Don't talk to me until you've read Gambit (1999)

welcome to the annotated version <3

Deathstroke #15 - this tells the story of slade meeting lillian worth, rose's mom, and then shows rose for the first time <3 honestly this one doesnt do much for rose other than saying that she exists but it still matters

Deathstroke #45-46 - before this, rose is kidnapped and escapes but i didnt include that in the list because shes not doing much until these issues. but she has things to do in these and has great moments of lili trying to protect her. dont bother reading any of the actual deathstroke stuff because i do not care what hes up to

Deathstroke #48 - rose meets slade for the first time!!! it does not go well

Deathstroke annual #4 - shes not in this til the last few pages but i get the content of rose mourning her mother where i can bc it does not get brought up for like 20 years after this. also rose being a badass is always welcome to me

Deathstroke #51 - this one is almost entirely rose's pov!!! granted shes not exactly the center of the story but still! it also starts showing her meta abilities and precognition which is so slay of her

New Titans #126 - this is the first time she gets like. an actual personality. and its great. i lov her dynamics with the other titans and i love kyle and donna kind of trying to parent her. and also shows a little bit more of how she feels about her mom hehe. in the issue before this she puts a gun to someones head which i think is also worth reading that moment of her however. its a one page scene and it never gets brought up again so i didnt bother including it

Titans #27, #33, #37 - honestly i think that roses entire time nannying lian is worth reading but she doesnt do a Lot in each issue so i felt bad including the whole thing sdjafhadsf but she has scattered appearances from #25-39 and theyre all FANTASTIC. one of my favorite eras of rose for sure

Teen Titans #0.5  - this is her joining her father :( terrible hate kill but its a very important part of her story. also she has a random family here which ??? i mean sure i guess. love that everyone was playing hot potato with rose for like 10 years though

Teen Titans #8 - calls herself ravager for the first time so its kind of important. honestly though i wasnt even gonna include this at first but decided that it was important enough to throw in. shes only on the last page of this though

Teen Titans #12 - this is where she loses her eye (see: takes her own knife and stabs it out) so its pretty significant. also bart reaching out to her and trying to help her is sweet :) i dont really care about brother blood at all though so i didnt include the rest of this arc but it starts at #9 if youre really interested

Batgirl v1 #64 - this one is extremely biased im gonna be real. i just love batgirl 2000 and this issue was really good for both of them honestly, its the two of them fighting and does a good job showing rose's relationship with her dad during this time and showing her skills 

Nightwing #112-115 - this one was just so much fun. i wouldnt call it 100% in character but theres a lot of good stuff about rose wanting a family and its rly sweet :( its also hilarious to me and its so fun to read it

Nightwing #117  - leaving her father!!! she really only shows up on a couple pages here but you know. its pretty significant. 

GENERAL WARNING FOR TEEN TITANS: a lot of teen titans was written by geoff johns and. i dont know how to put it other than that hes VERY geoff johns about it. there are bits of misogyny and racism in pretty much every issue. even after johns stops writing it still has some extremely iffy parts. so just be warned :(

EDIT: since making this list i have made yet another list of her tt03 appearances and whether or not they should be read so u can check that out if you’re interested <3

Teen Titans #34 - her intro to the team!! talks a little about how she got there and what shes doing etc. also wlw hostility with cassie

Teen Titans #35 - this one originally wasnt even on the list because it comes with HEAVY disclaimers. this issue includes rose trying to rape tim, which i consider to be the worst moment in that entire book, and probably the most out of character thing rose has ever done. thank you geoff johns. HOWEVER this issue also has a lot of really nice moments with rose and eddie that i really enjoyed :( so just. disregard the first few pages if you read this

Teen Titans #40-41 - you will quickly find out that i am a sucker for rose and joey being siblings. in all honesty i know very little about joey but i DO know that he and rose have rly sweet moments in a lot of these

Teen Titans #43-46 - a lot of deathstroke stuff. mostly boring but rose does get to fight her dad here :) and also some more rose & joey moments. though do be warned as a cassandra cain fan these issues did send me flying into a blind rage because she is so out of character

Teen Titans #57 & #60 - precognition!!! rose being a badass!!! my love!!!!!! this is a good issue. it does go back on a lot of what its already gone over by saying "ooo rose is so murderous and dangerous!!" but. whatever. i like it when shes murderous. these are all part of an arc that goes from #56-60 if you want the full story but these two are the ones that rose has the most to do in. then #60 leads into Terror Titans which. um. was not good. very out of character for rose and just not an interesting story at all. but i mean if you want to read it she is in it

Teen Titans #71  - rose-centric issues my beloved hehe :) this issue is pretty good and sets off her story in the second feature starting in #72

Teen Titans #88 - rose rejoining the team!!!!! which i have mixed feelings on because it was clearly a "the writer wanted her there but didnt want to do the work to put her back so they just threw her in" situation which is fine i guess. it ignores a lot of whats already happened though :/ but!!!! lillian worth mention!!! woo!!!!

Teen Titans #90-91 - damian and rose's dynamic is so fucking funny and i love it. they are iconic together its amazing

Teen Titans #98-100 - final teen titans arc!! rose isnt specifically doing a lot but she does have some really good moments here. also she has an interaction with mia for like 2 panels so i need to cut those 2 panels out and frame them <3 but be warned. the writer was clearly going in the rose/conner direction for some reason which. um. hm.

Batgirl v2 #2-4 - ICONIC. i have issues with cass's characterization in this but rose is wonderful. she can be patricidal as a treat <3 shes planning ahead and shes a good fighter and shes murderous. what more do you need.

Teen Titans #70, Titans #13, Vigilante #6 - these are all part of a bigger crossover, Titans #12 and Vigilante #5 come before these but rose doesnt have anything to do there and i did not read them because i dont really care about the story of this one. but oh my god. this has some FANTASTIC rose & joey content. all of their interactions in this killed me esp the last part :(

Teen Titans #77-78 - oughghggogugughggh this one was so sad fr. i love it when rose tries to kill her dad but there were so many parts in this where i was full of pain. but also joey and rose moment hiiii !! but most importantly lili is revealed to be alive here!!! yippee!!!!

Faces of Evil: Deathstroke #1 - hiiiii im actually adding this one to the list nearly a year after i originally made it lol <3 but i love this issue so much and i cant believe i never added it. most of the reason i like it is because i like it when she commits patricide and like half of this comic is dedicated to her kicking his ass then getting her ass kicked. god i love her

Teen Titans #72-76 & #79-82 - FRESH HELL MY BELOVED <3 greatest rose story of all time <333 the writer is clearly weird about rose but who am i to judge. lots of good moments of her struggling with morality and finding out who she is and its a pretty good story and im pretty sure there was one part that made me cry