card of the devil, which stands for one's own demon. She then tells Ryu that he can become more powerful and overcome the Satsui no Hado. She then senses Ken coming to the temple that Ryu was at, and leaves Ryu behind with the card.

She later appears again to Ryu after he fell into a deep depression, she tells him that Shun is wavering and that Ryu must keep fighting off the Satsui no Hado. Rose then asks him if Shun's own soul may not really be his own problem to worry about. This question makes Ryu angry and he throws a Hadoken at glass windows, breaking it completely before she leaves him to his choices. Rose appears again in front of Ryu who was fighting off the Satsui no Hado, telling him that he has yet to turn over the card before she leaves.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

Rose appears in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li as M. Bison's ulterior objective in the story, having sought her in Bangkok, where she was left after her mother died. As in the games, she is depicted as the manifestation of M. Bison's good side, though she is born instead of created, making her M. Bison's daughter. For safety reasons, she is alternatively referred to as the White Rose to hide her identity. Because she has lived her entire life in Bangkok, she is incapable of speaking English.

In the movie's deleted scenes, there is a part where she is confronted by Nash and her eyes turn red, meaning that she was likely meant to be possessed by M. Bison as she was in the games.

Cameo appearances

Rose can be seen in the background of the Showdown in the Park stage in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter.

Rose also makes a cameo appearance on the London stage along with Dudley in the crossover fighting game Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001. She is on the far left of the stage, next to Rouge from the Power Stone games, during the second round and onward, while Dudley appears during the first round only.

Gameplay

Fighting style and abilities

Rose fights using Soul Power,[1][2] the antithesis to the Psycho Power wielded by M. Bison. In appearance, Soul Power is a kinetic, color-changing energy that Rose channels from her body and often through her scarf, allowing her to control it as a weapon and supplement her attacks with Soul Power. It can be released as projectiles of concentrated energy, zap her opponents, and project temporary copies of herself.

Moveset

Rose's overall styles revolves around pacing and ranged attacks while being able to absorb and neutralize projectiles. Rose has an above-average offensive capabilities with an unusually strong air defense and offense that makes her able to attack from any standing point, and her basic fighting abilities have a far reach thanks to her scarf and excellent dexterity.

Rose has the ability to absorb and reflect projectiles back at projectile heavy characters like Ryu and Sagat, and with her Soul Illusion, she can extend her combos and extend the damage of her super combos to deal more hits. Her Soul Throw can reach out and negate cross-up attacks and could avoid projectiles with her air time.

However, because Rose can reach far with her scarf, it also leaves her open to airborne attacks due to the angling on most of her moves, as well as any form of deft assaults depending on the positioning and recovery of her attacks. Her attacks also don't cause that much knockback, allowing the opponent or the player a chance to counterattack at their leisure. Despite this, Rose is still a force to be reckoned with and is a versatile character with many tools at her disposal to handle almost any kind of situation.

In Street Fighter V, Rose gained new moves besides her old ones in the previous games. Her Soul Spark can now hit her opponents in mid-air. Some of her new moves involving the use of her scarf as a weapon and a new projectile similar to Urien's Aegis Reflector that can knock her opponent in explosion for a certain amount of time. This new move can also use as a combo to distract her opponents. Her first V-Skill is her Soul Fortune which has her to pull out a tarot card to increase her status but also makes the opponent weaker when she threw her tarot card on them. Her Soul Satellite Ultra Combo in Street Fighter IV and its updates is now her second V-Skill as she can summon one or two orbs for a limited amount of time. Her first V-Trigger is her Soul Dimension based on her warp move and can choose in any places to take her on different position to attack her opponents. Her Soul Illusion is now her second V-Trigger which allows her to create a multiple of unique combos to inflict damage to her opponent. Her Critical Art is the Fate Aura Spark. Rose whiplashes her opponent with her scarf. While airborne, Rose jumps and unleash a powerful projectile to deal heavy damage to her opponent.

