History Main / TheTragicRose

** In the episode ''Frozer'', poor Cat Noir got rejected by Ladybug while handing a red rose to her. Left alone, a petal fall from the flower, like a single tear. In the episode ''Weredad'', the pink rose Cat Noir offered to Marinette (aka Ladybug)turn into a thorn prison for her.

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* Kanae Von Rosewald, from ''Manga/TokyoGhoul[=:re=]''. In a series known for its tragic characters, he's been dealt one of the harsher deals in life. From a wealthy family of German Ghouls, he was orphaned at the age of 10 and ended up as an [[CinderellaCircumstances employee]] of his only surviving relatives after he finally managed to make his way to Japan. Over the years, he became obsessed with his master/[[KissingCousins cousin]] Shuu Tsukiyama and struggled with intense feelings of jealousy towards [[MuggleBestFriend Chie]] and [[LoveInterest Kaneki]]. Add to this nearly three years of caring for his [[TheOphelia catatonic]], grief-stricken master, and his emotions were already at a boiling point. Then [[DiabolusExMachina Eto]] showed up and took an interest in his situation, torturing him and convincing him that he'll be loved if he can just [[MurderTheHypotenuse kill everyone in his way]]. Then there's the reveal that [[spoiler: Kanae is actually [[SweetPollyOliver Karren]], and has been posing as a man so that she could replace her dead brothers as the [[HeirClubForMen family heir]]]].

* Rose from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'' 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''.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' has the main protagonist Ruby Rose, whose mother Summer Rose was an esteemed Huntress that mysteriously died in the line of fire when Ruby was young. [[RealityEnsues Ruby has taken her passing well since she otherwise still had a good father and sister to raise her]], although her and Summer's InsertSong "Red Like Roses, Part 2" is about a mother apologizing to her mourning daughter that she'll have to finish what she left behind, which foreshadows later revelations in the story.

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', the Kingdom of Nohr's [[FloralMotifs floral emblem]] is purple roses. The [[CrapsackWorld country itself]] has a very unfriendly and cold climate with poor crops and frequent supplies shortages, it's represented as having perpetually dark skies, relies a lot in war and its military might, and its Royal Family is pretty much trapped in a DeadlyDecadentCourt, which has caused them [[LoveHurts immense pain.]] The ''Conquest'' path of the game is from their POV and gives all kinds of details about their extremely harsh environment, which the Avatar hopes to change and reform from the inside - even if the only actual way to do it is to wage a war they don't exactly want. Camilla, the eldest princess of Nohr, starts with the unique skill Rose's Thorns, which gives a bonus to damage done by adjacent allies and reduces damage inflicted upon them.

** In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Rose Thomas becomes a pawn in her first appearance, she was an orphan, and her boyfriend died.
** In ''addition'' to this, in the ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' 2003 anime version, Rose was [[spoiler: 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 ''[[Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa The Conqueror Of Shamballa]]'', [[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 ''Conqueror of Shamballa'', she's shown living happily with her toddler-aged son and two kids she presumably adopted, but she's still has a pretty tragic past.

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

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* Rose Lalonde fits this in ''{{Webcomic/Homestuck}}'', although actual rose motifs only extend as far as her using a pair of weapons called the Thorns of Oglogoth.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''Manga/RoseOfVersailles'' is a tale of star-crossed lovers on the eve of UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution with pathos and tragedy all 'round, though it doesn't feature roses ''quite'' as prominently as ''Utena.''

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[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]
* In ''Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera2004'', The Phantom gives Christine multiple red roses with black ribbons around them. When Raoul is proposing to Christine on the rooftop of the opera house, she has one of the roses with her, but she drops it on the ground to listen to Raoul's proposal. After they have left, The Phantom comes forward of the shadows and kneels down and takes the rose in his hand. He then starts crying, but when he can hear Raoul and Christine sing their love song, he crushes it. At the end of the movie, we see a red rose lie by [[spoiler:Christine's tombstone.]] There is a black ribbon around it.

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--> O pity, pity, gentle heaven, pity!
--> The red rose and the white are on his face,
--> The fatal colours of our striving houses:
--> The one his purple blood right well resembles;
--> The other his pale cheeks, methinks, presenteth:
--> Wither one rose, and let the other flourish;
--> If you contend, a thousand lives must wither.

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* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' a man named Rojuro Otoribayashi is nicknamed Rose. He ''and'' his friends got a ''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.]] [[spoiler: Until the Vandereich invasion, that is, since his lieutenant Kira and a good part of his division were ''massacred'' by the invaders. Understandably, Rose is '''[[TranquilFury PISSED]]'''.]]

* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' has roses all over the place. Just about every main character has a rose in their associated color. And just about every main character has something of a TragicBackstory. Utena's and Anthy's eventual traumas top them all, and both are heavily associated with roses. Anthy is, after all, the Rose Bride.
* ''Manga/RoseOfVersailles'' has it even in the title.
* Kanae Von Rosewald, from ''Manga/TokyoGhoul [=:re=]''. In a series known for its tragic characters, he's been dealt one of the harsher deals in life. From a wealthy family of German Ghouls, he was orphaned at the age of 10 and ended up as an [[CinderellaCircumstances employee]] of his only surviving relatives after he finally managed to make his way to Japan. Over the years, he became obsessed with his master/[[KissingCousins cousin]] Shuu Tsukiyama and struggled with intense feelings of jealousy towards [[MuggleBestFriend Chie]] and [[LoveInterest Kaneki]]. Add to this nearly three years of caring for his [[TheOphelia catatonic]], grief-stricken master, and his emotions were already at a boiling point. Then [[DiabolusExMachina Eto]] showed up and took an interest in his situation, torturing him and convincing him that he'll be loved if he can just [[MurderTheHypotenuse kill everyone in his way]]. Then there's the reveal that [[spoiler: Kanae is actually [[SweetPollyOliver Karren]], and has been posing as a man so that she could replace her dead brothers as the [[HeirClubForMen family heir]]]].

* ''Pokémon'' fanfic writer Ilex the Elder gives Professor Oak's wife a PunnyName of "Rose Oak", matching her husband's FloralThemeNaming. Several fics, such as ''Fanfic/{{Mended}}'' and ''Fanfic/TilDeathDoUsPart'', have Rose as a PosthumousCharacter who died of cancer.

* In ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'' Rose was on the Titanic, her fiance (by ArrangedMarriage) was a JerkAss and her new boyfriend dies while urging her to live. She lived for almost 90 years afterwards, becoming pretty much a living legend; after telling the people digging in the sea for the Titanic what she witnessed there (in an extended flashback which comprises the bulk of the movie, Rose [[spoiler:makes her final break with the past and apparently dies shortly thereafter.]]

* ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow''. William Cage tells Rita Vrataski her middle name which he got in a past GroundhogDayLoop. Rita is a hardcore ActionGirl who [[IceQueen refuses to connect with anyone]] because (having been stuck in her own time-loop in the past) she knows the [[BrokenAce pain of having a friend die on you again and again]]. She tells Cage he got it wrong and suggests she told him the wrong name just to shut him up. Later as Rita dies yet again in his arms, she tells Cage her actual middle name is Rose. Cage crosses his DespairEventHorizon after this point.

* In Literature/RoseMadder Rose Daniels leaves her abusive husband only to have him chase after her and try to tear her new life apart.

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', Rose Tyler is the companion of the last surviving Time Lord, and became trapped on a parallel earth. With no means to get back to him.

* In ''VideoGame/FableII'' your older sister Rose is shot in the face in the first half-hour.

* Rosemaster of Webcomic/CucumberQuest fits this well. Being a ''literal rose,'' she's also one of the more tragic Disaster Masters, constantly reflecting on her actions and the actions of those around her in a negative light.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'': Rose is the love interest of the main character. She was stolen from her family as a baby, was brainwashed, and is nearly erased from existence.
* On ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse,'' the title character's MissingMom was named [[PosthumousCharacter Rose Quartz]], or just "Rose" for short. A major part of the show is exploring how [[LikeParentLikeChild Steven]], [[TheLostLenore his dad]] and [[LivingEmotionalCrutch Rose's teammates]] are dealing with her "[[OnlyMostlyDead death]]", and the tragic choices she had to make.

* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' mixes the romantic, the tragic, and the downright Freudian in its ''obsessive'' use of Roses as symbols.

** ''Dear Brother'', another work by author Creator/RiyokoIkeda, has Rei "Hana no Saint Juste" Asaka, who at the start throws a rose in the air and it gets caught by main character Nanako. Rei herself is the local BrokenBird, and her Seiran school has quite the luxurious gardens, which obviously include rose bushes. [[spoiler: And in the anime, Rei was carrying a bouquet of red roses... at the moment of her fatal accident.]]

* In the VideoGame/FatalFury anime, when [[HookerWithAHeartOfgold Li]][[BrokenBird ly]] first shows up, she pulls a Rei and tosses a red rose in the air, promising to spend a night with the man who catches it. The guy who does is Terry, TheHero. [[spoiler: They never get to spend their night, as right after Lily's HighHeelFaceTurn she's killed by her boss Geese, [[KillTheCutie as the end of]] [[BreakTheCutie the neverending parade of tragedies]] [[ShootTheShaggyDog that the poor girl's life was]].]]

