scar should've killed more

because rose really is key to the themes of 03. but not just of consequence, but of *resistance* to imperialist warmongers. when the conflict in liore breaks out, rose is shown to be protecting children—she refuses to sell out her people, she actively resists the amestrian military. when they claim they are Just Here To Help the civilian conflict it is directly juxtaposed with the army literally shooting down civilians; AND in the same episode with scar hunting and killing state alchemists as we get flashbacks of ishbal. because yes, rose and the liorites being brown is relevant to the story being told here—and it's also impossible to ignore the direct parallels to american justifications of intervention in the war in iraq. this took place the same year, for fuck’s sake! so rose’s call of this is our home, we are the ones who get to deal with this mess—feels deeply relevant. and the tragedy here to me, rose’s greatest tragedy—is that she cites edward here, talking about using her own legs!!! because she did end up connecting to the brothers on a deeply personal level, while being unaware of ed’s role in the horrors happening to her, that are about to happen to her. like. my gd, the sheer ache of it.

so much has been said by 03 detractors about what happens to rose. for years i remember being calling 2003 evil and antifeminist and gross because it features the gang rape of a female character. and i have no idea how much of it is word of mouth about what actually happens in 03—lots of people seemed convinced that there was a graphic gang rape scene that was male gazey etc—but even those who know the reality that all of this is alluded to discreetly (we never see or hear her being assaulted, there isnt even a fade to black or direct aftermath!!!) have claimed that it's inherently bad for fma 03 to have a character who is explicitly a sexual violence survivor.

and like. that's flat out reactionary. i have no other words for it. this is just reactionary shit. acting like a female character being raped in the context of a war crime, in a story that explicitly about impeialist violence, is in itself evil and bad is just… saying that you think that even implicit depiction of sexual violence is bad and antifeminist (which says a lot about how you view victims lmao); but particularly ignoring the context of it and how subtly and sympathetically it's framed?? we never get a direct vision of rose being raped; we see the aftermath. she is traumatized and her voice has literally been silenced. she got pregnant and carried a baby from this assault, who is a walking reminder of what was done to her and by extension, liore. essentially 03 is saying that amestrian imperialist and racist violence includes all forms of violence, and people throw a fit over it just like they moan that the changes to scar in 03 are supposedly bad bc bla bla his whole point is that revenge is bad. meanwhile 03 again and again says: victims of imperialist violence and genocide are the ones who understand this violence best and they have every right to resist violently, no matter the excuses from the imperialist armies or how sympathetic/funny you find their soldiers to be.

so anyhow: there's definitely a horrific tragedy to rose in the last third of 03, and her ongoing victimisation and abuse. but it's also interesting to me because it parallels how ed is being manipulated/groomed by dante in entirely different ways. rose’s gang rape, the violence against her—essentially and tragically becomes a symbol of resistance there too. the forced pregnancy and the violence against her becomes a source of reverence from liorites who see her as their leader and guide, even as she was literally silenced. but despite what ed claims, and despite dante’s intervention, it's pretty clear in the show that rose has a degree of agency. she isnt being used by scar, though they're all being manipulated by dante to some degree—she is actively helping scar in his rallying the liorites and seeing a parallel between what was done to ishbalans and what was done to liorites. she is endorsing him knowingly when he makes his plan to murder amestrian soldiers for the stone. 03 treads this delicate balance of how yes, dante is controlling everyone—but what scar is doing *is* right and is presented as such narratively. i was told recently that in an interview the creators said they'd originally planned on ending the show in liore as full circle, but then they had all this other stuff to wrap up and didnt get their extra season/mini series to expand on munich and what eventually became cos. but it's fascinating ti me anyhow.

so, rose’s connection to ed—it feels less like deliberate romance, though yeah i do think that the romantic undernotes are deliberate—there’s definitely a tragedy to it. rose’s baby’s cries remind ed throughout his entire stay in liore that he is responsible for all this. but rose doesnt hate him for it, i think she recognizes that he was manipulated—the same way she had been in ep 1 and 2. she sees her own grief reflected in him. she stands up to wrath and reclaims her voice in a moment that's kinda corny but effective. i always get emo when dante is trying to scold ed and he ignores her to thank rose for saving him and being happy she got her voice back.

and then the last season—rose’s abuse is continued until the end. dante, in many ways, is the very incarnation of alchemy at its worse: seeing people as material, state alchemy as inherently dehumanizing people and things and classifying them in various degrees of inhumanity who can be safely Unpersoned and used. liorites and ishbalans among them. dante is partially responsible for amestris’s policies, and she sees rose, a girl victim of gang rape, and decides to groom her for her own purposes and to use her body as her own. and it's very much sexual in nature, a continual sexual use and abuse of Othered bodies (including rose's baby, used in her experimentations). and unlike in liore, where rose has a degree of agency, she is completely stripped from it by dante: presumably drugged.

it's not a coincidence if dante was putting rose and ed together in that ballroom. it's not just a callback to the two first eps and how far ed and rose have come of characters, what has been done to them; their paths as he, the white amestrian state alchemist that dante plans to groom as her romantic/sexual partner and student in alchemy, and she, the brown liorite girl who fought back every step and was brutalized and dehumanized to the extreme and to dante, is just another body to use and discard and rape—theyve always been intertwined. what ed did directly affected rose's life. now rose is offered as a “reward” to ed, if he chooses to continue as an alchemist in the way he's supposed to. it feels very….. anthy as the witch, while utena is given a princess’s dress and told she will be happily ever after with akio

but anyhow ed refuses. so dante gets rid of him. she lobotomizes gluttony. she punishes wrath and takes his limbs. she is literally having al consumed alive. rose is there, in shock at the events—theres an argument to be made that she could have been more active here tbh, but the last two eps are so cram full of stuff i guess they didnt have time. but anyhow… as soon as al sacrificed himself, dantes plans were moot, bc she really is that certain of other characters’ complete lack of agency and humanity! she just gawks stupidly. it's great. and then she leaves and just…. abandons rose.

so it's full circle again. ed al and rose and her baby. al is gone. ed is shattered. the baby cries, a reminder to ed that his actions have consequences. he asks rose one last thing: to go to resenbool—a place she'll be safe—and take wrath. likely she later changed her mind and returned and realized he lied to find al where he was. ed’s last words he hears from another person in amestris are the same words he told rose in episode 2. you've got two strong legs—you can survive, and go on. rose will survive. she will live, rebuild. she will find happiness after this horror, if she looks ahead. ed does not answer. he doesnt believe he can live without al, and chooses not to. he does the exact same thing rose did all these years ago: he chooses to believe, even if there's absolutely no reason he'll get what he want and even if it's more likely to end badly. and…. he's not rewarded for it. his brother is back, but without memories. ed loses his home forever. but it's significant that he eventually meets noah—she is not rose, but she looks like rose and is also from a marginalized group, and it would be silly to suggest that ed doesn't see rose in her. i find the liore section in cos deeply silly (why is the army there!!!) but it's significant to see rose play an active role in rebuilding her town, in building a new life after the horrors. the whole show, she's been a parallel to ed, an active resistant agent to amestrian violence, and the most significant victim of that violence to the point of bearing its physical traces.