History Main / TheTragicRose

* In MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic, a pony named Rose (along with her sisters [[ThemeNaming Daisy and Lily]]) panics dramatically over everything in Ponyville that goes wrong. This can be anything from dragon attacks, to plague threat, to a sudden lack of apples. (Granted, that last one was an ImagineSpot.)

* Miranda from ''LegendOfDragoon'' hates roses because they're linked with her abusive mother, saying that her mother kept them around because they were beautiful but the bouquet was always in sight whenever she was beaten.
** Oh, also she doesn't get along with the character Rose mentioned above.

* In ''SleepingBeauty'', the roses were the source of the tragedy -- ninety-nine princes killed themselves on their thorns, trying to get in.

* In ''Les Miserables'', Eponine is described/alluded to as being a "rose in misery". This girl (at least during her teenage years) doesn't get a break: her family is impoverished and linked to an infamous gang of robbers, she's often starving, is implied to be not right in the head, and has the misfortune to fall in unrequited love with her neighbor.

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* In ''[[{{Fable}} Fable 2]]'' your older sister Rose is shot in the face in the first half hour.
* Raiden's girlfriend Rosemary in ''MetalGearSolid''. Apart from the fact that her lover's pretty [[DarkAndTroubledPast broken]], she [[spoiler: was supposed to seduce him as part of a HoneyTrap, but fell for him for real. Then in the fourth game (after dealing with the fallout from revealing she was TheMole) she pretty had to ShooTheDog for the entire game to keep their child safe. They reunite at the end though.]]
* Rose from the ''StreetFighter'' series. Beautiful, level-headed, a powerful LadyOfBlackMagic, [[spoiler: Bison's "[[EnemyWithout other self]]"]]... and much every ending she's ever had is a DownerEnding. [[spoiler: Save for StreetFighterIV, where Rose ''finally'' manages to survive to Bison's influence due to her [[TrueCompanions best]] [[PlatonicLifePartners friend]] [[FinalFight Guy]].]]
* Rose from ''LegendOfDragoon'' ends up being the sole survivor of a brutal war, losing her fiance and best friends in the process, and is forced to [[WhoWantsToLiveForever accept immortality]] in order to save the world from complete destruction every 108 years. The [[ShootTheDog necessary evils]] needed in order to accomplish said world-saving has resulted in [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating the entire world hating her]] as a mythical demon of evil and destruction. By the time the game's storyline rolls around, she can't even remember the last time she ''smiled''.

** [[spoiler: Until the Vandereich invasion, that is, since Rose' liutenant Kira and a good part of his division were ''massacred'' by the invaders. Understandably, Rose is '''''[[TranquilFury PISSED]]'''.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Ib}}'', the gallery Ib starts out in has a sculpture of a red rose with vicious-looking thorns titled "Embodiment of Spirit" and is described as "beautiful at first glance, but if you get too close, it will induce pain." When Ib is transported to the painting world, she gets a red rose that [[LifeMeter represents her life]] and gradually wilts away to nothing as she takes damage, and she finds out later on that playing Loves Me, LovesMeNot with another person's rose is a very, ''very'' bad thing to do.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Ib}}'', the gallery Ib starts out in has a sculpture of a red rose with vicious-looking thorns titled "Embodiment of Spirit" and is described as "beautiful at first glance, but if you get too close, it will induce pain." When Ib is transported to the painting world, she gets a red rose that [[LifeMeter represents her life]] and gradually wilts away to nothing as she takes damage, and she discovers later on that plucking all the petals from a person's rose is a very, ''very'' bad thing to do.

* RuleOfRose, [[CaptainObvious naturally.]] The most triumphant example being that The Rose Garden Orphanage [[spoiler: falls victim to a massacre with one sole survivor.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Balto}}'': A girl named Rosy spends the entire movie slowly dying of a disease. [[spoiler: Not only she survives, but she's the NarratorAllAlong.]]

* In {{Bleach}} a man named Rojuro Otoribayashi is nicknamed Rose. Him ''and'' his friends got an ''horribly'' raw deal by [[spoiler: being forcibly transformed into Hollow/Shinigami hybrids by the BigBad. It does seem that Rose has earned a happier ending, though: as of manga chapter 481, he has been allowed back home and regained his captain seat.]]
* RoseOfVersailles has it even in the title.

* RevolutionaryGirlUtena uses this, alot.

* On the ''Series/ColdCase'' episode "Best Friends", Rose pledged a lover's suicide with her girlfriend, Billie. (It was the 20's.) The suicide didn't go over as planned and she spent the rest of her life writing sorrowful poems about her lost love. When she finally confesses what happened, Billie's spirit comes for her, all being forgiven.

