Rose

Context

Rose is a mysterious, mystical fortune teller and martial artist, as you do. She appeared in multiple Street Fighter brawling video game ever since 1995.

She has many useful story hooks. For instance, she has a soul bond with the most recognisable Street Fighter villain, being his opposite.

Background

Powers and Abilities

Rose shares a split soul with and embodies all the good left in M. Bison’s soul that he cast away. She’s basically Bison light. As such, she has a lot of similar abilities – but not on the scale that Bison does.

Rose seems to have more of mystical theme going on rather than Bison’s psychic science theme. She seems extremely attuned to what’s going on in the world at large. Most notably, she can accurately predict the future.

Arti marziali

To top it off she’s also a world class martial artist.

Gameplay wise Rose is a very versatile character with good nimbleness, combos and offensive capabilities. She also has some nice reach when she wields her scarf as a weapon – or even as a sort of vaulting pole.

Her defense is solid as well. Rose has some nice anti-air defensive moves, and is one of the very few characters who can absorb or bounce back projectile attacks.

Her main drawback is that a lot of her moves can leave her wide open if they miss.

Furthermore, despite having nice combo options and offensive capabilities her attacks don’t push opponents back much. This results in poor buffering and coverage as opponents can get back in her face and launch a counter offensive after she’s done with her attack.

History

Details about her origin have always been murky. So we’ll try to stick with what we know to be true and doesn’t seem to have been retconnedMaking changes to a character or story after the fact. Then toss in a few No-Prize HypothesesA made-up explanation to plug a plot hole just to try and bridge some of the gaps.

Deeper shade of soul

There was once a powerful mystic who created the mystical martial art Soul Power. Nothing else is known about this person, other than they had but three disciples to pass the Soul Power down to. One was M. Bison, one was Rose and the other remains unrevealed.

Other sources state that Rose was actually Bison’s student, and that she learned the Soul Power directly from him. But that would make a lot less sense – and leave another one of the students unaccounted for.

Bison grew more and more ambitious. He eventually killed his master to further his own thirst for power. The showdown between Bison and his master was said to be terrifying. Both were thought to have perished in battle. But as with all great reoccurring supervillains, Bison somehow endured.

Empires and palaces

This blackened Bison’s soul and opened up his path to using the Psycho Power. It seems that the Soul Power was a bit like the Force in Star Wars, with the Psycho Power being its Sith Dark Side.

Bison went on to travel the world, fighting and recruiting other strong warriors. He also started his own criminal organization, called Shadaloo, which would eventually become a global threat.

Meanwhile, Rose went to Italy and became a fortune teller. She eventually found her own mystical organization, the Palazzo Misterio. In this house of definition she told fortunes, occasionally took on students to pass the craft on to, and generally did what she could to make the world a better place.

Street Fighter Alpha 2

While divining at one at her house in Genoa, Italy she received a premonition of dire world ending events caused by a great evil.

It didn’t take long for her to sense that Bison would be the source of it all. She was shocked that her former classmate was still alive, but her principles would not allow her to stand idly by.

Alas, Rose was unable to locate Bison. But she clashed with Akuma, who used another kind of evil energy Rose knew about – the Satsui no Hado. Details are unrevealed, but it seems likely that Akuma won, and Rose managed to survive and somehow escape.

Street Fighter Zero 3, part 1

A young man named Maggio came to the Palazzo, seeking help in finding his sister Aprile. Rose sensed great potential in the young man. She decided to not only help him, but to take him on as an apprentice.

Aprile, along with 11 other 16-year-old girls, had been kidnapped by Bison to be used in his Doll experiments. They received DNA grafts from Bison, so they could be used as back-up bodies. But Rose, with help from ninja master Guy, located the project’s labs.

She fought Bison there – and he lost due to his own hubris. To take him out for good, Rose rammed her fist into his chest and released the full might of her Soul Power into him.

She passed out from overexertion and was eventually rescued by Guy. However, Guy sensed a subtle dark presence deep within Rose.

Street Fighter Zero 3, part 2

The full sequence seems to be that:

The disembodied Bison’s one last gambit to save himself was to inhabit Rose’s body.

Somehow Rose and Bison share part of the same soul. This allowed him to temporarily take over and inhabit her body. The most popular fan theory is that in their time spent training in the Soul Power arts may have included a sort of “soul meld”. And that this eventually led to them sharing parts of the same soul.

Regardless Bison had narrowly escaped death – and the world hadn’t seen the last of this scourge. He was merely waiting until he would regain enough strength to make another bid for world domination.

Street Fighter II

Rose wasn’t really a part of the main story, but she was still important.

Bison used her as a temporary body until his scientists finished growing a clone of his original body for him to inhabit. This new clone body wasn’t as powerful as the previous one, but he was still a force to reckon with.

At this point, Capcom officially gave Rose a lamentable off-screen death. But this was retconned out – at the latest when she returned as a SF5 DLC character.

We can imagine that Bison let Rose live in case he needed to inhabit her body again.

Street Fighter Zero 3, part 3

Once again, the cards foretold that Bison would return to ravage the world.

At this point Rose had accepted that she was not strong enough to defeat Bison on her own. But she drew the Fool card, meaning a reckless hero who’d only be able to defeat Bison once the stars aligned. She set out to search for that person.

