- REDIRECT Template:Infobox Fable CharacterRose Red is the outspoken and rebellious sister of Snow White. Rose was also the ex-girlfriend of Jack Horner, brief fiancée of Bluebeard, and former wife of Sinbad.
Background
The Homelands
Rose Red's life in the Homelands was an ideal one, although she often sought out adventure and excitement outside of her home. She lived in a cabin with her mother and sister Snow White, where they were at peace.
Rose, however, was not satisfied, and it's in seeking adventure in the forest surrounding their home that Snow ends up in a difficult situation and is sent away by their mother. Believing her to be dead, Rose sinks into depression until she finds out the truth: Snow White is not dead, but has to chosen to live in a faraway kingdom without her.
Her grudge against her sister starts then, and lasts for centuries.
Fabletown
Not much is known of Rose's time in Fabletown, aside from the fact that she was in a relationship with Jack Horner and a party girl. Even without speaking to Snow any longer she did her best to be a nuisance, causing trouble for her sister.
With the help of Jack, Rose faked her death as part of a complex plan to avoid marrying Bluebeard after using a great deal of his money to finance one of Jack's ill-fated get-rich-quick schemes. She and Jack were found out by Bigby and as punishment for faking her death she was sentenced to do community service on the Farm.
Service on the Farm
While there she and Snow White were caught in the middle of a revolution. During the revolution Rose sides with the radical farm-Fables, partly as a means of protecting her sister from Goldilocks and the other radicals who objected to her stance on maintaining the farm regulations.
During this time Rose finds her niche, managing the Farm, which allowed her to stand equal to her sister, the then-deputy mayor. At the end of the arc Rose is shown to have matured greatly and has fixed her relationship with her sister and broke off her relationship with Jack for good. Rose seems to have stopped smoking during that time as well. She continues to run the Farm, doting on her nieces and nephews, and has occasionally provided assistance to covert operations. Though her life as the original party girl is well behind her, she still maintains a cheerful attitude and independent spirit, evident in how she runs the Farm, regardless of how the current administration would like her to manage things.
Romance
Rose has been known to seek harmful relationships in the early years, starting with Charming. Rose slept with him to make Snow jealous, and effectively destroyed their marriage.
Follow this she has been with Jack for a few years, and has had a brief fling with Bluebeard. Her relationships were part of her rebellious, self destructive streak, but after taking on the responsibility of the Farm she calmed down.
She was briefly involved with Weyland Smith before his death in the battle of Fabletown.
She had shown interest in Boy Blue while overseeing his labor sentence, but rejected his advances on the eve of Fabletown's strike against the Emperor in order to preserve their friendship. Boy Blue did not take the rejection well. Following the war story-arc, Rose married Sinbad, but immediately divorced him on account of her despair over Boy Blue's post-war condition. She attempted to revive her romantic relationship with Boy Blue in his last moments, but was denied by Blue himself, with him stating that she goes out with whoever seems to add the most excitement to her life, and that he deserves better than that, but he hopes someone else can "fix her".
After Boy Blue's death and when dealing with his rejection, Rose Red underwent a serious depression where she would not leave her bed. She reunited briefly with Jack on her descent toward rock-bottom, believing that she somehow deserved someone as terrible as Jack. After reconciling her past Rose eventually decided to take charge of the Farm again, stopping Ozma, Brock, and Geppetto's bids to take control of the farm and appointing them as her advisers. She also makes it clear to Cole, Beast, and Beauty that she'll accept their advice but wants them to respect the fact that they're on the Farm and not at Fabletown. To express that there were no hard feelings with Brock, she took a blue scarf to show her support of their hope for Boy Blue's return, but maintains that while she wants as much as anyone for Blue to come back, it's the job of everyone to fix their own problems instead of waiting for Blue to return and fix everything. While it's not been said, Rose does feel guilty for divorcing her husband, as Colin pointed out to her in a dream, by asking what she felt guilty about.
Characteristics
Despite her history with keeping a reputation of a party girl and her own tendencies to take risks, Rose is still caring and ready to give others a chance. She is the one who persuaded her sister to trust Frau Totenkinder and take her with them to the mundane world while they were escaping from the Homelands,
Rose Red earned and maintained her reputation as a party girl among the Fable community for centuries. Rose adopted this lifestyle primarily to embarrass Snow, who Rose held a century-long grudge against because she believed Snow had purposefully abandoned her for a life with Prince Charming, as well as the fact that Snow White's fairytale was so popular that the mundies forgot that Rose Red existed.
After Rose and Snow repaired their sisterly bond, Rose Red abandoned her party girl lifestyle and matured a great deal after she took the leadership role on the Farm. She has been shown to have always have enjoyed taking care of animals even as a child. She has proven herself to have great leadership capabilities like her sister, evident by her leadership of the Farm and how she was able to quickly regain control after her depression. The inhabitants of the Farm are all grateful and appreciative of the work she does, which showcases her natural capabilities.
Rose Red is afflicted with depression, shown in the earlier years of her life after she mourned her sister's disappearance, and again after the death of Boy Blue.
Despite this, Rose Red manages to see hope in places others might not, and second chances become a driving force for her.
Trivia
- Snow White mentions that she doesn't talk so much with Rose Red anymore in The Wolf Among Us.
- In the episode 4:"In Sheep's Clothing", we can see that she buys black market magic from the Crooked Man.
Source Material
Rose Red is a character in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Snow-White and Rose-Red.