* On the ColdCase episode "Best Friends", Rose pledged a lover's suicide with her girlfriend, Billie. (It was the 20's.) The suicide didn't go over as planned and she spent the rest of her life writing sorrowful poems about her lost love. When she finally confesses what happened, Billie's spirit comes for her, all being forgiven.

* YoshikiHayashi loves roses and rose motifs, and his life has been an ongoing parade of tragedies.

* ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'', whose real name is Aurora, but the fairies named her Briar Rose, got a raw deal with the whole finger-pricking, fall-asleep-until-your-true-love-kisses-you curse-thing put on her at birth by a witch who was pissed about not being invited to her christening by her parents.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Balto}}'': A girl named Rosy spends the entire movie slowly dying of a disease.

* Raiden's girlfriend in ''MetalGearSolid''. Apart from the fact that her lover's pretty [[DarkAndTroubledPast broken]], she [[spoiler: was supposed to seduce him as part of a HoneyTrap, but fell for him for real. Then in the fourth game (after dealing with the fallout from revealing she was TheMole) she pretty had to ShooTheDog for the entire game to keep their child safe. They reunite at the end though.]]
* Rose from the ''StreetFighter'' series. Pretty much every ending she's ever had is a DownerEnding.

* Rose from StreetFighter is a TallDarkAndBishoujo tarot expert and LadyOfBlackMagic, and her endings are ''always'' sad since [[spoiler: she's also M. Bison's EnemyWithout and good side... meaning that she'll end up almost always under his influence and as his "spare body".]] [[spoiler: Save for StreetFighterIV, where Rose ''finally'' manages to survive due to her [[TrueCompanions best friend]] [[FinalFight Guy]].]]

* ''{{Balto}}'': A girl named Rosy spends the entire movie slowly dying of a disease.

* In the FullmetalAlchemist manga and Brotherhood anime Rose Thomas becomes a pawn in her first appearance, she was an orphan, and her boyfriend died.
** In ''addition'' to this, in the 2003 Anime ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' Rose was raped off screen by soldiers occupying her town, became a mute and carried the resulting baby to term. She ''then'' [[spoiler: had to lead her town to exile and merger with the nation due to another invasion of soldiers, was kidnapped by the BigBad, and was spared by moments from a final GrandTheftMe that might have used her baby as ''fuel''. The guy she finally professes her love to then gets trapped in another dimension.]]
** Finally, in TheMovie, [[spoiler: the guy who she professed her love to comes ''back'' from that other dimension hitchhiking with an army, never once sees her, then he and his brother, who did see her, go back to that other dimension after beating the army.]]

* In the FullmetalAlchemist manga and Brotherhood anime Rose becomes a pawn in her first appearance, she was an orphan, and her boyfriend died.

* In {{Bleach}} a man named Rojuro Otoribayashi is nicknamed Rose. Him ''and'' his friends got an ''horribly'' raw deal by [[spoiler: being forcibly transformed into Hollow/Shinigami hybrids by the BigBad.]]

* One of the opening scenes of ''UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'' takes place in Kinzo's rose garden with particular emphasis on a rose that Maria claims as hers. Maria is eventually revealed to suffer from an AbusiveParent (in a scene involving the rose). Oh, and [[KillEmAll everybody dies]]. [[GroundhogDayLoop Over and over.]] Beatrice herself wears a [[FlowerInHerHair rose in her hair]]. [[spoiler:She's TheOphelia]].

** In ''addition'' to this, in the 2003 Anime ''{{Anime/FullmetalAlchemist}}'' Rose was raped off screen by soldiers occupying her town, became a mute and carried the resulting baby to term. She ''then'' [[spoiler: had to lead her town to exile and merger with the nation due to another invasion of soldiers, was kidnapped by the BigBad, and was spared by moments from a final GrandTheftMe that might have used her baby as ''fuel''. The guy she finally professes her love to then gets trapped in another dimension.]]

In contrast to its [[SomethingAboutARose strictly romantic usage]], roses have long been a symbol representing a duality between beauty and tragedy. The reasons for this are evident in the rose itself. The petals are outwardly very beautiful, making it one of the most famous flowers in the world and perfect for romantic occasions. On the other hand, the stem of the rose is covered with sharp thorns and the petals themselves are most commonly depicted as being a blood red color. This duality within the rose has led to it being used to symbolize both beauty and tragedy simultaneously.