Trivia

  • Rose is the first Italian fighter to be introduced, as well as the third playable female character in the series, after Chun-Li and Cammy.
  • In Rose's Super Street Fighter IV ending, she has a vision of Ryu and M. Bison fighting, arguably foreshadowing the events of Street Fighter V.
    • Rose's quote to Juri may be linked to the battle with Ryu and M. Bison, or possibly the final battle between Evil Ryu and Akuma.
  • In her profile on the official Street Fighter V website, it establishes that she is the founder of the Palazzo Misterio house of divination (which is her stage from Street Fighter Alpha 3).[9]
  • According to her win quote against El Fuerte in Super Street Fighter IV, Rose is on a diet.
  • Based on her win quote against Oni, Rose has somehow managed to foresee Akuma's transformation into Oni, which would be taking place at a later time.
  • Her age is unknown, but in ALL ABOUT Capcom Fighting Game 1987-2000 it states that someone like Chun-Li (during the Alpha series) would consider Rose an Obasan (オバサン), meaning 'aunt' or 'older woman'.[11][12] In the Japanese version of Street Fighter Alpha 2, Chun-Li would say "I learned a lot, Obasan!" in her win quote.[13] Yoshinori Ono would also call Rose an Obasan in an interview.[14][15]
  • Rose is the first fighting game character in Street Fighter who could manipulate an enemy's projectile by absorbing and reflecting those.
    • Another Capcom fighting game character who can do this is Anakaris of Darkstalkers fame, who can not only return projectiles but mimic them too.
  • In the updated version of Capcom's 2014 action game, Sengoku BASARA 4, one of the playable characters, Kyōgoku Maria, has Rose's outfit as an alternate costume.
  • Interestingly, between Rose was altered in Street Fighter Alpha 2 from Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams to where her battle sprites and personality appear to be more friendly than her initial appearance.
  • In Street Fighter Alpha 2, Rose has the distinction of being the only character that acts as the mid-boss for two characters, Cammy (in the PS2 version of SFA2 Gold) and Guy.
  • Rose's nostalgia outfit in Street Fighter V, while referred to as 'nostalgia', is in fact an homage to Capcom Fighting Evolution, in which this was the outfit Rose wore when affected by Demitri's Midnight Bliss, which in turn is an homage to JoJo character Lisa Lisa's first appearance as a masked boatman.
    • Street Fighter V includes various homages to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, such as Rose's win screen resembling Jotaro Kujo's receipt after defeating Steely Dan, her twelfth default color being modeled after Lisa Lisa's design in the anime and Rose's taunt in Japanese including a variation of Jotaro's catchphrase.

Gallery

For more images of this character, see their gallery.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Ultra Street Fighter IV Profile Archived from The original
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Street Fighter: World Warrior Encyclopedia Hardcover
  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epRNJVK5yNw#t=1m15s
  4. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named SFZ1
  5. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named SFZ3
  6. Street Fighter V Character Encyclopedia: Maggio
  7. http://www.destructoid.com/elephant/photo-m.phtml?post_key=118285&photo_key=77312
  8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w74dqHZLLsY
  9. 9.0 9.1 Street Fighter V Character Encyclopedia: Rose
  10. https://www.capcom-unity.com/2020/08/05/street-fighter-v-summer-update-reveals-new-characters-stages-and-much-more/
  11. ALL ABOUT Capcom Fighting Game 1987-2000
  12. "The beautiful but mysterious female fortune teller from Genoa. Her age is unknown, but she is someone Chun Li would consider middle aged. During a fight she can transfer her mentality through materials by using “Soul Power”."(ジェノバ で 占い師 を し て いる 、 謎 めい た 美女 。 年齢不詳 だ が 、 春麗 から は オバサン 呼ばわり さ れ て いる。 人間 の 精神力 を 物質 へ 変換 する 「 ソ ウルパワー 」 の 使い手 で 、 戦闘時 に は おもに マ。)
  13. "I learned a lot, Obasan!" (「いい勉強になったわ、 オバサン ! 」) from All About Street Fighter ZERO2 page 331
  14. Dengeki Online interview (April 24, 2010) archived from the original.
  15. "Anyway, I increased the number of female characters with the feeling that "Rose is Obasan, is it okay?""(「ローズはオバサンだけどいいか!」といった感じにとにかく女性キャラクターを増やしたんです。)
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