* The [[ComicBook/Batgirl2000 Cassandra Cain]] Batgirl had a recurring rose motif throughout her solo series, often used to represent how she's wilting away due to her workaholic nature and refusal to take care of herself. Oracle gives Batgirl a rose at one point, and in the end, she leaves it with her friend Brenda when she goes looking for her mother. [[spoiler: The rose, and Brenda, are killed when Blüdhaven is destroyed in ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis.]]

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

* The Hong Kong HereoicBloodshed film who has a BittersweetEnding, ''Film/MyHeartIsThatEternalRose'' invokes this in its title. In fact, the movie's opening credits are superimposed over a bouquet of roses, which then slowly burns up onscreen to a soothing melody.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' Ned Stark's sister Lyanna is strongly associated with blue winter roses, her favorite flowers. She was infamously crowned as Queen of Love and Beauty at Harrenhall by Prince Rhaegar with a crown of blue roses, died in a room that smelled of blood and roses, and in every dream she appears she still wears the crown Rhaegar gave her.

* ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'': A red rose shows up in the logo of this show, probably representing Christine; the other graphic part of the logo is a mask, representing the Phantom. In the 2004 movie adaptation of the show, the Phantom regularly gives Christine a single red rose with a black ribbon around it.

* In ''Theatre/AndreaChenier'', Gérard recalls the odor of roses from his childhood as he sings about his unrequited and [[LoveMakesYouEvil destructive]] love for Maddalena.
** And Maddalena wears a rose in her hair in the first act before the whole tragedy of the plot unfolds.

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

* Poet Laureate Simon Armitage wrote in 2012 the poetic monologue ''"Black Roses" as a tribute to Sophie Lancaster, a British teenager fatally attacked in the summer of 2007 for her goth appearance.

* One of the opening scenes of ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' takes place in Kinzo's rose garden, with particular emphasis on a rose that his granddaughter 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]].

** And Maddalena wears a [[FlowerInHerHair rose in her hair]] in the first act before the whole tragedy of the plot unfolds.

** In ''addition'' to this, in the ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' 2003 anime version, Rose was [[spoiler: 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 ''[[Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa The Conqueror Of Shamballa]]'', [[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 ''Conqueror of Shamballa'', she's shown living happily with her toddler-aged son and two kids she presumably adopted, but she's still has a pretty tragic past.
* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' has roses all over the place. Just about every main character has a rose in their associated color. And just about every main character has something of a TragicBackstory. Utena's and Anthy's eventual traumas top them all, and both are heavily associated with roses. Anthy is, afterall, the Rose Bride.

* Kanae Von Rosewald, from ''Manga/TokyoGhoul [=:re=]''. In a series known for its tragic characters, he's been dealt one of the harsher deals in life. From a wealthy family of German Ghouls, he was orphaned at the age of 10 and ended up as an [[CinderellaCircumstances employee]] of his only surviving relatives after he finally managed to make his way to Japan. Over the years, he became obsessed with his master/[[KissingCousins cousin]], Shuu Tsukiyama and struggled with intense feelings of jealousy towards [[MuggleBestFriend Chie]] and [[LoveInterest Kaneki]]. Add to this nearly three years of caring for his [[TheOphelia catatonic]], grief-stricken master and his emotions were already at a boiling point. Then [[DiabolusExMachina Eto]] showed up and took an interest in his situation, torturing him and convincing him that he'll be loved if he can just [[MurderTheHypotenuse kill everyone in his way]]. Then there's the reveal that [[spoiler: Kanae is actually [[SweetPollyOliver Karren]], and has been posing as a man so that she could replace her dead brothers as the [[HeirClubForMen family heir]]]].

** Ruby Rose has a rose motif and tragedy seems to always follow her. It doesn't help that she was destined from birth to be a [[spoiler:Silver-Eyed Warrior.]] Her mom Summer died when she was seven, her dad Taiyang ([[spoiler:unknowingly, her step-dad]]) fell into a depression after Summer's death, and her sister Yang had to [[PromotionToParent step up]] at a young age to help raise Ruby. Ruby wants to be a a huntress but gets involved in a lot of trouble. In one night her FirstLove Penny is [[spoiler:brutally murdered in front of her]], her sister Yang [[spoiler:gets [[AnArmAndALeg gets her arm torn off]]]], her friend Weiss [[spoiler:gets forced back into her abusive household]], her friend Blake [[spoiler:oes missing and is assumed dead]], and her other friend Jaune is [[spoiler:murdered in front of both Ruby and his girlfriend Pyrrha]]. Ruby ends up becoming a StepfordSmiler in an attempt to not seem so troubled. This is all ignoring [[spoiler:the FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo Ruby is unaware of for most of the fic]].

* ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow''. William Cage tells Rita Vrataski her middle name which he got in a past GroundhogDayLoop. Rita is a hardcore ActionGirl who [[IceQueen refuses to connect with anyone]] because (having been stuck in her own time-loop in the past) she knows the [[BrokenAce pain of having a friend die on you again and again]]. She tells Cage he got it wrong, and suggests she told him the wrong name just to shut him up. Later as Rita dies yet again in his arms, she tells Cage her actual middle name is Rose. Cage crosses his DespairEventHorizon after this point.

* For fair Rosalie from ''The Fire King'', a ballad by Creator/WalterScott, nothing goes well for most of the story. She learns that her beloved is captured in Palestine and goes with the crusaders as SweetPollyOliver to ransom or rescue him. It turns out that he has betrayed her for the sultan's daughter, renounced his faith and knighthood and joined the sultan's army, ''and'' he ends up killing her on the battlefield when she distracts him from attacking King Baldwin. The poor girl's suffering is finally over when [[DiedHappilyEverAfter she is taken to Heaven by Virgin Mary]].

* On the ''Series/ColdCase'' episode "Best Friends", a girl named Rose pledged a lover's suicide [[StarCrossedLovers with her girlfriend, Billie.]] (It was 1932, plus Rose is white while Billie was black.) The suicide didn't go over as planned ([[spoiler: Billie was shot to death by Rose's evil brother and her lifeless body was disposed of in the Delaware river]]) and she spent the rest of her life writing sorrowful poems about her lost love. 60 years later, [[spoiler: the now old Rose is approached by the team since Billie's body had been recently retrieved from a truck in the river; after Rose confesses what really happened, Billie's spirit comes for her, all being forgiven.]]

* In ''VideoGame/FableII'' your older sister Rose is shot in the face in the first half hour.
* Raiden's girlfriend Rosemary in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2''. 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.]]

* While tragedy doesn't exactly hit this girl named [[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters Rose Berstein]] and she's much more of a RichBitch than a BrokenBird, in ''XIII'' she ''is'' a vital part in [[spoiler: Those Of The Past's plans... which end with Ash [[RetGone Ret-goning]] himself in what becomes a massive TearJerker.]] The dress she's wearing in that moment even has rose motifs all over it.
* Rose Somerset, Emma's housemaid from the ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles'' series, has been abducted by [[BigBad Charles Dalimar]] with her twin daughters, trapped in a nightmarish complex beneath his home, and her soul, as well as her daughters, powered Charles' immortality device for more than a century. [[spoiler:''Key to Ravenhearst'' goes further, as it reveals that her daughters were fathered by Charles himself and his son's Victor was also hers, hinting at a ChildByRape situation. And her beloved daughters, being Dalimars, became some of the mose murderous lunatics the Master Detective has ever faced.]]

[[folder:ComicBooks]]
* The [[ComicBook/Batgirl2000 Cassandra Cain]] Batgirl had a recurring rose motif throughout her solo series, often used to represent how she's wilting away due to her workaholic nature and refusal to take care of herself. Oracle gives Batgirl a rose at one point, and in the end she leaves it with her friend Brenda when she goes looking for her mother. [[spoiler: The rose, and Brenda, are killed when Blüdhaven is destroyed in ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis.]]

* In ''Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera2004'', The Phantom gives Christine multiple red roses with black ribbons around them. When Raoul is proposing to Christine on the rooftop of the operahouse, she has one of the roses with her, but she drops it on the ground to listen to Raoul's proposal. After they have left, The Phantom comes forward of the shadows and kneels down and takes the rose in his hand. He then starts crying, but when he can hear Raoul and Christine sing their love song, he crushes it. At the end of the movie, we see a red rose lie by [[spoiler:Christine's tombstone.]] There is a black ribbon around it.
* The Hong Kong HereoicBloodshed film who has a BittersweetEnding, ''Film/MyHeartIsThatEternalRose'' invokes this in its title. In fact the movie's opening credits are superimposed over a bouquet of roses, which then slowly burns up onscreen to a soothing melody.

* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', Ren has a dream in which one of her sisters (Trini) cuts off the heads of roses that somehow look like her other sister, Halley, and bleed. Trini is a rather tragic character, as she still suffers from the trauma inflicted on her by the [[ExoticExtendedMarriage sisters' late husband]], and stands in the way of a potential marriage for Ren, so the romance element is there, too. Halley is missing, and believed dead. Trini likes to work in the garden, and is seen working on the roses for real, too.
* In ''Literature/TheFairyRebel'' by Lynn Reid Banks, the friendly fairy gives the child heroine a magical rose every year as a birthday present. The first sign that the [[TheFairFolk evil fairy queen]] has begun to exert her influence is when the girl looks for her birthday present, and finds only a wilted, thorny rose--growing from a plant other than a rosebush.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' Ned Stark's sister Lyanna is strongly associated with blue winter roses, her favorite flowers. She was infamously crowned as Queen of Love and Beauty at Harrenhall by Prince Rhaegar with a crown of blue roses, died in a room that smelled of blood and roses and in every dream she appears she still wears the crown Rhaegar gave her.

* The song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYBF5NeCrLs Una rosa es una rosa]]" ("[[Creator/GertrudeStein A rose is a rose]]"), by Spanish group Music/{{Mecano}}, uses roses to symbolise LoveHurts: it's from tjhe POV of someone who goes to pick the most beautiful rose on the bush, thinking love will protect them, and tears their hand on the thorns.

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', the Kingdom of Nohr's [[FloralMotifs floral emblem]] is purple roses. The [[CrapsackWorld country itself]] has a very unfriendly and cold climate with poor crops and frequent supplies shortages, it's represented as having perpetually dark skies, relies a lot in war and its military might, and its Royal Family is pretty mcuh trapped in a DeadlyDecadentCourt, which has caused them [[LoveHurts immense pain.]] The ''Conquest'' path of the game is from their POV and gives all kinds of details about their extremely harsh environment, which the Avatar hopes to change and reform from the inside - even if the only actual way to do it is to wage a war they don't exactly want. Camilla, the eldest princess of Nohr, starts with the unique skill Rose's Thorns, which gives a bonus to damage done by adjacent allies and reduces damage inflicted upon them.

* In the ''Unforgiven'' chapter of ''VideoGame/MurderInTheAlps'', Irene Hoffman comes to Porto Ceso once every year to place a red rose on [[OutlivingOnesOffspring the grave of her son]] Roberto Fiore who died eleven years ago in an apparent accident. Convinced that Roberto's best friend Flavio Riva murdered Roberto out of jealousy, she also gives Flavio a black rose every year as a way to prevent him from forgetting his supposed crime. [[spoiler:What makes this worse is that Irene is [[RightForTheWrongReasons half-right]]; Flavio accidentally caused Roberto to fall from the cliffs when he pushed him in frustration, and that left Flavio [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone irrevocably broken]].

* ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast'': The rose as a sign of the Beast's transformation is an addition created by the [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast Disney version]], and this is clearly a symbol of the Beast's tragic nature. Even the older French versions also involve a [[{{Motifs}} symbolic]] rose (though this is not as particularly tragic), when Beauty's father picks a rose from the Beast's garden and this trespassing is what provokes the Beast to be angry with him.

* ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'', which already plays on the duality of beauty and tragedy, uses the wilting rose literally as a time limiting plot device.

* ''Manga/OniisamaE'':
** ''Manga/OniisamaE'', another work by author Creator/RiyokoIkeda, has Rei "Hana no Saint Juste" Asaka, who at the start throws a rose in the air and it gets caught by main character Nanako. Rei herself is the local BrokenBird, and her Seiran school has quite the luxurious gardens, which obviously include rose bushes. [[spoiler: And in the anime, Rei was carrying a bouquet of red roses... at the moment of her fatal accident.]]

* In ''Literature/LetMeMeCallYouSweetheart'', Suzanne Reardon's murder became known as the Sweetheart Murder Case, due to the fact her body was found with red sweetheart roses scattered over it. It's unclear who bought the roses; her husband Skip (who was convicted of killing her but protests his innocence) claims the last time he saw Suzanne she was arranging the roses in a vase and he stormed out after she refused to tell him who sent them; one theory is that they were bought by a lover, though no card identifying the sender was ever found with the flowers.

* In ''Literature/TheFairyRebel'' by Lynn Reid Banks, the friendly fairy gives the child heroine a magical rose every year as a birthday present. The first sign that the [[TheFairFolk evil fairy queen]] has begun to exert her influence is when the girl looks for her birthday present, and finds only a wilted, thorny rose--growing from a plant other than a rosebush.

''The War Of The Roses,'' a 1981 novel by Warren Adler, is a grim look at the marriage of Jonathan and Barbara Rose, which starts out great but tragically falls apart due to each partner's selfishness and materialism. [[Film/TheWarOfTheRoses The 1989 movie]] [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on it]] wisely turned the story into a BlackComedy, else it would have been unfilmable.