During her travels she encountered Ryu, and provided him with spiritual counselling to resist the temptation of the Satsui no Hado. She came away from their encounter with a strong feeling that he would be humanity’s last great hope.

But Rose, unable to help herself, tracked down and confronted Bison in his lair. Perhaps she was the Fool in her reading. He easily overcame her, drained her energy and awakened all the dormant memories of the heinous acts that he had committed while inhabiting her body.

As he left with the unconscious Rose, Bison was confronted by Guy. Weakened by prior battles, Bison offered Rose in exchange for safe passage. The sneakers-wearing ninja reluctantly agreed. But when she came to, Rose stated that their fight was far from over.

Street Fighter V

Rose took in a new apprentice, Menat – a young Egyptian woman with spiritual powers. Rose travels with and guides Menat during her SF5 story mode. She also once consults with Oro.

Rose rejoined the playable cast in Season 5 of the DLC. But this was a little late to the party and she didn’t get much of a storyline. Most of the major events had already been resolved without her.

Still, Rose fought mysterious new fighter G. After she defeated him, she explained that G was at the center of events that would cause a great darkness to fall over the world. The gregarious self-proclaimed President of the World (!) simply laughed and explained that he was aware of this.

(Both Rose and G got very little screen time outside of their own story mode, and this subplot seemed deliberately cryptic and undetailed).

Once home, Rose decided to change her approach. Instead of trying to predict then change the future, she would now reach out to her past self and guide her, to prevent those catastrophes from ever happening.

Where is she now?

Hard to say really. Rose is enigmatic by nature.

Perhaps she passed on to another plane of existence. Or maybe her soul had experienced too much shock and she died. She doesn’t feature in SF3 when Gill’s Illuminati start acting, even though that seems like something that she would have a part of.

A popular fan theory is the is constantly projecting herself back in time. Thus creating her previous premonitions and readings, as a time travel paradox.

Despite some misgivings Capcom doesn’t really seem like they’re finished with this character yet, so it will be interesting to see where they take her in the future.

Description

Rose is a tall, beautiful Italian woman with a curvy hourglass figure and an ethereal presence.

Her long violet hair is arranged in a pattern of curls and zig-zag lightning bolts. In the older 2D game her hair is nigh-constantly moving in a sort of wave pattern, likely hinting about the raw spiritual power emanating from her. But this was largely ditched when she went 3D.

She also has a small mouth and full pouty lips which often wears purple lipstick on to accentuate and color coordinate with her outfit.

When fighting she wears a light purple dress with large buttons over a tank top and purple hose. She also wears high heels and of course always carries her shawl into battle.

When not fighting she tends to wear classy evening gowns and longer dresses.

Personality

Rose is an aloof fortune teller with a strong presence and sense of justice. She usually seems serenely calm and focused on whatever task lies before her.

Due to her paranormal perceptions, she considers it her duty to right wrongs and make the world a better place.

She is determined to stop Bison at all costs. In part because of their soul connection, and in part because he murdered their master.

When not out trying to save the world she’s a pretty normal woman who enjoys candle lit bubble baths with a glass of fine wine.

International woman of mystery

Rose’s aloofness means that she hasn’t formed many friendships. Even her subordinates at the Palazzo Mistero seem to be kept at arm’s length.

One exception is Guy, but the two seem to bicker quite a bit. On the other hand, it seems inevitable given how different their cultural backgrounds are. Nevertheless the two do respect one another as both of them are ardent advocates for the greater good.

Lastly, she does fancy herself a teacher of sorts. Besides taking on students and training them in the mystic arts some of her dialog hints at this. She’s been known to say things like, “Today’s lesson is over” after fights.

Other dialog has also hinted that despite her somewhat youthful appearance she may be far older than she appears. This is particularly evident in conversations with other female fighters, lending to her a “o wise one” status.

Quotes

(Rose remembering her master’s words.) “Someday surely, your field of battle will come to turn towards your steps. Do not forget the *soul power* you’ll grip, it is but a powerful weapon, yet also a weakness for it cannot conquer.”

(Facing a bunch of Mafia thugs who’ve just broken into her mansion.)
Rose: “What might your order of business be ?”
Thug: “You met with our boss three days ago, isn’t that right ?”
Rose: “That is correct, he came at me in the avenue in front of this shop. I saw a more than ominous future because of him, a word of warning I give you.”
Thug: “That evening was a serious business discussion for the boss. Were you to cease speaking about that, those dealings on the project from two years go… there would’ve been no reason to stop it !”
Rose: “Are you, the one who led him into it without having known the extent ?”
Thug: “Those who make fools out of us will disappear !” (Pulls out a gun and points it at her.)
Rose: “I told only of fate. Anything you say is useless.” (The candles in the room flare up and Rose seemingly disappears.)
Thug: “H… how in the hell! ?!”
Rose (appearing behind the thugs): “Go back. This is no place for you to enter.”

“You’re nervous, aren’t you ?”

DC Universe Adaptation

(This section proposes ways of using this character in DC Universe stories).

For some reason I think a team up with Zatanna would be particularly cool.

Rubbing elbows with other members of the mystical community wouldn’t be out of line either. Doctor Fate is probably another good choice for a team up. She’s likely to be outclassed by someone like Constantine though.

Adνеrtisеmеnt

Steam keys for Street Fighter games

By Tom Eilers.

Source of Character: Street Fighter.

Helper(s): Darci, Michael Ficklin.